Easier access to what we often call "the news" can lead to dark consequences when those reports under the banner of CNN, Fox and the others lead to simply false narratives.
Here is one grandchild of a false narrative whose bloodline began in 1991:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/21/us/military-suicide-rape/index.html?iref=allsearch
Obviously the events of the world, when they have an aspect that involves improper conduct involving sexual relations, get internet-reader attention. Notice how the writer of the CNN article, Moni Basu, ties together three incidents of the last 22 years to allege a pattern. He includes a loose, drive-by summary of the Tailhook 1991 incidents:
"Two decades ago, at the Navy's "Tailhook" convention in Las Vegas, drunken aviators assaulted female recruits."
You can read about that scandal on Wikipedia, if you're not familiar at all or it's been a while:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailhook_scandal
The Wiki article (which is pretty fair and accurate, by the way) makes no mention of "female recruits," because none were there. This was simply concocted by author Basu as a way of alleging a pattern that ties together incidents in the last three decades involving inappropriate behavior by members of the military in positions of authority.
There is no doubt that sexual assaults occur in the U.S. armed forces and everywhere else in life. They will happen in the military more often because of the closer contact between the sexes in the course of doing their everyday training and jobs. No one should ever condone inappropriate and criminal behavior. When it happens, every effort should be made to stop it and prosecute when appropriate.
Creating false narratives through inaccurate or intentionally deceptive reporting will never, in the end create a positive outcome. Reporters like Moni Basu from CNN owe the millions of readers of his work the benefit of accurate information, especially when facts are so easily found on internet sources.
Wikipedia doesn't always get everything right. But it can be a great source of screening out anything that is so obviously wrong.
