Posts filed under ‘Print Media’
Dumbed Down America
Here are the Time magazine covers for next week’s issue:
Embarrassing for those of us who live in the U.S., imho.
View larger here.
Mitt Isn’t Going to Like This
This is the cover of the most recent issue of The New Republic:
And no, The New Republic isn’t a flaming liberal rag, it’s conservative, so I find this choice of cover photo pretty darn interesting. This is one of the ugliest pictures I’ve ever seen of anyone.
Newsweek is Pathetic
This is the real cover of the February 6, 2012 issue of Newsweek magazine:
Our presidential campaigns consist of nine second sound bites. Never mind a real discussion of the issues. And instead of being a check and balance on that tragedy, the media encourages it.
The United States Drops 27 Points in Freedom of the Press Index
Botswana, Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Niger are among the countries that rank higher in press freedoms than the United States in a new index released by Reporters Without Borders:
“Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them.
[...]
“This year’s index finds the same group of countries at its head, countries such as Finland, Norway and Netherlands that respect basic freedoms. This serves as a reminder that media independence can only be maintained in strong democracies and that democracy needs media freedom.
[...]
Led by President Yoweri Museveni, Uganda (139th) launched an unprecedented crackdown on opposition movements and independent media after the elections in February. Similarly, Chile (80th) fell 47 places because of its many freedom of information violations, committed very often by the security forces during student protests. The United States (47th) also owed its fall of 27 places to the many arrests of journalist covering Occupy Wall Street protests.
Read more and see how other countries rank, here.
Time to hit the refresh button on what “they” tell us, that the United States is the worldwide beacon for freedom of the press.
Barney Frank Kicks Some A**
On January 20, the New York Times Magazine published an interview with the retiring Senator Barney Frank (D-MA) titled: The Not So Retiring Barney Frank.
This quintessential Barney Frank quote is my favorite part:
Interviewer: You’ve long argued for the decriminalization of marijuana. Do you smoke weed?
Barney Frank: No.
Interviewer: Why not?
Barney Frank: Why do you ask a question, then act surprised when I give an answer? Do you think I lie to people?
Interviewer: I thought you might explain why you support decriminalizing it but don’t smoke it.
Barney Frank: Do you think I’ve ever had an abortion?
Go get ‘em Barney!
Oh, and memo to the “interviewer:” Really? REALLY?
On Strike
Write Congress Now!
NOT IN THE US? PETITION THE STATE DEPARTMENT HERE
Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian on CNBC: “Why is it that when Republicans and Democrats need to solve the budget and the deficit, there’s deadlock, but when Hollywood lobbyists pay them $94 million dollars to write legislation, people from both sides of the aisle line up to co-sponsor it?”
#NewNYTSlogans
If you want a good laugh (or maybe a good cry) check out the suggestions being made as to potential new New York Times‘ slogans at:
#NewNYTSlogans
(Go here for the backstory.)
“Journalism” USA, Circa 2012
Somebody actually got paid to write this?
As Romney Jabs at Obama, Rivals Swing at Him
Ah, yeah. I mean, tell us something we don’t know.
TIME: Dumbing Down America
TIME magazine (1) either thinks Americans are idiots who don’t need or what to know what’s going on in other parts of the world, or (2) given the Occupy Wall Street movement, they don’t want to give us any ideas.
Here is the cartoonish cover of the December 5, 2011 issue of TIME that will be released in the U.S.:
And here is the cover of the same issue that will be released in Europe, Asia and the South Pacific:
What a radical difference.
Law Enforcement Asks Google to Censor YouTube
Get a load of this “Transparency Report” Google just posted:
We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove YouTube videos of police brutality, which we did not remove. Separately, we received requests from a different local law enforcement agency for removal of videos allegedly defaming law enforcement officials. We did not comply with those requests, which we have categorized in this Report as defamation requests.
That’s it. That’s all they wrote and we don’t know anything more but ah, I’m willing to bet the “local law enforcement agency” Google references is the government of Oakland, California. I mean, when you shoot a veteran in the head who has served two tours in Iraq it doesn’t look all that good. But beyond that, the United States is emulating China, for God’s sake. In China, searches containing the word “Occupy” have been blocked by by the government on a popular search engine called Sina Weibo.
So I’m waiting for wingers to have a fit. You know, because we don’t want to be like those commie “red” Chinese and censor our media do we? Hey? Hey?
Is anyone in a position of power (i.e., a 1%-er) going to denounce this?!
Headline of the Day
Am I drunk or am I really seeing this headline?
Here it is, though I suspect it’ll be gone sooner rather than later.
In a “Rational Universe,” Michele Bachmann’s Campaign Would be Over
In a rational universe everyone in the country would know about this and Michele Bachmann’s campaign would be either in very serious trouble or over:
Let’s try to wrap our heads around this. Bachmann’s opposition to raising the debt ceiling is one of the most important planks in her presidential platform. She has touted it in two ads, presenting it as a sign of her courage. She repeated it again last night at the debate, asserting that opposing the hike is “the right thing to do,” and even cited Standard and Poors’s downgrade as proof of her superior grasp of our fiscal dilemma.
Less than 24 hours later, the news emerges that S & P has confirmed that it was precisely this opposition to raising the debt ceiling, and the cavalier attitude towards default exhibited by the likes of Bachmann, that led to our downgrade.
The question of what led S & P to downgrade our credit rating is a matter of verifiable fact. And S & P has now confirmed that one of the central rationales of her candidacy is a key reason for their downgrade. What will she say when confronted with this fact? How will she explain it away? Will anyone even ask her to try to explain it?
In a rational universe, this would be devastating to her candidacy. Of course, the world of GOP primary politics is anything but a rational universe.
Chances are we won’t hear a thing about this on the corporate media, and for sure it won’t be reported on Fox, all of which is really pretty darn terrifying if you think about it for a minute. Here we have a woman who is running for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and she is getting away with making a provable lie one of the central themes of her candidacy.
Yo, Ben Smith at Politico
Hey Ben Smith at Politico:
Please confirm as FACT that the people who challenged Mitt Romney today in Iowa were Democrats, as you stated — as FACT — on the “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell tonight on MSNBC.
Time Magazine: Why the Difference?
Check out the cover of the U.S. edition of the August 8 issue of Time magazine compared to the others:
See a larger version here, and see an even larger version of both covers here and here.
So, what does this tell us? Any good news about Islam is socially unacceptable in the U.S.?
(H/t Beth.)
Yes, “Weinergate” Was the “News” Last Week
If you watched cable “news” last week, you probably wondered: Is there anything else happening other than the Anthony Weiner scandal?
The answer is essentially no. Check out this graph showing how much time the cable “news” channels devoted to the Weiner story last week:
33%. 33%!
So, considering all the things that happen every day all around the world, the cables spent 33% of their “news” time talking about Anthony Weiner.
I think it’s insulting.
Read more here at the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
WaPo Employees Want Same Raise as Boss
Gosh, what a concept: Washington Post Union Wants Same Raise As [Trust Fund Kid] Publisher:
Union leaders representing newsroom and other employees at The Washington Post want the same 16.4% pay raise that Publisher Katharine Weymouth
received this year, according to a message to rank-and-file members that also criticized management contract demands regarding holidays and salary issues.
The salary request occurred during this week’s first round of contract negotiations. The Guild’s current contract with the Post expires on June 7, 2011.
There are people at the Post who’ve been there longer and who are three times Weymouth’s age who are making less than she is.
Some of you will say the boss deserves the biggest raise, so let’s compromise. Weymouth gets a 16.4% raise and rank-and-file members get a 14% raise. How about that?
Hell yes. Act up. Make Noise!
Since when has your salary gone up 14%, much less 16.4% in one year?
The Final Edition of the New York Times
Oh my God. The people over at Slate put together a website spoofing the “final edition” of the New York Times. Check it out. Note the various headlines. It. Is. Hilarious.
