Journalism | e-commentary

Archive for the Journalism Category

In Sexy Opinion, Supreme Court Affirms First Amendment (March 7, 2011)

Posted in First Amendment, Journalism, Law, Newspapers, Supreme Court on March 7, 2011 by e-commentary.org

Torn from today’s headlines:

A “Justices Rule For Anti-Gay Protestors at Funerals” also reported as “High Court Rules For Anti-Gay Protestors at Funerals” The National Public Radio

B “Justices Rule For Protestors At Military Funerals” The New York Times

C “Supreme Court Rules First Amendment Protects Church’s Right To Picket Funerals” The Washington Post

D “Supreme Court Sides With Churchgoers Who Picketed Military Funeral” The Los Angeles Times

E “Supreme Court Says Anti-Gay Protestors Have A Right To Demonstrate At Military Funerals” The Chicago Tribune

F “First Amendment Protects ‘Hurtful’ Speech, Court Says” The Wall Street Journal

What is The most correct answer? F

. . .

G “Sexy headlines sell.”

H “Didn’t the Supreme Court simply affirm the First Amendment?”

G “Exactly. However, if a sexy headline attracts more readers, go for it. We need people to read. And think. And support the newspaper.”

H “There are winners and there are losers which may be what the public really is interested in tracking.”

G “Perhaps the decisions should be posted in the Sports section of the newspaper.”

H “Judges often make result oriented decisions. They decide who should win and then spin the facts and law to make the outcome appear to the reader to be a fait accompli and beyond reasonable dispute.”

G “In this case, the Justices looked at the law. They acknowledge the hate that motivates the speakers and the hateful message they deliver and reaffirm the fundamental right. Every attempt to formulate an exception undermines the most important Amendment.”

H “I read that Democratic and Republicans leaders of the Senate and a few dozen members of Congress filed a brief on behalf of the family. They endured the vile and evil actions and statements of the protestors. Can’t they just go away.”

G “Law should be removed from the political process. The Supreme Court redeemed itself again in this case and the case involving the Federal Communications Commission and AT&T. The winds are blowing from a different direction.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” dated June 25, 2007 titled “The Supreme Court On Drugs” and dated January 25, 2010 titled “Bill/Melinda and Warren, It Is Time To Get Into The Game” discussing bad hair days at the Court.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

I get along with God just fine; it’s his fan clubs I can’t stand.

I’m a big fan of God; I’m not a big fan of his fanatics.

Leave a comment »

Practical Price Theory in Practice (December 6, 2010)

Posted in Economics, Journalism, Market Solutions, Society on December 6, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L “So you want to maximize attendance?”

M “It’s a polemical movie. We want to get as many eyes and ears in the seats as possible. We have already committed the funds to rent the theater and the movie. Student volunteers are running it.”

L “If you offer the movie for free, it may not be worth anything. Only the committed will attend. Why not make the movie valuable. The price of similar movies on campus is three dollars whereas in my day it was one dollar. State that the cost of a ticket is 25 cents and then print ‘SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE’ in a large font on the pamphlet to entice interest.”

M “It could peg the value at a quarter and thus not worth considering.”

L “It might. And you don’t want to dissuade someone who may not care about the money but does not want to be hassled searching for a quarter. When someone asks what must be done to obtain the scholarship, ask him or her to state in 25 or fewer words what the movie means to him or her. Pause and then agree that they are deserving of the scholarship. Call it ‘Two Bits Production’.”

. . .

M “We did attract far more viewers than we expected and made some money. Because of the delay in the line for those seeking scholarships, we set up a second table to conduct the interview, streamlined it to twenty-five seconds and kept the conversation light.”

L “Super. It was raining outside that night which may have kept some at home or, if they left the house, drove them inside. And nothing else was playing in town that night that would appeal to the demographic. Keep up the experiments. And keep up the reports.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Oscar Wilde

“At the usual daily rate, The Wall Street Journal would cost $999 for the entire semester, but you can subscribe today and today only for the low, low rate of 25 cents a semester.”

Leave a comment »

America’s Fraud Factories (October 18, 2010)

Posted in Education, Journalism, Law, Military, Press/Media, Schooling, Society on October 18, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “We in America closed the traditional factories but openly operate a network of profitable Fraud Factories.”

J “Look at the flow of raw material. The kids who get As in college go to med school, those who get Bs go to law school and those who get Cs go to biz school. And look who makes the big bucks.”

K “Those pursuing a journalism degree pursue truth and those pursuing a Master of Fine Arts pursue beauty. At least in theory. And Yeats proffered the exchange rate.”

J “Those in the Corps embody an esprit de corps, the Semper Fi and Siempre Fi spirit. And former Marines are among the most disciplined and honest journalists. Think Jim Lehrer.”

K “And Gordon Peterson. Interning at Parris Island rather than grunting at The Paris Review provides a different worldview.”

J “Right. Fighter pilots reflect that same dedication, discipline and devotion to duty. First responders, as they now call them, and most doctors share a sense of professionalism and commitment. Those with the forest service and the fish and game service are genuinely concerned about the future well-being of the evergreens and the blue gills and the white tails.”

K “And then there are the Fraud Factories, American business and law schools, teaching students the subtle art of fraud and deception. The kids are taught to advance their own self-interest over anything else at almost any cost. They are taught the nuances of gaming a business and legal system that is designed to be gamed. Neither government regulation nor market forces restrain or direct their activities.”

J “Biz schools are the most profitable divisions of the American corporate university system. Biz schools are more profitable than law schools that are in turn more profitable than med schools.”

K “And the colleges of arts and crafts may no longer be tolerated as loss leaders, albeit very expensive divisions of the corporate university system. The motto of the American Association of Fraud Factories says it all: ‘No Duty, No Honor, No Country.’”

J “Some cutting edge biomedical engineers are debating how to teach robots to behave ethically. The Fraud Factories take kids who exhibit one common trait – a ready willingness to obey and please their superiors – and engineer them to be robots.”

K “Remember after Watergate when there was a national hand wringing about the nadir of the legal profession that occurred at the same time the journalism profession was at its zenith. Law schools instituted professional responsibility classes. Some astute students realized that a B+ grade reflected the right attitude to employers. That is enough to get by and keep moving through the system but not too much enthusiasm for the topic.”

J “The problem today is with the students admitted to the schools, the indoctrination process and the indentured servitude status that consigns the graduates to represent wealthy interests to pay off their crushing debts.”

K “Think about it. If Schicklgruber applied to law or business school today, the profitable schools would aggressively bid to attract him. He is the ideal applicant – brilliant, charismatic and destined to succeed. Everything is about success and power, and power and success, and success and power. Yeats could have proffered the exchange rate.”

J “If Concentration Camps of America, Inc. ever needs to staff concentration camps to warehouse and dispose of the unwanted, hire American-trained lawyers and biz school grads. They won’t ask questions.”

K “But don’t dare miss payroll.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

I’m not my brother’s keeper, just his banker. I’m not even his banker, I’m my own banker.

Follow the money

I was just following orders

I was just following the money

I was just following the money orders

Duty, Honor, Country

Honor, Courage, Commitment

Smile while you’re makin’ it, Laugh while you’re takin’ it, Even though you’re fakin’ it, Nobody’s gonna know. O Lucky Man!

Leave a comment »

Iraq: Shock and Awe; Shocking and Awful (September 6, 2010)*

Posted in Bush, Iran, Iraq, Journalism on September 6, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “If journalists provide the first draft of history, historians may be in trouble.”

J “At least there is some pretense of getting out of Iraq. In 2002 and 2003 when we got in, too many journalists were cheerleaders for the unprovoked invasion of Iraq which was, of course, a sovereign nation. The times required more careful observers and critics of those in power.”

K “Enough works are actually available chronicling the folly of the invasion and occupation and its aftermath. But has anyone learned anything?”

J “The conventional wisdom is that history will tell.”

K “Tell what? That seems to be a cop-out particularly by those who supported the invasion. Too many individuals are not observing the obvious. Some Truths are clear now. After 9/11, the American people were going to kill someone, but invading Iraq was akin to invading Belize after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.”

J “What about his daddy’s honor and all that.”

K “What honor? His dad handled the prior engagement with much more skill except for the abandonment of the Kurds.”

