Letters to the Editor
bystander
Published Letters: 1348
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sweet jeebus, totoro
[Read the article: CNN's John King responds]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]the system problem is this: we, as a country, are responsible for creating the environment where confrontational/sensational news dominates, so inflammatory confrontation adds to this problem. fanning the fire only makes it worse. we're all responsible.
No. I don't feel at all responsible for creating an environment where sensational news dominates. As a responsible consumer of news I gave up on the teevee altogether after 9/11. I was, at best, a highly infrequent consumer of television news before that. Shoddy, sensationalistic reporting drove me to the internet. That goes for most print media, with the exception of some specific bylines in some specific print media outlets.
I expect someone who claims the mantle of professional to act like a damned professional. And, that means their values are intrinsic; those values don't arise from some system in which they find themselves. As a professional, you do NOT get to shift the blame, AND call yourself a professional. If those left in the mainstream media want to call themselves entertainers, I'm fine with that. I don't have any sympathy for those who find themselves in an entertainment environment, who produce entertainment, whine that they should be considered professional journalists, and be treated with all the due deference that was once afforded Walter Cronkite.
I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but let 'em get a blog and find another way to pay the bills. Glenn is infinitely closer to professional journalism than John King by most measures of which I am aware. I'm certainly willing to let you have the last word on this. I think I've chewed up enough of Salon's bandwith and Glenn's threads with my take on your appeal for compassion. I don't have any more compassion for journamalism than I do for medical quacks.
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O/T
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]Tim Tagaris has a post up at Open Left on FISA.
The FISA Trial Balloon Goes Pop? What's next ...
by: Tim Tagaris
Wed Jan 16, 2008 at 12:48:18 PM EST
(Once again, I no longer work for Chris Dodd and post here as an unemployed DFH -- Tim
When the Senate returns from Christmas break next week, a large question still lingers: what will become of FISA?
When we last heard from our intrepid defenders of the Constitution, they were floating the idea of an 18-month extension of the FISA, sans retroactive immunity.
Best I can tell today, that was little more than a trial balloon ... and one that just might be about to burst as the clock ticks towards next Tuesday. (continues)
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Accumulated before the J-school Prof reappeared and insulted me as a reader.
[Read the article: CNN's John King responds]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Margalis: They have absolutely no perspective. They have zero ability to objectively examine their own field.
As a wise old man once said to me, "You cannot evaluate the discipline from within the discipline."
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Nequals1: There is also a tremendous amount of medicating without formal diagnosis - stimulants for 16 hr on 8 hr off perpetual missions, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, sleep enhancers and sedatives for personnel with self-reported symptoms of anxiety, sleep disturbances, depression, etc.
You might be interested in a post Chris Floyd did:
Dead Souls: The Pentagon Plan to Create Remorseless "Warfighters"
Written by Chris Floyd; Friday, 11 January 2008
(Link at sig.)
referencing the article noted below.
Pentagon, Big Pharma: Drug Troops to Numb Them to Horrors of War
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted January 10, 2008.
The DoD is flirting with the idea of medicating soldiers to desensitize them to combat trauma -- will an army of unfeeling monsters result?....
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/72956
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USERNAME: News porn.
Whoa! I like that. Do you share?
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lateagain: BEBOP. What is s/he all about? Delightful but strange.
Among other things, a *carefully* protected species. Hang in. Your ears will become attuned in time.
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walter_map
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]That url was too long for me to capture. Can you tinyurl or link at your name?
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Hoo-Boy
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]Our Professor Smith has teased out the big guns. I think I'll go pour myself a glass of wine and sit back.
Do be aware Prof Smith that there are an array of folks commenting at Glenn's blog who are, er, academically loaded for bear. Please do not make the error of assigning academic acumen based on conversational language.
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Wabanatta_3
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks. I couldn't decide if it was me too much wine, maybe ;-), or my computer. Sounds like it's Salon. They must have reset the matrix? Where did that cat go?
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one action point...
[Read the article: Lawbreaking telecoms still conniving to obtain immunity from Congress]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...that could be accomplished right now, as we wait for an over all strategy to emerge, is signing the petition the ACLU is promoting. For anyone who didn't see this yesterday:
Thank you for signing the ACLU's petition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. We'll deliver it next Wednesday, January 23 -- a day after the Senate returns from vacation.
We're joining a massive coalition effort with other groups. Together, we're trying to get hundreds of thousands of signatures to make a huge statement. Please invite your friends and neighbors to take action at:
http://action.aclu.org/reidpetition
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Reid and your senators
[Read the article: Lawbreaking telecoms still conniving to obtain immunity from Congress]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The link Svensker provides to the ACLU petition indicates that the ACLU will be sending the petition to Reid, as well as, your two senators. I plan to email my senators independently anyway, as I have before, when Jane and Glenn press the go switch. Doubtless they will respond with the dreaded words about being "committed to providing the tools necessary," but I figure someone will have to clear all that email, unless I'm already blacklisted as spam on their systems.
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"Telecom Immunity Gives Bush Immunity"
[Read the article: Lawbreaking telecoms still conniving to obtain immunity from Congress]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There was an interesting post up at Kos not too long ago that a reader here flagged, and I bookmarked. It's long and there were a lot of embedded links; it's taken me awhile to work my way thought it.
The major sections of the post are sub-headed:
1. There Is No Precedent For Telecom Immunity.
2. The Reasons Stated For Telecom Immunity Are Just More Bushit.
3. Bush's Immunity Is A Condition Precedent To Telecom Immunity.
4. Presidential Authority & Lawfulness Are Not Based On Evidence , But Merely "Indications" Proffered By Government Officials.
5. The Telecom Immunity May Be Interpreted As Congressional Ratification That Bush Had Authority To Unilaterally Order Domestic Surveillance And That The Domestic Surveillance Was Lawful.
6. Why Democrats May Support Telecom Immunity.
If you didn't catch it at the time, you might find it's worth a look.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/6/215233/4358/367/428825