Transparency

Michael Totten, recently embedded with US Army units in Iraq, has an interesting article over at commentarymagazine.com about what the Army wants you to see.

Some colleagues, readers, and friends have suggested the dispatches I published from Iraq as an embedded reporter might not be reliable, even if true, because I only saw what the United States Army wanted me to see. CBS news anchor Katie Couric said as much about her own coverage when she first arrived in Baghdad in September.

I’ve had the same thoughts myself, and I quietly wondered if I should disclose them. I chose not to, though, because my experience, as it turned out, didn’t actually warrant it.

Go read what convinced him that the Army was not manipulating his experience in order to make things look rosy over there.