do you think they belong there? do you think people like news anchors should go to iraq to report? and if they do go and get injured do you think they should get sympathy?

Hmm I think when any good person dies, they deserve sympathy. However I don't think they deserve as much as the troops do.

I do think it's good they are over there, however I think if troops were the ones doing the reporting -the world would be greatly informed of the situation over there.

As long as the reporters do not get in the way of the troops, and they do not put anyone else in danger- I don't see it as being a problem really.

i think that reporters have no business in iraq. maybe having a correspondant there through the military but someone from nbc does not belong there in iraq and then coming back and complaining that htey are traumatized...the volunteered. maybe i'm cold

ETA: any war zone not just iraq

I feel they have the right to be their to report but I feel that this war has been played up by the media. I feel when anyone dies but I feel more with the troops. I know that may not be right but it is something I can't help. I do feel that sometimes what the news does report puts big targets on the back of the US and troops.

No, you're not cold. I have never actually heard about the reporters being traumatised.

I remember watching Oprah last week and an american reporter got pretty badly hurt over in Iraq.. and they made such a hugeee deal about it. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I guess that's me being cold too huh :P

I pretty much think of it like this- they can go if they want, but it's because they want- they have volunteered. They are not doing a huge justice for anyone besides themselves- they would call that a scoop I guess. So if they get hurt, or traumatised- that is their own fault. They went to a bloody warzone to get a scoop, and to get noticed for it, and to further there own career- so it's there own fault.

However- aslong as they are not in the troops way, and getting the troops hurt- It isn't affecting me any.

I personally believe that they have no business in Iraq. The media has been our downfall through this whole thing. Also, I have heard numerous soliders/sailors say that they really felt that they were doing great things in Iraq such as building schools and other things that really matter, and that people were truely glad that they were there. One guy told me that while he was there they built two schools and that did not make the news, but when a bomb was thrown at them and killed two or three people that did. I think if they are going to be there they should tell both sides of the story Good and bad

I think it's important for everyone to know what's going on over there - the problem is that society as a whole never really "knew" what war looked like before reporters and cameras went there. I think it makes it much harder to fight a successful fight when we have people over here crying foul because of what they see on their tv screens.

If only we could learn from the past.

If the media wasnt so political and biased, then MAYBE they would be doing good over there. But when all you report is horrid side of things, THEY SUCK!

I think the media is a catch-22,. but a necessary one. I do not trust the government to give us the information we need about the war, or to give us truthful information. They have lied to us before, and will again. I also do not trust the media to be truthful or un-bias all the time, but at least we have more than just one source about what is going on with them there. The media makes it harder for the soldiers to do their jobs sometimes, but they also make it harder for the government to sugar coat or lie about how the war is going. Catch-22. Necessary evil. I would rather have them there than resort to Middle Eastern or Nazi forms of war reporting... just one source that paints it exactly how the government wants it to be painted.

Journalists who die in Iraq definitely get my sympathy. Just like journalists in any war zone do. I don't view them in the same way that I view the military, but I feel bad for anyone that dies in a violent way.

(Generally speaking) I don't believe it's the reporters that are the source of bias news, it's the corporations and pundits that put a slant on everything. The only thing I have ever seen on location reporters say is that the troops are brave people willing to sacrifice their lives for their country, and war is bloody and horrible to see. Both of which are true no matter what side you are on. I respect the reporters that go from one place in the world to another to show average people what's going on in the world who otherwise would have no idea what's going on at all. Those reporters risk their lives as well, and in my opinion, not many people just out for the scoop or the money would do that. They would send someone else to do it, someone they could sucker into going to a war zone because they know that person cares about showing the hardship and injustice going on in the world hoping that awareness will make it better. Without the media how would any of us get our information?

i agree that we need to know information but the news media is very biased. we have a very very very liberal media. Pres. Bush can do no right in the eyes of the media. We (in general we) see so many negative things on the news and that the news is a story about the news. So in other words what we hear on cnn, nbc, cbs, etc etc it's not really what happened it's a story, a sensationalized version, of the news.

i agree that we need to know information but the news media is very biased. we have a very very very liberal media. Pres. Bush can do no right in the eyes of the media. We (in general we) see so many negative things on the news and that the news is a story about the news. So in other words what we hear on cnn, nbc, cbs, etc etc it's not really what happened it's a story, a sensationalized version, of the news.

I agree 100%! :yes :thumbsup

i agree that we need to know information but the news media is very biased. we have a very very very liberal media. Pres. Bush can do no right in the eyes of the media.

I don't think that just because there is more bad than good about Bush in the media that makes it a liberal media. I think that's because Bush is doing things that people don't like. Even Republicans are distancing themselves from Bush because they don't agree with what he is doing and they don't want to be associated with things that are going on in his administration, like Alberto Gonzales for example. Heck, even Fox news pundits that have been overtly pro-Bush no matter what are starting to criticize him. I don't believe that is a sign of a liberal media any more than it is a sign of an unpopular president. If you look at the coverage of the republican and democrat presidential candidate, the democrats have gotten a lot more crap in the media than the republicans have. It's all about haircuts and age spots and racial background with the democrats, but with the republicans they talk about voting records and their stance on the war and religious affiliation. The media isn't more liberal if you ask me, it just doesn't like Bush, just like most of the country. Bush makes it hard for the media to talk about the good when he has things like no WMD's in Iraq, no links to Al Qaeda, Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby , Haliburton, Alberto Gonzales, the Patriot Act, illegal wiretapping, executive orders giving him legislative power, Paul Wolfowitz, etc.

wicked i understand that. but our media has been notoriously more liberal than conservative.

Maybe in the past, but ever since the Rupert Murdock revolution I don't believe that anymore. I am not denying the media is bias, I TOTALLY agree with you there, but I think that liberals always think the media is more conservative and conservatives always think the media is more liberal.

If the media wasnt so political and biased, then MAYBE they would be doing good over there. But when all you report is horrid side of things, THEY SUCK!

ITA :yes

I think that there should only be military press over there, as well. No one should be in war zones that doesn't belong in a war zone.

i agree that we need to know information but the news media is very biased. we have a very very very liberal media. Pres. Bush can do no right in the eyes of the media. We (in general we) see so many negative things on the news and that the news is a story about the news. So in other words what we hear on cnn, nbc, cbs, etc etc it's not really what happened it's a story, a sensationalized version, of the news.


:clap

The man(Bush) is damned if his does and damned if he don't.

I would prefer military journalists... I have never seen anything on the news like what my husband tells me about Iraq. Then again, I'm of the frame of mind that not everything needs to be all over the TV and internet.
I don't think a journalist deserves less sympathy for injury or death. Like Daniel Pearl... my heart hurts for his family. They volunteer, yes, but so is our military currently. I find journalists to be brave. I read a book by Anderson Cooper and he has gone places to tell the story of troubled people and they are places I would never have the guts to go to.

There have always been reporters in every war (In the early days of our civil war not only the news reporters but American citizens would gather to watch the battles). It's news so yes I do think they belong there. There are liberal stations (IE: ABC) and there are conservative stations (IE: Fox) there are even stations that have been accused of being BOTH (IE: CNN) just pick which ever view you want and watch that. All news is slanted towards the demographic it appeals to.

As for if they are wounded or killed I find all death tragic, it all makes me upset. They are doing there job as pointless as some may see it JUST like our troops are doing theirs. Many of them that are encamped with units feel bonded towards the service men and women they are living with on a daily basis.

If the media wasnt so political and biased, then MAYBE they would be doing good over there. But when all you report is horrid side of things, THEY SUCK!

:agree