A Battlefield Tourist

Random Thoughts: David Rohde Escapes!

Jun 20 at 11:11pm by David Tate

I originally reported on this back in February and took a lot of flak in doing so for obvious reasons.

However, I still stand by my decision because it is just dangerous ground when journalists get into self serving censorship. I say self-serving, because just a month prior to Mr. Rohde going missing, the NYT wrote this article:  Times’ Article

This man is still missing, btw.

The fact is, the NYT has published MANY articles that have put people’s lives at risk, either directly or indirectly (the above link would be an example, if you use the NYT’ logic).

Don’t get me wrong: I do not disagree with the NYT publishing sensitive stories, I just think their integrity slips and ethics are pushed when they bend the rules for one of their own.

That said, I am elated that Mr. Rohde is free and escaped getting there.  My main concern was the millions of dollars that one day may be needed buying his freedom; money for IEDs, enevitably used in the killing of countless coalition soldiers and Afghan civilians and police.

I’m sure David has thought of that as well and he should get to sleep better at night because of it. Now let’s hope the remaining captive, Assadullah Mangal, is not harmed. Not sure that’s plausible.

DT

Edited for clarity 6/22 1802 -

I have also retracted this statement, “Particularly when they were outting agents and leaking other state secrets.”  While I believe the NYT has written MANY stories, good or bad, that have led to harm befalling others, intentional or not, I would not call the NYT treasonous; therefore “state secrets” needs to go.  I also made a flat out error linking Valarie Plame (Novak/WSJ) to the Times.  Sorry.

I stand by the rest.  Good journalism leads to great stories and often times a consequence of such journalism are peoples’ lives.   My only point in making this statement in the first place is to show that a story is a story; they all affect lives and they should all be treated the same.  A military operation was launched in November to find Rohde and that’s a story.  Rohde was one on a long list of abducted foreigners in 2008 and that’s a story; the others we heard about.  Why is that?

A Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, normally employed by the New York Times is missing in Afghanistan while trying to interview the Taliban.  That is a story no matter how you slice it.  I’ll be reading the book.

Originally posted on Gawker