Thursday, May 7, 2009

Thursday May 7 -- Got news or an update?

If you have news or an update, leave it in comments.
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29 comments:

Anonymous said...

More swamp draining duty for the Democrats.
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-Report: John Edwards' ex-lover Rielle Hunter
going ahead with paternity test-

New York Daily News
by Helen Kennedy
And you thought the John Edwards sex scandal couldn't get seamier. The ex-senator's former lover - furious at being portrayed as a stalker in his wife's media tour - reportedly is taking revenge and will allow a paternity test for her baby after all. Rielle Hunter previously refused to allow DNA testing on baby Frances, born in February 2008. Edwards, even after the admitted affair, insisted he wasn't the father.

Anonymous said...

The Elizabeth Edwards Pity Party
Big Hollywood, by Kurt Schlichter

“She is not a victim. She is an accomplice.

So, now that she has emerged from the 28,000 square foot palace where she still lives with the Paladin of the Downtrodden to tell her story, I hope just one interviewer has the guts to ask the only question I’d like to hear her answer:

Why don’t you and Johnny have the decency to just go away?”

McClatchy Watch said...

People as narcissistic as this freak don't ever go away.

Anonymous said...

AP wants pay us for the ‘long tail’?
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@Buzz Machine - Jeff Jarvis
Google: Drop the AP first

So, Google: Resist the bullying and blackmail. Drop the AP. Perfect ways to link to and thus support journalism at its source. That is the better service to the public and news.

Curley wants Google to “protect content from unauthorized use and pay us for the longtail.” By “longtail,” Curley refers to the thousands of small sites that collectively drive vast herds of traffic using AP content.

Anonymous said...

I saw a good reply to a nasty troll post.
“Attack the issue, not the poster.”
I think we should write that after every post that attacks our regular members. Discussing any issue freely is a strong point of this blog, and the lowlife can’t seem to engage in discussion, just degrade the poster. I still think personal attacks should be deleted, but we should defiantly let trolls know they have crossed the line of decency.

Anonymous said...

I saw a good reply to a nasty troll post.
“Attack the issue, not the poster.”

=========
The problem is that attacking the poster is the first line of debate in leftist doctrine.

Before they can address the issue (even when they can) it is mandatory to attempt to discredit and diminish the opposition with a verbal assault so fellow travelers can participate in the shout down.

Anonymous said...

Bottom line? It's a business
Boston Globe

If you ask anybody why they got into this business and they say it was for the money, they are either certifiably insane or no longer in the business.

Funny. Few in journalism call it a business. We like to think we forfeited bigger paychecks to pursue something that is essential: speaking truth to power, comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable.

And there is a lot of truth to that. Most people in newsrooms are idealistic. They think of their work more as a vocation than a job. But at the end of the day, we produce something - journalism and advertising opportunities - that people buy. Or don't.

I could go on about the importance of serious journalism to a democracy, and the importance of The Boston Globe to this region in particular, but that wouldn't mean a hill of beans to the bottom line. If it were only about journalism, we'd be all set. The Globe is still the region's dominant news organization, the biggest agenda-setter, whether it's pension and healthcare reform or holding sticky-fingered pols accountable. That will remain so even after the budget cuts, which are coming down the pike like a Papelbon fastball.

The Globe has never had more readers. The problem is, an increasing number are online, and that doesn't produce the kind of advertising money needed to pay for the journalism we've gotten used to over all these years.

And so hard decisions are being made. Some are wrong, if only in the way they are carried out. Many of us who have spent years reporting on how economic Darwinism has ravaged others are seeing and feeling the effects ourselves.

Anonymous said...

U.S. unlikely to bail out newspapers like France

When it comes to industry bailouts, the U.S. has different priorities than France. So far, American tax dollars are going most notably to the financial and auto industries, but could the newspaper industry be next?

Could we follow the footsteps of our neighbor across the Atlantic, France, which bailed out its newspapers?

It's unlikely, but a Commerce subcommittee led by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., met Wednesday to discuss the future of newspapers and journalism.

