Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Shabbat guests aka the tales from CNN

Last week we had to guests on shabbat lunch - a wholesale distributor (wh) and a financial analyst (fa).

B'H, no one was allergic to the first course, the salads also went with moderate success, and even cholent didn't disappoint.

Naturally, the conversation drifted to the economy. And all the money flushed down the toilet (the process euphemistically called 'the bailout'). I think I mentioned that some of these companies should file for bankruptcy. FA agreed, WH started to protest saying that it would be unfair to millions of people who'd become unemployed if a company like GM would go bankrupt.
FA politely tried to explain the process of how a corporation files for bankruptcy. WH again expressed his concern for the working class. FA politely pointed out that a big corporation like GM should not be confused with a local bakery. Local bakery goes out of business - people lose jobs; GM files for bankruptcy - restructuring happens, most people keep their jobs.

WH: But CNN says that if GM would go bankrupt millions of people would lose their jobs.

Here even I couldn't take it and politely pointed out to WH that just because CNN reports something, that something does not become absolute or even vague truth.

The conversation became a bit heated ( and unshabosdik) after that. Neither FA, a subject matter expert, nor I, an observer who pointed out that just because a story is reported doesn't make the story true, can stand in a way of a CNN chasid's economics.

In the end we agreed to disagree. And five days later I still wonder why anyone still perceives CNN as a source of useful information.

6 comments:

La Poutine Cachere said...

Soooo true.

And btw, I see that you did some Pesach cleaning on your blog. Very pretty!

Barb Chansky said...

Love new design:)
As for the subject matter, do not want to pollute with non-printable expressions of strong feelings.

Favorite Anonymous said...

because the people reporting the "news" wear spiffy suits and have first names that should be last names like wolf and anderson

SubWife said...

Yeah, it's getting messy out there with all these handouts, I mean bailouts. Sigh.

Btw, Love the new look.

Sally Hazel said...

Thanks for the compliments on the new appearance.
FA-lol@ last first names. Other networks have reporters with mixed up names, too but I guess one can only find that out by letting go of CNN...

Ookamikun said...

xkcd's take on the news

CNN: "a new study shows african-americans aren't doing well" RLY? gotta love CNN for its previously-unknown insights #duh
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