Did Bonnie Fuller really betray women?
Female editors condemn the Globe for running a tawdry photograph of Kobe Bryant's accuser.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Rebecca Traister

Oct. 31, 2003  |  The ugliest celebrity spectacle of the year -- the sexual assault prosecution of NBA star Kobe Bryant -- took a notable turn Thursday, when the supermarket tabloid the Globe published a salacious high school photograph of the accuser on its cover. In it, the woman is lifting up her prom dress to reveal a garter belt. The headline reads: "Kobe Bryant's Accuser: Did She Really Say No?" Next to the photo, in half-inch type, is the 19-year-old woman's name.

The world -- particularly the journalism world -- does not usually pay close attention to the scandal sheets. But there is good reason to this time. For one: the Globe's behavior has been followed in the past by the mainstream media. Back in 1991, it was the Globe that broke with the journalistic tradition of protecting the identity of possible rape victims and revealed the name of the woman accusing Kennedy scion William Kennedy Smith of raping her. NBC and the New York Times eventually followed suit.

The other reason, though, is because the influence of the tabloid press has undeniably increased in recent years. And a main reason for that is the woman -- and lightning rod -- editorially in charge of the Globe: Bonnie Fuller.

Fuller, a veteran editor (Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and YM), spent the past two years revamping the weekly celebrity gossip magazine Us Weekly with enormous success. At a time when circulation and advertising sales were on the skids for magazines, Fuller raised Us' newsstand sales a whopping 55 percent. This summer, she left Us to take on the editorial directorship of American Media, the company that publishes the Sun, the Globe and the National Enquirer, for a package reported to be worth more than $1 million. Though she has focused most directly on the rejuvenation of the company's flagship magazine, the Star, Fuller technically presides over the editorial decisions for each of American Media's titles, including the Globe.


 

 
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Fuller told the New York Post that she knew of the Globe's plans to publish the name and photo of the woman but said that she "would not have interjected" herself into the magazine's editorial structure by killing the story. "The Globe did what was within their mission," she told the Post.

"Bonnie did not make the decision to put that [image, name, and headline] on the cover. Candace Trunzo, the editor of the Globe, did," said Richard Valvo, vice president of corporate communications for American Media, adding, "Bonnie made the decision not to pull it." (Fuller was out of town and unavailable for comment; Trunzo did not return calls.)

One, however, could easily argue that deciding "not to pull" a story is the same thing as deciding to run with one.

"She's the editorial director of the company," said Barbara O'Dair, editor at large at Time Inc., and the former editor in chief of Teen People and Us Weekly. "She obviously gave her tacit approval."

And if the Globe's big reveal on the identity of Bryant's accuser gets picked up by other publications reporting stories like this one, the arm of the tabloid press will have extended even further into the legitimate press.

"The tabloidization of the American media is horrid and unstoppable," said Stephen Isaacs, a professor of journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, who teaches a class on ethics. Mr. Isaacs, who is somewhat unorthodox in his view that journalists should publish the names of accusers in rape cases, went on, "I think naming her is cool, but running a picture of her with a garter belt -- that's mawkish and obviously meant to sell papers. That is the tabloidization of the American press."

For many people, the line between the tabloid press and the legitimate press is already indistinguishable, said Geneva Overholser, a professor of journalism at the Washington bureau of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the former ombudsman of the Washington Post. Overholser had not seen the cover of the Globe, but after hearing a description of the layout, she called it "the worst kind of journalistic voyeurism." She, like Isaacs, believes that situations like the Kobe Bryant case serve as an argument for making the identification of alleged rape victims standard.

"If we named them in the mainstream media, it wouldn't be such a catch for the tabloids," she said. "There wouldn't be such a forbidden, look-at-me thing."

But to magazine editors in New York, particularly women editors, the ethics involved in naming a possible rape victim took a back seat to the look-at-me nature of the Globe's cover.

"I think every female editor who woke up this morning and saw that in the paper probably had their breath taken away," said Us Weekly's editor in chief Janice Min. "I just looked at it and thought, Oh my God, that's so wrong."

Min was not critical of Fuller, her predecessor, saying only, "I think it probably got additional attention because Bonnie is there and she came from the mainstream press and that is why it came across as an unusual decision."

But Min did not hold her fire when it came to the Globe's editorial decisions.

