Media

Past Forgetting

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So, Ed Driscoll at Instapundit is dedicated to posting Covid retrospectives along the nature of “On this Day Five Years Ago…” Some comments appended to his various posts over the last few weeks express exasperation with his apparent complete inability (or disinclination) when it comes to pithy summarization, and others express exasperation with remembering the Covidiocy day by day and blow by blow. For myself, I have a mouse with a scroll-wheel and can use it. As for the second category of comments – yes, we should not forget what Covid did to us.

Yes, we ought to remember every day, every jot and tittle of such state-sponsored torments piled upon us in the name of the Unparalleled Epidemic Danger From the Covid Plague (eleventy!!!), and the identities and employers of those individuals who either inflicted those torments on the public or cheered them on through media, both Established and Social. We ought to remember every detail of civic lockdowns demanded by governors and local officials getting in touch with their inner authoritarian or feeling obliged to respond to that manufactured panic – especially those who flouted the rules that they inflicted on everyone else. (Looking at you especially, Governor “Hair-gel” Newsome, frolicking with friends at the French Laundry.)

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Those Who Dare Not Be Named

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I have been provided with several rations’ worth of bitter amusement over the last few years , when reading various news stories, especially those concerning incidents of murder, rape, mayhem and property crime – most of which can be laid at the door of a certain violently dysfunctional urban demographic – and then comparing the sympathetic manner in which that specific demographic is presented in pop entertainment.

Yes, just as the sun rises in the east, one can absolutely count on black urban youth being cast as hapless, misunderstood yet endearing rascals, automatically the prime suspect in a murder actually committed by the prep-school son of a white Wall Street magnate, or a deranged Christian minister, or some middle-class white schlub with a dirty secret – as is usually wrapped up in the final ten minutes of an hour-long episode.

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About That New York Times Article…

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There is a lot of hubub on the nets concerning the NY Times article outlining the three-year history of the relationship between the US and Ukraine militaries during the Russian invasion. It’s fascinating, and while the larger strategic issues of the war are pushed into the background in favor of tactical and operational considerations, it fills in important details. Given the length (13,000 words) and the research involved, I’m sure there is a book in the works somewhere.

Given that, there’s something strange going on.

There is little in the article that should be shocking to anyone who has been paying attention for the past three years. It doesn’t take a proverbial “leaked Signal chat” to know that we have been providing the Ukrainians not only with supply, training, and planning support but also with ISR plugged right into the kill chain. We were everything but (officially) boots on the ground.

Problems in paradise between American and Ukrainian military planners? A staple of coalition warfare. The details are interesting, but the overall tenor is not surprising

That there were opportunities on the battlefield lost through miscommunication and political meddling? These dangers are present (and realized) in every war, and it’s the mark of a general’s ability to navigate those shoals at the highest levels of policy that gives them their place in history. George Marshall was a grandmaster at it. Mark Milley, not so much.

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Goldberg Chipping the Signal

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In football, “chipping” is when an offensive player makes brief contact with an onrushing defender. The goal is not to halt them or apply a full-on block but to delay the other player just long enough to slow their scheme and allow the offense to make a play.

We need to remember that media people may claim to be “reporters,” but the fact that they file “stories” is closer to the real truth, which is that events are merely plot devices used to move the preferred narrative (story) along. It’s always been this way, think “Remember the Maine.”

So having gotten that out of the way, let’s deal with the unfolding story regarding how, allegedly, a media type got access to a principal’s call re: military strikes against the Houthis.

My introduction to the story came yesterday when somebody alerted me to a story in Politico. I found it strange that despite their assigning four reporters to the story, Politico was in fact only following up on a story broken by The Atlantic. Also the entire Politico story, nearly 1,000 words, was about reporting the reaction to The Atlantic. All those words, all that manpower, and they added nothing really of value.

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Questions for Our Time

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I’ll have more of these, and there is some tangential discussion below, but these are the first few that come to mind. With the possible exception of the final one, they aren’t likely to be pursued by either the legacy media or red/blue partisans.

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