From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

Bob Garfield is on a cruise this week.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

America is engaged in war on two fronts, Afghanistan and Iraq.

But there's actually a third.

Let's turn overseas now to a crucial military offensive underway in Waziristan.

That's in northwestern Pakistan.

Here's Kabul. Here's Islamabad.

This is South Waziristan.

Our not-so-supert war in Pakistan is actually bigger under President Obama than it was under President Bush.

America's main military goal is to find al-Qaeda members in the Taliban stronghold of

Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan.

But the Pakistani military is doing the fighting.

For reporters and editors, this poses a problem.

South Waziristan is the focus for important stories about America's interests, but reporters, especially American ones, can't get there.

They must either rely on the Pakistani military for information or risk kidnapping or worse if they travel to the region alone.

Yet there's a great deal of pressure to write with a byline that reads South Waziristan.

Journalist Shahan Mufti left Pakistan in August.

He says the Pakistani military decides who goes where

and is incredibly skillful at spinning or inventing information

that leaves reporters unsure of where the truth lies.

So we have reporters talking about entire operations and military endeavors

...