Thin sliced thoughts even thinner

Two footnotes to yesterday's comment on Andrejevic's "Thin Sliced Thoughts" piece:

1. A friend forwarded this Angier piece (in the Times, of course) about filmmaking, pink noise, and the control of attention:

Hollywood filmmakers, whether they know it or not, have become steadily more adroit at shaping basic movie structure to match the pulsatile, half-smooth, half-raggedy way we attend to the world around us. This mounting synchrony between movie pace and the bouncing ball of the mind’s inner eye may help explain why today’s films manage to seize and shackle audience attention so ruthlessly...

She's all, like, gaa, with no awareness of the exploitative potential in the utility of brain scanning efforts discussed by Andrejevic.

2. As regards the very well-described effect of introducing competing narratives into the info-glut, which Andrejevic sums up as:

By multiplying the narratives—and in particular, those narratives that cast uncertainty on one another—the goal is to highlight the absence of any ‘objective’ standard for arbitrating between them.

It should be noted that this strategy has tremendous leverage -- maximal, really -- within a journalistic practice that attempts to present fair and balanced, equally weighted but incompatible judgments (or perspectives) because this sort of cravenly feckless (candyass) approach is precisely what the USian journalistic establishment calls objective.

Goodman treated like Mooseshit at Vancouver Border

Apparently you're Osama Bin Laden if you oppose the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Amy Goodman, who says she didn't even know the Olympics were being staged there, experienced invasive treatment at the hands of border guards as she tried to enter the country to give a talk that had nothing to do with the Olympics.

CBC

Rabble

DN

Canadians: buy a clue: no one in USia gives a flying puck about yr fricking Olympics. But one has to wonder about your ideas of border proprieties, privacy, matters of public interest, and what conceivable justification you might offer for how you're handling your paranoia.

The Globe and Mail carried the story as well. Not oddly, however, this tale of the maltreatment of a journalist at the US/Canadian border is of no interest to the New York Times, which has never acknowledged Goodman's existence -- a calculated inattention worse than the New Canadian Attention.

Nothing here happened today

Jason Jones visits the lady

But see Jay/Dave:

The New York Times has a neighborhood blogging experiment, The Local. This week it extended an invitation to users: be the journalist. "Here is your first assignment: We're looking for someone to go to the 88th Precinct Community Council meeting next Wednesday, the 10th."

A progression? See Mr. Cubeta:

The development of professionals in this field of fields goes like this:

1. Diffident ignorance.
2. Confident siloed expertise, blind and deaf to disciplines beyond the specialist's own.
3. Panic and dread at being exposed to one's own ignorance of all but a narrow band of knowledge.
4. Disdain and contempt for "the dark side," or the "touchy feely types," or "the mixed motives sorts."
5. A growing set of friendships across the sectors
6. Humilty and graciousness; a sense of appreciation for what others bring to the table.
7. Team play.
8. World changing results.

The Times has been at #4 for a while. Is the jocularity and call to neighborhoods a sign of moving past that, or merely another effort to market the seeming of that?

Times' mirror

I can't recall seeing a newspaper do what I'm about to describe, but why not?

Here's a Times story from Oct. 23, 1999:

A NEW FINANCIAL ERA: THE OVERVIEW; ACCORD REACHED ON LIFTING OF DEPRESSION-ERA BARRIERS AMONG FINANCIAL INDUSTRIES

The Clinton Administration and top Republican lawmakers reached an agreement early today to overhaul the financial system, repealing Depression-era laws that have restricted the banking, securities and insurance industries from expanding into one another's businesses.

The Times should run that story again. Verbatim, page 1. Make itself, its own understanding of that event, the news. Publish the analyses offered by people with a decade's hindsight. And keep this up until someone sorts out what exactly happened - not just the event, but the Times's coverage of it, and the understanding of that coverage then, and now.

Call of the nolds

To think of news as a stable product is misleading, and the reason that it is misleading makes it all the more difficult for its purveyors to say what it is they do.

News of this ilk (or this ilk) is merely a loose (if not random) set of instantiations of the current consensus narrative.

