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Sunday, July 31, 2005

WORTHLESS JOURNALISTS HAIKUS ...
RE: NEW YORK TIMES / "Longing For A Cuss Free Zone" / MICHAEL BRICK /7/31/05

QUOTE: "ACROSS the land, word-bombs are falling."


While real bombs explode

the Times calls curse words
            "word bombs."

"Word-bomb" is BULLSHIT.


Our nation is lost

because BULLSHIT
             can't be called --

and so can't be fought.


They cover their ass ...

Who would print
        "word-bombs"? Not us!

Hence the Iraq Mess ...


[RHETORICAL VERSE / 3 HAIKUS]

# posted by BOKE @ 11:09 AM

Friday, July 29, 2005


The land of the free-

to-read-all-literature

ran into Iraq ...

[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 11:23 PM
EVEN DUBYA'S DROPPING THE "W-WORD" ... L.A. TIMES /
COMMENTARY / "a war by any other name" / JULIETTE KAYYEM
... (BUT THE MEDIA STILL "DOESN'T GET" RHETORIC)

QUOTE: “... a change in policy?
Or just a change in rhetoric?”


JUST RHETORIC
[RHETORICAL VERSE / SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET SEQUENCE]


[1] “Just rhetoric.” The metonymic space

of public conversation is just that.

The choice of words determines how we place

each data point. Inform each bureaucrat . . .


. . . and trigger ev’ry “truth” we know “by heart”

within the web of “facts” we’ve come to know

by proving to our teachers that we’re “smart.”

That’s how the forrests of all cultures grow.


(That metaphor of “forrests” came by chance.

An accident of rhyme, not willful choice --

an artist’s spinning top, not warrior’s lance;

No powermonger’s bullshit given voice.)


By “rhetoric” we do all that we do.

Repeating it’s just “mere” yields power’s coup.



[2] The president says “WAR” and so it’s framed.

That choice of word determines how we’ll think

about what’s going on. Our conscience gamed

to translate death “collateral.” The stink . . .


. . . ignored as what we stand for putrefies.

The veterans of Utah beach “sure” know

what “war” means; and their mem’ry deifies

“our troops” wherever wrongly they may go.


Yet finally if rhetoric rings wrong,

the public’s knee-jerk mind no longer jerks.

Too many encores of The Bullshit Song

and even the untrained sense how it works.


If rhetoric (for real) returns to schools,

foul word choice won’t so quickly play us fools.


[TO BE CONTINUED?]

# posted by BOKE @ 3:16 PM

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

AS THE NEWSPAPER FADES ...

"SPEECH" [i.e., teleprompter reading] by Rupert Murdoch to the American Society of Newspaper Editors / April 13, 2005

... And their attitudes towards newspapers are especially alarming. Only 9 percent describe us as trustworthy, a scant 8 percent find us useful, and only 4 percent of respondents think we’re entertaining. Among major news sources, our beloved newspaper is the least likely to be the preferred choice for local, national or international news going forward.

What is happening is, in short, a revolution in the way young people are accessing news. They don’t want to rely on the morning paper for their up-to-date information. They don’t want to rely on a god-like figure from above to tell them what’s important. And to carry the religion analogy a bit further, they certainly don’t want news presented as gospel.

Instead, they want their news on demand, when it works for them.

They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it.
...
...
What I worry about much more is our ability to make the necessary cultural changes to meet the new demands. ...

# posted by BOKE @ 10:22 AM

Friday, July 22, 2005

BRAND USA'S IN TROUBLE ...

POOP-EATING BABY:

That's how Iraq
             makes US look

to the whole wide world.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 2:19 PM
"COVERING" (FOR) THE NEWS ...

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW/ESSAY / BAD NEWS / RICHARD A POSNER

TITLE/HEADLINE: "Bad News"

EDITORIAL FRAMING (WEB):
Consumers' limited interest in the truth is the key to understanding why both left and right can plausibly denounce the same media for being biased in favor of the other.


QUOTE/SUMMATION:

So when all the pluses and minuses of the impact of technological and economic change on the news media are toted up and compared, maybe there isn't much to fret about.


