Reviewing Roggio
Some of you may be familiar with blogger Bill Roggio and his reports as an embed with troops in Iraq. The Christian Science Monitor ran an interesting article on Roggio yesterday and I just wanted to highlight one observation by the author, Dante Chinni.
But while some might discount Roggio as a journalist who lets his patriotism and ties to the military get in the way of his work, there is value in his reportage.
Think about that characterization for a second: "A journalist who lets his patriotism and ties to the military get in the way of his work."
Think about the notable war reporters of the past 60+ years -- Ernie Pyle and Joe Galloway -- did they let their "patriotism and ties to the military" get in the way of their work.
There's a presupposition here that if an American journalist is a patriot and has ties to the military that their work is somehow suspect. Is this the ludicrous end to which the journalistic drive for "objectivity" has brought us?
Did Galloway somehow cross some invisible journalistic line 31 years ago in the Ia Drang Valley when he picked up a gun and shot Vietnamese soldiers who were attempting to overrun the U.S. forces?
Does Roggio really cross a line when he reports American soldiers disdain for the media? Is the old media such a thin-skinned, shrinking violet (apologies for the mixed metaphor) that it can't handle the soldiers' criticism? Or someone reporting that criticism?
Is it really beyond the journalistic pale to side with American troops over the terrorists?
Unfortunately, for too many journalists, it is.
Journalism. Wound. Self-inflicted.
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I sent Mr. Chinni a direct question in response to that Christian Science Monitor article. It was something like 'does a reporter have to disdain and oppose the elected Government of the US in order to be a credible journalist?'
Mr. Chinni is obviously too involved in his role as the unelected Opposition to the Government to respond to the question.