tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1934845808960857732.post268791075294830422..comments2010-04-07T08:07:02.016-07:00Comments on NPR Team Check: The Genius ThingMytwordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04307620268159811668noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1934845808960857732.post-44741976892570373312010-03-10T12:30:11.339-08:002010-03-10T12:30:11.339-08:00Blumberg's GDP exposition is a textbook exampl...Blumberg's GDP exposition is a textbook example of NPR's failure to maintain good journalistic practices.<br />What's interesting about the GDP comparison report, and is not as evident in the incredibly poor grammar of the NPR transcript (apostrophes are optional?), is Alex’s glee at finding just what he wanted to find. This is not reportage, but a cherry-picking of examples that fit what he wanted to prove in the first place. His questions all lead the interviewee to the answers necessary to prove his point. He did not come to learn nor merely listen, but to extract. <br /><br />I was glad to see that most of the comments posted at NPR about the story faulted it for being overly simplistic and would love to see Alex answer the US teachers’ responses comparing their school’s situations as being more like those in Jamaica than those of Barbados. <br /><br />And how does Alex’s theory jive with Adam Davidson’s recent amazement at an entrepreneur’s mental ability to calculate and maintain books on her customers using her brain and a fifth grade education?<br /><br />“DAVIDSON: Yvrose told us that she has a fifth-grade education. And I couldn't stop thinking that she has to understand all these complicated financial principles that people I interview on Wall Street get paid millions to master: interest rate arbitrage, loan maturities.”<br />(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123879571)<br />--Al HooverAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1934845808960857732.post-1695119458567461342010-03-07T17:13:12.923-08:002010-03-07T17:13:12.923-08:00Really, one really excellent feature of MTW's ...Really, one really excellent feature of MTW's posts are links he researches.<br /><br />For instance,<br /><br />http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/index-da.html<br /><br />Which describes in accurate, thoroughly documented terms the ways in which, for all practical purposes, Haiti has become a de facto US slave colony.gDoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04301694571913815244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1934845808960857732.post-998100432193922932010-03-07T16:17:29.599-08:002010-03-07T16:17:29.599-08:00But, but, what will the people of the Northern Mar...But, but, what will the people of the Northern Marianas Islands do if we improve Haiti's ability to make clothes for us?? Are they SOL now that Twinkletoes Delay has moved on? Another subject left unmentioned by the Planet Monkey team.<br /><br />"Planet Monkey twins, form of dumbed-down oversimplification - ACTIVATE!"biggerboxhttp://nosmallplans.com/rants/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1934845808960857732.post-26786674368090401812010-03-06T14:01:19.027-08:002010-03-06T14:01:19.027-08:00As BD commented in Q Tips, Alex Blumberg was on th...As BD commented in Q Tips, Alex Blumberg was on the neighboring island, Jamaica, making equally inane ahistorical observations in <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124346527" rel="nofollow">Why GDP Matters: Compare Jamaica To Barbados</a><br /><br />My comment there is that NPR's CIA is sort of like the Talking Heads' Heaven: nothing there ever happens.<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv3_IWEpaqIgDoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04301694571913815244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1934845808960857732.post-12262005423575290382010-03-06T10:42:07.721-08:002010-03-06T10:42:07.721-08:00Yeah, and the Barbados v Jamaica piece from the Pl...Yeah, and the Barbados v Jamaica piece from the Planet Monkey folks was a giant memory hole of dismissing the last 40 years of history.Boulder Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12302667693965940615noreply@blogger.com