When asked about the precarious situation of the Boston Globe on Monday, U.S. press secretary Robert Gibbs said:

" 'Obviously, the President believes there has to be a strong free press. I think there's a certain concern and a certain sadness when you see cities losing their newspapers or regions of the country losing their newspapers. So it's certainly of concern.

I don't know what, in all honesty, government can do about it. I would note that looking at some of the balance sheets, I wondered how you guys didn't think $100 million meant a lot a few weeks ago, but looking at some of the balance sheets $100 million seems to me a lot.' "

Newspaper companies are in a sorry state, as The Deal's David Elman noted that the parade of newspaper Chapter 11 filings have no end in sight, so putting money in the newspaper industry at this point would be like throwing cash into a huge black hole.

France, on the other hand, is willing to risk its money and try to save its newspaper industry, reportedly putting in €600 million ($800 million) as well as doubling its annual print advertising spending.

Anonymous said...

Liz says she does not know if the child is John Boy's or not. Like that wouldn't be a topic of discussion for any 'done wrong' wife. If the child proves to be his, it has the same rights as her children. She agreed to the hoax in 2006.

Another Elenore Roosevelt! Jackie Kennedy, and Hillary Clinton. Stand by your creep, an important man has his weaknesses, his immorally and broken promises mean nothing. Democrats have been accepting swanp men for years, while the press helped them ruin candidates with lesser moral issues.

Anonymous said...

Dallas Morning News Whines Like Little Girl To Congress About Amazon's Extortionate Kindle Terms

At John Kerry's newspaper-bailout hearings today, Dallas Morning News publisher and CEO James Moroney grumbled about the pots of money Amazon (AMZN) extracts from him for Kindle distribution.

Specifically, Amazon takes 70% of the subscription revenue; the paper gets 30%.

As Moroney whined to Congress this afternoon, that's not going to save his paper. (It's going to be awesome for Amazon, however--see below).

(We'd also point out that a 30% share of his Amazon Kindle subscription is a lot more than Moroney's getting for his paper online, where he's giving it away for free.)

“The Kindle, which I think is a marvelous device, the best deal Amazon will give the Dallas Morning News>—and we’ve negotiated this up to the last two weeks—they want 70 percent of the subscriptions revenue.

(There, there big guy)

I get 30 percent, they get 70 percent. On top of that they have said we get the right to republish your intellectual property to any portable device.

Now is that a business model that is going to work for newspapers?

I get 30 percent and they get the right to license my content to any portable device—not just ones made by Amazon? That, to me, is not a model. Maybe what Plastic Logic comes up with or what Hearst comes up with, might provide a good model but today Kindles are less than 1 percent penetration in the U.S. market. They’re not a platform that’s going to save newspapers in the near term.”

Anonymous said...

Watchdogs Or Lapdogs?

Hah, the propaganda sheets, the ones who reprint the DNC talking points, now want the Democrats to bail them out, somehow, someway.

Just maybe if they were really fair balanced, they could actually see the culture of corruption the Obama thugocracy and the Democrats in Congress has brought to America — And in fact write stories about it, and put it out on TV.

But no, they seem preoccupied with Obama boot licking. Maybe that’s the real problem here. Hoping in bed with one political party, maybe that’s where your business got it’s fleas.

The reason the business model has shifted, is people went elsewhere for news, fair news. It’s odd the WSJ is doing fine as people must see real value there. Something sadly lacking from a $5 copy of the Sunday New York Times.

What sealed the newspapers fate was when the local grocery and department stores put their ads on-line. End of story.

Newspaper advocates address Senate on struggles industry faces
With newspapers battered by recession and an online revolution, senators heard bleak assessments Wednesday of a future with much less watchdog journalism.


Watchdog journalism, the funniest two words in the whole story.


It’s interesting to note, the newspapers were crashing well before the recession began in Q3 2008. And of course, it’s so unfair, all those nasty search engines … So how else would people divine the truth from the DNC talking points memos.

Newspaper advocates complained that Google and other news aggregators have unfairly – even “parasitically” – hoarded revenue that publishers deserve and need. Lawmakers wrestled with how and whether government should step in.

“Today, newspapers look like an endangered species,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., noting double-digit circulation drops over just six months at papers from Boston to San Francisco. Kerry, chairing a Commerce subcommittee hearing, called it vital to “preserve the core societal function that is served by an independent and diverse news media.”

