April, 2007 archive
Media Bias? 5
Interesting essay on this topic over at Delaware Liberal:
I’m a sucker. I tend to think that most reporters try to be objective.
Note: I said reporters, not “commentators.”
(Q.: What’s the difference between a “commentor” and a “commentator”?
A: $500,000 a year.
Q: If a commentor does comments, what does a commentator do? Commentation?)
But one does not obtain objectivity by having three quotes from one side and three quotes from the other side.
Objectivity means holding the claims of both sides up against the facts.
Somehow, much of contemporary journalism has lost site of the concept of objectivity requires testing claims against facts.
Addendum, 30 seconds later:
I urge you to follow the link and check the comments. Alan Loudell, long-time program director for WILM-AM (until it was gobbled up by the Borg Clear Channel and now with WDEL-AM added a long and thoughful comment to the post.
I have met Mr. Loudell, though I’m certain he wouldn’t remember me, in the course of arranging a Girl Scout tour of WILM. He is a gracious gentleman.
Forecast 0
Dick Polman on early presidential preference polls: Basically meaningless.
1. In February 1995, Bob Dole was favored over incumbent President Clinton by 51 to 45 percent. (In November 1996, Clinton beat Dole by 49 to 41 percent.)
2. In March 1991, the senior George Bush was beating Mario Cuomo by 78 to 17 percent, and few even heard of Bill Clinton. (In November 1992, Clinton beat Bush by five points.)
3. In February 1983, Walter Mondale topped incumbent Ronald Reagan, 47 to 41 percent. (In November 1984, Reagan hammered Mondale in a landslide.)
4. In April 1975, incumbent Gerald Ford trailed Ted Kennedy by 50 to 43 percent. (Kennedy never ran, and 19 months later, Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in a squeaker.)
Really Reilly Rivera 0
Earlier, I referred to the dispute between Geraldo Rivera (who used to be a good reporter–his Love Canal expose ranks with some of the finest reporting ever) and Bill O’Reilly (hoick! ptui!).
Here’s what one of the columnists (not the editors) at the Virginian-Pilot (the newspaper I grew up with and the one that serves the area in which the crash that sent Rivera and O’Reilly reeling happened) has to say.
Note: I snipped a dissenting view from an elected official from the quotation below for the sake of continuity, because the quotation referred to an earlier part of the column which I chose not to quote, but it’s all there if you follow the link. Or even if you don’t:
I’ve got to hand it to O’Reilly. He made Geraldo Rivera sound like a sage.
“Cool your jets,” Rivera told O’Reilly when they discussed the case Thursday on television. “It has nothing to do with illegal aliens. It has to do with drunk driving.”
(snip)
We could use a rocket to launch illegal immigrants out of America and we’d still have drunks on our roads.
Maybe the next stretch of fence we finance should be between bars and cars.
Letter to the Editor 0
I couldn’t have said it better. From today’s Letters to the Local Rag:
It was a politician who created the tiny group of incompetent political appointees who got us into this horrible mess to begin with.
It was a politician who dismissed a secretary of state with superb military and diplomatic credentials because his opinion differed from the groupthink of his tiny organization.
It was a politician whose “personal loyalty above all” credo dragged us deeper and deeper into this quagmire, ignoring the advice of any and all who had a different opinion.
It is a politician who now gambles with the global reputation of America as a peace-loving bastion of freedom in a frantic effort to salvage his reputation, his place in history.
It is a politician who refuses to admit that he’s wrong – no matter what the price.
Gallivanting Pelosi 0
Trudy Rubin:
The most fascinating thing about Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Damascus was . . . her head scarves.
She had a different print square for each Mideast stop, each coordinated with her suit. If only I could look so elegant entering a mosque; my head is usually swathed in some black swatch that has been crumpled into my bag.
You say I’m not giving the lady credit for jolting a failed Bush policy? Or I’m remiss for not denouncing her traitorous behavior in encouraging the enemy?
Double nonsense.
Endless legislators, both Democratic and Republican, including Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.), have trooped through Damascus and met President Bashar al-Assad in recent months, with nothing to show for it. Ditto for this visit.
As for “aiding the enemy,” the arrival of such a high-ranking Democrat probably did reaffirm Assad’s belief he can sit Bush out and wait for a Democratic successor. But Assad was already wedded to a wait-’em-out strategy. The responsibility for that lies with the White House, not the speaker of the House.
But it has been a handy diversion for the Current Federal Administrator, whose finger breaks everything it touches.
Fly the Friendly Skies 0
Whoops! That was a different airline.
The pilot of the Las Vegas-to-Detroit flight was apparently in a heated cell phone conversation in the cockpit, then went into a lavatory, locked the door and continued the conversation, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said Saturday.
Hatfields and McCoys (Updated) 0
The feud may have had some biological roots:
Dozens of McCoy descendants apparently have the disease, which causes high blood pressure, racing hearts, severe headaches and too much adrenaline and other “fight or flight” stress hormones.
No one blames the whole feud on this, but doctors say it could help explain some of the clan’s notorious behavior.
About the only good thing the feud produced was this.
Addendum, 4/7/07:
Teens in the News 6
In Hermitage, Pa.:
In the lawsuit, Eric W. Trosch alleged that the three profiles created in December 2005 on the social networking Web site damaged his reputation, humiliated him and hurt his earning capacity.
And across the nation:
Mall officials say the policies cut back on unruly behavior and loitering that can turn off other shoppers; teens say they are being singled out for the bad behavior of a few.
At least 44 malls out of 1,100 in the United States have teen curfew and escort policies – mostly since 2004, according to data from the International Council of Shopping Centers, a New York shopping-center trade organization.
