The Messenger

Matt Welch | November 18, 2004

The cameraman who shot the controversial video of a U.S. Marine killing a wounded Iraqi in Fallujah is keeping mum about the incident pending the various investigations, according to this New York Times article. Freelancer Kevin Sites, who also maintaines a popular website chronicling his Iraqi reportage, also shut down his blog's comments after various video-related death threats.

For what it's worth, people like Sites were specifically singled out as a difficult challenge to America's strategic global communications, in the recent report by the Dept. of Defense-advising Defense Science Board.

The significance of a common news language of bit and byte simply cannot be overstated. A truly global network is reshaping politics, diplomacy, warfare -- all social interaction. Just one example: the ability of a blogger in a conflict zone to capture a digital image of an atrocity, upload it, paste it on a webpage, and have it available to millions in minutes is a startling development.

Link via Romenesko.