Fighting morbid obesity of the mind
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has this interesting op-ed about Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who went to jail rather than reveal a source.
The writer, a retired journalist himself, remembers the days of Watergate, when the media was much fiercer about getting the "real news." He quotes historian Richard Rider: "Real news is the news you and I need to keep our freedom."
But, sad to say, I wonder how much difference it makes anymore.
We have known for months that the War in Iraq was shamelessly based on pretense and the most dangerous (and wrong headed) foreign policy the United States has had since the days of the Cuban missle crisis. And so what happens? Subways get bombed and civilians get beheaded. And America goes on about its business, marketing video games containing explicit sex scenes and buying designer clothes made in China.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, some have taken the business of what is newsworthy into their own hands. Shortly after the infamous Downing Street memo was published in the London Sunday Times, a group of IT wonks created The Downing Street Memo :: What is it?, and began contacting the news media.
Their effect has even drawn the notice and dismay of the Bush supportering Wall Street Journal: "'It really is just six people, and I don't even know the name[s] of two of them,' spokesman Bob Fesmire said. 'People find it hard to believe it when I tell them that for a $20 Web-hosting fee, you too can get something like this going.'"
The writer, a retired journalist himself, remembers the days of Watergate, when the media was much fiercer about getting the "real news." He quotes historian Richard Rider: "Real news is the news you and I need to keep our freedom."
But, sad to say, I wonder how much difference it makes anymore.
We have known for months that the War in Iraq was shamelessly based on pretense and the most dangerous (and wrong headed) foreign policy the United States has had since the days of the Cuban missle crisis. And so what happens? Subways get bombed and civilians get beheaded. And America goes on about its business, marketing video games containing explicit sex scenes and buying designer clothes made in China.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, some have taken the business of what is newsworthy into their own hands. Shortly after the infamous Downing Street memo was published in the London Sunday Times, a group of IT wonks created The Downing Street Memo :: What is it?, and began contacting the news media.
Their effect has even drawn the notice and dismay of the Bush supportering Wall Street Journal: "'It really is just six people, and I don't even know the name[s] of two of them,' spokesman Bob Fesmire said. 'People find it hard to believe it when I tell them that for a $20 Web-hosting fee, you too can get something like this going.'"
posted by Richard Shepard | 6:19 AM
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