Christine O'Donnell

I'm sure many have seen this by now, but here it is anyway:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGGAgljengs


I think many in the media have unfairly attacked her for things that happened years ago... which is fine, except for the fact that they choose to apply this standard unevenly.

But the most first and important step to take when your opponents are burying you alive is to stop helping them dig your grave.  If you want to find a candidate who is effectively using new media to reach modern voters, well... it isn't her.  I understand that many of us would look bad if subjected to the intense ridicule that O'Donnell has received... but still--this is the big leagues here.  She needs to step her campaign up considerably.

A Look Back: The Florida Koran-Burning Controversy

I dredge this story back up to make a point...  Remember when this one was all that seemed to fill the airwaves?

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-11/us/new.york.jones_1_quran-florida-pastor-jones?_s=PM:US

Florida pastor calls off Quran burning

 

September 11, 2010 | By the CNN Wire Staff

The pastor of a Florida church says his congregation has decided to call off the burning of the Quran that was to be held Saturday -- the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States by the al Qaeda terror network.

"We will definitely not burn the Quran," the Rev. Terry Jones told NBC's "Today" on Saturday "Not today, not ever." The burning had been planned for 6 p.m.

Jones arrived in New York late Friday night and was working to set up a meeting with the imam in charge of the Islamic center planned near ground zero. The planned meeting, Jones had said, helped persuade him to halt the burning.

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Earlier Friday, Jones gave mixed messages about whether he intends to carry out his plans, which have sparked international controversy and protests in the Muslim world. U.S. military leaders said the event would imperil the lives of troops abroad.

President Obama said Friday that the idea that "we would burn the sacred texts of someone else's religion is contrary to what this country stands for."

He said he hopes Jones "prays on it" and refrains from doing it. The government has to send a "very clear message" that burning the Quran would endanger U.S. troops and serve as a major recruiting tool for al Qaeda, Obama added.

So, just to review: did the event in question actually even happen?  No.  Did it matter?  Not in the least.

It's easier to comment on something like this in hindsight.  This was an example of "pack journalism" at its very finest.  The crazy thing about this story is that so many of us seemed to realize how utterly worthless this story was as a news item at the time.  After all, Jones was just some crazy guy who ran a church of 50 people.  Crazy people do crazy things all the time.

And yet, the story was on the 24-hour cable channels, over the airwaves, and set upon the printed page non-stop.  Why?  Because the advancement in media has begotten a massive increase in the amount of space that has to be filled by something.

It was never clear to me just who was driving the train in this case.  But the promise of conflict was obviously too good to pass up for today's mass media.  It's isn't like nothing important was happening in the world.  I mean, the House of Representatives was in session at the time, for example.  I couldn't tell you a single thing that they passed...

...but I can tell you where Dove Outreach Center is on a map.

It seems that we are forever doomed to argue over the inconsequential for all eternity.  One can only wonder what worthless event it will be on tomorrow, or the day after that.

Rick Sanchez & CNN's Bias

File this one away under the "Blatant Hypocrisy" file:

Former CNN Anchor Rick Sanchez Issues Statement Apologizing for 'Bigot' Rant

Fired CNN anchor Rick Sanchez apologized to Jon Stewart and anyone else he offended for what he called "inartful comments" given in a radio interview last week that he said should "never have been made."

“I am very much opposed to hate and intolerance, in any form, and I have frequently spoken out against prejudice,” Sanchez said in the statement released by a South Florida publicist Wednesday.

“Despite what my tired and mangled words may have implied, they were never intended to suggest any sort of narrow-mindedness and should never have been made.”

Sanchez, 52, was fired by CNN last week following comments he made in a radio interview in which he called late-night funnyman Jon Stewart a “bigot” and said Jewish people were not an oppressed minority, telling the radio host that they were in charge of most media outlets.

In Wednesday's statement, the TV host, who was born in Cuba and raised outside Miami, said that he had had a “very good conversation” with Jon Stewart in which he had apologized for his “inartful comments.”

“I sincerely extend this apology to anyone else whom I may have offended,” Sanchez added.

I actually don't have any problems with CNN's actual firing of Sanchez.  The lack of slack given to this nation's most visible people can sometimes be unfortunate, but to actually make that sort of comment in this day and age on that network constitutes terminable stupidity.  I might actually disagree with the firing on principle, but I cannot argue with the joy of watching a ideological enemy fall on his own sword.  Obviously, Sanchez and his like-minded brethren would be banging the drum to fire a FOXNews anchor who had made similar comments.

