It's the media, stupid
Short version: In the last three days, most of the media vented too many pre/during/post Romania country report thoughts, missed out on the story of the FBI wiretapping them, ignored the real number of National Guard troops to adorn the US-Mexican border, wasted time debating a reality show about a deviant (the icky kind) relationship, and some really bright 'uns mistook a cab driver for a computer expert on live television. Good times.
Continues: The last couple of days led to a profound understanding on my part as to how abstract a notion sanity really is. Hell, the last couple of days turned me into a character of Waking life.
Even if you're from, say, Orange County (and yes, this is supposed to be a mean unsubstantiated insult since I've never been), surely you must have heard by now that the European Commission released a country report Tuesday recommending 2007 or 2008 as the European Union entry date for Bulgaria and Romania (well, it's 2007, but they reserved the right to change their minds in October - this the sweetest shortest I could find).
So Monday-ish (in some instances way earlier) the Romanian media one-upped each other at the hypothesis game (which I'm told is quite usual on the eve of such great events - like the extensive coverage last year of the last days of Pope John Paul II). Nevermind the plethora of stories focused on what experts and analysts thought the report would/should say - I do get that and I did play my part.
But the infamous sources reared their ugly anonymous heads. Official sources, government sources, sources in Brussels, sources in Strasbourg, sources in Sofia, sources in Bucharest, all and their families were given ample play time - which is hilarious really, considering the options were limited to: EU entry in 2007 (the simple kind, or with some decision-making rights lifted), 2008, or a postponement of the recommendation until the October country report.
But the mills kept on milling variations of the above giving reporters something to obsess about all through Monday and early Tuesday. Lift curtain, release report, let the analyses, pointing of fingers and rubbing of hands begin.
And so democracy traveled the distance, the spin machine kept spinning, the media informed the daylights out of y'all and all was well with the world (except for, you know, war, poverty, AIDS, bird flu, prozac, crack cocaine, shootouts, rapes, and a bunch of other stuff).
And then came freedom of expression issues, some more legitimate than others. Possibly one or two days ago (at any rate, since I last slept) a sensational debate on small-time B1 TV. Turns out our broadcast media watchdog, or CNA, revoked the license for the most dead in the water reality show ever -- an account of the daily activities of a 50-something Romanian millionaire with a pedophile streak and his 18-year-old high school student girlfriend. Somehow, the revoked license led to a heated debate on freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean, the feds fiddled with reporters' phone records in leak investigation cases. I'm sorry, WHAT?! Apparently, they did so unhindered, no big debate ensued.
And just ten minutes ago, Bradut gave the final blow, the reason I'm now blogging instead of sleeping. He got dibs on something that could make surrealists turn green with envy. Apparently, BBC, the bastion of all things media (I've always wanted to use the word bastion) mistook a cab driver for a computer expert on live television. Insert blank expression here.
I am Jack's cold sweat.
Continues: The last couple of days led to a profound understanding on my part as to how abstract a notion sanity really is. Hell, the last couple of days turned me into a character of Waking life.
Even if you're from, say, Orange County (and yes, this is supposed to be a mean unsubstantiated insult since I've never been), surely you must have heard by now that the European Commission released a country report Tuesday recommending 2007 or 2008 as the European Union entry date for Bulgaria and Romania (well, it's 2007, but they reserved the right to change their minds in October - this the sweetest shortest I could find).
So Monday-ish (in some instances way earlier) the Romanian media one-upped each other at the hypothesis game (which I'm told is quite usual on the eve of such great events - like the extensive coverage last year of the last days of Pope John Paul II). Nevermind the plethora of stories focused on what experts and analysts thought the report would/should say - I do get that and I did play my part.
But the infamous sources reared their ugly anonymous heads. Official sources, government sources, sources in Brussels, sources in Strasbourg, sources in Sofia, sources in Bucharest, all and their families were given ample play time - which is hilarious really, considering the options were limited to: EU entry in 2007 (the simple kind, or with some decision-making rights lifted), 2008, or a postponement of the recommendation until the October country report.
But the mills kept on milling variations of the above giving reporters something to obsess about all through Monday and early Tuesday. Lift curtain, release report, let the analyses, pointing of fingers and rubbing of hands begin.
And so democracy traveled the distance, the spin machine kept spinning, the media informed the daylights out of y'all and all was well with the world (except for, you know, war, poverty, AIDS, bird flu, prozac, crack cocaine, shootouts, rapes, and a bunch of other stuff).
