PressEthic

As a result, the Times said, the Army opened an investigation on Tuesday. Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, was quoted as saying “that if soldiers had posted the images, their actions could violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which defines conduct unbecoming an officer or enlisted soldier.” Strange. According to another Army spokesman, quoted in the EE article, "There are policies in place that, on the one hand, safeguard sensitive and classified information, and on the other hand protect the First Amendment rights of service members."

The Times article quotes another publication that ran the story on September 20: the Online Journalism Review of the Annenberg School for Communications (at USC). Turns out Helena Cobban, a blogger and writer for the Christian Science Monitor, broke the story in late August at Just World News (she had read about it on an Italian newswire’s website).

I find it incredibly strange that it took more than a month for a major daily to pick up the story. In any event, the Times article has very little original reporting—it’s basically a recap of the Annenberg article. I guess they’re waiting for the next Pentagon press conference.