September 21, 2005: With the retirement of Arthur Chrenkoff from blogging, his regular "Good News" reports concerning Afghanistan and Iraq might be missed. However, this gap is being filled by a new site, GoodNewsFromTheFront.com, which will carry on Chrenkoff's work. This site is being supported by a variety of blogs (including Iraq the Model) and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The site is covering the "good news" in both Iraq and Afghanistan, as a means of partially countering the "police blotter" style of reporting that usually dominates coverage of the war in both countries. This is comprehensive, covering the society, the economy, reconstruction, humanitarian aid, security, and the coalition forces. This has included, among other projects, a radio network in Afghanistan, updates on opinion polls from Iraq, and the start of construction work for eight new bridges in Iraq. This is a site that will receive some wide play on the internet, often from people who will want to know the rest of the story - a side of the story that is obscured. Other bloggers, like Michael Yon, have been providing coverage not seen in the media. Some of the military commands are also reaching out to the blogosphere as well, bypassing the legacy media.

The silent majority these days not only is willing to speak out, it is gaining the means to do so via talk radio and the internet. And the vocal minority - particularly the legacy media - is finding out that their volume is not drowning out things that were ignored in past wars. This lack of reticence by the supporters of the war is having an effect. The anti-war protests have often been greeted by small numbers of counter-protestors. There is a new media battlefield, one whose dimensions and rules are still unknown. - Harold C. Hutchison ([email protected])

Chrenkoff's blog: http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/
Goodnewsfromthefront.com: http://goodnewsfromthefront.com/
Michael Yon's blog: http://www.michaelyon.blogspot.com/