Links and commentary on media, politics and culture by Steve Rhodes.

 
Flashback to a part of the quiz on foreign leaders during the campaign as reported by the BBC on November 9, 1999:

"Can you name the general who is in charge of Pakistan?"

Mr Bush needed a breather. "Wait, wait, is this 50 questions?" Hiller:

"No, it's four questions of four leaders in four hot spots, " the reporter tried to put his victim at ease.

"The new Pakistani general, he's just been elected - not elected, this guy took over office. It appears this guy is going to bring stability to the country and I think that's good news for the sub-continent," the Republican candidate offered.

Good news, but not an answer, and the interviewer insisted: "Can you name him?"

"General. I can't name the general. General" was all Mr Bush had to offer.

posted by Steve Rhodes at 9/20/2001 03:05:00 AM

 

Another letter to Nightline:

Last night's show was good, particularly John Donvan's interviews with the children. I hope some other ABC news programs will replay the piece. And that you'll place it prominantly on the web page in real video and text form.

And you do need to continue to do critical reporting like Claire Shipman's report. It is bad when the Mayor of New York and the Secretary of State act far more presidential than the President. Language is important and now is not the time to use speech that usually is in comic book balloons or uttered in action films.

But I am disturbed that after being the only network which was correct in refraining from giving a movie like title to your coverage, you are now calling your shows America Fights Back.

As your email today notes, there are some of us who are calling for restraint. Who think we shouldn't fight the people who did this, we should put them on trial.

And you need more guests who represent this point of view. Ofcourse the polls will say people support military action if that is all the experts, mostly military, intelligence and officials in previous administrations (particularly those the president's father served in) discuss.

You need to have more critical voices like Robert Fisk of the Independent and Barbara Ehrenreich who has written a book on war.

Thanks
posted by Steve Rhodes at 9/19/2001 01:13:00 PM

 
An email I just sent to nighline which is doing a special at 10 pm tonight with former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, former Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey, former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, the former director of the National Security Agency Retired Lt. Gen. William Odom and former White House Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein:

Nightline has done some excellent coverage the last few days particularly John Donvan's report on attacks and threats on Muslims. And it was good to hear the voices of people like Maya Angelou and Jonathan Frazen. And to hear Rep. Barbara Lee's statement.

And I am glad you are doing a show tonight. But I hope you add a more critical voice to your panel which consists of members of the old school standard Nightline guest list. It could even be a former government official like Daniel Ellsberg or a military official from the Center For Defense Information. But there needs to be a voice that will question a military response. Koppel asking some critical questions isn't enough.

And those critical voices along with critical reporting will need to continue to be included in the months aheard.

posted by Steve Rhodes at 9/16/2001 11:40:00 AM

 

I'm posting to TVBarn.


posted by Steve Rhodes at 9/12/2001 05:11:00 AM

 

Strange how a stubborn cookie will keep you (well, me) from posting.

For now, some links on Pauline Kael. I often didn't agree with her (especially on Citizen Kane), but she was always worth reading.

The New York Times obit. There are a bunch of links at some letters at Medianews.org. Yahoo has a full coverage page with lots of links.

You can listen to a program Fresh Air did on her today. I'm surprised Salon doesn't have a link off their front page to this brief speech she gave they published last year. And even more surprised there isn't anything on the New Yorker site.


posted by steve at 9/04/2001 06:50:00 PM