BS: Peter Arnett

Subject: RE: BS: Peter Arnett
From: JedMarum
Date: 02 Apr 03 - 10:10 AM

Peter was fired by both National Geographic (his current full-time employer) and NBC (who contracted him by agrrement with National Geographic).

He was not fired for teh incident of expressing an 'unkind' word about the Coalition's prosecution of this war, though of course, that expression made the incident more controversial. He was fired for his total lack of judgement and his very poor journalistic practice.

There are two major breeches, as I see it, that led to his firing. 1) He agreed to grant an on-air interview to the Iraqi TV. This is a group that he and the world know is government controlled. It is known to Peter and to all the world as a propaganda machine, and he knew that his words would be used as propaganda by Iraq - a country currently at war his (adopted) country. This is a major breech of good journalistic practice and has been condemned as such by every journalist I've seen discuss the matter on TV. 2) Peter is a journalist, not an op ed opinion columnist. He is not in Iraq to make and publish his opinions from that location. He is not in a position to have enough information to make opinions, while he is Iraq and the war is on-going.