Unpopular Wars
Actually the US gained nothing in the war of 1812 it was a draw.
TV actually helps create the opinion that the media wants to impress upon the people by skewing the news. It is not unbiased. I would image you'd be aware of this. I don't believe this took place to the same extent in earlier times.
brinktk
Active member
I do, but because of instant access to information and millions of people being able to seek out like minded people to talk about things (good, bad, or indifferent) it creates the illusion that times today are more messed up than ever....the reality is that they've always been messed up to one degree or another, previous to about 60 years ago, most people were ignorant of just how messed up areas could be outside their local area. It was also easier to censure less desirable aspects of "exploration", "expansion", and the brutalities of war. A good example would be in the opening battles of the civil war, politicians, esteemed citizens, and the curious set up pic nics on hilltops just outside where these battles would take place thinking it would be a glorious sight. That quickly faded when they witnessed the carnage that warfare is.
Today, a quick google search will show just about anything anyone is curious about. I know it is hard to believe, but as we sit right now, we are literally in one of the most peaceful times in human history.
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A very interesting perspective. The awareness factor. However it can work against us. Take the insurgents they show a picture of a civilian killed or supposedly killed by an US Army soldier (that both you and I know does not intentional target civilians). Yet the image that comes home to TV audiences is the Army is killing civilians. Makes headlines, catches peoples interest. This is what I mean by the kind of of crap the media can generate to sell papers, get people to watch TV, etc... I feel they sell more papers with stories of Americans that do wrong that stories of terrorist that do wrong. I'm a bit tired of our guys getting a black eye. Not that the terrorist don't make headlines of course they do, big time but considering their actions they should.
People were likely blissfully ignorant before media came around. Sure that makes a lot of sense. I think that most of the conflicts going on presently are rather small in scale compared to earlier conflicts so as far as people living in more peaceful times it makes sense. However we do well to remember that it's only been 70 years since mankind's worse catastrophe.
brinktk
Active member
Oh certainly! There is very much the potential for things to go very wrong, very fast in many parts of the world, if they aren't already.
As for the media....well, ever since they became for profit (around the mid to late 1970s) they now can show what's going to generate the most views. They could show the insurgents, terrorists, etc. doing bad stuff...and so what? We know they're bad so it is just par for the course. But if todays GI does it...holy crap, we hold them to a much higher standard as a society so it is going to generate news. I absolutely hate it, but that is the way it works now.
Why else would pop culture crap, feel good crap, and shocking crap be in the news? It is a business venture now. They know human beings will respond to feel good drivel or tragedy. So that is what they show.
The Press has always been "for profit". "Yellow Journalism" started in the 1890s in the area of foreign affairs. Media changed from being a reasonably balanced show when Media Liberals "changed history" by bringing down Nixon. They found that instead of simply reporting the News, they could make the News. Now most of the Media is the propaganda arm of the DNC, and the fact they don't control Fox drives them nuts.
Prior to Vietnam seeing dead US troops was rare. A pic of three US dead on a beach in New Guinea was reportedly shocking to the population. In Vietnam on the evening news you saw our guys getting killed in what seemed like the same rice paddy day after day with no progress in sight.
I3BrigPvSk
The Viking
I have occasionally been thinking about what would happen if the TV was around during WWII. I have wage recollection of the US military prevented to show the invasion of Tarawa to the public in the US. (I read it somewhere)
BritinBritain
Per Ardua Ad Astra
On 1 September 1939, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, the station was taken off air with little warning; the government was concerned that the VHF transmissions would act as a beacon to enemy aircraft homing in on London. Also, many of the television service's technical staff and engineers would be needed for the war effort, in particular on the radar programme. The last programme transmitted was a Mickey Mouse cartoon, Mickey's Gala Premier (1933), which was followed by test transmissions; this account refuted the popular memory according to which broadcasting was suspended before the end of the cartoon.
According to figures from Britain's Radio Manufacturers Association, 18,999 television sets had been manufactured from 1936 to September 1939, when production was halted by the war.
The official footage was banned for fear it would affect Marine Corps enlistment due to the ferocity of the fighting. Although the official Marine Corp video doesn't show many dead it shows plenty of wounded and maimed and the tenacity of the hell called Tarawa in 1943.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aqRgTp_MSA"]www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aqRgTp_MSA[/ame]
The Australians had tried to warn the Americans about the tide tables at Betio ( Tarawa ) and why the American Higgins Boats might not clear the reef , the Australians knew all about it since they had been harvesting the copra there for years and had built the pier that extended from the island . The Americans decided they had to start somewhere with their island invading concept , Betio 2 miles long 1/2 mile wide had been bombarded for days , there shouldn't have been many or any defenders left .
It was the same for virtually every Island in the Pacific campaign. We bombed and shelled the crap out of island for days-weeks prior to the landing hoping that the Japanese would be decimated. Yet every time they were ready virtually unscathed due to their preparations of tunnels, bunkers and underground networks.
On Tarawa they got caught off guard by having to disembark in the deep water due to the coral. However things didn't get much better once they made it to dry land.
On Tarawa they got caught off guard by having to disembark in the deep water due to the coral. However things didn't get much better once they made it to dry land.
Kesse81
Banned
Nice! :bang:
BritinBritain
Per Ardua Ad Astra
When did the US sun themselves on the beaches in the philippines? That wasn't on the telly either.
Tetvet's a F*&^ing idiot, my uncles was at Dunkirk. He suffered for the rest of his life because of it.
Now the Irish American anti British is coming out in the cretin, I wonder if he was one of the Irish Americans who gave financial support to the IRA which resulted in the deaths of innocent men, women and children on mainland UK and Northern Ireland.
Joe Kennedy also an Irish American would tell everyone who would listen that Britain would fold under the NAZI onslaught. The only one who did was Kennedy, after a few nights bombing he fled back to the US with his tail between his legs. Then there was Admiral King who also hated the British who refused to British warnings about U Boats off the coast of the US, costing thousands of American seamens lives.
Battle Of Kasserine Pass in North Africa. The US Army got its butt kicked bad. The German tanks were far superior to the US tanks and the Germans just ran over the US Army. Fortunately the British were there to pick up the pieces and stop the German advance.
My deepest apologies to my American friends for this post..
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I3BrigPvSk
The Viking
I didn't know that, thanks mate.