<This whole issue of the media as an occasionally leaky and infallible source of classified information is highly misleading, imo.

No, I'm afraid it is not. Freedom of speech guarantees that the media will dig for information the military does not wish for them to have, and once they have obtained it, they will publish it. Whether it is factual or not does not matter to the media until after the fact. the purpose is to publish for the simple reason that the public has a right (not a need) to know. There is no discrimination in the media. If it will sell, they will print. It's that simple.

Now, given the above, we have a media source with global publication ability (thank you MCI, WorldCom, & UUNet) of military activity, and distributed in near-real time.

This, whether it is true or false data, remains critical data. Info/disinfo does not enter into it. The media is supplying current data to a current puzzle that the current enemy is currently working on.

Dan