"It is misogynistic and truly exploitative to try to get big sales off of identifying an alleged rape victim," said Min. "Was a woman dressed inappropriately? Did she ask for it? Is a sexy woman more likely to get raped than a non-sexy woman? These are the anachronistic, horrible ideas that come up because of a cover like that. Morally, it's wrong."

Min's objections were strongest when it came to the cover-photo choice.

"I would imagine that they probably have plenty of photos to choose from," she said. "I don't think any of them would have been right to run. The fact that they chose to run one of her in lingerie is galling.

"It is clearly implied on the cover that maybe she deserved it," Min continued. "This is someone's worst nightmare. This is why a lot of sexual assault victims don't come forward."
"I think it's one thing to show a face, and we can all debate that for a really long time," said Lucky editor in chief Kim France, trailing off momentarily. "Personally I'm against it, but I think it's a valid debate. But taking a photograph of a girl at her prom, having fun with her femininity, at a moment when everybody's allowed to feel free and sexual, and using it with the headline 'Did she really say no?' in the context of a rape case? I think that's horrifying."

While the photos sent shock waves through some corner offices in Manhattan, some female editors, while troubled by the photos, were not at all surprised by them.

"As a journalist I just can't say, 'Man, am I surprised to see that in the Globe!' said Ellen Levine, the editor in chief of Good Housekeeping. "It's the Globe."

And Roberta Myers, editor in chief of Elle, said, "I am personally of the school that out of deference to the victim you do not publish an image of her face. You just don't do it, unless the victim is willing to identify herself."


 

 
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But, Myers continued, "The fact that it is damaging to that particular woman or that it is something that a lot of journalists wouldn't do doesn't mean that it's a total surprise on the cover of the Globe. It's not like the Times did it."

O'Dair agreed. "They're doing what they're trained to do. These are attack dogs, they go for the jugular. And they are just going to go for whatever will rake in as much money as possible."

"What's the hot market right now?" asked Lesley Jane Seymour, editor of Marie Claire. "Celebrity journalism, tabloid journalism. Tabloid journalism has really been absorbed into the mainstream media and ironically you have the bottom of the barrel -- the Globes and the Stars -- going upscale [by hiring editors from legitimate media organizations], which is completely crazy and hilarious. Because usually people find the biggest audiences by going downscale."

A big part of the tabloids' trip up-market has to do with Fuller, who is currently engaged in remaking the Star as a celebrity-gossip-must-read in the spirit of Us and In Touch.

She worked miracles at Us, transforming the snoozy movie rag into the guiltiest journalistic pleasure of the last decade. Her move to American Media surprised many of her former colleagues, and the controversy over the Globe cover on her watch may illustrate exactly why her decision to officially abandon "respectable" journalism was so risky.

As O'Dair pointed out, Fuller's statement to the Post that running a story like this was within the publication's mission was fair: "She's absolutely right. That's what she signed on for."

"Sure, she did come from the legitimate press," said France. "But she left the legitimate press, too. And I don't think that anything that happens at the Globe is going to impact the legitimate press. Or so I'd like to think."

But France may be dreaming. In a conversation with Marie Claire's Lesley Jane Seymour she casually used the alleged victim's first name -- which she had learned from the Globe -- three times on the record. When I pointed this out to her she laughed mirthlessly.

"Yes, I know I said her name," said Seymour. "Once it's in the Globe, it doesn't matter whether it's right or wrong, the taboo's broken and the name is now part of the lexicon. They have a huge circulation. It's not like it was revealed in Mother Jones."

As for the Fuller issue, Seymour said, "She says she didn't have anything to do with it, but there's a lot of pressure for everybody in journalism to make a buck today and that's the bottom line.

"I certainly don't know what she had in her mind, but unfortunately with media today you have two bosses: your bosses who care about ethics and readers, and your bosses in the marketplace of media conglomerates."

Ellen Levine, of Good Housekeeping, did not quite damn the publication. Though she said that she doubted a case like this would stir any legitimate debate of these issues, she expressed her own confusion about whether journalists should shy away from naming victims.

Declaring that she was not referring to the Bryant rape case specifically, Levine said that she thought a lot about what happens to men who are accused of rape, publicly identified, and then found innocent.

