Category: Media & Journalism

As Gas Prices Go Up, Mass Hysteria Rises to Meet Them

This is the kind of journalistic nonsense that just drives NewMexiKen crazy. From the opening paragraphs of a lengthy story in Saturday’s New York Times, As Gas Prices Go Up, Impact Trickles Down:

Ms. Tapia’s red 2004 Dodge Neon was supposed to be a ticket to freedom when her brother passed it down to her in January. She had planned to drive to Manhattan each weekend to visit her boyfriend at New York University, and also dreamed of going out to restaurants and making day trips with friends.

But the car has been nothing but a money-guzzler, she said, leaving her so short of cash that the car often sits in the parking lot outside her apartment.

“When I first got the car it was all fun and games, but I found out it’s pretty expensive to fill the tank,” Ms. Tapia said. “I don’t even want to put gas in my car right now.”

Unexpectedly high gas prices are also putting a crimp in the summer plans.

J. R. Cowan, a history major at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., said he decided against a cross-country summer trip because “gas would cost double what I budgeted for when I started dreaming about California last year.”

When Amanda Early, a junior at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., accepted a four-day-a-week summer job in public relations near the campus, she did not realize it would amount to a sentence of spending an entire summer in New Jersey. Ms. Early had planned to drive home to Connecticut every weekend, but she said gas prices would force her to remain in New Jersey in the house she shares with four other girls.

Gasoline prices have gone up one-third since a year ago — 31 percent to be exact.

A trip from Waltham to New York City and back, (about 420 miles) in a Dodge Neon (25 city, 30 highway) would take, let’s say, 16 gallons. Sixteen gallons a year ago cost about $36 ($2.24 X 16). Today it might cost $52 ($3.25 X 16). That’s a difference of $16, so the car sits, but Ms. Tapia has money to eat in restaurants.

Gas for a cross country trip costs one-third more than last year, Mr. Cowan, not double. Even a history major should be able to do that much math.

South Orange, New Jersey, to Hartford in the middle of Connecticut is 266 miles round-trip. Going home for the weekend will now cost Ms. Early $13 more than it did a year ago (at 20 miles per gallon).

Yes, gasoline has gone up. Yes, one-third is a substantial increase. Yes, $13 or $16 is a hardship for some. Yes, and most importantly, we all should consider whether there aren’t more enivronmentally efficient modes of travel we can take.

But it’s not as big a deal as the current journalistic and political hysteria would make it out to be. The tone of the paragraphs excerpted above just does not seem justified. It approaches the level of silliness seen in the live, local, late-breaking coverage of local TV news — from outside office buildings closed hours before. I still expect better from The New York Times.

Mutually Assured Dementia

Even by the corrupt and debased standards of our times, this is a remarkable thing. The U.S. government is planning aggressive nuclear war (the neocons can give it whatever doublespeak name they like, but it is what it is); those plans have been described in some detail in a major magazine and on the front page of the Washington Post; the most the President of the United States is willing to say is that the reports are “speculative” (which is not a synonym for “untrue”) and yet as I write these words the lead story on the CNN web site is:

ABC pushes online TV envelope
ABC is going to offer online streams of some of its most popular television shows, including “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost,” for free the day after they first air on broadcast TV.

It appears our long national journey towards complete idiocy is over. We’ve arrived.

Whiskey Bar

Burp

It’s early in the year, and we are sure that many other candidates will come to our attention — they always do — but, thanks to an alert reader, we think we’ve found a finalist for the Best Correction of the Year 2006.

It came in the Wednesday “Dining Out” section of the New York Times, and it reads in its entirety:

“Because of an editing error, a recipe last Wednesday for meatballs with an article about foods to serve during the Super Bowl misstated the amount of chipotle chiles in adbobo to be used. It is one or two canned chilies — not one or two cans.” (Emphasis added.)

Pass the Pepto-Bismol, please.

CJR Daily

Journalism caveat

First found at Campaign Desk (link no longer valid):

During the Civil War, some northern newspapers, uncertain as to the reliability of dated dispatches sent overland by part-time correspondents at the front, resorted to a standard headline that read:

“Important, If True”

Good night, and good luck

There’s a very good essay on the career and impact of Edward R. Murrow by Nicholas Lemann in The New Yorker. An excerpt:

Clooney’s film takes great pains to be accurate about all the specifics. It isn’t just the way people dressed and carried themselves; every word Strathairn says on the air, Murrow said on the air. Those Murrow shortcomings (by today’s lights) that pertain to the McCarthy story, such as his having voluntarily signed the CBS loyalty oath, are duly inserted somewhere or other in the screenplay. Still, without ever misstating anything, “Good Night, and Good Luck” leaves you with the impression that Murrow was an early, and the dispositive, attacker of McCarthy, and that isn’t exactly the case. Murrow was genuinely courageous, and not just in this instance, but the real story is more complicated.

Truth (scratch that), justice (scratch that) and the American way

“Despite George Washington and the cherry tree, we no longer have a society especially consecrated to truth. The culture produces an infinity of TV shows and movies depicting the importance of honesty. But they’re really talking only about the importance of being honest about your feelings. Sharing feelings is not the same thing as telling the truth. We’ve become a country of situationalists.”

