Archive for the ‘media’ Category

A story that won’t get promoted from the local news

Posted: July 13, 2010 by datechguy in local stuff, media, opinion/news
Tags: ,

There is a story at the Worcester Telegram that I suspect will never make it to the New York Times, Washington Post, Morning Joe or Memeorandom Here are the details:

Local gay activist Albert M. Toney III has been charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old youth last month in the locker room of the YMCA.

The 17-year-old told investigators he was standing in front of a fan in the locker room of the YMCA at 766 Main St. June 15 when Mr. Toney, who was nude, approached him from behind, grabbed his buttock and pressed himself up against him without his consent, according to a statement filed in court by police Sgt. John W. Lewis. Mr. Toney, a former Worcester police officer, then allegedly invited the 17-year-old to join him in the steam room.

A longtime gay activist and advocate for gay and lesbian youth, Mr. Toney is president of AK Consulting Services, an education/diversity training and consulting company.

He was active in the campaign for same-sex marriage rights in Massachusetts and was the first openly gay candidate to run for Worcester City Council.

Ok so we have a public figure, well known in the community, active in the same sex marriage fight and a “youth advocate” charged. Will this story be in any of the above venues? Will it make any papers beyond Worcester? Will there be a memeorandum thread? I think not, the media will not consider this more than a local story. However with a few edits of the Bold Text I can make it a newsworthy story, observe: My edited text is in Italics:

Local Catholic Priest Fr. Albert M. Toney III has been charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old youth last month in the locker room of his parish.

The 17-year-old told investigators he was standing in front of a fan in the locker room of his parish at 766 Main St. June 15 when Father Toney, who was nude, approached him from behind, grabbed his buttock and pressed himself up against him without his consent, according to a statement filed in court by police Sgt. John W. Lewis. Father Toney, a former Worcester police officer, then allegedly invited the 17-year-old to join him in the rectory.

A longtime local priest and advocate for catholic youth youth, Father Toney is president of AK Consulting Services, a Church run education, training and consulting company.

He was active in the campaign against same-sex marriage rights in Massachusetts and was the first Catholic Priest to run for Worcester City Council.

See? A few edits and Viola; A story worthy of the New York Times, and a memeorandum thread. Will this story get any media play without said edits? Oh sure, around the same day that Andrew Sullivan endorses Sarah Palin for president on the Chris Matthews show.

Update: the trick would also work If I replaced “Gay Activist” with “Tea party Activist”.

Update 2: Stacy picks it up at the Spectator Blog

A must read letter to the Washington Post

Posted: July 13, 2010 by datechguy in media, opinion/news
Tags: , , ,

If you want to understand the death of the MSM this letter from Peter Kenny and Glenn Dale really says it all:

I am grateful to Charles Krauthammer, as I’m sure many other readers are, for his July 9 op-ed column, “The selective modesty of Barack Obama,” because he mentioned a story that The Post, the New York Times and most of the “important” media have not reported: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s bizarre interview with al-Jazeera, in which he said Mr. Obama gave him the mission to “reach out to the Muslim world” and “help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and math and engineering.” Mr. Bolden also said he was asked to “re-inspire” children to do well in science and math. I suspect any halfway intelligent Muslim would be offended by such laughable condescension.

Apart from regretting such feel-good nonsense from a once-great space agency, I would ask The Post: How was this story not newsworthy? Didn’t Post editors realize that word of these inane statements would eventually reach the hordes of Post readers? And that some of them might wonder why The Post hasn’t reported it already?emphasis mine

Peter Kenny, Glenn Dale

Any Questions?

Sarah Palin releases Mama Grizzlies ad, Donny goes nuts

Posted: July 8, 2010 by datechguy in fun, media, opinion/news
Tags: , , , ,

This Ad:

Donny Deutsch is going nuts over this and the Morning Joe crowd is razzing him over it. He can’t understand the appeal, I think he is going to go all Kryten on us.

