Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Ben Bradlee was right, of course: "There is nothing like daily journalism! Best damn job in the world!" Now IF ONLY the people running McClatchy Co.'s Miami Herald and Tribune Media's South Florida Sun-Sentinel actually thought THAT way and put readers first! But South Florida news consumers know they DON'T, as evidence has made clear for far-too-many years, day-after-day!







-Ben Bradlee: "There is nothing like daily journalism! Best damn job in the world!"

 Noble sentiments expressed by someone who wasn't afraid to challenge the establishment and force his readers to confront unhappy facts.
IF ONLY the people running The McClatchy Co.'s Miami Herald and Tribune Media's South Florida Sun-Sentinel actually thought this way and managed their resources accordingly!
But by almost any measure you choose to use, from circulation figures to relevancy, the mountain of evidence to date the past ten years proves conclusively that they DON'T. 
Just the opposite!

 They excel at consistently squandering stories others would jump at.
Of censoring stories that are unfavorable to local politicians whom they favor: Debbie Wasserman Schultz for the Sun-Sentinel, Marco Rubio for the Herald.
And they excel at doing this in ways that are not only offensive to serious people, but doing so in particularly clumsy and ham-handed ways.

Daily, casual readers and news junkies alike wake-up in South Florida to see that yet again, those newspapers and their editorial management have consciously made the decision to ignore interesting and compelling local stories about public policy and conflicts at city and county government that 15, 20 and 25 years ago would have definitely made it into print -and been noticed by everyone. 
(And in other cities, are up on the paper's blog within minutes, NOT days.)

 That is, UNLESS it's now occurring in one of a handful of favored South Florida cities, while people living elsewhere in South Florida might as well be living in Cuba for all that the newspapers' management and editors care, counter-intuitively.

 Except, of course, as even the most infrequent South Florida news consumer knows with certainty -and as I've written here on the blog dozens of times over the years with one concrete example after another- it's been clear for years that the Miami Herald actually expends MORE time and resources covering Cuba than they do Broward County.
And actually cares more about Cuba and what happens there than they do about what happens in Broward County, where roughly 40% of their readers live.

 Which explains why so many Miami Herald columnists write about Cuba and Cuban-related matters SO often, to the exclusion of writing about local stories happening in Miami-Dade and Broward counties that demand some attention and commentary.

 To paraphrase myself, since so many people have, how and why is it that 19 DAYS after the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's initial story ran online re criminal allegations against interim Hallandale Beach B City Commissioner and candidate Leo Grachow being investigated by the BSO -a story that hours later was then pulled and wiped clean from their website- not a single new fact-based bit of information has emerged in the newspaper to either support the initial allegations or discredit 
them?

With all the reporters available to work the story and the amazing technology around now to better help explain it to readers or viewers, how can it then be true that nobody at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has reported ANYTHING new in nineteen days?
And how is it that the Sun-Sentinel, typically, instead of being open and transparent about what is and has been taking place with respect to a cover-up at Hallandale Beach City Hall, where the city continually refused to provide public documents to them under Florida's Sunshine Laws, is shooting themsleves in the foot and making themselves even more irrelevant than usual by remaining mum?
Of consciously choosing NOT to explain to readers and the general public what they're doing -or why they pulled the story from their website in the first place?
Again, consider where we live.

It's nothing news for us and our concerfns to be ignored.
Consider this stone cold fact: In 18 mos since damning report by @BrowardIG abt CRA, @SunSentinel & @MiamiHerald have written ZERO editorials abt it




If this same story weeks before an important city-wide election that would determine whether a pro-reform group would make up the new majority on the city commission had taken place in Coral Gables, Hialeah or in the City of Miami, it's likely there'd have been Miami Herald and Sun-Sentiel reporters sitting outside someone's home overnight.
Perhaps somebody from all four Miami-area English language TV stations already busy working the streets trying to ferret-out more info, while others worked the phones to try to come up with a new angle on the story and the individuals involved.
But because this story happened in Hallandale Beach, in Broward County, a place that the miami Herald considers terra incognita, there's... nothing at all.

