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Afghanistan |
Still bombing at Shah-i-Kot |
2002-03-15 |
Then the operation's not finished. The guys on the ground may have scored a victory in Anaconda, but the public affairs mistakes associated with this effort have been a case study in how not to manage the press. Of course the US press just regurgitated in real time anything that a uniform served up as news or commentary, without any consideration of whether the item was realistic or not. These instant links to reality have only taken out the natural filters that posed as editorial obstacles to stupid news stories in the past. One of my favorite examples of Press Stupid was in the runup to the Gulf War. CNN was rattling on about how fearsome Sammy's SCUDs were, while the visuals were showing SA-6's on parade. While there are exceptions, in most cases if the same people were reporting on agricultural affairs they'd be talking about "horsies" and "moo-moos." |
Posted by:Fred Pruitt |