JF, could you tell me a civil war in history which didn't have some atrocities happen?
The atrocities by the Northern Alliance (as you and the NY Times likes to call them), are nothing compared to what happened for years under the Taliban rule. The fact that you *know* about it, demonstrates a free press is exercising their journalistic workmanship. Something you wouldn't see in the heart of Kandarar or elsewhere until very recently, but which probably happened quite often.
The Associate Press isn't given a free ride to wherever they want a permit. We have many news outlets. They might think they have a monopoly on permits when they are limited. But, that's simply because they are still living in the old school model, where they believe they should be coddled and treated like royalty.
No one can say the worldwide free press (including America's) isn't giving us a picture of what is happening inside Afghanistan. The BBC has a station in Afghanistan. Why doesn't ABC, NBC, CNN or CBS? I'll tell you why, they were too busy chasing down the latest ratings war and handing out multimillion dollar salaries to a bunch of leftist newsreaders to care enough about Afghanistan until 2 months ago.
Now they want to make up for their mismanagement by having the U.S. military ferry them to-and-fro and take pictures. Then tell the same exact story like a bunch of parrots.
While the U.S. News media is the largest, most sophisticated, most wealthy, and most experienced in the world, they think too much alike. And this effort required a bit of 'out-of-the-box' thinking to accomplish the news-gathering mission.
A recent example is how the Hindu Time is monitoring local radio stations in Kandahar for events there.
Oh God! Not talk radio! We at CNN could never stoop that low! LOL |
