KTVX Tells Bush to Shove His Missile Where the Divine Don’t Often Stray
Today, Vince Horiuchi, TV critic for the Salt Lake Tribune, took local TV station KTVX to task for its strong editorial position against Divine Strake, a non-nuclear weapons test proposed for the Nevada Test Site. While non-nuclear, it poses significant health threats to people living downwind, and it presages the beginning of a new nuclear arms race. It is another manifestation of the Bush Administration’s swagger that would be comical if its effects weren’t so deadly. Herewith my response to Vince and the other milktoasts of our present press corps.
Dear Vince,
The views of a TV critic don’t in my case generally provide fodder for a hot reader response, but yours today taking KTVX to task for editorializing against Divine Strake inspire me to think that nothing is impossible.
I, for one, applaud KTVX for their stance, and for the bold way in which they took it. Your criticism of them is what’s off base.
When Edward R. Murrow editorialized against Joseph McCarthy, he made the press proud. This week, KTVX made me proud.
I don’t believe in journalistic objectivity, or true objectivity in any profession outside mathematics. The ways in which our opinions shape what we say and how we say it are manifold and subtle and often far beyond any of us to recognize much less correct. Journalists are not mathematicians but a breed of story teller, and in telling a story they inevitably shape it according to their view of the world. While I value the “objective facts” of a news story, it’s ultimately not these that I respond to but the STORY, which is to say the meaning of the facts, the facts in context. In saying, for example, that the Bush Administration intends to detonate 700 tons of ammonium nitrate in the Nevada desert I am stating facts that no one would question. As such, however, they’re meaningless. When I add that this explosion could create a huge cloud of fallout-laden dust, I’m adding meaning, but I’m also adding opinion to my story (it hasn’t happened yet, so no one can say for sure to what degree this will occur). When I add still further that this dust, like the fallout from nuclear tests in the 50s and 60s, poses a health hazard to downwinders, I once again inject both meaning and opinion (the Administration stoutly denies the test poses any hazard). When I add that this test is a harbinger of a new nuclear arms race with dangerous consequences for global peace, I inject still more meaning and opinion into the story.
Many journalists writing about Divine Strake have said all of these things and more about it, stressing one point or another to suit their reaction to the meaning of the test. A few journalists given to defending the administration may well have told a different story that stressed the need for a strong America capable of attacking terrorists wherever they are hiding, that stressed how the government is always looking out for our safety and best interest, and so on. Each one of these stories, by virtue of what it chooses to say or not to say, and by virtue of what is stresses and what it does not, is editorializing. But in workaday journalism this isn’t called editorializing; it’s called editing. It’s a difference without a distinction.
For my part, I have no illusions about the objectivity of the people reporting the news. The fact that they typically don’t give their opinions as such doesn’t inspire any belief in their objectivity. What I do look for in journalistic writing is a command of the issues (whether they’re indisputable “facts” or not) and a compelling way of laying them out. I’ll decide for myself where the truth lies. I don’t expect or believe that journalists can deliver that for me any more than I can for them. Tell me YOUR version of the story and tell it well, that’s all I ask. If Joe Blow, the reporter for the other paper or TV station has a different view, he’s free to tell me so. I’ll weigh the two and decide where I come down.
My problem with Fox and its journalists, therefore, isn’t that they express their opinions. It’s that their opinions are such poor specimens of investigation and thinking. As a rule, the quality of both independent investigation and thinking rises in direct proportion to the distrust it evidences of the what you could call the party line. As Ed Abbey said, “Always question all authority.”
What makes me proud when I listen to Edward R. Murrow or KTVX is the independence of mind they show in questioning the party line. That to me says a lot more about their likely objectivity than their having no apparent editorial stance. It also says something about their moral courage, which I also value in my story tellers. Abbey (since I’ve mentioned him I’ll use him as an example), gives a far more balanced and morally true account of Glen Canyon Dam than anyone at the Bureau of Reclamation ever did, despite the fact that he took, so to speak, an editorial stance on the issue. His is a story. What the Bureau tells me is just PR.
