« Springtime and books | Main | Ocean Observations »
March 21, 2003
Kottke on the war
Kottke's lengthy post about the war is quite good. I think he's stating several things that no one I'm talking to has put into words, in particular this one: "Everyone, from the U.S. gov't to France all the way down to little old me, is being hypocritical about this whole thing. I'm working on a theory: hypocrisy is natural and necessary, and we should stop treating it as a completely bad thing. People, corporations, groups, and countries can't be entirely self-consistent with their views & beliefs and still function."
Posted by Andrew at March 21, 2003 12:20 PM
Trackback Pings
Comments
How po-mo. :-|
Posted by: Jim Jones at March 23, 2003 10:56 AM
I agree with several of his points, but I'd say he dives a bit deeply into paranoia and brooding cynicism with his extreme generalizations about past U.S. leaders and about the press.
RE: "Reporting and analyzing the news fairly and accurately is [and has always been] a secondary concern [for the press], if it's a concern at all." -- this simply isn't true. There are and have always been a lot of print journalists who are in the business for bigger reasons than money. News flash: print reporters don't make jack. If reporters were in it for the money they'd write straight-out PR or advertising copy -- these jobs are far easier and come with much larger paychecks than journalism jobs. Take it from someone who worked for years in print newsrooms -- there are still a lot of reporters who put fairness and accuracy first.
Now, television news is a very different story; it's all about entertainment and marketing and your statements apply there. TV "news" disgusts me; I finally watched the Fox News channel for 5 minutes the other day and it literally made me want to puke. And unfortunately print journalism is veering in that direction.
But I wish people like Kottke would think before painting with such a broad brush because such unfair and factually incorrect generalizations really discourage those reporters who are struggling to put food on the table and provide quality journalism while avoiding corporate pressures to do otherwise. Kottke's telling them we don't recognize or appreciate their efforts.
Posted by: sean@cheesebikini.com at March 24, 2003 11:58 AM
How "wussy PoMo"! Ha!
http://www.rickbradley.com/viewer/input/#20030312144405
Posted by: Jim Jones at March 26, 2003 12:16 AM
Who is Rick Bradley? How can anyone not be upset by the inane acts of Congressmen in renaming food? It's the kind of calculated sound-bites that are designed to offend no one and let them look smug.
What is "po-mo" about this? Self-awareness or the acknowledgement that holding contrary opinions at once is common? Not invented by Derrida.
Posted by: Andrew at March 26, 2003 08:44 AM
Who said anything about deconstructionism?
It's not just the contrary but essentially conflicting opinions at once. And saying that *everyone* is being hypocritcal?! That seems to me to be the epitome of PoMo. What a waste of bandwidth.
Posted by: Jim Jones at March 26, 2003 06:09 PM
Also, I just can't trust the opinion of someone who worships blindly at the altar of Edward Tufte, another overrated curiosity.
Posted by: Jim Jones at March 29, 2003 05:53 PM