Image: U.S. Navy photo by Tech. Sgt. Andy Dunaway
The relationship between journalists and the U.S. military is simultaneously intimate and distant. In the last several decades and the last two in particular, many things have changed in the way that journalists cover the military, but perhaps not as many as you think. Three defense and national security journalists of different generations joined Ryan Evans of War on the Rocks to talk about how covering the military has and has not changed over time:
* David Wood, the veteran, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at The Huffington Post
* Nancy Youssef, senior national security correspondent for The Daily Beast
* Paul Shinkman, national security reporter for U.S. News & World Report
Have a listen!
Read more ....
WNU Editor: David Wood is someone that I have been following for the past 20 years. The other two .... Nancy Youssef and Paul Shinkman .... they have only been around for the past few years, but I find their work is "OK". As to what is my take on how has covering the military changed in the past few years .... I know that when I started this blog almost 10 years ago there were hundreds of milblogs, websites, and pundits discussing the military, the wars, and defense policy. Most of them were independent .... and they had passion in what they were doing. Today .... 90% of them are gone. The coverage is now isolated to only a few blogs, a few websites, and the traditional main-stream media/defense establishment coverage .... and that main-stream coverage is .... to put it bluntly .... underwhelming.
That photo of Rumsfeld brings back memories. Bach then I ran a "RummyWatch" blog on my Smedley Butler Society website. Rumsfeld held frequent "press conferences" which were really just Rumsfeld expounding on his favorite theories of world politics, head-choppers, and such. The "journalists" at Rummy's shows were remarkable for their uselessness, except as stenographers. He was a master of control at those events.
ReplyDelete