'Balanced reporting'

Something bizarre is going on. It was likely triggered by faux news outlets like Fox in the USA. In a nutshell these rightwing news outlets claimed to have come into existence in response to the biased reporting (aka 'liberal bias') of the mainstream media that existed at the time. Those mainstream media have essentially responded by moving significantly further to the political right in order to demonstrate how balanced they are.

A few weeks ago I bumped into a hardcore zionist Jewish guy who went on and on and on how biased the BBC is in favor of Palestinian views. He wanted more 'balance'. There we go again, 'balance'. I'm not going to bore you with my views on this dreadful conflict. I am interested in the idea that 'balance' for news reporting purposes means inviting 'the two sides', whoever they are, and trying to locate oneself in the middle somewhere.

This is such a bizarre proposition. What this means is basically that if you want a debate to move into your direction, you need to be as close to lunatic fringe at your political end as can be, simply because by virtue of doing that the 'balance without concern for content' brigade would automatically shift the centre of the debate closer to your end. On the other hand, having sensible middle-of-the-road views would mean that you're already giving up too much political ground to the other side, so you lose before you even get started.

A good example of this lunacy in terms of reporting is CNN. These days, reasonably sensible people from the Washington Post are usually 'balanced' with the lunatic fringe represented by 'reporters' from the Washington Times. The Washington Times was deliberately created by the rightwing Moonie Unification Church to ride on the confusion in many people's minds about the difference between the Washington Post (the real deal) and the Washington Times (the joke). The cover photo I am displaying here shows what I mean, look at how keen the paper is to have Obama and bin Laden in its headline. That CNN today routinely invites agitprop staff (aka 'journalists') from the Washington Times shows you how far the 'balance' lunacy has got out of control. CNN is actually misleading us into thinking that the Washington Times is a legitimate news outlet to begin with.

How about focusing on substance instead of trying to get the most radical views at either end of the political spectrum (or any other matter) to demonstrate 'balance'?

Animal abuse

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Seriously, what's wrong with people going to places like Seaworld? So, a day or two ago this 'trainer' is dragged by an orca wale under the water and killed in the process. CNN offered two experts on the matter, a bloke looking like Indiana Jones and on the opposing side a Captain Ahab lookalike. As good experts are wont to do they disagree on who's 'fault' this was. Indiana Jones insisted that it was the 'trainer's' fault (her pony tail supposedly triggered the wale's response), vs Ahab who insisted that it was wrong for Seaworld to have a wale amongst its animals that has killed twice before. And so it went forth and back in typical CNN/FOX/MSNBC style.

My questions are these: isn't it obvious that you don't keep such massive animals in the smallish ponds where Seaworld is keeping them? It's a clear case of animal abuse (whatever Indiana Jones thinks). And what is it with these people going to these shows? Why are so many people running to see these shows to begin with? Is our only way to show affection or admiration for huge wild animals to put them into small prisons and make them do stupid things to entertain us? Pretty much in line with why many people go to watch Formula 1 races folks queued forever to watch the first Orca show after the killing of the 'trainer'. Someone hoping for a repeat of the disaster there??

Here's the LA Times reporting on this: 'Hundreds of patrons packed into Shamu Stadium on Saturday for the return of SeaWorld Orlando's "Believe" show, three days after a killer whale dragged a veteran animal trainer underwater to her death. Despite a morning drizzle, visitors stood in line for two hours beginning at 9 a.m. to see the first performance.'

The obvious lessons to be learned from this event should have been:

• It's wrong to keep animals for entertainment purposes.
• We should not support businesses such as Seaworld because they rely on animal abuse to make profits.'

What really happened is that the killing boosted visitor numbers. Sickening! People queued for hours to have a look at the Orca that killed three folks. How annoying is that? It seems that PETA at least got the response to this one right. Close down outfits like Seaworld and release the captive wales back into the sea. In case you really need to have a look at Orcas, watch a nature documentary!

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