Straw People

Here it is. Wigderson had a nice link to her amusing Palin post, which led me to the straw person post. Have the J-schools replaced the term "angle" with the concept of writing to a "straw person?" They are so progressive they wouldn't dare write to a straw man! I put this up for comment and I will formulate a longer post after some rest, but this encapsulates the "journalist" mentality:

"The question wasn’t unreasonable. I had, after all, written my account of Rebecca Riley’s death with a particular straw person in mind: someone who would generalize from her story to say that it was emblematic of what was happening in a sick society where kids are being medicated to shut them up, make parents happy, and assure doctors of “quick fix” solutions to cultural ills that no one has any desire to cure.

Why did I seek to take that particular straw person on? And how did I know what he or she would be thinking?

It’s very simple: that person used to be me."

They are always writing for straw people instead of giving us facts which we crave and need to reach OUR OWN conclusions. She only felt comfortable acknowledging this because she had herself as a device to use in this instance. She assumed self effacement would inoculate her "journalistic impartiality" from her admission.

The straw people they write to are too simple to not be taken into account when determining which facts to pass along and must guided through the world. They are not to be trusted to arrive at their own conclusions, they need a wizard to hold their brains. They/we need someone cultured and discerning and so caring that they pursued journalism not to report facts they acquire of events in the world, but to "change" the world. Or so they think as they view declining revenue and circulation as proof that we are fools who need keepers.

It is beyond insulting and if THEY had a brain they would be embarrassed by their own tacky enormous egos...