What we think is news is detail, illustration, hypotyposis, within the master image, narrative, tape of the moment.

But even as the newsgatherer is offering his gleanings with gurgling martyred newsboy cry, the reader's attention has turned to what the next master narrative will be, so he's receiving the proffer in the nape of the neck.*

It's not received as some static, given report, rather as one moment in a call and response, one state within an experiment, one datum within an hypothesis that posits, above and beyond any and all stories, the meta news story that says, with all the authority of the ancient fabulous, "there will be new news."

So the the stories news gatherers present are -- no news here -- really the nolds -- a disfigurement of the new tale that the reader is forever anticipating.



*I am reminded of a talk David Weinberger gave last year in which as I recall he described the new front page for the news junkie to be more Twitter than Times.

what the dickens

The inquest was over, the letter was public, the Bank was broken, the other model structures of straw had taken fire and were turned to smoke. The admired piratical ship had blown up, in the midst of a vast fleet of ships of all rates, and boats of all sizes; and on the deep was nothing but ruin: nothing but burning hulls, bunting magazines, great guns self-exploded tearing friends and neighbours to pieces, drowning men clinging to unseaworthy spars and going down every minute, spent swimmers, floating dead, and sharks. Little Dorrit.

The million derivatives newspaper

October 07:

AGE OF RICHES

$6 Million for the Co-op, Then Start to Renovate

“There’s the new rich and there’s the old rich. There’s the poor rich and the rich rich.”

What would you do with $25,000? Buy a new Toyota Camry? Pay for six months at Harvard?

Instead, how about some really fancy chocolate?

THE NEW YORK TIMES WILL LOCATE EXEMPLARY PRODIGALITY. IT IS SPIRITUALLY NECESSARY. - George (Bush) Bataille




October 08:
As one former dancer observed, if a stripper is doing her job right, the patron’s bald spot, his mortgage (and maybe even his huge portfolio losses) cease to exist.

It would be ungracious of this blog,

having celebrated Mr. Friedman here on more than one occasion for his stalwart billionaire bravado, his goody two-shoes sadism, his facile one flat suck-on-this world of dyslexic olive oil and so much more not to note the latest in a series of panegyrics honoring his moustachioed meatbath, this, from Greenwald:

Tom Friedman doesn't understand why America is unpopular in the world

I got my Quintilian exercise thru the New York Times

Let's see now. Today's New York Times says

Loan-Agency Woes Swell From a Trickle to a Torrent

In the beginning was the word:

The word began spreading...

inches go by, lined with journalistic cliches offering what is most accurately described as a phantasm - "tumult" "plunging," the cliched trickle "has suddenly become a torrent" ...

All by way of exordium. That's the part of the oration that is designed to capture attention.

Finally, a few inches down, the hooha - the nut graf - the narratio the place where we learn what's at the root of all this viral panic:

What set off this storm, and what happens next?

The cause of this week’s huge declines remains somewhat unclear.

Having been treated to a personification of Rumor, we learn that Charles Duhigg does not know its basis. Mr. Duhigg is the Times employee typing the vivid portrait. He has a Harvard MBA. He proceeds to the confirmatio - the advancement of proofs. "The appeal to logos is emphasized here," says Quintilian. Mr. Duhigg weaves concatenations of mights and coulds and woulds:

• 5 mights
• 5 coulds
• 7 woulds

In one graf, he niftily manages one should, three coulds and a would:

Should that happen again, Fannie and Freddie could suspend buying some loans — which could bring much of the American housing economy to a standstill. Or the companies could continue doing business, but losing money on many of their deals, which would continue to undermine investors’ confidence in the stocks.

Mr. Duhigg doesn't offer much in the way of reprehensio - the bit where you knock down opposition to your figment:

Opposition:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for their parts, say such talk is dangerous. Both companies say they have capital on hand that exceeds what is required by their regulator.

Mr. Duhigg's reprehensio:

But people are still worried.

His case - of journaljism - is strong. He buggers off with a quick peroratio, quoting a fearful Florida legislator (Mel Martinez) rather than offering some authorial statement:

“All we can do sometimes is grab on and hope we don’t get thrown off the ride.”

