When this guy is the head of CBS.
Posted on 02/27/2005 5:39:04 AM PST by billorites
Lt. Col. Jim Stockmoe, chief intelligence officer for the First Infantry Division, roared with laughter as he recalled the increasing missteps of the resistance in Iraq in an interview earlier this month with British journalist Toby Harnden, writing for The Spectator.
edit...
Proof of this was provided by Sen. Hillary Clinton. Iraq is functioning quite well, she said in a press conference in Baghdad Feb. 19. The recent rash of suicide attacks is a sign the insurgency is failing, she said.
"When politicians like [Clinton] start flocking to Iraq to bask in the light of its success, then you know that the corner has been turned," a reader of his blog wrote to Bay.
More substantive signs abound. The performance of Iraqi security forces is improving, as are their numbers. Nearly 10,000 men showed up at a southern Iraqi military base Feb. 14 to volunteer for 5,000 openings. Only 6,000 had been expected.
Sunni Arab politicians have admitted they made a big boo-boo in boycotting the Jan. 30 election, and are pleading to be included in the political process. Some ex-Baathists are seeking terms for laying down their arms.
Those who get their news from the "mainstream" media are surprised by developments in Iraq, as they were surprised by our swift victory in Afghanistan, the sudden fall of Saddam Hussein, the success of the Afghan election and the success of the Iraqi election.
Journalists demand accountability from political leaders for "quagmires" which exist chiefly in the imagination of journalists. But when will journalists be held to account for getting every major development in the war on terror wrong?
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
I have been on vacation, but I saw a story on CNN about how TIME mag "broke" a story that the Army was in contact with the insurgents and making deals with them. CNN interviewed a US Army Colonel in Iraq who described how he had been doing this since last June. Amazing!
When this guy is the head of CBS.
Holding journalists, and their organizations, responsible is what bloggers do best.
If you want facts go to a blog. If you want biased opinions go to the MSM.
Journos can't really go anywhere in Iraq due to security. So their reporting is naturally less than adequate.
I suspect most of it is "This is Joe Journo reporting live from the bar of the Palestine Hotel. Observers [my pals here at the bar] say the situation in Baghdad is fragile."
The Iraqi bloggers, the military bloggers, and the contractor bloggers are all right there on the ground.
I don't think it's that they "can't" see -- it's that they "won't" see.
That's true, but they can do interviews and ask questions of the people who are in the field and at Command. Supposedly getting the true facts as to what's happening is what they are there for.
Then there are the editors, back in the states, who may or may not like the copy from the field reporters. They have to keep their bosses happy.
There's a lot of "hands" involved between what happens, what's reported, and what actually makes it to the public. This is the drawback to the MSM.
Bloggers tend to be everywhere, and can report events either as they happen or soon after directly to the public without any middlemen editing their work.
I'm not defending them with a mea culpa. Just stating the facts.
But the lack of mobility doesn't at all justify their fictional reporting and made up, slanted stories.
I agree that the reporters can't go everywhere, but they still aren't giving an accurate account of what's happening where they can go.
This is a surprising article from such a liberal fishwrap. I don't read it often (my hometown paper) so I'm not that familiar with Jack Kelly. Maybe he's interested in the truth?
So thats what you call gladly parroting insurgent devised agitprop...
The reporting on THIS has been "Dan Ratherized" or Mape'ified..
"This is Joe Journo reporting live from the bar of the Palestine Hotel. Observers [my pals here at the bar] say the situation in Baghdad is fragile."
I suspect that nails it. Most of the VietNam War was covered this way and it worked for the media then, so I would expect the same modus operandi today.
Oh give me a da** break, will you?
I wasn't "apologizing" for them, in fact I think they're as despicable as anyone else here does (e.g., the seditious propagandist Kevin Sites).
So listen to me carefully:
Fact 1: The security environment is deadly for Western reporters. Fact 2: This causes journos to congregate in their safe zones, among one another (not among the armed forces). Fact 3: This results in them reporting the same rumors, innuendos, dismal predictions, etc. Pack mentality.
That was my only point.
I've worked in dangerous spots, and I've worked among journos, so I have some sense of how they would operate.
Final fact: if you think it's safe for journos (or any Westerner) to travel around Iraq unarmed and without security, you are out of your mind. I'll let you know more when I get there next month.
Their 0-for-forever batting average on predictions is not so much the result of miscalculations, misunderstandings, or a failure to grasp the true nature of the happenings in Iraq, it is the triumph of their hopes over reality at best, and at worst it is a deliberate distortion born of their anti-Americanism.
That said, how can we expect them to ever "hold themselves to account", it simply isn't going to happen, only the new media can hold them to account, and the old "journalists" will simply disappear from a lack of demand for what they have to offer.
Man, did you ever wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
Where did I say that physical proximity was the *exclusive* determinant of their bad reporting? Nowhere. I didn't say it nor do I rule out the political proximity which is assumed among reporters..
But to say they can or should hire security to bound around Baghdad or Mosul or Ramali is just patently insane.
Sometimes that was the only way to get food and other goods to the troops. Each area has its own militia and deals with the right people can ensure relatively free movement on the highways, at least for a short time.
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