MMMM # 551-- Von Braun, Another Chapter, and is VR journalism?

     AL.COM "reports" on a new book about the German scientists who worked in Huntsville to develop rockets to go to the moon.

     You won't find the word Nazi in the piece because it is one of those "appreciations" that are commonplace these days...stories that include only the good stuff. You see them frequently after someone dies. Think of an obit under the umbrella of general journalism.

      The very positive book being reviewed ("The Greatest Space Generation") tell about the achievements of the men who had worked for Hitler and the Nazi's to kill Allies during WWII and then were brought to the U.S. to help the U.S. Space program.
(See my previous post about their conversion after the war.)

The U.S. wanted Wernher Von Braun and the other German scientists to help America develop its own rocket program. They did the recruiting in a top secret base in Illinois. It was code named P.O. Box 1142.

     The AL.COM piece was written by Shelly Haskins, a UA graduate with a quarter century of reporting experience. AL.COM mentions this at the end :

Haskins takes a weekly look at points of pride statewide.

i.e., it is an "appreciation". The website has taken a liking to the phrase "Alabama Proud". Wonder if they will also copyright "Alabama Red-faced" for the other side of the coin?

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       Using recreations in TV news has always been controversial.      

       Now the arrival of virtual reality is being criticized for the same reasons.

     The "stories" allow viewer/readers to enter the world of a story, perhaps going to a crime scene and looking around. One story lets them experience the aftermath of a terrorist bombing. Hot stuff.

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The newly hired Alabama State School Superintendent Michael Sentance received a call from Montgomery Advertiser columnist Josh Moon asking why his law license had been suspended in Massachusetts, His reaction:

“I really hoped that we would be talking about more consequential matters than these,” Sentance said during a phone interview. “It’s perfectly fair to ask some questions, but some are a little too far, I think. But public work is a different world now, and I need to get used to that.”

     Yes he will. And the reasons for the license action was he let it expire because he was no longer using it. He can be reinstated by asking for it and paying dues. A lomng-time lawyer friend of mine said he liked his occupation because "a lawyer can always hang up his shingle" and practice.


[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a longstanding regular feature of www.timlennox.com.]

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