[thechat] Lanchester's Law: Too Few American Soldiers

[John Handelaar]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: thechat-bounces at lists.evolt.org
> [mailto:thechat-bounces at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of Hugh Blair
> Sent: 07 April 2003 22:51
> To: 'The evolt.org social mailing list '
> Subject: RE: [thechat] Lanchester's Law: Too Few American Soldiers
> 
> > > Just in case this didn't get reported over there:
> > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2921807.stm
> > 
> > Nope. After doing some serious digging on CNN's site, I found 
> > a (very brief)
> > reference to a US warplane hitting a Kurdish convoy, but nothing else.
> > 
> http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/06/otsc.irq.arraf/index.html
> This has been reported all over CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, Excite's
> portal page. CNN and MSNBC talked about it almost every hour for the
> last 24. With many pictures and interviews.

Fairly obviously either a *really* bad report or a report
of an entirely different event.

Simpson reported US Special Forces dead with his own eyes
in addition to one Kurd (accompanying an American convoy,
not that you'd get that from this POS CNN effort) and a
BBC civilian employee.

I sincerely hope that this isn't what passes for adequate
coverage in the US, since if she really is talking about the
same story as John Simpson, then that's an appalling and
above all *transparent* piece of whitewashing.

The BBC report (seen in RealVideo on the originally-linked
page) is one of the most impressive bits of live and then
short-turnaround reporting I've ever seen.  If it got
watered down to 'we shot some Kurds, oops, but no Americans
died' then CNN really is as dreadful as I thought - and 
I harboured suspicions that I'd been too hard on them 
after their cack-handed handling of Sept. 11 (where, from 
where I was standing, CNBC/MSNBC were head and shoulders 
above the rest).

Overall, though, the US reporting we're seeing here (CNN,
some Fox News via Sky News, and CNBC) barely qualifies
as journalism.  Good reporters don't use the word 'we'
when referring to soldiers who share their nationality.
Good reporters make reference to reporting restrictions
they operate under in *every* report where such restrictions
are in force, irrespective of who's imposing them and how
severe they are.

So far I've not seen a single US broadcaster put anything
to air in the last 21 days which wouldn't get them barred
from all of the 4 main news outfits in the UK.  Except 
for Peter Jennings, who's a class act, and no mistake.

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John Handelaar

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