And then came freedom of expression issues, some more legitimate than others. Possibly one or two days ago (at any rate, since I last slept) a sensational debate on small-time B1 TV. Turns out our broadcast media watchdog, or CNA, revoked the license for the most dead in the water reality show ever -- an account of the daily activities of a 50-something Romanian millionaire with a pedophile streak and his 18-year-old high school student girlfriend. Somehow, the revoked license led to a heated debate on freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean, the feds fiddled with reporters' phone records in leak investigation cases. I'm sorry, WHAT?! Apparently, they did so unhindered, no big debate ensued.
And just ten minutes ago, Bradut gave the final blow, the reason I'm now blogging instead of sleeping. He got dibs on something that could make surrealists turn green with envy. Apparently, BBC, the bastion of all things media (I've always wanted to use the word bastion) mistook a cab driver for a computer expert on live television. Insert blank expression here.
I am Jack's cold sweat.
Luiza wrote the above at 11:32 PM
6 Comments:
With respect to the BBC gaff, what gets my goat is the article refers to the seemingly obvious difference between a black man and a white man. However, that only applies if you already know the race of your expert, which clearly they did not. So, here's the BBC making an innocent mistake and now comes the racist implication of "they should have known when they saw he was black!" Bah.
As for the US, there's some value in running encrypted VoIP. It'll only buy you a few years privacy, but it's better than non.tj
By
Romerican, at Thursday, May 18, 2006
I was just getting to that :) I did see that on several occasions, though, the type of description that goes like "Billy Bob, who is black, did this or that..."
I'm not saying it's OK, quite on the contrary, but let's not move away from the BBC gang. The racial slur is something that unfortunately happens a lot, but it's an ethical matter that can eventually be pounded into reporters' heads (even if it takes actual pounding :)
But mistaking one guy for another guy is just something out of a movie, the commedy of errors kind.
I'm kinda in a funk when it comes to the media these days. The front page Vodafone thing in Romania, seeing how easily errors slip through at work and how few people really seem alarmed by it, seeing so much PR passed off as news, both here and in the States, the mere notion of wiretapping is mind-boggling in a Orwell kind of way...
some of this stuff is subtle. the BBC thing took the in your face approach.
and the media funk lives on with racial slurrs blah blah. so sick of it all. i'll get over it eventually but for now i'm wallowing in self-pity.
By
Luiza, at Thursday, May 18, 2006
I loved the BBC episode. It made my Monday morning (almost as much as Al Gore's address on Saturday Night Live).
What we debated here in the office was not race -- but the fact that once you are put on live television and introduced as a pundit, by god you'll talk (after getting over the shock, the cabbie talk about how everyone is downloading stuff these days).
An informal poll among the few of us at lunch (all of us journalists of media researchers) indicated we all would have talked and pretended we were who they said we were.
That's what was fascinating about the whole episode.
By
Cristi, at Thursday, May 18, 2006
Well, of course most anyone in the cabbie's place would talk :) must be like human nature or something, making things complicated by trying to keep it simple. or something.
Besides, TV never lies, it says so on a t-shirt.
It didn't make my Monday, however. Too much stuff going on. When you're smack at the heart of where news come from, you get involved with it, and one day it hits you just how absurd it has all become (you still love it, but time and time again it'll drain you out)
By
Luiza, at Friday, May 19, 2006
It's hard for me to pay attention to the news any more. Seems like the percentage of advertising content is up, the quality of journalism is down. And the whole thing is rife with PR cut-n-paste or just plain social fluff (who married who, what kind of alien baby the ghost had after cheating on the bat boy, or a circus-like trial of some celebrity).
I see good things coming from the Washington Post on a fairly regular basis. The Atlantic Monthly still puts out good writing. Those are two brands that come to mind.
By
Romerican, at Friday, May 19, 2006
Romerican,
There is still good stuff out there although I would agree that there is a lot of work to be done to keep up with the good stuff. I have a pretty heavy media diet that on a regular basis includes National Public Radio, Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, Harper's, Esquire and The New Yorker. Add to that the countless media blogs I read and the ocassional perusal of The New Republic, The Economist, Columbia Journalism Review and so on. Finding decent journalism is a lot of work sometimes.
By
Cristi, at Friday, May 19, 2006
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