In a message dated 9/6/2005 10:51:02 AM Eastern Standard Time,
tom.aiken@gmail.com writes:
> Tom Aiken wrote:
> >
> >>That is an AP story, picked up by media all over the world.
> >>
> >>Here it is in the UK.
> >>http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5239074,00.html
> >>
> >>So you are claiming Associated Press is lying?
>
The "dirty secret" of the news business is that it is always wrong. Just
think, have you ever watched a ball game and than read the news coverage?
Didn't
you wonder if it was the same game that you had watched?
Here are a few of the "headlines" that make me wonder:
"Cannabilism in New Orleans" The story then reports that there are "rumors"
that people in the "Dome" are eating corpses.
"Thousands Dead". At that time there were 8 verifiable deaths. The story then
went on to quote "newsmakers" as saying "there may be as many as several
thousand dead". If I have it correctly, the present count is 60. 60 is
certainly a
very regrettable number, but is quite far from "several thousand".
I am reminded of the "missing children" scam of the late 80's. The makers of
IdentiKit, began it by quoting the Congressional Record, where a Senator said
"There may be as many as 500,000 missing children". If I am not mistaken the
number of verifiable "missing children" boiled down to 143 (not counting
children who had run away or were living with a divorced parent). For a few
years
500,000 "missing children" was gospel. Then serious people began making a
count.
Meanwhile Identikit made a fortune. "there may be as many as", has such great
deniability.
Associated Press "lying" I shudder at the thought. Of course they wouldn't,
neither would Dan Rather.
Tom Faust
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