Very interesting. Very telling.
Posted on 11/17/2004 12:37:22 PM PST by freakboy
Kevin Sites, NBC Reporter Who Photographed Marine Shooting, An Active War Correspondent
POSTED: 10:39 am EST November 17, 2004
NEW YORK -- Video of a U.S. Marine shooting a wounded man in Fallujah was captured by an Internet Age journalist who often reports and photographs war stories, then posts his impressions on his own weblog.
Kevin Sites, a freelancer who works part time for NBC News, was being kept under wraps by the network Tuesday as the investigation into the shooting continued.
The youthful, long-haired Sites has worked for NBC, CNN and ABC News and has covered war zones in Afghanistan and Colombia. He had extensive experience in Iraq, where he was embedded with a Marines unit during the operation in Fallujah.
"He is a skilled reporter, a skilled videojournalist who is willing to go and chronicle the news in the difficult places, under difficult conditions," said Bill Wheatley, NBC News vice president.
Sites handled the incident "completely professionally," Wheatley said, recognizing the importance of the story and reporting its aftermath.
While working for CNN a year ago, Sites and a crew were held captive for several hours by Iraqi Fedayeen who accused them of being spies. His hands were bound behind his back and an AK-47 round fired at his feet.
Sites left CNN, he later said, partly because the company would not let him maintain a weblog on his war reporting. CNN declined to comment on Sites Tuesday.
There are no such problems at NBC News: Anchorman Brian Williams even promoted the name of his site at the end of Sites' "Nightly News" report Monday.
His site, www.kevinsites.net, contains his diary of the action in Fallujah. It describes traveling with the Marines and encountering bodies of dead Iraqis along the way: "This one is dressed in clean white sneakers and athletic pants. He is on his back -- his arms behind his head, his face seems nearly peaceful, content."
He also posts pictures of the Marines on patrol and, in off hours, displaying pictures of their families and their tattoos.
Nothing was posted on the weekend incident in a Fallujah mosque, however.
Sites has described his blog as a way for readers to understand more of the experience of being in a war zone.
"Readers want to share your adventure," he told Broadcasting & Cable magazine last summer. "What you see in the paper or on TV tends to be the cleaned-up version. I didn't tell you I had to sleep in the dirt to tell a story for TV."
Sites works only part time for NBC News because he's a filmmaker with his own production company, Shoot First Films. He lives in Pismo Beach, Calif., and taught journalism at California Polytechnic State in San Luis Obispo in 2000-2001.
"He has skills in a number of areas, so he's the classic multitasking journalist," Wheatley said. "He can shoot (a camera), he can report, he can build a Web site, he edits."
Maybe you shouldn't be here. And you probably want be for long.
FR sign up date 11/17/04.
Sites and Michael Ware of Time Mag are a little to cozy with the enemy to me.
>>>Reporters are the only way we, the citizens are ever going to know what's going on over there. <<<
not really.. the military has it's own reporters. i trust them much more then the old media who are self serving liers and forgers.
>>>What do you suggest, sanitizing the war so we think we're still being plummeted with the flowers and thanks, which never came. <<<
it did come. and still is. obviously you only listen to the old media which would explain your ignorance on his. i have a Marine who e-mails me every day from Iraq... who do you think we should believe? him or Dan Rather?
>>Grow Up! If you can't own up to the reality of the war, you have no business going there. Look at it that way.<<
you grow up. the media helped to destroy the honor of a whole generation of American soldiers once before, what makes you think they aren't going to give it another shot? the "reality of war" is much more then this little piece of Sites' and the panties on the heads that the media has shown over and over of this war. much more.. why don't they show booby trapped corpses blowing up in Marines faces? and why don't they show the terrorists beheading people? they pick and choose just as they did during Nam - to give their slant and spin. you are truly ignorant. i pity you.
While I don't believe that reporters should be embedded with front line troops, and I believe the shooting of the terrorist, by the Marine, to be justified, I nevertheless believe that Kevin Sites did the right thing here, both with his filming and especially with the fair and balanced verbal commentary he added to the video. As the designated press pool representative, he had no choice but to release the video as he did.
--Boot Hill
Someone once said, when the discourse degenerates to insult the content is spent and the discussion is over.The brilliance of your retorts suggest that you should consider silence lest people think "you" are of "little mind".
If he truly desired to do the right thing he would have reported it to military authorities. He perhaps would also raised his own voice during the event and said something...if his purpose was to stop such an event. He remains remarkably silent,yet very much well position for filming.
Why? That's not his job. His job is to record and report on the war. He did his job. Moreover, by simply reporting it as he did, he in effect, "reported it to military authorities".
• "He perhaps would also raised his own voice during the event and said something...if his purpose was to stop such an event. He remains remarkably silent..."
If I was the Marine in question and the reporter interfered with an on-going operation in a hot zone, as you suggest, I would seriously considered, (a.)shooting him, (b.)arresting him or (c.)ejecting him from the area. The reporter's job is to report the news, not create the news.
While Sites didn't interfere with the ongoing operation, verbally or otherwise, he did add significant commentary to the video that explained the Marine's actions well enough that you would have thought that Sites was a defense attorney, not a reporter.
