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Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

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Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#71

Post by throw0101c »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #23
llm_nerd wrote: post #19

Remember that Hegseth recently celebrated that CNN is being taken over by a friend of the administration who will eagerly parrot their propaganda in the service of keeping the idiocracy controlled. FCC commissioner Carr threatened media licenses for firms that aren't positive enough about the Iran war (or is it a war? Special military operation?) The US is in a bizarre place right now. The actions of this administrat…

It is mind boggling how so many people in the US are STILL supporting Trump. Like, do you not have eyes? All those movies about evil people gaining power with nonsensical support from the population were actually just telling the truth. Humans in aggregate are not capable of managing themselves.

> All those movies about evil people gaining power with nonsensical support from the population were actually just telling the truth. Humans in aggregate are not capable of managing themselves.

But it's their guy that is gaining power. Which is (perceived as) good for them because he's doing what they want.

* https://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive...

Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#72

Post by matwood »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #23
llm_nerd wrote: post #19

Remember that Hegseth recently celebrated that CNN is being taken over by a friend of the administration who will eagerly parrot their propaganda in the service of keeping the idiocracy controlled. FCC commissioner Carr threatened media licenses for firms that aren't positive enough about the Iran war (or is it a war? Special military operation?) The US is in a bizarre place right now. The actions of this administrat…

It is mind boggling how so many people in the US are STILL supporting Trump. Like, do you not have eyes? All those movies about evil people gaining power with nonsensical support from the population were actually just telling the truth. Humans in aggregate are not capable of managing themselves.

> It is mind boggling how so many people in the US are STILL supporting Trump.

Welcome to the Fox News propaganda bubble. There’s also talk radio and podcasts that will continue to ignore the issues. You also have to remember that most voters are low information voters. They are busy living their lives, so unless something directly impacts them, like the economy, they simply won’t think too much about it.

Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#73

Post by justonceokay »

Arubis wrote: post #39

This is wrong and rhymes with all the sabre-rattling towards news orgs from the white house over the last couple days. It will also make the US armed forces _actively worse_ at their jobs. It won't even take very long. If you can't effectively reflect on your errors and consider non-politically-aligned points of view, your strategists are going to be running in the dark.

The strategists are hopefully not relying on voluntary journalism for their decision making

Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#74

Post by rdevilla »

throw0101c wrote: post #17
Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #2

"The Pentagon has released a modernization plan for Stars and Stripes that affirms the publication’s independence while expanding Defense Department oversight, introducing new restrictions on content" Seems like this sentence contains contradictory statements.

> Seems like this sentence contains contradictory statements. "War is peace." "Freedom is slavery."

"It's not a bug, it's a feature."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_explosion

Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#75

Post by justonceokay »

Fraterkes wrote: post #47

I'll say something positive here as a european: the amount of diverse places that I'd assume would be broadly culturally aligned with Trump that have shown some form of resistance or pretty vehement disagreement with this administration this last year, suggests to me that there is a degree of widespread (kinda bipartisan) idealism in the US that's pretty unique in the west.

Americans individually are probably the most optimistic people in the world. The optimism might be myopically fixed on getting a promotion or winning the lottery or breaking the plate spinning world record. But if you don’t have some big project or self improvement scheme then many people (and most traditionally successful people) will give you a wide berth. People without big dreams might as well have already kicked the bucket.

Regardless of the government this culture is infectious. I think of Nikes famous tagline “Just do it” probably describes America better than any anthem or crusty document.

Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#76

Post by dlivingston »

llm_nerd wrote: post #19

Remember that Hegseth recently celebrated that CNN is being taken over by a friend of the administration who will eagerly parrot their propaganda in the service of keeping the idiocracy controlled. FCC commissioner Carr threatened media licenses for firms that aren't positive enough about the Iran war (or is it a war? Special military operation?) The US is in a bizarre place right now. The actions of this administrat…

Percy Shelley's poem Ozymandias plays in my head every time I see another short-sighted action by this administration that will cause long-term damage to our Republic:

  > And on the pedestal, these words appear:
  > "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
  > Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
  >
  > Nothing beside remains.
https://youtu.be/sPlSH6n37ts

Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#77

Post by georgemcbay »

OutOfHere wrote: post #14

What did they expect if it was Pentagon sponsored rather than independent? They can always post to r/WarsAndGripes.

