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"Postmodernism is a change-or-be-changed world. The word is out: Reinvent
yourself for the 21st century or die! Some would rather die than change."
Leonard Sweet, cultural historian.

08/08/2004 Entry: "Fake beheading story reveals CBS News ignorance"

I don't normally watch the news anymore, but I sat there stunned Saturday watching and listening to CBS reporter Sharon Alfonsi's report about the video of a San Francisco man faking a beheading. The piece takes an ignorant shot at the Internet and clearly illustrates that — at least for this reporter — understanding truth about the Internet is a long way off.

On the CBS News Website, the story is titled "Net Info Suspicions," which gives away the belief by the writer that information on the Web is suspect. That is further illustrated by the lead-in:

An incident uncovered today raised new concerns that web has become an echo chamber for disinformation.

An echo chamber for disinformation? Oh puh-leeze! This is a silly and convenient warning that conventional journalism uses to justify its own value as arbiters of right and wrong. The real echo chamber exists in what Jay Rosen calls "Press Think," because it's what produces this kind of nonsense. And note that these are "new" concerns about this, which suggests CBS News and these media analysts have always been concerned about it.

Here's a transcript of the report. Pay close attention, because while the fake video is the "hook," the story is that, well, you just can't trust the Internet.

CBS REPORTER Sharon Alfonsi: This morning, Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera broadcast video they claim came from an Islamic militant Website. Graphic and grainy images depicting what they reported was an American being decapitated in Iraq. But it was all a tasteless hoax, engineered by this shirtless 22-year-old from San Francisco.

TALKING HEAD: Matthew Felling - Media Analyst: The Internet is the international waters of the 21st century.

ALFONSI: Media analysts say this stunt underscores the reality of the Internet -- seeing isn't always believing.

FELLING: In the 1980's we heard over and over again to trust but verify. But now in the war on terror, on the Internet, we're learning to verify, then trust.

ALFONSI: And despite what they say, people seem to want to see it. Over the summer, videos of beheadings were among the most searched for on Websites. Media analysts say anyone with a political agenda can turn to the Internet.

TALKING HEAD: Peter Bardazzi -- NYU: The terrorists have been pretty good at it. Every time there's a threat of a beheading or a kidnapping, it seems to top the news story of some battle where 200 people were lost.

ALFONIS: Napoleon once told his generals that four hostile newspapers should be more feared than 1,000 bayonets. In today's war, it is the Internet that we're watching, allowing anyone to change an image or a million minds with just the click of a mouse. Sharon Alfonsi, CBS News, New York.

Of special note are the following:

Media analysts say this stunt underscores the reality of the Internet -- seeing isn't always believing. Media analysts? As in ALL of them? THE reality of the Internet? This sentence gives away the thrust and bias of the report.

In today's war, it is the Internet that we're watching, allowing anyone to change an image or a million minds with just the click of a mouse. Allowing? That term can't be used unless the opposite is possible. And who has the authority to NOT allow this? Change a million minds? Oh really! That's SUCH a mass marketing perspective, that a million minds are just a click away.

Here's what this report actually reveals. CBS News views the Internet as just another top-down, hierarchical media distribution vehicle — one that has no governor and, therefore, is a cause for alarm. This is fairly typical of media types who just don't get it. In order to feel this way, one must begin with the assumption that the people who use the Internet (hell, people in general) are stupid and need some sort of filtering mechanism to protect them. This further supposes that we're all just standing here waiting to be fooled, and that without "real" journalism to help us see the light, we WILL be fooled. I mean, after all, just look at the way we're flocking to view beheadings instead of reading about what's really important.

This is why the whole citizen's media movement is occurring outside (beyond) the view of conventional journalism. The press simply cannot see the forest for the trees, and they judge those trees based on their (inaccurate) view of people and what it means to be a journalist.

The idea, for example, that the blogosphere is self-correcting is incomprehensible to those who've dedicated their lives to the editorial process of the press. Self-correcting? How random and chaotic!

Common sense dictates that seeing isn't always believing, and network news is no more immune to deception than any other form of media, including the Internet. This kind of report from CBS News damages credibility by making a case where one is only believed to exist. Moreover, it reveals their ignorance in an area they ought to be understanding. The Internet is, after all, their future along with everybody else's.

Replies: 2 comments

''We have always been at war with Oceania, Winston''

I have been bitchslapping these folks every chance I get.

http://www.lemurzone.com/edit/converse23.htm

Big Media and Journalists who work for them are now doing the running dance. Coats flapping, cameras trailing, desperately seeking to tell the truth, but having the used car dealer calling the tune because of the quantity of ad copy being bought.

Like chasing a politician for a sound bite, they know that there is a story, but can't understand that the story has no leader, PR Flack, or spin master.

Please do not say common sense and journalists together, it gives one gas.

Posted by alan herrell the head lemur @ 08/08/2004 10:12 PM CST

The only reason why this story had wings is because it was first reported as legitimate by major media sources such as Al-Arabiya and Agence France-Presse! Right away, the political blogs were uncovering the real truth:

The Bogus Beheading

I trust the millions of independent voices on internet over corporate news any day.

Posted by entertainment news @ 08/09/2004 12:23 AM CST


"The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create."
Leonard Sweet