The protests over the death of George Floyd may have a profound impact on the way the media cover stories.
During the past few days, the editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer was pushed out because of a headline.
The head of the editorial page of The New York Times was axed over a column by a conservative senator.
The editor of Bon Appétit was ousted after a Halloween photo surfaced of him masquerading as a black pimp.
The incoming dean of the School of Journalism at Arizona State University, one of the best-known producers of media talent, lost her job because she tweeted that good cops existed.
Even the editor of The Los Angeles Times argued that the terms “riot” and “looting” were racist after consultations with African-American members of his staff.
For me, the last one is a real head-scratcher. I’ve been trying to come up with alternatives to the two words. Civil disturbance instead of riot? Redistribution of wealth instead of looting? The Times editor didn’t provide any guidance.
What is clear, however, is a fundamental change in reporting about race in America. Point-of-view analysis and perspective will replace neutrality.
That’s not necessarily a bad development. I have often written about how bias exists in almost every news story these days. By dropping any guise of objectivity, fairness, and balance, the reporters will demonstrate their bias. That makes it easier for readers and viewers to determine whether they believe the reporter’s “truth.”
Instead, I submit that accuracy and transparency may be more applicable to guiding journalism. Accuracy becomes an issue of debating facts. That isn’t necessarily easy, but it’s a conversation rather than a shouting match.
Transparency is much more difficult because it forces journalists to provide more information about their belief systems and bias. While reporter like others to be transparent, that doesn’t necessarily mean that journalists want to tell everything about themselves.
Moreover, transparency means that the media should provide the public with access to the entirety of an interview rather than a short quotation or soundbite. Also, all of the photos and videos should be included in all reports so the readers and viewers can determine what, if anything, was taken out of context.
Having spent many years choosing quotations and editing video, I know that what’s left out may be just as important or perhaps more important than what’s left in.
I hope that the complaints will create a better environment for the public to see what goes on behind the closed doors of media outlets. I am, however, skeptical that journalists want to change the way they go about their business, particularly when it comes to allowing the public to look over their shoulders.
Starting this week the updates of the various Dynasty Leagues that I run will be one league (AL or NL) at a time due to the futility league completing their season. This week Division B in the All Time Any Time Great Teams League. American League. All individual stats were current at the time of writing.
All franchise are currently full if you are interested in picking up a team if one becomes available or to join the expanded Futility league when it starts up again leave a comment to this post.
American League
Texas Rangers 47-28 1st
When last we left the Rangers they had lost four of seven and asked if their rally was ending. With the team now almost 20 games over .500 I think it’s safe to say they intend to stay.
Heroes: Nelson Cruz leads the league in both batting .361 and slugging .625 and as you might Guess OBP oddly this is despite not making the top ten in either 2B or 3B & only 7th in HR (17) but 51 Runs & 66 RBI’s sets and clears the Texas table. Josh Hamilton (.310 15 HR 51 Runs scored) & Vladimer Guerrero (.317 12 HR 65 RBI) are doing their part to set and clear the table as well.
Zeroes:Matt Treanor has not only been unimpressive at the bat (.199 4 HR 14 RBI in 171 ab) but has allowed 26 of 29 runners who have tried to steal to get away with it. Meanwhile while Tommy Hunter’s record and ERA have improved his ERA is still 6.50 has still can’t muster an avg of 5 innings from his 14 starts likely due to the 23 HR given up, more than a 1/3 of the 67 Texas has allowed.
Wild Cards: Texas shines at night a full 20 games over .500 vs a losing record in day games. Texas’ owes a lot of their success to Division C where they are 19-5 while holding only a .500 record vs division opponents.
Coming attractions: The 1998 Oakland A’s and the 2013 Boston Red Sox finish up the current homestand then it’s off on the road for a trip to Detroit vs the 1968 Tigers followed by a stop in DC to take on the 1924 Senators.
Injury Report: All are whole and ready to go in Texas
1954 Cleveland Indians 41-37 7 GB 2nd place.
The Indians remain in second place where they were before but find themselves five games farther back and holding the 2nd rather than the 1st wild card spot. Will slow and steady win the race or will the tribe find themselves left behind?
Heroes: Larry Doby continues to pound the ball leading the league in RBI’s (80) 5th in HR (20) 4th in Slugging (.584) ads the league in both batting .361 and slugging .625 while hitting a more than respectable .308. Bobby Alvia .335 is 4th in the league his 62 runs 3rd and and his 112 hits 2nd. 4 e. Bob Lemon (11-4 2.18 ERA 1.09 WHIP) & Mike Garcia (8-7 3.03 ERA 1st in HR per 9 inn 0.30) lead a spectacular starting rotation.
Zeroes:Don Mossi despite 8 saves in 11 chances ERA of 8.08 & .301 avg against is a disaster waiting to happen. On most teams Early Wynn’s 5.32 ERA & 7-8 record with a .275 avg against would be no big deal but on Cleveland it is. Wally Westlake’s .182 avg .280 OBP 6 HR & 29 RBI’s is bad but his .942 fielding percentage with 8 errors in right, is worse.
