Slipping standards at NBC--you mean Arkin still has a gig?

Ken Allard:

Do you think the volunteer soldiers of the U.S. military are "mercenaries?" Is it your opinion that we ship "obscene amenities" into the war zone for them? And, like spoiled children, that these coddled mercenaries then expect the average citizen to "roll over and play dead," thus permitting the generals to fight the war exactly as they see fit?

I don't either, but a former colleague of mine does: NBC military analyst and Washington Post blogger Bill Arkin. Slipping the surly bonds of sensibility, he let fly with a remarkably silly blog last week that soon had outraged readers calling for his head.

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As soon as they read the blog — or at least gauged popular reaction to it — I figured NBC News would lose no time firing Arkin, a colleague during our occasional television stints together as military analysts. There has long been an unwritten but well-understood policy governing outside experts appearing on TV: Hold any opinion you choose, but don't do anything to embarrass the network.

Arkin, or any of us, was free to disagree with Clinton domestic policy, Bush foreign policy or Dick Cheney's marksmanship. But ever since Vietnam's wounds healed over, it has been off-limits to criticize the American soldier. Instead, modern dissenters retreat instinctively to the Great American Cop-out: "I oppose the war but support the troops"

But it is becoming increasingly apparent that Arkin won't be fired despite having gone well beyond those bounds — and not for the first time. In 2003, for example, he tried to blacklist a decorated Green Beret general as a "Christian jihadist." In 2005, he published an astonishing primer on deciphering American military code names and covert operations.

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NBC should be congratulated for its original report which caused Arkin's mask of support for the troops to slip. But the network has become home for a lot of anti war pukes like Chris Mathews, and Kieth Olberman. These guys have obvious hatred for the Bush administration and its policies and Arkin fits comfortably with that crowd. They are the anti Fox network right now and have their tiny niche audience. I think it should be even smaller now.