We live in an age of forgetting.
media
It’s a News Smackdown
Jul 30th
Sometimes, news headlines are emotionally charged to the point of being aggressive. Maybe editors think anger is what the public wants nowadays. Or maybe after the Wall Street bailouts, the BP oil spill, and a long, painful recession, headlines are just reflecting a common desire to give someone, anyone, their comeuppance.
Regardless, it gets over the top sometimes. All of these headlines are from The Washington Post’s web site today.
Haynesworth learns who is boss
It’s hard to insert a smackdown into a headline, but this editor pulled it off. To be fair, it’s an opinion column about a prima donna Redskins player, but still, Haynesworth is a 350 lb. Man. He’s such a man that my word processor automatically capitalized “man” when I wrote it. You shouldn’t gloat at someone with an arm the size of your torso unless you want the next headline to be “Sports columnist learns who is boss after Haynesworth sits on him”.
Iran starts feeling heat
Ooh…sounds like Iran is about to get some comeuppance! It also sounds like wishful thinking—Iran has been hit with sanctions, embargoes, and toothless U.N. resolutions ever since the Western-backed Shaw was overthrown in [1978]. Maybe the editor was lazy and was just recycling a headline from 1986.
Then there’s the “Weather Gang” section of the Post.
PM Update: Some payback for all the heat
Seriously? Have we declared a War on Weather now?
WEATHER FORECASTER (draws gun): “I’ve had it up to here with you, heat! [BLAM BLAM BLAM] Oh yeah! Who’s sweating now, [description of heat]?”
Even the chat promos are getting into the game.
Carolyn Hax Live: Advice columnist tackles your problems
Go Carolyn! Grab our problems by the ankle, drive them to the ground, and then punch them in the face until they promise never to bother us again.
Where are our problems going that they need to be tackled? Are they running towards the endzone to spike another painful thought into our egos? I don’t need my problems to be tackled. I’d be perfectly content leading them to a plate of cookies under a box propped up with a stick. Trapping my problems and never having to look at them seems like a perfectly acceptable solution.
My main concern is that if emotion met rationality in a cage match, emotion would whack rationality with a folding chair every time. It’s inherently stronger than rational thought, which evolved much later than our emotional centers.
That’s why it’s easier to manipulate people when they are emotional. (see: Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann) and why news organizations should be careful when they use emotionally-laden words. They make articles more interesting and can help us care about things we might not care about otherwise. But they can also obscure truth and prompt us to form opinions based on emotion rather than the more laborious path of reason and logic.
Daily Show Clip on CNN
Oct 13th
Some of the best Daily Show moments are when they critique the media, like in this clip. I think many media outlets are so afraid of being accused of bias that they are reluctant to challenge obvious falsehoods. There are other reasons too–fact-checking requires resources and news networks in particular are more concerned about their bottom line.
You also have to be sharp and study a lot to challenge someone on the spot in an interview. But there are actions networks could take to make their guests more accountable for what they say. As of now, lying on a national talk show is all benefit and no penalty. That’s not good for discourse.
The Future of Newspapers
Mar 23rd
Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. For a century, the imperatives to strengthen journalism and to strengthen newspapers have been so tightly wound as to be indistinguishable. That’s been a fine accident to have, but when that accident stops, as it is stopping before our eyes, we’re going to need lots of other ways to strengthen journalism instead.
This essay crystallized some of the thoughts I’ve been having about the decline of the newspaper industry (and by association, journalism). Investigative journalism and in-depth reporting are beneficial to society. The Washington Post, NY Times, and a few other big newspapers are large supporters of this type of journalism, and I don’t see the void they are leaving with their budget cuts and slicing of coverage being filled at the same rate by other models of journalism. Other models exist, such as TalkingPointsMemo.com, but their scale and resources are rising nowhere as fast as the newspaper industry is declining.
I think our democracy is headed for a rough time in the next few years, and the (temporary, I hope) decline in good journalism will be one of the factors contributing to a weakening of our democracy. The other major factor will be the decades-long stagnation of our political system. We treat the Constitution like the Bible. Our unwillingness to reform our political system periodically, or even seriously consider term limits for Supreme Court nominees, debate changes to congressional redistricting, or question at a fundamental level how campaigns are financed and run, makes me wonder if our political system is still capable of handling the long-term challenges this country faces (energy, health care, and entitlement reform are my top three).
The decline of funding for journalism at one of the times when we need it the most sure doesn’t help.
