LANGUAGE
How do you know you're in a blind alley?
By William Safire
Published: July 13, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/opinion/edsafire.php
I'll answer that one.
When you continue to publish columns, once a week, by ever older semi-retired columnists out of a sense of loyalty and because you can't come up with fresh young writers to gain fresh young readers.
It took years to get rid of Art Buchwald, and then we had to endure that tedious annual Thanksgiving joke.
Let's hope Safire can be properly put out to pasture soon.
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Cycling - got it now?
These little subject groupers like 'The Feed' and the inspired 'The Business of Green' are used more and more.
The one I like best however, is on the sports pages of www.iht.com
In case you don't know from the main headline what the story is about, they use 'Cycling', not once, but twice. Every day, first in caps, then in italics.
CYCLING
Riccardo Ricco wins stage as Tour de France enters Pyrenees
Cycling
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/business/BIKE.php
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
The one I like best however, is on the sports pages of www.iht.com
In case you don't know from the main headline what the story is about, they use 'Cycling', not once, but twice. Every day, first in caps, then in italics.
CYCLING
Riccardo Ricco wins stage as Tour de France enters Pyrenees
Cycling
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/business/BIKE.php
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
More good news
Ad budgets cut at fastest rate since 9/11
LONDON: Marketing budgets were cut for the third consecutive quarter and the rate of decline is "gathering to a pace not seen since the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks," The Financial Times said.
The newspaper, citing the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising's Bellwether Report, said on its Web site that only 15 percent of respondents had reported an increase in total marketing budgets in the second quarter of the year, while 27 percent reported a decrease.
"The fact that it is as bad as 9/11 is very worrying because that was a downturn associated with a very dramatic shock," the newspaper quoted Chris Williams of Markit Economics as saying.
"What we're seeing now is a more broad-based, fundamental weakening in demand in the economy as a whole."
The report, which is seen as an indicator of business confidence, is due out on Monday morning.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/07/13/business/OUKBS-UK-BRITAIN-ADVERTISING.php
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
LONDON: Marketing budgets were cut for the third consecutive quarter and the rate of decline is "gathering to a pace not seen since the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks," The Financial Times said.
The newspaper, citing the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising's Bellwether Report, said on its Web site that only 15 percent of respondents had reported an increase in total marketing budgets in the second quarter of the year, while 27 percent reported a decrease.
"The fact that it is as bad as 9/11 is very worrying because that was a downturn associated with a very dramatic shock," the newspaper quoted Chris Williams of Markit Economics as saying.
"What we're seeing now is a more broad-based, fundamental weakening in demand in the economy as a whole."
The report, which is seen as an indicator of business confidence, is due out on Monday morning.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/07/13/business/OUKBS-UK-BRITAIN-ADVERTISING.php
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
The Feed
I noticed this article, tagged under the title 'The Feed'.
THE FEED
The man who dared to question ethanol
It wasn't too long ago that a loose coalition of anti-ethanol forces was bemoaning the futility of its fight.After failing to block huge new ethanol mandates in the Senate last December, Jay Truitt, until recently the chief lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, complained about the "fervor" and "spirituality" that surrounded ethanol on Capitol Hill."You can't get anyone to consider that there is a consequence to these actions," he said, adding, "We think there will be a day when people ask, 'Why in the world did we do this?' "That day has arrived sooner than Truitt, or most anyone else, anticipated.Of course, much of the turnabout is attributable to relentless price increases at the grocery store that have caused many people to argue that the land used to grow corn for ethanol should be used for food instead.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/business/13feed.php
Now, I'm a pretty careful reader of the IHT. What is 'The Feed'? Is this something to do with finally focussing on stories about the global food crisis (as I have been doing on my blog www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com - under ths first photo of the day, for some time).
Or am I just being very slow in picking up on something that has been around for ages? And which means something completely different.
Must find a moment to investigage.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
THE FEED
The man who dared to question ethanol
It wasn't too long ago that a loose coalition of anti-ethanol forces was bemoaning the futility of its fight.After failing to block huge new ethanol mandates in the Senate last December, Jay Truitt, until recently the chief lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, complained about the "fervor" and "spirituality" that surrounded ethanol on Capitol Hill."You can't get anyone to consider that there is a consequence to these actions," he said, adding, "We think there will be a day when people ask, 'Why in the world did we do this?' "That day has arrived sooner than Truitt, or most anyone else, anticipated.Of course, much of the turnabout is attributable to relentless price increases at the grocery store that have caused many people to argue that the land used to grow corn for ethanol should be used for food instead.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/business/13feed.php
Now, I'm a pretty careful reader of the IHT. What is 'The Feed'? Is this something to do with finally focussing on stories about the global food crisis (as I have been doing on my blog www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com - under ths first photo of the day, for some time).
Or am I just being very slow in picking up on something that has been around for ages? And which means something completely different.
Must find a moment to investigage.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Those Iranian Missiles
For the record, the print edition of the IHT compared the original photo and then the altered one on the front page; they also ran an article inside - what they didn't do on www.iht.com is add that the original photo that ran on www.iht.com with 'the missile story' (and which is still there for all to read, only the photo changed) was wrong and has been changed.
Now this article below.
My takeout is this: no-one is tackling just how easily the MSM, the IHT/NYT included, were duped. Whatever we now talk about, we won't talk about that.
And just as I was stupid enough to believe JMillar/WMD and that Tom Friedman is not a State Department spokesman, I was stupid enough to believe that a photo the IHT ran was reliable, despite the source being the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, despite there being a track record (so I later learnt) of the Iranians doing this sort of thing before.
Once again, the MSM won't ask the tough questions of itself, at least not in front of us, dear readers.
PHOTO-OP
Believing is seeing
Newspapers and blogs are once again filled with a story about a digitally altered photograph. A picture of missiles launched by Iran. A picture that purports to show four missiles being fired rather than the three shown in other photographs of the launching. Are we to infer that no missiles were launched? Or just three? Take several steps back. Are we being tricked into thinking that Iran is a bigger threat than it is?
Oddly enough, the effect of all this publicity - including this essay - is to draw further attention to the missiles.
I have asked myself how this controversy over a photograph became international news. Clearly, there are many reasons. But at the center of them all is this question: Are we on the brink of another war? I remind myself that the war in Iraq started with bellicose posturing and photographs. At the United Nations, Colin Powell displayed several photographs of Iraqi sites showing incontrovertible evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Of course, we now know that this incontrovertible visual evidence was false. We don't need advanced digital tools to mislead, to misdirect or to confuse. All we need is a willingness to uncritically believe.
The alteration of photos for propaganda purposes has been with us as long as photography itself. But while digitally altered photographs can easily fool the eye, they often leave telltale footprints that allow them to be unmasked. There are many famous altered photographs, from a Matthew Brady photograph of Abraham Lincoln's head composited on to John Calhoun's body to the endlessly altered photographs from Soviet Russia. An entire book, "The Commissar Vanishes," by David King, is devoted to Soviet whims about who should be included (or deleted) in photographs. In the series shown here, Stalin is accompanied by three officials, then two, then one, as they successively fall out of favor and are cropped and airbrushed into non-existence. (In the end, in a painting based on the photograph, he stands alone.) We understand Stalin's intentions by removing comrades, but what is the purpose of these Iranian missile photographs? They are clearly altered. The question remains: Why, and to what end?
The government of Iran could not have created a more self-serving controversy. It has focused our attention on Iranian military might more than ever. What will we remember - the digital manipulation of this photograph or the missiles streaking into the sky? Will we ask about essential details - the range or the payload of these weapons? All we are left with is a threat in visual form.
The photographs tell us little about the real threat of Iran. The danger here is not in three missiles versus four. We do not understand the intentions behind the photograph - real or digitally manipulated. Is it a threat? A warning? Or a bluff? All we really know about the photograph is that Tehran wanted to get the attention of the world, and it succeeded.
Errol Morris, a filmmaker, writes the "Zoom" column for The New York Times online.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/opinion/edmorris.php
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Now this article below.
My takeout is this: no-one is tackling just how easily the MSM, the IHT/NYT included, were duped. Whatever we now talk about, we won't talk about that.
