On Thu, 15 Sep 2005, Michael Dyck wrote:
Michael Hart wrote:
None of these are my views, none written by me, or at my instigation.
So are you saying that you did *not* write the following sentences, and that they do *not* reflect your views?
-- "No mention is made of what to do about those for whom no transportation is available. . .those were obviously beneath the radar scope of planning."
-- "Somehow it seems that those farthest from the situation are the only ones willing to state what is obvious locally."
-- "I supposed the strangest words of the week were those NOT heard, as NBC censored Kanye West's comments"
-- "5/8 of Bush's emergency management appointees had no experience"
These are all things I received from readers such as yourself, and I always ask if they want a credit line before putting any attributions. Often I receive no answer by time to send.
And are you saying it's *not* your view that the various comments on how the Katrina relief efforts are going (from the President, VP, and First Lady) are "doublespeak"?
There are several doublespeak lists out there, and I presume lots of this gets forwarded from them. As for my own views, I only put my own views in the [brackets], and try to make them very brief comments. 99% of what you see is lifted straight from sources, and the 1% is usually plainly marked by brackets.
Given that these items appear in 'Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter', I think the natural inference is that any un-attributed comments are yours, and represent your views.
My views usually appear in the [brackets], which is usually stated each time, whether such [brackets] are used or not at the time. In the same vein that I try NOT to choose the books, I also try not to impose my own views on other subjects, or to make it obvious when I feel it is necessary.
Our readers send me various articles, synopses, URLs, etc., and I usually just put them in exactly as I receive them, and sometimes I ask our CEO if something should be included.
And is that the case for any of the items listed above?
I am not a political person, I am apolitical to the point of anti-political, and I don't have any political agenda, other than to stay pretty much as far away from politics as I can get, as many people are aware.
If you were staying as far away from politics as you could get, you wouldn't be including political items in the newsletter.
Obviously some people are going to view something as political that other people don't, but I assure you that my own goals are anything BUT political.
If you don't like something from one of those articles, the URL is usually there,
There were no URLs or other attribution for the following items: -- reports of racism in US media -- New Orleans refugees turned back at Gretna (other than the attribution of a headline to the LA Times) -- 40 Died In A Hospital, There Was No Evacuation Plan For Them. -- Palestinians Burn Gaza Synagogues -- Comments on How The Katrina Relief Efforts Are Going -- 5/8 of Bush's emergency management appointees had no experience -- Meat consumption in China us up 400% in 20 years. -- One Ohio high school was reported to have 63% of the girls pregnant. -- In some communities blacks are 9 times as likely to be pulled over for traffic stops than are whites. -- Nearly 3/4 of a million dollars for 30 second American Idol ad!
Many of these are just snippets I heard while channel surfing, and I couldn't find the direct quotes to use. . .though I do presume they eventually surface on the Web and can be found via most of the various search engines, though I, personally, do not subscribe to those that require subscriptions, so I do not always find things from those sources. Some are from multiple surfed news shows, but I still didn't find the orginal source. I don't even know which network American Idol is on, but I'm sure this is something they promoted heavily enough, since I heard it twice. . .and actually made a correction, since I wrote it down wrong the first time around. $560,000 for Desperate Housewives, not ~$600,000, or perhaps the second report was just being more accurate.
Please note that no mention was made of the political events of Michael Brown,
What about this?: "Michael Brown was simply the college roommate of the original FEMA chief, not other recommendation or expertise, not even a real job on his resume, other than the Arabian Horse group."
That was from before his removal from New Orleans and resignation.
Judge Roberts, etc., or similar political "hot buttons."
So if you quote someone as saying "George Bush doesn't care about black people", you think that *isn't* a political hot button?
Actually, it was the censorship I tried pointing out, not the statement. The whole reason for pointing out what doesn't get covered is to avoid the censorship in the news.