Former Miami Herald Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos -whose position at the Herald remains unfilled 27 months later by McClatchy execs- as NPR's Ombudsman, lays the wood into NPR's Laura Sullivan & Amy Walters for a 2011 investigation re foster care in South Dakota, which officials there took umbrage with, and for good reason it seems. “My finding is that the series was deeply flawed and should not have been aired as it was”

NPR stands by story its ombud criticized in lengthy report: http://t.co/dd3iOidQX3 " little to be gained from a point-by-point response"
— Poynter (@Poynter) August 12, 2013

Poynter.org

NPR stands by story its ombudsman criticized

by Andrew Beaujon

Published Aug. 12, 2013 5:29 pm

Updated Aug. 12, 2013 5:34 pm

There are six chapters of NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos’ epic examination of Laura Sullivan and Amy Walters’ October 2011 investigation about foster care in South Dakota.

The series won awards but was also criticized by the state’s governor and head of its Department of Social Services. “Many South Dakota residents also have written me in disapproval of it,” Schumacher-Matos writes. “My finding is that the series was deeply flawed and should not have been aired as it was.” 

Read the rest at:

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/220960/npr-ombudsmans-critique-of-foster-care-story-slightly-shorter-version/

It was optional to hate NPR in 1993. Now that you've scorched a DC neighborhood with your Taj Mahal HQ, it's mandatory.
— Jack Shafer (@jackshafer) July 11, 2013

http://t.co/0zMpcwog4B Swag, statues, and beehives. What you paid for in the new NPR offices. @austinwprice @fishbowldc
— Natl.Journalism Ctr. (@NJC_YAF) June 19, 2013

Edward Schumacher-Matos split his Ombudsman position at the Miami Herald in May of 2011 after he'd been WITHOUT either a blog or a weekly print or online column, but rather saddled with a peculiar once-in-a-while, sometimes every 3-4 months column thing, for NPR in Washington, D.C. 

Schumacher-Matos' position at the Herald remains unfilled 27 months later by McClatchy execs, who seem to place no value on readers and their questions of fairness or bias having a seat at the table.
There's nobody to represent readers' deep and justified concerns about examples of bias, misrepresentation and flackery in the paper on behalf of South Florida's powerful and privileged, who have high-powered attorneys and PR consultants to ensure they are seen only in the most positive light.
But then that's just one of many unresolved customer problems there these days that cause it to lose readers every week.

It's fair to say that a lot of people in South Florida took ESM and his position for granted, including lots of local bloggers and politicians, and the Herald certainly did him no favors by NOT giving him much of a perch to speak out from.

But something, even infrequent, is better than nada, and right now, with that reader level of confidence among serious readers of the Herald as low as it's ever been, it's worth a minute to consider what message they are sending when they refuse to name anyone to that position.

His infrequent columns at least tried to keep Herald reporters and editors on the level and be square with readers, but since he left, anything goes -and does.

While I've written about this troubling subject many times on this blog, and have written Herald management and editors about their failure to fill the position, even posting those emails to them here for you to see for yourselves, it's clear they have a different point-of-view.

It is what it is.

To see how indifferent they are to reader perceptions of bias or unfairness, take a poke at my blog post from May of 2012 titled, "What's going on at the Miami Herald? More than a year after the last one fled, the Herald still lacks an Ombudsman -and shows no sign of getting one- to represent readers deep concerns about bias, misrepresentation and flackery on behalf of South Florida's powerful & privileged at the Herald. And that's just one of many unresolved problems there..." 

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/whats-going-on-at-miami-herald-more.html 

What's going on at the Miami Herald? More than a year after the last one fled, the Herald still lacks an Ombudsman -and shows no sign of getting one- to represent readers deep concerns about bias, misrepresentation and flackery on behalf of South Florida's powerful & privileged at the Herald. And that's just one of many unresolved problems there...

What's going on at the Miami Herald? More than a year after the last one fled, the Herald still lacks an Ombudsman -and shows no sign of getting one- to represent readers deep concerns about bias, misrepresentation and flackery on behalf of South Florida's powerful & privileged at the Herald. And that's just one of many unresolved problems there...


Those of you who come to this blog regularly will recall that back in December and January, I sent a very thorough letter to the top management of the Miami Herald -Publisher David Landsberg, Executive Editor Aminda Marques and Managing Editor Rick Hirsch among others- and some folks at parent company McClatchy Company regarding longstanding problems that I'd been aware of and had observed both in the newspaper and on their website. 


Problems that, from my perspective, at least, they seemed to be expending precious little time, energy and resources on resolving any time in the near-future, judging by the physical product they continue to churn out and what you continue to see on their crummy static website.


Clearly, that doesn't speak well of what's going on down at One Herald Plaza, but then that's not breaking news, either.


After sending those emails, I later re-purposed them and posted those comments here on December 21, 2011.


