Freedom of (Some) Speech

It was recently announced that Kevin Sites, freelance war videographer, will be awarded a Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism. Editor & Publisher covered the award announcement by saying:

Kevin Sites, a freelance photojournalist for NBC, will be awarded the 2005 Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism on May 12 for his decision-making process after he witnessed and taped a U.S. Marine killing an unarmed Iraqi man in a mosque.

Sites decided to share the tape with the military, then he worked with NBC to create a "well-nuanced story that aired 48 hours after the incident," according to the Payne announcement. Since he was working as a pool photojournalist at the time, Sites shared the tape with the other news organizations in the pool.

When Sites was criticized after other outlets used the footage, he answered the critics and explained his decisions in detail on his Weblog, www.kevinsites.net.

In response, one of my favorite blogs weighed in by calling Sites a traitor, while another was surprisingly reserved, though his comments section made up for it. These blogs, of course, were hardly the only ones with this general viewpoint.

From both legal and ethical standpoints, calling Kevin Sites a traitor is ignorant. Not stupid, mind you, but ignorant of the law. It isn't a matter of "I think" or "in my opinion," they are quite simply, technically, wrong in calling Kevin Sites a traitor.

One cites Article III, Sec. 3 of the U.S. Constitution:

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." (his bold. --C.Y)

Kevin Sites shot a video of real events, unedited, and undoctored, and even ran it by the U.S. military before release. That is not treason. Furthermore, the assinine "logic" of some people that "well, he knew if could be twisted against us, so he's guilty" would not only stifle the First Amendment, but completely eviscerate it to a totalitarian extent. These people don't support the freedom of speech, just the freedom of some speech, that of which they personally approve.

I'll tell you what, my friends: go ahead and start a movement to prosecute Sites for your understanding of treason. You will of course also charge the journalists and producers, writers and editors who furthered this travesty by mentioning it in network broadcasts, cable news shows, and in national, regional, and local newspapers. I won't personally miss Olbermann, Dowd, or Krugman much, but I will miss Hannity, Krauthammer, and Will.

While you are at it, of course, you'll also have to charge the career Marine officers who released the tape for publication. I think that is a pretty short chain of command, just a few PR officers and maybe a general or two. Probably only a dozen or so all told. As active duty military, they will of course face the possibility of execution for their treason. Do they still use firing squads at Leavenworth, or does the military now allow lethal injections for enemies of democracy?

Nothing like the idea of putting a Few Good Men to death to underscore your shaky understanding of the Constitution, right guys?

Guys?

There are higher allegiences more important than the United States, and that if you honor these higher ideals, the best interests of the country are served as a natural consequence.

I'm sorry, but we disagree on this one.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:33 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Martinez-Shiavo Memo

I'm really glad I decided not to post on the so-called Shiavo memo. It was just gut instinct not to blog it, but it just didn't feel right. Michelle Malkin made a similar choice as well, not that it kept stupid liberals from sending her e-mail saying she was wrong for something she never wrote.

But the real blame goes to the MSM/DNC for blowing the reporting of this story in the first place (which they have yet to account for to the best of my knowledge), and to bloggers too willing to consider this on par with the forged TANG documents far too early without sufficient evidence.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Better Late than Never...

I know that I've established a tradition here at Confederate Yankee of posting at least once during the morning and then often making at least one more comment during the day. Well, since my employment status changed (I now have no employment, which is disconcerting to say the least), I've been busy looking for technical writing or web-related employment either in the New York metro area or in my home state of North Carolina, as well as trying to catch up on an ever-expanding "Honey do" list.

This has forced most of my blogging to afternoon hours, but I just wanted to let my readership know (especially as it is expanding) that I am far from backing down in my blogging, I'm just "differently focused" at the moment. I'll still be posting frequently, just later in the day.

More coverage of the Minutemen Project to come later in the day...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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MSM/DNC Bias

Cassandra has an awesome article up on MSM/DNC bias (Hat Tip: Instapundit) that anyone interested in the media or politics should read.

I've always thought about Democrats and the media being two separate entities, but in another post, Cassandra provides a definition of the MSM/DNC as "two arms of the same beast" that makes near-perfect sense to anyone who followed the apparent lockstep coordination between the media and the DNC in the 2004 election cycle.

I think you'll be seeing that new acronym (MSM/DNC) a lot from now on, and MSM/DNC is going to hate every mention for it's accuracy.

That's one buzzword that isn't going down the memory hole.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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