Thursday, April 10, 2003

Just Asking

One of the reasons our military is so good is that it has institutionalized self-criticism. Win or lose, battle or wargame, everything gets analyzed-- what worked, what didn't, etc. I wonder if any media institutions do that. I don't mean the yapping about pro-war bias due to embedding, or the relative severity of Geraldo's sins compared to Peter Arnett's. I mean hard questions about dubious predictions, breathless scoops that were not true, completely wrong-headed analyses of Iraqi resiliance.

Will J-schools do it? Have they done it for Vietnam? Do 10% of their graduates know why Vietnam was a quagmire? Do 5% know that in 1975 the South fell to an armored blitzkrieg like Poland and not to a pajama clad VC?

No comments: