How could they *not* know?
What a bunch of complete morons. This story about the ban on pictures of coffins coming from Afghanistan and more importantly, Iraq makes me so angry. The media today is an embarassment and a dissappointment to us all.
Look at this quote:
"We were not aware at all that these photos were being taken," Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, was quoted as saying in the paper today.
I have All the President's Men sitting on my table. I took it out the other day to explain to my Spanish wife who Bob Woodward was and why he was being interviewed and why his new book is both important and holds a bit of weight. 30 years later and that type of dedication to the story is long gone, yet now is when we need it the most.
How could the American media go this long without those photos? HOW? It makes me so mad to think we trust these guys to balance out the government's power. We have more media outlets than ever, yet none are doing their damn job! How can CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CNBC, a million local news organizations, Time Magazine, NewsWeek, The New York Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post and every other media organzation out there *not* get this story? Why did some website I've never heard of (and I know a lot of websites) have to ferret these photos out? It's an embarrassment! The 4th estate? Obviously not any more.
Thankfully they are no longer going to control what information we see and don't see. Thankfully the Internet is going to help distribute information when the established organizations fall down. But you know, websites are full of crap, inuendo, opinion, etc. and if I had my preference, it'd be that "real" news organizations instead be in charge of reporting, verifying and vetting news. But they're obviously not doing their job now, and are beholden to their corporate owners, all of them. Taking on the government may impact earnings, so these media companies look the other way and no longer can be trusted with their duties.
It's going to be up to us now, and that's just a sad state of affairs. Bloggers are not reporters. I don't trust what I read on a weblog or some random news site. I don't *want* to have to trust them. I should be able to trust that the fucking New York Times is doing its job to monitor the government's activities and be a fighter for freedom of information. Instead we're going to start having to look to random websites to balance out government spin and censorship.
How sad is that?
-Russ