My Power
I have become intoxicated with power. Just today I read this news in NY Times. It details how pressure exerted by blogs has forced a senior journalist of CNN had to step down. It was alleged that at the recently held World Economic Forum in Davos, he said that he believed that the US military had aimed at journalists and killed 12 of them. This caused a furore on some blogs which has resulted in his stepping down. The activity that I am doing right now, typing, has the power to destroy the career of a journalist. I am enjoying a heady feeling.
But shouldn't this power impose upon me a feeling of responsibility? I don't think so. Because I don't think I should enjoy that much power. Most of the time, my blog just expresses my own feelings and opinions. I would be very gratified if something I wrote led to a lively open debate. I would feel top of the world if it led to an investigation into or clarification about something fishy. But I don't want heads to roll on the basis of what I write. After all what editorial oversight does my writing have. To make an accusation stick, one needs proofs and a thorough investigation. I see my role as a person who raises questions which he hopes will help in unraveling the truth.
Now there is no mention in the article about whether the journalist actually made those remarks and if he did, how did he justify them. To satisfy my curiosity, I did some digging around and came up with these two documented deaths of journalists.
1. On April 8th 2003 an American tank on the Al-Jumhuria bridge came under enemy fire from the streets from the direction of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad which the US knew hosted about 100 unembedded journalists. Inexplicably the tank fired a single round not on the streets but in the 15th floor of the hotel and took out the Reuters bureau killing two cameramen and injuring others.
2. On August 17th 2003, Mazen Dana, a Reuters cameraman was filming at a prison outside Baghdad. He had spoken with the American soldiers there and had made them aware of what he was doing. But as his camera trained on a tank standing 50 meters away, he was shot to death. The excuse? The soldiers mistook his camera for a rocket propelled grenade launcher.
I would have felt much better, if the intensive blogging by people like me would have led to a serious investigation into the journalists comments and his bases and justifications for making them, however flimsy they might be. Atleast I would have had the satisfaction of having made a positive contribution. Right now I just feel like a salivating, deranged member of a frenzied lynch mob inebriated with power.
But shouldn't this power impose upon me a feeling of responsibility? I don't think so. Because I don't think I should enjoy that much power. Most of the time, my blog just expresses my own feelings and opinions. I would be very gratified if something I wrote led to a lively open debate. I would feel top of the world if it led to an investigation into or clarification about something fishy. But I don't want heads to roll on the basis of what I write. After all what editorial oversight does my writing have. To make an accusation stick, one needs proofs and a thorough investigation. I see my role as a person who raises questions which he hopes will help in unraveling the truth.
Now there is no mention in the article about whether the journalist actually made those remarks and if he did, how did he justify them. To satisfy my curiosity, I did some digging around and came up with these two documented deaths of journalists.
1. On April 8th 2003 an American tank on the Al-Jumhuria bridge came under enemy fire from the streets from the direction of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad which the US knew hosted about 100 unembedded journalists. Inexplicably the tank fired a single round not on the streets but in the 15th floor of the hotel and took out the Reuters bureau killing two cameramen and injuring others.
2. On August 17th 2003, Mazen Dana, a Reuters cameraman was filming at a prison outside Baghdad. He had spoken with the American soldiers there and had made them aware of what he was doing. But as his camera trained on a tank standing 50 meters away, he was shot to death. The excuse? The soldiers mistook his camera for a rocket propelled grenade launcher.
I would have felt much better, if the intensive blogging by people like me would have led to a serious investigation into the journalists comments and his bases and justifications for making them, however flimsy they might be. Atleast I would have had the satisfaction of having made a positive contribution. Right now I just feel like a salivating, deranged member of a frenzied lynch mob inebriated with power.
posted by Avinash | 9:45 PM
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