Thursday, January 19, 2012

WALTER CRONKITE

Follow up to one of the last posts.  I grew up with Walter Cronkite on the news.  The news than was three channels and a developing PBS.  Vietnam was dividing the country then.  We have never quite gotten over that.  But Cronkite before he retired, was absolutely A-POLITICAL.  You NEVER GOT HIS OPINION.  


That was GREAT and an admirable trait, unlike much of what I find in so called Social Media.  See earlier posts for what I think are topics that are inappropriate for Facebook, etc.  Below are Cronkite quotes I think are still VERY RELEVANT in our Brave New World regarding an "Adolescent Technology."
JA



Walter Cronkite was the anchor of the evening TV news show called “The CBS Evening News” for many years (from 1962 until 1981) and became known as “the most trusted man in America.” 
- Television is a high-impact medium. It does some things no other force can do-transmitting electronic pictures through the air. Still, as an explored, comprehensive medium, it is not a substitute for print.

- In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story
- Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day – 23 minutes – and that’s supposed to be enough.
- Our job is only to hold up the mirror – to tell and show the public what has happened.
- Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.
- I am dumbfounded that there hasn’t been a crackdown with the libel and slander laws on some of these would-be writers and reporters on the Internet.
- I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.
- The great sadness of my life is that I never achieved the hour newscast, which would not have been twice as good as the half-hour newscast, but many times as good.
- There’s a little more ego involved in these jobs than people might realize.
- I can’t imagine a person becoming a success who doesn’t give this game of life everything he’s got.
- “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost the country.”  President Lyndon B. Johnson
- It is a seldom proffered argument as to the advantages of a free press that it has a major function in keeping the government itself informed as to what the government is doing.
- Errol Flynn died on a 70-foot boat with a 17-year-old girl. Walter has always wanted to go that way, but he’s going to have to settle for a 17-footer with a 70-year-old.
- When you’re bringing in a fairly unknown candidate challenging a sitting president, the population needs a lot more information than reduced coverage provides.
- We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders.
I don’t think those things live forever with the public. They’re more likely to live with us journalists than the public itself. - GOING OUT ON A LIMB: { Call me arrogant but I think both are pretty supremely stupid, biased and uninformed.  We know more about Dancing with the Stars than where the Straits of Hormuz are. - JA }

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

LEGAL NOTICES ON TV ADS

I do not understand the legalese nature of the country and TV media.

I despise the nature of our litigious society and I understand the "reason" the language is ostensibly "required."

The TV is inherently NOT a medium for detail.  Walter Cronkite used to emphasize that the CBS Evening News was merely a headline service.  "You need to read more to follow up."  I don't hear much of that thinking anymore.  Since then, the legal departments of the advertisers ignored any wisdom inherent in that and instead shove all this garbage in front of us to "cover their buns."  And we swallow hard.

I am pounded on a daily basis by cable TV advertising, almost memorizing the black box warnings for  pharmaceuticals I can NEVER be prescribed because of gender.   If you hear the theme from Gilligans island enough, you can sing it.

If I change the station, I am bombarded by ads for ORGANIC STUFF declaring that it will make you feel better but there is a really fine print disclaimer declaring "the FDA has not determined that this product can cure or prevent any condition."

And the all time favorite, the car commercial doing the jackass stunts labeled with {Professional Driver on closed course - do not attempt}

The technology of TV helps to diminish the value of the stupid fine print.  Not only can you not read it, it further elevates the value of the Tom Waits lyric from STEP RIGHT UP:  "THE LARGE PRINT GIVETH,  THE SMALL PRINT TAKETH AWAY." 


In any case, it is all useless and well intentioned noise.  Common sense will not be distributed this way.  Let the Darwin Award be distributed to those who are too stupid to know what is actually dangerous.  They are distractions from REAL problems.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions, by the LAWYERS.  THANK GOD, you were warned by the legal requirement.


John Stossel has a couple of good books on the subject, including the awful warnings on ladders.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

RISKY BUSINESS: Your iPad and Laptop Desktop

Think your privacy will be invaded by the covert operations behind the former iron curtain?  Perhaps it is the ACQUAINTANCE next to you at a regular meeting.

It may be done it ways you never dreamed of due to ADOLESCENT TECHNOLOGY.

I went to a VERY PUBLIC meeting recently.  I had just gotten an iPad and wanted to see if it could show photos from a connector cord directly to the TV in the place.  Success!  It showed my home screen and I could access my Photos to show the topic of the evening.

HOWEVER, a politically active individual decided that I was a pariah.  IN ADDITION TO MANY NEWS SOURCES on the front page, this disturbed person screamed out in front a large crowd, FOX NEWS?!

Clearly, they missed at least one icon right next to FOX.













So... what was the point?

Unwittingly, I was made aware that we need to be extra, EXTRA careful what you show the public.    It is not always welcome that you look at various news sources.   Some people are looking to brand you.   There are a lot of people out there that will not agree with you.  Glad I did not show an icon for a SKI Website.  Some divers would complain I was disloyal.

Monday, January 2, 2012

UNFRIENDING and POLITICS, a last resort

Social Media is supposed to be social.  But when do you unfriend?  Not a preferred action, but sometimes necessary.  Few guidelines exist because it is an ADOLESCENT TECHNOLOGY.  I have needed to do this with weird folks saying odd things in the past.  I just got done with a few folks that won't stop their political campaigns in my face that I did not ask for and do not want.

I come to FB for YOUR NEWS, not political or religious, etc. beliefs.  Those beliefs we share if we are really FRIENDS.


I am fed up with swallowing.  Not doing it any more on Facebook. That is why started the ADOLESCENT TECHNOLOGY blog. Whenever I get on FB, all is see is ONE SIDED claptrap with no disagreement.  It is like a Socialist moved in as mediator between Communists and Liberals.  It is not a clear landscape at all and above all NOT APPROPRIATE PERIOD.

There are many other media outlets and I cannot sit on my hands and smile while people get on their soapbox seemingly UNCHALLENGED.

Thought is that this is a time for a reality check. I tried to suggest better approaches as I have done for the last 10 years using other venues but to no avail. Therefore a public criticism for promoting Paul Krugman was appropriate. You do know that in the NY Times, this past September, Krugman ridiculed Rudy Giuliani as being exploitative of 9/11 for personal gain.  I cannot suffer fools gladly anymore and just had an unfriending spree of those who believe themselves to be of the one true party.