tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12906299.post6723954856971359366..comments2023-05-26T09:52:30.568-04:00Comments on This Old Blog: I'm Right to be Skeptical of Occupy Wall Street, and Other Reassuring TruthsBillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749942763035029635noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12906299.post-17493057595498375042011-11-08T23:07:36.215-05:002011-11-08T23:07:36.215-05:00Instead of dismissing Al Jazeera as propagandists,...<i>Instead of dismissing Al Jazeera as propagandists, we need to ask why North American media lag so obviously behind.</i><br /><br />You're right to question my dismissing Al Jazeera as simple propagandists. They're certainly not simple. But I don't trust them and their motivations any more than I trust any other news organization these days.<br /><br />And you're right, we should ask why North American media lag so far behind.Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06749942763035029635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12906299.post-33372582792886245892011-11-08T22:46:43.462-05:002011-11-08T22:46:43.462-05:00The "media mistrust" piece was an intere...The "media mistrust" piece was an interesting article, not least because of the complete unsuitability of its headline. It wasn't so much the 'open' or 'crowd source' buzzwords that caught my interest but its confusion of those two with a group working by consensus. <br /><br />I once served on the board of a social-justice organization that made all decisions by consensus, and it worked surprisingly well. The key is that it was a small group of people who already agreed on almost everything, and trusted each other enough to accept when someone else's opinion should carry more weight. It would be a hopeless way of running a country, but it's very effective in the right venue. It's an idea that's been well established in the various movements that have joined under the Occupy banner, so buzzwords need not be multiplied beyond necessity.<br /><br /><br /><i>And that comment about Al Jazeera just cracks me up. They're giving blanket coverage to our issues because their primary clientele want to expose the flaws in our society.</i><br /><br />They also did an exceptional job of covering the Arab Spring, and continue to provide coverage of the ongoing conflict in Syria that I'm just not seeing anywhere else. Instead of dismissing Al Jazeera as propagandists, we need to ask why North American media lag so obviously behind.Matthew Robertsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04134787874718415563noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12906299.post-89319525475639945022011-11-08T01:48:42.896-05:002011-11-08T01:48:42.896-05:00Speaking (or rather writing) my thoughts, Bill. Cr...Speaking (or rather writing) my thoughts, Bill. Crowdsourcing is just another slap in the faces of the poor, performed by the rich. And still we prefer not to wake up... did we all take the wrong-colored pills?wjl (Wolfgang Lonien)https://www.blogger.com/profile/16260257465797680048noreply@blogger.com