On 8/29/05, Doug Evans <devans@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
oerjan.ariander wrote on 08/29/2005 10:29:15 AM:
> As long as they can tell the difference between a LAV-25/BTR (with
wheels)
> from an Abrams/M-109/T-72 (with tracks), they're a lot more competent at
> vehicle recognition than most journalists...
Jack of all, master of none, seems to be the problem with journalists. I
hear the same complaint about financial news commentary, though in both
cases, there's indication of improvement.
I also recently heard that the number of journalists killed in Iraq has
exceeded the number killed in two decades of the US in Viet Nam. Suggests
they are paying their dues...
Hang out with people who hate Westerners, thinking your ultra-liberal credentials will protect you, and you might get a nasty surprise.
But no, based on the number of stories where I have had an opportunity to either be present when it happened, or talk to Soldiers who were, the media is not in any danger of acquiring a clue any time soon.
CNN, for instance, broadcasts nearly all their stories from the roof a hotel in the Green Zone. Safest place in the country, and they are all dolled up in flack vests and helmets and "here in the heart of Baghdad". Dumb shits. Even the US GIs in the Green Zone are in shirt sleeves and boonie caps.
John
--
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again and again. We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani