Careful what you wish for

At the beginning of the war on Iraq the news media were ecstatic over the administration's decision to embed reporters in military units. On the surface, it was made to appear that this process would enhance the reporting of events as the war progressed as well as providing safety for the reporters. In hindsight, however, it appears that the process may have had a reverse effect -- of providing safety for the administration by giving them a powerful tool for controlling the news releases. Is anyone surprised by this? Actually yes, the media themselves who were falling all over themselves with praise for embeddedness now have been wondering if they were used. Sigh... yes, you were.