Thursday, December 15, 2005

Clueless Idiots Get Their Press Credentials Pulled

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
NORFOLK -- The military this week pulled the press credentials of an embedded reporter and photographer for the Norfolk-based Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Kuwait, saying they had violated ground rules by photographing battle-damaged military vehicles.
Stupid, but their editor is an even bigger imbecile:
But after the paper published the story and photos on Saturday, the Kuwait-based Coalition Forces Land Component Command, Forward, pulled their press passes, noting that one of its ground rules prohibits video or photos of battle-damaged vehicles.

[Editor Denis] Finley said the incident happened on the final day of the men's two-week trip to the Middle East, "so we were done anyway." He said he was waiting to hear the full story from the two, who were in transit back to the U.S., before deciding how vigorously to protest.
I'm sure all the anti-war folks are convinced that the Bushitlerburton military doesn't want photos of damaged military vehicles circulating for propaganda purposes.

The fact is that battle damage photos can give enemy combatants important clues about any vulnerabilities the vehicles may have. Vulnerabilities that can then be exploited to kill more American soldiers. And the fact that editor Finley (who is so stupid he doesn't even know how to spell "Dennis") is going to "protest" being gigged for endangering troops, simply shows why such a pair of monumentally stupid morons were sent by his paper in the first place.