CBS News Crew Hit: Is Pentagon Responsible?

Is the Pentagon Propaganda Tactic Backfiring?
CBS’s Kimberly Dozier Wounded, 2 Colleagues Killed By Roadside Bomb

CNN reports: “Two members of a CBS News crew were killed Monday and correspondent Kimberly Dozier was seriously wounded when a roadside bomb ripped through the U.S. military convoy in which they were traveling.CBS identified those killed as cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, who was based in London, and sound tech James Brolan, 42. The U.S. military has not confirmed any casualties in the powerful bomb, which destroyed a U.S. military Humvee as the convoy passed through Tahariya Square, just across the river from the Green Zone, around 11 a.m. Monday.”

Just days before this incident occurred, Dozier reported on the investigation of the Haditha massacre on CBS Nightly News. During that segment, she repeated the Pentagon spin that all reports of other atrocities that have emerged are “Al Qaeda propaganda.” This was the same story that the Pentagon gave out when first confronted over the Haditha incident.

Week after week, the Iraqis hear these news reports, which often contrast sharply with their reality. The result is the reinforcement of the perception of Americans as heartless occupiers indifferent to Iraqi suffering. The rage already felt is stoked even further. While an unprecedented number of journalists have died so far in Iraq trying to get at the truth, those working most closely with the Pentagon appear to have enjoyed special protection – mostly, no doubt, because they remained safe in the Green Zone. But as conditions deteriorate in Iraq and Pentagon propaganda efforts are intensified, I fear that more journalists may be targeted – the “cut off the head of the messenger” syndrome. I hold the Pentagon totally responsible. In their efforts to manipulate news, they have made newsfolk major targets.

Never before has the media been so closely paired in the public’s mind with the military. There was time when journalists acted as crucially needed watchdogs of the military and spoke for the everyday soldier when no one else would (where are today’s Bill Mauldins and Ernie Pyles?). Yet in Iraq, the everyday soldier is completely barred from communicating with journalists, or only allowed to read prescripted lines provided on “cue cards.”

The responsibility for breaking this deadly, insane cycle rests on the Pentagon. A war run on propaganda and denial may have worked 50 years ago, or even 30, but not today. Access to the truth is too readily available in this age of the Internet, near-universal phone access, and real-time satellite broadcasting. The truth will out, as Shakespeare observed. Reporters must not be thwarted from reporting the truth, nor encouraged to be dishonest in the name of “security.” Until Iraqis are shown that the US cares about the truth and has an unflinching moral standard, trust will be impossible to build and the violence – which is being fueled by rage and suspicion, will only continue to escalate.