Site Meter

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Experiment in disinformation retrieval.

The Washington Post reports that Brown has disappeard from view. The person who writes headlines for the web page is still at it entitling spin as spin "FEMA Director Singled out by
Response Critics". My ability to detect the spin shows my keen insider instincts and ability to read plain English. I wondered if, after the "White House Shifts Blame" headline, he or she was told less pithy or you will be pithed. The headline would have been even clearer without the disengenuous "by Response Critcs," but it sure aint "Opinions on Shape of Earth Differ."

More remarkably still, the story contains no quote one quote by a "senior Bush official", "White House source" or "administration source." The disappearance of this mysterious and very powerful being is much more important that the disappearance of Mr Brown.

I wonder if the Post has a new rule to not quote any such entity for a while, or if this new approach is specific to Spencer Hsu. To find out I guess I should just search the Post for those estemed gentlepersons and see if they are still appearing in other stories.

OK the "senior administration officials" are quoted after the jump from page A1 today on September 6th.
I am naive enough to have hoped that they was spending more time with their families.
I begin to Suspect that Mr Hsu had a little talk with his editor who said something like "write a story on how quickly Brown has been buried and, if you want to do some applied research into what it feels like, make sure you quote an anonymous source again."

No comments: