NewsBreakingOnline

For some reason, Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker and Thomas Watkins, in a story about the wave of flash mob crime in the U.S. this summer, felt compelled to find an “expert” who would express some sympathy for its participants. Well, they supposedly found one. His name is Jonathan Taplin. Here's what he told the AP: Jonathan Taplin, director of the innovation lab at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, said he was not surprised to see people using social media for organizing flash mob robberies. “You are essentially having a world where you have 25 million people who are underemployed and 2 percent of the population doing better than they ever have,” Taplin said. “Why wouldn't that lead to some sort of social unrest? Why wouldn't people use the latest technologies to effect that?” Initially, it appears odd, to say the least, that Tucker and Watkins would have found their “let's blame our unjust society” quote from a guy like Taplin in the first place. Really, that's a pretty fiery quote coming from a guy at an “innovation lab.” What does Taplin know about what goes on in the hearts and minds of those who, from various accounts nationwide, have appeared to be mostly black and mostly teenagers — to the point where publications like the Chicago Tribune have felt the need to explain their politically incorrect decisions to say as much? It seems even odder when one learns that Taplin holds himself out in his Annenberg job as a specialist “in international communication management and the field of digital media entertainment.” This makes him an expert on class envy and social unrest? Let's look at what the Annenberg Innovation Lab project's ” initial areas of focus ” are: Innovative applications for configuring news content that fully utilize the capabilities of devices such as digital tablets and e-Book readers. Interactive Television applications and widgets for the next generation of fiber optic delivered high definition TV. The evolution of the E-Book into the multimedia realm using video, music and graphics in addition to text. The use of portable digital devices of all sorts in the production, distribution and monetization of news and entertainment content. The use of immersive digital platforms as a journalistic medium. The evolution of social networking as a platform for commerce, entertainment and journalism. Obviously there's nothing wrong with any of this, but AP's reporters either didn't know or didn't care that they were basically talking to someone who could fairly be characterized as just another media guy (though with a much wider background than is often found, as noted here in a sympathetic CBS New piece in February 2009). The AP's use of Taplin as a so-called expert starts to make (propaganda) sense once one sees his favorite news sources at the bottom of this April 2011 interview : “New York Times, Talking Points Memo (TPM), FiveThirtyEight.” Hmm. The latter two indicate more than an average person's interest in politics. Far more important, Tucker and Watkins didn't disclose that Taplin's sympathies unsurprisingly lean far to the left, as evidenced by