Big Media Misses The Point

Will Collier has a pithy response;

Media No Comments

The recent Pew study on trust levels in the media has been generating some discussion. Typically, the media who is shown to be overwhelmingly distrusted, doesn’t even notice. CNN’s Matthew Furman rejoices.

“”We’re obviously pleased — once again we’ve been voted the most trusted news organization in America.”

Memo to Matthew Furman: When 68% of your potential audience doesn’t trust you, you don’t have any reason to brag.

As one of the commenters says – give America credit.

Frankie

June 10, 2004

Dogblogging 12 Comments

14 years ago this month, I spent a very long, tiring day and night tending to the birth of a litter of puppies. When it was finally finished, I had a male and female puppy to show for my efforts – efforts, as it turned out, that were just beginning.
The mother was an older dog, one I had leased at considerable expense from a breeder in New York. Things started out well enough, but after a few days it was clear something was wrong. The puppies refused to gain weight. Her milk had turned toxic and they had to be removed and raised on a bottle.
Bottle feeding newborns is round the clock work. Every two hours they require feeding, then burping and cleaning. Night and day. It means guarding their temperature carefully – they cannot control it on their own. It means packing them in a little beer cooler to take to work with you. And usually, it means some will not survive despite your best efforts. The male died when he was a week old.
The remaining female was thus plunged into the perfect storm of dog psychology – a hand raised “singleton”. No competition from littermates. No discipline from an experienced mother. No rough and tumble games to learn the rules of bite inhibition. A surefire recipe for creating a canine sociopath with no fear.
And, it goes without saying, absolutely no gratitude.
By the time she was 6 weeks old, “Frankie” was a beady eyed package of self-centered malevolence – utterly without respect or remorse, demanding instant gratification. A cuddle was as likely to draw teeth as it was a “kiss”. Attempting to discipline her into submission could send one to the emergency room for digit reattachment.

This was my type of dog.
And she was beautiful.

She became officially known as Am/Can Champion Minuteman I Eat Tigers.
Frankie had a pretty respectable show career, ending up top female in the country in 1992. She was bred and had two top producing champion sons – she has descendants all over the world now. But, unlike most of my other show dogs, she was never placed in a retirement home, and has been the bane of my existence ever since.
She’s become especially baneful as of late.

A few days short of 14, she has long ago lost her springy step, her keen sense of hearing and her teeth. She sleeps 23 hours a day, waking only to eat and pee on my floor and occasionally, wander aimlessly about. On her bad days, I am the personal servant of a four legged ill tempered boa constrictor. On her good days, I am the personal servant of a four legged ill tempered boa constrictor – the only difference being the intensity with which her gums snap together in the air as she whirls around to strike.
In the fleeting moments that she is awake, she travels in stiff-legged, drunken, random bounds that do not always direct her in a meaningful direction. She gets stuck in corners, having completely lost reverse gear. She has become known as the “pinball pogo-stick dog”.
And she has forgotten how to get home.
Yesterday, I put her outside to enjoy a bit of sun in a warm part of the yard. The gate was closed, but the yard is not secure. I brought her in a little while later.
Or I thought I had. The hours rolled by into late afternoon, and it was time to feed the dogs. As I mixed bowls, I reached for Frankie’s and as I did, realized that I had not seen her for some time. Did I bring her in? I honestly couldn’t remember. A check of the yard revealed no old dog standing around in a daze, and two surveys of the dog run area confirmed I hadn’t put her out there.
Perhaps she had gone around the end of the garden and wandered down the sidewalk. It’s happened before.
I walked out to trace her usual path – she always wanders to the light pole at the corner to check out the smells, then heads north with the down slope of the street. Path of least resistance. How far north depends upon how long she’s left to wander. She’s not a fast mover. And if she encounters something solid, she will usually just stop and lean against it.
I searched up the street and the neighbor’s yard. No Frankie. No point in calling her name, as she either can’t hear, or doesn’t care to. Time for the bicycle.
I rode up and down the streets for at least an hour, down all the back alleys, along the golf course behind my house – slowly, checking in yards, under hedges, stopping to ask people on the street. Nobody had seen a thing. Finally, I decided that it was time to check back at the house in the improbable hope that she had turned back around and headed south to come in for dinner.
No Frankie. Time to get the truck out and have a proper look. As I walked through the kitchen to get my truck keys, something caught the corner of my eye.

