Wednesday - July 21, 2010

Sometimes you need the MSM

I get most of my news from the internet. I hardly watch television news at all.

The JournoList story is breaking - blooming, blossoming - now ... and it’s no news at all to the folks who read BMEWS. Geez, what a surprise: vast numbers of professional journalists, the ones who gin up the stories you see on TV and read in the newspaper, were all members of a private internet forum, where they discussed the issues of the day, and generally reached the agreement that they would do whatever it takes to get Obama elected. Whether that meant burying stories about his birth certificate, ignoring the reverend Wright thing, calling any and every Conservative racist, or blackballing any individual (Joe the Plumber anyone?) who dared to question his messiahness in the slightest ... the fix was in. And now, nearly 2 years after the election, when Oshithead’s poll numbers are tanking, his approval rating falling like a meteor into a manure pile, and a large part of the 52ers waking up and looking for someone to blame for “making us” vote for this assclown ... now it’s coming out that the MFM had their playbook written up and signed off on way in advance. No shit Sherlock. Tell us what we don’t know. Conservatives have been aware of an extraordinary media bias ever since Walter Cronkite single-handedly lost the Vietnam War. Even though our troops won the Tet Offensive, even though they were caught by surprise, they battled back across a front the size of South Vietnam, and put that bad dog down but good.  But Uncle Walter said the war was unwinnable, and at that point the die was cast. From there, through Rathergate and beyond; eventually the Right woke up and called foul. Which made us crazy people, racists, and the lunatic fringe. Except that finally - and don’t expect to see this on TV, not even on “Faux News” - it’s coming out that there was deliberate collusion.

You can’t trust the press. Period.

But sometimes you need them. While the internet is a great thing, it’s also a GREAT thing - there are hundreds of millions of web sites - and it’s just too much of a pain to try and filter through even the necessary several hundred to find out what’s really going on. Sometimes, you need TV and radio news.

Today was one of those days for us. Even though we have two rather large reservoirs here in Clinton, the water in them is not for us. We get our water from artesian wells. It turns out that the water department found e. coli bacteria in one of the wells 3 days ago, and just bothered to tell us about it today. And golly, if they keep finding e. coli in the well water, they’re going to do the right thing and take that well off-line until they can get it treated. Yeah, a little too little and a little too late.

How did I find out? The oldest old fashioned way: one of the former board members of the condo association I live in came around door to door and told us. After that I looked stuff up online, and it was not an easy find at the time. He’d heard about it on the semi-local TV news. We have a little NJ station, and we also have an even smaller north eastern PA station. Both of them are now carrying the story that Clinton NJ has e. coli in the water. The story was not running on the NYC (50 miles away) based MSM. Maybe it is now. And I’m finding more stories on the internet news sites. But it was TV news that broke it ... and they do still have the power to reach more people faster and easier than any given website. So we’ll have to boil water for a couple days, and hope that’s enough.

Town of Clinton Water Department issues E. coli warning; boil water advisory

WALTER O’BRIEN • STAFF WRITER • July 21, 2010

CLINTON TOWN — A water well test has indicated the presence of E. coli; the water department warns customers to boil water before drinking or using for personal use.

The Town of Clinton Water Department water system on July 19 tested positive for the E. coli bacteria in water sample in Well #11 before treatment. The department warns customers not to drink the water without boiling it first, or to use bottled water for personal uses.

Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for at least one minute and let it cool before using. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes and food preparation until further notice. Boiling kills the bacteria and other organisms in the water.

The positive test of the water indicates that the water may be contaminated with human or animal wastes. Microbes in these wastes can cause short-term health effects, such as diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms. They may pose a special health risk for infants, young children, some of the elderly, and people with severely compromised immune systems.

The symptoms above are not caused only by organisms in drinking water. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice. People at increased risk should seek advice from their health care providers about drinking this water.

The department said that repeated samples will be taken before treatment of the water to confirm the continued presence of the indicators of contamination. If any are detected, the well will be taken out of service until the problem is resolved.

The department will inform the public when tests show no presence of E. coli in the water. At that point you will no longer need to boil your water. The department anticipates resolving the problem within 3-5 days.

CLINTON — Customers of the town water system today were warned to boil the water before drinking it.

According to a notice from the town water department, water testing detected a fecal indicator (E. coli) in a Well 11 raw water sample.

Water from the Clinton system is distributed in the town itself, as well as to parts of Lebanon and the townships of Clinton, Franklin and Union. The sample was taken Monday.

The town urged people to not drink the water without boiling it first.

If I was in charge, that well would have been shut off within seconds of the bacteria being found. Run the test a bunch of times, but better safe than sorry. This seems more than a bit lackadaisical by the water department, although what comes out of the pipe every day smells like it has more chlorine in it than a community swimming pool. Will there be “why did you take 3 days to act?” repercussions? I hope so, but I don’t really care. As long as I don’t come down with 8 days of nonstop bloody diarrhea, I’m happy.

Oh, the “JournoList” situation. See here. Lots of other places too, Pajamas Media etc. But Daily Caller broke the story I think. If you can understand it all, good for you. Some of it is very “meta”, using far too many insider terms and understandings. I think I caught the real essence: the media is a total whore for Obama, a $2 trick, willing and eager to lie, cheat, and kill if necessary to do his bidding. Which isn’t news at all to any of us here, but to my surprise is shocking news for lots of other folks. I guess millions of people live under rocks, instead of in those nice McMansions I see everywhere. I suppose that the only real news part is that the scribblers involved actually were in active knowing well communicated collusion. I guess I assumed that as Kool-Aid drinkers the “professional” journalists had all just picked up on the meme by smelling the breeze and run with it. Not so! I gave them way too much credit for skills they don’t have. They got together and planned the whole thing. And now the word is leaking out.

(Fred Barnes, ever the gentleman )
Now, after learning I’d been targeted for a smear attack by a member of an online clique of liberal journalists, I’m inclined to amend my response. Not to say there’s a media conspiracy, but at least to note that hundreds of journalists have gotten together, on an online listserv called JournoList, to promote liberalism and liberal politicians at the expense of traditional journalism.

My guess is that this and other revelations about JournoList will deepen the distrust of the national press.

Elegant and under-spoken as always. More here.

And here! Everywhere in the VRWC actually. On ABC news? Ha!

Sean Hannity says that journalism died in 2008, when the mainstream media discarded even the pretense of professionalism and objectivity for the sake of installing an unqualified, ultra-radical community organizer in the White House. Judis’s words make a perfect epitaph for the headstone:

NOW IT IS ONLY TACTICAL

Posted by Drew458     on 07/21/2010 at 09:33 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Media-Bias •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner