Haditha: Who, What, When, Where, Why

Who. What. When. Where. Why. These are the fundamental questions of good reporting. Apply them to what is being presented by the major media about Haditha, and see how very thin factually is the reporting. Speculation, instead, leads, with comments by those with no special information, surrounding small snippets of leaks from those on the periphery of actual involvement or investigation, any cautions quickly passed over or relegated to the end of the “story.”

Regardless of where the truth ultimately is, at this point the major media’s treatment of Haditha is little more than a literate lynch mob in a rush to judgment.

This isn’t an attempt to wiggle out of responsibility for anything that happened at Haditha by bashing the media. But, to be shocked there's gambling at Rick's, or that some innocents die in any war, especially when harboring and abetting the enemy, is ignorant and purposeful hypocrisy.

Among the only hard facts known is that the military took this incident seriously from the start by launching an investigation so thorough that even the hostile Iraqis in that village have given it respect. That’s more than media commentators give to our nation, its military, or the handful of Marines actually involved by trotting out inapplicable and inappropriate comparisons to My Lai, an exception itself, in order to bemoan and undermine our entire mission in Iraq. They can say all they want that they are trying to uncover facts, and they are, but the prominence and surrounding fluff is simply irresponsible.

The results of one investigation are due later this week. Then, more facts will be known. And, even then, there’s another investigation still underway. Then, these must be analyzed for understanding, and possible further follow-up.

Until then, at the very least, smothering the front pages, the nightly broadcasts, the columns with speculation tells us more about most of the major media’s professionalism and agenda than it does about the few Marines involved, or the military which is taking its professional responsibilities seriously.