Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Initial reports are almost always wrong

Stuttgart is six hours ahead of the east coast of the US. So, we were getting the false news about the coal miners just as Lex jr. was heading off to school. I was going to run with “Miracle” as the head for the daily blog. I thought better of it. Something wasn’t right. Marines have two types of casualty reports. The first is sent immediately and is nearly always inaccurate. It tells HQ that a unit has casualties. The initial report allows HQ to begin preparations. The second is not sent until its accuracy is confirmed by unit leadership. The second report confirms the number, names, and injuries of the casualties. This morning watching CNN, I had a feeling I was getting an initial report. There was no sight of the survivors. There was only one ambulance to leave the scene. Things were not what they seemed. So, I went with the NSA/ Murtha bit below until things could sort themselves out.

Well things have sorted themselves out and not for the good. Now CNN and other MSM outlets are in a tizzy because they ran with the initial rumor (can’t be called a report because no MSM outlet has yet told us who told them) for three hours before asking the questions that Lex was asking himself. CNN’s Anderson Cooper and other on-scene journalist who ran with the wild rumor should be fired. It’s their job to figure this stuff out.

To this moment I have not heard one person on CNN ask themselves, who was our source? Who was the second source? Who did we try to follow up with? Why did we run with this? Now Anderson and the rest of the MSM dopes sound sort of like Jim Carey in Mask “Why didn’t somebody stop me!” Well Anderson it’s your job to get to the bottom of the story before blasting it out over the air for three hours.

Oh, by the way, one man is alive and that’s a miracle.

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