"Why does the man get drawn and quartered while the woman is garbed in a journalistic burka?" she asked. "I'm not saying that I know the answer. Just that I think it's a timely question. And of course the Globe's going to choose a picture that's racy. And if it sells very well they'll be doing a lot more of it."

O'Dair pointed out that the mainstream media's handling of the Bryant case hadn't been exactly heroic. She noted that Bryant was honored at the Teen Choice Awards , which were held in Los Angeles a month after he turned himself in to the police. Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, appeared at the ceremony, which was broadcast on the Fox network. He accepted the award for favorite male athlete, and was greeted with a standing ovation.

"I thought it was interesting that Fox saw fit to honor Kobe Bryant after charges were filed against him," said O'Dair, whose former title, Teen People, hosts the Teen Choice Awards. "It was certainly a bad move on their part. And it perpetuated a really complicated view of heroism for kids to try to understand."

This story has been corrected since it was originally published.

salon.com


- - - - - - - - - - - -

Check these web sites for internet research:http://www.journalismnet.com/;http://www.ire.org/;http://www.prwatch.org/improp/research_faq.html

Journalism Help: Finding Data on the Internet: Here are some web sites that will help you find information and some on how to use that information in your research>http://www.journalismnet.com/;http://www.ire.org/;http://www.prwatch.org/improp/research_faq.html;http://www.robertniles.com/data/
CHECK THE ABOVE JOURNALISM HELP SITES CAREFULLY! See you in class. Clark

Check out this web site for more information about the up coming play A Christmas Carol >http://www.oneworld.co.jp/theatre/theatre_about_christmas_carol2003.html

"http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2003/10/28/glass/">Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | "I've had a great deal of therapy": "I've had a great deal of therapy'
With a movie about his stunning journalistic misdeeds coming out, Stephen Glass talks about writing, forgiveness, why he's not a sociopath and having to look away from scenes in 'Shattered Glass.'"

eigoTown International Halloween Party -- Saturay, October 25th
***********************************************************************
The latest in the hugely successful eigoTown International Parties will
be this Saturday's Halloween Party.

Once again the venue is right in the heart of Tokyo - enjoy the view of
the city skyline while you network, make new friends or just relax at
the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

The admittance fee includes free beer, wine, and other beverages and
plenty of food and snacks. Over 250 people are expected, a good mix of
male and female, foreign and Japanese. Discount for those who dress up!

For more details see:

http://www.eltnews.com/party/

FOOD BANK USE UP ACROSS THE COUNTRY
The number of people who use a food bank in Canada is greater than the
entire population of New Brunswick, says a new report on hunger.
FULL STORY:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/10/16/foodbanks031016

2003 A DEADLY YEAR FOR JOURNALISTS
Nearly a third of all journalists killed on the job so far this year
died covering the war in Iraq and its aftermath, says a newspaper group
based in Paris.
FULL STORY:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/10/15/journos_die031015

To text or not to text
You knew it had to come. When it was reported last week that a British rehabilitation clinic had begun treating patients for an uncontrollable addiction to text messaging, it certainly sounded like a sign of the times. Or something. It was hard to be sure of the precise significance of the announcement that The Priory, a clinic in London, had staked out this new territory in the relatively uncharted realm of techno-driven psychosis. But the fancy facility is known as one of the best acute psychiatric hospitals in Britain, so its doctors probably knew what they were doing when they identified unstoppable text messaging as a complaint comparable to eating disorders, alcoholism, drug abuse and stress-related illnesses.
[MORE] ->
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ed20031013a1.htm

MUSIC INDUSTRY CRACKDOWN SPAWNS 'CYBER-SPEAKEASIES'
Music download enthusiasts are flocking to 21st century versions of
"speakeasies" --high-tech clubs that offer encrypted software designed to
shield users from identification and prosecution by a zealous recording
industry. Coincidentally, the software now being served up may have broader
appeal in the business world as well. "The software that users are moving
toward, it has characteristics that businesses need -- which is a high
degree of privacy, a high degree of security and the ability to handle
large files," says New York University telecommunications professor Clay
Shirky. "Thanks to the RIAA, ease of use surrounding encryption
technologies, which was never a big deal before, is a big deal now." In
addition to old favorites such as Kazaa and Morpheus, file-swappers are now
turning to newer iterations, such as Blubster, which features both stronger
privacy protection as well as easy-to-use encryption and decryption.
Another program, called Waste, can be used to set up an encrypted
instant-messaging and content-sharing network of 50 users, without the
potential liability of a central server. And an offshoot of Freenet, dubbed
Locutus, is targeting corporate users with its ability to search corporate
networks for information distributed across a wide range of computers.
"It's kind of like Google for people's hard disks, but with added security.
You can define who has permission to find what kind of files," says Ian
Clarke, who heads up Freenet and Locutus parent Cematics. (AP/CNN.com 6 Oct
2003)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/10/06/underground.internet.ap/index.ht
ml

