Re: Style gettting in the way of clear reporting [borderline NOISE]

[Mike Fletcher <fletch@ain.bls.com>]

> I still think of "The Wall Street Journal" and "The Economist," two of my
> favorites, as being _careful_ in their reporting (careful is different from
> unbiased). But my main focus in this thread was on the _styles_, and this I
> think is more explained by faddishness.
>
> And advertising. To get "mind space," as with "shelf space," the packaging
> must entice, fool, and trick the reader.

	This might can be tied back in with Tim's other RANT about
prozac/ritalin/Haagen Daas/[insert your favorite mood altering
substance here] and ADD.  Today's kids supposedly can't concentrate on
anything for more than the duration of a music video or the first
"act" of Baywatch.  But it's all just simpler to dope them up and let
'em watch Pamela Sue jiggle than try to raise them properly.

> Yes, and many of the newsletters we're seeing--as many are cc:ed or
> forwarded to our list--are the kissing cousins of "zines." Same faux style,
> same emphasis on "flash" over substance. (Not all of them of course.)

	But media in general is becomming a meme-eat-meme world.  If
you don't entertain enough to hook the reader they won't bother with
you (and your meme never propagates).  Who cares if CSPAN is
broadcasting hearings on changes to some law that could fundamentally
change American society as we know it, there's an infomercial on for
that amazing new flameproof car wax that cures baldness and predicts
the future more accurately than Dionne Warwick.  The Sci-Fi Channel
needs to update their "Max Headroom" episodes from "20 minutes into
the future..." to only about ten (if that).

	Now where'd I leave my Zik Zak . . . :)

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