Sense of Events: Buh-bye, Current TV!
Now, all that remains is for the Obama Administration to bail it out via a back-door means such as an educational or 'investment' grant, and threaten Time-Warner with unshirted perdition if they drop the network.
After all, every banana republic regime needs its own official outlet, even if no one watches it.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Doctored Audio Files, NBC News, Treyvon, George Zimmerman...And OS's Friend Julie
NBC has just issued a non-apology/apology for having released a fatally doctored 911 conversation between Mr. Zimmerman and the 911 call center, shortly before the fatal shooting of Mr. Martin.
The tersely-worded statement admits to 'an error', but mainly projects the tone of someone who regrets getting caught in a nefarious act.
Conscience? Schmoncience! Conscience is for suckers like you, something to be manipulated by organizations like NBC News.
Outside The Beltway reported how NBC News was outed, but by that time, the damage had been done.
The Narrative (White America Seeks To Destroy Black America) was carried forward, the hysteria was ramped up, the race-and-fear mongers from all corners began to foam at the mouth once again.
Doug Mataconis offers sane words:
What. A. Mess. This may not end well at all.
OS has two observations to offer:
1. OS has edited hundreds of audio files in his lifetime, beginning back in the day when he and his engineers would stay up until the wee hours with strong coffee, razor blades, a cutting block and non-magnetic blue tape and a wax marker to locate 'just the spot' to cut analog tape, to the present day with software, editing down to the specific wavelength for a clean edit. The process is essentially unchanged, just a bit quicker these days.
There is no way that the edit of a sound file is a mistake. It is a most deliberate act, requiring expertise, equipment, and multiple reviews of the results of edits, in order to make certain they are clean. Noise floors and levels must match, timing must sound natural and in tempo. The edited version released was not a mistake, it was a deliberate fabrication, because it could not be anything but a fabrication. The release of the edited version was not a mistake, but rather a deliberate act to generate news. If it were perchance released by an editor who did not review the source of the sound file, that would be a grossly negligent act--a firing offense, demonstrating the editor held a callous view of factual reportage. It appears no one was, or will be, fired for this. But again, there is no way that the edit of a sound file is a mistake, simple physics being what it is.
2. A more personal side to this story lives in OS's world. He has a young friend, who shall be named Julie. A more delightful young lady would be hard to find. Brought up in humble circumstances, graduated a private university with high marks, with a great first job, cheerful, positive, she is a devout Protestant and a political conservative. She happens to be black. Julie has already let it be known that she does not appreciate the race-baiting by Revs. Sharpton and Jackson, as horrified as she is by young Mr. Martin's death. But now, the crazies on the Left will suspect her of 'collaboration' of 'being an Oreo', and the belligerent racists on the Right will assume she can't be trusted, because, after all, she's a black young woman, and we knooooow what they're like, etc...
Everyone is so eager to advance Their Narrative (They, whoever They are, are out to get Us), that people like Julie may easily end up in the crossfire. She knows how to find her way to Mr. and Mrs. Os's house, and OS has urged her to put his phone number on her speed-dial, just in case.
Please, everyone. Take a deep breath.
The tersely-worded statement admits to 'an error', but mainly projects the tone of someone who regrets getting caught in a nefarious act.
Conscience? Schmoncience! Conscience is for suckers like you, something to be manipulated by organizations like NBC News.
Outside The Beltway reported how NBC News was outed, but by that time, the damage had been done.
The Narrative (White America Seeks To Destroy Black America) was carried forward, the hysteria was ramped up, the race-and-fear mongers from all corners began to foam at the mouth once again.
