News Hour's Rosenblatt fails sling/slingshot distinction

By -
Oh my God! I was listening to NPR yesterday and they were broadcasting the News Hour and there was a Roger Rosenblatt essay about that photo of the Palestinian with the sling I blogged about yesterday and he called the weapon a slingshot:
Remove the background, replace it, say, with a playground, and his act of war turns innocent. One sees a kid with a slingshot behaving like a kid.
Die Mr. Rosenblatt, die!! You have failed the most basic test of not annoying me!!! OK, you don't have to die, that was hyperbolic overreaction. But you must learn, lest you spread your ignorance far and wide and create even more annoying people who don't know the difference! In lieu of death, I will accept a public correction of your heinous error.

And to think that my post had been up for a few hours before the show, giving Mr. Rosenblatt plenty of time to read Internal Monologue and correct his horrendous error! At any rate, I have gone to the News Hour feedback page and let them know the error of their ways. I urge all my readers to do so as well. (OK, it's probably not as important as ending our occupation of Iraq or stopping global warming or genocide in Darfur.) The sad thing is that while I was on that page I read this, from another viewer:
Your essay on the Getty photo in The Times was interesting by deconstructing the color and composition and its allusions to the situation in Israel/Palestine. But I'm curious as to why you chose not to speak at all about the slingshot and it's implicit association with the story of David and Goliath?
Aaaaaagghhh!!!! See how fast the ignorance spreads!?!?! Do I dare do a Google search for "David Goliath slingshot"? GAAHHH!! The error is here and here (though some images are correct) and ... argh! Too many...the flood of ignorance...it's hopeless!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Another reason to not like Roger Rosenblatt. His editorials always left me with a nagging feeling of, "Wha...duh...of what import or insight was that I just heard?"

Maria
3:14 AM, March 15, 2007
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Snarking The Odyssey (with AD&D)

By -
Image
WARNING: Those of you who are accustomed to pithy political remarks here on Internal Monologue should brace yourselves for a major dose of gaming geekitude. Here's a link to one "Jamie R." who does a very snarky close reading of Homer's The Odyssey (HT: Mad Latinist via email). I've only read book 1, but it's pretty funny so far. An excerpt: Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men… Sooooo, he’s in charge, and everybody dies. Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero and his colossal failure. What? … for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever rea
Read more

Where is 56th and Wabasha? "Meet Me in the Morning" Dylan Mystery Solved

By -
Image
Short version The lyric is not "Fifty-sixth and Wabasha", it is actually "Fifty-six and Wabasha", referring to the intersection of old Minnesota Highway 56 and Wabasha Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota. If you listen, you can hear Dylan sing "fifty-six", rather than "fifty-sixth", particularly on the take that was released as the B-side to "Duquesne Whistle". Minnesota Highway 56 no longer intersects Wabasha Street, but from 1963 to 1974 it did intersect Wabasha Street, at what is now (in Feb. 2021) the intersection of George Street and Cesar Chavez Street in St. Paul, or possibly South Wabasha & Cesar Chavez.  Long Version "Meet Me in the Morning" is the first song on side two of Bob Dylan's celebrated 1975 album  Blood on the Tracks. In the opening lines of the song, according to the lyrics on Bob Dylan's official site (https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/meet-me-morning/), the narrator invites the listener to a rendez
Read more

Victim or perpetrator? How about both!

By -
Remember in the movie Adaptation , the main character's brother has this idea for a screenplay called The Three? It's about a detective trying to track down a serial killer before he kills his next victim. Pretty standard, right? The twist is that the detective, serial killer, and victim, are all actually the same person . Whoa, dude. Fight Club 's got nothin' on that one. Well, this isn't quite that weird. But apparently, Utah legal authorities are somewhat perplexed by a situation in which a 13-year-old girl and her 12-year-old boyfriend are both simultaneously the perpetrators and victims of the same crime: having sex with each other (HT: Feministing ): Utah Supreme Court justices acknowledged Tuesday that they were struggling to wrap their minds around the concept that a 13-year-old Ogden girl could be both an offender and a victim for the same act - in this case, having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend. The girl was put in this odd position be
Read more