--Boot Hill
So it's not okay to shoot the reporter if he says something to the marine, but you're all in a tizzy over people wanting to have this craporter pay a price for gaining his 15 minutes of fame on the back of the hardworking Marines. HAHAHA!
"While working for CNN a year ago, Sites and a crew were held captive for several hours by Iraqi Fedayeen who accused them of being spies. His hands were bound behind his back and an AK-47 round fired at his feet."
This incident with the Fedayeen sounds very suspicous to me.
Why didn't they behead him? Was he dazzled by them and their commitment to jihad? Does he know how to reach them? What de he say to get them to release him? Was "I'm on your side, Abu" one of the things he said?
This guy Sites needs to be removed from Iraq-- one way or another-- he is a meanace.
Where did I say that?
• "you're all in a tizzy over people wanting to have this craporter pay a price"
Get a grip on yourself...
--Boot Hill
Amen.
And why hasn't Kerry, who we hear wants to run again in 2008, come out and defended this marine. If I were advising him, I would tell him to.
Sory my mistake, you did indeed say that the marine should have shot him if he had opened his mouth.
Also contrary to you, I have a very good grip on reality, which prevents me from believing the good faith behavior of a reporter who stands to benefit tremendously from putting forth this video,especially since same reporter has a sketchy past,being one of the very very very few american hostages in Iraq that has survived to return. But hey, some people are more gullible then others. You know what there are people out there that still believe that John Kerry is a war hero.HAHAHAHA!
All that may very well be true, but it does run counter to the very fair and balanced commentary Sites added to the video explaining the mitigating circumstances surrounding the shooting. As I've already stated, "Kevin Sites did the right thing" in this particular case. If he had done anything less, he wouldn't deserve to be a reporter.
Save your venom for the leftists who are spinning the shooting into a crime against humanity or a violation of the Geneva Conventions, neither of which fairly characterize this event. That's not Kevin Site's fault.
--Boot Hill
You don't know what your talking about. Sites is a known anti war protester and has posted pages of his pictures with commentary on anti war web sites. Get a clue. If you don't believe me check recent thread , last 5 minutes.
This is at least the second time you run off half-cocked with accusations about what I've posted, that are not supported by anything I've written. Take a few deep breaths and calm down.
In terms of the present case, I don't care about Kevin Sites' past, he is not the enemy in this event. He did his job as a reporter quite well, especially when he pre-emptively deflected anti-American criticisms with his on-video explanation of the exigent and mitigating circumstances of the shooting.
--Boot Hill
I think Kevin Sites may no longer qualify as an embedded reporter. If he stays on with the troops he may find something embedded in his...
Giving aid and comfort to the enemy is considered treason.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1282484/posts
NBC cameraman an anti-war activist
WorldNetDaily ^ | 11-18-04 | WND
Posted on 11/17/2004 5:23:45 PM PST by ChristianDefender
Kevin Sites, the NBC cameraman who shot video of the controversial shooting of a Fallujah insurgent by a U.S. Marine, is an anti-war activist whose photographs of Iraqi prisoners are featured on at least one anti-war website.
Sites was embedded with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment in Fallujah when he shot the video of the Marine shooting an injured enemy fighter in a mosque. From the dialogue on the footage, it appeared the Marines were unsure if the insurgent was dead or faking death. Some fighters in Iraq have feigned death only to pull out a weapon or blow themselves up to kill Americans.
The U.S. military is investigating the incident to determine what happened and what, if any, punitive action should be taken against the Marine.
Sites was serving as a pool cameraman, giving access to the video to many networks.
Images Against War is one website where Sites' photography appears, giving two separate pages to his work. One of the pages, labeled "Kevin Sites 2," features photos of captured Iraqis with one caption saying detainees on a truck were enduring "a long ride into uncertainty." Most of the photos featured on the site engender sympathy toward U.S. enemy fighters and antipathy toward American military personnel.
Images Against War, which is based in Germany, has a comments page where posters have lashed out at Sites.
"The kindest things I can say about you is that you are a traitor and a terrorist sympathizer," writes one poster. "I would say I feel pity for you, but that would be a lie. All I feel for you is disgust. … Shame on you. I look forward to the day that the betrayal of this Marine haunts your every moment."
Dennis Karr posted: "Kevin Sites has to be the lowest of the low, a traitor for sure, only breathing right now because of our brave soldiers whom he surely hates."
Wrote yet another: "Good luck riding along with our troops now ... you're going to need it."
Sites also has his own blog. Here is part of his entry for Nov. 10, when he was accompanying Marines on their assault on Fallujah:
" The Marines I'm embedded with are nearly ebullient. This looks to be a cakewalk. One jokes they'll be sipping 'pina coladas by the Euphrates River by fifteen-hundred.'"
In his account, Sites describes dead Iraqis in detail and says the Marines are "operating with liberal rules of engagement."
His site includes a disclaimer explaining he is a freelance journalist on assignment for NBC, "but this site is a personal website not affiliated with or funded by NBC News."
Sites' bio says he was captured by Iraqi Fedayeen militia outside Tikrit while traveling with Kurdish fighters and spent four hours in captivity before being released.
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