Fringe Politics Takes Over

If this wasn't so scary...it would be laughable. 


Fringe politics has a firm hold on election rhetoric. And there are plenty of people who believe this stuff.  I read in the Huffington Post and Blogs from the Washington Post and CNN about  Republican Rep. Allen West. He says he believes 75-plus House Democrats are members of the Communist Party. The 75+ he refers to are a part of the Progressive Caucus. It's the same rhetoric used by Joe McCarthy in the 50's. There are plenty of citizens in Wisconsin who think Joe was right. (I grew up in Wisconsin) .  

And, according to a David Horsey in the LA Times, Allen West is not the only Republican embracing this.  "Throughout the primary campaign, GOP presidential candidates from Michele Bachmann to Rick Santorum have talked as if the 2012 election is the nation’s last chance to save the United States from becoming a clone of the Soviet Union."


The Congressional Progressive Caucus core beliefs are:


1. Fighting for economic justice and security for all;
2. Protecting and preserving our civil rights and civil liberties;
3. Promoting global peace and security; and
4. Advancing environmental protection and energy independence


You can find out more at their Website.
Congressional Progressive Caucus

TAL Retracts Apple Story

 

 TAL Retracts Apple Story
What happens when we get it wrong?
To me...this was always stunning. I put a lot of faith in my reporters and producers to get it right. I also had faith that our national providers were going to get it right.

This can be a learning experience. As a station manager I learned quickly that we needed to respond quickly and with a unified message. Do you have a policy in place to respond when this happens? What are they? Are you willing to share them?

No matter who is responsible for the mistake, from the listener's perspective it is the station's responsibility to respond. There were instances where reporters got it wrong. Usually a source was not fully vetted. Fortunately, we did have to deal with the fabrication of facts by our staff. Not only were corrections made, but the corrections resulted in more depth to the coverage. The hardenst part internally seemed to be that we made a mistake...at least early on. As managers we had to put those inclinations aside and fully investigate what happened. We found in many other instances that it was a matter of perception and not really a mistake. How we handled those perceptions was important.


To be clear, others have reported on the poor conditions at the Apple plant in China.  Jonathan Kealing  reporting for Public Radio International quotes Ira Glass, It had become impossible to separate what Mike Daisey actually knew from what he didn't, so the program was retracting the entire episode.

But in this case, This American Life is saying there were fabrications to the story.
Pulling it is the first thing. This American Life is meeting the issue head-on. Admitting errors and then, hopefully, moving on. TAL has a retraction and an episode in place about the issue at it's website.

Do you have policies in place to handle issues like this at your station?
What are they.  Please share your thoughts.

Social Media and Dual Personas

I think the era of dual personas is over. You used to be able to separate your work from your private life but, not anymore. If you speak publicly or, are involved in any issue of public concern, the word gets out there. 

Social media is playing a huge part in the rapid decline of dual personas for individuals and institutions.

There are two recent examples of how issues of public interest have played out on social media. As a disclaimer, it does not matter whose side you are on. How these issues played out on social media changed the outcome. 

The first was Komen's decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood because of Planned Parenthood's position on contraception and abortion. The hue and cry on Facebook and Twitter was intense. The result was a restoration of the funds to Planned Parenthood and several resignations at Komen. Komen could still decide not to renew their grant to Planned Parenthood.

The second is the media storm surrounding Rush Limbaugh and his public comments about the Georgetown law student. Again, social media is playing a huge part in this issue. Rush has lost several advertisers. 

There's a difference between broadcast media and web 2.0. Broadcasters and print are used to putting the content out there as the final word. There has been some input from users of the media through letters to the editor and emails. This has changed. Through social media consumers have become content providers. Individuals joining together on social media wield a lot of influence. Rush crossed the line. He's done it before. The difference now is the instant and intensive response on social media. Rush apologized on the air saying it was a joke. He has not apologized directly to Sandra Fluke for his very personal attack.

I've been using social media to keep informed on this issue. Take a look at this video from Jon Stewart shared through Gawker. I found it at LinkedIn on their news feed. Check out the comments at the bottom.

http://gawker.com/5890752/jon-stewart-smacks-down-rush-limbaugh-over-his-sandra-fluke-comments

Have you seen this evolving in the past year or two? I would be interested in your thoughts.

DIY Project Could be Deadly

One of the topics that has come up on Bruce Barber's Real Life Survival Guide is The Home Improvement Quandary. How do your prioritize you home improvement projects?