Data dada

Hey now, another dadaist blog (if that's what this is) entitled Amy:

High Quality And Fashionable Design Ceramic Jar

These hosting asp net treat jar are high-quality, heavyweight Pet Ceramic Treat Jars come in eye-catching designs that are sure to attract customer attention. They house insurance customers a conference call service twist on a practical necessity. Lead-free ceramic jars have an airtight seal that locks in freshness and flavor to keep treats tasting great. A great way to send love to any dog in the country is by Sexual Vitality that beautiful ceramic treat jar that comes with a tub full buy Ritalin online gourmet dog treats - which can be personalized with the name of any lucky dog. [link]

But it's not at all the same thing as Emilyshlomoeme. On Amy, the disruption of the standardized "conversation" appears driven not by some authorial intervention, but by some spasmodic tagging mechanism that apparently thinks it fine to just punch holes in anything resembling prose, and add links to seemingly unrelated business propositions:

Caesar Salad Southwest Style

Jalapeno Croutons

2 Tbs Jalapenos, seeded car insurance insurance quote diced. If fresh jalapenos are not available you can use canned Macaroni & Cheese for a milder taste try substituting canned green chilies.

tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Salt
2 Cups Milk
1 Cups Cornmeal
Vegetable Oil for cooking

In a medium sauce cheap, reliable website hosting combine the jalapenos, cayenne, salt and milk and bring to a boil. [link ]

or

Come On In - The Water Is Fine

The Bible uses water as a symbol of the Holy Spirit mesothilioma the Word of God. We know that without water there can be no living matter as we know it on the earth. Water is essential. Go without water for a day or so and you will see just how important water is to the human body. The same thing is ture concerning spiritual things.

Without spiritual water all things remain in a mortgages loans state. [link]

"Unrelated" is hardly the word. The linkage, burrowing up from below (or, blasting through, like a shotgun perforating a television screen from behind), connects to the drive to sell. (Can we simply recognize, with Zizookian aplomb, that Freud's death drive is not unrelated to Capitalism's sell drive?) The irrelevant has never seemed so germane.

What's arbitrary is the "content." Amy delaminates the myth that blogs are composed by individuals sharing their passions. Under a certain lens, the New York Times might not look entirely dissimilar.

If the medium is massage

media are lobotomy.

Thanks to Jeneane via Chris Locke for the brainblowing treatise.

Hold the Punch, Pinch

Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life’s Origin

By CORNELIA DEAN

Published: September 27, 2007

A few months ago, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins received an e-mail message from a producer at Rampant Films inviting him to be interviewed for a documentary called “Crossroads.”

The film, with Ben Stein, the actor, economist and freelance columnist, . . .
Turns out to be a completely different film entitled “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” with a different producer, a creationist ax, etc.

And downstream somewhere, Ben Stein, actor, economist and freelance columnist is further id'd:

Mr. Stein, a freelance columnist who writes Everybody’s Business for The New York Times, conducts the film’s on-camera interviews.

But you know, as Ben himself tells the Newspaper of Record he gets paid by,

“I don’t remember a single person asking me what the movie was about,” he said in a telephone interview.

And that's fair, isn't it? After all, like Ben, any working journalist knows better than to divulge to his sources, whom he is going to quote and attribute, the authority of the actual story he's getting them to create. Half of them wouldn't agree to speak if
they knew they were tools.

This trick is not unlike the contrivance of simple plots, such as those found in jokes.

"A hard-nosed scientist walks into a Creationist phantasm..."

USian Journalism is the punchline that arrives after the sources have been directed to act as if the story was about them.

Ragù for a dead princess

In 1990 I was available in NYC one weekend to cover jury deliberations for Leona Helmsley's tax evasion trial. Howard Kurtz was then based in NY and asked me to put in a couple of days just in case anything broke. Nothing did.

Up and down the dark courtroom, stately buzzardwalking caged hauteur. Gaggled reporters on either side of the center aisle might as well have been clumps of earthworms. No warmth, no eye contact, no attention to anything other than the New York Times Magazine's food section. Pen in hand she made notes, then a call -- to discuss with an assistant or chef the menu for the evening meal. It seemed to involve carefully deliberated substitutions within the paper's recommended ingredients.

