Political Discussions

User Comments

1. 

   11/20/08

   timethief

   Wow! That was a powerful video.

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2. 

   11/20/08

   markstoneman

   This video is a good example of how film footage only tells us part of the story while seducing us into believing it is the whole story. For example, we know that Bush welcomed these leaders personally to the White House. There was footage of this that John Stewart made fun of, because Bush went outside to meet each leader and welcome him or her in. Now it's possible that this happened before the meeting in this CNN clip. And it's possible that some of these hand-shaking leaders had not seen each other yet. In other words, I think the reporter is jumping to conclusions here and so are we.
   
   Now is Bush and his foreign policy liked? Pretty much not. No doubt about that. But there is no way this kind of collective snubbing could have occurred and meant what this reporter claims it meant. We're talking about the President of the United States, right or wrong, popular or deeply unpopular.
   
   Another example of everything appearing to be clear in video footage is in the OP of this thread: www.blogcatalog.com/politics/discuss/entry/have-the-tolerant-become-intoler.... My comments there run along similar lines: we see a seductively clear image that is really only one narrow slice of broader reality not captured in the footage. That's when old fashioned prose could come in handy. We need reporters to fill in the gaps. Now was the CNN reporter we saw actually there? Doesn't appear so. He doesn't tell us what he saw during the meetings. Instead he tells us what he sees in the video footage.

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   1. 

      11/20/08

      loverofjazz

      you are the voice of reason. no sarcasm or irony in that statement, either. but i still say george w. bush has a bad case of cooties. so there!
   2. 

      11/20/08

      satijournal

      Yeah, he looks like he's greeting people there and they're greeting him back, but it's more fun to look at it and see him being snubbed.
3. 

   11/20/08

   210betty

   He didn't extend his hand either. Was that not noticed?

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4. 

   11/21/08

   davidckaplan

   The world knows he has no power anymore, and is just awaiting January 20th. ...
   
   January 20th.... A date that cannot come soon enough.

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