Month: October 2003

After yet another volley in the sadly commonplace back-and-forth of Israeli-versus-Palestinian violence, the New York Times has thrown together a rather slapdash “analysis” of the most recent round of deaths, and more specifically, the reporting and documentation thereof by the two respective sides.
How does author James Bennet conclude the piece? With this simple paragraph consisting of one short sentence:
“Hamas vowed to retaliate for the Israeli air strike.”
He may as well have written, “Tune in tomorrow as our story continues.” And to think that I’d always wondered what happened to the serial novels of generations past.

Today’s journalism lesson from Page Six is how to out a public figure and avoid lawsuits: simply quote another media outlet (or another media outlet quoting a comic strip, as it were) and you’re in the clear. Hey, The Post didn’t ask if Condoleeza Rice is gay, Richard Blow did!
Read and learn: Rice Dish.

This week’s Newsweek takes a look at Bush’s new P.R. tactics, including the much-discussed new reliance on local TV reporters as disseminators of the adminstration’s policies. Of note, however, is a mention of a newfound sort of stonewalling of which even the inestimable Ari Fleischer might have proven incapable.
According to the article, on October 9th, one day after 13 American servicemen were injured by an Iraqi grenade attack, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s daily press briefing made no mention of these developments.
“Pushed by reporters, U.S. officials would only say the incident was under investigation. It was as if the ambush, and the casualties, had never happened.
In Baghdad, official control over the news is getting tighter. Journalists used to walk freely into the city’s hospitals and the morgue to keep count of the day’s dead and wounded. Now the hospitals have been declared off-limits and morgue officials turn away reporters who aren’t accompanied by a Coalition escort. Iraqi police refer reporters’ questions to American forces; the Americans refer them back to the Iraqis.”
Here’s hoping for a return to more politically expedient coverage of soldiers’ woes. How is Jessica Lynch doing, anyway? I bet she can’t wait to return to teaching kindergarteners from impoverished families again.

Gothamist takes a look at verbal and physical assault complaints filed against taxi drivers in New York today. What the usually eagle-eyed Gothamist missed (or deemed unrelated) was this nugget from The Times Metro Briefing column:
CABDRIVERS’ GROUP THREATENS STRIKE… [citing] deteriorating conditions, higher gas and lease costs and a rate that sometimes pays drivers less than $2 per hour.
Two dollars an hour!?! I thought that people who did dangerous, unpleasant jobs were supposed to get paid more, not below minimum wage.

A few years ago, Might Magazine wondered on its cover if all local news was actually being broadcast from hell. Once again, Eggers and his merry band of pranksters were dead-on but suffered from being too far ahead of the curve.
In today’s New York Times, Elisabeth Bumiller tells us that President Bush is bypassing those biased White House press pool reporters in favor of some non-judgmental, down-to-earth interviews with local newsmen and women. Five newsmen and women, back-to-back (junket-style), apparently. Said the President:
There’s a sense that people in America aren’t getting the truth…I’m mindful of the filter through which some news travels, and sometimes you have to go over the heads of the filter and speak directly to the people.
Right on, Mr. President! We the people, don’t like our news filtered for us by opinionated people, do we? Hell, no! I mean, what kind of an ignorant fool would want their news filtered for them? Not us, that’s for sure!