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The Pros And Cons Of Military Censorship

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Military censorship is a complex and multifaceted issue. With many important issues to consider it can be hard to come down hard on one side of the issue. However, this is not the case for Mr. Thomas. His opinion that “censorship should not be tolerated in a democracy under any circumstances, least of all in times of war”(Thomas 341) falls hard on one side of the issue. Sadly in doing this he makes many glaring errors and generalizations. While the public should be aware of the activities in the future, revealing military activity prematurely can end with disastrous results.
In his first point Mr. Thomas claims that there is no need to be concerned with important information accidentally being betrayed. He states “All members of the media are willing to hold back information that might jeopardize security”(342). This is just simply not the case, however. For example, in 2003, Geraldo Rivera bent down and began writing in the sand. This writing turned out to be information that was not yet supposed to be disclosed. ''At one point, he actually revealed the time of an attack prior to its occurrence,'' Lt. Mark Kitchens, a spokesman at Central Command(Carr 2003).” Thomas even contradicts himself in the very same paragraph by making us aware of two reporters that had their privileges revoked during Vietnam (342).
Mr. Thomas also claims that military censorship is the reason reporters go searching for their own information and consequently get lost or end up captured. He
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