Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AP fired reporter after dangerous blunder – Slack chats reveal chaotic process

semafor.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 181 posts

Re: AP fired reporter after dangerous blunder – Slack chats reveal chaotic process

#61

Post by coolspot »

pessimizer wrote: post #58
ncallaway wrote: post #3

Frankly, this seems like an editorial mistake not a journalists mistake. Unless he completely made up the information he received, or lied about the attribution in the internal slack chat, he should not have been fired for this. This was an editorial error. In fact, the exact information he passed along was factually correct by one interpretation. The S-300 rockets were "Russian" in the sense that they were Russian m…

Can anybody knowledgeable tell me why Ukraine would have old-ass Soviet missiles left? I would naïvely assume that old munitions would be long gone (aren't we like 8 months in?) and replaced with shiny US stuff.

RU didn’t really use its airforce to deplete UA’s AA missiles (S-300 can’t lock on low altitude cruise missile). Also because UA was a buffer between NATO and other Soviet territory it inherited a lot of AA missiles (thousands, maybe lower 10s of thousands).

Re: AP fired reporter after dangerous blunder – Slack chats reveal chaotic process

#62

Post by johndevor »

sourcecodeplz wrote: post #34

I'm dumbfounded that something so serious (even mentioning Article 5) was rushed to publishing without at least a second source/more clarification. Really damages credibility of news reporting.

"This will make my career! ...what's that bright flash out the window?"

Re: AP fired reporter after dangerous blunder – Slack chats reveal chaotic process

#63

Post by pessimizer »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #59
pessimizer wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can anybody knowledgeable tell me why Ukraine would have old-ass Soviet missiles left? I would naïvely assume that old munitions would be long gone (aren't we like 8 months in?) and replaced with shiny US stuff.

I think that they want to get rid of their old stuff (and the best way to do that, is throw it at the Russians). Maybe those missiles were protecting something of a lower priority, than the "shiny" kit. Also, the most important aspect of any enterprise, is the human . These folks trained for years, on Russian kit, and know it backwards and forwards.

I would assume that they had gotten rid of their old stuff 7 months ago.

Re: AP fired reporter after dangerous blunder – Slack chats reveal chaotic process

#64

Post by coolspot »

faddypaddy34 wrote: post #45
phyzome wrote: post #30

What's with the assertion that countries would go to war over a hasty AP report? Pretty sure military action would be taken based on the same primary sources that the AP was relying on, not just taking the AP's word for it...

Considering that Ukrainian leadership was tweeting that NATO needed to get involved after this story ran, despite the fact that they had to know where the missile originated is the real problem. They used this quickly ran story to literally try and rush WW3 instead of owning up to their mistakes.

Third time is a charm

Re: AP fired reporter after dangerous blunder – Slack chats reveal chaotic process

#65

Post by maoeurk »

pessimizer wrote: post #58
ncallaway wrote: post #3

Frankly, this seems like an editorial mistake not a journalists mistake. Unless he completely made up the information he received, or lied about the attribution in the internal slack chat, he should not have been fired for this. This was an editorial error. In fact, the exact information he passed along was factually correct by one interpretation. The S-300 rockets were "Russian" in the sense that they were Russian m…

Can anybody knowledgeable tell me why Ukraine would have old-ass Soviet missiles left? I would naïvely assume that old munitions would be long gone (aren't we like 8 months in?) and replaced with shiny US stuff.

Ukraine has captured a lot of Russian equipment during the recent Russian retreats.

I’ve even seen it claimed in the past few months that Russia was, at points, the number 1 supplier of Ukraine in terms of equipment due to how much they left behind. [1]

If you’re interested in this topic and have some time, I’d recommend https://youtu.be/sNLTE75B0Os

[1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraines-new-offensive-is-fuele...

Re: AP fired reporter after dangerous blunder – Slack chats reveal chaotic process

#66

Post by [deleted] »

ramesh31 wrote: post #46

We've had AWACS in the air watching the Ukrainian border round the clock since Feb. 24. That means anything bigger than a seagull has been tracked with pinpoint precision from launch to terminus. Particularly so for anything that could have been fired from Russian positions. Anyone with a brain would have known to wait for the official US government statement before making a call on this. Total negligence.

[deleted]

Re: AP fired reporter after dangerous blunder – Slack chats reveal chaotic process

#68

Post by 1letterunixname »

IncRnd wrote: post #22

The people in that Slack thread, except for the reporter James LaPorta, exhibited an incredible amount of willful ignorance that bordered on stupidity. The original statement was vague and did not name a source. It held the pretense of a source by saying an unnamed senior American intelligence official was in some capacity vetted by Ron Nixon. It's not clear whether the person was vetted as an official, if his words…

All of us is not as smart as one of us.

The thundering herds of groupthink and Tragedy of the Commons ensue.

Re: AP fired reporter after dangerous blunder – Slack chats reveal chaotic process

#69

Post by 1letterunixname »

pessimizer wrote: post #58
ncallaway wrote: post #3

Frankly, this seems like an editorial mistake not a journalists mistake. Unless he completely made up the information he received, or lied about the attribution in the internal slack chat, he should not have been fired for this. This was an editorial error. In fact, the exact information he passed along was factually correct by one interpretation. The S-300 rockets were "Russian" in the sense that they were Russian m…

Can anybody knowledgeable tell me why Ukraine would have old-ass Soviet missiles left? I would naïvely assume that old munitions would be long gone (aren't we like 8 months in?) and replaced with shiny US stuff.

I wonder if either Soviet or US export arms include remote disable and/or Identification, friend or foe (IFF) systems preventing attacks on "friendly-to-exporter" targets.
Post reply on HN