I think it was the summer of 1968, we were living in a little apartment over a shoe repair shop in Lampertheim, Germany. We used to listen to an English radio station (Radio Luxemburg) in the evenings because AFN just played an hour of popular music and the brits played it all night long. It was cool to listen to, it sort of faded out and then it would come back in sometimes but it was music young 'uns like us liked.
The British news reader (that was what they called him...no putting on of airs there) led off one evening with a story about a US helicopter mistakenly launching a rocket into a South Vietnamese command bunker and killing an ARVN general. We remarked that that would no doubt cause a lot of turmoil.
The next day the story on AFN and in the Stars & Stripes said that the ARVN general had been killed by a VC rocket attack. When I read and heard that, I was immediately upset with the Brits, knowing their anti-war leanings. They were muck-raking and it made me mad. They had been getting crosswise with me since the early sixties and their anti-nuke demonstrations. Pink...that's what they were...almost red.
Three or four weeks later there was a small article in the Stars & Stripes that said that after a thorough investigation it was determined that the rocket that killed the ARVN general was most likely fired from an American helicopter by mistake. It was a very small article buried in the middle of the paper.
I have been suspicious of news reports ever since. I've let my guard down a few times and been rewarded with disappointment each time.
I used to love "60 Minutes" until they did a story about CJ-5s and how unstable they were. They used an Army training film about M151 jeeps to illustrate how unstable the rear suspensions were in a tight turn. I was upset that they didn't check facts better and wrote them a long letter detailing the differences between the solid axle CJ and the independant suspension on the jeep. I told them that for several years it was my job to do the demonstration of the M151's rollover potential for new driver students in the Army Truckdriving school. I was a subject matter expert and I was sure that they would respond with a retraction or at least a correction. Nothing. While I was waiting for a response, they did a totally WRONG hatchet job on General Westmoreland. I heard him first hand telling folks at EUCOM how they had set him up. It slowly dawned on me that maybe they didn't respond to my letter because they didn't need to be told they had misrepresented that film. Maybe they already knew. They ran what they wanted to.
So over the years, as I watch the news or listen on the radio, or read the paper...I do it with the assurance that I am being fed what some editor or producer or program director wants me to eat. A couple years ago when one of the networks was putting on their new evening news anchor, he sat all homey-looking and told us that his job wasn't just to tell us the story, but to tell us what we should think about the story. That says it all.
The right leaning talk radio boom has forced the networks to take a look at their product and search for new approaches...but right or left...radio...TV...newspaper... or cable...everyone is pushing their agenda...no one is reporting...it is all editorialized. Remember the old axiom..."If it looks like crap...and it smells like crap...and tastes like crap...it's probably the evening news."