This is from Editor and publisher. The full quote of her proof:
When asked if she believed U.S. troops had targeted journalists in Iraq, she said, "I was careful of not saying troops, I said U.S. military. Could I have said it differently? There are 100 different ways of saying this, but I'm not sure they would have appeased the right."
She did point out that those who bombed the Al Jazeera studios in Baghdad in 2003 had the coordinates of the television station, "because Al Jazeera had given it to them and they bombed the hell out of the station. They bombed it knowing it was the Al Jazeera station. Absent any independent inquiry that tells the world otherwise, that is what I believe."
Her comments at the conference followed the letter she sent last month to President Bush criticizing the U.S. investigation into the deaths of journalists in Iraq, including several during an attack on the Palestine Hotel in 2003.
In that attack, two journalists -- one from Spain and the other from Ukraine -- were killed. She also noted the bombing of the Al Jazeera office the same day, in which a reporter died. "Neither of these attacks has been independently investigated nor have the deaths been properly explained to the satisfaction of the victims' families, their friends and their colleagues," the letter said, in part.
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000928927
Foley told E&P Thursday that her words were taken out of context by critics and said her original intent was to discuss how journalists are often scapegoated for their coverage. "This was almost an aside," she said. "But it is true that hundreds of journalists are killed around the world, and many have been killed in Iraq."
The Dusty Attic
http://thedustyattic.blogspot.com/2005/05/more-of-linda-foleys-talk.html
Thursday, May 19, 2005
More of Linda Foley's Talk
I kind of figured their might be some "taken out of context" defense on the part of Lind Foley, so I took the time to transcribe a little more of what she said in the session. It doesn't include the first ten minutes of what she talked about but it does include a heck of alot more what she said before and after what was on the Mark Hyman vid clip.
It might not be perfect, some missed ah's and um's and contraction mods, but it is darn close. I don't think I missed a word:
[Ending of Linda Foley's original talk] And then finally I think that we all need, ah, as Gene said, um, to make restoration of credibility a top priority, uh or push just as much as we can to make the restoration of credibility and trust from the public in media and journalism a top priority, from the newsroom to the boardroom. It's not enough to just foist a code of ethics on the newsroom. You also have to be responsible all the way up that food chain or the public won't have any trust in what you do.
The other thing, ah, I would just like to mention, the other trend that I think needs to be reversed, ah, that isn't talked about very much, is the targeting of journalists.
Journalists have become, and this is a problem of the Republicans, Frank, (halting laugh) journalists have become a target particularly from the right side of the political spectrum, ah, journalists are blamed, ah, for many ills, that they just report on. Ah, and I think what we have we have to be careful of in the media reform movement, is that we don't fall into that trap.
What is happening in the media is not the fault of individual journalists. Yes, there are some bad individual journalists in the mainstream media. There are also some very good individual journalists in the mainstream media, and it's probably, on balance just like any other profession.
But what's wrong is that there is a systematic corporate, ah, corporate, ahm, dissolution of what we know is credible reporting and journalism. And that what's really wrong and that's what we need to focus on, and that's what we have to fight.
Journalists, by the way, are just being targeted, ah, verbally or, ah, or, ah, politically. They're also being targeted for real. Um…in places like Iraq. Ahn and, ah, what outrages me as a representative of journalists is that there's not more outrage about the number, and the brutality, and the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq. I think it's just a scandal.
And it's not just US journalists, either, by the way. They target and kill, ah, journalists from other countries, particularly Arab countries like Al -, like Arab news services like Al-Jazeera, for example. They actually target them and blow up their studios, ah, with impunity … and, ah, this is all part of a culture that it's okay to blame the individual journalists and it just takes the heat off these media, ah, conglomerates who are actually at the heart of the problem.
So, um, so, I would, I'm working with you, my members want to work with you, to try and change this. We do have to have other alternatives to corporate media out there, so that people... real people's voices can be heard, but you also have to help us change from within. And so as you go forward on this struggle, keep in mind that the other part of the First Amendment, besides the free speech and the free press part, also talks about the freedom of association. And I'm telling you right now, not just in media, ah, but, um, but media companies are kind of leading the way in this area, but all across America, the ability of workers in media and elsewhere to form free trade unions, is imperiled as it's never been imperiled before.
And I'll just leave you with this, there never has been a democracy, in this world, that has not had both a free press and a free trade union movement. We need to work on both if we are going to change the media in this country, because the people from within have to push while you're pulling from the outside to change things.
Thanks.
Now you have a better chance to decide if is she is being taken out of context, is fairly clear in what she meant, is rambling incoherently, none of the above, or all of the above.
Update: Trey at Jackson's Junction has put up an extended video of almost all of the extended remarks I transcibed here (I never know when to stop once I start copying.)
Update II: I go away for a day and come back to see I've had a stream of visitors and still more coming. Welcome JJ readers and farewell to those that already passed through. My original post on Linda Foley is here, as well as one on her and her like minded journalists, here, in case you hadn't noticed. Feel free to browse around and stop back once in a while.
And thanks again, Trey.
Update III: Myopic Zeal posts a very nice collection of links -- I hadn't heard about O'Reilly's show yet. And thanks to Eric at MZ for the link.
Oh, one point. MZ posts that Ms. Foley's is noteworthy because she is President of both the Newspaper Guild and CWA. I'd like people to be aware that Ms. Foley is also a VP of the International Federation of Journalists and Secretary-Treasurer of the Department of Professional Employees at the AFL-CIO.
Click on link for more.