'News', I say.
Showing posts with label Stupid News Tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stupid News Tricks. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 07, 2022
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Oh, it's just wonderful out there
Biden is still claiming the cost of gas is all because of Putin, and printing trillions of dollars had no effect. And we have another fake hate crime.
That asshat Kaepernick has a sad. And earned every bit of it.
Amazon closed its downtown Seattle office, because crime. Other businesses, too. At least some local media won't talk about it, and the Mayor's office wants to pretend it's doing something. Still.
Hm. So calling Manchin a traitor and a bunch of other nasty things didn't make him fall into line; who could've imagined that?
"They're only covering gas prices to hurt Biden." Apparently not because it's, oh, what's that word? Oh yeah, 'news'.
Smallest Minority has a nice map that shows the changes in concealed carry laws. It's been a big change.
Lot of them do seem to believe it. And the rest, quietly, are trying to pretend they weren't part of it.
Somebody really did offer Mahar the pills, and he chose the right one. I'm going to borrow this quote:
“In America, we’re supposed to root for democratic government, not apologize for it,” Maher said. “But the NBA has a television deal with China worth a billion-and-a-half dollars. So, LeBron James said Morey needed to be ‘educated on the situation,’ the situation being, ‘I’ve got some shoes to sell.’”
“‘Kowtow’ is a Chinese word, but boy, Americans have gotten good at it,” Maher said, noting that companies gain access to Chinese markets only if they don’t upset the Chinese Communist Party. “That’s the deal China offers American companies and celebrities: We’ll give you access to our billion-plus consumers as long as you shut up about the whole police-state-genocide thing. John Cena took that deal. Well, c’mon. China accounts for 34% of global box office, and he’s a movie star now. So, like the Uyghurs, last year, he learned he needed to get some re-education. You see, John referred to Taiwan as a country, as if it was a separate country from China, which it is. But China would like to do to Taiwan what it did to Tibet and what it’s now doing to Hong Kong.”
“When a country can make your big muscly Macho Man action star grovel in their language, you know you’re somebody’s b****,” Maher said.
That asshat Kaepernick has a sad. And earned every bit of it.
Amazon closed its downtown Seattle office, because crime. Other businesses, too. At least some local media won't talk about it, and the Mayor's office wants to pretend it's doing something. Still.
Hm. So calling Manchin a traitor and a bunch of other nasty things didn't make him fall into line; who could've imagined that?
"They're only covering gas prices to hurt Biden." Apparently not because it's, oh, what's that word? Oh yeah, 'news'.
Smallest Minority has a nice map that shows the changes in concealed carry laws. It's been a big change.
Lot of them do seem to believe it. And the rest, quietly, are trying to pretend they weren't part of it.
Somebody really did offer Mahar the pills, and he chose the right one. I'm going to borrow this quote:
“In America, we’re supposed to root for democratic government, not apologize for it,” Maher said. “But the NBA has a television deal with China worth a billion-and-a-half dollars. So, LeBron James said Morey needed to be ‘educated on the situation,’ the situation being, ‘I’ve got some shoes to sell.’”
“‘Kowtow’ is a Chinese word, but boy, Americans have gotten good at it,” Maher said, noting that companies gain access to Chinese markets only if they don’t upset the Chinese Communist Party. “That’s the deal China offers American companies and celebrities: We’ll give you access to our billion-plus consumers as long as you shut up about the whole police-state-genocide thing. John Cena took that deal. Well, c’mon. China accounts for 34% of global box office, and he’s a movie star now. So, like the Uyghurs, last year, he learned he needed to get some re-education. You see, John referred to Taiwan as a country, as if it was a separate country from China, which it is. But China would like to do to Taiwan what it did to Tibet and what it’s now doing to Hong Kong.”
“When a country can make your big muscly Macho Man action star grovel in their language, you know you’re somebody’s b****,” Maher said.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Couple of things this morning
before I take Security Staff to the vet:
Have I mentioned that, overall, Coburn is one of the politicians I can actually be happy is in the Congress?
Instead of passing a $33.5 billion measure funding energy and water projects and then moving on to other business, the chamber slogged through a 30-hour protest by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who halted further legislative business after one of his pet ideas was dropped from the bill.
At issue is one of Coburn's top issues — greater transparency in government — as well as his sworn enemy, the powerful Appropriations Committee. Coburn had added to the energy and water bill a provision requiring reports that agencies are required to send to the appropriations panels be made available to other lawmakers and to the public. It's part of his drive for greater transparency in government.
You'll notice MSNBC refers to it as Coburn's 'pet idea'; nice way to diminish it, huh? And to ignore that Obama promised 'transparency' and has lied every step of the way.
You want to know just how bad the Baucus Tax You To Death For Healthcare Reform would be?
