Think Progress reports that a former army intelligence officer is spruking the idea that journalists are “combatants” in wartime:
You might think that in a free society the media should find the facts and truthfully report them to the public. But former Army intelligence officer Lt. Col. Ralph Peters disagrees. In his recent book, “New Glory: Expanding America’s Global Supremacy,” Peters argues that the media should act as “combatants” in wartime: “The media can no longer sustain their pretenses of being aloof, objective observers dispassionately recording events. The media are combatants.” [New Glory: Expanding America’s Global Supremacy, Page 49]
Peter’s has apparently repeated this assertion on Fox’s Bill O’Reilly show, and took it one step further saying recent critical reports on ABC were “killing American soldiers”. No surprises for guessing that O’Reilly agreed with his guest wholeheartedly saying: “I do feel that the press has a responsibility to help the government in the war on terror.”
Indeed journalists are combatants. But they ought not be foot soldiers in a nation’s war, they should be combatants against the likes of army intelligence officer Peters who try to get them to take the spin.
