News teasers are dead

[elfs]

I was listening to National Public Radio's morning show All Things Considered and I heard a report about The World Bank.

It started out as an indictment of the Republic of Congo's corruption issues: about how 2/3rds of the "teachers" on its public school staff never actually teach but just collect paychecks and how all of the oil money the Congolese government generates never makes it into public works. The article then transitioned into one about The World Bank's latest round of debt relief for The Congo, and whether or not Bank presidend and Bush appointee Paul Wolfowitz was in the right for arguing that the Congo did not deserve debt relief because it was so corrupt.

Wolfowitz had made "dealing with corruption" the central theme of his tenure as leader of the World Bank. He argued that nations were poor because they were corrupt, and that the World Bank should not fund corrupt governments. I'm with him on this. But the Bank is primarily a European institution and their representatives were furious with Wolfowitz for his unilateral and dictatorial style.

At the end of the sequence, the voiceover said, "Wolfowitz is now at the center of his own controversy. More on that tomorrow."

Tomorrow?, I thought. Be serious. Does anyone out there who gives half a damn about the news not know that Wolfowitz, the corruption buster, is now at the center of a scandal because he hired his girlfriend to be his secretary at a salary several times higher than what a World Bank functionary otherwise earns? Even if you didn't, just type 'Wolfowitz' into Google news and it comes right up. Along with scathing indictments of Wolfowitz's "witch hunt" to find the "corrupt leakers of sensitive hiring and salary information within the World Bank."

Go ahead, have that dark bitter laugh.

Does NPR really think it's attracting listeners with this kind of "more tomorrow" news cycle? I'll hear it only because it'll be on during my radio-listening time, and I'll pay attention only because I want to hear how a mainstream news show deals with it.

Comments

[tehrasha.livejournal.com]

In my experience, I have never heard anything on NPR that I hadnt previously read about online, sometimes days before.

Similarly, at one time, I was subscribed to a number of mailing lists, so that I would get the 'latest news' on various subjects. I have since unsubscribed from them all, because my own daily research was beating them to the punch.

I am convinced that NPR and most other news sources are only -news- to those that get their information only from them.

C'mon, Elf

[ideaphile.livejournal.com]

"he hired his girlfriend to be his secretary at a salary several times higher than what a World Bank functionary otherwise earns"

This is completely false.

His girlfriend was working at the World Bank before he took the position there. She was already making $132,660 per year there, in a non-secretarial position. I can tell you from my own knowledge that this figure is not atypical for a career bureaucrat of her age. Because of the World Bank's conflict-of-interest rules, she had to leave-- which would presumably be a significant problem for her career plans. She was moved to the US State Department. At Wolfowitz's suggestion, she received a raise to $193,590 per year, in part to compensate her for the mandatory transfer. That figure is probably out of line with her peers, but certainly not "several times higher" than her previous pay rate or that of other people doing similar work.

So-- you misrepresented several facts in one glib sentence. Wolfowitz didn't hire her to do anything. She was never Wolfowitz's secretary, or anyone else's. Her salary was not "several times higher" than any relevant point of comparison.

And just in case I need to make this clear, I think Wolfowitz is an idiot. People like him and his girlfriend are a plague on this world, and I think they ought to be forced to earn an honest living in the commercial sector, if they can. But still, what you said was wrong-- and worse, wrong in spite of the fact that you had access to the facts, showing a willful disregard for the truth. C'mon, fess up.

Re: C'mon, Elf

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I should change it to "he was banging an underling an later arranged for her to have a salary far in excess of what others in her position made."

There. That sounds better. Now he's less Gingrich and more Clinton.

Sounds about right

[ideaphile.livejournal.com]

As long as you're being accurate, that's all I can ask. :-)

. png

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

Remember that we're not normal people. While it is changing, the majority of the population are still not so quick to dive for a web browser, etc.

Me, sure, someone asks me something and I don't know I may whip out my Treo and Google it right there and then - and I have. But I know I'm a freak.