For another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County, more lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza -Part 1
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-another-consistently-lousy-year-of.html

Part 2 of More lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza for another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/part-2-of-more-lumps-of-coal-in.html

I heard via email from several other concerned media watchers in South Florida -some of them with names you'd instantly recognize- who also don't like the look of things at the Herald -or the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, either, for that matter.


People who, like me, feel that that given its enormous resources, even with a smaller staff, the Herald is not only short-changing the community in its geographical area, but has actually abdicated many of its basic reporting coverage responsibilities in critical ways, and yet can't even point to better and more nuanced reportorial coverage of the places it will actually deign to cover. 


While many people who wrote agreed with me just about 100%, others admitted that they hadn't personally noticed certain things I brought up to Herald management, but that once I mentioned it and they'd had some time to think about it, they found themselves largely agreeing with me that in a competitive marketplace, there was no logical reason for failing to resolve some of these longstanding problems that Herald readers have with the newspaper.


That was especially the case with the Herald's atrocious coverage of Broward County people, places and government, both local and county, where almost every night of the week, you can go to the Herald's Broward homepage, and yet consistently find that less than 40% of the listed stories have anything to do with Broward County.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/#navlink=navbar


Who deliberately runs a newspaper like that? 


In any case, besides some small initial response that first week after they were sent, which came just before the holidays, six months later, nobody from the Herald's management has since followed-up with me or gone public in the newspaper about what and when the Herald is going to do something to prevent the slippery-slope from becoming "the new normal."


A good first step, though long overdue, would actually be hiring an Ombudsman, one who actually lives in South Florida and who not only has a weekly column, but is also equipped with a daily blog.


Someone to better represent readers with deep concerns about the Herald's reporting and editorial bias, misrepresentation of facts, consistent curious choice to leave some key facts out of certain stories, and the perennial concern about Herald flackery on behalf of South Florida's business interests and the personally powerful & privileged -like the newspaper's love affair with M-D Schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho, of whom seldom is heard a discouraging word.


But it's been more than a year now since Edward Schumacher-Matos left for NPR and the Council for Foreign Relations, and nothing is happening, even though that's actually something fairly easy to fix on that laundry list of unresolved problems there...
When are we going to see some tangible signs of positive change at the Herald?


And have you seen how weak their offerings are on their YouTube Channel? http://www.youtube.com/user/MiamiHerald/ 


Without naming names, I know for a fact that there are twenty-something female bloggers in Scandinavia who are so popular that they produce more original video content and get more eyeballs seeing their original content on their YouTube Channel than the Herald gets for their's. (And they do it themselves, too.)


In fact, I know one such blogger in particular who has produced a number of videos within the past six months, most of which have been seen more times than ALL the Herald's videos for the past nine months combined. 


You'd think that by now, the folks locally at the Herald and in Sacramento for McClatchy, would have the good sense to be embarrassed at having all the resources they have, in a large market like this with so many interesting, bizarre and controversial things going on, yet posting such feeble content.
But, apparently, they're not.
------

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/01/2194496/looking-back-on-4-years-of-critiquing.html

Miami Herald

Looking back on 4 years of critiquing The Herald

By Edward Schumacher-Matos

May 1, 2011

Nearly four years ago, I wrote my first column as ombudsman. This is my last. I leave having learned a lot about you, the readers. I leave having failed you, too, in one promise.

I learned foremost that you care — about your community and your newspaper. You write a daily avalanche of e-mails to me and others at The Miami Herald or post comments online, often with passion, over issues in South Florida and the state.

When you don’t like how your point of view was treated in an article, you often threaten to cancel your subscription. Few of you actually do, at least for reasons of coverage. If anything, your reaction shows that you are reading the newspaper. And while most of my columns have been critical of something The Herald has done, you and I share this secret: For every article we disagree with, there are many, many more that we like. No other local news outlet keeps us as well informed.

I also learned your hottest buttons: Cuba, Israel, immigration, taxes, gay rights. And, of course, party politics. Your antennas are acute for any indication that The Herald might be tilting pro-Republican or Democrat.

But whatever your political inclination, the stories you like the most are investigations that ferret out local corruption. As The Herald has redefined itself through smaller staffs, shrinking paper size, and online expansion, you have overwhelmingly implored that it continue investing in the investigations that it does so well. After that, you most like local stories, though the Caribbean Basin and Middle East are local for you, too. You are sophisticated and cosmopolitan.

Few places in the country are so interesting. I am leaving to take up a new post as ombudsman of National Public Radio. I look forward to the political sensitivity of that role as NPR and the media nationally wrestle with how to finance responsible journalism and serve communities. But I will be sad to leave you.

So, how did I let you down? I announced in the beginning that in passing judgment on The Herald’s coverage — on whether it was one-sided, for example, or unfair or incomplete — I would tell you my position on the issue being covered in the original article. It was a revolutionary idea. Here is what I wrote in my first column:

“I’ll tell you upfront, and I’ll tell you my biases, for in the end what I write will necessarily be my own reasoned judgment. But I promise you it will be as fair as I can make it, never cynical, but sometimes irreverent. I strongly believe in good professional journalism, but I don’t think it’s Holy. You are welcome to agree, disagree or demand to kill the ump.”

