Some Tea Party Questions

The New York Times raises a good question about the ability of the Tea Party to survive when the economy recovers because many of the members'  participation seems driven by unemployment. (I think it's actually driven by worse urges, but that's a discussion for another day.) But I've been struck by something else, based on, unfortunately, personal knowledge of the unemployment system. And I could be completely off base if none of them are actually collecting unemployment benefits but still, something seems off, especially with those below retirement age.

 a. How can people who are unemployed afford to travel around from state to state joining protests? Assuming that at least some people are doing that and, based on some of the people interviewed, many seem to be hitting multiple protests. So is someone funding their travel? Is this all Freedomworks or something else? Is money flowing under the table? It seems to me that it's time to stop focusing on signs and move on to deeper exploration of this phenomenon.

 b. Some states impose restrictions on the ability to collect benefits. You have to be available for work, and that means you can't be traveling out of state.

 c. Are some of them getting paid? Are they really all volunteers?

When a Band-Aid Won't Do

At the risk of sounding as if I'm piling on, I'm wondering how many newspapers, other than The New York Times, could afford to indulge in the Newspaper Copy Editors Full Employment Act, AKA, Alessandra Stanley?

Better yet, how many of you either in the business or forced out in recent months by stupid corporate decisions, would be willing to take on the job of Personal Copy Editor to a mistake-ridden reporter?

I'm holding back on commenting on whether the copy editor who started working on this error-loaded piece on Walter Cronkite and then had to set it aside handled it properly. I don't know the Times' system, and each paper has its own rules and culture about how to deal with story hand-offs. Obviously some are better than others.

But one thing about these trying times: if you've got someone who is adding to the work of a depleted staff, please, think some more about what to do. When people are bleeding all over the battlefield, and your company is down to platoon strength, you can't afford to stop to put a Band-Aid on one of them. It really isn't a good use of your resources.

It's triage time.

Paraphrasing the News

Glenn Greenwald is one of several online writers challenging the mainstream media over its choice of words when reporting on such matters as torture. In this case, making the leap from criticizing someone who didn't speak out against torture and confusing that with everyone who worked against terrorism is a huge, inexcusable mistake.

And, as often happens, the paraphrasing of reports on previous events often goes beyond the facts. Recently, I've read several reports on why Joe Lieberman managed to retain his Senate committee chairmanship. If all the basic and early reporting as correct, Barack Obama had reached out to the Democratic caucus to say that he wanted Lieberman to remain in the caucus, nothing more. Yet recently, sloppily written stories have reported that Lieberman was saved because Obama said he wanted the Connecticut senator to remain as chairman. Big difference, even if the result is the same.