Recipe: Pasta With Shrimp Ragù

Time: 40 minutes

1 1/2 pounds medium-to-large shrimp, in their shells

Salt and ground black pepper

Pinch cayenne

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 medium or 1 large chopped onion

1 medium carrot, peeled and finely chopped

1 large or 3 plum tomatoes, chopped, with juice

1 teaspoon chopped fresh marjoram or oregano, plus a few leaves for garnish

1 pound pasta, preferably fresh.

1. Shell shrimp; boil shells with just enough water to cover, a large pinch of salt, a grinding of pepper and a pinch of cayenne. Simmer 10 minutes, then drain, reserving liquid (discard shells). Bring a pot of water to boil for pasta and salt it.

2. Meanwhile, finely chop about a third of the shrimp. Put olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; a minute later add onion and carrot, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are quite soft, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, herb and chopped shrimp, and cook, still over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes begin to break down. Add stock from shrimp shells and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is no longer soupy but still moist.

3. When sauce is almost done, cook pasta. When pasta has about 5 minutes to go, stir whole shrimp into sauce. Serve pasta with sauce and shrimp, garnished with a few leaves of marjoram or oregano.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Mute the Press

It's a little difficult to tell through a search of the New York Times whether it has actually covered certain stories or not. Ok, more than a little difficult, it's totally impossible. Insert your search term and retrieve however many links to "free previews" of stories going back a ways. Since the previews are snips containing the search term, there's often no way to say for sure that the story is actually centered on someone, or just mentions them in passing.

It might be worthwhile to ask how it can be that the News Organ that pretends for all the world to be the authoritative newspaper of record on all newsworthy things can simultaneously withhold from public view whether it even is or is not a source for stories that one might wish to research.

I happened to be trying to see whether the Times has ever done a story about Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. You can do the search yourself, and let me know if you have any better luck. She's mentioned in passing, dissed in a film review, sort of a tangent quote here and there. But her feat of becoming a serious and respected conveyor of news by quilting together hundreds of small, local media to build what's essentially a grassroots national alternative radio and television network -- a story that would seem, in the information age, at least as relevant as the release of a new DVD of Mario Bava films, this story seems to remain to be reported by the Mother of all NewsFitToPrint.

I was checking on whether the Times had gotten around to Goodman after looking at and participating in this thread regarding, in part, the quality of information, the level of public discourse, in the US these days, in light of a pointer there to Umberto Eco's remarks on the nature of Fascism, "Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt."

The question being, how a fifth rate anything like Mr. Geo. W. Bush could talk his way not just into the most powerful position on Earth, but then further wartalk his way right up into his own arse with the most reductive view of reality, the most puerile ideas about life, politics, and co-existence, the most dumbed-down, porcine representations of others and evil and freedumb etc. ever offered to the USian political arena -- clusters of idiotic speech and venal nonthought that would not pass muster in a 5th grade classroom in Boston in 1828. I mean, it makes one wonder.

Wonder, e.g., what illumination was not offered by mainstream media. Yes, it's a blogger's duty to wonder that. But what specifically seemed wonderful is that so many instances of lucidity present themselves, a spectrum of informed visions of life and reality that just don't seem to make it into public consciousness.

When was the last time Naomi Klein, eg, was invited on the nightly news to ask,

When you can create such a booming economy around war and disaster, around destruction and reconstruction, over and over and over again, what is your peace incentive? Democracy Now

(via here)

Klein, Goodman, and a great many others are spectral nonentities, Amurhikan Non-idols. Unsurvivables. They never got to the island in the first place. Gesturing vainly under the giant Mute Button we call Secure Corporate USian Media, or SCUM.

The Times cannot countenance Goodman. Or, it can, but it would then have to make up stuff about why its representation of the world seems so vacuous by comparison. Instead of taking an honest journalistic position that might say, "this journalist's critique is one we should emulate," it's so much easier to just hit mute, and kill any search utility while you're at it.