Category: Media

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Tropical storm Rachel blew through southern California with nary a problem for the folks who live here. Much to the disappointment of every weatherperson in the region who were ginning this up to be a potential disaster of catastrophic proportions. Of course, nobody really believed them and everyone pretty much carried on like they would on any other day.

This is a problem that I would think people involved with journalism might consider more seriously. And weather reports are the perfect place to start because they aren’t political. It’s weather. If there is anything we, as a nation, might agree upon it is the weather. We don’t like bad weather because it makes our lives more difficult and we like good weather because it makes our lives easier. Sure, there a few curmudgeons who might disagree but, by and large, I think weather is one of the few topics in which most people can find agreement.

Back to tropical storm Rachel.What occurred? A pretty mild rainstorm which I had to go out into twice and managed quite nicely. Most everyone I know had the same experience. The ground is barely wet 24 hours afterwards.

Now, you might think why am I making such a big deal about this? Isn’t this good news? Because I, and about everyone else in the region, basically ignored all the warnings and did whatever it is we wanted to do which is fine. Until it isn’t.

And sometimes it isn’t. I was visiting my family back in Kansas City one Christmas and the weather report was telling people a blizzard was coming. I asked my sister, who lives there, for her advice and she said something to the effect that they are always saying there is a blizzard and it never happens, so I went out in it. It was an actual blizzard and I dangerously traversed miles across the city in order to reach my destination. I was so shaken when I arrived, I had to have two martinis to calm my nerves. Two martinis.

Now you might say it was my own damn fault for listening to my sister. There is a certain truth to that and I will consider that now every time I seek weather report information from her. But, and this is important, she had numerous experiences that proved her right. If they call a blizzard and it never happens, you get kind of used to it not being a blizzard and ignoring the warnings. And, if you are right 9 out 10 times, why wouldn’t you?

So when the media is screaming about the dangers of AI, I shrug my shoulders and carry on like nothing is going to happen. I might be wrong but I have lived through similar scares. Anybody remember Y2K? The world was supposed to end on January 1, 2000 because the computer systems of the world weren’t programmed for years after 1999. Planes were supposed to come crashing down, bank accounts were going to be inaccessible, the world was going to end.

It didn’t. It wasn’t even memorable. It came and went without even a whimper. So, pardon my sangfroid, but I am finding it difficult to get worked up about AI taking over the world. Not because it isn’t important but because experts are wrong about what is going to happen. They are wrong a lot in fact.

But this doesn’t matter to the media who love nothing more than a potential crisis to whip up headlines and panic and more headlines because people are now panicked because the media told them to be panicked. Now the media could couch these discussions in a reasonable debate between people but who would watch a reasonable debate. They want yelling, they want over talking, they want chairs flying onto the debaters, they want to provide their viewers with good television and not necessarily accurate information with which to make reasonable decisions.

In other words, nobody much believes the media any longer because the media’s main job is to attract viewers and not to inform their audience with dry facts and reasoned arguments. This is a big problem.

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I have a problem with historical dramas. There always come some point in the story when I realize this is speculation on part of the writers. it may be true but it could just as easily be false. There is no way of knowing because the characters are long dead and aren’t able to confirm or deny the speculation.

I also get that the writers have to speculate some as these historical figures didn’t live 24/7/365 in front of the public. Speculation about a conversation between a wife and husband might have to happen in order for the drama to make sense. Most of the time, the writers try to give a best guess based on the historical information they have. It may be difficult to confirm whether the actual conversation happened as told but it makes sense in the context of what happened in history.

Then there is Ryan Murphy, the creator of American Horror Story and the Monster series. His latest story is about Lizzie Borden — a woman who lived in the late 19th century and is suspected of killing her parents. Murphy and his team go well beyond speculation in their portrait of the infamous Lizzy Borden. They wander from speculation into mostly fiction and complete fantasy, leaving the audience with no real idea what happened to Andrew and Abby Borden — other than they were killed.

