20466: (Chamberlain) 20411: Antoine Re: 20387 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

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

> 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?

I'm deploring the degree of spin.  There's a difference between a good
agency or newspaper story about Haiti, with well-supported facts (along
with some unjust assumptions), and a screaming tirade from Workers' World
etc. full of abuse, "correct" opinions and outdated or inaccurate "facts."
That also goes for the garbage masquerading as journalism too often churned
out about Haiti, the "cowardly" French etc. by the likes of Robert Novak,
Fox TV during the Iraq invasion, and some tabloid media.

There are interesting left-media writings about Haiti in the US and we
should read them.  We are well-served here in this in Corbettland.  But I
would rather not have to fight my way through the quasi-religious beliefs
of authors denouncing those who don't share these views are "traitors" or
whatever, especially when their level of factual accuracy is so wanting.



> Why should I believe that the mainstream media is totally objective when
it
comes to reporting on Haiti?

You shouldn't, but you might agree it makes fairly serious efforts to be
objective, which is not the starting point of Workers World etc.  They
don't even think it's important to go there.



>> Sometimes they get it wrong.  Mostly they don't.
> Hmm... Who's keeping score?

All of us.  Our conclusion shows in what we rely on most to tell us what's
happening.  No excuses these days.  We can all equally log on to
Revolutionary Worker website or to the AP.



>> They believe they should keep an open mind.  They have doubts.
> Glad to learn that they do.  I do not often see them expressed.

But doubts are never expressed by the rent-a-radical media.  It's virtually
a crime, because their business is "religion" dressed up as politics.



> Is Haiti Progrès also a member of the "rent-a-radical" press?

Much of the time, as we can all see.



> 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.

But we have, perhaps, a civic duty to pull any media up short for plain
inaccuracy (beyond silly spelling errors or geographical distances).



        Greg Chamberlain