Most astounding of all is what this Congress is willing to do to struggling middle-class families. The bill would impose nearly $400 billion in new taxes and fees. Nearly 90% of that burden will be shouldered by those making $200,000 or less.
It might not appear that way at first, because the dollars are collected via a 40% tax on sales by insurers of "Cadillac" policies, fees on health insurers, drug companies and device manufacturers, and an assortment of odds and ends.
But the economics are clear. These costs will be passed on to consumers by either directly raising insurance premiums, or by fueling higher health-care costs that inevitably lead to higher premiums. Consumers will pay the excise tax on high-cost plans. The Joint Committee on Taxation indicates that 87% of the burden would fall on Americans making less than $200,000, and more than half on those earning under $100,000.
Once again, Obama's promise to not tax anyone making less than $200k was a flat lie. And Baucus wants to ram this crap down our throats.
Looks like at least part of Snowe's price to be a turncoat(again) was to get your money to save Maine from paying the price for their 'public option' insurance plan.
The Democratic legislature tried to replace this funding mechanism with a tax on beer, wine, and soda, but Mainers exercised a “voters’ veto” and repealed this tax via referendum. Running out of money, the legislature went back to taxing Maine insurance companies (and, by extension, private policyholders), enacting a 2 percent tax on all paid insurance claims. The state also has capped enrollment in order to keep costs from spiraling further out of control. The program’s supporters are now looking to Washington for help. “We have a very limited capacity because of limited resources,” Maine Office of Health Policy and Finance director Trish Riley said recently. “With federal money, more people would become eligible and the federal government would require people to have coverage.”
Obamacare would relieve a handful of northeastern states, including Maine, of the burden of funding their broken, heavily regulated and subsidized health-care systems while imposing new burdens on the South and Midwest in the form of expanded eligibility for Medicaid. Of course Snowe voted for this bill. It's a bailout for Maine.
One of the things that disgusts me about so many politicians is how they're willing to screw the whole rest of the country for their own and their district or state's benefit; in this case, she's willing to have the taxes of everyone in the country go through the roof, AND screw with our health care, to bail Maine out of paying the price for their own screwups. Well, screw Maine; they put their messed-up system in place, they should not get to pick my damned pocket to pretend to fix it.
Now if you'll excuse me, Security needs her rabies booster.
And I stole the Baucus Prescription from Denny
Have I mentioned that, overall, Coburn is one of the politicians I can actually be happy is in the Congress?
Instead of passing a $33.5 billion measure funding energy and water projects and then moving on to other business, the chamber slogged through a 30-hour protest by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who halted further legislative business after one of his pet ideas was dropped from the bill.
At issue is one of Coburn's top issues — greater transparency in government — as well as his sworn enemy, the powerful Appropriations Committee. Coburn had added to the energy and water bill a provision requiring reports that agencies are required to send to the appropriations panels be made available to other lawmakers and to the public. It's part of his drive for greater transparency in government.
You'll notice MSNBC refers to it as Coburn's 'pet idea'; nice way to diminish it, huh? And to ignore that Obama promised 'transparency' and has lied every step of the way.
You want to know just how bad the Baucus Tax You To Death For Healthcare Reform would be?
Most astounding of all is what this Congress is willing to do to struggling middle-class families. The bill would impose nearly $400 billion in new taxes and fees. Nearly 90% of that burden will be shouldered by those making $200,000 or less.
It might not appear that way at first, because the dollars are collected via a 40% tax on sales by insurers of "Cadillac" policies, fees on health insurers, drug companies and device manufacturers, and an assortment of odds and ends.
But the economics are clear. These costs will be passed on to consumers by either directly raising insurance premiums, or by fueling higher health-care costs that inevitably lead to higher premiums. Consumers will pay the excise tax on high-cost plans. The Joint Committee on Taxation indicates that 87% of the burden would fall on Americans making less than $200,000, and more than half on those earning under $100,000.
Once again, Obama's promise to not tax anyone making less than $200k was a flat lie. And Baucus wants to ram this crap down our throats.
Looks like at least part of Snowe's price to be a turncoat(again) was to get your money to save Maine from paying the price for their 'public option' insurance plan.
The Democratic legislature tried to replace this funding mechanism with a tax on beer, wine, and soda, but Mainers exercised a “voters’ veto” and repealed this tax via referendum. Running out of money, the legislature went back to taxing Maine insurance companies (and, by extension, private policyholders), enacting a 2 percent tax on all paid insurance claims. The state also has capped enrollment in order to keep costs from spiraling further out of control. The program’s supporters are now looking to Washington for help. “We have a very limited capacity because of limited resources,” Maine Office of Health Policy and Finance director Trish Riley said recently. “With federal money, more people would become eligible and the federal government would require people to have coverage.”
Obamacare would relieve a handful of northeastern states, including Maine, of the burden of funding their broken, heavily regulated and subsidized health-care systems while imposing new burdens on the South and Midwest in the form of expanded eligibility for Medicaid. Of course Snowe voted for this bill. It's a bailout for Maine.
One of the things that disgusts me about so many politicians is how they're willing to screw the whole rest of the country for their own and their district or state's benefit; in this case, she's willing to have the taxes of everyone in the country go through the roof, AND screw with our health care, to bail Maine out of paying the price for their own screwups. Well, screw Maine; they put their messed-up system in place, they should not get to pick my damned pocket to pretend to fix it.
Now if you'll excuse me, Security needs her rabies booster.
And I stole the Baucus Prescription from Denny
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Let's look a little more at stupidity, dishonesty and betrayal
Betrayal: Sen. Olympia Snowe votes for the Baucus Health Care Takover and Tax You To Death Bill.
I hate this woman. Like Lincoln she says it's not a promise to vote this way in the future and it's a flawed bill with lots of bad things in it. She rambled on about "history" calling and the need to show Congress can act. What an idiot.
She actually thinks her vote adds legitimacy to the process and outcome (her words, not my interpretation).
God damn I hate these "we were sent here to do something, anything" people. She lost on process (legislative language), she lost on budget and other issues and yet she is voting yes and handing the Democrats a bill and a political tool to do what she says she opposes in the name of doing 'something'. And being the great bi-partisan lioness of the Senate.
Get your ego gratification somewhere else Olympia, this stuff is too important.
Dishonesty: Sen. Baucus(Evil Party Liar-MT) deliberately made up the 'bill' the CBO scored to get the rosy picture he wanted:
But the Baucus bill deliberately takes advantage of the artificial stupidity of the CBO's code to compare seven years of spending to ten years of taxes to get a "deficit reduction."
Sure it's jackass to do that. But that's the way the CBO is supposed to do it -- even if it makes no sense -- and the Baucus bill "conceptual language" deliberately exploits that in order to deceive the public.
Also, the State Department hiding information on Honduras; gee, I wonder why...
Stupidity:
Then he told the story of how, just last January, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had bungled a WMD experiment using bubonic plague.
“None of you press wrote about that,” the man said, eyeballing me.
I had to correct him because I did write about that story — for Pajamas Media. My article cited two papers, the Sun and the Washington Times; I couldn’t locate any firsthand sources with access to the information. “How do you know that the information was correct?” I asked my fellow banquet guest.
“I was at the military briefing,” he said. Then he added that the briefing was not classified and included several members of the press.
“Why do you think that story wasn’t more widely reported?” I asked.
He said something to the effect of: there are some things the public finds easier to ignore.
I had the same reaction when I returned home from my trip on Friday night to read a single-line item on the Counterterrorism Blog: “Switzerland: Terror cops arrest Collider scientist linked with al-Qaeda,” it said. The Collider is the largest nuclear research facility in the world. For at least the next forty-eight hours the story did not appear anywhere in the U.S. press, despite the fact that the arrested nuclear scientist, a 32-year-old Algerian-born French man named Dr. Adlene Hicheur, was being described by France’s Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence as a “very high-level” operative with AQIM. That’s the same group who’d been experimenting with bubonic plague earlier in the year.
Some of the media don't find it 'easier to ignore', they actively work to ignore such stories for various idiotic reasons. And it's going to be a part of a whole lot of people getting killed.
I hate this woman. Like Lincoln she says it's not a promise to vote this way in the future and it's a flawed bill with lots of bad things in it. She rambled on about "history" calling and the need to show Congress can act. What an idiot.
She actually thinks her vote adds legitimacy to the process and outcome (her words, not my interpretation).
God damn I hate these "we were sent here to do something, anything" people. She lost on process (legislative language), she lost on budget and other issues and yet she is voting yes and handing the Democrats a bill and a political tool to do what she says she opposes in the name of doing 'something'. And being the great bi-partisan lioness of the Senate.
Get your ego gratification somewhere else Olympia, this stuff is too important.
Dishonesty: Sen. Baucus(Evil Party Liar-MT) deliberately made up the 'bill' the CBO scored to get the rosy picture he wanted:
But the Baucus bill deliberately takes advantage of the artificial stupidity of the CBO's code to compare seven years of spending to ten years of taxes to get a "deficit reduction."
Sure it's jackass to do that. But that's the way the CBO is supposed to do it -- even if it makes no sense -- and the Baucus bill "conceptual language" deliberately exploits that in order to deceive the public.
Also, the State Department hiding information on Honduras; gee, I wonder why...
Stupidity:
Then he told the story of how, just last January, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had bungled a WMD experiment using bubonic plague.
“None of you press wrote about that,” the man said, eyeballing me.
I had to correct him because I did write about that story — for Pajamas Media. My article cited two papers, the Sun and the Washington Times; I couldn’t locate any firsthand sources with access to the information. “How do you know that the information was correct?” I asked my fellow banquet guest.
“I was at the military briefing,” he said. Then he added that the briefing was not classified and included several members of the press.
“Why do you think that story wasn’t more widely reported?” I asked.
He said something to the effect of: there are some things the public finds easier to ignore.
I had the same reaction when I returned home from my trip on Friday night to read a single-line item on the Counterterrorism Blog: “Switzerland: Terror cops arrest Collider scientist linked with al-Qaeda,” it said. The Collider is the largest nuclear research facility in the world. For at least the next forty-eight hours the story did not appear anywhere in the U.S. press, despite the fact that the arrested nuclear scientist, a 32-year-old Algerian-born French man named Dr. Adlene Hicheur, was being described by France’s Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence as a “very high-level” operative with AQIM. That’s the same group who’d been experimenting with bubonic plague earlier in the year.
Some of the media don't find it 'easier to ignore', they actively work to ignore such stories for various idiotic reasons. And it's going to be a part of a whole lot of people getting killed.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
I'm not quite sure what to say about AP
in this. Anger, disgust, etc., are there, but just don't express the thoughts well.
AP stringer is 'embedded' with Taliban, and watches, photographs and videos a double murder. And AP writes about it in a very 'neutral' fashion.
The Taliban, now, they're easy: bloody-handed, murdering, often-illiterate savages serving a disgusting god and prophet. What to do's simple, too: tell NATO to get off its collective ass and help do the job of finding and killing the Taliban. All of them.
But AP? I don't know, would a whipping post in the town square or a gallows be more appropriate?
AP stringer is 'embedded' with Taliban, and watches, photographs and videos a double murder. And AP writes about it in a very 'neutral' fashion.
The Taliban, now, they're easy: bloody-handed, murdering, often-illiterate savages serving a disgusting god and prophet. What to do's simple, too: tell NATO to get off its collective ass and help do the job of finding and killing the Taliban. All of them.
But AP? I don't know, would a whipping post in the town square or a gallows be more appropriate?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Mountain lions and bears but no tigers as yet;
oh my.
And would it be too damn much to ask for a reporter to get the basic facts on a black bear right, dammit?
The animals are vegetarian so this one could have been feeding on crops and berries.
“There is lots of food for them around here,” Goss said.
No, you moron, they're omnivores; they'll eat anything. Crops and berries in the city, my ass.
And would it be too damn much to ask for a reporter to get the basic facts on a black bear right, dammit?
The animals are vegetarian so this one could have been feeding on crops and berries.
“There is lots of food for them around here,” Goss said.
No, you moron, they're omnivores; they'll eat anything. Crops and berries in the city, my ass.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
"Don't actually describe the criminal!
That's racist!"
If a person of Hispanic origin rapes a woman and, in an attempt to catch this violent criminal, police publish a description identifying the suspect's general racial makeup, is that a "racist" thing to do? Apparently the folks at KMYL (1190 AM) in the metro Phoenix, Arizona area think it is. It appears that we cannot even discuss the basic appearance of a wanted criminal now without being "racist" about it all.
Tim Blair has had a bunch of posts noting cases in which police put out descriptions of robbers, rapists, etc. that included descriptions but made no mention of the race. Specifically, when suspects were of, say, 'south Asian' appearance(or whatever the current PC term is for people from Pakistan or wherever) not one word about their physical appearance. Clothing, yes: people, no.
I'm not surprised some idiots here would do the same thing, I'm just amazed it took this long for it to happen and get publicity.
If a person of Hispanic origin rapes a woman and, in an attempt to catch this violent criminal, police publish a description identifying the suspect's general racial makeup, is that a "racist" thing to do? Apparently the folks at KMYL (1190 AM) in the metro Phoenix, Arizona area think it is. It appears that we cannot even discuss the basic appearance of a wanted criminal now without being "racist" about it all.
Tim Blair has had a bunch of posts noting cases in which police put out descriptions of robbers, rapists, etc. that included descriptions but made no mention of the race. Specifically, when suspects were of, say, 'south Asian' appearance(or whatever the current PC term is for people from Pakistan or wherever) not one word about their physical appearance. Clothing, yes: people, no.
I'm not surprised some idiots here would do the same thing, I'm just amazed it took this long for it to happen and get publicity.
I think France 2 TV
is in a bit of trouble.
Charles Enderlin came to court personally today to defend the images shot by his trusted cameraman Talal Abu Rahma at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000. The cameraman had declared under oath that he filmed 27 minutes of the ordeal of Mohamed al Dura and his father Jamal, pinned down by Israeli gunfire. France 2 turned over to the court a CDRom certified as an authentic copy of the raw footage, of a total duration of 18 minutes. Despite those statements the pertinent al Dura scenes contained in the rushes lasted one short minute. Nothing more.(bold mine)
and
The remaining footage, 17 minutes, was consistent with what was already known about that day at the Junction: staged battle scenes—out of range of the Israeli position—with instant ambulance evacuations, alternating with images of men and boys attacking the Israeli position with stones, firebombs, and burning tires.
If you take out the flowery words and BS denials, this translates to "We not only used staged images to put out a fake story, and swore it was true, we're not going to give you all the actual footage you ordered."
I've got a pretty good idea what would happen to an executive who did that in most U.S. courts, we'll see what happens in this French court. I tend to think most judges most places don't like being gamed this way.
Charles Enderlin came to court personally today to defend the images shot by his trusted cameraman Talal Abu Rahma at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000. The cameraman had declared under oath that he filmed 27 minutes of the ordeal of Mohamed al Dura and his father Jamal, pinned down by Israeli gunfire. France 2 turned over to the court a CDRom certified as an authentic copy of the raw footage, of a total duration of 18 minutes. Despite those statements the pertinent al Dura scenes contained in the rushes lasted one short minute. Nothing more.(bold mine)
and
The remaining footage, 17 minutes, was consistent with what was already known about that day at the Junction: staged battle scenes—out of range of the Israeli position—with instant ambulance evacuations, alternating with images of men and boys attacking the Israeli position with stones, firebombs, and burning tires.
If you take out the flowery words and BS denials, this translates to "We not only used staged images to put out a fake story, and swore it was true, we're not going to give you all the actual footage you ordered."
I've got a pretty good idea what would happen to an executive who did that in most U.S. courts, we'll see what happens in this French court. I tend to think most judges most places don't like being gamed this way.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Why the major media is not to be trusted
Reason #568: we now return to our previous griping
Go here and read. This is specifically on the Al Dura case, but has big ramifications to all reporting, in this case specifically in the mid-east and on stuff touching on Islam.
Here the evidence provided by the Al Dura affair suggests that, in some sense, journalists are “in” on the public secret. When representatives of France2 were confronted with the pervasive evidence of staging in Talal’s footage, they both responded the same way. “Oh, they always do that, it’s a cultural thing,” said Enderlin to me in Jerusalem. “Yes Monsieur, but, you know, it’s always like that,” said Didier Eppelbaum to Denis Jeambar, Daniel Leconte, and Luc Rosenzweig in Paris.
As an echo of this astonishing private complacency, Clément Weill-Raynal of France3 made a comment to a journalist that he meant as a criticism of Karsenty: “Karsenty is so shocked that fake images were used and edited in Gaza, but this happens all the time everywhere on television and no TV journalist in the field or a film editor would be shocked.”
That last is supposed to be a cricism of Karsenty. It's a criticism to say "It's dumb for him to be shocked that we slant and fake the news!"
"An incident at Ramallah, however, suggests that Western journalists have systematically submitted to Palestinian demands that they practice Palestinian journalism. On October 12, 2000, to cries of “Revenge for the blood of Muhammad al Dura,” Palestinian men tore to pieces the bodies of two Israeli reservists. Aware of the potential damage, Palestinians attacked any journalist taking pictures. And yet, one Italian crew working for a private news station, at great risk to their lives, smuggled out the footage. Eager to avoid being blamed, the representative of Italy’s “official television station RAI” wrote to the PA that his station would never do such a thing,
Translation: "We will show the news the way you want us to; who cares if it's factual or true?"
And we're supposed to trust these people to tell us what's going on?
And it can actually get worse. There's this near the end:
More ominously, just as Al Dura represents a “higher truth” for Muslims — a justification for hatred, a call to revenge — so does it carry symbolic freight with Europeans. Catherine Nay, a respected news anchor for Europe1, welcomed the image:lessful idiot.
Rope, lamppost, journalist...
Go here and read. This is specifically on the Al Dura case, but has big ramifications to all reporting, in this case specifically in the mid-east and on stuff touching on Islam.
And yet, one of the major differences between Western journalism and self-styled “Islamic media men” emerges on just this issue of the permissibility of staging the news and attitudes towards what constitutes honest information. According to the Islamic Mass Media Charter (Jakarta, 1980), the sacred task of Muslim media men [sic], is on the one hand to protect the Umma from “imminent dangers,” indeed to “censor all materials,” towards that end, and on the other, “To combat Zionism and its colonialist policy of creating settlements as well as its ruthless suppression of the Palestinian people.”