Wild Cards: Only Baltimore has a lower ERA in the AL than the Indians and their great rotation leads the majors in complete games (29) It’s a good thing too because their 11 saves is 2nd worst in the league and with 8 blown in 19 chances is near the bottom.
Coming Attractions: Cleveland finishes a road trump in DC vs the 1924 Washington Senators before heading home for 3 each vs the 2015 Kansas City Royals, , the 2005 Chicago White Sox the 1993 Toronto Blue jays and the 1970 Baltimore Orioles.
Injury Report: The Indians are back to full strength again.
2013 Boston Red Sox 35-43 13 1/2 games back 3rd place
The good news for the Boston Red Sox is that for the 1st time in a while they are not at the bottom of the division albeit by only a half game. The bad news is instead of six games below .500 & 8 games back they’re 8 games below .500 & 13 1/2 games back. The Rangers went from the bottom so the RedSox, particularly once back to full strength can too, but clock is running.
Heroes: Daniel Nava leads the AL with a .429 OBP and his .332 batting avg is tied for 5th. David Ortiz (.318 18 HR 60RBI’s ) has found his stroke Closers Koji Uehara (1.84 ERA 5-7 in save chances 0.65 WHIP) and Craig Breslow (3.02 ERA 5-6 in saves 1.20 WHIP) are getting the job done, when they get to them that is.
Zeros:Jon Lester (4-8 5.63 ERA .310 avg .297 avg against ) isn’t doing the job to start but Matt Thornton 6.31 ERA, .310 avg against 2.05 WHIP) , Junichi Tazawa (6.45 ERA .294 avg against ) and Andrew Bailey 8.53 ERA .291 avg against 1.97 WHIP) aren’t getting the team to the closers. Will Middlebrooks & Mike Napoli are both hitting the ball far (10 HR each) but batting .198 (Middlebrooks) & .214 (Napoli).
Wild Cards: Boston’s team ERA of 4.94 is dead last in the AL and the 2nd worst in the majors. They also don’t seem to be able to handle daylight (6-13) or left handed pitchers (3-9)
Coming Attractions: It’s three games in Texas vs the 1st place 2010 Rangers then back home for series vs the 2002 Anaheim Angels , the 2009 NY Yankees and the 1998 Baltimore Orioles.
Injury Report: Time heals all wounds and pitchers Andrew Miller and Clay Buchholtz will be back in time for the homestand. Stephen Drew however will not be back until the Sox head back on the road
1968 Detroit Tigers 36-45 14 GB 4th Place
Detroit’s freefall has continued all the way to the bottom of the standings from the top where they began. With another full half to the season what comes down but what goes down can also go back up and they have 81 games to do it with. Can they?
Heroes: Willie Horton (26 HR) & Norm Cash (20 HR) lead the AL with a .429 OBP and his .332 batting avg is tied for 5th. Danny McLain is 5th in the AL in wins (9) and 3rd in innings pitched (143 2/3 ) 2nd in strikeouts (127) and walks per 9 innings (1.88) Mickey Lolich is right behind him in strikeouts (118) and 1st in the k’s per 9 innings (8.70)
Zeros: Earl Wilson’s troubles continue. His record is now 3-7 with a .285 avg against & 6.42 ERA remains among the worst of Detroit’s starters. Joe Sparma ((2-7) 1.78 WHIP 5.81 ERA .318 avg against) is the bottom fo the barrel. At the plate Don Wert has reached the Mendoza line at .200 with a .244 OBP. is bad news. Ray Oyler is down to .152 and consequently isn’t getting much playing time. Dick McAuliffe however is getting plenty but is only managing .206.
Wild Cards: Thanks to Cash, Horton and Jim Northrup (11 HR) the Tigers are 2nd in the league in HR behind the surging yanks however their .240 avg & .308 OBP are 2nd from the bottom in the AL. Their 4.84 is 3rd from the floor and no team in the majors throws out a smaller percentage of players trying to steal 094%.
Coming Attractions: The Tigers finish a long home stand with 3 vs the 1st place 2010 Texas Rangers, the 2002 Anaheim Angles and the 2009 New York Yankees before hitting the road again for stops in Oakland (1998 A’s) and Boston (2013 Redsox).
Injury Report: The tigers are back to full strength the question is can Al Kaline who has made two Trips to the DL already this season stay off it during the 2nd half?
The unhinged left continues to destroy and deface monuments and it seems that logic and reason has gone further and further out the window. All that matters now is that the target is a monument, never mind what it stands for.
In New Orleans this weekend, protesters attacked a bust of John McDonough (1779-1850) in front of City Hall. Armed with a chisel and a skateboard, they tore the bust off its pedestal and tossed it into the Mississippi River:
A group of protesters used a chisel, rope and a skateboard to tear down the bust of John McDonough in Duncan Plaza, doused it in brightly colored paint and rolled it into the Mississippi River on Saturday.
The New Orleans Police Department said at 5:30 p.m. that two people who drove the bust to Jax Brewery to dump it in the river were “apprehended and transported to NOPD headquarters.” Protesters began gathering at the jail near Tulane Avenue and South Broad Street known as the Orleans Justice Center and there were roughly 200 there by 7 p.m.
Their grievance seems to be that McDonough owned slaves.
While McDonough wasn’t a saint, he did leave his fortune to Baltimore and New Orleans for the purpose of forming schools for poor black and white children.
Nancy Pelosi has called for the removal of eleven statues from Statuary Hall at the Capitol Building. While her letter does no specify which eleven statues, she does specifically mention Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens who served as President and Vice-President of the Confederacy.
Louisiana’s two statues there include Huey P. Long and Edward Douglas White. White was a U.S. Senator and a Chief Justice of the United States, but he also served as a soldier in the Confederacy. Is she targeting this statue as well? It’s not clear.
But again, you see the problem? Where does this end? We can remove monuments, relocate statues, throw busts into the Mississippi, but where does it end? Who gets to decide which ones go? Under whose sensibilities are we all to live? Whose rights take precedence over any others?
Honestly it makes me crazy. I want to wash my hands of all of it and live on a houseboat in the Atchafalaya Basin.
We need to find our way back to reason and learn to get along. Mind our own business. Find a balance. Enough.
Mayor Perkins: …You all know the situation. There’s us here in Calendar. There’s Galena, where we gotta ship our gold. There’s the Danby ranch half way in between the two. The road even runs through their property.
Thomas Devery: All right fine then we build the road around their property.
Mayor Perkins:How? They own that whole valley.
Fred Johnson:Besides, if they don’t get their 20 per cent, they just hold up every stage that comes through and take all of it.
Thomas Devery: All right, but we’ve got to do something. Even if it means bringing troops in here.
Henry Hill: Hundreds of guys depended on Paulie and he got a piece of everything they made. And it was tribute, just like in the old country, except they were doing it here in America. And all they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. And that’s what it’s all about. That’s what the FBI could never understand. That what Paulie and the organization does is offer protection for people who can’t go to the cops. That’s it. That’s all it is. They’re like the police department for wise guys.
Good Fellas 1990
The newest in my series of what society without or with defunded police will look like.
One of the things I mentioned in my last piece is how suddenly smaller shipments like UPS trucks would become targets as soon as it was clear that police would not be there or would be too busy to bother and I mentioned the increase int he cost of insurance. But there is another type of “Insurance” to be paid.
Once it becomes clear that there is good money and easy to be made from business’ that have no cops to call or can’t count on them bothering to show bigger factions will start to get involved, particularly in large cities. Organized crime, whether it’s mafia or drug gangs or ethnic games will quickly discover that they will be able to extract a toll from the local businesses and those who choose to enter their areas. And that toll is going to have to be paid, or else.
Henry Hill: [narrating] Now the guy’s got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy’s gotta come up with Paulie’s money every week, no matter what. Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning, huh? Fuck you, pay me.
Good fellas 1990
This however does come with compensations as was illustrated just last week in Chicago:
In Chicago’s Hispanic neighborhoods, the Latin Kings and other street gangs are reportedly stepping up and doing what their elected officials and police departments have not been able to do: protecting their neighborhood businesses from arsonists and looters.
and one of the things about ethnic gangs is they not only don’t care about cancel culture or political correctness when dealing with things:
On Sunday afternoon, Little Village neighbors came together to protect 26th Street businesses after people looted shops. Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd) said as the night went on, a few Latino men became “antagonistic” and were indiscriminately targeting Black people driving through the neighborhood.
. . . . In a Facebook Live video shot at 50th and Cermak in Cicero at 7 p.m. Monday, groups of people with bats and metal pipes were gathering near the intersection.
“Non-Black, Latinx gangs [are] armed with bats, machetes,” said Luz Chavez, who shot the video. “Any car that passes by with Black people in it, they are yelling at it and throwing s—,” she said.
Chavez, founder of online magazine Gozamos, urged Black people to “stay out of Cicero.”
The irony of course is that the business owners, seeing other completely wiped out and likely unable to get insurance might just decide that paying these guys for protection from everyone (except them of course) is worth it and if a few thugs end up dead instead of arrested, well they’ll figure it’s a powerful incentive not to do that anymore.
This is happening in Chicago, I suspect it will start happening in Seattle when people decide they don’t want to be ruled by ANTIFA and if this defend disband the police business continues
Closing note: On the June 3rd podcast I stated that if I was a Mafia down I’d be moving into cities, offering protection from the mob and cleaning up both on protection money & stealing from the thugs and get cheered for it. Who knew that a less than a week later it would actually start to happen?
