Jules and the CNN pix

[Peter Giordano]

Doug said:
[a lot of stuff deleted]
>My point here is not to embark on another conspiracy discussion but rather
>to add some detail and nuance to the discussion of journalism that's come
>up around the Pynchon-CNN story. Within a braodcast and publishing
>establishment that is often compromised by advertiser and corporate support
>and sometimes crippled by the lack of professionalism or ethical lapses of
>its practitioners, as in the case of Gary Webb (and many other fine
>journalists whose work would be tarred by the brush some p-listers wield so
>freely) good journalistic work gets done, and then is sometimes swallowed
>up or twisted or actively erased by the powers that be.
>
>This interplay of individual vs corporate ethics is not altogether foreign
>to Pynchon's novels, of course.

I say:
Doug raises the story of Gary Webb - I find this story to be quite 
interesting and
have know idea about the merits of his journalistic worth - A superficial 
glance 
at the facts indicates that there may be some trouble there - But I'd 
venture to guess
that a lot of investigative reports wind up getting sued - Is Gary Webb a 
"fine journalist"?
I have know idea - I do know that the articles on the CIA made compelling 
reading - I
would not venture to compare the kind of reporting done by CNN or most hard
news journalists with the kind of tabliod or fluff pieces sometimes done 
(like the
piece on Pynchon)

It was not my intention to tar any journalists when I argued that CNN has a 
bad record on
hoaxes - I think that a vast news department like CNN has a lot of different 
parts and
the segment likely to fall for the likes of Joey Skaggs (who could be a 
Pynchon character
himself) is the segment of CNN which deals with fluff and tabloid crap - It 
is a matter
of public record that CNN (and other networks) has broadcast information 
which turned
out to be false or a hoax - Sometimes news organizations get important news 
wrong but 
usually they are very good about fixing it - Sometimes news organizations 
fall for
hoaxes but don't we all


Peter Giordano
Williams College
Williamstown, MA