Censoring Iraq

A thought provoking piece by Michael Yon, titled "Censoring Iraq" appears in this week's edition of The Weekly Standard.

If the media battlespace is crucial in winning a counterinsurgency, then it's obvious our enemies are destroying us. But who is to blame for this? The truth may surprise you.

Many blame the media for the estrangement, but part of the blame rests squarely on the chip-laden shoulders of key military officers and on the often clueless Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad, which doesn't manage the media so much as manhandle them. Most military public affairs officers are professionals dedicated to their jobs, but it takes only a few well-placed incompetents to cripple our ability to match and trump al Sahab. By enabling incompetence, the Pentagon has allowed the problem to fester to the point of censorship.

Read "Censoring Iraq"

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On Censorship, CPIC and Lt.Col Barry Johnson

Dadmanly offers an insightful commentary on Mike Yon's anticipated piece on military censorship.

Yon introduces his detailed critique with as good a description of the Media War, and the dangers posed to the successful execution of that war, by over-eager, incompetent, or turf-jealous bureaucracy.

Yon is a very influential and respected representative of new media, and he’s linked and referenced regularly by CENTCOM PAO, Army Times, and many other official, quasi-official, and DoD-friendly and DoD approved organizations. If he’s getting this frustrated, as a friend of the military, one can only imagine how difficult it might be for an otherwise adversarial media. Not that I necessarily mind that consequence in specific instances (C N N), but still.

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