Like I said, she has no reverse.
Frankie isn’t going to be with me for very much longer. She has an aggressive mammary tumour and it’s grown to a size that can no longer be ignored, and that will soon become painful , so we are taking things day by day. Today was supposed to be the day, but I changed my mind.
Again.
I just thought I’d share her with you.

Military Coverage In The Media

June 9, 2004

Media 1 Comment

Inspired by Reasons Chris Bray, Joe Katzman at Winds of Change discusses the ineptness of the media when reporting on matters military. Great round up of links to illustrate how bad it can get.

It seems like a simple problem that could be cured by some basic diligence, research; and professional standards that demand real subject expertise to the same level as, say, sports journalism. But that doesn’t seem to be happening, which leads one to wonder why not.

With examples like this it’s hard to argue.

“One of the things you learn quickly in the military is to never, ever rile an Army Ranger, as foes have learned the hard way from Normandy to the Middle East,” wrote Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Kilian, with near-audible grunts and chest blows. How tough are the Army’s elite infantrymen? So tough, Kilian explained, that Rangers brag about parachuting into Alabama — and walking all the way back to Fort Benning, Georgia.
It’s worth pointing out that Fort Benning, Georgia, sits on the Alabama border. In fact, part of Fort Benning sits inside Alabama, including the part with the parachute drop.

Actually, anyone who has ever been interviewed about a specialty field can probably relate similar stories. Even in my own little niche sport, they very nearly always get something completely wrong.
Even worse, they often get confused about what constitutes an expert source – such as when they consult a humane society spokesperson to flesh out a piece on purebred dogs. Rather like asking the concession guy at a Nascar race about engine specifications.

Zero Tier Health Care

June 9, 2004

Gopher News 6 Comments

A month ago, the NDP government in Saskatchewan announced another round of bed closures and service reductions in rural areas. In fact, this was a greatly scaled back version of what had been suggested. With the finance department still juggling budget figures as of May, the cuts proposed were dramatic. Fearing the political fallout, a smaller package of service cutbacks were decided on at, quite literally, the eleventh hour.
Rural hospitals are not well utilized – some serve as little more than expensive long term care for the elderly. Until, of course, a farm accident or heart attack occurs. My father, for example, went into the local hospital about 12 years ago for observation and suffered a heart attack while under a monitor and nursing care – and survived as a result of it. Forced to drive an hour that afternoon to seek medical advice when he wasn’t feeling well, he may not have attempted – or completed – the trip.
That hospital was one of the ones reprieved in this last run of closures.
Closing beds in an urban center (in the city of Saskatoon, pop 200,000, there are three fully equipped hospitals) results in surgical delays and lengthened waiting lists. But 24 hour emergency and critical care services are not shut down.
Closing beds in rural communities forces rural families and ambulances to make increasingly lengthy trips to get treatment for critically ill or injured people – often over substandard, poorly maintained roads. The opportunity to stabilize a patient at a local facility is lost.
With the publicly funded hospital closed and private hospitals prohibited by law, large geographical areas are created where emergency medical care is effectively forbidden by the government.
In other words, zero-tier health care.
There may be a solution where these two problems – a shortage of advanced diagnostic services, and a shortage of rural emergency care – could be blended under a privately provided system. A government with imagination and courage could re-examine these small communities, and having satisfied themselves that hospital emergency services are not affordable under the fully funded public system, designate these areas as “free enterprise” health zones. In these zones only, investors would be allowed to set up private diagnostic facilities. Existing buildings would already be available for sale or lease.
There would be one provision – private servers would be required to provide basic 24 hour emergency services in the same facility. Residents who qualified to have their services covered under SaskHealth would still be covered in the usual manner, while those who wished to could purchase diagnostic services (or any other health service offered) privately or through different insurers.
The side benefit? Increased economic activity in smaller rural communities. Instead of farm families having to find expensive accomodations in the cities while awaiting diagnosis and treatment, urban residents would be travelling out of town to seek theirs – thereby, taking pressure off the existing MRI facilities in major centers while stimulating local rural economies.
Crossposted at the Shotgun

The Crowds Grow

June 9, 2004

Radioactive 1 Comment

The crowds lining up to pay respects to Reagan have exceeded all expectations.

