john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (10/15/90)
It shouldn't be necessary to mention any of this, but from time to
time we forget that most of what is in the media is incomplete,
misleading, wrong, even sometimes intentional fiction. One should take
with a grain of salt anything about telecommunications, or for that
matter any technical field that appears in the newspaper or on
television news.
Repeatedly there are rule or technical changes that I have been made
privy to, either through mailings, e-mail, personal contacts, or
business relations that are subsequently discussed in the {San
Francisco Chronicle} or the {San Jose Mercury}. Without fail, the news
accounts are, at the very least, misleading.
I've railed before in this forum about the incompetency of the media,
but at no time like the present has this fact been driven home. Jeez,
I wish I could discuss some of the cases I'm working on presently --
and how reality squares with media coverage. (Hint: it doesn't; not by
a long shot.) Hopefully, when these cases are concluded, I can give
all and sundry an earful about our worthless news agencies. (Actually,
I'm also very angry about a certain "fact-based" program that
"re-creates" history -- as viewed by law enforcement.)
Therefore, I'm serving notice that in the future, as in the past,
anything I bring up here is personal knowledge, inside information,
empirical observation, or educated guesses. It does not come from the
media, unless I specifically mention that it does, or more commonly
quote an article verbatim. I would assume that most who contribute
herein will dig deeper than media accounts for the "real" dirt as
well.
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !