Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Condumberacy of Fedasses

As you are probably already aware, the Pentagon has released improperly redacted documents relating to the killing of an Italian quasi-civilian.

Redaction is supposed to be used only to protect national security secrets or to protect a person's privacy. So had that actually been the case, it would be a serious mistake worthy of high-level inquiry and severe punishment for whoever is responsible.

However, since apparently most of the redactions in this case were merely to cover up embarrassing negative information about the Iraq war, in this case it seems two wrongs actually make a right. So no harm done! Ha! Ha ha! Hahahahahahaha...ahhh, oh, fuck.

Also, NPR is really taken aback by all of this, with good reason. They have prepared a sobering editorial that I think any concerned American needs to read and digest. It concerns what is obviously the most important aspect of the whole crisis - the dangers of blogging.

I am not making this up. Really, I wish I were. I really, really do. Ohaaggghhhghhghghghhhh....

I just died of consternation. It's been real. See everybody on the flip side.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The mistake did involve both safety and privacy issues unfortunately. The individual names of folks involved in the incident were released, and the rules of engagement were also outlined in detail. Oppenents spend alot of time and energy figuring out how each other will respond to certain situations. It is what enables an ambush or a feint in battle.

However, the funny quote actually came from Ken Rudin complaining that the bloggers generate alot of email for him from folks he considers not to be "free thinkers". I have to laugh because if you've ever read more than one newspaper in the same day, you'd get the same impression from them, that they are all just parroting each other. Watching the nightly news will generate much the same impression as well. And the specific point about a phrase like "Nuclear Option" was lost on him entirely apparently. Why does a news organization just parrot the carefully crafted language of the people they cover? That point was lost on him entirely apparently.

Anonymous said...

Finally something I can agree with you on.. the fact that most news sources just parrot the same news and even the same angle on news. From my standpoint I can listen to MSNBC, ABC,NBC, CBS,CNN, The new york times, ect and get the same exact story. Readers of this reply probably think as the token conservative on this site I would love this and applaud that it is finally being revealed and admitted to. However I think this is horrible for America, freedom and all the thing great about America. I want open speech, I want open debate in the arena of idea's. I want to hear and understand different people's prospective. I think open speech is the basis for maintaining freedom in America and love to read other peoples opinion regardless of how "stupid" or illogical I think thier reasoning.

As far as NPR, I say who cares what they say becuase they are part of the "parroting " group discussed above. I just do not think NPR carries much weight with most Americans... am I wrong ?

Anonymous said...

The longer this stays as the top article on the blog, the funnier it gets.

Ethridge

Julie said...

How about we all copy it to our blogs just to make it funnier?

Poor NPR; I used to actually enjoy listening to their news broadcasts.

Anonymous said...

From Charles Seeman:

oh yeah... PW... I forgot that all the major media outlets are right wing. Being very sarcastic

Jullie: I used to know alot of people who listened to NPR on a regular basis. but today I can name only one of my co workers, friends, ect that I know for a fact listens to NPR on a regular basis. Now I think most people use it as backround noise to have something playing while they work in thier office.

AP. Short might be great one day to open up a discussion on the question of media basis.. could be fun.. just a suggestion

Anonymous said...

From Charles Seeman:

oh yeah... PW... I forgot that all the major media outlets are right wing. Being very sarcastic

Jullie: I used to know alot of people who listened to NPR on a regular basis. but today I can name only one of my co workers, friends, ect that I know for a fact listens to NPR on a regular basis. Now I think most people use it as backround noise to have something playing while they work in thier office.

AP. Short might be great one day to open up a discussion on the question of media basis.. could be fun.. just a suggestion

Julie said...

*chuckle*