The USS Greer Incident

Stories sometimes are true and sometimes they are false but it is up to the public to believe in what is right and what is wrong. In this day and age, where information is available at the touch of a mouse, it’s not surprising that the media is a particularly dominant and powerful

The USS Greer was the first US Navy ship to fire on a German ship, three months before the United States officially entered World War II on September 4, 1941. The incident was taken place during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The ship was approximately 125 miles southwest of Reykjavik, Iceland, it was carrying mail to the U.S. Marines stationed in Iceland. It was named after Rear Admiral James A. Greer, a Civil War veteran and commander of the European Squadron from 1887 to 1889. The Greer incident occurred because it was a case of mistaken evidence that was not reported just told by President Roosevelt at numerous press conferences without giving the American people full facts. As the Greer made its way through the North

For example on Feburaury 22, 1897, the Jouranal Headlined an aricle with “SHERMAN FOR WAR WITH SPAIN FOR MURDERING AMERICANS.” However John Sherman the secretary of war had never expressed such an opinion. He even denied that he had ever made such an anouncement. But the story wasn’t retracted and the American reading public believed tha Sherman favored a war with Spain. Also ther was no truth in the headline “FLEETS OF THE GREAT POWERS BOMBARD THE CUBAN INSURGANTS.” But there was no way for the Americans to disprove the story.

The Department of Defense, according to CNN.com, stated the reasons behind this policy: "We need to tell the factual story—good or bad—before others seed the media with disinformation and distortions, as they most

During her first battle in August of 1942, the Japanese gathered powerful forces at the Battle of the Eastern Solomon’s, to destroy the American ships. The USS North Carolina was guarding the carrier USS Enterprise when dive bombers began fiercely attacking the ship. The Battleship’s

On the night of February 15, 1898 at 9:40 pre war tension had begun. Down at the Havana Harbor is where the explosion has took place. This explosion caused more than 268 deaths and blew the American population out of the water. After the explosion, more than 200 bodies were classified however only 70 bodies were distinguished. The two million dollar ship that weighed more than six tons was traveling to Cuba for a friendly visit. The Maine was heading to the Havana Harbor to protect the concernment of the Americans. The furthering night, the United States enemies torpedoed the U.S.S Maine. Blaming the explosive torpedo on Spain by their very dirty army. This explosion has started to make the Americans very angry and quite questionable about

John Pilger’s ‘The War You Don’t See’ promotes many strong ideas, with a strong focus on the value of honesty and the lack of it. Raising the issue of when the media do not do their job, the public is manipulated as we are not told the whole truth therefore are not aware of the horrific and

As a Senior Chief in the United States Navy, the horrific events that took place on September 11th 2001 have had a profound effect on me both professionally and personally. Since then, our country has been fortunate enough to not have a repeat of the events that took the lives of 2,977 Americans. “Much of our success has been in the form of intelligence gathered by a multitude of federal agencies and information shared between our allies” (Hoffman 268). This success has led many to believe we will never be attacked like we were before but instead, we will have more of a ‘lone wolf’ style attack such as the one seen at the Boston Marathon which killed 3 and injured 264 others. I anticipate our current level of success and luck will eventually run dry until we shore up our borders. If we fail in this effort, we will see an attack similar in design but larger in scale as the one used in Paris, France on November 13th 2015. If this happens, our Nation will be led to another foot war and my family life as I know it will change.

The vessel fired when the German submarine, U-652, had mistaken the American warship to be responsible for a depth charge from a British bomber’s alert, and aimed torpedoes at the USS Greer. Through this event, this created immense tension between the United States and Germany, and was the very beginning of World War II. Franklin D. Roosevelt had very much to say about this situation, when he “secretly” called for the United States Navy to be ready to fight if any country decided to engage in war actions with America. Why was this decision so secret? In a conference on September 11, 1941, Roosevelt told American people the “blunt truth,” that the Germans had all intentions to sink the American ship. From this attack came Roosevelt’s “shoot on sight” poll, addressed in the Gallop Poll number 7, released September 26, 1941. This poll had 56 percent of the American people agree with him. In my opinion, I would agree, as well. I believe in going down with a fight for property and the divine rights of ownership. However, Roosevelt’s idea for this was not so much influenced greatly upon the American people’s public opinion. Because of the “shoot on sight” poll, Americans knew that this would cause a heavy war with Germany, causing a heaping 96 percent of Americans to oppose wartime with Germany during the Gallop Poll number 9. However,

