Troops Angry At Media Bias and Laziness

Photo by Ann Curry, NBC News

From Strategy Page:

July 21, 2008: American troops in Afghanistan are not happy with how a July 13th battle with the Taliban was reported. In that action, some 200 Taliban attacked a U.S. "base" and killed or wounded more than half the 50 or so U.S. and Afghan troops found there. Actual U.S. casualties were nine dead and fifteen wounded (including walking wounded).

U.S. troops were irked that, once again, the mass media got lazy and didn't bother to report the action accurately. For one thing, there was no "base". What the Taliban attacked was a temporary parking area for vehicles used to conduct patrols of the area. These are set up regularly, and have been used for years. These are secure areas, but basically a parking lot surrounded by barbed wire and several sandbagged observation posts. This one was set a few days before the attack, and was due to be taken down soon, as the patrol activity moved to another area.

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My Comment: The battle that occurred at Wanat was reported back home within the narrative of what news editors believe is happening in Afghanistan. Should anyone be surprised?

I started this blog because I felt that there was a disconnect between what I was reading in the blogs that soldiers and embedded bloggers were reporting and writing about in the war zone, and what the media was reporting back home. I was first skeptical, but after a while I found I was experiencing a "heads-up" advantage in understanding what was happening in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. With time I found that what I read in blogs, I found on the front page of the New York Times a month or two later.

This has especially been the case with smaller wars. A few years back I was reading on Nigerian groups attacking oil installations and kidnapping oil workers. Nothing was reported in the mainstream media. As a part time investor I made the calculation that this would (with time) impact prices. I invested and thought nothing about it. A week later it hit the news, and oil prices have never stopped soaring.

I understand the frustration that soldiers have with the mainstream media and its coverage of wars. But we all must realize that even large organizations like the New York Times and the BBC have limitations in terms of resources and people. If they are not there, they will report on a news story within the template of what they believe is happening there. This may save the news organization money, but unfortunately the true story of what actually happened usually never gets out.