My own fear for journalism today is that it is in fact, for fear of taking an editorial stance, just acting, sometimes unwittingly, as the mouthpiece for party PR. The parties in question may be the government, big business, powerful lobbies, or political parties. What they all have, and what opposing views generally don’t, is enormous power to influence public opinion. The only thing standing between them and absolute domination of public opinion is a free and outspoken press, a press that digs for stories and is not afraid to tell them, even editorialize on them. I recommend that you and all of your colleagues watch Bill Moyers’ remarkable speech to the National Conference on Media Reform. Moyers, like Murrow, was not afraid to speak his mind, and what a pleasure it is to see such a mind at work. Would that I could say the same for the anchors of our local TV stations or the editors (most of them) of our local papers.
A bit of popular wisdom says “what could be less new than the news?” Looking at what passes for news today on TV, anyone with a mind would have to agree. For the most part, this isn’t journalism; its a different form of reality entertainment. Anchors and reporters alike give us little sound bites of fluff on mostly unimportant events (unimportant, anyway, to the community at large), while the issues that really shape people’s lives are ignored wholesale. Government officials, corporate spokesmen, lobbyists, and their ilk have little to fear when our so-called reporters appear on the scene. It’s a sad commentary on the state of TV journalism today that the most interesting thing in the 30 minutes of the 10:00 news is the weather report. Murrow foretold this sad turn of events, and no one in so-called TV journalism today generally gives a damn.
Where, for example, is the tough, in-depth reporting on Utah’s growing nuclear waste industry, on the fact that three out of four of Utah’s legislators have taken money from EnergySolutions, on the fact that our state legislators stoutly refuse any meaningful ethics reform, on plans to build a nuclear power plant near Lake Powell, on the growth of dirty power and its feeder industries here in Utah (e.g., the Coal Hollow strip mine), on the proposed building of 14 new coal-fired power plants in the Southwest and the effect this will have on air quality in the national parks, on our continued overuse of the Colorado River (witness the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline) and the threat this poses to the survival of the Grand Canyon ecosystem, on our outdated and utterly unscientific views about the role of predators (sc. wolves), on the dreadful state of public education in Utah, on the dramatic changes being effected in Utah’s back country by OHV users (as a photographer I can speak to these personally), on the loss of key wildlife habitats such as the Great Salt Lake wetlands or the foothills of the Wasatch Front, on the loss of open space in our cities and suburbs, on the growing threat to quality of life that sprawl and freeways now pose to residents of the Wasatch Front and Washington County, on the unhealthy air we breath all year long and our absence of meaningful air quality regulations in Utah, on the destruction of Utah’s river systems by tamarisk and Russian olive etc., etc. These are just a few of the LOCAL issues that I, as a viewer of TV news and reader of newspapers would like to see treated AT LENGTH, and with the moral purpose that drove Edward R. Murrow. And why, speaking of TV news, should coverage of these issues be limited to 30 minutes at 6:00 PM and 10:00 PM? If TV served the public interest in fact rather than theory, wouldn’t locally-produced shows on such topics be de rigeur? Are 60 Minutes and Frontline the sum and substance of investigative TV journalism for a nation of 300 million?
In view of the preceding harangue, it hardly seems such a big deal that KTVX should take an editorial stance on Divine Strake. Still, no other local station has done anything so bold lately. So, I say three cheers for KTVX! And shame on KSL and KUTV for not joining them. And shame on the Trib and the Deseret News for not holding Divine Strake up for very public scrutiny every single day until the Bush Administration acknowledges the many risks this new bit of military idiocy poses to us all. And shame on the lot of you for feeding us such a load of journalistic drivel 23 1/2 hours out of 24.
Ed Firmage Jr.
February 12th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
KTVX is window dressing for a DONE DEAL! Probably paid for the opposition to palcate the people who don’t like it. Traitors that they are. Now that would be a good premise for investigative journalism.
We need these tests to develop nuclear bombs capable of destroying terrorist ratholes, We need these tests to scare the hell out of anyone that may try to assymetrically attempt to quell the march of Freedom and Democracy. Utahs’ people are to be heroes in the War on Terror for their sacrifice to irradiation. God we just love you guys for your sacrifice.
Only one problem, the Russians have the Topol, and just decidered to build another round of unstoppable city smashers. Putin is beginning his own round of tests. Hell he doesn’t need tests, the Russians have had this technology for a while now.
Ah, the Russian Ropadope, we now find ourselves flat-footed by our own hubris while the Russians have developed what they need to ANNIHILATE us. No joke.
IMPEACH THIS PRESIDENT! Rich fancy nancy, and the waxman ‘aint doin diddly.
GET RID OF THEM! They might as well BE bush!
7 minute launch time, and we have NO idea where MR. TOPOL is. Bush is INSANE, and the dems are now officially ENABLERS! Have another drink, it will be OK, it will be alright.
Right now NPR is begging for money again, IDIOTIC!
Ah the
February 12th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Sally D’s comment, unless it is dark, dark comedy wrapped in an enigma, brings to mind my favorite quote from John Stuart Mill. I don’t say that all conservatives are stupid, he said (my paraphrase), just that all stupid people are conservatives. So, the bottom half of the Bell curve is genetically conservative. These would not be Plato’s leaders of choice or Thomas Jefferson’s. Assuming that people in the upper half of the curve, though a little smarter, are not necessarily wiser, and that a certain percentage of these are truly mad ( Dr. Strangelove, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld come to mind), the odds of humanity’s survival, if intelligence AND wisdom are required, are not good.
February 12th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Certainly Ed. However this is the reality. The tests will happen, starting to feel Iraqi yet?
So much for the platitudes of who is stupid and who is RULING!! If you had not noticed, it ‘aint you and me.
Impeachment is mandatory, or we are all a bunch of dummies on the flat line on the bottom of the curve.
The Topol is real. The Russian mini nukes we are only now making, have existed for 15 years. That’s the Russian Ropadope. They crushed the Wehrmacht, we are not so tough.
February 12th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
I fear George Bush much more than Vladimir Putin. In fact, Putin’s recent remarks about U.S. foreign policy are dead on. America IS endagering the world with its arrogant and militarist foreign policy. If America is to lead the world, as opposing to ruling it as a Reich, we must eschew our military power in favor of addressing the root problems of humanity’s present discontent. In such action, too, is our ultimate, best defense against terrorism.
As we’re now learning once again in Iraq (you’d have thought we had had enough of this lesson in Vietnam), America’s military might is ultimately helpless in the face of a determined guerilla opposition. The only way Bush is going to pacify Iraq militarily is to nuke it. Ditto for Iran. We’ll either succeed in winning the peace politically, or we’ll fall flat on our face, and Iraq will devolve into a nightmare that will plague us for decades to come. The same sort of thing can be said of our relationship with Islam in general, and of our less than cozy relations with the former Soviet Union. So far, we’ve been a dreadful example of democracy in action, and countries such as Russia have every reason to take us to task. That doesn’t make them our enemies. In fact, our worst enemy now is within. The enemy is arrogance and neurosis out of control in Washington and right here in our fat and WASPish Utah legislature. They’re both equally waging war against the foundations of American democracy and liberty. George Bush SHOULD be impeached, but not for failing to develop more useless doomsday weapons. He should be impeached for violating his oath of office, for lying to the American people, for being the pimp of big business, and for crimes against humanity. And after he’s impeached, he should be hauled in chains before the war crimes tribunal in the Hague to stand trial with others of his kind from Rwanda, Serbia, and Cambodia. I don’t know if there’s a cell in Europe deep and dark enough for this guy, but I think that there may be a vacancy in an Iraqi prison somewhere once we’ve been booted out. No doubt the Iraqis, duly trained by American personnel,will observe every stricture of the Geneva Convention in his future care.
