From the file of "WHO GIVES A FUCK!"

Here is a little story from CNN that has ruined my fucking day. I hate the press, plain and simple. I hate when they report on their own reporting. The American media is notorious for making themselves the story. There was an old joke that the Canadian media's first question during a disaster was "were any Canadians killed? No. Push the story back." The sad thing is that isn't a joke. That is actually the way they report the news here, as if it were somehow more tragic that a guy who lives 3000km from my house in a different province, who I have never met, but happens to carry the same passport died. Boo hoo.

Worse is that American journalists are they very antithesis of that joke. "Stop the fucking presses" is reserved exclusively for the premature death of journalists. We get two days of crying and tributes when one (in the way, shouldn't have been there) god dammed journalist gets killed. The best part of the tribute to the dead glory hog is that they follow the tears and sorrow with, "...and ten soldiers and 200 civilians were killed in the same exchange." You want to talk about the value of life, after meter maids, cockroaches and Born Again Christians you have journalists, then Hitler.

So to sum up my feelings about journalists who get killed in war zones I will quote Moe of Simpson’s fame. "Ah, they shouldn't have been there in the first place."

I don't need a first hand account of a war in the Middle East. I don't need you to describe the fighting. I get it, people die. Here's an idea, let me know when you have a war where no one dies. So now that is settled, journalists, you can come home. Get the fuck out of the way and you won't get killed in Iraq.

What a world that would be, no "journalist on journalist" deaths to report, so what do we do with those 45 minutes of the evening news? Probably run an old episode of Friends. This is the one time in my life I can think of an occasion where if I had two channels, one Friends and one Journalist death news, I would rather watch an episode of Friends. That is the only instance, final, fuck off.

Journalists aren't alone in their belief that their deaths are the most important. The same holds true when a woman gets killed in a war zone. It's like a man is an old coffee cup and a woman is a Faberge egg, you can break a hundred coffee cups in a week and not give a shit, but drop that expensive egg and tell me what happens.

"A WOMAN WAS KILLED IN IRAQ TODAY, OH THE FUCKING HORROR, THAT IS THE TENTH WOMAN KILLED IN ARMED CONFLICT SINCE WOMAN WERE ALLOWED IN COMBAT ZONES....and 12 male soldiers were killed in the same fighting, they are probably the 251,987, 88, 89, 90 etc. American soldiers killed in the last 50 years.

The point is, yeah it's too bad, but aren't we all the same? Why does one death out weigh so many others? "It’s all fresh and new, a guy dying isn't really news, but a woman, that is a pretty new thing." LIKE FUCK.

So here is what set me off, a story from CNN, and no I won't be buying the book.


OPPPS....Last thing, isn't buying a book about war reports just like getting a "Coach" or "Trainer" card when you collect hockey cards? I mean, sure they are in the set, but who fucking cares, just put a blank card in for all I care.

Book tribute to Iraq war reporters
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/11/10/war.reporters/index.html

Journalists and support staff who were killed or went missing during this year's war in Iraq have been honoured in a book that also sheds light on how the media works in conflict zones. "Dying To Tell The Story" includes personal tributes by leading broadcast and print correspondents including BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson, NBC's Tom Brokaw, Head of ITV News in the UK, David Mannion, John Tulloh of Australia's ABC, Cullen Murphy from Atlantic Monthly, and Jim Smith from the Boston Globe.
The book is published by the International News Safety Institute (INSI) and on sale via www.newssafety.com, with all proceeds going to journalism charities.