CNN.com Article:Logic rules drug murders, trafficker says

[airjaw]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/04/15/mexico.gangs/index.html

Lets see.. they don't get to interview any real insiders because they run away after 20 minutes. They go to the next town over and find some retired, small-time pot dealer who just happens to be high and smoking up when they talk to him. He tells them something about "logic" and "respect" but what that actually entails, he doesn't explain.

After reading the article we are no more educated about what is going on and have just wasted 5 minutes of our time.

Opinions? Shoddy journalism from CNN? I posted this because it seem as if the quality of journalism on CNN is getting worse and worse.

[ciphersort]

"Maybe I'm stupid or something, but I don't know how to do anything else. If they catch me it's simple, they'll kill me. It's just not allowed to work freelance," he said.

"The authorities and the cartels use the rule of 10. By that I mean for every 10 kilos of cocaine we move, we have to give three to the authorities and keep seven for ourselves," he explained. "When times are bad the authorities may arrest somebody or grab an entire consignment and that's a way for forcing up their percentage take."

What else does one need to know to understand the drug war is why this is happening?

I agree the journalism is shoddy... but either side will kill reporters that get too close to anything specific... because really the cartels and government enforcers are on the same side - the side that wants to tell the rest of us what we can and cannot do. The non-crooked cops are in the same place as the dealer in the story.

[rhinosaur]

This is infotainment disguised as hard news. Or rather I should say it's infotainment about an issue that has been the subject of some hard news.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infotainment

http://www.howtodothings.com/hobbies/a3180-how-to-identify-different-types-of-journalism.html

CNN has always had a good share of these kinds of "serious fluff" stories. Keeps the consumers interested.

No news media outlet is free from these kinds of pieces (they would go out of business, IMO), but some of them are better than others. I think the Associated Press and BBC World News are the best. Others, like CNN, Reuters, and non-world news BBC attempt to maintain an image of objectivity while doing as little work as possible.

[**life is...**]

In their effort to appear "authentic", contemporary journalists have been producing some of the worst crap to ever hit mainstream media. More is sure to come.

[CEOofRawness]

I read that article a while ago and didn't walk away with any profound understanding of the situation. It should simply be called "Money rules drug murders", because that's really at the base of it all. Drug cartels are undergoing some turf wars and trying to make a bigger profit. It's just like how American corporations compete with one another, only with guns.

I don't trust ANY news station (though some less than others), because just like the drug cartels, they're after the same thing: profit. That comes #1 before all else, including objective and accurate reporting. It just must have been a slow day for CNN to come out with crap like that. Of course they're gonna over-glamorize their stories and paint them as facts: it's all about the ratings.

Truth is media is bad business for the drug cartels, so they definitely won't cooperate.

[Dawn Run]

This is infotainment


who thought that up? thats the most ridiculous word ive ever seen

[rhinosaur]

who thought that up? thats the most ridiculous word ive ever seen

From the wikipedia article I quoted,

"The terms "Infotainment" and "Infotainer" were first used in September 1980 at the Joint Conference of Aslib, the Institute of Information Scientists and the Library Association in Sheffield, UK. The Infotainers were a group of British information scientists who put on comedy shows at their professional conferences between 1980 and 1990."