New at Reason

David Weigel | October 24, 2006

The premiere MP3 player hits a milestone, pro-war voices want CNN to atone, and an anti-immigrant candidate makes California Republican groan... in the new Reason Express.

Comments

|10.24.06 @ 4:06AM|#

So has any one tried to fit an iPod nano up their ass, and if so, what were the results? I'm trying to think of a creative way to give my special someone his birthday gift.

|10.24.06 @ 7:07AM|#

"there is a point where news coverage can veer into exploitative snuff video, and CNN needs to be mindful of that"

why?

also the rape joke, after putin's? classy

ed|10.24.06 @ 8:38AM|#

Think big, Herrick.
I suggest a vintage Fisher 500-C stereo receiver.

"It was a technological tour de force that combined a full-function control center (preamp) with a 35Wpc power amplifier and a stereo multiplex FM tuner that offered the highest sensitivity rating of the time [1964]."

That should open some eyes.

|10.24.06 @ 9:14AM|#

Conservative bloggers think that images showing the reality of the American experience in Iraq will turn the American people even further against the war. They're right.

But that's not why CNN should show them. CNN should show this footage, because we have the right to know the truth, and to make up our own minds about it.

I saw that footage, and there is not a single frame in which you could recognize any soldier, or see any soldier being hit by a bullet. There is nothing remotely exploitive or disrepectful about it - CNN editted the tape very tastefully and respectfully.

This whining is about blaming the media for the collapse of support for the war, and about setting the stage for the upcoming cries of "Our troops were just about to win when the media stabbed them in the back!"

|10.24.06 @ 9:50AM|#

joe,

Personally, I blame the Social Democrats. We were winning the war until they stabbed us in the back. Admit it, you went Godwin. . .but very subtly :)

Whether or not CNN might have some editorial bias is besides the point--is this sort of thing (1) important news (both in what is being communicated and how it's being communicated) and (2) being portrayed with a minimal amount of sensationalism in a journalistically ethical manner?

Considering the latter point, I'm reminded of the federal evidentiary standard for admitting certain kinds of evidence (like photographs of dead bodies in a murder trial):

Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury. . . .

Although the media aren't held to that standard as a legal matter (not should they be), it is a useful way of deciding whether to air something--does it advance the public's understanding of the issue at hand more than it just freaks them out? If the response is predictably so visceral as to distort the public's view of certain facts, then it's a problem.

|10.24.06 @ 9:54AM|#

Herrick,

That would be the iPud.

|10.24.06 @ 11:05AM|#

"If the response is predictably so visceral as to distort the public's view of certain facts, then it's a problem."

huh? it's a business. if it gets more people to watch and advertisers to pay up for a spot, go for it. if it doesn't, then it doesn't. people can make up their own minds; let the market decide... it's not like 'the public' can't change the channel or come to their own "view of certain facts" from other 'distorted' sources.

|10.24.06 @ 11:18AM|#

Pro Libertate,

Since the Republicans openly and loudly adopted the "stabbed in the back" argument from the German nationalists after Vietnam, the accusation that people are making this argument now has +3 protection from Godwin.

|10.24.06 @ 11:23AM|#

I had an Archos MP3 player that held 20gb long before the iPod craze took off. The notion that iPods were the beginning of mp3 players is just silly. Their main attraction was simply that they looked cool.
Granted, the iPod trounced the Archos in pretty much every way but the two that actually mattered to me - storage capacity and price.

|10.24.06 @ 11:25AM|#

joe, are you suggesting that I can find Godwin in the Monster Manual? What's his armor class?

|10.24.06 @ 11:34AM|#

mk,

It's the Apple Cult. Which, incidentally, will be burning you alive for your heresy against the God-Thing, Jobs. I was beaten for suggesting that it was only Mac's popularity that kept it from being plagued by viruses, spyware, and other exploits. May Woz forgive me.

|10.24.06 @ 11:50AM|#

Make that the Mac's lack of popularity. Really, I shouldn't be allowed to post without adult supervision.

|10.24.06 @ 12:21PM|#

Pro Libertate,

I think the Godwin is found in "Unearthed Arcana."

boo ya! Old School!

|10.24.06 @ 12:24PM|#

joe,

If it wasn't in the World of Greyhawk, it doesn't exist to me :)

|10.24.06 @ 12:33PM|#

"Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury."
I am assuming that you cited to this knowing that the evidence almost always gets in, and gory pictures are no exception. The theory is the same: let the jury/people decide.

|10.24.06 @ 12:35PM|#

The iPod does not owe its success to Mac Cultishness (although that's a real and annoying thing to encounter). The reason iPods are winning in the marketplace is simplicity.

Apple made the rather common-sense decision to move most of the administrative tasks off the device and onto the PC, where there's a keyboard and mouse to help you do that stuff. Competing MP3 players try to make you do damn near everything on the device, where the display and controls are tiny. You can't beat drag-&-drop for compiling playlists.

Build an MP3 player that can integrate with iTunes (or equivalent), sell it for less than Apple does, and I wouldn't be surprised to see iPod sales plummet (though of course, the hipsters will probably still cling to iPod's indie (sic) cred).

Also, Pro Libertate, I realize this is getting off-topic, but the most-hacked Web server, far and away, is Microsoft Internet Information Server, which is a distant second in the marketplace behind Apache Web Server. While Mac's relative obscurity may help a bit, it appears that "popularity" is not the dominant criterion used by hackers when selecting their targets.

|10.24.06 @ 12:37PM|#

Lamar,

In a way, that's right. Where I'd have the most trouble is if, say, we had one guy die in the whole war and they ran his gory demise over and over again. With digital enhancements. That would be tasteless, of course, but it would also dramatically distort the truth.

|10.24.06 @ 12:49PM|#

PL,
I suspect we agree. I wonder though, since the Bush Admin/Pentagon didn't allow any pictures of dead soldiers for so long, is there an argument that they skewed the truth?

|10.24.06 @ 5:49PM|#

Lamar,

Sure. It's the Administration's way of saying skew you.