Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

On relief and reporting

Retired Navy Capt. R. Ducky complained in a comment yesterday that "in the several stories recently of military leaders being detached for cause one fails to find any shoe-leather reporting by the working press. It’s all press-release journalism." Having been one of those poor shoe leather journalists, I will tell you that finding out why ...

RogueSun Media/flickr
RogueSun Media/flickr
RogueSun Media/flickr

Retired Navy Capt. R. Ducky complained in a comment yesterday that "in the several stories recently of military leaders being detached for cause one fails to find any shoe-leather reporting by the working press. It's all press-release journalism."

Retired Navy Capt. R. Ducky complained in a comment yesterday that "in the several stories recently of military leaders being detached for cause one fails to find any shoe-leather reporting by the working press. It’s all press-release journalism."

Having been one of those poor shoe leather journalists, I will tell you that finding out why someone was fired in the  military is the second most difficult story to get on the military beat. (The hardest is the deliberations of the board that picks brigadier generals.) It is easier to find out war plans than piquant details of personnel picks.

When I broke the story in April 2004 of the relief of a Marine regimental commander in Iraq, I actually got someone to check the division log book for me. He said, "Jeez, all it says is one guy out, the other in. Nothing more."

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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