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Profile: Michael Yon

Jan-21-2008 » Filed Under: General Military

The New York Times has an in-depth profile of independent journalist Mike Yon in today's paper. Excerpt:

Michael Yon was not a journalist, and he wasn’t sure what a blogger was. He had been in uniform but not in combat, and he wanted to keep it that way. He went to Iraq thinking he would stay for a month, and maybe find a way to write about the war after he got home.

Instead, he has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, writing prolifically and graphically, and racking up more time embedded with combat units than any other journalist, according to the United States military. He has been shot at, buffeted by explosions and seen more people maimed — fighters and civilians, adults and children — than he can count.

“The easiest thing in the world to write about is combat, because all the drama is there,” said Mr. Yon, a fit, ruddy-faced 43-year-old who was a Special Forces soldier more than two decades ago. He insists that he still does not really know the rules of journalism, but says he has recently, grudgingly, accepted that he has become a journalist.


Comments For "Profile: Michael Yon":

Yon acknowledges in the article what was obvious all along: he has intentionally under-reported discouraging news for the sake of maintaining soldier and family morale.

He acknowledges that at the time of his arrival in Mosul - December 2004 - US forces around Mosul were losing the counterinsurgency campaign. For those of us in the extended Stryker family, this is not a trivial detail; this was the period immediately after 1/25 relieved 3/2. It begs the question: who was failing? Was it elements of 3/2, elements of 1/25, or both?

That he withheld these concerns from Army families and the American public is - in my view - unforgiveable conduct, a betrayal of trust. A lie of omission is a lie.

Posted by: currahee [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 24, 2008 4:53 AM

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