J “And the abandonment of the Shiites.”

K “A President is obligated to protect national interests not to pursue a family vendetta. The whole WeMaD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) charge was a fraud and a fabrication. The current spin to blame the CIA when the CIA was forced to modify its assessment to support the invasion. Colin Powell was conned by the neo-cons into making his February 5 speech, yet he has made a record that the neo-conservatives demanded war in the Middle East simply for the sake of war and to keep the U.S. committed militarily in the region.”

J “Something happened that kept Bush from invading Iran.”

K “The public may have had enough. The surge was not a surge of more troops but rather an infusion of cash to bribe influential leaders. The military ledger recorded the number of troops deployed rather than the number of dollars distributed. However, the impact ended when the funding ended.”

J “Talk about spewing cash. The conventional wisdom is that the invasion and occupation cost $750 billion, although the real cost is at least $3 trillion. That is a figure that can be more carefully calculated by thoughtful historians and economists.”

K “So much could have been accomplished with the money. Like getting Afghanistan right, if that was or is possible.”

J “Build schools here rather than build schools there.”

K “Bush and his buddies did not even know what they were trying to accomplish. If the government sought to kill Saddam Hussein, they should have killed Saddam Hussein. One of the grand ironies is that assassination of a foreign leader violates international and American law, yet bombing a command and control center with the leader in residence is an acceptable engagement. The bombing of Kadafi’s command and control center shut him up. The U.S. did not need to destroy a country to kill its leader. The U.S. did not even need to kill its leader to silence him.”

J “Hussein was not a friendly chap.”

K “Profoundly bad guy. We are better off with him out of the picture, but we can’t take all the bad guys out of the picture. And the next Saddam Hussein is alive and well and currently an ambitious young lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi Army plotting right now to take over and enter the picture.”

J “And the next Perle, Feith, Wolfowitz, Gonzalez, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush et al. are all aggressively recruited and copiously credentialed by the Ivy League universities that want a piece of those in power.”

K “Iraq was a spectacular failure in ways that we don’t now even understand.”

J “An honest history will not vindicate the invasion, it will only highlight the criminality. Seems that nothing changes. Which makes the future so predictable.”

. . .

(* Others used the phrase “shocking and awful” in other works.)

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” Oscar Wilde

“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits on a hot stove-lid; he will never sit on a hot stove-lid again–and that is well; but also she will never sit on a cold one anymore.” Mark Twain

Leave a comment »

On The Bribe/Bailout And Financial Reform (July 26, 2010)

Posted in Bailout/Bribe, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Federal Reserve, Journalism, Press/Media, TARP on July 26, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “So many commentators contend that the bailout/bribe of 2008 saved the American economy, yet they do not provide any detailed discussion or explanation. Few seem to be challenging the conclusion.”

J “When you think about it, no one has offered a coherent explanation of two things. No one has explained the exposure of the economy and the problems encountered in September, 2008; no one has traced the impacts and consequences of the bailout, good and bad.”

K “Spewing money randomly was unwise and counterproductive. The market was the only way to purge the excesses of the market. Purging the economy of the poison would have been painful, yet we as a country would be much better off in the intermediate and long runs.”

J “Not many commentators were sounding warnings in 2005 or earlier. I recall some warnings and misgivings from a few writers with the conventional press. I also recall scattered concerns shared in some of these things called ‘blogs.’ Yet there was not enough chatter to capture the public imagination and stir any action or pause.”

K “Some reports suggest that the some government funds have been repaid. There is no way to verify the claims. The Federal Reserve in particular is exempt by statute from any effective scrutiny, oversight and regulation.”

J “The financial reform bill may be one of those bills that has not been read carefully by its proponents or by its opponents. However, I believe that a small group of connected individuals is making far too much money to allow any meaningful reform to pass.”

K “Aren’t we in worse economic trouble now because things have not changed. Yet no one is really worried.”

J “Too few journalists, even economic journalists, understand the economy. Just reading and digesting the public statements issued by the Federal Reserve is almost a full time job. The popular press may summarize some of the information in the Beige Book and G.19 Consumer Credit reports, yet there is not much analysis. Who has the background and the experience to connect the dots. And who do you trust.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Don’t end the Fed; mend the Fed

ABCNNBCBS does not have many answers; Faux/Fox does not even ask the right questions.

