Media Sin
The bogus NYT story on the missing explosives is found at this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/international/middleeast/25bomb.html?ex=1099368000&en=9ce7b708a2986170&ei=5065&partner=MYWAY
If you go to the article, you will see a boxed sidebar that says the following:
'This article was reported in cooperation with the CBS News program "60 Minutes.'' "60 Minutes" first obtained information on the missing explosives. The New York Times article was reported and written by Times reporters in Baghdad, Europe and Washington.'
The information was, surprise, wrong, and as usual wrong in a way damaging to the Bush campaign. Just by chance some errors should run in the other direction, but only if chance is in play. Do you suppose "60 Minutes" supplied the NYT with any funny-looking documents? It is a cliché to say that you can't make this kind of stuff up, but in all honesty, who could? The major media are literally destroying themselves in their frantic push to make sure Bush is not re-elected.
Robert Oppenheimer said that by developing the atomic bomb, physics had "known sin". He meant that physics had discovered its own power to change the world, and the science would be forever changed and corrupted by that knowledge. Physics had eaten from the tree. Watergate did the same for the news media, when they discovered their power was sufficient to drive a president from office. Now journalism majors are out to change the world, and NBC News promos feature Tom Brokaw crowing, "We can make a difference!" But who ever asked them to take on that task?
The media have come to believe that they, together with their allies among the foundation/academic elites, have the expertise, right, and obligation to guide the politics of the nation, including the outcome of national elections. The results of this hubristic delusion include the systematic corruption of the civic information stream that the First Amendment was designed to protect, the deliberate manipulation of public opinion much as described by C. Wright Mills many years ago in "The Power Elite", a great increase in public cynicism about the validity of our entire election process, and the progressive destruction of the news business itself, where credibility depends on getting the facts right and reporting them straight.
Fifties comedian Wally Cox once said the tragic thing about the mass media was that the greatest educational tool in human history was being used to sell laundry detergent. We should be so lucky.
Byron
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/international/middleeast/25bomb.html?ex=1099368000&en=9ce7b708a2986170&ei=5065&partner=MYWAY
If you go to the article, you will see a boxed sidebar that says the following:
'This article was reported in cooperation with the CBS News program "60 Minutes.'' "60 Minutes" first obtained information on the missing explosives. The New York Times article was reported and written by Times reporters in Baghdad, Europe and Washington.'
The information was, surprise, wrong, and as usual wrong in a way damaging to the Bush campaign. Just by chance some errors should run in the other direction, but only if chance is in play. Do you suppose "60 Minutes" supplied the NYT with any funny-looking documents? It is a cliché to say that you can't make this kind of stuff up, but in all honesty, who could? The major media are literally destroying themselves in their frantic push to make sure Bush is not re-elected.
Robert Oppenheimer said that by developing the atomic bomb, physics had "known sin". He meant that physics had discovered its own power to change the world, and the science would be forever changed and corrupted by that knowledge. Physics had eaten from the tree. Watergate did the same for the news media, when they discovered their power was sufficient to drive a president from office. Now journalism majors are out to change the world, and NBC News promos feature Tom Brokaw crowing, "We can make a difference!" But who ever asked them to take on that task?
The media have come to believe that they, together with their allies among the foundation/academic elites, have the expertise, right, and obligation to guide the politics of the nation, including the outcome of national elections. The results of this hubristic delusion include the systematic corruption of the civic information stream that the First Amendment was designed to protect, the deliberate manipulation of public opinion much as described by C. Wright Mills many years ago in "The Power Elite", a great increase in public cynicism about the validity of our entire election process, and the progressive destruction of the news business itself, where credibility depends on getting the facts right and reporting them straight.
Fifties comedian Wally Cox once said the tragic thing about the mass media was that the greatest educational tool in human history was being used to sell laundry detergent. We should be so lucky.
Byron
posted by Byron | Monday, October 25, 2004
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