And just as I was stupid enough to believe JMillar/WMD and that Tom Friedman is not a State Department spokesman, I was stupid enough to believe that a photo the IHT ran was reliable, despite the source being the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, despite there being a track record (so I later learnt) of the Iranians doing this sort of thing before.
Once again, the MSM won't ask the tough questions of itself, at least not in front of us, dear readers.
PHOTO-OP
Believing is seeing
Newspapers and blogs are once again filled with a story about a digitally altered photograph. A picture of missiles launched by Iran. A picture that purports to show four missiles being fired rather than the three shown in other photographs of the launching. Are we to infer that no missiles were launched? Or just three? Take several steps back. Are we being tricked into thinking that Iran is a bigger threat than it is?
Oddly enough, the effect of all this publicity - including this essay - is to draw further attention to the missiles.
I have asked myself how this controversy over a photograph became international news. Clearly, there are many reasons. But at the center of them all is this question: Are we on the brink of another war? I remind myself that the war in Iraq started with bellicose posturing and photographs. At the United Nations, Colin Powell displayed several photographs of Iraqi sites showing incontrovertible evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Of course, we now know that this incontrovertible visual evidence was false. We don't need advanced digital tools to mislead, to misdirect or to confuse. All we need is a willingness to uncritically believe.
The alteration of photos for propaganda purposes has been with us as long as photography itself. But while digitally altered photographs can easily fool the eye, they often leave telltale footprints that allow them to be unmasked. There are many famous altered photographs, from a Matthew Brady photograph of Abraham Lincoln's head composited on to John Calhoun's body to the endlessly altered photographs from Soviet Russia. An entire book, "The Commissar Vanishes," by David King, is devoted to Soviet whims about who should be included (or deleted) in photographs. In the series shown here, Stalin is accompanied by three officials, then two, then one, as they successively fall out of favor and are cropped and airbrushed into non-existence. (In the end, in a painting based on the photograph, he stands alone.) We understand Stalin's intentions by removing comrades, but what is the purpose of these Iranian missile photographs? They are clearly altered. The question remains: Why, and to what end?
The government of Iran could not have created a more self-serving controversy. It has focused our attention on Iranian military might more than ever. What will we remember - the digital manipulation of this photograph or the missiles streaking into the sky? Will we ask about essential details - the range or the payload of these weapons? All we are left with is a threat in visual form.
The photographs tell us little about the real threat of Iran. The danger here is not in three missiles versus four. We do not understand the intentions behind the photograph - real or digitally manipulated. Is it a threat? A warning? Or a bluff? All we really know about the photograph is that Tehran wanted to get the attention of the world, and it succeeded.
Errol Morris, a filmmaker, writes the "Zoom" column for The New York Times online.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/opinion/edmorris.php
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Worst is yet to come for Europe's ad market
PARIS: Not long ago, European advertising executives seemed confident that they could ride out the storm in the U.S. economy and the global rise in food and energy costs.
Now, they and the media owners who rely on their business are worried that European marketers will slash ad budgets, as many of their counterparts have already done in America.
"Definitely, if our clients suffer from higher petrol costs, spending is going to be affected," said Valérie Accary, president of CLM/BBDO, an agency based in Paris owned by Omnicom Group. "So far we haven't seen it, but the second half is a big concern."
Zenith Optimedia, a media buying agency that is part of Publicis Groupe, recently downgraded its forecast for ad spending in Western Europe, saying it would grow by 3.7 percent this year - barely more than the inflation rate. That is still better than the 3.5 percent growth expected in North America, but a reduction of two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous forecast, issued only three months earlier.
That may not seem like a large revision. But the new numbers mask bigger shifts in spending, as advertisers allocate more of their budgets to the Internet, cutting their allocations to broadcast and print advertising.
"If you're in some of the traditional media in Western Europe, you're not going to see much growth over the next year or so," said Jonathan Barnard, head of publications at Zenith Optimedia in London.
Among the big European markets, analysts say Britain and Spain may be most at risk, as their economies slow sharply in response to housing slumps. France and Italy are also showing softness, while Germany is holding up after a wobble early this year.
For some individual media owners, feeling the combined effects of the shift to the Internet and the economic downturn, an ad recession has already arrived. Trinity Mirror, a British newspaper publisher, said last month that advertising had fallen 12.6 percent in May and June, following the recent gloomy reports of some American newspaper companies.
