![[F]](../_images/site.gif) New York Times on the Web Forums  Science
Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans
for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be
limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI
all over again?
    (1854 previous messages)
lunarchick
- 06:26am Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1855
of 1864)
lunarchick@www.com
An independent press ? http://www.whatareweswallowing.com/
“Before a packed New York Press Club, John Swinton, the former
chief of staff at The New York Times approached the podium to
address his colleagues. Known as ‘The Dean of His Profession’, the
legendary newspaperman proceeded to deliver a monumentally important
statement on the notion of an independent press.
There is no such thing, at this date in the world’s history, in
America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.
There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions,
and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in
print.
I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I
am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for
similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write
honest opinions would be out on the street looking for another job.
If I allowed my honest opinion to appear in one issue of my
paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
You know it and I know it.
And what folly is this - toasting an independent press? We are
the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes.
We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance.
Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property
of other men.
We are intellectual prostitutes.”
Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research, ‘Vaccinations,’
Winter newsletter, 1995. www.pnc.com
lunarchick
- 07:19am Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1856
of 1864)
lunarchick@www.com
Seems the press is run as a vehicle for 'advertising' .... 'well
strike me down!' ... I am surprised.
Give thanks for the ethical wonder of public broadcasting.
rshowalter
- 08:14am Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1857
of 1864) 
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
The press in is a number of things at the same time -- including
things not to be proud of, --- but also including admirable things.
Here's a quote from the site I liked -- that is "true" and "not
true" at the same time:
" The mainstream media ... have failed us
completely, here in the UK and in the USA. Any news on the
pharmaceutical industries is just too damned uncomfortable to
handle; too complicated, often deliberately, too scientific for
the layman. Many hacks who should know better have been lunched,
holidayed and bamboozled into silence. Fake nostrums are taken as
gospel..."
.....John le Carre, The Spectator ,
December 2000
Well yes, you can make a fine case for what le Carre says.
At the same time, I find much of the Science and Health coverage
of the New York Times admirable, and, though they pick their shots,
the good sometimes done -- in ways that FIT the United States
sociotechnical system, are sometimes wonderful, graceful and
startling.
Under the circumstances, weights matter immensely -- and
we as animals, handle them badly. Our language is, in a deep sense,
nonquantitative --- and matters of quantity and proportion are
critical to right action.
It doesn't make sense to " get mad and quit " nor does it
make sense to relax, merely because the truth has been presented.
But people, all of them subject to such contradictions,
individually, and in their interactions, very often come up with
reasonable, workable, even beautiful resolutions, and life goes on,
and often goes on well.
And just as there's ugliness now, there is hope, as well.
rshowalter
- 12:54pm Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1858
of 1864)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
Some fearful assumptions may have other explanations: rshowalter
3/11/01 4:45pm
could some "conincidences be "a combination of
a snafu, a "good" policy that involved so many lies that no one
knew how to turn it off, and a fraud?"
Deception makes it possible to imagine many things, and conceal
many things, and damage the trust on which human cooperation
depends: rshowalter
3/11/01 5:02pm
rshowalter
3/11/01 5:08pm ........ rshowalter
3/11/01 5:10pm
******
The technology of the internet is making the techniques of
opinion manipulation developed before WWI (and highly evolved since)
much more vulnerable than they used to be, because many more
words are available; content can be available, subject to very
extensive crossreferencing over very extended times; and
there is therefore much more possibility of getting issues
considered to a level that permits closure.
* * * * *
This thread, like many others, is showing examples of how that
may work. There are many other possibilities, and I believe that the
"culture of lying" may have new difficulties, because all
concerned are going to have much better memories and because
matching processes are much easier, more extensive and more
definite with the new technology.
And the new technology is becoming inexpensive, as well as very
powerful.
rshowalter
- 12:56pm Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1859
of 1864)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
If mainstream journalism powers changed their procedures and
policies only just a little, the penalties for bad faith an lying by
politicians and "political operatives" might increase radically,
quickly, entertainingly, and at low cost.
  (5
following messages)
  
 
New York Times on the Web Forums Science
Missile Defense
| 
