Reporters on Galton

ThinksMarkedly wrote:I still think that reporters aboard warships during battle are the exception, not the rule. Audrey was special and maybe one or two more also got invited to travel aboard Invictus. The vast majority of embedded press was in the fleet train, possibly aboard Marine transports, which was staying in hyper while the naval battle was going on.

It probably is true that it is unusual for reporters to be on a warship during a battle in the Honorverse, but this situation is the exception. A previously unknown force has been causing destruction across inhabited space and this fleet has been sent to drag them into public scrutiny; which requires witnesses.

I reject that Audrey is special, except to the extent that this story needs to get back to the public of the Solarian League. So the question is whether she is the only well known reporter that was not a stooge for the previous Permanent Senior Undersecretary of Information; if not then she should not be the only reporter from the League.

Also this of interest to all the members of the Grand Alliance, so there should be reporters from there too.

However, while there may be some news elements with the fleet train, no first line reporter would accept being kept in the dark during the battle. I agree that they should not be privy to command instructions, but they should have first hand knowledge of the communications with Galton.

Given that RFC is a Naval Historian (as well as an author) with a special interest in the British Royal Navy, there may be a nod to the founder of the Murdock dynasty. Keith Murdock was an on the spot reporter during the Gallipoli campaign in WW1.
He smuggled reports out that contradicted the Admirality (could have been executed for treason). So perhaps RFC is giving a nod to that era?

tlb wrote:

penny wrote:Anyway, something did go wrong. There was no smoking gun. There were no weapons of mass destruction. So now, can't the GA get sued? Where are the reparations?

What are you talking about? The commanders in charge of Galton admitted everything and firing missiles AFTER a surrender clearly shows evil intent. The problem with Galton is that they also admitted to doing things that were actually committed by Darius.

Who do you expect will sue, the people that committed suicide by blowing up the forts, or the slave laborers?

penny wrote:What???

Is that true? Galton admitted to committing some of Darius' crimes? Could you post that please? The only thing I recall Galton admitting is that they are the Alignment.

It would make sense that they admit to all of the worse atrocities, since their goal is to be a cutout and a scapegoat.

tlb wrote:Admittedly the admission was not verbal. Instead of denying the charges listed by Honor, they opened fire. However we know that in their data stores, there is documentation showing that Galton was responsible for Oyster Bay and that the serfs all believe that was true and so will confirm it. We expect the GA will find the documentation of other things (as we have discussed elsewhere), such as the workings of the biological nanites used for assassination.

That is where we do not see eye to eye. Galton DID NOT start the hostilities, as far as the battle goes. The GA arrogantly hypered into Galton space and every single person aboard ship (with the exception of Audrey) had a wild hair up their bum. Honor had a chia pet growing up her arse! She immediately began issuing demands of Galton that were totally unacceptable to any entity who is guilty, let alone an entity who is innocent. If you invade some unknown system and you're dragging along every warship in the known galaxy, and along with it you have an attitude and you are issuing demands before you even know that they are guilty, then how dare you! Of course Galton opened fire! This is war! Honor’s and the GA’s actions declared war! The GA was disrespectful and arrogant.

The only thing I am aware that Galton claimed is being named the Alignment. They did not claim any atrocities as far as I know. What someone else claimed they did is besides the point. In my eyes, the GA did to Galton what the SL did to the MBS. They proceeded to gather their war machine and proceed into someones system on circumstantial evidence, arrogance and hearsay.

What isn't being allowed for is the possibility that Galton is innocent. Do we know that Galton itself knew that it would be thrown under the bus. Galton proper, instead of one or two of Galton's top brass who were burning the candle on both ends and in the middle.

penny wrote:That is where we do not see eye to eye. Galton DID NOT start the hostilities, as far as the battle goes. The GA arrogantly hypered into Galton space and every single person aboard ship (with the exception of Audrey) had a wild hair up their bum. Honor had a chia pet growing up her arse! She immediately began issuing demands of Galton that were totally unacceptable to any entity who is guilty, let alone an entity who is innocent. If you invade some unknown system and you're dragging along every warship in the known galaxy, and along with it you have an attitude and you are issuing demands before you even know that they are guilty, then how dare you! Of course Galton opened fire! This is war! Honor’s and the GA’s actions declared war! The GA was disrespectful and arrogant.

The only thing I am aware that Galton claimed is being named the Alignment. They did not claim any atrocities as far as I know. What someone else claimed they did is besides the point. In my eyes, the GA did to Galton what the SL did to the MBS. They proceeded to gather their war machine and proceed into someones system on circumstantial evidence, arrogance and hearsay.

What isn't being allowed for is the possibility that Galton is innocent. Do we know that Galton itself knew that it would be thrown under the bus. Galton proper, instead of one or two of Galton's top brass who were burning the candle on both ends and in the middle.

In effect, by admitting to being the Mesan Alignment, instead of proclaiming innocence, they are admitting guilt. But you do not need to believe that.

The question is: will you change your mind when the documentation is found in Galton's databases that "proves" the connection to everything that Honor charged? Including things that the GA does not know, such as how the genetic nanites work.

