Wednesday, July 07, 2004

pinions of buddy don: jurnlists should let thar pinions be known

so happens that miz bd is a jurnlist that started wurkin back in the early 1970s, whenever she wuz jes a pup. twuz her furst job but i reckun she wuz a born jurnlist. i never met nobidy in my hole life who had to know whut wuz a'goin on at inny given instunt moren she duz. ifn thars a sigh-reen a crine out in the nite, miz bd is lack as not to git up n see is it sumthin we needs to wurry bout.

whenever she wuz a'gettin her start as a jurnlist, she had lots of thangs to larn, witch she dun her larnin on the job, ritin with a byline at the age of 18 n larnin everthang by doon it. thangs she thought wuz sacred included (1) havin at lease three sorces fer inny claim, (2) keepin yer own bias outta the story, (3) puttin the parts that could be cut off frum the story near the end, (4) makin shore ye give credit to yer sorces or tuther articulls on the same subjects, (5) unnerstandin whut the publisher or editor in chief is willin to print n (6) not stealin copyrited material in genrul (witch thats the main crime of the blogosphere far as i kind see).

innywho, she sorta gut herself outta the strate jurnlist biz whenever she figgerd that item number 2 wuznt truly possbull. ye kin pertend ye aint thar, that all yer doon is presentin the unvarnisht facks, but ye caint git away frum whut ye bleeve is importunt. mos of all, ye caint publish innythang that goes agin whut yer publisher or editor in chief allows. after all, thar the boss.

ye mite member bout how friedrich nietzsche rote bout how thay aint no facks, jes interpretayshuns. tiz as close to a fack as yer lackly to git. miz bd larnd thatn without readin no nietzsche, though i reckon she's read her share over the years. point is, she cum to realize that no matter how ye wonta package it, yer news is a'gonna be biased sumhow, furst by whut ye see but mosly by whut yer publisher/editor in chief is a'gone allow ye to print.

i mentchun all that on a counta the fuss n fite that's a'ragin on mainstreet over that movie by michael moore name of fahrenheit 911. thays a slew of folks upset on a counta how tiz a documentry but it dont seem to be showin bof sides of the issues. sides that, michael moore aint made no secret bout his pinions. ye mite nitpick sum of the thangs he puts in thar or how he edits em or whutever, but hes honest as they cum bout his pinions n intentchuns.

n thats a good thang. tiz one of them odd moments whar even ifn ye dont lack whut he sez, ye orta add mire how he sez it. sides that, twoodnt be much of a sprize ifn younger folks gits eggcited by the potentchul of digital fotos n movies.

tuther thang i lacked bout it (still ignorin whut is sez bout our times fer the moment, witch i found that innerestin n wurth seein) is how it dint have to play the npr game of bof sides now. have ye noticed that whenever thars a npr story, ye git one side n then they find sumbidy to state tuthern. that means that ifn ye gut a new report on sum topick, say human effecks on global warmin, in sted of jes givin ye the ackshul news, witch thats the new infermayshun, ye also git sumbidy on tuther side sayin how the news aint rite or the worl aint changin or even ifn its changin, it aint human activty thats changin it or even ifn tiz human activty, tiz too late to stop thangs now, so we mites well go on a doon jes whut we been a'doin all along: usin up the worls store of fossil fuels as quick as we kin.

so that mane thang i lacked bout the movie, in a dishun to folks talkin bout the topicks it razed, is how tiz a sign of thangs to cum, when folks shows us thangs the corpert news -- n dont kid yerself, tiz a fack that four largest media congomerts cuntrols most of the news ye git in amurka, witch thays disney, time warner, viacom n vivendi universal -- innywho, i lack it that in the movie we gut to see thangs thats been missin from the corpert news.

n why is that? tiz on a counta whut miz bd larnt way back whenever she wuz a startin out: aint no point in ritin sumthin that the publisher or editor in chief wont print. period. dont matter bout yer own pallticks, yer own bias. ifn it dont agree with whut the owners wonts to publish, ye wont see yer wurds printed in thar paper or shown on thar news program. period.

tiz also profitabull to show thangs the corpert news wonts to keep hid: fahrenheit 911 near dubled its recurd brakin take frum the furst week (scroll down to michael moores furst blog entry). n once ye dun sumthin lack that, even ifn the corpert media tride to censor yer movie, they gut to git in on the ack once ye becum the big story.

No comments: