Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/02/23

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Embedded Brit journalists will receive Iraq Campaign medal
From: dante@umich.edu
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 20:47:00 -0500
References: <008201c3fa42$33e50b20$6401a8c0@CCA4A5EF37E11E> <5.2.0.9.2.20040223174249.025321f0@mail.infoave.net> <003e01c3fa6b$f935c080$87d86c18@gv.shawcable.net>

I can't believe some of you people.

It's one thing to say that it's improper for a government to give a medal or
ribbon or fruitcake or whatever to a journalist.  Who cares.

It's one thing to say that a journalist should not accept a ribbon.  That's a
matter of ethics.  Probably a minor one in light of the fact that you get a
campaign ribbon just for being there.

But it's quite another thing to characterize going into a war zone as an
embedded journalist as some kind of "I'm a government b-tch" or "toeing the
party line" exercise  When all of you get off your fat sedentary ar$es and into
a combat zone, you can talk about who's being cowed.  For goodness sake, you're
in an office or somewhere writing posts at 11am on a workday.  You're not
riding in a tank or a jeep, sucking down dust, getting shot at, or carrying
tons of equipment.  And frankly, it takes some major brass bearings to go into
a combat zone at all - much less with a camera instead of a gun.  I can tell
you that were it me in a place where I didn't look much like the locals and
everyone was shooting all around, I would want an M-16 instead of an M6.

And I'm sorry - someone remind me of how Capa bought it - embedded with
soldiers?  Not like he was wandering around Asia by himself.  And let's not
forget that Nachtwey (put your tongues away) and his editor Weisskopf were
themselves the guests of the military (that was a Humvee there were riding in).
 Your heroes Duncan, Capa, Smith, &c were all what they would call embedded
journalists.  And I'm almost sure that the controls on the press were just as
tight in WWII, Korea or Indochina.  If it weren't for "embedding" (new term,
old concept), you'd be pretty lucky to have any coverage at all.  Being
embedded vs. not is not a matter of ethics - it is a matter of
self-preservation.  People aren't exactly breaking down the doors to do
coverage without cover.

This point of this is that you shouldn't dump on photojournalists because you
hate the government.

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Replies: Reply from Feli di Giorgio <feli@creocollective.com> (Re: [Leica] Embedded Brit journalists will receive Iraq Campaign medal)
Reply from Marc James Small <msmall@infionline.net> (Re: [Leica] Embedded Brit journalists will receive Iraq Campaign medal)
Reply from Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca> (Re: [Leica] Embedded Brit journalists will receive Iraq Campaign medal)
In reply to: Message from "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net> (RE: [Leica] Embedded Brit journalists will receive Iraq Campaign medal)
Message from Tina Manley <images@InfoAve.Net> (Re: [Leica] Embedded Brit journalists will receive Iraq Campaign medal)
Message from Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca> (Re: [Leica] Embedded Brit journalists will receive Iraq Campaign medal)