Just saw a couple of nice shots at the meme that the press is failing to justly report the good news from Iraq. The video at crooks and liars of Lara Logan is pretty impressive. For a while at least, you can get both that and the most recent Tom Tomorrow cartoon at working for change. Peter Daou was also talking about this, but it's late and I'm too lazy right now to find the link.
Despite these recent nice hits, I have not seen the round rebuttal this meme deserves. Here are some points that should not be overlooked:
1. Iraq is the Titanic sinking. Good news is not common and favoring it would not enhance accuracy.
1a. Almost all the good news is at least arguably meaningless. Fix something that was destroyed a year ago so it can be destroyed again tomorrow. Most of the good news is strictly symbolic -- Saddam is on trial, but life is worse than it was under Saddam. Some of it is staged -- statutes pulled down amid celebration of a few of the usual suspects, carted in to shoot the video. Jessica Lynch made the subject of a phony rescue from nonexistent captors. Illigitimate and unlawful elections that do not actually lead to a sound or popular Constitution, and still no functioning central government.
1b. Reporters can't get to the "real good news" without getting killed (that's how good things are).
1c. The MSM hardly scratches the surface of the bad news.
2. The function of standard news values is to favor bad news. This is a good thing. It's the things that go wrong that need our attention so we can fix them. Reporting about how soldiers were forced to scavenge "hillbilly armor" for their vehicles embarassed the DOD into action. Emphasising good news in this situation would be like feeding the viewers so many drugs they can't tell when their own arm is on fire.
2a. The role of good news is solely to establish the context and scale of bad news. Hence, it is appropriate to let people know that some small portion of Iraqi reconstruction funds were not squandered or stolen, even though billions were. That the electricity is working in some places. However, the media often neglect this in other contexts and to demand better performance here is to demand a lopsidedness and bias. For example, on 9/11, it was not reported that 99.999% of Americans were not attacked by terrorists that day, or that Al Qaida was a strategic ally of the US in the 80s in Afghanistan or in the 90s in the Balkans.
3. Logan made a great point that I hadn't heard before. The same government that at one level is attacking the media for not reporting the good, is at another level asking that the good not be reported, and obstructing these reports, because our accomplishments are apparently too fragile -- drawing attention to them will only place them in danger of insurgent attack.
4. The complaint comes from a lying government that keeps pushing optimistic propaganda and previously claimed, we would be greeted as liberators, mission accomplished, there is no insurgency, the insurgents are in their last throes, etc. etc. etc. Or from a right wing that insists that we tell a certain kind of story, true or false, to "support" the troops, because perception is reality and the media create reality by creating perception -- a convoluted excuse for shooting the messenger. These arguments have abandoned credibility and rationality, which is fine if you want to be a pathological liar or a psychotic, but neither of these is a proper role for the media.
More later.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
immigration
This is a good moment to talk about immigration, given the draconian proposal of Mr. Senselessbrenner (R-WI) and the massive protests it has evoked.
My proposal would consist of two parts. The first is normalization. Legalize the status quo. Allow a vast number of Mexicans to immigrate, based on the numbers estimated to be doing so already without all having legal sanction. Enact an automatic amnesty for all current undocumented. Create a guest worker program that allows these workers to participate in the economy on terms close to those actually existing. Regulate the inflow and permanent presence of a huge alien population by requiring people to become documented. Such normalization gets rid of the winking illegality and disregard for the law, frees up misspent enforcement resources, and allows an underground world to come into the sunshine, facilitating a vast array of important government functions. Border patrol would be more about contraband control, fugitive detection, and public health monitoring. All without really changing anything. It's all upside and no downside.
Part two is actual reform. Domestically, raise the minimum wage, allow aliens the right to vote, and guarantee rights to full economic and social participation, streamline citizenship requirements and requirements for permanent alien status. Fund indigent services, legal clinics, health care, etc. for aliens and citizens alike. Engage a national policy of promoting English-Spanish bilingualism. Promote Mexican cultural products. Internationally, create a special relationship with Mexico aimed at economic and cultural harmonization. Make Mexico the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Renegotiate NAFTA. Revitalize Mexican agriculture, allowing subsidies and tarriffs. Require U.S. businesses in Mexico to pay equivalent wages to Mexican workers per unit of productivity as paid to U.S. workers.
My proposal would consist of two parts. The first is normalization. Legalize the status quo. Allow a vast number of Mexicans to immigrate, based on the numbers estimated to be doing so already without all having legal sanction. Enact an automatic amnesty for all current undocumented. Create a guest worker program that allows these workers to participate in the economy on terms close to those actually existing. Regulate the inflow and permanent presence of a huge alien population by requiring people to become documented. Such normalization gets rid of the winking illegality and disregard for the law, frees up misspent enforcement resources, and allows an underground world to come into the sunshine, facilitating a vast array of important government functions. Border patrol would be more about contraband control, fugitive detection, and public health monitoring. All without really changing anything. It's all upside and no downside.
