I don't think journalists in World War II were objective about the Nazis, and I don't think they should have been.
Sebastian JungerBad news is dramatic. It makes good TV. If there's a firefight on the same day that a school opens up, the media will show the firefight even though the school is way more important and will affect the community for much longer.
Sebastian JungerMy wife, Daniela, and I live in an old house from 1810 with three fireplaces at the end of a dead-end dirt road on Cape Cod, so I turn the trees into firewood for us and a friend of mine sells the rest.
Sebastian JungerNo matter how many people you kill, using a machine gun in battle is not a war crime because it does not cause unnecessary suffering; it simply performs its job horrifyingly well.
Sebastian JungerIf you shell a military base and happen to kill civilians, you have not committed a war crime; if you deliberately target cities and towns, you have.
Sebastian JungerIf hardship brought out the worst in people, the human race wouldn't have survived. Right after 9/11, for instance, the murder rate actually went down in New York City. In World War II during the Blitz, the civilians of London were bombed almost every night for six months, but psychiatric admissions declined.
Sebastian Junger