New "Objectivity" Is Old "Treason"

We all knew that CBS had picked its side in domestic politics. Now we have further evidence that they've done so internationally as well:

A cameraman carrying CBS press credentials was detained in Iraq earlier this week on suspicion of insurgent activity, the U.S. military said Friday.

The cameraman suffered minor injuries Tuesday during a battle between U.S. soldiers and suspected insurgents, the military said. He was standing next to an alleged insurgent who was killed during the shootout, the statement said.

[O]n Friday, the military said the cameraman was detained because there was probable cause to believe he posed "an imperative threat to Coalition forces."

A spokesman for Task Force Freedom, Captain Mark Walter, said the reporter suffered minor wounds and was with "a number of people" involved in the shootout.

Walter said the reporter was detained immediately after the incident, in part because of statements from witnesses to the battle.

Officials are investigating the man's previous activities as well as "his alleged support of anti-Iraqi insurgency activities," the statement said.

It's not like this is the first time something like this has happened. One can harken back to ex-CNN honcho Eason Jordan covering up Saddam Hussein's atrocities in order to retain the cable network's Baghdad bureau, or even back to the first Gulf War to the infamous Peter Arnett's "questionable" loyalties offered up in the name of "journalistic objectivity."

I'd continue all the way back to Vietnam, but we had enough of that from John Kerry a year ago.

The question bears asking again, and again, and again, as many times as extreme media quislingism rears its ugly head: does "journalistic objectivity" really require abandonment of patriotism? Or is the former a pompous cover for an anti-American hostility that has always been present?

This should be a scandal on par with Rathergate. But look for CBS to just yawn and shrug it off instead, their only criticism of this cameraman being that he was dumb enough to get caught.

Besides, there are doubtless plenty more where he came from.