Thought these may be of interest to some on here:
Thomas E. Ricks has spent nearly thirty years in the field, covering violent conflicts from Somalia to Afghanistan, and he has been a member of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams. After nearly ten years at the paper, he remains loosely affiliated with The Washington Post as a special military correspondent (he took a buyout last year), and is also the author of a blog, The Best Defense. His two books on Iraq are classics.
But in our new cover story, Tara McKelvey wonders if he has grown so close to the new military establishment and their counterinsurgency strategies in both Iraq and Afghanistan that he is more spokesman for them than skeptical journalist.
Meanwhile, the quantity and quality of reporting on Iraq and Iran is threatened, and diminishing resources are not the only problem. The military has changed. The military-journalist relationship in Iraq, for example, got better around 2006 under the command of General David Petraeus, who wanted officers talking to the press, partly as a way to explain his approach to counterinsurgency. But the window is closing. In the editorial in the September/October issue, we ask why.

Cover Story — September / October 2009
Too Close for Comfort?
Tom Ricks and the military’s new philosophical embeds
By Tara McKelvey
http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/too_c...t.php?page=all

Editorial — September / October 2009
Truth? Yes, Sir!
Why we need a clearer view of both our wars
By The Editors
http://www.cjr.org/editorial/truth_yes_sir.php