COMPARE AND CONTRAST

I don't need to comment on this, just lay it out.

Satire from last night's The Daily Show:

Jon Stewart: Ed, I'm sorry. You've written your report as though it's already happened. This is --

Ed Helms: I wrote it yesterday.

Stewart: You write your stories in advance, and just put it in the past tense?

Helms: Yea-ahh. We all do. That's -- all the reporters do that.

Stewart: Why?

Helms: We write the narratives in advance based on conventional wisdom, and whatever happens we make it fit that storyline.

Stewart: Why?

Helms: We're lazy? Lazy thinkers?

Stewart: But what happens if actual news happens?

Helms: That's what bloggers are for.

And then there's fact, from various bloggers today, including Ken Layne:

The Associated Press filed this at noon Pacific time:

CORAL GABLES, Fla. Sept. 30, 2004 -- After a deluge of campaign speeches and hostile television ads, President Bush and challenger John Kerry got their chance to face each other directly Thursday night before an audience of tens of millions of voters in a high-stakes debate about terrorism, the Iraq war and the bloody aftermath.

The 90-minute encounter was particularly crucial for Kerry, trailing slightly in the polls and struggling for momentum less than five weeks before the election. The Democratic candidate faced the challenge of presenting himself as a credible commander in chief after a torrent of Republican criticism that he was prone to changing his positions.

The debate's focus on Iraq was sharpened by bombings in Baghdad Thursday that killed three dozen children.

Ahead in the polls, Bush could afford to settle for a debate draw while Kerry needed something to break the status quo. Some Democrats saw the debates as the last chance for a Kerry breakout.

Note AP's use of the past tense even though the story was filed nine hours before the debate started.

SOURCE: Daily Show transcript from JD Lasica's New Media Musings.

9:33:54 PM    

ENDING ENGLISH WARS

The Original Language Movement wants to bridge the gap between the two sides in the English wars (those who say the language works well as it stands and those who embrace change).

The OLM solution is simple: embrace the idea that English should not change--not now, not in the future, not even in the past. Revert to the language of Beowulf, they say, and peace will reign.

A sampling of the proposed "solution" is provided. I tried to quote it in this post, but only got this far..."Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,"... before my computer threw up its hands up in horror and started displaying all sorts of weirdness. You can see the original at the web site.

Great fun.

SOURCE: Nicole at A Capital Idea.
9:13:10 PM    

TOO DANGEROUS FOR MEDIA

The increasing violence in Iraq has led to the shutdown of a program to train Iraqi journalists. dotJournalism, the UK media blog, reports:

The Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) has finally been forced to temporarily close its training project in Baghdad over fears for the safety of its journalists and students.

The team was four days into a new three-week training project with a group of Baghdad journalists, but their base in Baghdad was closed by the IWPR board when staff received intelligence about planned attacks on foreigners in the Mansour region of the city.

It's a credit to the staff of the institute and the trainers that they lasted as long as they have in Iraq. Here's hoping they're able to get back to work soon.

8:59:29 PM    

WHEN GOVERNMENTS FAIL

According to editorsweblog.org:

[The website] Beslan.ru was set up in the wake of the Beslan siege by a dozen local residents, several of whom are teachers at Middle School Number 1. Beslan.ru is compiling a list of all the victims, in what the paper calls "filling in for a government gone AWOL in the wake of the siege". The site &mdash which is being translated into English &mdash includes news on the political and social aftermath of the violence, appeals for help for the victims and their families, and details on how to donate money.

Since that report, most of the site has been translated into English. And it is haunting, particularly the long, long list of families and the report of their status: a column filled with the words "dead" or "seriously wounded." (There's a section that details how donations can be made &mdash cash, clothing, etc. &mdash either to individuals or to the community as a whole.)

This is the internet at its best, a true wiring of a global community. While the Russian government reacts to the tragedy by consolidating more and more power, the community reacts by telling its story and appealing for help.

8:49:42 PM    

SPEAKING OF SPIN...

...which I do below, Jon Stewart lit it up with his monologue tonight, commenting on the three-night Bill O'Reilly "interview" with Bush. I couldn't transcribe it, because I was laughing so hard. I'll try to track down a clip. Meanwhile, if you know someone who has videotaped it (videotape? That's so 2001.) track it down. It's not just funny, it's a hard slap at what political "journalism" has become.

12:22:55 AM