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Joe vs. Vlad

Posted: February 22, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncomfortable Truths
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By Christopher Harper 

If you want someone to blame for the current crisis in Ukraine, look no further than the White House. 

In his continuing bid to rank among the worst presidents in history, Joe Biden waived any roadblocks for a Russian pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG, to provide natural gas to Germany. Later, he battled GOP-sponsored legislation to halt the pipeline.

Under Donald Trump, the United States stopped the massive pipeline because of the stranglehold it would have on European energy supplies.

It’s hardly a giant leap to argue that Biden sent a message to Vladimir Putin that he could do almost whatever he wanted in Eastern Europe.

That’s what has led to the current crisis in Ukraine, which opposed the pipeline.

Ukraine is the largest county in Europe, occupying more than 200,000 square miles, or roughly the size of Texas. 

Even so, Ukraine’s fellow Europeans don’t seem that interested in supporting its eastern brother. 

For example, Germany, arguably the most important power in Europe, sent 5,000 helmets in military aid to Ukraine. That’s right! Five thousand helmets. That’s it! 

In an article published by German newspaper Bild, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitaly Klitschko, decried “the non-assistance and betrayal of friends in a dramatic situation.” 

There’s a lot at stake. Here’s Putin’s shopping list:

–The United States should agree to block further NATO expansion–a step that would keep Ukraine, Finland, and Sweden out of the alliance if they wanted to join. 

–NATO forces should pull out of countries that joined NATO after 1997—which includes all those once in the Soviet orbit.

–U.S. nuclear weapons must be withdrawn from Europe. 

“The United States and NATO have begun the shameless development of the territory of Ukraine as a theater of military operations,” Putin said yesterday in a speech. “Ukraine for us is not just a neighboring country; it is an integral part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space.” 

As Yogi Berra put it: It’s déjà vu all over again. 

Unfortunately, the Biden Bunch aren’t exactly the group I’d like to see going toe to toe with Vlad’s Crew.

Malice toward malice

Posted: February 15, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncategorized

By Christopher Harper

The news media are scared to death of Sarah Palin and her lawsuit against The New York Times for libel.

Although the former Alaska governor won’t win the first round of the battle, the case is likely to make it to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices may overturn the almost-invincible protection the press have against public figures and officials.

The case centers on a 2017 editorial in The Times that basically accused Palin’s political action committee of encouraging someone to shoot Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

James Bennet, who wrote the editorial, has testified that he made a serious error. But his defense and that of The Times is that he did not act with malice or recklessly disregard the truth.

This standard comes from a 1964 decision, The New York Times v. Sullivan, which made it exceedingly difficult for a public official to win a libel case. The decision later was extended to public figures like sports and entertainment stars.

At the time, the ruling made sense since politicians were using libel laws to sue news organizations covering the Civil Rights movement. Without the malice protection, news organizations could be sued for any error, however small.

In recent years, however, news organizations have used the malice standard to fend off nearly all comers irrespective of the errors made in the commission of journalism.

In a New York courtroom, both sides have presented their arguments over the past two weeks in the Palin lawsuit, with media mavens sweating the outcome.

The Wall Street Journal referred to The Times and Bennet as using the “oops defense,” making it nearly impossible to win a libel case against media companies.

In a bizarre announcement yesterday, Judge Jed Rakoff, a Clinton appointee, decided that Palin and her attorneys had not convincingly reached the summit of proving that the news organization acted with malice.

But the jury was still sequestered, trying to reach a decision. If the jury decided for Palin, the judge would set the verdict aside.

Nevertheless, the judge made it clear that The Times had made a serious error in the editorial. “Ms. Palin was subjected to an ultimately unsupported and very serious allegation that Mr. Bennet chose to revisit seven years or so after the underlying events,” the judge said. “I think this is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the Times, but, having said that, that’s not the issue before this court.”

The case will likely wend its way toward a likely hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court.

There, the justices may well find in Palin’s favor.

Last summer, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a stirring defense of truth and accountability in the public arena. His opinion harkened back to a time many years ago when news organizations employed “legions of investigative reporters, editors, and fact-checkers,” before the proliferation of “falsehoods by means and on a scale previously unimaginable.”

Then Gorsuch aimed at the Times v. Sullivan standard that has blocked many plaintiffs from winning lawsuits even if the errors were as egregious as the one against Palin.

Justice Clarence Thomas joined the dissent, leading many to speculate that the court might want to take a new look at the malice standard.

