MOD press maestros are getting increasingly jumpy over coverage of / access to Afghanistan and Iraq, and more and more snappy at the media. This isn't the first falling out in recent months.
It's got worse since Gen Dannatt said his piece, his MOD minders failed to spot the furore coming and the sh!t hit the fan.
I watched ITN piece which led to this latest row, as I'm sure others did. Could anyone have identifed the wounded soldier seen being unloaded from a VC10 at Brum International freight terminal in the wee small hours? Doubt it. For my part I couldn't see nature of injuries, either. Was ITN wrong to show that footage? You could argue it both ways.
I note MOD has accused ITN of 'inaccuracies' without saying what they are. That's not to say there weren't any, but I'd take this outburst more seriously if evidence were set out.
A wounded soldier who'd been through the mill complained about the way he was treated in hospital at Birmingham - surrounded by 'drug addicts and old women' - and said he felt betrayed. Was he right or wrong to speak out? Should ITN have ignored his views and told him to bugg3r off?
The media isn't anti-the British military.
Some bits of the media are anti-current operations. Most of media is anti-the way the Government treats the forces.
If MOD spin doctors think throwing their weight around like this will produce more favourable coverage, they're wrong.