Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/11/07

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Subject: Re: Larry Burrows & Tim Page
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 23:03:39 -0600

>NPR is one of the oasis' in american media. It's just that this=A0=20
>sort of thing by them rubs me the wrong way. Yet another thing about=A0=20
>Vietnam. Promoted under the title of "fresh air". I find it a bit=A0=20
>pathetic.

Please, they're supposed to change the title of the program (which I get
the feeling means, let's look at something from a new perspective) because
you don't like it's context against one single topic? They're only supposed
to deal with happy shining faces type topics?

>The fallen ones in particular should be remembered. I just think=A0=20
>that this is a rather stale way of proceeding. Especially since=A0=20
>there have been many conflicts afterwards and serious media problems=A0=20
>related to them. Study them and dedicate the findings to the=A0=20
>courageous ones.

So we're supposed to forget them, and not talk about them any more? This
was ONE SHOW, in the context of a major history book coming out. Like the
old saying goes, "Those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat
it."

As a matter of fact, it wasn't so long ago that NPR, on "Talk of the
Nation" which comes on here just before "Fresh Air" dealt very extensively
with Government censorship and the Gulf War in particular.

>I think these guys were there to report the workings of the=A0=20
>machinery (state/war) and not to become entries in coffee table=A0=20
>books.

So, big format books are only supposed to be cute animals and pretty
flowers and mountain scenes? (Sarcasm mode off.) Ever see Gilles Peres'
book Farewell to Bosnia? What a coffee table book! (Anything that big that
costs more than $75 is a coffee table book in my mind.)=20

My coffee table has great photojournalism on it.

I'm not trying to be hard on you, but I refuse to accept the idea that we
Americans are pathetic because we don't attack topics the way Europeans do.
That's a bit snobbish, and rather ethnocentric. There's a lot more media
than NPR that is strong and addresses issues in a contemporary,
hard-hitting manner. You just have to dig some times to find it amidst the
drek.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

It's never too late to have a happy childhood.