Not caring about what they don't know. Plus: Moderate Republicans go to extremes. Eurabia. Matchless play. And much more.
p>
WOEFULLY DUMB
br>
Re: Patrick O'Hannigan's
A Pineapple
or a Grenade?
:
/p>
p>Would any news agency send a reporter who didn't understand the
Infield Fly Rule to cover the World Series? Yet, that is what is
happening in the Middle East and at the Pentagon. Many reporters do
not know the basic terminology of military hardware, let alone
doctrine and tactics. Reporters with military experience tend to be
taken into the confidence of soldiers (Band of Brothers syndrome).
When an ignorant reporter shows up, two things can happen, both
bad. The reporter will inaccurately report what is going on. Or the
soldiers will execute a snow job on the reporter in much the same
manner as they will initiate a new recruit by sending the recruit
out for 50 feet of shore line, a bucket of muzzle grease or a
Number Seven Skyhook. In local discussions about the Operation
Tailwind fiasco, a colleague of mine figures that the reporter went
looking for a scandal by talking to some Special Forces troops. The
SF guys, seeing that the reporter was ignorant of military matters,
concocted the story and fed it to the reporter. The reporter fell
for it, hook, line and sinker. Apparently, nobody else in the
reporter's chain of command was any more knowledgeable of military
matters so the story went on the air and quickly blew up in their
faces. DOD used to offer orientation courses ("Military 101 for
dummies") for reporters but these were often refused because the
reporters thought the course would spoil their "objectivity."
br>
--
John Manguso
br>
San Antonio, Texas
/p>
A line from a modest hit by the pop group The Fifth Dimension
stated, "I won't study war... no more!" While the MSM seems to wear
that declaration proudly (putting it on display with every report
from the field), this is hardly the only subject that reporters and
editors are adverse to studying.
How about economics? We're still hearing that "Big Oil" is
making record profits. Yes, there were record profits -- for one
quarter. With gasoline back to $2.30, the profit margin is once
again under 5 percent, hardly the stuff of robber barons. It's
still BILLIONS, the MSM exclaims, never bothering to note that
those billions are built on TRILLIONS of gallons (that cost
consumers a whopping 15 cents a gallon).
p>Whether it's the myth that America "consumes" 40 percent of the
world's wealth (actually, we GENERATE 40 percent of the world's
wealth), or that the gap between rich and poor is a calamity in the
making, or that money spent is money destroyed, it's obvious that
the MSM refuses to study much of anything.
br>
--