Identifying people accused of crimes with their military affiliation
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Submarine blogger Bubblehead posed an interesting question: Why does the media always play up military affiliations of people who get arrested? He pointed to an example from The Day in Connecticut, but there are plenty of examples from Pacific Northwest news outlets.
The explanation you'll get from most journalists is this: We hold members of the military to a higher standard. As an editor at the Kitsap Sun put it when commenters complained about the practice:
As people who are thought of as "heroes" for just doing their jobs, we feel military people should be held to the same standard of conduct as, say, firefighters and police officers — that is to say, a higher standard than ordinary citizens. So, just as we put a regular spotlight on all the good work they do, so we feel we shouldn't shrink away from those instances they conduct themselves less than heroically.
You can read similar arguments made in the comments on Bubblehead's post. What do you think about that? When is it fair for news outlets to indicate when someone who gets arrested is in the military? What is the argument against doing that?