I keep thinking I should write something about the Dan Rather thing, only the only thing I have to say seems so obvious and duhhh I keep waiting for someone else to say it. Probably someone has; I can’t read every damn blog in the world. But OK, here goes:
* If you were going to fake documents from 1972, wouldn’t your very first act be to go to a junk shop and buy a damn period typewriter? I mean, it’s so obvious. Doesn’t everyone old enough to remember typing the old-fashioned way remember their reaction the first time they used a word processor? Oooh, it looks just like a book, in case you forgot. Also: When I type ‘my 37th birthday,’ it makes the ‘th’ little and bumps it up half a line! That is too cool! OK, maybe not you, but certainly this was my reaction, and I’m not that different. Granted, I have a background in print publications, and I have half an eye for typography, thanks to JCB, but you probably had the same idea.
(Speaking of typewriters, JCB remembers, too.)
* Also, what’s all this crapola about the crumbling edifice of TV news, particularly that of the sainted Tiffany network? Does anyone watch network news anymore? I don’t, and I’m talking for years and years now. When I do, I’m astonished at how simple-minded so much of it is, how dead-on it’s aimed at the Crabby Old Man demographic (“Who’s spending your tax dollars on crap, crap I tell you? Stay tuned.”) And the ads! There’s a look at the id of any program, because the advertisers know: Adult diapers, cholesterol medications, and those pills whose name we cannot speak around here. (“Will you be ready?”) I haven’t watched network news regularly since I discovered NPR, which was in 1978. Plus I remember about a million other chinks in CBS’s armor, including “The Insider.”
So right there, I can’t get past the fact the obvious forgery is so totally obvious it’s insulting, and the premise that by humiliating Dan Rather, bloggers have somehow topped a Saddam statue and beaten it with their shoes.
That’s just me. But my brains may be suspect these days. I actually paid 99 cents for an iTunes Music Store download of that “Milkshake” song. That thing’s mind control, I tell ya.
Linda said on September 29, 2004 at 12:19 am
Man, do you ever just stop and think about the stuff we learned back in high school in the 70’s that is just crap now? LOL Learning to type on manual typewriters, two semesters of shorthand, learning how to make homemade applesauce in Home Ec class? Every gadget I learned to run in “Office Machines” class is in a museum now. We should have had a class that teaches fat 42 year-old unemployed housewives in Vancouver, BC how to compete with thousands of “fresh young things” for a job at IKEA. That would come in a lot more handy for me right now than how to load a mimeo-graph.
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the other nance said on September 29, 2004 at 3:48 am
Good luck with the job hunt thing, Linda. You really do have more to offer an employer than does a “fresh young thing,” so keep your chin up! The readers at NN.com will be rooting for you!
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John said on September 29, 2004 at 7:57 am
Your industry targets the “COM” demographic too. But network news has been dead since the advent of CNN and its clones. Why wait till 6:30 to get the news when you can catch it live on cable news? The internet access has shoveled more dirt the already mouldy grave.
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danno said on September 29, 2004 at 8:38 am
About that ‘Milkshake’ song, it’s the damned percussion that makes me mesmerized!! Makes me wanna dance nekkid around a jungle cauldron or something!!
Shake it girrrrl!!!!!
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Linda said on September 29, 2004 at 9:41 am
Thanks, The Other Nance. I tell you, I never imagined it would be so tough to find a job here. Back home in Indiana, I worked in nursing all my adult life until I married and moved here, and I never once had trouble finding a job. (I’m not physically able, nor am I licensed to do that here.) My husband makes good money, but I’m getting bored with not working and I want to earn extra money, so I thought it would be a snap to just go out and get a job as a cashier or something. I find myself totally at a loss as to how to figure out how to stand out among the thousands of people who apply for every cashier opening. You see people on television and stuff talking about how hard it is to find a job when you are in your 40’s and 50’s, but I never thought there was much to that. I thought an employer would prefer someone with more experience and maturity, but maybe not. But I’ve always believed, though, that things happen the way they are meant to happen, and whatever I am meant to do, the opportunity will present itself.
