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7 mai 2005

Un blog exceptionnel

C'est en effectuant plusieurs lectures sur le journalisme de guerre, et les critères de qualité qui permettent de le juger, que j'en suis venu à découvrir le blog de Michael Yon, un écrivain, journaliste et vétéran US qui est actuellement en Irak. Entièrement intégré aux formations de l'US Army au point d'en fournir la perspective, il met néanmoins ses qualités littéraires et photographiques au service du public en fournissant des descriptions extraordinaires de la situation en Irak. Son récit d'une attaque à la voiture piégée à Mossoul est particulièrement saisissant, tout comme sa position concernant l'emploi des images comme arme :

Once the recovery vehicle arrived and dragged the smoldering Stryker away, we needed to roll. But the Deuce-Four all know what comes next. The gloating posse descends, camera crews at the ready, to shoot video that gets posted to the web and beamed around the world, of them in full celebratory dance, as if they had scored a major victory against "infidels."

Just a few weeks earlier, when another of Kurilla's Strykers was hit by an SVBIED, a camera crew arrived on scene. As a man pumped an AK, an American sniper killed him, wounding the cameraman in the process. When it was later learned that the cameraman was a stringer for CBS who had close ties with the enemy, CBS apologized on the air.

Just as we pulled out, people arrived with cameras and began shooting footage of the scene. One of the men, whom we later learned was an Associated Press correspondent with known ties to the enemy, is dead now. The associate scavenging with him was seriously wounded.

Lisez le tout.

COMPLEMENT I (7.5 1515) : Je viens de voir à l'instant que Wretchard sur son Belmont Club a consacré plusieurs réflexions à ce reporter de CBS capturé avec les insurgents. En particulier pour montrer que la couverture médiatique de cette attaque s'est focalisée sur cet aspect et a négligé tous les autres :

Of all the incidents described in Yon's Battle for Mosul, the only incident which made the headline news for an extended period was the wounding and detention of the Associated Press photographer. The dramatic events related by Yon: the fights with the insurgents, the desperate rescues -- recede completely into the background in mainstream media stories. By a strange process of substitution what is merely a footnote in Yon's story, the account of the cameraman, becomes the staple of the wire news while the main events of Yon's story shrink to become footnotes in the newspaper coverage of the photographer's saga.

Every information consumer picks up a newspaper to learn the truth. But what is the truth in a situation where a story's message can so radically alter with the point of view? The existence of political 'bias' alone is an insufficient explanation because the conservative press just as gleefully dwelt on the CBS cameraman's dubious affiliations. I can only think that objects and events viewed through the prism of the media are distorted in some fundamental way, so that the death of millions in Darfur can dwindle to insignificance while the "wardrobe malfunction" of a singer at a sporting event assumes the proportions of an international event.

Publié par Ludovic Monnerat le 7 mai 2005 à 9:10

Commentaires

Publié par Ares le 7 mai 2005 à 23:39