This is my favorite picture — yep, The Donald still running for prez years from now:
And this is my favorite headline: Governor Christie Explodes in Trenton:
Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey exploded this morning while signing a bill in Trenton officially changing Labor Day to Management Day. Doctors had been warning the Governor for some time that he ran the risk of exploding, not simply from morbid obesity – his weight had climbed from 382 pounds at his inauguration to well over 700 – but also from a colossal build-up of methane in his internal organs due to an inability or unwillingness, to expel bodily waste from his system.
[...]
Adipose tissue and fecal matter rained down on Mercer County for several hours after the explosion.
Ouch.
Follow the Media Brown-Nosers Here
Follow the happenings at tonight’s White House Correspondents Dinner, a gathering of lobbyists, elected officials (they’re supposed to represent us, no?) and elite media — the people who tell us what we should think and believe, as if they have any idea – on Twitter at #nerdprom and/or at #WHCD.
The Sad State of Newspapers
Here’s a stunning factoid that says it all about the decline of the newspaper business:
Businessman to Offer More Than $200 Million for Boston Globe:
Aaron Kushner will make an formal offer within the next several weeks for the New England Media Group, the New York Times Co. division that includes the Boston Globe, Boston.com, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and Telegram.com.
In 1993, the New York Times bought the Boston Globe for $1.1 Billion.
Most Influential People in the World?
Did you catch Time magazine’s “The 2011 Time 100,” a list of the — ahem — 100 most influential people in the world? How about the 100 most influential people in the “world” of a preppy New York City 24-year old pretending to be a “journalist?”
NJ Gov. Chris Christy? Yeah, I’m sure people in India drop everything and listen when he speaks.
Tom Ford? He designs clothes, right?
Justin Bieber? Blake Lively? Rain? Who (or what) is Rain? Sting?
Who put this list together for God’s sake?
Since When is a President Supposed to “Satisfy all Critics?”
Check out this headline running right now (3:53 p.m. EDT) at the WashingtonPost.com (bottom right hand corner): “Obama speech on Libya doesn’t satisfy all critics.”
(FYI – here’s the article you go to if you click on that headline.)
Since when is it humanly possible for a president to “satisfy all critics?”
(H/t BW.)
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Yo, Kansas City Star — Why Didn’t You Publish These Letters?
My friend ChrisH sent these two letters (below) to the Kansas City Star newspaper.
Insofar as the Star didn’t see fit to publish them, I’m publishing them here.
October 22, 2010:
In his letter Friday 10/22/10, Derrick Sontag of Americans for Prosperity defends his organization as a “non-partisan, grassroots-driven organization that advocates for limited government and free market principles” and denies it is a “a front group for large corporations.” Methinks he doth protest too much.
According to Sourcewatch.com the group is
“…an astroturf front group started by oil billioniare David Koch and Richard Fink (a member of the board of directors of Koch Industries ). AFP works together with the Koch family’s other conservative foundations and think tanks .”
There is much more information that puts the lie to Mr. Sontag’s assertions of people-powered rebellion. There may be 4.5 million members/supporters, as he says, but they did not grow this organization. They are merely the very useful face of it.I urge all interested voters to utilize Sourcewatch to find out straightforward and documented facts about the fascinating web of money and corporate interests that operates behind American politics.
Chris H
March 13, 2011:
In October 2010, before the critical elections that turned the House of Representatives over to Republicans, I wrote a letter to The Star rebutting Derrick Sontag’s (10/22/10) contention that his Americans for Prosperity was “not a front group for large corporations,” and provided links to the website Sourcewatch.com that detailed the so-called grassroots organizations’ umbilical cord to the Koch brothers. Unfortunately, that letter of mine was never printed and voters were not made aware of a valuable resource that would have shed some light on exactly who they were voting into power.
Now we see, in Wisconsin and seeping across the nation, who Americans for Prosperity were really representing – it’s not you, not me, not the working class, and not the middle class. I denounce The Kansas City Star for only printing one side of a crucial issue and not doing a better job of informing its readers, which is, presumably, its mission.
Of course, this will never see print either.
