Ghosts in a nebula?
Bob Morris @ Oct 31st 2006 16:13 - Category: Unfiled ;
Archive for October 31st, 2006
Ministry of Truth
Wood @ Oct 31st 2006 04:51 - Category: Anti-war, Imperialism ;
The newly-established unit would use “new media” channels to push its message and “set the record straight”, Pentagon press secretary Eric Ruff said.
“We’re looking at being quicker to respond to breaking news,” he said. “Being quicker to respond, frankly, to inaccurate statements.”
A Pentagon memo seen by the Associated Press news agency said the new unit would “develop messages” for the 24-hour news cycle and aim to “correct the record”.
The unit would reportedly monitor media such as weblogs and would also employ “surrogates”, or top politicians or lobbyists who could be interviewed on TV and radio shows.
So the Pentagon are “correcting” news stories? Maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked.
Newspapers. Dying media
Bob Morris @ Oct 31st 2006 00:17 - Category: Unfiled ;
Out of the top 25 newspaper in circulation, the latest numbers show only two (NY Post and Daily News) had a circulation increase. All the rest were down, with the L.A. Times taking the worst hit, down 8%.
This was before the new “right wing hatchet man” took over at the L.A. Times and, among other things, turned the front page into a mish mosh of multiple fonts in conflicting sizes. It is now demonstrably less readable than before, violates any number of design guidelines, and is no doubt a portent of things to come. More than a few long time Times staffers are polishing up their resume as the hatchet man replaced the former head who was fired for refusing to do major blood-letting. Mr. Hatchet, in addition to having a demented sense of design, will no doubt veer the paper sharply to the Right and this long-time subscriber isn’t staying around to watch it happen.
But the problems facing newspapers are bigger than that. It’s that Internet thing. Newspapers, for the most part, either don’t get it or don’t want to get it. I don’t really need a newspaper plopped on the doorstep in the morning to alert me to what’s happening, because the news I read on the Net before going to bed will be fresher than what the newspaper tells me in the morning. That is the crux of their problem. By the time they get the paper to me, the news is older than what’s on the web.
PS Perusing the L.A. Times this morning, the front page content is becoming fluffier while the political content is tilting rightward. For example, a story on books by former White House staffers has a headline saying the authors want revenge and are tattletales. How very FoxNews of the L.A. Times to say that.
And now…the silly string police?
Bob Morris @ Oct 31st 2006 00:07 - Category: Unfiled ;
(There is, in fact, a logical explanation. This sign is on Hollywood Blvd in L.A. where the annual Halloween parade is held. Past parades apparently have included vast deluges of silly string, which is quite hard to clean up.)
