An intelligent reader of the general press should, presumably, be able to learn the state of our military. Twelve years of military journalism have persuaded me that he cannot. The chief obstacle to understanding, unsurprisingly, is the press itself. But the problem is not so much the press’s political bias, which conservatives have so frequently criticized, as its institutional incompetence. Conveying the extent of the problem is difficult because most people, never having been exposed to accurate military journalism, do not know that a problem exists. Yet I have seldom investigated a military story without discovering the published accounts to be badly confused.
As an example, consider the following, encountered while studying Divad, the Army’s now-canceled anti-aircraft gun. These incidents are not unusual: I could adduce a similar list for almost any story I have covered.
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