Friday, September 20, 2013

Matt 24 watch, 224: Matthew Cook of MercatorNet on the Matthew Shepard case and manipulative public relations and court case lies used to build myths to create social revolutions

Michael Cook of MercatorNet writes:
"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
 "Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.

Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.

But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
Cook continues, tellingly:
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
He is of course writing in the aftermath of revelations in a new book, The Book of Matt, by Steven Jiminez. based on his investigations -- including interviews with over a hundred people including the actual murderers,  it seems that:
Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.KUSuiiN1.dpuf
Stephen Jimenez
Stephen Jimenez, a homosexual and journalist.
It turns out that Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.KUSuiiN1.dpuf
Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
It turns out that Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.
Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
 Shepard was a regular crystal meth user and a meth dealer, that his killer, McKinney, had been on a meth bender, that McKinney and possibly Henderson dabbled in gay sex, that McKinney had partied with Shepard and had even had had sex with him. It is a seamy story, full of gut-wrenching violence. But it is not a story of homophobic rednecks torturing and murdering a refined, gentle gay activist.

Writing in The Advocate, the leading US gay paper, Aaron Hicklin asks, “did our need to make a symbol of Shepard blind us to a messy, complex story that is darker and more troubling than the established narrative?”
Unfortunately, this is only the latest of a long string of cases and "narratives" used to push agendas by portraying sympathetic victims and benighted opponents, including major court cases.

Cook is right to highlight the issue of the taint and sign of deception as a mark of agendas that need to be far more closely assessed than they usually are once this sort of dominant narrative captures the popular mind. 

Or at least, the dominant media mind.

In context, we need to carefully reflect again at the problem of the perverse marketing of evil by desensitising us, jamming out objectors and converting a critical mass into supporters. All, in accord with the Marlboro Man advertising revolution: led by Leo Burnett, who:


concentrated on style, creating icons as a symbol of the product. He stressed that the creator of an ad needed to somehow capture and reflect what he called the "inherent drama" of the product.

Obviously, we are being routinely led by the nose, through the technique of creating iconic images made to look sufficiently real to be vivid and arresting, and stories meant to capture our visual memory and seem plausibly true. Never mind that they may be full of half truths and perhaps outright fabrications (as in some of those court cases).

I therefore call our attention back to the straight vs spin grid as an antidote to such manipulative idolatry in our time, whether used to sell cigarettes, beans, cynical and devious politicians or rank perverted agendas:


(I) The "Straight or Spin?" News, Education & Views Evaluation Grid:
We may begin by giving a description of what news at its best "should" be like if it is to be a "rough, first draft of History":
. . . a well-informed, easily readable report on a noticeable and significant current event; presented in an accurate, fair, balanced, factually based fashion; and, with enough background context to give the viewer a basis to make up his or her own mind.
In that light, I believe the following analytical "straight or spin" grid will be helpful in assessing the quality of news, commentary and education we are exposed to in our region:
STORY ELEMENTS:
(a) Headline & Lead
(b) Story &/or Views presented
(c) Characterisation of People &/or Institutions
(d) Context: underlying Issues, Alternatives and Historical Setting
(1) Factually Accurate?
Y/N
Y/N
Y/N
Y/N
(2) Fair, or Just?
Y/N
Y/N
Y/N
Y/N
(3) Kind or Gracious?
Y/N
Y/N
Y/N
Y/N
(4) Balanced, or provides a Counter - balance?
Y/N
Y/N
Y/N
Y/N


Fig. 1: News, Education and Views: "Straight or Spin?" [Key: Y, "yes" = 1; N, "no" = 0]


(II) Using the "Straight or Spin?" Grid:
As can be seen, the straight or spin grid gives four main facets of a typical item of news or commentary, or a lesson/lecture (or even a textbook chapter): (a) the head and lead, (b) the story proper, (c) characterisation, and (d) context. It then asks a basic question:
Is the presented information: (1) accurate, (2) fair, (3) kind and (4) balanced?
It is a reasonable expectation that, consistently, the answer should be YES, for all components of a news, educational or commentary item, or a presentation or even a sermon. However, to err is human, so there might be an occasional slip that requires minor correction. So, we can now grade the quality of our news, education and commentary services:
      • B to A: Consistent Score 13 - 16: a reasonably good to excellent service, but if errors keep on cropping up in any one square (e.g. cells 1a, 2c, 3b or 4d), there is a systematic problem (e.g.; 1a: inaccurate headings and leads, 2c: unfair or unjust characterisations of people or institutions, 3b: unkind (say, through sensationalism that exploits people's pain) presentation of stories, 4d: biased context), and corrective action is obviously needed. [The examples make the "structured common-sense" approach plain: do you wish to consume information from sources that are consistently inaccurate in how they headline and lead stories on issues and news? Or, from one that often slanders people or institutions it does not like? Or, tries to make money off sensationalising the suffering of others? Or, tells only half the story through suppressing materially relevant context? Etc.?]

      • D to C: Consistent Score 8 - 12: This source has a major, systematic problem with at least one of the four requirements of sound, straight information, and is probably pushing an agenda counter to the interests of the people of God and the wider community. The source and the editorial policy require major reformation.

      • F: Consistent Score 7 or less: Do not trust this source, period. Warn others about the evident distortion, bias, deception and agenda. If the source has significant institutional power and is unwilling to be corrected, make the creation of an alternative that will consistently correct and expose the errors and agenda a top priority.
Unfortunately, for far too many local, regional and international sources of news, entertainment, commentary and even education available in or to the Caribbean, the proper assessment in this post-modern relativistic age is: F.

_________

It is time to wake up and turn away from cleverly invented myths designed to tickle our itching ears with what we want to hear and twist our hearts and minds to accept what evidently cannot pass the basic test of truthfulness. END
ery few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf
"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all,” Mark Twain wrote. “The conscientious historian will correct these defects". Which is exactly what activists for abortion right and gay rights have done. They drafted scripts of pathos and injustice and then did a talent search for actors to play the part. Convenient facts were highlighted; inconvenient ones were suppressed.
Does this make a difference? Even if the facts were massaged, the courts of law and public opinion had already reached a decision. Sooner or later a case would have emerged whose facts fit the ideology perfectly.
But it does make a difference. Only a cause which is not confident of its own righteousness needs to lie to prove its point. As the leading gay journalist in the US, Andrew Sullivan, comments about The Book of Matt, “No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people... Shouldn’t we understand better why and how?"
And worst of all, massaging and rearranging the facts makes it likely that you will omit facts that don’t fit into the myth. Perhaps that’s why “The Laramie Project” is opening in Ford Theater in Washington DC this month, while the 2002 murder of Mary Stachowicz, a housewife who was beaten, stabbed, strangled and killed by a gay co-worker because she questioned his lifestyle has been forgotten. She doesn’t fit into the myth of gay oppression.
- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/three_lies_that_built_a_revolution#sthash.sUjBqMy4.dpuf