~ YON SCREWED BY FRENCH~

I figure that the best journalism coming out of Iraq has come from Michael Yon. And I also think that he has been the victim of the freedom implicit in the internet by having his photos stolen by this cheezy French magazine.

I admit to stealing stuff from Yon. In fact, I put the photo in question up on this blog at the time because I thought that Yon had once again proved that "a picture is worth a thousand words". But, like any other academic drudge, I cited the source and did all that bibliophile stuff when I used the pic. I wanted it posted because I thought that it was terribly powerful. You know the picture by now -- an American soldier is holding the body of an Iraqui child, holding him and trying to shelter the wounded kid, unsuccessfuly it turns out. Really powerful image and very revealing of the pathos of the warrior in the midst of the terrors of war, coping. I won't link to it again, if you want to see it go to Yon's website. It's over there on the blog roll.

Now, some sleazy French magazine put the photo on its front page. They are selling magazines and they were moved the same as me, knew that this kind of journalism is what sells magazines, and pirated the thing. The difference is that I'm not selling anything, and I cited my source, and gave due credit.

Now, like the good soldier that he is, Yon is doing his best to deal with this nasty incident. And the French turds are being French. Unfortunately, these miscreants can't be trusted. Here's the link. About all we can do to be supportive is refuse to buy their crappy magazine. Like they care.

Bob