Not even so much as an explanation from the newspaper that started the whole ball rolling in the first place and the people running it.






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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Obama's bad foreign policy from the start shows little sign of improving, as Washington Post Editorial Board lashes out Sunday : "Mr. Kerry’s empty words on Syria": "So what does the Obama administration propose to do to stop this barbarism? The simple answer is: nothing, other than issue strongly worded statements..."; #stonecoldfacts, @washingtonpost

Obama's bad foreign policy from the start shows little sign of improving, as Washington Post Editorial Board lashes out Sunday : "Mr. Kerry’s empty words on Syria" 
In case you were still on your summer hibernation when this happened a few weeks ago, the only time that President Obama has brought the country together this year on a policy is when nearly the entire country stood-up in opposition to his ill-considered ideas, plans and policies over Syria, one of his major weaknesses since coming into office in January of 2009.
That hasn't changed.
Think about that for a minute.

 The Washington Post
Washington Post Editorial: Mr. Kerry’s empty words on Syria
By Editorial Board
Published October 28, 2013
ACCORDING TO Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad now is waging “a war of starvation” against his own people. In a robustly worded op-ed column posted Friday on ForeignPolicy.com, Mr. Kerry denounced what he said was “the systematic denial of medical assistance, food supplies and other humanitarian aid to huge proportions of the population.” The regime’s tactics, he said, “threaten to take a humanitarian disaster into the abyss.” They are “intolerable,” and “the world must act quickly.”
So what does the Obama administration propose to do to stop this barbarism? The simple answer is: nothing, other than issue strongly worded statements. 
Read the rest of the editorial at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-kerrys-empty-words-on-syria/2013/10/28/d422b6c4-3feb-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html
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Friday, October 11, 2013

After years of Mainstream Media political reporters & columnists in U.S. being compulsive sycophants to Obama's White House, turning-off readers/viewers in droves, now their colleagues on U.S. national security beat have to deal with the karma -reality of (perhaps) being intentionally digitally monitored by Obama Administration. That's karma for you!; "Obama’s war on leaks has journalists and their sources on edge. ‘I worry now about calling somebody.’"; Damning CPJ report by Len Downie of Arizona State's Cronkite School & Washington Post and Sara Rafsky was released Thursday, but some say evidence is clear that MSM is still pulling-punches with Obama; @lendownie, @Cronkite_ASU, @CPJ, @pressfreedom, #pressfreedom

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.
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Friday, September 20, 2013

Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post combs thru the mountain of evidence -and self-inflicted wounds- that is Marco Rubio's disastrous 2013 and asks the logical question, "Who is Marco Rubio?" (¿Quién es Marco Rubio?) But maybe the real question is what is Rubio? Someone to be trusted and counted upon, or someone to be leery of because of his penchant for conflating his own role and ego?; Just as I predicted months ago, no?; #Rubio, #gangofeight, #RubiosFolly




Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post combs thru the mountain of evidence -and self-inflicted wounds- that is Marco Rubio's disastrous 2013 and asks the logical question, "Who is Marco Rubio?" (¿Quién es Marco Rubio?) But maybe the real question is what is Rubio? Someone to be trusted and counted upon, or someone to be leery of because of his penchant for conflating his own role and ego?; Just as I predicted months ago, no?; #Rubio, #gangofeight, #RubiosFolly
I need hardly remind you regular readers of this blog that I predicted all of this very intense scrutiny, personal criticism and second-guessing of Marco Rubio's character many months ago in this space, in a series of posts re immigration comparing what Rubio had said and promised at one point in time with what he actually did and said when it counted, and behind-the-scenes.
This, even while Florida's Mainstream Media -and especially the reporters at The Miami Herald- were predicting clear sailing ahead, even as they scrubbed their own newspapers and websites of anything or anyone critical of Rubio's pro-amnesty approach to immigration reform that put amnesty first and border security second, in keeping consistent with the Editorial Board policies set forth and the personal opinions of many reporters, columnists and editors or news room producers.

