The Belmont Club: Who is a journalist? Wretchar thinks: "Ranting Profs comes close to the essential issue when observing: 'Finally, there's a recognition that the enemy is engaged in information operations, that there needs to be some critical reflection regarding what they do and how they do it, that there's a strategy underlying their behavior. On the other hand, that's treated with equivalence to information ops American forces engage in. The difference is American forces are trying to influence the way articles are placed by, you know, influencing the way articles are placed, while the enemy are trying to influence the way articles are placed by staging events -- meaning by killing people. It ain't quite the same thing.'"

There is a Moral Hazard in a Free Press.

Reporting on the war can be rated on a scale of Propaganda for the war -- thru balanced -- thru Propaganda against the war. The minimum US casualties occur in Public Relations for the war, the maximum in PR against the war.

I support balance, but this means more casualties than Pro-war PR. The anti-war critics don't want to face the truth about the effects of the PR against the war.