Chris H
It’s no wonder corporate hacks manage to slither into office. Our media doesn’t educate and inform us about them, their background and their backers so all we know is what their glitzy, sanitized campaign ads and fliers tell us.
Employee Pension Plans Simplified
Forbes magazine — yeah, the one owned by billionaire trust fund kid Steve Forbes — says Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing to Public Employee Pensions:
Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston, has written a brilliant piece for Tax.com exposing the truth about who really pays for the pension and benefits for public employees in Wisconsin.
Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans. Accepting Gov. Walker’ s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.
How can this be possible?
Simple. The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation- money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future.
Shorter? Employees contribute to their pension plan and they get those contributions back when they retire. End of story.
Why is this so hard?
The Washington Post Gives Up
In a time when the United States is involved in two long wars, dictatorships are being overthrown by fed-up citizens, global warming goes unchecked, the world faces food and water shortages and millions of people are unemployed, it is sad, just plain sad – filed under NotEvenTryingAnymore – to see one of the nation’s (formerly) premiere newspapers — the Washington Post — run an article about potty training and football players’ hair on the front page of its Sunday edition:
It is Morally Imperative That Democrats Start Making Noise
I think Democrats have a moral obligation to the country — past and future — to grow a pair and start standing up for core Democratic values. Given the plethora of conservative media outlets pushing corporatist legislation, they must — MUST — start making noise and standing up for working people, the environment, etc.
We need (at least) a two-party system people!
How about storming out of the House and/or Senate chamber and standing as a group on the steps of the Capitol and holding a press conference? Make the news. Get on the news. Get the people’s attention.
But no (tweet of the day):
NYT: Hate Radio Hosts Say Hate Radio Not Bad for America
Apparenty the New York Times thinks hate radio hosts are credible courses as to whether hate radio hurts America: Talk Show Hosts Reject Blame in Shooting.
Daniel Ellsberg: Good Luck With Thursday’s Protest
Per Dan Froomkin at the HuffingtonPost:
Even as President Obama on Thursday attempts to put a good face on the war in Afghanistan, Vietnam-era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and several dozen other anti-war protesters will be chaining themselves to the White House fence, inviting arrest in the name of peace.
“We are dedicated to exposing the true costs of war and militarism,” explained Mike Ferner, the president of Veterans for Peacethe group organizing Thursday’s Lafayette Square rally and civil disobedience.
“We’ve killed well over a million people. We’ve orphaned and displaced five times that number at least. And here in our own country, we’ve managed to throw millions of people of out work and out of their homes,” Ferner told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. “There is a connection there. That connection is the true cost of war.”
[...]
A brief rally is scheduled for 10 a.m. across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House with remarks from Ellsberg, McGovern, Ferner, “Peace Mom” Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, and others.
Protesters will then head for the White House, where organizers hope 100 or more people with chain themselves to the fence and get arrested.
Bravo for the organization and the effort but, sadly, this is what I think will happen: (1) The “liberal media” will ignore you. (2) It will laugh at your group because Medea Benjamin will have some sort of “silly” T-shirt on and they’ll concentrate on that. (3) They’ll superimpose video of Benjamin on the screen and say she’s “that girl” (who disrupted congress or whatever). (3) Cindy Sheehan will look frumpy and sound whiny so they’ll mock her for that. (4) They’ll show pics of you in the early ’70′s with all that curly hair and imply you were (and still are) an out-of-control hippy. (5) They’ll air video of Nixon or Kissinger talking about how you were (and still are) a threat to our “national security.” (What have I left out?)
Good luck though. I’m with you all the way.
Time’s Person of the Year Poll is a Total Farce
Well, now we know. Time Magazine‘s person of the year poll is a total farce. Why? Julian Assange got the most votes at 382,026. The “winner,” Mark Zuckerberg, was tenth. He got 18,353 votes. What is that? Roughly 20 times less than Assange?
Not only is the poll a farce, Time has no guts. They were too scared and timid to officially pick Assange (or maybe the government told them not to and as fierce defenders of free speech and an independent media (not), they complied).
Really pitiful.
