Archive for August, 2008
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FoxNews Fairest on ChinaOlympics?
August 11, 2008
This morning I was watching Fox and the other cable channels. Only Fox had the story of three Americans who were roughed up and summarily deported from China for protesting. In fact, they had one of the protestors, Rev. Patrick Mahoney, live in the studio.
Certainly, Mahoney&;s anti-abortion viewpoint (he is head of the Christian Defense Coalition) was anathema to the one-child-focused Chinese government&;but in a democracy like the U.S., he would have been allowed to protest and say his piece.
The writeup in Israeli daily Haaretz, titled &;The Chinese jump for joy &; as if they had a choice&; describes the incident.
Three Americans &; Rev. Patrick Mahoney, Brandi Swindell and Mike McMonagle &; were sent back to Los Angeles after unfurling a banner &;Jesus Christ is king&; in the Square for two consecutive days, criticizing the government&;s handling of issues ranging from forced abortions to pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989.
Fox is also covering, both on the Web and cable, the story of the Americans stabbed (one was killed) in Beijing during the Olympics. Fox&;s critical coverage of China&;s crackdown on protestors is even more impressive when you consider this; according to reporters at the (pre-Murdoch) Wall Street Journal, “News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch has a well-documented history of making editorial decisions in order to advance his business interests in China and, indeed, of sacrificing journalistic integrity to satisfy personal or political aims.”
One could say Fox is merely continuing their right-wing agenda or is a spoiler (they don&;t have the Olympics broadcast rights), but they&;ve been a lot more up on China&;s downside than MSNBC, which doesn&;t want to kill the Olympic goose that lays the golden eggs for NBC and its corporate parent, GE.
Would Jim McKay would have just covered the fun and games, when the secret police were breaking heads?
Tags:Fox-and-China, Fox-News, GE, Jim-McKay, MSNBC, Olympics-coverage, Rupert-Murdoch, Wall-Street-Journal Posted in Journalism, Television | Leave a Comment &;
John Edwards Lovechild Hints forJournalists
August 10, 2008
I never went to journalism school, but I&;ve been published in the LA Times, NY Daily News, the LA Weekly and most of the airline magazines, among others. Freelancing for the National Enquirer five years was my J-School; thank you Steve Coz wherever you are.
So allow me to help the august J-School grads who run America&;s top papers solve the John Edwards paternity puzzle.
Short of a DNA or blood test, you&;ll never know for sure. But if you can get three sources to agree, you&;ve got something you can probably run with.
Camp out outside Rielle Hunter/Lisa Druck&;s house in Santa Barbara. Pull out some diapers from the trash. Do some DNA analysis if you can, then try to get a John Edwards drinking glass, or cigarette.
That&;s pretty CSI-ish, but the best journalism is talking to people&;lots of them.
Where does Hunter/Druck come from? Does she have a mother, a sister, a favorite aunt? Where did she work? A coworker she talks to? Does she go to a Starbuck&;s? A Ralph&;s? Where does she get her hair done? What gym does she go to? Who are her friends? Who is her doctor? Who works in her doctor&;s office? Who sat next to her in the waiting room at her last appointment?
Talk to all these people. It&;s not brainsurgery. Sooner or later (in my experience, much sooner than you think, as people love to talk) you will find something.
Ask Mrs. Edwards&;I&;m sure Edwards told her something. Watch her eyes when she gives her answer.
Yes, all this takes a strong stomach. But that&;s why you became a journalist in the first place, isn&;t it?
Tags:death-of-journalism, John-Edwards-lovechild, National-Enquirer, Rielle-Hunter, Steve-Coz, yellow-journalism Posted in Journalism, Sex and Society | 2 Comments &;
The John Edwards Lovechild Story:II
August 10, 2008
I hate to say I told you so, but I told you The Enquirer story about John Edwards&; unzipped adventures was probably true. Even the LA Times is admitting the mainstream media missed the story, although they could have had it at any point. When Edwards finally admitted it August 8, they &;unleashed the hounds,&; as the old Jerry Seinfeld commercial put it.
