Corrections/Comments

*Bluetooth iPod - I believe I wrote "I guarantee that none of these other things will come to pass" in reference to Bluetooth on an iPod. I maintain my position that Apple will never build it in, but that doesn't mean that a 3rd party won't develop it (and have Apple sell it online). The Register reports that a 3rd party is developing exactly this.


*Helicopter "crash" vs. "shot down" - After reading Bob's comments regarding the media's propensity to report Helicopters taken down by hostile fire as "crashes" (mainly in the headlines, the story bodies always suggest that it was "probably shot down" I immediately did a search on news.google, and came up with an interesting statistic. Many of the newspapers that report the helicopter as being "shot down" are mainly small foreign newspapers (UK, New Zealand, Austrailia, Ireland). After reading an article on the most recent "downing", I believe there was _some_ doubt as to how the helicopter was brought down. A heat seeking missile (which would probably be the most successful weapon against a helicopter) would destroy the exhaust ports on the helicopter. In this case, they happened to be intact. Since there are no survivors, it took a little longer for the military to confirm exactly what happened. Meanwhile, small, independent, foreign newspapers are reporting a "downing due to hostile fire", and US media outlets are reporting "Helicopter down, cause unknown" (I'm paraphrasing here). In this particular case, I would actually call this good reporting since the media is supposed to be reporting the "facts" (even if the sources aren't fully trusted).

What I think is notable about the major media outlets in these cases, is that they eventually do report the truth, once it is uncovered, but they seem to bury it. For example here, here , and here. Note, in the first link, I couldn't find a link to this story from their main/international page and only found it through a search at news.google, the second link is reuters.co.uk (which I couldn't find from their main site doing a search for "helicopter shot down", I found it also through news.google which either says that reuters is burying it, or their search engine is poor), the third was from CNN (which I had assumed incorrectly would be the least likely to report what actually happened), and actually had a link from their World/Middle East headlines page, but was buried down at the bottom, and wasn't even a major headline. Also notable is that I can't find an Associated Press article in reference to this event.

The bottom line? Major newspapers do seem to be printing the facts as they become available, but their follow ups are not found on the front page. The feeling we're left with is that they're not reporting "the truth". Whose fault is that? Media consumers. CNN, (MS)NBC, Fox News, are all catering to the media consumer with the most sensational headline they can find (as is evidenced in the media by the recall election's focus on Schwarzenegger). If the majority of consumers actually cared about the follow-up (e.g. WMD claims, our Governor's manhandling of women, helicopter crashes), the headlines wouldn't be filled with the latest bombing news, "Miss Florida is in critical condition!", and Rolling Stone magazine investigative report discovering that Brittany Spears had sex with all the members of Hansen. (I made that last bit up, but wouldn't it be a great rumor to start?).