The Newest Reality Show – The Marketplace

Roadkill 2 Comments

No point in arguing with sucess – brace for an upcoming season of wall-to-wall reality TV.

Victoria Riskin, president of the 8,500 strong Writers Guild of America, said: “Our members are concerned that the plethora of reality programming is impacting them in terms of job opportunities.

Malcolm in the Middle, Jane Kaczmarek – $150,000 per episode

“There is a fair amount of anxiety that these shows are cheap to make and developing new series is too expensive.”

Will & Grace, Debra Messing and Eric McCormack – $250,000 per episode

Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild is not happy either.

The West Wing, Martin Sheen – $300,000 per episode

Its president, Melissa Gilbert, says: “It’s a terrible trend. My concern is that once the networks get comfortable with a certain kind of programme, it becomes very tough to make a trend go away. ”

The Friends cast – 1.2 million per episode

Stacie Lipp, who has written for Roseanne and Married with Children, went to pitch an idea to CBS the morning after the first Survivor finale.

Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray Romano – 1.8 million per episode

“Nobody listened,” she recalled. “They were buzzing. It could have been the best sitcom ever and we were doomed.”

The heart bleeds.

Watching a bunch of highschool and college dropouts learn the rules of supply and demand.

Priceless.

Bombing Israel Into A Palestinian Solution

Go read the rest of Kevin’s comments.

Radioactive 4 Comments

Former NDP Ontario premier Bob Rae (another former Paul Desmarias employee) is the chair of the Canadian taxpayer funded Institute for Research on Public Policy. According to Kevin Libin at the Shotgun, the institute’s publication Inroads features an editorial offering a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s a dandy.

In the absence of a bilateral solution, and after a short deadline, an international force should invade, force compliance with the commission’s determinations, and leave troops behind to maintain compliance and ensure the security of both sides.

The imagination blooms with the possibilities….

AP – “Today Gerhardt Schroeder approved the deployment of German combat troops to join an international force policing Israeli territory …”

Alan Blakeney Would Approve

Roadkill 3 Comments

News to warm the hearts of my socialist friends who wax nostalgic for the good ol’days of the nationalization of the potash industry and the Saskatchewan Land Bank…. (an idea that would have worked if they’d only gone the whole measure…).

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) – In its latest crackdown on democratic freedoms, the government announced today that all farmland will be nationalized and private land ownership abolished.
All land, including more than 5,000 former white-owned farms handed over to blacks, will become state-owned and subject to state-issued leases, Land Reform Minister John Nkomo said.
Title deeds of farm properties will be scrapped and replaced by 99-year leases with rent payable to government the state Herald newspaper reported. “There shall be no such thing as private land,” Nkomo said.
Since the farm seizures began in 2000, about 200,000 black families have been allocated former white-owned land. About a quarter were given larger properties for commercial rather than small scale farming. Hundreds of black farmers also bought commercial farms on the property market that will now be nationalized.

hat tip – Bob Tarantino, for the Shotgun

“We Win And They Lose”

What He Said 2 Comments

Pejman Yousefzadeh on the millionth Bloomingdale’s customer.

Farenheit Heating Up

Insufferable Twits 2 Comments

Predictably, Ebert and Roper gave “two thumbs up” on Michael Moore’s Farenheit 911.
[Is it just me, or is there something very creepy lately about Roger Ebert’s face? There’s a Men In Black thing happening under there….]
Well, Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 has a different opinion.

“Michael Moore is a screwed asshole, that is what I think about that case.”

Asked about the Palme d’Or;

So what? I have won prizes in different places and they are mostly meaningless. The people there hate us, which is why they gave him the d’Or. It’s a meaningless prize.

hat tip – Flea

Everything Old Is New Again

Moonbats 2 Comments

As legislation expands here and across North America to ban smoking of tobacco products in public places, the anti-smoking crusaders (whose bandwagon I jumped off a couple of years ago) are claiming victory.

More recently, Nanny State has been treating us (at taxpayer expense) to brown eyed toddlers telling us how they “smoke a cigarette” on the way to school, on the way to grandma’s house. – through the noxious fumes they inhale in mommy’s car. I suspect the family sedan is next.

