James Tracy, FAU Professor, Says Sandy Didn't Happen; Revels In Notoriety
Again, Tracy is everything that is wrong with media critique. The worst kind analyze how journalists put together their stories without ever having been one. Their mission is to break the code. Prove once and for all that journalists take directives from THE MEDIA.
Tracy got his PhD in media studies from the University of Iowa in 2002. I wasn't surprised to see this. I also went there myself, earning an undergrad degree in journalism. While there are many great things about Iowa's journalism school, one of them, unfortunately, is that it teems with academics, not journalists.
All of them are indisputably smart -- perhaps a little smart for their own good. An unsettling number of classes there analyze media currents, discerning injections of "tacit framing" and "corporate underpinnings" in every news article. And this, frankly, isn't true.
Here's what is: 20 children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. This was a tragedy beyond words. There wasn't any media-government conspiracy to push gun control legislation; conversation on the issue began organically. (Because, if such a conspiracy had been in the works, why hadn't it happened after Columbine, or Virginia Tech, or Aurora?)
And Tracy's work isn't academic. It's blogging. There's a difference.
Follow the writer @terrence_mccoy
Follow @NewTimesBroward































