Megan Stack on the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the perilous situation for journalists on the ground

Megan Stack, a contributor to The New Yorker, discusses her recent article about the Pentagon's "de-facto press blackout" in Afghanistan, plus the threats to members of the media in the country. She describes the U.S. military's concerns about how coverage of the troop withdrawal could hurt America's image, saying "they know that any photograph that looks sort of unvictorious, that looks that looks like giving up and kind of quitting" might be useful "to foreign adversaries." Stack analyzes the Taliban's advances and says the image feared by U.S. officials -- a helicopter evacuation reminiscent of the Fall of Saigon -- could wind up being seen. Stack also reflects on two decades of Afghan war coverage and says "I found it very difficult to reconcile how little the U.S. public does seem to understand or engage with the extent of what's happened and what our government has done. I find that very jarring, especially because I gave so many years of my life and I have friends who died covering those stories, and it's sort of frustrating... I feel like people have done great coverage over the years and it just hasn't quite penetrated."

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