Monday, November 05, 2007

Items of Interest

-- Charles Pierce leaves me at a loss for words to describe this post. He definitely was in command of all his words. H/T to SusanG

-- I always appreciate dengre's diaries. The depth of his knowledge on CNMI is remarkable. All the more reason to pay attention to his latest diary, New polls expose a corruption time bomb for Democrats.

-- Brandon Friedman makes an excellent point which many in Traditional Media appear to have overlooked in The Real Story Behind the Falling Casualty Rate in Iraq

-- Dennis Jett, dean of the International Center at the University of Florida, speaks out about what happened when Sen. Kerry spoke at a student forum a few weeks ago.


What YouTube doesn't show

Gainesville, Fla. - If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many are conveyed by a video tape? Whatever the number, it is not always enough to understand the situation. That will not stop many people from rushing to judgment based on what they think they know. Their views are formed more by the media stampede and their own biases than by what really happened. And that says a lot about how people react and how information is used today.

Take the case of Andrew Meyer, the University of Florida student who had a Taser used against him by campus police at a speech by Sen. John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts last month. Videotapes of the incident made the evening television news and immediately found their way onto YouTube.

[...]

What was not on the YouTube videos was the fact that the student disrupted the speech twice. After Kerry had responded to numerous questions, I announced that one final one would be taken from the microphone on my right. The student then grabbed the microphone on the left and loudly demanded that he be allowed to ask a question. When a female police officer intervened and tried to escort him out, he broke away and continued shouting. At that point, Kerry said he would take the student's question, but would respond first to the questioner who was supposed to have been last. As he finished answering that question the famous videos began.

Because the student had already been disruptive once, there were police officers and officials of ACCENT, the student organization that brings speakers to campus, standing next to him. When he launched into a diatribe and used a vulgar expression, the mic was cut off and he was carried off to the applause of many in the audience, all the while resisting the police.

The reaction of some on the political right who saw video was that the student was silenced because he had asked the senator an embarrassing question. Some on the left suggested his freedom of speech was suppressed. Neither version could be further from the truth.


It's worth reading the entire article.

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