Inacurate media reporting

No, this isn't about the failure of western media concerning Iraq and its WMDs, nor covering George Ws election "win" down in the States. It is about 4 stories that I have been involved in and how they were reported. 2 of them were direct involvement on my part, and 2 were second hand account. By second hand accounts I mean the persons involved told me what they were interviewed about and how it came out in the papers.

Be warned, my 2 stories have no social, moral nor economic impact on anything or anyone.

Story # 1;

Back in the day when I was a young sailor in the Canadian Navy, I attended an ant-nuclear rally in Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada. we were protesting a nuclear carrier that came to port. (Note: i am not anti-American, I am anti-nuclear anything). There may have been 500 people attending with a smattering of applause here and there.

Well, I had to read the next days papers over and over to understand that they were talking about the same event that I attended. The rag reported that there were thousands in attendance with roaring applause. Go figure.

Story # 2;

We had a submarine commander who was a psycho, truly he was. I was not, nor ever have been a submariner but I had to do mechanical repairs on them from time to time.

So, one time I am replacing a cylinder and cylinder liner on one of its main engines. I had all the part from the head in a plastic box laid out in the walkway between the diesels. there is no room on a sub to put it anywhere else. This nutjob of a Commanding Officer comes storming through, screaming "Get this shit out of my way!" And gives my box of parts belonging to HIS engine into what passes for a bilge on a submarine.

He was brought up on abuse charge (Not for kicking engine parts), but for physically abusing his crew. Media made him look like a hepless, bullied victum of military protocol. Again, go figure.

First second hand story;

A friend father raised and trained dobermans for movies. You must have seen them, They were the dobermans in the movie "The Dobermann Gang", A bunch of bank robbing dobermans. The father also owned a camp site where he rented out cottages. Well, and this is trajic, a two year old child fell into a strem and was being swept away whe one of the dogs jumped in to save him. Dobermans are not retrievers, the animal tore the kids arm of and he died. Media went on how the dogs set upon the boy and tore him up. Not pretty for anyone involved.

Second second hand story;

I'm out of the Navy, working in a shipyard when we went on strike, or we were locked out, I can't remember which now. One of my co-worker was interview by a reported, the guy asked like a hundred questions...My co-worker that was interviewed di not, could not recognize the article the next day. It was not just distorted, it was totally fabricated.

That's all. What I learned is that I have to take whatever I hear or read with a huge grain of salt.

So, with the exception of the childs death, my stories are pretty vanilla but shows you that modern media in pure entertainment, not facts. So sad...Allan