Thanks for your note, Ellie. I hadn’t heard of the Zapple Doctrine.

I wish there were a political initiative to set up a commission for verifying statements which had some tooth to it. Gravitas, whereby people had as much faith in its veracity as they once had in, oh … Walter Cronkite.

People trusted Cronkite, on the CBS news. We were less stressed then. Still capable of blunders, of course. But we had more faith in our governance.

The Fairness Doctrine is a former policy of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission as you said in your post. (That’s why it isn’t applicable to BBC content as a prior comment had stated.) I agree with you, regarding the value of striving for accuracy and objectivity. The Fairness Doctrine provides balance. Sadly, it was retired at some point in the 20th century.

There was an amendment to it, called the Zapple Doctrine, which was also an FCC rule. It pertained to political content exclusively, and ensured balance. I wrote the Wikipedia entry on the Zapple Doctrine. It too was revoked by the FCC in 2008 or 2009.

Interesting point, Al. Mitchum was born in 1917; when he plays Marlowe in 1975 and 1978, he’s in his late 50’s, early 60’s.

Imagine the performances he might have given in the late 1940s and early ’50s, when he was in his young 30’s.

I was listening to NPR all day for awhile, and it was too much. Not that I feel they are lying to me, but just all COVID all the time was making me anxious and it was hard to sleep. Now I listen to a bit in the morning while I walk the dog, and the Newshour at 3, and that’s all I can take.

Victoria, I love the BBC World News. The only international news program I found in the same league was the German DW news. As good as the BBC is, they have a fascination with celebrity. While he lived, they often reported on Michael Jackson, whom they called “Jacko.” It was kind of amusing to watch the news from London and hear some tidbit of his personal life–holding a baby above a balcony, etc.

I’ve heard people defend partisan reporting by saying objectivity is impossible. I believe that misses the point. We also can’t run as fast as cheetahs, but that doesn’t prevent sprinters from trying.

Striving for accuracy and objectivity remains worth the effort.

Yesterday I learned a new skill (I hope). I set up a writers meeting on Zoom. The video chat another writer and I had for practice was amazing. I can see using this after we are past the pandemic.

Stay safe and stay home.

In a separate note, last year when we went to France, you told me in a comment about an author you met, Mark Greenside, and his book(s) about living there part time. I recently bought his book, “I’ll Never be French (no matter what I do), and I thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you. Really, it just makes me homesick for that lovely part of the world, and wonder if moving there might be so impossible (even considering my F in second year French in college…)

We have taken him once, but generally we do not. He loved it, but mostly as he loves anywhere, I’m not sure he loved it like Edie and Samantha did. I will have to try again. I feel like anywhere we want to take him is a big event with traffic and so on, and then there are the limitations involved with having him with us if we want to eat or something. And then there’s the dirt and sand. So we are not as motivated as we should be with getting him there. You can see a picture of him at the beach here. It was half moon bay or thereabouts, and perhaps part of the problem is I don’t trust him to come off of the leash, I’ve read too much about dogs being swept out to sea, and he doesn’t always listen, so I worry about something happening… https://jellyjules.com/?p=5872