Pompous Asses In News Biz On Why They Ignored ACORN Sting
Reason's Matt Welch has a great pictorial of the varied excusemaking by top news editors. Here's one of 'em:
Your mileage will vary, but for my money the most entertaining part of the ACORN undercover video sting-which, dollar for dollar, has been the most impactful piece of journalism this year (that I'm aware of anyway)-is watching Respectable News Outlets approach the controversy with radiation-resistant tongs. For instance, the New York Times' reliably pompous Dean Baquet:"For Glenn Beck to devote 45 minutes of his show to ACORN and Van Jones says more about his news judgment than mine," said Dean Baquet, Washington bureau chief of the New York Times."He's not a newsman and that's not a news show," Baquet continued. "He's not trying to cover the economy, two wars, health care, the aftermath from one administration to another, negotiations with Iran or North Korea."
Note what he's doing there: While reluctanctly acknowledging his own organization's slow response to a story, Baquet haughtily attacks the news values of the organizations that got it first. Accountability journalism!
At its finest. All the news that's fit to cover your eyes and ears and pretend doesn't exist.
Shorter Baquet: "We were too busy promoting the administration's agenda to report on corruption."
brian at September 23, 2009 11:00 AM
If Amy Alkon and Matt Welch want to get into bed with Glenn Beck, and say that Dean Baquet has inferior news vision....you guys want to rethink this?
You look like idiots.
i-holier-than-thou at September 23, 2009 11:40 AM
i-holier-than-thou - you are aptly named.
Crusader at September 23, 2009 12:03 PM
i-holier,
The once-vaunted New York Times has become irrelevant in the past decade.
The country's so-called "newspaper of record" has been scooped in just the last few years by the Wall Street Journal, Matt Drudge, Glenn Beck, and even .
At this point, no one looks like an idiot questioning Dean Baquet's "news vision."
Conan the Grammarian at September 23, 2009 12:47 PM
THE PREVIOUS POST SHOULD READ:
i-holier,
The once-vaunted New York Times has become irrelevant in the past decade.
The country's so-called "newspaper of record" has been scooped in just the last few years by The Wall Street Journal, Matt Drudge, Glenn Beck, and even The National Enquirer.
At this point, no one looks like an idiot questioning Dean Baquet's "news vision."
Conan the Grammarian at September 23, 2009 12:50 PM
Yeah, Glenn Beck. Go ahead and hold hands with Glenn Beck.
The New York Times is a real newspaper, worth reading. This is so obvious, I feel silly saying it. Sadly, it may be the last great newspaper in the United States (the Los Angeles Times, for example, is being run by a rump group, WaPo and the WSJ seems adrift).
BTW, I thought this was a libertarian website. Okay, we are libertarians. Then, there is nothing wrong with prostitution.
So why are the drama over renting to a prostitute and her business manager?
I sure don't care.
I will say, in general, I do not favor low-income housing programs of any kind. I prefer to see more housing built of any kind, and let the market work.
Seems like the "libertarians" are blowing gas out of their southern portal. Lubing it up, pending use by the Republican Party.
Spread wide, Matt & Amy.
i-holier-than-thou at September 23, 2009 1:09 PM
"So why are the drama over renting to a prostitute and her business manager?
I sure don't care."
You are obviously commenting on this without reading any of the stories on it. They were coached on how to break numerous laws importing underaged sex slaves from other countries, and on money laundering, and lying to get a mortgage. We probably wouldn't care if it was a whore wanting to rent a house. But then, no one would need advice or coaching about that.
momof4 at September 23, 2009 1:19 PM
The NYT is still a good read. But it's a long way from the being the nation's pre-eminent newspaper; the one that won 101 Pulitzer Prizes and exposed the Pentagon Papers.
Like Harvard University, the Gray Lady has gotten by for far too long on reputation alone...and the cracks are beginning to show.
Rick Bragg, Jayson Blair, and Maureen Dowd have all been caught plagiarizing the work of others (but not by NYT management or editors). Dowd still has a job at the paper.
The NYT has been scooped too often by too many competitors it considers "beneath" it in the journalistic hierarchy for it to claim to be the pre-eminent paper in America anymore.
The NYT's coverage of the Duke University la crosse team scandal was an obviously biased character assassination. The original reporter reported the story in an unbiased fashion, so he was removed in favor of someone who would sensationalize the story.
The discount pricing for the full-page MoveOn.org advertisement also left the NYT open to charges of bias.