That first column had to do with the coverage of the Gomez brothers, two young Colombians who were popular students but unauthorized immigrants detained for deportation. Their saga and the proposed Dream Act that might legalize them remains ongoing. Once a Colombian illegal immigrant myself, I wrote that I was sympathetic toward legalizing the unauthorized immigrants in the country.

Still, I criticized The Herald’s coverage for being slanted in favor of the boys. It largely overlooked legitimate questions held by many readers about the fairness of the Dream Act and legalizing the brothers.

But if I lived up to my promise in that first column, I found as the months went by that to state my position on the issues distracted from my critique of the coverage. I became the issue, instead of the reporting and editing by The Herald. As a mechanical matter, it also made the columns too long, especially if I wanted to explain the nuances of my views.

I didn’t make a conscious decision to stop the practice, but my promise somehow just slipped away.

I still wonder if there is a way to revive the idea, not just for ombudsmen, but for reporters.

We know that journalists are human and have opinions and political preferences. There also is no such thing as pure objectivity. We all see through the lens of our upbringing.

Most reporters stretch mightily to set aside their biases and follow basic journalistic rules. Editors further scrub stories for objectivity and fairness.

But we as a society are now in a cynical “post modern” age in which we have been taught to “deconstruct” articles in search of the writer’s supposed underlying intent. Trust in the news media is low. Would transparency about a reporter’s personal views help recover trust then? Is there a practical way to make it work? Or would it be a distraction from the news itself?

I don’t have the answers but would appreciate knowing your parting thoughts. As the news media fragments into many slivers of opinion, we risk fragmenting as a society and a nation. We need to have at least a common base of facts.

Thank you for the privilege of having been allowed into your homes and your considerations these past four years.

Rudderless Miami Herald -Six months since Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos left for NPR, Herald STILL hasn't replaced him -or done much of value

Above, "What's Black-and-White and..." neither a zebra or written or read with any enthusiasm. The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel continue to underwhelm South Florida's populace with their chronically poor news coverage of local news, especially of local government and the nexus of lobbying and crony capitalism. August 21, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Rudderless Miami Herald -Six months since Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos left for NPR, Herald STILL hasn't replaced him -or done much of value

In fact, six months later, it's not just that there's still no Ombudsman... there's still no Broward-centric columnist or an Education blog or a South Florida-based conservative columnist or...

Below is the last column of Schumacher-Matos, someone whom I probably wrote at least once a month about self-evident mistakes, poor editorial judgment and leaps in logic, examples of bias, and all-too-many examples of reporters, columnists and editorial board editorials saying things that were factually incorrect and could be proven, all things I saw and continue to see in the Herald daily.

What's the Herald's plan???

The absence of a plan with the best interests of the readers and the continued taking for granted of both the readers and their intelligence, and the complete absence of what is already basic at many if not most newspapers of the Herald's size, makes me think my intuition is right:

Iceberg, dead ahead!!!

-------

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/01/2194496/looking-back-on-4-years-of-critiquing.html

Miami Herald

Looking back on 4 years of critiquing The Herald

By Edward Schumacher-Matos

May 1, 2011

Nearly four years ago, I wrote my first column as ombudsman. This is my last. I leave having learned a lot about you, the readers. I leave having failed you, too, in one promise.

I learned foremost that you care — about your community and your newspaper. You write a daily avalanche of e-mails to me and others at The Miami Herald or post comments online, often with passion, over issues in South Florida and the state.

When you don’t like how your point of view was treated in an article, you often threaten to cancel your subscription. Few of you actually do, at least for reasons of coverage. If anything, your reaction shows that you are reading the newspaper. And while most of my columns have been critical of something The Herald has done, you and I share this secret: For every article we disagree with, there are many, many more that we like. No other local news outlet keeps us as well informed.

I also learned your hottest buttons: Cuba, Israel, immigration, taxes, gay rights. And, of course, party politics. Your antennas are acute for any indication that The Herald might be tilting pro-Republican or Democrat.

But whatever your political inclination, the stories you like the most are investigations that ferret out local corruption. As The Herald has redefined itself through smaller staffs, shrinking paper size, and online expansion, you have overwhelmingly implored that it continue investing in the investigations that it does so well. After that, you most like local stories, though the Caribbean Basin and Middle East are local for you, too. You are sophisticated and cosmopolitan.

Few places in the country are so interesting. I am leaving to take up a new post as ombudsman of National Public Radio. I look forward to the political sensitivity of that role as NPR and the media nationally wrestle with how to finance responsible journalism and serve communities. But I will be sad to leave you.

So, how did I let you down? I announced in the beginning that in passing judgment on The Herald’s coverage — on whether it was one-sided, for example, or unfair or incomplete — I would tell you my position on the issue being covered in the original article. It was a revolutionary idea. Here is what I wrote in my first column:

“I’ll tell you upfront, and I’ll tell you my biases, for in the end what I write will necessarily be my own reasoned judgment. But I promise you it will be as fair as I can make it, never cynical, but sometimes irreverent. I strongly believe in good professional journalism, but I don’t think it’s Holy. You are welcome to agree, disagree or demand to kill the ump.”

