Not Our Guys

The New York Times is home to many a useless critic, including the dreadful Caryn James. Today's Jamesian meditation concerns the big anchors at the big networks and their importance in a multi-channel world, which is changing, yet in many respects remains the same. It's a multi-cliche crash-up.

But here's a sentence to think about: "When dealing with hard news, networks and cable both do a solid, remarkably similar job. (Well, except for the conservative Fox News Channel, where one of its anchors, Diane Dimond, has referred to members of the United States military as "our guys".....)."

Here's a question: What does Caryn James think stands between, say, Al Qaeda and The New York Times? NYPD? The security guards on 43rd Street?

What stands between Times Square and Al Qaeda are the United States Special Forces, the United States Navy, The United States Marine Corps, the United States Air Force, the United States Army, The Central Intelligence Agency, The National Security Agency, The Defense Intelligence Agency and a host of other specialized operations that all report to the Pentagon and the President. The notion that calling the people who defend our country "our guys" is a journalistic sin, according to the Jamesian/NYT code, is insane.