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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Good Questions

Good Questions

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Cori Dauber asks some interesting questions:

Not to keep beating this horse, but the press keep insisting that they aren’t doing anything differently in the case of Jill Carroll than they do in the case of anyone else.
Then I’ve got one question for them.

Why haven’t her family members been featured players in “grief TV?”

Why hasn’t her mother been brought on to the various morning shows and carefully manipulated into crying by Katie Couric and her peers? Why aren’t there news pieces with stand-ups from reporters using her house as their back drop, why aren’t there sound trucks parked up and down their street?

Could it be because the press corps is being respectful?

I generally keep up on the news, and I had no idea who Jill Caroll was or is. Granted, the past month has been crazy- the holidays, all the bowl games, the new semester starting, and a general lack of anything newsworthy, not to mention the Steelers and the Mountaineers, so I have been off my game and paying attention to other things. Some of you would be absolutely apalled how much of my thought processes are caught up in the Steelers this time of year. They are the first thing I think of in the morning, and the last thing I think about before bed.

I know, it is sick.

But really, if this was another American, I am willing to bet I would have known the name. As it is, my response was ‘Jill who?,’ so there may be something to what Cori is hinting at.

Reader Interactions

22Comments

  1. 1.

    Renleve

    I’ll be the first person to admit that I’m fallible, but it was my understanding that Jill Carroll is an American, and that the CSM requested that other news organizations keep the kidnapping under wraps while they tried to bargain for her release. I think you’re off on the wrong track in this case.

  2. 2.

    Pb

    That’s an interesting transcript, really, it raises some of the same questions.

    KURTZ: Well, clearly, it’s a very, very risky situation for any Western journalist. But now the question comes up, news organizations thought this was newsworthy, but they didn’t publish it for the initial two days, and would they have done the same for somebody who was a non-journalist?

    CHRISTENSON: That’s a good question. I had a contractor who sent me an e-mail demanding to know why there hadn’t been any stories coming out about this, and that was on Monday morning before I think word broke on this thing — on this thing that the “Christian Science Monitor” had done. And I think that the appearance is what is bad here.

    You’ve got people out there who already are suspicious of us. They’re inclined to think that American reporters over in Iraq are just reporting all the bad news. And now we’re taking care of our own, and it’s a different standard from what we do when, say, a guy from Georgia gets kidnapped and we suddenly park our live trucks out in front of their farm. And that is what my concern is.

    KURTZ: Do you agree with that, Jackie Spinner? Is there a different set of rules when a journalist is involved?

    SPINNER: No, I completely disagree with that. There are numerous cases of KBR contractors and other American contractors who have been kidnapped. We simply don’t know about it. We never find out about. We don’t report it.

    KURTZ: But there’s a difference between not knowing about something…

    SPINNER: That’s true.

    KURTZ: … that’s taking place and knowing full well and making a journalistic, editorial, or maybe a humanistic decision to withhold that news.

    SPINNER: That’s true.

    …and you wonder why we don’t trust you. Apparently you don’t report *all* the bad news either. And they’re worried about the ‘appearance’. Figures.

  3. 3.

    Zifnab

    For starters, Jill Carroll is no Nancy Halloway. Iraq isn’t nearly as exotic a locale as Aruba. She’s a reporter not a rich socialite. And Halloway was a 20-something blond bombshell while Carroll is clearly pushing fourty.

    I don’t even understand where people get off calling this a story anyway.

  4. 4.

    Pb

    Zifnab,

    If only more Iraqis were blonde. Maybe some organization like United for Peace & Justice could send bleach or hair dye over there or something, they need help…

  5. 5.

    srv

    Ah crap – why should journalists in a warzone not treat themselves any differently? Jeez, like their jobs aren’t hard enough. More journalists have been killed in Iraq than Vietnam. You can keep a contractor or troop kidnapping quiet b/c nobody would probably f’ing ever know. If a journalist disappears, people are probably going to notice within a few days.

    That tanker driver was captured by some obvious jihadis and DISPLAYED to some reporters on a road (wasn’t it Al-Jizz, anyway?). A little late to burry that story.

    These media folk going outside the green spin zone are on their own, why shouldn’t they depend on their employers and friends to figure out how best to get them back? Their chances are probably WAY, WAY better than turning to the Army or Iraqi gov’t.

