Wednesday, 30 March 2005
'Balancing' the Holocaust - with what?
The latest flap about journalistic "balance" (you know, "he said, she said" coverage of controversies) involves C-SPAN's
consideration of airing a lecture by Holocaust denier David Irving to "balance" a lecture by Emory University scholar Deborah Lipstadt talking about her new book,
which chronicles her successful U.K. libel case against Irving.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports
that more than 200 historians from around the nation have signed a petition supporting her decision and criticizing C-SPAN for proposing to air Irving's views. Irving, who has claimed, among other things, that gas chambers were not used at Auschwitz and that Hitler had no role in the Final Solution, gave a recent lecture in Atlanta that C-SPAN taped.
C-SPAN, a U.S. cable network that covers Congress and other public affairs activities, says its weekly book program was interested in
Lipstadt's book, and its interest in covering Irving was to hear the "plaintiff's story of the trial." Lipstadt closed her book discussions to C-SPAN in response, and the cable entity is still dithering
over what to do.
U.S. journalism professor Laurel Leff writes
clearly and articulately about the folly of journalistic attempts to "balance" news coverage in such matters as 9/11 and the Holocaust. Agreed. Certain issues are beyond "balance," and journalistic efforts at balance are lazy excuses for critical thinking and actual reporting.
Monday, 28 March 2005
The Jewish Jerry Maguire
Great story
in the San Francisco Jewish newspaper about Matt "The Soz" Sosnick, a sports agent who is soon to be the central character in a new book
about the U.S. sports agent business.
Podcasting update
Did we forget to mention another pioneering English podcast from Israel, by Harry,
one of our favorite bloggers, in our recent mention
of the phenomenon? Yes, we did. 1,000 lashes with a wet noodle kugel.
Train time
Israel Railways
is among the country's most efficient organizations - the trains run on time, are clean, are faster than driving, and the service is pleasant. The bad news is a lot of the country is not on the line. The good news is that Jerusalem
is coming back online next month. The bad news is the ride will take 75-80 minutes, which is slower than driving the 45-mile distance on a good day (but then there aren't
so many of those).
The good news is a second, high-speed line is set for completion in 2008 or 2009. The bad news is there are a huge number of hurdles in the way (the line may run over the Green Line and the attorney general is looking into that, the line may disrupt antiquities sites, the construction may cause environmental problems). The good news (or bad news) is that the intercity line may open before the Jerusalem light rail,
which supposedly is under construction.
Here are train buff sites for Israel
and the Jerusalem
system. Hat tip to "good news" blog Israelity
for the train buff links.
RSS
