August 20, 2004
Full Metal Jacket Malkin

This column by Michelle Malkin is a great inside look at television "journalism" in action.

Although it's a very minor point in her column, I was amused by the exchange about her age. She does look very young, but I must say I never really thought about it in regards to her work. She quotes Chris Matthews as saying, '"Are you sure you are old enough to be on the show? What are you? 28?"' It seems to me that 28 is plenty old enough to be on the show and know a lot. Many journalists working for big newspapers are between 25-30 when they're handling major stories. Military men and women much younger than that are making life and death decisions daily in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, if he'd sneered that he thought she looked 18 and that was too young, I'd find it a little more reasonable, even as a joke.

That aside, while I don't know Malkin's age, I would have guessed her as early 30s, just from seeing her confidence and ability to handle herself in rough interviews like Matthews saw fit to instigate. But I don't know. I don't care. She's tough, smart and does her homework. Does it matter how old she is?

Yes, yes, he did it as a smear, and that's funny because he'd probably say he doesn't participate in agism and sexism, PC journalist that he is. And like I said, it's vanishingly unimportant in the greater scope of the whole incident. But it just goes to show that he doesn't even try to be logical in his insults, much less his "journalism".

I don't watch the political pundits much, and that's one of the reasons why. I think a lot of them are just that way, and more than a few on the right too. One reason I like the blogosphere is because you get to know the person behind the blog in a more well-rounded way. For an example, Glenn Reynolds. I don't know him, have never met him, but just from reading his writing on a nearly daily basis for over two years, I think I have an accurate sense of his character. I think he's capable of being snide (aren't we all?), and probably has a sharp tongue when he wants to, but even in circumstances where he was angry and both disliked and disagreed with someone, I don't think he'd take that kind of pathetic potshot. In fact, he has been snide and sharp-tongued on his blog. But never pathetic or, I think, small-minded. Matthews was both, and a lot of the pundits are. And I don't trust them as far as I could throw, well, Glenn Reynolds.

And the same is true of other bloggish types. I read them enough, and they write on a broad enough range of things frequently enough, to where I know how much I can trust what they say. I'm getting to where I go to the mainstream news for raw data, and go to bloggers for context. The pundits who have blogs are more likely to get my vote of confidence too - which is why I like The Corner on NRO, and I'm glad that some writers from Weekly Standard have their own blog now.

It's starting to storm now, and I'm starting to ramble, so I'll shut my mouth and shut down the computer. My arm and back are hurting anyway - I fell, again, yesterday, I apparently have permanently claimed the title of "grace". This time I grabbed a rough wooden post to break my fall and managed to abrade about 5 inches of skin along the inside of my left forearm. Almost 24 hours later, part of it is still red and swollen around the areas that actually bled. Charming. So. Have a good evening, I'm going to go find my tube of neosporin.

Posted by susanna at 05:07 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)
August 19, 2004
Oops!

Maybe it wasn't a mistake:

The Senate Judiciary Committee has heard this morning from one of its own about some of the problems with airline "no fly" watch lists.

Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy says he had a close encounter with the lists when trying to take the U-S Airways shuttle out of Washington to Boston.

The ticket agent wouldnt let him on the plane. His name was on the list -- in error. After a flurry of phone calls, Kennedy was able to fly home, but then the same thing happened coming back to Washington.

Heh.

Posted by susanna at 01:38 PM | Comments (4) | Trackback (0)
Charley in full wrath

Can't get enough of Hurricane Charley? Think hurricanes are pretty cool - as long as you don't live in the path of one?

Here is a satellite image of Hurricane Charley , being sold in poster form for funds for disaster relief in Florida (for now). It's quite impressive.

Posted by susanna at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)
August 18, 2004
Deep and deeper

I'm buried in research right now, working on my dissertation prospectus proposal, so posting will be light for a while - although likely something will go up daily. I am planning to get the proposal to my professor by the end of next week, and hopefully get a green light from him about my research plan. If he does give the go-ahead, then I'll plunge into writing the prospectus itself with the plan of defending it sometime in mid-November. If I make that hurdle (and I plan to), then I'll do the actual research in the spring and write it up over the summer. The ultimate goal: graduating in December 2005. I think it's doable.

Right now I'm going through abstracts of dissertations from the past 20 years or so that seem to have some relevance to my own area. Very interesting. Some of the research definitely shows how the term "it's academic" came to mean, "it's overly picky and of little if any practical value". On the other hand, some are quite good and I'm looking forward to reading them.

