----- Original Message -----
From: "Barbara Lickness" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 12:07 PM
Subject: [Mpls] The power of the list


> I think the thing that I find most appealing about
> this list is that the "opinions" go to this list
> un-edited and un-filtered.
>
> The strib has significant filters at work in what gets
> printed and the story that gets told is from that of
> the reporter or editors point of view


I would go further than saying the news is filtered. It's also lacking in
basic analysis. This morning, for example, I read an article in the Strib's
Metro section happily announcing an increase in the number of drug busts in
the Minneapolis area over the last three months. Yet the police, as well as
the reporter, seemed to be at a loss to explain why this sudden run of
unanticipated good luck in apprehending dealers and their significant
stockpiles of cash, weapons, and drugs. Is the Strib, as well as the police,
so utterly lacking in even a rudimentary sense of economics to recognize an
obvious correlation between an economic recession and an increase in drug
crime?  In fact, wouldn't they anticipate an increase flow in drug
trafficking?  Certainly this is going to result in addiitonal drug busts.
But why this lack of economic realism in crime reportage?

More troubling, of course, is the bigger story this hints at. The reporter
fails to make mention of whether there is a trend in increased drug flows
and bigger busts in urban centers across the country. If so, that means more
drugs are coming into the country. Would this not indicate breaks in our
national security system? Any route for drugs is a route for terrorists. But
again, there is no speculation about where these drugs are coming from.  All
we get is a final tally of pounds, kilos, dollars, and guns. Factoids.

Chris Beckwith
Ward 6










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