Minutemen and LATimes
For those of you who think that the rapidly declining media is not tinted yellow consider the following turn of phrase I'm copying from a LATimes article (4/29/2005):
**
Gov. Praises 'Minuteman' Campaign
By Peter Nicholas and Robert Salladay, Times Staff Writers
SACRAMENTO — Calling the nation's borders dangerously porous, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday praised the private "Minuteman" campaign that uses armed volunteers to stop illegal immigrants from crossing into the U.S.
**
The power of print and radio over television is the ability to create images in people's minds rather than just shove them like television does. Carefully consider that these writers chose to characterize the campaign as using "armed volunteers" rather than just "volunteers" to "stop" illegal immigrants. The imagery implied in my mind goes from a troop of Boy Scouts to a team of cammo-clad rednecks bearing M-16s assaulting poor defenseless hispanic pesants from the back of a pickup truck somewhere in the Arizona desert.
The fact is that the Minutemen are volunteers to report on illegal crossings with the goal of stopping the immigrants. While the organization does permit its volunteers to carry weapons for self-defense, the Minutemen neither promote or condone the use of weapons against the immigrants. Nor are the volunteers to confront the immigrants but rather report the observations to the proper authorities so that the border patrol can take direct action. This information has been widely disseminated by the group, and yet the writers still choose to turn the phrase to something hostile by omission or addition of several choice words.
Maybe professors don't teach about the incident where Hearst twisted and altered the truth to create a scandal and a war that begat the term yellow journalism. That's why major media is crumbling, and why I'm writing this blog.
**
Gov. Praises 'Minuteman' Campaign
By Peter Nicholas and Robert Salladay, Times Staff Writers
SACRAMENTO — Calling the nation's borders dangerously porous, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday praised the private "Minuteman" campaign that uses armed volunteers to stop illegal immigrants from crossing into the U.S.
**
The power of print and radio over television is the ability to create images in people's minds rather than just shove them like television does. Carefully consider that these writers chose to characterize the campaign as using "armed volunteers" rather than just "volunteers" to "stop" illegal immigrants. The imagery implied in my mind goes from a troop of Boy Scouts to a team of cammo-clad rednecks bearing M-16s assaulting poor defenseless hispanic pesants from the back of a pickup truck somewhere in the Arizona desert.
The fact is that the Minutemen are volunteers to report on illegal crossings with the goal of stopping the immigrants. While the organization does permit its volunteers to carry weapons for self-defense, the Minutemen neither promote or condone the use of weapons against the immigrants. Nor are the volunteers to confront the immigrants but rather report the observations to the proper authorities so that the border patrol can take direct action. This information has been widely disseminated by the group, and yet the writers still choose to turn the phrase to something hostile by omission or addition of several choice words.
Maybe professors don't teach about the incident where Hearst twisted and altered the truth to create a scandal and a war that begat the term yellow journalism. That's why major media is crumbling, and why I'm writing this blog.
posted by Possum at 12:24
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