Dissecting the news
POSTED BY: SignyM
UPDATED: Tuesday, November 26, 2024 20:49
VIEWED: 1321
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I thought I would take a health-related news story... something relatively apolitical... and take it apart.
Meet a mother from Vieques and her two daughters who both suffer from cancer on tonight's Campbell Brown, 8 ET
Every news item somehow has to be personalized. Media consultants say that people don't respond to "facts", they respond to "stories". Maybe if the news wasn't dumbed-down so much people wouldn't be so willing to be manipulated by their emotions.
Quote:Awww… what a sweet kid. Has cancer, and is thinking of her mother. But I could have done without this heart-tugging intro.
Vieques, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Each day after work, Nanette Rosa takes her two daughters to feed their horses. It's their favorite part of the day -- a time they don't think about pain.
"It's really difficult for my mom to have two daughters with cancer," said 16-year-old Coral, the older daughter. "Because sometimes she's got two of us in the hospital at the same time, and we both get sick at the same time. And sometimes she doesn't have anyone to help her, and it really affects her."
Quote:Mmm, okay but... there are a lot of people EVERYWHERE dying of cancer. Just talking to 35 immediate colleagues, I can come up with cancer stories... My husband had prostate cancer. My good friend had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. My co-worker's nephew has cancer, and died when he was 12. My co-worker has liver cancer. Another co-worker's dad died of throat cancer. Two co-workers BOTH had the same (rare) spinal tumor (something the cancer registry is actually looking into). It's ridiculously easy to come up with cancer stories!!
The Rosas live on Vieques, an American island off Puerto Rico. For nearly 60 years, the U.S. military used much of the island as a bombing range, dropping vast quantities of live bombs and missiles in weapons tests. Now, about three-quarters of the island's residents -- including Coral and her 14-year-old sister Inna -- are part of a lawsuit that claims the bombing range made them sick.
"There's a lot of people here dying of cancer," Coral said. "I have my little cousin dying of cancer. I have my sister that has cancer. My boyfriend's mom died of cancer. His dad has cancer of the skin. A lot of people are suffering here of cancer, 'cause what they did here in Vieques."
Quote:A detailed description of cancer and its effects. Yes, cancer is a horrible disease and childhood cancer tugs at the heartstrings. But what does it prove, other than “Cancer is horrible”?
As a toddler, Coral was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer that afflicts younger children. Her mother says much of Coral's stomach and intestines had to be replaced as a result of the cancer.
"Almost everything is plastic," Nanette Rosa said. "So when she eats certain foods, it produces diarrhea, which has caused dehydration. She gets sick a lot, and certain foods she cannot eat like regular people."
The operations have left Coral with a six-inch gash across her stomach, along with emotional scars.
"Sometimes I feel sad, 'cause everybody calls me 'plastic intestines,' " she said. "They say, 'Oh, you have a plastic belly.' And I tell them, 'You know what? If you were in this condition, how would you feel?' "
Quote:TWO different cancers? Usually one causative agent produces a SINGLE type of cancer.
And doctors found a large tumor in Inna's mouth when she was 7.
"It was very swollen, and it looked like there was a big ball of gum in my mouth or a big lollipop," she said. "I started having pain, and the only thing that would come out was blood."
Inna was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a bone cancer. John Eaves Jr., who represents Coral, Inna and other islanders in the lawsuit against the federal government, told CNN, "There is suffering throughout this island."
Quote:
"You cannot walk down the street on this island without counting every house and knowing two or three people on the street that have cancer, or have had cancer, or have died from cancer," EavNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I saw the Campbell Brown story too, and came away with a very different view. I agree that personalized stories happen too much and don't necessarily provide pertinent facts, but unfortunately it IS what grabs peoples' attention. As to the issue itself, I'm afraid I'm pretty convinced the military toxicity is the problem. As far as "one causative agent produces a SINGLE type of cancer", that doesn't seem to relate, to me, as there were numerous chemical agents used in the munitions.
I tend to use what I hear on the MSM as only a starting point, I don't take anything they say verbatum. The Vieques issue is a hot one, being debated as to whether the Army's actions are to blame or not. A Google search gives me a better idea of the facts, not Campbell Brown.Quote:
http://newsmine.org/content.php?ol=deceptions/war-syndrome/vieques-can
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The 9,100 residents of the offshore island of Vieques, where for six decades the U.S. Navy bombed, stored and burned weapons, are 27 percent more likely to have cancer than other Puerto Ricans, according to a study released Friday by the commonwealth's Health Department.
