A word about Modly’s denunciation of the media, part of the speech that cost him his job. The then-acting secretary of the Navy said the captain of the Theodore Roosevelt was “naive” or “stupid” for writing a letter that later appeared in a newspaper. https://twitter.com/esperdod/status/1247625834011209728

Secretary Thomas Modly told sailors, “The media has an agenda. And the agenda that they have depends on which side of the political aisle they sit. And I'm sorry that's the way the country is now, but it's the truth. And so they use it to divide us.”

Modly served the Navy in uniform decades ago. He expressed a view of the media that was very commonplave in the military then. The press was seen as an enemy. As a reporter, I heard such complaints more recently too. Just not blasted over the speakers of an aircraft carrier.

The thing is, the military as a whole has taken a far more sophisticated view of the media in the past two decades. True, the military will sometimes hide from, manipulate, bluff, or just not tell the truth to the media. But there is another side to it.

Since the Iraq war, US forces have commonly welcomed the media to see them in action, in training and combat. The practice called “embedding” was criticized as a way of co-opting the media. But journalists also bore witness to the way American troops fought.

When the war went bad, many troops understood it was in the national interest for their bosses, the American people, to get accurate information. They did this in ways overt and subtle. I recall an interview with one officer.

Ostensibly, he defended the war effort, as his duty required. But then he said, “Hope is not a strategy. And I hope what we’re doing works.” Did he misspeak or was that on purpose? The effect was the same.

Modly was partly right: some media are partisan. And any journalist’s view of the national interest may not match his. Still, many troops have understood the value of the press and public: it is better that they understand what the military does, even when it may do things wrong.