CNN Idiocracy

[TAROMAN]

Here we go again:

Some things never change!

 

[cmort666]

Little did I know when I was perusing "our Weekly Reader" way back in the 5th grade that I was witnessing the high point of American journalism. It's been strictly downhill from there.

Most "journalism" I see these days doesn't rise to the intellectual level of "Hustler Letters".

 

[7shooter]

I was at a large orthopedic clinic recently with my wife and they had Fox News on all the tv sets in the waiting rooms. A pleasant change from the ubiquitous CNN.

 

[rock doc]

I make it a point not to watch Communist Network News, but I did catch the news story on another network. I find it appalling that the troops were NOT allowed to carry at ALL times.

 

[GaryS]

As I recall it, US opinion was very much against the war by 1968, enough so to cause a sitting president not to run for re-election.

US opinion changed after the media portrayed the Tet Offensive a great defeat for the US and ARVN and a great victory for the VC and NVA. In fact because of Tet the VC pretty much ceased to exist as a fighting force and the NVA had to take over most of the combat operations.

Commie Cronkite was the lead cheerleader for the VC and NVA and the news was slanted.

The biggest mistake that the US made was trying to fight Vietnam as a set piece traditional war. In the few instances it followed the British lead in Malaya by adopting a COIN strategy, the US won. Sadly the upper echelons of the military were from the WWII era and saw things in those terms.

The best book I've read on the subject is "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" by Colonel John Nagl.

 

[jaykellogg]

You could make an excellent argument that Cronkite was more dangerous to the (Vietnam) war effort than Hanoi Jane Fonda. There is no end of villains connected to this particular war. JFK for getting us into it in the first place, Lyndon Johnson for micro managing, The left, Left leaning news media. It was a disaster all around and unfortunately the USA and many folks who were involved in are still paying.

I wonder if the North had ceased to fight if we would have become embroiled in a situation like we are in in Afghanistan and to a lesser extent Iraq.

Regarding CNN, at one time they seemed (to me) to be a reputable news agency. Author Tom Clancy included CNN in some of his stories several years ago. He has not lately and it seems less likely today that CNN would actually act like Clancy had them doing then. At the time it was believable.

 

[The Big D]

It never ceases to amaze me that some people rely upon talking heads or ink stained wretches to decide what to believe.

I read several newspapers daily...The Washington Post, for one. It is so biased that it is often unreadable yet I can get an idea what is going on in my former 'hood. Similarly, I watch local news channels and an occasional network news report. I NEVER WATCH SUNDAY MORNING NEWS SHOWS OF ANY DENOMINATION. I do not need anyone to tell me what to think/believe.

When the Loughner homicides occurred in AZ last year it was unbelievable (and a bit sickening) to watch Olbermann, Maddow, and their ilk arguing with on scene people re: what had happened. And HLN was arguing with hospital personnel and the sheriff whilst repeatedly claiming they KNEW Ms Giffords was dead.

Rant off.

Be safe.

 

[OIF2]

A10, normally I agree with 99% of what you have to say. In this instance, I have to disagree a little bit. I'm not teary-eyed over old Walter Cronkite but he didn't cost us that war. The blame for that fiasco lies squarely at the feet of one former resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and his Secretary of Defense (who should have stuck to building cars).

I think there is much truth to what you've said...however, the Tet Offensive was an unmitigated disaster for the Communists. The US Military completely destroyed the VC infrastructure in the south during Tet. It was probably the greatest victory we had in the war. Cronkite (and the rest of the media) turned it into a US defeat. Cronkite bears a lot of the blame, with his studied air of concern, the removal of his glasses and the "pained" look on his face when he pronounced the war unwinnable on the evening news. He joins that buffoon Harry Reid, who stated on the Senate floor that the Iraq war was "lost", with American troops still in combat. Sorry for the thread drift. Now back to my 5" K-frames...
Bob

 

[cmort666]

