"A Truth-In-Broadcasting Statute"

A really good idea from Victor Davis Hanson in today's NRO:

.... We need legislation requiring journalists and reporters to publicly disclose the financial and political arrangements that they agree to in order to broadcast or write from belligerent regimes at a time of hostilities. Nothing in the recent war was more appalling or unethical than the censored reporting that emanated from the Palestine Hotel. Only after Baghdad fell did millions of listeners and readers discover that their purveyors of information had been semi-hostages, controlled by "minders" — and willing to pay daily bribe money for the privilege of divulging half-truths and releasing misleading accounts. Had their audiences known fully about all such concessions in advance, they might have been better equipped to assess the "truth." At the least, we can ask that American citizens not pay extortion money to enemy governments in a time of war. It is disturbing enough that none of our journalists in Iraq questioned Baghdad Bob's veracity in their nightly reports, but even more troubling to realize that their danegeld helped to subsidize his rantings....

(Thanks, Charles.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 05/09/03 09:02:56 PM
Categorized as Media.