How today’s media would have covered D-Day
Today is the 64th anniversary of D-Day.
Two items for you to commemorate.
1) First, read Ronald Reagan’s unforgettable Pointe du Hoc speech on the 40th anniversary.
2) Watch this brilliant video produced last year by The Combat Report on how today’s media would have covered the 1944 Normandy invasion. Dead on:
Posted in: Media Bias, War
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- Sixty-Four Years Ago, the Day of Days | The Sundries Shack
- The Amboy Times
- Reverse_Vamp » Remember D-Day: Operation Overlord
- Roger’s Rules » Breaking news! US Army pinned down in bungled assault. Huge civilian casualties. Experts fear grave damage to the environment!
- Ed Driscoll.com
- locomotivebreath (by God!) 1901
- United Conservatives of Virginia
- Theodore's World
- Media Mythbusters Blog » Blog Archive » Media Bias Roundup - 06/06/08
- Cassy Fiano » Remembering D-Day
- Remembering D-Day : Stop The ACLU
- Wizbang
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- Remembering D-Day
- The World According To Carl
- Don Surber » Blog Archive » Just ask me
- Never Yet Melted » Crisis on Omaha
- The City Square
- D-Day Roundup. » Delusions of Adequacy
- D-Day Roundup « Delusions of Adequacy
- The Skepticrats » D-Day, Google, and the Media
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Categories: Media Bias, War
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Some of the comments reminded me of an SFC I knew back in ‘Nam.
He was in the first wave at Omaha.
He was a Private at the time. He said that he and the other Private E-2’s were told that if they made it to the beach, they were automatically PFC’s.
Actually, I believe there were a number of war correspondents with the invasion force. For sure, Robert Capa was there (see http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html)
Of course, you may have been thinking of todays media, but even then, there are those who are actually very brave, e.g. Michael Yon, Dickie Chappelle, Bernard Fall.
#73 Tre;
Smoke jumpers! That’s sounds right! Thank’s for the refresh!
They mentioned the papers did such a good job of keeping quiet, that this is the reason these successful attacks are not common knowledge today.
Seemed like a good example of US media being victory minded.
In contrast, that new “Sole Survivor” book by Marcus Luttrell (God Bless his american hero heart)… he demonstrates being in more fear of the USA media, than the Taliban(or AlQaeda)… and with dam* good reason. I find it infuriating… the USA media and the left is actively and enthusiasticly obstructing our heroes mission and combat judgement.
You also do know that World War 2 was fought entirely differently than today’s war? Total war. With today’s media, our military always fights with one hand tied behind their back. Not so back then.
If D Day happened today, The New York Times would have a lead that says: “Roosevelt Administration secretly wiretapping German-Americans phoning their families in Germany: Loss of Civil Liberties, Privacy feared. FDR failed to seek court order, violated Constitution”.
RetFireman said (#76):
Which is why we chose to nuke them instead. I agree with that decision.
swmbo said (#85):
You’re right. I’m sorry I said it that way. Most Americans have not suffered. The burden is on the few who serve.
Look at the record. Republicans have nixed tax increases to pay for the war. Bush has vetoed pay an benefit increases for soldiers. Here’s McCain’s record.
nyc123me said (#87):
Maybe we can learn from swmbo, the conservative Christian who expresses her/his beliefs clearly but politely.
LGM, If you were not such an idiot maybe people would respond to you politely. Now crawl back to your hole troglodyte.
DD214, DD215…. Whatever works
(or was that a DD214 Destroyer? yeh produce that, lol)
Tantor and Alphonse, very solid takes. You guys both make some interesting and out of the box points.
Query: What was the tone and content of the media coverage of the war in Afghanistan? Better comparison I would think.
lgm, the elitist troll.
I’ve seen some nice DD214s does that count?
The MSM isn’t the only place not mentioning D-Day. My son just got home from High school and said that his US history teacher didn’t mention what happened today 64 years ago.
Ugh. Distortions of history.
I may be echoing what others have said by now, so forgive me if I have done so. Japan was starting to go down in Manchuria to the north and was bound to surrender because Allied troops were closing in on them when the US dotted the exclamation point.
The war ended sooner than this one, but the loss of life on all sides was astronomical compared to this conflict. Which is worse — the length of the war or the amount of deaths? Check the death toll in Vietnam, too.
