[Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

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Would you like a GD Data Dump for media examples of the term "CT"?

Poll ended at Sun Nov 03, 2013 11:11 am

Yes
11
65%
No
6
35%
 
Total votes : 17

Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 06, 2013 5:37 pm

[Brain-]Washington Post wrote:Conspiracy Theories Persist on Arafat's Death

Many Palestinians Still Assert Israel Poisoned Leader

By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 18, 2004; Page A36

[...ad nauseam ...]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... Nov17.html


Exclusive: Swiss study says polonium found in Arafat's bones

November 6, 2013 9:46AM ET

Scientists find at least 18 times the normal levels of radioactive element in late Palestinian leader'€™s remains

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2 ... bones.html
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby Forgetting2 » Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:56 pm

^^On this particular story, its surprising how simple it is to make it a rational, non biased, article.

Replace only three lines.

1st graf
have spawned a cottage industry of

to 'has fueled' or 'has resulted in' or...

5th graf
peddled just by a few conspiracy theorists

to 'supported by just a few people'

and of course the title
Conspiracy Theories Persist on Arafat's Death

to Suspicions of foul play persist on Arafat's Death' or some such thing

The rest of it is pretty much by-the-letter AP Stylebook, but the word 'conspiracy' is not to be found in my 2011 copy, which leads me to speculate there's a secret chapter to the AP Stylebook, not contained in my edition, but which elite editors use. :shrug:

edited to correct for AP Stylebook error
Last edited by Forgetting2 on Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby Forgetting2 » Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:58 pm

dupe
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:23 pm

^^On this particular story, its surprising how simple it is to make it a rational, non biased, article.


It always is, F2. That's why they make a point of choosing to make irrational, biased articles instead. There is an agenda behind the very use of the term -- every single time, without exception. The term itself is loaded. It's a deliberate insult and an intentional thoughtstopper. Always.

Every little rewrite you carried out could as easily be carried out on literally any sentence or article that uses that cant term, that shibboleth:

a word or way of speaking or behaving which shows that a person belongs to a particular group

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shibboleth

.
That's been the whole point of this thread.
Last edited by MacCruiskeen on Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby Forgetting2 » Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:29 pm

I know. It gets my goat every time. I just thought this one, from an editorial standpoint was so cut and paste. As a side bar, I just took a couple journalism classes at UCLA extension and it was interesting to note how sensitive the topic is not just amongst teachers, but also young students.
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:38 pm

Forgetting2 » Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:29 pm wrote:I know. It gets my goat every time. I just thought this one, from an editorial standpoint was so cut and paste. As a side bar, I just took a couple journalism classes at UCLA extension and it was interesting to note how sensitive the topic is not just amongst teachers, but also young students.


Thanks, F2. That's interesting to hear. Catch 'em when they're young.

Upton Sinclair, in 1929 wrote:It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.


When you say "sensitive", though, what do you mean exactly? Are the students explicitly instructed in what contexts to use it? Are they ever given an exact definition of the term -- and, if so, what is it?
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby Forgetting2 » Wed Nov 06, 2013 9:09 pm

When you say "sensitive", though, what do you mean exactly? Are the students explicitly instructed in what contexts to use it? Are they ever given an exact definition of the term -- and, if so, what is it?


Good question. It's not something explicit, which is what makes it interesting as a study anyways. It's sensitive in that if one tries to get a clear definition, you'll be hard pressed to do so, not just amongst the couple teachers and couple reporters (I interviewed for assignments), but by a large number of the students. Defense mechanisms go up, arguments become vague and accusatory, and the topic is discouraged. It becomes an unspoken rule. I found it somewhat hopeful to note there were in both classes a few stalwart students who would persist, as far as they could within the confines of a classroom environment, in trying to have rational discussions of taboo topics.

A good part of journalism classes seems to be the learning of proper etiquette and acceptable styles in what many still pride as 'objective' journalism. Much of this is very clearly defined in something like the AP stylebook, including emotional 'hot-button' topics like race and abortion, where the guide will tell you exactly which terms are considered acceptable and which are not. For example, the guide states under the entry for abortion, "Use anti-abortion instead of pro-life and pro-abortion rights instead of pro-abortion or pro-choice. Avoid abortionist, which connotes a person who performs clandestine abortions." This makes the lack of any reference in it to 'conspiracy theory,' as a term, conspicuous.

