Why questionable facts go unchallenged by the press

DocBrain has often had a beef with newspapers that print highly biased and patently untrue stories. www.gamedaily.com recently published a list of why news media presents untrue and slanted articles. While they were referring to makers of video games, it is applicable in all forms of media.

1. We want to believe those who we like. So, if a liberal politician says something to a New York Times reporter, she will believe it without question.
2. We don't want to cross our sources, for fear of losing our connection or losing favor. As in any job, it is best to press the "easy button". If someone will feed you information and then you question its validity, they may exclude you in the future, making your job that much harder.
3. It is easier to accept what we are told than to actually do the research ourselves.
4. Most news agencies do not have the resources or time to find out the truth and just enthusiatically report what they are told.
5. It is what everyone else is doing.
6. Lies make better stories. Modern news is about telling stories, not about conveying facts. Stories have heroes, villains and victims, peppered with an occasional fact.
7. We may feel like we are in over our heads.
8. We may have no reasonable choice. Once, DocBrain noted that a front page article described Hamas as a group that provided after school programs for children. DocBrain called the newspaper's editor who agreed that the description of Hamas was incomplete, to say the least, but stated that the story came from their wire service and they had only two choices: run it or not. Editing the story was not allowed. So, in order to provide the information in the story, the entire story, complete with its half truths and lies, had to be run.

Questions of the Expressway

DocBrain has discovered new rules of the road. Here is what they are:

1. DocBrain drives expressways with his cruise control on. If I am going just a few mph faster than the car in front of me, when I try to pass, the other driver will speed up making it harder to pass. Once I get past the other car, it immediately slows down. If you are one of those drivers, why do you speed up?
2. Sometimes, when the other car speeds up to exactly equal my speed, I slow down and pull in behind them. I then reactivate my cruise control and, voila, within 30 seconds I am right on their rear bumper. When I pull out to pass that time, they let me. Why?
3. As I said above, I drive on expressways with my cruise control on. When a driver gets on my bumper, I do not go any faster or slower, but it sure is annoying. If you are one of those drivers who gets on other drivers rear bumpers, what do you hope will happen and how often it works for you?
4. Rules 1 and 3 get into conflict when I try to pass a slower car. I am not the fastest driver on the road, so I pull out to pass, the car I am trying to pass speeds up, and cars behind me catch up and get on my bumper. As I travel about 5 mph above the speed limit, I do not have much leeway to speed up and yet do not want to slow down. What is the solution to this problem?

DocBrain and the Road Trip

DocBrain just drove back from Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

DocBrain remembers Mr. Harris as a wizened old man who worked with DocBrain's father. DocBrain believes that Mr. Harris used to be a college professor but moved back to the deep country of West Virginia because his wife was lonely for the hill country. Mr. Harris also was a turkey farmer (or lived near a turkey farm...DocBrain will have to ask BrotherBrain for more on that one). Mr. Harris used to say that the downfall of the Roman Empire was related to the decline of their roads.

PennDot, the state agency in Pennsylvania charged with the maintenance and repair of highways, is turning PA into the final days of the American Empire.

Here are a few of DocBrain's gripes:

1. Where in the hell are the workers? If DocBrain is lucky enough to see a few, they hardly ever are actually working. Most do their best Duce Staley interpretation of standing on the sidelines scratching their ... (DocBrain has no idea what the women PennDot workers are scratching. Looking at some of them, he doesn't want to be enlightened on that one, either).
2. Why aren't they working on weekends? Ha! DocBrain knows this answer. It is because a lot of them don't even live in PA!!! Yes, we pay our taxes and employ people from other states to fix our roads!! And they have to go home on weekends... to spend their money in other states!!! What idiocy is this???!!!
3. DocBrain can see cones and "turn on your lights" signs and "reduced speed" signs threatening high fines for speeding for miles and miles and miles and miles....but no workers, no torn up road, just signs, signs, everywhere signs. This makes no sense to DocBrain except as a speed trap, but even then the state cops aren't in on it because almost everyone flies thru these areas at 65 mph with no cops in sight! Note to PA: either enforce your stupid miles of signs or take them down.
4. Note to drivers: The PA Turnpike has been a toll road since before you were born. This should be no surprise to you. You will have to pay a toll in a toll booth. Have your ticket and money ready. Also, look under your rear view mirror. Do you see an EZPass box? No? Do you see the BIG SIGN "EZ PASS ONLY"? HOW IN THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO PAY IN THAT LINE IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN EZPASS BOX?
5. Dear State Police officer: Here is my theory. Assuming good road conditions, if everyone is going a fixed speed in close proximity to the speed limit (or even a little above), there will be few collisions. If someone is driving real fast, then real slow, then real fast again, then problems can arise. Who am I describing? The truck drivers!!! They are flying downhill at 80+mph and crawling uphill at 40 mph. I have no real problem with their crawling uphill, as that is the best they can do, but why let them speed downhill? The speed limit is not a time averaged event for cars, so it shouldn't be for trucks either. Position your speed traps occasionally in a place where you can control the truckers. I bet if you do this you will have more credibility with the auto drivers.

End of rant.

Prison

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12602098/

Oh, my! When DocBrain grew up, prisons were not good places to be. Prisoners were bad people who deserved to be there. They sometimes hurt each other. They sometimes loved each other, but not in a good way. Prison guards were sometimes brutal. Mom and Dad told DocBrain to be good so that he didn't wind up in prison where bad things happened.

It seems now that prisons are areas where good people, in expressing their own individuality, acted in ways not appreciated by the oppressive majority, are given "time out" to reconsider their lives and methods to avoid detection by the majority appointed gestapo in the future, should they decide to continue their own quirky individualistic ways.

Prisons apparently should be a mix of college and country club. Good food, healthy exercise, entertainment from TV and movies to live concerts, primo health care (including organ transplants, if needed), and conjugal visits. Of course, telephone, internet access and libraries should be freely available. Ideally, you will have a private room and ability to interact with your fellow prisoners in a safe and controlled environment.

Modern prisons are sort of like upscale retirement communities.

Being bad has never been so good.

Immigrants Protest

DocBrain thinks people should do what they gotta do, but doesn't like politically correct speech that is meant to confuse and confound.

DocBrain knows many, many, many immigrants who have no desire to strike. DocBrain is the son of an immigrant and is appalled by the PC speech about this event.

What is this event? Illegal and some legal immigrants from Mexico and a few from other Latin American countries are planning to strike, but apparently only those in low end jobs.

So, this is a strike of some Americans of Latino heritage in sympathy with illegal Latino/Mexican immigrants. That is what it is. Legal immigrants are Americans until proven otherwise, in DocBrain's opinion.

DocBrain thinks this strike will shed some heat, but no light on the problem of immigration.