Too Many Are Missing the Point

Submitted by Jason McMahon (United States), Apr 1, 2003 at 21:28

Peter Arnett may be a fine reporter, but his hubris led him to morph into an absolute moron when he agreed to give the interview to Iraqi TV. This has nothing to do with the war, with what he said, with which side he may be on, or with the fallout from his actions. This point has to do with Arnett flagrantly violating one of the most fundamental tenets of responsible journalism: Report the story, never create the story. Arnett decided to make himself the story, and for that alone -- even had he gone on Iraqi TV and told his "interviewer" that Iraq was being crushed and that Saddam's an impotent necrophiliac -- NBC and National Geographic were completely justified and absolutely right in canning him.

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