In an excellent blog post by fellow Milblogger the Mudville Gazette discussing the targeting of journalists by the military, Mrs. Greyhawk has a very informative interview with Jules Crittenden. It should be noted that Jules has been doing an outstanding job fighting the conventional wisdom (in the foreign media, at least) about the so-called targeting of journalists.
Mr. Crittenden has also been fighting an uphill battle at Poynter, and most recently had this to add:
I am alarmed that Steve Lovelady, managing editor of CJR Daily, is baffled by the uproar over Eason Jordan’s remarks. If this helps, it is because Jordan reportedly accused American soldiers of purposefully murdering journalists, without citing any evidence, and without his news organization having reported it. While he backtracked and claimed he was misunderstood, apparently CNN found his transgression serious enough to accept his resignation.
I am also alarmed that the editor of a major media watchdog publication’s web spinoff would cite a report titled “Two Murders and a Lie” (Reporters Without Borders, and apparently without standards) to support Jordan, as well as the similarly flawed “Permission to Fire,” (Committee to Protect Journalists) both of which offer selectively reported and distorted views of the Palestine incident that are peppered with inaccuracies and speculation. There is no evidence to support accusations of either murder or lying in the Palestine incident.
By way of disclosure, I was embedded with the tank company that fired on the Palestine, and was within 100 yards of the tank that fired on April 8, 2003. Sgt. Shawn Gibson saw what he thought was an Iraqi forward observer in a tall building. We had been alerted that an Iraqi FO had eyes on our position an hour earlier. The tankers had been in combat for up to 30 hours by the time Gibson fired, and after a particularly heavy pre-dawn counterattack was repelled, continued to be plagued with mortar fire and RPGs — including fire from the east bank of the Tigris and from tall buildings. In a month of combat operations with A Co. 4/64 Armor, I witnessed numerous examples of restraint when the tankers put themselves in danger in order to avoid killing civilians. Any suggestion that American soldiers have purposefully killed journalists in Iraq is repugnant, ignores the facts and reflects a disturbing bias. The failure of a major media watchdog publication’s editor to get this is also disturbing.
In a previous post on Poynter, Crittenden mused:
Eason Jordan can’t be blamed if he thinks the military targets journalists. The military targeting journalists in Iraq myth has a long history, dating back to the Hotel Palestine incident and beyond that to the as-yet unresolved deaths of the ITN crew. The Palestine incident has twice been written up by the Committee to Protect Journalists (“Permission to Fire”) and Reporters Without Borders (“Two Murders and a Lie”) in biased and sloppy reports that fuel this myth. So we have to give Jordan a break. He’s only a TV guy, after all, and while he may be have become a little uncontrollably exuberant about it, he was only reflecting a view that has been given respectability by deeply concerned professional organizations that have been eagerly seeking out evidence of the US military purposefully targeting journalists, and when they can’t find it, suggesting it must be what happened anyway.
While I disagree that Jordan can’t be blamed (aren’t top CNN officials to be expected to go beyond popular views and report the truth?), we all owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Crittenden for his dogged insistence that people get the story right and that the record be set straight. Email him and tell him thanks, and email his boss and tell them that you appreciate the honesty from at leats one of their reporters.
*** Update ***
I had a brief correspondence with Mr. Crittenden via email, and I have learned that the second quote in the post (“Eason Jordan can’t be blamed…”) was intended as sarcasm, and a misinterpretation on my part. In other words- we agree. Mr. Jordan should know better.
Alas, you can understand how I made the mistake. I am but one of the salivating morons.