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« Joi on software patents || Back to Blog | Our secret's out: Before we liberals eat children, first we have sex with them » July 11, 2005
Britt Blaser has a terrific post that begins by quoting Tim Bray's right-on suggestions: Do our best to ignore the terrorist attacks (because the terrorists want our attention) and try to figure out the "Why" of it. Unfortunately, our leader — confusing understanding with justifying — thinks asking "Why?" is akin to treason, and our news media is capable of spinning JFK Jr.’s aircraft accident into 48 hours of "No news on the missing plane" coverage. So I'm not very hopeful about these ideas that are so common-sensical that they're practically Canadian. [Technorati tags: HomelandSecurity TimBray BrittBlaser media] Posted
by D. Weinberger at July 11, 2005 06:21 PM
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Comments
There is a converse view.
Yes, the terrorists want attention.
The media already raises the bar in terms of what the terrorists have to do to get it, e.g. "A hostage? Nah, had five stories like that last week. A beheading? Excellent! Front page stuff."
Asking the media and everyone to deny that attention, further raises the bar, and escalates the actions the terrorists then have to resort to.
I suspect the solution is to improve the ability for minority (fundamentalist psychopath or otherwise) voices to get the attention they desire (with lesser acts of attention seeking behaviour).
Posted by: Crosbie Fitch | July 12, 2005 07:42 AM
Alternatively, if global media is dissolved, then power conferred by obtaining global publicity will also dissolve.
More narrowcasting, less broadcasting.
If people truly focus on what interests them, then perhaps fewer people will tune in to channels that provide "Coverage of the latest and greatest atrocities where they happen, when they happen".
Need to enable 'terrorism fatigue' to set in and prevent the oxygen of global publicity becoming quite so attractive.
Posted by: Crosbie Fitch | July 12, 2005 09:59 AM