Frontline blogger shows embedded journalism can work

Non journalist Michael Yon is gaining praise for his frontline blog form Iraq.(via New York Times)

According to the paper

he has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, writing prolifically and graphically, and racking up more time embedded with combat units than any other journalist, according to the United States military. He has been shot at, buffeted by explosions and seen more people maimed — fighters and civilians, adults and children — than he can count.

Remarkable beacause he works for no news organisation,and does not get paid for his work.His does though recieve contributions from readers of his blog.

Interestingly his initial reason for reporting was that he felt

mainstream news media were bungling the story, and he still often criticizes the media’s pessimism.

adding

the military mishandled both the fighting and the press, and that among field commanders, “I started finding quite a few that seemed to be dialed in and knew what they were doing, and I found quite a lot that were quite clueless.”

Hats off to Michael who shows the positives of blogging