Well maybe the newspapers should take time off from Obama and DNC cheer leading for socialism and do their jobs as the public watchdog, hey now here is a suggestion. — You know, do things like explain the Constitution, and how what Obama is doing is unconstitutional, things like that, watch dogs.

And maybe explain the Supreme Court affirmed the Second Amendment RIGHT of Americans, hard stuff like that.
But just how that might be done remained unclear.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., pushed the idea of letting newspapers operate as nonprofits, making them eligible for the same tax breaks as churches and charities; he is worried about the fate of The Sun in Baltimore, whose owner, Tribune Corp., is in bankruptcy.

“We need to save our community newspapers and the investigative journalism they provide,” he said.
Hey lapdogs, point out one investigative journalism story that was negative for Obama and his comedy team? Go ahead, make my day, show the story you broke. And how about that vetting, you get copies of the Obama birth certificate yet?

Why is Obama spending millions on preventing it being shown, while it would take a mere $12 and a phone call to produce it for all to see.

Great job vetting the Obammunist, it’s what watchdogs are for, right?
Nothing prevents any newspaper or news organization from becoming a nonprofit, non-political organization right now.

Just file the paper work. I think the non-political might be a huge problem for the cheerleaders of socialism though. The right is learning how to file suits.
Whatever happens, a bailout of any form, will insure them a never listened to, never read, slot in the media archives, just like NPR.

Today’s “watchdog journalism — Indeed, it’s oxymoronic…along the lines of “UN peacekeeper” and “liberal intellectual.”

Anonymous said...

No argument can be made for a newspaper bailout, which collectively employ a mere 0.2% of the nation’s labor force and generate only 0.36% of the gross national product.

In other words, newspapers, from an economic point of view, are NOT too big to be allowed to fail.

Anonymous said...

"Tears on my keyboard"

"Pain in my cubicle"

"Caused by youuuuu, youuuuuu, you."

Arrogance, hubris and rampant denial of causation coupled with a condescending attitude and prattle of his self-importance seem to be the hallmark of the elitist

"you need me because I say so Media."

Anonymous said...

The voluntarily propagandist media can’t sell its Leftist tripe and is being killed by the very natural capitalist forces that it has been attacking all these years.

How perfectly fitting, like a man attempting to poison the water supply drowning.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal and Fox News continue to increase market share.

Amazing what a little balance can do for marketability.

Anonymous said...

MANY THANKS TO OUR FECKLESS MEDIA AND GUB-MENT

North Korea 'preparing for second nuclear test'

North Korea has begun preparations for a second nuclear test at a site in the north of the country, South Korean government sources have said, raising the diplomatic stakes over stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

The move comes days after Pyongyang threatened to conduct further nuclear tests following its censure at the United Nations for a failed ballistic missile launch early last month.

It also comes as Washington dispatches Stephen Bosworth, its special envoy on North Korea, to Beijing and then to Seoul, Tokyo and Moscow in an effort to bring the isolated Stalinist regime back to the negotiating table.

Analysts say that Pyongyang will attempt to use the threat of a second nuclear test as a lever to gain concessions from negotiators. The last test in October 2006 was only a partial success according to the assessment of US defence officials.

The signs of increased activity at the Phunggye-ri site in the North Hamgyong province were reported in the South Korean Chosun Ilbo newspaper, quoting unnamed government sources.

South Korean experts have said that Pyongyang, which has officially pulled out of the six party talks after the UN blacklisted four North Korean companies linked to the arms trade, could be ready to conduct a second test in a matter of weeks.

"Underground nuclear tests are hard to predict and you can't tell when exactly a nuclear test would be possible, but we think the North is ready to conduct a test in a near future if it wants to," the Chosun Ilbo daily quoted the South Korean government source as saying.

Relations on the Korean Peninsular are now at their lowest point for a decade following Pyongyang's missile test last April in defiance of pleas from world leaders and a 2006 UN resolution banning North Korea from conducting ballistic missile

Anonymous said...