So when asked why he had inserted unconnected footage of an Israeli soldier firing a rifle into the Al Dura sequence in order to make it look like the Israelis had killed the boy in cold blood, an official of PA TV responded:
These are forms of artistic expression, but all of this serves to convey the truth… We never forget our higher journalistic principles to which we are committed of relating the truth and nothing but the truth.This is from a Palestinian media weenie, so not unexpected: to these people 'the Truth' is what puts out the message they like, not what actually happened. But crap like this is not supposed to come from western journalists:
Here the evidence provided by the Al Dura affair suggests that, in some sense, journalists are “in” on the public secret. When representatives of France2 were confronted with the pervasive evidence of staging in Talal’s footage, they both responded the same way. “Oh, they always do that, it’s a cultural thing,” said Enderlin to me in Jerusalem. “Yes Monsieur, but, you know, it’s always like that,” said Didier Eppelbaum to Denis Jeambar, Daniel Leconte, and Luc Rosenzweig in Paris.
As an echo of this astonishing private complacency, Clément Weill-Raynal of France3 made a comment to a journalist that he meant as a criticism of Karsenty: “Karsenty is so shocked that fake images were used and edited in Gaza, but this happens all the time everywhere on television and no TV journalist in the field or a film editor would be shocked.”
That last is supposed to be a cricism of Karsenty. It's a criticism to say "It's dumb for him to be shocked that we slant and fake the news!"
"An incident at Ramallah, however, suggests that Western journalists have systematically submitted to Palestinian demands that they practice Palestinian journalism. On October 12, 2000, to cries of “Revenge for the blood of Muhammad al Dura,” Palestinian men tore to pieces the bodies of two Israeli reservists. Aware of the potential damage, Palestinians attacked any journalist taking pictures. And yet, one Italian crew working for a private news station, at great risk to their lives, smuggled out the footage. Eager to avoid being blamed, the representative of Italy’s “official television station RAI” wrote to the PA that his station would never do such a thing,
…because we always respect (will continue to respect) the journalistic procedures with the Palestinian Authority for (journalistic) work in Palestine…
Translation: "We will show the news the way you want us to; who cares if it's factual or true?"
And we're supposed to trust these people to tell us what's going on?
And it can actually get worse. There's this near the end:
More ominously, just as Al Dura represents a “higher truth” for Muslims — a justification for hatred, a call to revenge — so does it carry symbolic freight with Europeans. Catherine Nay, a respected news anchor for Europe1, welcomed the image:
The Death of Muhammad cancels out, erases that of the Jewish child, his hands in the air from the SS in the Warsaw Ghetto.This is from a 'respected news anchor' in Europe. Saying that. I do not have the words to express the contempt I feel for this use
Rope, lamppost, journalist...
Friday, October 26, 2007
I'm not sure whether to call this 'The Idiot Reporter Saga'
or 'Dumbass Journalist Blows It'. It seems a jerk reporter showed up at a checkpoint in Iraq without his proper id, acted like a jackass to the troop dealing with him, and posted about it. Then, when comments seemed to run to the, ah, 'negative' side, the whole blog disappeared. Except for a blogger who thought, considering past history, decided to preserve the whole post. Definitely worth reading, and do NOT forget the comments. They'll make you smile.
Then Doc Weasel got a e-mail from a coworker of the jerk saying basically "He's not so bad". He also adds at the end that the original site by the jerk is back. I tried, but couldn't get it to show up; maybe busy.
Well, now Little Green Footballs has found out some information on another piece the jerk did, and it does not make him look good. And Reihl has some background on the jerk.
You know, some of these people seem to be living in that "I think this, therefore it is the truth!" world. And now, thanks to this here innernet, it does tend to come back and bite them. Thankfully.
Then Doc Weasel got a e-mail from a coworker of the jerk saying basically "He's not so bad". He also adds at the end that the original site by the jerk is back. I tried, but couldn't get it to show up; maybe busy.
Well, now Little Green Footballs has found out some information on another piece the jerk did, and it does not make him look good. And Reihl has some background on the jerk.
You know, some of these people seem to be living in that "I think this, therefore it is the truth!" world. And now, thanks to this here innernet, it does tend to come back and bite them. Thankfully.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Journalists should be trusted;
they don't let their personal opinions intrude on reporting the news.
I'm not going to excerpt from this garbage, I'm too pissed off by it. Read it. And remember it the next time these clowns tell us that we can trust them.
I'm not going to excerpt from this garbage, I'm too pissed off by it. Read it. And remember it the next time these clowns tell us that we can trust them.
More on the al Dura blood libel
from Augean Stables and ShrinkWrapped.
