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| Fifth Column |
| A CBS newsman worthy of respect |
| 2006-02-22 |
| CBS CORRESPONDENT KILLED STORY AT PENTAGON'S REQUEST CBS Pentagon correspondent David Martin acknowledged Monday that he killed a report about how the U.S. was dealing with Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq after a senior military officer complained that it contained information useful to the enemy. Martin, writing on the CBS blog Public Eye, said that the report had been scheduled to air as the lead story on the CBS Evening News on Thursday and that he pulled it just one hour before airtime. "Not a good career move," he wrote. Martin further acknowledged that he had set aside other stories at the request of the Pentagon "a number of times over the years, and each time it's turned out that going with the story wouldn't have caused any harm." In the latest case, he said, he concluded that his report "might conceivably be news the enemy could use to make their IEDs more effective. It wasn't clear cut, but it was close enough." |
| Posted by:Glenmore |
| #5 I salute David Martin. Now if we could just assign him to 'the hill' as an intelligence and security "need to know" mentor/instructor. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-02-22 18:14 |
| #4 Still, I believe others might have run the story, since "the public has a right to know". At least he can see if he can sell more papers with another spin. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-02-22 17:59 |
| #3 The sad thing is this guy needs a senior military officer to tell him that printing how they diffuse IEDs might be helpful to Jihadis. No credit, he was an idiot to begin with for running with this story. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-02-22 16:22 |
| #2 Credit where due. Blame where due. Let's keep it clean - a level field and no nuanced BS for anyone. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-02-22 16:04 |
| #1 Okay, I gave him the 30 secs of respect he deserves. The comment that no releasing classified information was "not a good career move" is interesting. Tells you what scum the MSM really is. It also strikes me as a bit self-serving to be touting himself as someone who didn't get many brave volunteer soldiers killed because he decided it was "close enough." |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-02-22 14:10 |