From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Apr 10 2002 - 11:29:27 MDT
Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
> On Wednesday, April 10, 2002, at 12:20 am, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
>
> >
> > Damien, I can only speak for myself, but I've finally reached the point
> > where I trust the press less than the military - whether it's US or
> > Israeli.
> >
>
> This surprises me.
>
> There are hundreds of examples where military claims were later shown to
> be false by the press. I can't think of any examples where a press
> story was fabricated and shown to be false by the military, although
> there may be some. Do you extend this trust of the military up to the
> President and to the Government in general?
As a former military man, I can say with conviction that there is rarely
a time when the press actually gets anything to do with the military
right. I must say that they have gotten better in recent years, but they
are still generally woefully ignorant and beset by their own preexisting
agendas which colors how they write about a story. I think reporting on
the military has gotten better only because military press liason
officers have gotten better, and the press is more willing to hire
retired military officers to interpret and analyse situations for them.
One big story I can say the press screwed up on is the US bombing of the
Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The press completely ignored the fact that
the Chinese were using the embassy to collect and disseminate satellite
and radio intelligence to the Serbian military, and was the largest
source of encoded radio traffic during the war there. Our 'oops' bombing
of the embassy was specifically to take out that illegal use of
diplomatic facilities.
Similarly, the press presentation of the E-3 forced landing in China was
similarly botched and biased in favor of the Chinese.
Military claims later shown to be false are easy to come by because
military reports are usually based on initial reporting on the ground in
chaotic conditions. 20/20 hindsight and all that. You'd think with 20/20
hindsight that the press would do a better job than it actually does.
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