Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Truly, truly, this is a frog in a pot of boiling water moment. Journey through a time machine to any year you care to choose…from the advent of “modern” journalism, in whatever way you wish to define it…to whatever you think ushered in this crazy, surreal, other-worldly “new new news” era in which we live. I dunno. Maybe figuring out that latter moment, would be worth a post of it’s own. March 17, 2003, maybe? But I digress.
In that era of “semi-modern” journalism, there’s probably a good fifty years of days to which you could hop, and tell the people living in any one of those days, that…well, read for yourself.
As CNN’s Howard Kurtz accurately pointed out on Sunday’s “Reliable Sources,” few media outlets seemed at all interested in giving much attention to the great news out of Iraq last week regarding September’s sharp decline in casualties.
To Kurtz’s obvious frustration, his guests – Robin Wright of the Washington Post and Barbara Starr of CNN – both supported the press burying this extremely positive announcement.
No, it gets better still. Good news shouldn’t be reported, but bad news should. Yeah. They’re admitting to the bias, right up to, but not including, the point where you use the b-word. I guess. I mean, read for yourself.
Even Kurtz recognized the hypocrisy here, which led to the following:
KURTZ: But let’s say that the figures had shown that casualties were going up for U.S. soldiers and going up for Iraqi civilians. I think that would have made some front pages.
STARR: Oh, I think inevitably it would have. I mean, that’s certainly — that, by any definition, is news. Look, nobody more than a Pentagon correspondent would like to stop reporting the number of deaths, interviewing grieving families, talking to soldiers who have lost their arms and their legs in the war. But, is this really enduring progress?
We’ve had five years of the Pentagon telling us there is progress, there is progress. Forgive me for being skeptical, I need to see a little bit more than one month before I get too excited about all of this.
Hmmm. So, a shocking increase in deaths would have “certainly” been newsworthy. However, for a decrease to be reported, skeptical journalists have to be more convinced that it’s a lasting improvement.
So the “we’re not biased” has been whittled down to a meaningless catchphrase, nothing more.
Journey to any date between 1945 and 2003 and let ’em know about this, and people will think you’re a partisan shill. Or a satirist. Or a freakin’ lunatic. In 2007, it is what is really going on.
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Perfect. You nailed it.
- philmon | 10/10/2007 @ 22:41For me, the era of “new new news” began on February 27, 1968. YMMV, of course.
Well said, Morgan…as usual! 🙂
- Buck | 10/11/2007 @ 11:09I know I’m going back a few days, but a quote I read this morning fits so well with this post. And the quote is that to the press:
- philmon | 10/18/2007 @ 09:29