If this columnist was hired by any airline to blog (very enthusiastically) about his trip to that part of the Southern Hemisphere, convincing some of his fellow Americans that they "must see" certain parts of Australia might be a blatant example of oversell ("That's spin if I've ever seen it!"), but subjectively the reaction is that since we never went on a day trip from Kalgoorlie to Koolgarde (Even Word's spell check challenges the names of those two cities) for a one day excursion in the desert with a metal detector, then "Bob's your uncle," eventually we will have to go back and correct that omission. In 1986 when we visited Paris (France, not Texas); we didn't even bother to drop off a resume at the International Edition of the Herald Tribune, but maybe we should have looked into the possibility of an opening at the Miner?
In a past Internet incarnation as a movie reviewer, this columnist has castigated a nationally known movie reviewer for giving "this is a movie everyone must see!" quotes for the print ads because this columnist has never ever seen one movie that he thinks everyone else will love.
[Evidence exhibit A and B would be two women who are very much alike but one likes porn and hates violence and the other hates violence and enjoys porn. It seems very unlikely that they could ever share a mutual admiration for one movie.]
In a similar vein (Again with the bad mining puns! That's another 15 yard penalty), this columnist enjoyed meeting and was very impressed with Malcolm X. Not everyone who met that particular person had the same reaction. Was is "wrong" to be very impressed with the guy? Gee, wouldn't ya love to hear what Bill O'Reilly's reaction to such a face to face encounter would be?
Is the concept of "one size fits all" really valid or is it just a stealth bit of salesmanship and therefore a lot like "spin"?
Has there really ever been a movie that "everyone must see!"? Are travel articles completely truthful? Can political punditry honestly claim to be "fair and balanced"?
V-Australia can get you from L. A. or San Francisco to Australia's East Coast. United Airlines can also, but Qantas (it's an acronym that means Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service) can get you to Australia's East coast, Perth, and a bunch of cities in-between, but not direct service into Kalgoorlie.
At this point we probably haven't helped those airlines sell beaucoup tickets (if you love New York City, you're gonna like Sydney and be sure to visit Harry's Hot Dogs!) but by now you should get what we mean when we say spin can be very subtle and misleading. . . especially if the reader and the writer aren't working in close coordination like a pitcher and catcher do.
If you read travel magazines be aware that the writer probably never has to wait in a line and gets ushered to good seats and that restaurants make a concerted effort to please the writer.
Reading only conservative pundits, who gush about the talents and accomplishments of Republican candidates, is going get you something that is more salesmanship than journalistic reporting.
Most Americans say that they think very highly of Melbourne. We'll be fine if we never see that city again. That is a very subjective reaction but you won't find statements like that in a travel magazine story. On the other hand, don't be very surprised if one of our future columns is datelined Kalgoorlie. There's always the possibility of a rematch for the Bishop and the Falcon,.
Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) said: "I think I'll go to sleep and dream about piles of gold getting bigger and bigger and bigger."
Kalgoorlie has a statue of St. Barbara and so the disk jockey will play Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit "Sixteen Tons." We gotta get going to dig up something for our next column. Have a pure gold type week.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
