"Flying Blind"--With or Without On-Scene Journalists

New York Times pundit Thomas. L. Friedman says that without reporters' boots on the ground we're "flying blind" because there's no way to verify what's really going on in ISIS-controlled territory.

Maybe so, but there were plenty of reporters in Gaza during the most recent war there, and all they did was purvey the Hamas line/lies.

Update: Heads up, Tom:

BAGHDAD — Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 Iraqi tribesmen, women and children Sunday, officials said, the latest mass slaying by militants who have killing some 150 members of the tribe in recent days. 

The killings, all committed in public, target the Sunni Al Bu Nimr tribe that the Islamic State group now apparently views as a threat, though previously some Sunnis backed the expansion of the group and other militants into the volatile province in December. 

Meanwhile, a separate attack targeting Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad killed at least 14 people, authorities said.