ZardozZ News and Satire: ScrappleFace Responds to San Francisco Bay View .Com

It is not often that one finds a satirist and freelance writer who can eloquently articulate the problems facing modern journalism in the world of instant media communications and blogs. Scott Ott over at ScrappleFace, a first rate satirist in his own right had that opportunity this week (Response reprinted below). He was sent a letter of apology from the San Francisco Bay View media outlet which confused one of his satirical pieces with news fact then proceeded to ask Scott to write a letter of clarification pointing out his article was satire. (Instead of appologizing to their readership that they failed to check out their sources before publishing). This is just one more example, even in the not so main stream media, the thirst for the sensational preempting the checking of facts before publishing. Mistaking a satirical piece on Nancy Pelosi and simply cutting and pasting it as news without checking sources illustrates exactly what drives the majority of the media outlets today.

Here is a reprint of his letter of response. It is worth the read in our opinion as it illustrates very articulately the problems facing journalism distinguishing FACT from FICTION in today's world.

To: ScrappleFace Readers
Fr: Scott Ott, editor, ScrappleFace.com

In the four and a half years since ScrappleFace began, my little satirical stories have reached millions of people. Those who read them on the website, for the most part, understand the satirical context. However, thanks to the magic of clip-and-paste, many stories have been ripped from their context and distributed via email, listserv and forum, causing consternation and ill-will in some cases. Normally, the vast editorial staff at ScrappleFace when notified of such offenses, dutifully ignores them, preferring to let the work speak for itself. We simply continue to ply the trade of creating “fake but accurate” news that we learned in journalism school, and at the feet of Dan Rather and The New York Times.

However, today we received the note below from an apparently “real” editor, and felt moved to respond. The following, both the email we received and our response, is non-satirical. (That means it is not satire.)

On Dec 28, 2006, at 10:08 PM, SF Bay View wrote:

Dear Scott,

I hope the story you wrote, “One Year Later, Some Katrina Victims Still Slow to Respond“, is satire and is not based on comments actually made by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. An excerpt from your story had been sent to me, and I forwarded it to this list, which is read by Katrina survivors and people who want to support them. I had thought the excerpt was authentic until just now, when I read the full story on your website and detected that the entire website is satire. I might not have been fooled (assuming the story IS satire) if I didn’t know Pelosi. But I do. I live in her district and know her as extremely cold and callous, often blaming the victim - just the way you portrayed her.

If your story is satire, please tell that to the people on this list. As you can see, your story has caused them immeasurable pain. Think for a moment how it would feel to be condemned by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the person next in line to become president of the U.S. if something should happen to the president and vice president … and a woman at that! We all expect a woman to have some empathy or at least some compassion.

To me and to the readers of our newspaper, Katrina survivors are heroes. Just having survived the worst catastrophe ever to hit the U.S. is heroic. And the fact that they are members of this email listserve, where every day they reach out from their own pain and loss and give material help, resources, encouragement and love to others in desperate need, is heroic. I even read on this list the last words tapped out by a man who then died from the Katrina floodwaters that had poisoned his body.

After reading these messages, I hope and expect that you will be moved to use your writing talent and your very impressive and obviously well read website to generate great waves of help and support for Katrina survivors. The members of this listserve can no doubt give you suggestions and guidance about how you can be most effective. We need you to be a hero too!

Mary Ratcliff
San Francisco Bay View
editor@sfbayview.com
www.sfbayview.com (badly hacked but coming back - soon)

The following is the non-satirical response from ScrappleFace editor-in-chief Scott Ott:

Dear Mary Ratcliff,

First, here’s a link to a site that contains dozens of links that provide ways for people to help Katrina survivors. May all who read this visit and give.

...Part of an editor’s job is to check sources before “going to press.”...
Your email address indicates you are an editor of something. Part of an editor’s job is to check sources before “going to press.” You clipped and pasted a bit forwarded to you from a satire website and sent it out as if it were something that Rep. Nancy Pelosi said. Now, you have asked me to write to this group of people (on a listserv) who have endured some of the harsh realities of life, that I might somehow atone for the confusion you have caused.

I embrace the opportunity.