Here's what the news is about in Japan:
Time to come clean on foreign crime wave
Rising crime a problem for Japan, but pinning blame on foreigners is not the solution

For those who read and watch the Japanese press, these are scary times. Foreign crime is allegedly on the rise, members of the new Koizumi Cabinet are making clear policy statements against it, and the National Police Agency is ready for a new push.








Cabinet ministers (left to right) Taro Aso, Kiyoko Ono and Daizo Nozawa have all made policy statements relating to foreign crime -- but the basis for a crackdown is at best statistically weak and only addresses less than 2% of all Japanese crime. SATOKO KAWASAKI PHOTOS


This is despite incontrovertible evidence that foreign crime rates are actually lower than those of Japanese.

Of course, Japan's overt stoking of public fear of foreigners is not in itself news -- it has been going on for years.

However, the problem this time around is that the fearmongering is not merely another fad. It may be about to gel into public policy.

With the most recent election within the Liberal Democratic Party for a new leader, all four candidates in a Sept. 18 TBS TV debate offered their policy visions for foreigners, including Japanese language tests for new entrants, crackdowns on crime, etc. In other words, dealing with the foreign element in society was as much a policymaking litmus test as, say, dealing with bloated public works or rekindling national growth.




Foreign crime policy
Koizumi was re-elected on Sept. 20 and two days later the new Cabinet was announced. No fewer than three Cabinet members (Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa, Public Management Minister Taro Aso and National Public Safety Chair Kiyoko Ono) appeared on NHK talking about foreign crime in their first policy statements.

Nozawa talked about how Koizumi has charged him with making Japan the "world's safest country" again. Ono was the most specific -- saying that foreign crime and youth crime were among her policy priorities.

Meanwhile, news stories on foreign criminals are commonplace. One two-hour show, aired nationally on NTV during prime time on Sept. 16, 2003, had cameras following police on the beat (a la the American Fox Network show "Cops"). More than a quarter of the airtime was devoted to foreign crime alone (with no interaction between police and foreigners except to arrest them). Rightwing Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, came on after every foreign-specific segment to remark on, inter alia, the cruelty of Chinese crooks and the need for more police.

The topic of foreign crime is seasonally recycled. The National Police Agency supplies the media with regular updates on any rise in the crime rate (about once every six months, going quiet when crime rates go down.) Result: The public get fresh scare showers about rising crime.

Unfortunately, very little has appeared in the Japanese media to temper things -- like comparisons between rising Japanese and foreign crime rates. Pity. This would reveal that the foreign crime rate is less -- far less -- as a proportion of the population than the Japanese rate.

But what of the data on foreign crime?

The National Police Agency had its most recent White Paper on foreign crime available for download from its Web site ( www.npa.go.jp) conveniently in time for the new Koizumi Cabinet. One look indicates that, yes, after a dip in 2000 and 2001, both the number of foreign crimes and foreign perpetrators have increased.

What is still left out:

The number of registered foreigners in Japan is also increasing year on year: From 1,778,462 in the beginning of 2002 to 1,851,758 souls by the end ( www.moj.go.jp). More people means more potential criminals. So statistics detailing only foreign crime rates both in raw numbers and in percentages only tells half the story.





Postwar crime high
The other half is this: The number of crimes regardless of nationality in Japan in 2002, according to this paper on Sept. 23, 2003, was 2.85 million, a postwar record high. However, since the Japanese population is not really increasing, the rise in the Japanese crime rate is more marked than that for foreigners.

Moreover, the number of crimes committed in 2002 by foreigners was 1.39 percent of the total. Given the fact that the number of registered foreigners (those on one-year visas and above) is 1.5 percent of the total Japanese population, this means that foreigners are less likely to commit crimes on average than Japanese.

