SoFlo: BOGUS & BOGEYMEN (3#) -

Manipulating readers and
winding you up for the holiday . . .

I was appalled to spot a piece of sleazy propaganda drivel, which is designed to incite hysteria, in one of our local newspapers on Wednesday. It has no other, more legitimate purpose. It generates a lot of heat, but no light. It informs the reader of nothing. It is all blue smoke, hot air and mirrors. And it is blatantly manipulative. It's there just to wind you up.

:: This piece pushes a lot of
inflammatory buttons, but says nothing intelligible.

Take your pick: anti-Semitism, anti-Black racism, Real Estate Apoplexy, Generational Conflict, Demographic Dynamics, etc.

And the Sun-Sentinel is conducting this hate fest "coincidentally" timed to coincide with the Jewish fasting holiday of Yom Kippur.

The editor who is responsible for this piece
of reprehensible detritus is beneath contempt.

Did it work? Of course it did. It has generated
more than 350 comments. And it is pure drek.

* * * * * * * * * *
# Jack Shafer explains
how to write a bogus trend story.

"It's one of those works of journalism that
leaves its readers dumber than it found them."

* * * * * * * * * *
# And in another sign of the times:

Rick Redfern, a newspaper reporter
in the comic strip Doonesbury by
Gary Trudeau, is taking a buyout.

...