Thursday, June 24, 2010
General McChrystal
As we all know a recent General of ours McChrystal was let go from the force on Wednesday for an article that appeared in the Rolling Stone Magazine. He was accused of wrong sayings about the adminstrative and he didn't necessarily say anything bad about Obama but he pretty much lead people to believe he wasn't supportive of his decisions. My whole thing with this is one why would a reporter follow a man that yes is human like all of us and does make mistakes write about this when he is serving our country. I understand the job of a reporter is to get the story but sometimes like this one getting a story caused a man his job and reputaion. On the otherhand I don't see why McChrystal didn't ask him to leave, I would never want someone following me around knowing that they are looking for me to slip up and say or do anything that will help them but hurt me. Especially right with all the things that are going on over seas I just think that it's crazy to let a general go who was trying to help our soldiers over a story that was published in the magazine. Just like everything else, it always blows over. I don't agree with him loosing his job over this and if I was the reporter write now I would feel terrible about what I have just cost this man. We all have our opinions on government issues and even though he was a General and just because he did one mistake by voicing his opinion I don't think its right at all. We need all the help we can get over seas and this to me was silly on our part to let him go.
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I agree that Gen. McCrystal definitely had a lapse in strategy when he allowed a Rolling Stone reporter to be included during gatherings where everyone felt safe to "let their hair down." The reporter had been embedded with him and his staff for about a year and must have proven to some degree that he was trustworthy with the things he witnessed. But the nature of mass media is to obtain stories that will sell, capture a large audience. I wonder if advertisers will flock to "Rolling Stone" now.
ReplyDeleteWe got a great story out of all of this. Did it hurt a lot of people? Yes. Did it hurt our country? Probably. However the whole point of an embedded journalist it to get the inside story. McCrystal was very much aware he was there, and approved of having him there. This is a tough one. If journalists didn't have the guts this one did, we would know ANYTHING about our government. I'm so torn. Maybe the reporter should have used better judgment when paraphrasing? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteya a man should be able to voice his opinions about anything. what happened to free speech? i understand he's a general serving over seas so he should be "required" to agree with what the presidents telling him and his troops to do but dude... he's not doing anything wrong over there. he's serving america. why isn't that enough. so he doesn't agree with all of it, he's still doing it. but enough defending him, he is an idiot for not telling the reporter to leave. so he slightly deserves what he got
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