Heard it on NPR

Sometimes NPR is really cool, and a good provider of
news and information. They usually interview enough
original sources so that even if the news story is slanted,
it is possible to pick out some version of the truth. They
also have pretty neat filler stories, like the audio expeditions
into jungles, or the new item they are doing called
"This I Believe" which is apparently of a similar radio
show in the 50's. Things that make me think:
"I'll write a This I Believe essay and post it on my
weblog, then send it to NPR."

Then of course the next news item is: "Confusion
still reigns in Iraqi town where several days ago
it was reported that some people were kidnapped."
Maybe confusion did reign yesterday, but it seems to
me that by this morning things were pretty clear. I
listened to NPR on the way to work, and they had
a guy in the town of Madain, and he reported that
things were pretty normal and none had been kidnapped.
Fine.

12 hours later is enough time to me to stop using the
'confusion reigns in an Iraqi town' story. It seems to me
that NPR uses the news schedule and time difference to
keep bad news on the air longer, so that 'All Things considered'
says in the evening "A soldier was killed in fighting yesterday",
then morning edition says "A soldier was killed in fighting
yesterday" then evening editon repeats the same news so
that they are always reporting that soldiers were killed. [please
don't think I don't care about the soldiers there doing the fighting,
someday maybe I'll be able sort out which hairs fell off my head
due to stress at work, and which fell off my head
from the stress of following the news on a day to day basis.]

Today they seemed to do the same thing with the problems in
Madain, leading off with "continued confusion" instead of leading off
with the most interesting things, like: (to paraprase npr this morning):
yesterday 3 battalions of the Iraqi army entered the town along with
Iraqi special forces.

Confusion is normal in war, but it appeared to me that the confusion
was over by this evening so unless your objective is to portray the
country as a mass of confusion, stop reporting it. (gee could they be
slanted at all?)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153689,00.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The other side of Porkbusters, the people who need pork

Here in Alaska the governor is discussing a PR campaign would attempt to tell the rest of the US that Alaska is not just a consumer of Federal money, and it would "tell Alaska's story": (from a column by Beth Bragg) The governor wants to "tell Alaska's story" to the Lower 48 so folks down there have a better idea of what it's like up here. The goal is to end the ridicule we've been so good at inspiring lately, what with our bridges to you-know-where and our desire to drill for oil in a wildlife refuge. The thinking goes like this: If we can educate the critics with pictures of a desolate ANWR and defuse the comedians with pictures of a serene and congenial Ted Stevens, then we can move on to our ultimate goal, which is building bridges to you-know-where and drilling for oil in a wildlife refuge. Or as the Governor actually said: "Alaska does not just take. We give, and we have the capacity to give much, much more -- if permitted to do so,&
Read more

Haditha slant in the press

Image
There's not much actual information out in the press about what really happened in Haditha, but most of what has come out is highly slanted against the marines. The only data point I've seen is an interview with the lance corporal who survived the initial IED explosion. Here's a summary of the interview here: (RHCP) (video here ) Again, here's a summary of the salient facts that Crossan related: 1) The Marines knew there was going to be an attack on the command outpost, which would explain the high degree of suspicion about the Iraqi's in a taxi that first refused to stop, then ran away from them. 2) There was an IED attack on his humvee, and a squad was sent in 3) Insurgents began firing on the Marines almost immediately. 4) He's not claiming to have witnessed anything. The first slant that has already been pointed out in several places (hotair), is in the times online from london, where they grabbed one quote from Corporal Crossan , “were blinded by ha
Read more

Moving on up

I'm changing URL's for this blog, I started to when we moved to colombia, but I never really have time. Please update your links. http://farsouthofi-10.blogspot.com/
Read more