Pat, my impression (I have not tabulated data) is that whenever the military spokesperson has the mike, the units are always in meters and kilometers. When a reporter is quoting them, they usually adhere to that unless they paraphrase freely. When reporters are on their own, it's a mixed bag; some use meters and kilometers and some use yards and miles. By the way, the network anchors seem quite at home with metric units and use non-metric mostly when they are summarizing things "in their own words".
Just an impression.... Jim Pat Naughtin wrote: > > Dear Jim and All, > > Here, in Australia, we get several media 'feeds' reporting on the situation > in Iraq. These are from the various networks from the USA; the BBC from the > UK; Australia's ABC; and Al Jazeera (in Arabic � that I can't understand) > > This note is about the pause that comes with the reports from the BBC just > before they mention any measurement in their reports. > > Quote: 'The missiles are landing (ah umm = imperial pause) about two thirds > of a mile away'. > > Quote 2: 'The flames appear (ah umm = imperial pause) about a mile and a > half away. > > Clearly the (ah umm = imperial pause) is needed for the reporter either to > do a mental conversion from metric units, or to look up a convenient > conversion chart. > > Have you noticed this in media reports in the USA? > > Cheers, > > Pat Naughtin LCAMS > Geelong, Australia > > on 2003-03-24 07.32, James Frysinger at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > I have sent a fill-in-the-box reply to MSNBC in response to their question, > > "How do you like our Interactive Maps?". > > > > Essentially, I told them that our troops operate in kilometers, most of the > > reporting is in kilometers, and that most of the world, including many > > Americans, use and understand kilometers. On that basis I asked them to > > include a kilometer scale on their maps, which so far seem to have only > > scales in miles. > > > > Jim -- Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" James R. Frysinger, LCAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charleston, SC 29407 phone: 843.225.6789