“Ever since my husband began listening to NPR, he is so informed . . . and so depressed.”

Leave a comment »

Are Journalists Irrelevant or Making Themselves Irrelevant? (Dec. 28, 2009)*

Posted in Journalism, Newspapers, Press/Media, Society, Technology on December 28, 2009 by e-commentary.org

. . .

“Newspapers really are in a death spiral. From my review of the editorial stances and endorsements of the newspapers across the country, however, half of them could fold and probably leave us better off. The Great Divide between the two Americas rages in the country and in the editorial rooms. The way the market is heading, half of the undesirable newspapers will fold, yet half of the ones contributing to the dialogue also will fold. The great loss is the lost possibility that cannot be regained once a newspaper no longer folds paper and instead simply folds.”

“Look at the product. Too many of the columns in newspapers seem to be hissy fits among a clique of columnists. One columnist says one thing and then another columnist inserts ‘not’ at some points and elsewhere deletes the ‘nots.’ The length and style of the columns are formulaic and could be recycled and reprinted every few months. The columnists could be laid off and computer generated columns substituted for their daily show.”

“And yet that is the best case scenario. Other papers promise to deliver only one side of an issue and deliver on their promise. We still return to the need in a Republic for a free and robust press. The First Amendment removes most government impediments, yet the contemporary impediment is economic. Why pay today when information is free or appears to be free?”

“The subscribers and advertisers each pitched in to pay and now both are abandoning ship because the ship is sinking. My friends don’t read papers. The advertisers don’t reach them.”

“There really were no free newspapers or sources of information, yet TV was free from a direct and immediate charge. The advertisers, not the viewers, sponsored the show or paid the freight initially. The auto, food, insurance and pharmaceutical companies paid for the ads up front. Then HBO asked the public to pay to view; the public paid. ABC provided sports for free and then ESPN asked the public to pay to view; the public paid. Now the public willingly pays for some TV. That is what newspapers must do. The Internet is the hybrid ‘television newspaper.’ Induce the public to pay.”

“For what? The major news networks transmit bogus fluff.”

“What about the MacNeil/Lehrer program?”

“PBS? Only if I can record it or view it on line. The news on public television is credible but kind of stodgy. Those of us who will soon run what is left are getting our news and opinions from a former soccer player who realizes that a person must entertain to inform. He both entertains and informs and appears to be speaking truth to an audience raised on lies. That is a workable business model. Provide a quality product and people might pay. What could be more obvious.”

“HBO and ESPN provide divertissements not news. Something unsexy like investigative journalism is expensive and does not pay. The hard task is not merely reporting on findings but finding the findings. That will be the big loss every time a paper folds. We as a society are losing the slim possibility that someone in power will be held accountable for his or her actions and inactions.”

. . .

(* This title was changed in February, 2010 because the prior title was too understated.)

Bumper sticker of the week:

Starting with Monday’s edition, Section D on “Jobs” is now titled “Job”, Section F on “Classifieds” is now titled “Foreclosure Notices”, and the “Sports” are found in Section B and the new expanded section C.

Leave a comment »

So Many Words, So Few Ideas (Sept. 21, 2009)

Posted in Bernanke, English Language, Journalism, Recession, Society on September 21, 2009 by e-commentary.org

Too many books published today are distended essays on steroids. Too many essays are too wordy and not too woody. Writers are not paid by the word, yet they write as if they were. Writers should write less; editors should edit more.

Nonetheless, there are far more well-written pieces than one can savor before the candle goes out.

(“The recession is very likely over at this point.” Ben Bernanke, September 15, 2009 in a speech at the Brookings Institution, one year to the date after Senator McCain proclaimed on September 15, 2008: “The fundamentals of our economy are sound.”)

Bumper sticker of the week:

The Six-Word Memoir is America’s Haiku

Obituary:

“During his lifetime, he penned over 418 books, 1279 essays, 3065 monographs, . . . received seven Pulitzer Prizes and three Nobel Prizes . . . and is known for one cleverly crafted original phrase propounded in 1985.”

Leave a comment »

Archive for the Journalism Category

Pages