Questions for Aerospace/Defense “Journalists”

A few questions for the Aerospace/Defense “Journalists” out there.

What are the odds that two different ‘news’ sources (one, two -- and two is worse) would come up with--shall we say, “twisted” articles concerning the standup of the first USMC F-35 squadron in Yuma within a day of each other without pre-coordination or as a reflex to information coming from a common pro-active source?

4:10 (F-35) to Yuma

What are the odds that the articles would also have the same basic twist (emphasis on the work ahead and not goals achieved, consistent repetition of old problems minimizing or ignoring progress made on known issues, and using the same sort of breathless reporting to make relatively minor technical problems appear as if they were of grave consequence) ? Again, without pre-coordination, or in reflex to information from a common, pro-active source?

What are the odds of these same articles being issued at essentially the same time after months of nothing but a long string of good news and successes coming out of the F-35 program?

What are the odds this ‘coincidence’ occurred after the election by design? It seems the closer we got to the election, the quieter the anti-JSF crowd became.

I don’t smell conspiracy coming from the usual circle of defense writers.

I smell sloth, smug ignorance, gullibility and possibly the spoor left behind by the usual suspects in the rabid Anti-Defense Establishment.

Fess up boys. Who’s writing your first draft these days?

Did your 'sources' get wind of this version of the story ahead of time and exhort you to perform damage control?