Walter Russell Mead: ‘Media Gives President A Pass Again‘
‘Obama should have been criticized over his smarmy and vacuous claims to have a solution for the problem back in 2008, but the press was more interested in crucifying Bush and wounding McCain than in offering the public a serious account of a genuine dilemma. What was clearly true back in 2008 was that the U.S. had won a difficult and shaky victory in Iraq after a war that should in hindsight not have been launched, while the smaller and more justifiable war in Afghanistan still offered no serious prospect of a happy ending.’
And it still doesn’t…Mead takes the NY Times to task.
Here’s a documentary on the Green Berets passed along by a reader, which has good footage of what American special forces are being asked to do in Afghanistan: The fierce fighting. The tribal, poor and divided loyalties of what come to be Afghan forces. The thuggish tactics of the Taliban:
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Related On This Site: From March 27th, 2009 At WhiteHouse.Gov: Remarks By The President On A New Strategy For Afghanistan And Pakistan…Stephen Biddle At Foreign Affairs: ‘Running Out Of Time For Afghan Governance Reform’
Repost-From Michael Yon: ‘The Battle For Kandahar’…Dexter Filkins Book On Afghanistan And Iraq: “The Forever War”…Monday Quotations-Henry Kissinger…Tom Ricks Via Foreign Policy: ‘American General Dies In Afghanistan; An American Lt. Col. Goes Off The Reservation
Pauline Baker At The American Interest: ‘Unraveling Afghanistan’
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To be fair, there is good journalism out there, which this blog looks for, and where the facts, attention to detail, legwork, and good writing offer undeniable value.
A few unsolicited opinions regarding the press:
–There seems to be a bent towards supporting whomever’s in power along with a certain amount of conventional wisdom. News orgs need eyeballs, and like politicians, often traffic in influence and public sentiment. There are a lot of fingers in the wind.
News orgs don’t like (any more than politicians or companies or all of us, really) to be called on their mistakes and failures. Individual journalists must often bend their work to the demands of their employers and to current public sentiment in the marketplace.
–Journalists like to think they are speaking truth to power, but often quite less so when their favored ideals are in power. Newsroom culture matters. People who want change and are generally suspicious of power often end up in journalism, often in pursuit of their ideals. Like minds also tend to attract like minds, so people often drift towards certain like-minded outlets across the spectrum.
Personally, I don’t trust any organization to speak for all of the public, nor to ever become institutionalized enough to do so. I couldn’t possibly do so. The capture inherent in a government-funded org seems too great to not be considered an ultimate threat to pursuing the truth and for liberty more broadly–Too many bad incentives.
–A generally liberal-ish set of favored ideals seems shared amongst a majority (the left and activist Left highlighted under the current administration…the current mood very confused). I’m guessing there are common beliefs such as: History is on a general path towards more freedom, equality and progress. It’s a noble thing to walk this path and spread the wealth, fairness and knowledge around and be good citizens (see number 1).
The truth value of such ideals is another matter, which wars like the one in Afpak can highlight.
******This, and because the demands of the market, there’s a lot of junk science, dietary advice, human-interest stories, royal-baby watching, some light Kennedy-worship, What-should-we-feel-about-what-we-think-about-our relationship-to-that-new-TV show etc.
It’s hard to take many people seriously at all.