MSM's Role, Losing the Information War

Jawa Report ^ | May 17, 2007 | Unknown

[3AngelaD]

Don't miss Jonathan Foreman's article in National Review from yesterday. Jonathan explains how the MSM's distaste for working with coalition forces, rooted in a liberal distrust of government, actually hands the information battlespace to the enemy.

Via National Review: A knowledgeable, thoughtful, and clear-eyed reporter might also consider that local civilians in areas dominated by the Taliban almost always claim that there are no Taliban, and have never been any Taliban, in their area. They make this claim out of either fear or loyalty. During fierce fighting in September in the same Panjwayi area, the local elders also claimed, absurdly, that there were no Taliban around, even though more than 500 of them were killed in pitched battles there and the area is at the center of the movement’s heartland. More important, it is standard operating procedure of the Islamists in Afghanistan — as it is in Lebanon and Gaza and Iraq — to claim that all casualties on their side are civilians. Indeed, the Taliban would be grossly incompetant at asymmetric and information warfare if they didn’t make that claim. (Just as al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers would be foolish if they did not cry “torture” when detained at Gitmo or elsewhere.)...

...You might expect journalists to take some note of these practices and of the propaganda element of the war, and accordingly to exercise a little caution, if not skepticism, before they unquestioningly parrot an allegation of mass civilian deaths. (Surely they must be aware that reports of an atrocity can have enormous real world effects? Surely they have some sense that various Afghan players might lie in order to advance their cause?) Generally, however, they do not. For the most part, Taliban claims are assumed to be true. Statements by Coalition spokesmen, on the other hand, are a different matter. Such officials are said to make “claims,” and they are essentially assumed to be propagandists, if not flat out liars, by many correspondents (who won’t say as much in print, of course, but ask them about it over a drink).

[3AngelaD]

One of the problems with this war is that the traitorous and treacherous MSM does not report our successes, and conceals the fact that we are winning. I would also say it is a liberal distrust of all things military -- not government, which they love -- that causes this.

[sono]

“We have met the enemy, and they is us.”
Walt Kelly

[Milhous]

The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict
By Marvin Kalb

...

The upshot is a new kind of populist journalism, which strongly influences the story that is being covered. Indeed, the journalist or, in this new age, the commentator, often becomes part of the story.

During the Lebanon War, for example, the bloggers had more influence over the flow of the story than they had had during any other war. Ravi Nessman, the senior Jerusalem correspondent of the Associated Press, thought the influence of the bloggers, especially in the United States, was "unprecedented." When the bloggers [in the U.S.] discovered that photographs had been doctored, "the credibility of the bloggers ... skyrocketed and our credibility plummeted." Nessman added, "After that everything that we did was suspect. And that makes it very difficult to cover a war, to have honest people who are trying, who are not doctoring photographs, who are not taking one side or the other, but who are trying to present the truth of what is going on there, and have everything we say be examined, which is fair, but basically be questioned as a lie, and starting with that premise that the media is lying."

[Chgogal]

Radigan’s Raiders ((((Ping)))) List!

This is a rather good read. Cannoneer you will find this interesting!

[Chgogal]

What you can do to help beat the MSM at their game!

Check out “Civilian Irregular Information Defense Group” and comment every now and then AND pass the interesting if not good news on and on and on.
http://cannoneerno4.wordpress.com/2007/05/13/what-can-you-do/

May 13th’s post is very special to those who want news from the “Boots on the Ground” (otherwise known as the milblogs).

[Chgogal]

A very good read regarding MSM. I hope you enjoy this post.

[hsalaw]

Thanks for the ping. Anyone who believes anything in the MSM is a fool.

[Tut]

Yes a very good read. Thanks for the ping.

MSM really do enjoy making themselves out as the watchdog which is all very well and good if they can keep their reporting unbiased and directly to the facts no matter where those facts leads them but that doesn’t seem to be the case. That is why I come to read Freepepubic, which is the watchdog of the watchdogs.

If it weren’t so sick, it would actually be funny. MSM does their reporting as if they are the moral authority, that they and their views are right, but if this is the case, why all the spin? If they were right, why do they need to go thought hoops spinning, deceiving if not out and out lie in their reporting? They seem to know instinctively facts just doesn’t leader their viewers/readers to the direction that they want to point them to.

But all and all, it is nice to know how they feel about the troops and even this country. That fact, they cannot hide.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Someone who calls the dropping of a single JDAM “carpet bombing” and who doesn’t know if a company is larger or smaller than a battalion is hardly likely to be able to tell the difference between genuine “collateral damage” — the unwitting, and in some cases avoidable, killing of non-combatants — and a deliberate massacre.

From Defeat in the “Information Battle Space”

[Cannoneer No. 4]

you can be sure that a civilian fatality really is a civilian only if the corpse is that of a small child or a woman."

And I'm not so sure of the women.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Make no mistake, the Taliban and their allies, like the Sunni insurgents in Iraq, know perfectly well that they don’t have to defeat the Coalition militarily; all they have to do is undermine the political will of the Western electorates.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

The first rule of dealing with indigenous personnel is they lie. Even when caught red handed, the will lie to your face about something they know you saw them do.

The second rule is everything is exaggerated. The rule thumb was for every 10-12 people reported by them, there would be maybe 1-3 people. You don't know how many times I had taken reports of mass grave sites, with tens to hundreds of dead, only to find 1-2 dead bodies, one of them said someone had a life threating injury to find a stomach ache, or for that matter someone had a broken bone that turned out to be a bruise.

Eye witness reports from them should take that into account when ever heard. -- Capt_M

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the ping.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

It is time for our military to accept the fact that the media is working against us. Yes, they pretend they aren’t, and they posture behind the thinnest of guises, but they are actively trying to subvert the intentions of the President, and in doing so, “fighting” the military. It is time to fight back.

Many servicemembers recognize that reality, but the military as an institution has sworn to uphold the Constitution, including the First Amendment, and it treads very lightly on eggshells when the subject of domestic enemies comes up. IMHO, much of the senior leadership is preparing for regime change and they are not going to pick any fights with the Democrat Party's propaganda arm.

Regulars with careers that can be destroyed by vengeful politicians, subject to lawfare over trumped-up violations of the Smith-Mundt Act, just can't or won't do what must be done. Irregulars, or super-enabled individuals and small networks, must do the 5GW info ops that our 3GW Industrial Age conventional nation-state army don't, won't, can't, or don't want to.

[Little Ray]

We’re not fighting this part of the war right.
First thing we should do is implement Wartime Censorship to control our own media. This has precedents from prior wars.
Second thing should be to target “enemy” journalists where ever they are on or behind the battle field. Kill them before they can file their stories or send their images.

[NCLaw441]

2 questions for every MSM assertion against US interests:
1) Who is your source?
2) Why should we believe them, or you?