Information vs Power

Judah Grunstein considers the conflict in Iraq between freedom of the press and having a successful occupation of a defeated country. There is no easy way out of this conundrum in this new media era. Winning wars has historically meant controlling information in occupied areas, engaging in propaganda where necessary, and crafting a message to help counter-insurgency. But when you "liberate" a country in the modern media age, these things become impossible. And when you are fighting a war for democracy, it becomes harder and harder to justify repressing the press in order to free it.

By the way, AP's Bilal Hussein is now free. Michelle Malkin called him a terrorist-sympathizer and enabler. Since his release, she has been uncharacteristically quiet. Can she provide the evidence she has for her claims that an AP journalist is an insurgent or direct us to the military sources who fed them to her? Is it too much to ask for the blogosphere to actually hold itself accountable for claims like these? Or the Pentagon for that matter?