Tim's got the right end of the stick today, but he fails to wield it with authority.
Yes, the public is unreasonably afraid of terrorism, and everyone needs to calm down. But Tim's analysis of why this is happening is a little soft, perhaps because his own industry carries so much of the responsibility, and the organization he helps manage is quite happy to sell newsprint on fear and facilitate official fear-mongers. So another opportunity for self-examination and positive change is wasted. If the Courier editors really see the problem here, they are in better position that most anyone in town to do something about it.
Parting shot, Tim: "UFO" is not a synonym for "alien spacecraft." If something is flying and the authorities don't know what it is, it's a UFO, that's the correct term. So the TV newscritters didn't report the "possibility of a UFO," they reported a UFO sighting. Failing to clarify this for your readers reinforces ignorance among those who don't know and undercuts your credibility among those who do.
For readers of the Daily Courier in Prescott, Arizona. Comment and discuss. Be nice, now.
Muggs archive
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Tuesday, August 7, 2007
2 comments:
I encourage you to share your own views and experience with me and other readers. How you do that matters, and I'm committed to maintaining a place where readers and commenters can feel safe from adolescent BS. So here's the deal:
There are two kinds of anonymous comments: those by people who have a genuine fear of revenge from the dark side, and those from darksiders just hiding to avoid accountability. You may post comments anonymously, but I reserve the right to treat anonymous comments as found items that belong to me and do with them as I see fit.
If, on the other hand, you're willing to stand by your convictions and post under your own name or a regular handle, your comments belong to you, and I'll edit them only on egregious violations of respect for others.
If this doesn't work for you, I'm sure you'll be happier somewhere else.
You make no sense with this. If Tim were to be part of the problem working at the newspaper and "affect change" you are suggesting, then either you are advocating he quit or put the newspaper out of business. Otherwise he took the issue out of the news pages as it did not run there that I can find and put it on page 4 for an object lesson with explanation and what he sees, a bigger picture. Small-town newspapers are not always to blame like the bigger, liberal-left media are. -Wayne
ReplyDelete=> either you are advocating
ReplyDelete=> he quit or put the
=> newspaper out of business
Not at all. It's not hard to look at your own coverage and editorial choices critically and eliminate fear-mongering in favor of fact. A small-town monopoly paper has greater freedom to do this than a large-market competitor stuck in a race to the sensational bottom. In fact it has the constitutional responsibility to take the high road and put good, factual voter information first.
Over these past few months I've been specifically pointing out how the Courier editors make choices that disinform and agitate readers, and how they can stop doing it. This is not to say that they are "always to blame," as I've shown in giving kudos where due.
Your idea that any big media organization is "liberal-left" in this country shows how far to the right you think the center has moved, I'm afraid.