Simply reporting facts would be very dull and very boring for journo and reader alike, and, I think, would result in us all being rather less well informed.
We don't, for example, want to know only that Railtrack is going down the tubes - we want to know why, and if an informed, fairly expert journo can give us his opinion on why this is happening (perhaps indirectly reporting a synthesis of expert opinions he's been exposed to) then our understanding is likely to be higher. This is especially important if the Railtrack movers and shakers and Government MInisters were to refuse to put across their sides of the argument.
The only caveat is that the good journo should make it abundantly clear what is fact and what is opinion, and, if the latter, should also aim to give balance (reporting the substantive arguments within the debate) and preferably give some indication of the reasoning and justification behind his opinion.
With regard to the effectiveness of bombing, how likely is it that a strategic campaign - focused against traditional C3I targets - will have much effect on what is a regime based upon what was until recently a lose band of guerrillas. One cannot help but wonder whether they rely very heavily on a formalised structure, and whether destruction of the 'MoD building', or the Secret Police HQ or whatever has much meaning, even if you can positively identify such buildings in the wreckage of Kabul. Unfortunately none of us know or understand how much reliance there is on the targets which we are attacking, so it's a question that can only hang in the air. Again, I'm not criticising, I'm thinking aloud and questioning.
The Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue (Secret Police) lads seem to meet where convenient before jumping in their Land Cruisers to go and intimidate and frighten anyone they find who's practising Islam differently from them.
There may be a central command, with Mullah Omar and his Ministers, but one can't imagine that the Taliban fighters on the frontline would be unduly worried by their loss. They all know what they are fighting for and would doubtless continue to do so, while finding replacements for Omar and his inner circle would not be difficult. The prospects of a decapitation campaign producing some kind of moderate Taliban leadership which would then hand over BL seems to be pie-in-the-sky, and ignores the high degree of control that BL (with his private army) has over his own destiny, and how little control is exercised over him by the Taliban.
I just wonder whether a highly selective 'Kosovo' type air campaign is going to materially affect what the Taliban and Al Q do on the ground - especially while we're constrained by not wanting to do anything that might help the Northern Alliance in their puiish on Kabul. WHICH MAY BE THE RIGHT AND WISE DECISION, I'M NOT EXPRESSING AN OPINION, HERE!