    Fuck all these 101st keyboardist who’ve never spent a second outside the green zone. Jill Carroll has more balls than all of them put together.

  7. 7.

    srv

    Oh, and maybe my memory is faulty as I really paid zero attention to the Aruba frenzy, but weren’t Holloways parents all over the media trying to get attention to it? It wasn’t like the dragged her mom out of the house or anything.

  8. 8.

    Pb

    srv,

    Beats me, but once the media gets ahold of it, it doesn’t really matter, the feeding frenzy begins. Remember that bullshit “run away bride” story? Poor woman.

  9. 9.

    joshua

    What does this have to do with the NFL playoffs? Is this woman against the idea of full-time referees? Did Peyton Manning choke on her, too? What’s going on here?

  11. 11.

    Slide

    I’m just amazed at this statement:

    I generally keep up on the news, and I had no idea who Jill Caroll was or is. Granted, the past month has been crazy- the holidays, all the bowl games, the new semester starting, and a general lack of anything newsworthy,

    Huh? Nothing NEWSWORTHY this last month? lol Wow. The Abramhoff scandal breaking. Speaker of the house stepping down. Illegal wiretapping by the President. Iran removing its nuclear seals. The President calling the Iran crisis a “grave danger”. The Alito hearings. Iraq President saying that they are NOT going to change the Constitution despite what they promised before the elections. Paul Bremer’s book which shows that he too clamored for more troops to no avail. Bush’s new Medicare prescription plan inaugerated demontrating once again the complete incompetence of the administration.

    Yep, keep moving along, nothing to see here.

    You see any news that shows the Bush team to be the lying immoral criminal incompetents that they are is not NEWSWORTHY. Well, not as newsworth as a Cindy Sheehan comment or Ted Kennedy’s membership in a men’s only club. But I dont’ blame you John, if I were a Republican I would not want to watch the news these days either.

  12. 12.

    DecidedFenceSitter

    I new about the story; but then again I’m a NPR addict. They had an interview with one of her “bosses” (scare quotes due to the fact that she’s technically a free lancer) about what had happened. This was one-two weeks ago.

  13. 13.

    Bob In Pacifica

    Does this mean that after almost three years and two-hundred billion dollars and all those soldiers dying that Iraq still isn’t safe? Does this mean I’ve got to change where I take my vacation this year? I thought that after democracy came to Iraq everything would be peaceful.

  14. 14.

    StupidityRules

    The military takes care of its own. The police takes care of its own. The media takes care of its own. The [whatever] takes care of its own. Anyone actually suprised about this?

  15. 15.

    Nikki

    John’s quote makes it sound as if the media has to drag people, kicking and screaming, into the spotlight. Holloway’s mother and all the others who go in front of the camera always have the option of saying no.

  16. 16.

    Lines

    Am I the only one that thought Jill is actually pretty good looking? If not, then that kinda blows the hole in that part of the excuse.

  17. 17.

    The Other Steve

    Does this mean that after almost three years and two-hundred billion dollars and all those soldiers dying that Iraq still isn’t safe?

    SHUSH! Iraq was liberated and free! They just had elections, see. Completely safe. There’s no reason for our soldiers to still be there.

    Queue: Ozzy singing Momma I’m coming Home.

  19. 19.

    Hans Sprungfeld

    The Abramhoff scandal breaking. Speaker of the house stepping down. Illegal wiretapping by the President. Iran removing its nuclear seals…The Alito hearings.

    Joe’s still as smart as ever, I notice. Let’s see…old news, incorrect news, lying news…and the Alito snoozefest?

    Way to make John’s point for him.

  20. 20.

    slide

    Hans uttered:

    Joe’s still as smart as ever, I notice. Let’s see…old news, incorrect news, lying news…and the Alito snoozefest?

    ahhhh… so tell us oh brilliant one, which news are you referring to as “incorrect news” and which is “lying news” I’m most interested in learning from someone as wise as you.

  22. 22.

    The Other Steve

    slide – I think you were simply mistaken. The speaker isn’t stepping down, just the majority leader.

    This is why it’s important not to make mistakes. Notice how he tried to change the subject away from the real import of the news into a grammar argument, as if that’s important?

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