Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/12/23

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Who'd be a PJ in these troubled times?
From: Teresa299@aol.com
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 16:21:12 EST

In a message dated 12/22/01 10:45:07 AM, bdcolen@earthlink.net writes:

<< Hi, Gary, I am thanks -well. Anyway, while the mainstream press may have 

interlocked corporate owners, etc. etc. etc., on the editorial side the 

major American papers still at least strive for something approaching a 

reasonably balanced view of reality. While they don't always succeed, I 

would argue that they still succeed better than most of the rest of the 

world's media.


Are you really equating the news pages of, say, The New York Times, with 

the pages of The Greenpeace Times  (or whatever it is called)? The Times 

  exists to present news of the world to the public - no matter what you 

may think of the job it does. The Greenpeace publication exists solely 

to push the Greenpeace agenda.


B. D. >>

Hi,

I'm no journalism professor.  Nor am I a PJ.  Hell, I'm barely even a 
photographer (which is why I'm going to try and embark on a PAW in 2002)..... 
but I am a comsumer and as such have a few observations.

Last week, while flipping the dial in true couch potato fashion, I briefly 
stopped upon NBC nightly news.  Some NBC correspondent based in Afghanistan 
was giving a report on the taking of Khandahar or some airport (whatever, I 
was only vaguely watching).  In the backround were scene of Marines, then 
some tanks and then some sullen looking Afghans(I guess they were either 
prisoners or just tired of having cameras and lights in their faces).  Fine.  
Click, I move onto ABC nightly news.  On their station was their ABC 
correspondent based in Afghanistan, reporting on the taking of Khandahar, or 
some airport.  Again I was only vaguely paying attention until I realized 
that the video feed was the exact same as NBC and that the copy that this 
"journalist" was reading was almost verbatim to what the NBC correspondent 
was reading!

Now as to reasonably balanced reporting, who can say?  I suspect both the NBC 
and ABC correspondents chose to go with Pentagon video feed as well as the 
Pentagon press release of the day and then put that stuff on the air nearly 
direct.  I have no problem with knowing what the Pentagon wants us to think 
but I'd at least be interested in knowing (maybe by way of a knowing wink) or 
small print on the bottom of the page that what I just saw purported as 
"news" was basically nothing more than a repackaged pitch from the US 
military.  

As a consumer of the news, I don't think this is anything different than 
what's been going on for a long time.  A lot of what we see and read is 
nothing more than "stuff" that's been packaged for us to consume as "news."  
Where is it coming from?  All the people that want you to see the world in 
their view.  Greenpeace hires some guy to shoot the heroic scenes of people 
saving whales, Fox TV gives you the world with a stiff right armed salute, 
and major media gives us repackaged press releases from all the sources they 
need to be nice to in order to keep getting access to their "stories."

What does any of this have to do with Leica?  I don't know, other than to say 
that if someone wants to report the "news"  but all they want to do is go 
with press releases and sanitized photo "opportunities" one might consider 
buying a cute digital Elph that you can wear hanging off your wrist (at 
clubs) rather than a M6.


- -Kim
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Replies: Reply from Feliciano di Giorgio <feli@d2.com> (Re: [Leica] Who'd be a PJ in these troubled times?)