I agree completely with the last two posts. (And let me say that The Big Story is a superb, and a very important study, that's important not only in terms of the history of Vietnam but also as a study of mistakes the press should guard against when covering any war. I still assign it to the graduate students I work with, some of whom come over from our J-School, and it's a crying shame it's gone out of print. Anyone reading it will come away as a better reader-of-press-coverage.)

But let me also just point out that there are reporters covering this war who are very professional, well informed, and fair, and whose stuff is always well worth reading. I haven't quite figured out how to embed links yet, but it should be a fairly easy matter to Google the reports filed by UPI's Pamela Hess during the recent nine weeks or so she spent reporting out of Iraq -- note particularly the stories she filed out of Anbar. (Since this started with a discussion of IO, look esp. for the story she filed about the Major who tried all measure of media to get his unit's IO messages across, leaflets, radio, TV -- nothing worked. Then one day he was listening to the call to prayer when it finally hit him -- LOUDSPEAKERS.)