Saturday, October 19, 2002

"Iraqi Sub Prowling Lake Michigan" I love the headlines I find in the supermarket checkout line.  This one's from the Weekly World News. The Chicago-Main Newstand publishes a monthly list of "This Month's Top Ten Tabloid Headlines". The all-time winner, in my eyes: "I Gave Birth To Seventeen Live Rabbits" 6:03:43 PM     The blogger mentality TAPPED's "Bad things about blogs" (October 10) has some comments about some of the already-hackneyed phrases used by some "bloggers", such as "anti-idiotarianism" and "fisking".  Tapped's politics are at odds with ours, but its comments in this area resonate with us.  One week later, another voice chimes in. The Wyeth Wire compares bloggers to Trekkies in their use of "inner circle" language, and reminds us that George Orwell warned of "people who use specialized language as a means to codify orthodox political thought". We have noticed that some of the current crop of "bloggers" share much of the same narcissistic mindset as the Wired magazine crowd circa 1998.  The prevalent attitude may be summed up thus: "We have a new way to walk and a new way to talk, and we are going to take over the world." Yeah, right.  We'll take a look in five years.  Let's see where you are then. 3:52:41 PM     Missing the point Brad King of Wired magazine says that satellite radio is "doomed" because the FCC has now approved digital radio for broadcast.  King overlooks an important point: most satellite radio customers buy the service because of its uniform nationwide coverage, not for the digital feed. 3:42:24 PM     Reflex reporting We previously made note of the fact that reporters and columnists routinely use the phrase "soft money" to refer to certain types of political contributions.  We would wager that no more than half of them have a real idea of what the term means.  We use the term "reflex reporting" to refer to the propensity of journalists to use a shorthand phrase to substitute for actual analysis of facts and issues. Another example:  Every time the Michigan news media feature Melvin Hollowell, Jr., the Detroit lawyer who is the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, he is invariably and unquestioningly identified as a "specialist in election law".  These stories mention that he "worked on the campaign in Florida".  That is, he was one of the of the multitude of lawyers who flocked to Florida to help with the Gore challenge to the 2000 election results in that state.  See "Secretary of State candidates air differences" in today's Detroit News, the most recent such story. No one seems to challenge the convenient claim that he is a "specialist in election law".  A review of his bio at the the Butzel Long web site identifies his areas of practice as public finance, real estate, administrative and corporate law.  Nothing is mentioned about a "specialty" in election law.  It is interesting to note, too, that the bio makes no mention of his forays into Florida.  A little digging reveals his true role there: counsel to the Gore-Lieberman Recount Committee in Miami-Dade County.  He was also the chairman of the Gore campaign in Michigan in the 2000 election.  No one can question Hollowell's credentials in Democratic politics.  A little more inquiry by journalists reporting on his candidacy, however, would be a good idea. 9:16:57 AM

© Copyright 2002 Franco Castalone. Last update: 11/1/2002; 7:57:51 PM.