20411: Antoine Re: 20387: (Chamberlain) 20366: Antoine: Thank you to Esser... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy S. Antoine <webmaster@haitiforever.com>

Greg Chamberlain writes:
> I'm astonished at Guy Antoine's insouciant equation of the mainstream
> and the ideological media over Haiti.

Well, it's not an equation.  You just crystallized their functional
differences
by your choice of descriptives: "mainstream" and "ideological".  I only
claimed that the "mainstream" North American media has its very own spin,
just as the ideological media, from the left or the right, have their own.
Do
you wish to say that the mainstream media are perfectly neutral?  Do they
not spin on the Israel-Palestine conflict, the George Bush's war on Iraq,
the lack of courage of the French, the political crisis in Venezuela, and so
on?
Why should I believe that the mainstream media is totally objective when it
comes to reporting on Haiti?

> The mainstream media go to Haiti and make attempts, sometimes pretty
> good ones, to report, describe and convey what's happening.

Agreed.

> Sometimes they get it wrong.  Mostly they don't.

Hmm... Who's keeping score?

> They believe they should keep an open mind.  They have doubts.

Glad to learn that they do.  I do not often see them expressed.

> The "rent-a-radical" press is ... ... ...

I confess that I am not nearly as intimately familiar with their operations
as you seem to be.  Is this first-hand knowledge, Greg?  Out of curiosity,
is Haiti Progrès also a member of the "rent-a-radical" press?

> Take your pick.

Why should I take my pick?  Am I not allowed to take both, and judge
for myself?

> The "corporate media" tag is a product of that tired old fantasy ...

Sorry, Greg, you know that I hate labels.  I should have said "mainstream"
(as opposed to "rent-a-radical").

> Perhaps it's something to do with the difference between Europe and
> the US.  In Europe we have mainstream left media, but there is none at
> all in the US.  So Americans and those living in the US are left by
default
> in the hands of the Maoist and the Trots and assorted loonies...

Interesting spin, but I like it.  I believe that I wrote something similar,
though my descriptives are not nearly as colorful as yours, Greg.

Let it spin, my friend.  We do not need a central authority to tell us what
is worth reading or not.  If the analysis deserves to fall flat on its face,
it
will on its own, and without the benefit of an errata page.

Let it spin!

Guy S. Antoine
Windows on Haiti
http://haitiforever.com