The Nose: 2012 Politicking, Destructive Yoga & Endorsements!
The Nose tackles the week in popular culture.
You might have missed it, but this week saw an interesting discussion of the very nature of journalism. It was triggered by the New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane, who wrote a column asking whether reporters should challenge, examine and in some case rebut vague but untruthful statements made on their beat.
One of the examples he gave was the frequent assertion by Mitt Romney that President Obama has given speeches apologizing for the United States. This appears not to be true, wrote Brisbane, but should a reporter say that, right in his or her story? The reader comments were scornful. Hundreds wrote in to ask, in so many words, whether Brisbane was joking. Of course reporters should check the statements they report on, they said.
But media analysts like Clay Shirky saw Brisbane's point. Shriky wrote: "no paper in the United States, not even the Times ... has enough staff to express continuous skepticism about political speech."
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
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EMAIL FROM RACHEL:
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many problems plague yoga in the US:
1. ridiculously undertrained teachers. teachers only need 200 hours or training to be certified to teach -- (not true of Iyengar teachers who need many years of training to qualify to teach). I regularly see people in yoga class who look like they're about to pop a hamstring or pinch a nerve in their neck and receive NO feedback, NO assistance NO help from the teacher and NO suggestions for modifications.
2. mass distribution of yoga in large classes--- a form originally taught one to one, and modified for each individual body.
This culminates in people who don't exercise or condition their bodies on any regular basis and then throw themselves into a very difficult form in a large class with other bodies working on many different levels with an underqualified teacher = recipe for disaster.
EMAIL FROM NANCY
Hi Colin,
I love your show and I think you're great. I love your intelligence, quick-wittedness, and the guests and topics you have.
I was moved to send this because I thought your take on yoga was spot on. I've been doing yoga for about 30 years now and have the same opinions and experiences you mentioned, except it was my friend who was severely injured by an adjustment and not me. I was probably in the same Ana Forrest workshop that your friend was in, about eight years ago. It was recommended to me but I didn't know it would be heated to such extreme heat. It had to be over 100. Luckily, I had parked my mat right next to the door, so I could keep ducking out of class to cool down, then come back in. I didn't have a towel and I was sliding in a puddle of water. I ended up leaving early, told the front desk why, and went home thinking that if this had been my first experience with yoga it would have been my last. It was nice to hear that someone else was equally miserable that day. Everyone else seemed to be eating it up and wanting more. I actually go to Forrest classes with Heidi at Fresh Yoga sometimes, but she heats it to a tolerable level.
Again, thanks for the great shows you put together each week.
E-mail from Nancy
I love your show and I think you're great. I love your intelligence, quick-wittedness, and the guests and topics you have.
I was moved to send this because I thought your take on yoga was spot on. I've been doing yoga for about 30 years now and have the same opinions and experiences you mentioned, except it was my friend who was severely injured by an adjustment and not me. I was probably in the same Ana Forrest workshop that your friend was in, about eight years ago. It was recommended to me but I didn't know it would be heated to such extreme heat. It had to be over 100. Luckily, I had parked my mat right next to the door, so I could keep ducking out of class to cool down, then come back in. I didn't have a towel and I was sliding in a puddle of water. I ended up leaving early, told the front desk why, and went home thinking that if this had been my first experience with yoga it would have been my last. It was nice to hear that someone else was equally miserable that day. Everyone else seemed to be eating it up and wanting more. I actually go to Forrest classes with Heidi at Fresh Yoga sometimes, but she heats it to a tolerable level.
Again, thanks for the great shows you put together each week.
E-mail from Rachel
many problems plague yoga in the US:
1. ridiculously undertrained teachers. teachers only need 200 hours or training to be certified to teach -- (not true of Iyengar teachers who need many years of training to qualify to teach). I regularly see people in yoga class who look like they're about to pop a hamstring or pinch a nerve in their neck and receive NO feedback, NO assistance NO help from the teacher and NO suggestions for modifications.
2. mass distribution of yoga in large classes--- a form originally taught one to one, and modified for each individual body.
This culminates in people who don't exercise or condition their bodies on any regular basis and then throw themselves into a very difficult form in a large class with other bodies working on many different levels with an underqualified teacher = recipe for disaster.
E-mail from Paul
Can't reporters establish criteria for which political factsshould be checked, thereby avoiding the extremes of checking all facts and none? I'd suggest these to start:
1. The importance of the statement.
2. Whether it is being repeated.
3. Has the statement been disputed?
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