Analysts at Citigroup last week issued a warning about advertising prospects for several big European television broadcasters, including ITV in Britain and ProSiebenSat.1 in Germany, causing jitters among investors in those companies.
While some analysts had speculated that marketers would reduce spending on the Internet in a downturn, deeming it experimental and nonessential, the opposite seems to be happening. In Britain, for instance, Internet ad spending will rise 32 percent this year, according to Zenith Optimedia, a sharp revision from the agency's previous prediction of a 26 percent gain.
Internet advertising is benefiting because it allows marketers to track the effects of their spending, something that is more difficult to do in other media. Agencies that create advertising, like CLM/BBDO, are feeling the effect.
"Clients are saying, 'We don't want big ideas, big projects,"' Accary said. "It's about messages that are effective and right to the point."
Along with the Internet, faster-growing developing markets are also gaining a growing share of multinational marketers' ad budgets. Barnard, who recently cut his estimates for U.S. and Western Europe ad spending, also raised the forecast for outlays in the rest of the world. Outside those two regions, spending will grow 11.8 percent this year, up from a forecast of 11.1 percent in March, Barnard said.
Simon Rothon, senior vice president of marketing services at Unilever, the British-Dutch consumer products company, said during a recent gathering of the advertising industry in Cannes that the company had been doing some "focusing of resources" on emerging markets, even as it held overall marketing spending steady through the first quarter.
For Europe, next year was already shaping up as a potentially weak year for advertising, without the stimulative effect of big marketing events like the Euro 2008 soccer tournament. Now some executives fear that all the talk of an advertising recession could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"It's not a disaster yet, but we keep hearing that it may be," Accary said. "Maybe it will be a disaster just because everyone is saying it will be a disaster."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/business/ad14.php
IW: My emphasis in bold, not that the article needs it.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Now, they and the media owners who rely on their business are worried that European marketers will slash ad budgets, as many of their counterparts have already done in America.
"Definitely, if our clients suffer from higher petrol costs, spending is going to be affected," said Valérie Accary, president of CLM/BBDO, an agency based in Paris owned by Omnicom Group. "So far we haven't seen it, but the second half is a big concern."
Zenith Optimedia, a media buying agency that is part of Publicis Groupe, recently downgraded its forecast for ad spending in Western Europe, saying it would grow by 3.7 percent this year - barely more than the inflation rate. That is still better than the 3.5 percent growth expected in North America, but a reduction of two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous forecast, issued only three months earlier.
That may not seem like a large revision. But the new numbers mask bigger shifts in spending, as advertisers allocate more of their budgets to the Internet, cutting their allocations to broadcast and print advertising.
"If you're in some of the traditional media in Western Europe, you're not going to see much growth over the next year or so," said Jonathan Barnard, head of publications at Zenith Optimedia in London.
Among the big European markets, analysts say Britain and Spain may be most at risk, as their economies slow sharply in response to housing slumps. France and Italy are also showing softness, while Germany is holding up after a wobble early this year.
For some individual media owners, feeling the combined effects of the shift to the Internet and the economic downturn, an ad recession has already arrived. Trinity Mirror, a British newspaper publisher, said last month that advertising had fallen 12.6 percent in May and June, following the recent gloomy reports of some American newspaper companies.
Analysts at Citigroup last week issued a warning about advertising prospects for several big European television broadcasters, including ITV in Britain and ProSiebenSat.1 in Germany, causing jitters among investors in those companies.
While some analysts had speculated that marketers would reduce spending on the Internet in a downturn, deeming it experimental and nonessential, the opposite seems to be happening. In Britain, for instance, Internet ad spending will rise 32 percent this year, according to Zenith Optimedia, a sharp revision from the agency's previous prediction of a 26 percent gain.
Internet advertising is benefiting because it allows marketers to track the effects of their spending, something that is more difficult to do in other media. Agencies that create advertising, like CLM/BBDO, are feeling the effect.
"Clients are saying, 'We don't want big ideas, big projects,"' Accary said. "It's about messages that are effective and right to the point."
