There is a new era of news gathering on the horizon, and it is being ushered in by the Internet. Web logs—or blogs—are gaining a large following of folks who see them as the ground truth, a way to fact check the mainstream press, and many of these sites offer daily, unfiltered coverage of what's going on in Iraq.
More than 200 years ago, Thomas Paine wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands in NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
Paine penned these words in the "Black Days" of the winter of 1776-77, as he crossed New Jersey with George Washington in full retreat from the devastating defeats in New York. Finding "nothing in circulation but fears and falsehoods," he sat down and wrote The American Crisis, in a "passion of patriotism." He wrote out of necessity, seeking an outlet to fill the void he so believed needed to be filled, offering an alternative to the mainstream press of the day.
He may have been America's first blogger.
You will find in today's mainstream press (including televised media) the same sort of "fears and falsehoods." The regrettable spectacle of Abu Ghraib is replayed and repackaged, even wandering its way into movie and restaurant reviews. Callous comparisons to Auschwitz and My Lai are not uncommon. Our newspapers and TV news programs are blacker and bleaker than ever, and their version of American Idol is Jessica Lynch, the victim. The bottom line is that the credibility of the mainstream press is at its lowest.
So how do we find out about a Marine captain who received the Navy Cross? How do we find the real story of the brilliance of the Marine operation in Fallujah. How do we know the true feelings of the soldiers on the ground, or what the Iraqis think? Did the President really say that? How do we fact check The New York Times and The Washington Post!
A Marine writes,
I will close with something that was on my mind this morning when I punished myself by watching CBS news. I saw the anchor come on and just before he spoke, I told my rack mate, "Let's see what the opening line is going to be." Sure enough . . . he said, "It just keeps getting worse and worse." Yes, he was talking about Iraq. Honest to God, we laughed at him.
Another Marine:
We're reading that everyone back home is starting to lose faith in our efforts in Iraq. The last CBS poll put the numbers under 50% for the first time. I know that doesn't mean a loss in support for the troops, but supporting "the troops" while not supporting the mission doesn't do much for us.
The Marines are in high spirits. The troops in Fallujah are doing what Marines do best, and they're true professionals. Everyone else is driving forward, wondering what all the fuss back home is all about. We don't feel that we're losing anything. In fact, we're finally addressing issues that should have been addressed some time ago.
Some time ago, I opined at a Surface Navy Association symposium that from the Navy point of view in the North Arabian Sea, "the war was being fought on chat," meaning that a wealth of information was being conversed real time on the internet connection between ships in the battle group. We are ushering in a new paradigm in how we gather the news.
The advent of "web logs"-more commonly referred to as blogs-is causing great concern in the mainstream media, who often dismiss them as "amateur journalism." But amateur or not, blogs are building a following that grows by leaps and bounds every day. Most of the initiated see them as ground truth, used to fact check the mainstream press. Some blogs even are devoted to exposing the "fears and falsehoods" perpetuated in print and on television. For example:
A defensive Dan Rather went on the air Friday to complain of what he called a "counterattack" from "partisan political operatives." In reality, traditional journalism now has a new set of watchdogs in the "blogosphere." In the words of blogger Mickey Kaus, they can trade information and publicize it "fast enough to have real-world consequences." Sure, blogs can be transmission belts for errors, vicious gossip, and last-minute disinformation efforts. But they can also correct themselves almost instantaneously-in sharp contrast with CBS's stonewalling.
Indeed.
The above quotes are from my favorite blog, www.instapundit.com. This indispensable resource by Glenn Reynolds takes the reader through the gamut of blogs, military and civilian, liberal and conservative, U.S. and foreign. Glenn is a law professor at the University of Tennessee. Like most bloggers, he has his opinion, but he is unafraid to link to opposing views. If you want to read up on (or rather, be linked to where you can read up on) Sandy Berger, the war in Iraq, the new Mazda RX-8, or the current news de jour, you can find it at www.instapundit.com. If you can't find what you're looking for on Glenn's site, he has, as do nearly all bloggers, a "blog roll" that links to tons of bloggers, both big and small. He has a huge (200,000 hits a day) and loyal following. And while all those subjects I mentioned (and much, much more) are covered, you can scroll the blog and pick and chose to the exclusion of all else.
Through Glenn's site, I found www.iraqthemodel.com, www.soundfury.us, and the must-read www.hammorabi.blogspot.com, three Iraqi blogs that offer daily coverage of what is going on inside Iraq. From them I found www.healingiraq.blogspot.com and www.iraqataglance.blogspot.com. From the latter, I found this:
I heard that the governor of Basra promised to arrest and punish anyone trying to breach the peace in the city (pointing to Muqtada's thugs). Basra is now safe and secure.
You won't read that in The New York Times. The iraqataglance site also has a blog roll of Iraqi bloggers. If someone is feeling low over the latest drumming the Iraq war is taking in the press, this usually is where I send him. It is not sugarcoated pabulum but firsthand reporting from Iraqi citizens, unfiltered and unadorned. How do Iraqis feel about Abu Ghraib or Sadr or the murder of Nick Berg? Find out at these two sites. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz quoted two of these Iraqi bloggers in his recent column in the Wall Street Journal.
James Lileks (www.lileks.com) and Citizen Smash (www.indepundit.com) are two more favorites of mine. Lileks mixes musings about his daughter "Gnat" with political, social, and media-related commentary. Citizen Smash served in Iraq and is now home. He is among those called "milblogs," and he has a pretty good list of others on his site. On milblogs such as www.blackfive.net/main/, www.sgtstryker.com, and www.chiefwiggles.com you will find unfiltered "this is what it's really like over here" comment from some pretty savvy grunts, soldiers, and airman. From a gunnery sergeant in Iraq on www.strategypage.com:
Almost all of the Iraqis I have spoken to say they want us to stay for several years until the restoration is well on its way and the radical terrorists and criminals are dealt with. The Iraqi police officers we are training say the same thing. During our transition of authority and responsibility here at the Academy, they keep asking us to stay and keep teaching the students, and not to turn everything over to the Iraqi Police administration. I then explain that this is their country and it is their responsibility to run their own institutions. They say they agree with this, but still want us to stay and continue teaching, providing security, leadership, and counsel.
Several blogs offer high-level views of Iraq. Strategypage.com is one, but one I have found that is a must read is www.belmontclub.blogspot.com. Do you want to know what really happened in Fallujah? I suggest Belmont Club. Search its archives about the time of the Sadr uprising (April 2004) and read on. It is a remarkable account of Marine sophistication in 21st-century warfare. On the Navy/Marine Corps stadium façade is an honor roll of Navy and Marine Corps battles. I predict that once all know the truth of what happened there, we will see "Fallujah" on that honor roll.
There are hundreds of blogs out there, some indispensable and worth multiple visits a day, and some not so worthy. There are blogs to the left, blogs in the middle, and blogs to the right, and some blogs that defy categorization. Others are technically oriented or serve those with a particular interest. But whatever your bent, there is a blog out there for you. I suspect that, unless things change dramatically in the mainstream press, the blogs will bury them.
Captain Nichols, a 1978 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, works for the Secretary of the Navy on Base Realignment and Closure and lives in Annapolis, Maryland. He hasn't watched a televised news program in years.