Before you point out how many Iraqis have died because of the US, keep in mind that the US isn’t the slaughterer. The terrorists have been doing the slaughtering, the murdering, the roadside bombing. Yeah, yeah, what about our collateral damage, etc., etc. If the terrorists would stop, we would stop. Save your buts.
What will the Left say if or when 9/11 happens again? It’s our fault. We brought this on ourselves. So you would prefer that Saddam still be alive and ruling and spitting in the UN’s face and killing his own citizens? As the satire above insinuates, we took the battle to the enemy to prevent it from reaching our shores. We are fighting it here, as well, just not in the public eye — which is quite appropriate, don’t you think? No?
The PNN satire was on the money. My particularly favorite moment was the caption of “invasion planning photos.” Would’ve been funny if it hadn’t been so accurate.
It’s a shame that people like lgm are out there distorting history, influencing future generations with lies. I think he/she tries to bait us so that he/she can point out to the Lefties, “See? Look what they said. They called me names! Who’s really unhinged?” Don’t give him the fuel, folks.
But the MSM made sure everyone knew it was donut day! Woo, Homer Simpson would be proud… especially since more children in the U.S. probably know more about Homer Simpson than they do about WWII and D-day. But that just loops back to my comment on #24. /Sigh.
For those who’d like a bit of background to the “Boys of Pointe Du Hoc” speech. For those who wish to paint the “victim” image of Soldiers, remember these words: sua sponte.
Twenty six years ago today I had my high school graduation party. Two of my uncles were both vets of the landing at Omaha although they didn’t know each was there at the time. I remember clearly my late Uncle Bob asking for a moment of silence amongst the festivities to remember those who weren’t able to celebrate with their nieces at their graduation party. I was 6 weeks away from going to boot camp myself and it’s always stuck with me.
My high school aged neighbor (15) just came home and I asked her if they discussed this today. She looked at me like I was from the moon and told me that in every class they talked of the Messiah who was in our little county last night.
The Troll said this: You’re right. I’m sorry I said it that way. Most Americans have not suffered. The burden is on the few who serve.
Okay, I messed up the quote marks-
Quote should have read:
Just one of those days where I’m technologically challenged.
A moral difference.
No wonder the left doesn’t see it.
oBORGama of 08,
He’d talk to Hilter
to end the hate,
stop the war,
and negotiate.
Another great post Michelle. Thanks.
May God continue to Bless America.
On a disappointing note, has anyone notice that the half-wits at Google are commemorating the birthday of Spanish artist Diego Velázquez and not D-Day??? What a bunch of shameful pansies.
My 15 year old daughter woke up today and said to me, “Grandpa would have already been on utah beach by now would’nt he”. It brought tears to my eyes and she came over and hugged me and said I miss Grandpa, I said me to.
my point was some of our young people do remember.
Man, I WISH that was a joke! In place of a noble display of heroism and courage, a crude insipid toilet-humored cartoon whose voice actors make (are rewarded) $400k PER episode while our vets’ plights are unknown to our “kids” (including college in that).
James Greenidge
Queens NY
And of course, Google is honouring our troops in their typical fashion
Wow! Sorry I could engage the troll earlier….. busy day today. At any rate, today I am remembering my father and father in law… who both landed in Normandy. My Dad drove a truck through the surf ….. windshield was shot out. Till the day he passed on, I always told him that HIS service was greater than mine and that I would forever be proud of him and those who served with him. Dit Dit Dit Dah!
I couldn’t engage I mean
This has been around now for a couple of years. It doesn’t surprise me. They have always been negative. If the MSM had been in control of the news/propaganda back during WW2, we wouldn’t have landed in the first place. They would have supported our military up until the surrender of Bataan. After Midway, they would have insisted (along with congressmen) that we negotiate with the Japanese. The ultra secret would have hit national news (not just the Chicago Times, as it did in WW2) and the knowledge that we broke JP-25 would have been known to everyone anyway. The Kasserine Pass battle would have been the basis for calls to “bring our troops home”. In other words, Europe would be speaking German, and I would probably have never met my wife (Indonesian), who would be speaking Japanese. Supporting enemies today, is now called, “free speech”. It is inevitable that a great country eventually falls, and another takes over. History proved that again and again. Usually the fall begins with the decay of morality/values of the society. That which made the country great, was considered wrong. Hence, the fall. I am watching it now, in the U.S.. The corruption, the lack of morality, loss of values, will eventually weaken us to the point of being irrevelant. Look at Britain, France, Germany, Italy Spain or the Mongols. Perhaps in a milleunum, the U.S., will be no more than a footnote or “box” in someone’s history book. I don’t wish it, but it is the eventual end. I’m only sorry that I think I’m living it.
