The BBC

I was contacted a week ago by BBC Radio 5 via e-mail and asked for an interview.  I have received several requests before from others and did not respond as I did not want the attention to my blog that getting approved for an interview would bring.  However, things were a little slow at that time and I had already found out that my higher command knew about this blog, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.  I contacted my public affairs officer and they inspected my blog and figured it would be ok.  Being on the intelligence side in an infantry unit, I pretty much avoid the press anyway, as a lot of the things I know, I cannot talk about.  By the time the PAO did approve the interview, the program had already aired on the BBC, but they decided to go ahead with the interview anyway, for a possible follow up to the show. 

The interview was unfortunately what I have come to expect from the BBC and the MSM in general.  Mostly negative, leading questions about the situation here, why people here feel their dignity is being violated by house searches, etc.  Ross, my interviewer, also asked why so many bloggers think the press has it wrong.  I told him that it was because they only covered a tiny percentage of the whole story.  They never talk about the reconstruction projects underway, the smiles, the many people who thank us for giving them their country back and beg us not to leave too soon, the warm greetings and the kids that run out to our Guntrucks waving whenever we drive by.  I told him that I am well aware the fact that in modern journalism, "if it bleeds it leads."  Part of the problem is that although I am in one of the hotter areas of Baghdad, we see very few journalists around here.  Most of the time, they stay in the comfort and relative safety in their hotels in and around the green zone broadcasting from their balconies surrounded by private security.  They only come here for large operations and leave shortly thereafter. 

Yes, there is awful carnage here.  Sometimes it is heavy, but most of the time it is pretty light.  The carnage here is only a small piece of the story in certain areas of the country.  I also explained to him the 3 P's, and the reality of the fact that most of us on the "front lines" - as if there were such a thing, have yet to fire a shot.  I was slightly irritated by the line of questioning and its underlying presuppositions, but I made sure that I focused on the first 2 of the 3 P's, and ended the interview pleasantly.  Although he is north of here in Mosul,  Michael Yon is a journalist that I consider one of the good guys.  That is probably why he is a freelancer and not beholden to anyone.  I like that.  Check him out.  Hat tip:  Michelle Malkin.

Comments

[steve t]

Your "Rock Star" status continues. Another mention on Hugh Hewitt's radio show today along with a reference and link on his blog. Now the BBC? Do they have paparazzi in Iraq? Watch out bro!

[E. T.]

Michael Yon is an excellent news reporter, and is also former Special Forces. This significantly adds to his credibility.

[Curt]

It's great to see you had the opportunity to present a reasoned view point to them. Hopefully, someone in their profession heard you loud and clear...

Great job!

[Soldier's Dad]

Maj,

Cowards will always find a reason to justify their cowardice. The world knows what brave looks like. The press will never report it.

Stay Safe.

[Greta Perry]

I am so glad to see that you & your blog are getting the exposure you deserve. Also thrilled that the "higher-ups" approved of the interview. Can't wait to see you on FOX news when your retire!

[Some Soldier's Mom]

Good for you for following the first 2P's... and taking the high road while making a point. I'll hold opinion until the EDITED interview airs (if ever). Isn't anyone out there in the MSM really fair and balanced any more?

[Don Cox]

I think the basic argument of the MSM and like-minded folk is that war is the ultimate evil, nothing is worse than war, war is never justified. The argument of the coalition is that living under Saddam is worse than war, so the invasion was the lesser evil.

This can only be settled by asking Iraqis in ten or twenty years time whether it was worth while.

[paul]

Major,

Perhaps the BBC is just trying to provide the world with information that is not viewed through Red, White, and Blue glasses. As you have stated in this posting and I have read in other blogs. http://thisisyourwar.blogspot.com/ The powers that be are now monitoring and sensoring these blogs. The truth is a scary thing if it does not conform to the U.S. governments interpretation of it. Just ask the Tillman family. Good luck and stay safe.

[Rob]

Major- Not to beat the obvious dead horse, but the media's take on the war is sensationalistic, biased, but most importantly- Immediate and temporary.

The blogs will be turned into books, the soldiers will email and save what they have written, and if history repeats itself- (as it always does) These things will become the lasting record of the war.

Lazy Historians will argue the more obvious points of grand strategy, but the soldier's perspective is where you find the details.

[Subsunk]

Good for you. Telling the truth has no end. I don't find it in the newspaper. I only trust it when it comes from men who have been there and served their country throughout.

Be careful out there. Find the bad guys. Support the good guys. Press on, to Victory.

