tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post8608829973637672686..comments2024-03-29T08:20:50.011-04:00Comments on SleuthSayers: Anatomy of Revolution - Part 2Leigh Lundinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-31856632703208011472014-10-23T19:39:57.421-04:002014-10-23T19:39:57.421-04:00Speaking of media, one of the major players in the...Speaking of media, one of the major players in the French Revolution is a relatively unknown (in the US) man named Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne, who wandered the streets of Paris and reported on everything he saw: he was, among other things, a disciple of Rousseau's, a social realist, the coiner of the word "communist" (long before Marx!), and a foot fetishist. The key is, while the elites read Voltaire, et al, the common man read Bretonne, mainly because he printed his own stuff and sold it cheap, spiced up his writings with sex and naughty titles ("Le Paysan Perverti", for example). He also helped spread some fairly nasty rumors about Marie Antoinette. He did more to work up the average sans-culottes than anyone else, at least until Danton started giving speeches!<br />Eve Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03015761600962360110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-79963110328177500522014-10-23T13:47:24.059-04:002014-10-23T13:47:24.059-04:00Interestingly, I was thinking about this just last...Interestingly, I was thinking about this just last night, Leigh, when I saw that Ben Bradlee had died. I recall seeing him interviewed about the Watergate stories, years later, and he explained how hard he worked to be sure his reporters were writing things based on actual fact, and not just theory or suspicion. I have to say, from what I saw and heard in J-school, it seems the new, younger, editors are less inclined to be so diligent.Dixon Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11220791609338404147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-83024454973228113852014-10-23T13:30:57.180-04:002014-10-23T13:30:57.180-04:00As a 5th grader, I’d read all the books on the jun...As a 5th grader, I’d read all the books on the junior shelves and moved on to the high school library. There I found Animal Farm. Adults condescendingly told me I wouldn’t understand it. They were wrong. I not only grokked it, I never forgot it.<br /><br />Your article reminds me of Felix Dzerzhinsky who ran the “All-Russia Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage” and dealt death to tens of thousands real or imagined opponents. And of course Adolph Hitler eliminated many of his early political and army buddies.<br /><br />I saw a news photo a few hours ago of North Korea’s Dear Leader poring over military plans. On the wall behind him is a chart titled something like “Plans to attack United States mainland.”<br /><br />Whew, Eve, intense. I think I’ll do something relaxing like watching Costa-Gavras’ Z or L'Aveu.Leigh Lundinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-2538715648590185372014-10-23T13:28:10.824-04:002014-10-23T13:28:10.824-04:00I'm with Janice and RT.
I may have a partial ...I'm with Janice and RT.<br /><br />I may have a partial answer for Dixon. The internet has changed a lot and not always for the better. Blog after blog brags it has the 'true facts' which the 'mainstream media' won't tell you.<br /><br />But in fact, the grand newspapers which appear to be collapsing worked hard to vet their stories, checking facts, rechecking sources. Reporters attended journalism school and took ethics courses. In cases where the news failed to adhere to the straight and narrow, at least there were standards to aspire to. Indeed, if the NY Times or the Washington Post, the Boston Globe or the Cleveland Plain Dealer got a story wrong every decade or so, it became a story in itself, if not a major scandal. Look at the damage done to 60 Minutes when, in half a century, a producer hadn't vetted her source. It didn't mean the story was wrong, only that it wasn't right (if you follow what I'm saying).<br /><br />Then along came Rupert Murdoch and News Corp, the same people who told their news outlets not to criticize China because they didn't want to upset their leaders. Thanks to that same organization, you wouldn't know that same conglomerate has been involved in a major scandal in the UK: News Corp courted politicians and governments, offered bribes and services, and simultaneously subverted and thwarted police investigators in both politics and murder. Yes, murder. Meanwhile, Murdoch and son claimed they didn't know or didn't remember. Here at home, Fox News claims it presents the 'other side', which is a curious statement when talking about facts.<br /><br />So if we don't know why we're getting bad news, at least we know how.Leigh Lundinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-505179842187059172014-10-23T13:04:17.837-04:002014-10-23T13:04:17.837-04:00An excellent post. I wonder if you might expand o...An excellent post. I wonder if you might expand on the roll played by media in the immediate to intermediate revolutionary situation. It's certainly not by accident that Putin systematically eradicated free media outlets within the Russian Federation, for instance. <br /><br />Here at home, I have become more and more concerned by previously dependable news sources (both print and broadcast) moving further from fact-based reporting toward unrecognized opinion-making. Certainly, this has always been a problem for news outlets to handle, but in the past editors seemed to do a better job of either spiking such stories, or providing clear indication that the piece was opinion and not just hard news -- seemingly on both sides of the political aisle. <br /><br />Thoughts?Dixon Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11220791609338404147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-90943405061546317222014-10-23T11:31:27.978-04:002014-10-23T11:31:27.978-04:00Wow, this is fantastic reading. Thanks for putting...Wow, this is fantastic reading. Thanks for putting it all together.<br /><br />Our nation is about 238 tears old, but with the way politicians are out of favor with the general public and with the decrease of the buffering middle class and the increasing wealth gap between the rich and the lower class, I'm starting to wonder how close we are to the beginning of a slow slide towards our next revolution. Unless of course, those same politicians can delay it with trade-offs to stay in power similar to what the Chinese are doing, but on a less coercive scale. A little here, a little there.R.T. Lawtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15523486296396710227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-80564863668569542612014-10-23T08:27:24.960-04:002014-10-23T08:27:24.960-04:00A sad illustration of the maxim that those who do ...A sad illustration of the maxim that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it!Janice lawnoreply@blogger.com