Rathergate, CBS

[cema]

For those who follow this rather silly story: Ra^thergate.com

Update, of sorts. I do not really care if this story is better for the Right wing or Left wing or whatever. These are just documents, anyone can look at them and get an opinion. Can also read what other people have to say and decide what sounds reasonable and what does not.

This, I think, is not so much a political issue (not for me, anyway) as it is a matter of journalistic integrity and ethic. My opinion about the latter (JI&E, that is) has been steadily going down for more than a decade now. I wish the trend had gone the other way. Fortunately, with the Internet, there are alternative sources of information, but the conventional media are still much more dominant, especially in certain areas such as local news. I hope things will improve in the near future, though.

Update. For those of you who, like some in the threads below, would rather take the whole thing seriously, here is an entry from the always useful, if not always unbiased, wikipedia.

Update. The Paper Trail: A Comparison of Documents from the Washington Post print edition. Did they go right wing too?

Comments

Re: Dead code optimization

[cema.livejournal.com]

No big deal when we talk about TV news, but a different matter when we talk among ourselves, isn't it? I am just sad that the "entertainment news" sometimes affects smart people who should know better.

Re: Dead code optimization

[email-animal.livejournal.com]

Why hold journalists to higher standards, than, say, elected officials?

Re: Dead code optimization

[cema.livejournal.com]

Why hold them to any standards?

Re: Dead code optimization

[(Anonymous)]

"entertainment news" sometimes affects smart people who should know better

Don't you see an oxymoron here?

Re: Dead code optimization

[cema.livejournal.com]

Yes, in the subject line.

Re: Dead code optimization

[(Anonymous)]

Ok, I'll explain: smart people do not let themselves be affected by infotainment.

And, by the way, "dead code optimization" per se is not an oxymoron, it is an example of a useless activity, cf. watching infotainment that does not, or should not, affect one's behavior.

Re: Dead code optimization

[cema.livejournal.com]

There must be another word to describe such people, "smart" is already used for a different purpose.

Dead code optimization may not be that useless if you are graded for that, or more seriously, if the dead code is not removed by later compiling stages. Now, there is a thin line here between joking and, er, education, which affects how serious one wants to be in the thread. For example, I was about to talk about the meaning of the word "oxymoron" but then realized this is rather out of point... :-)

Re: Dead code optimization

[(Anonymous)]

"smart" is already used for a different purpose

You got it.

Speaking of education, the dead code is never executed. If it is not removed outright, the variations in its size only cause subtle changes in the I-cache behavior and it is impossible to tell by static analysis if such changes will improve or degrade performance; in any case ever so slightly.

Beating the dead horse

[cema.livejournal.com]

Speaking of the dead code, consider a tight memory device, like a cell phone. But this is more like the new subj than the old one.