I remember after the Grenada invasion Cap Weinberger (not my favorite Washington insider, by the way) was holding a press conference with the news media. I was listening to it live on my car radio at the time.
Some reporter, as a prelude to his question, mentioned that American reporters had a long history of going along with the troops - in WWII, they were with the troops when they hit the beaches on D-Day; Ernie Pyle was giving reports from the front lines in the Pacific. Reporters went ashore with the troops on Iwo Jima, etc. etc.
The reporter then got around to his question, which was (I'm paraphrasing) "With the long history of American reporters being a part of American military operations since WWII, WHY WERE WE COMPLETELY CUT OUT AND KEPT IN THE DARK ABOUT THIS GRENADA OPERATION?"
With hardly a pause, Weinberger replied "In those days, you were on our side."
That said it all. And if you didn't hear it live, you probably didn't hear it at all.
Same thing later on in Desert Storm, when Schwartzkopf figured out the best way to deceive Saddam was to call American reporters in, swear them to secrecy, and tell them we were going to do "X" . . . when the real plan was ""Y." Of course, these American reporters fell all over themselves to “leak” Plan “X” . . . which Saddam believed.
When questioned, Schwartzkopf said words to the effect of “We figured we could count on your dishonesty when you promised to keep a lid on things, so we decided to use it. You didn’t let us down – we were right.”
By and large the American press is NOT pro-American, and hasn't been for a long time. McChrystal should have known that. Others have known that. Maybe the rest of the military is finally catching on.
(Of course our current Commander In Chief isn't pro-American either, but that's a whole 'nother problem.)