HAIKU COMMENT [RHETORICAL VERSE]

This is how the press

helps maintain its innocence.

Status quo BULLSHIT.

# posted by BOKE @ 11:17 AM

CRITICAL NEWSPAPER FRAGMENTS FROM ...
New York Times / CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK / Virginia Heffernan / 22 JULY 2005

TITLE/HEADLINE:
The Podcast as a New Podium



HAIKU COMMENT [RHETORICAL VERSE]

Soapbox to stand on ...

but as with THE MEDIA,

no interaction.

# posted by BOKE @ 10:44 AM

Thursday, July 21, 2005

ROTTEN MERITOCRACY HAIKUS: ...

MERITOCRACY

always defends expertise ...

Quality? "Who cares?"


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 9:57 AM

Wednesday, July 20, 2005


"The truth" is out there ...

... but always buried in noise.

"The rules" require it.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 11:05 AM

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

"COVERING" (FOR) THE NEWS ...
New York Times Magazine Cover - The Framing Wars

EXCERPT FROM "THE FRAMING WARS"

(Last month, after we talked, Luntz challenged Lakoff, through me, to a ''word-off'' in which each man would try to ''move'' a roomful of 30 swing voters. Lakoff responded by counterchallenging Luntz to an ''on-the-spot conceptual analysis.'' Since I had no idea what either of them was talking about, I let it go.)


PARENTHETICAL COMMENT
[RHETORICAL VERSE/HAIKU]

The "missing frame" is

coded in that "deflection."

(Journalism's role ...)

# posted by BOKE @ 11:27 AM

Sunday, July 17, 2005


When you try Saddam,

put on trial all
            who helped him.

Start in Washington.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 5:59 PM
EAST/WEST TOUCHY HAIKUS: ...

WEB POLICE HEADLINE:

The Ministry of Culture ...

{... Licks Prominent Tits
... Pinches Naked Butts
... Gives Hard Dicks Hard Time
}



[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 4:03 PM
ROTTEN MERITOCRACY HAIKUS: ...

Maintaining privilege

means making sure
            some questions ...

{[a] ... will never be raised.
[b] ... are always ignored.
[c] ... won't be televised.
}



[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 2:30 PM

Thursday, July 14, 2005


To blaspheme Allah

is the terrorists' business.

To blaspheme Christ, ours.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 9:25 AM

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

MEDIA MAD HAIKUS: ...

"Silence the white noise

[of that] which is already

incessantly said."


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 4:45 PM
MEDIA MAD HAIKUS: ...

To live in cities

with MEDIA/TERRORISTS

is a choice you make.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 4:24 PM
EAST/WEST TOUCHY HAIKUS: ...

Dear eastern censors:

Does "free speech" in the U.S.

constipate power?


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 1:07 PM
"JUST THE FACTS" NEWSPAPER FRAGMENTS
NEW YORK TIMES / July 8, 2005

LONDON, July 7 - Investigators searching for clues in the attacks here said Thursday that the three bombs used in the subway apparently were detonated by timers, not suicide bombers ...

NEW YORK TIMES / July 13, 2005

London Attacks Were Suicide Bombings, British Official Says


# posted by BOKE @ 1:00 PM
EAST/WEST TOUCHY HAIKUS: ...

Dear eastern censors:

Free speech
        drowns out all voices ...

So why waste your time?


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 9:23 AM

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

ROTTEN MERITOCRACY HAIKUS: ...

The standardized minds

of the meritocracy

marched into Iraq.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 3:41 PM
MEDIA MAD HAIKUS: ...

WORTHLESS JOURNALISTS'

"somewhat hysterical minds"

meet expectations.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 3:39 PM

CRITICAL NEWSPAPER FRAGMENTS FROM ...
New York Times / CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK / SARAH BOXER / 12 JULY 2005

... We're Not Afraid, set up to show solidarity with London, seems to be turning into a place where the haves of the world can show that they're not afraid of the have-nots.


