|
Peter Arnett: Gone
By Tim Siggia
April 01, 2003
Call him gone. Peter Arnett, self-described American for 25 years and one of the most anti-American voices in the history of American journalism, is history. This time he went too far, even for the liberal NBC News.
In a statement over the state-run Iraqi television this past weekend, Arnett opined that the American coalition war plan against Iraq had failed due to the Bush Administration's underestimation of Iraqi resistance, and was now scrambling to assemble a new plan of aggression. It was a statement that went above and beyond the sort of biased and opinionated reporting we have come to expect from the major networks. It was outright false.
This is not the first time Arnett has tried to manipulate the news. It happened back in 1988, when, as a reporter for CNN, he falsely reported that in 1970 the United States had used sarin nerve gas on a Laotian village to kill U.S. defectors. When that report was found to be baseless, it was too much even for Ted Turner. He was forced to let Arnett go.
After firing Arnett, NBC briefly put him back on the air to apologize. His apology came across as insincere and largely self-serving. "I'm sorry!" the New Zealand-born Arnett snapped at one point. "I have been an American for 25 years! I'm sorry!" He went on to boast later that he had been allowed to stay in Iraq after other American reporters had left because the Iraqis respected him as a warrior.
Across the country, Americans are reacting with understandable outrage. To make a statement like the one made by Peter Arnett while America is at war borders on treason. But in another sense, they ought to be rejoicing, for, once again, one of the most steadfast enemies of American policy has talked himself out of a job. The ACLU and their allies will leap to Arnett's defense, of course, screaming about First Amendment rights. And, to be sure, Mr. Arnett, like any other American, has the right to voice his opinions. But there are two important differences here: First, he does not have the right to opine in the enemy's favor during wartime, on enemy soil over the enemy's media. Second, he does not have the right to lie.
Whether or not Arnett may be hired by another network is immaterial at this point. His career is over here in the United States. He has lost all credibility with the American people. Credibility is the life-blood of journalism, and any journalist who loses it is no longer a journalist.
|