February 12th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Nicely done.
February 12th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Believe Putin fears him too, and has left NOTHING to chance, the Russians didn’t lose 27 million people, and treasure, wipe out the Wehrmacht in WW2, to allow themselves to be corrupted and abused by a moron from Connecticut.
Putin talks, but behind his words is the the Topol, and the SS-22 Sunburn, the SS-26 Onyx, and weapons so deadly, that there are no defenses for them. This from our own honest military analysts. Any adventures that transgress too far will be whipsawed by these weapons. They are all Rocket powered and deadeye dick. Specifically engineered to destroy US capital military assets from their inception. They are not so much useless junk produced by our military corporations as pork for some long termed, long winded senator. They are made to WORK!
Ya,Ya, George should be impeached and by now I don’t care how the hell we do it, or what the reasons the are. Just flippin DO IT! There is incredible risk in this foot dragging and faith in peace and yammering about how bad he is, and what his specific crimes are.
GET ‘ER DONE!! Putin and the rest of the world are not going to trifle, as it is clear that the democrats AND the American people are flat WORTHLESS! .
February 13th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Vince can shove his ead up his buttock!
February 13th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Vince Horiuchi is almost always wrong (this is the guy who refused to put “Battlestar Galactica” on his top ten list because he hadn’t bothered to watch it). This time is no exception, as KTVX’s editorial was clearly labeled as commentary. Sometimes the fair way to cover the news is to abandon the usual false equivalence that pretends both sides of a policy debate have merit. The Bush administration has gotten too far with that, with journalists giving credence to government lies in order to write “balanced” stories.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Ed,
Nicely written.
When we had your Dad on KVNU’s For the People last week, we talked about this subject and he made an excellent observation that newspapers editorialize all the time, without any backlash, and TV stations should be treated no differently. I would like to see more editorializing on subjects like this.
It was clearly labeled commentary, and was nothing but responsible.
February 14th, 2007 at 5:38 am
An excellent letter, Ed; one I wish I had written and its sentiments I now wholeheartedly support. Good job!
February 14th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Ditto most of the sentiments of the commenters above. I’ll argue only with one thing in Sal’s… about ‘You and me’ not having the power. This is tiresome. Repeating that sense of weakness only works to perpetuate it. Saying that we, the people are powerless is also untrue. (See the Constitution). It should be stated and restated ad infinitum that we DO have the power and anyone, like Dick Cheney, George Bush, or (remember) Richard Nixon, who may think otherwize, has a lesson in civics coming.
There, I said it.
February 14th, 2007 at 8:35 am
You have the launch codes for the SS-27 Topol Cav?
Voting won’t do asything, this is a bi-partisan dictatorship.
Now if you want to talk about power, refer to the writers of the Constitution, and what they did to the tyrants in order to have the privilege to write it, then we can talk about something.
By now anyone knowledgable in CIVICS would have had nancy and the whelps, and the rest of people who believe in the wench, off THEIR ASSES and doing their jobs of impeachment!
Civics lesson indeed. A lesson of omission at this point.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:05 am
I’m not writing off Nancy and the other sensible Dems just yet, and I’m not saying that the asshats that are the focus of our undieing derrogation ar not the WORST. Only that, since we ARE here, and that since we do have these RESPONSIBILITIES, and that I sense the American people (barring the Dead-end 28%) are on to this lying ‘dogs and ponies for war’ show, we’d better give it our best shot. Have we got a choice?
P.S. I used to love a woman named Sally…now I know that you have many monickers so…while I value these exchanges very much, I’ll change mine if you’ll change yours. I’m thinking about ‘Collateral Mutan’t.’ You can go back to being Cassandra or whatever. What d’ ya say?
