Dirty Wars blog assignment

Yes, Scahill follows the journalism principle to write about the truth. He encountered obstacles such as sources not responding to his request for information, not obtaining the document he requested utilizing the FIOA letter, and discovering information that was released was not accurate. Scahill begun to discover things were not adding up to the facts which made him want to pursue the truth more, as a journalist should do.

Scahill sorts out the conflicting stories and lies he is told by seeking out press releases, examining photos of the incident, and compares what was said to what actually occurred. When he found the NATO admitted to the killings- he begins to ponder the motive for these killings and why the government was trying to cover it up. Through government websites, he made a connection the information he found went back to JSOC.

          Scahill starts to feel overwhelmed when he discovers new information especially the information about the Joint Special Operations Command. He thought he knew about them but learned he didn’t which was shocking for him. He decides to take it a step further by visiting the locations of where the deaths occurred and speaking to eye-witnesses about the event. Scahill knew it would be a challenge investigating them considering the fact they are the only force to report directly to the White House.

        He works for the Nation. He does follow the principal of journalist staying loyal to its citizens because he was focused on telling the truth rather than his own special interests. He is covering the story because Scahill genuinely cares for the victims and want to know their story. He learned the government claimed the victims were Taliban, which was false and starts questioning JSOC motives. He displays compassionate for the innocent victims whose lives were loss. In the beginning scene, when the man shows the photos of his family killed, you can see Scahill almost tear up. Scahill does have connection to those he is working for because they, which helps his objectivity.

            Scahill, in my opinion, is a great journalist. He had a notepad available to take notes, he remained persistent in finding sources that will talk to him, and used reliable resources to obtain answers. He did not use Wikipedia or blog sites to conduct his research; he researched officials and used his connections to contact them. Every document he read was an official government document issued by the government itself.
 

Scahill treated every source fairly and only used facts as background information for supporting his claims. Even though he believed the family’s account of the night Daoud was killed, he wanted to find facts that proved that. He did not just go off of what one source said he used multiple sources to find the truth.

Scahill role as a journalist changed over the film as he started to be more motivated to tell the stories of people on the other side of the guns. At first, I felt as though he was just reporting but he found a need to make an impact when discovering new information. He put his life at risk for the truth. Through the film, the audience got to witness how journalist assemble pieces of information and pick out the truth in order to serve the interest of the people.