The Great Shark Hunt

According to K-Lo at The Corner, Saint Michael supports the boycott of TNR advertisers because TNR has not recanted the Beauchamp story.

Michael Yon e-mails:

I intend to support the boycott being launched by Bob Owens. Boycotts against the media have proven effective: I launched one myself last year against a magazine that misused one of my photos and misrepresented me. That magazine collapsed.

The New Republic needs to be the latest example that the good old days of no-accountability are ending. They attacked American soldiers during a time of war, and they attacked those soldiers without justification. I happen to be in Baghdad with some of the soldiers they attacked. These soldiers have enough challenges with urban combat that they should not have to watch their backs for concern of irresponsible publications stabbing them.

And I thought Yon jumped the shark with his baked child AQ story. The single, unsubstantiated source story. Jesus! I wonder if its too much Wild Turkey and Brown Acid?

NEXT DIVERSION: Boycotting magazines who won’t print all the news the Right deems fit.

So let me understand this:

1. No AQ link
2. No WMD’s
3 No WMD active programs
4. Mission Accomplished!
5. Sending the ENTIRE Iraqi Army home WITH weapons!
6. Unguarded ammunition supplies
7. A resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.
8. Abrogation of the 4th Amendment to save us from a bunch of guys with no state, no army, and no missiles … Jesus, Mary and Joseph—my head is ready to explode! What have we become? A nation of pussies?

OK—now what am I missing here? Who stabbed these guys in the back? Holy mackerel Andy! Where the Hell is my flag lapel pin? DO NOT TAKE THE BROWN ACID! We have evidence the Brown Acid is bad.

Say Goodnight Gracie. The Great Shark Hunt continues!

Pudding

Michael Yon wrote:

No journalist who comes to this war with the intention of seriously covering it over the long term can also realistically hold any expectation of returning home unscathed. It’s that dangerous here.

I suggest some reporting from Basra. Now that our Coalition allies have repositioned themselves from the downtown area, declaring local Iraqis capable of providing Security, it would be interesting to hear how well things are going. Isn't Basra the future of Iraq? Methinks that be the case.

Rorschach Journalism at its finest

Michael Yon's fine reporting continues with a Memorial Day message. Yon's excellent first-hand accounts of firefights can be quite compelling. The comments section of a Yon post interest me for another reason. His comment section reads like the collected responses of a large group of people participating in a Rorschach journalism quiz. Each person sees in Yon's post what they want to see. Anything outside of their own narrow world view must be immediately shot down or disavowed. Faithful commenters were outraged when Yon suggested a civil war was underway. Others balked when he suggested that the surge may in fact be working.

Whether or not Yon's analysis is accurate almost seems irrelevant to me. I read his posts eagerly to consume the vibrant flavor of his delicious and vivid reporting. It is the factual portion of his postings that are truly remarkable. He frequently captures the personal and intense nature of combat. Don't come to the table without an appetite for harrowing and heart wrenching detail. The entree Yon serves satisfies my intellectual curiosity for news about the guys on the ground.

If you want your pre-conceived notions about the Iraq War confirmed by Yon stop reading the moment you feel uncomfortable. He does not report want he thinks you want to hear. He reports what he sees. As I wrote earlier, he does interject commentary, but if you read him long enough he is not coming from a particular partisan point of view. His point of view is that of a professional soldier. (Yon served in Army Special Forces.) 1. What is the mission? 2. How are we doing? He is very tough on the military brass and has frequently criticized their shortcomings. For the most part I have read little criticism of the mainstream media and political leaders by Yon.