Way off Topic

I'm am, as always, behind on my posts. I will be lucky to maintain my a two a month at this pace. I have an excuse, but it's not a very good one. Mainly because I don't have one. I have been thinking about things, but I find it hard to cover new ground. I could talk about Simpsons vs. Futurama; or Jon vs. Kate; or something non -pop culture related. There have been amusing things in the news that might be worth exploring - like that baby Einstein thing - but I don't really feel like it. I was thinking about maybe books vs. movies, but I think I've decided on impartiality in the media.

No, I really can't write much about that. I have bloggers block. On the other hand, my dream diary is coming along fairly decent - I record 3-4 dreams a week, handwritten. If I get them first thing in the morning they stay, but if I don't capture them immediately, they dissipate like the morning mist in a hot sun.

The reason why I can't write about impartiality in the media is because there really is not much to say. Media isn't impartial, and when it tries to be, it shouldn't be. It is because of media's attempt to appear impartial that the global warming "skeptics" appear to have some backing -because media tries to present two sides to story that doesn't have two sides. In this blog I have been trying to view issues through a fractured lens, because I really do believe that most things are not black and white.

For example, I was discussing with a friend a recent case in the US where some 12 -15 years olds were accused of murder (and, from what I've seen, are likely guilty). He was telling me that he wished that, in Canada, the identities of the minors accused of crimes was not protected. While I agree with him in part - sometimes I think too much protection is afforded criminals - I also think that everyone has a right to privacy, prior to conviction. A happy compromise might be revealing the identities of young offenders after conviction, depending on the type of crime. But even then, if we brand people criminals from the outset, we are setting them up to be nothing but. This leads to the problem of crime and punishment - do we want our criminal justice system to provide retribution, rehabilitation, protection? Can it do any of those things at a low price? Revealing the identity of the accused young offender leads me to another contradiction in our approach as well: if we want to treat 12-15 year old teenagers as adults, why afford special status to victims that age? If we can allow them the possibility that they are responsible for their criminal acts, why is it necessary to have things like pedophilia as law? Should just sexual assault be enough? What is implicit in sexual assault of a minor laws is that the victim is unable to both protect themselves fully and to appreciate the consequences of their actions. That is, a 14 year old should not be able to consent to sexual activity because they are not capable of making that decision. But if that is true, then we cannot view them as adults when they commit crimes.

So this is the thing. There is very little out there that is black and white - but media impartiality is not something that I can try to present two sides of. My own opinion on media impartiality is that it is not impartial, and it should not try to be, but it should make it's bias clear. Some media does do that -the Sun newspapers do not attempt to hide it's bias; nor do most of Canada's major news organizations. Most people, I think, have the same opinion - except those actually in the media. They all tend to think of themselves as impartial and those who disagree as biased.

I will try to get back on form in the next couple of days. If I can come up with a topic. I should be able to - I just need to focus.