I tend to agree with the Colonel.
In general, I feel that reporters are looking for a story that reinforces their personal feelings, or those of their boss. The agendas are first and reporting is second. Look at Abu Ghraib. American soldiers are hazing prisoners. Maybe they were being humiliated, maybe they just said that.
There are too few Joe Galloways and Ernie Pyles out there today.
I would not give an interview if I were on Active Duty. A lot of bad things can happen, and not too many good ones. I saw a buddy of mine who was a CSM during the combat phase of OIF take about ten questions from a reporter who had been imbedded with him and who rode in his vehicle throughout the invasion. For ten questions, I think he used eleven words to reply, if you took out the "Sirs". The reporter never interviewed him again, That looked like a good plan to me. 
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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