shiny blue grasshopper

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{ Saturday, May 29, 2004 }

6:38 AM | link

National Public Radio and the mythical liberal bias:

Looking at partisan sources--including government officials, party officials, campaign workers and consultants--Republicans outnumbered Democrats by more than 3 to 2 (61 percent to 38 percent). A majority of Republican sources when the GOP controls the White House and Congress may not be surprising, but Republicans held a similar though slightly smaller edge (57 percent to 42 percent) in 1993, when Clinton was president and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress...Partisans from outside the two major parties were almost nowhere to be seen, with the exception of four Libertarian Party representatives who appeared in a single story (Morning Edition, 6/26/03).

And it turns out they're not so good on the equality front either:

Women were dramatically underrepresented on NPR in 1993 (19 percent of all sources), and they remain so today (21 percent). And they were even less likely to appear on NPR in stories as experts--just 15 percent of all professionals were women--or in stories discussing political issues, where only 18 percent of sources were women.

I learn a lot when I listen to NPR every morning and after work every day. But this again proves that you have to think critically about what you read and hear from news outlets. Next time you read or listen to a story, try asking yourself one or more of these questions:

Which parts of the story were facts you can verify versus statements of opinion or value claims?
How reliable are the sources that were quoted?
Were there any stated or unstated assumptions?

And once in a while, try reading an article from a media watchdog group like FAIR.

Also, I decided to tell NPR about my disappointment. Feel free to reuse my words and send a similar email. Nothing will change if we don't speak up!

Hello,

I very much appreciate that you strive to provide fair and balanced coverage.
(Please excuse the reuse of that phrase.)

However, I recently read a FAIR report about NPR coverage, and it bothered me.
The two main issues I found troubling were:
Looking at partisan sources, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by more than 3 to 2 (61 percent to 38 percent).
Only 21 percent of all sources are women, and just 15 percent of all
expert/professional sources are women.
I hope that you will take this information and strive to be more balanced in
choosing the sources for your stories. I will be very disappointed if what I
receive from you is a flippant response akin to what commercial network
stations respond with when the public provides feedback on their reporting.

Thank you for your time,
Kelly Holmes

{ Friday, May 28, 2004 }

7:58 PM | link

I'm probably really behind the times, but I just saw The Meatrix on NOW with Bill Moyers tonight. I sure am glad I turned vegetarian this year! Not that the movie's any less disturbing because of that -- but at least I don't have to feel guilty about directly contributing to the situation.

{ Wednesday, May 26, 2004 }

5:10 PM | link

Protest panties! Pick from "lick bush," "drill bush not oil," "give bush the finger," and more!

And if you're going to be in New York on September 1st, why not join the Axis of Eve women to flash your panties in honor of the Republican National Convention?

{ Sunday, May 23, 2004 }

5:50 AM | link

Why, oh why, do people toss cigarette butts out their window at stoplights? Do they think their mommy is going to pick up after them? Do they think the butt turns into fairy dust upon hitting the ground and merrily floats away?

Even Philip Morris admits it can take several years for the plastic filter in the butt to degrade. ("Several" meaning up to 25 years.) In Texas alone, 140 million butts will be littered in 2004.

Barring the fairy dust scenario, wind and rain carry the butts to gardens, grass, open spaces or into bodies of water. In the former three situations, animals use the butts for nesting, or animals or kids eat the butts, complete with their residual toxic chemicals including nicotine.

Or let's say that butt has the lucky fate of being carried away into a stream, river, lake, or the ocean. Not only could aquatic life feast on our little toxic friend, but he could make it into our water supply. Yay!

Or maybe those butt litterers don't care about whether animals or kids eat the butts, nor do they care about having clean drinking water. Maybe they would care about all the time and money being spent to clean up after them. In Texas, 90% of highways are cleaned by people paid by our tax dollars, which adds up to $24 million a year. And that's just Texas. Wouldn't that money be better spent elsewhere, like in our underfunded schools?

Especially at long stoplights, I've always been tempted to get out of my car, pick up the butt, and throw it back through the litterer's window. But you could get yourself shot that way. So here are some safer ways we can respond to butt litterers:

If you smoke, please don't litter. Use the ashtray in your car, buy a pocket ashtray, use public trash receptacles -- whatever it takes. Just please don't litter. And if you drive a pickup truck, tossing butts into your bed doesn't cut it. About half the roadside litter flies out of the back of pickup trucks. So get a cover if you're going to use your bed as a trash receptacle.
Take down the litterer's license plate number and report them online. This reporting site is just getting off the ground, but they're partnered with a few states that will respond to the reports -- some even send a letter to the litterer!
If you're on foot and you notice someone litter a butt, pick it up and throw it away for them. Bonus points if you do it so they can see you. Or instead of throwing it away for them, you could tell them how you feel in a non-confrontational way.
If your workplace has a "no smoking" policy, make sure you have ash receptacles at all entry and exit points of the building(s) so employees and visitors can properly dispose of their cigarettes. If you're not in a position to make this happen by yourself, talk to your manager.
Contact cigarette manufacturers and ask them to put anti-littering messages on their packages similar to those on some soda and snack packaging. (And while you're at it, ask them to use environmentally friendly packaging.)

{ Saturday, May 22, 2004 }

2:57 PM | link

As of today, you can find Writing Austin's Lives in Austin area bookstores! A co-worker of mine wrote two of the 127 stories published in this collection, which was a joint project of the Austin History Center Association and the University of Texas at Austin Humanities Institute. They call it "a living history that you won't find in any guidebook or newspaper, the stories of Austin's many lives as seen through the eyes and told in the voices of its people. People of every age, every neighborhood, every ethnicity; people in comfort, in transition, in trouble; experienced writers, and those who never thought they had a story to tell, or someone to listen."

At the release event this morning, 5 of the contributors read their stories, and I loved them all. So I'm going to keep this book on my nightstand and read a story every couple of nights.

{ Saturday, May 01, 2004 }

9:47 PM | link

From Citizens of the Empire, the book I'm reading right now:

We can either predict the worst -- that no change is possible -- and not act, in which case we guarantee there will be no change. Or we can understand that change always is possible, even in the face of great odds, and act on that assumption, which creates the possibility of progress.