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Beyond the Blog

By Callimachus | Related entries in Afghanistan, Blogging, Media, Military, The War On Terrorism, The World

The Frontline Forum is an alternative channel for compelling stories from those now wearing boots and carrying rifles and not comments or those endlessly forwarded unattributed “true” stories that always seem airbrushed. This is a place for those deployed in harm’s way to tell real stories about the ground situation.

Our goal is for frontline information to break through and be heard. We hope that over time, a more comprehensive and accurate picture of what is happening on the ground can emerge.

This virtual organization primarily is run by a volunteer group of retired military personnel. They will read every story, with the bar set high for accuracy and our radar on full alert for embellishment and operational security. Over 100 volunteers have stepped forward, from all branches of the military, from grunts to generals, veterans from the Korean War forward.

It’s the work of Michael Yon, whose Iraq reporting is some of the best writing to come out of this war. An early example of the kind of stories they’ll be telling is here.

Like Michael J. Totten’s writing from Lebanon and Kurdistan, this is a bid to carve a third way between the standard MSM reporting and the standard blog writing. It has the best elements of both, yet it strives to avoid the faults and excesses of each. As such, it’s nothing new, just a rebirth of the old value of good, solid writing-from-a-strange-land, an American tradition since Bayard Taylor. It needs to be nurtured back to health.

They both offer it up for free. They both accept donations.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 and is filed under Afghanistan, Blogging, Media, Military, The War On Terrorism, The World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Beyond the Blog”

GN Says:
April 18th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
I’m in … thanks.
Justin Gardner Says:
April 19th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Now that’s cool. Great job Michael.
czmf Says:
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:01 am
Clenbuterol[url=http://www.blogging.co.uk/clenbuterol/]Clenbuterol[/url]

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