in my opinion

Media: Government Watchdog or Lapdog?

By Brianne Ibanes

Americans love to talk about how much we value our 1st amendment rights, particularly freedom of press and speech. It was an issue so important to our ancestors that it became a condition to agreeing to unify our nation and frame it with a constitution. So why then, do we tolerate the suppression of those guaranteed freedoms in such critical times as war when truth is essential?

It’s a journalist’s duty to be a watchdog of our interests and keep government accountable to citizens. This role of media as monitor is hugely crippled by the rules of embeds in war reporting, and no one seems to be getting outraged enough about it.

While recently embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Maya Alleruzzo, a photographer for AP, said, "I felt like I was welcome to cover everything else but the war." Among the list of items she was forbidden to photograph were injured soldiers, dead soldiers, and damaged vehicles and equipment. And that’s if you even manage to get an embed assignment. One of the required “security checks” journalists are being put through when they apply to embed involves a U.S. government-sponsored evaluation of all their past reports to determine how favorably or unfavorably a journalist is likely to report on the war efforts.

On October 15, 2009 these embed rules were slightly revamped by the Pentagon to now allow photographs of soldiers killed in war as long as their face is not recognizable, but this is only a small victory.

It’s time to do your job, Media. Stop being a cheerleader for government-sponsored mind control. Do not let yourself be used as a tool of war. We need you more than ever to tell us the truth, and anything less is unethical, unconstitutional, and un-American.