Let's mitigate that even further: Note that crimes committed by foreigners also includes visa violations -- crimes that Japanese by definition cannot commit, which should be caveated out for a better comparison of crimes committed by everybody. Since visa violations constitute up to a third of the total of crimes committed by foreigners, the rate for crimes committed by foreigners that are similar to those committed by Japanese can drop to around 1 percent of the total.

While we're at it, how about those visa overstayers so often bandied about as on the rise? According to the most recent data from the Immigration Bureau (available at any Nyuuyoku Kanrikyoku office as a free orange pamphlet), the number of illegal aliens has fallen every single year without fail since 1993.





Serious flaws
Hence upon proper examination, the whole statistical basis behind the push to curb foreign crime is flawed and distorted to the point of being plain wrong.

The cause of this statistical manipulation on the part of the police and politicos is to a large extent, economic.

In May 1999, the "Policy Committee Against Internationalism" ("Kokusaika Taisaku Iinkai") was formed within the National Police Agency with the stated aim of drafting policy against foreign crime and their syndicates. This is the organization producing friendly neighborhood warnings about foreign miscreants, which are plastered beside ATMs nationwide.

What is one goal of any government organization? To justify its budget. What better way in this case than by stirring up fear of crime? This tactic worked very well during the World Cup in 2002, particularly when the promise of hooligan riots due to the Argentina-England game provided a budget to fly 3,000 mainland police to Hokkaido for a week, as well as to hire three ferries to cart thugs back down south. How much money was spent to arrest a total of 11 people (two foreigners) during that whole week of games in Hokkaido? Uncertain.

Most Japanese, though very few people overseas, know that clearance of crimes in Japan (meaning finding the perpetrators for every crime committed) is now down to around 20 percent -- a postwar low and a shock for those expecting Japan to be the same old clean, safe place. This is in part due to a long standing economic downturn in the provinces, and a slow but perceptible breakdown in respect for property by Japanese people.

But that is not what we hear about. It's much easier to say the foreigners are responsible.

Indeed, during a Q & A session following a speech given to the PGL Conference at Seisen University on Sept. 27, Diet member Mizuho Fukushima (Shamintou, Kanagawa) remarked that she is quite aware how the government is fudging statistics to create a culture of fear related to crimes committed by foreigners. Consider, then, a normal public reaction. If police were to tell us that Japanese crime is out of control -- people would criticize the police for not doing their job.





Easy target
However, if they say the same about foreign crime, public attitudes are less antipathetic. After all, foreigners shouldn't be here in the first place if they're going to make trouble (and what policeman can anticipate what heinous crimes foreigners will commit?).

The point is that foreigners are a much softer target, and it is far easier for the police to shift the focus on them instead of on the other 99 percent of criminals in Japan.

Given a general rise in crime,a reasonable case could be made for more cops on the beat. However, the clear and present policy push to target foreigners is not only unfounded statistically, but also has been up to now half-baked and arbitrary in its application.

Good public policy needs common sense, but it has been sorely lacking in Japan so far.







The Japan Times: Oct. 7, 2003

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens most famous work will be performed as a live drama at the Aoyama main campus and will be free for all students. The play will be presented at four in the afternoon of November 15. Hope you can all go and enjoy a really great play, one that may have been instrumental in helping to establish the way you now celabrate Christmas.

The English Literary society at the English Department will be sponsoring a production of "A Christmas Carol" on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 4:30pm (doors open) by TNT Productions. They are the same group that brought "Hamlet" in the spring. The performance is free for all of our students.

This weeks assignment is a story from page 76-77 in the text book. You should write a story about either Health or the Environment using two of the vocabulary words on page 77. You should also decided if your are going to write a broadsheet story or tabloid story as per example described on the previous pages in the chapter.

