Silly media

75. I went into college as a Journalism major and graduated as a journalism major, but I never had any illusions of desiring to be a journalist.

I actually hate it when people attack ‘the media.’ I’ve probably stated why in the past, but for those of you too lazy to click on links, I’ll summarize my previous position here:

There is no singular ‘media.’ Media refers to many individual mediums. It’s a form of mass communication: it’s a tool to reach people. As a tool, it seems silly to accuse it of being biased or sensationalistic. I think what people mean when they attack ‘the media’ is ‘the press,’ which is a set of journalists, pundits, politicians, operatives, and specialists that devote themselves to a particular trade.

That’s generally been the reason I hate it when people attack ‘the media.’ Because by doing so, they assume that the media is one unified entity, whereas in reality it is dozens of organizations that are all influenced by events and each other.

Jon Stewart thinks about the media as a bunch of six year olds playing soccer. They all huddle to the ball and kick it around a bit, then when someone kicks it away, they all run after it. He thinks it’s ’scandal driven.’ Which it is.

My point, and it’s a small one, is that I want people to stop attacking ‘the media,’ because it will never change if we don’t start saying what we mean.

My solution is the simple, obvious one. Instead of attacking the media, we should attack individuals and shows. How soon would media coverage change if people would say stuff like, “this isn’t helped by scandal-driven shows like AC360, Countdown, and the O’Reilly Factor.”

In other words: ‘media’ has no accountability. You can attack it all day long and nothing will change. But if you pick and choose various members of the media in order to point out particular aspects that you don’t approve of, wouldn’t that inspire change?

May 10, 2008 at 8:47 am | In note to self | | No Comments

It’s not about charity, it’s about the humanity

74. I sometimes wonder what constitutes a ‘kiss’ or a ‘first time’ or ‘taboo in most cultures.’  I wonder about this for reasons that I’ll take to my grave… unless you read this and choose to e-mail me.

There are three timely things that I wish to post about today, so I’ll order them by importance and then fudge the dates later on so that you don’t feel cheated when I finally write about the other things.

I’d heard about the cyclone in Myanmar Monday, but didn’t think about it until today when I heard that the death toll might be as high as 100,000. I also heard about the damage to the local industry and the ruining of the country’s rice harvest for the year and realized how serious it was. Suddenly, I realized that my own problems (”do these pants make me look fat?”) were rather silly in comparison.

I thought about donating money to the relief effort. I mean, whenever anyone asks me for change, no matter how sure I am that I’m being cheated, I think about how I don’t need to ask anyone for anything. Even if they’re lying to me, their life is still worse off than mine because they’re coming up to me, so I don’t feel bad in giving people a few bucks.

But the worst-off American is still loads better off than some of the people in Myanmar right now. And, even if the country is refusing to give visas to some relief workers, they still need any help I could muster. Especially since the risk of waterborne illnesses increases with every passing day.

I was too young, oblivious, and broke in 2004 to donate to the tsunami relief and I was in Australia when New Orleans flooded, but now I have no excuse. Now, no matter how dire my own finances may seem, I can still afford to help out the relief effort.

In fact, I can do more than that. I can ask all of my friends to give me a small amount of money and add it up to make a much greater impact than any of us could do individually. I mean, how many people don’t donate because nobody ever asked? How many don’t give money because of how inconvenient it is?

If just a few people around the world could serve as ‘bundlers’ and get others to donate, then think of the impact we could have. I’m going to try to raise some $200+ from my (college-age) friends and donate it. You could too, if you like.

I’m going to Digg and Stumbleupon this post. I hope you don’t mind.

Click below to find out more about how you can help. All of these charities have high Charity Navigator ratings and have set up special Myanmar-related pleas for help. The first few have already gotten some relief effort and supplies into the country, the rest will do so within days or hours:

• World Vision
• Save the Children
• CARE
• Unicef
• The International Rescue Committee
• International Red Cross
• World Food Programme
• Action AID USA
• International Medical Corps
• Medical Assistance Programs International
• Oxfam
• Doctors Without Borders
• Direct Relief International

May 9, 2008 at 10:20 am | In advocacy | | 4 Comments

One more thing that will never come to pass

73. My home town is not incorporated, but some estimates put us between 10,000 and 25,000 people. I also live about ten minutes from El Paso, Texas and a half an hour from the Mexican border. So I’ve grown up with a very weird sense of identity.