Subsunk

[David Oatney]

Major K;
Maybe you really should give Fox News a try...at least in the sense that perhaps you should grant THEM an interview. I believe they'd give you a fair shake...

I also believe you'd be a great FOX correspondent.

[Ben]

What's a shame to me is that journalists miss the more compelling, long-term story: how the U.S. is developing its strategy for building and exporting security, which Thomas P.M. Barnett talks about at length in "The Pentagon's New Map".

I'm deploying next week to Iraq. I'm looking forward to putting my own eyes on the situation.

By the way, Major K, your blog is great. It keeps the politics to a minimum, unlike a lot of other war blogs out there right now.

[thechurchmilitant]

Congratulations on your promotion to the rank of international media star. Don't worry about how your efforts are reported - the truth will out in the end.
Keep up the good work.

[g]

Wow... this is a timely entry. Check out this article on the Public's confidence in MSM....

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000954852

Also notice what it has to say about confidence in the Military.....

[YankeePaPa13]

..Atta Boy Major K...Another one for the good guys..All I wanted to say is Semper Fi..You are doing a fine job..and your posts catch more than the attention of 'outside' or 'media sources'..your fellow soldiers and Marines also look in ..Keep up the good work ..

[Huntress]

An MSM interview with underlying pre assumptions about Iraq, the war on terror, and the military in general...who'd a thunk!

MSM...Myopic Senseless Morons.

I've been a fan of Michael Yon's blog for a while now. "Danger Close" is on my reading list.

Stay safe!

[Paul5388]

MAJ,

I really enjoyed Michael Yon! Maybe too much, since I was up past 0200 reading his blog. He had some very good insights into the workings of us getting the "news" from your part of the world through the MSM.

Stay safe and keep up the good work!

[Annette]

The link posted by "g" is very interesting. While public confidence in the media dropped to 28%, the military held the highest rate of public confidence of all groups at an impressive 74%. What this tells me is that John Doe public is not buying into all of the BS the media spills about the military effort. Many in the MSM want to paint Iraq as another Vietnam and don't hardly even mention Afghanistan anymore. Unfortunately for them, during Vietnam we did not have the internet.

[Enjoy the Stay]

Awww, poor widdle Major K picked on by that nasty mainsteam media? Awww. Guess what, bub? The wheels are starting to fall off:

RALEIGH, N.C. - U.S. Rep. Walter Jones co-sponsored a nonbinding resolution Wednesday that he said allows President Bush to plan for reducing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Republican congressman said the resolution does not set a firm date for withdrawal, but instead allows the president to make plans for that eventuality.
"This approach would given the president the flexibility he needs to reduce our presence in a way that protects U.S. troops and allows Iraqis to pick up the fight," Jones said in a news release. "No one is talking about 'cutting and running.'"
Jones, the congressman who coined the term "freedom fries" as a show of support for the war in Iraq, had said Sunday on ABC-TV's "This Week" that the reason for invading Iraq - weapons of mass destruction - has proved false.
"When I look at the number of men and women who have been killed - it's almost 1,700 now, in addition to close to 12,000 have been severely wounded - and I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there," Jones said on the show.

Now, he said, "I feel that we've done about as much as we can do."

AND---

BAGHDAD (AP) — A U.S. Army staff sergeant was charged with murder in connection with last week's shooting deaths of two Army officers at a base outside Baghdad, the military said Thursday.
Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, 37, a supply specialist with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 42nd Infantry Division, New York Army National Guard, was charged Wednesday in connection with the June 7 deaths of the two officers at Forward Operating Base Danger, near Tikrit — Saddam Hussein's hometown 80 miles north of Baghdad.

The officers killed were Capt. Phillip T. Esposito, 30, of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen, 34, of Milford, Pa. Esposito was company commander and Allen served as a company operations officer.

The soldiers were killed in what the military first believed was an "indirect fire" attack on the base. An indirect fire attack involves enemy artillery or mortar rounds fired from a location some distance away.

The military initially concluded that a mortar round struck a window on the side of the building where Esposito and Allen were.

But a criminal investigation was launched after it was determined that the "blast pattern" at the scene was inconsistent with a mortar attack.

Martinez was charged with two counts of premeditated murder, said a statement by the Multinational Task Force in Iraq. Martinez currently is at a military detention facility in Kuwait.

This is at least the second incident in which a U.S. soldier has been charged with killing his comrades. In April, a sergeant in the Army's 101st Airborne Division was convicted of murder and attempted murder for a grenade and rifle attack that killed two officers and wounded 14 soldiers in Kuwait during the opening days of the Iraq invasion in 2003.