Who Is Priscilla Owen?
by Stuart Orr
You would think Priscilla Owen would be somebody known to everybody in America. The President wants her to sit as a judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court and claims that she is one of most qualified people in the entire nation. The opposition says she is one of the most unqualified prospects. Irrespective of what side you are on, the fact is that both sides are willing to go to political war over her appointment. The FOR-side rhetoric uses the term "nuclear" to describe it; the AGAINST-side says they'll shut down the legislative process if they're nuked.
I really don't know who Priscilla Owen is from "Big News." I know her name, and I know people are bitterly divided over her, but I don't know anything about her capabilities as a judge. You would think that we would be given these simple facts, especially since we're about to go nuclear! Like many of you, I have spent countless hours with Big News -- watching it on TV, listening to it on the radio, listening to NPR on the internet, reading the local newspaper, and reading the news magazines, wanting to know the answer to one simple question -- WHO IS PRISCILLA OWEN?
Over the course of my career I have hired a lot of people, and so have most of you. It is a very straight-forward process. You start by looking at a resume to get a feel for a person's capabilities, their "vital stats" -- facts, like their education, experience and accomplishments; you check out their references. Then you try mentally to match those facts against the requirements of the job. In the case of Priscilla Owen, I have wanted Big News to be my "HR Department" -- researching her capabilities, telling me of her accomplishments so that I could form an intelligent picture as to whether or not she would be right for the job. But, despite hundreds of hours of news broadcasts and journalistic endeavors, I still do not know Priscilla Owens. Instead, what I get from Big News are the opinions of the people who are warring over her, with tireless in-depth description about the battles and not about her qualifications. I have yet to see a resume or an analysis of her capabilities and how they stack up against the job. Instead, what I get from Big News is somebody telling me how I should think.
The best way I have been able to find out news facts is by going to the Internet to do my own research. There, into a trusty search engine I type "Priscilla Owen" and voila -- instantly comes back news I can use. In fact this method is so good that I have found Big News only minimally worthwhile anymore -- to identify the subjects of interest.) This morning I did just that for "Priscilla Owen" and found out more in a half-hour than in hundreds of hours of Big News.
If you are interested, I put together my own resume on Priscilla Owen. I found the exercise very energizing. I have become increasingly disenchanted with the "thought manipulation" process used by Big News (more about that in an upcoming article). But, with the internet, I get to structure the analysis -- using my own biases, of course :) But, at least I know they're my biases and not someone else's. And, I get to pick the "extreme" and "moderate" sources from both sides, which thrills me no end -- and sometimes even informs my biases!
Whatever happened to Big News researching original source material? It seems they're more interested in entertainment than in journalism. But there is GOOD NEWS coming. With the internet you can research original sources for yourself. Maybe if enough of us would do that we would be able to replace BIG NEWS with GOOD NEWS.
I'm sure the resume you would develop on Priscilla Owen would be different than mine, but that's the beauty of this approach. You might want to take a peek at the one I did. The sources I used came off the first page of results from a Google search on "Priscilla Owen." Happy surfing ...
Stu
(1) U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Policy
(2) TedKennedy.com
(3) Independent Judiciary, A Project of the Alliance for Justice
(4) Republicans National Lawyers Association
You would think Priscilla Owen would be somebody known to everybody in America. The President wants her to sit as a judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court and claims that she is one of most qualified people in the entire nation. The opposition says she is one of the most unqualified prospects. Irrespective of what side you are on, the fact is that both sides are willing to go to political war over her appointment. The FOR-side rhetoric uses the term "nuclear" to describe it; the AGAINST-side says they'll shut down the legislative process if they're nuked.
I really don't know who Priscilla Owen is from "Big News." I know her name, and I know people are bitterly divided over her, but I don't know anything about her capabilities as a judge. You would think that we would be given these simple facts, especially since we're about to go nuclear! Like many of you, I have spent countless hours with Big News -- watching it on TV, listening to it on the radio, listening to NPR on the internet, reading the local newspaper, and reading the news magazines, wanting to know the answer to one simple question -- WHO IS PRISCILLA OWEN?
Over the course of my career I have hired a lot of people, and so have most of you. It is a very straight-forward process. You start by looking at a resume to get a feel for a person's capabilities, their "vital stats" -- facts, like their education, experience and accomplishments; you check out their references. Then you try mentally to match those facts against the requirements of the job. In the case of Priscilla Owen, I have wanted Big News to be my "HR Department" -- researching her capabilities, telling me of her accomplishments so that I could form an intelligent picture as to whether or not she would be right for the job. But, despite hundreds of hours of news broadcasts and journalistic endeavors, I still do not know Priscilla Owens. Instead, what I get from Big News are the opinions of the people who are warring over her, with tireless in-depth description about the battles and not about her qualifications. I have yet to see a resume or an analysis of her capabilities and how they stack up against the job. Instead, what I get from Big News is somebody telling me how I should think.
The best way I have been able to find out news facts is by going to the Internet to do my own research. There, into a trusty search engine I type "Priscilla Owen" and voila -- instantly comes back news I can use. In fact this method is so good that I have found Big News only minimally worthwhile anymore -- to identify the subjects of interest.) This morning I did just that for "Priscilla Owen" and found out more in a half-hour than in hundreds of hours of Big News.
If you are interested, I put together my own resume on Priscilla Owen. I found the exercise very energizing. I have become increasingly disenchanted with the "thought manipulation" process used by Big News (more about that in an upcoming article). But, with the internet, I get to structure the analysis -- using my own biases, of course :) But, at least I know they're my biases and not someone else's. And, I get to pick the "extreme" and "moderate" sources from both sides, which thrills me no end -- and sometimes even informs my biases!
Whatever happened to Big News researching original source material? It seems they're more interested in entertainment than in journalism. But there is GOOD NEWS coming. With the internet you can research original sources for yourself. Maybe if enough of us would do that we would be able to replace BIG NEWS with GOOD NEWS.
I'm sure the resume you would develop on Priscilla Owen would be different than mine, but that's the beauty of this approach. You might want to take a peek at the one I did. The sources I used came off the first page of results from a Google search on "Priscilla Owen." Happy surfing ...
Stu
(1) U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Policy
(2) TedKennedy.com
(3) Independent Judiciary, A Project of the Alliance for Justice
(4) Republicans National Lawyers Association
posted by Publius @ 6:09 PM
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