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The reticent ethos had its flaws. But the exposure ethos, with its relentless emphasis on destroying privacy and exposing impurities, has chased good people from public life, undermined public faith in institutions and elevated the trivial over the important.
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Yes. It's chased both good and bad people from public life. When you expose every character flaw to the light of day it's difficult for the masses to determine if the person in question should be pilloried or excused.
Everyone is flawed in one way or another. Sometimes those flaws are exposed at the worst possible time.
Up until now McChrystal had pretty much been the darling of the media. Quick to give interviews, articulate, dashing and energetic. Then he steps on an IRD (improvised reporter device) and Kablooey!