There's a death in the family

Like soldiers, journalists know they risk their lives when they venture into war zones.

But sometimes it does -- and it happened to Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang and four soldiers who were killed by a massive roadside bomb in Afghanistan, as the old year was dying and a new year about to begin.

I did not know Michelle Lang -- but in a way, all of us in the news business knew her.

We feel we have lost one of our own, just as soldiers feel they've lost a comrade when someone they didn't know from another regiment is killed in action.

Michelle is the first Canadian reporter killed in Afghanistan, though several have been wounded, injured or kidnapped "in the line of duty."

While her death brings the war closer to all of us who work in the media, it shouldn't -- and will not -- deter other journalists who cover wars, revolutions, uprisings, that plague the world.

Just as there is no shortage of young men and women who volunteer to serve their country in uniform in danger zones, so is there no shortage of journalists eager to witness violent history in the making for their newspapers of media outlets.

To some, it is both a privilege and an adventure to be able to witness and write about or record the violence human beings inflict on one another.

It seems obvious that Michelle Lang relished her assignment in Afghanistan and, again like the soldiers she wrote about and in whose company she was comfortable, wanted to be in no other place.

She was a "professional," and while that may be small solace to her family and friends, it is meant as an accolade and highly deserved.

All crises pose potential dangers to journalists -- all of which tend to be downplayed or dismissed by journalists on the ground.

But Afghanistan -- and especially Kandahar -- is different from most dangerous assignments, both for soldiers and journalists.

Increasingly, there is no safety or security outside the confines of the camp -- and even there, security is no guarantee.

A suicide bomber managed to infiltrate an American camp and blow himself up, killing eight Americans.

It plays havoc on the nerves to know that every time you venture outside the confines of the wire, there is no protection from a roadside bomb.

Every time you go out and nothing happens, you worry about the next time and when the law of averages will catch up with you.

Every soldier feels this, as does every journalist who is committed to the craft and forsakes the safety of a protected camp to go out with the troops.

Michelle Lang may have been new to the business of writing about soldiers and war, but from all accounts she was a trooper and determined to fit in -- which not all journalists do.

Soldiers are pretty shrewd at sizing people up, and they apparently regarded Michelle as one of the good ones.

There've now been 138 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002. And one diplomat, and now a journalist.

On the scale of past wars, the casualties in Afghanistan are modest -- yet every death is a tragedy.

Canada's journalistic family has reason to mourn today -- and to carry on, as our soldiers do.

Do you remember the "Bush lied, people died" led by the MSM?

And the callous indifference towards the deaths of our troops -- the body counts, the push to show the bodies and coffins being returned?

Those were recycled leftist tactics used to demoralize the U.S. and secure its defeat during Viet Nam. You know, like John Kerry (P*ssy-MA)?

But now that Obama is President (and hasn't withdrawn the troops, nor yet closed Guantanamo, etc.), things are different.

Notice how Code Pink isn't in the headlines every day?

Notice how the 9-11 wives aren't making the rounds? You'd think *they'd* at least be topical, given the Northwest flight 953 FUBO. And where's Cindy Sheehan been? I've only seen one story about her in the last six months.

But suddenly -- let a journalist die, and the waterworks are in full flow. Oh, the senseless tragedy. The noble dedication and selfless sacrifice on behalf of lofty goals!

It's a shame the MSM can neither heap scorn on Obama for the deaths of these people, as they did to Bush every time someone was killed; nor yet celebrate the ongoing sacrifice of the troops (may they rest in piece), many of whose shoes the journalists are unworthy to lick.

Cheers!

Peter Worthington and Michelle Lang and their employers Sun Media and Canwest News Services are the wrong examples upon which to base your tirade.

Neither Canwest nor Sun Media can be lumped in with the MSM crowd that harassed Bush through his term of office. I do not know the Calgary paper but I subscribe to tne National Post, a Canwest publication and to the Toronto Sun, the Sun Media flagship. I will not have the Liberal rags the Toronto Star or the Globe and Mail in my home. I decline with thanks when the Toronto Star is offered to me free in rail stations and grocery stores

As to Lang, remember that she was not obliged to go outside the wire. She could have stayed in Calgary or even inside the wire at KAF. Instead, she chose to travel with the PRT and to run the same risks that the soldiers of that team run. She had the respect of the soldiers. The soldiers have learned how to spot a phony or someone who is not on their side.

As to Worthington, he has always backed the soldiers and supported Canada's deployment to Afghanistan. Worthington is well past normal retirement age and is a senior columnist, but he has paid his dues over the years. At a very young age he joined the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve in time to get in on the end of WWII as a Fleet Air Arm air gunner, achieving the rank of Sub Lieutenant by the time of his discharge in 1946.

He joined the Princess Patricia's Canadian LIght Infantry in 1950 and served in Korea, first as a platoon commander and later as battalion intelligence officer, ending the war as a forward observation officer for USAF air strikes.

Reporters like Michelle Lang, Matthew Fisher and Christie Blatchford who have chosen to go outside the wire with the soldiers and to report the war from their perspective are entitled to our respect.

Worthington who has been a soldier and a war correspondent is entitled to write such a piece as he has done to commend a fallen colleague.

It is bad form to use this piece as an occasion to denigrate them merely for their membership in a once honoured profession.

People, let's not indulge in friendly fire. Take aim against those who deserve it, not against the likes of Worthington and Lang.

End of rant.

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