No, i-holier, the Times is no longer a great newspaper. There are no more great newspapers.
Conan the Grammarian at September 23, 2009 1:34 PM
(Tiptoes in quietly, pulls pin from grenade, lobs it into discussion, and flees giggling)
Newspaper bailouts. Oooohh, I'M SORRY, the correct name is Newspaper Revitalization Act.
http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2009/09/22/opinion/doc4ab8414105a51643577631.txt
juliana at September 23, 2009 1:54 PM
Conan:
Anybody can get scooped at any time. I was in daily newspapers. I scooped, I got scooped (we said "we beat 'em," or they "beat us" ).
Any writer at any paper can have a bad day.
But a Sunday NYT is a good read. Name any other good Sunday paper.
And Glenn Beck is a streak of piss next to the battleship that is the NYT.
Amy & Matt have decided they want to be in the streak of piss column. Okay. Golden showers?
i-holier-than-thou at September 23, 2009 2:10 PM
Name any good paper.
By the time the paper is printed, I've already read, digested, and analyzed the news.
Papers are irrelevant.
And when the NYT gets caught making shit up, fucknozzles like you don't even care. After all, they're the New York Fucking Times.
brian at September 23, 2009 2:14 PM
Damn, should I be getting a woody from reading the NYT i-holier? Whats wrong with golden showers? I thought the NYT readership was supposed to be open minded on those sorts of issues?
About a year ago I got into a discussion with a guy who said he didn't consider anyone informed if they didn't read the Times at least once a week all because the movers and shakers read it etc.. Sorry, but as others above have cited, the Times is a shell of its former self and quite honestly pathetic. Its only useful to see what is the latest party line for the political left. The fourth estate is collapsing. Jason Blair and the Duke Lacrosse, and the Edwards affair vs McCain affair being pefect examples of straight up bias.
These things have been clearly obvious long before Beck became really popular due to the Acorn and Van Jones deal.
Sio at September 23, 2009 2:25 PM
To say the NY Times is a great newspaper is like saying that Eubalaena Japonica gives the best oil for your lamp. (It really does, too, though I had to look it up on Wikipedia.) We don't harvest whales any more because we don't need to. So who cares?
(Similarly, we note that there are harpoonists who whine about the collapse of their once-rewarding markets.)
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 23, 2009 3:15 PM
oh come on folks, you all know the media has it's head so far up Borat's ass that they couldn't care less about how it looks to the average joe on the street. I am pretty sure a network gave a full day to Borat to spew his agenda, unchecked. This Acorn shit is just one more example of how this country has drank the Borat kool-aid. We knew about Acorn registering illegal voters. We knew Borat was unqualified to be president, but the press never asked the tough questions and had him ordained before he even clinched the nomination. The fourth estate has become a shell of it's former self.
ron at September 23, 2009 3:25 PM
Yeah, and what news organizations have Brian and Crid ever built? (Imagine picture of miniature outhouse here).
Dudes, the web is a parasite--it steals news from real news organizations, and runs it for free (why they allow it is a good q).
Google News is wonderful--but exists only because real reporters somewhere burned some shoe leather, made phone calls etc.
Hey, you want to read Glenn Back and snub the NYT, and then consider yourself well-informed, go to it.
Your world is small and dim. A streak of piss looks like Niagara Falls to you. A dungpile like Drudge soars like Mt. Everest.
You are the new right-wing! Oh brave new world, that has such creatures in it.
i-holier-than-thou at September 23, 2009 3:27 PM
I know better than to respond, but you truly are a despondent asshole
ron at September 23, 2009 3:30 PM
Hey, i-hole, my daughter used the NYT to line her cat's litter box the other day. Cat looked at her and said "You want me to shit in there? That's redundant."
o.O
(apologies to Robin Williams)
Flynne at September 23, 2009 4:12 PM
I know better than to respond, but you truly are a despondent asshole
Yeah but he's a despondent asshole who can quote Shakespeare!
I-hole, 2 points if you can tell me which play that quote is from, and who says it. NO googling!
Flynne at September 23, 2009 4:14 PM
It is a tale
told by an idiot.
Full of sound and fury
signifying nothing.
brian at September 23, 2009 4:34 PM
> Yeah, and what news organizations
> have Brian and Crid ever built?
Thanks for asking! We love you right back!
Point-to-multipoint communications just aren't so precious nowadays. The musings and affectations and obsessions of a Dan Rather or Frank Rich or Maureen Down or George Will don't really count for much. And after bathing for a few years in the incredible diversity of the WWW, we realize that they they never really did.