That first column had to do with the coverage of the Gomez brothers, two young Colombians who were popular students but unauthorized immigrants detained for deportation. Their saga and the proposed Dream Act that might legalize them remains ongoing. Once a Colombian illegal immigrant myself, I wrote that I was sympathetic toward legalizing the unauthorized immigrants in the country.

Still, I criticized The Herald’s coverage for being slanted in favor of the boys. It largely overlooked legitimate questions held by many readers about the fairness of the Dream Act and legalizing the brothers.

But if I lived up to my promise in that first column, I found as the months went by that to state my position on the issues distracted from my critique of the coverage. I became the issue, instead of the reporting and editing by The Herald. As a mechanical matter, it also made the columns too long, especially if I wanted to explain the nuances of my views.

I didn’t make a conscious decision to stop the practice, but my promise somehow just slipped away.

I still wonder if there is a way to revive the idea, not just for ombudsmen, but for reporters.

We know that journalists are human and have opinions and political preferences. There also is no such thing as pure objectivity. We all see through the lens of our upbringing.

Most reporters stretch mightily to set aside their biases and follow basic journalistic rules. Editors further scrub stories for objectivity and fairness.

But we as a society are now in a cynical “post modern” age in which we have been taught to “deconstruct” articles in search of the writer’s supposed underlying intent. Trust in the news media is low. Would transparency about a reporter’s personal views help recover trust then? Is there a practical way to make it work? Or would it be a distraction from the news itself?

I don’t have the answers but would appreciate knowing your parting thoughts. As the news media fragments into many slivers of opinion, we risk fragmenting as a society and a nation. We need to have at least a common base of facts.

Thank you for the privilege of having been allowed into your homes and your considerations these past four years.

-----

Below are excerpts from an email that I wrote some well-informed media friends around the country back on January 24th.

Reading this Romensko column from earlier today about the relative state of the Washington Post that I read in print everyday for 13 years, and have read just about everyday online in the seven years since moving back to South Florida, I once again got to thinking about the Miami Herald and their part-time ombudsman, Edward Schumacher-Matos, a sometime subject on my blog, along with former Herald Exec. VP and Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, now up in McClatchy's HQ in D.C.

Three weeks into 2011, the Herald's ombudsman still doesn't have a print column that runs once a week, or even runs fairly regularly, since it's often many weeks in-between his essays.

Today is January 24th, but his last column was January 2nd:

Educators weigh in on Herald’s coverage

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/02/1994424/educators-weigh-in-on-heralds.html

And the last one before that was... November 28th:

Ombudsman: Are teachers treated fairly by The Miami Herald?

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/28/1946070/ombudsman-are-teachers-treated.html

And before that, October 10th:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/10/1865463/obamacare-wrong-choice-for-headline.html

(Three columns in 14 weeks.)

Hmm-m... it's as if Schumacher-Matos is filing his columns via 'a slow boat from China,' which is yet another example of the Herald continuing to NOT properly use technology and resources available to them, to add to an already LONG list of negatives that readers I know are definitely keeping track of.

For whatever reason, one that has never been fully explained to readers, Schumacher-Matos STILL doesn't have a blog like many other newspaper ombudsmen, there's STILL no designated space on their website for him, with either his name, the word "Ombudsman" or an icon, to make him easier to find for readers.

In fact, you STILL have to use the search function to find his most recent column.

And unlike has been the tradition with the NYT's Ombudman column, which links directly to the stories that are being hashed-over, so that readers can see for themselves what it originally said, the Herald has no links and the original stories are usually locked in the paid archives discussed because... yes, it's six weeks between his columns.

If you never saw the article being discussed the first time, you're out of luck and have to rely on him being accurate in his description.

Is that really any way to run a railroad in 2011?

---------

To compare the seriousness with which it takes its role of being the eyes and ears of the community's readers with the Herald's benign, er, malignant neglect, read this column by the-then Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander in his last column in that position ten months ago:

The Washington Post

Can The Post regain its legacy of excellence?

By Andrew Alexander

Sunday, January 23, 2011

My fourth-floor office looks out over the main entrance to The Post. I often glance across 15th Street and see tourists taking photos of the newspaper's iconic nameplate. For so many, The Post has a reputation for journalistic excellence. Will it endure?

