Diversity in Journalism
Because its important to have a diversity of skin pigment and reproductive plumbing in our intellectual mono-culture.
Update: Wait, wait! We aren't a mono-culture! For example, some of us think Ralph Nader would make a great President and voted for him and some of us think Ralph Nader would make a great President but we didn't vote for him because we thought he was unelectable. That's some real diversity.
caseyboy:
And some of us didn't vote for him because, well, he's a nut job.
March 1, 2012, 11:32 amMesa Econoguy:
Totalitarian nutjob.
March 1, 2012, 6:48 pmIGotBupkis, Three Time Winner of the Silver Sow Award:
>>> some of us think////KNOW Ralph Nader...
.... would be a great horses ass.
Wait. He already is one.
I recall many, many years ago, in the early 1980s, when he was on 60 Minutes, that same bastion of reliable journalism it's always been, gave him a 15 minute segment in which to detail about how he and his people uncovered a masterpiece of coverup in the nuclear industry, to wit, the Kyshtym Incident/Disaster, whatever you want to call it.
Essentially, in 1957 the USSR, showing its even then all-encompassing desire for public safety and security, were dumping radioactive wastes in a big HOLE in the ground, such top secret technique being a proper and rational disposal for just about any form of waste in the good ol' USSR.
Well, at some point, something occurred. Either a sub-critical explosion, a chemical fire, or something, and a lot of that radiowaste got spread all over the nearby landscape. A kind of early mini-Chernobyl, if you will.
We know it was highly covered up, you see, because Ralph Nader and his nuclear "expert" cronies had never, ever heard about it until the early 1980s, and they would have heard of it, surely, if it were not being covered up, being, well, EXPERT and all that in nuclear power.
Apparently these nuclear power EXPERTS neither read any nuclear power journals nor any of Jerry Pournelle's pop-sci pieces, among other things, since a full and complete description of it could be found in either of those locations by the mid-1970s. The latter was how I first heard about it while in college.
They say you should never put the cart before the horse, but Mr. Nader certainly shows that you can always... always put the horse before the ass.
The man rivals Paul Ehrlich for vastly, even astoundingly, perhaps even supernaturally underrated incompetence.
March 2, 2012, 4:33 amTed Rado:
In this modern high-tech age, journalists (and politicians) are almost totally incompetent to report on much of what is happening. I don't understand why they don't have a variety of knowledgable, objective people on call to make sure the story is right and both sides of issues reported.
Much of what is written in areas in which I have some expertise is wrong, skewed, or one-sided. Very little of what you read or hear can be assumed to be correct and unbiased. The only place I get the full story is on the internet, and then only after much study. Much of the internet stuff is mindless zealotry on both sides of public issues.
March 3, 2012, 4:57 pm