So it appears to be a control system which is primarily propagated by 'chain of command' and peer pressure.
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby Forgetting2 » Wed Nov 06, 2013 9:16 pm

To add one more point. This is what struck me about the Arafat article, it was almost as if there has been a defined term which was known regarding 'conspiracy theories.' The article was written in a manner which followed, pedantically, every letter of the stylebook. This led me to wonder what was actually going on in the mind of the reporter when they wrote it, or if there was an editor who replaced those two lines and title.
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 06, 2013 9:47 pm

Forgetting2 wrote:It's not something explicit, which is what makes it interesting as a study anyways. It's sensitive in that if one tries to get a clear definition, you'll be hard pressed to do so, not just amongst the couple teachers and couple reporters (I interviewed for assignments), but by a large number of the students. Defense mechanisms go up, arguments become vague and accusatory, and the topic is discouraged. It becomes an unspoken rule. I found it somewhat hopeful to note there were in both classes a few stalwart students who would persist, as far as they could within the confines of a classroom environment, in trying to have rational discussions of taboo topics.

A good part of journalism classes seems to be the learning of proper etiquette and acceptable styles in what many still pride as 'objective' journalism. Much of this is very clearly defined in something like the AP stylebook, including emotional 'hot-button' topics ...


That reflects my own experience almost exactly, F2. Somebody -- a very conventional hipster, a journalist and film buff -- got pretty angry with me a few months back because he had been waffling on, saying "conspiracy theory blabla conspiracy theory blabla conspiracy theory blabla", and I was discourteous enough to ask him what he meant by the term. He was suddenly lost for words, he had no idea (he'd clearly never even thought about it before) and when I pointed out that it was just a synonym for "nonsense" he got well pissed off, because it undermined his belief that he was being not just the Voice of Common Sense but the very voice of Reason (if not Science) itself. Ego defenses a' crumblin'. Hence more flustered bluster.

It really is just a shibboleth, a password to the club. "Fidelio". A kind of Mason's handshake. It demonstrates soundness.
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby Forgetting2 » Wed Nov 06, 2013 10:05 pm

MacCruiskeen » 06 Nov 2013 17:47 wrote:
It really is just a shibboleth, a password to the club. "Fidelio". A kind of Mason's handshake. It demonstrates soundness.


Exactly.
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 06, 2013 10:21 pm

John Steppling wrote:
Norman Solomon wrote:Now, however, is qualitatively different, or rather, the intensification of previous key trends, with still less protest than perhaps at any time since 1933. In broadest terms, America has absorbed its own negativity, and by America I mean a culmination of tendencies toward the systemic integration of capitalism, now at a mature stage of development, and correlative mechanisms of support, previously inchoate or less operant, starting with the bludgeoning of a radical political consciousness through several decades of applied public and private pressures toward conformity: i.e., internalized boundaries of acceptable doctrine and modes of protest.


I will only add, less protest in the more visible strata of the society. There is plenty of protest, or resistance, and certainly of organizing, it’s just not visible because the electronic media censors it by omission.

http://john-steppling.com/snark/
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby JackRiddler » Thu Nov 07, 2013 12:47 am

Shit.

Just dug this up for some reason. I wrote it EIGHT YEARS AGO.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Hello, State Department?

I was just reading your guide on "How to Identify Misinformation," and I'd like to report a conspiracy theory.

You write: "Does the story claim that vast, powerful, evil forces are secretly manipulating events? If so, this fits the profile of a conspiracy theory."

A crazy story just like that has been going around for years! People on TV keep talking about a vast and powerful network of evil-doers, who are plotting to destroy us because they hate our freedoms. The conspiracy theorists say the evil-doers are hiding everywhere, waiting to strike, and pose the single biggest threat ever to our way of life. It's ironic, because many of these same conspiracy theorists argue we must give up our freedoms preemptively, just to protect ourselves! But they also claim the evil-doers are on the run, and have no hope of ever defeating the United States.

I don't get it.

You also write: "Is the story startlingly good, bad, amazing, horrifying, or otherwise seemingly 'too good' or 'too terrible' to be true? If so, it may be an 'urban legend.'"

I know one like that, too! These same people on TV, they keep blaming just one of these evil-doers, a one-legged fellow by the name of Zarqawi, for nearly all of the bombings and factional battles in Iraq - even for the killings carried out by US-backed death-squads. As befits an urban legend, this Zarqawi character has had a series of breathtaking escapes and was wounded several times. But he never dies and he always comes back to do more crimes, just like Freddy Kruger!

Uh oh, I remember another one. The same people say a bunch of hijackers magically confounded long-standing air defense procedures and made all of this country's top military leaders sit on their hands during the 9/11 crash-bombings. Can you believe that?

One of them, I think his name was Colin Powell, told the whole United Nations an urban legend about how Saddam Hussein had giant stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and was going to use them against the United States any minute now.

Maybe you can help these people get over their delusions. Thanks!
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby MacCruiskeen » Sat Nov 09, 2013 8:45 pm

TCA Press Tour:

PBS' 'Cold Case: JFK' opposes conspiracy theories

LA Times, August 07, 2013|By Jessica Gelt

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=34625&start=120


Image

It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it.
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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Dec 11, 2013 9:28 am

So far from "omnipotence", the servants of the ruling class repeat their own sincere beliefs (having nothing to do with being paid to think this way) that the ruling class certainly has not enough power to oppress anyone or exploit anyone who is not complicit and whose complicity and voluntary servitude is really the block to liberation.

Not only do they have so little power, they don't even really know how to use the little power they have and end up bungling sometimes by using it in their own interests in ways that don't always share the benefits when they mean sincerely to promote the commonweal.

It's as fanciful and superstitious a belief as that the Gods are going to punish Henry Paulson for his arrogating their divine prerogatives.

The ruling class itself - the owners of capital - isn't especially competent, but they have the smartest, best informed, best trained people as their servants, with fantastic resources of information and analysis, and the class as a whole defer to the smartest and most successful of their own number with regard to strategy and policy.

And I don't care about people harping on about "conspiracy theory" anymore. Fifteen years ago one could see some people were worried about ZOG-type stuff, but now this has really just deteriorated into a way of intimidating people into silence about the obvious. Nobody even claims "al Qaeda" was behind the anthrax attacks on congress and the media anymore, but has any one of these shriekers, these sneering soodleft fuckheads apologised for their tireless verbal abuse, their veiled threats, their insinuations that people who were unconvinced should be locked up, straitjacketed, and electroshocked? Until I see some apologies from the leaders of that I don't even want to hear about "conspiracy theory" in that connotation. These same people shriek constantly about conspiracy theory in response to everything that five weeks later they are obliged to accept as established historical record. It was a conspiracy theory to suspect the bush regume was lying about wmd, that the NYTimes reporters were working for US intelligence, that the anthrax was not sent by any pious muslims, that the US was behind the death quads in Iraq and the bombing of mosques, that the Private Lynch story was fake, that the US deliberately provoked an insurgency in Iraq to have an excuse to occupy forever, that the treasury wasn't going to buy "toxic assets" from a range of banks with the tarp funds, that US intelligence was involved in Mumbai, that the US was blocking aid to Haiti earthquake victims, every one of these things, unless printed by the most sober white man in the most sober publication (say, Greenwald) sets off the shrieks of conspiracy theory! conspiracy theory!

I begin to feel that I can't take anyone seriously who uses this term anymore.

THE US GOV IS VERY CORRUPT.

OBAMAMANIA WAS ASTROTURF MARKETING.

THE RULING CLASS MANAGEMENT DOES NOTHING BUT CONSPIRE NOW.

Those who are just stamping their feet insisting that nothing is planned, that they personally could really outwit the US imperial overlords if they wished - these are the people who actually fit that caricature of the greasy nerd in the tinfoil hat on the plaid sofa. The person who has to whinge about "conspiracy theory" every time someone informed raises points about ruling class strategy.

8:48 PM

http://qlipoth.blogspot.de/2011/04/soci ... s-and.html


Remember the Pentagon actually ANNOUNCED IN THE PAPER they were going to arrange death squads in Iraq. THEY ANNOUNCED they were going for "the Salvadoran option". They sent Negroponte, expert, to Iraq.

A few months later, there are the deathsquads at work. Their deeds are reported in the press. And these brilliant leftists, sober rational reasonable analysts, are informing us it must be IRAN!! And you say to them - look, these are Negroponte's death squads, look here in the msm three months ago they said they had to go for the "Salvadoran option".*

Oh no, chabert, not another conspiracy theory!
9:16 PM

http://qlipoth.blogspot.de/2011/04/soci ... s-and.html


- by chabert in the comments at Qlipoth, April 2011; no less true now than then, on the contrary.

(Her comments in that whole thread are brilliant and very instructive.)
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"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: [Poll] A sticky thread for "'CT' in the media"?

Postby conniption » Sun Dec 15, 2013 5:43 am

The Reading Caboose MADTV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POrF0SnM5NQ

*

Mad TV - Reading Caboose (with George Carlin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H37vGQYJu2M
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