MacKinnon's hypocrisy. Triumphablogger Rebecca MacKinnon, in a post I should have noticed earlier, has "final thoughts" (wonderful, how we keep being told we can all pack up and go home now) on the Eason Jordan affair. They're really swell, too.

Of course the U.S. military is NOT out to get journalists. Nor is "the media" out to get the military. But have individual soldiers at times exercised bad judgment that's worth looking into? Perhaps so, though we don't know for sure due to lack of information. All we have is some claims by some people. Have some journalists gotten carried away by anti-military biases and agendas? Absolutely. The point is, there are clearly some real tensions and disagreements about what's been taking place on the ground in Iraq - and why. As a member of the audience during the now-infamous panel, one thing was very clear to me: bad feeling between U.S. servicepeople and journalists in Iraq is coloring news coverage. No matter where you stand on the war or anything else, you have to recognize that nobody is served by letting this bad feeling fester, supported by much rumor and few facts.

I hope that moving forward, people will have the courage to bring discussions about military-press tensions to the fore, not sweep them under the rug.

As thin ex-post rationalizations go, this one—while it ain't "It was always about Iraqi democracy®"—is up there. Apparently, Ms. MacKinnon wants us to believe that Hugh Hewitt dancing around with Eason Jordan's head on a pike marks the necessary first step toward lancing the boil of "bad feeling" between soldiers and journos, and getting everybody together for a group hug and a round of "Kumbaya." It's funny, or it would be if it weren't so completely fucking stupid, that MacKinnon can actually think that the natural outcome of Easongate will be to make professional journalists feel encouraged to talk more about "military-press tensions."

Especially given how MacKinnon herself is handling the topic. For all that it's lathered in pious "on the one hand .. on the other"-ing, this is a scurrilous piece of writing. "Perhaps" individual soldiers have "exercised bad judgement"? "Absolutely" some journalists have "gotten carried away by anti-military biases and agendas"? "Bad feeling between U.S. servicepeople and journalists in Iraq is coloring news coverage." Yeah, that "between" is really the rub, isn't it? Because unless U.S. servicepeople are responsible for reporting the news, and thus in a position to "color news coverage," MacKinnon's "between" masks the fact that she is actually charging only one of the parties with misconduct.

And it is a charge, and MacKinnon is indeed making it, however hedged about with moderate posturing. Let me state her implication plainly, since she won't. Rebecca MacKinnon is slandering the working press in Iraq. From the depths of her comfy Herman Miller chair, MacKinnon is claiming here that journalists, including those who risk their lives daily in a war zone, are slanting their coverage because of "anti-military biases and agendas." She does this blandly, unconcernedly, and (as far as I can see from her dim prose) on the basis merely of having heard Eason Jordan's remarks at "the now-infamous panel." Don't know about you, but I find this rather remarkable in someone with so little tolerance, to quote a comment she cites approvingly elsewhere in her post, for a news executive who goes "passing on ... rumors in a semi-public forum."

Put up or shut up, Rebecca. Where are your facts? In what cases that you know of have journalists distorted the news they report because of anti-military sentiment? Give us details. Name names. You were happy enough to support those demands when Eason Jordan was in the dock; they ought to be just as applicable to you now.

Rebecca MacKinnon has revealed herself here to be nothing more than a rumor-monger and a smear artist. Something tells me, though, that Hugh Hewitt and Jeff Jarvis won't be calling for her to resign from the Berkman Center because of it.

posted by michael  6:18:19 PM  
tell me about it []