On June 6th, 2008 at 1:56 pm, lgm said:
Psst, lgm – you’re equivocating again. It’s not that cut-and-dried and you know it!
Had the Democrats not made it impossible for that version of the bill to pass, by loading it with irrelevant spending packages and educational benefits that would have severely compromised the quality of our military and it’s ability to respond, President Bush would gladly have signed it.
Perhaps out of context, but Jack Lucas died recently…if anyone familiar with Iwo Jima remembers:
http://www.startribune.com/19564084.html
Graysonret, that may be a bit OT, but thanks for posting the link. Such heroism should never be forgotten.
Some of us do remember his heroism and his story…. We were educated on his heroism at Parris Island…
My dad was on Omaha beach that day and all my uncles served in WW2.They are all gone now,bless their souls.I started another deployment last week,I’m training troops heading for the theaters.Haven’t heard 1 complaint from any of them,amazing people.
Just to clear up a few misconceptions: The million man casualty figure for the Allied invasion of Japan was not so. We didn’t have a million men in the invasion force. I believe Truman published the million man casualty figure in his memoirs which he got from Herbert Hoover who apparently pulled it out of his butt.
General MacArthur, who was reliable in calculating casualties, estimated that the first 120 days of fighting in the first invasion of Japan would cost 125,000 casualties. Probably about a fourth of those would be killed in action, the rest wounded.
My guess is that several times that number would have been the cost of conquering all of Japan. The military ordered half a million Purple Hearts in anticipation of the wounded and killed in the invasion of Japan. All Purple Hearts awarded since then have been drawn from that stock, of which some 120,000 remain.
I don’t know what it would take to stop the invasion. US Army combat units in the campaign across France suffered 200% casualties. The troops in the Pacific who were going to do the first invasion had not been bled like that in the main, except for the Marines.
I’m guessing the campaign of conventional combat to conquer Japan, Operation Downfall, would have taken about a year. The first phase, Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu, was set to go November 1, 1945. X-Day would have been half again as big as the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
It probably would have been postponed a few months after a typhoon scrambled the fleet, as it did the postwar fleet anchored off Japan. The Japanese were going to throw everything they had against us there. Had the atom bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki not convinced the Japanese to surrender, and they nearly didn’t, the US was going to reduce the defenses behind the three landing beaches with three atom bombs each, nine total, although it looks like only seven would be available. They intended to use as many as fifty atom bombs, if necessary, in the Japanese campaign. They intended to win.
As it was, all the war materiel piled up to support that invasion was abandoned and remains rotting on Pacific isles.
Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu, specifically Tokyo, was planned for March 1, 1946. Y-Day. It would have been bigger than X-Day, going against weaker but more pervasive resistance of what was left of the military and a militarized civilian population. These Allied invasion troops would been from Europe. That’s the invasion the Band of Brothers would have headed to.
If the Emperor did not surrender, the Japanese would have fought on after organized resistance ended. That would have led to a slow trickle of deaths that would have mounted up over the years. One might remember that some Japanese soldiers fought on for more than twenty years after the war ended. As the Japanese said at the time, “One Hundred Million Lives For The Emperor.” Our troops expected a long war. Their motto: “Golden Gate in ‘48.”
Many Japanese would have died from ground combat, perhaps twenty for each Allied casualty, if you use Okinawa as a guide. There would have been the inadvertent deaths from flying metal but there would also be an abnormal number of deaths from suicide. Japanese troops also shot their own civilians, thinking they were doing them a favor by sparing them from the Allied occupiers.
However, the Great Killer would have been starvation. The home islands of Japan had a population of about sixty million which raised about as much food to feed itself. Japan is broken into compartments by mountain ranges. Those compartments were connected by rail. There wasn’t much of a road network.
