In this time of crisis — when the nation’s at war — some Americans are asking the news media this question.
Just whose side are you on?
- Like the Bush administration, many wonder why the media run taped comments from Osama bin Laden. Why do we give evildoers equal time to spout their hateful propaganda to kill Americans? He might have been sending coded messages and instructions to terrorists around the world.
- Why are we exposing potential targets, even giving our enemies ideas and lessons on how to strike at us?
- Why are we wasting time agonizing over frivolous, contrived “ethical” issues such as whether journalists are wrong to wear American flag lapel pins?
Readers say: It’s time to choose. Are you an American first, or a reporter?
“If a terrorist wanted assistance in finding out where to disable Arizona, they’d only have to read The Republic,” protested Apache Junction resident Theresa Nesser in an e-mail.
Readers suggest editors are “giving the terrorists ideas” by running stories about security problems at Sky Harbor International Airport and the potential hazards of trains loaded with propane, jet fuel, nuclear waste and chemical fertilizers passing through Valley cities.
“There was much more information in there than I needed,” Phoenix reader Kathy Mitchem said of an Oct. 8 story on Page B1, “Trains vulnerable to terrorism.”
“Loose lips sink ships,” another complained.
Journalists do play a crucial role in a democracy, but in most cases, that role is not served by withholding information, but by sharing it.
Most reporters believe democracy is best served by the free flow of information, ideas and opinions. Journalists have faith in the salutary, clarifying and defining effects of information, even when it’s conflicting, competing and contradictory.
Journalists don’t agree that most Americans need to be “protected” from unsettling news or ideologies.
They can’t understand how Americans are better off not knowing things that others do.
Now that doesn’t mean editors should publicize the specific timing of future troop movements.
But they would like to be shown exactly how bin Laden is sending instructions through his taped comments, as some Bush administration officials have claimed, before they suppress those tapes.
Deputy Managing Editor Jeff Dozbaba said The Arizona Republic will weigh the administration’s requests on bin Laden’s messages “on a case by case basis.”
“But we would not adopt a blanket policy of withholding information,” he said.
Most journalists think Americans are better off learning all they can about bin Laden and his followers.
In the journalist’s view, informing the public about the terrorists and about security lapses and weaknesses is usually a public service. “In a community, it’s important to let people know what segments are at risk,” Dozbaba said. “Americans have a right to know what their enemies might go after.”
How else will the public know what is at risk and what needs fixing?
