There is a lot of truth here but elements I disagree with. Yes, international reporting and foreign correspondence has changed profoundly in the past 25 years, since the arrival of the internet and rapidly with the onset of social media and tight budgets https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/15/history-foreign-correspondents-media-press-journalism-war-reporting-photography/

But not enough credit is given to news agencies like AP, Reuters, AFP and dozens of smaller national ones that do amazing work from all corners of the globe 24 hours a day. They have also been battered by budget cuts and changes objectives, but they are still essential

And their commitment to accuracy, balance, context, straight factual reporting, is all the more critical in this derisible age of “fake news” and media manipulation, Sputnik, RT and the like

Investigative reporting initiatives are great — Belling Cat and others do incredible work — but there is also a need for strong, sharp daily news reporting of the kind agencies do and so many newspapers, TV stations, websites and radio stations rely on

And should also say that contrary to her suggestion that embedded reporters’ work was censored during the Iraq war, that was not my experience at all. I spent two months embedded with US forces and never once had my work checked or received any request not to report something

I did l, however, agree not to report ahead of time when the invasion was going to begin. And clearly my reporting eventually got under their skin. After US troops were found to be responsible for an attack on a vote in downtown Baghdad where Reuters journalists were killed

And injured, they didn’t like my reporting at all, and I was eventually thrown out of Iraq by the US military after being physically assaulted by a US officer on the runway of Baghdad airport for using a satellite phone

I left Baghdad on the the first military plane out, alongside Ted Kopel, who had had enough and was being flown out because he asked to be, along with his personal satellite truck