The Wallace Wiggle

This Jill Carroll story raises some interesting questions about the role of reporters in a war zone. It used to be that you could count on American war correspondents to be Americans first, and reporters second. SGT. Hook made this point in his blog today. "Since the days of Ernie Pyle sending dispatches from the front during WWII, journalists have been covering combat operations with a sense of duty rivaling a soldier's sense of duty in prosecuting said combat operations." It must be remembered that back in 1987, former 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace said that he would not warn U.S. soldiers of an impending ambush. "Don't you have a higher duty as an American citizen to do all you can to save the lives of soldiers rather than this journalistic ethic of reporting fact?", moderator Charles Ogletree Jr. suggested. Without hesitating, Wallace responded: "No, you don't have higher duty...you're a reporter." But let's compare that line of thinking with the trial of confessed Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui who is facing the death penalty for doing pretty much the same thing. "To find Moussaoui eligible for execution under the federal death penalty law, jurors must conclude that the government would have been able to save at least one life if Moussaoui had disclosed what he knew about the Sept. 11, 2001 plot when he was arrested weeks earlier." So, if Moussaoui can only produce a press pass from Al Jazeera, he'll be able to walk, using the 'Mike Wallace defense strategy'. Hat Tip: Sgt. Hook Newsbusters