CNN defends showing American soldier shot by insurgent sniper

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by Diamond Cross

Okay, in Fallujah, a few years ago, but what about current efforts?

After all, you repeat a lie often enough it does become a truth. Note I said a truth, not the truth.

That's one method of how the media can shape public opinion, and also reveal its bias.

News reporting should be completely objective.

The US media is banned from almost all combat patrols, and their knowledge is given in sentence format usually for an entire days worth of military activity

"6 Soldiers killed in Anbar due to enemy activity" wtf? They are supposed to make an indepth story based on that one line of text?

[Diamond Cross]

If true then I'd say the military would need to open up more for
I strongly believe that if the news media would show more of the insurgents getting shot the popular opinion on the Iraq war would change to one of more positive.

Politics is what hurts these kinds of operations the most, regardless of what actually happens on the ground. The troops are not losing the military war, it's the political war they're losing.

[R-Type]

Originally Posted by Diamond Cross

If true then I'd say the military would need to open up more for
I strongly believe that if the news media would show more of the insurgents getting shot the popular opinion on the Iraq war would change to one of more positive.

Politics is what hurts these kinds of operations the most, regardless of what actually happens on the ground. The troops are not losing the military war, it's the political war they're losing.

Well the problem is that when this was done, the media was giving away information too soon, while it was still sensitive, and the enemy combatants were using that against us. That's obviously not acceptable. Perhaps a delayed broadcast system would be in order. Either way, I am for uncensored coverage of world events, ESPECIALLY if they're distasteful. If americans dont' have the stomach for war, then they shouldn't be fighting them. The fact that the administration wouldn't even allow coverage of the caskets coming home speaks volumes about how fickle they view the general population's opinion is on the war.

[cobra226]

Originally Posted by JaJae

They admit the source of the video was a terrorist leader who wanted this video aired on American television. Which is exactly what CNN did.

I personally take offense to this and the "unvarnished truth" CNN claims to tell. This soldier had a family. They don't deserve this. Many Americans have servicemen overseas. They don't need to see terrorist propaganda videos on their nightly news. If they wanted to see US marines getting shot, they host them on youtube (but not the conservative videos mind you). This has no business being aired.

They claim to show the unvarnished truth. What exactly does that mean? Does that mean they're the only televised media outlet so far left that they'll show propaganda videos they receive from terrorists of our soldiers being shot in Iraq?

This also comes at a time when they rehire Cafferty to do six hour long "specials" each week before the election to have a Bush and GOP bashing session.

And just last week I found some obvious bias by CNN that I e-mailed into many political blogs. 8 Palestinians were killed. 2 in the morning and 6 more in the late afternoon. 8 dead total. 7 of them were confirmed Hamas. Every news media article I found identified the people as being Hamas or named the number that was Hamas. This includes over 20 articles I read. I get to the CNN article and not only didn't they mention they were Hamas, they made no mention that they were militant. They just repoted it as Israel killing 6 Palestinians.

What is up with CNN? I guess they're trying to compete for the gold with Fox News for the most biased cable news outlet.

Print Story: CNN airs footage of Iraq sniper attacks on Yahoo! News

I am an Iraq veteran (2 tours). I got one thing to say to you: If you don't want to see us getting shot, the DON'T SEND US INTO THAT KIND OF A SITUATION! You're probably one of those people with a "Support Your Troops Sticker" on your bumper, huh? You wanna support us? The bring us home!

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by cobra226

I am an Iraq veteran (2 tours). I got one thing to say to you: If you don't want to see us getting shot, the DON'T SEND US INTO THAT KIND OF A SITUATION! You're probably one of those people with a "Support Your Troops Sticker" on your bumper, huh? You wanna support us? The bring us home!

You made an account on this forum just for this post? To answer your question I do not have a "support your troops" bumper sticker on my car, but I don't see anything wrong with it. Do you have a problem with people advocating the support of our troops?

For your information I am supporting Barack Obama in this upcoming election. The only candidate who voted against the war and has been anti-Iraq war since the very start. And of course I don't want to see our men and women getting shot, but that's not what this thread is about. This thread is about an American media outlet airing our men being killed in Iraq on national television. I have many friends and even family over in Iraq and I know their families would not want to see their loved one being killed on national television in a propaganda video. It's about tact and respect... something both pro-war and anti-war activists need to start showing more of.

[wanna be drummer]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

The US media is banned from almost all combat patrols, and their knowledge is given in sentence format usually for an entire days worth of military activity

"6 Soldiers killed in Anbar due to enemy activity" wtf? They are supposed to make an indepth story based on that one line of text?

You can't have men with camera equipment following a Marine patrol. They would only get in the way and risk their own life.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by wanna be drummer

You can't have men with camera equipment following a Marine patrol. They would only get in the way and risk their own life.

yes you can and I have personally done it.

[wanna be drummer]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

yes you can and I have personally done it.

Congratz, but I still don't think patrols need to be televised nor kept watch by the media

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by wanna be drummer

Congratz, but I still don't think patrols need to be televised nor kept watch by the media

I think its important for the American public to understand what we do. We live in a reality TV America, so I think there is no problem with media tagging along with us. We patrol with other civilians, so we are used to having non-Marines in our patrol, its really not that big of a deal