Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Media Cluelessness: Everyone Blows a Fact
CBS News blows a key fact in this article on AWOL guardsman Camilo Mejia.
From the article:
Mejia could face up to one year in prison for being absent without leave and up to five years if convicted of desertion, according to Tod Ensign, director of Citizen Soldier, a New York-based group that provides counsel to military resisters and is organizing Mejia's defense.
But why rely on a biased attorney for information about the possible charges when just two minutes of checking might have led the CBS staffer to refer to the actual Manual of Courts Martial itself.
Scroll down to page 287, and you will find that under Article 85, (a)(3)(c) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and you find the following passage:
Any person found guilty of desertion or the attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or by such other punishment as the court martial may direct.
Well, if I were the CBS reporter, I'd be mighty embarrassed that I didn't catch that.
But truth be told, most reporters wouldn't even know where to look.
I'm no lawyer, but thanks to a class I took in ROTC way back when, and a couple of years as a detachment or company commander, I happened to know enough about military law to type "Manual of Courts Martial" into a search engine and look it up myself.
That's no big shakes, though. Any former commissioned officer, and most former NCOs, would know to do the same thing.
CBS, how many veterans do you have working in your newsroom?
Washington Post? You blew it, too.
What'sa matter, WaPo? There's no veterans around Northern Virginia you could hire to check things out for you?
Associated Press? Do you just take everything a guy's lawyer tells you at face value, too?
Chicago Tribune? You made the same error, but relied on a Guard spokesperson.
Ok, at least I know you aren't just blithely copying someone else's poor reporting, like the UK Guardian did. (The BBC, on the other hand, did mention the death penalty.)
Sure, it's not a huge deal. You can quibble about whether the USMJ death penalty stipulation requires a formal congressional declaration of war.
It's also unlikely that the Army will seek the death penalty, even if they do pursue the desertion charge.
It's just one more instance of the mainstream media's pervasive cluelessness about military affairs, and how it hurts coverage.
Splash, out
Jason
From the article:
Mejia could face up to one year in prison for being absent without leave and up to five years if convicted of desertion, according to Tod Ensign, director of Citizen Soldier, a New York-based group that provides counsel to military resisters and is organizing Mejia's defense.
But why rely on a biased attorney for information about the possible charges when just two minutes of checking might have led the CBS staffer to refer to the actual Manual of Courts Martial itself.
Scroll down to page 287, and you will find that under Article 85, (a)(3)(c) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and you find the following passage:
Any person found guilty of desertion or the attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or by such other punishment as the court martial may direct.
Well, if I were the CBS reporter, I'd be mighty embarrassed that I didn't catch that.
But truth be told, most reporters wouldn't even know where to look.
I'm no lawyer, but thanks to a class I took in ROTC way back when, and a couple of years as a detachment or company commander, I happened to know enough about military law to type "Manual of Courts Martial" into a search engine and look it up myself.
That's no big shakes, though. Any former commissioned officer, and most former NCOs, would know to do the same thing.
CBS, how many veterans do you have working in your newsroom?
Washington Post? You blew it, too.
What'sa matter, WaPo? There's no veterans around Northern Virginia you could hire to check things out for you?
Associated Press? Do you just take everything a guy's lawyer tells you at face value, too?
Chicago Tribune? You made the same error, but relied on a Guard spokesperson.
Ok, at least I know you aren't just blithely copying someone else's poor reporting, like the UK Guardian did. (The BBC, on the other hand, did mention the death penalty.)
Sure, it's not a huge deal. You can quibble about whether the USMJ death penalty stipulation requires a formal congressional declaration of war.
It's also unlikely that the Army will seek the death penalty, even if they do pursue the desertion charge.
It's just one more instance of the mainstream media's pervasive cluelessness about military affairs, and how it hurts coverage.
Splash, out
Jason
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