Инфообеспечение военныx действий, или IF NORMANDY HAPPENED TODAY
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Investigative Journalism
Well here I am again at the 11th hour and 59th minute of our production cycle (make that ten past
midnight) with absolutely no clue as to what to write about. So what does one due in such
circumstances? Plagiarize! Fortunately someone sent an E-mail yesterday with the introductory
comment "If I wasn't sobbing so hard, I'd die laughing at it." Although it's not original with me (I don't
even know who the author is), it is too on-target not to share at least an abbreviated version with you.
IF NORMANDY HAPPENED TODAY
Good morning. It is June 4, 1944. Welcome to the Mullings Cable Network's continuing coverage of
"Operation Overlord: What's Taking So Long?" I'm Rich Rundling. Let's go first to MCN's White
House reporter Greg Smith for the latest.
SMITH: Thank you, Rich. Hill leaders have told MCN news that an invasion of Europe is, in their
words, "very, very, imminent." These sources, who have been privy to briefings by the Roosevelt War
Cabinet, tell us that "the number of troops, the number of ships, and the sheer size of war material
shipments" clearly point to an invasion, possibly within the next 24 hours. Rich?
RUNDLING: Thank you, Greg. Now to the War Department and our reporter there, Jim Smith. Jim?
What are your sources there saying about a possible attack point?
SMITH: Well, Rich. Advisors to General Marshall are hinting at a strike at Pas de Calais, perhaps as
early as tomorrow. However, we believe this might well be disinformation and the real point of attack
will be at Normandy. We have learned that Ranger and Airborne elements have been, in effect,
rehearsing for the kind of terrain they are likely to encounter on the Normandy beaches and that
Airborne units might be dropped in as early as tonight.
RUNDLING: Now, to Christianne Smith on a satellite phone in the French countryside. Christianne,
what can you tell us?
SMITH: Rich, there is a growing sense of apprehension here about 40 miles away form what we
assume will be the point of attack on the beaches of Normandy either tomorrow or the next day.
Mayor Jacque Captuler is with me. Mayor, tell our viewers how you feel about the coming invasion.
CAPITULER: We don't want to be liberated. We don't need to be liberated. The Germans have
established a perfectly workable government here. The Americans should go liberate someone else,
somewhere else.
RUNDLING: The thorny issue of civilian casualties and collateral damage brought onto our
living-room screens from right there in France. Thank you Christianne. To...where? Ok, to Edward
Smith with the forces of General George Patton in Britain, Edward.
SMITH: Rich, I am here in Kent, England, opposite the Pas de Calais just across the English Channel
which, if the weather were better, you could see behind me. MCN can now confirm that the activity
here in Kent, which has been named "Operation Fortitude" is, for want of a better phrase, a complete
fake.
RUNDLING: Fake? Explain, please, for our viewers.
SMITH: MCN can now report that Patton has constructed, literally, a phony army here. The tanks are
cardboard. The planes are rubber. The radio traffic is faked. Reports of troop movements are
completely fabricated. This operation clearly, is designed to fool the Germans in Europe and
Americans back home into falsely believing that the attack - which we now think will come tomorrow
if the weather lets up - will be aimed at Pas de Calais instead of Normandy.
RUNDLING: Excellent reporting, Edward. Joining me, now, in the studio is MCN's senior ethics
advisor Emma Smith. Emma? What does it mean to the American way of life when their very own
government engages in this kind of deliberately fake and misleading information?
SMITH: The academic community has been warning for years that the American government would
too easily sacrifice the truth on the altar of some alleged short-term military so-called advantage. "If
the people can't trust the word of their government," many of us are asking, "then what are we fighting
for in the first place?"
RUNDLING: So there you have it. The Allied Expeditionary Forces will, in fact, invade Europe not at
Pas de Calais as the American public had been lead to believe, but at Normandy. And, that attack will
take place either tomorrow or the next day, depending upon the weather.
This is Rich Rundling, MCN News. Now to a commercial break.
