One reason I don’t say much about the Ukraine war, for instance, is that I’m out of my depth, and simply don’t want to put in the necessary work to get up to speed. I don’t know a thing about contemporary Russian equipment (or NATO equipment for that matter). My grasp of strategy begins and ends with “playing Risk! against drunk frat boys”. If I went out there, I’d be a babe in the woods. “What was that bang?” “Oh, that’s the Q-35 matter modulator.” “What was that bang?” “That’s the Lepage glue gun. It glues a whole formation of bombers together in midair.”
The Media, of course, does not do this. They’d be happy to write up a whole big feature story about how the Russians’ Q-35 matter modulator wasn’t nearly what Vlad Putin, that lying bastard, bragged it up to be. And with the new Lepage gun gluing all those Russian planes together, the brave Ukrainians will be in Moscow for Easter!
Are they lying? Not really. Some very serious-looking persyn in a snazzy uniform with a lot of very colorful ribbons told them that the Q-35 matter modulator isn’t all that, and why would some brave freedom fighter lie to them? And besides — this is crucial — “fact checking” the stats on the Q-35 matter modulator would entail that you’ve never heard of it before …
… which is anathema to our intrepid reporterette’s sense of xzhyrself as a hard-hitting newshound who is very very Smart. After all, she scored a 35,000 on her SATs and graduated from the Assjammer School of Journalism with a 9.98 GPA. She’s got fellowships and awards and whatnot out the yingyang, plus 1.2 million Twitter followers. And it says “war correspondent” right there on her Facebook page. If the Q-35 matter modulator weren’t actually a thing, surely she would know.
Severian, “The Becky Cycle”, Founding Questions, 2023-02-27.
July 12, 2023
QotD: Media gullibility on military issues
Filed under: Media, Military, Quotations, Russia, USA, Weapons — Tags: Magazines, Newspapers, Severian, SocialMedia, TV, Ukraine — Nicholas @ 01:00
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