Neutral Observers

Neutral observers, my ass.

I was surfing over at Little Green Footballs and came upon this post. The International News Safety Institute is telling journalists in Iraq not to carry guns.

“Journalists increasingly are being targeted in conflict largely because they have lost, in the eyes of certain elements, their status as neutral observers. If they bear arms they reinforce this misguided belief by placing themselves on one side or another,” said the INSI director, Rodney Pinder.

“A journalist with a gun says ‘some people in the situation I’m covering are my enemies and I am prepared to kill them if necessary’. That is not the position of a neutral civilian.”

Oh, bullshit!

If a combatant wants to kill a journalist, who better than an unarmed journalist? They can saw the head off at leisure if the victim isn't armed.

Whoever said that journalists shouldn't take sides? We know that the enemy puts out the information that he wants to put out. We know that the media bias often makes it seem that the media is on the other side. The journalists I prefer to read are unabashadly biased toward the American forces. Michael Yon comes immediately to mind. Yon does a great job getting the news out, and no one doubts what side he is on.

Ask Joe Galloway if journalists should be unarmed.