Embedding of Media in Military Questioned Following CNN 'Propaganda' Video
by Chad Groening
November 2, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A conservative media watchdog organization has announced its support for a group of congressman who are calling on the Pentagon to remove CNN reporters from the military embedding program. The decision was promoted by CNN's decision to obtain and air what the group describes as a "terrorist propaganda video." The Media Research Center (MRC) says it is "deplorable" and "revolting" that the high-profile news network aired the video which showed terrorist snipers stalking and killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Tim Graham, director of media analysis at MRC, says Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and other congressmen are correct to demand that CNN reporters no longer be permitted to embed with American troops.
"It's unfair really to send our soldiers out to defend people who don't want them to win. That's a strange scenario," Graham notes. "Why would they, in that case, struggle to keep them out of harm's way?"
The MRC spokesman suggests that American troops should not have to protect reporters who want to see them defeated. "Why should American troops be sent out with a reporter from CNN who thinks that they are a cancer on the region and are willing to air the enemy's propaganda?" he asks. "Obviously, you get into a situation where the soldiers clearly aren't going to like a reporter like that and aren't really going to trust him."
Graham contends the terrorist video was designed to demoralize the American people about the war. "It does have the effect of suggesting that the war in Iraq is a lost cause, and [that] we ought to get out," he says.
MRC president Brent Bozell thinks CNN and other liberal news outlets need to be held accountable on a regular basis, but particularly in the lead-up to elections. Bozell says he is convinced that those news sources "are trying to demoralize Americans about the Iraq war days before a national election." American soldiers, he says, "deserve better."
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