Mika is honest, she thinks it will be effective but says “I don’t like it”.

and Nasr makes three

Posted: July 7, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media, opinion/news
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

For the third time in a month a member of the MSM has lost a job for saying what they actually think:

CNN on Wednesday removed its senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs, Octavia Nasr, from her job after she published a Twitter message saying that she respected the Shiite cleric the Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who died on Sunday.

Ms. Nasr left her CNN office in Atlanta on Wednesday. Parisa Khosravi, the senior vice president for CNN International Newsgathering, said in an internal memorandum that she “had a conversation” with Ms. Nasr on Wednesday morning and that “we have decided that she will be leaving the company.”

Ms. Nasr, a 20-year veteran of CNN, wrote on Twitter after the cleric died on Sunday, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah … One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”

Ayatollah Fadlallah routinely denounced Israel and the United States, and supported suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Ayatollah Fadlallah’s writings and preachings inspired the Dawa Party of Iraq and a generation of militants, including the founders of Hezbollah, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

It’s the lead on memeorandum at the moment, and the ‘sphere is reacting…

Hotair:

Nasr had a role that helped shape CNN’s overall news coverage of the Middle East. As a senior editor that apparently reported to a senior VP, Nasr presumably had a hand in story selection, assignment, and editing and shaping the final product from her reporters.

Neither Thomas nor Weigel had anywhere near that kind of influence over news reporting at their respective outlets, which makes the credibility issue much more serious than in the previous two scandals.

That CNN is worried about credibility is amazing.

Ed Driscoll wonders why this is a problem at CNN:

She’s merely toeing the party line at CNN, which, from Saddam Hussein to Yasir Arafat to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, has never met a terrorist or dictator the network didn’t admire and wish to prop up.

I think it will be very interesting to see the reaction worldwide to this.
Tim Blair highlights some tweets on the subject:

Various instant reactions, one of them brilliant:

• Damn! 20 years in, but 140 characters and your fired!

• Shocking, Outrageous! Zionists succeed in getting @OctaviaNasrCNN fired for Fadlallah tweet

• 20 years and fired over a tweet??

• Is she joining NASA?

I’m going out on a limb to say that he likes the last one.
Don Surber gives Kudos:

Congratulations CNN for doing the right thing.

That one goes on the good side of his count.

Big Journalism gets to the heart of the matter:

As if further proof were needed that a sizable segment of the Fourth Estate is now effectively the Fifth Column, this one is right up there. Apparently it’s no longer enough that reporters and correspondents pretend to be neutral, even about the good guys — now, they’re not only not neutral, they publicly express their admiration for sheer, malevolent evil — a man who, according to the obits, was “known for his staunch anti-American stance.”

Good Lord, is this what American journalism has come to?

No this is where American journalism already was.

Pam Geller is brief:

Today the Nazi lover resigned. In a word, GOOD!

Well Pam wait till you see what the left says:

Crooks and liars plays the moral equivalence card

Evidently, if you’re CNN, it’s perfectly fine to hire commentators who refer to a US Supreme Court justice as a “goat f@$king child molester”, but God forbid an emotional, somewhat easily misinterpreted tweet should be granted similar mercy.

Apparently the difference between senior editor and a commentator is lost, but the most fun actually comes from two other sites:

Balloon Juice:

I have no idea whether Nasr was any good, but it’s pretty harsh to fire someone over one tweet without a second chance.

Talking Points Memo:

But a twenty year run down the tubes over 140 characters?

That just doesn’t seem right to me.

Oh so 140 characters aren’t enough to get someone fired? Ok lets try this…

“Barack Obama is actually a secret Muslim who was born in Kenya and supports terrorists”

That’s 76 characters. Now myself, if the senior white house editor at CNN expressed such an opinion I’d give them the boot, but according to Balloon Juice and TPM’s arguments they should not be fired.

The real problem for CNN is how significantly the loss of Octavia Nasr effects the Hotness Gap but to paraphrase Jon Sable:

I never did like the terrorist sympathizers, not even the pretty ones.

I’m sorry positive position on Honor Killings not withstanding if you back suicide bombing you are a terrorist and no amount of side stuff will change it.

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