infiltrated the Israeli Dla’at military compound in Lebanon and managed, at one point, to raise the organization's flag, the unit's cameraman focused almost exclusively on this event. Having captured this triumphant scene on video, Hezbollah then broadcast it countless times, turning it in effect into the whole point of the operation. That the Israelis ultimately drove Hezbollah guerrillas from the outpost counted for little against the symbolic achievement of raising a flag in an Israeli military post and was ignored.[1]
It is extremely doubtful that a network cameraman on the scene would have photographed the scene the same way or produced a comparable news piece after editing whatever footage had been shot on the overall operation.
Ms. Logan is quite specific in terms of what would have to be done before any material from an insurgent website could be considered sufficiently confirmed to be judged usable in one of her reports, but Ms. Logan is also widely judged one of the best journalists to have reported from Iraq. As a result, her use of these websites may be serving to legitimize a practice based on what is visible on the surface, when the work that went into her feeling comfortable about using the footage remains behind the scenes and therefore invisible.[2]
I have heard concerns expressed that in at least some instances reporters are not even confirming that the footage they are using matches the attack they are reporting on, and I am aware of at least one case where I know that to be true.[3] In another case, a video posted to the web ends with a spectacular explosion when, in fact, the Stryker vehicle that was hit was later towed away and repaired, and the entire crew survived with only minor injuries.[4] I do not know that this footage was ever aired by a network, but I raise the example to make clear the dangers of relying on insurgent editors.
48
- ↑ Schleifer, "Psychological Operations," p. 6.
- ↑ A number of bloggers claimed that footage used in Logan's report on Haifa street that CBS shunted to their website rather than air, came from an al-Qaeda website and that she did not—and should have—note that in the report. CBS responded that even if the footage also appeared on the al-Qaeda site, that was not Logan's source. See Brian Montopoli, "Questions Surround Haifa Street Video," Public Eye, January 30, 2007, available from www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/01/30/publiceye/entry2414754.shtml.
- ↑ NBC and CBS had footage that could not possibly have been of a particular attack under discussion—and they knew it—yet aired the footage anyway, even though they explained the footage didn't match the attack being described. For further discussion, see Cori E. Dauber, "The Truth Is Out There: Responding to Insurgent Deception and Disinformation Operations," Military Review, Vol. 89, January–February 2009, pp. 13–24.
- ↑ Interview with the author, Pamela Hess, then the Pentagon-correspondent for UPI, March 9, 2007, Washington, DC.