Cancer patients in Vieques, where about 40 new cases are diagnosed each year, also are more likely to die -- a trend health officials hope to reverse with more preventive-medicine and early-detection programs, said Puerto Rico Health Secretary Johnny Rullán as he laid out the statistics.
"Our goal now is to catch the cancer when it's still localized in one part of the body, before it spreads," Rullán said. "And while we try to find out what the causes are, we have to work on the other diseases as well, and quickly."
To reach its conclusions, the Puerto Rico Health Department conducted an 18-month house-to-house census across Vieques to determine the island's cancer rate of 341 cases for every 10,000 residents versus 270 cases per 10,000 on the main island. A smaller sampling concluded Vieques has higher instances of asthma, diabetes and hypertension than Puerto Rico as a whole.
It was concern about cancer that served as the rallying cry for activists who campaigned for years to force the Navy to cease bombing and leave the land it had controlled on the tiny island since World War II.
cer-rates-higher-than-puerto-ricos.txt
It appears from what I've read that this is a relatively new issue, and that tests are in the beginning stages, so there's nothing conclusive. But the numbers are pretty impressive. In a population of 9,100, 40 new cases a year strikes me as noticeable, to say the least.Quote:
The information currently available allows us to discuss the biological plausibility that contamination from naval activities can cause many health problems in Vieques. For example, some explosives — such as TNT and RDX — are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as possible carcinogens. RDX contamination only results from military activities, and traces of this toxic element have been detected in Vieques. Even bombs that do not contain large amounts of explosives use propellants such as DNT, which is also a probable carcinogen. Studies of animal exposure to DNT have shown that a reduction in the numbers of red blood cells, nervous system disorders, and liver and kidney damage can occur.
Are people in Vieques exposed to these compounds? In the 1978 the Navy conducted a study of water wells in Vieques aimed at measuring the presence of materials from explosives in the island’s water sources. The study found RDX (0.00004 parts per million) in all samples except one, and also found the explosive Tetryl in a water tank in Isabel Segunda, the island’s main town. The amount of contaminants measured is not as important as what they establish: that there exists an exposure pathway between the toxic materials used in munitions in the impact area and people’s water in the civilian area of the island. It should be noted that naval bombing intensified in the years fol
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oops
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Niki, I am not disputing underlying facts. I would have also looked long and hard at things like diesel fuel, rocket fuel, explosives, solvents, and all of the nasty chemicals that go along with military installations. In fact, there is a nearby facility which has been tested over and over again because it has been making workers in the area sick. The tests keep coming up negative, but I think its bc they just haven't tested for the right things... like beryllium, whch WAS used at the facility and would account for all of the symptoms. (I have passed my comments along to the lawyer handling the lawsuit). I've been part of MANY investigations fueled by citizen complaints. Some of them were legitimate and some of them were misdirected (focusing on an "epidemic" of cancer that simply didn't exist, not noticing a different cancer that was statistically higher).
My point was that the article was SO short of facts as to be nothing more than propaganda.
The writer does not do the issue justice and the readers SHOULD be demanding more of the reporter other than getting their sympathy-bone stroked.
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Oh, my, I 100% agree with THAT! A complaint we've all made more and more as time goes on and news becomes more and more "newstainment" and less and less journalism. To me, it feels like "reporters" are an endangered species--real ones I mean, not talking heads.
So yes, I agree with your point, and decry it loudly myself. I wish people WOULD demand better, but apparently not--and the choices are so limited...well, actually I don't KNOW a TV source (or many newspapers) which give unbiased "news"...do you?
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Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Niki, I am not disputing underlying facts. I would have also looked long and hard at things like diesel fuel, rocket fuel, explosives, solvents, and all of the nasty chemicals that go along with military installations. In fact, there is a nearby facility which has been tested over and over again because it has been making workers in the area sick. The tests keep coming up negative, but I think its bc they just haven't tested for the right things... like beryllium, whch WAS used at the facility and would account for all of the symptoms. (I have passed my comments along to the lawyer handling the lawsuit). I've been part of MANY investigations fueled by citizen complaints. Some of them were legitimate and some of them were misdirected (focusing on an "epidemic" of cancer that simply didn't exist, not noticing a different cancer that was statistically higher).
My point was that the article was SO short of facts as to be nothing more than propaganda.
The writer does not do the issue justice and the readers SHOULD be demanding more of the reporter other than getting their sympathy-bone stroked.
Okay, a couple of things...
One, the "sympathy-bone" stroking is just a hilarious reference, and damn near made me shoot water out my nose (I'm trying to cut down on sodas).