While the progressive forces of leftist “we know what’s good for you and if you don’t believe us, it’s jail for you!” clan marches forward with their zero tolerance agenda, their brothers-in-arms are busy campaigning – and succeeding – for the decriminilazation and normalization of marijuana
Which, last I checked, one rolls into cigarettes and inhales into their lungs.

Despite any scientific evidence to support their claims, (Pfizer should have it so good), marijuana is now being grown and sanctioned for medicinal purposes, courtesy of Health Canada.
And everything old is new again.

A Bright Light On Past Pundits

Political Animal No Comments

Steven Taylor has an amusing collection of past punditry about Reagan from the 80’s this morning.

Voiceless

Blogging 3 Comments

On days like yesterday and today, I really have come to appreciate my blog.
I have larengitis. I cannot speak at all above a whisper, and I avoid it, because it makes me cough. The dogs are sort of weirded out over it all – nobody has yelled at them in over 48 hours. Luckily, I’ve had only a couple of phone calls to deal with and some quiet work here at home. But if my posting frequency increases, that’s why. It’s the only communication I’m capable of at the moment.

Kurt Leavins’ Extremely Difficult Radio Quiz Show

Roadkill No Comments

650 CKOM’s news director is a decidedly left-leaning Bush critic. Leavins has an afternoon show in which he interviews different newsmakers and shares his opinions. Those opinions are typically hinged upon Michael Moore-ish cherry picking of fact, and bolstered by ignorance of historical chronology and context.
But it would be unfair to leave an impression that Mr. Leavins is all gloom and “tsk tsk” anti-Americanism. He is on throughout the day doing general announcer duty, and much of it is lighter fare. This morning featured a prize on offer for the caller with the right answer to the following timely question: “How many beer can fit in the bowl of the Stanley Cup”
As each person called in and guessed incorrectly, he hung up to allow the next one to try. This is a paraphrase of how the contest progressed. Read carefully.

Leavins: How many beer fit inside the Stanley Cup?
Caller: 43!
Leavens: Nope. Too high, next caller..
Caller: 40.
Leavens: Too high.
Caller: 25?
Leavens: Still too high. Caller, how may beer?
Caller: 20.
Leavens: Still too high…
Caller: 10?
Leavins: Oh, that’s close! But too low.
Caller: 12?
Leavens: Oh ! … too high!
Caller: 11!!!!!
Leavens: Too low!
Caller: eh… 13?
Leavens: Too high! Oh, everyone is so close!
Caller: 11 1/2?
Leavens: No, too low! It’s between 13 and 15!
Caller: 14.
Leavins: right!

So, now, I think I have little better insight about how he comes up with op-eds like this one.

The New Iraq

Radioactive 1 Comment

Via Jeff Jarvis this commentary from an Iraqi blogger;

The beginning for the new Iraq has started and the people of Iraq finally got a government they should be proud of. I was so happy this morning watching the new Iraqi government and the names of those ministers and of course the new president. There was one moment during the whole ceremony that equated to the moment when they announced the capture of Saddam and that is when they announced the new president of Iraq, to me that was a dream comes true. I believe most of us young Iraqis when we hear the phrase president of Iraq, we think of Saddam and only Saddam. Well, history was made today Saddam and his clans have no chance of getting the power or any position in the new Iraq. Iraq is changing and I believe it is changing toward a free and democratic Iraq. I spoke with my family in Baghdad twice today and they are so excited about the new government, my brother was telling me that we all are praying for these guys and Inshallaha god will be with them. I think this is a new era for us and for the Middle East as a whole. Listening to all the names that were announced today, you can not, but think that this new government is the most educated individuals among all the governments in the Middle East. Most of them have a doctorate in their fields of expertise not to mention a lot of them have lived and gained there experience in the west. With the help of the US and the rest of the world, I believe these guys will definitely get Iraq out of this mess.

Don’t sit up late tonight watching for this on Canadian network TV.

