Reporter discovers soldiers aren't blood-thirsty maniacs

Myrna Blyth on First Amendment Breakfast on National Review Online

Guess what Mary Beth Sheridan, a reporter from the Washington Post, learned when she was embedded with our troops in Iraq?...

File this under "Reporters Who Need to Meet More People".

Actually, the article covers double ground, looking at the tug of war between duties as a reporter vs. duties as a citizen, as well as the tendency of reporters to hang onto assumptions that would suffer some serious jolts if the reporter got out and actually met more people outside his or her regular circle.

I know something about this. The newspaper I worked at in my earnest youth used to shuffle us around to different beats from time to time. The news editor was not always forthcoming on why she was doing this, but as I got older I suspected that she could smell when someone's usual sources were getting the reporter too well trained.