And then we see their ideological blindness to stories like ACORN, and we realize that that was never any better, either... We just didn't know about. Indeed, the present generation of East Coast print zombies will speak with wistful fondness of William Reston, Frank Stanton, and similar kowtowing media leaders from the earlier times.
It's true that there are going to be shoe-leather losses: Problems getting coverage for school board meetings and water district management and any number of other public ventures, there's no reason to think that print has been doing so well at them that market valuations are incorrect.
And nowadays, anyone in the world can publish their best wisdom, instantly, without editorial oversight, for free, to the whole world. Quite aside from 'opinion leaders'.... Anybody. If a mechanic spots a problem with the design of brakes on a new car, he can tell the entire planet in a hurry, and engage similar expertise in their shared language without mediation.
Individuals like ihol should be permitted to squeal and whine that their faith in their centralized media can protect us all. We are not compelled to listen.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 23, 2009 4:38 PM
And, of course, if Iholi's saying that individual internet voices ought to be ignored, we'll know where to start.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 23, 2009 4:42 PM
The Tempest.
BTW, The Tempest also features a snippet, I forget by which character, that describes Caliban as a creature on which it is difficult to discern mouth from anus.
I won't say any posters here come to mind...
i-holier-than-thou at September 23, 2009 4:45 PM
Really, cause I can only thin of you in that context
lujlp at September 23, 2009 4:57 PM
With Mr. Libya making an ass of himself in front of the UN yesterday, it was interesting that the only Western leader he likes is Obama. As charismatic as the guy is, one does have to wonder at the friends he keeps...
bradley13 at September 23, 2009 10:45 PM
Conan:
Anybody can get scooped at any time. I was in daily newspapers. I scooped, I got scooped (we said "we beat 'em," or they "beat us" ).
Any writer at any paper can have a bad day.
But a Sunday NYT is a good read. Name any other good Sunday paper.
And Glenn Beck is a streak of piss next to the battleship that is the NYT.
Amy & Matt have decided they want to be in the streak of piss column. Okay. Golden showers?
Posted by: i-holier-than-thou at September 23, 2009 2:10 PM
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Someone once said- If you can't answer a man's arguement, at least you can call him names.
This is aptly applied to i-holier.
This is the kind of answer I see consistently from the libs when someone confronts them with facts.
David M. at September 24, 2009 4:06 AM
...The Tempest also features a snippet, I forget by which character, that describes Caliban as a creature on which it is difficult to discern mouth from anus.
IIRC, that was the scene in which Trinculo finds Caliban and falls over him in a drunken stupor, and they get tangled up; and Stephano, also with drink in hand, stumples upon them both and cannot discerne which end is which because the one sounds like Trinculo, and the other sounds like something he's never heard before.
Not quite the same thing, taken in context, is it?
(Strange, the stuff I remember from 8th grade English!)
Flynne at September 24, 2009 5:51 AM
So in addition to being an Internet stock tout, ihole is a bitter MSM ex-journalist sent to make excuses for his fellow travellers, while sniffing derisively about the hoi-polloi whose presence has made the Internet so unpleasant for our self-appointed betters. Look: when you've been scooped on a major news story that's been building for months, involving a leading Presidential candidate, by the freakin' National Enquirer, it's time to hang up your journalism shoes. It would be like Tiger Woods losing a golf match to a pimply 14-year-old using a half-set of clubs he borrowed from his older sister. Everyone at the NYT ought to be in a home somewhere playing checkers.
Cousin Dave at September 24, 2009 6:43 AM
>>And after bathing for a few years in the incredible diversity of the WWW, we realize that they they never really did.
No need to chuck the baby out with the bathwater there, Crid.
I think the guerrilla Acorn scoop is entertaining AND informative.
But the "incredible diversity" of the WWW is often useless for legitimate news research.
Amy quotes Matt Welch: "Note what he's doing there: While reluctanctly acknowledging his own organization's slow response to a story, Baquet haughtily attacks the news values of the organizations that got it first. Accountability journalism!"
That comment would also apply to the the NY Times prissily attacking the Washington Post over the Watergate coverage! Nothing new there.
What IS new is that as print journalism falters, & fades in importance, future researchers are gonna be so fucked trying to get a valid picture of media coverage today.
And they won't just be lacking nuts & bolts stuff about school votes and garbage collections either.
(This is a "we're all doomed!" comment!)
