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October 10, 2004
Dangling Afghani Chads?
The votes are being counted now in Afghanistan, and some, smelling defeat, have taken a page out of the Al Gore book: What was supposed to be a historic day in the war-ravaged nation turned sour Saturday when all 15 challengers to interim President Hamid Karzai withdrew in the middle of voting, accusing the government and the United Nations of fraud and incompetence because of faulty ink used to mark voters’ thumbs. Now let's parse that, as Eric says. 'Faulty' ink indicates fraud and incompetence? How might that be, you ask? Well, The opposition candidates claimed the ink used to mark people’s thumbs rubbed off too easily, allowing multiple voting. I wonder who masterminded this plot. Paul Wolfowitz? We'll doubtless find in the next debate that President Bush owns a disappearing ink factory that he uses as a tax write-off. Now one of the primary lessons here is how to read the news. Jon Stewart was interviewed by Ted Koppel recently and shed his familiar non-partisan comic persona. It was time for Jon Stewart to be serious, to say what needed to be said, and that was that the Swift Boat Veterans were liars and that people like Ted Koppel were in a position to do something about it. Koppel then taught Stewart a lesson about what the news is: Ted: I think you are arguing about the difference between fact and proof [sic]. Which is the great problem with journalism. Let me explain. Stewart was visibly uncomfortable when Koppel began the lesson as the constant hamming to the camera shows. (I almost wonder whether the leftist in him wasn't a bit threatened, hence the joke, "Are you going to tell me that the Holocaust didn't happen?") But what this was really about was the function of the news media. Jon Stewart wants it to be something it's not, and he's not alone. Millions of people want the news to be an arbiter or a crusader, or at least expect the media to tell them the "facts." But as Koppel demonstrated facts and truth are not the same thing. It is a fact that candidates in Afghanistan allege fraud and incompetence. That's doesn't make it true. And it's not the job of the news media to decide whether it's true or not. Stewart's view seemed to be that there was danger in reporting what was no known to be true, but to report an allegation is not to report that an allegation is true. In many ways the most venerable members of the Old Media recognize their job and trust in the intelligence of the people to take the news for what it is. Increasingly though people look to the news for truth. Because the Left doesn't trust your intelligence, it sees danger in media without agenda. As Stewart also said, imploring Koppel, "The media is getting creamed. They need to take a more active role in safeguarding the public trust." UPDATE: After the media pushed the notion that these supposedly free elections were marred by controversy, the controversy appears to have ended: The crisis surrounding Afghanistan's historic presidential election appeared to end on Monday as President Hamid Karzai's chief rival said he and other candidates were withdrawing their rejection of the weekend poll. posted by Dennis on 10.10.04 at 08:57 AM
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Classical Values, one of my favorite blogs, has an interesting post on how the MSM is trying to explain themselves via Ted Koppel: "...Now one of the primary lessons here is how to read the news. John Stewart was interviewed by Ted Koppel recently... [Read More] Tracked on October 10, 2004 11:10 AM
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Faulty ink? Isn't that what passes for news in the Philadelphia Inquirer? Eric Scheie · October 11, 2004 12:27 AM |
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I found this exchange between Koppel and Stewart a weird example of what is now passing for normal in the MSM. I do wonder where it will all lead...
BTW, I'm trying to set up a trackback to your blog, which I've been reading for months now. In the meantime, I'm going to use the link.