Lack of embeds hurting the war effort
I had heard references about this article, but just ran across it today. Micheal Yon, who has his own blog at MichaelYon-Online, has an article which appears in the on-line edition of the Weekly Standard.
In it, Yon decries the lack of reporters currently embedded in Iraq. At present there are only nine. At the beginning of the war, there was something like 770. According to Yon, the military is really screwing up by not having reporters in with the troops and telling their stories - and showing a different face to this war than that shown by the propaganda machine that is Al-Qaeda.
I have to agree. When I first got in-country back in November 2005, I noticed a steady stream of embedded reporters coming through this FOB. I saw them, because working FOB security, we had to verify their credentials while they were here. Now, I would be hard-pressed to tell you when was the last time I saw an embedded reporter here. It’s probably been months.
The U.S. military is screwing up here. No one can tell you the “ground truth” about what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan better than the troops themselves. The main stream media outlets keep their talking heads cloistered in the Green Zone and rely on Iraqi or other Arab stringers to go out and get the stories - which cannot be good for U.S. public relations. Reuters depended on their suspect Arab stringers, and it blew up in their face during the recent Lebanese conflict when it was shown time and again that their stringer photographers were manipulating the scenes to Hezbollah’s benefit.
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Thanks for posting that. I new Michael Yon was having trouble getting back into Iraq. I just didn’t know the details. How is it when a general invites Yon to embed the a colonel can turn him down? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.