News

I wrote this post several days ago, before the recent events. Figured I'd post it anyway.

Back in the world, I used to watch the news with Kim pretty much every day. In fact, we'd usually watch two evening news shows, plus the Daily Show (which was always the most informative of the bunch).

But I haven't seen Brian Williams or John Stewart in lo these many days, except for an occasional Daily Show clip on Facebook. I get most of my news from websites, and I flip through a free copy of the Stars and Stripes newspaper once or twice a week. We also have the BBC or Aljazeera on periodically, but with the volume turned down so I don't catch a lot of the details.

Then again, I don't need to watch the news 'cause I'm kinda living it. Stuff that I hear about in the morning staff meeting ends up on the news later that day. Or not... which is a whole other kind of interesting.

There's so much more going on over here than gets reported on TV. Like when the NATO guys go out and rescue Afghans who got trapped in the snow. Or when we arrange for a detainee's medical treatment, then bring his family in to see that he's recovering nicely. Or the humanitarian missions of blankets and food. Or how often our missions capture bad guys with no shots fired. Or the enormous effort we're putting into things like gender equality or civilian casualty reduction. Or even the sports diplomacy.

I've always known the news can't capture the whole story, and any time I've had first hand knowledge of something reported on the news, there have always been things that don't quite line up with my recollection. And of course reporting the news is a tough gig. But it is interesting to be on this side of things and to see behind the curtain a bit.