The latest flap regarding Rolling Stone’s printing of General McChrystal’s drunken, professional suicide has engendered several comments from fellow reporters including (and I quote Mr. Taibbi’s 6/28/2010 Blog post): “I thought I'd seen everything when I read David Brooks saying out loud in a New York Times column that reporters should sit on damaging comments to save their sources from their own idiocy. But now we get CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan slamming our own Michael Hastings on CNN's "Reliable Sources" program, agreeing that the Rolling Stone reporter violated an "unspoken agreement" that journalists are not supposed to "embarrass [the troops] by reporting insults and banter."
Mr. Taibbi titled this BLOG posting “Lara Logan, You Suck” (I fucking love this guy!). The whole BLOG post is well worth reading (www.rollingstone.com/politics & click on Matt Taibbi) if you have any love or regard for actual news and the importance of a vigorous, honest public dialog. This whole flap has reminded me of the scene from Cameron Crowe’s movie “Almost Famous” where the music journalist Lester Bangs (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) coaches the young writer about being friends with the rock stars he is writing about; “My advice to you, I know you think those guys are your friends, you wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful.”
No comments:
Post a Comment