The War Briefing
Frontline’s latest is on tonight. You’ll find my full review at Pajamasmedia. Preview vid and press materials here. Quick take:
There are things to love and things to be annoyed with in this Frontline effort, which fails to live up to its promise. The embed footage … running ridgelines, into the villages, local interaction and combat … is very good, especially since we don’t see that much of it out of Afghanistan. The quick review of conventional wisdom, lay-of-the-land is OK, even useful. The oddly Obamist dismissal of Iraq as a distraction, the off-the-shelf media doom/gloom-mongering, ignoring positive indicators and critical information to the point of distortion and lacking any meaningful discussion of where we go from here … just sad.
As I said in a double negative that kind of ended up tripping over itself:
That doesn’t mean that Frontline, as usual, isn’t worth watching, when it is pretty much all we get in terms of serious mass media efforts to understand the conflicts in which we’re engaged.
That is supposed to mean that, as usual, it is worth watching. BYO skepticism, back story, indomitable optimism, sense that somehow, some way, we have to make this work. And we will.
Here’s a little BYO. via Small Wars Journal, WPost’s Ignatius and “Tea with the Taliban?“; LA Times, Spec Ops to A’stan to target worst of the worst.
AFP: Paks, Afghans agree to talks with the Taliban.
IHT oped: The enemy is not India. To attack insurgency, terrorism in Pakistan, the Paks need to get over it.
Recent BYO at this site:
(Note the Frontline ad at right. I have endeavored not to let the modest advertising fee influence my thinking.)
Topics: Afghanistan, media
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:32 am on Tuesday, October 28, 2008
2 Responses to “The War Briefing”
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October 28th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I guess what you’re saying is, at least they try. Which is true. Not good enough by half, but they do try.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
They do some good work. In “Rules of Engagement,” when everyone else was quietly dropping the subject, they looked at the ugly truth of Haditha … it wasn’t a war crime. The fact is there are not many people doing what they do. If I can influence them positively, good. If you and other readers/viewers can, better. Watch, write, email.