It is getting very tiresome to continue hearing operators in our community complain about how the left wing media the muckrakers the liberals the the blogosphere and their pacifist do-gooder agenda are bringing our industry down and giving us a bad name. Anyone who sits around whining about books or articles or blogs or news reports that attack PMCs should stop wasting their breath and start doing something about it.
Yes, its true there are dozens of traditional media outlets that say negative things about us. Yes, there are many reporters who wake up every day with a pre-written story in their head about how bad PMCs are. And yes, in the most powerful battle, the battle of words, they are dominating the fight for mindshare among politicians and the general citizenry. But guess what, it has been and always will be this way. And if you as an industry professional dont get engaged it will remain so.
It can be frustrating at times but it does not help to complain about it. Its akin to complaining about the sun rising every morning. Just get used to it and learn to protect yourself from it. In fact, the medias perception much like the sun is highly predictable and therefore very easy to diffuse or to counter or to mitigate. We as an industry must learn how to adapt to the environment we live in, not to wish for an environment that will never exist.
When the sun rises each day you can do a whole host of things to continue to operate effectively not only against it but with it. On the one hand you can smear your naked body in butter and layout down on an asphalt parking lot. But dont bitch and moan about the suns power when you get burned to a crisp. It was not the suns fault. You made poor choices and took dumb actions. The sun is all powerful, and in many ways sometimes the media feels like it is also has monolithic power. But what most fail to see is that if you are smart enough the suns raw power can be harnessed and used to great positive effect. With a mirror or a magnifying glass for example it can be used to deflect the harsh rays away from something and focus them onto something else.
The media as such is simply a tool. Actually, it is not a tool (singular) it is a whole box of tools (plural). And the beauty of this modern-day toolbox is that no one owns the box itself or the tools inside; they are free-to-use. Today anyone can write an eBook, anyone can write and publish their own paper book, anyone can publish a magazine, anyone can publish an ezine, anyone can write a blog post, anyone can comment on other peoples blogs, anyone can make a speech, anyone can start a podcast, and anyone can start a radio program and broadcast it via the internet or even on satellite channels. The days of limitation put in place by big publishing houses or government control over the airwaves are long gone. Its time the PMC industry wake up and started using these tools to our advantage. This is the primary reason I started TCO and I have consistently called on the community to contribute. I have reached out to my personal network and to people who I have never met and the response with a few notable exceptions has been, well, disappointing so say the least.
If your the kind of sod who sits around complaining about the medias treatment of Blackwater but you do nothing to stand up for them in public then your not worthy of being a professional private soldier or security guard. Youre just a pathetic little mouse scared of your own shadow and you will always be scrapping to feed on the crumbs left for you by greater more brave men.
Read the rest of the Combat Operator article here.
