Learning how to get inside the news cycle?

Washington Times:

The war was going poorly for coalition forces when the U.S. Army commander briefed the international press in a large auditorium.
He said that insurgents had just captured a critical offshore oil platform, apparently with the assistance of a former U.S.-allied nation. The press, alarmed by this development, demanded more information. But the commander cut short the briefing, citing the need for operational secrecy.
That's when Clay Easterling, a civilian instructor at the Army's Command and General Staff College at this lush Army post near Kansas City, stepped in, ending the simulation.
"OK, press corps, how'd he do?" The role-players portraying reporters consulted their notes. One recommended that the "commander" in fact, an Army major from a secret Special Forces unit and a student at the college hand out press kits beforehand in order to orient reporters and head off redundant questions. "Control the briefing," the role-player advised.
"We felt they would have been a distraction," the major said of the press kits. This began a discussion on press etiquette.
The simulated press conference in late April is a typical exercise at the college, where more than a thousand midlevel officers from the U.S. and foreign militaries study the art of 21st-century warfare.
For a year, they take classes in history, culture and languages. They tackle complex command exercises combining computer simulations and human role-players.
They stage briefings for their superiors, their subordinates and real and simulated press. And at every turn, they defend their decisions to resident and visiting specialists.

...
There is still no sense that the trainers or the Army comprehend the enemy strategy of using the media. There is no sense of urgency in getting inside the news cycle to repond to the enemy moves and to correct the misleading picutre the media presents that playsinto the enemy strategy.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains