Right wing media or lazy journalists? Perhaps both.

[barondave]

(A letter to the Mpls Star Tribune. The online story Army Meets Recruiting Goal Again is longer, but still doesn't answer the perplexing paradox. In print on pA9 of today's paper, the first three sentences, ending "... since 1999" are crunched into one paragraph. The longer story is much worse for the Army, and still doesn't make a lot of sense.)

If you've ever wondered why bloggers are needed to fill the void made by the conservative news media, a small story in Saturday's STrib will answer your question.

"The Army said it surpassed its... 12th consecutive month of meeting or recruiting its target." Only on the last sentence are we informed, "[The Army] missed its full-year target" Without spin, 12 months equals a year. What's the real story? If the mainstream media is so lazy that it only prints press releases, then bloggers are going to become the journalists of record. The YearlyKos convention going on now in Las Vegas is a sign of the times.

Comments

[fmsv.livejournal.com]

Both statements (that the Army has made its recruiting target for 12 consecutive months and that the Army missed its full-year target) could be true; it depends on when the year that they're counting starts. If the Army made its target numbers for the last 9 months of the year, but the first 3 were really terrible, they wouldn't have made their full-year target. Hell, if they made it for the last 11 months, but the previous month had terrible numbers, they wouldn't have made their year.

Of course, your other point is still valid, in that the Army-meets-recruiting-goal story pretty much is a press release.

[thorintatge.livejournal.com]

Right, according to the story it seems they've made their monthly targets from June '05 to May '06, but missed the yearly target for '05--seven good months didn't make up for five bad months.

It's conceivable that the army could have monthly goals that don't add up to their loftier yearly goal, which would be silly business, but we've all seen sillier.

YearlyKos

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I so want to speak there.

B

[barondave.livejournal.com]

"Both statements could be true." Emphasis mine. The story was unclear, and it should have been. The real story, iirc, is that recruitment is waaaaay down. That the Army has drastically lowered goals to meet unrealistic standards is the potential story that should have been investigated.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

See above. It would be silly business, except that people are dying while these guys are writing press releases.

Re: YearlyKos

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I so want to go there to hear you speak. (Can I be moderator?)

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

I was in school three of the last four years "community college" and judging by the way NOBODY got near the recruiter table I simply don't believe it.

Busy crowded noon at school and literally a wide half circle of empty space with the recruiters in it. If the sign said free leprosy I would expect the same result.

Re: YearlyKos

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I don't want a moderator. I want an hour.

B

[barondave.livejournal.com]

One of the stories the conservative news media isn't covering is just how unpopular our "War President" is among the military, and potential military. Who will suffer are the reserves and Nat'l Guard who will be pressured/forced into another tour of duty.

Re: YearlyKos

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I only saw a couple hours of the conference on C-Span II (the Joe Wilson panel), but I was pleasantly surprised how intelligent and literate a bunch of computer geeks were. I guess bloggers are geeks that write, and some of them know how to speak. You'd be in good company, though you don't blog in the same way that the heavy political activists do. (One of the reasons I don't really like the term "blog": it covers too much ground to mean much, and isn't descriptive enough for some. But that's a different topic.)

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

But ALL servicemen love Bush! It says so right on the label! "at least any of them they let near a camera"

But seriously, I know what you mean. Things turn up courtesy of the net about very unhappy people, who according to most conventional news outlets just don't exist.

I've been seeing things like this on servicemens livejournals.

-----------------------------------
"For example...did anyone hear that the Navy RAN OUT OF MONEY for transfers back about Febuary?! I've never heard of this in my 18 years...and now that we're down to 1/2 a crew...people are starting to snap.

I'm honestly waiting for the day that someone runs the flag up the flagpole...upside down. "
------------------------------------

And anyone who gets out and talks is automatically slammed as a troublemaker, or not a "real" serviceperson. It gets old. Seems these days that facts are so much easier when you can just make them up as you go along.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Seems these days that facts are so much easier when you can just make them up as you go along.

In order to be a Republican these days, one must believe lies and not believe the truth. While the military is still more conservative than much of the country, they are not stupid. Bush and co have created a large and growing liberal/Democratic base of military, ex-military and military families.

I was listening to retired Gen. Tommy Franks, CIC for the Afghan War, read his autobiography, American Soldier. I could only get through the first CD (of four). He's a hell of a soldier (as they say), but when it comes to policy, he's completely clueless. He lost me when he spoke about defeating "Osama bin Laden's legions" (or something similar), showing a complete disregard of who the enemy actually is. The average soldier will follow orders to the letter, but they're smart enough to know that what the leaders say and what they've accomplished just aren't matching up.

As you say, speaking up while still in uniform is dangerous to your career. It's the Ex-generals who have the authority and the knowledge (and the guts) to speak up against the radicals in the White House.