Blogging

Sensing Reminds – but we forget

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Musings, seeing Sensing (here and especially here)

Some, Chomsky for instance, look at dots from a myopic & remarkably American perspective – narrower than the most jingoistic cowboy. The difference, of course, is that America is the spider spinning a web of death and intrigue. Of course, this particular (and peculiar) pattern leaves out what we reacted against, what others did, what we prevented others from doing. They are our victims. This ignores the larger world the one Jonah Goldberg describes, the dots Glen Beck connects. And, frankly, the deaths that total up in The Black Book of Communism make the Goldbergs and Becks and David Horowitzs of the world hyperventilating, perhaps, hyperactive, more radical than conservative, bombthrowers in their own ways – still a bit saner than the Chomskys and Zinns. Exactly what does it take to be hyperbolic when we describe the Ukraine of the 30’s or the Cultural Revolution or Cambodia or the cannibalism of North Korea or the shredders of Iraq?

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Racist Is As Racist Does

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Glenn linked to this post at the Amazon.com food blog.

The author was shocked (shocked!) to find out that the tuna she has been using wasn’t from Italy, even though it has a vaguely Italian-sounding name. In fact, the tuna is caught in the middle of the ocean, and packaged by an American company.

So what does she do? The author swears off that particular brand of tuna! It was perfectly good when she thought it was from Italy, but it isn’t worthy enough to pass her lips now that she knows that a company based in the US is involved. Only tuna caught in the waters off Sicily, and packaged in that country, will be used from now on.

Most of the comments at the post accuse the author of being a snob, which certainly seems to be obvious. But I think it shows a much darker and vile tendency than simple snobbery. Isn’t the author exhibiting blatant racism?

Turn it around. If someone refused to use perfectly acceptable tuna from Sicily, just because it came from Sicily, they would be accused of being racist. How could they not? There isn’t anything wrong with the product, after all. They just can’t stomach the idea that those people touched the food.

So isn’t it racist to do the same thing, just because the tuna is sold by an American company?

As of this writing, the author hasn’t bothered to respond to the criticism. I doubt she will. Racists usually have a lack of backbone, after all.

Lame Newspaper Justification at Chicago Sun-Times

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Traditional newspapers are under intense pressure from a financial perspective. Newspapers provide much of the material that is linked to on blogs and other websites but they make little money for providing this service, while Google (owner of Blogger, which runs many sites on the internet) is a financial and stock market titan.

In addition to the financial threat, newspapers have a more “existential” crisis as they attempt to justify their role in the new world. They are often “scooped” by blogs and other media, which feature focused, partisan and expert writers on specific topics, as opposed to the “generalist” model used by traditional journalists.

In Chicago the Sun-Times has been rescued from bankruptcy by Jim Tyree of Mesirow Financial, who paid $5M and assumed $20M in debt for an enterprise with $200M of revenue / year. This rescue was accompanied by significant work rule changes from the unions that run the Sun Times, which are supposed to enable Tyree to restructure the enterprise to become profitable.

With all of this drama, the Chicago Sun-Times had an excellent opportunity to re-establish their voice and champion their role as journalists and their importance to the city. Let’s hear what they had to say in an column by Neil Steinberg titled “Hard choice lets city keep 2 newspapers“…

If the Trump Tower toppled into Wabash Avenue this afternoon because its builder secretly mixed Cream of Wheat in with the concrete, the Chicago Sun-Times… would instantly rush people over… to talk to people stumbling out of the twisted wreckage. More important, it would set reporters to work, figuring out just how that Cream of Wheat got into the cement, and what we could learn from the fiasco.

The question that the Sun-Times needs to answer is WHAT would be missed if they were to exit the scene, and HOW that would impact the citizenry of the City of Chicago and the other cities that they serve.

This completely feeble example is so far off base that I don’t even know where to begin. The most important value of journalism is to get AHEAD of stories before they become disasters, so that the disaster is averted. This means that they learn about an industry or topic, watch what is occurring, and raise the alert to the public before the event significantly impacts the population.

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Art in the Time of Obama

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Iowahawk is open to grant proposals. Couldn’t our site use that generous slush fund – considering some of us may have lost money waiting for Ronnie Earle to give up (of course betting on that is probably sufficiently stupid so anyone who lost deserves it) and the Iowatrade on Delay to pay out?

Aren’t we up to a little performance art – say a couple of posts done in Art Deco with a ridiculous amount of capitalization – or perhaps an iconic figure (what one you ask – ah, obviously you haven’t been paying attention) in the middle of one of Jonathan’s wide blue horizons. And if we can’t think up lyrics for kindergarteners, well, we might check to see if we haven’t checked out. (Not that checking out is necessarily an inappropriate reaction to current events.)

An Example For Others

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CNN has announced that they will not renew the contract for reporter Susan Roesgen. (Details here and here.)

Ms. Roesgen became nationally famous after she vigorously argued, on air, with Chicago TEA Party protesters she was in the process of interviewing. She characterized the protests as…

“… anti-government, anti-CNN since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox.”

But it was her smug, superior exchanges with other protesters that really got people riled. Lucky thing Founding Bloggers were there to catch it all on tape.

I wrote to CNN after the story broke, pointing out that Fox had actually fired veteran, award-winning reporter Rebecca Aguilar after the badgering she was giving to a 70-year-old man caused him to break down into tears during an interview. At the time, I openly wondered if Fox was going to prove to be the more ethical cable news channel. With Ms. Roesgen’s firing, CNN has proven that they can at least rise to the same standard set by so-called Conservatives if they strive mightily.

Of course, Fox is being sued by Ms. Aguilar, who claims that the firing was based on racial prejudice. This is not something CNN has to worry about, as Ms. Roesgen is not a racial minority, so they certainly aren’t at much risk. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that CNN has finally done the right thing.

(Hat tip to Glenn.)