Peter Arnett: "Iraqis ... See Me as a Fellow Warrior."

[MarkG]

arnette's freedom of speech is not being encroached upon in the slightest.

ok then, just his freedom to work
he has resorted to get a job in another country. cool huh?

[yavoon]

indeed.

[MarkG]

signed the petition yet yavoon?

[yavoon]

to wut? remove his passport? no thats just bandwagon idiocy.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MarkG
ok then, just his freedom to work

That isn't being effected either. He won't miss one paycheck.

he has resorted to get a job in another country. cool huh?

He should be glad to even have a job after the fiasco he created at CNN.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
That isn't being effected either. He won't miss one paycheck.

is there any US network that will dare to offer him a job?

He should be glad to even have a job after the fiasco he created at CNN.

1) he just presented that report
2) i'm sure CNN didnt air it just like that but had some people look at it first.....

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by MarkG

arnette's freedom of speech is not being encroached upon in the slightest.

ok then, just his freedom to work

Sorry to break this to you buddy, but you have no God given right to a job.

All sorts of stupidity can result in your losing them. Saying something stupid is just one of them.

[Tolls]

I think what TMV is getting at is that a free country requires not only a free press, but a press that is willing to keep the government in line. A nation in which the media has a tendency to support the government line is a bad thing.

I agree with Gatekeeper in that there is a wide range of views portrayed by the US media as a whole, but the MAJOR news outlets are not so evenly balanced, and that poses a problem. The shift in quality of reporting in the US media over the past 30+ years is not good...I very much doubt you'd get a Watergate investigation these days.

Having said all that, Arnett is an idiot and it never ceases to amaze me that people will keep employing the moron...

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by The Mad Viking
(Gatekeeper- I don't disagree with what you are saying, but I don't think it really applies- I'm not suggesting the press is "shackled". "Whipped" is the term that comes to mind. )

I can understand where that view might come from, so I'm going to let you in on a small secret regarding journalism: A lot of us go into the field after college (or sometimes straight out of high school, but that's rare nowadays) all bright-eyed, chippy and, some would say, naive. We want to change the world for the better. Unfortunately, said world often chews up a good number of journalists and spits us out, and we become cranky, disillusioned and generally *hard-edged* to a degree towards *all* parties and issues — liberals, conservatives, greenies, commies, grandma, abortion, wars, revolutions, the local mayor who's crooked ... you name the subject, and there's likely to be a journalist out there somewhere who's just a bit jaded and disillusioned with it. Not everyone, mind you, but enough so to warrant its admission.

Sounds human, doesn't it? Well, it is, and it's also seen in other professions (doctors, lawyers and so on ...), so it's not an "exclusive" domain, so to speak.

If I had to classify the state of journalism today, I'd say that there are a number of "dreamers" in our field who are tempered by the "crusty" veterans. Some may be "whipped," while others may be just "crusty," while yet others are still "dreamers," and, last but not least, we have the "tempered" ones who do their jobs as journalists as best they can and go on from there.

It evens out in the end, and I truly hope, TMV, that you can see beyond the obvious to the "not-so-obvious," when it comes to journalists. We're human, and sometimes painfully so.

Gatekeeper

[spiritof1202]

Originally posted by MarkG
is there any US network that will dare to offer him a job?

US News networks have US citizen audiences. The networks views' are generally that Arnett reports will cause viewers to switch to other networks if he's reporting on their network. Commercially they can't sustain him.

This is no such thing as "Arnett Aid"

1) he just presented that report
2) i'm sure CNN didnt air it just like that but had some people look at it first.....

A few other individuals involved were also fired.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by spiritof1202
US News networks have US citizen audiences. The networks views' are generally that Arnett reports will cause viewers to switch to other networks if he's reporting on their network. Commercially they can't sustain him.

"you're free to your opinion outside your job. unless it's commercially unsustainable"

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MarkG
"you're free to your opinion outside your job. unless it's commercially unsustainable"

And compromise your ability to report objectively while at the same time being unnecessary.

[Bereta_Eder]

That's a blatant suppression of speech anyway you look at it.

You say the wrong thing, doesn't matter if it's true, they fire you.

So much for that.


See, Americans do this kind of errour: They always hyperestimate the possibilities of their armed forces and when these don't of course fulfill their overblown "prophcies" they take it out on journalists who dare to speak what is already common knowledge.

Happened in Vietnam, is happening here.

Nothing new.


Of course one has got to ask this question: if your country was at war (well war in this case is not the right word) would you think it's ok to say "undermining" things?

And was that "undermining"

[yavoon]

there is nothing in the constitution that sez a journalist can't be fired for what he sez.

so stop bastardizing the constitution to your political aims

[Bereta_Eder]

LOL