Peter Arnette should be tried for treason.

if you want to patriotic, that is all very well and good.
but, dont let it affect yr thinking too much, ok?
peter arnett is not even usamerican.
additionally, we are all better off that he has finally found another assignment after cnn-time left him hanging last year.

Peter Arnett (check your spelling) is not a US citizen. He's from New Zealand. New Zealand is not a coalition nation.

The guy got fired from MSNBC. That's about all that's going to happen to him. We know that the US Government (and especially the military) is not fond of the guy, as evidenced by his firing from CNN.

If I'm not mistaken, this was the guy that interviewed Bin Laden in 1997 about the first WTC bombings among other things. I might have to look that up, though.

I may have to switch my deeply pessimistic support for this war, I won't yet, but I'm pretty sure the US/UK will let us all down AFTER the war ends, which is the crucial part.

I thought the purpose of journalism was to be impartial. This is getting ridiculous and the American media has gone well beyond their normal mediocrity into basic journalistic incompetence when they begin to censor themselves at the slightest whim of either side of the conflict. Journalism IS NOT the engine of patriotism, at least it shouldn't be. Wow, sad. Especially since he didn't reveal anything that wasn't on anyones mind.

Propaganda war? You had better be ready to be very very careful. This is just another way of saying thought falls under the jurisdiction of the state. Being something I know a little bit about, I know propaganda will always exist, but you cannot punish an opinion because today it might fit one propagandist's objectives while tommorow it fits another. No way, no how amigo.

Well, he worked for NBC, and NBC is owned by GE, and GE does make tanks and other fun military goods that are in Iraq right now, so, you never know where the order to fire him came from.

Enough of the treason accusations! It goes too far.

Of course, Fox was the most militant, and that was just to undermine their competition, MSNBC. Anyone notice the Geraldo got the boot, too? He was actually giving away troop movements.

Treasonous? No.
Terrible journalist? Absolutely.

OK, but what about his quote? Is he wrong for speaking the truth?

The only truth is that there is none.

So you agree that whatever he said is irrelevant and shouldn't get him fired?

according to everything i've read peter arnett got fired for saying something that everyone knows, in interview his bosses okayed, and after he gave it, the same bosses gave him a thumbs up.
i think he's an overrated reporter (he was in the right room at the right time) but i think this reflects pretty poorly on nbc. a reporter knows his boss is going to go the wall for him, otherwise all reports are going to become watered down. nbc should have said allowing him to be interviewed by a state-run news service was wrong and we apologize.

if arnett were a regular nbc reporter, nbc would be looking at a revolt from inside the news division. but as he was brought in as a ringer, one with dubious credentials at that, it'll blow over.

Well I guess someone should point out that he actually worked for National Geographic (which has a show on MSNBC) and they also fired him.

Peter Arnette is a dipshit, but I don't think flappin' your gums is a hanging offense. Otherwise Bunge woulda been gone a long time ago....

(woohoo pre-emptive flaming!)

CNN may still have a grude against Arnett, but I enjoyed reading their take .

My favorite part was:

If a US citizen had made comments like Arnett did to the state-run media of a nation we're at war with, yes, it would probably be be treason (think Tokyo Rose). If Arnett is still New Zealandese, I hope the US government at least revokes his visa.

Hey...I'm typing, not flapping!

Wow SDW, you sure are cracking down on the traitors! Yesterday it was the professor, today it's Arnett!

What on earth gave you the impression that I think we're 'losing' the war?

I will not miss this guy. He reminds me of my "There is no God" "I am a socialist" college professors of olden days. You have seen these kinds of folks. They always lose their hair in a bad way. They live in a liberal utopian la la land. They Hate and I repeat Hate anyone who takes a position that is considered the "right" thing to do in a moral context. Remember secular humanist socialist bald bitter old liberals do not believe in morality. Of course these types say Free Tibet. But that is just symbolic as in fact they HATE for any one person or group to take the high moral ground. These types think all roads are good roads.

Saddam has people cut up in 100 pieces and sent to the family. That is just as acceptable as any other lifestyle. Saddam has women raped and people shot. No big deal.

I ignore these nutjobs who ignore all of reality.

Fellowship

I'd never heard that one before - are liberals and atheists really more likely to be bald?

The Coalition will eventually win the war involving big bangs, gunfire, smoke and bodycounts. Thats a given. How can you lose it when you fire your biggest weapons from places the adversary cannot engage you...namely 1000 miles away on ships in the Mediterranean, or from 7 miles up in the atmosphere?

It's the next battle thats going to be the real tough, and lengthy one: regaining the good will that the rest of the world showed to America post 9-11. Most of the planet despises us right now...that is so fvcking sad.

Now we see what SDW's strategy is for staying "right-wing." Discount anything, no matter how factual, that doesn't jive with his imaginary 'stance.' Or maybe the real world is just too complicated for little SDW. There's nothing right or left about realizing that Rumsfeld has been making mistakes. I'm sure there are plenty of right-wing republicans that are pissed at him, too. Hell, I'd be surprised if most of the sources for that article weren't republican. But for Joe "SDW" Six-Pack, that's would make life a little too complicated. Hopefully your circuits won't fry too much when you finally realize that your black and white world-view doesn't fly even with the people you pretend to identify with.

His opinions are fine IMO. The stupid thing was being a tool for Iraqi propoganda. Duh, what a dumb thing to do; he should have the foresight to think about who he's giving his opinion to. If he said this on MSNBC [edit: or even Al Jazeera], it would not have been a big deal given of course that some people will invariably get bent out of shape because it differs from their opinions.

