The journalistic question that dare not speak its name

Tuck cat whispers in Baby's ear this afternoon as the Babe vies for bits of sausage from Tuck's DIAB (Dinner in a bowl, an awesome gigantic salad of sliced iceberg lettuce and onions, chopped tomatoes and snow peas, shredded carrots and sliced baked sausage).

"Young troops are some of the best goodwill ambassadors we've ever produced," a retired Army officer told The American Spectator's Jeff Emanuael, whose Opinion Journal op ed today takes on the journalistic question that dare not speak its name:

While embedding may be decried by some for causing journalists, who claim the utopian titles of "objective" and "neutral" for their reportage, to lose their cold detachment and actually begin to see the soldiers they live alongside as humans, it is that very quality that makes the practice of embedding reporters with military units so beneficial to both parties.

Rather than observing events from a safely detached distance -- and thus being able to remove the human element from the equation -- embedded reporters are forced to face up to the humanity of their subjects, and to share common experiences -- often of the life-and-death variety -- with those they are covering.

Laura Lee excerpts a totally awesome example of the genre today, quoting Arkansas Democrat Gazette embed Amy Schlesing:

This is the living area of Camp Stryker, acres of white metal trailers in neat rows surrounded by thick gravel and interspersed with the occasional bathroom and shower facility. Bathrooms and showers are communal, modesty is something you just have to get over.

Many soldiers have small grills, which glow with charcoal at dusk. Soldiers gather around the grill and laugh, play cards and listen to music.

The smell wafts through camp carrying memories of home.

"You are the best boy ever was," Tuck whispers in the ear of the best boy ever was.

Go read the whole thing, and then come back to Jeff Emanuael's WSJ op ed:

Human nature being what it is, such close working conditions, and such common, life-threatening experiences, will have an effect on both parties involved -- and it is a testament both to the soldiers themselves, and to the journalists who volunteer to live and work alongside them, that that effect has, in so many cases, been so positive.

Good god. Where'd this journalistic moral-equivalency thing in a time of war come from, do you suppose? Is the Columbia School of Journalism to blame? It surely is consistent with the Gramscian project to undermine our shining-city-upon-a-hill institutions to make way for the soul-killing Marxist utopia, where our betters -- from Hillary on down/up -- tell us what's best for us, but why were our "best and brightest" so willing to buy into the big lie? Was it simple indoctrination in their tender college years? If so, our best hope amongst the journalist class may be the upcoming generation who by nature -- human nature -- are now rebelling against their elders.

Comments

[goomp]

Maybe you have discovered the secret of why democracy survives. Freedom to revolt against the accepted status quo. Youth always revolts until it feels it has found the right way. If liberals can eliminate this fredom we will live under a dictatorship, otherwise change in accepted ideas will continue as it always has adjusting to make a free society the best there is.

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Amy Schlesing is doing some great work for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. She actually knows some of the Arkansas troops stationed over there and doesn't seem to have a gotcha agenda at all. Schlesing's Mothers Day post is really descriptive of how those of us who are left behind feel.

[Teresa]

One of the things I found out at the Milblog Conference was just how incredibly difficult the Army has been making it to become an embedded reporter. The dearth of embeds is not totally the fault of the press.

The Army had a rep at Milblog, someone from their Public Affairs branch an we're hopeful that things will change (although all change is slow in the military *grin*)

When we first went into Iraq they made a concerted effort to get reporters embedded - and it was a good thing. I don't know what happened over the years, but now only the most persistent are able to get into an embed spot. And really, how many reporters want to be that persistent - especially if it might get you killed.

My hope is that we get more people like Michael Yon, Bill Roggio, and Amy Schlesing... we need them. In the meantime, we have milbloggers.

*** oh yeah, Tuck and the kitty... soooo cute. *grin*

[hnav]

wonderful post...

thank you.

made me smile, which i haven't done in a little while.