Of course, it must be difficult for the Younger Generation these days.
After what those of my age did, there is nothing they can do to shock us.
Disgust us maybe. But not shock us.
It must be awfully frustrating.
What’s Going on in Pakistan? 0
From Fresh Air. I listened to this yesterday. Mr. Rashid talks a little fast–it takes some getting used to–but the interview was very interesting. And things he says bear on what’s going on in Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. Follow the link to listen to the interview:
The Bush administration sees Musharraf as a major ally in the war on terrorism. He came to power in a 1999 coup; his 5-year term as president is up this year, and with protest movements emerging both in the Pakistani middle-class and among Islamist extremists, it’s far from clear how he’ll proceed.
Rashid, author of the best-selling Taliban and Jihad, argues that Musharraf has misjudged his country’s mood, that Pakistan’s middle-class is ready for a move back toward democracy and that they’re ready for Musharraf to step down.
A violent government crackdown on public protest, Rashid says, has only unified the opposition, and “anything he does now to keep himself in power … is going to lead to more protests and more aggravation on the streets.”
Crocodile Tears 1
Andrew Cohen:
There some very thoughtful comments following Mr. Cohen’s post (as well as the usual crop of sarcasm and sniping, such as the delightfully ironic suggestion that Ms. Goodling might benefirt from a visit to Gitmo–which sort of shows what can happen to the polity when rulers decide that some animals are more equal than others).
Adam Felber Muses on World Events (Updated) 4
Looking at the release of the British sailors, at Saudi King Abdullah’s Middle East peace efforts, and Nancy Pelosi’s travels, he asks
And do they deserve credit for it?
Anyone who’s ever had a completely incompetent high school teacher or a totally boneheaded and lazy coach for their sports team understands this – eventually, you and your friends realized that in the end you’d be judged by an objective standard – the other team, the standardized test…
(Aside: Regarding Ms. Pelosi’s trip, if Republicans can do it, Democrats can also. After all, visiting world leaders is not the same as firing competent public servants or selling the government to the highest bidder, despite the Bushie spin.)
Addendum, 4/5/07:
What’s in a Name? 0
In Sweden, both first names and surnames have to be officially approved. On the banned list are “offensive, unsuitable or inappropriate” titles, as well as those which might “cause discomfort for the one using it.”
Wonder what they would say about “Apple“?
Smokin’! 0
Withdrawal:
Delta Flight 511, a nonstop from Cincinnati, was over the Pacific Ocean when the passenger had “a complete meltdown freakout,” said a fellow passenger who called The Associated Press from the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport.
The flight was turned around after the woman hit a pilot who had left the cockpit to quell the disturbance, said Elizabeth Oglesby of Atlanta.
Rx 0
In my continuing journey in the world of self-employment, I today applied for medical insurance through my professional society.
It’s eye-opening to pay the entirety of your premium, even with a $10,000.00 deductible (coupled with an HSA).
But it’s still better than this.
Bad Men, Bad Wars 0
Will Bunch on the cynicism of Federal Administrators:
Ironic, considering that the phrase was, from Day One, nothing but a political ploy of the cheapest kind. In fact, Nixon and Kissinger wanted to get out of Vietnam just as much as the Democrats of the early 1970s — the only difference was they wanted to make sure that they won an election first.
When someone told Kissinger that Nixon could not be re-elected, because of Vietnam, he disputed it and added, according to a memo of a conversation, that “anytime we want to get out of Vietnam we can,” and that “we will get out of Vietnam before the [1972] election.” Nixon wanted to plan the removal of all U.S. troops by the end of 1971, but Kissinger cautioned that, if North Vietnam then de-stabilized Saigon during the following year, events could have an adverse effect on the president’s campaign. According to Haldeman’s diaries, Kissinger advocated a pullout in the fall of 1972, “so that if any bad results follow they will be too late to affect the election.” He apparently had nothing to say about the American lives that would be lost by deliberately prolonging the war.
In fact, a lot of American lives (and countless Vietnamese lives) were lost due to that calculated policy. From the beginning of 1969 (20 days before Nixon took office) until the end of the war, another 20,604 Americans gave their lives in a crusade that somehow morphed into a campaign to re-elect the president.
It just boggles my mind that we would make the same moronic mistake twice in my lifetime, and that thousands more will die for the same BS, so that one party can gain some electoral votes in 2008 by branding their rivals “the party of surrender,” rather than take responsible steps to do what’s right, politically expedient or not.
Swampwater 1
I’ve mentioned Blackwater USA before–the secretive (not secret, just to be clear) outfit that, when questioned about its activities, claims that its behavior is more classified than anything the actual, real U. S. Military does.
Well, looks like their minions can’t drive:
The decision will mean more scrutiny of a high-profile clash between the uniformed military and the growing force of private contractors on the battlefield.
Lt. Cols. Gary Brown and Christopher Hall could have faced a potentially career-ending court-martial over accusations that they rammed a vehicle driven by Blackwater contractor Jimmy Bergeron on a busy Kabul road Sept. 19 and that they assaulted and threatened Bergeron in a confrontation after the collision.Background: Wartime friction grows between private and uniformed forces
After a preliminary hearing in February, an Air Force investigating officer recommended that the charges be dropped, suggesting that Bergeron was the aggressor in the incident and citing evidence that someone might have tried to bribe Afghan security guards to testify falsely about it.
As far as I am concerned, we shouldn’t be contracting out our national defense.
It is difficult enough to ensure the loyalty of those whose paychecks are signed by Uncle Sugar. What reason have we to trust someone whose paychecks are signed by private individuals?
