Fragments, Fallout, and Freedom--Part 6
Bloomberg on Farmers
This is not the post I thought I would be writing next, but here goes. Unless you read the information at each of the links, you won't learn much. I will be commenting only in a limited way on the individual articles except to introduce them.
I presume that Bloomberg's recent entrance into the already-crowded Democratic presidential campaign is well-known. He is the former mayor of New York City and is financing his own campaign.
The first is an article from the Washington Times. The main thing I know about this newspaper is that it was owned from its beginning by the Unification Church founded by Sun Myung Moon. I learned more from Wikipedia. Earlier this morning I began to see on Facebook links to this or similar articles with lots of indignant defense of farmers--which Bloomberg had allegedly spoken dismissively of. Here's the article.
Later this morning I saw a link posted by a local farmer about the same news item. He made this comment: A good example of how partial truth is weaponized. Here's a link to that article. It's from a Wisconsin newspaper that I'm not familiar with.
Two other sources that are often consulted for verification or discrediting of news reports have more information. I'll list them here so that you can get acquainted with these sites if you're not already familiar with them. Factcheck. Snopes.
You may have decided to skip the Factcheck and Snopes articles. If you did, I don't blame you. Although I expected them to roughly parallel the second article above, the Snopes site was a little different than I expected, and both were longer than I expected.
The next article is the one that I especially hope everyone reads, even though it's longer than the others. It's from a magazine rather than a newspaper or an internet-only site. The magazine has been published since 1857, and specializes in in-depth reporting. This article is a particularly fine piece of journalistic writing. The writer does very well what all media sources should do when reporting the news--give the facts in a balanced way, without adding spin or intentionally biased content. Link to the Atlantic article. Note that it was written before any of the above articles.
*****************
In other news, today we got something in a nice envelope from Donald Trump. It went into the recycling unopened.
On Sunday evening when Joel's family was here, we got a phone call and someone asked for Joel. Hiromi thought it must be one of his friends who knew that he was visiting at our house so he handed Joel the phone. "I'm calling on behalf of Donald Trump . . . " (or something like that) were the first words we all heard (Hiromi always turns on the speaker). Joel could hardly get to the "off" button fast enough.
How do these "misfires" happen?
I also got an email today from Kansas Senator Jerry Moran, in response to one I had sent him before the Senate impeachment vote. I did read that email carefully and then responded to it briefly. I think Moran is basically a decent man and a responsible public servant. His letter was mature-sounding and courteous. I also meant to use a courteous tone, but my reply nevertheless reflected the disappointment I felt: Thank you for this courteous reply. I regret to say though that I find the logic unconvincing and remain disappointed in your vote. A few more lines of explanation and then some appreciative remarks and assurance of my continued prayers finished it off.
I also read a column/report by Ed Berger in our daily newspaper. He is a state legislator with whom I had an email exchange last week on the matter of raw milk sales. I'm pleased that Berger "gets" it. I don't claim to know him well, but I've known both him and his wife since I sold flowers at the farmer's market. They were occasional customers. I learned to know Carol better during LRC classes when she served as one of three local facilitators. (I have a feeling I've written some of this before, but I'm too lazy to go back and check. Sorry.)
This is not the post I thought I would be writing next, but here goes. Unless you read the information at each of the links, you won't learn much. I will be commenting only in a limited way on the individual articles except to introduce them.
I presume that Bloomberg's recent entrance into the already-crowded Democratic presidential campaign is well-known. He is the former mayor of New York City and is financing his own campaign.
The first is an article from the Washington Times. The main thing I know about this newspaper is that it was owned from its beginning by the Unification Church founded by Sun Myung Moon. I learned more from Wikipedia. Earlier this morning I began to see on Facebook links to this or similar articles with lots of indignant defense of farmers--which Bloomberg had allegedly spoken dismissively of. Here's the article.
Later this morning I saw a link posted by a local farmer about the same news item. He made this comment: A good example of how partial truth is weaponized. Here's a link to that article. It's from a Wisconsin newspaper that I'm not familiar with.
Two other sources that are often consulted for verification or discrediting of news reports have more information. I'll list them here so that you can get acquainted with these sites if you're not already familiar with them. Factcheck. Snopes.
You may have decided to skip the Factcheck and Snopes articles. If you did, I don't blame you. Although I expected them to roughly parallel the second article above, the Snopes site was a little different than I expected, and both were longer than I expected.
The next article is the one that I especially hope everyone reads, even though it's longer than the others. It's from a magazine rather than a newspaper or an internet-only site. The magazine has been published since 1857, and specializes in in-depth reporting. This article is a particularly fine piece of journalistic writing. The writer does very well what all media sources should do when reporting the news--give the facts in a balanced way, without adding spin or intentionally biased content. Link to the Atlantic article. Note that it was written before any of the above articles.
*****************
In other news, today we got something in a nice envelope from Donald Trump. It went into the recycling unopened.
On Sunday evening when Joel's family was here, we got a phone call and someone asked for Joel. Hiromi thought it must be one of his friends who knew that he was visiting at our house so he handed Joel the phone. "I'm calling on behalf of Donald Trump . . . " (or something like that) were the first words we all heard (Hiromi always turns on the speaker). Joel could hardly get to the "off" button fast enough.
How do these "misfires" happen?
I also got an email today from Kansas Senator Jerry Moran, in response to one I had sent him before the Senate impeachment vote. I did read that email carefully and then responded to it briefly. I think Moran is basically a decent man and a responsible public servant. His letter was mature-sounding and courteous. I also meant to use a courteous tone, but my reply nevertheless reflected the disappointment I felt: Thank you for this courteous reply. I regret to say though that I find the logic unconvincing and remain disappointed in your vote. A few more lines of explanation and then some appreciative remarks and assurance of my continued prayers finished it off.
I also read a column/report by Ed Berger in our daily newspaper. He is a state legislator with whom I had an email exchange last week on the matter of raw milk sales. I'm pleased that Berger "gets" it. I don't claim to know him well, but I've known both him and his wife since I sold flowers at the farmer's market. They were occasional customers. I learned to know Carol better during LRC classes when she served as one of three local facilitators. (I have a feeling I've written some of this before, but I'm too lazy to go back and check. Sorry.)
posted by Miriam Iwashige at
8:17 PM
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