Everything looks like a nail.
When all you do is create fantasies, then all you need to do is call REWRITE! when you don't like how the plot's going. If you're producing broadcast news, you've got severe constraints on your time, so you have to pick and choose what you're going to present. And if you've got a point of view you want to get across, then your producer can edit things to fit.
Just call REWRITE! and all those annoying script problems go away...
Variety.com - Bushies need a good rewrite
Unfortunately, reality itself is nowhere near so compliant to the producer's whim. But that doesn't really stop the folks who are determined to shape the arguement to THEIR point of view. Take, for example, the reality that a well-known producer (Michael Moore) decided to creatively use an interview given by a veteran to support his anti-war movie. It's all about the editing, and how things are presented.
Or not presented, depending. Over at Gateway Pundit, there's a compilation of stories the MSM is completely ignoring in Iran. Massive protests, buildings being torched, all sorts of stuff that tend to give the impression that perhaps, just perhaps, the mullahs have taken things too far. Yet it's virtually ignored by broadcast news, and I can't find a trace of it on MSNBC.
Isn't that odd?
I got to thinking about this the other day, and was kind of amused at the parallel between "1984" and today... remember how the Media, controlled by the Government in Orwell's book manipulated the population? Two Minute hates and everything?
The Media controlled the people, and with no alternative sources of information the people had no choice but to go with what they were told. Reality was defined by the media they were forced to watch.
I was reminded by this the other day when I saw an article in the local fishwrapper bemoaning the state of the economy. Apparently last month only 77k jobs were created. This, supposedly, portends DOOM for the US economy. But if you read down in the article, after all the prognostications of economic collapse... you found that the unemployment rate dropped to 4.5%...
The desired perception is that there's trouble economically. And is it accurate? Is the economy about to collapse, or is the media trying to define reality with or without government consent...
Unfortunately, there's significant resistance from the 'nails' the media 'hammer' is trying to pound. Drudgereport, Google News, Yahoo News, a whole network of bloggers and such - it really shrinks the size of the hammer that the media is able to wield.
Reality exists, regardless of how the media deigns to report on it. The smoke coming from Iran is proof of that. The fire burns whether a reporter watches it or not.
J.
Comments (2)
I want to believe it, about Iran, but I have doubts.
The Iranians, just like the Iraqis before them, tend to exaggerate some claims, to gt military help quicker.
It could also be tribal clashes, or even a trap.
The mullahs want us to attack before diplomatic means are exhausted, which I think will happen anyway, but it may be better after crossing the t's and dotting the i's...maybe.
The other thing to consider is; the IRG are loyal to the mullahs i power, and they have the guns.
Dissenters are killed or imprisoned, immediately.
Newt Gingrich doesn't have much of any hope for a revolution, at present.
I wish I knew more.
I don't believe the mullahs would let cameramen and newscrews in sensitive areas anyway.
Posted by Ben USN (ret) | June 6, 2006 1:43 AM
Posted on June 6, 2006 01:43
Well, Ben, with the small size of cameras these days it's going to be hard to keep folks OUT who have some sort of video and photo capacity. Some cell-phones have about the capacity of a full videocam crew from 1970, and are much easier to hide.
The mullahs are stuck in a Dark Ages mindset - they don't really realize (and if they didn't they likely wouldn't care) that it's almost impossible to hide things now...
J.
Posted by JLawson | June 6, 2006 9:03 AM
Posted on June 6, 2006 09:03