Friday, August 20, 2004


Stand And applaud

No, not the England Cricket team, which has done so well against the West Indies, but Patterico, who, as DumbJon says truly, has offered a masterclass in grappling with media bias.

I felt humbled, given my interest in media bias, at the diligence applied in making sophisticated (and true) general observations, as well as a terrific re-write of a Washington Post article damaging to President Bush, illustrating how to put the boot on the other foot. Many excellent points made, but this one was easily the most vivid:

"What difference does it make to tell a story from the perspective of only one party? Roger Ebert once explained how, by making Norman Bates the protagonist of the horror film "Psycho," Alfred Hitchcock was able to get the audience to see things from Bates's point of view -- to the point where, at times, we are actually rooting for the killer to get away with his crime:

'The sequence ends with the masterful shot of Bates pushing Marion's car (containing her body and the cash) into a swamp. The car sinks, then pauses. Norman watches intently. The car finally disappears under the surface.


Analyzing our feelings, we realize we wanted that car to sink, as much as Norman did.' "
This was so apt that I swear I remember feeling just as Ebert describes at that moment in a film which, although I have never set out to watch, I have been drawn into on several occasions.

 
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