Along with the Internet, faster-growing developing markets are also gaining a growing share of multinational marketers' ad budgets. Barnard, who recently cut his estimates for U.S. and Western Europe ad spending, also raised the forecast for outlays in the rest of the world. Outside those two regions, spending will grow 11.8 percent this year, up from a forecast of 11.1 percent in March, Barnard said.
Simon Rothon, senior vice president of marketing services at Unilever, the British-Dutch consumer products company, said during a recent gathering of the advertising industry in Cannes that the company had been doing some "focusing of resources" on emerging markets, even as it held overall marketing spending steady through the first quarter.
For Europe, next year was already shaping up as a potentially weak year for advertising, without the stimulative effect of big marketing events like the Euro 2008 soccer tournament. Now some executives fear that all the talk of an advertising recession could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"It's not a disaster yet, but we keep hearing that it may be," Accary said. "Maybe it will be a disaster just because everyone is saying it will be a disaster."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/business/ad14.php
IW: My emphasis in bold, not that the article needs it.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
The Power of the New York Times - from a French point of view
Thanks to a Think! reader for brining this article from the online French news and comment site, www.rue89.com to my attention.
Naturally it's in French, and if you can't read French, and work for the IHT or the NYT and are involved with the IHT, too bad, shame on you.
Most IHT readers probably can read it, so for those that can't too bad I'm afraid: it's July, it's school holidays and I haven't the time to translate it. Apologies.
But essentially it's a piece on how a seemingly 'good news' front page photo pulls the reader inside the paper to a story of more complex realities about Mongolia, a country like so many typically ignored by the media, but not the NYT, the type of story the written press should be covering, and are not.
(This email from a Think! reader came as a response to my recent post on the over realiance of the IHT on wire stories. Point made. Touche.)
NB: For anyone involved in IHT branding, please note that in its biggest market - France - the paper is forever known as the Herald Tribune, and IHT means very little.
Quand un train arrive à l'heure à la "une" du Herald Tribune
Par Rue89 Marmite 09/07/2008 12H43
"La Mongolie revient à la vie normale", proclame le titre au-dessus d'une photo de deux hommes à la fenêtre d'un train mongol, publiée mercredi sur quatre des six colonnes à la "une" de l'International Herald Tribune. Un choix éditorial à première vue osé: un train qui arrive à l'heure à la "une" de l'édition internationale du New York Times?
A y regarder de plus près, pourtant, c'est l'opposé. Le choix de la photo s'explique certes par un premier critère esthétique -la dominante verte du train se voit de loin et casse la grisaille de la page, et on peut imaginer que si les trains mongols avaient été gris ou noirs, ils n'auraient pas eu les honneurs de la première page…
Mais surtout, cette photo -signée Shiho Fukada du New York Times- attire l'œil et l'attention, et renvoie à un long reportage en page 2 d'Edward Wong sur les récentes émeutes dans la capitale de la Mongolie, Oulan Bator, à la suite d'élections législatives. Une plongée dans les difficultés de la jeune démocratie mongole, coincée entre Russie et Chine, et qui se débat dans un pays complexe et aux conditions naturelles ardues.
C'est la force du New York Times, ça devrait être celle de la presse écrite, que de permettre ce coup de projecteur sur des réalités complexes à l'autre bout du monde, largement ignorées -et de plus en plus- par la plupart des médias. Que cette curiosité soit aiguisée par ce teasing de "une" en forme de "bonne nouvelle, les trains arrivent de nouveau à l'heure en Mongolie" est très fort et bienvenu…
En voyant la "une" de l'IHT, j'ai tout de suite pensé à la récente décision du parlement roumain, fin juin, d'imposer un quota de "bonnes nouvelles" équivalent aux "mauvaises nouvelles" à la radio et à la télévision! Cette décision surréaliste avait fait sourire puis provoqué un tollé, y compris dans les médias roumains, qui, tel "Romania libera", écrivait:
"C'est une offense faite aux consommateurs des médias que de dire que le bras consciencieux de la loi pourrait nous protéger des 'mauvaises' nouvelles. Mauvaises pour qui? Pour la société? Pour les oligarques? Les informations réalisées par des professionnels reflètent la réalité sans la maquiller. Des nouvelles qui seraient exclusivement bonnes ou mauvaises, nous en avions du temps du communisme. Manipuler les médias en établissant une loi fixant une répartition idéale entre le bon et le mauvais serait la pire des nouvelles pour une société démocratique."