Part two is actual reform. Domestically, raise the minimum wage, allow aliens the right to vote, and guarantee rights to full economic and social participation, streamline citizenship requirements and requirements for permanent alien status. Fund indigent services, legal clinics, health care, etc. for aliens and citizens alike. Engage a national policy of promoting English-Spanish bilingualism. Promote Mexican cultural products. Internationally, create a special relationship with Mexico aimed at economic and cultural harmonization. Make Mexico the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Renegotiate NAFTA. Revitalize Mexican agriculture, allowing subsidies and tarriffs. Require U.S. businesses in Mexico to pay equivalent wages to Mexican workers per unit of productivity as paid to U.S. workers.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
More gripes against 4
I've been full of gripes against the local TV news, especially their special reports. Here are some of the things I've hated:
(1) Stories about how former sex offenders continue to exist and have some rights left. Every week or two there's another story like this. Even the laziest pseudo-journalist who can't sniff out any real news can think up new stories by the simple formula of "sexual predator" + VERB. Did you realize that sexual predators are allowed to buy corn flakes at the supermarket? Did you realize that sexual predators are allowed to work as plumbers and electricians? Did you realize that sex offenders use public restrooms? It's almost like they think they're people the way they go about doing ordinary people things. To give a recent example of how bad things are getting, last week, Illinois passed nine new laws all restricting former sex offenders; one of them included fifteen new automatic restrictions on parolees. Channel 4 just had a report that some sex offenders live near schools; that's where their houses are. With a school in every neighborhood, this is to be expected. The report is not in any sense fair. It actively promotes legislation which it calls a "a no-brainer"; it refers to proposed legislation as "this bill that would protect children"; and opine that getting sex offenders to not live near schools warrants "whatever it takes" (see the video). A previous report told viewers that what they had to report "should make you sick." I like facts rather than opinions in my news.
(2) Terry Jendusa-Nicolai is a woman who was abducted, beaten, and left for dead, some years back. The news had some new report on her every day. They probably felt they were being diligent and industrious, but really, how lazy is it to report the same story every night, and how unnewsworthy? "Terry Jendusa-Nicolai ate a salad today. Terry Jendusa-Nicolai went to bed early tonight. Terry Jendusa-Nicolai woke up this morning and shat out the salad she ate yesterday." More of her in the news this week. Let's have a moratorium until 2010.
(3) Lost Luggage. Not so much that it represents a trend, but this was a bizarre story. Apparently, when the airlines misdirect your luggage, they send it to an outlet store to be sold to the general public. This includes highly personal items and seemingly, some things that could easily have been sent back to their owners. If it was my luggage, I'd be outraged. The tenor of the story was -- wow, this is great, look at the bargains to be had!
(4) There have been a series of reports that have done nothing but advertise religion. There was a report on what seemed like a completely ordinary church, another about a church whose priests both had caught colds. There was a story about "Christian" videogames, promoting them as a kid-friendly alternative to shooting monsters, because in these there is no occult element, you just slay infidels or Moors. Violence is more acceptable when wed to bigotry. That smug bastard Tom Hignite who runs a lucrative home constriction business as a "Christian-based" enterprise but who screws his workers, was the hero of a piece about his hiring laid off Disney cartoonists to do a religious animated film.
(5) But I have to say that the pandering is in some sense equal-opportunity. Another report looked at a book on how to become a "pick-up artist." They talked to the author, mentioned a few principles on how to connect with chicks, had some sadsack put the advice to the test. Of course, the New York Times, reviewing the book, was merciless, attacking the shallow, manipulative and disdainfully misogynist premise of the book, which is that what you want is to be able to get cheap sex and that you are entitled to whatever deceit allows you to use and discard women at will.
(6) There are a lot of news stories that are really just free commercials. The last two notes are part of this. So was an article on private shopping sprees, plus all the new technology and trend reports and even the consumer reports, that are less about debunking claims than about legitimizing an advertised need which may or may not really exist.
(7) There was the alleged rape and murder of a pretty white girl by a creepy-looking older guy. There are a hundred homicides in Milwaukee each year that are scarcely reported, but this one has been sticking in the news. One of the reports was clearly promoting legislation to bring the death penalty to the state.
(8) A lot of my enmity toward the local news was laid out in letters to them that I wrote before starting to blog. I was particularly pissed at an error-filled story playing "gotcha" with people that were driving after revocation. There have been a variety of similar stories: People not paying their tickets, driving too fast in a school zone. It's a staple. Find a crime that is commonplace but widely viewed as trivial, and catch violators, who have no defense, then urge getting tough.
(9) Weather stories. The unusual weather may be the talk of the town, but unless you can identify some effect of it that I was not aware of, it should not be the lead story.
(10) Crime stories from elsewhere. You're seeing more and more of these, and I think they just grab this stuff off the satellite to fill time. A minor crime occurs in Ohio. Probably happens every day somewhere. If it were local, it would be reported. But it means nothing to anybody here.
