I've Got a Typewriter, Not a Gun!

     One of the wonders that we here at Bloody Nib Manor have noticed over the years is the idea that "journalists" some how think that they are exempt from the stories that they cover. It is almost as if because they call themselves "journalist" that they can escape from bad things. They have, after all, a higher calling, than the rest of us. If you do not believe this writer, just ask a "journalist" who is covering a riot and ask him or her if he or she expects to possibly be beaned with a brick on the noggin while covering the story. Of course, the person will say, "I'm pretty special because because I'm wearing a Day-Glo vest that has Press written on the front and back, so that gives me protection." Then the guy get popped with on the skull with a 32 oz. can of Schlitz and he cries about the squelching of the press and free expression and how the "oppressive cops" should have protected him from his own stupidity. After all, everyone loves a "journalist", don't they?
     It would all be a bad joke if the "journalist" crowd didn't take this all so sincerely. They actually believe that if they wear a vest with the word Press printed on it will save them from bad things. They are, after all, a special class of human. They studied journalism in the local junior college. They have a microphone and/or a laptop top file their stories. They are super special and no one should point a brick or a gun their way. In other words, they are silly people with the mentality of three year olds.
      They forget that many great newspaper men (in to man man these all were men) lost their lives in wars that they reported upon. The most famous example was Ernie Pyle who was shot by a Jap sniper during WWII. He didn't expect his Corona Three and his war correspondents' badge to protect him. He took the risk of reporting from the front lines. But then, Pyle was a "reporter" and not a "journalist".  And he knew who he supported instead of giving equal weight to the evil and the good.
     The modern war journalist see himself in a special class who supports no one but "the truth" in a situation where there really is no truth. The truth comes out fifty years after the initial report. But our modern journalist see a US soldier kick a dead Afghani who minutes before tried to kill said soldier the said soldier is a war criminal because he kicked a dead man. And then, minutes later, said journalist will be pitching a bitch because the Taliban is shooting at HIM despite the fact that he is a "journalist" and has the trick vest to prove it, and is only interested in the Truth.
     Listen, feller or lady, if you're going to go into a war zone it really doesn't much matter that you a "journalist." You're bullet bait.