Although I have defended freedom of the press for many years, news organizations have gotten away with too many misdeeds under the malice standard. It’s time for the U.S. Supreme Court to examine whether a 1964 decision is still relevant today.

Student power and the end of reason

Posted: February 8, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncomfortable Truths
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By Christopher Harper

Although I know that colleges have been bending over backward to kowtow to students, I didn’t realize how far until recently.

In 27 years of teaching, I’ve never had a student officially challenge a grade. Until now.

A student, who was described as a “star” of the Department of Journalism at Temple, took my course in media law. She was a dreadful pain, consistently filing late assignments or asking for extensions.

By the end of the course, others followed suit, apparently driven by the less-than-stringent rules offered during the pandemic. In fact, I allowed for up to a grade of “C-” for assignments turned in within a week of the deadline.

By the end of the semester, I’d had my fill. Two days before the final assignment was due, I announced that no late submissions would be accepted.

The “star” was the only one who sent the material in late. I gave her a zero, earning her a “C” in the class.

In an email, I explained to her, “Over the course of the semester, you have asked for exemptions, extensions, and preferred treatment. On Saturday, I informed the class that no extensions would be granted. Deadlines in journalism are critical to its endeavor. It’s a truism you should learn. I will not accept your submission because it is past the deadline. It may be the most important lesson you learn from this class.”

Instead, the student learned how to work the system. She appealed the grade because I had changed the “contract” of the syllabus by eliminating late submissions.

Even more amazing is that my department chair ruled in the student’s favor.

“[T]he last-minute deadline change, in this case, goes against what is spelled out in the syllabus, which is a contract between a professor and students,” the chair wrote.

I didn’t change the deadline. I simply refused to accept late submissions.

What’s more important here is that a syllabus has somehow become a formal contract, which is unlikely to hold up in any court. Moreover, students have become consumers and teachers are products.

College is no longer a learning experience but akin to buying a car.

Thankfully, my time as a journalism professor comes to an end in June. If colleges are aiding and abetting such students and hiring administrators as consumer advocates, journalism and other professions will get even worse. Now that’s downright scary!

‘American Pie’ turns 50

Posted: February 1, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

“American Pie,” the iconic ballad that chronicled social and musical history during the 1960s, has turned 50.

Don McLean, the author and singer of the eight-minute-long tune, has launched a 65-city tour in the United States and Europe to belt out the tale of taking a Chevy to the levee, which actually was a bar rather than part of a river.

Throughout the years, people have tried to untangle the meaning of the lyrics, which reflect the downward spiral of the United States in the 1960s.

If you want all of the interpretations of the song, here they are: https://americansongwriter.com/american-pie-don-mclean-meaning-lyrics-50-years-later/

The top of the pops from American Songwriter:

–“The song is about the nostalgia that comes with closing a chapter in time. A chapter that was good, youthful, and innocent. The song starts in the late 1950s, where both McLean himself and the post-World War II American sentiment were still sincere and innocent, if also blindingly naive. And as we know, naivety and innocence are always lost. For McLean, it was lost when he discovered that his favorite musicians, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, had died in a plane crash—the day the music died. And for America, it came when the utopia of the 1950s was exposed as a veneer, giving way to the more socially conscious, but turbulent 1960s.”

–“Everything became more political in the 1960s. [President John] Kennedy was assassinated, and the courtroom was adjourned with no verdict, as Lee Harvey Oswald was killed prior to judicial proceedings. The Helter Skelter murders happened during that sweltering summer, which, if not expressly political, was certainly ideological. 

Music was no exception to all the politicization. John Lennon was reading from the book of Marx, as The Beatles released songs invoking revolution and even referencing China’s Mao.”

–The Levee was a bar in New Rochelle, New York, where McLean drank with his friends. 

What’s refreshing about McLean is he hasn’t turned into a nattering nabob of negativism like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

In a recent interview with Fox Digital, McLean underlined the positive values he learned in his youth, which are sadly lacking today. 

“The America now is not the America I started out in,” said McLean. “And it’s not the America that I was in before I started out … The America that I remember in the 1950s when I was growing up and was a young boy and teenager — that’s the America I knew and the value system I knew.”

He also pointed out that “so many people today make it sound like the America of the ’50s was some horrible White racist country, and it’s disgusting the way [some] people have characterized our country. There was a wonderful civility [back then]; there was trust; doors were open; we had the No. 1 colleges in the world; and we were No. 1, for real.”

Rock on, Don! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciM7P9K3FA

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