(11) Tonight there was a story about gender-segregated schools. Reminded me of another one a while back about an Indian mascot issue. Both reports showed the claims of advocates, and person-on-the-street reactions that were uniformly uninformed. Never talked to anyone opposing the measures, even though we have a national progressive education advocacy group headquartered in this city which could have provided experts explaining the problems with these things.
(1) Stories about how former sex offenders continue to exist and have some rights left. Every week or two there's another story like this. Even the laziest pseudo-journalist who can't sniff out any real news can think up new stories by the simple formula of "sexual predator" + VERB. Did you realize that sexual predators are allowed to buy corn flakes at the supermarket? Did you realize that sexual predators are allowed to work as plumbers and electricians? Did you realize that sex offenders use public restrooms? It's almost like they think they're people the way they go about doing ordinary people things. To give a recent example of how bad things are getting, last week, Illinois passed nine new laws all restricting former sex offenders; one of them included fifteen new automatic restrictions on parolees. Channel 4 just had a report that some sex offenders live near schools; that's where their houses are. With a school in every neighborhood, this is to be expected. The report is not in any sense fair. It actively promotes legislation which it calls a "a no-brainer"; it refers to proposed legislation as "this bill that would protect children"; and opine that getting sex offenders to not live near schools warrants "whatever it takes" (see the video). A previous report told viewers that what they had to report "should make you sick." I like facts rather than opinions in my news.
(2) Terry Jendusa-Nicolai is a woman who was abducted, beaten, and left for dead, some years back. The news had some new report on her every day. They probably felt they were being diligent and industrious, but really, how lazy is it to report the same story every night, and how unnewsworthy? "Terry Jendusa-Nicolai ate a salad today. Terry Jendusa-Nicolai went to bed early tonight. Terry Jendusa-Nicolai woke up this morning and shat out the salad she ate yesterday." More of her in the news this week. Let's have a moratorium until 2010.
(3) Lost Luggage. Not so much that it represents a trend, but this was a bizarre story. Apparently, when the airlines misdirect your luggage, they send it to an outlet store to be sold to the general public. This includes highly personal items and seemingly, some things that could easily have been sent back to their owners. If it was my luggage, I'd be outraged. The tenor of the story was -- wow, this is great, look at the bargains to be had!
(4) There have been a series of reports that have done nothing but advertise religion. There was a report on what seemed like a completely ordinary church, another about a church whose priests both had caught colds. There was a story about "Christian" videogames, promoting them as a kid-friendly alternative to shooting monsters, because in these there is no occult element, you just slay infidels or Moors. Violence is more acceptable when wed to bigotry. That smug bastard Tom Hignite who runs a lucrative home constriction business as a "Christian-based" enterprise but who screws his workers, was the hero of a piece about his hiring laid off Disney cartoonists to do a religious animated film.
(5) But I have to say that the pandering is in some sense equal-opportunity. Another report looked at a book on how to become a "pick-up artist." They talked to the author, mentioned a few principles on how to connect with chicks, had some sadsack put the advice to the test. Of course, the New York Times, reviewing the book, was merciless, attacking the shallow, manipulative and disdainfully misogynist premise of the book, which is that what you want is to be able to get cheap sex and that you are entitled to whatever deceit allows you to use and discard women at will.
(6) There are a lot of news stories that are really just free commercials. The last two notes are part of this. So was an article on private shopping sprees, plus all the new technology and trend reports and even the consumer reports, that are less about debunking claims than about legitimizing an advertised need which may or may not really exist.
(7) There was the alleged rape and murder of a pretty white girl by a creepy-looking older guy. There are a hundred homicides in Milwaukee each year that are scarcely reported, but this one has been sticking in the news. One of the reports was clearly promoting legislation to bring the death penalty to the state.
(8) A lot of my enmity toward the local news was laid out in letters to them that I wrote before starting to blog. I was particularly pissed at an error-filled story playing "gotcha" with people that were driving after revocation. There have been a variety of similar stories: People not paying their tickets, driving too fast in a school zone. It's a staple. Find a crime that is commonplace but widely viewed as trivial, and catch violators, who have no defense, then urge getting tough.
(9) Weather stories. The unusual weather may be the talk of the town, but unless you can identify some effect of it that I was not aware of, it should not be the lead story.
(10) Crime stories from elsewhere. You're seeing more and more of these, and I think they just grab this stuff off the satellite to fill time. A minor crime occurs in Ohio. Probably happens every day somewhere. If it were local, it would be reported. But it means nothing to anybody here.
(11) Tonight there was a story about gender-segregated schools. Reminded me of another one a while back about an Indian mascot issue. Both reports showed the claims of advocates, and person-on-the-street reactions that were uniformly uninformed. Never talked to anyone opposing the measures, even though we have a national progressive education advocacy group headquartered in this city which could have provided experts explaining the problems with these things.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
