Why Do They Do It?

Why? Suicide? Corporate suicide that is. 

The latest "victim" of self-inflicted destruction is none other than the Associated Press. Now we all know that this affliction ran thru the mainstream media during the pandemic like the virus ran thru the populace with the level of disinformation reaching cosmic and comic proportions second only to Hunter Biden's laptop. 

It's one thing when the gray lady soils her clothes but this is the AP, the same AP that publishes the style guide used by journalists in the know. These are the folks who declared that Black should be The Big Guy and white is the little folk. Fine. Honestly that is innocuous enough but they really blew it on an article damning the folks they allege took down Claudine Gay, though plagiarism makes it a clear academic suicide. 

The article started out as a typical bias-hit-piece currently of no surprise from this outlet but quickly went to "roll up the pants it's too late to save the shoes" when they casually laid out the "fact" that scalping was a practice used by white (note the little-w) colonists against natives. Fair enough, there were times that was true, but the lie is one of omission and a monstrous lie it is. Scalping did not first arrive on this continent with the white colonists (it is now politically incorrect to call them settlers as "colonist" has become a weaponized pejorative even used here in Dunwoody) and the colonists actually learned of the practice after they arrived. Wonder how?

Indicative of shifting winds the AP was blasted for this horrible example of yellow journalism (can you still say that?).  The AP's response? A re-edit, unacknowledged by the AP and not noted in the article that can best be described as weaselly. It is the journalistic equivalent of sorry-not-sorry which has become the only expected response from what, decades ago, was responsible media. 

With mainstream media remaking themselves into the journalistic equivalent of professional wrestling this election year is going to be very entertaining.

You Can Never Go Home...

Local media is in a dry spell and have been re-posting (sometimes behind a pay wall) a story about "P-Diddy's abandoned Dunwoody mansion." To paraphrase Eddie Izzard, wir haben einen kleinen problemo. Turns out this property is in SANDY SPRINGS! If it were in Dunwoody, there would be no question about why it was abandoned.

It's A Landslide!

Fast-forward to mid-term elections. Election upset. Democrat wins against incumbent Republican with the vote split 59 to 41. Wow! And the media crowd goes wild! Landslide! LANDSLIDE! They cannot say it often or loudly enough. 

Flash-back. To now. Same split: 59 to 41. Only now it is the percentage of math texts making the approved list in Florida. Somehow, rather than declaring a landslide, media seems obsessed with the 41. It is as if it were an election where the Democrat lost. Maybe it IS a proxy. Whatever it may be it is most certainly a disservice. If media retained any objectivity they would now (and always would have) examine the books ON THE LIST to see if they are anything more than the math equivalent of the comic book version of David Copperfield. You know. All pictures. Lots of distractions. Almost no math. 

After all, doesn't a landslide touch on just a little math? Shouldn't we ALL know how to compare those two numbers? Consistently?

Where WERE You?

Where were you AJC? Where were you when WE needed you?

Someone in Buckhead institutes a Cityhood drive and you're all over it. Pen an exposé suggesting that something shady might be going on behind the curtains. Nothing concrete more like some hints that yet another carpetbagger, recently arrived, has come to the land of opportunists for his own benefit rather than that of the community at large. Especially when YOU decide how large a community is under discussion. When we had opaque non-profits making backroom deals and beneficiaries at least as obvious as what you now see in Buckhead, where were you? Where the hell were you? And why are you so lazy? Is it because you think voters are too stupid to understand what the faux cities really are? That if they vote for approval, then according to the very charter they are approving they will never have another meaningful vote? That they will be voting to hand their future over to bureaucrats who without any reason to pay attention to voters? It shouldn't be that hard for your fine investigative journalists to explain. They certainly have enough examples to learn from.

Then there is the whole "police sex scandal" kerfuffle. Not the porn operation in the Dunwoody Police Department. Not the self-investigation factually and actually indistinguishable from a cover-up. Not the whistleblowers. Nadda. With smoke pouring out of every orifice of city hall not one of your investigative reporters thought there might be something there. You know, like fire. Instead you sent at least three (given the article byline) right past Dunwoody city hall all the way out to Lawrenceville. Lawrenceville? Really? You have a raging dumpster fire in your backyard and instead of investigating you act like you're working for Jennifer "Truth Butcher" Boettcher as a PR press printing puff pieces. Are you guys playing on some stage where Dunwoody is a teacher's union and the AJC is in the role of the CDC? Or is this a case of when agendas align then everyone is a team player?

So...where the hell were you, where are you now, where are you going and when are you ever going to serve our community?

Crisis Is The Fulcrum

Agenda is the lever.

And both were in full misuse in a recent opining from the AJC's fave left wingnut when he took his anti-conservative agenda and propped it on a recent school shooting to someone draw a twisted line, one that can only be straight in his mind, between parental desire for age-appropriate materials and practices and a reluctance on the part of Republicans to eviscerate a constitutionally enumerated, inalienable right. He pulled out all the Liberal Fascists' Propaganda Handbook memes. Hyperbolic "weapons of mass destruction." Dancing around "we ain't teaching CRT." 

Given a recent op-ed from the AJC exposing the incredibly poor performance of our schools at teaching reading, one might have thought the most obvious response to age-inappropriate material in schools would be: "no worries, they can't read it anyway." This would unravel as a brief glance at most classroom and libraries would reveal that words are few and pictures dominate. A concession to the fact that schools haven't been teaching reading for some time, that they are well aware of that fact and have adjusted accordingly.But...not the agenda.

But there are real issues here that deserve informed debate by rational, deliberative stakeholders. How has allegedly representative government schools disenfranchised parents, voters and taxpayers to the point that asserting their position as stakeholders results in vitriolic vilification? In the presence of this failure how do parents best care for their children and what are the socioeconomic consequences? What role should parents have in directing curricula, modalities and pedagogy? And yes, how do we enforce current laws prohibiting firearms from our schools. And why has law enforcement, at all levels abdicated their primary responsibility as well?

But all we get, and all we're are likely to get, is incessant harping from nags drunk on partisan agenda.

Let's Lead With That...

...and that would be? Agenda. 

Reports had hardly surfaced of a new variant first noticed in Southern Africa when media, including the AJC, wrapped the incredibly scant information around their agenda. In this case vaccinations, particularly for kids. At the time of publication no solid information, beyond the number of alterations to the virus, were available. Pretty much everything else was anecdotal. It was being touted as faster spreading, but R-naught values were strikingly absent. Not that R-naught has appeared much in any US mainstream media, regardless of variant. And it will be difficult to gather the necessary information because reports are also indicating that symptoms are notably weak closer to seasonal flu than you're-going-on-a-respirator and where testing is driven by symptoms, many of those "afflicted" won't bother. Many report fewer, weaker symptoms than the vaccine side effects reported on the CDC's VAERS. You won't read that in the paper because it it is not well aligned...with their agenda.

It's Just OK

It seems like every time you turn around something old is newly re-branded as racist. According to recent reports spewing from the increasingly incompetent mainstream news outlets white supremacists have a way to signal solidarity. To hear them tell it this is now a symbol of racism:

Only one problem with that. It simply is not true. Turns out it is a hoax perpetrated by 4Chan.

Says who? Well none other than the Anti-Defamation League has exposed the hoax. You'd think sharing a leftward tilt with the ADL that mainstream media would be all over pumping up their credibility creds. But ratings mean money and a tantalizing lie is worth more than a boring truth. And that's OK by them. 

Why Media Cannot Be Trusted

In a recent column George Will discusses the RAND report: "Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life" on the premise that modern Americans are suffering from information overload. While it is beyond most political pundits one would expect RAND researchers to understand and discuss the difference between data and information. Information theory is not taught in journalism school but perhaps it should be. However that should come only after they restore traditional journalistic competence.

One of the most recent inflammatory instances of journalistic incompetence is the "hole" vs "house" non-debate. Open question to any remaining competent journalists: which word was actually used? Was it shit-hole or shit-house or was it both? Many reports and much journalistic opinionation occurred before this issue was raised and it has yet to be conclusively resolved having devolved into politically driven arguments about which is worse or whether it matters at all. Media journalists cannot even get the fact of a single word straight so what trust can the public have that they get anything right?

A big part of the problem is simple lack of competence in their chosen field--communication, preferably of facts. Much prevailing incompetence is often dismissed as trivial mistakes or even blamed on technology--word completion or spell checking--but this forgives "professionals" whose profession is words and facts without any justification. We are constantly assaulted with evidence of this incompetence.

Is this a legitimate quote or did the "journalist" screw it up?

“I was so depressed by what I saw, I vowed never to return. And I haven’t. That’s how badly the property had digressed.”

"Digressed?" Really? There are lots of words one might associated with dilapidated property, but "digressed" does not make the top ten.

Then there are "the computer did it to me":

Home Depot has about 10,000 employees in 62 stores spread around metro Atlanta. The company has about 10,000 others in a call center, technology hug, human resources unit and a huge headquarters staff.

And who doesn't what a warm, heartfelt "hug" from technology?

Then there is silliness. You know, like the crap they feed you on what TV calls "news" which is mostly self-promotion, giggling on-air "talent" and cat videos. Well, to be fair "World News Tonight" ran a segment about a dog leashed to his owner and separated by a closed subway train door--not to worry, it all ended well. But really? Is THAT the best ABC can come up with for WORLD News? Really? Do they have any clue what is going on in Venezuela?

Closer to home we get crap like "A burst of gunfire at a southwest Atlanta home wounded a 10-year-old girl as she watched TV." This was the first line of a "news" article and while it flirted with the holy quad (who, what, when and where) there was no serious threat of contact with significant facts. Think about it. "Watched TV?" Did that have a causal effect? Coincidence? Just what was she watching? Why the F does it matter that the TV was on?

Is this what passes for journalism or ad-revenue-ginning entertainment?

Then there are the just outright falsehoods. And let's be clear, it isn't ALWAYS political, as with this description of an automobile.

Honda Fit Base price: $43,000 Sporty looks and a most versatile interior keep this car on top of the class.

Turns out, if you're willing to pay full MSRP you can buy TWO top of the line Honda Fits for $43,000. Before you know it we won't be able to trust what the media tell us when it comes to sports stats. Then all hell WILL break loose.

But there ARE political maelstroms, agendas and manipulations. These get the most enthusiastic attention and criticism, often well earned. This nugget hits them all:

“They were dressed as Westerners,” he added. “They don’t dress the way children dress in the West Bank, for a very specific purpose: to get soldiers to react violently to them, to take pictures of this violence and to spread it around the world in order to delegitimize, discredit the state of Israel.”

Biased? Inflammatory? Sure. And it isn't just national news.  Our very own owner of the Blue Bag Rag remarked to a colleague on a local Fox opinion program (where three men conspire to keep the smart lady from talking) that she "doesn't look jewish." The following week he doubled down remarking that he found the negative reactions amusing and explicitly NOT apologizing. Folks have been fired for less.

When the public is fed a daily diet of incorrect statements, watered down entertainment promoted as news and articles speaking more from opinion than independently verifiable fact it is hardly surprising that the few thinking people remaining realize there is no longer journalistic integrity in the media.

New Censorship

The anger from last year's stunning electoral upset still resonates throughout parts of America with current aftershocks around the epicenter of "The Russians Are Coming!" The narrative suggests that Hillary lost because Russian operatives used new media to disseminate Russian propaganda intended to influence the election. In some bubbles it is the only acceptable explanation for the resounding defeat of the Democrats' Heir Apparent.

And they must be punished.

Some have taken a direct approach, calling for social media platforms to police users according to a provided agenda much like mainstream media curates letters to the editor. Vox Populi is lifeblood of populism who, with her sister nationalism, is not goose-stepping to the New World Order. Others have called for an end to anonymity, not because it unleashes inner angers but because it allows creation of false and apparently credible personas. That this comes from the political wing heavily supported by Hollywood actors and actresses is an irony (hypocrisy) lost on no one. A radical fringe has even suggested requiring proof of citizenship or national affiliation but was quickly squelched as this might silence the voices of illegal aliens. Well monied and left tilting Silicon Valley has generally said "No!" to all these efforts.

Saving face demands something be done, so the Coastals have found something politically, if not practically, possible. Restrict Russian Olde School Media, specifically RT, a Russia-based news outlet. This is a bit like limiting Al Jazeera, politically correct after Al Gore cut ties, in that it is basically political grandstanding. Having a news outlet "register as a foreign agent" is pretty meaningless since the only folks who do not know the background of RT are those who've never seen it or heard of it. Would that we had as much information about the "agency" of CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS as with RT. Would that these outlets provided news or sent their news staff to journalism school instead of clown school. [ed: different rant]

And this is a slippery slope. Who else is impacted? How about France 24? How about the BBC? After all, the dreaded disease of populism is sweeping Europe. What about Asian news outlets from India, China or Japan? They have certain unaligned nationalistic tendencies. And what are the triggers? What line must be crossed to get on their list or is that a secret? And what media? RT isn't broadcast over the air, it is streamed over the internet. Do these ivory tower elites not understand that a VPN bridges their moat? New world globalism except for the most global technology of all--the internet? Would it extend to media formats a bit newer than "television," even if streamed? What about podcasts? WSB is quite proud of theirs and make no mistake the content is well aligned with their philosophy and world view. But it is the BBC's Hard Talk podcast that offered the best, most insightful interview with Bernie Sanders, and some suggest Bernie's refusal to toe the Hillary/Party line was key in their failure.

At the end of the day we now live in a culture where the end justifies the means and when the end is popular and hash-tag fueled any means will do. Even censorship. 

How To Read The Paper

It is increasingly difficult to read the paper, not because of what is in it but because of what isn't. Back in the day, when newsprint was ink on paper and journalism had some integrity, a basic tenet of competent reporting was to answer the four key questions in the first sentence: who, what, when and where. This slowly eroded to the "get these in the first paragraph" and as that slippery slope got steeper it is uncommon to find these questions answered anywhere in the entire article.

So here is an effective and efficient way to gather information from a "news" paper: read the first paragraph of an article and if all four questions are not answered move to the next article. With this approach you get all the information available in the paper in under thirty minutes of which twenty nine are spent in the sports section covering the last remaining meritocracy in America.

Medium As Massage

There has been a lot of real and virtual lip flapping about mainstream media being the enemy of the people with the fourth estate shouting back about the importance of an independent press. It often seems as if the two parties are talking past one another but not really disagreeing. Politicians have always objected to media criticism and charges of bias are increasingly undisputed. So let's take a look at just a few things from the front sections of one issue of the AJC and see what the poor, ignorant masses are being fed as a daily diet of "critical, independent media."

This is attention grabbing:

Forget Texas, FEAR Tennessee!

Big data is a big buzzword and makes for a big, effective headline. If by effective you mean "grab the reader's attention without exposing too much information." And if a picture is worth a thousand words that photo screams "Tennessee is going to figure out where accidents are about to happen and send out a trooper to shoot the survivors." Is this the message mainstream media wants to send? Are they incompetent or misleading?

We also get the AP's solution to the opioid crisis:

Only The Media Knew It Was This Simple!

If the media had not squelched this information the Obama administration could have nipped this epidemic in the bud by simply paying the Chinese to close the loophole. Surely this would have been cheaper than fighting a drug epidemic sweeping our rural areas (talk of an urban problem is still off limits) but we'll never know because mainstream media hasn't "informed the public."

Media are as big a set of windsocks as any politicians have ever been. Case in point: the Swedish Immigration story.

Trump NEVER mentioned riots, only after false reporting were there riots!

So maybe media are correct. When THEY inform the public then that informed public can and will take informed action. It would be nice were the information complete and correct but hey, he was vague and that opened the door wide enough for even the AP to drive a truckload of ambiguous disinformation.

Despite having fallen out of favour with a history-purging PC crowd Thomas Jefferson was correct in his conviction regarding the absolute necessity of an informed electorate:

Convinced that the people are the only safe depositories of their own liberty, and that they are not safe unless enlightened to a certain degree, I have looked on our present state of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the people could be informed to a certain degree.

If we are to rely on mainstream media for accurate unfiltered information then our time is past.

Lucks Not Locks

The Donald seems to be confusing and confounding some pretty important folks. In particular the pundits and pontificators in NY and DC. They cannot understand why Trump did not go up and flair out like a political roman candle. But what they find really baffling is that so many folks, largely but not only, in the fly-over states aren't paying attention.

At least not to them.

They could get a clue if they'd just pay a little attention to themselves. No. Really. This came to light during a recent Sunday dose of condescension being doled out on the talking head shows. The target, as has been the case for longer than they thought possible, was The Donald, specifically a rally in Biloxi, MS.

Which they pronounced "Beh-LOCKS-see" which anyone who knows much of anything round these parts knows is actually "Buh-LUCKS-see." If approached on this the pundits' reaction would be "so what--a rose and a name and really, that's not the point."

But it IS the point. If you are actually going to get your message across you need to speak the language your audience understands. You have to be relatable. You don't come in as a carpetbagger with utter disregard and then try to convince folks how confused and just plain wrong they are. That won't play in Peoria.

How would they react to someone who goes to upstate NY and pronounces "Newark" like they do in NJ or DE (they are all pronounced differently) or goes to the NY state capital and pronounces Albany like you would in SW Georgia? Or head west out of Detroit and pronounce Novi know-vee?  Would these haughty pundits really take direction from someone who seems so clueless about where they are? Yet they'll tell you it doesn't really matter how you pronounce Biloxi or whether or not folks living there like the way they say it.

And maybe that is true, but if you're going to lecture folks in what you consider the hinterlands you'll get more traction if you actually learn how to pronounce their home town. When you don't about all you really convey is your arrogant disregard for anyone in any place but  your own. 

Guest Post : Ebola, The Press And The CDC

This drifted into TOD's in-box about 21 days ago and of course we thought nothing of it. Then a fever set in...

I'm left to wonder what is NOT being reported by media, including AJC, about the ebola patients and their care here. I have questions, including the following:

1. The doctor and aide worker were both following a safety protocol in Africa. Because they both contracted the disease, we must conclude either (a) the safety protocol has flaws, or (b) someone in the chain of care did not follow the protocols. Which was it? How are we to be assured this will not be repeated in Atlanta?
2. All protocols require strict adherence to pre-ordained rules. Each person in the loop, from the lowest janitor to the most talented surgeon, must do exactly as the rules require each moment of each day. Mathematically, statistically, this cannot be maintained indefinitely—especially over a long period of time, in the stress of life-threatening actions and disease containment. An argument for chaos theory (ala Jurassic Park), there will be a breakdown somewhere. It's human to make mistakes. The CDC over the last months has proven that even their highly-trained personnel do not follow all procedures all of the time. So far, the CDC has dodged the bullets of disastrous accident results, but the laws of probability suggest that it's just a matter of time. Add the stress of 24/7 requirements, a growing number of patients, and consequently a worsening ratio between the number of trained health workers and the number of patients, and the probability of containment drops off a cliff that a lemming would envy. What are the plans in place for breaches of containment? The public has a right to know.
3. The treatment of ebola requires blood transfusions and IV fluids. According to the media, nothing else can be done. What follows is that there is nothing being done here for these patients that was not already being done in Africa. The only reason the CDC would be involved in bringing these two patients to Atlanta is to further their knowledge of the disease. These two people are human guinea pigs. The only reason to bring them to the USA is to study the effects of the experimental medicine they both received in Liberia. Labs here are better than labs in Liberia. What is the public not being told?
4. Emory has advertised the safety of their isolation unit. Let the public see some of those safety built-ins. The air circulation system is a closed loop, but ebola is not spread by air. Are there any walls or ductwork or pipes shared with other parts of the hospital? Are medical wastes handled differently in this unit than they are in the rest of the hospital?
5. The media repeats that ebola is spread neither by air nor by mosquitos. That it is not airborne has been proven in labs. But from what is in print, the only reason mosquitos are not considered agents of spread is that no one has proven that they are. More importantly, has anyone done studies involving two of most big-city disease spreaders—cockroaches and rats? I have personally attended the grand opening of an infection control center in a large US cancer ward (in the South, but not in Atlanta), and witnessed cockroaches running across the floor as the ribbons were cut. Roaches are known spreaders of other non-air borne diseases. How are these vermin being handled in this situation?
6. The screening of travelers from West Africa at US airports is a waste of time. Experts stress that an infected person may go 3 weeks before symptoms appear. How will someone at a screening center know that? Required blood tests? No one is going to be responsible for that. And what about people who had intermediate stops in other African, Asian, or European destinations? Is it not ironic that laws make it more difficult to bring a pet dog into London than an exposed Liberian into the United States?

Talking heads saying nothing new, footage of a patient in a moon-suit, interviews with ambulance cleaners, pictures of planes with pod-containments—these are all nothing but sound and sight bytes for broadcasting to an ignorant public too trusting that we are really being informed of anything substantive at all.

Like many others we in The Other Dunwoody were initially dismissive of this missive. After all we'd been told that proper procedures were in place, not only in Africa, but in the U.S. That should any visitor display symptoms these would be immediately recognized as Ebola and prompt and effective treatment would ensue. That was before we DID have the first case diagnosed in the U.S. That was before we learned that the infected individual went to the hospital, not once but twice, having been send home the first time without a correct diagnosis. That was before we learned that the infected individual had contact with school children. That was before we learned the many things we are just about to learn...making the above concerns look like the tip of the iceberg.