"if these are the minds of our best and brightest, it is no wonder the world is a shambles…."

I think it depends on what university you go to. When I went through college I found 3/4 of the professors were compotent while the other 1/4 were the typical liberal wackos trying to indoctrinate students instead of teaching.

What bothers me more than the press playing politics (aggressively) is how intelligent people who should no better do exactly the same.

It really convinces me human social development as a whole stops with each new generation in middle school…

For example:

I watched a couple of days of a conference on The Legality of the 1910 Annexation of Korea by Japan. There were several parts of this conference project spaced out over months. The presenters were scholars from SK, Japan, and NK – which made it very interesting. The Korean view was given at the first set of meetings – the one I got to witness part of, and some months later, the Japanese scholars were to present their view in Japan (I believe it was).

Anyway —- there were American scholars who participated in the conference in the working meetings (I didn't get to see) but were mainly observers in the paper presentations.

At the end of the Korean-centered conference, the Americans and this British specialist on International Law (now and then) gave their opinion on what they had heard.

One female prof from the US began her statement by refering to the 1910 annexation document by saying something like…..

"In times like this, we get to see the impact of a failed document, much like we have recently seen with the US government's Nogunri report. When governments……"

She spent the first half of her about 2 to 5 minute speech talking about Nogunri!!!!

I wanted to walk over and grab her by the head and smash it into the table several times….

It was wrong on so many different levels…..

and it just made me realize more and more how much money I've wasted on education over the years —

if these are the minds of our best and brightest, it is no wonder the world is a shambles….

What is really sad about the whole thing is that it has turned into a political issue between left and right instead of simply being an issue of reporting factual hard news instead of sensationalism.

For example the No Gun-ri story was enough of a tragedy as it was but the AP reporters had to sensationalize it in order to make it even worse than what it was in order to win a Pulitzer Prize.

http://tinyurl.com/ylse3l

I knew something was fishy when I read the report myself. I started to notice the ages of people being used for quotes. They were either really old, like relatives of mine who fought in the war, or they were really young at the time. There are instant problems here that need to be addressed: in something as chaotic and frightening as a war is – especially that period of the Korean War, you know that firsthand accounts have to be viewed broadly and need supporting evidence. Stress, and post-traumatic stress tend to bend memories. Add to that 50 years, and what do you get?

Well, as the US report on Nogunri pointed out — for the AP and then other media groups, you get "the truth." They reported these first and second hand accounts as fact. No discussion offered or allowed.

Then, when that one GI the AP used to tie the whole article together and give such devastating quotes turned out to be so easily determined to be a liar, I had had enough.

A year or so before that, I had been disgusted to learn that the main source for a Vietnam War story about the US using nerve gas along the Cambodian border — had told the story while in prison for some kind of fraud case.

Wonderful….

The media is just a game……like so much else…..