The Press at War

On The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal Website, James Q. Wilson asks, “What ever happened to patriotic reporters?”, and first exmines what World War II would have looked like if it were filtered through the mindset of today’s reporters: “After President Truman authorizes dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, many newspapers urge his impeachment.” Then Wilson explores how today’s reporters developed that mindset in Vietnam, shattering several myths and conventional wisdom about the coverage of Vietnam prior to around the time of the Tet Offensive, along the way.

Finally, Wilson concludes, “Most of what I have said here is common knowledge”, and it will be if you’re a regular reader of this blog and others in the Pajamasphere. But the read the whole thing, nonetheless. It’s a great round-up of how the elite media got its contempt for America on, and how that impacts the nation itself, both home and abroad.

Update: This is DNN!

Another Update: Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, adds that when it comes to Iraq, “What [Americans] constantly get on television and newspapers is a failure narrative. They hear body counts, they don’t hear about successes.”