Selling Bad News

[iplaw]

quote:Originally posted by NellieBly

I guess this would be just like watching television. If you don't like what they are reporting on, don't read it, watch it, etc. Just keep watching Fox they report on all kinds of wonderfully happy news out of Iraq every day don't they. Bill O'Really can't even keep a straight face while reporting on all the happy school children each night -- Oh wait, he's too busy calling people names and crank calling women.

You apparently have never watched his program because he's extremely critical of the war in Iraq and the Bush administration on several fronts, in fact, Cheney refuses to go on the program.  O'Reilly considers Iraq to be a debacle and a huge mess.

Do you ever really research anything before you post?

[iplaw]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

At full employment and with strange factors to consider (housing, immigration, war) I'm amazed the figure keeps being that strong.  I suppose the weak dollar is really helping exports and drawing foreign capital investment.

A friend of mine is a CFP and was mentioning to me the other day that there have been 54 or 55 consecutive months without a major market correction (that being at least 6%).  The average is 14 months, which I thought was interesting.

[Rico]

The new findings come after years of insistence by American officials in Baghdad that too much attention has been paid to the failures in Iraq and not enough to the successes.

Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh, commander of the Gulf Region Division of the Army Corps, told a news conference in Baghdad late last month that with so much coverage of violence in Iraq "what you don't see are the successes in the reconstruction program, how reconstruction is making a difference in the lives of everyday Iraqi people."

And those declared successes are heavily promoted by the United States government. A 2006 news release by the Army Corps, titled "Erbil Maternity and Pediatric Hospital — not just bricks and mortar!" praises both the new water purification system and the incinerator. The incinerator, the release said, would "keep medical waste from entering into the solid waste and water systems."

But when Mr. Bowen's office presented the Army Corps with the finding that neither system was working at the struggling hospital and recommended a training program so that Iraqis could properly operate the equipment, General Walsh tersely disagreed with the recommendation in a letter appended to the report, which also noted that the building had suffered damage because workers used excess amounts of water to clean the floors.

The bureau within the United States Embassy in Baghdad that oversees reconstruction in Iraq was even more dismissive, disagreeing with all four of the inspector general's recommendations, including those suggesting that the United States should lend advice on disposing of the waste and maintaining the floors.

"Recommendations such as how much water to use in cleaning floors or disposal of medical waste could be deemed as an intrusion on, or attempt to micromanage operations of an Iraqi entity that we have no controlling interest over," wrote William Lynch, acting director of the embassy bureau, called the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/world/middleeast/29reconstruct.html?incamp=article_popular_5



Si.... Como No...!

[cannon_fodder]

While it is true that too much attention is being focused on the negatives, I think that is at leas tin part because the American people were prepared for a short conflict.  Mentally, the population, the congress, and the military prepared for a 1 or 2 year engagement to wipe out Saddam and set up a new state.

Poor planning I'm afraid.  Thank the gods for hindsight.

[iplaw]

quote:
Si.... Como No...!

Exactly Conan's point.  Out of the hundreds of great things I listed, you sifted through to find the one (NYT story might I add)story that's bad and tried to paint the entire operation as a loss.  You should be ashamed of yourself for minimizing the hard work of our men and women.

I'd love to see you take this line of argumentation and pose it to a returning service person and see the look on their face when you tell them that all the work they're doing is a joke.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

While it is true that too much attention is being focused on the negatives, I think that is at leas tin part because the American people were prepared for a short conflict.  Mentally, the population, the congress, and the military prepared for a 1 or 2 year engagement to wipe out Saddam and set up a new state.

Poor planning I'm afraid.  Thank the gods for hindsight.

That was the biggest PR gaffe leading up to the invasion of Iraq.  They tried to sell it as a 12 to 24 month effort, at the longest.

Can you imagine how long we would have been in Germany or Japan after WWII if there had been random sectarian violence?

Rico- I realize there is cause for concern about the projects.  It certainly concerns me, but not to the point of saying everything, every day sucks in Iraq.  The story goes on to say this was a random sampling of eight projects out of several thousand.

