Existing comment:
Non Media 21st Century Battleground Information Sources
Because of the worldwide restrictions on accredited journalists, much current battleground information is being produced by non-media individuals.
This recalls that Alexander Gardner was not an accredited journalist when he went to Antietam. He was an employee of a commercial gallery using a new technology, stereoscopic photography, to take photos for commercial sale.
The Internet and low-cost digital cameras have provided individuals the opportunity to create video or photographic reports of firefights and the aftermath of battles, often from their own neighborhoods. These reports by "citizen journalists," available on You Tube and other websites, have at their best given the public an eyewitness account of conflicts where accredited journalists are barred. However, since many of these videos [are] not verified, there is always the possibility that images projected as objective news may in fact be produced as propaganda.
Another source of current battle zone information is the photographs and videos taken by the combatants themselves. The photos published in 2004 showing prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison were taken by a [sic] US military stationed at the prison.
The "Collateral Murder" video released by Wikileaks in 2010 of a 2007 US helicopter attack in Baghdad that resulted in the death of eleven individuals, including two Reuter news service employees, was a US army video.
The distribution of this video, which was classified at the time, resulted in the detention of Army PFC Chelsea Manning by the US military for allegedly releasing it along with thousands of additional documents to Wikileaks. She was charged under terms of the 1916 Espionage Act.
Manning's defense before a military court was that her action did not aid the enemy but was a legitimate case of whistleblowing.
I'm a "transparency advocate." I feel that the public cannot decide what actions and policies are or are not justified if they don't even know the most rudimentary details about them and their effects.
-- Chelsea Manning, October 7, 2013
While convicted of 20 counts of stealing government documents, Manning was acquitted of the most serious Espionage Act charge -- Aiding the Enemy.
"Collateral Murder" is still available to the public.
Since 1862, when Alexander Gardner and Mathew Brady first showed the public what the human cost of war looked like, there has been a debate over what the public should be allowed to see. Those who argue that the release of such images is necessary are not limited to journalists, politicians, or Constitutional lawyers.
"That is not an image you want to see like that," said Hernandez, still shedding tears of fury and sadness six months after her son's death. "Your kid is lying like that and there is no way you can get their to help them."
"I do think it's an important thing, for people to see what goes on over there," Hernandez said in a phone interview. "It throws reality more in your face. And sometimes we can't help reality."
-- Kathy Hernandez, mother of Army Spc. Travis Babbitt, on the published photo of her mortally wounded son. PORTRAITS OF WAR, Unseen Pictures, Untold Stories Los Angeles Times, James Rainey, May 31, 2005. |