Here are some of the problems:

  1. Lizzie, at the time of her parent’s murder, was 32 years old and not this post adolescence naif that Ella Beatty plays in the show.
  2. Andrew and Abby Borden were in the early 60’s to late 70’s which I could have lived with except the implication is that this middle aged couple in the television show were engaged in numerous sexual trysts that don’t really make sense for their age. Andrew is chasing and catching every maid and Abby is seducing Andrew’s brother-in-law. There is no evidence that any of these sexual liasons ever occurred.
  3. Andrew impregnated Maggie and he pays her to abort the child.
  4. Lizzie had a lesbian affair with Maggie Sullivan, the Borden’s maid which is speculation and might be a plausible explanation for the killings but this speculation isn’t grounded in any facts.
  5. Lizzie and Maggie are implicated in another murder. There is no evidence that they were involved.
  6. Murphy’s team doesn’t even try to explain one of the more interesting events of the murder — the hour and half between Abby’s death and Andrew’s death. They even go as far as to have Andrew visiting a whore the night before and just arriving home from his tryst to meet his fate. This is complete fantasy.
  7. Lizzie didn’t met Nance O’Neal until well after Lizzie’s trial so could not have coached Lizzie on how to behave at her trial.
  8. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Lizzie and Maggie were prominent in the suffragette movement.
  9. It is a bit disburbing to paint Lizzie as this feminist icon when her big claim to fame, as portrayed by Murphy, is killing her parents for the sin of being mean to her. Yes that is why Lizzie took an axe to her parent. They were mean to her.

There is too much speculation and fantasy to have any relevance to understand what happened to the Borden family which I would think is the whole point of calling it Monster: Lizzie Borden. Yes, maybe there is some speculation but a show that purports to explain what happened should at least come close to the truth.

Murphy has created an account of a Lizzie Borden like character but not Lizzie Borden.

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Not much shocks me. I personally think shock is an overused word because given the last fifty years of movies and television can anyone say that they are shocked by naked genitalia or blood soaked massacres. That is so 1960’s. On the other hand, running photographs of an athlete who shits herself during a competition did indeed shock me.

By the way, I am consciously not linking to any stories about this incident because I think the woman has suffered enough and while I want to comment on her experience I will leave it your Google finesse to find the pictures if you must .

Now, first, I will admit there is a news story here. The woman continued competing despite the mess she found herself in. It was unwise and unhealthy for her to continue. For this she is responsible and for this she paid — she had to surrender the title she won.

I think most people can figure out what happened without the photographic assistance. The picture helps no one and it further embarrasses the athlete who already has enough trouble with people lambasting her questionable decision making process.

For the press to show pictures of her laying on the ground with her shit stained shorts is unnecessary and cruel.

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I was reviewing the top 10 list for the Daily Beast today and I was surprised to see the following headline:

First, how is Bill Belichick and his girlfriend still getting these headlines. This is really old news in more ways than one. Bill Belichick, I would think, should disappear as top pick in grabbing headlines anymore. He is a college football coach — not even a professional football coach — a university’s football coach. Shouldn’t this drop him to the bottom of the list of people honored to receive headlines.

Second, it is about a rumor that seems very unlikely to be true. Hudson is trying to become the general manager of the University of North Carolina’s football team. Belichick may be a love struck senior but I hardly think he is a complete idiot. And, even if he was, I am sure that the people who run the University might run interference on this decision

Every time I think I am too hard on modern journalism, the fourth estate prove me wrong. I am not hard enough. What a ridiculous waste of precious journalism space. But hey ho, it is nice to know that a well healed senior citizen can still grab a voluptuous young lass’ attention. What a surprise.

