From: Bill <[email protected]> I think the point is, we need to do the best we can. Without wanting to inject politics into the discussion, why do we call Palestinian bombers terrorists rather than freedom fighters? It's a pretty easy answer, it's because we aren't on their side. If we were, our language would be very different. We call landmines that the other guys use IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) because it denigrates their efforts. At the same time, their efforts cost a lot in terms of lives and equipment, so I don't know just how "improvised" these explosive devises are.
You are right, language has the power to sway opinion, which is why one must be careful when deciphering what one reads. OTOH, images have even more power to sway, and we don't have the option of looking at a picture and know immediately what politics, if any, is behind the picture. We can look at words and say, yeah, he's a left wing nutbar, based on what was written, and discard it or believe it based on whether or not it fits our own outlook. It's harder with a picture, especially one that comes from what is supposed to be a journalistic source that is supposed to have integrity and believability. However, let me ask you something: How long would a newspaper editor in the USAor Canada (and probably more so Canada given our PM's speech to the Knesset last week) keep his job if he started referring to Palestinians as "Freedom Fighters" rather than the more accepted term "terrorist" and Israel as a Zionist Apartheid State? Depending on your POV, either language is the "truth". bill ------------------------------------- I don't disagree with that Bill. I especially agree that "Images have even more power to sway" and it's "harder with a picture" to tell what is believable. The only thing I'd say (and have said) is that to believe that an unaltered image is any more truthful or objective than an unaltered image, in the context of reporting, and stopping there, thinking the rules of integrity are satisfied or broken based on that criteria alone, is IMO, incorrect. Tom C. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
