Tuesday
Petard
The last paragraph of this New York Times story on the scientology stress testing operation in Times Square station is an egregious example of media bias. The paragraph reads, in full:"Even if the guy doesn't buy a book, we've gotten him to take a look at his life and see what's troubling him," Mr. Davis said. "That's a service in itself. "We've had guys sit down who are thinking of committing suicide. I've had people who killed other people. Just by doing the stress test they realize, 'Hey, this is something I need to handle.' "
When people say things that are absolutely idiotic, such as that someone who has killed other people or is considering suicide needs to see the results of an essentially meaningless electrical resistance test (United States v. Article or Device, etc., 333 F. Supp. 357 (D.D.C., 1971)) to realize "this is something I need to handle," it is patently unfair of the Times to let them make a fool of themself in public. Rather, the reporter should pat him on the head, thank him for the interview, and then run away before he cracks up laughing. Science fiction author worshipping cultists are people too, you know.
The main thing I learned from this story is that I regret having never stopped at the scientology table, since it sounds like it would have made a good anecdote.
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When people say things that are absolutely idiotic, such as that someone who has killed other people or is considering suicide needs to see the results of an essentially meaningless electrical resistance test (United States v. Article or Device, etc., 333 F. Supp. 357 (D.D.C., 1971)) to realize "this is something I need to handle," it is patently unfair of the Times to let them make a fool of themself in public. Rather, the reporter should pat him on the head, thank him for the interview, and then run away before he cracks up laughing. Science fiction author worshipping cultists are people too, you know.
The main thing I learned from this story is that I regret having never stopped at the scientology table, since it sounds like it would have made a good anecdote.
