Life During Wartime

A California Republican who apparently has not versed himself assiduously enough in First Amendment law wants to yank CNN reporters from the military units with which they’re embedded in Iraq.

Duncan Hunter, offended that CNN aired footage of an insurgent sniper shooting at American troops, wrote Donald Rumsfeld, who has bigger things on his plate right now than censoring war coverage, that “CNN has now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film featuring the killing of an American soldier.�

OK, if you don’t want your constituents to see graphic footage of people being shot, maybe you don’t vote to authorize the war in the first place. But Hunter’s “this is propaganda and CNN is the terrorist’s publicity machine� logic utterly eludes me: Viewers see an insurgent shoot an American soldier, and all of a sudden they’ll become sympathetic to them? What kind of Bizarro World thinking is that? Does Hunter truly believe that viewers automatically side with whoever is depicted engaging in a show of force? It seems to me such reportage gives Americans a better sense of the difficulties our troops are confronting there, and therefore a greater appreciation of their courage and sacrifice. And perhaps – and this may be what concerns Duncan – a sense of protectiveness toward them and a renewed desire to take them out of harm’s way as the news remains bleak out of Iraq.

Anyway, last I checked, the purpose of journalism was to strive to convey all sides of a story, and perhaps it might be valuable for Americans to understand the enemy they face in Iraq. But here’s a proposed compromise: Every so often, CNN promises to air a half-hour show, “Duncan Hunter’s Happy-Time Fun News,� in which all is going swimmingly well in Iraq and the insurgents aren’t permitted any point-of-view beyond frothing-at-the-mouth menace and everyone is all big resolute smiles like in those swelling, patriotically themed pickup truck commercials and Duncan Hunter is the greatest, bravest, strongest and smartest Congressman in the World. And then, that out of the way, they get back to news for the rest of us.