 Now we'll all get to see how Rubio handles adversity and very strong personal criticism about his integrity and trust-worthiness, and whether he is destined to learn from the experience or simply going to become just the latest one-term Much-Ado-about-nothing Senator in Washington.
As a voter who supported him early on in 2009 and voted for him twice in 2010, this is far from being a settled question right now.
Without the support of voters like me, former Democrats, Rubio's political future is very much in doubt -and completely forget about 2016. 

 The Washington Post
Who is Marco Rubio?
By Jennifer Rubin, 
Updated: September 19, 2013
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is young and eloquent. But he has baffled conservatives who have no idea who the real Rubio is.
Is he the Rubio who embraced immigration reform in the Senate or the Rubio who’s dropped the issue entirely?
Is he the Rubio who talks about a positive agenda including higher education reform or is he the know-nothing who follows Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in the shutdown cul-de-sac? 
Read the rest of the piece at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/09/19/who-is-marco-rubio/

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See also my June 12, 2013 post titled,
When Rush Limbaugh admits he's disappointed in Marco Rubio's flip-flop on immigration, it's only going to get worse for Rubio. Only positive of S.744, the Schumer-Rubio “comprehensive” immigration amnesty bill, i.e the #setup4sellout, IF it passes, is that Rubio gets properly 'schooled' and roughed-up a bit to wear off his new car smell and conservatives see his true faults for what they are -he's still too gullible. Consider that Mission (already) Accomplished; Mickey Kaus is masterfully connecting-the-dots on why defeating this is more important to U.S. long-term than getting more info re Benghazi, IRS, NSA snooping scandals
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/mickey-kaus-is-masterfully-connecting.html
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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Obama's passivity in U.S. foreign policy, esp. in Egypt, is setting-off alarms in D.C. Old Conventional Wisdom: Nero fiddled while Rome burned. CW for 2013: Obama golfs while Egypt burns. Even while majority within pro-Obama U.S. Mainstream Media continue giving him a free pass, many at The Washington Post and other D.C. foreign policy centers are VERY ANXIOUS about Obama's lack of concern or influence, witness WaPo's Jackson Diehl's devastating column, "Obama’s Dangerous Passivity on Egypt and Syria on Display." Consider this but a taste: "Obama looks like a president in full flight from a world that looks nothing like what he imagined when he took office." Diehl is 100% correct!





Obama's passivity in U.S. foreign policy, esp. in Egypt, is setting-off alarms in D.C. Old Conventional Wisdom: Nero fiddled while Rome burned. CW for 2013: Obama golfs while Egypt burns. Even while majority within pro-Obama U.S. Mainstream Media continue giving him a free pass, many at The Washington Post and other D.C. foreign policy centers are VERY ANXIOUS about Obama's lack of concern or influence, witness WaPo's Jackson Diehl's devastating column, "Obama’s Dangerous Passivity on Egypt and Syria on Display."
Consider this but a taste: "Obama looks like a president in full flight from a world that looks nothing like what he imagined when he took office." Diehl is 100% correct!


The Washington Post
Obama’s dangerous passivity on Egypt and Syria on display 
By Jackson Diehl
August 15, 2013 
There was hope a few months ago that mounting chaos in the Middle East, and a revamping of President Obama’s national security team, would prompt the president to snap out of what looked like a deepening torpor in foreign policy.  
Instead, this president’s extraordinary passivity in the face of crisis may have achieved its apotheosis this week. On Wednesday, as Egyptian security forces gunned down hundreds of civilians in the streets of Cairo, an unperturbed Obama shot another round of golf at Martha’s Vineyard. His deputy press secretary was left to explain to reporters that the administration remained firmly committed to not deciding whether what had happened in Egypt was a coup.
Read the rest of the column here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-obamas-dangerous-passivity-on-egypt-on-display/2013/08/15/69d085fc-0522-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html

 @JacksonDiehl https://twitter.com/JacksonDiehl

 Jackson Diehl archives at Washington Post: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/jackson-diehl/2011/02/24/ABccMXN_page.html







The Washington Post
By Editorial Board
Egypt erupts as security forces attack Morsi supporters
August 14, 2013