I've pondered that question while crafting this column, my last as ombudsman. So, too, have many of the tens of thousands who e-mailed or called during my two-year term as the readers' representative. A dominant theme has been that The Post's journalistic quality has declined. It's a view I share.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/21/AR2011012105376.html

Liberty's Kids: A sub-tropical Fourth of July spent reminiscing on how our country came to be

Through My Own Eyes (Liberty's Kid's opening theme)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBF9XEsnvJI

Aaron Carter & Kayla Hinkle - Through My Own Eyes (Liberty's Kid's opening theme)

Performed July 4th, 2002 on the West lawn of the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. for PBS-TV's

annual broadcast of "A Capitol Fourth" concert, featuring The National Symphony Orchestra. Introduced By Barry Bostwick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT0gB7hIwrs

These concerts on The Mall are one of the things that I miss most about no longer living in the Washington area, besides my friends, of course, not to mention, riding the Metro, visiting the Smithsonian museums, the Orioles, riding my bike along the Potomac, the four seasons and the sense of being somewhere where things are always happening.
(Teaser Alert: things are NOT always happening in Hallandale Beach, Florida.)

Tonight's concert, hosted by actor Jimmy Smits, begins at 8 p.m. with a repeat on most PBS stations at 9:30. http://www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/

In my blog post three months ago ago about the the rather lighthearted graphic novel comic book on Prince William and Kate Middleton that aimed to explain their back-story, the very first thing that hit me as I looked at the illustrations was how much they reminded me EXACTLY of the way the characters in Liberty's Kids were depicted, the children's TV series on Revolutionary America that ran on the PBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.

http://www.markosia.com/wordpress/

One of my neighbor's kids in Arlington County used to watch Liberty's Kids all the time when I was over at her house visiting her folks,

She was surprised to learn that her cool neighbor who had so many magazines delivered to his house and who was the resident Orioles expert on the block, ALSO knew a lot about about American history, and I lent her some copies of some good history books, including a comparison of the American, French and Russian revolutions.

Years later, she got into UVA, the University of Virgina, Mr. Jefferson's school, where the second-oldest of my three niece has just finished her freshman year.

Plus, up there, as opposed to South Florida, they used to run Liberty's Kids marathons from alpha-to-omega.

The best episode I saw was the one on Ceasar Rodney, someone I've mentioned here in the blog a time or two, since though he's almost completely forgotten today, even among otherwise intelligent people, the truth is, without Rodney, there's no American Constitution.

Period.

http://www.libertyskids.com/

Above, Hallandale Beach, Florida, U.S.A. June 20, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

If you are going to be around the house or driving around this morning, might I suggest that you give a listen to someone whom I used to listen to every weekday for over 20 years?

This morning, from 10-Noon, NPR's Diane Rehm Show will be airing encrore performances of two of my favorite American historians, both Pulitzer Prize winners.

At 10:06 am. Gordon Wood will discuss his collected essays on the primacy of the American Revolution in American history, "The Idea of America."

I've read many of his books in the past and even given one as a gift to a friend while up in D.C.

At 11:06 a.m., David McCullough, whom I've discussed here before, speaks on his book about 19th Century Americans with a yen for travel in la France in "The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris."

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-07-04/gordon-wood-idea-america-rebroadcast

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-07-04/david-mccullough-greater-journey-americans-paris-rebroadcast

United We Stand

1993 ELVIS PRESLEY STAMP -WATERCOLOR OF ELVIS BY MARK STUTZMAMN

Below, a wonderful song my great friend (and gifted singer) Shannon and I used to love to sing together in her apt. in D.C.

But, of course, nobody could sing it quite like Elvis...

Elvis Presley - An American Trilogy (from ELVIS Aloha from Hawaii, January,1973)

http://youtu.be/m9saX9cF248

"Emergency" U.S. House Rules Comm. meeting Wed. re bill permanently barring NPR or affils from getting Fed funds; Larry O'Connor on Dennis Miller Show

3/14/11 Breitbart TV Editor-in-Chief Larry O'Connor talks about last week's James O'Keefe-inspired sting of National Public Radio (NPR) with Dennis Miller on his syndicated radio show
http://www.youtube.com/user/breitbart#p/a/u/1/7GTXXFCpAhg

Weekdays, 10AM-1PM EST http://www.dennismillerradio.com/


Los Angeles Times
GOP prepares new assault on NPR funding as questions over video flap remain
A House committee schedules an 'emergency' session Wednesday to consider a bill that would permanently bar NPR or its affiliates from receiving federal funds. The move comes even though the video that brought down the broadcaster's chief fundraiser and CEO was apparently manipulated.
By James Oliphant Washington Bureau
March 15, 2011, 2:37 p.m.

Reporting from Washington -- House Republicans are preparing a new effort to strip NPR of all federal support, even as new questions have emerged from last week's scandal that forced an NPR fundraiser, as well as its chief executive, to resign.

The House Rules Committee will meet in "an emergency" session Wednesday to consider a bill that would permanently bar NPR or its affiliate stations from receiving federal funds. If it passes the committee, as expected, the bill could make it to the House floor later this week.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-npr-questions-20110315,0,4992364.story

Uh-oh! Upcoming BBC World Service 'Open Eyes' segment on racial tensions in Malmö. Hmm-m...; Swedish immigration policy costs borne by local residents

The amazing diversity of a city called Malmö...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtUopabsELM
Earlier today, quite unexpectedly, I heard an on-air promo for the BBC World Service on an "Open Eyes" segment airing on Jan. 19th, dealing with racial tensions (and illegal immigration?) in M...
No, not perpetual ethnic and crime hothouse Miami, but Malmö, only an ethnically diverse city with one of the most well-educated populaces in the world. Hmm-m-m...

