Ravi, are you telepathic? I had an idea a few weeks ago (it didn't hurt), to wit, wouldn't it be interesting to survey the major newspapers on a regular basis. Have you seen this done before? Or did we both come up with the same idea independently, about the same time? #media
"The Washington Post: has a picture that may kill thousands. It certainly put me off getting a swine flu shot - the needle is actually in the little boy's arm"
Someone at the WaPo photo desk either has a short memory or a wicked sense of humor, putting a big photo of a kid with a needle in his arm in that paper.
How lovely that the FBI, CIA, NSA, et al have finally learned to cooperate in the years since 9/11. I'm looking forward to our sprawling bureaucracies once again being exposed for grand mal incompetence. #media
There is way too much speculation, minute fact gathering, and gotta' get something for the sake of getting it by all these papers on the Ft. Hood situation. Stop it, newspapers. Focus on what matters in your communities: jobs, schools, housing, public institutions and their successes and failures, local people making a difference, who's lining their pickets via the zoning board, who's stealing from the nursing homes, who's afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. The other stuff is what wires are for.
@If_I_Had_a_Poodle: Thanks! I celebrated this over-generous compliment with much Bavarian yodeling and bottom-slapping. (Which is from my favourite AJ Liebling piece, btw.) #media
You'd have thought the FeeBees would've learned from the fiasco with Oswald who'd written in everyone's yearbook, "You are 2 sweet 2 be 4 gotten!!! Also, if Jack Kennedy's ever elected President and I have access to a Carcano rifle, I don't know what I might do." #media
Well, the editorial agenda here has been crystal clear from the get-go (i.e., "scapegoating").
I have no idea what's going on with this story because: (a) most news outlets have released information that has turned out to be utterly, painfully wrong, and (b) the rest (like Gawker) are pursuing a pro/anti-discrimination agenda.
By the time any truth is uncovered, you will all have lost interest...so as usual, the readers remain uninformed. #media
Very little -- almost none -- of this effort adds meaning to the world. Or even entertainment.
Local papers, and papers pretending to be national papers, please develop something of a local consciousness on your public instititions. This stuff can be handled by the tabs. #media
@Han Valen: When someone actually does the thing he is accused of, it is called guilt. When others try to extrapolate from the actions of a single deranged individual to paint all members of a particular religion as fanatical terrorists-in-waiting, that is called scapegoating and it is straight-up wrong. And if you don't think there are prominent elected officials and members of the media who consider "Muslim" to be synonymous with "terrorist," allow me to familiarize you the menace that is... wait for it... Muslim congressional interns!!!
@flossy: When an inordinate number of similar incidents occur within a single population, and almost exclusively within that population, then it's no longer 'scapegoating', but rather a 'legitimate concern' for everyone involved. Sorry if some feelings get hurt in that assessment, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. #media
@Han Valen: Do Muslim members of the U.S. military "inordinately" go postal and start shooting people at random? No, they do not. This was an isolated tragedy, in which religion was one important factor but far from the only factor.
As for "almost exclusively within that population"... is that a joke? I would ask if you were born yesterday, but even that is no excuse since literally the day after Fort Hood some other deranged creep shot up an Orlando office park for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with Islam. People snap. People commit violent acts. People are driven by religion to kill--be they Muslim fanatics targeting American soldiers or Christian extremists targeting doctors.
The intersection of weapons, religious fundamentalism and psychological stress is a legitimate cause for concern. It is not, however, legitimate grounds to scapegoat and stigmatize an entire religion--any religion. I don't give a fuck if feelings are hurt, I care if innocent people are demonized and civil liberties are violated. #media
@flossy: I meant 'similar' to not just mean 'shootings', but 'horribly violent and irrational acts in the name of Islam', and yeah, there are lots of those around the world right now. And not many other groups of people are blowing themselves up or running over their daughters or stoning gays and rape victims to death or firing on protesters or any of the other things we've seen happen in the last few months (and years).
