Off the Beanvine, 17 May 2005

Since 05-18-05

Greetings
05  17  05
 
First: an apology of my own. I have been very busy with the SOVA Veterans Gathering Committee work and have neglected my readers and the BeanVine. Please forgive me, the Gathering has become a "higher calling" for me and I'm afraid my newsletter has been victimized.
 
THE HAMMER
 
Give a young child a hammer and suddenly everything he sees needs hammering.
 
There's no discrimination nor concern with effect only a desire to use his new "toy" as frequently and as widely as he can. We can look on aghast at the damage done but in the end we cannot blame the child because after all, WE gave him that hammer in the first place. We can repair the damage done and take the hammer away but inevitably some marks will remain, on the legs of the dining room table or on your walls, reminders of OUR lapse of good judgment in allowing the hammer to be given to the kid in the beginning, but what if the child had used that hammer on his sister or brother and injured or killed them?
 
Give an unscrupulous reporter a story and everything about it needs reporting, people have a right to know don't they? There's no concern with any effects of this story, it's a public duty to tell all you know and devil take the hindmost. Our freedom of speech and freedom of the press ensures that the story will be told without censorship or creative confinement, and that's a good thing, yes?
 
Yes, IF IT IS TEMPERED WITH SOME ETHICAL RESTRAINT AND FORETHOUGHT ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF THE REPORTING.
 
Now this is NOT a curtailment of the freedom of the press, it is not a call for outright censorship, it is a self-examination, by the reporter, of the potential impact of the report and the information contained and then a decision to run the story or not.
 
We have freedom of speech yet we are not free to yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theater. People will die in trying to escape.
 
We are also not free to make a false police report under freedom of speech, it can result in legal consequences and wasting the time of the police.
 
We are not free to attack a person or make false accusations against them, there are laws against libel and slander and the victim would be quick to sue.
 
These "exceptions" to our freedom are there to ensure that we as a society, are safe from false alarms, vicious personal attacks and being caught in a panic exit rush to the doors of the theater. These laws are in place because we cannot guarantee that everyone is ethical enough NOT to do these things and they must be held to accounting by overriding laws that WILL provide for consequences to the unethical and unthinking. Please note that if we were all ethical and thoughtful people we wouldn't need such laws, we would all instinctively KNOW how to behave and what can and should be reported, but then IF we were such noble folks we wouldn't need any laws at all would we?
 
NEWSWEAK
 
"PPPPSSSTTTT...hey kid.....wanna buy a wristwatch?..."
 
We shy away from panhandlers and shady characters, we aren't going to buy "snake-oil" from the back of a wagon, and we aren't likely to accept a stranger's words as truth unless we know the truth in the first place.
 
So why do we take as gospel reports from the media?
 
Credibility, believability, reputation, and acceptability of the message are some reasons. Newsweek magazine is along standing fixture in weekly newsmags, it's been around for a long time. I'd venture a guess that between them and Time magazine they account for more than half of all sales of weekly newsmags in the country, perhaps in the world.
 
Lets look at the recent report of the flushed Koran. Let's look at the "non-acceptability" of the message. Let's look at the consequences of this act.
 
Why should we examine this report? Well, shouldn't someone? It's obvious that Newsweek doesn't examine their works in light of consequences.
 
EXPECTED REACTIONS AND PREDICTABILITY OF CONSEQUENCES
 
If we drop a light bulb onto a concrete floor we can easily predict the outcome, a broken bulb and a mess to clean up. If we stand up in a theater and scream "FIRE!" we can also predict that people will panic and rush for the nearest exit, we can also predict that if identified as the screamer we will be prosecuted.
 
If you make a report that a Holy document such as the Koran is considered to be, has been defamed and defiled, we can predict that the reaction in the Muslim world will be hostile and immediate. Given the past performance of the Muslims we can also predict fairly certainly that this hostility will be turned against non-Muslims in violent ways.
 
This isn't rocket-science, it's very simple really: action equals reaction.
 
AND THEN ALONG CAME JOHN.....
 
Newsweek ran the story about the Koran being defiled at Abu Graib POW Camp and they HAD to have known that the news was going to cause major reactions from hard-line Muslims as well as the more moderates. This reported act insults every Muslim, the good, the bad, and the shooters. This reported act has brought censure and anger from our Arab allies and the world at large.
 
This reported act has cost lives of innocent people whose only crime was being non-Muslim and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It has impacted on our interrelationships with the very people that are supposedly helping us find and stop Bin Laden and company.
 
This reported incident has raised the pressure and heat in an already overheated pot until it boiled over and people died.
 
People died because of this reported incident.
 
Dead.
 
THE REPORTED INCIDENT
 
When the screamer yells "FIRE!" in the theater the audience does NOT stand up and look around to see if there really is a fire, they run.
 
When a heretofore respected news source reports that the Holy Koran was flushed down the toilet to inspire captured Muslims to talk, the Muslim world doesn't stand around looking to see if it is true, they react, they riot, they kill.
 
Dead.
 
"And the story turns out to be false" doesn't make the dead alive again. It doesn't repair the damage done to apologize, they're still dead.
 
ACCOUNTABILITY
 
Just as we have laws governing yelling "fire" in a theater and laws protecting us from false accusations, we need laws to hold accountable those who lie to us for their own agenda and personal gain. The mindless decision to run an unfounded story of such potentially dangerous subject matter was taken with NO regard to what would happen upon release of that story. When the story was withdrawn and apologized for it accomplished nothing, nada, zero. The rage is still there and people continue to die because of a lie.
 
Here's my read on it: Newsweek has a blood-debt they owe and they should be made to pay it. It is totally insufficient to apologize and withdraw the story and doing nothing to the perpetrators of this lie sets a dangerous precedence to others of low ethical character.
 
I think the persons responsible from the writers to the managing editor should be charged with murder and inciting a panic. I think the person who approved the release of this lie should be top on the list for a lifetime prison cell.
 
Does that strike you as overly harsh? I don't imagine the families of the dead would see it as too harsh.
 
There's a fine line between freedom of the press and journalism run amok, but there IS a line and Newsweek went way past it. Even if the reported incident were true the reporting of it would have crushing consequences and no one stopped to ask "Gee, if we run this story could someone be killed?"
 
If news media cannot or will not apply ethical policing to their own works then someone outside must step in to ensure we are safe from false report and injury caused by fabricated tales no matter how titillating or "newsworthy" the item and this also applies to releasing accurate information that can hurt us or our allies. Whatever happened to "need to know basis"?

But.....this story was not accurate and was an invention, a lie, a flashy way to sell more magazines, on the backs of deadmen.
 
So here it is: I say arrest and prosecute the people at Newsweek. Stand them before a judge and when found guilty lock them up just like we would a "FIRE" screamer. It would show we are responsible at least in afterthought. Of more importance though is finding a way to stop these false reports that do so much damage, if necessary, through legal action resulting in reporters and editor behind bars.
 
In a perfect world we would need no laws because we will all be perfect law abiding people.
 
Don't hold your breath waiting for the media to police itself though, it's time to demand PERSONAL accountability in the media, specific persons who print or authorize lies, people who care more about a story than the consequences should be held PERSONALLY accountable and suffer the legal ramifications of their lies.
 
Beansimple said it....
 
and above all...
 
Think for yourself.
 
 Off The Bean Vine
Established ®  March 28, 2003
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