 The Post's powerful mince-no-words editorial includes this passage;
This refusal to take a firm stand against massive violations of human rights is as self-defeating for the United States as it is unconscionable. Continued U.S. support for the Egyptian military is helping to push the country toward a new dictatorship rather than a restored democracy. Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, the coup leader, increasingly is styling himself as a national savior in the mode of such former dictators asGamal Abdel Nasser;
Read the rest of the editorial at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/egypt-erupts-as-security-forces-attack-morsi-supporters/2013/08/14/f230a080-04fa-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html



















When one of the most-dependable and prominent Obama supporters in the Washington new media, Eugene Robinson, an actual Pulitzer Prize winner, takes him to task and personally attacks his morality and lack of backbone, that's more than just news within the Beltway. 

 The Washington Post
A lack of spine on Egypt
By Eugene Robinson
August 15, 2013
There may be little the United States can do to end the savage bloodletting in Egypt, but at least our nation can be loyal to its ideals by bearing witness and telling the truth. In this, President Obama has failed.
Read the rest of the column at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-a-lack-of-spine-on-egypt/2013/08/15/33a7bc80-05df-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html













Christian Science Monitor
Why Mahmoud Badr is pro-Army, anti-Muslim Brotherhood
Interview: Mahmoud Badr, the activist whose online campaign helped to bring down Egypt's president, now supports the army attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood. Why?
By Yasmine Saleh, Reuters
August 17, 2013
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0817/Why-Mahmoud-Badr-is-pro-Army-anti-Muslim-Brotherhood

More at: http://www.csmonitor.com/content/search?SearchText=Egypt



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Saturday, August 10, 2013

The Washington Post's newsroom gets the Sixty Minutes treatment from Mike Wallace in 1974, as he tours the inner sanctum of Journalism's Mount Olympus and interviews Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham. A time, a place, and the huge difference one well-run newspaper made, forever changing the face of American history and journalism. Four days after this aired, President Nixon resigned



From: Bezos bets on Wash Post -- what exactly did he buy?
By Ann Silvio
August 7, 2013 3:08 PM

In 1974, CBS News' Sixty Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace went inside what would later be considered by some to be the the inner sanctum of Journalism's Mount Olympus, The Washington Post's newsroom.

 That summer he spoke to some of the confident-but-demanding people running it -Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham- and some of the reporters whose dogged determination had made it so -Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

 Wallace even interviewed competitors like the New York Times James "Scotty" Reston, who allows that Post editor Ben Bradlee might now just be good enough to work at the Times.

 Four days after this segment aired on Sunday night August 4, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned from office.

 This video is NOT the entire segment that aired.

Yes, a time, a place, and the difference one well-run newspaper made.
While everyone else in the press corps largely IGNORED the Watergate story, one newspaper's reporters were given the freedom to dig-in harder -but had to confirm it with two sources- and forever changed the face of the country and journalism at large

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2013/08/07/revisiting-the-washington-post-circa-1974/ 
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Sunday, July 21, 2013

What happened to all that Hope and Change? The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin hammers the point home with precision re our condescending president: "President Obama’s sad view of America"; To quote Shakespeare, "Alas, 'tis true."

What happened to all that Hope and Change? The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin hammers the point home with precision re our condescending president: "President Obama’s sad view of America"; To quote Shakespeare, "Alas, 'tis true." 

 Rubin's closing packs a wallop: 
The president at the very end argued that "those of us in authority should be doing everything we can to encourage the better angels of our nature, as opposed to using these episodes to heighten divisions." Too bad he doesn’t follow his own advice.
But then after four-plus years, wouldn't the real surprise be that Obama did DO that?