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Gloria Steinem died. I found this Daily Beast headline announcing her death a bit mystifying. I had no idea who died and what they were famous for. But I hardly think rallying demonstrators against Donald Trump was really Steinem’s claim to fame. Feminist Icon prominent in the early Women’s Lib movement might have been a better description of Steinem. And, really, why even mention Donald Trump at all. He wasn’t essential to her work in the least. This seems like a bit of misdirected Trump Derangement Syndrome.

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I was laying in bed this morning thinking about what important issue I was going to tackle today in my blog. Yes, dear reader, this is how seriously I take my blogging. It is the first thing I think about in the morning. Any way, enough about me, I remembered seeing in the Huffington Post’s headlines a post about J.D. Vance’s Astrological Chart. See below. I also provide a link to the actual chart if you are so inclined to pursue this type of prognostication device to understand the future of our vice-president.

I do not however and it occurred to me that I have been scrolling by these posts without much thought.

Now, first, I have to confess I like a good astrological chart as much as the next guy but J.D. Vance’s seems like a big waste of space. I realize this is in the Life section of Huffpost, so media outlets have a lot of leeway about what goes in the section. It should be fun — advice columns, crossword puzzles, comics and general astrological predictions. So, for example, my astrological sign is Cancer. I would be perfectly fine with an astrological column saying something like “Cancers will wake up this morning with a startling realization about the media.” This is harmless fun. I could laugh about and say yes that’s what happened to me.

But J.D. Vance’s astrological chart isn’t really an appropriate Life posting. J.D. Vance is a major political figure in a position of power. Providing space for an astrologer to speculate about his future is waste of time and space. The reading is, as almost all astrological readings are, vague and could conceivably apply to any number of people sharing his astrological sign or not. And what have I learned about Vance — that his sun sign is Leo and he is a Leo rising is hardly worth troubling my eyes to pursue.

This is worse than a gossip column in that, at least with gossip, you may be getting the truth about a famous person. Yes I don’t have anything to do with this person, it will in no way help me in my life and is certainly a waste of my time — but it may be true. And there is something important about the truth. While an astrological chart is giving you ambiguous information that is relevant only to the person who’s chart the astrologer is reading. A chart, by the way, that this person will probably never read. Helpful right?

To further disappoint my expectations in the Huffington Post, they think this post is so important to actually highlight that they have an article about J.D. Vance’s astrological chart. Instead of hiding this post in a hard to find place so people won’t realize the bullshit they are posting, they are proudly highlighting it for everyone to see. They are actually wanting people to read it. Their shameless pandering knows no bounds. I am gobsmacked.

Finally, I am disappointed in myself because I’ve been seeing these astrological posts of current political figures for some time and hadn’t thought a thing about it. My obliviousness to bullshit now is remarkably high. Just more bullshit on the bullshit pile. I go to the next post without giving it a second thought. It took actual time for me to reach the bullshit conclusion which means how much bull shit am I missing?

This is truly scary.

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The Guardian headline reads: Most people arrested during Henry Nowak protests had been reported for domestic abuse.

Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh man, murdered Henry Nowak, a White man, in Southampton. Some people in the UK believe the police’s behavior shows an anti-White bias among the British cops. As with any controversial issue, people used their right to peaceful assembly to make their position on the matter known. Thirty-seven people were arrested due to their violent behavior.

Unsurprisingly many of the people arrested also have a history of violent behavior. It makes sense to me that people who have had trouble in the past controlling their violent impulses might again lose control of themselves and behave badly. The Guardian article even admits as much “two out of every five arrested for participating in riots in 2024 had been the subject of a domestic abuse report before their involvement, with one in five subsequently being reported for domestic abuse.”

The phrase “participating in riots in 2024” is both interesting and vague. Does the Guardian mean only anti-immigrant rioters or all rioters? They don’t clarify who they mean by rioters. It could mean any violent behavior — say the anger from the losing fans of a football team. Although I don’t advise the Guardian doing this, a better use of their time (although not great) might be to compare the rioters from different groups say anti-Israel demonstrations, losing football fans and anti-immigrant demonstrations and stack them up against each other.

