This sort of facile military reporting and media presentation of the military has become increasingly common. It goes beyond calling all warships (except carriers and subs) “battleships” (a class of ship that went out of wide use half a century ago) or calling self-propelled artillery (or even infantry fighting vehicles) “tanks” simply because they all have turrets (but very different uses).  The bad reporting extends to many other basic items of equipment, training, leadership, tactics, and casualties.

It all started back in the 1970s, when conscription in the United States ended and the many World War II veterans in journalism, public affairs, and advertising (all of whom help out at major political events) began to retire. The end of conscription meant new journalists were much less likely to have any knowledge of military affairs. It became increasingly easy to make stupid and embarrassing, mistakes.

The new ignorance also caused safety issues for reporters. Thus a decade ago, after years of being urged to establish a "boot camp" for journalists, the Department of Defense finally did so. A week long course was offered, free (at various locations the journos had to get to). The course not only helped make reporting more accurate but also was intended to help save journalists lives.

Basic battlefield common sense was taught, as well as some first aid and what to do in the event the enemy used nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. On the reporting side, the students learned "military customs" (who is who, what the jargon means, and why the troops do certain things in and out of a combat zone). Also taught was the concept of "rules of engagement" and what the various weapons used were (sort of a show and tell). The trainers were also prepared to answer a lot of questions. The Gulf War saw the first calls for this kind of course, for it was then that it was realized that most new war reporters had no military experience (the draft ended in 1972) and were prone to misidentify and misinterpret things in a way that put the military (and sometimes the media) in a bad light.

Despite these efforts to educate battlefield journalists, there are still so few media specialists with any military knowledge that media disasters like the one at the Democratic Party convention will continue to occur. It's not just that fewer people serve in the military (about one percent of the population, compared to 12 percent during World War II and 3-5 percent during the Cold War) but growing hostility in the media towards the military and anyone associated with military affairs. Without many people really noticing it, military knowledge in the mass media largely went away over the last 40 years and the damage this has done to the quality of reporting on military affairs is increasing.