Those damn bald liberal socialist

Wow, so a journalist isn't even allowed to have an opinion any more. This nonsense about aiding the propaganda machine is just nuts, wow, this is the first time I've been impressed by the very narrow focus of some people posting here. Propaganda machine? If you think about that for just one second, Oi, do you realize what you're saying? ANything could aid the propaganda machine, unless this guy took money to make an infomercial, there's no sane metric you can apple that leads you to the conclusion that a journalist engaging in a debate and voicing an opinion or two are somehow treasonous, especially since he in no way revealed any sort of sensitive information, they were dealing strictly in opinion and common knowledge. Patriots, get a grip already.

And you, Mr iBook Church. WTF do secular humanists have to do with anything? If you're just trying to get a rise out of SJO, hey, that's pretty funny, OK. But humanists are hardly the problem in your cosmological framework. All humanists are implicitly religious whether they wish to acknowledge it or not, the catechism might use different terms, but it's exactly like religion otherwise.

Are you upset with post moderns? These then become a problem, but as always not for any of the reasons of which you're cognizant. hmmm...

Wow is this muddled, SJO's worried about post war good will, iBook believes Bush is God's own vassal, SDW thinks journalistic opinion rises to the level of treason, funny how the extreme left and right tend to agree on a whole lot. The Soviets and the Chinese used to (and do) think that very same thing. HAHA...

Wow, so many people thinking without thinking.

Am I the only person that's for protecting the Kurds, and controlling the proliferation of nuclear weapons, or that remembers what the Arabs were up to before 1948 (regarding those pesky Jews?). If I cared, it might actually be hard not to get mired in the ridiculousness of opinions on AI. Leftists, rightists, and paranoiacs. You people need to slow down and consider things more carefully. War is not right or wrong for any of the reasons kicking around this place.

...you guys shouldn't be surprise by Peter Arnett's behavior - he has done this kind of screw-up before. He was once a great reporter for CNN until the Tailwind controversy (does any of you remember this?).

I think it should be pointed out that it was FOX NEWS that was running this story ALL NIGHT! They were even asking their own reporters in the field about it and they were defending him! The anchors were arguing with these reporters in the field that were defending him, and they were trying to demonize Arnette.

I think Fox was just trying to undermine MSNBC, a major competitor, by portraying their reporter as biased. I saw the interview many times. Fox News anchors were twisting what he said to make it appear worse.

When I was watching it, I was very offended that they were assuming their viewers were that stupid. But then I realized, right as I was typing appleinsider.com into my browser, that someone here would buy into this. I guess they really haven't underestimated their viewers; they are that stupid.

Has Fox even reported yet that their own reporter, GERLADO, was booted by the US MILITARY for giving away TROOP MOVEMENTS?!?! I sure don't see it on their website.

Fair and balanced.

Remind me again, what were they up to?

Allow me to chime in that Geraldo is also an idiot. I saw his report to Sean and Alan on Friday's "Hannity & Colmes" and I was AMAZED that the first thing out of Geraldo's mouth, after Hannity welcomed him to the show was this:

"Thanks, Sean. First, let me tell you where we are. We're about 122 miles sou..."



Idiot. Current OR future locations/movements are NOT the things these "embedded" goons should be saying. About the ONLY thing The Moustache That Ate Cleveland should say in regards to their location is "we're somewhere in Iraq" and leave it at that.

I hope he gets fired just on grounds of grandstanding and stupidity. It's always about him, isn't it? What HE'S eating, what HE'S wearing, how HE'S dealing with the elements, etc.

Pinhead. I can't stand Rivera. Today has been a good day for some of us: that asshole Arnett gets fired and Geraldo gets his silly ass booted.



Am I dreaming?

I never really liked the guy either. I heard that one of CNN's reporters did the same thing. Does anyone know anything about that?

{edit: forgot a word}

I certainly don't know about the great reporter part, but I do remember the Tailwind controversy. My father's unit was among those accused of dropping the nerve agents. Since they had no equipment whatsoever for properly handling any of the materials that they were accused of dropping, the story is either completely false, or my father is dead. (Here's a hint, dad's not dead.)

As a broadcasting student, I can assure you that had any of my classmates tried to pull something like that, they would've received an F at the least, and been expelled for academic dishonesty at the worst.

In the days of journalistic integrity he never would've worked in mass communications again, but ratings rule all now and he managed to scrape together a second or third chance.

I can only hope that this is the final nail in the coffin of his career, leaving the broadcasting world a little cleaner, and a little more credible.

Now... Geraldo... well that's 2 down.

News flash y'all ... Arnett is a US citizen.

cool, put him on trial and loose your last remaining decency...

Is he? Well, this means that he can be charged with treason. Even though I'm quite happy with the impression that his career is over, I don't think this qualifies as treason. It's not as if he's posing with an Iraqi anti-aircraft crew or giving notes to Iraqi guards that had been entrusted to him by our POWs to take home. Now THAT would be treason.

(Bonus points for the first person to figure out who I'm talking about as an example of truly treasonous behaviour.)

Oh man. You know in these times I think the actions of that woman are beyond reproach. She should be tried for treason. There's no time limitation on that, right?

This marine says it best:

Arnett is a fool and he deserves to be unemployed. MSNBC put him in front of a camera and he used that opportunity to run his mouth about that which he has absolutely no knowledge. I hate it when people climb up on a perfectly good soapbox and then waste my time.

he might be a fool, he is also a pullitzer prize winner. For another "liberation" he covered. Remeber that quote about having to "bomb the whole village to liberate it"?