Fw: The past meets the present

["Douglas Whitney" <dwhitney@moscow.com>]

I'll wager there are actually a few people, both media and otherwise, out
there who are so ignorant of history that they actually think this kind of
reporting would have been ok, and don't understand that it is as stupid
today as it would have been in 1944.

Doug Whitney
----- Original Message Kirk-----

Subject: The past meets the present


>             MULLINGS
>     An American Cyber-Column
>
>       Modern D-Day Coverage
>
>           Rich Galen
>     Friday, October 12, 2001
>
>
> [This is what I think news coverage of the
> period leading up to D-Day might have been like
> if cable-all-news stations had existed in 1944.
> THIS IS SATIRE.  None of this really happened.]
>
>
>
> * Good Morning.  It is June 4, 1944.  Welcome
> to The Mullings Cable Network's continuing
> coverage of: "Operation Overlord: What's Taking
> So Long?"  I'm Rich Galen.
>
> Let's go first to MCN's White House reporter,
> Greg Smith for the latest.
>
> * SMITH:  Thank you, Rich.  Hill Leaders have
> told MCN news that an invasion of Europe is,
> in their words, "very, very imminent."  These
> sources, who have been privy to briefings by
> the Roosevelt War Cabinet, tell us that "the
> number of troops, the number of ships, and the
> sheer size of war materiel shipments" clearly
> point to an invasion, possibly within the next
> 24 hours.  Rich?
>
> * GALEN:  Thank you, Greg.  Now to the War
> Department and our reporter there Jim Smith.
> Jim?   What are your sources there saying
> about a possible attack point?
>
> * SMITH:  Well, Rich.  Advisors to General
> Marshall are hinting at a strike at Pas de
> Calais, perhaps as early as tomorrow.  However
> we believe this might well be disinformation
> and the real point of attack will be at Normandy.
> We have learned that Ranger and Airborne
> elements have been, in effect, rehearsing for
> the kind of terrain they are likely to encounter
> on the Normandy beaches and that Airborne units
> might be dropped in as early as tonight.
>
> * GALEN:  So, Winston Churchill's famous phrase:
> "We shall fight on the beaches ..." now must be
> considered as a clearly coded message to the
> French Resistance.
>
> For more on invasion plans, let's switch to
> London and our MCN reporter Eric Smith.  Eric
> what are you hearing about where these troops
> may be going and when they might be going there?
>
> * SMITH:  Rich, as you can see, the weather
> here is not good.  Military meteorologists have
> advised SHAEF Command to stand down for at least
> the next 24 hours.  If we can zoom in on this
> map behind me, you can clearly see that the
> combination of time and tides is most favorable
> for only the next 48 hours for a landing in
> France.
>
> Senior advisors to General Eisenhower are aware
> of, and very concerned with, the reports of
> growing impatience among many Americans with
> the amount of time it has taken to mount this
> invasion.
>
>
>
> * GALEN:  Indeed, many here are asking why it
> has taken two-and-a-half years from the sneak
> attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to
> June 1944 to reach this point.  Eric, if they
> can't go within that window, what are
> Eisenhower's options?
>
> * SMITH:  No good ones, Rich.  Intelligence
> officers here in Britain are worried that if
> this operation has to be delayed for as long
> as two weeks, word will almost certainly leak
> to the German high command allowing them to
> move their defensive forces from their current
> location at Pas de Calais to behind the
> Atlantic Wall above Normandy.
>
> * GALEN:  That would be unfortunate.  Let's
> turn now to our MCN military analyst retired
> General Theodore "Teddy" Smith, the famous
> "Senior Seņor of Santiago Bay."  General, you
> helped design the invasion of Cuba in 1898 -
> just 43 years ago - during the Spanish-American
> war, what do you make of this?
>
> * SMITH: Well, Rich, I'll use this map to
> illustrate.  Assuming our troops will try to
> cross these beaches here ... and ... here.
> And assault these cliffs ... here, then they
>  will have to be supported by a naval
> bombardment from ... here.
>
> So, we expect the Hun is flying air
> reconnaissance and will bring to bear their
> air assets to disrupt any pre-invasion
> shelling as soon as Allied ships are detected
> in this area ... here.
>
> * GALEN:  What about tanks, General - the
> Panzer Divisions of General Rommel?
>
> * SMITH:  Rommel is almost certainly moving
> his Panzer Divisions behind the Atlantic Wall
> ... here ... for use in a counter-attack if
> and when the Allied forces breach those lines.
>
> * GALEN:  Now, to Christianne Smith on a
> satellite phone in the French countryside.
> Christianne, what can you tell us?
>
> * SMITH:  Rich, there is a growing sense of
> apprehension here about 40 miles away from
> what we assume will be the point of attack
> on the beaches of Normandy either tomorrow
> or the next day.  Mayor Jacque Capituler is
> with me.  Mayor, tell our viewers how you
> feel about the coming invasion.
>
> * CAPITULER: We don't want to be liberated.
> We don't need to be liberated. The Germans
> have established a perfectly workable
> government, here.  The Americans should go
> liberate someone else, somewhere else.
>
> * GALEN:  The thorny issue of civilian
> casualties and collateral damage brought
> onto our living room screens from right
> there in France, Thank you Christianne.
>
> To ... where?  Ok, to Edward Smith with the
> forces of General George Patton in Britain.
> Edward.
>
> * SMITH:  Rich, I am here in Kent, England
> opposite the Pas de Calais just across the
> English Channel which, if the weather were
> better, you could see behind me.  MCN can
> now confirm that the activity here in Kent,
> which has been named "Operation Fortitude"
> is, for want of a better phrase:  A
> complete fake.
>
> * GALEN:  Fake?  Explain, please, for our
> viewers.
>
> * SMITH:  MCN can now report that Patton
> has constructed, literally, a phony army
> here.  The tanks are cardboard.  The planes
> are rubber. The radio traffic is faked.
> Reports of troop movements are completely
> fabricated.  This operation, clearly, is
> designed to fool the Germans in Europe and
> Americans back home into falsely believing
> that the attack - which we now think will
> come tomorrow if the weather lets up - will
> be aimed at Pas de Calais instead of
> Normandy
>
> * GALEN:  Excellent reporting, Edward.
> Joining me, now, in the studio is MCN's
> Senior Ethics Advisor Emma Smith.  Emma?
> What does it mean to the American way of
> life when their very own government engages
> in this kind of deliberately false and
> misleading information?
>
> * SMITH:  The academic community has been
> warning for years that the American
> government would too easily sacrifice the
> truth on the altar of some alleged short-term
> military so-called advantage.  "If the people
> can't trust the word of their government,"
> many of us are asking, "then what we are
> fighting for in the first place?"
>
> * GALEN:  Thank you, Emma Smith.  And good
> luck with your exciting new book: "The Soviet
> Experience; Success, Solidarity, and Stalin."
>
> We have received a few e-mails from viewers
> expressing discomfort with General Theodore
> Smith's use of a word to describe our German
> adversaries which, in some minds, is derogatory.
>  MCN apologizes for the use of the "H" word on
> our air.
>
> So, there you have it.  The Allied
> Expeditionary Forces will, in fact, invade
> Europe not at Pas de Calais as the American
> public had been lead to believe, but at
> Normandy.  And, that attack will take place
> either tomorrow or the next day, depending
> upon the weather.
>
> This is Rich Galen, MCN News.
>
> Now back to Imus.
>
>
>