# posted by BOKE @ 3:31 PM

Saturday, July 09, 2005


CRITICAL NEWSPAPER FRAGMENTS FROM ...
New York Times / CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK / Margo Jefferson / 8 JULY 2005

... Audiences often need to learn to love - or at least understand - being provoked and disoriented. You don't have to love "Ulysses." (I don't.) But knowing what makes it a major work of art is worth the effort.

What helps prepare us to find beauty in what looks ugly or pointless at first? To find pleasure and some sense in apparent confusion?

I think for me it's a process of letting go; assuming nothing about what form the experience should take. ...


# posted by BOKE @ 9:50 AM

Friday, July 08, 2005

MEDIA MAD HAIKUS: ...

THE MEDIA counts

every bleeding body ...

EXCEPT power's yield.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 12:37 PM
ALT.POLL HAIKUS: ...

Were you outraged when       

"a thousand bombs a day"
       fell

innocents be damned?


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 10:10 AM
MEDIA MAD HAIKUS: ...

TERRORISTS' bombs

blow up in the MEDIA ...

[write this line yourself]


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 9:22 AM

Thursday, July 07, 2005

WORTHLESS JOURNALISTS HAIKU

Regarding lynching

the New York Times
            gave "both sides."

BULLSHIT, said Ms. Wells.



By the 1890s most newspapers had begun to balance their stories between two opposing viewpoints. But balance does not always guarantee accuracy. In fact, there is such a thing as the bias of balance. In 1894 the New York Times attempted to "balance" its coverage of lynching by acknowledging the evil of the practice while also allowing that some blacks deserved to be lynched. The Times' solution? That the U.S. legally "lynch" -- that is, convict and execute -- blacks with a swiftness rivaling any mob. By contrast, the African-American journalist Ida B. Wells brought little balance to her stories about lynching, but a great deal more truth.

# posted by BOKE @ 1:22 PM

Wednesday, July 06, 2005


ROTTEN MERITOCRACY FRAGMENTS FROM ...
Los Angeles Times / BOOK REVIEW: Harsh Insight Into How We Make War / by Russ Baker / 29 JUNE 05 / RE: War Made Easy How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death Norman Solomon John Wiley & Sons: 320 pp., $24.95

...
The villains are the government and the media: the government because time and again it remorselessly falsifies the reality of war, and the media because major press and broadcast outlets can't seem to wriggle free from self-interest long enough to speak truth to power.
...
"Aren't we at least dimly aware that — no matter how smooth and easy the news media and elected officials try to make it for us — in faraway places there are people not so different than us who are being destroyed by what journalists and politicians glibly depict as necessary war?"

# posted by BOKE @ 11:24 AM
DEFILED DEMOCRACY HAIKUS: ...

Why would you support

BULLSHIT-bred
               OCCUPATION

by anyone's troops?


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU

# posted by BOKE @ 9:55 AM

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

FAITHLESS CHRISTIAN HAIKUS: ...

I ask all "Christians":

What has this
               Iraq BULLSHIT

to do with Jesus?


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU

# posted by BOKE @ 4:37 PM

Monday, July 04, 2005


WHEN AMERICA

loses the taste
           for BULLSHIT,

THEN I'll celebrate.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 10:04 AM

Sunday, July 03, 2005

ROTTEN MERITOCRACY VERSE : ...

THE ROTTEN MERITOCRACY's not yet

convicted of unworthiness to lead.

THE WE (in "we the people") now still let
the bullshit-spreaders
                 satisfy their

{greed
need		}...



[RHETORICAL VERSE / SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET FRAGMENT]

# posted by BOKE @ 10:51 AM

Saturday, July 02, 2005

ROTTEN MERITOCRACY HAIKUS ...

WORTHLESS JOURNALISTS

have no skill
               to mediate

public dialogue.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]


# posted by BOKE @ 10:28 AM

Friday, July 01, 2005

ROTTEN MERITOCRACY HAIKUS ...

Anyone who says

the Iraq Mess
               is a "war"

is spreading BULLSHIT.


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]


# posted by BOKE @ 10:46 PM

DEMOCRACY can't

be built on a
           foundation

of steaming BULLSHIT


[RHETORICAL VERSE / HAIKU]

# posted by BOKE @ 9:03 AM

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