(And, as it happens, it's home to some friends of your faithful blogger, some of whom were alluded to in my post about Crown Princess Victoria's wedding, who drove to Stockholm and got-up early to find good places to watch the ceremonies.)

Malmö is sort of like the more interesting and charming parts of Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis I've been to, where you meet nice, friendly, well-educated and well-rounded people, and see why they really love it there and want to raise their families there.

Their idea of happiness is NOT a high-rise condo near the water in an area that's beset with gridlocked traffic and out-of-control city and county governments that specialize in raising taxes and lip service.
They have very different criteria for a nice Quality-of-Life, and proximity to Nordstrom's or The Cheesecake Factory is NOT one of them. It really makes you think!

And like those three American cities that I'm pretty familiar with, which have very good colleges there, Malmö has been busy successfully re-inventing itself as a home to education, technology and innovation.

City's official hemsida: http://www.malmo.se/
Malmö Visitor & Tourist homepage, in English: http://www.malmotown.com/en

And whether you tend to believe Wikipedia in general or not, according to the current Wikipedia entry on Malmö, which seems mostly accurate as I read it,

"Immigrant Muslims comprise a little over 25% of population and their share keeps on rising. It is predicted that Malmö would be more than 50% Muslim by 2020."

As of now, I don't know what time the segment will air on the BBC on the 19th, but I will keep checking every so often and let you know here once I find out.

When I put my ear to the ground to listen for the sound of approaching hoof-beats -my Indian name is "Discerning voice that carries" -I sense (fear) another well-intentioned but ultimately politically biased and self-fulfilling report akin to so many over-the-top NPR segments I heard broadcast under Bush 43, that seemed designed to marginalize the legitimate concerns of real people with real problems, in this case, the residents of Malmö, in order to engage in agitprop under the guise of journalism.

The likely result?
Mockery of the town and a blown opportunity to understand a complicated issue that has finally
resulted in the Sweden Democrats, Sverigedemokrarna, i.e SD, finally getting into the
Riksdag, the Swedish parliament. http://sverigedemokraterna.se/

To me, this is an entirely predictable result, and not unlike the rise of the Tea Party and their activists in the U.S., as a vocal response to Obama's public policies, it was the proof that for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.

Some of those NPR stories I heard then were always sort of hard to pigeonhole and figure out just who they were trying to "educate."
"But next, a feminist leader in Ecuador talks about the Vagina Monologues finally coming to Quito."
Yeah, too many curious stories like that with not so thinly-veiled political bias made me realize that listening to NPR so much was just a poor use of my time, which is why I rarely listen to it now. http://www.npr.org/

Frankly, now it just sounds too much like White House and DCCC propaganda, once-removed.

As to the upcoming BBC program, there are many things I wonder about, mostly, to what extent it will have a fair-minded prologue accurately describing the situation that average Swedish citizens find themselves in -a box they can't get out of.

For instance, though it will change after this year, until now, non-European students who come to Sweden get their university education for FREE, paid for by Swedish citizens.

In Sweden, local governments, not the national govt. in the form of the Riksdag, pay the majority of the real costs associated with immigration and assimilation policy, legal and illegal, which are REQUIRED, not optional.

In that sense, local governments there have an 'unfunded mandate,' but there's nobody like
the Dept. of Homeland Security, ICE or DOJ with pots of grant money or stimulus funds
to help a town reconcile their budget costs.
YOU HAVE TO PAY.

As you might imagine, this has a profound effect on municipal budgets in ways that, well, certain large U.S. cities and newspaper editorial boards with pro-amnesty sensibilities, like the Miami Herald, can't possibly imagine or appreciate.

It's a simple fact that at some Swedish colleges, the Masters programs are more than 50% full of Asian students who DON'T pay, which means that Swedish taxpayers are not only paying for someone who is NOT from their own country, but who, possibly, are elbowing out their own son or daughter of their higher education.
THAT brings the issue home in a very tangible way.

University fees might weaken Swedish universities
http://www.stockholmnews.com/Default.aspx

Nope, with no money trees to shake in Washington, with high-paid lobbyists, the favored South Florida approach, local Swedish governments and citizens pay close to the full freight for an immigration policy they can't change.
Imagine you were them, how would THAT make you feel?

So when was the last time you read or heard about this in a mainstream media news story in the U.S.?

When the time comes during the course of the year for local Swedish governments to set their budget priorities and make them public, do elected officials vote to close a popular library because of the costs associated with immigration assimilation education programs, or do you cut certain Parks & Recreation programs for kids, or close the park a few days a week, so that you can pay for some program for Somali or Turkish emigres?
Hmm-m-m...