Peut-être la télévision roumaine pourrait-elle commencer par donner la liste des trains qui arrivent à l'heure, pour expliquer, comme le New York Times, pourquoi d'autres n'arrivent pas à l'heure.
Pierre Haski
http://www.rue89.com/2008/07/09/quand-un-train-arrive-a-lheure-a-la-une-du-herald-tribune
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Naturally it's in French, and if you can't read French, and work for the IHT or the NYT and are involved with the IHT, too bad, shame on you.
Most IHT readers probably can read it, so for those that can't too bad I'm afraid: it's July, it's school holidays and I haven't the time to translate it. Apologies.
But essentially it's a piece on how a seemingly 'good news' front page photo pulls the reader inside the paper to a story of more complex realities about Mongolia, a country like so many typically ignored by the media, but not the NYT, the type of story the written press should be covering, and are not.
(This email from a Think! reader came as a response to my recent post on the over realiance of the IHT on wire stories. Point made. Touche.)
NB: For anyone involved in IHT branding, please note that in its biggest market - France - the paper is forever known as the Herald Tribune, and IHT means very little.
Quand un train arrive à l'heure à la "une" du Herald Tribune
Par Rue89 Marmite 09/07/2008 12H43
"La Mongolie revient à la vie normale", proclame le titre au-dessus d'une photo de deux hommes à la fenêtre d'un train mongol, publiée mercredi sur quatre des six colonnes à la "une" de l'International Herald Tribune. Un choix éditorial à première vue osé: un train qui arrive à l'heure à la "une" de l'édition internationale du New York Times?
A y regarder de plus près, pourtant, c'est l'opposé. Le choix de la photo s'explique certes par un premier critère esthétique -la dominante verte du train se voit de loin et casse la grisaille de la page, et on peut imaginer que si les trains mongols avaient été gris ou noirs, ils n'auraient pas eu les honneurs de la première page…
Mais surtout, cette photo -signée Shiho Fukada du New York Times- attire l'œil et l'attention, et renvoie à un long reportage en page 2 d'Edward Wong sur les récentes émeutes dans la capitale de la Mongolie, Oulan Bator, à la suite d'élections législatives. Une plongée dans les difficultés de la jeune démocratie mongole, coincée entre Russie et Chine, et qui se débat dans un pays complexe et aux conditions naturelles ardues.
C'est la force du New York Times, ça devrait être celle de la presse écrite, que de permettre ce coup de projecteur sur des réalités complexes à l'autre bout du monde, largement ignorées -et de plus en plus- par la plupart des médias. Que cette curiosité soit aiguisée par ce teasing de "une" en forme de "bonne nouvelle, les trains arrivent de nouveau à l'heure en Mongolie" est très fort et bienvenu…
En voyant la "une" de l'IHT, j'ai tout de suite pensé à la récente décision du parlement roumain, fin juin, d'imposer un quota de "bonnes nouvelles" équivalent aux "mauvaises nouvelles" à la radio et à la télévision! Cette décision surréaliste avait fait sourire puis provoqué un tollé, y compris dans les médias roumains, qui, tel "Romania libera", écrivait:
"C'est une offense faite aux consommateurs des médias que de dire que le bras consciencieux de la loi pourrait nous protéger des 'mauvaises' nouvelles. Mauvaises pour qui? Pour la société? Pour les oligarques? Les informations réalisées par des professionnels reflètent la réalité sans la maquiller. Des nouvelles qui seraient exclusivement bonnes ou mauvaises, nous en avions du temps du communisme. Manipuler les médias en établissant une loi fixant une répartition idéale entre le bon et le mauvais serait la pire des nouvelles pour une société démocratique."
Peut-être la télévision roumaine pourrait-elle commencer par donner la liste des trains qui arrivent à l'heure, pour expliquer, comme le New York Times, pourquoi d'autres n'arrivent pas à l'heure.
Pierre Haski
http://www.rue89.com/2008/07/09/quand-un-train-arrive-a-lheure-a-la-une-du-herald-tribune
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
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