Learning the hard way
Kevin Sites’ blog has been reactivated briefly to provide an audio file of Kevin talking to Wolf Blitzer about the capture of him and his CNN crew by Iraqi forces still loyal to Saddam Hussein. I looked on the CNN site and didn’t see anything about this. He had a terrifying experience, almost being executed at more than one point. His translator basically saved him and the rest of the crew.
In the interview, Sites said he and his crew were "heading toward Tikrit to see what things were like there." Well, unexpectedly, they’re still dangerous and in a state of war. Sites was very lucky to escape with his life. He did a foolish thing by heading in that direction without military escort. The front lines are inherently the most dangerous place in a war zone, and in a situation where the lines are fluid and unpredictable, it was crazy to probe them in this way. Far too many journalists have died already in this conflict. Sites took an unnecessary risk with his life and those of his crew. There is no story worth dying for. Fortunately, he didn’t quite have to find that out the hard way. (Original heads-up via Scripting News.)
Posted at 5:24 PM