Should the Press Cut and Run?
Reader [Old War Dog] Russ Vaughn makes an interesting point about the disconnect between the servicemen who fight our wars and the media that inform us about them. The latter, he argues, perpetuate "the image of our military as being made up and led by those only minimally competent":
This they do by constantly reporting the negative aspects of the war with heightened emphasis on those events which portray our military in a negative light. With such reporting, they create and perpetuate an image of an enemy far more clever and cunning than our own forces. When they do occasionally report on an American success in battle, it's done in an almost ho-hum, so whaddaya expect with our overwhelming strength and technological superiority? tone. Yet murderous attacks against hapless civilians by those with minimal fighting skills are breathlessly depicted as daring and ingenious military feats.
If there is one constant complaint coming from our troops, it is this misreporting of the war by the media, which, I feel, share the same contempt for our service members as Charles Rangel, John Kerry and so many other liberal elitists.
A small but telling example comes in the course of a Reuters report on the latest fighting in Somalia:
More than a decade ago, U.S. forces backed by Black Hawk helicopters suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of militiamen attacking from the city's maze of back alleys.
Reader Steve Tolle comments:
As an Army veteran who had a couple of buddies involved in the Black Hawk Down incident, I take a bit of umbrage at the characterization of a "humiliating defeat." ...
