THE DISASTER COVERAGE

Captions Based on Pigmentation: The difference between “looting,” “finding,” and “shopping.”

Dustin3000 | Flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/firewall/38725768
http://www.flickr.com/photos/firewall/38797241

DiversityInc.com asks: “Are white people “finding” something to eat while black people are “looting” for lunch in New Orleans and other flooded areas?”

“There were two different images-one shot by an AFP/Getty Images photographer and another from The Associated Press (AP)-and each had a different caption when published on Yahoo.com. In the AP photograph, the photo shows a black person with some food. The caption below the picture says he’s just finished “looting” a grocery store. The other photo captured two white people with the caption describing how they were “finding” bread and soda from a grocery store, BoingBoing.Net reports. In both pictures, the subjects are swimming, holding food, with no stores in sight.

“”The difference in words may be indicative of racial bias in the mainstream media. In a related commentary, Christina Pazzanese wrote in a Poynter.org forum a media-studies organization, that in the national “crisis mode” coverage of the aftermath of Katrina, there have been a number of professional challenges for everyone in the media around racial and economic sensitivity. The hurricane coverage also is taking place in a predominantly poor, black part of the country. “I am curious how one photographer knew the food was looted by one but not the other Š Should editors in a rush to publish poignant or startling images, relax their standards or allow personal or regional biases creep into captions and stories?” Pazzanese asks. We all should be asking that question too.”

MEDIA WISEMEN AT WORK (CNN STYLE)

Cafferty: “You have to wonder, watching these pictures, and listening to these accounts, if we’ll ever see the city of New Orleans as we all remember the Big Easy. Where’s President Bush? Is he still on vacation?

Blitzer: He’s cut short his vacation. He’s coming back to Washington tomorrow.

Cafferty: Well, that would be a good idea. He was out in San Diego, I think, at a Naval air station giving a speech on Japan and the war in Iraq today. Based on his approval rating in the latest polls, my guess is getting back to work might not be a terrible idea….

THE LATEST MILLER SPECULATON (SEE INOTE BELOW)

A new wrinkle in the Plame affair from the Financial Times:

An intriguing new theory has emerged in the case of Valerie Plame, the outed CIA operative.

The mainstream media has focused on Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief political guru, as the source of the original story identifying Plame. The alleged motive was revenge against former ambassador Joseph Wilson, Plame’s husband, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war.

“Observer now hears a new angle on the story is circulating inside the Justice Department.

“It involves Judith Miller, the veteran New York Times reporter currently languishing in a Virginia jail for refusing to reveal her source(s) in the Plame affair.

Many have assumed that Miller - who never actually wrote a story identifying Plame as an operative - is protecting Rove and/or other administration officials. But the missing link is that Miller is not a political reporter, but rather an investigative journalist who co-wrote a book on America’s secret war against biological weapons and later published controversial articles on Iraq’s effort to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

“Now here’s the twist: Plame herself is a CIA operative who also specialised in weapons of mass destruction and bio-terrorism. So did Miller get to know Plame while she was writing her book or even use her as a source for other WMD stories? Despite 56 days’ imprisonment and a vociferous campaign to release her - Miller is staying mum.

“But at some point, surely, the truth will come out.”

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/0494cc76-18f3-11da-8fe9-00000e2511c8.html

TV WATCH TAKES ON CONSERVATIVE TV WATCHERS

PR Watch passes this along: ” Tired of being picked on by religious media watchdog groups, big media is fighting back with its own advocacy group. NBC Universal, Viacom and News Corp. have launched the group TV Watch to “advocateparental controls and oppose government intervention” into TV programming, the Dallas Morning News reports. TV Watch, “an unusual mix of corporations, creative types and conservative, free-market
proponents,” will go head-to-head with Brent Bozell’s conservative Parents Television Council. Several media companies, Americans for Tax Reform and the Creative Coalition have provided seed money for TV Watch, whose executive director, Jim Dyke, is a former Communications director for the Republican National Committee.”

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News, August 21, 2005

RIGHT WING TARGETS FONDA-GALLOWAY TOUR
MOONBATCENTRAL.COM ON SMEARS TO COME

“Fonda-Galloway Traitors’ Tour Coming to Boston
Posted by Rocco DiPippo @ Tuesday 30 August 2005, 11:40 pm

“As noted yesterday on Moonbat Central, the loathsome traitor Jane Fonda has teamed up with George Galloway, the British MP who openly supports Islamist terror, for an anti-war (pro-Islamist) speaking tour.

“The tour kicks off in Boston on September 13th at 6:30pm at Faneuil Hall. Tickets can be purchased here.

“Though it sickens me to put even one cent into the pockets of those who support criminals who’d like to kill me, I will go see what my mind is currently struggling to grasp: the specter of 900 Americans cheering two people who give support to those who murdered 2,948 of our countrymen on September 11th, 2001.

“The event is co-sponsored by the ultra-left Traprock Peace Center in Deerfield, Mass.

“What is wrong with these people?”

http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=1039>