Jamie McIntyre's Line of Departure

Iraq: Mission Not-So-Accomplished

By Jamie McIntyre

As the U.S. tries to tentatively declare victory and head home, I believe what I came to believe back 2003, namely that Iraq will be better off in the end, but will remain a mess for the foreseeable future. And the price the U.S. paid, in lives, in money, in national prestige is one we would not have paid had we known the cost going in. And after all this, I have come to believe two things about the war right now: Iraq is not ready for U.S. troops to leave. And it is time for us to go.

The U.S. has plans to attack Iran!!!

Don’t Panic. We’ve heard all this before. The essential element of tabloid journalism is to state the ordinary in extraordinary terms, to write a story that while technically true is totally, and often deliberately, misleading.

WikiLeaks: Whistleblowers or Info-Terrorists?

Let’s be clear: WikiLeaks is an anti-privacy, anti-secrecy group, whose primary tenet is that nothing should be kept from the world, not military secrets, not sources or methods of intelligence gathering, not even the secret rituals of fraternities and sororities. WikiLeaks seems to me to to be functioning less in the tradition of good old-fashioned muckrakers, and more like anti-privacy terrorists.

Octavia Nasr’s “Twittercide”

Criticism is not something big media organizations take well. The quick, easy, expedient solution was to cut her loose. It’s too bad. Let me be clear. I agree with CNN and Octavia Nasr that her tweet was a serious error in judgment. However, I also accept both her apology and explanation, which is a measure of forgiveness CNN could not manage, because of its sensitivity to external condemnation.

Warier Warriors

There will be a lot of handwringing inside and outside media circles about the new Pentagon rules will make the missions of both the military and the media more difficult. But the truth is little will change. Meanwhile the whole episode serves as reminder to both sides of the military/media divide just where their loyalties should lie.

Lara Logan’s Friendly Misfire

CBS Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan certainly did herself and her fellow war correspondent no favors with her inept defense of war zone ground rules, even as she may have been right about a few things. In defending the press corps, against charges they are too chummy with the military, Logan wounded them grievously with misaimed friendly fire. She unfortunately reinforced the worst stereotype of reporters who “embed” with senior military officers but are actually “in bed” with them.