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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 07:02am Jun 24, 2001 EST (#5919 of 5923)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

What Weaver asks for sound impractical to me, at least in large part. I feel that The New York Times , and some other first line papers, do take the responsiblilities of citizenship seriously - in part. . . The culture of news, though it may involve the possibility of lying -- carries too much truth to be subverted in all the ways Weaver suggests (all the time).

" . . The "culture" he describes - which was put into place, and functining well, by 1915 - is not set up for the new global realities -- it is not well defended against the internet, and other information technologies. There are new opportunities -- if people are willing to send in clear.

Gorbachev was right that "openness" is crucial. There are socio-technical challenges associated with openness -- but they are challenges before us, that carry important opportunities.

The CIA was built by people who knew well how to conceal EVERYTHING important in ways that made them impregnible to the journalistic usages Weaver describes.

The military-industrial complex that was well evolved by World War II, and that Eisenhower did so much to advance, but then warned against in FAREWELL ADDRESS of President Dwight D. Eisenhower January 17, 1961. was highly evolved to evade any compromise of function according to journalistic usages as Weaver describes them. And remains so.

The defenses of these institutions, however, are far less formidible than they used to be. The information "lied about" is mostly not fully concealed -- it is simply made available in forms that Weaver's "culture of journalism" cannot digest. Now, this information is available, and with some new sociotechnical usages that are now fully possible, can be brought to bear in the cause of truth.

It can happen in clear, and in full view of anyone who wishes to look or participate in an open way.

MD1298 rshowalter 3/22/01 10:04am

lunarchick - 07:07am Jun 24, 2001 EST (#5920 of 5923)
lunarchick@www.com

On journalism and journalists ...

watching the journalists
watching Bwsh
they critique his performance
like 'theatre' critics

w e i r d w e i r d w e i r d stuff

Why can't the public judge his performance
Why do they have to be told what to think

rshowalter - 07:12am Jun 24, 2001 EST (#5921 of 5923)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The distrust of the press in the US is so great that sometimes, they do think for themselves. Polls may be showing that people are reading through some of the bias of the news.

That bias, in America, can be grotesque.

In the PBS TV show " Washington Week in Review " , this comment struck me. Referring to Bush's trip, a panelist said

" we covered it like a triumph."

Obviously, that coverage was incomplete and in some ways grossly biased, and it sounded to me like the panelist knew it.

The American people know it, too.

The media would be more valuable if people trusted it more -- it would be worth dollars and cents (in the billions) to improve the credibility of the news.

rshowalter - 07:16am Jun 24, 2001 EST (#5922 of 5923)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

One issue seems pretty clear to me, at the level of tactics.

Press organizations ought to defend each other when the government muscles them, in formal and informal ways. Or when advertisers muscle them in ways that would not stand the light of day.

Now, for the most part, they don't.

That disorganization and cowardice is expensive -- not only morally, but, I think, financially, too.

If people stop listening to the news, they lose interest in the ads, too.

rshowalter - 07:34am Jun 24, 2001 EST (#5923 of 5923)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD5752 rshowalter 6/22/01 9:37am .... MD5763 rshowalter 6/22/01 9:38am
MD5764 rshowalter 6/22/01 9:39am .... MD5765 lunarchick 6/22/01 9:49am

MD5810 rshowalter 6/22/01 5:01pm .... MD5811 lunarchick 6/22/01 5:09pm
MD5812 gisterme 6/22/01 5:12pm .... MD5813 rshowalter 6/22/01 5:19pm
MD5814 rshowalter 6/22/01 5:24pm .... MD5815 lunarchick 6/22/01 5:44pm

MD5822 rshowalter 6/22/01 6:00pm

" . . .

"The American media is very afraid -- and for some good reasons. You can't blame the people too much - but you CAN blame the system, and change it.

MD5915 rshowalter 6/24/01 6:46am

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