Friday, August 11, 2017
Wikileaks just failed the basic journalism test
WL is quoting a very old State Dept memo about USA STRONG diplomats losing their hearing in a Moscow embassy. The State Dept memo is discussing a directional MICROWAVE beam that was sent into the embassy.
The microwave was a form of radar to sense movements of metallic objects. The memo was before the era of modern mini RFID chips, but small UHF transponders have been around since WW2, and could have been attached to things like file cabinets and typewriters and windows to detect motion and sound.
NONE OF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH ULTRASONIC SOUND. Wikileaks is blithely discussing the damage done by high-intensity sound, which is purely irrelevant.
Ordinary "journalists" make this type of mistake all the time on technical issues, even in the rare cases when they're not intentionally and lethally lying. They don't know the "facts" are wrong, and they're too arrogant to ASK SOMEBODY who might know. WL has much wider resources via the web, and has an obligation to avoid normal journalistic idiocy.
The first rule is KNOW YOUR LIMITS. KNOW WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW. When you DON'T KNOW, just skip the story or ask somebody.
¶ 3:01 PM 
