The MSM is woefully deficient in its Iraq coverage. The major networks keep their correspondents in Baghdad and they simply parrot back what the U.S. military, the Iraqi government or other official entities release. They rarely do actual original reporting. The result is the uniform picture painted by the MSM, the result of conformity among MSM "reporters."

Picking up the slack are bloggers who venture beyond the Green Zone and discover what is actually happening on the ground around Iraq. Michael Yon is one of them and his account (photos and prose) of an ambush by U.S. forces of terrorists who intended to ambush Iraqi police is riveting. People like him, who do not sport make-up or look at their posts as rungs up the ladder to a plum assignment in New York or Washington, are increasingly demonstrating that they are superior sources of new information.