Britain as a whole may have abandoned respect, but those who think the UK news media single out the armed forces for a hard time need a reality check.
The forces - the brave boys and girls as opposed to political masters - are just about the one group left today who still get the benefit of the doubt and automatic sympathy and respect when most news stories crop up. Rightly so, in my view, but the same is no longer true for: the clergy (too many perverts), minor Royals (spongers), doctors (paid too much), teachers (woolly-minded liberal whiners), politicians (edited for reasons of space). I may be generalising ever-so-slightly, but you get my drift.
One or two examples: recent Iraqi court martial. Big media row was over political pressure to put officers in the dock and 'how-dare-they-charge-them?', rather than how dare the Army close ranks after beating an Iraqi to death in custody which, as the judge observed, somebody did.
Forces accommodation - media on board and up in arms over cr6p mouldy homes.
Armoured vehicles - lots of media criticism over too many of our brave boys and girls driving around Basra in Snatch, as well as endless coverage of equipment cuts, shortages and inadequacies.
Op awards for gallantry always get big media coverage across the board, again quite rightly.
Current ops: when journalists are allowed anywhere near you on the frontline in hot and sandy places, resulting coverage is for the most part positive and sympathetic and shows you doing a good job in v tricky conditions.
And just occasionally, let's not forget, some serviceman or woman does something slightly less than impressive. Ipods, anyone?
If you feel the punter in the street doesn't love you enough, you may be right. But don't blame the media. We don't have it in for you.