The Blaze Recalls and Suspends War Reporter For Shooting at ISIS Militants

The Blaze recalled its war correspondent Jason Buttrill over the weekend after he was criticized for a tweet which appearred to show him firing a weapon at ISIS militants.

Major bucket list completed. Shoot at #ISIS ? Check! pic.twitter.com/sACRLFoY5V

— Jason Buttrill (@JasonButtrill) December 8, 2016

Originally, The Blaze was proud of the incident and published a piece on it. “Exclusive: TheBlaze’s Jason Buttrill shoots at ISIS members and shares footage from the Mosul front,” reads the story, which is still online.

TheBlaze researcher Jason Buttrill is bringing you exclusive footage from the Mosul offensive in Iraq, and as you will see, the action is getting a bit extreme. Currently, Buttrill is on the front line, seeing the fight to take back Iraq street by street. Not only is he having some interesting conversations, and seeing some unbelievable sites, he’s in the thick of the action.

But the video and story sparked protest from other journalists, who noted that the former Marine was flouting war-time journalistic ethics. “Jason, journalists are detained and killed all over the world over false accusations of being combatants,” said the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Jason Stern in one characteristic tweet. “This doesn’t help.”

In response to the outcry, the Blaze suspended Buttrill and Buttrill himself personally apologized on Twitter

I regret my earlier tweet about firing shots at ISIS. I spent many more years in the armed forces than I have as a member of a media +

— Jason Buttrill (@JasonButtrill) December 11, 2016

[Image via screengrab]

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