Due to the United States media being controlled by this unacceptable mishap, it has left the nation uninformed and powerless, with an administration that firmly believes in performing under high levels of secrecy. The American press and the news media has allowed this atrocity to grow enough to the point where the news is more about entertainment than information. With the “war on terror”,“war in Iraq” and some help from American news, it’s no wonder Americans were so eager to attack Saddam Hussein, whereas the majority of the world felt it was not a good idea. This is because the major news networks took most of its advice almost strictly from the Bush administration’s reasoning for the attack while simultaneously ignoring the voices of millions who knew there was better ways to go about dealing with the issue. Along with these problems, the dramatic growth of news stations such as CNN, MSNBC and FOX News make it especially difficult for the masses to process in depth any information. There are many examples of groupthink, both from past and present, ranging from the U.S. anticipation towards the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bay of Pigs, escalation of Vietnam war and the ill-fated hostage rescue in Iran to the Bush administration and Congress to pursue an invasion of Iraq based on a policy of “preemptive use of

The media has been adversely affected by the explosion of information sources. It has become a tedious and cumbersome endeavor to accurately locate information sources that can stand to even the slightest bit of scrutinizing. For those who attempt to report the truth, they continue to find it

Specifically, in the last two years following the 2016 presidential election, a barrage of personal attacks, refutations of these attacks and release of contradictory information populated the political field and shaken trust in government. These documents and attacks like the Steele Dossier, James Comey memo, or alleged conversations with Anthony Scaramucci call into question not only the capability of political leaders to govern but also the legitimacy of facts and the reliability of media. Political factions across the spectrum have cast doubt on the entire field of politics, and this trend has shaken the credibility of media and government. Public trust in the ability of news organizations to report faithfully and accurately and in the ability of government to remain honest and help constituents drops because of how powerfully the doubt these documents motivated sentiment. These questionings of the legitimacy of these institutions may have defined their legacy in the years to

Nowadays journalists have the responsibility to report facts as accurately, objectively, and disinterestedly as is humanly possible. ‘’The, honest, self-disciplined, well-trained reporter seeks to be a propagandist for nothing but the truth’’ (Casey, 1944b).

When two planes went into the world trade center on 9/11, this attack was highly publicized, showing on almost every television, newspaper, and computer in America, and around the world. One commercial, after the attack, showed an American neighborhood, telling how 9/11 affected the nation. Before the attack, it was a typical American neighborhood, after the attack, every house was flying a flag. Was everything in the media accurately told? Manipulation is defined as controlling in a skillful manner. Many were on board with the war after all of this “breaking news terrorist attack” happened, which happened to be brought to the American people by U.S. news corporations, and the U.S. Government. There is a history of how government, and other media uses propaganda to control how we

As discussed in class, one of the most influential agencies of socialization is the media. The way we see ourselves or the way other people see us come from what we are told by others and what we tell ourselves. In the Better world handbook, the chapter on media states that “the way we think and act in our daily lives is inextricably linked to the information we receive about the world” (Jones, Haenfler and Johnson). The chapter continues to discus how information delivered to us can be bias and this raises the issue on who controls the media and what we see through it. The problem with this could be that that whoever controls the media does not necessary have our best interest in mind and the content that is transmitted through the media is profit driven. . In the article “Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong” gives a perfect accept of how easy it is for information to get omitted based on what people what you to know and what they don’t want you to know. From a young age, people decide what they want you to know, so that they can decide on what they want you to think about certain topics whether its American history or something else, its like the