(no subject)
I have often felt guilty about not keeping up with the news, but I think I just figured out watch kills my ability to watch the news.
It's not that it's filled with horrific events, in the face of which I feel utterly helpless.
It's not that the Republican party has taken the principles and practices of internet trolling and wrought them into a massive political weapon.
It's the meta.
I just watched a news story on the BP oil crisis, about 10-15 minutes long because it was The News Hour, that was followed immediately about how that would impact the president's image. Did he come off as weak? Did he seem like he had a grip on the situation. He gave his speech from the Oval Office rather than at the regular podium--was that significant? Other presidents used the Oval Office to announce _________. Was his speech on a par with theirs?
This is not news. This is meta. This is wankery. This is a waste of my time. This is the shiny thing that keeps people distracted away from the real story, news that has ceased to be news at all and is only the raw material for the real point of the broadcast, the meta-news.
Trolling and meta. The news media are nothing but massive internet forums, aren't they? And the mods don't care as long as the page-views stay high.
Rant over.
I'm finally reading W.T. Stead's "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon." It is perhaps the original blockbuster expose journalism, sensationalist as hell, but I never get the feeling that he's grandstanding. This is not a story about The Author's Journey into the hells of London's brothels, a narrative more closely resembling a safari than actual reportage. He keeps the author relatively transparent, to better show the horror of the sex-slave trade in young girls. It's awful. The sex trade in Victorian London was huge. I remember reading once that one in ten houses in Victorian London was a brothel. I don't know if it was true, but it appears that it was a major destination for what we now call sex holidays.
I can't recommend that my friends read it. It's too good at what it does.
It's not that it's filled with horrific events, in the face of which I feel utterly helpless.
It's not that the Republican party has taken the principles and practices of internet trolling and wrought them into a massive political weapon.
It's the meta.
I just watched a news story on the BP oil crisis, about 10-15 minutes long because it was The News Hour, that was followed immediately about how that would impact the president's image. Did he come off as weak? Did he seem like he had a grip on the situation. He gave his speech from the Oval Office rather than at the regular podium--was that significant? Other presidents used the Oval Office to announce _________. Was his speech on a par with theirs?
This is not news. This is meta. This is wankery. This is a waste of my time. This is the shiny thing that keeps people distracted away from the real story, news that has ceased to be news at all and is only the raw material for the real point of the broadcast, the meta-news.
Trolling and meta. The news media are nothing but massive internet forums, aren't they? And the mods don't care as long as the page-views stay high.
Rant over.
I'm finally reading W.T. Stead's "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon." It is perhaps the original blockbuster expose journalism, sensationalist as hell, but I never get the feeling that he's grandstanding. This is not a story about The Author's Journey into the hells of London's brothels, a narrative more closely resembling a safari than actual reportage. He keeps the author relatively transparent, to better show the horror of the sex-slave trade in young girls. It's awful. The sex trade in Victorian London was huge. I remember reading once that one in ten houses in Victorian London was a brothel. I don't know if it was true, but it appears that it was a major destination for what we now call sex holidays.
I can't recommend that my friends read it. It's too good at what it does.