John Hockenberry, reporter extraordinaire escapes rotting from the inside
Read the whole story by former NPR and Dateline reporter who is now at MIT. If you have questions about why news "sucks" today, or why most people acknowledge that there is no news on television, at least in any of the supposed news programs, Hockenberry answers them. Prison guards kill mentally ill prisoner? Not a story because the vid only showed the deadman's feet. I love his comparison's of corporate mentality with Mao's Red Book and ideas for re-education.
One might have thought that the television industry, with its history of rapid adaptation to technological change, would have become a center of innovation for the next radical transformation in communication. It did not. Nor did the ability to transmit pictures, voices, and stories from around the world to living rooms in the U.S. heartland produce a nation that is more sophisticated about global affairs. Instead, the United States is arguably more isolated and less educated about the world than it was a half-century ago. In a time of such broad technological change, how can this possibly be the case?Source: technologyreview.com
But GE had long done business with the bin Ladens. In a misguided attempt at corporate synergy, I called GE headquarters in Fairfield, CT, from my hotel room in Riyadh. I inquired at the highest level to see whether, in the interest of bringing out all aspects of an important story for the American people, GE corporate officers might try to persuade the bin Ladens to speak with Dateline while we were in the kingdom. I didn't really know what to expect, but within a few hours I received a call in my hotel room from a senior corporate communications officer who would only read a statement over the phone. It said something to the effect that GE had an important, long-standing, and valuable business relationship with the Bin Laden Group and saw no connection between that relationship and what Dateline was trying to do in Saudi Arabia. He wished us well. We spoke with no bin Laden family member on that trip.Source: technologyreview.com
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