Comments on: I’m sticking with the bullying and the lying

By: SayUncle » Desperation

SayUncle » Desperation — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:24:11 +0000

[...] as a contact John Rosenthal. You know that guy who may or may not have conspired to engage in a straw purchase with the Boston Globe’s alleged journalist Steve [...]

By: SayUncle

SayUncle — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:59:46 +0000

terry, your capacity for insightful discussion is dizzying.

By: Terry C - Wingers R Whiners

Terry C - Wingers R Whiners — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:43:40 +0000

Gun nuts – what total eedjits.

By: Unix-Jedi

Unix-Jedi — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:39:07 +0000

Bob:

Gell-Mann Amnesia at work.

http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speech-whyspeculate.html
Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I’d point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all.

But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn’t. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.

By: BobG

BobG — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:32:01 +0000

What I find laughable is the implication that the NRA sent the BATF to harass him; does this idiot journalist even read newspapers? I’m starting to get the feeling that journalism is a career you go into when you aren’t bright enough or educated enough to do anything else.

By: KCSteve

KCSteve — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:02:42 +0000

showed him a search warrant and subsequently confiscated the gun.

Sounds to me like he had the gun when BATFE came looking.

Did they say what model it was? I’m guessing ‘petard’.

By: Unix-Jedi

Unix-Jedi — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:08:58 +0000

I don’t think Steve really violated the law.

I don’t know.

I’ll wait for the ATF to finish investigating and interviewing the people in question, and let them figure it all out – all we know now is that he was either lying then, or lying now.

Bailey handed $240 to a man

That was $240 that was “his” money. More specifically, it was his money, via the Boston Globe, who might have certain issues with their money being used to buy guns for other people (presuming his latest whining is actually the truth under fire.)

If his original story is true, then that would concievably open up the Globe to some investigation, no? Yeah, I think I might deny it and just get fired for expense report shenangians if it were me, too.

By: robert

robert — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:07:29 +0000

If all the adults in this story weren’t conspiring to break Federal Firearm Statutes………then it can’t be done.

I say lock them all up. They will get their day in court.