I think there is much truth to what you've said...however, the Tet Offensive was an unmitigated disaster for the Communists. The US Military completely destroyed the VC infrastructure in the south during Tet. It was probably the greatest victory we had in the war. Cronkite (and the rest of the media) turned it into a US defeat. Cronkite bears a lot of the blame, with his studied air of concern, the removal of his glasses and the "pained" look on his face when he pronounced the war unwinnable on the evening news. He joins that buffoon Harry Reid, who stated on the Senate floor that the Iraq war was "lost", with American troops still in combat. Sorry for the thread drift. Now back to my 5" K-frames...
Bob

I once read an interesting autobiography by a former VC who claimed that the North hung the VC out to dry the same way that Stalin hung the Poles out to dry in the Warsaw Ghetto and Home Army uprisings. There was WAY too much independent thinking going on in the Viet Cong apparatus and the North figured that the best way to knock it out of their heads was with AMERICAN bullets. So they gulled the VC into a general uprising which they knew was doomed to bloody failure, leaving THEM as the only ones on the field opposite us.

 

[gdauth]

The Vietnam war was lost by the politicians like LBJ, McNamara and others who stuck their noses in where they didn't belong. They were making tactical decisions in stead of making policy decisions. McNamara was especially damaging to the war effortl, he thought he could run a war like an auto company. another example of an ex-businessman screwing up government.

 

[GaryS]

This actually makes sense. The Communists in general used "useful idiots" to help them make inroads into a country that they wanted to conquer or subvert. Then, once they had succeeded, the first people who were put up against the wall and shot were the people who had helped them. They just didn't want a bunch of rabble rousers who would turn against their own government around to cause trouble.

This link goes to a 1985 interview by a KGB defector named Uri Bezmenov. In it he describes a variety of techniques the KGB used to subvert likely candidates to help the Soviets undermine countries they wanted to overtake. That included the US, of course. This might be the first time the phrase "useful idiots" was used in the west.

It's long, almost an hour and half, but it's very instructive.

I once read an interesting autobiography by a former VC who claimed that the North hung the VC out to dry the same way that Stalin hung the Poles out to dry in the Warsaw Ghetto and Home Army uprisings. There was WAY too much independent thinking going on in the Viet Cong apparatus and the North figured that the best way to knock it out of their heads was with AMERICAN bullets. So they gulled the VC into a general uprising which they knew was doomed to bloody failure, leaving THEM as the only ones on the field opposite us.

 

[rewster]

I find the IGNORANCE of some reporters on FIREARMS ISSUES, just TOTALLY AMUSING.

The fact that some of them consider themselves PROFESSIONALS is EVEN MORE AMUSING.

Most reporters are ignorant of just about every issue they report on.

 

[iouri]

I once read an interesting autobiography by a former VC who claimed that the North hung the VC out to dry the same way that Stalin hung the Poles out to dry in the Warsaw Ghetto

Stalin was a butcher, but he had nothing to do with it. Warsaw Ghetto has been established by German - Hans Frank, administration of the ghetto was polish; Adam Czerniaków played the role of "eldest". After uprising in April of 1943 Nazis burned it block by block and finished by mid May. So Stalin couldn't possibly hang Poles out to dry there...A little more info here

 

[charlie sherrill]

Journalism had been dying for several decades until 2008 when it finally succumbed. We only have one network now that will mostly represent truth and sometimes mess it up. There are certain news networks that I watch only long enough to find out which sponsors I will not buy from. I think people are starting to learn the truth about the stuff that is fed to them. I hope the results in the November elections reflect this.

 

[ladder13]

Does anyone really watch CNN nowadays??

 

[GaryS]

Does anyone really watch CNN nowadays??

Cable New by the numbers.

CNN is behind Fox and MSNBC. Headline News is even lower.

Even Bill O'Reilly (who I'm not terribly fond of) repeats beat CNN.

 

[GaryS]

I make it a point not to watch Communist Network News, but I did catch the news story on another network. I find it appalling that the troops were NOT allowed to carry at ALL times.

Appalling and incomprehensible. If the military learned anything from Iraq, I'd think it would be that when fighting an insurgency there are no safe places.