We’ve reached the era of 24-hour news programs with 24-minute news cycles. Unfortunately, the nature of this medium (friggin’ TV) has led to proportionally shrunken attention spans. As a result of this, political mistruths and claims have gotten to the point where they are analyzed in completely different cycles than when they are said.

Here’s an idea: instant fact checking during live events. It’s possible. I mean, places like 2008 Central already provide live blogging of presidential debates. All it would take would be a special C-SPANlike channel with FactCheck.orglike knowledge and American Idolstyle immediacy.

So, of course, it will never happen.

But a boy can dream, can’t he? I mean, can you just imagine what it would be like to see a debate that went something like this:

“We can solve the budget deficit by cutting wasteful spending”

(Note: ‘wasteful’ includes 15 percent from education, 33 percent of social programs, and 8 percent from transportation.
Source: Candidate X’s campaign Web site)

p.s. Candidate X’s record on the economy scares me.

May 8, 2008 at 3:09 pm | In note to self | | No Comments

Who’s more to blame: me for writing this, or you for reading it?

72.  Every male member of my extended family (on both sides) can grow awesome facial hair.  My brother and I, however, cannot.  It’s embarrassingly frustrating.

I feel like a Sonnet-writer that has never been in love.  Or a rock and roller that does not have a ‘baby.’  Or a Hallmark greeting card writer without a special occasion.

Hmm.  I think I’ll do a few more similes before I get to the point.

Perhaps I’m like a novelist without character, or a soap opera with trustworthy relatives, or a joke without a punchline.

I have something I really want to write about today.  Really, really.  It’s something that I ordered on eBay almost twelve days ago.  In fact, I ordered it right after I wrote this post.

This year’s project was supposed to be to read my weight in books, but then I realized that I read far too many things online and as articles so that my total book weight would be vastly underreported.  So, after realizing I had only read one (paperback) book in four months, I decided to  start a new project. (I did this last year too.  I switched from this project to this one.)

And, thanks to my trusty new widget, I found out that my new camera would be delivered today.  But I have not received it yet, the FedEx guy is still AWOL.  And what could I say about it without getting it yet?  I mean, would anyone really want to read an entire blog post about something that hasn’t really arrived yet?

And if so, how could I fool them into not being angry afterward?

Update: Actually, I already got the camera, I just didn’t want to write a post that would require me to take pictures.  You understand.

May 7, 2008 at 1:41 pm | In note to self | | No Comments

nabµf # 12 of 29

71.  Every year since high school, my friends and I walk across ‘the gap’ in the mountain.  We’ve grown to hate the tradition in the past seven years.  After college, I’m thinking a ‘drinking’ tradition is in order.

Teenage Pixel was going to graduate from high school and he wanted to do something special to symbolize the passage from one stage of his life to another.  As Pixel’s school had been on the other side of the mountain, he thought a very symbolic thing to do would be to walk across it on the last day of school.

Pixel had somehow talked his friends Frank and Alethea to walk with him.  The day came and the three of them layered sunscreen on, ready to hike the ten miles home in time for the pool party they’d set up at the end.

The trio began the hike talking jovially of what they had accomplished in the past four years, wondering what would be in store for them in the future.  Would they get a doctorate?  Would they have a child?  Would they live with their girlfriend of four years as they worked on their seventh and final year of a philosophy major?

Then, about halfway through they began thinking crazy thoughts and staring at each other with hatred.  They stopped for water and sandwiches, but suddenly the hike didn’t seem so brilliant anymore.

Finally, they hitchhiked walked across the last stretch of the mountain and arrived at Pixel’s house and jumped in the pool to start the party.  Unfortunately, it had not been an hour since their sandwiches and Pixel’s leg cramped.  He sunk to the bottom of the pool and drowned.  He died of an old wives’ tale.

May 6, 2008 at 12:04 pm | In nabµf | | 3 Comments