More on teen driving

Radio Times on WHYY this morning is covering teen driving dangers, the subject of my post on Dec. 14. Guest Katharine Watson, Bucks County Republican State Rep., calls distractions from passengers a much bigger problem even than electronic devices, though the latter gets much of the media attention. A bill she is sponsoring would address passenger limits, seat belt use, etc. Some of her esteemed colleagues in the famously progressive Pennsylvania legislature (note dripping sarcasm) have called her a "hysterical mom" for her efforts to make laws match the mountain of evidence on how to save teenage lives.

Note to quasi-libertarian (when it suits them) rural ignoramuses: driver safety laws affect everyone - not just the driver - by making our roads safer. If I had to choose I'd rather see an experienced driver flout the speed limit than an inexperienced, distracted driver creeping across a double yellow line.

Other guest Flaura Koplin-Winston, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and Co-Scientific Director of The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, is also on the show. The center's Web site (lots of useful info) is: http://www.research.chop.edu/programs/injury/our_research/ydri.php

Our post-journalistic world

I just read a fantastic article in The Atlantic by Mark Bowden, who was a beat reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer for 25 years (he now writes a current affairs column for the paper). So many people are jaded and conspiratorial about nearly every issue these days (this passes for wise and worldly), and what is often wrongly referred to as "journalism" has a lot to do with it—or so Bowden argues in this cogent analysis of the controversy surrounding the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Here's the link: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/media

The dominant media ethos, according to Bowden: "Nobody is actually right about anything, no matter how certain they pretend to be. The truth is something that emerges from the cauldron of debate. No, not the truth: victory, because winning is way more important than being right. Power is the highest achievement. There is nothing new about this. But we never used to mistake it for journalism."