 The Washington Post
Right Turn blog
President Obama’s sad view of America
By Jennifer Rubin
Published: July 19, 2013 at 5:26 pm
President Obama’s extensive remarks in the White House Briefing Room this afternoon were as surprising as they were gratuitous. He had already made one statement asking citizens to respect the George Zimmerman verdict. Today he did so again but offered no specific policy recommendation with regard to race (although he used it as a forum to assail “stand-your-ground” legislation that ultimately was not at issue in the case).
In fact, Obama undid some of the closure he provided in his earlier written statement by intoning: “If a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario, that, from top to bottom, both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.” So the jury was biased? The trial unfair? I can’t fathom why the president of the United States would stoke that sort of second-guessing.
Read the rest of the post at

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

WaPo's editorial is important because it matters and will be read in lots of important places: Washington Post Editorial Board mulls facts over and fillets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his well-known, self-destructive penchant for engaging in historical revisionism and nationalism: "Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history" -or reality; @安倍 晋三



Arirang News YouTube Channel video: Japanese Prime Minister Shenzo Abe statement inflames tensions between Korea and Japan 아베의 '망언'...한일. Uploaded April 24, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWRVleXJIvM


Steve Miller reports from South Korea on the latest Abe controversy that has the Koreans and Chinese so irate: 


theqirangervlog YouTube Channel video: Shinzo Abe Denies Historical Colonization of Korea. Uploaded April 23, 2013. http://youtu.be/lLMGdNGdZ1g
WaPo's editorial is important because it matters and will be read in lots of important places: Washington Post Editorial Board mulls facts over and fillets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his well-known, self-destructive penchant for engaging in historical revisionism and nationalism: "Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history"
Get it, the Post's intentional or unintentional double-meaning of face?

Defenders of Abe and at least some of the Japanese Establishment will no doubt see this criticism of him as a result of China and South Korea teaming-up behind the scenes to... blah blah.

 No, it's that Abe, far too often for comfort's sake, seems unable to help himself and keep his mouth shut and his head focused, a habit that is NOT a positive trait for anyone, least of all, Japan, China, South Korea or the U.S. and its military forces in the area to protect our allies, capisce?

But how do you convince the Chinese people or their government of this, or that this character fault of his can be overcome, since some of them at least, officially or not, STILL believe in 关系, guanxi and feel that in this equation, we, the U.S, are still NOT doing enough to make Abe stop indulging himself at their expense and humiliation?.

 Our dilemma is that we don't seem to always act like we know when Abe is playing to small elements within Japanese society that he feels he must sate, but with his fingers crossed, or when he's actually serious about what he's saying or doing.

 But there's no real confusion of what it means to Koreans and Chinese when Abe goes to the Yasukuni Shrine.

Our perceived confusion on this part, whether real or feigned for public consumption in Asia, only is making things worse, and as most of you know, I'm not a fan of John Kerry's, so I don't see him bringing anything to the equation that's going to change the dynamic.

 And now the main course...

The Washington Post
Editorial Board
Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history
April 26, 2013
From the moment last fall when Shinzo Abe reclaimed the office of Japanese prime minister that he had bungled away five years earlier, one question has stood out: Would he restrain his nationalist impulses — and especially his historical revisionism — to make progress for Japan?
Until this week, the answer to that question was looking positive. Mr. Abe has taken brave steps toward reforming Japan’s moribund economy. He defied powerful interest groups within his party, such as rice farmers, to join free-trade talks with the United States and other Pacific nations that have the potential to spur growth in Japan. He spoke in measured terms of his justifiable desire to increase defense spending.
Read the rest of the WaPo's editorial at:

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For more on this topic, see this largely accurate overview:
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Friday, April 26, 2013

Cuban spy story gets more and more interesting: Puerto Rican woman accused by U.S. of spying for Cuba for 17 years, a Princeton and Georgetown Law School grad, remains out of reach of U.S. justice because she lives in Stockholm; Sweden won't extradite her on espionage charges, plus, she's now married to senior Swedish Foreign Ministry official; While Aftonbladet is advancing the story, Miami Herald is still ignoring the story

Cuban spy story gets more and more interesting: Puerto Rican woman accused by U.S. of spying for Cuba for 17 years, a Princeton and Georgetown Law School grad, remains out of reach of U.S. justice because she lives in Stockholm; Sweden won't extradite her on espionage charges, plus, she's now married to senior Swedish Foreign Ministry official; While Aftonbladet is advancing the story, Miami Herald is still ignoring the story
Many, many hours after this Cuban spy story was first reported and posted on the Washington Post's website Thursday, the Miami Herald has still not picked up this story, even as of 10:30 am Friday.
Surprise!

