Friday, February 02, 2007

NYT assaults family of slain serviceman, gets away with it

Michelle Malkin has the news that none of the other biggies seems to be covering -- in light of the Arkin pile of manure that still stinks up the WaPo, I can understand that, but the NYT's conduct is abominable, as well.

It seems that, in direct violation of the rules which all journalists and publishers sign off on (rules, which I might add, are for basic common decency), the NYT not only ran the news of a soldier's death before the Pentagon had the chance to inform his family, but they ran a disturbing video of his actual death, at their website.

That's one helluva way to find out your loved one is gone -- have the press show you the film at eleven.

Now, I'm not a journalist, myself, but it seems to me the practice of allowing the authorities to inform families first is an old, honored one, and that even the crappy little bottom-rung papers like the one which publishes my rantings each week knows it well, and keeps that practice.

And yet, the NYT not only runs the video, but loses no privileges as a result!

It seems to me, not only do the editors and reporters for the Slimes owe the family a public apology, but they owe the rest of the troops over in Iraq and Afghanistan a display of genuine contrition. Not that I think they have a clue what contrition is, even with their gigantic print-media vocabularies.

Further, I think the Pentagon owes it to the families of all the troops to see that this sort of thing never happens again -- by removing the NYT blight from any embeds. If they can't do that, then I hope the soldiers who get stuck with Slimes reporters can figure out how to effectively maximize the time and skills of those "journalists."

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