These glimpes into the dark hearts of some Americans are never pretty. Unfortunately, they’re not terribly rare these days. Take for example the experience of Darris Mortenson, a reporter formerly embedded in Iraq, who stood up for Kevin Sites (the now much-malighed reporter who shot the footage of a U.S. marine shooting and killing an injured, unarmed insurgent in Fallujah, Iraq). Standing up for Sites got Mortenson the following sampling of responses from patriotic Americans:
“That you would consider the death of a terrorist as something bad tells me all I need to know about you.”
“Sorry, I may be old-fashioned, but I prefer Ernie Pyle. At least it seemed as though he wanted Americans to win.”
“The distrust of the major media is at the root of all of this.”
“Go back to Iraq, with a target on your back.”
“If you go back over I hope they take your head.”
“Now each and every embed is in enemy territory. What I mean is, a reporter in the combat zones of Iraq now has no friends. … There is probably not a marine or soldier who will even attempt to save you if they don’t accidentally shoot you first.”
As for Mortenson, I couldn’t blame him for being a bit bitter.
All this abuse came to Mortenson for daring to point out that the blame-the-messenger mentality, “which is always a sign of weakness in a democracy, is contagious and miserable. … When the news is good, everyone hails those hardworking reporters who live in the dirt and danger to accompany the troops, as long as their reports make us feel good. But when the images make us uncomfortable or force us to ask questions, we blame the media. …
“Part of me wants to call for all of my fellow embedded reporters to come home, pack up and forget about those hellish places where American troops serve and fight,” he wrote near the end of his Sunday article. “The American people don’t want to hear about it. Come home. It’s not worth the risk. It’s not worth a single hair on your noble and hardworking heads. Let them fend for themselves with government propaganda on one side and Al Jazeera on the other.
“Then, when the troops’ sacrifices go untold, and we have no idea what’s going on in the world and the military falls out of our gaze and to the bottom of the congressional budget, sit back in safety and listen to the armchair critics holler: ‘Where were the media?’”
I can’t blame him for being conflicted. On the one hand, I think Americans by and large don’t want to know and don’t deserve to know what’s really happening in Iraq, or what’s being done in their names and on their dimes. The reason I say that in some ways they don’t deserve to know is because knowledge might come with an opportunity to avoid negative consequences by making different choices. At this point, I don’t think we’ve earned that opportunity.
On the other hand, I’m one of those Americans who depends on the reports that are coming from people like Sites and Mortensen. In one of the “pre-blog” configurations of my website, I put together a page of peace-related links and alternate news source links that has since morphed into the list of links you see on this blog. I put the list up in response to the U.S. reaction to 9/11, and since then I’ve ceased to rely solely upon major U.S. media for news about what’s happening around the world. But I know I’m in the minority of Americans on that. A frightening number only get their information from Fox News or similar sources, and they don’t want to know about incidents like the one Sites filmed and reported. (What’s more frightening is that they don’t think anyone else should know about these things either.)
Sometimes I think might be better to turn the cameras, microphones, and laptops off, stop reporting to America what’s being done in their names, go home and wait for the blowback to arrive. Then listen to them holler “Why didn’t anybody tell us?”
I’m not sure what your problem is with these comments. They seem perfectly rational to me. If you want them to shot you dead, go over there and let them use you for target practice–I’ll pay for the trip. But don’t undermine the country so that they get a chance to come over here and shot at me. That would get me just a little upset with you.
“That you would consider the death of a terrorist as something bad tells me all I need to know about you.”
“Sorry, I may be old-fashioned, but I prefer Ernie Pyle. At least it seemed as though he wanted Americans to win.”
“The distrust of the major media is at the root of all of this.”
“Go back to Iraq, with a target on your back.”
“If you go back over I hope they take your head.”
“Now each and every embed is in enemy territory. What I mean is, a reporter in the combat zones of Iraq now has no friends. … There is probably not a marine or soldier who will even attempt to save you if they don’t accidentally shoot you first.”
Its so funny how we allow blatant jingoism to trump our collective humanity, my question is why are we lamenting over patriotic idiots who voted Bush back into power in the first place, over the fact that he pimped them out over fear in the first place. This is nothing new speak out against the American Empire and suffer the consequences. Unfortunately its nothing new.