I was wrong about:
- the short-term future of SARS, which (as you may have noticed) did not sweep across the planet leaving devastation in its wake. Moral of story: just because the news reads like Chapter 1 of a sci fi novel, doesn't mean that the other chapters are on its heels.
- assuming that the occupation of Iraq would go fairly smoothly. Moral of story: try reading some historical nonfiction for a change.
- writing off The Union (local paper) as irredeemable. The turnaround/recovery has been remarkable; I wish there was a way to support them without buying a dead tree subscription. A Pledge button on the website's front page maybe, with suggested yearly contribution (and free old archive searching/retrieval to those who give it)?
I learned:
- that the blogosphere plus google makes for a mind-blowingly wonderful resource.
- enormous amounts about journalism - the good, the bad and the lazy - the biases, the ideals, the conflicts of interest, the dynamics of coverage, etc - mostly thanks to the above-referenced blogosphere. (Thank you, BS denizens!)
- that it is natural for an organization or individual that serves the public not to do so wholeheartedly, if the result would be to reduce their importance.
- that, in politics, "all other things being equal" is rarely if ever the case - our political views flow from our personalities.
We live in interesting times.
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