The allied air forces would have torn up the Japanese rail net, stopping the shipment of food and medicine. The allied navies would have stopped all relief from elsewhere. The Japanese would have begun to starve once the air and sea forces had their way. In practical terms, that means that their immune systems would weaken, they would catch sick, and die.
You can use North Korea as a model for how much starvation a country can take and still maintain political control. North Korean is very similiar to Hirohito’s Japan. In the ’90s, North Korea had a famine which killed off two million of its population of 25 million. If you cut that figure in half for exaggeration and multiply it by two to the approximate Japanese wartime population, that’s two million dead.
In that sense, Japan was fortunate to be atom bombed, trading 300,000 dead for many times that dead in a more deadly conventional war.
The modern media would have purposely not reported heroic actions by troops on OUR side.
One of my uncles is a Utah Beach veteran and I sure am proud of him.
…-
Another great post Tantor…thanks for the education.
blind_mule #115
Your daughter’s comment brought an immediate tear to my eye. God love her, and you, and certainly your Dad.
He did what he did so we can do what we do.
While it’s still D-Day (plus 64), thanks to all my predecessors who fought that horrible day (and week, and …). Thanks to all of you who remember the occasion, too. And even to lgm, who has been the excuse for more information on WWII than we would have had otherwise.
I am humbled and thankful for the men who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.
It’s saddening, the left wing views it differently.
I wasn’t aware that the press or “liberals” planned this whole thing, or were in command. Sorry RetFireman but your pass of the buck is incomplete. 0-1.
While I’m here, I would like to mention Jack Donley, wounded on the Oklahoma at Pearl Harbour. As his hometown papers headline proclaimed “Liberal Boy Hurt at Pearl”. We miss you Jack!
lgm said:
Whad are you a f*ckin’ assh*le? Our boys aren’t going ‘over the top’ straight into Turkish machine gun fire and getting ground to shreds. However they do have to sign a 57 page release form in triplicate before returning fire on the enemy ragheads who are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at them.
lgm if I had the power in this country I’d send you and your ilk to internment camps to become reeducated capitalists. I hate liberals to my core. You’re all communist sc*m through and through.
That is Ok, either did the War Department. There was most certainly more than one invasion plan and numerous casualty estimates. Finally someone had to make a decision and that became The Plan and The Estimate. From the research I did, and only for a college paper years ago, one problem in all the plans is they had so little inteligence on Japan. The first invasion of Japan, battle for Okinawa, estimated casualties were 10,000+ but ended up over 50,000 and we lost 36 ships. That had to panic a lot of people.
If one island took 50,000 casualties just what would the next battle take?
Hard decisions for hard times. The Japs told their women and children to jump off the cliffs. If they did not care why would we? Hell, bombs kill people; big bombs, little bombs, atomic bombs.
One of my Professors in College was Dr. Lester I Tenney. He was a POW laborer at the Mitsui coal mines at Hiroshma. Read his story. The Bomb was good. It saved at least some POWs.
A Mitsubishi- Eclipse of Ethics presentation
Survivor of the Bataan Death March
And if anyone is still weepy eyed over dead Japs read his book
My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March
Unlike too many wimps of today most of that generation had their head on straight. They realized it was better to kill them then to let them kill you. Somehow I just don’t see how that is so difficult. As Tantor pointed out the A bomb may have saved Japs. There is always a downside I guess.
Now the Viet Nam vets are growing old and passing at an increasing rate. And the scum who called us dirty names often run the news media and universities. One of those SOBs became president. Where you one of those lgm?
LGM said:
In some sense LGM is correct. The problem is that Iraq is a far more important region in the War on Terror than Gallipoli was during WWI.
I do disagree with those (and I presume LGM is among those) who would just pull up and leave Iraq ala the way we pulled out of South Vietnam.
What has been done has been done..we would be even bigger fools to leave Iraq now. However it is done this way, it would increase pressure to REALLY secure the Northern and Southern US borders.
Gallipoli casualties
Died: 99,893 Wounded: 237,037
Total Casualties: 336,930
I have absolutely no clue how anyone could compare the Gallipoli Campaign to the Iraq War unless you’re smoking Turkinsh Poppies. Is this how we teach history now? Just make it up as we go along?