Doug Mataconis offers sane words:
This episode is just the worst example of what we’ve been seeing, from both sides of the political world, with regard to this case. We’ve got people purporting to do frame-by-frame analysis of the video of Zimmerman arriving in the garage of the Sanford Police Department to either prove or disprove the assertion that he had been injured during a fight with Trayvon Martin prior to firing his gun. This morning, a Florida newspaper published a story about a “voice analysis expert” purporting to examine the screams heard on one of the 911 calls even though he has absolutely no exemplars of Trayvon Martin’s voice and only old, recorded exemplars of George Zimmerman’s voice. In all likelihood neither of these analyses would be admissible in Court because of the dubious science behind them. In the case of the jail video, there’s considerable doubt that it would be admissible for any purpose because it is generally considered that photographs of the Defendant in handcuffs or prison garb are prejudicial and not to be shown to the jury except under extraordinary circumstances (even if it is shown, the “analysis” would have to be a lot more scientifically rigorous than any of the nonsense I’ve seen in the blogosphere). This case is being tried in the court of public opinion and, for the most part, people are making judgments about George Zimmerman’s guilt or innocence, or Trayvon Martin’s possible aggressiveness, based on their preconceived political notions and not on anything close to objective fact.Radio personality Michael Baisden, on the other hand, has hitched his wagon to The Narrative. OS has been listening in over the past few days, and Baisden's language is emotional gasoline being poured upon the cultural fire.
What. A. Mess. This may not end well at all.
OS has two observations to offer:
1. OS has edited hundreds of audio files in his lifetime, beginning back in the day when he and his engineers would stay up until the wee hours with strong coffee, razor blades, a cutting block and non-magnetic blue tape and a wax marker to locate 'just the spot' to cut analog tape, to the present day with software, editing down to the specific wavelength for a clean edit. The process is essentially unchanged, just a bit quicker these days.
There is no way that the edit of a sound file is a mistake. It is a most deliberate act, requiring expertise, equipment, and multiple reviews of the results of edits, in order to make certain they are clean. Noise floors and levels must match, timing must sound natural and in tempo. The edited version released was not a mistake, it was a deliberate fabrication, because it could not be anything but a fabrication. The release of the edited version was not a mistake, but rather a deliberate act to generate news. If it were perchance released by an editor who did not review the source of the sound file, that would be a grossly negligent act--a firing offense, demonstrating the editor held a callous view of factual reportage. It appears no one was, or will be, fired for this. But again, there is no way that the edit of a sound file is a mistake, simple physics being what it is.
2. A more personal side to this story lives in OS's world. He has a young friend, who shall be named Julie. A more delightful young lady would be hard to find. Brought up in humble circumstances, graduated a private university with high marks, with a great first job, cheerful, positive, she is a devout Protestant and a political conservative. She happens to be black. Julie has already let it be known that she does not appreciate the race-baiting by Revs. Sharpton and Jackson, as horrified as she is by young Mr. Martin's death. But now, the crazies on the Left will suspect her of 'collaboration' of 'being an Oreo', and the belligerent racists on the Right will assume she can't be trusted, because, after all, she's a black young woman, and we knooooow what they're like, etc...
Everyone is so eager to advance Their Narrative (They, whoever They are, are out to get Us), that people like Julie may easily end up in the crossfire. She knows how to find her way to Mr. and Mrs. Os's house, and OS has urged her to put his phone number on her speed-dial, just in case.
Please, everyone. Take a deep breath.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Horrified But Not Surprised Department: Helen Thomas Collects A Journalism Prize From The PLO
As mentioned before, OS is horrified, but not shocked.
The Jerusalem Post article linked above tells the immediate tale.
OS has other questions, along the lines of:
Didn't any of the Best and Brightest of the Washington/YewNorkCity press corps not have an inkling of this woman's virulently anti-Semitic views?
Wouldn't it be plausible to ask if she had acted as an agent of the PLO over the years, feeding Arafat and company the inside gossip and info from the White House? She was revered, treated with deference, a true insider's insider. She was tiny little lady who was traditionally called upon first at Presidential press conferences, harmless by all appearances.
Until she was 'outed' a couple of years ago, it would have been completely unthinkable to even raise the questions about her in public--wouldn't wish to appear sexist, you know. Or disrespectful to harmless little old ladies.
Why do the press get to ask all the questions of us, and we never get to ask questions of them?
Why do they presume to always occupy some mythical moral high ground, especially if they adhere to the dogma of the Left?
Why?