Maureen Dowd in a fine column paying tribute to the truth and to David Rosenbaum, recently retired New York Times journalist killed in a robbery this week: “He had a grin that always improved the weather.”

Best line of the day, so far

“Watching the bobblehead coverage of the Alito hearings – and, frankly, just about everything else they cover – one comes away think[ing] that to them it just doesn’t really matter. Court decisions don’t matter. Policy doesn’t matter. None of this stuff matters. It’s just a game played between rival high school football teams and they’re just happy to go to the homecoming dance.”

Atrios

Extra! Extra!

Michael Kinsley has an entirely readable, if nothing new, essay about the future of newspapers. A couple of quotes:

As we live through the second industrial revolution, your daily newspaper remains a tribute to the wonders of the first one.

And so, at last, there are two piles of paper: a short one of stuff to read, and a tall one of stuff to throw away. Unfortunately, many people are taking the logic of this process one step further. Instead of buying a paper in order to throw most of it away, they are not buying it in the first place.

The trouble even an established customer will take to obtain a newspaper continues to shrink, as well. Once, I would drive across town if necessary. Today, I open the front door and if the paper isn’t within about 10 feet I retreat to my computer and read it online. Only six months ago, that figure was 20 feet. Extrapolating, they will have to bring it to me in bed by the end of the year and read it to me out loud by the second quarter of 2007.

Following the story

The Today’s Front Pages feature at the Newseum web site shows a fascinating (if sad) progression of news overnight from the Sago Mine disaster. The headlines in newspapers closing early refer to dwindling hopes. Then, most papers, including nearly all in the Eastern and Central time zones, banner “Miner Miracle” and “Found Alive.” Finally, in the Mountain and especially Pacific time zone papers, the headlines reveal the stark truth that only one miner of the 13 survived.

The site keeps today’s front pages only until tomorrow’s new editions. There are 506 papers in batches of 48 thumbnails. Click on each thumbnail to enlarge. (If you enable pop-ups, you can get an even larger version.) The papers are alphabetical by state with foreign papers at the end.

Update: Good summary with several frontpages at The Talent Show.

Update 2: And see the CJR Daily on How the Press Got the Sago Story Wrong:

A close reading of the articles themselves tells the tale of how journalists bungled the story: In most, there are no sources at all for the information; in some, the sources are the rumors spread by frantic family members. Those sorts of sources are hardly a solid basis for headlines screaming, “They’re Alive!”

Best line of the day, so far

Murrow was one large head staring into the camera and he’s looking at you, talking to you as if you are the most intelligent person on the planet. He talks in measured tone. No image of him being reduced to a tiny box.

I really believe that allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions. But today an event happens and there will be 5 maybe 6 people sitting around talking and discussing with each other, not to us. That, to me, is a decline in the way news is presented.

Actor Frank Langella, who plays CBS owner William Paley in Good Night, and Good Luck. Quoted from a chat room discussion at Gold Derby by Tom O’Neil.

New York Times Discovers Another Trend – Far, Far Away, and Seven Years Too Late

At CJR Daily Steve Lovelady takes apart yesterday’s New York Times article on trends in housing prices. Lovelady begins:

Thursday, the New York Times, with a page one national story inexplicably datelined “Portland, Me.,” told us that “families in a vast majority of the country can still buy a house for a smaller share of their income than they could have a generation ago.”

Really? Hmmm. Let’s read on. It seems that, measured nationally, a family earning the median income would have to spend only 22 percent of its pre-tax income to make the mortgage payments on a median-priced house — “well below” the 30 percent that it took 25 years ago.

Wow! Is that good news, or not? Well, actually … NOT.

Let us count the ways that this story is flawed.

First, once we delve deeper into the story, we learn that this trend peaked in the glory days of 1998, when families only had to shell out 17 percent of their pre-tax income to buy that median home. In other words, in the past seven years, housing costs nationally as a percentage of income have risen 30 percent.

Oops.

Secondly, a study of the accompanying map and graph, conveniently tucked away on the page C9 jump of the story, reveals this nugget: In New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami, the cost of housing as a percent of income has actually risen over the past 20 years. In fact, that’s pretty much true for vast areas of the country — all of Washington State, Oregon, California, Nevada, most of the northeastern United States, and nearly all of Florida. In short, any area where population is growing and not stagnant.

I’m about to cancel my subscription

… to The New York Times, just on general principles.

The New York Times first debated publishing a story about secret eavesdropping on Americans as early as last fall, before the 2004 presidential election.

But the newspaper held the story for more than a year and only revealed the secret wiretaps last Friday, when it became apparent a book by one of its reporters was about to break the news, according to journalists familiar with the paper’s internal discussions.

Los Angeles Times

Before the election in other words, The Times decided their judgment was better than that of American voters.

Ignorant and wrong

Asked by Boston radio personality Howie Carr about Howard Dean’s recent prediction that the U.S. would lose the war in Iraq, Fox’s Chris Wallace replied:

“We are in a war. We do have 150,000-plus American soldiers over there. I mean, it’s Tokyo Rose, for God sakes, going on radio saying we can’t win the war.”