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Mary said on September 29, 2004 at 11:28 am
Hey, Linda…
I am a nurse recruiter. Even if you are not able or licensed to be a nurse in Washington, there are jobs out there with insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies that might use your nursing knowledge. Also, health care companies have their own in-house nurse recruiters, and you could fish around for a job with one of the big companies there. Also consider doctor’s office jobs or home health jobs. Trust me, your nursing skills are really worth something in the job market.
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alex said on September 29, 2004 at 12:39 pm
Sure wish writing skills were worth something in the job market. I’m so fed up with the dearth of work and the high cost of living in Chicago that I’m considering high-tailin’ it back to Hoosierland, where I figure I can work a crap job and get by better. That is, if the competition for crap jobs hasn’t become too keen there as well.
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Juan said on September 29, 2004 at 1:17 pm
“I haven’t watched network news regularly since I discovered NPR, which was in 1978.”
And this says so, so much about your world view, Ms. Nancy.
The next time you opine, “I can’t believe that so many people believe/vote for/support…” it may be because the nation is not Terry Gross.
Don’t get me wrong. NPR is incredible journalism (Well, aside from BBC’s “The Wuuuuuld”), but these are also the people who sent self-professed Bush-hater Daniel Pinkwater to cover the Republican Convention in 2000. That’s a little like sending Ray Charles to comment on the opening of a Van Gough exhibit.
Sometimes you gotta’ test your values in the forge of opposition. I listen to a fair amount of Air America and a lot of NPR. Maybe you should try a little O’Reily. (Hannity is a moron. That guy couldn’t win a debate with a Velveeta sandwich.)
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TSO said on September 29, 2004 at 1:59 pm
What really surprised me is how Rather’s ratings have plummeted. I mean, who among us didn’t know he didn’t lean to the left? I thought his fans would at least appreciate the effort. (Of course, he looks like very much centrist compared to NPR.)
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Nance said on September 29, 2004 at 3:27 pm
I need to get out among The People more?
I live in the deepest heart of red-state America. I’m surrounded by people who believe Ronald Reagan should go on Mount Rushmore (or at least have the Fort Wayne beltway named for him), that Rush Limbaugh speaks the truth as revealed by God and Bill Clinton is the spawn of Satan himself. Fort Wayne calls itself the City of Churches. The newspapers print, daily, letters from people who would shoot Michael Moore on sight, but not before praying for divine help in keeping their aim steady.
I choose to listen to NPR not for its “bias,” but because they consistently deliver the best available ratio of news:bullshit. Also, I can do other things while I’m listening, which I can’t do with TV. Air America isn’t even available here. I mean, not within hundreds of miles.
I didn’t know that about Pinkwater. Of course, USA Today sent Ann Coulter to cover the Democrats. Neither one was looking for “coverage” in the traditional sense, but point-of-view commentary that would flatter at least some part of the audience and outrage the rest enough that they’d tune in just to be pissed off.
Anyway, why is it that a person like me, who thinks moderate-lefty, must be a product of liberal-media brainwashing, while the people around me, who think moderate-right to hard-right (You want to know something you hear around here a lot? “The problem with Bush is, he’s not conservative enough for me.”), reached their positions through clear-headed thought, Bible reading and hard experience. Juuuust wondering.
Back to “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” then.
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alex said on September 29, 2004 at 6:13 pm
Amen hallelujah, Nance! Speaking of liberal media, where might I find some? I can’t even get Air America in Chicago�did you know that?�thanks to the conservative media baron who moved heaven and earth just to keep it out.
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Lance Mannion said on September 29, 2004 at 6:46 pm
Dadgum it, Nance, because if you had thunk it all through, if you had done some living, instead of that brie eatin’, white-wine swillin’, opry-lisnin’, head in the clouds, daydreamin’ you call livin’, and if you had read your Bible, you’d be a Republican like all the good born again Hoosiers around you.
Look, sez right here in the Scripture.
Matthew 6:19. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…” No, wait.
Matthew 6:6. “When you pray, go into your room, close the…” Nope.
Mark 10:25. “It is easier for a camel…” Hold on.