The Washington Post
Woman indicted in Cuba spy case is in Sweden and out of U.S. reach
By Jim Popkin, Published: April 25, 2013
The Justice Department on Thursday announced the indictment of a former State Department employee for allegedly spying on behalf of Cuba, but it is unable to arrest her because she lives in Sweden, a country that does not extradite citizens accused of espionage.
Marta Rita Velazquez, 55, a graduate of Princeton University and Georgetown University Law School, was indicted nearly a decade ago on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. Velazquez lives in Stockholm and is aware of the charges against her, the Justice Department said. But the extradition treaty between the United States and Sweden does not allow extradition for spying.
Read the rest of the article at:

While the Miami Herald continues to snooze, Jan Helin's Aftonbladet is all over the story and is constantly advancing it, telling us today, below, that the suspected spy is married to a senior Swedish Foreign Ministry official.
Uh-oh! 

USA jagar misstänkt svensk kvinna  Är gift med högt uppsatt UD-tjänsteman

Anklagas för att ha spionerat för Kuba sedan början av 80-talet

WOLFGANG HANSSON: Kuba är ett rött skynke för USA
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Mediabistro's Fishbowl DC's Eddie Scarry reminds us that POLITICO is "always selling" and always promoting themselves, even to the point of creating a video patting themselves on the back for being -wait for it- legen-dary.; Remembering D.C. and the daily anticipation of getting The Hotline by fax in the early 1990's, when the Internet was still not a daily reality


POLITICO: Our Story; http://bcove.me/oawud7k0

Mediabistro's Fishbowl DC's Eddie Scarry reminds us that POLITICO is "always selling" and always promoting themselves, even to the point of creating a video patting themselves on the back for being -wait for it- legen-dary.; Remembering D.C. and the daily anticipation of getting The Hotline by fax in the early 1990's, when the Internet was still not a daily reality

The former Washington Post reporters behind it, Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris,
whom I read for years while living up there, are trying to create a wave of publiclity that will create a corresponding interest in that.

 But how will they keep that information only in select hands when everyone at the law firms, lobbying firms and trade associations they are trying to convince to subscribe to it can always  copy and email real "nuggets" to their friends who don't get it?.

 It reminds me a lot of the problem faced by The Hotline -now owned by The National Journal- in the pre-Internet era of the early 1990's, when that goldmine of information used to be faxed daily into offices throughout The Beltway and people would gather around the printer mid-morning waiting for it all to spill out, so they could grab a page and see if there was something in it that dealt with their area of coverage or responsibility.
People would be positively giddy on days after big events in Washington to see what was being written about that subject, and that was especially true during the 1992 presidential election.

And there was always someone in an office who would try to pull the last sheet out before it was finished printing, who'd be yelled at in a milli-second. Good times!

 That was also back when if you saw someone reading a copy of The Hotline on the Metro in the evening on your way home, especially an original copy with the Red masthead, that was your clue that the person you were looking at was someone much smarter and better-informed than the average Washingtonian around you.

 I kept old copies of them in stacked banker boxes in my garage, with colored 3M Post-it's on the sides with subject areas written on them that I dealt with or was interested in. 
My little treasure trove!

 Of course, that was also in the era of heavy faxing, when people routinely forgot to replace the paper in the paper tray of the printer and there was hell to pay if it turned out to be you.
Email is so much easier! 

FishBowlDC blog
New Video Reminds Everyone That Politico Is Still Politico And Always Will Be
By Eddie Scarry on March 27, 2013 12:00 PM
A new three-minute video produced by Politico touts the publication’s “early success” and its plan for the future. Full of Politico bluster, it’s part of a new “brand and advertising” site the publication launched this week, according to Mike Allen‘s Playbook.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/new-video-reminds-everyone-that-politico-is-still-politico-and-always-will-be_b100185

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Monday, February 18, 2013

We applaud TheWrap's Sharon Waxman for adroitly performing a LIVE autopsy on curious recent Washington Post and N.Y. Times moves -WaPo booting Ombudsman position while NYT's "T" Mag curiously goes into a Time Machine and then bows and genuflects to NY society grande dame Lee Radziwill