Jody Tresidder at September 24, 2009 8:03 AM
Let me provide the response from the left, m'kay?
ahem.
Your suspiciously aggressive focus on ACORN is merely symptomatic of your racist views. We know you have racist views because that is what leads you to unreasonably oppose the current President and his agenda.
Your deeply felt and rising racism precludes me and those who think like me from seriously considering your opinions on any current political debate.
And in fact, our attention will soon turn to whether you racists should enjoy the same protections under the first amendment as people less in the grip of racist, hateful and (we believe) violent tendencies. As Speaker Pelosi so movingly noted, your racist, hateful behavior has profound consequences. (Unlike left-leaning extremists in America, who have an unbroken history of peaceful behavior.)
We simply cannot allow your violent tendencies to get in the way of expressing our democratic ideals. (pound fist on table; cue cheers from union goons) So if we must limit your rights and your freedoms to ensure our democracy, it is a price we are willing to pay.
Now, we are not monsters (like you), we understand you need some outlet. So in lieu of the talk radio and internet, we are willing to permit you to form proper political parties, subject to all manner of restrictions and laws. Any organization not under the umbrella of that party will be subject to much scrutiny and frequent audit. This is for everyone's benefit, including yours.
We hope these measures are only temporary, in operation only until the current wave of right wing racims and hysteria passes.
Please, come to your senses and don't make us do this to you any more. We love you so much, it hurts us to have to consider forbidding you from most important jobs and kicking your kids out of schools for your views...
Spartee at September 24, 2009 8:56 AM
> No need to chuck the baby out
> with the bathwater
We needn't bother. The baby's crawling off toward the graveyard on its own...
> the "incredible diversity" of the
> WWW is often useless for legitimate
> news research.
Fun thought experiment! The web has been rockin' hard for many years now. About half a generation of journalists don't remember the days when a pulse of curiosity didn't cause the fingers to start typing G-o-o- etc. What would Friday's newspapers like if we broke their net links and wifi and all the rest this afternoon at 1:55 EST?
They'd be fucked. Fuh-HUCKed.
We're coming up on half a generation of journalists who've never had a workday without it.
Your use of the word "legitimate" typifies their problem rather precisely. 'Guys, don't you remember? In a world not governed by religion, we're supposed to be the gatekeepers to your belief....'
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 24, 2009 10:05 AM
>>Your use of the word "legitimate" typifies their problem rather precisely. 'Guys, don't you remember? In a world not governed by religion, we're supposed to be the gatekeepers to your belief....'
Yeah, I get the stench that comes from "legitimate", Crid.
From legitimate - we get to what's "orthodox" - and from thence, religion.
But journalism is STILL governed last time I looked by who, what, where, when, why and how.
And when the new religion -more often than not - becomes www.Tower of Babel.com, those basic questions are not going to have happy answers.
Jody Tresidder at September 24, 2009 10:36 AM
More! More! Sorry for the bad edit earlier — I'll try to make it up to you.
Jody, "we're" not doomed, the Sulzbergers are doomed. They were never in it for our benefit to begin with, so good riddance.
> Nothing new there
I said that too! It's not new, it's just reprehensible. My point is very specifically that newspapers have not merely come to suck during the internet years; they've always sucked.
> future researchers are gonna be
> so fucked trying to get a valid
> picture
Pesky word, "valid". What does it mean?
As I began working in TV news 30 years ago, the hokey old saying was very much true, even when composing newscasts for towns like Springfield and Jacksonville... The producer would bellow: "We need pictures!" No pictures, no story.
And then consider the actual video-photographers who worked for us... High school graduates earning minimum wage to drive around in freezing winter or stinky heat to shoot video of boring events and dim people using heavy, balky equipment. Every now and then, we'd see that one of the news reporters travelling with these photographers was destined for greatness (meaning a career in Charleston or Orlando making over a hundred thousand 1980's dollars per year). We'd know this because when the truck arrived at the event (they were not yet called SUV's) -the ribbon cutting or the murder scene- the reporter would cheerfully announce "I got the sticks!" What that meant is that even though he or she was wearing a standard of businesswear better than all but 97% of the surrounding community, he or she was going to carry the greasy, paint-chipped tripod while the photographer grappled with the rest of the gear... Cables, microphoes, lights, and all/those fuck/ing batteries. The reporters understood that if a photographer can pretend to do as good a job handheld -just to save himself the schlepp in the summertime sun- then he'll do it. Day in and day out, people aren't into hard work.
