I've been thinking about the inevitability of the spread of information today. I think that this is an important concept to discuss here because the overload of information in the world is facilitated through the same mechanisms that make the dissemination of information nearly impossible to stem.
"Should the news report on information that's harmful to the troops?"
No that's stupid, the american public don't need to know troop movements and troop strength it doesn't tell you anything useful but it might tell the enemy something useful.
"Okay well what about taking pictures of injured or deceased soldiers?"
It's a completely different situation go for it. It might cause mental distress but it's not going to kill anyone else.
These are not difficult questions to me.
I think the difficult question is: "Even if news should be censored in some cases, is it possible?"
News travels almost instantaneously. its almost like we don't have any control over most of it, except by sheer overload...
A friend was telling me that her friend found out her husband had been shot (one of the lakewood officers) on facebook.
How ridiculous is it that someone can learn of the death of a loved one over a social networking site before they are notified.
I heard about the earthquake in Haiti because i logged onto facebook and some girl had set her status to: "My heart goes out to the earthquake victims"
In the military world, many service-members use facebook and twitter to stay in touch with family back home while deployed overseas. A stray status update without regards to operational security could be just as damaging as Geraldo Rivera drawing troop movements in the sand.
Fox News apparently has their lawyers pulling any videos of the original broadcast that are posted but here's a spoof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6qWPJ2OCAc&feature=related
Additionally Fox news uses twitter to do their reporting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY0Vf6FL_wk
it's an interesting evolution, for lack of a better word.
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