“We are missing our deadlines.” — S. Suzuki
It would be like saying the state of San Francisco when you should have said the state of California. Waikiki is a beachfront neighborhood of Honolulu on the south shore of O’ahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It’s no more an “island” than San Francisco is a state. So how did the “journalist” covering the shift change false incoming ballistic missile alarm in the Aloha State get it so wrong? Why did he refer to O’ahu as Waikiki?
First of all, I’d like to explain WHY I’ve used italics above. I don’t know exactly how to describe what happened, that’s part of the equation. Meaning, just about everything that you’d expect to be important in reporting such a major event — honoring the traditional Five Ws of Journalism — wasn’t being communicated. In fact, what I’m calling “a major event” was treated as just another story about human error. Sure, there were plenty of people using the words angry, unacceptable, etc., but if you got past all of the melodramatic communication you could see that folks weren’t really taking in the rock bottom issues that should have been addressed. You could see, actually, that many citizens were incapable of processing the wake-up call afforded properly.
The faux pas made by the ABC reporter is typical these days in the realm of journalism. On ALL of the mainstream media outlets (and some “alternative” channels and stations too) one routinely comes across mistakes of that kind. It’s such a pervasive problem that it begs for public discussion; I’m certainly on the verge of offering free classes in journalism as an alternative to whatever instruction is coming down the pike these days… not that it would make a difference in the Big Picture.
What’s being shown quite clearly in 2018 — having been growing throughout 2017 and earlier — is an inclination to rush through stories, brushing aside the basics that one has always expected of coverage. And the dynamic now includes regular mispronunciations, misrepresentations and calculations which are not appropriate for the “objective” journalist. I’m all for advocacy journalism, truth be told, but having an inexperienced, ineffective presumptuous twenty-year-old reporter talk about how officials are doing everything they can to address indiscretions when such authorities are clearly not doing that is beyond the pale. Hail, Mediocrity!
What’s for sale these days in the realm of mainstream media? I’d say that complicity is one thing to cite. Meaning, the major question of why Hawaiian officials did not automatically communicate with federal authorities when the shift change false incoming ballistic missile alarm went off. Someone — some people — are not being honest regarding what came down, and will not turn around having embraced Mendacity as a life style.
The Hawaiian Islands should not even be under the control of what’s called America… so that their flora and fauna and folks are all threatened with extinction by the actions of the U.S. governmental authorities. As everyone knows, those Pacific islands were stolen.
Just as ALL LIFE IS threatened with pseudo-reportage now. I am not talking about Fake News here. Rather, I am talking about there being No News Worthy of Our Heartbeats for the vast majority… the quality of journalism getting worse by the minute.
This is why we cannot tolerate Waikiki as a state. On top of all else we are missing our deadlines.
Valleria Ruselli wants readers to know that the hiring of journalists and the directions given to reporters of the news these days are both in a poor state. A rating of “F” would be too high, as a rule, she believes. However, “Hey, you, get that story in on time no matter what the quality.” can be countered effectively if you contact her at [email protected]. She is part of the Oxman Collective, and they feel that they only need a few others on board for successful movement in solidarity. A recent CC article might serve as a good supplement to this piece, motivate readers to reach out to her.