I don't think it's any mystery why the major media doesn't want to break this. A: Some of them have a lot of personal emotion tied up in this. "Israel is to blame!" for pretty much everything, and showing what dirtbags and liars many of the palestinians are just goes against what they want to push. And B: they've got a lot of personal 'integrity' tied up in this story: if they break it, all the questions on why and why not start hammering them:
Indeed, when this story breaks, one of the great scandals will be the profound negligence and neglect of the MSM, which never asked a hard question, never followed up on the story… indeed, did their best to bury it. (The fellow at WGBH that Fallows sent me to as someone who might be interested in the story, even as he admitted the evidence was convincing, told me he couldn’t do “just this” story, he’d need to do something about Israeli cameramen staging news.) When you read the comments of Clément Weill Raynal on how everyone in the MSM does it and knows it’s done, combined with the responses of France2 higher ups to the three journalists who saw Talal’s tapes, and Enderlin’s to me — it happens all the time — you begin to realize that this kind of staging, editing, and presenting as news is a public secret among the MSM as well.
To put it crudely, the shitstorm that will fall on them will be wonderful to behold. So even those uncomfortable with what they've done and why, will try to prevent it. They'd rather not have to deal with it than do the painful work to clean up their trade.
I don't think it's any mystery why the major media doesn't want to break this. A: Some of them have a lot of personal emotion tied up in this. "Israel is to blame!" for pretty much everything, and showing what dirtbags and liars many of the palestinians are just goes against what they want to push. And B: they've got a lot of personal 'integrity' tied up in this story: if they break it, all the questions on why and why not start hammering them:
Indeed, when this story breaks, one of the great scandals will be the profound negligence and neglect of the MSM, which never asked a hard question, never followed up on the story… indeed, did their best to bury it. (The fellow at WGBH that Fallows sent me to as someone who might be interested in the story, even as he admitted the evidence was convincing, told me he couldn’t do “just this” story, he’d need to do something about Israeli cameramen staging news.) When you read the comments of Clément Weill Raynal on how everyone in the MSM does it and knows it’s done, combined with the responses of France2 higher ups to the three journalists who saw Talal’s tapes, and Enderlin’s to me — it happens all the time — you begin to realize that this kind of staging, editing, and presenting as news is a public secret among the MSM as well.
To put it crudely, the shitstorm that will fall on them will be wonderful to behold. So even those uncomfortable with what they've done and why, will try to prevent it. They'd rather not have to deal with it than do the painful work to clean up their trade.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Remember the al Dura kid?
Who the palistinians and French tv claimed the Israelis killed? Well, check this out:
Many have accused the photo of young Mohammed Al Dura’s father shielding him from Israeli bullets of being a fake, but the original videotape from which this photo was drawn was hidden from view by France 2. Yesterday a French judge finally ordered the channel to produce it. PJM’s Nidra Poller was one of the few journalists witnessing this stunning turning point.
Besides the interesting look at the French system, we come to this when the judge says "We want to see the original, unedited footage":
The court recesses. (Even though an informed source has already whispered the result in my ear, I am gripped with suspense.) The judges return and report their decision on the question in suspense. The expertise. The raw footage. They want it. They will not go forward until they have seen it. Maître Amblard drops her pencil. She is sincerely stunned.
Now, us uneddicated rednecks have an observation: unless there's footage that proves that a lot of this was staged, they wouldn't mind people seeing it. But oh, boy, do they mind.
Many have accused the photo of young Mohammed Al Dura’s father shielding him from Israeli bullets of being a fake, but the original videotape from which this photo was drawn was hidden from view by France 2. Yesterday a French judge finally ordered the channel to produce it. PJM’s Nidra Poller was one of the few journalists witnessing this stunning turning point.
Besides the interesting look at the French system, we come to this when the judge says "We want to see the original, unedited footage":
The court recesses. (Even though an informed source has already whispered the result in my ear, I am gripped with suspense.) The judges return and report their decision on the question in suspense. The expertise. The raw footage. They want it. They will not go forward until they have seen it. Maître Amblard drops her pencil. She is sincerely stunned.
Now, us uneddicated rednecks have an observation: unless there's footage that proves that a lot of this was staged, they wouldn't mind people seeing it. But oh, boy, do they mind.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Putting pieces together
Eric at Classical Values has this post on digging out details of a possible murder in Philadelphia, which ends up with:
OK, if we play detective by piecing the three stories together, the following becomes the factual scenario:
I'd tend to think so. For instance, who was robbing who? And was this murder, or bad guy being shot by intended victim?
Down toward the end he leads us to this article, basically on the subject of 'nasty suburban(white) people don't care about black people in the city dying. Except for a few saints. Think I'm kidding?
Whenever I write about Philadelphia's homicide crisis, I hear from suburban readers who think it's a waste of space.
