The bloggers are the iceberg

"You break the spirit so they just stop fighting. Sadly our own press seems to be working this angle (revved up during the Vietnam war by Walter Cronkite) on the American people quite relentlessly," writes a disheartened Teresa of Technicalities, noting the MSM's mindless aiding and abetting of the enemy:

So, the press has you convinced that we have screwed up so badly in Iraq that we are running headlong into disaster. This is a quagmire, this is GW's Vietnam (Just ask Teddy Kennedy -- he might pause in his diatribe of the horrors of water torture to fill you in), we are so messed up, there may be no recovery and Iraq may fall completely apart!

Maybe, before you jump off the nearest building in despair, you should read this essay over at Blackfive's. It's long, but worth every bit of time it takes to read!

We couldn't agree more.  A tour de force from Lieutenant Colonel Tim Ryan -- a Task Force (Battalion +) Commander in Iraq -- who has, as Blackfive puts it, "some words about the Fourth Estate":

Many of the journalists making public assessments about the progress of the war in Iraq are unqualified to do so, given their training and experience. The inaccurate picture they paint has distorted the world view of the daily realities in Iraq.  The result is a further erosion of international public support for the United States' efforts there, and a strengthening of the insurgents' resolve and recruiting efforts while weakening our own.  Through their incomplete, uninformed and unbalanced reporting, many members of the media covering the war in Iraq are aiding and abetting the enemy.

From Charles Krauthammer on down, we've all been reading and/or writing about "the mainstream media's obliviousness to its own liberal bias" for some time. We caught the once titanic -- good metaphor, with a capital "T," for the MSM, come to think of it:  Rather & Company rearranging deck chairs and all that -- Ted Koppel on C-Span the other night pontificating about how he and his sort are duty bound to report the negative since the political powers that be will make sure the positive gets out. Not. But the blogosphere is starting to make sure the whole story -- both the good and the bad -- gets out. "A Night to Remember" -- but with few heroes in sight -- comes to mind:

She was the world's biggest-ever ship. A luxurious miracle of twentieth-century technology, the Titanic was equipped with the ingenious safety devices of the time. Yet on a moonlit night in 1912, the "unsinkable" Titanic raced across the glassy Atlantic on her maiden voyage, with only twenty lifeboats for 2,207 passengers. A Night to Remember is the gut-wrenching, minute-by-minute account of her fatal collision with an iceberg and how the resulting tragedy brought out the best and worst in human nature. Some gave their lives for others, some fought like animals for survival. Wives beseeched husbands to join them in the boats; gentlemen went taut-lipped to their deaths in full evening dress; hundreds of steerage passengers, trapped belowdecks, sought help in vain.

The bloggers are the iceberg, and the Koppels and Rathers of this world are fighting like animals for survival.

Comments

[Evan]

While scientists use seismic waves to study Earth's interior, Galileo performs remote studies of Jupiter's moons by measuring small changes in the spacecraft's trajectory as it passes each body.

[goomp]

How can we get the government to release daily the true story of traffic casualties along side US military vs Terrorist casualties and a true account of conditions in Iraq?

[Teresa]

Thank you for the link! *grin* It's always a thrill to see my words quoted... and always a pleasant surprise.

[Sissy Willis]

Thank YOU, my dear, for providing grist for the blogmill.

[Evan]

I've heard that since so many good things are happening in Iraq now that Lonely Planet has a new Iraq travel guide ready to go to press as soon as the number of terror incidents goes below 100 per day .

[Sissy Willis]

If I didn't know better, I'd think you were rooting for the enemy, Evan. :)

[Tom Carter]

Sissy, thanks for a great post! I think you've got it!