It's increasingly obvious that news selection and issue framing are the most potent tools of the media, and that some of that emerges from institutional bias rather than ideology - although ideology is not unimportant. By "institutional bias" I mean that the media has an overarching entertainment imperative that requires that they produce not just useful information about our society for the citizens' education and use, but that they produce interesting stories. Media is a business, and a very competitive one. If you doubt that, just see whether a journalist cares about the circulation or viewer numbers of the medium he or she works for. It's a point of pride to work for a medium with a large following, and producing stories that draw and keep viewer attention is paramount to a successful career. It's about "scooping" the others, and not just with any information, but with information on an issue with inherent "story" possibilities, and public interest.

What I'm interested in looking at is how the media moves from raw material to finished product, focusing on their coverage of crimes reported to police. I'll do that by analyzing what they could have reported on vs what they did report on, and then analyzing how they presented what they did report on. Of the pool of possible, what was chosen? Of the pool of chosen, what stories were constructed? By "story" here, I don't mean specific articles. I mean what beginning, middle and end were constructed by the journalist to give the information a context; what "story" vehicle was used to convey not just the information but a social meaning to the reader.

One of the earliest researchers to do this type of investigation was Mark Fishman, in his seminal "Crime Waves as Ideology", which I've mentioned before. He looked at a "crime wave" of assaults on the elderly that developed one fall in the late 1970s. What he learned was that although the crimes against the elderly did not actually go up during that time period in NYC (where the research was done), the local media filled up a slow news time by focusing on crimes against the elderly. One paper started it and other media in the market followed suit, resulting in greater fear amongst the elderly in the area and also, not incidentally, in the formation of a police unit specifically targeted at crimes against the elderly. The reports followed a trajectory, tracked by Fishman based on number of articles.

I want to do something somewhat similar, but more comprehensive in both data collection and analysis. We'll see where it goes. I'll post my proposal when it's done.

Posted by susanna at 03:09 PM | Comments (1) | Trackback (0)
August 17, 2004
It's not only Britain

The US is on the same track.

Posted by susanna at 11:51 AM | Comments (3) | Trackback (0)
August 16, 2004
McGreevey: The Newsweek version

Newsweek gives McGreevey the once-over in this lenghy piece. It seems to me to be that marvelous thing, fair and balanced coverage. There's still a lot we don't know about the whole situation, so some caution in making extrapolations is warranted. Isikoff and Thomas cover both the corruption and gay angles without ever coming down on one side or the other as the most likely tipping factor, and while the immorality of his adultery is downplayed (unsurprising in today's society), the supremacy of Jersey politics in all things corrupt is given due attention.

Posted by susanna at 05:53 PM | Comments (1) | Trackback (0)
Support an entrepreneur

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I've signed up with Blogads. This week an ad for Carlo Franco ties and dress shirts starts. Before you think I'm doing an editorial plug for a paying advertiser, I've donated the ad space to the company because I think it's cool.

My brother discovered Carlo Franco on his sartorial ramblings online. My understanding from him is that Charles and his business partner, designer Jill Speck, run the company themselves out out of a small space, choosing the fabrics, designing and making the ties in a very hands-on manner. According to Alan, who knows these things, the result is very high-end ties in terms of quality at very low prices for that kind of thing. (Not cheap, but inexpensive for the quality.) Certainly the ties - and shirts - are quite lovely. It almost makes me want to be a guy so I can wear them.

Almost. Not quite. Well, not close, but a little.

So if you're in the market for ties, I encourage you to check out Carlos Franco. It epitomizes the ideal of hard work, high quality and a respect for family, things we ought to support with our dollars. And should save you a little in the long run, too.

UPDATE: Edited for length, 7 p.m.

Posted by susanna at 11:22 AM | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)
Think on this things

Alan at theosebes has several excellent posts. Just start at the top and scroll down.

He talks about the Canadian government strangling religious speech about issues political; about the University of North Carolina trying to force political correctness on a religious group on campus; about people choosing churches for political rather than theological reasons; about a recent find that could (or not) be associated with John the Baptist; and about a new "biography" of Mary the mother of Jesus that isn't anything I recognize as Scriptural. But then it's so... unsophisticated to be limited to the Bible! I mean, please...! We're educated adults here.

I was interested in all of that, but found myself a combination of horrified and amused at the post on people choosing churches for political reasons, because of this:

...there is a cultural divide in this country between believers and nonbelievers. The other night at a dinner, my jaw dropped when a man I had just met said of the religious right, “Those people scare me more than the terrorists do.” (Not me; I’ll take the roomful of Biblical literalists every single time.)