So yes, it is a legitimate concern that the Islamic faith is breeding this kind of behavior, and regardless of what the actual percentage of the whole it is, it's still more common than in any other single defining factor.
It does nobody any good to pretend otherwise. #media
Hey Gawker, that was one hell of a smart posting/analysis/tragic-event-media-insight kind thing. The best part being it didn't involve any "print" bashing. And wow, I actually had to stand in front of the front page of the NY Post at the newstand this morning with my jaw hanging wide open. #media
want a depressing fact? The world is so inured to massacres in America that today's Times, in London, devotes all of two square inches to it.
Sorry, but I don't agree with this sentiment. Certainly this event is a tragedy, but why should American massacres get any more play in the foreign press than similar events from any other country? I remember someone pointing out after the Virginia Tech shootings that the same number of people (or more) are killed on a regular basis in Iraq, and they don't get front-page coverage in the US. #media
11/13/09
11/13/09
Someone at the WaPo photo desk either has a short memory or a wicked sense of humor, putting a big photo of a kid with a needle in his arm in that paper.
[www.time.com]
[www.museumofhoaxes.com]
[dragon.soc.qc.cuny.edu]
[books.google.com]
If they had gotten that shot for the heroin/kid story on "Jimmy's world" -- oh, wait, that wasn't real. Never mind. #media
11/13/09
11/11/09
11/10/09
11/10/09
[www.time.com]
[www.slate.com]
[en.wikipedia.org]
There is way too much speculation, minute fact gathering, and gotta' get something for the sake of getting it by all these papers on the Ft. Hood situation. Stop it, newspapers. Focus on what matters in your communities: jobs, schools, housing, public institutions and their successes and failures, local people making a difference, who's lining their pickets via the zoning board, who's stealing from the nursing homes, who's afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. The other stuff is what wires are for.
11/14/09
11/15/09
11/10/09
11/09/09
I have no idea what's going on with this story because: (a) most news outlets have released information that has turned out to be utterly, painfully wrong, and (b) the rest (like Gawker) are pursuing a pro/anti-discrimination agenda.
By the time any truth is uncovered, you will all have lost interest...so as usual, the readers remain uninformed. #media
11/09/09
Local papers, and papers pretending to be national papers, please develop something of a local consciousness on your public instititions. This stuff can be handled by the tabs. #media
11/09/09
11/09/09
11/09/09
11/09/09
11/09/09
[www.reuters.com]
11/09/09
11/09/09
11/09/09
As for "almost exclusively within that population"... is that a joke? I would ask if you were born yesterday, but even that is no excuse since literally the day after Fort Hood some other deranged creep shot up an Orlando office park for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with Islam. People snap. People commit violent acts. People are driven by religion to kill--be they Muslim fanatics targeting American soldiers or Christian extremists targeting doctors.
The intersection of weapons, religious fundamentalism and psychological stress is a legitimate cause for concern. It is not, however, legitimate grounds to scapegoat and stigmatize an entire religion--any religion. I don't give a fuck if feelings are hurt, I care if innocent people are demonized and civil liberties are violated. #media
11/09/09
"As great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well."
- General George Casey, Army chief of staff, on the Hasan massacre.
So really? Fuck off. #media
11/09/09
So yes, it is a legitimate concern that the Islamic faith is breeding this kind of behavior, and regardless of what the actual percentage of the whole it is, it's still more common than in any other single defining factor.
It does nobody any good to pretend otherwise. #media
11/06/09
11/06/09
#kerik #media
11/06/09
11/06/09
Sorry, but I don't agree with this sentiment. Certainly this event is a tragedy, but why should American massacres get any more play in the foreign press than similar events from any other country? I remember someone pointing out after the Virginia Tech shootings that the same number of people (or more) are killed on a regular basis in Iraq, and they don't get front-page coverage in the US. #media