Backlash Against the Press

By Jamie McIntyre Monday, August 31st, 2009 12:41 pm
Posted in J-Mac's Attack, On Media

“Welcome to the NFL, Rookie”
When I posted an item Friday about the wounding of CBS news correspondent Cami McCormick, I didn’t anticipate it would result in my “Welcome to the N.F.L.” moment.    You know, that point early in the season when rookie football players take a hit so hard that it results in a moment of clarity about what playing in the pros is really like.
I’ve been a reporter for more than 30 years, so I am well-acquainted with the low opinion of the press that many of you hold, but still I admit I was momentarily stunned by the number of comments that showed no sympathy for the wounded journalist, and in fact wished her ill.

Many of the posters saw evidence of the news media’s narcissism and self-absorption in the fact that I identified Cami McCormick, the seriously wounded journalist, but not the U.S. soldier who was killed in the same attack.   At the time the Pentagon had not yet released the name of Spc. Abraham S. Wheeler III, 22, of Columbia, South Carolina. (CORRECTION: Earlier I mistakenly identified the soldier as Pfc. Matthew E. Wildes, 18, of Hammond, Louisiana, who was also killed in an IED attack the previous day.)
If you want to read the grim roll call of the fallen, you can visit the Pentagon’s news release page.  Or you can sign up for an email, and get the word of every death in your inbox like I do.
This was typical of the cynics who had nothing good to say about the press:

“Sorry Jamie, reporters ARE lowlifes, especially the ones from CBS, NBC, ABC, the NYT etc. Liars and propaganda pushers. Too bad she wasn’t killed, and the soldier was only injured. His life is 10 times more valuable than hers, for sure.”

Welcome to the mean streets of the blogosphere, where anonymity exacerbates the contempt many people feel for the news media.
The thing about media criticism is it’s so easy, because frankly there is so much to justifiably criticize.   It’s a target rich environment.   But is it too much to hope for debate about the media’s many failings to focus on what is actually reported, and how that measures up to standards of accuracy and fairness?
When reporters “embed” with U.S. troops, they join them in their dangerous, often thankless, duty to try to find out what’s really happening.   If you watch or read the reports that come from these journalists, they invariably show the amazing job done by troops on the front lines, even if they raise questions about the effectiveness of the strategy.
I hope that as I launch this blog, I can help bring some facts to bear on the debate, as well as insights gleaned from 16 years of covering the U.S. military.
But I wonder what can anyone say to someone who holds this view:

“Journalists ARE lowlifes. They aren’t important enough to society to make news, so they make up news. It’s interesting to see how Bob Woodruff, for example, was hailed as a hero, while the countless soldiers who endure IED attacks in Iraq not only are forgotten, but they are almost never reported about in the first place! Yet in the bigger course of history, it’s obvious to even the most dimwitted individual that that unacknowledged soldier contributed far greater to the world than any worthless journalist. Why exactly are journalists heroic or brave? Because they made a poor career choice and then whine when they get hurt? Tough luck.  A firefighter is a hero because he or she risks his or her life to save others. A police officer is a hero because he or she risks his or her life to save others. A soldier is a hero because he or she risks his or her life to save others. A journalist is a loser, plain and simple.”

This blog thing is going to be an interesting experiment.