The Moderate Voice - Latest Comments in Micro-parsing: The Way to News Salvation

Re: Micro-parsing: The Way to News Salvation

ryan — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:23:51 -0000

Thanks T-Steel - the micro-parsing really does make mountains out of mole-hills and is something that needs to stop. It's a sad statement that much of the news cycles are driven by focusing on just one or two sentences taken from a speech, rather than focusing on the themes and proposals made in those speeches. I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be if my every word was recorded, and a few misstatements or bad analogies were replayed and analyzed ad-naseum on the nightly news...

Re: Micro-parsing: The Way to News Salvation

skippy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:25:18 -0000

i think it's only a tempest in the teapot of right wing blogs.

plus, in my own opinion, there are more than a few religious conservatives that actually do see a baby as punishment for out of wedlock sex.

Re: Micro-parsing: The Way to News Salvation

Marlowecan — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:34:55 -0000

I blame the blogosphere. Before blogs it was bad enough.

Then came Media Matters for America. I always thought its volunteers had to be mad...sitting and monitoring targets they despised day in and day out...waiting for right-winger gaffes to promote in UPPER CASE FONT. But MMA was a successful model, widely imitated by left and right.

Every day another outrage. Most are absurd. But, if you throw enough sh*t at the wall...some of its is bound to stick eventually.

Now the slightest gaffe of any of the 3 candidates is exposed as being revealing of ...well, whatever the smear meme of the week happens to be.

I wish someone would declare a ceasefire...and get back to arguing about policy instead of Obama's daughters, for god's sake.

Re: Micro-parsing: The Way to News Salvation

Slamfu — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:03:17 -0000

Its all part of nightly news turning into a giant forum for editorializing. We used to report the news, local channels still do usually, but nowadays you get 30 seconds to report what went on/was said and then you get 10 minutes of hearing some "experts" opinion about it. This whole trend of let me tell you what it all means is contributing to the increasing authoritarianism of society. Those who find comfort in being told things that reinforce what they already believe love it, and its why FOX has come to dominate news and its competitiors have followed suit.

Re: Micro-parsing: The Way to News Salvation

runasim — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:45:26 -0000

I would go further and point out how the children resulting from unwanted pregrancies are frequently punished (realizing full well that my views make me unelectable. :) )

For years I was in contact with an orphange, full of cast-aside chilfren. That adoption is a readily available option is a myth, considering the numbers in orphanages and foster care. That any woman, particularly when she herself is a child, can be a fit mother is a myth, considereing the cast-aside children in our society.
Babies don't ask to be created. They are forced into this world by the decisions of others. Rather than making that decision a more serious one for the adults in the room, all the attention is on just getting that baby, any baby, into this world.
Why? So we can feel good about ourselves as we shed tears over a few cells in a petri dish?
Then, when the unwanted, uncared for baby grows up to be an unwanted and deficient adult, we are aghast. How did this happen in the land of opportunity?

Amen to T-Steel and Polimom/
.

Re: Micro-parsing: The Way to News Salvation

Polimom — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:48:20 -0000

Conversations regarding abortion, or contraception, or abstinence, etc etc have taken on their own "PC" language. It's very similar (imho) to how one refers to the troops.

One cannot refer to a baby as anything other than a blessing that will enrich one's life, no matter one's circumstances, or one is blaspheming.

Similarly, one cannot criticize say... Mahmoudiya, or notice Abu Ghraib, without being called out for attacking the troops. (i.e. not patriotic)

And this unhealthy tendency to bury dialogue in shrieks and shouts is not limited to one side or another of the political aisle. All of it is of a piece with discussions of inner city poverty, and/or race relations. There are places one cannot safely travel, verbally, without being attacked.

It's part and parcel of what's killing our ability to "come together", politically or socially, as a nation.