..........my second post today!!!

Wow, it's a "two-posting" day here at BOTEITG. In my last post, I mentioned that I trusted the media more thirty years ago. I still stand by that thought, and this is why..... First, Bob Woodward exposed Watergate to me when I was in high school. There is no doubt that the whole Watergate "thing" was criminal on many levels, but it made us lose confidence in our leadership. You mean, they would really lie to us? Of those "trusting Americans", yes it really did hurt. I'm really not sure if the media did something wrong then (except for the whole secret sources thing), but it made me dislike the media. This dislike has not gone away, nor has my distrust in our leadership. It doesn't really matter who is in power, I just don't have the trust that I once did. I grew up in the Vietnam War era, and became a college student in the wake of Watergate. Now, this distrust is not fully the fault of dishonest politicians - it has its roots in media presentation of the story. We forget, too often, that the mass media is there to make a profit, and controversy sells. What really made me want to post about this is a recent story from Iraq. I saw a segment last week on the news media in the Iraq War. I really don't know how this made it on the air; but, a soldier was asked about all the reporters that were in the field with them on a daily basis. The soldier (a young Army Infantry Sergeant - go 4th Infantry Division) stated that the media personnel mainly preferred to stay in the "green zone". In other words, "in the rear with the gear". He said they paid locals for most of the stories. This brings me to my point. Do you remember a report either last week or the week before, where some insurgents were reported to have set six Iraquis on fire in the street? There were no pictures available. The report was given to the media persons by someone named Jamil Hussein, a frequent adjunct reporter for the media. Oddly enough, this person claimed to be a member of the Baghdad Police force. He was never seen, only heard from on the phone. Hussein made many reports and countless stories were aired to the world on his words. Finally, someone decided to check-up on this guy. The Baghdad Police force have never heard of him. So what's the deal? Our own greed for selling stories and making a profit is our own worst enemy! We control such a massive tool for opinion with the media; yet, we are too greedy and stupid to use it for responsible efforts. many of our news reporters are fighting for the enemy and don't even care. Notice I didn't say "and don't even know it" in the last sentence. They know exactly what is going on, but the delay in checking the accuracy of sources is too costly for business. I wonder how many lives the media has cost us, and will cost us in Iraq? The sad truth to this whole issue is that there is little, if any, punishment for these spin doctors.