Spiking
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Note: spiking a drink means adding alcohol or another drug to it, with or without the drinker's consent, to create intoxication. It may even be intended to create deliberate unconsciousness in order to commit rape.
In journalism, spiking is the practice of deliberately choosing not to publish a news story, or otherwise suppressing newsworthy information, which does not fit the preconceived slant of a news topic.
The practice is the subject of a novel, The Spike, as well as many complaints from public figures whose views have been downplayed or ignored by journalists who were trying to find interviewees to bolster their show's or newspaper's slant.
The Washington Times, whose first editor Arnaud de Borchgrave wrote The Spike, gave an example of spiking news about a man blindfolded and forced to dig his own grave by Islamic terrorists. He managed to tear off the hood covering his head and shout defiantly, "Here's how an Italian dies!" (much like Kevin Costner's line in Prince of Thieves when his hand was about to be cut off: "This is British courage!"). Al-Jazeera didn't show the footage, but it was made available to Western media (which gave it little or no airplay, let alone making headlines):
- American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Ledeen recounted a fascinating story of media bias in Monday's National Review Online. After being taken hostage near Fallujah, Italian security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi was forced to dig his own grave before his execution by terrorists. With his last breaths, he struggled to rip off the hood over his head and yelled defiantly to his captors, "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies." Mr. Quattrocchi, a volunteer in Iraq, died without being submissive to terror, without cowering in the face of evil. His mourning fiancee said proudly that "her only consolation is that he died with honor." Arab news network Al Jazeera did not air the tape of this execution because it sends the message that the West — including Europeans — are angry and determined not to allow Islamic radicals to undermine our civilization and dignity in the face of unjust attack. What is equally interesting about Mr. Quattrocchi's powerful resistance is how few people know about it. The major network and cable news programs did not run tape of this act of bravery over and over again as it does with film that shows scared and submissive hostages. Exhibiting the Italian hero's resolve would help undergird the civilized world's resolve against terror. It's curious that the Western press largely spiked the story. [1] (http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040420-084522-7681r.htm)
Roger Ebert tells the following anecdote:
- 'Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. "Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that. "But what about Basketball Diaries?" she asked. "Doesn't that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?" The obscure 1995 Leonardo DiCaprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it's unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.
- 'The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. "Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."
- 'In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of "explaining" them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.' [2] (http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/wkp-news-elephant07f.html)