Political Animals React To Lincoln’s Death

Not Quite News 3 Comments

ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Comments

I’m not going to participate in the whitewash. Laurak
Posted by: laurak on April 16, 1865 at 3:16 PM | PERMALINK

The idolatry exhibited on even the supposedly objective rags should put paid to the idea of a “liberal” media. It won’t, but it should.
Posted by: Linkmeister on April 16, 1865, at 3:19 PM | PERMALINK

Are they seriously trying to complain that there was praise and admiration, but not quite enough praise and admiration?
I’d say the grief was making them irrational, but they make idiotic arguments like that on regular days too.
Posted by: Gordon on April 16, 1865, at 3:24 PM | PERMALINK

lincoln was controversial and did things good and bad we still feel today. republicans need to lighten up and accept the sum of this important man especially now in his passing. geez, who’s the whiny party now?
Posted by: travy on April 16, 1865, at 3:29 PM | PERMALINK

Nobody has mentioned the irony of Mr. Lincoln’s getting shot with a revolver. During his presidency, Mr. Lincoln sent many men to their graves with the bullets of war.
Posted by: W, The Great Prevaricator on June 6, 2004 at 3:36 PM | PERMALINK

Let’s take the high road and insist that Dred Scott not be mentioned when Buchanan dies 🙂 Think we can hold them to it?
Posted by: dude on April 16, 1865, at 3:43 PM | PERMALINK

And in the words of Moms Mabley (about her husband):
“They say you should only speak good of the dead.
“He’s dead.
“Good.”
Posted by: hexatron on April 16, 1865, at 4:23 PM | PERMALINK

Now is not the time to remain silent, not while the wingnuts rewrite history. Now is the time to set the record straight.
Abraham Lincoln as America’s Sun King
Posted by: Alice Marshall on April 16, 1865 at 4:43 PM | PERMALINK

I’ve had about enough of Aby worshipping for one weekend. I doubt chimpy will get much of a boost from this, and not a lasting one either. As bad as lincoln was, he looks like a towering genius next to johnson.
Why is it that chimpy is always either smirking or looking constipated? Or is it chronic gas?
Posted by: fourlegsgood on April 16, 1865 at 4:48 PM | PERMALINK

I just hope there are no political statements in any eulogies. Those who were so outraged by the
Taylor funeral surely wouldn’t be hypocritical enough to condone such behavior.
Posted by: KCinDC on JApril 16, 1865, at 3:52 PM | PERMALINK

I, too, remember why I looked down my elitist nose at Lincoln: he was a useful idiot.
Posted by: Hedley Lamarr on April 16, 1865 at 6:18 PM | PERMALINK

Ding-dong the witch is dead, the wicked with, the wicked witch. Maybe now the evil spell will be lifted which fell across America …
Posted by: The Fool on June 6, 2004 at 7:13 PM | PERMALINK

Trading Seats?

Political Animal 1 Comment

Secret plot by the Tories and Liberals to rig key ridings in 2000 election?

Just when it seemed federal politics couldn’t get any sleazier, Sun Media has learned that a group of powerful Tory and Liberal backroom operatives secretly conspired to bolster the Grit national campaign and skew the results in a number of ridings in the last federal election. Two weeks before Jean Chretien called the country to the polls in October 2000, reliable sources say, a small group of top Tory officials cut a secret deal to help Chretien’s ultimately successful national campaign for a third majority government.
In return, the Liberals agreed to throw the vote in the Calgary Centre riding of then Tory leader Joe Clark.
In what may have been a series of similar deals, sources say the Tories also agreed to “stand down” to help Liberal Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan hang on to her Edmonton seat, which she won by only 733 votes.
…
Clark had entered the campaign with abysmal polling numbers pointing to an almost certain defeat.
Instead, the former Tory leader won by 4,304 votes after a bizarre campaign in which a group called “Liberals for Clark” suddenly popped up from nowhere to back him.

It might help explain that “devil we know” endorsement of Martin by Clark a few weeks ago.
hat tip – An American in TO

Bittersweet

What He Said No Comments

Watching the ceremonies today on Juno Beach, I wonder how many of us were uncomfortable with the juxtaposition of commemorations being led by Liberal politicians whose policies have been responsible for the evisceration of the Canadian military over the past 30 years.
Nicholas Packwood says it best.“Bring back this Canada.”

Bagpipes played their eerie sound as the Royal Highland Regiment left the harbour in England. They played the pipes on the transports as they rocked up the shore. They bagpipes howled as the Black Watch hit Juno Beach. The bagpipes gave a simple message to the Germans defending Juno beach: we are crazy, we are coming, and you are going to die.

Mr. Martin – I hope you and your Liberal government members and your social engineering, leftist career beaurocrats looked long and hard into the faces of those elderly veterans today.
For every one of them is twice the man of the lot of you combined.

Milestone