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Science
Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a
nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a
"Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed
considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense
initiatives more successful? Can such an application of
science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable,
necessary or impossible?
Read Debates, a new
Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published
every Thursday.
(11730 previous messages)
lchic
- 04:18am May 17, 2003 EST (#
11731 of 11735) ~~~~ It got understood and exposed
~~~~
The New York Times
Unfit to print
May 15th 2003 | NEW YORK From The Economist print edition
Crisis management for a top media brand
QUALITY control problems can wreak havoc with any business,
especially when a reputation for high quality is a crucial
ingredient of its brand. Ask the New York Times, which is
having to deal with its own version of Ford's dodgy Firestone
tyres, and Coca-Cola's Belgian taste troubles.
The glitch in question is Jayson Blair, lately a
fast-rising star on what is widely regarded, not least by
itself, as the world's leading newspaper of record,
exemplified by its slogan, “All the News That's Fit to Print”.
Alas, it turns out that his college degree was bogus, and much
of the acclaimed reporting he did, according to an internal
Times inquiry, appears to have been invented or pasted
together from the reporting of others.
The New York Times provides extensive coverage of the
scandal.
To the credit of Times journalists, some had given early
warning about Mr Blair to their superiors. But corporate
whistle-blowing often fails to do the trick (remember Enron?).
It certainly could not halt the rise of a young black
journalist at a paper which may have allowed its celebration
of “diversity and opportunity” to cloud its judgment.
How much damage Mr Blair has done to the newspaper's brand
is unclear. In a four-page exposé that may have struck many
outsiders as self-absorbed, detail after detail was disgorged.
Mostly, his offences seemed to consist of what journalists
call “colour”. However, the Times confirms that the Justice
Department is taking an as yet unspecified interest. Rivals of
the Times were withering. The upstart New York Sun disputed
the claim by the Times that this was “a low point” in its
152-year history, offering in evidence its past celebration of
the virtues of Stalin and the democratic principles of Fidel
Castro.
This has come at a bad time for the Times. Its circulation
fell by 5% in the six months to the end of March. It
attributes this, mystifyingly, to “the difficult
year-over-year comparison”. Yet in the same period, in New
York's fiercely competitive newspaper market, the tiny Sun and
the tabloid New York Post—each notably keener than the Times
on the war in Iraq—have enjoyed strong growth.
In the past year of business scandals, the Times has not
shied away from making tough calls, including criticising a
lack of accountability of bosses for corporate failures. The
executive editor, Howell Raines, won plaudits after being
appointed two years ago and quickly guided the paper to seven
Pulitzer Prizes. Yet Mr Raines's apparently close relationship
with Mr Blair, and the paper's prolonged failure to unearth a
pathological liar within its midst, has raised questions about
what other “low points” might yet emerge. After Mr Blair's
failings were made public, Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the
Times, said “let's not begin to demonise our executives—either
the desk editors, or the executive editor or, dare I say, the
publisher”. Other troubled corporate titans would no doubt
conclude that the Times is finally getting religion.
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1784805
lchic
- 04:28am May 17, 2003 EST (#
11732 of 11735) ~~~~ It got understood and exposed
~~~~
Rupert Murdock said he would improve the figures for The
Post - this may be happening.
The NYT could claw back it's home town by inserting a
'NYcity' pull out.
That the NYT fell off 6mths prior to Iraq may fit in with
the failure of the NYT to put 'both sides' wrt
Israel-Palesting ... a strategic political failing picked up
worldwide as folks everywhere were referred to as
'antisematic' ... and raced for their dictionary -- WHAT! HOLD
ON THERE!
lchic
- 04:36am May 17, 2003 EST (#
11733 of 11735) ~~~~ It got understood and exposed
~~~~
Top Cockies meet NYT staffers
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/15/business/media/15PAPE.html
lchic
- 05:11am May 17, 2003 EST (#
11734 of 11735) ~~~~ It got understood and exposed
~~~~
F O R D ~ TEAMsters
"" These engineers didn't have the luxury to deliberate. As
soon as Ford chairman William Clay "Bill" Ford Jr. gave the
go-ahead, the team was set up in a low-slung, nondescript
building in suburban Detroit, a stone's throw from the Rouge
River—the same stream that flows past the Fair Lane estate
Henry Ford built after making millions on the Model T. Bill
Ford's stiff challenge: Design a 21st-century production-ready
version of the GT40, one of the fastest and most successful
racecars ever, and do it in a record-breaking 16 months.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/auto/article/0,12543,449837,00.html
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