Wesley's Orwellian Newsspeak Blog #2

Hugo Chavez doesn't care if people think he is crazy, he is going ahead and creating his own time zone. Apparently the time change will give schoolchildren more daylight. The time change will give Venezuelans thirty more minutes. From the Voice of America News.

The same story from BBC news has more details. According to Chavez the extra daylight will improve the performance of the country. This also from the BBC story, "But critics say the move is unnecessary and the president simply wants to be in a different time zone from his arch-rival, the United States." Who are these critics, and why aren't they named? I have noticed this type of attribution before, it usually follows this same format. Information that is critical is often anonymously cited as "critics say." I just wonder if there was an actual person that said this and wanted to remain unnamed, or was this water-cooler talk around the BBC office and they decided to throw it in? We'll never know for sure.

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

EfluxMedia files this story about Miss Zhang Zilin, 23, from China who won the crown of Miss World. This is the first time that China has won the beauty pageant. It is a decent story and covers the main points, until you read another story on the event. I found this at United Press International, in wire story format. The key facts that I think are crucial to this story are that the Communist party has banned Chinese women from entering the international beauty pageant. But in recent years has changed it's tune and has been paying $4 million annually for four years to host the event, which it did this year. The EfluxMedia story also doesn't mention that the pageant garners about 2 billion viewers, the U.P.I. story claims that the Chinese government used the pageant as a publicity vehicle. Meaning that it was a way to spread China's good name around the world. There is definitely a trend developing, especially with China hosting the 2008 summer olympics.

I don't know why EfluxMedia doesn't report these details. I think the communist angle is probably the most interesting, seeing as women weren't allowed to compete for so long, once they finally do compete they win. I think the money angle is also noteworthy.

At first I thought that eFluxMedia was based in China, so that's why they didn't print the potentially damaging aspects of the story, the communist thing, money line, etc. But according to the sites "About Us" tab they are headquartered in New York. The statement on their intentions is kind of nebulous too. Nothing there really hints at why they would leave that information out, most likely it is a case of poor research.

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This from Iraq. Factbox from Reuters, which details the current developments from Iraq. I didn't know this type of reporting existed. I love it, it's straight facts, kind of like the type of stories you would find on National Public Radio. Straight to the point, this happened, and then this happened. There is no context really, but with a broad and never ending story like this you don't need context, hopefully everyone already knows that. The article displays the major provinces or cities and denotes what happened that day in them.

This type of reporting works well when it is coupled with vastly in-depth pieces. You can get away with this kind of fact based list reporting when you follow it up with deeper stories every week or so. I think this story represents the way the dissemination of media is going. It represents multi-pronged media outlets. You can get your straight up facts online and then turn the radio on and hear an hour-long piece on the social history of islam in Iraq. I think the more media gets multi-channeled, the more singularly focused these stories will get. For instance you won't see packaged reporting, where a particular news story is dissected back to front, with all aspects covered. The problem with this new wave of journalism is that it demands the reader to be multi-dimensional in their media choices.

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It seems every day some minor but newsworthy event takes place in Pakistan, and we get to hear about it daily. If you listen to NPR, Pakistan pretty much dominates an hour or two every day. Are people that interested in it? I don't think so, none of my friends want to talk about it. Which doesn't mean a whole lot. I think the U.S. government cares the most about the issue. We have aided Pakistan with $10 billion to fight terrorism, so they are an investment. Also they are a potential threat, if elections take place and a hostile government takes over, Pakistan's nuclear arms are up for grabs. The New York Times broke this story. A secret program has been ongoing to help Pakistan safeguard their arms. It is running in the ballpark of $100 billion. The NY Times has known about the secret program for three years, but was asked by the Bush administration to delay publication.

Do we want democracy or do we just want to make sure that nuclear arms don't go missing? Do we want oil or democracy in Iraq?

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Chinese produced toy, Aqua dots, if swallowed will metabolize and turn into the date rape drug, GHB (gamma-hydroxy butyrate). The toy is marketed as a craft kit for children 4 years old and up. The toy is also popular in Australia where it was voted toy of the year, in the U.S. the toy reached Wal-Mart's top twelve toys.

