South City Mouth

I'm sure you've heard the news by now that two CBS News crew members were killed yesterday when a nearby car loaded with explosives detonated in Baghdad. The explosion also left correspondent Kimberly Dozier critically injured. Our prayers should be with her as we don't know what her future holds.

Yesterday, I paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of American service people who have died in war over the past 200-plus years. Perhaps these above-mentioned deaths yesterday provide us with an opportunity to pay tribute to some folks who put their necks on the line everyday, but receive little gratitude and a whole lot of scorn.

So far, 96 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began. They come from different backgrounds. Some were reporters. Some were photographers. Others were Iraqi guides and assistants. They came from a number of countries as varied as the U.S., Britain, Argentina, Spain and Australia. Their jobs were essentially the same: to get the wartime news out of Iraq and to the rest of the world so that we might know.

But unlike our soldiers, we haven't waved flags and memorialized these folks with holidays, Air Force flyovers or 21-gun salutes. At best, we've greeted their deaths with a headshake of momentary regret. Too often it's been with ingratitude and snotty attitudes about the a group of people we tend to despise for reasons we all know, some valid, many ridiculously overstated and overgeneralized. Yes, some of these folks are arrogant and ambitious, and we all know about Jayson Blair and his ilk who like to make things up. But mainly we can't stand to have someone tell us something we don't like to hear, so we conveniently assume bias, poor ethics and bicoastal arrogance. That sure beats having to look inward and question whether we have our own facts and understanding of the situation straight. (By the way, the left is getting to be about as bad as the right in this aspect.)

In the meantime, the press corps in Iraq is out on the line taking fire and assuming the risks of bombs, landmines and rockets, just as our soldiers are. The result has been that we on the homefront get to sit in our comfy living rooms every night and learn what is happening in Iraq. Sometimes we learn about things we wish we didn't have to learn, such as the disgrace of Abu Graib and last week's news of the massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians by Marines. But knowing gives us power as citizens. And that's when good things happen in America.

It's much the same for the thousands of journalists here in our own communities. While not facing the bombs and bullets of their colleagues in Iraq, they work everyday to let you know what's happening from your own school board to our nation's Congress. In essence they give you the information we need to make wise decisions as voters, taxpayers and citizens. Armed with that knowledge, we the people can do great things. Without the media, where would we receive this information? How much change would happen then?

Indeed, freedom isn't free. So, be sure to thank a journalist.

BTW

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