Comments on: On The Media: Renaming War on Terror

By: Clifford

Clifford — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 13:27:24 +0000

Listening to the news on the radio last night. There was a discussion of the extremely hot weather that had happened all over the country. It only took a few minutes into the report before the “frying eggs on the sidewalk” cliche popped right out! I should have had a stop watch to see how long it took. In fact, I think I will next time! -cvj

By: bittergradstudent

bittergradstudent — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 01:02:03 +0000

Of course–actually looking up statistics about helath issues, and looking up numbers of casualties is hard work, requiring, you know… thinking

And weather reporting is rediculous, since we can look up all the relevant information for free from the national weather service, at least for now

By: Clifford

Clifford — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 00:12:24 +0000

Well, agm. I’m very pleased for the folks back home. -cvj

By: agm

agm — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 23:51:14 +0000

The stories are again not given serious journalism attention. There’s no attempt to educate the public about heat waves after the facts about how many died, etc, have been documented, because editors treat heat waves only as a “Summer Story”, and so nobody is interested in it after the Summer has gone. The same mistakes are made every year because the local government emergency services only officially get into action to deal with heat wave emergencies only after the media begin to report casualties.

This is not reminiscent of the heat wave reporting I remember from back home. Though much of it is centered on “We’ve been planning on this for a couple of months, and there’s still not enough [fans/ACs/etc]” or “Fans are being distributed at these locations” or “Stay out of the sun during…” And video of kids playing in pools or sprinklers. Formulaic, but not irresponsible. And there’s another year’s worth of people who have aged enough to be at risk of dying from the heat.

PS. This preview feature rocks!

By: Eugene

Eugene — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 23:27:36 +0000

How about Global War and Struggle Against Violent Extremism or GWSAVE?

By: Clifford

Clifford — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 22:38:59 +0000

Sean, you should know me by now: I’m an old-fashioned guy. I grew up building and fixing radios and listening to distant voices through the crackle and hiss. I’m never going to give that up (although crinkling candy-wrappers for authenticity while listening in these days of high fidelity reception or downloads can get a bit tedious.) and don’t have time to read all those blogs that you do anyway.

Upon re-listening, I see that the presenters actually mispoke. “Struggle” is indeed used in the quotes from government officials. I will update the post. Thanks.

-cvj

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 22:32:18 +0000

See, you should be reading more blogs instead of relying on the mainstream media. It’s actually not a “war” any more, we’ve been told it’s a “struggle.” So, the “Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism,” or GSAVE.