PS: The SLN may have been arrogant, but the invasion of Manticore was proper, since both sides knew that there was a state of war. The only thing wrong (aside from the SLN being totally outmatched) was that the Solarian League had not yet declared war, which would have made certain things that Beowulf was doing illegal.

tlb wrote:It probably is true that it is unusual for reporters to be on a warship during a battle in the Honorverse, but this situation is the exception. A previously unknown force has been causing destruction across inhabited space and this fleet has been sent to drag them into public scrutiny; which requires witnesses.

Indeed, but how is being aboard warships during battle going to accomplish that? How do they know the transmissions that they are being shown are true? If they are going to believe those, then why do they have to receive those in real-time?

The only way to be entirely sure would be if every one of those reporters were inside the flag bridge with Honor while she recorded her replies. And while we're making guesses, this one is a fairly certain guess: they were not in there with her. If nothing else, because the flag bridge isn't that big anyway: even if she opened a exceptions, at most half a dozen could be in there. But they won't be because they aren't cleared for the fleet secrets, not even the most trustworthy newsfax from Landing City.

From here, we discuss semantics without much information upon which to conclude. So we may have to agree to disagree.

I reject that Audrey is special, except to the extent that this story needs to get back to the public of the Solarian League. So the question is whether she is the only well known reporter that was not a stooge for the previous Permanent Senior Undersecretary of Information; if not then she should not be the only reporter from the League.

She's special not because she's an Alpha... no one but her and her bodyguard are supposed to know that. She's special because she's a Solly reporter who's stuck to the truth and could not be bought by the Mandarins, who did produce pieces that were read even by the Mandarins. She was influential on Old Earth. I find it hard to believe she'd be the only one in a system with 40 billion people, but she's the one RFC has highlighted for us.

There would be others that are special too, enough to have been granted special dispensation to ride the warships. Each of the nations in the GA may have had a few of those they wanted in their own flagships, for example, with access to their top flag officers. I simply think Audrey requested she have direct access to Honor to be able to file her reports and that Honor concluded this was a reasonable request (so long as she wasn't actively commanding the fleet).

But I don't think the reporter from the Serisburg Evening Herald would rate a warship. Maybe if the Duke of Serisburg were aboard, but Michael Winton wasn't in this fleet action.

Also this of interest to all the members of the Grand Alliance, so there should be reporters from there too.

Yes, no doubt.

I do not think that we are that far apart. Although we know from the shenanigans at Camp Charon that live conversations can be faked, I expect that good reporters will still want the immediacy of seeing them on a repeater station somewhere in the warship; not necessarily on the bridge or flag deck.

If the GA cannot find another Solarian reporter with a good reputation, then Audrey is special in that limited sense. That is not enough, except for narrative purposes, for her to be the only reporter mentioned on a warship. In particular there should still be reporters from the major news services in the members of the Grand Alliance.

tlb wrote:If the GA cannot find another Solarian reporter with a good reputation, then Audrey is special in that limited sense. That is not enough, except for narrative purposes, for her to be the only reporter mentioned on a warship. In particular there should still be reporters from the major news services in the members of the Grand Alliance.

I'm not saying she's the only Solly reporter in the fleet. I am saying she's likely the only Solly reporter aboard HMS Invictus and almost definitely the only one who has direct access to Honor. Honor will not be interacting 1:1 with more than a handful of reporters and I expect that's just three: Audrey, one from Grayson, and one from Manticore. Admiral von Rabenstrage will probably do the same to a couple from New Berlin and maybe one more Solly; like wise for Admiral English and Nouveau Paris reporters.

Honor will hold a press conference where she answers questions from the reporters that don't have direct access, which will include the majority of Solly reporters. But of necessity this is not during the actual battle.

As for real-time updates, I gave a logical answer: it shouldn't matter if they get real-time or time-delayed. They're also in the middle of nowhere, so there's no time factor involved either. Plus, all their communications will go through the fleet anyway. They will have time to review and re-review their own material in the weeks it will take for their material to be seen by the public. In that sense, Audrey is not getting the drop on anything: the Serisburg Evening Herald's report will come out at the same time as hers (or at least they will be sent by courier from Galton at the same time).

But I failed to account for the illogical, sentimental human nature: reporters may have wanted it ASAP anyway.

I don't recall mention of reporters tagging along with Honor when she visited the SOL System. Or when the SLN invaded the MBS. Or when White Haven was making a beeline to Nouveau Paris, yada yada yada. Probably because ships' logs are usually referred to in those instances when somewhat detailed information is needed. Again, Galton, and Audrey, was a special case.

penny wrote:I don't recall mention of reporters tagging along with Honor when she visited the SOL System. Or when the SLN invaded the MBS. Or when White Haven was making a beeline to Nouveau Paris, yada yada yada. Probably because ships' logs are usually referred to in those instances when somewhat detailed information is needed. Again, Galton, and Audrey, was a special case.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

penny wrote:I don't recall mention of reporters tagging along with Honor when she visited the SOL System. Or when the SLN invaded the MBS. Or when White Haven was making a beeline to Nouveau Paris, yada yada yada. Probably because ships' logs are usually referred to in those instances when somewhat detailed information is needed. Again, Galton, and Audrey, was a special case.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

There were already many thousands of reporters (foreign and domestic) in Haven, Manticore and the Sol System; whereas Galton was the special case of a hidden system being forced into the light of Galactic exposure. So reporters needed to be supplied.

PS: When did White Haven make "a beeline to Nouveau Paris"?