We have all heard the expression, “Loose lips sink ships.” A phrase that was coined during World War II, and was actually stated as, “Loose Lips Might Sink Ships.”
This is exactly what happened when a Congressman told the media that the Japanese Destroyers were ineffective against the American submarines because the Japanese always set their depth charges so they would explode at the depth of one hundred and fifty feet. Our subs would simply drop down to about three hundred feet and avoid the onslaught.
Immediately after the careless congressman made the announcement and the media publicized it, there were numerous submarines that were sunk and hundreds of American lives lost.
Today this is an even larger problem. Any comment that is made by a person in an influential position is immediately plastered all over the news networks. This sensationalism is repeated time and again until the news is saturated with these statements.
I believe this exacerbates the situation. Take the recent comments between the North Korean Dictator and President Trump regarding their respective nuclear buttons. Both politicians spouted their views and that probably would have been the end of it.
Instead every newscast, every newspaper, every talking head had to shout out their view and spread their beliefs, right or wrong, throughout the world. Some claimed that this was a prelude to a nuclear war.
Those comments reverberated across the globe and obviously they were subjected to everybody’s individual interpretation, including the leaders of the two nations in question.
In your opinion, who would be responsible for the lives that would be lost in the event the misinterpretations ultimately led to some disastrous result? My opinion is that the media would be the first to scream that they are not responsible; that they mere report the news.
I don’t necessarily agree with this. What do you think?