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Thursday, April 19, 2007
Light at the end of the graph 
Use like Mike
| | More, with a screen shot, at Linux Journal. |
Song of ourselves
| | I was interviewed by Xeni Jardin this morning for the NPR program Day to Day. The hour-long show begins at 12pm today. Some stations, such as WBUR in Boston, carry it at a later time (in 'BUR's case, 1pm). I'm sure that on many stations the program will be preempted by live coverage of the Alberto Gonzales hearings. Still, you can hear the audio later, if you like. It goes up at 4pm. (Xeni's Cho Files segment is the last one on the show.) |
| | In the interview, I argue the case for NBC releasing the contents of the package they received yesterday from the murderer Cho Seung-hui. |
| | At the beginning of the interview, Xeni said she had just talked with Loren Coleman, author of The Copycat Effect. I presume that Coleman was arguing for NBC not releasing the Cho Files, lest he provide a model for other homicidal psychotics. It's an argument that needs to be made. So is the argument against serving the aims of a murderer, and for preventing him from using a TV network as a mouthpiece. There is also, of course, the need to spare survivors any further suffering at the dead hands of the man who murdered their loved ones. |
| | On the other hand, the copycat effect is not the only possible outcome. I believe the need to reveal outweighs the need to conceal. Good as NBC may be as a news organization, their editors and quoted authorities are not the only ones with useful things to show and say about this case, or these materials. There is a better chance that insights may be gained, and lives saved, if the rest of us at least have a chance to read and see what Cho left behind. |
| | Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. |
| | Release early, release often |
| | Two more come from Bill Joy, who famously said, The smartest people don't work for you, and Innovation happens elsewhere. |
| | Like it or not, the Net is here. We live in a Giant Zero world, where all of us are zero distance from the rest of us, or close enough. TV networks, newspapers, magazines and other established media are no longer the only sources of authority, wisdom and good information. Now the most abundant sources for all those things are each other. |
| | This isn't just about disintermediation, intermediation or even "the media". It's about no longer depending on The Media alone. Naturally, the media still have roles to play. They are just no longer the only ones playing those roles. |
| | When Cho walked around shooting people, those in the best position to help each other were right there. The media that mattered most then, in real time, was direct contact by voice, hand signals, and mobile phones. People helping other people. That's still true now. |
| | Again, I'm not saying that The Media are bad, or wrong. Just that we no longer live in a world where we get our best information only from top-down few-to-many sources. This is about AND logic, not OR. |
| | Also, I am not saying that disclosing this stuff won't have bad consequences. It will certainly have many consequences. So will concealing it. |
| | Perhaps the best source of wisdom on this, as in so many other things (at least for me) is Walt Whitman, who offers a kind of prophesy on the matter in "Song of Myself": |
| | You shall no longer take things at second or third hand...
nor feed on the spectres in books.
You shall not look through my eyes either,
nor take things from me.
You shall listen to all sides and filter them for yourself.
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| | [Later still...] While driving around this afternoon, I hit SCAN on the radio, counting how many different stops on the dial featured Cho clips. I lost count before stopping at "Free FM" at 106.9. There Opie & Anthony were doing what talk radio jokers have been doing for years: goofing on it. Not much of what they said was funny. Most of it was time filler, as these things tend to be. (My Sirius radio is down, so I miss hearing Howard Stern on this thing. Knock Stern all you like, but on serious stuff like this — recall his live 9/11 coverage — he's often exceptionally sensible and grounded.) Anyway, you be the judge. Last I heard, NBC has decided not to release the files. |
| | [Also...] Roger Ailes says The future criminally insane won't subject themselves to the filter. |
There are responses to this message:Re: Thursday, April 19, 2007, Adam Fields, 4/20/07; 12:00:21 AM Re: Thursday, April 19, 2007, lakelady, 4/19/07; 7:46:15 PM Re: Thursday, April 19, 2007, adrienne, 4/19/07; 4:52:38 PM
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