Pete Nickeas

This whole Hastings / Rolling Stone / McChrystal flap is bringing about a lot of good journalism discussions.

But on Sunday, bored for about 15 minutes, I turned on CNN and heard a CBS correspondent acknowledge her “unspoken agreement” with the people she covers: she won’t “embarrass them by reporting insults and banter.”

Background… Michael Hastings’ much discussed profile of (former?) Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Here’s the excerpted transcript … … …

KURTZ: When you are out with the troops and you’re living together and sleeping together, is there an unspoken agreement –
LOGAN: Absolutely.
KURTZ: — that you’re not going to embarrass them by reporting insults and banter?
LOGAN: Yes.
KURTZ: Tell me about that.
LOGAN: Yes, absolutely. There is an element of trust.

… … …

Element of trust? I’m sorry. Maybe this is a TV thing? I don’t know. I don’t know of this “element of trust” she speaks of that gives reporters a “don’t embarrass my sources” card.

I mean, if someone tells you off the record and you say “yea, off the record,” then that stays between you. There is certainly an element of trust between sources and reporters in that regard.

Unless you establish ground rules (as suggested here by Tom Ricks), and you say / do something stupid in plain sight of a reporter,  why would that not be reported? Why SHOULD that not be reported?

To be fair, Logan continued with another point after saying “there is an element of trust.”

CONTINUING… … …

LOGAN: And what I find is the most telling thing about what Michael Hastings said in your interview is that he talked about his manner as pretending to build an illusion of trust and, you know, he’s laid out there what his game is. That is exactly the kind of damaging type of attitude that makes it difficult for reporters who are genuine about what they do, who don’t — I don’t go around in my personal life pretending to be one thing and then being something else. I mean, I find it egregious that anyone would do that in their professional life.

And, I mean, I take that to the point of, even when I plan to interview someone about something difficult, and they want to know the areas of the interview, I might not say, well, we’re going to spend the whole interview on this, but I will list that. I will list that controversial issue.
KURTZ: Because you don’t want to blindside them.
LOGAN: Because I don’t believe in that.

HERE is what she’s referencing from the earlier Hastings interview:

KURTZ: Did the rest of the media, in your view, protect General McChrystal? I mean, there are a lot of glowing profiles about this guy. “Newsweek” called him a “Jedi Warrior.” You come in. You’re not a beat reporter. You’re there to do one piece, and you gave us a very different side of the way the war is being run.
HASTINGS: Oh, I’m positive that that’s the case with General McChrystal. He was a subject of a series of glowing profiles. And there’s — this is actually an interesting journalistic point.

There’s a reason why when General McChrystal took the job, everyone writes a glowing profile of him, because then that assures access later on. And that assures better — if you ever write a favorable story, they’ll get better access later.

And that was a game General McChrystal’s team played very well, that if you get — that if you write us a good story, we’ll give you good access.

They gave unprecedented access to everybody. You know, they let — you know, debriefings. They let you hang out with them. And they try to make you feel like you’re part of the team.

But that’s an illusion. You’re really part of the team. You know?

… … …

To me, it doesn’t sound like Hastings is “pretending to build an illusion of trust.” It sounds like (from Hastings’ answer) that McChrystal was building the illusion throughout the course of these glowing profiles.

But, it is good to know that a CBS reporter dedicated to covering two wars and the ongoing deployment of hundreds of thousands of young people in support of major combat operations, has an “unspoken agreement” to not embarrass the people she covers.  Every time I see a CBS report on the war I’m going to ask myself, “I wonder what information has been left out because of this unspoken agreement not to embarrass people.”

VACATION! Erin & I are going to Denver next weekend for a low-budget honeymoon. Two nights in Denver, a Rockies game, maybe some shopping and whatnot. We’ll see. Pictures to follow.

Speaking of, here are some wedding photos. Shout out to Pat Yeagle, wedding photog extraordinaire, plus good friend and whiskey drinker.

A good read via my colleague Josh, one man’s defense of Michael Hastings’ much discussed profile of (former?) Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Perhaps a more substantive post to follow.

In the meantime, there’s been quite a bit of discussion prompted by Hastings’ profile. I find the AfPak Channel on ForeignPolicy.com to be quite informative.

And Tom Ricks’ blog, too. He guessed that USMC General James Mattis would take over in place of McChrystal, but made his pitch for Gen. David Petraeus, who did eventually replace McChrystal.

But, I’ve been thinking lately.

I don’t know why I’m in the writing mood. I have a lot on my mind (with the wedding and all) but I go through phases.

Anyway, Wyoming is tolerable in the summer / spring. It’s beautiful, for sure. I don’t think anybody would dispute that. We had a chance to see some of the state outside of Casper and outside the I25 corridor.

We tripped out of town for a few minutes a few weeks ago, just to see this reservoir. It was pretty.

It’s something we’ll be doing more of throughout the summer, no doubt.

But winter?

Winter is something else here. Not because it’s cold because, I mean, eff that right? I can deal with cold.

It’s the fact that from late September, early October through early / mid / late May it’s cold, that concerns me. Doing another Wyoming winter — skipping spring and fall, basically — is going to be difficult. I’m used to seasons. I enjoy seasons.

We’ll see what happens.

What better way to dust off this blog than to announce that Erin and I were married this weekend.

It was a beautiful ceremony at the Birdhaven Greenhouse in Joliet. It rained a good chunk of the morning, and on the ride between the wedding and the reception … but the sun was out during the ceremony.

Erin was wearing a stunning ivory dress with muted designs across the midsection. The classy and elegant dress was a reflection on her physical beauty as much as her character.

All the men were wearing gun metal gray tuxedos with white shirts. The groomsmen were wearing green vests, the ushers and our fathers were wearing black, and I was wearing ivory.

The wedding party walked into “Here Comes the Sun,” by the Beatles. Erin was walked up the aisle by her father to the theme song from Forest Gump. When our 10 minute ceremony was complete, we walked back down the aisle to Sweet Home Chicago.

We took a limo from the wedding to my grandfathers house. He fell ill a few weeks ago and is recovering but unable to attend - so the whole wedding party crammed into his apartment for photos.

We departed his house for the reception at a VFW hall in Villa Park. The wedding party walked in to Eric Clapton’s “Layla” and Erin and I walked in to Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.”

Before dinner, we toasted to my younger brother Mike — serving in southern Afghanistan in the 1st Marine Battalion of the 2nd Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps. He is halfway through his second foreign deployment and was unable to attend the ceremony.

Erin and I scarfed food and started stopping by tables and talking with people. I only had a brief opportunity to drink in the limo on the way up — my guys were carrying flasks full of Jameson and I had a couple sips but had to keep composed while we made the rounds later that evening.

After touching base with 130 people at 16 tables (and sneaking a shot from the bar), we danced.

Our first dance was to Nina Simone’s moving “Feeling Good.” Erin danced with her father to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

After that, all our Public Affairs Reporting friends and the Mack family on Erin’s side tore up the dance floor something serious. I’ve never seen so many people dancing so enthusiastically in my life. Many people danced. But the PAR people and their dates were something else.

At that point, Erin and I fell into a routine for about 3 hours — dance, run to the bar, get held by whoever was there for shots (”He’s the groom, get him a shot of Jameson” or “Come here Erin, you look beautiful, let’s do a shot”), down the hatch, back to the dance floor.

I don’t know that I can adequately describe the immense feelings of happiness both Erin and I felt that evening. We are blessed to have so many people we consider friends.

Photos in the days to come.