Time for a Blogger Ethics Panel

There are two questions raised by the kidnapping, and rescue of, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell in Afghanistan.

The first, and the one I don't know enough about to come to a decision is whether it was worth the lives lost to rescue him, particularly since it appears to have been a series of spectacularly ill-advised decisions by Mr. Farrell precipitated this.

However, I am disgusted at the people who say something to the effect of, "It's the New York Times, and they hurt the military, and so should be given no security consideration whatsoever."

Here's a thing, if you sound like Ann Coulter, it means that you are an asshole.

By the same token, if people routinely do amazingly stupid things, and expect to be rescued because they work for the New York Times, making it clear that neither the public purse, nor the blood of our military will be spent in such an endeavor makes sense.

The second question, is one that I do feel qualified to discuss, is whether news of kidnappings of journalists should be suppressed.

Bill Roggio reported the kidnapping on the Threat Matrix blog, and has been widely criticized by many in the media (here, and a few of the comments in response to his story) for reporting on this despite the request by the New York Times that he sit on the story.

I think that Mr. Roggio nailed the issue in a response in the comments on this post:

I speak as someone who has reported from both Iraq and Afghanistan since 2005. To me, this is simple. Either a kidnapping is news, or it isn't. When soldiers, contractors, etc. are kidnapped, it is news. When a reporter is kidnapped, it is also news.

(emphasis mine)

Bill Ardolino, also of Threat Matrix, adds a useful data point:

A partial list of reports by the The New York Times on kidnappings:

November 15, 2002: NYT: Red Cross workers kidnapped in Chechnya

September 17, 2004, NYT: Insurgents kidnap American and British civilians in Iraq

January 18, 2005: NYT: Catholic Archbishop of Mosul kidnapped in Iraq

May 17, 2005: NYT: CARE worker kidnapped in Kabul

December 29, 2005: NYT: German Family Kidnapped by Yemeni Tribe

January 27, 2008: NYT: NGO worker kidnapped in Afghanistan

August 29, 2009, Reuters in the NYT: Foreign Aid Workers kidnapped in Darfur

20 hours ago: NYT: Greek national kidnapped in Pakistan

It is clear that the demands for news suppression are self serving and dishonest.