From Stephen Glass to Jayson Blair to the LA Times untrue rap murder scoop to Judy Miller and the missing WMDs, the &;reputable&; media has a sordid recent history of fabrication and &;stenotyping&; the word of &;the authorities&; rather than investigate to find out what is really the truth.
It bothers me, too, as an alumnus of The National Enquirer, that I used to get no respect from people when I told them I wrote for them. &;That rag,&; they used to say disdainfully. Well, what is a rag but a newspaper or other publication when confronted with a truth they&;d rather not dig, instead puts its head in the sand?
Frankly, it was shameful that the mainstream media didn&;t devote any of their (admittedly dwindling) resources to following it up; even if the LA Times is down to 750 or so reporters, couldn&;t a couple have gone out and dug up the dirt on the woman, the philanderer and the wronged wife? Even The Nation has regrets for backing Edwards.
But he was my top choice of the Democratic three for President, because I liked what he stood for. As my father, a smoker, used to say when he tried to dissuade me from smoking &;Do as I say, not as I do.&; Thankfully, I listened.
Tags:Jayson-Blair, John-Edwards-lovechild, National-Enquirer, Rielle-Hunter Posted in Journalism, public-relations-disaster | Leave a Comment &;
Anthrax Killer: Pick a Motive, AnyMotive
August 7, 2008
Perhaps prodded by Salon&;s Glenn Greenwald, the press is finally taking a healthy dose of skepticism to the FBI&;s claims to have &;closed&; the anthrax murder investigation with the conviction death of Dr. Bruce Ivins.
In documents released Wednesday, prosecutors suggested several possible motives, none of them particularly convincing — from concern that the vaccine program Ivins worked in was in trouble to his dislike of Catholic senators who favor abortion rights.
Then there was his financial motive for developing an anthrax vaccine, Ivins as a homicidal maniac, and the catch-all &;mental illness made him do it.&;
The more motives the merrier&;and the less credible.
Tags:anthrax, Bruce-Ivins, FBI-incompetence, Glenn-Greenwald, Salon Posted in Journalism | Leave a Comment &;
Anthrax Killer&;s OtherCrimes
August 7, 2008
The anthrax killer case is closed, says the FBI. They got their (dead) man after only 7 years of investigation and ruining the reputation of another scientist they were equally sure was the killer.
Why do you need a jury of your peers to determine your guilt or innocence, when we have the FBI? And why pay attention to the whining of a defense lawyer:
Ivins&; attorney, Paul Kemp, said the government was &;taking a weird guy and convicting him of mass murder&; without real evidence.
Since scientist Bruce Ivins has been anointed the killer and is conveniently dead, he is also certainly guilty of the following crimes, with many local police departments are now &;clearing&; their cold case files due to Ivins&; posthumous conviction by the FBI:
Chandra Levy: She was found dead in a Washington park in 2001&;just before Ivins launched the anthrax attacks as a cover up.
Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls&;Based in Maryland, Ivins clearly took the side of the East Coast in this gang war.
Nicole Simpson&;Obsessed with sorority blondes, Ivins is the suspect the LAPD inexplicably missed.
D.B. Cooper&;The 1971 airline hijacker was just as white, nerdy and financially obsessed as Ivins. Where was Ivins when Cooper jumped out of the plane?
I&;m no conspiracy theorist, but the FBI&;s clumsy attempt to hamhandledy nail Ivins makes Lee Harvey Oswald look like a piker.
Tags:anthrax, FBI-incompetence Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment &;
Gossip Girl Gets &;Plug&; fromHaters
August 6, 2008
Movies have long been advertised with short blurbs from critics &;It&;ll make your hair stand on end,&; &;You&;ll thrill to this special love story,&; etc.
But the producers of Gossip Girl have the best blurb of all, from the conservative Parents Television Council. Their mission impossible: &;protecting children against sex, violence, and profanity in entertainment.&;
I saw the Gossip Girl ad on a billboard on Ventura Boulevard in Encino, where thousands of Valley Girls see it as they drive by:
Parents Television Council: &;Mind-blowingly Inappropriate&;
Tags:censorship, gossip-girl, indecency, parents-television-council, Television Posted in Sex and Society, Television | Leave a Comment &;
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