I was pleased to hear that soldiers had questioned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the unarmored Humvees that are deployed to Iraq but was angered when it was announced that a reporter may have coached the soldiers on what questions to ask and how to ask them.
The story started yesterday when a couple of soldiers asked why it was necessary for them to scrounge metal to armor the Humvees themselves and to look for hardened glass to make the windows bullet-resistant. Rumsfeld, of course, was gruff when he made his replies and the story received widespread media attention around the world. Here’s that part of the story.
Then it came out today that a reporter from the Chattanooga Times Free Press had coached the soldiers and then approached the Sgt. in charge of the question and answer session with the Defense Secretary to “make sure his guys got out of the crowd.”
This is coming across as a reporter engaged in dishonest reporting. He’s making the news rather than simply reporting on it. If the story of the plant is correct, this guy needs to be reigned in a bit by his bosses.
Activism vs. reporting seems to be a recurring problem these days and some of these people ought to get off it. “It” being their political activism supplanting their duties as journalists.
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