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, journalists sought someone to blame. They, predictably, found President George Bush was the best scapegoat. But in lashing out, yet again, at their favorite source of all discontent, they missed a bigger target. If anyone “out there” is to be blamed, it is the large, remote, centralized federal government which has become a surrogate father to so many millions of Americans.

Over the decades, we have ceded power, authority and responsibility to the federal government far beyond anything envisioned or desired by our founders. As a result, instead relying on our own intelligence, resources and ability to work with others in our communities to solve problems, we have turned to Washington D.C..

This is not a matter of ‘blaming the victim’, because the victim has become so immersed in this twisted view of human life that he cannot see what has happened. The federal government’s dehumanizing effect has torn up neighborhoods, torn apart families and turned brave, capable people into compliant recipients of redistributed wealth.

...Journalists, by habit, prefer stories they can receive from the tip of a spoon held by an “expert” or official. They, too, have turned to big government and have become dependent upon her for their sustenance...

...What most Americans know of the situation in the hurricane zone is only what TV or other news sources tell them. Most of that information comes from “authorities” in the government...
The problem is that the morsels of that wealth never provide enough to do anything other than keep folks in a perpetual state of dependence upon the State. Even if those morsels became chunks big enough to choke a horse, the dependency would remain. The federal government has become not only the safety net, it is everything from the crib blanket to the casket lining.

The danger of centralized government control is not that it robs a few dollars from rich people and gives them to the poor. It’s not even that such a bureaucratic behemoth spawns the waste of billions of dollars. After all, it’s just money.

No, the threat of this system is that it strips a man of what makes him a man, and turns him away from his inner resources, or the inclination to partner with neighbors to solve problems. It humiliates him, blinds him and ultimately cripples him.

Of course, when a government-built levee bursts, and a government-subsidized house is immersed, the natural, reasonable reaction of the displaced person is to turn to the government; both to blame for the disaster and to petition for relief. Many of the homes that were destroyed belonged to middle- and upper-class citizens as well, and yet still somehow even some of those people turned toward Washington to vent anger and cry out for restoration.

Sadly, the story that rarely gets told are the daily acts of bravery, fortitude and cooperation in dozens of communities where people — often through the agency of local churches — have pulled together in reliance upon each other and in a shared dependence upon superintending grace. Work crews that report to no one in Washington have poured into the region to cart off debris and help lay the foundations for a better future. Against all odds, many of the washed-out residents have worked long hours, endured separation from family and almost-overwhelming hardship in order to rebuild what the waters ravaged. These people are beyond number, and below the media radar.

Journalists, by habit, prefer stories they can receive from the tip of a spoon held by an “expert” or official. They, too, have turned to big government and have become dependent upon her for their sustenance. What most Americans know of the situation in the hurricane zone is only what TV or other news sources tell them. Most of that information comes from “authorities” in the government. The reporters have told us that the real story is all about the government’s response. They have largely ignored the responsible activities of thousands of unseen hands restoring towns, parks, homes and lives.

Success stories are buried. Tragedy is blared from the housetops. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle that further deepens dependence upon the government, and further strips the dignity of the person.

The victims of Katrina are not really the victims of Katrina herself. The tragedy began long before the hurricane hit.

Natural disasters have always happened and always will. While, mercifully, they don’t occur every day in every place, they are common enough that we ought to have an expectation that bad things can and will happen. We need to cultivate the inner resources in ourselves, our children and our neighborhoods to cope with the inevitable. When we cede that power and responsibility to the federal government, we surrender a part of what makes us human and leave ourselves more vulnerable to the tempest.

...In other words, Walter Cronkite was exactly wrong to say ‘That’s the way it is.’ Journalists don’t report the truth about life. They are carnival barkers selling the unusual, the atypical, the freaks. And we continue to reward them for doing so.

The actual truth about life in our great Republic is quite different from the daily portrayals in the media.
...
Whether you believe in God or not, you have surely experienced how the human soul sings when we gather in chorus to accomplish a great purpose in the midst of tragedy. It’s as if we were designed to work together with our family, friends and neighbors. There is a blessing in it that exceeds the penalty of the curse.

When my own community was hit by flooding some years ago, people stepped off their porches, shouldered sandbags, delivered meals, took in the homeless, wielded shovels against the muck, and generally helped each other in the task of restoration. As awful as that flood was, I will always remember it fondly, not for the harm it did to us and to our property, but for the good it did in us and in our community.