We applaud TheWrap's Sharon Waxman for adroitly performing a LIVE autopsy on curious recent Washington Post and N.Y. Times moves -WaPo booting Ombudsman position while NYT's "T" Mag curiously goes into a Time Machine and then bows and genuflects to NY society grande dame Lee Radziwill 
TheWrap
WaxWord blog
Washington Post May Cut Ombudsman; New York Times Shills for Lee Radziwill
By Sharon Waxman
Published: February 17, 2013 @ 3:52 pm
The Washington Post is about to cut its ombudsman, according to its ombudsman.
In the latest, lamentable sign of the diminishing of America’s great daily newspapers, Patrick Pexton wrote this weekend that he is likely to be the last reader representative for the paper when his two-year term ends on Feb. 28.
Read the rest of the column at


Beware the Ghosts of Carrie Donovan! 
Democratic on their voter's registration card, yes, but baronial in their tastes -who said the class system was dead in New York?

New York magazine
The Cut blog
Deborah Needleman Puts Lee Radziwill on Her Debut T Cover
By Charlotte Cowles and Jenni Avin
Posted February 7, 2013 at 9:57 a.m.

Speaking of Lee Radziwill, at a joint press conference today, Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Col. Robert R. McCormick announced...

See also:
Valentine’s Day Bloodbath: WaPo Lays Off Workers in Hush-Hush Manner
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/washington-post-layoffs-valentines-day_b96626

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Friday, February 15, 2013

Uh-oh! Washington Post Ombudsman cries 'Shame on Us' for reporting Sarah Palin would join al-Jazeera -it's actually the liberal hyperbole-prone author of "Vagina: A Biography," Naomi Wolf, who's thinking of hectoring unsuspecting al-Jazeera viewers until they turn the channel to get away from her shrillness

Uh-oh! Washington Post Ombudsman cries 'Shame on Us' for reporting Sarah Palin would join al-Jazeera -it's actually the liberal hyperbole-prone author of "Vagina: A Biography," Naomi Wolf, who's thinking of hectoring unsuspecting al-Jazeera viewers until they turn the channel to get away from her shrillness 
POLITICO
Naomi Wolf in early talks with Al Jazeera
By Dylan Byers
2/14/13 8:31 PM EST
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/02/naomi-wolf-in-early-talks-with-al-jazeera-157116.html

Breitbart's Big Journalism
WaPo Ombudsman: 'Shame on us' for false Palin report
by Tony Lee  
14 Feb 2013, 6:25 PM PDT

The Huffington Post
Naomi Wolf Ends Weekly Guardian US Column; Will Contribute Monthly
Michael Calderone, Senior Media Reporter, The Huffington Post
Posted: 02/14/2013 12:29 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-calderone/naomi-wolf-guardian-column_b_2687066.html

Slate
Naomi Wolf’s New Book About Her Vagina
It’s as ludicrous as you think it is.
By Katie Roiphe
Posted Monday, Sept. 10, 2012, at 3:30 AM ET
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Friday, January 4, 2013

Troubling American foreign policy story unfolding in Moscow with Radio Liberty, with WSJ's John O'Sullivan and WaPo's Kathy Lally adroitly describing the change in public poilicy that has Russians confounded by a move that seems destined to HELP Putin, not Russians who want genuine democracy and access to relatively-honest news and information


TechnerVideo: Shortwave Radio Bandscan 1. Uploaded December 25, 2009.

To me, the very troubling American foreign policy story unfolding in Moscow, described so well and with so much nuance by John O'Sullivan in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed and Kathy Lally's article in Thursday's Washington Post, is also one of the most confounding of the year.

 Confounding because it manages to connect what I believe is a very misguided change in U.S. public policy and the perplexed public perceptions of millions of average Russians, who can't understand why we as a nation are seemingly helping Vladmir Putin, the architect of the frightening nightmare of a reality show they wake up to everyday under his misguided leadership.

