Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/12/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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 - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html