So, yeah. My producer got his "picture", just like the editor of the New York Times did. East coast media elites are good at passing out awards to each other, but do you suppose their coverage was, during typical events, meaningfully better? Was it composed by deeper genius, or more powerful economic considerations?
I really, really doubt it.
Two years ago in July, there was a steam pipe exlosion in Manhattan. A favorite image from that event is this one where thousands of passerbys take their own stills and videos with cell phones. The world is crawling with "journalists" nowadays. As a wag named Coleman said at the time, 'journalism isn't something you are, it's something you do'.
Our world is much, much richer for it.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 24, 2009 12:30 PM
PS— I trust everyone read this.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 24, 2009 12:30 PM
Beautifully put, Crid.
And I did indeed say "picture"!
My tower of Babel reference - and general thrust -was about words though!
I think you're spot on about news pics in the main. Timing and luck are more critical than many other factors - especially the affiliation & equipment &/or perceived status of the snapper.
That's a lovely image - the passerbys doggedly documenting the steam pipe explosion en masse. Though of course, the main strength of the image lies in its larky and obviously fleeting novelty - it's already getting old hat.
Jody Tresidder at September 24, 2009 12:56 PM
Crid,
What a terrific link.
The author writes: Indeed, if Al Jazeera were more widely available in the United States—on nationwide cable, for example, instead of only on the Web and several satellite stations and local cable channels—it would eat steadily into the viewership of The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.
But would it take a measurable bite out of Fox News? That's the question!
Jody Tresidder at September 24, 2009 1:08 PM
> general thrust -was about
> words though!
I don't think the words people did a better job. Whichever staffer was sent to the deal with a story, the correct mission for pro media should always have been "Return with the clear truth of events for which you were present, nothing more and nothing less." Obviously, the MSM have failed. If Iholi wants to cry himself to sleep at night reading the NYT under the blankets and praying that the Noble Spirit of Frank Rich will protect him, it's OK by me.
> it's already getting old hat.
And again, I think the point is not novelty. The point is, the collection and distribution of information (and imagery) will come from many, many more people and perspectives than it used to. This is much better than the old days, when we had to hope that the pros had perfect vision.
> But would it take a measurable
> bite out of Fox News? That's
> the question!
That's the question?
This cracks my shit up. Fox means more to liberals than it could possibly, possibly mean to any conservative. You obsess... You stew... You fret and you worry, always for the little people who are watching but don't understand....
That's why people love to hate Fox. It allows them to look down on unseen parties.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 24, 2009 2:32 PM
>>the correct mission for pro media should always have been "Return with the clear truth of events for which you were present, nothing more and nothing less."
Not quite, Crid.
The mission was: "go out and get the facts and come back with a story." That's pretty much been an enduring proviso.
We could chat forever about the flaws in old media - but I'm not sure how these flaws are being positively cured/replaced by a people's army of citizen hacks. Not yet, at any rate.
Don't get me wrong. I love the exuberance. I'm a sucker for new perspectives. But an endlessly fractured press becomes, in the end, less effective at framing information in a way that improves our understanding of the world.
Yes, it's becoming easier & faster to communicate more - and more slickly than before - but what are we communicating?
I have a lot of respect for old school who/what/where/why and how shoe leather journalism. Even when the masthead was the NY Times!
I hope my gloom is misplaced,
Jody Tresidder at September 24, 2009 3:47 PM
> But an endlessly fractured press
> becomes, in the end, less effective
> at framing information in a way
> that improves our understanding
> of the world.
If that's true, then we should now cast it aside. (And I maintain it was always broken. Have I said that yet?)
> what are we communicating?
Whatever we want!
Yippeeeeeee!
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 24, 2009 4:26 PM
"less effective at framing information in a way that improves our understanding of the world"
The most effective propaganda occurs in the background and in the framing. Who is to be the judge of whether our understanding is "improved"? The word quietly assumes a value consensus which may or may not exist. It thereby exerts a subtle pressure to fail to disagree. After all, all the cool kids are doing it.
TV characters live a couple of socioeconomic slots richer than their job would pay for. Want, want, want! Don't you want what they have? Of course you do! WANT!
This message is provided in the background and framing of each and every TV drama as an adjuvant to the overt commercials and product placements.
--
phunctor
phunctor at September 24, 2009 4:31 PM
When I watched the video, my thought was that the woman looked like she was mentally ill, possibly on drugs. I'm not sure she's a representative of ACORN or their policy... she looked like a pity hire to me. Some former junkie that they hired to feel good that they were hiring "recovered" druggies or former street people.
