The Vanguard is off for the next four days, taking its annual Thanksgiving vacation. We plan to return on Monday, barring some unforeseen major events in the coming days.
We also will have a major new feature – a bulletin board. The feature will enable people to start their own topics and also enable off-topic posts to be moved from the comment section to the bulletin board. That will enable such posts to not be deleted and allow discussions on them to occur.
Happy Thanksgiving and stay safe. In the meantime, this is free space to post or comment on whatever you want.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, it must be extra special this year with your new addition. Have a good four days off.
Thank you David for another great year. I hope you and your growing family have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Drive safe.
Paix, pachem, shalom, saalam, peace…
As we think of things we’re thankful for, consider making a contribution towards (or ‘adopting’ a family) one of the organizations (STEAC is one) that help those who are facing serious hardship this year. As in the past, we’re sponsoring a family of 5. Maybe next year, we can do more.
Happy Thanksgiving…
Happy Thanksgiving from Lt. Pike (from Craigslist)
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/rnr/2717078867.html
Happy Turkey Day!
I give thanks to my blogging community. On this day may you all be blessed with the joy of loving friends and family and great food. Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving all!
I just joined you all this year and am thankful for the lively discussions that entertain , educate and sometimes enlighten,
My best wishes to all for a peaceful and happy day.
Happy Thanksgiving to all . I’ll bet Jerry Sandusky is especially thankful for Lt. Pike this year 😉
Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you David, all your staff and supporters for providing this venue of discussion.
Happy Thanksgiving, David and family and your loyal readership. May the coming year bring even more success for the [u]Vanguard[/u], for Judicial Watch and to you for your admirable devotion to advancing justice causes and to speaking out for the unfortunate.
Happy Thanksgiving. I hope everyone will have a wonderful, but not Last, supper:
[img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81UlcrDjE+L.png[/img]
Your “point” with the picture, Rifkin? Or just an interesting sense of “humor”? In any event, Happy Thanksgiving…
BTW, the original Star Trek pilot featured a Lt. Pike… as did a subsequent episode, where Pike was pretty much totally disabled…
My error… Captain Pike…. not likely to happen, I think…
Hate to end my great day on a sour note. I was at the relative’s house and they had the TV on. The news reported that Lt. Pike had recently filed bankruptcy and lost his house.
Why the hell did the news report that?
The media is out of control and unaccountable.
[i]”Your “point” with the picture, Rifkin?”[/i]
No point. Just funny. Happy holidays, HP.
I think the editor’s judgment was poor, Jeff. But really: do you want the media under control and accountable?
Jeff
“The media is out of control and unaccountable”
Two questions.
1) Who do you feel should be “in control”?
2) Accountable to whom ?
Don & medwoman,
I think the behavior of the media combined with the evolution of the news media industry (i.e., where we get our news) is one of a few root causes of our social and cultural decline and warrants a different approach.
1. I do not think the First Amendment covers entertainment and propaganda.
2. The extent that “news” or news-media organizations do not follow their own code of ethics [url]http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp[/url] defines them as something other than a provider of news, IMO. I would support requiring all media source businesses that want First Amendment protection to have to register and be monitored by the FCC and the public for mistakes/infractions to a published code of ethics. The process could be similar to the IRS, were fines levied can be challenged in a mediation and arbitration process. Fine amounts would escalate based on a number of infractions over a period of time.
3. Any news or media business (based on their NAICS) not registered should not enjoy First Amendment protections and hence should be open to slander and damage claims.
4. When a registered news/media company is determined to have broken the code of ethics and caused harm to any individual, the fines levied by the FCC should be used to compensate that individual.
5. The FCC would publish an “Ethics Score” for each registered news media company.
6. Opinion content, think tank sources and school publications would not apply.
You can change the channel if that station bothers you. Or, better yet, complain to the station. I can assure you that local news editors are sensitive to viewer complaints. I can’t believe you want the FCC to take control of things like this. But I don’t agree with your premise anyway, that we are experiencing social and cultural “decline.” Change, yes; decline, no.
We will have to agree to disagree on this point. I am a mostly a strict constitutionalist except in this case I don’t think our founding fathers could have imagined how media would evolve to be such a corruptive and corrosive force in our society, culture and especially our politics.
Those with a left worldview seem to not care, IMO, because they are well served politically with a mechanism to stir populist ire. The Fairness Doctrine pushed by liberals is in fact a tactic to kill talk radio not improve the ethical behavior of media. Conservative talk radio programs are all opinion formats. The nightly news and the newspapers sell themselves as unbiased new sources and they should be held to a code of ethic due to their ability to persuade and harm lacking transparency.
I am preparing a letter to send to the local channel that ran the story about Lt. Pike. My guess is that few will do the same because the media has corrupted viewers into thinking this is normal reporting. Hence my claim that the media corrupts our society and culture… they establish the new normal of crap and junk that people get used to.
I have been sitting in a commercial radio station when they received viewer complaints. They are sensitive to them.
I think the Fairness Doctrine is obsolete and pointless.
” The media has corrupted viewers into thinking that this is normal reporting.”
I disagree with you on two points here Jeff. First I do not see any “corruption” going on here. People have the option to watch, listen to, and or read information from a huge variety of sources. No one is being force fed any particular point of view. And what do you perceive as “normal”.
If this kind of reporting is common enough in our society, the it is objectively a “norm”. whether you or I believe that it should be is a bit beside the point. I agree with your action, and Don’s point about the power of placing individual complaints abou content you find offensive. But I certainly do not want the FCC being developed further into a role as defacto arbiter of the appropriateness of reporting.
Jeff,
I’m surprised you want to bring the Feds in on this.
Don’t we have the epitome of capitalist media, where the most profitable news reporting wins out; and doesn’t the route of highest profits inevitably lead to the best results for all, by the invisible hand of the market?
Surely there are no exceptions to this?
If you wants your media, you pays your money and you gets it.
[quote]The news reported that Lt. Pike had recently filed bankruptcy and lost his house. [/quote]Maybe this ‘background’ explains why the Lt. “snapped” and did a ‘stupid’ instead of looking for alternate means to resolve the situation… being told to remove “shelters” when he had lost his?
Thinking more about it, in the spirit of the season, Lt. Pike should perhaps be demoted one rank, allowed to keep his job, but in exchange, be encouraged to teach others why his response was not a smart, nor appropriate one.
Admin leave is interesting… you still get paid, still have your benefits, still accrue vacation & sick leave time, still have ‘time in service’ for retirement, but you only have to be “prepared” to show up to work, if called. Maybe we should all aspire to do a “stupid” and be placed on administrative leave.
[quote]1. I do not think the First Amendment covers entertainment and propaganda. [/quote]
That is simply your opinion or your interpretation. Either way it is completely incorrect, and thankfully, you do not get to determine what is and what is not covered by the first ammendment.
[quote]You can change the channel if that station bothers you.[/quote]
Took the words right out of my mouth. I am thankful for the freedom to choose what I choose to watch and choose not to watch. It sounds as though Mr. Boone is suggesting that he and those of his mind have the right to make that decision for us, which by the way is the same philosphy of the Chinese government.