The Jerusalem Post article linked above tells the immediate tale.
OS has other questions, along the lines of:
Didn't any of the Best and Brightest of the Washington/YewNorkCity press corps not have an inkling of this woman's virulently anti-Semitic views?
Wouldn't it be plausible to ask if she had acted as an agent of the PLO over the years, feeding Arafat and company the inside gossip and info from the White House? She was revered, treated with deference, a true insider's insider. She was tiny little lady who was traditionally called upon first at Presidential press conferences, harmless by all appearances.
Until she was 'outed' a couple of years ago, it would have been completely unthinkable to even raise the questions about her in public--wouldn't wish to appear sexist, you know. Or disrespectful to harmless little old ladies.
Why do the press get to ask all the questions of us, and we never get to ask questions of them?
Why do they presume to always occupy some mythical moral high ground, especially if they adhere to the dogma of the Left?
Why?
Sunday, April 1, 2012
The Vilified Peter Hitchens Once Again Speaks With Moral Clarity
Perhaps moral clarity is what makes him a target?
In any case, a good example from today's column:
To avoid false accusations of ‘racism’ from the Thought Police, I have to make the following statement of the blindingly obvious: I think Liam Stacey, who made nasty comments about the collapse of a footballer, is a callous, foul-mouthed, drink-sodden moron. Is that clear?
Can I now go on to say that I don’t think much of a criminal justice system that sends him to prison for expressing his ‘views’ on the internet. The same system repeatedly leaves at liberty violent thieves and louts.
For example, Kazeem Kolawole, one of the gang who ruined the life of Thusha Kamaleswaran – the six-year-old girl shot in a shop in London – was free to do this evil only because he had been spared prison after beating up a schoolgirl, and was on bail (of course) for carrying a knife. Now, if only Kolawole had made a racist remark he would have been safely locked up.
How many different things are wrong with a country in which a little girl’s happy life is transformed in an instant into misery by a bullet flying through a suburban shop? How many of them are we even allowed to discuss in public without being howled down? Thusha’s ordeal has only just begun. As long as we have the sort of Government we now have, there will be more of these horrors.
Hitchens refuses to act the partisan, this party or that, because he knows that the issue before the West is not some disagreement on approach regarding governance of free society, but the survival of the idea of free society. He correctly sees that many in positions of leadership in the culture are morally blind and historically ignorant. He knows what awaits us, should we continue this course.
The quote taken from his column today is found at the very end. The truly sobering words precede it, as he makes his observations about Peter Cruddas' charming practice of selling access to power for cold hard cash.
In any case, a good example from today's column:
To avoid false accusations of ‘racism’ from the Thought Police, I have to make the following statement of the blindingly obvious: I think Liam Stacey, who made nasty comments about the collapse of a footballer, is a callous, foul-mouthed, drink-sodden moron. Is that clear?
Can I now go on to say that I don’t think much of a criminal justice system that sends him to prison for expressing his ‘views’ on the internet. The same system repeatedly leaves at liberty violent thieves and louts.
For example, Kazeem Kolawole, one of the gang who ruined the life of Thusha Kamaleswaran – the six-year-old girl shot in a shop in London – was free to do this evil only because he had been spared prison after beating up a schoolgirl, and was on bail (of course) for carrying a knife. Now, if only Kolawole had made a racist remark he would have been safely locked up.
How many different things are wrong with a country in which a little girl’s happy life is transformed in an instant into misery by a bullet flying through a suburban shop? How many of them are we even allowed to discuss in public without being howled down? Thusha’s ordeal has only just begun. As long as we have the sort of Government we now have, there will be more of these horrors.
Hitchens refuses to act the partisan, this party or that, because he knows that the issue before the West is not some disagreement on approach regarding governance of free society, but the survival of the idea of free society. He correctly sees that many in positions of leadership in the culture are morally blind and historically ignorant. He knows what awaits us, should we continue this course.
The quote taken from his column today is found at the very end. The truly sobering words precede it, as he makes his observations about Peter Cruddas' charming practice of selling access to power for cold hard cash.
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