excitement of responding to, and trying to make sense of, the flow of news.
The challenge of trying to sort out the wood from the trees, the important
from the unimportant, the honest from the dishonest, the reasonable from
the hyperbolic. The independence of mind and of spirit, the accompanying
sense of the ridiculous, that are available to an outsider, an observer of
rather than participant in events, processes and organizations. The fact
that so many people read or hear what you have to say, and that some of
them even pay heed to it. The privilege of being able to, and actually
being paid to, write or broadcast what can fairly be described as a sort of
first draft of history, albeit with all the foibles and frailties that
performing that task typically implies.
"Yet that is also where the limitations of journalism begin. Our
perspective is always a fairly short-term one. Our readers want to know how
something that happened today might be connected to something that happened
yesterday, or last month. Furthermore, our preoccupations are forever
vulnerable to the fads and fashions of instant hopes, fears and worries.
And, like all instant analysts, the journalist is constantly at risk of
overinterpreting the short-term and underrating or underinterpreting the
longer-term trends. Something that did not seem to matter at all yesterday
becomes, tomorrow, the only thing that does seem to matter.
"Thus it was that on 10 September 2001 international terrorism by
religious zealots was not thought to be an especially important topic. It
was just one fear among many on the standard lists of present and future
threats, but not a very immediate one. After 8:46 a.m., American Eastern
Daylight Time, on the following day, such terrorism was, for a time,
transformed into the only topic that mattered."
***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374279659/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Bill Emmott's "20:21 Vision: Twentieth-Century Lessons for the
Twenty-First Century" -- or look for it in your favorite library.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: FANATICISM YESTERDAY, TODAY, & TOMORROW
Bill Emmott, editor in chief of The Economist, writes:
"There are many wonderful things about being a journalist. The
excitement of responding to, and trying to make sense of, the flow of news.
The challenge of trying to sort out the wood from the trees, the important
from the unimportant, the honest from the dishonest, the reasonable from
the hyperbolic. The independence of mind and of spirit, the accompanying
sense of the ridiculous, that are available to an outsider, an observer of
rather than participant in events, processes and organizations. The fact
that so many people read or hear what you have to say, and that some of
them even pay heed to it. The privilege of being able to, and actually
being paid to, write or broadcast what can fairly be described as a sort of
first draft of history, albeit with all the foibles and frailties that
performing that task typically implies.
"Yet that is also where the limitations of journalism begin. Our
perspective is always a fairly short-term one. Our readers want to know how
something that happened today might be connected to something that happened
yesterday, or last month. Furthermore, our preoccupations are forever
vulnerable to the fads and fashions of instant hopes, fears and worries.
And, like all instant analysts, the journalist is constantly at risk of
overinterpreting the short-term and underrating or underinterpreting the
longer-term trends. Something that did not seem to matter at all yesterday
becomes, tomorrow, the only thing that does seem to matter.
"Thus it was that on 10 September 2001 international terrorism by
religious zealots was not thought to be an especially important topic. It
was just one fear among many on the standard lists of present and future
threats, but not a very immediate one. After 8:46 a.m., American Eastern
Daylight Time, on the following day, such terrorism was, for a time,
transformed into the only topic that mattered."
***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374279659/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Bill Emmott's "20:21 Vision: Twentieth-Century Lessons for the
Twenty-First Century" -- or look for it in your favorite library.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: FANATICISM YESTERDAY, TODAY, & TOMORROW
Bill Emmott, editor in chief of The Economist, writes:
"There are many wonderful things about being a journalist. The
excitement of responding to, and trying to make sense of, the flow of news.
The challenge of trying to sort out the wood from the trees, the important
from the unimportant, the honest from the dishonest, the reasonable from
the hyperbolic. The independence of mind and of spirit, the accompanying
sense of the ridiculous, that are available to an outsider, an observer of
rather than participant in events, processes and organizations. The fact
that so many people read or hear what you have to say, and that some of
them even pay heed to it. The privilege of being able to, and actually
being paid to, write or broadcast what can fairly be described as a sort of
first draft of history, albeit with all the foibles and frailties that
performing that task typically implies.
"Yet that is also where the limitations of journalism begin. Our
perspective is always a fairly short-term one. Our readers want to know how
something that happened today might be connected to something that happened
yesterday, or last month. Furthermore, our preoccupations are forever
vulnerable to the fads and fashions of instant hopes, fears and worries.
And, like all instant analysts, the journalist is constantly at risk of
overinterpreting the short-term and underrating or underinterpreting the
longer-term trends. Something that did not seem to matter at all yesterday
becomes, tomorrow, the only thing that does seem to matter.
"Thus it was that on 10 September 2001 international terrorism by
religious zealots was not thought to be an especially important topic. It
was just one fear among many on the standard lists of present and future
threats, but not a very immediate one. After 8:46 a.m., American Eastern
Daylight Time, on the following day, such terrorism was, for a time,
transformed into the only topic that mattered."
***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374279659/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Bill Emmott's "20:21 Vision: Twentieth-Century Lessons for the
Twenty-First Century" -- or look for it in your favorite library.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: FANATICISM YESTERDAY, TODAY, & TOMORROW
Bill Emmott, editor in chief of The Economist, writes:
"There are many wonderful things about being a journalist. The
excitement of responding to, and trying to make sense of, the flow of news.
The challenge of trying to sort out the wood from the trees, the important
from the unimportant, the honest from the dishonest, the reasonable from
the hyperbolic. The independence of mind and of spirit, the accompanying
sense of the ridiculous, that are available to an outsider, an observer of
rather than participant in events, processes and organizations. The fact
that so many people read or hear what you have to say, and that some of
them even pay heed to it. The privilege of being able to, and actually
being paid to, write or broadcast what can fairly be described as a sort of
first draft of history, albeit with all the foibles and frailties that
performing that task typically implies.
"Yet that is also where the limitations of journalism begin. Our
perspective is always a fairly short-term one. Our readers want to know how
something that happened today might be connected to something that happened
yesterday, or last month. Furthermore, our preoccupations are forever
vulnerable to the fads and fashions of instant hopes, fears and worries.
And, like all instant analysts, the journalist is constantly at risk of
overinterpreting the short-term and underrating or underinterpreting the
longer-term trends. Something that did not seem to matter at all yesterday
becomes, tomorrow, the only thing that does seem to matter.
"Thus it was that on 10 September 2001 international terrorism by
religious zealots was not thought to be an especially important topic. It
was just one fear among many on the standard lists of present and future
threats, but not a very immediate one. After 8:46 a.m., American Eastern
Daylight Time, on the following day, such terrorism was, for a time,
transformed into the only topic that mattered."
***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374279659/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Bill Emmott's "20:21 Vision: Twentieth-Century Lessons for the
Twenty-First Century" -- or look for it in your favorite library.