Around the time of the Swedish parliamentary elections in September, which saw the return to power of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, the first center-right prime minister to lead the country for two periods in a row, this time, with a four-party Red-Green coalition, I came across
a fascinating budget story that really brought home to me the costs of their ridiculous immigration policy, though the truth is, I came across it while looking for something else.
This story concerned a northern Swedish town called Gävle, which is roughly about half the size of next-door Hollywood (FL), but like Hollywood, located on the water, in Gävle's case, on the Baltic Sea.
It's also one of the oldest towns in the entire country.

In a September 8th story that appeared in Gefle Dagblad, http://gd.se/ the local chairman there, Roger Hedlund, argues that the government grant of 40 million SEK only covers 22 percent of the costs of refugee protection.
Guess who pays the rest? Do the math!

Here's an excerpt from the story from September:
Sverigedemokraterna vill skrota orkestern Orkestern och flyktingar kostar för mycket enligt SD

Statsbidraget för flyktingmottagandet täcker bara 22 procent av kostnaderna, hävdar Sverigedemokraterna och hänvisar till Sveriges kommuner och landsting. SKL säger att siffran är mellan 70 och 90 procent.
Om Gävle kommun säger upp avtalet med Migrationsverket blir det 153 miljoner kronor över. Pengar som kan satsas på bland annat parboendegaranti och en skattesänkning med 55 öre. Siffrorna presenterades av Sverigedemokraterna i går, när de lade fram sitt lokala valmanifest och en skuggbudget för Gävle kommun.

Ordföranden i Gävle, Roger Hedlund, hävdar att statsbidraget på 40 miljoner kronor bara täcker 22 procent av kostnaderna för flyktingmottagandet.

Would people in South Florida, esp. the pro-amnesty crowd at the Miami Herald's editorial board and and local TV stations' management, and their decisions about what is and is not aired on local newscasts, look at immigration differently if 70-90% of the cost of services given to and provided by the U.S. to immigrants, illegal or otherwise, was borne NOT by the federal government, but by the individual state, county and city and the citizens who live HERE?

Not money coming out of some abstract wallet, not money being printed on some U.S. Treasury printing press, but directly out of their own individual wallet, purse and bank account, affecting their life and their family's?

At the local level, where they can see exactly what local and state govt. services are necessarily eliminated or cut back because of the costs involved in dealing with immigrants? Guess what, that's the reality of the average Swedish citizen.

They and their family have to make do without something because their money is being used for a purpose that they are opposed to, and yet when they complain about something being amiss in their representative democracy, and the costs of this, they are called, at a minimum, selfish and racist, and often quite worse by the condescending domestic and international news media, plus many of their fellow citizens.
Hmm-m-m... sound familiar?
Below, a very typical NPR view of what happened in the Swedish election, with zero context or understanding, but then they never understood Ross Perot's appeal, either, did they?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/09/20/129995071/anti-immigrant-party-in-sweden-wins-seats
It sounds exactly like what we all heard and read constantly by the American news media about The Tea Party this year.
THAT kind of condescending and dismissive attitude, without any proper context, I suspect, is exactly what the BBC may well have in store for the city of Malmö and its citizens in less than a fortnight.


I wrote about September's Swedish national election here:
Sept. 16th, 2010 post:
SACC New York will be hosting Swedish Election Watch Party at Aquavit on Sunday from 1-5 p.m. http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/sacc-new-york-will-be-hosting-swedish.html

Sept. 10th, 2010 post:
Sunday Multi-tasking: I'm watching the 2010 Swedish election returns LIVE on SVT -AND the Dolphins at Vikings ballgame!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/sunday-multi-tasking-im-watching-2010.html

From Bergman's Sweden to Mod cotton fashions in the blink of an eye; BBC's 5 LIVE as a chaser; RFD Greenwich Village on TCM; Leona Lewis and Colbie Caillat's ads for Cotton Producers Institute

Today for your education and amusement comes this very interesting insight into late 1960's advertising and fashion and New York City living, in the form of a short ten-minute industrial film called RFD Greenwich Village.


https://archive.org/details/0574_RFD_Greenwich_Village_08_01_00_24
advertising, Manhattan, late-1960's fashion, New York City, travel, social life, consumerism, home design, Bleeker Street, NYC architecture, O. Henry's, The Village Gate, Village Purple Onion, Ye Waverly Inn, Circle in the Square theater

I first saw it on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) over the weekend as "filler" immediately following a showing of Ingmar Bergman's celebrated 1966 film, Persona.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060827/

It was produced by the industry group, Cotton Producers Institute, which the next year became Cotton Incorporated, which first made all those great feel-good TV ads in the 1970's for cotton clothing, emphasizing The Fabric of Our Lives.
"The touch/The feel of cotton/The fabric of our lives."
http://www.cottoninc.com/CottonGrowerArticles/

Here are their newest commercials from April for that famous advertising campaign featuring singers Leona Lewis and Colbie Caillat.

The Fabric of Leona's Life (High Quality): 30

http://youtu.be/ncFkelvp2ho

The Fabric of Colbie's Life (High Quality): 30

http://youtu.be/Eba_ofOU0LA

See also: Leona Lewis and Colbie Caillat talk FASHION
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd0jmd_leona-lewis-and-colbie-caillat-talk_shortfilms

See other commercials from the series at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CottonFabricOfMyLife

Because I hadn't seen Persona in many years and it was coming on after midnight, I chose to record it while I listened via the Internet to the BBC's 5 live programming while trying to fall asleep, something which I have become addicted to doing since the beginning of the year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/#two

Because of the five-hour time difference between South Florida and London, when I flip it on after watching ESPN's Baseball Tonight, it's their Breakfast show with Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty, or if it's a bit later, Victoria Derbyshire.

I'll actually be compiling and sharing my own personal "Best of" 5 live morning shows soon, along with links and podcast info to share some of the best programming I've heard in ages, and which makes listening to stolid NPR an even less-likely decision once you've gotten used to their style, verve and imagination -and honesty.
And it's all LIVE. 

That's why I used the word addictive earlier, since I now find myself going to sleep with lots of traffic updates on what's what on the M6 and where the lorries have flipped over like they always did on cue on the DC Beltway and I-270 in Maryland at the worst possible times -morning rush.

Take a listen for yourself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live/

While taping Persona on the tube, from London I heard a series of news bites on a new study along with some compelling interviews with adults and kids on the affect of parental drinking in front of children. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sybc6#synopsis

I don't mind telling you that some of it nearly had me in tears, since I recognized the outline of so many of these stories and revelations from first-hand observations among my own family and circle of friends here in South Florida and while going to school at IU in Bloomington, where I sometimes went on weekend trips with friends back to their hometowns all across the Midwest.


(To the best of my knowledge, my alma mater, North Miami Beach High School, had no cheerleaders or high-achieving girls get pregnant by teachers while I was there from 1976-'79, but apparently, judging by what I heard on those weekend visits so many years ago, NMB's kind of normalcy was anything but the norm in some of the Midwestern towns I visited, which seemed more like David Lynch film sets, with high school Driver's Education instructors actually leaving their wives for 17-year old girls.
Turns out I was more right about NMB being very "square" than I ever knew when I lived there.)

Frankly, the consistent high-quality programming at 5 live makes the prospect of ever returning to listening to a regularly-scheduled NPR program high unlikely, especially since I can always go to the Diane Rehm Show archives or podcasts on weekends if an author or topic I'm interested in is on her popular show, which I listened to regularly for 21 years. But no more.


After I finally saw RFD Greenwich Village on Monday, I must've watched it 2-3 more times to capture all the nostalgia, kitsch and sharp writing, and snapped a few screen-shots to share with you here in the future as well.


Tuesday, I decided to look for it elsewhere, and I struck gold via this video at the Internet Archive.


Best phrase of the film, at 01:47, "Suburban living on an urban landscape."

At 05:55, tell me that doesn't look like a young Bill Clinton!Best line of the film at 09:56,

"Today, Greenwich Village is the postmark for many "countrified cosmopolitans," people who prefer small-town casualness to rigid metropolitan dress for men, and their suburban counterparts."

The parties depicted here, particularly the courtyard parties, reminded me of living in Bloomington and Chicago/Evanston in the '80's, and in the case of the latter, the fabulous parties my older friends in advertising or retail threw with relish and aplomb, as well as friends who were 20-something Junior League legacies on The North Shore, and who looked like they stepped straight out of the new 1986 J.G. Hook catalog or a 1985 issue of Town & Country magazine.

For the record, as anyone who knows me from that period of time can attest, I've always liked and been a sucker for that look, hence my particular fondness while at IU for sorority girls at Delta Gamma and over at Kappa Kappa Gamma.
Smart, sporty, practical and fun-loving personality to spare!

Image-wise for the above parties, picture 27-year old clones of Sela Ward or Janine Turner, to name two of my favorite actresses.
http://www.xyface.com/celeb-sela-ward
http://www.janineturner.com/ 
@JanineTurner https://twitter.com/JanineTurner

'Nuff said!

Sela Ward

More, December 2005/January 2006;
Sela Ward - "At 49, I've learned that beautiful word no."

Homesick: A Memoir by Sela Ward
http://www.selawardtv.com/homesick.html

I'll have a post pretty soon on Janine's very interesting and principled efforts of late to promote the lasting lessons from The Federalist Papers to young people, along with her daughter, Juliette.
Obviously, I support that effort 100%.

(I've previously written about Janine and Sela and her book over at my other blog, South Beach Hoosier, http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/2008/03/janine-turner-on-c-span-2s-book-tv-sun.html and http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/search?q=sela+ward)


For more on 1960's advertising and fashion photos, see Found in Mama's Basement:
http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/

advertising, Manhattan, late-1960's fashion, New York City, travel, social life, consumerism, home design, Bleeker Street, NYC architecture, O. Henry's, The Village Gate, Village Purple Onion, Ye Waverly Inn, Circle in the Square theater