Luke 18:22. “Sell everything and give to the…” Um…
All right, I can’t find it right now. But, it’s in there, all about cutting taxes on the rich and supporting your president or else you’re a traitor and global warming being a liberal hoax. Trust me, whole dadblame Republican platform’s in there. I’ll look it up. But God’s a Republican and he chose George Bush to be our leader in this time of trouble and woe!
And what’s the matter with Kansas? Nothing, far as I can tell. Good God fearing folk there. Didn’t you read Elmer Gantry?
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Maureen said on September 29, 2004 at 7:49 pm
I’ll leave aside the political bitchiness. It’s tedious.
Your post made me wonder what CBS means to your personal line of work, Nancy. I also stopped watching network news two decades ago. But within the past two years I also have stopped reading the local (San Diego) paper for anything but Metro/ Dear Abby/ Doonesbury/ Letters to the Editor. (Amusing clash between military town types and the rabidly blue staters.) I get my news and analysis from books, magazines, internet news, and blogs.
When I travel, I read the big national papers (NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post), and I laugh myself silly thinking that people read these papers for international and national news and think they are informed. I know this Dan Rather flap has many crying Ding Dong, but it was way over before it was over. A similar fate seems to be awaiting newspapers, and I guess it just worries/surprises me that someone with your talents is tied to its chains. I’m sure your year away sparked many ideas about journalism and your future. Wanna share?
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Nance said on September 29, 2004 at 9:17 pm
Who is tied to newspapers? I’ve hardly been a shrinking violet with my thoughts on that subject. Although, I’m always curious, when people say they read the big guns and laugh derisively at the idea of being informed by such a thing — what *is* informative for you? Where do you get your national/international news that makes you feel informed?
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deb said on September 29, 2004 at 9:35 pm
hear, hear. for all its warts, the fourth estate is still my go-to source. if i see a squib or a factoid about something that interests me on tv — and face it, that’s about all you get, a mere appetizer — i go to a traditional print medium to learn more. the internet is fine, but any yutz out there can say whatever the hell he wants and pass it off as gospel truth. newspapers are at least expected to be accountable to their readers for what they print.
maureen, i think it’s too bad you’ve given up on your local paper. do you really think “books, magazines, internet news and blogs” tell you everything you need to know about the community where you live?
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Maureen said on September 30, 2004 at 2:17 am
What makes me feel informed???? A good question and one that I haven’t explictly asked myself.
Let’s see. When I get diametrically opposed political solicitations in the same day’s mail. (Often involving Hillary Clinton, but not always.) When I click through on a link and read the 94 page source document. When I go on Amazon, buy, and then read the full 9/11 commission report. When I toss a book off my bed in disgust and then pick it up and finish the chapter a half hour later. When I talk politics with good friends and they end up yelling at me. I guess I feel informed because it feels like exercise. Because I am often challenged, because my views have evolved.
And yes, I do read my local paper almost exclusively for the local news. (They call it “Metro” here.) We also get two micro-local papers delivered to our house without a subscription (don’t know the industry term), and I find them the most satisfying of all.
Anyway, I didn’t mean to offend. It is just that it is beginning to feel like the end of an era for newspapers as they are currently defined, and I am curious about your thoughts on that and what “new media” means to you now that you have had the opportunity to noodle on that for a while.
So, 6FU or the Wire?
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4dbirds said on September 30, 2004 at 11:29 am
Yes, this is all interesting but in what font do you publish your blog?
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KCK said on September 30, 2004 at 12:31 pm
Except for the links in box on left:
font-family: times new roman, palatino, georgia, serif
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Nance said on September 30, 2004 at 3:43 pm
It is an end of an era for newspapers, and anyone who knows me and reads me regularly knows I’ve been making this point for years now. Unfortunately, my year at UMich didn’t give me the answer, or I’d be raking it in as a consultant now, not arising at 3:45 a.m. to work the desk.
Maybe my point got lost: I’m taking issue with the idea that any one news source is The Source for anyone these days. Like Maureen, I read everything with a filter in place. I don’t believe everything I hear on NPR, nor what I read in the NYT, WSJ, WashPost and all the other places I go for journalistic sustenance. So when someone says, tra la, Dan Rather and CBS have been knocked off their Tiffany pedestal, I’m just baffled. What pedestal?
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