 Under Putin's manic and oversize ego, every week seems to bring fresh news and all-too obvious evidence of his callously using the instrument of the Russian government as a giant club to vent and exercise his personal pique -and reveal his loss of bearings.
See Spotlight on Russia blog by Vladimir Kara-Murza
Standing Up to Russia's 'Herod's Law'
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/vladimir-kara-murza/standing-russias-herods-law

 I should admit at the outset here that part of my concern about what I perceive to be some very 
troubling developments is in large part shaped by my own past experience.

Unlike 99% of you who are reading this blog post now, I used to listen to (and depend upon) my high-quality Radio Shack shortwave radio for many HOURS a day.

 I listened everyday to foreign news services, as well as the Voice of America and some of its foreign services, when I was in college at IU in those precious pre-Internet days of the early 1980's, and then later when I lived in Evanston and Wilmette, just a few blocks from the shores of Lake Michigan.

Radio Tirana, Sveriges Radio Int'l., Swiss Radio International, Radio Deutsche-Welle, BBC World Service, Radio Moscow, Radio Canada, Radio Nederland... 
I knew those broadcaster's musical intros as well as I knew the names of the people who lived on my dorm floor or on my apt. floor.
Actually, usually better... 

humanracer28 YouTube Channel video: Sveriges Radio/Radio Sweden jingle and ident. Uploaded March 18, 2010. http://youtu.be/_QhzQYKFOlU



While I've been following it in bits and pieces over the past few months, mostly on blogs and in The Post, for reasons known only to themselves, most other Mainstream Media outlets have consciously chosen to ignore this story, like it's the spoiled mayonnaise left out on the picnic table at the huge Fourth of July get-together that the last person using it forgot to put back in the cooler when they were finished with it.
But they could find space for the Justin Bieber kidnapping & castration case that never happened.
LA Times - Justin Bieber murder plot: Tie, pruning shears, unrequited feelings
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-mg-just-bieber-murder-castration-plot-20121213,0,6636059.story

 It goes without saying that this story has been completely ignored by the South Florida press, even though once upon a time, it would have been on the front page of what used to be the Miami Herald's halfway decent Sunday Op-Ed section in the 1970's and ''80's, but which as I have described here in some detail in many posts is now a four-page running joke.
And no, not just because they NEVER EVER include something compelling about some aspect of Broward County public policy in it, even though it's roughly 40% of this ADI.

The things is, as bad as the decisions and the policies described below have been, and they have been both counter-intuitive and terrible, it actually only seems to get worse and worse by the week from the point-of-view of responsible Americans who want to see the U.S. continue to shine a beam of relative honesty about the news into Russia -and falling-thru-the-cracks Belarus and Ukraine.

 It highlights the dangerous minefields that can emerge when public policy intersects both the news media and pop culture and the people making the decision forget what is most important -the customer, not managements and the consultant's tastes.
But then there always someone in radio who wants to reinvent the "Morning Zoo," isn't there? 

The Washington Post
Radio Liberty loses its license in Moscow, and Russians raise voices in dismay
By Kathy Lally
Published: January 3, 2012
MOSCOW — American-financed Radio Liberty, which penetrated the Iron Curtain with news of the outside world during the Cold War, has been trying to join today’s information revolution — and the static crackling around its efforts has been loud enough to reach Washington.
The radio station, funded by Congress but independent of it, has embraced a digital future, dismissing 37 journalists as it downsized just before it lost its only local broadcasting license here in November, when a 2011 law preventing foreign ownership came into effect.
Read the rest of the story at:

-----

Wall Street Journal
OPINION
Turmoil Over America's Radio Voice in Russia
The mass firing of Radio Liberty journalists prompted a protest by human-rights activists in Moscow.
By JOHN O'SULLIVAN
December 30, 2012, 7:43 p.m. ET
A few years ago Peter Pomeranzev, an Anglo-Russian journalist, found himself in a Moscow taxi where the radio was playing Radio Liberty, the U.S.-financed station that transmits uncensored broadcasts in Russian. As a boy Mr. Pomeranzev had been taken to hear his father, a Russian poet in London, deliver regular broadcasts to a closed Soviet Union. But that was another era. Why, in 2009, would a Moscow taxi driver listen to Radio Liberty?
Read the rest of the Op-Ed at:
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