[inteller]

lets stop talking about bad national news here for a sec and concentrate on local news.  It seems that the local stations are GOING OUT OF THEIR WAY to find bad news about Tulsa.

A CHILD WAS KIDNAPPED IN SOUTH TULSA but escaped within two blocks

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

lets stop talking about bad national news here for a sec and concentrate on local news.  It seems that the local stations are GOING OUT OF THEIR WAY to find bad news about Tulsa.

A CHILD WAS KIDNAPPED IN SOUTH TULSA but escaped within two blocks

Becomes hardly newsworthy after the seventh word, eh?[]

[Breadburner]

Getting to those is kids in Iraq and the middle east educated will go a long ways towards making a major dent in terrorism....The dividends will pay back 10 times 20 years from now....

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

quote:Originally posted by inteller

lets stop talking about bad national news here for a sec and concentrate on local news.  It seems that the local stations are GOING OUT OF THEIR WAY to find bad news about Tulsa.

A CHILD WAS KIDNAPPED IN SOUTH TULSA but escaped within two blocks

have you ever put in tulsa on the google news search?  rarely do you actually come up with a news article of substance, it is usually a sports article.  That is very sad.
Becomes hardly newsworthy after the seventh word, eh?[]

[mr.jaynes]

quote:Originally posted by NellieBly

I guess this would be just like watching television. If you don't like what they are reporting on, don't read it, watch it, etc. Just keep watching Fox they report on all kinds of wonderfully happy news out of Iraq every day don't they. Bill O'Really can't even keep a straight face while reporting on all the happy school children each night -- Oh wait, he's too busy calling people names and crank calling women.

Fox News: Your Network for Innuendo, Spin and Propoganda!

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by mr.jaynes

quote:Originally posted by NellieBly

I guess this would be just like watching television. If you don't like what they are reporting on, don't read it, watch it, etc. Just keep watching Fox they report on all kinds of wonderfully happy news out of Iraq every day don't they. Bill O'Really can't even keep a straight face while reporting on all the happy school children each night -- Oh wait, he's too busy calling people names and crank calling women.

Fox News: Your Network for Innuendo, Spin and Propoganda!

Yeah, just one of about 100 news purveyors of "Innuendo, Spin and Propoganda!" if you have digital or satelite.  

We all tend to believe what ever slant there is to the news as long as it fits our own paradigms.  Nelly obviously thinks Fox only sells lies and everyone else is right.  That's her paradigm.  Personally, I don't agree.  I believe they are all making a living by telling their identified market what they want to hear so they can get good ad revenue.

I really posted this to see if anyone else really casts a critical eye at what is thrown at us as news every day.

If you read the story on jobs I posted, how could anyone come away as thinking this was bad news?  Unless you were pre-disposed to either believe that any accomplishment in the current economy is tainted due to the President, or if you are just terminally pessimistic?

I watch all the news channels from 41 through 52.  Yes, even though I'm conservative, I keep an eye on what are reputed to be the more liberal commentators, including Olbermann- even though it pains me to contribute to his ratings, or was that rantings? [].  Mainly, I watch a variety of commentators because I don't think any single journalist deserves a free pass and there are too many paradigms and too many people trying to "market" news.

[mr.jaynes]

I have watched-and still do watch Fox News as part of my attempts to know what's going on in the world; I may add that in my salon, Fox News is the designated "newschannel" where we get our information. On my own, I'll watch CNN, and the NBC channels as well. Having watched it on a regular basis, I will allow that some of it technically qualifies the channel for being designated a news channel, and that I haven't picked up a bias in all of its reportage, but that's not to say that its reportage echoes a right-wing bias.

For instance, Shepard Smith doesn't betray a right-wing bias in his reading of the news (or as far as I can tell), but I think I know where Jane Skinner is coming from half the time in terms of political bias. The guys on "Fox and Friends," specifically Brian Kilmeade (a former sportscaster with obvious delusions of punditry) and Steve Doocy (a former kids' show host/meteoroligist) obviously not only toe the current administration's party line, but seem to be among its most ardent advocates.

Rent the documentary "Outfoxed," it'll really open your eyes!