Letters to the Editor
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From News Producers' Perspective, Only Accountable For What They Intended To Do
See, the problem people like you Glenn have with the major news producers is that you think you have the moral right to hold them accountable for what they actually print, publish, or broadcast.
Whereas true news corporation professionals would tell you that they should only be judged by what's in their hearts and in their potential future intentions.
Sure, they may have broadcast & publish articles implying that there was a strongly supported connection between Iraq & the US anthrax attacks, but obviously they intended for careful readers, listeners, and viewers to cross check against other source statements and come to the conclusion that ABC was in fact not alleging the Iraq-anthrax connection that they had earlier been seeming to report.
So really what you should do, Glenn, and call them first to ask them if they intended to clear this question up at some possible point in the future, and if they had consciously intended to confuse anyone.
The news producers are simply not responsible for the quality of their actual product; it's we consumers who fail at our task of carefully comparing news products with the entire globe of alternative data available.
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To MacK
FYI, Glenn does mention this fact about the ubiquitousness of bentonite somewhere downthread, including even this ironic little bit:
One ironic fact that illustrates just how commonplace is bentonite is this 2004 Washington Post profile of Dick Cheney, in which his wife, Lynne, fondly recalled the early years of their relationship: "I knew when he was digging ditches out at the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo Grounds. And I knew him when he was loading bentonite, hundred-pound bags of bentonite, onto railroad cars."
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GG Will Rescue Our MSM (at least the pieces worth rescuing)
"I am a recent reader of your articles and I must say you are truly remarkable. Thanks for doing what you do and taking the time to really explain and teach about the principles of credibility. Thanks for holding the media accountable not in a partisan way but in a way to make them understand the role they play in this thing called Democracy!!"
My thoughts exactly!
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DVD ad
The annoying ad for 'Notes on a Scandal' DVD on your blog is blocking text ...
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Bentonite vs. Silica
I love how Ross first says silica with aluminum (i.e. Bentonite) is a hallmark of Iraqi Bioweapons, then says silica without aluminum is also a hallmark of Iraqi Bioweapons (among others). Have cake, eat it too. Nice job.
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Burned By 4 Different Well-Placed Sources???????
Sounds mighty suspicious. In fact, it sounds like an organized disinformation campaign. Now who would do something like that? I wonder...
If only we could pass this scoop on to some journalists, maybe they would investigate and find out who was behind this conspiracy to burn ABC and propagandize the American people! If only some journalists knew! Boy those conspirators would be in trouble then.
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Catshit
My apologies -- I did not see your earlier story --
But that said, many other readers did not, so can I suggest that you note everytime you quote an ABC statement about the oh-so-exotic Bensonite that we are talking about Kitty-Litter, but with an -ite on the name that makes it sound to the scientifically ignorant a bit like "dynamite." Hell I would insert [Kitty-Litter] in square brackets everytime the exotic sounding Bensonite is mentioned in one of the quotes so that the reader can get an idea of how absurd anyone falling for this so-called story, or hyping it was.
And by the way, some of the ABC stuff you quoted sounds really absurd when you sub Kitty Litter for Bensonite, roll over laughing silly in fact -- try:
ROSS: "Peter, from three well-placed but separate sources tonight, ABC News has been told that initial tests on the anthrax sent to Senator Daschle have found a telltale chemical additive whose name means a lot to weapons experts. It is called [Kitty-Litter.]"
OK Sexist joke, but are weapons experts typically single women living in small apartments with lots of cats?
And lets not mention "silica."
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Salon and GG Under Attack From GOP Hackers?
First the posts about this content-obscuring ad, now a look at the post counter on the article shows no posts, and the post clock in the letters section has me posting my 11:45 AM post at 8:37??
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Talk about missing the point
It seems that the top honchos at ABC News think that they and the White House is one and the same. The mindset is that if the White House corrects a story and ABC News repeats that, that constitutes a statement on behalf of ABC News. That seems to be his argument, isn't it? If so that's an interesting look into their world view.
I'll bet there are a fair number of well-trained journalists at ABC News who really feel burned about now.
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Mickey Mouse News Network
Would it be wrong if we started referring to ABC as the Mickey Mouse News Network?
Thanks for watching them, so that the vast and growing majority of the rest of the U.S. need not do so.
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Schneider is ABC's PR Guy
Click on the link Glenn provided and you'll get Schneider's bio at ABC. He is their VP for public relations. And he should be fired for doing a piss-poor job. Talk to any competent PR person, and they'll tell you that the first thing you have to do to move beyond the problem is to acknowledge it! You have to take ownership of the problem first and foremost, or nothing you say will be credible.
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Glenn...
wouldn't it be easier to just pull some poll out of your ass showing that Americans think Iraq was responsible for the anthrax attacks?
Nobody ever said that of course, just like they never said Iraq was responsible for 9/11.
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It happens...
But usually to smaller sites like Sadly, No!
I think Salon is just having technical difficulties today with the ad, formatting stuff, just some bugs due to the recent format change.
But... the fellow who posted the link to Counter Information Team has a point. It's a small point in the larger picture. We are consumers of information. The media produces and disseminates, broadcasts, sells that information. Information warfare is real. It's sophisticated. They ain't kidding. It's the big picture. They know they have to aim that information weapon at "the enemy du jour". They also have to aim it at the American publiic. Chomsky called it "manufacturing consent" years ago. Google information warfare.
http://www.psycom.net/iwar.1.html