Friday, March 14, 2003

Media Coverage and the Smart Case What a strange story the Smart case has turned out to be.  Jane and I were just talking a few weeks ago about how missing kids just don't come back.  Elizabeth Smart came back.  I can't imagine how her parents must feel.  I can imagine few things worse.  A long-term disappearance would seem worse than death, for the lack of closure, and the dark thoughts of an imagination run wild.  But Elizabeth Smart came back. The media coverage has been odd, to me.  I have seen several stories that talk about how affluent her family is.  It's not the focus of the story, but it is mentioned.  There are other stories that talk about a clothing spending spree that the family went on.  Why does that bother me?  Does it bother me?  The girl was gone for nine months, and she probably needed some clothes.  A trip to the mall wouldn't be the first thing on my agenda, but I'm not them, and I shouldn't judge them. I guess I just found it odd that those types of details were coming out.  I also found it odd that there have been numerous mentions of the family's devout Mormon faith.  Maybe it's a part of the story, since the abductor's motives have been preliminarily tied to polygamy.  I guess what I'm getting at is that I think it's interesting, the choices the media makes in the facts they report.  Is the family's Mormonism a part of the story?  I'm not sure how it is directly involved, though the father did praise God for Elizabeth's return.  Maybe when you have a story in Utah, an abductor who is a proclaimed polygamist, and a father who is thanking God, it's a part of the story to go into their faith.  Maybe the newspapers know that question is going to be on the minds of some. If my kids are ever abducted, are they going to make a point of my Agnositicsm? I read a great example of this a couple weeks ago, in a story regarding the possibility of pilot error in the Wellstone plane crash.  The Star-Tribune spent several column inches on how these new revelations about the Sleepy Keystone Cops who flew the plane might undermine the conspiracy theories that were getting major press, predominantly from a professor at the U of M-Duluth.  I was shocked that they would devote so much space to that part of the story.  But, they interviewed the guy, and he had many other theories for why the crash was not an accident. OK.  Maybe, maybe not.  Maybe that guy knows something.  He didn't overtly appear to be a crackpot. But then, in a brief last paragraph, the Strib wrote that this individual also maintains a website that has information on the Kennedy Assasination (both of them).  Bam.  Nothing taints a conspiracy theory like the revelation that you are "into conspiracy theories". Anyway, I just thought some of the factual details of the Smart reporting were interesting, in a "help readers fill in the gaps" kind of way. 11:22:30 AM    Say what?[]

This Paul Krugman editorial in the NYT is troubling.  It's one thing to have other nations and liberal partisans like myself (and probably like Krugman) openly taking issue with an Administration's policies.  But to have (again, according to Krugman) very large and important secions of the U.S. government openly doubt the competence of the Administration is very troubling, indeed. It's one thing to not agree with a policy direction.  I think people who work in high levels of government in non-appointed positions have to deal with that on a pretty regular basis.  But very rarely do you have people openly question competence. I've had this discussion with a few people, and there was some discussion on some of my comment boards a few weeks ago, but I have to say that I think Bush is in MAJOR trouble.  I have some informed friends who don't believe this to be the case, that we will win big and quickly in Iraq, and that will calm the stock market jitters, meaning the economy situation won't be so bad at all.  Maybe they are right. I guess I see a lot pitfalls to that view of reality.  If nothing else, the next election is in 2004.  In other words, if we attack in the next month, and win big, that will leave plenty of time for the aftermath of a war in Iraq to become clear prior to any election.  Obviously, it's all conjecture at this point, but there seem to be a lot of people who think that aftermath might include terrorist reprisals, tribal warfare in Iraq, a massive Kurdish humanitarian crisis, among other ugly scenarios in the Mid-East. That's not to mention other impacts on international relations if we do indeed go it alone (without the UN).  I just see an awful lot that can go wrong, and I still don't see much that's gone right.  Maybe the Mid East Map For Peace, to be unveiled later today, will be the basis for the large victory this Administration so craves. But then you hear Bush say things like this: "Immediately upon confirmation (of a new Palestinian Prime Minister with 'real power'), the road map for peace will be given to the Palestinians and the Israelis.'' Well, at least we aren't continuing down the road of arrogance and bullying in our foreign policy. I'm really curious what will happen if Israel decides not to follow the map.  What do we do then? 10:56:59 AM    Say what?[]

Our Friend, The Umbilical Cord We see our baby, on a screen in 3D. Not a plain sonagram-We've already done that.  Everything looks good. It's a new thing, an actual 3D image. We were told: It would be like meeting her, a sneak preview.  We would see her face. She's 25.2 weeks old, and she won't sit still. She kicks and she bangs her elbows on her knees. And she turns.  And she is elusive. We see her arm, we meet her feet.  We make the acquaintance of the umbilical cord. We crane our necks to the screen and anticipate the familiar pattern of eyes, nose and mouth that never appears. She's not able to see us today.  Her calendar's full. And then, a finger! Not THE finger, which would have made a better story and fine picture. It's just a finger. But it's a really nice finger.   8:50:15 AM    Say what?[]

© Copyright 2003 Doug Hennessee. Last update: 4/1/2003; 3:15:33 PM.