2012 Already?
Nov 10th
People have been following the campaign for so long that they don’t know how to stop. In fact, I don’t think the media outlets feeding the 24/7 news cycle want it to stop. Barack Obama won the presidency less than a week ago, and I’ve already seen several articles speculating on which Republican candidate will run in 2012.
The whole situation is worse than a reality TV show. Even TV shows go on break after the season finale.
If Barack Obama does as good of a job as I hope he does, do you know what will be the best part? Not having to pay attention every single day. With Bush, I’d wake up, make my morning coffee, and scan the paper to see what he screwed up today. It is going to be nice to only have to check up on Obama periodically. “Hey Obama. You still got this? Cool. See you again next month.”
They’ve run out of stuff to talk about
Oct 18th
Could Mike Ditka have derailed Barack Obama’s ascendancy?
Here’s the short answer to save you a few minutes: NO.
Guys, come on. There’s only 18 days yet. This is like a marathon runner getting distracted by a shiny bauble 25 miles into the race.
Somebody Give Yahoo +5 Headline Points
Sep 23rd
“The Dead Raise for Obama” (link)
-3 though for the “Expert Review” of Google’s new G1 phone, being as the phone doesn’t come out for a few weeks and the second paragraph of the “Expert Review” is “Granted, I’ve only had a few minutes of hands-on time with the T-Mobile G1, so this doesn’t count as a review—we’re just talking first impressions here.”
Update: Okay, +2 for this one. “Disgraced former NBA referee reports to federal prison camp” (link)
What Makes Me Laugh
Jul 8th
NSFW Round-up
Feb 26th
Can anyone seriously argue that the TSA hasn’t become completely corrupted with power?
FOX News Porn. So that’s why so many people watch FOX News.
Anti-NSFW: Garfield Minus Garfield (thanks, Kate) . This is the only way to enjoy Garfield.
Friday Media Roundup
Nov 2nd
Stuff I’ve read, watched, or listened to that’s good enough to recommend.
Yeasayer / “2080″ (music): Yeasayer is a difficult band to describe, which is a good thing. I can’t imagine anyone agreeing with this, but “2080″ reminds me of music that would play in a movie about an optimistic, post-apocalyptic future.
The whole album has an aura of oddly familiar strangeness. It’s like the music skipped a few stages of evolution, so it’s difficult to see where it came from, but it’s still recognizable enough to enjoy.
How about this: (World Music)^2 ? I give up. Great band, regardless.
The Real All-Americans (book): I’m not a huge sports fan, but I found Sally Jenkins’ book on how Native Americans were integral to the development of collegiate football fascinating. I’m surprised I never heard of Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an experiment in assimilating Native Americans by a well-meaning but perhaps misguided army officer, or knew that it was the source for a lot of what we now consider basic parts of football, like the forward pass,
reverses, and training dummies.
The book also brought light to some names I only heard in passing, like Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner. It’s worth checking out from the library or buying for anyone with an interest in sports history.
Our Malined Friend
Oct 27th
I feel sorry for the toilet seat. It’s always the comparison point for grossness.
Every few months there’s a story on how Everyday Object X has more bacteria than a toilet seat. “Average keyboard has more bacteria than a toilet seat.” “Calling Dr. Gross–mobile phone has more bacteria than a toilet seat.” “Why don’t you have your baby lick a toilet? Pacifiers have more bacteria than gas station commode.”
If there are so many objects more disgusting than a toilet seat, maybe it’s time to back off the insults to our porcelain friend. It’s doing something right. It is beating our cell phones in the clean contest, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t poop on my cell phone.
What would I use as a substitute? A far question to ask. If I were a scientist releasing a meaningless study because my company’s PR department wants to generate publicity from a media machine that hungers for attention-grabbing stories that require almost no research or effort to report, I’d….well, actually, I’d kill myself, because my life would be a hollow shell, empty of a long-forgotten dream to do something meaningful.
Or…I would use an object that no one would suspect harbors bacteria, and give people two things to fret about. “Office keyboards have more bacteria than corn!” What? Corn has bacteria?
Quickie
Feb 7th
Posted by Jason in commentary
No comments
I noticed that The Washington Post editorial board loves taking the “moderate” position on issues. If the Democratic position is “Let’s invest in infrastructure!” and the Republican position is “Let’s fuck a donkey!”, you can bet The Washington Post editorial board will come out, after much deliberation, with a carefully considered 400-word screed in support of fucking a donkey with a condom.