OT- Marines Moving to Guam (Split from DC Group Status/Comments)

[LAW0306]

Why attack the person for quoting news stories All that does is get people offside...

Perhaps there's more to it than the enlisted personnel are being told Wouldn't be the first time.

I attack because after I told him he was wrong and I would PM him if he wanted to know whats going on he continues too act like a fool. he has not PM'd once.

I'm not enlisted so I would not know what you are talking about.


If you want to know PM me leg...I would love to chat.... I'm sure you would understand and say wow never knew that holy shit........

[Webstral]

The media makes mistakes on reporting military matters all the time. We all know that.

So true. Before 9-11, a newspaper in Seattle ran a story claiming that the Israeli Army was larger and more powerful than the US Army and the USMC combined. A friend forwarded me the article and asked for comment. I replied that the Israeli Army at full mobilization fielded more soldiers than the active US Army. However, one ran into a few logistical problems. Comparing full mobilization in a nation that relies heavily on long-term reserves (Israel, Switzerland, and Sweden) to active duty in most other nations is a great example of apples and oranges. Also, the media doesn't generally understand that Israel cannot keep its forces at full mobilization for any length of time without facing economic collapse. I wouldn't expect the run-of-the-mill media type to understand what s/he is looking at when presented with a chart comparing US Army and Israeli Army divisions, other than to compare some numbers. Heck, the professionals have a hard enough time explaining what the numbers really mean given all the caveats.

Webstral

[Matt Wiser]

One thing about the media: they can be both right and wrong. Now, the original stories had the entire III MEF moving from Okinawa to Guam. I did some more digging tonite and found that one brigade will stay on Okinawa, but most are going to Guam. One issue with the media and the military is that so few reporters have done military service; back in the '60s and '70s, you could find reporters who had been in the military, and knew how things worked. Not today, unless you count the reporters who were embedded in OIF-1, and the vast majority of them, it seems, came away with an increased respect for the military (though I doubt their editors did). These days, if the media reports a military issue as the lead, it's usually bad news (the old adage "If it bleeds, it leads.").

[Mohoender]

The issue with the media is that they are simply not doing their job anymore. Neither about the military nor about any other field. Occasional mistakes would be normal but, today, mistakes, non-sence, fakes have become normality. They still remain some kind of starting point but that's it at most. Over the past couple of years I have not heard or read anything that was true in the medias. Worse, last year I tried to buy 5 different newspapers (2 rightists, 1 from the extreme right, 1 leftist and 1 communist). 4 out of 5 were basicaly saying the same on every subject. The only exception was the communist that was pure propaganda coming right out of the cold war (Great!). At last, I finaly found a weekly magazine that is going away from the "general official good thinking". It sales more every week, it's almost as untrue as the others but at least it gives us a different point of view.

I just wrote something to be released to the press a month ago. When the article came out, half of it was false (they just had to copy it and proved unable to achieve even that). They sent something to be checked by the person that was concerned and you could think that it was nice. The problem is that their email for that person was sent at 5:50 PM for an answer at 6:00 PM (on friday evening!).

The only thing to their credit is that this is the kind of critics I could make about many professionnals (too many IMO). Strangely, the crisis is hitting people hard but all the people I know that try to do their job properly are seeing a fair increase in their income.

[Targan]

I work as a media monitor, eight hours per day, five days per week. I'm at work right now as a matter of fact. Believe me I know all about the shortcomings of the news media.

[Fusilier]

Why attack the person...

You need to ask this

[jester]

I knew it was bogus from the news reports about 8 or so years ago, plus I remember reading and oh yeah TYPING up some of the plans and data for it when Gen Rollings was working with alot of the other general grades on the whole realignment process just as 3rd Mr Div absorbed 3rd Marines and the 1st MEB as an entity disapeared.

It turns out I helped type of a statement the general gave to congress too. I recall reading it online and strangley know what I was reading and poof it hit me like a lead weight or one of those weapons...what we're dealing with here is....oh, sorry, I was channeling Aldo Ray for a moment.

Law standby for my pm per your request.

[Mohoender]

I work as a media monitor, eight hours per day, five days per week. I'm at work right now as a matter of fact. Believe me I know all about the shortcomings of the news media.

I knew . However, I still don't truly understand where it doesn't work. As individuals, all the people I know in the media are working honestly. Nevertheless, as a working group they almost never quite come up with something good.

[Marc]

I knew . However, I still don't truly understand where it doesn't work. As individuals, all the people I know in the media are working honestly. Nevertheless, as a working group they almost never quite come up with something good.

That's the history of human race, Mo!

[Webstral]

I still don't truly understand where it doesn't work. As individuals, all the people I know in the media are working honestly. Nevertheless, as a working group they almost never quite come up with something good.

There too much money to be made selling copy to be bothered with such inconsistently salable items as facts and well-reasoned interpretation. No one media outlet or even category of outlet is responsible. As Mohoender pointed out, the so-called leftist, centrist, and rightist media are all governed by the need to sell copy. The owners drive the agenda, and they want to make money. Journalistic integrity is for journalists, not owners. We, the consumers, feed into this by voting with our attention and our dollars. We prefer infotainment news anchored by hot young sweeties more than thoughtful analysis anchored by old men. Fox figured this out, and their numbers have forced the other major American players to emulate them to one degree or another. In the end, we have only ourselves to blame.

Webstral

[Legbreaker]

You need to ask this

Ok, so perhaps the question should be "why attack"

Since none of us can know everything about anything, we're reliant on information we can gather from a variety of sources. Granted this is much, much easier today than it was even ten years ago, let alone twenty or more, everyone is limited by what they see, hear and read.

My point is that it's not always the fault of the person conducting the research and posting their results, in fact I'll go out on a limb and state that it's rarely the case.

It's probably 99% a problem with the available information, which since we're currently discussing the alledged move of a US Marine division (whole or in part), we're dependant heavily on the media (can't see too many military sources giving us the whole, unadulterated truth for a variety of reasons).

If "attacking" is necessary for whatever reason, lets limit it to the information rather than each other We'll avoid a LOT of flame wars that way.

[Twilight2000v3MM]

WOW ... Guam sucks... we used to rotate guys there about 10 years ago for 30 days... it sssssssssssssssssssssucked. US INS had a detention camp there, like a tent city, for "undocumented workers" from countries they couldnt ship 'em back to like, at the time, Vietnam and Cuba since we didnt have any political ties with them. Wonder if the camps still there.

[jester]

WOW ... Guam sucks... we used to rotate guys there about 10 years ago for 30 days... it sssssssssssssssssssssucked. US INS had a detention camp there, like a tent city, for "undocumented workers" from countries they couldnt ship 'em back to like, at the time, Vietnam and Cuba since we didnt have any political ties with them. Wonder if the camps still there.

I had a freind of a freind from SOI who got sent there for Barracks duty, what sucked worse was it was OJT!! He didn't go to Alameda or Norfolk, nope just here's your ticket have fun.

We got some guys who had done duty there and when they hit the Fleet, they were just weird. Thankfully my only time there was in a hangar for a couple hours.