Blackfive On The Difference Between MSM and Milbloggers, Even When Trying To Report

[Annie]

Links and more at site:

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/08/honor_what_they.html

Stealing Their Honor

"Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media for they will steal your honor." - Bobby McBride, Crew Chief, 128th Assault Helicopter Company, RVN 1969-1970​

Over five months ago, the Vox Day column at WorldNetDaily clearly identified the difference between Military Blogs and much of the Main Stream Media and the left wing:

...The Left has never had any regard for the individual, no respect for his rights or his life. The supremacy of the collective is the heart of their creed, so what are the lives of a thousand soldiers, of their 10,000 grief-stricken friends and families, except cannon fodder in the Left's long march toward lethal socialist utopia?
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The difference between the legacy reporting on military casualties – where it's little more than a numbers game – and the milblogs is significant. Whereas the legacy stories almost always attempt to spin the families' grief into a political weapon, those recounted at sites like Blackfive's focus on the individual himself, his life and what he meant to those who loved him. And the loss of these fine young men is all the more heart-breaking when you see the pictures of them with their little boys and girls.

Unlike the legacy media, the milblogs also regularly devote time and space to the casualties who are not fatalities, chronicling the painful recoveries of those who have survived but suffer from what are all-too-often permanent injuries. They don't just wallow in the pathos either, but they encourage their readers to act and ensure that these wounded warriors are not forgotten in their convalescence.

To be sure, one need only visit a milblog to see that much of their material is derived from the small local papers that still take note of the soldiers in their midst. But those humble purveyors of community news are not the journalistic elite that considers itself more loyal to the United Nations than to America and regard America's defenders as the enemy...

To this day, only a few writers other than Vox have nailed this concept so accurately (thanks, Vox). The proof is not only in the reporting and editorials from elite media sources like the NYTimes but is also clearly evident on the left side of the blogosphere. Seeking to marginalize the accomplishments of military men and women and the sacrifices that they have made, the left hopes to change this war into Iraqetnam. Here's just one proposal from dataguy at the Daily Kos:...