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

Hugh Blair hblair at hotfootmail.com
Mon Apr 7 20:07:57 CDT 2003


> -----Original Message-----
> On Behalf Of John Handelaar
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > 
> > > > Just in case this didn't get reported over there:
> > > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2921807.stm
> 
> Fairly obviously either a *really* bad report or a report
> of an entirely different event.

Or an early report before all the details were in. A later
report:  
Sunday, April 6, 2003 Posted: 4:12 PM EDT (2012 GMT)
http://yurel.com/a22

> 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.

<--- Troll alert --->

> 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.

<--- Troll alert --->

> 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).

<--- Troll alert --->
 
> 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.

Opinion. I disagree.

Hugh



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