The Jenkintown graphic designer is obsessed with the death toll - already over 200 - even though the bullets aren't flying anywhere near the home and family he holds dear.
and goes from there.
This is one of the people Alphecca noted had fits over "...Philly-based Urban Outfitters for selling $6 handgun Christmas ornaments in a city ravaged by bullets." Who's now got a poster- made with police department help- to find sponsors for.
It's really fairly standard crap: white people don't care about black people dying, guns are evil, we need more laws, etc. Major Media at its finest.
OK, if we play detective by piecing the three stories together, the following becomes the factual scenario:
As a whodunit, doesn't this just cry out for more detail?Jason Brewer was murdered; in a robbery; at a residence; where he did not live; where his companion was also wounded during the same robbery;
I'd tend to think so. For instance, who was robbing who? And was this murder, or bad guy being shot by intended victim?
Down toward the end he leads us to this article, basically on the subject of 'nasty suburban(white) people don't care about black people in the city dying. Except for a few saints. Think I'm kidding?
Whenever I write about Philadelphia's homicide crisis, I hear from suburban readers who think it's a waste of space.
Poor black people killing poor black people, thugs shooting thugs - why should we cry?
Having informed us that people in the suburbs(apparently all white, no blacks/latinos/whatever need apply) don't care about those nasty minority types in the city dying, she brings out her saint:The Jenkintown graphic designer is obsessed with the death toll - already over 200 - even though the bullets aren't flying anywhere near the home and family he holds dear.
and goes from there.
This is one of the people Alphecca noted had fits over "...Philly-based Urban Outfitters for selling $6 handgun Christmas ornaments in a city ravaged by bullets." Who's now got a poster- made with police department help- to find sponsors for.
It's really fairly standard crap: white people don't care about black people dying, guns are evil, we need more laws, etc. Major Media at its finest.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
About all those layers of editors...
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Wouldn't you think, by this time,
the major media would be more interested in accuracy than pushing either sensationalism or their personal desires?
Must be the wonderful work of those layers of editors we heard of.
Speaking of major media BS, check out this at Blackfive
Must be the wonderful work of those layers of editors we heard of.
Speaking of major media BS, check out this at Blackfive
Friday, March 02, 2007
I gave up on TV news too, Jeff
Jeff notes his reasons(some of them) here. Mine... Didn't have a particular one incident, but there was a trigger to saying "Screw you!" and flipping the bird to the major media.
After my '2x4 to the head' moment of realizing there were a bunch of people who'd never let me go shooting or hunting with my Dad again, I got more and more sick of the news: I concentrated on the bullcrap they always threw out about firearms, but that also led to being far more critical about what they put out about anything. Then came the day...
This was during the O.J. Simpson trial. At the time, as I recall, the media was playing up everything possible(so it seemed to me) to justify us jumping into the Balkans. On this day, the first time in about two weeks that people in one city had been able to go to market, somebody dropped a couple of mortar shells into the marketplace. Lots of bodies and blood. And 'The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather' started: "Horror in the Balkans as a marketplace is bombed, many dead and more wounded;" and at that point his voice shifted and became almost a touch, cheery, "but first, in the O.J. Simpson trial"-
Which was as far as I got. Happily there were no heavy objects handy to throw or I'd have had to get money together for a new tv. As it was, I was on my feet screaming at the screen and that jackass Rather just exactly what I thought of him and his network and his 'news' reporting. And I don't think I've paid attention to their broadcasts(or trusted 60 Minutes after the Alar bullshit) since. Or much else of the major media. Local news, in particular for weather, but the rest from reading and from this here innernet.
After my '2x4 to the head' moment of realizing there were a bunch of people who'd never let me go shooting or hunting with my Dad again, I got more and more sick of the news: I concentrated on the bullcrap they always threw out about firearms, but that also led to being far more critical about what they put out about anything. Then came the day...
This was during the O.J. Simpson trial. At the time, as I recall, the media was playing up everything possible(so it seemed to me) to justify us jumping into the Balkans. On this day, the first time in about two weeks that people in one city had been able to go to market, somebody dropped a couple of mortar shells into the marketplace. Lots of bodies and blood. And 'The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather' started: "Horror in the Balkans as a marketplace is bombed, many dead and more wounded;" and at that point his voice shifted and became almost a touch, cheery, "but first, in the O.J. Simpson trial"-
Which was as far as I got. Happily there were no heavy objects handy to throw or I'd have had to get money together for a new tv. As it was, I was on my feet screaming at the screen and that jackass Rather just exactly what I thought of him and his network and his 'news' reporting. And I don't think I've paid attention to their broadcasts(or trusted 60 Minutes after the Alar bullshit) since. Or much else of the major media. Local news, in particular for weather, but the rest from reading and from this here innernet.
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