BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON
The flash from the explosion–and implosion–of General Stanley McChrystal has faded and his story is already old news. Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson and Rod Blagojevich are back in the headlines.
That’s too bad. If there is any good to come of the McChrystal tragedy, if we as a society are to learn from the experience, then we need to sift through the rubble again and see if we can’t find out more about the right and the wrong, who did what to whom, why it happened and how, and what has changed or will change as a result. It’s important.
General McChrystal, as you will recall, was the U.S. commander in Afghanistan brought down by a story in Rolling Stone Magazine. McChrystal and his aides were quoted as speaking derogatorily and crudely of the civilian chain of command from Washington to Kabul.
The story caused serious direct and collateral damage. The coverage for a brief time was thorough, but there is a lot more for serious journalists to cover.