Pictures are worth a thousand bullets?
What Malkin hates the most about the mainstream media, apparently, is that damned objectivity.
See, it seems a photojournalist (Bilal Hussein - he’s an Iraqi and therefore suspect already) who doesn’t use his or her status to infiltrate and destroy the very terror cells they’re trying to document is a de facto member, engaged in propaganda. Photographs of cold-blood executions, apparently, amount to promotion of the insurgents’ cause. (Let’s try to imagine what we’d hear from the righties if a photojournalist took a picture of American soldiers committing atrocities. Oh, wait. We don’t have to imagine. “I wish he would have a fatal accident” was restrained.)
Malkin and friends also say that because Hussein may or may not be tolerated - or, pushing the bounds of speculation, even tipped off - by the insurgents, he has a responsibility to take steps to stop the events he’s documenting. This argument seems to me to ignore completely the very nature of war journalism.
The kind of work war photographers do makes the kind of work Michelle, Jesse, and I do look like sitting behind a keyboard spouting off opinions. Wait, that is the kind of work we do.
Take a look at the splash screen at this site, just for an example.
James Nachtwey, the photographer in the photo, said:
In a way, if an individual assumes the risk of placing himself in the middle of a war in order to communicate to the rest of the world what is happening, he is trying to negotiate for peace. Perhaps that is the reason why those in charge of perpetuating a war do not like to have photographers around.
It has occurred to me that if everyone could be there just once to see for themselves what white phosphorous does to the face of a child or what unspeakable pain is caused by the impact of a single bullet or how a jagged piece of shrapnel can rip someone’s leg off - if everyone could be there to see for themselves the fear and the grief, just one time, then they would understand that nothing is worth letting things get to the point where that happens to even one person, let alone thousands.
Exactly what the wingnuts are afraid of.
Be clear about this, Malkin issued a fatwah against the photographer with this article. Full-face identifying pictures, details of his employment and acquaintances, unsourced allegations that he is an insurgent…basically she’s trying to issue a death-warrant. If (when) this article gets into the hands of a Shi-ite militia or interior ministry enforcer, expect Bilal to show up dead. It’s on a par with the abortionist deathlists of the anti-choice fringe in the 90’s, and those lead to deaths. It’s the purest example yet of the pure unfettered danger of anti-responsible extremist populist married to global media penetration. It maybe Malkin’s worst piece of writing ever.
Comment by richard — April 13, 2006 @ 4:55 pm
Exactly. She’s hoping some sympathetic wingnut among the military or the private contractors will search this guy out and frag him.
She’s an aspiring fucking murderer, plain and simple. Evil bitch.
Comment by teh l4m3 — April 13, 2006 @ 7:34 pm
Well, you guys are all charming as usual. Speaking of pictures, I got one in the mail today… Michelle Malkin’s autograph! How cool is that!
Comment by John — April 13, 2006 @ 10:33 pm
>
Why did Michelle sign a picture of Rosie O’ Donnell?
Comment by WTF — April 14, 2006 @ 3:26 am
Where’d that illustration come from? There’s not a Regnery coloring book called “Color-in Your Favorite Asshole - For Kids!” is there?
I wasn’t aware that she was a double-amputee. Maybe that explains why she’s so unhappy. How does she get around? Does she sit in a little wagon that Jesse pulls around for her?
Comment by LA — April 14, 2006 @ 1:03 pm
Hey John:
Did she send the autograph back to you with a restraining order?
Comment by LA — April 14, 2006 @ 8:29 pm
John: How did you get the Wikipedia to use your image for their Michelle Malkin article?
Comment by LA — April 14, 2006 @ 8:50 pm
Did Chris Muir draw that?
Comment by Sirkowski — April 14, 2006 @ 8:59 pm
Do I detect violation of copyright? And how clever of you to name the image file “mm_stalker.jpg”. Touching. As for that crap about a restraining order, LA, I for one do not give people cause to obtain such things by simply writing them a letter.
Comment by John — April 14, 2006 @ 9:05 pm
The way I read the judge’s decision, it wasn’t the letter itself that caused her to seek a restraining order - it was the creepy sexual undertones in the illustration itself.
And the fact that you drew her neck too thick.
Comment by LA — April 14, 2006 @ 9:17 pm
You should have asked her for a “soiled” article of clothing like a thong or something that you could keep under your pillow.
Comment by LA — April 14, 2006 @ 9:47 pm
Ah… So that’s why she hates Mexicans and worships Rush Limbaugh.
Comment by LA — April 14, 2006 @ 9:49 pm
Of course the journalist doesn’t have a duty to intercede. He has to be ‘neutral’ or you would never get the picture. Although I have a feeling if his name was Mike Smith he’d be head-less Mike Smith by now. …Very nice, Auguste.
Comment by Will — April 15, 2006 @ 2:30 am
“Well, you guys are all charming as usual.”
Let me get this straight, John: you find calling for the murder of a person whose politics *you merely perceive* as being different is somehow more “charming” than making a rude, off-handed comment about a person who called for murder?
Glad to know where you stand.
Comment by teh l4m3 — April 16, 2006 @ 8:10 pm
Are you aware of your own words?
You say:
“A photojournalist [is] an Iraqi and…doesn’t use his…status to infiltrate and destroy the very terror cells [he is] document[ing] is a de facto member, engaged in propaganda. Photographs of cold-blood executions,…amount to promotion of the insurgents’ cause.”
You are trying to be sarcastic but its TRUE! Yes, when he presents the human story and personifies the insurgent’s cause and puts a face and a name on a cold blooded killer while laying out the ‘moral justification’ the cold blooded killer uses to justify his acts. Yes that is propaganda, sedition and coperation with the enemy.Change ‘terrorist’ to Nazi and all of a sudden you realize you’re own words bite you in the ass. You are just one of those who belives that Jihadists arent a threat to you. Just come out and defend that position instead of trying to make smug jokes.
Comment by James Black — November 10, 2006 @ 10:40 pm