But the mention of Rick Sanchez and the charge of racism got me to think that I had seen this before.  After a bit of thinking back, I quickly found this story.  Almost one year ago to the day:

http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/2009/20091013061953.aspx

 

CNN Anchor Fails to Retract His False Smear of Rush Limbaugh as Slavery-Admiring Racist 

On Monday, CNN Newsroom anchor Rick Sanchez reported as fact that radio host Rush Limbaugh had uttered a “racist diatribe” on the “merits” of slavery. “He once declared that had ‘Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark,’ said Limbaugh,” Sanchez told his audience.

But Sanchez cited no source for the quote other than a vague caption of “Rush Limbaugh on the Radio” in the accompanying on-screen graphic, and Limbaugh had on his show that day already explicitly denied he ever said it before Sanchez ever went on the air.

But on Tuesday’s show, Sanchez did not retract his use of the quote or provide any evidence that Limbaugh said it. Instead, he briefly summarized Limbaugh’s denial — claiming “we want to be fair to Rush” — before suggesting that whether or not CNN got its facts right is irrelevant: “Obviously, that does not take away the fact that there are other quotes which have been attributed to Rush Limbaugh, which many people in the African-American community and many other minority communities do find offensive.”

So, just to recap: Sanchez relayed some falsified quotes about Rush Limbaugh back when Limbaugh was trying to buy the St. Louis Rams.  When called on it, Sanchez issued a non-apology, saying that the overall point was still true, even if the actual quote was not.  Sanchez fanned the flames that eventually cost Limbaugh a chance to go ahead with his purchase.  Jon Stewart was not harmed in any way by Sanchez's remarks.

And yet CNN fires him over this? Ridiculous. CNN and Rick Sanchez should both be ashamed of themselves.

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A Look Back: The Suicide of Tyler Clementi & Privacy in the Internet Age

Another argument America had back in late September was over the tragic case of Tyler Clementi:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/victim-secret-dorm-sex-tape-commits-suicide/story?id=11758716

A Rutgers University freshman posted a goodbye message on his Facebook page before jumping to his death after his roommate secretly filmed him during a "sexual encounter" in his dorm room and posted it live on the Internet.

Items belonging to 18-year-old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi were found by the George Washington Bridge last week, according to authorities. Clementi's freshman ID card and driver's license were in the wallet.
Clementi's post on his Facebook page, dated Sept. 22 at 8:42 p.m. read, "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry."
Clementi's body has not been recovered, but police have pulled an unidentified male body from the Hudson River just north of the bridge.

...

Two students, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, have been charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy after allegedly placing a camera in Clementi's room and livestreaming the recording online on Sept. 19, according to a written statement by New Jersey's Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.

A Twitter page that appears to have been operated by Ravi but has since been taken offline shows messages in which the accused student takes credit for the alleged videotaping of Clementi.
On Sept. 19, Ravi appears to tweet, "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."
Ravi faces two additional counts of invasion of privacy for allegedly attempting to use the camera to view and transmit another sexual encounter involving the same student just two days later, said Kaplan.

This story could be presented in several different frameworks.  It could be viewed as a commentary about the acceptance of homosexuals among some sections of American society.  It could be viewed as another fight over hate-crimes legislation.  There's a lot going on here, for sure.

But I choose to view the main point to this story as how privacy has changed in the internet age.  This is the most important theme in this story as it relates to this class.  I saw this story today:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39552862/ns/today-today_people

Karen Owen took kiss-and-tell to a whole new level when she combined her Duke University-honed academic acumen with her extracurricular wild side to create an elaborate sex list ranking the college men she bedded.

But now the recent Duke grad finds herself red-faced over attention she never bargained for: Her tongue-in-cheek “unofficial senior thesis” on sex with Duke athletes spread from the three friends she originally e-mailed to the whole 14,000-strong student body and, eventually, to websites the whole world can see.
“It’s funny because we know the people on it,” one Duke University student told NBC for a TODAY report on Owen’s now-infamous sex list.

...

Owen’s sex ranking is nothing if not precise. She took a list of 13 men she slept with, drawing mainly from Duke’s lacrosse team — the same team that was embroiled in a sex scandal of its own in 2006 — and created a bar graph ranking their sexual prowess. She left little to the imagination in creating a 42-slide PowerPoint presentation, detailing sex in the university library during finals week, sex in cars and, most of all, sex while inebriated.
“In my blackout state, still managed to crawl into bed with a Duke athlete,” Owen commented on one escapade.

In my opinion, these two stories are connected.  Now, I obviously understand that none of the Duke athletes mentioned in Owen's "report" are likely to go and commit suicide.  There are some stark and understandable cultural differences.

But nevertheless, there's a common theme: gone are the days when a small group of newspaper owners and publishers have the power to bury stories like these.  In the internet age, anyone has the power and the platform to completely ruin someone's privacy.  As much as we like to blame the media for having it out for a person, and as often as that point is true, the bottom line is that ordinary people are often to blame for the irrelevant details of the private lives of private citizens becoming public knowledge.

As the famous quote goes: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."