As a weekend warrior who has tackled many projects, there is one I'm glad I never got around to.
We have a tub that was installed in the 70s. I know because it is dark brown. We've often thought about changing the color of the tub rather than replacing it. That would be the green thing to do.  Well, maybe not. There's a stripping chemical that you can buy at the home improvement center that takes off the old finish and allows a new finish to be applied. The caution on the label warns that you need plenty of ventilation. That might be an understatement.

CDC: 13 Deaths Tied To Bath Refinishing Chemical

NPR carried a report last week from the AP that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning Thursday about using a common paint-stripping chemical to refinish bathtubs after tying it to 13 deaths in 10 states. All of the deaths were among professional refinishers. Despite the warnings about ventilation, the fumes overcame the workers.

Vaccines Causing Autism - Still a Hoax

The assertions and rumors still persist. I still get questions about the link between childhood vaccines and the link to autism. There still are parent refusing vaccines. The are concerned about the link to autism. As reported by the Wall Street Journal  a study of Connecticut pediatricians published last year, some 30% of 133 doctors said they had asked a family to leave their practice for vaccine refusal, and a recent survey of 909 Midwestern pediatricians found that 21% reported discharging families for the same reason. According to the CDC, lower immunization rates have been blamed as a factor in U.S. outbreaks of whooping cough and measles in recent years.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203315804577209230884246636.html?KEYWORDS=SHIRLEY+S+WANG

I get the comments and questions because I'm on the board of Focus Center for Autism. Many still believe the link. I believed the doctors and scientists who said there was no link long before it was revealed that Dr. Andrew Wakefield  had actually perpetrated a hoax. 


It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data."  Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/06/autism.vaccines/index.html

Part of the problem was the way the research was covered by the media. Part of the problem was with the way parents heard the reporting.

There still are parent refusing vaccines. The are concerned about the link to autism. As reported by the Wall Street Jouranl;

There are remarkable advances being made by researchers. The cause is not yet known. Recent research using MRI's might detect autism long before the symptoms manifest themselves. Here's the tricky part that many people seem to miss...

"The findings need to be repeated by other researchers before doctors can begin to create a reliable early detection system.The study has other limitations, says Charles Nelson, a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. The findings would be stronger if researchers compared them to those of a control group of normal-risk children, who don't come from families with other autistic children. He questioned why 30% of the high-risk children were diagnosed with autism, a rate that's 50% higher than expected. Nelson also notes that it can be hard to definitively diagnose autism at age 2, and that a child's diagnosis can change over time."

http://www.digtriad.com/news/health/article/215107/8/Study-Autistic-Brains-Show-Changes-Months-Before-Symptoms

Another Tour Winner Loses Title

There was a time when I thought I was pretty good at bike racing. I was faster than most in the sprints but, not world class. It was in the distance races that I became aware of the difference. My body could not hold up to the grueling effort it took to compete for more than 50 miles.  I think because I was young, I thought I could do anything. I even identified with "Breaking Away."

 Because of that early interest in bike racing, I follow the Tour de France each year. My interest was rekindled when Greg Lamond won the race. He was first American and non-European to win the race.
Lamond retired from racing when he discovered he could no longer compete because of the doping going on in the sport. He decided he could not do that.

It was announced today that Alberto Contador is banned for two years after finding the Spanish cyclist guilty of doping, a decision that will strip the 2010 Tour de France champion of his title. American Floyd Landis lost the title in 2006 after testing positive for testosterone. In turn, Landis accused Lance Armstrong of doping. The investigation against Armstrong has just been abandoned. 


I still think about racing and the adrenalin rush in the sprints. I even take my 1978 Super Course out sometimes. The bike really flies. I can still move pretty fast for a geezer. 


I feel a little sad that my youthful idealism is tarnished by the drug scandals. I hope Dave in "Breaking Away" never lost his idealism.


There's more on the ban at NPR.

Autism's Reach

I'm interested in autism because it directly affects my family. Because of that interest I'm always looking for more information about Autism. Increasing my understanding helps me in my relationship with my family. There was recently a story on NPR about a man with Asperger's. In an interview with David Finch he relates that he did not discover his diagnosis of Asperger's until he reached 30. He's written about his life with Asperger's and how it is affecting his family. The diagnosis has opened up a lot of possibilities for him.

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/03/146342668/best-practices-learning-to-live-with-aspergers

Further down on the page is a story about how some of those diagnosed with Asperger's are not happy about being put on the Autism Spectrum.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123527833

I'm a member of the board for Focus Center for Autism. The mission of Focus:

Specializing in the treatment of children and adolescents who are on the Autism Spectrum, have anxiety disorders, experience processing and social learning difficulties; and who are otherwise, as we like to say, "creatively wired and socially challenged".

You can find out more about Focus at their Website and on their Facebook page.