There are Words, and there are Actions. Let's report the words!

From Dan Froomkin, a nice short summary of the pathetic modern consolidated media, which has been drifting in this direction for my entire life -- By His Deeds Shall Ye Know Him

There are two basic ways to cover a presidency. One is to report the rhetoric, track the political ups and downs, and circulate the spin.

The other is to watch what the president is actually doing and report on the results.

There's a lot of the former, and remarkably little of the latter kind of coverage.

Reporting on results can take a lot of work..

Of course, this kind of talk gets Froomkin labeled a pinko leftist DimmyRat. The Washington Post even felt the need to 'balance' him with an explicitly Republican columnist. (Who was quickly exposed as a serial plagiarist and pushed out, but that's another story. Maybe the next Red will be cleaner.)   News Media

 Witt/MS/LA update

Ex-FEMA chief warns recovery could take 30 years [The Daily Advertiser, Lafayette LA]

If the thousands of homes lost along Louisiana’s Coast are rebuilt at the same speed they were originally constructed, recovery could take as long as 30 years unless academia and the private sector become involved, former FEMA director James Lee Witt told a room full of higher education researchers [Tuesday].

...Since Katrina, Witt has traveled frequently to the state to advise law makers. He shared his experiences of seeing the devastation in St. Bernard Parish days following Katrina and his trip back to the area today.

"Today, when we went back, it didn’t look much different," he said. "No gas stations. No schools...But there’s movement there and it’s starting to evolve."

FEMA was a separate governmental agency under Witt’s tenure, it was after Sept. 11, that the government opted to lump it with the Office of Homeland Security. ... The action nearly dissolved the agency’s past 80 years of building relationships with local and state governments, Witt said.

  Current Events   0 comment(s)   Add a comment...

 aside

It's been so long since someone's tried to play a head game on me that I had forgotten how much it always pisses me off.

There's a whole chapter in Steve McConnell's Rapid Development (which I recommend highly) on Motivation as it relates to technical people versus non-.

One valuable insight it led me to is that hiding relevant information from techies does not present them with an exciting challenge which they then savor overcoming, like it can with some people. It makes them consider the possibility that you are intentionally undermining them.

  Meta   0 comment(s)   Add a comment...