I am betting that past violent arrests might match up significantly for each group. But how is this helpful? The Guardian article leaves me with the impression that people who are concerned about Henry Nowak are actually prone to violence while providing absolutely no evidence about the rest of the crowd and thus pointless.

People prone to past violent behavior are more likely act violently when given an opportunity to do so again. This says nothing, though, about all the people who didn’t get arrested — which is a much better measurement of the character of the people who attended the demonstration.

So what was the point of this screaming headline? What an utter waste of time. The Guardian sent out reporters to find out the obvious — people with a violent past continue to behave badly? So what?

It is a surreptitious way of painting all of the Henry Nowak demonstrators as violent instead of the few who were actually arrested for violence. There is a difference which the Guardian failed utterly to point out.

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I have many complaints about Donald Trump. He is an asshole. He is corrupt. He is stupid. He is incompetent. I could go on but you get the point. I don’t like the man. But nothing illustrates the true badness of Donald Trump like the Reflecting Pool Fiasco. And, also, sadly his genius.

Why on God’s Green Earth is the president of the United States so involved in such a trivial matter — particularly when the nation is at war. Isn’t this more of a First Lady or Parks Department issue? What a waste of the limited time of the most powerful man on the planet.

Other people can, and should, straighten out this mess but no Trump has to put his two cents in.

Furthermore, and much more irritating, why is the media so fixated on this bull shit. Again, I am sorry to have keep doing this, but it seems important to point this out — we are a nation at war. Yet what do we hear about in the news — how the Reflecting Pool, which was promised to be blue, is a murky algae green instead. Really.

And people are actually getting mad about it for some reason.

Donald Trump can create controversies with one hand tied behind his back and blind folded. He likes attention and he knows how to get it. He also, to the great advantage of the powers that be, knows how to distract the media from the issues that really matter. Just because Trump is talking about something doesn’t mean the press is obligated to report about it.

Think about the past few months — the Wrestling Match on the lawn, tearing down the East Wing of the White House, the Reflecting Pool — all, in the scheme of things, small potatoes — and distractions from more important issues. All Trump has to do to get the press dogs off of his ass is for him to pop off about something, make it juicy or controversial, and the press, who all seem to lack any sense of proportion, chases after this new controversy like dogs after frisbees.

Yes it is very interesting that the frisbee was caught but is it any surprise. This is what dogs do when frisbees are thrown. So what if they catch him making as ass of himself about the Reflecting Pool. It is meaningless. He seems to know this. I am afraid the press does not.

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I am sure there are more awful human beings than Alex Jones but, as far as I can see, they have the good sense to keep their mouths shut to hide how awful they are. Unfortunately Alex Jones is an asshole who can’t keep his mouth shut . So here is Alex Jones, even after losing law suits where he questions the shootings at the Sandy Hook School, spouting the same unsubstantiated garbage about it being a false flag operation from anti-gun rights organization. He is doing this even after changing his story in court and saying that Sandy Hook shootings did happen as the police claimed. Doesn’t this make him an admitted liar.

Never mind. Now, since he is losing his empire to pay the Sandy Hook parents for his lies, he is going back to spreading his lies about Sandy Hook. Yes, he is accusing 20 sets of parents of willingly sacrificing their first grader in order that their deaths would galvanize sympathy for anti-gun legislation. I don’t know about you but I don’t know of many, if any, parents who make such a bargain — much less 20 sets.

And it gets worse, because Alex Jones so passionately spread these vile lies, his listeners believed him and began to harass the grieving parents of these children in order to get at the truth. Parents who lost their children had to listen to people telling them that they are lying about how their child died. Who would encourage people to behave like that. Oh, that’s right, Alex Jones.

I only wished I believed in Hell because I would surely love to see him rotting there. If anyone deserves an eternity of the flaming fires of Hell, it is surely Alex Jones.