- The Case for Full Disclosure: James Poniewozik in Time argues that journalists should stop pretending they’re not human beings or citizens and be free to discuss their political preferences:
If a tech writer told you he had no preference between Macs and PCs and chose not to use a computer in the interest of impartiality, you would rightly consider him an idiot. But politics is not consumer journalism, right? Right—it’s more important, and transparency in it is more essential.
The reasons not to say whom you’re voting for boil down mainly to the interests of journalists, not those of readers and viewers. It would be a pain in the neck. Campaign sources would mistrust you. Radio hosts and bloggers would have a field day. Readers would become suspicious.
But more suspicious than they are already? The biggest reason to go open kimono is that the present system does what journalism should never do: it perpetuates a lie.
I have argued this for many years, most recently in 2004, when the Miami Herald told reporters they shouldn’t buy tickets to benefit concerts:
If you believe that a reporter who contributes to a political campaign can’t write about politics, you’ve set an all-consuming trap for the entire journalistic enterprise. Your rule will keep widening its net: If buying a ticket to a political benefit is verboten, since the money from the benefit will end up in a campaign’s coffers, then the reporter should carefully refrain as well from buying a movie ticket from any studio that has used its profits to make any sort of political contribution. For that matter, better stay away from buying any product from any corporation that has chosen to give dough to any candidate. If you pay taxes, you’d better think twice about writing about any arm of the government to which you’ve contributed. And so on.
It’s hopeless; the Herald’s staff might as well take vows of poverty, chastity and silence — and leave their paper’s columns blank.
- Rudy Rucker: Fundamental Limits to Virtual Reality: A scientific view of why the idea of somehow reconstituting nature as “computational matter” can’t succeed and shouldn’t be tried: “Just as she is, Nature embodies superhuman intelligence. She’s not some piece of crap to tear apart and use up.”
- Dean Takahashi reviews Wagner James Au’s new book about Second Life: Au is an old friend and former occasional contributor to Salon. I’m delighted to see that his book is out. I haven’t had time to tarry in Second Life so I’m glad there’s a smart observer whose notes I can learn from. The book is called The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World, and it’s available now at Amazon.
- LRB · John Lanchester: Cityphilia: Lengthy, much-recently-linked, comprehensible explanation of the financial mess we’re in and the opaque nature of derivatives trading.
- WTFs/minute: Cartoon illustrating the only useful metric of software-code quality.
Post Revisions:
- May 29, 2010 @ 07:09:54 [Current Revision] by Scott Rosenberg
- March 13, 2008 @ 11:39:02 by Scott Rosenberg