I found this from Xinhua a Chinese newspaper. I was interested to see how they would treat a story as damaging as this. First of all they get the name of the product in Australia wrong. They say it is Bindeez, it is actually called Bindeez Beads. Second they name the chemical, but do not say that it is a common date rape drug. They just give the full chemical name. Which can be confusing if someone isn't familiar with gamma-hydroxy butyrate. I wasn't, and I wouldn't think it was a big deal until I read in the first article what the chemical is commonly used for. Third they cite the product warnings on the package, which states harmful if swallowed. Which every child's toy ever made has on its packaging.

I am not saying that this story is bad, I can fully understand the desire to minimize the damage. This has been a bad year for Chinese products.

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

New sanctions on Iran are hitting home, my earlier blog entry about the Essar Steel deal is more timely now.

From Press TV. According to Former Senior Pentagon advisor Harlan K. Ullman sanctions are useless and that the U.S. needs to follow the diplomatic path.

This is funny because I was watching public television and some undersecretary to the U.N. was saying that sanctions are just another step in the diplomatic path.

I have heard a lot of buzz about these sanctions being similar to sanctions placed on Iraq five years ago. That a lot of the dialogue around Washington sounds very similar to the lead up to the Iraq war. My opinion is that this is a scare tactic to get people to vote Republican, because they are stronger on foreign policy issues. My assessment is that people trust Republicans more to lead them through a war. Not that we'll go to war, but the notion is in the mind's of voters.

I don't think we'll go to war because Vladimir Putin just met with Iran. Russia and China are closely related and we can't afford to anger them.

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Monkeys are accused of killing Deputy Mayor S. S. Baiwa, 52, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi. Baiwa died of head injuries later in the hospital after falling from his patio while he was reading a newspaper. HIs family said it sounded like he was trying to fight off monkeys. Baiwa's house is next to a Hindu temple for the monkey god, Hanuman. Every day monkeys flock to the temple where they are fed and revered. They estimate the city's population of monkeys is approximately 5,500.

Will the monkey's be sent to monkey prisons? That seems almost too ridiculous to believe, until I read later in the story, about a 2004 incident, when monkeys broke into the MInistry of Defence and tore up secret documents. Officials rounded up the monkeys and put them in monkey prisons until animal rights activists argued.

"Experts say that one of the only ways to keep the rhesus macaques at bay is to use the larger langur monkey to scare them off. Demand is now so great that their owners are said to be earning up to 10,000 rupees a month." So use the bigger monkeys to scare off the smaller monkeys? What happens when the bigger monkey takes over the city, get some gorillas?

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Whoa, whoa, whoa, how did we not hear about this earlier. I was stunned when I read this article.

All of the information on this story is murky right now, it appears that unidentified agents citing intelligence reports say that a nuclear reactor based on a North Korea model was partially built and designed to produce atomic bomb fuel.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is chomping at the bit to get more information. Syrian officials say the facility is an unused military building.

The reason we found out about is because Israel targeted the site for a September 6 air strike. Israel is not commenting on the nature of the target. This whole thing is dicey, it seems like the U.S. government knew about it, but wasn't saying anything. With all eyes on Iraq, I don't think the American public is ready for another war.

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After finishing their deal with EMI, Radiohead have decided to release their new record independently, without a record contract and without using the standard methods. The album will only be available online for download, and the fans get to name their price. There is also a premium package available for $80 that includes a lot of extras.

Record companies have been losing money for years now on album sales. See the graphic chart

Radiohead's move comes as a sort of one finger salute to the industry. What will come of it though? Bands like Radiohead can afford to make a bold move like this, they have a loyal global fan base. Perhaps up-start bands can go this route though, as one fan posted in a blog, "“I will gladly pay $20 knowing the artist will get the money."

When I talk to my friends, their opinions mirror that of the fan. We would rather pay the artist directly for their music, especially when you hear through the grapevine that bands get like $1 per album, when we have to pay $20. Does the rest of the money get distributed around to all of the middle men who have no bearing on the creative process of the band?

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

That's right, Germany Women's team beat Brazil to win the Women's World Cup.

