The Media In Ferguson

On Reporting - Esquire:

...So much of the criticism of the people covering Ferguson in Ferguson is dead reminiscent of the complaints lodged against people like Michael Herr and Neil Sheehan in Vietnam, and against the reporters who went South to cover the Civil Rights Movement -- that they were "taking sides," or "getting in the way," or, even, "becoming the story." Let us be completely clear. The reporters whose professionalism so concerns Dylan Byers are "part of the story" because the police made them "part of the story." Forever now, as regards the events in Ferguson, Missouri, there will be those who were there, and those who were not, and the first group deserves better than being heckled by peanut galleries in ivory towers.