Stars and Stripes has existed for 165 years and has been run independently (despite DoD funding) for all of that time.

Is it shocking that this is changing under Trump? I guess not, but that isn't because this is a normal state of affairs, it is because the US is rapidly sliding into full blown authoritarianism.

Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#78

Post by Animats »

genthree wrote: post #24

The most-crippling part of this is removing their ability to use wire services (AP, Reuters, et c). It means they can only cover news if they send a correspondent. They cannot cover much at all that way. It basically means it’s just a company newsletter now. They don’t even have any correspondents covering the war.

That's the real loss.

The original idea behind Stars and Stripes was that it was a general newspaper for US troops. Reading it gave general world awareness. DoD's own output is very narrow. Here are DoD's current press releases.[1] They're written in a very evasive style now. Here's the one on de-emphasizing the Havana Syndrome research office, titled "War Department Announces Realignment of Anomalous Health Incidents Cross-Functional Team to the Office of Research and Engineering "[2] Unless you know the background, that's totally meaningless. Much DoD PR today seems to be at that level - too defensive and obfuscated. Either that, or it's just administrative announcements. There's almost nothing about the current wars.

DoD used to have something called "The Early Bird", discontinued in 2013. This was a reprint of press clippings for Pentagon-area staff.[4] It was supposedly restricted to DoD personnel to avoid copyright issues. It was politically neutral, but prioritized DoD issues, such as command changes and procurement, that would be very minor stories in the public media.

Worth noting is that this war does not seem to have war correspondents embedded with US troops. There's not much info coming in from ground level on the US side. Al Jazeera has coverage from the Arab world. CNN has some people in Tehran who were based there before the war and are still sending.

[1] https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/

[2] https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4411182/wa...

[3] https://www.marines.mil/News/Messages/Messages-Display/Artic...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Early_Bird_(newsletter)

[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/

Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#79

Post by apsurd »

rdevilla wrote: post #74
throw0101c wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seems like this sentence contains contradictory statements. "War is peace." "Freedom is slavery."

"It's not a bug, it's a feature." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_explosion

> As a demonstration of the principle, consider two contradictory statements—"All lemons are yellow" and "Not all lemons are yellow"—and suppose that both are true.

I am not understanding why we are freely supposing both are true?

Re: Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

#80

Post by pstuart »

wat10000 wrote: post #29
shevy-java wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump kind of follows it - he declared his war against Iran over about 10 tims already. The book 1984 was written in 1948 (easy to remember). Kind of interesting to see that it also fits to the lame strategies pursued by Trump. The "flood the zone with shit" is an older copy/paste strategy of the KGB (as explained in the 1980s by Yuri, though he did not compare it to the flood-the-zone part, but it is virtually ident…

Once, when asked about arming teachers in school, Trump gave a brief answer that went, we should, but we shouldn’t, but we should, but we shouldn’t. Four contradictory answers to a binary question in one sentence. The guy doesn’t even lie. He’s a reality TV actor working without a script. He says whatever he thinks will get ratings, and if he’s not sure then he’ll try different things and see what sticks. It will nev…

A thought that recently came to mind about this was an article about a local homeless camp that was literally trashing the area in which it was set up. Those people have effectively been discarded by society -- so why should they care about the mess they make, after all, nobody cares about them?

So for the average voter who feels disenfranchised and abandoned by society, why should they care about what Trump says when he's famous, rich, and entertaining to watch?

That's the only way I can make any sense of the matter -- it still messes with my head.

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