This is why you shouldn't do pity hires.
NicoleK at September 24, 2009 4:41 PM
... all in all, it looked less like they were being "coached" in how to avoid the law by a legal expert, and more like they were being subjected to the rantings of mentally ill.
NicoleK at September 24, 2009 4:45 PM
It's an even bigger scandal if ACORN is pity-hiring street people and junkies to advise its clients.
Those "former" street people and "recovered" junkies are advising people on filling out mortgage loan applications and buying a house - burdening themselves with a staggering debtload for the next thirty years.
People are walking into an ACORN office trusting (perhaps naively) that they are going to get reasonably good advice on how to better their lives, not the inane ramblings of a drooling lunatic on a sterno high.
Conan the Grammarian at September 24, 2009 4:59 PM
One last thought for Jody-
> "go out and get the facts
> and come back with a story."
It's a little late in the day for journo types to boast about how profitable and entertaining they used to be. Perhaps the pinnacle of journalistic smarminess in the face of internet egalitarianism comes in this transcript (over a decade old now). Those hectoring scolds weren't pestering the upstart about about how they could deliver "a story".
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 24, 2009 6:20 PM
>>Perhaps the pinnacle of journalistic smarminess in the face of internet egalitarianism comes in this transcript (over a decade old now).
One of the most brill links I've read, Crid.
Excellent riposte.
Jody Tresidder at September 24, 2009 6:36 PM
Probably Drudge's finest hour. There used to be audio of it... I'll never forget the unctuousness of Harbrecht's voice as he clucked about "this hallowed room." And the sweet, sweet silence in the moment where he dared anyone in the room full of haters to challenge one of his headlines, and no one could raise a hand.
(And note the "sounds gavel" at the end. Don't you just want to pee in their soup?)
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 24, 2009 6:47 PM
I agree, Conan, pity-hiring is dangerous. That's what this looks like to me, the woman really seemed like she was on drugs or at least had done so many of them that she wasn't all there. Not someone who should be advising anyone on anything.
Reminds me of a role-playing "let's all get along" workshop I went to once. The scenario was, we were roommates desperately seeking a fourth. A woman came in, and it turned out she had a criminal past. I was like "No way! I'm not living with an ex-con... even if she's nice, she probably has a sketchy social circle". I was considered mean and prejudiced. We were "supposed" to eventually resolve it by being open minded and letting the ex-con live with us to proove how tolerant we were. I did not do that, and said things like, "I'd rather go back and live with my parents". So the whole class thought I was this uptight bitch, but... safety, you know?
It's tough, because on the one hand one wants to hire ex-cons and junkies and re-integrate them into society, but on the other hand one doesn't want to get robbed, or have them advise clients on how to set up underage prostitution rings.
Of course, I could be totally wrong, but she really did look like a madwoman to me.
NicoleK at September 25, 2009 5:36 AM
Whoa, wait a sec, now I'm watching a different video. The one I watched before had a crazy ranting white lady. This one has two black ladies.
NicoleK at September 25, 2009 5:39 AM
Alright, I watched some other ones, and they really seemed like actual employees and not crazy ladies. The one I watched last week had a really strange lady, in San Bernadino, who was ranting about how she uised to escort and killed a man and stuff like that. Gotta say, that one made me think the whole thing was fake.
The other videos, however... New York, DC, Baltimore, those look like actual employees.
NicoleK at September 25, 2009 6:30 AM
Me:"..less effective at framing information in a way that improves our understanding of the world"
Phunctor: The most effective propaganda occurs in the background and in the framing.
Phunctor,
That's often the sly case, sure.
I was thinking more of news stories - when many of us know the facts have been trimmed to suit a particular agenda (whether of the newspaper, the writer or the bias of the broadcast), and adjust our expectations/trust accordingly.
But I'm doing a lot of newspaper archive research at the moment - amazed at how rich a resource it is -so I'm hyper aware, via hindsight, of how the events reported were framed. So my take is rather skewed!
Jody Tresidder at September 25, 2009 7:09 AM
New York, DC, Baltimore, those look like actual employees.
:::earworm alert:::
DC, San Antone, and the Liberty Town,
Boston and Baton Rouge,
Tulsa, Austin, Oklahoma City,
Seattle, San Francisco too...
o.O
(Thanks, Nicole!)
Flynne at September 25, 2009 8:09 AM
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