Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Mon, Jan 17 2005
Plugged Up
By way of L.A. Observed, I read that LAPD Wife wasn't allowed to purchase both Sudafed and Nyquil during a recent trip to Costco. I've seen drain cleaner and antifreeze in stores that sold Sudafed, and I hear those have both been used to cook illegal meth. I wonder if you can buy Sudafed and drain cleaner on the same visit to a store. Heaven forbid my needing to clear out my sinuses and my kitchen sink pipes at the same time.
posted at: 13:00 | category: /Health and Fitness | link to this entry
By way of L.A. Observed, I read that LAPD Wife wasn't allowed to purchase both Sudafed and Nyquil during a recent trip to Costco. I've seen drain cleaner and antifreeze in stores that sold Sudafed, and I hear those have both been used to cook illegal meth. I wonder if you can buy Sudafed and drain cleaner on the same visit to a store. Heaven forbid my needing to clear out my sinuses and my kitchen sink pipes at the same time.
posted at: 13:00 | category: /Health and Fitness | link to this entry
Free Slant, Paid Bias: Learn The Bigger Lesson
If a blogger takes money from a politician for writing positive things about the politician and/or that politician's favorite programs it would seem to me that disclosing that fact in one's blog would be the decent thing to do. I'm not too worried about whether a blog is liberal, conservative, libertarian or something else altogether. Bloggers are as human as any other media types and we bring to our writing a bias and a voice that has developed from our particular backgrounds, education and experiences. But I do like to know that what I read in a blog has been crafted from the blogger's mind and heart if the blog has been characterized in that fashion. I would feel cheated if I found out that one of my favorite bloggers had secretly been paid to write pro-political material and had not informed us of that fact. If he or she openly admitted it from the beginning on the blog that would be better because I would have known that what I was reading was sometimes tinted with the color of money.
The good thing to come from the recent controversy of bloggers being paid to say nice things is that light is being shown on other areas of news and editorial writing. When people criticize the slant of a newspaper (or other medium) it lets me know they're at least aware of political (and other) influences and how people (including writers and editors) bring one slant or another to their work whether they're paid to do so or not. If readers and viewers swallow every news story or blog post without doing their own searching and thinking they're going to be an easy mark. If I write some scathing piece on the evils of (for instance) left-wing entitlements, and you, the reader/viewer, already have a heavy bias against left-wing entitlements, I'm going to be able to pull the wool over your eyes pretty quickly if you really want to believe what I say and you don't go out and do your own homework on the subject. I don't think we have to be paranoid about everything we read, but we're wise if we take it all with a grain of proverbial salt.
posted at: 07:31 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
If a blogger takes money from a politician for writing positive things about the politician and/or that politician's favorite programs it would seem to me that disclosing that fact in one's blog would be the decent thing to do. I'm not too worried about whether a blog is liberal, conservative, libertarian or something else altogether. Bloggers are as human as any other media types and we bring to our writing a bias and a voice that has developed from our particular backgrounds, education and experiences. But I do like to know that what I read in a blog has been crafted from the blogger's mind and heart if the blog has been characterized in that fashion. I would feel cheated if I found out that one of my favorite bloggers had secretly been paid to write pro-political material and had not informed us of that fact. If he or she openly admitted it from the beginning on the blog that would be better because I would have known that what I was reading was sometimes tinted with the color of money.
The good thing to come from the recent controversy of bloggers being paid to say nice things is that light is being shown on other areas of news and editorial writing. When people criticize the slant of a newspaper (or other medium) it lets me know they're at least aware of political (and other) influences and how people (including writers and editors) bring one slant or another to their work whether they're paid to do so or not. If readers and viewers swallow every news story or blog post without doing their own searching and thinking they're going to be an easy mark. If I write some scathing piece on the evils of (for instance) left-wing entitlements, and you, the reader/viewer, already have a heavy bias against left-wing entitlements, I'm going to be able to pull the wool over your eyes pretty quickly if you really want to believe what I say and you don't go out and do your own homework on the subject. I don't think we have to be paranoid about everything we read, but we're wise if we take it all with a grain of proverbial salt.
posted at: 07:31 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
