Davos Newbies

Honest Rather

Newsnight, BBC’s late-night news analysis programme, had an extraordinary interview last night with US television anchorman Dan Rather (only the latest programme is available, but once it expires, I’ll try to find an archived version. If you want to watch, start at 31 minutes into the programme). Rather admitted he felt personally ashamed at the inability of American journalists to ask the tough, telling questions in the current US climate.  

“We’ve seen a time in South Africa when people had flaming tires placed around their necks for dissenting,” Rather said. “And in some ways, the fear is that you will be necklaced here, with a flaming tire, for lack of patriotism. That fear is what keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions and to keep on asking those questions. I’m humbled to say I don’t exempt myself from this kind of criticism.”

There are also disturbing demonstrations of how war is being turned into entertainment.

Neuroethics

Bill Safire introduces his readers to the field of neuroethics, the examination of the benefits and dangers of treating and manipulating our minds. Safire’s involvement in politics and language are well known; fewer people are aware of his profound interest in brain science, expressed through his active role in the Dana Foundation. The questions he poses have no easy answers.

“How about a future use of imaging to pinpoint a brain area indicating a traumatic memory – should we expunge a victim’s ability to recollect, say, a rape? Do we outlaw implantation of a memory of an event that never happened? Should brain imagers give law enforcement a “lie detector” far more reliable than the mechanical polygraph , and if so, is the reading of a mind of a resistant terrorist akin to torture?”

And Safire is surely right to say it’s of the utmost importance that discussions about these issues are open and public, rather than confined to a room of experts.