Doors of perception opened by multimedia

By ERIC PRIDEAUX
Staff writer

The plaza at the United Nations University in Tokyo, typically so serene, will be awhirl with activity next week when a large international cast performs "Seeing the World Through Different Eyes," a multimedia extravaganza that seeks to stimulate the senses through music, dance and light -- and in so doing, achieve a higher social purpose.







A multimedia event to be held in Tokyo next week will encourage audiences to see the world in a new light.


During the 70-minute work, the audience will journey through sonic and visual landscapes, ranging from the contemplative chanting of Buddhist priests at the opening of the show to the jarring racket of an American percussionist banging on iron pipes, and from the dreamy undulating of dancers to the disturbing image of children putting on gas masks in anticipation of chemical attack.

The goal is not to titillate or shock, but to compel the audience to think deeply about perception itself, something the creators hope will foster cultural openness and help people address their own prejudices.

That is largely to be achieved through symbolic references to the act of looking, as in when a chorus of cherubs peer through binoculars (provided by lens maker and main sponsor Carl Zeiss) before lending them to the audience to, in effect, share their innocent world view.

What it all means, in the end, is purposely left open to interpretation.

"I want people to use their imagination. I don't want to force them in one direction," said the creative director of the production, Monique van Kerkhof of the Netherlands, 42, a former dance student at New York's Merce Cunningham Studio whose previous works include a contemporary opera held in an empty reservoir in Chiba.

"It's your choice whether to be blind by covering your eyes. That's what I want to show."







"Seeing the World Through Different Eyes": Show time is from 6:30 p.m.-7:40 p.m. on Oct. 3-4, or Oct. 17-18 in case of rain. The UNU campus is in Aoyama, Shibuya Ward, a 5-minute walk from Omotesando Station on the Chiyoda, Ginza and Hanzomon lines.

Admission is free, but donations gladly accepted. Some proceeds will go to charities.

See www.roboudendijk.com/unu for details or call (0471) 87-5666.

BBC REPORTER APOLOGIZES FOR NAMING KELLY
A BBC reporter apologized Wednesday for indirectly identifying David
Kelly as the source of a story that said the British government
exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq's weapons.
FULL STORY:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/09/17/kelly030917