Hello, Chris, Tokyo Rose is folklore. There was no such person (or personality) known as Tokyo Rose. It was a name created wholly by American GIs.

After the War, one American woman was tried for working for Japanese radio: Iva Toguri D’Aquino. She became known as “Tokyo Rose,” but her actual on-air name was “Orphan Ann.” Ignorant, biased fools like Chris Wallace were working for the news media after World War II, as well as now, and they helped railroad Mrs. D’Aquino into a conviction for treason. She was eventually granted a full pardon by President Ford — after a 60 Minutes report.

Thanks to Digby for the pointer. He provides this link for more info on Iva Toguri.

Internet Siphons Readers, Ads

From a report in today’s Los Angeles Times:

SAN FRANCISCO — When Jeffrey Zalles needed a new cashier for his coin laundry in the South of Market district, his help-wanted ad in the San Francisco Chronicle brought just four responses.

So Zalles posted a notice on Craigslist, a San Francisco-based network of websites that specialize in classified advertising. His cyber-ad drew 400 applicants.

Zalles found his cashier and hasn’t relied on the Chronicle since, advertising instead on the Internet and the city’s array of free papers.

Even NewMexiKen has made $8.41 from ads in the first 10 days of December. Not much, but I guess it’s $8.41 that some more traditional advertising outlet didn’t get — and there’s a new website every second (or some such statistic). The internet is changing everything.

Show business

NBC did not interrupt its broadcast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade yesterday to bring viewers the news that an M&M balloon had crashed into a light pole, injuring two sisters.

In fact, when the time came in the tightly scripted three-hour program for the M&Ms’ appearance, NBC weaved in tape of the balloon crossing the finish line at last year’s parade – even as the damaged balloon itself was being dragged from the accident scene.

The New York Times

As anyone who watches the Macy’s parade on TV has long realized, it’s a TV program like any other variety show. All repeating events with television coverage become television programs.

Almost Famous

The BBC World Service has a new program — World Have Your Say, which broadcasts daily at 1800 GMT (11:00 AM MST).

This morning, Kevin Anderson, a producer for the program, contacted NewMexiKen as a result of my post quoting Paul Krugman. He said he’d read the post and:

I work for a new global discussion programme on the BBC World Service, called World Have Your Say. One of the issues that we’re talking about today are the calls for withdrawal from Iraq. This is in the wake of Rep Murtha’s proposal last week and the dust up on the floor of the House of Reprentatives.

I know it’s a bit of short notice, especially if you are in New Mexico, but I wondered if you might be available … to take part in our programme?

Now I must confess that since I was about 10-years-old all I’ve really ever wanted to do was be on the radio. And imagine, the BBC World Service!

So I said no.

While I am quite flattered that you ask, that post is entirely the work of Paul Krugman of The New York Times. I agree with Krugman and so post his point of view, but I do not think my thoughts on the Iraq war are well-formed enough to contribute to any discussion.

Actually my thoughts are well-formed enough. It’s articulating them that had me concerned. There’s an old expression: “That’s a thinker, not a sayer.” Good advice.

World Have Your Say has a page on How to Join the Conversation. Kevin Anderson blogs for the BBC at Up All Night Blog.

Maybe it is a melting pot

A story in the Los Angeles Times tells of a radio station that has hit the ratings jackpot with a bilingual format. “It’s puro Spanglish at this L.A. radio estación, where reggaeton is king.”

Sometimes the station’s back-and-forth by its disc jockeys comes much faster, even sentence-to-sentence or phrase-by-phrase. It’s not unusual to hear callers intermix their languages as they tell a joke, ask a question or relate a personal story.

“It’s like being at home,” said Soto, who listens to the station usually in his car. “You get English and Spanish and you don’t notice the difference. It all blends together.”

¡Viva America!

KXOL

The fourth estate

“And as for the media: these days, there is much harsh, justified criticism of the failure of major news organizations, this one included, to exert due diligence on rationales for the war. But the failures that made the long nightmare possible began much earlier, during the weeks after 9/11, when the media eagerly helped our political leaders build up a completely false picture of who they were.

“So the long nightmare won’t really be over until journalists ask themselves: what did we know, when did we know it, and why didn’t we tell the public?”

— Paul Krugman

The War of the Worlds

It’s the anniversary of Orson Welles’s broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” in 1938. Welles wrote an adaptation of an H.G. Wells novel in which Martians invade Earth, and presented it as if it were really happening on the Halloween broadcast of a show called “Mercury Theater on the Air.” It began, “Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, strange beings who landed in New Jersey tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from Mars.” Thousands of listeners missed the first part of the show and didn’t know it was Welles’s “The War of the Worlds.” People clogged the switchboards trying to get more information about the landing. A few people reported seeing the aliens.

— The Writer’s Almanac

If you’ve never heard the broadcast, you should give it a listen — the first half, at least. Here’s an mp3 version from a Mercury Theatre on the Air website.