Reading this article makes me want to be a journalist in the U.K. The first paragraph uses more complex words than an entire article from the New York Times. These are the type of words you only see in the crossword section of American Newspapers.

While Germany and Brazil battled for first. The United States Women's team battled Norway for third. Abby Wambach scored twice in the 4-1 victory of Norway.

This article is typical for the North American press. Simple straightforward, geared towards an audience that reads at an 8th grade level.

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A cow in England has the same strain of the Bluetongue virus as other cows in Northern Europe. While the virus is not considered to be in outbreak stage it has farmers and health officials worried. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, "bluetongue viruses cause very mild, self–limiting infections with only minor clinical consequences." Whatever that means.

The Reuters article states that the virus does not affect humans. That the disease is passed on by insects, and causes fever and mouth ulcers which can actually turn the animal's tongue blue.

The second article I looked at is from the Irish Examiner and has a better lead. Stories dealing with viruses should get to the health risks right off the bat, because I think that people want to know in the first few sentences whether they should be worried or not. This article does that by stating in the lead that the virus does not affect humans. This article also mentions that this virus is more deadly to sheep. It kind of softens the blow that a virus story might induce in the reader. This article is all around a lot clearer about the actual consequences. It states that cows are merely a reservoir for the disease and that most countries are not accepting beef out of Britain since the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease. So really there is not a lot to worry about at this point.

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Alarm over global warming saw real-life evidence recently as satellite photos taken by the European Space Association show that ice levels in the Northwest passage are dropping. This could shave off thousands of miles for ships wishing to go from Europe to Asia, it also means that 25% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas could be found.

Nations are in a race to secure the rights to the Arctic. Recently the Russians sent two submarines to plant their nation's flag underneath the North pole.

I like this story because it seems to gloss over the whole global warming threat and brings up the optimistic points, that a new shipping lane could make global maritime freight more efficient. This quote seems to highlight my point most effectively, "Shorter transport routes means less pollution if you can ship products from A to B on the shortest route," he said, "but the fact that the polar ice is melting away is not good for the world in that we're losing the Arctic and the animal life there."

**Opinion****
Oh yeah the wildlife could suffer, but hey we're going to ship cars around the world more quickly.

Posted by Wesley Nelson at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With the devastating anniversary of 9/11 approaching there is a renewed interest into the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. Stoking the fires is a new videotape which surfaced recently. A brief story which appears on CNN's website quotes Frances Townsend's remarks made on Wolf Blitzer's program. Townsend said, "This is a man on the run in a cave who is virtually impotent other than his ability to get these messages out." The U.S. government is quick to say that they are running down every lead and still take bin Laden very seriously, but add that terror plots around the world are more important. Terrorism won't stop if bin Laden is captured.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/09/bin.laden.tape/?iref=mpstoryview

ABC consultant Dick Clarke, America's former counterterror czar said, "Bin Laden is not only alive, he is once again a threat to the United States."
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3577176

It has been three years since bin Laden last sent in a video tape. As far as intelligence goes, the U.S. government knows he walked into Pakistan in 2001, but has no further information that they care to publish in the media. There is a nearly $50 million bounty on his head.

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It seems that Americans are to blame for Afghanistan's cash crop. Until 2001 the Taliban had enforced Islamic law in Afghanistan which meant that the growing of opium was outlawed. America came in, ousted the Taliban and now Afghanistan is poised to produce 8,200 metric tons of opium, which is up 38 percent from last year. According to the United Nations, Afghanistan provides 93 percent of the world's opium.

No matter what we do we need to do something about it. Britain is beginning to criticize America's "fixation" with Iraq. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2402986.ece

Pundits in Britian are suggesting that Gordon Brown the new president, might switch tactics and fight the "good war" in Afghanistan abandoning the "bad war" in Iraq. Indeed this line of thinking makes sense from Britain's point of view. They continue to show support to the U.S., but look the better for it by fighting opium in Afghanistan.

According to U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey where there is insecurity there will be opium. So maybe the answer isn't herbicides or medical use, but enhanced security in those regions where opium production is high. "In those places where there is security that’s been provided and where there is development assistance going in a meaningful way, you have decreased poppy cultivation," Casey said.

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