“Does CNN want America to win this thing?” Asked Republican Duncan Hunter when complaining about CNN’s coverage of the war in Iraq. It seems that Hunter feels CNN stepped over the line by broadcasting film of Iraqi insurgents shooting at U.S. Troops. He even went so far as asking Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to remove CNN reporters from the military embedding program. This is the program that allows journalists to spend time with various units on the battle lines.

Now I have serious concerns that never occurred to me until learning about this. I’m trying to understand how Hunter came to the conclusion that CNN was unpatriotic. What is it that Hunter doesn’t want the public to see or know about? From what I understand, CNN was doing the job they are supposed to be doing — reporting the news. Hunter was even quoted as saying, “In past wars, the press was more pro-American.” Filming the realities of war doesn’t seem unpatriotic to me. Come on - war is two sides shooting at each other, and filming Iraqi insurgents shooting at our troops seems pretty mundane. Almost every memory I have of the Vietnam War is based on seeing dead and wounded soldiers on the television when I was a kid.

This makes me wonder how stringent military censorship actually is. Of course, there are certain things that must be censored. Important information such as troop deployment planning for example. Oh, wait - that is already reported by the media on a regular basis. Scratch that top secret information off the list. So how distorted is the public’s view of the Iraq War? I may be on the lowest rung of journalists at the moment, but I have to ask, what happened to “Freedom of the Press?”

So to CNN and all the other news agencies out there, stand your ground and follow the story. Keep filming and reporting things that are making the politicians nervous.