Clearly the people she was having dinner with haven't known many if any "Biblical literalists", but then in the circles they likely move in, there aren't any Biblical, Constitutional or even moral literalists anyway. To be a "literalist" is to set something up as wisdom outside your own preferences, and we can't have that, now, can we?

I find the intellectual elite in this country - and elsewhere, from what I've read - to be sickeningly arrogant and reprehensible. But at least I read what they write, and consider their positions, and don't think they are actively as bad as the terrorists (although I do think I wouldn't be able to eat much if I was at dinner with them - I'd be too afraid of tossing it all back up pretty quickly). And the hypocrisy...!

Some day I'll rail about the anti-literalists. But not today. Well, not any more today. Instead, I'll go to the gym and then work on my prospectus, setting aside the fact that there are pea-brained people in this world who are intent on getting us all killed as a result of their insensate stupidity.

Posted by susanna at 10:21 AM | Comments (2) | Trackback (0)
Oh, really?

What's wrong with this picture?

Movie led man to strangle lover

A MAN who said the movie, The Passion of the Christ, led him to confess to strangling his girlfriend was sentenced to 75 years in prison.

I won't tell you just yet. You tell me.

Thanks to Alan for the tip.

Posted by susanna at 10:20 AM | Comments (6) | Trackback (0)
New Jersey's political death wish

I posted recently about the utter and total mess New Jersey politics is, and now here's the Wall Street Journal giving excellent detail on precisely why that's so:

New Jersey's political corruption has been legendary since the days of the late Mayor Frank Hague, who ran Jersey City for 30 years with such an iron fist that he told federal officials "I am the law." Just two years ago, Sen. Bob Torricelli had to drop his re-election bid after the Senate Ethics Committee detailed his improper relationship with a donor. A spineless state Supreme Court allowed Democrats to replace him on the ballot even though a firm deadline for doing so had passed. The state's politics are awash in allegations of conflicts of interest, raids on public treasuries and corrupt alliances between favored business interests and local officials.

It gets better. You must read that, if only to shake your head and give thanks that you don't live there. Unless you do, in which case, well, sorry. What are you going to do to change it?!

The article highlights one of my pet peeves, the NJ law that allows people to hold local and state political positions at the same time. They double-dip in the taxpayers' coin chest, and set up little fiefdoms forever. It's not surprising that Jersey City is used as an example of how bad it can get. Just before I left NJ, then-Mayor Glenn Cunningham had just won a seat in the state House of Representatives, a similar situation to the gravy train Jim McGreevey road into the statehouse. Cunningham's untimely death ended his influence, but around the time he won the state seat I heard comments from various folk about how that had secured his position as Jersey City mayor for the duration. They weren't using hyperbole.

And the Republicans are as much a problem as the Dems, although I hate to say it. I did try to volunteer to work with the Republican party when I was there, because I wanted Bret Schundler to win as governor (not because I liked him as a person; to be honest, I thought he was not a particularly good candidate. But even then I saw he was much much better than McGreevey, which apparently has borne out). I learned during that process that there were two Republican parties in Hudson County, where Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne, Union City and other towns are, and they had an intense rivalry. You had to identifiy which one you were with. I worked for city government in Jersey City, and politics was a daily factor to a level way beyond what it was in Lexington, KY, when I worked for the city council there.

So read the WSJ piece, and be enlightened. It's a frightening thing.

Posted by susanna at 10:02 AM | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)
Inside Japan

If you're not reading Sean Kinsell's blog, The White Peril, on a regular basis, you should be.

And yes, I know I linked him in the post below, but reading through his blog preparing for that post is what made me decide to post this one.

Sean and I have some fundamental philosophical and theological differences, and I don't know that we'll ever resolve those. But what I appreciate about Sean is that we can talk about them sanely, and talk about other things without our differences getting in the way. Even when he posts on things on which I disagree with him, his thoughtful and interesting style help me to understand - although still not agree with - his position. And his posts on Japan are always fascinating, his love for and knowledge of that country and its citizens very apparent.

He's recently posted a series of commentary on NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey's resignation, reviewing the opinions floating around in the world of gay men and adding his own. One of my own contentions is that McGreevey's making his "outing" so prominent is to serve as a smoke screen for all the bad bidness he's been up to otherwise. He knows how to hide behind a hot social issue. Sean has a lot more insight into that than I do, and agrees with me to a point (although not directly). If you're interested in the whole McGreevey thing, I highly recommend that you read his posts. Start here, then go here and here.