Our state-run schools and spoon-fed media have conditioned us to look to government. They’ve also trained us to take offense at any expression of love that doesn’t result in government intervention and redistribution of taxpayer dollars. ‘Compassion’ has been redefined as ‘entitlement’ and thus stripped of its power and utility.

The devastating impact of this mindset is the apparent withering of the individual spirit and of community cooperation which have been the hallmarks of this great nation.

But all is not yet lost, and perhaps not so much is lost as we have been led to believe.

Since what we know about America flows mostly from the media, we can be certain that most of what we know is just plain wrong, or at least atypical. My old journalism professor used to say, ‘News is coups, earthquakes and three-legged chickens.’

In other words, Walter Cronkite was exactly wrong to say ‘That’s the way it is.’ Journalists don’t report the truth about life. They are carnival barkers selling the unusual, the atypical, the freaks. And we continue to reward them for doing so.

The actual truth about life in our great Republic is quite different from the daily portrayals in the media.

Everywhere in this God-blessed America covert radicals roam, committing seemingly-random acts of kindness — unmonitored, untallied, uncontrolled, unshackled from the federal government. It is, in effect, a shadow government that we have set up for ourselves to promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty.

This decentralized movement of men and women accomplishes most of the great work of charity, compassion and community building. Their individual efforts are a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of government largess, but in the aggregate and ultimate their service far exceeds anything that government can deliver.

In fact, the vast majority of Americans behave as if the federal government did not exist in their day-to-day lives. This underground movement is entirely healthy and necessary for the maintenance of our Republic and for our pursuit of happiness.

We don’t have time to blame anyone for our misfortunes. We’re too busy working to overcome them. We don’t have faith in some distant bureaucrat, rather we turn to the resources that God has placed near at hand. We lean on our brothers. Many of us call on our Father in our time of need, and He sends our neighbors who love us more than we love ourselves. Later, we will turn to our helpers when they need us and repay the debt, only to learn that no debt existed because acts of compassion shower blessings on giver and receiver alike.

We find these local (and spiritual) solutions not only adequate, but invigorating and inspiring because it is only when we are pressed hard by life that we discover there is more life in us, among us and beyond us than we had imagined in carefree hours.

We decided to reprint BOTH letters in their entirety in the spirit of fairness and "equal time" to both parties. Scott clearly stated what we feel many of us believe about modern mainstream mass media journalism, its role in contributing to our global problems, and our true need to look much closer to home for support, leadership and guidance in times of tragedy (our editorial opinion as well). It is amazing that any "real" editor in the so called REAL WORLD OF JOURNALISM would simply lift a piece like that without checking the source from the publisher BEFORE printing it. Then ask the author to write an explanation to a listserver distribution no less to help absolve them of the responsibility they have to their readership!! Scott Ott... RIGHT ON BROTHER !!!

I personally have visited New Orleans and was appalled at the one sided nature of the media coverage. The media is indirectly hurting the area business -- French Quarter, Downtown Hotels, Restaurants, Tourism and indirectly ALL residents, directly impacted or not, due to the focus soley on the negative. John Edwards, although we suspect well intentioned in his photo op this past week, (I like to give the benefit of the doubt) aside from making his political points, we hope also said to folks... "Come visit! Bring your business to New Orleans and help rebuild the economy!" Instead the focus of the media coverage was/is slanted to the negative and most Americans and Non Americans are still left with only NEGATIVE images in their brains about the area in general. In fairness he did point out that MOST of the restoration has been done by community entities. As well is should be. There is nothing sinister about that? Why make it out so?

Yes... much still needs to be done to help victims and revitalize the city... but the combination of Media Distortion, Politicization and the over dependence on Big Centralized Government to solve every issue that befalls us just exacerbates the growing attitude of entitlement in America and the case for even larger big brother government spending, misuse of funds and more opportunities for corruption. NONE of us, or any creature, are entitled to even be alive on this planet!! We take our existence and place in this universe for granted. Nature reminds us from time to time that collective life itself on this planet is not a right or entitlement but instead a rare gift of cosmic circumstance and design given only for limited periods of time. We often seem to forget that given our collective human arrogance and naivety. -- ZZ Bachman / Editor