I'd like to believe Michael Yon's reporting -- I really would. After all, as his blog notes, his dispatches are entirely reader supported, and he "does not receive funding or financial support from any news media, movie, book or television deals at this time." It's just that -- when he's not retailing unsubstantiated rumors of Al Qauda cooking and serving infants for dinner, he's reporting non-factoids such as "I’ve heard Iraqis throw around a number of 17,000 IDPs [Internally Displaced Iraqis], although I have no idea how accurate that is, if at all." Other characteristic Yon violations of basic reporting skills include his overt identification with the US troops he's ostensibly reporting on, and constant use of words like ... More »

Mr. Yon is very good about distinguishing between what he knows from personal experience, what he knows from trustworthy sources, and what is rumor. He needs to spell out his acronyms and define his jargon a bit better -- not everyone will have read all his dispatches.