And finally, for a very moving tribute to the Japanese, read his post on the anniversary of the dropping of the A-bomb on Hiroshima. You may be surprised at his conclusion.

Posted by susanna at 09:44 AM | Comments (1) | Trackback (0)
Oh, what a little knowledge will do!

Hysteria over nuclear power seems almost axiomatic these days; the thought that we might build new such plants doesn't seem to be in the national psyche. And situations like this one reported at a Japanese nuclear plant seem to support the wisdom of that:

...a steam leak developed in a turbine in Reactor 3 of Kansai Electric's Mihama Power Station. According to the Commission, 11 people have been wounded. According to the local Fire Department, of those, the heart and lungs of five have stopped functioning.

Many people would say, "Aha! See?", but wouldn't look closer. Sean Kinsell being the analytical type he is, did look closer and made the point that the company said no radiation was involved and there was no danger to the community - and he said it without any ominous overtones of "yeah, right". Good on Sean. Then Jim Bowen of NoWatermelons, a trained and experienced nuclear engineer himself, took up the discussion and explained in his usual great detail about precisely how the system works, what most likely happened, and why it wasn't a big nuclear risk to the community. I suggest you read through it - or skim (sorry, Jim!) if you're like me and can't take a whole lot of engineering description at one sitting - because there's a lot of interest and value in it. He also makes clear what happened to the lungs of the injured in Japan:

You might think you know a little about steam. Not under those conditions you don't. The amount of concentrated power is unlike anything you see elsewhere, and if it hits you directly it doesn't just scald you, it more or less eats you. If you inhale it live, bye-bye lungs.

"It...eats you." Now, if that isn't the stuff of nightmares...! But that's not a nuclear plant per se, but any plant that uses steam, and Jim points out that coal plants producing steam have even more dangerous conditions.

And speaking of coal, Jim takes on in another post a report that the shut down of electric-generating plants using coal during the blackout last year resulted in a sharp reduction of pollutants in the air during that period. He's skeptical, and explains why you should be too. It's a good post, and something to think about.

Jim talks over my head sometimes, but he's always got good things to say. Um, those things I can understand, that is.

Posted by susanna at 09:24 AM | Comments (3) | Trackback (0)
Run that by me again?

According to your average liberal, their whole reason for being is to protect the downtrodden, especially minorities. Two of their favorite tools currently are their ever increasing multiculturalism and insistence on gun control.

I guess that just proves the old adage that you only hurt the ones you love.

Posted by susanna at 12:20 AM | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)
August 15, 2004
Factions and fussing

This article in the NY Times says that some Dems in Jersey want McGreevey out in time for a special election, others don't. That's not surprising. I know that the Republican party in Jersey, at least in the Jersey City area, falls into two distinct camps that really dislike each other. Sounds like the Dems have a similar dynamic. I'd say the problem is that one group wants McGreevey to stay so they can get their Dem candidate in as a placeholder before elections next year, and the other wants to win the advantage. Neither side, of course, is a) interested in a Republican getting in or b) interested on even the most minute molecular level what the average Jersey voter wants. They can yammer about "the people" all they want, but they honestly don't care as long as they keep their power base. And quite apparently the average Jersey citizen checks their brain (and morality) at the door when they vote. I say, good enough for them.

And I'm sure glad to be in Alabama.

Posted by susanna at 11:47 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)
Now that's pretty funny

I promise it's not me, but here is a Yahoo! profile someone set up for "john_heinz_kerry". And what is given as the home page? Why, COTB. ?!? What's up with that? Funny, nonetheless. One wonders if the other three listed as "Cool Links" are aware of their being honored too?

· Home Page: http://bias.blogfodder.net/
· Cool Link 1: http://www.littletinylies.com/
· Cool Link 2: http://www.zilberhere.com/blog/
· Cool Link 3: http://www.thefatguy.com/

Of all the blogs out there whacking away at JF "Wish I was a Kennedy" Kerry, how odd that someone chose mine for this spoof. Hmmm. Must be one of you, gentle readers.

Posted by susanna at 07:45 AM | Comments (2) | Trackback (0)
August 14, 2004
Love in India

Maybe arranged marriages aren't such a bad idea after all.

Posted by susanna at 07:47 AM | Comments (0) | Trackback (0)
CNN is reporting that Lance Armstrong may be stripped of his 6th Tour de France title

In a random check for banned substances, 3 were found in Armstrong's hotel room.

MORE...
Posted by susanna at 07:36 AM | Comments (0) | Trackback (1)