Outsourced War is Boring

By A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 3:00pm |

I posted this mostly to draw attention to a quote within the story which gives stark evidence to a problem with our media news coverage.

“There are like seven of us there,” remarked the correspondent, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to call into question his network’s commitment to the war.

A journalist, with all that is supposed to imply, speaks about the level of coverage of one of our wars and about the nature of that war. The journalist speaks anonymously for the purpose of protecting the identity and therefore the image of the corporation which he works for.

Alittle bit of comentary about the article is here.

http://warincontext.org/

URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/business/media/20coverage.html?_r=1

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I hope that you folks like the news functionality. Hold the mouse over the news link to see the summary.

by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 5:15pm

It's fantastic, Genghis; in every way it answers any suggestions/complaints any of us had about the original, I think. You are a marvel at tech, and really creative, too. Thanks!

by we are stardust on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 5:51pm

très élégant!

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 8:08pm

Genghis, the format is lean and mean. Thanks.

by moat on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 6:08pm

Moat, I left a small roast for you on my Celestial Event diary; hoped it would make you laugh. (I did them in batches as people showed up on the boards yesterday.)

by we are stardust on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 6:32pm

It was a very yummy roast. I threw in some New Potatos and called it a meal.

by moat on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 8:52pm

I'm not sure we're on the same page, but good holidays to you anyway. I've always enjoyed you, even when I had to ask for translations; and you used to like some of my stories. wd

by we are stardust on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 9:00pm

In the very same section of the same edition of the New York Times, it is explained that coverage of allegorical warfare continues to grow ever more popular and profitable at an astounding rate.

I also remember the days when every single bombing in Baghdad immediately drew lots of traffic to "blogs" to learn more and discuss, and the resulting interest drove "MSM" to assign more resources to Iraq so as to get that traffic on their sites. What ever happened to that paradigm?

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 7:52pm

What happened? Maybe it just got boring. In any spectator sport the fan wants to see the action and they want to see their team win. Sick to contemplate, but maybe if real warfare was covered up-close and personal and there was active internet gambling on the outcome of different skirmishes it would attract a fan base that would support war just for the entertainment value. As long as there wasn't a black-out rule that required the fans to get too close. Telephoto lens and instant replay and good announcers could change everything.

It is interesting that the article did not mention the following:

"But not all the NFL news is good. Attendance is likely to decrease for the third straight season and 21 games have not sold out and have, as a result, been blacked out in the home team's market. There were 22 blackouts last year, more than 2007 and 2008 combined and the highest figure for the NFL in at least five years."

http://www.ticketnews.com/news/NFL-approaches-blackout-record-due-to-poo...

by A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 8:56pm

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