Talking heads

Sure is irritating to listen to the media report the crash of a Blue
Angels F/A-18 at MCAS Beaufort.

The more they ramble the more anyone with any aviation background
recognizes these folks haven't a clue. For example; who went down?
Well let's see the aircraft are numbered 1 thru 6. Which one isn't on
the flightline?

Also either Fox or CNN couldn't decide whether or not one of the pilots
might have been a woman. Believe the Blue Angels home page could answer
that really quickly.

Where do they hire these idiots?


ACC USN ret.
NKX, BIKF, NAB, CV-63, NIR
67-69 69-71 71-74 77-80 80-85
&
74-77

Founder: RAMN (rec.aviation.military.naval)

"Jim" wrote in message
...

snip


Where do they hire these idiots?


to quote lyrics from Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry"

"I could've been an actor,
but I wound up here,
I just have to look good,
I don't have to be clear,
Come and whisper in my ear,
We need dirty laundry.

Here comes the bubble headed bleach blonde,
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash,
with a gleam in her eye"

Jim wrote:
Sure is irritating to listen to the media report the crash of a Blue
Angels F/A-18 at MCAS Beaufort.

Yeah, funny things happen when newsies have to get stuff together in a
hurry. CNN is quoting a source as saying that the F/A-18 can go in
excess of 450 MPH. Well, that's correct, but...

--
LTJG John Miller
Co-founder, Pensacola Press Club (in 1973 or so)

In the previous article, Jim wrote:
The more they ramble the more anyone with any aviation background
recognizes these folks haven't a clue. For example; who went down?
Well let's see the aircraft are numbered 1 thru 6. Which one isn't
on the flightline?

I heard the Fox guy WHO HAS FLOWN WITH THEM say they do airshow
maneuvers in excess of Mach 1. Yeah, okay.

And the CNN website has been saying all day that the last crash
involving the Blues was in 1999. (It was, in fact, in 2004.)

And other assorted boneheaded errors that could have been resolved by
going to any credible source. Like, say, Wikipedia.

Also either Fox or CNN couldn't decide whether or not one of the
pilots might have been a woman. Believe the Blue Angels home page
could answer that really quickly.

To be fair to Fox, one of the female correspondents asked the guy
doing the actual reporting whether there were women (because he kept
saying things like "these men") and he said, No, not at the moment
there aren't.

And in fairness to both Fox and CNN and others who didn't have basic
info that could be gotten from www.blueangels.navy.mil, that page has
been getting *slammed* since the story broke. Seeing as it is being
served up by Microsoft web servers (according to Netcraft), it's no
surprise that a high load has brought the service to its knees.

I don't believe there has ever been a female Blue Angel pilot. (One
of their MOs is a woman, and they have lots of female enlisted.) I
think the first female Hornet pilots are just getting senior enough
that they're being looked at for those billets now.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / |to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------

J.D. Baldwin wrote:

I don't believe there has ever been a female Blue Angel pilot. (One
of their MOs is a woman, and they have lots of female enlisted.) I
think the first female Hornet pilots are just getting senior enough
that they're being looked at for those billets now.

Currently the T-Birds #3 is a female major. Back in 2001 Canadian
Snowbirds had a female as well.




ACC USN ret.
NKX, BIKF, NAB, CV-63, NIR
67-69 69-71 71-74 77-80 80-85
&
74-77

Founder: RAMN (rec.aviation.military.naval)

I wrote, quoting Jim :
The more they ramble the more anyone with any aviation background
recognizes these folks haven't a clue. For example; who went down?
Well let's see the aircraft are numbered 1 thru 6. Which one isn't
on the flightline?

I heard the Fox guy WHO HAS FLOWN WITH THEM say they do airshow
maneuvers in excess of Mach 1. Yeah, okay.

And the CNN website has been saying all day that the last crash
involving the Blues was in 1999. (It was, in fact, in 2004.)

This morning, CNN's caption noted that a "Blue Angels stunt plane" had
crashed. "Haven't a clue" seems a pretty mild way to put it.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / |to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Apr 21, 3:50 pm, Jim wrote:
Sure is irritating to listen to the media report the crash of a Blue
Angels F/A-18 at MCAS Beaufort.

The more they ramble the more anyone with any aviation background
recognizes these folks haven't a clue. For example; who went down?
Well let's see the aircraft are numbered 1 thru 6. Which one isn't on
the flightline?

Also either Fox or CNN couldn't decide whether or not one of the pilots
might have been a woman. Believe the Blue Angels home page could answer
that really quickly.

Where do they hire these idiots?

ACC USN ret.
NKX, BIKF, NAB, CV-63, NIR
67-69 69-71 71-74 77-80 80-85
&
74-77

Founder: RAMN (rec.aviation.military.naval)

The military has been protecting idiot civilians for eons. For a group
that pays for their military, you would think they would want to know
more but they are comfy with their latte's and laptops.

"qui si parla Campagnolo" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Apr 21, 3:50 pm, Jim wrote:
Sure is irritating to listen to the media report the crash of a Blue
Angels F/A-18 at MCAS Beaufort.

The more they ramble the more anyone with any aviation background
recognizes these folks haven't a clue. For example; who went down?
Well let's see the aircraft are numbered 1 thru 6. Which one isn't on
the flightline?

Also either Fox or CNN couldn't decide whether or not one of the pilots
might have been a woman. Believe the Blue Angels home page could answer
that really quickly.

Where do they hire these idiots?

Evidently from acting schools, not journalism classes. Katie Couric, the
sweetheart of CBS news (who seems like a really nice woman, just not a
particularly smart one), lost me forever when she exclaimed as 7X7 number
two hit the tower two, "Don't those airplanes have navigation systems?!?"

This is the Tiffany network's news anchor, handsomely compensated to the
tune of $15M a year.

R / John


ACC USN ret.
NKX, BIKF, NAB, CV-63, NIR
67-69 69-71 71-74 77-80 80-85
&
74-77

Founder: RAMN (rec.aviation.military.naval)

The military has been protecting idiot civilians for eons. For a group
that pays for their military, you would think they would want to know
more but they are comfy with their latte's and laptops.

You should never expect much from television anchors. They may have been
reporters once, but that was a long time ago. They mostly just read stuff.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that they're generalists, not
specialists, so they know practically nothing about everything, and nothing
about anything in specific. Even if they have military experts on staff,
those people might not have the knowledge that is needed for a specific
story--for instance, they might have been an embed with a Marine unit for
months and understand the USMC, but know nothing about aviation.

I think you should expect more from print journalists. If they get stuff
wrong, it's sloppiness or laziness and has less to do with the nature of the
business they work in.




D

On Apr 22, 4:28�am, (J.D. Baldwin)
wrote:
I wrote, quoting Jim :

The more they ramble the more anyone with any aviation background
recognizes these folks haven't a clue. *For example; who went down?
Well let's see the aircraft are numbered 1 thru 6. *Which one isn't
on the flightline?

I heard the Fox guy WHO HAS FLOWN WITH THEM say they do airshow
maneuvers in excess of Mach 1. *Yeah, okay.

And the CNN website has been saying all day that the last crash
involving the Blues was in 1999. *(It was, in fact, in 2004.)

This morning, CNN's caption noted that a "Blue Angels stunt plane" had
crashed. *"Haven't a clue" seems a pretty mild way to put it.

That the military precision flying teams/planes/pilots are considered
"stunts" by the general media has unfortunately been around for ...
just about forever ... it seems.

MW