Two, it reminded me a bit of when Bergstrom AFB pulled out of Austin, and the glee the city felt when the DOD told them they could have the entire base - property, runways, etc. - WITH the caveat that the city would be on the hook for any costs it might incur. Still, they gladly signed, despite warnings that there were going to be problems. And then, sure enough, they started getting some bizarre chemical readings from the soil samples taken around the base, especially around the hangars and flight line. Seems 50+ years of spilling jet fuel and other chemicals will have a bit of a deleterious effect on the ground you're building your nice new airport on...
And yes, the cleanup cost the city millions. But it's not like you could've told them that in advance or anything. Well, y'know, except for the people who DID tell them in advance, that is.
Mike
Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde
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No, there is no single source of good news. That's why I tend to read news stories very, very closely... pay attention to what they say and (somewhat more tricky) pay attention to what they DON'T say. Sometimes... many times... you just have to use your own logic.
ETA: Heya, Kwicko! Yeah, I threw that sympathy-bone reference in, just for YOU! (If you won't replace the keyboards ya owe me, I'll make you ruin some of yours! 
)
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I dunno, Signy - I'm pretty sure we're about even on keyboards. And I *KNOW* Frem owes me at least a couple. And Rue probably does, too.
And yeah, that's a big part of why I read, listen to, and watch so many news sources. Hopefully somewhere between the lines, you can catch a glimpse of the REAL story, the one they aren't telling you. And if you see the same sympathetic peoples' stories showing up on several news outlets, you can just about bet there's a tailored talking point in there somewhere. Just look and listen for the "canned phrase" parts of the story, where the "gotcha" soundbite gets tossed in. "Death tax", "Death Panels", etc.
Mike
Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde
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Oh goody, it was exactly THIS kind of deconstruction I was hoping to provoke with the Mindbenders thread.
Yep, short on facts, long on psychological push - hell, I can scan just the HEADLINES of stories on a given "source" and look at how they're worded to provoke specific trigger reactions, AOL, which throws the main page at you whenever you log out of mail, is about one of the worst offenders I've seen.
And that doesn't even get into the stories...
Which, given the downturn of actual journalism, anyone who uses multiple sources will quickly realize just how much of that shit is direct copy/paste since no one wanted to spare any resources to check it out - which makes it so damned easy to slip faked news bits or downright propaganda stories into the stream - we actually had a freakin military-gov office specificially *TO* do that for a while, although "officially" it's no longer in operation.
Yeah, pull the other one, it's got bells on.
Ain't the first time, neither, MOCKINGBIRD was all about that kinda thing.
But even local papers, they try to psychologically or emotionally "bend" you to their way of seeing it right from the headline, which I have always found profoundly irritating.
What's ironic about this though, is that if you continue developing such critical analysis skills of this type, soon enough you will be all but UNABLE to watch Television without throwing stuff at it.
Not that that's a bad thing, but just sayin....
-F
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Hell, Frem, it would be worth your while to dig up one of Dan Carlin's podcasts on journalism and what passes for it today. He goes into some pretty good depth as to how and why some of this crap came about, and how the newspapers pretty well hung themselves with a lot of the crap, and with the TV news leading the way. Hell, now you don't even have to pay for the story from AP, as long as you say, "According to an AP news story..." in your lead-in.
I believe this is the one:
http://cdn3.libsyn.com/dancarlin/cswdcb62.mp3?
nvb=20100203031748&nva=20100204032748&t=
03e2390453e507f513f46
And now, all the papers are rushing to get rid of reporters and replace them with cut-n-pasters who just make sure the latest off the AP wire fits the formatted space. And who cares if the truth is left on the editing floor?
I'd say you should track down a copy of Bill Moyers' Journal from over a year ago, when he had David Simon, the creator of The Wire on - he was the guy who used to work as a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Guy had some AMAZING revelations and stories - his interview was as good as anything on The Wire, to be honest, and it was just about as freaking heartbreaking, too.
Oohh - I think I found it:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04172009/watch.html
Mike
Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde
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This is a fun look at what goes into a TV news story.
I think he got it absolutely right.
"We need to keep our heads so we can ... keep our heads."
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'Blaze of Intolerance:' Jaguar Boss Lashes Out at Critics of Ad Featuring... Zero Cars
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2024/11/25/blaze-of-intolerance-jaguar-
boss-lashes-out-at-critics-of-ad-featuring-crossdressers-instead-of-cars/
Study finds 81% of cancer cures touted by TikTok videos are fake
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-cancer-touted-tiktok-videos-fak
e.html
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