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Saturday, June 14, 2014

Manning Up at 'NYT'

Well, didn't expect to see a Chelsea Manning op-ed at the Times tonight but here you go.  Mainly on journalists and the "embed"  (or "in bed") program.  (Our updated book on Manning.)  From the  "Fog Machine of War" op-ed: 
Among the many daily reports I received via email while working in Iraq in 2009 and 2010 was an internal public affairs briefing that listed recently published news articles about the American mission in Iraq. One of my regular tasks was to provide, for the public affairs summary read by the command in eastern Baghdad, a single-sentence description of each issue covered, complementing our analysis with local intelligence.
The more I made these daily comparisons between the news back in the States and the military and diplomatic reports available to me as an analyst, the more aware I became of the disparity. In contrast to the solid, nuanced briefings we created on the ground, the news available to the public was flooded with foggy speculation and simplifications.

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