Tuesday, October 15, 2002

What did you believe as a kid? Fun new site that solcits readers to contribute examples of things they used to believe as kids. An example pulled from the site: When I was young I met a man who said "BS" in almost every sentence. I asked my dad what BS meant. He told me it meant "Bachelor of Storytelling". 5:57:51 PM

Does America need a big dose of Prozac? Good article by Howard Kurtz in which he discusses the ways that the media creates undo anxiety in Americans by ceasely harping on certain stories and turning stories into ongoing spectacles. I read recently that a poll -- I think it was a study by the Pew Foundation but I'm not sure -- indicated that media references to violence had increased on the order of 600% over the past decade or so while the murder rate has actually dipped about 20%. Want to put this concept to the test? Watch your local news and I'll bet it tries to localize the D.C. sniper shootings. I bet you'll hear something like this: "The D.C. sniper shootings, could it happen in (your town here)? Find out tonight on Newscenter 8" 5:34:57 PM

Don't Feed the Fear Finally, somebody in the press addresses the obvious. The media frenzy that is festering over the D.C. sniper shootings only intensifies the problem because it gives this killer the notoriety that he or she undoubtedly craves. For God's sake, let's not have every second of air time dedicated to this crack pot and spawn more copy cats. 5:13:48 PM