February 14th, 2007 at 9:06 am
More people read my comments on the globeandmail.com in a day, than readers of this blog in a month. No big thing, the largest paper of record in Canada, where I post as myself. Canadians are an interesting lot. They aren’t all liberals.
By the way, Cliff must being doing well for Utah because dammit, he needs a new server. Things be laggy and slow on oneutah, and I have even seen the hero page, that says you have exceeded your CPU quota. So people are reading or attacking, good either way.
Cav the biggest news out of Utah in months, is the shoot out yesterday, otherwise, you are mostly eddied out in the grand scheme of things. just as well considering who is in charge.
That’s why I like to come back here, kinda like the weekend cabin in the redneck woods.
How’s the skiing? Is the hippy dip in Midway still “free”. That is the best medicinal spring I have ever sat in, and it is a beautiful soda spring, not a smelly sulfur one. I would drive 300 miles just for that, and perhaps I will. Wanna go? Who are you anyway Cav? Do I know you?
February 14th, 2007 at 9:11 am
All the dead since the dems took over are on nancys’ hands. She had the power and did nothing. It is like having a gun and not shooting the mad dog after it has bitten people because you want to make friends with it in the interests of the neighborhood.
Stupid BITCH!
February 14th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I’d love to hear the vapid reasoning behind that comment (D-Sage). Do we breed idiots like Diviner, or is it the water?
February 14th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Coming from a naked hottie, I figure I have no need to explain. Send us a picture, let us be the judge.
I Don’t live in idiot land.
How many dead troops today? If nancy had started impeachment procvedings bush would be flat footed, and there would be no surge, and our troops would be standfing down. nancy is a stupid BITCH!
February 14th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
For you naked girl, put on some clothes!
How much more useless can democrats get?
House Democrats
Propose Iraq Resolution
By Brian Knowlton
2-14-7
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives circulated a proposed nonbinding resolution Monday that in simple language opposes the administration’s plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq.
Crafted carefully to draw the broadest support possible, it states that Congress “disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush” to send more than 21,500 additional combat troops to Iraq.
But it also states that “Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States armed forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq.”
The resolution avoids divisive issues - such as a call for interim troop redeployments, or a threat to cut off financing for the war - that helped scuttle efforts by Senate Democrats last week to bring forward a more muscularly worded resolution.
But House Democratic leaders see it as a symbolic first step toward ending a war that has grown steadily more unpopular.
With each of the 435 House members to be given up to five minutes to speak when debate begins on Tuesday, the back-and-forth is expected to continue, morning-to-midnight, through late Thursday.
President Bush, asked about the resolution during an interview today with C-Span, said he knew that some in Congress wanted American troops to be withdrawn from Baghdad, while others favored a complete pullout from Iraq.
Withdrawal, he said, would be “a disastrous course,” and even a partial pullout would engender “chaos, violence, and would — would make it much more difficult for us to have an ally in this war on terror.”
He said that if U.S. troops were to leave the area “before the job is done, I think there will be great resentment toward America.”
House Republicans have promised a stiff fight but acknowledge they will lose the final vote, which is expected Friday. At least a few dozen Republicans, mostly from districts where the war is particularly unpopular, are expected to vote for the resolution.
The House minority leader, Representative John Boehner of Ohio, was asked Sunday whether as many as one-third of the 202 House Republicans might defect. “I don’t think we’ll lose that many,” he said on NBC. There are 233 Democrats in the House.
After the an effort by the Senate Democrats to pass their resolution was blocked last week in a procedural move by Republicans, House Democrats, operating with a larger majority, decided to press ahead with their own proposal.
The House majority leader, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said Sunday that Republicans would be permitted to propose an alternative resolution, but that it would probably not be voted on until late next month. That drew sharp complaints from Republicans like Mr. Boehner, who demanded equal treatment.
Last June, the House, then controlled by the Republicans, easily passed a resolution saying that the United States should set no “arbitrary date” for troop withdrawal but must complete its “mission to create a sovereign, free, secure and united Iraq.”