So, it has come to pass in this brave new world of instant gratification, notification and articulation that when we see or hear something that may or may not be true, we instantly share our indignations. (Try saying that sentence with one breath!)
We post it on our favorite social website either by hand held phone-type devices or the ‘old fashioned? way with a keyboard and computer. Either way, we want to the world to know how we are feeling, right now at the moment and without thought we let our fingertips do the shouting. And, since we live in this digi-world of computer interconnectiveness, we can now also put our rage into petition form to get others to join our merry band of disrupters.
Recently it came to my attention of one such petition — well, here it is . . . tell me what you think.
We Petition The Obama Administration to work with Congress to pass and sign a law to protect journalistic integrity and honesty.
‘A Fox News affiliate intentionally manipulated C-SPAN audio of peaceful demonstrators to sound like anti-cop chants, which was replayed nationally.
‘There may always be insane people who get copy cat ideas from television. The First Amendment gives us the right to express ourselves just the same. To willfully and negligently manipulate audio to give an impression peaceful demonstrators call for violence against law enforcement is unnecessary, egregious, divisive and puts lives at risk.
‘The Press is an industry the Founding Fathers wished to protect. Journalism is necessary to democracy. That means a Free Press. It also means journalistic integrity. Case No. 2D01-529 is interpreted to give news the right to lie. We need a law to clarify this and protect information consumers.?
This ‘petition? is wrong on so many levels, I don’t know where to begin. Hmm? First, somebody actually wants a law passed to protect journalistic integrity and honesty based on ‘a? news affiliate error of reporting/editing? Really?
Second, do we really want the guys and gals in Washington, DC passing a law about integrity and honesty? Do they even know what those words mean?
Third, that someone thinks a law to ‘protect? any part of a journalistic endeavor is a scary proposition. I bet if I researched a little, the Nazi’s probably had similar laws enforced ‘protecting? ‘honest? ‘reporting.? In other words, when there are laws curtailing any part of any journalistic reporting, a slippery slope to having no journalistic reporting is being built.
The meaning of words, from person to person, to society to society and from one era to the next changes. Who is to say ‘honest? and ‘integrity? will mean the same thing in 50 years?
Fourth, who says television ‘news? is journalistic these days? Seems to me it is more opinion and aligning to a certain idealogy than news. The broadcast media rarely reports the news, it tells us what we already want to hear.
Fifth (and finally), the way this petition was written, you wouldn’t think anybody would sign aboard. You would be wrong! It was first put on-line on Dec. 27 and as of Jan. 5, 6,597 people joined the cause.
Were I a pessimist I would conclude, ‘we’re doomed.?
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Recently, the City of the Village of Clarkston made the national ‘news.? The on-line blog at www.domaininvesting.com, had this recent headline:
Domain Lesson From Clarkston, Michigan
Wrote blogger Elliot Silver, ‘I caught a news article on ClarkstonNews.com about the website for a small city in Michigan, and the City Manager shared a valuable lesson all municipalities and businesses should heed: Set up a single e-mail address to receive important e-mails, such as domain name renewals.
‘The domain name that is home to the website for the City of the Village of Clarkston (also known as Clarkston) expired, and apparently someone from the previous administration was listed as the registrant. As a result, the domain name expired, rendering the website unreachable since it was in pending renewal status. Fortunately, they were able to get in touch with that person, and it appears that the website is now operational again.
‘Had the domain name been registered to an e-mail address that is monitored by someone from the city, it likely would have been renewed on time, and there would not have been downtime.?
Which leads me to this public announcement — this incident is another example of why Michigan (or any state) should only allow local government to post notices on-line . . . online ain’t always up and sometimes things on-line change, or get hacked.
Your thoughts? Don@ShermanPublications.org.