And He is Us

[posted by Callimachus]

One side now offered us a double-standard by which the enemy sawing off a man’s head on camera and posting the video would somehow end up being reported as evidence of OUR failure. Opposing this, we had an incredible fighting force of people I am proud and lucky to be associated with, who are essentially media-illiterate. That’s right. Some of my closest friends, people I would fight and die for, are media idiots. They know less about the power of a photo than I know about sewing. Most civilians can get away with this, but for soldiers in this new warfare, it’s bad.

Michael Yon, of course. In a big post which lays out how he got to where he is (a freelance embedded reporter and photographer in Iraq) and dissects the awful dysfunctional relationship between the military and the media.