The Fog of Afghanistan War Reporting

Jonathan Bernstein: “There are a bunch of stories that seem to be coming from the intelligence community, from the military, and from the State Department, all attempting to shift blame — for the fall of the government, for the failure to understand what was happening, for poor planning — away from themselves and toward one of the other portions of the government. These aren’t partisan, and reading them as partisan means misreading them. But they certainly are spin, and may well be misleading or even flat-out wrong.” 

“Again, none of this is meant to criticize the reporters and news organizations involved. Just to warn everyone: This is probably one of the most confusing information environments we’ve seen for some time. We’ll know more in a few days, and even more in a few weeks.”