Linda Foley Helps

"Journalists, by the way, are not just being targeted verbally or … ah, or … ah, politically. They are also being targeted for real, um … in places like Iraq. What outrages me as a representative of journalists is that there's not more outrage about the number, and the brutality, and the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq."

Linda Foley is President of the Newspaper Guild, a union affiliated with the AFL-CIO which claims a membership of 34,000.

On May 13, 2005 in St. Louis, Ms. Foley is quoted as saying that the U.S. military is literally targeting and killing journalists. A transcript and link to a video of her comments are HERE.

A virtually identical charge was made by former CNN executive Eason Jordan at a conference in Davos, Switzerland. As a result of criticism of his statement he resigned as head of CNN News.

Now Ms. Foley has repeated these accusations. There has been little comment in the MSM, with the exception of Thomas Lipscom in Editor and Publisher

Now a member of Linda Foley’s union has asked her to respond. Hiawatha Bray has asked for a retraction or a clarification.

Those are the facts.

Now my opinion: I doubt that there will be either a retraction or a clarification of her comments. They are already clear. Further, I have no doubt that Linda Foley believes what she said. In her mind, if a reporter is killed those who killed the reporter did so deliberately and in the knowledge that they were killing reporters. Among certain people these things are articles of faith; a priori assumptions not subject to disproof.

Her remarks are being disseminated by the internet bloggers and the non-coverage by the MSM will not prevent these comments from becoming general knowledge. They will become general knowledge to the politically attuned, the well-informed and the opinion leaders in the country. And they will aid in the self immolation of the MSM. In the last century we have seen both technological and intellectual revolutions take place. What we are now seeing is a revolution in communication and the dissemination of information that is rapidly eroding the role of the monolithic one-way media in favor the democratization of information. Think of it as the Samizdat for the American people. And it will have as profound an effect on American society as Samizdat did for the USSR.

Thank you for your help Linda Foley.