Larry,
Yes, Tet ended up as an incredible psychological victory for the enemy, but why? Reporters with little or no experience in military strategy or reality stuck microphones in front of scared soldiers and found out morale was low? Those same soldiers now turned around and read about how low their morale was . . .
We can agree to disagree, of course, but I think we are in a much better position today vis-a-vis the press than we were 40-50 years ago. At the time a few people in the editorial rooms of the NYT and the WP decided not only what was news, but what wasn't, how it would be presented and what spin it would have. The networks and all other metropolitan papers took their marching orders from this very small cadre of people. (See Bernie Goldberg's "Bias" and "Arrogance" for one insider's point of view on the press.)
War is ugly, no doubt, especially in a mosquito infested land 10,000 miles away. I think the reporters were uniquely unfit to report factually about "war" in general, and their editors were unfit to exercise editorial work, and because of it the enemy was aided, the war extended and many good people did not return. Those that did were "greeted" with bile.
The truth is, there was no watchdog on the media then, no one to question or make them retract false statements. Now we have multiple media sources (which troubles liberal Democrats no end) and finally some sort of leash on how far a few editors in NY and DC can lead us. This is good, very good. Accountability is always good.
As much as I detest O'Reilly's personality, I think it's very good to have someone stand up and ridicule the NYT on a weekly and sometimes daily basis, call them pinheads (oops, that would be an ad hominem attack!) and keep them accountable. The same thing is happening to Hollywood with its media power. This is all good, although it appears to be polarizing in the first instance. As any student of Marxism knows, dialectical materialism requires that thesis be countered (polarized) by antithesis to reach synthesis, probably the only idea from Marx and Engels to survive the ash heap of history.
Kb |
