Kevin Sites Responds
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James Joyner | Monday, November 22, 2004 |
Kevin Sites, the NBC reporter who filmed and broke the story of the Marine’s shooting of an apparently unarmed insurgent last week, has a blog. He has an “Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1” in which he defends himself against the widespread notion that he’s a sensationalist who told a story out of context to reflect bad light on the U.S. war effort.
The tone of the piece, and the “Rambo” picture and caption of himself that’s on the blog template, is very much that of a warrior wannabe who thinks that he’s somehow both “one of the boys” and a dispassionate journalist–sort of a Rambo Meets Geraldo Rivera. That said, his argument is rather persuasive.
via Wizbang
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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The one question I had about Kevin Site's mindset and actions leading up to the release of the video was whether he had offered to keep the video under wraps until the military autorities had time to investigate. I figured if he had offered and was turned down, then Sites was pretty much clear of any condemnation I was harboring. But he really skipped over that issue in his open letter. He mentions he made the offer but completely avoids stating whether the offer was turned down (freeing him to release it to the pool), or if the offer was accepted and he reneged after further thought.
His prior reporting that I have been able to locate has seemed accurate and performed with probity, so I'll continue to give him the benefit of the doubt. But there is a nagging little voice in my head that REALLY wants to know the final answer to that question.
This guy may indeed be a Geraldo type wannabe, but that is not really the issue. The question is the factuality of his report. If his report is accurate, we should not blame the messenger, nor try and discredit him simply because he seems to be something of a hotdog...
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