The Edwards’ knew what the neighboring properties looked like while they built they mansion out in the rural area. They sure did care about the downtrodden all right, they set out to remove anyone that ruined their elitist rural view. What hypocrites they both are.

“Last April, Elizabeth Edwards made national news when she criticized the family’s across-the-road neighbor, Monty Johnson, for pulling a gun on [trespassers] and for not maintaining his “slummy” property.”
(The [trespassers] were harassing him about the property being an eyesore. He told them to leave and they would not.)

Johnson, a 56-year old retired landscaper, said the land had been in his family since before the Great Depression. The Edwards estate raised taxes for everyone in the area. Mr. Johnson did sell his property and move away, but some of the remaining neighbors feel they will be next on the Edward’s hit list. Two Americas John? I hope so, and I also hope we are in different ones.
Two Colossal Democrat Hypocrites.

Anonymous said...

I understand there is a Sacramento Bee Reunion going on this Saturday. It is not a Bee sponsored/approved event.

Anybody have more info ?

Anonymous said...

From inside Orlando Sentinel walls:

Big meeting yesterday. There’ll be 36 positions eliminated from the newsroom alone. The Sentinel is now a ‘NEWS GATHERING ORGANIZATION’ with a newspaper arm. The paper part being the lesser entity. Everything we do from now on will be geared to the web site. In addition they plan to up the subscription rate????
As for the edit page, we will only be doing ONE EDITORIAL A DAY!

Anonymous said...

How about NO editorials per day?

Anonymous said...

As for the edit page, we will only be doing ONE EDITORIAL A DAY!

Only one Pravda editorial a day?

This McClatchy strategy will piss off less people, and they just might survive an extra month or two.

Anonymous said...

"There’ll be 36 positions eliminated from the newsroom alone"

I do see McClatchy's problem. With a strict DNC brown-nosing policy, they need 36 less crack-reporters to plow nose first into non-adversarial DNC sphincters.

Anonymous said...

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED that they even reported on the obvious. I'm sure The Times-Picayune is not a McClatchy paper


NOLA Mayor Ray Nagin Under Fire
Public corruption is alleged.

The Metropolitan Crime Commission filed a formal complaint against Mayor Ray Nagin on Wednesday, asking the state Ethics Commission to investigate two trips Nagin and his family took that were financed by a firm owned by a city technology vendor.

Based upon investigative work done by The Times-Picayune, it appears that Mayor Nagin was accepting personal goodies from a company doing business with the city.

Corruption in Louisiana? I'm shocked!

Anonymous said...

"Corruption in Louisiana? I'm shocked!"

It's almost as shocking as the daily (hourly) right wing neo-Nazi tirades on MW.

NOT!!!

Anonymous said...

Journalists focused on worthless prizes? Who didn’t know that already?
***
-Pincus: Newspaper journalists too focused on winning prizes, appearing on TV-

Columbia Journalism Review
Walter Pincus points out that the Washington Post won nineteen Pulitzers in the last decade, but lost more than 120,000 readers in that time. "Why? My answer, unpopular among my colleagues, is that while many of these longer efforts were worthwhile, they took up space and resources that could have been used to give readers a wider selection of stories about what was going on, and that may have directly affected their lives."

Anonymous said...

@ Editor & Publisher
-Wolff at Conference Predicts 'Death of Newspapers' -

Adds It's Not So Bad
Speaking at the E&P/Mediaweek confab in New Orleans, Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff said not much will be lost if newspapers go away -- but admitted the financial model for what might replace them is uncertain. He visualized TV network-size Web sites and armies of writers and experts taking part -- and even got a shot in at the NYT's David Carr.

Anonymous said...

7:45. It's not a bee sponsored event. If you were invited you'd know where and when.

Anonymous said...

7:45. It's not a bee sponsored event. If you were invited you'd know where and when.
====
I'm thinking it is a union financed event. An event to piss and moan together, and listen to reasons to keep paying those dues, as salaries go into the crapper.

Anonymous said...

11:24AM: Read between the lines...

1:20PM: No union at the Bee. I understant it's just a gathering of ex and current employees to exchange news and to reconnect.

Anonymous said...

I can't speak for the one at the Bee, but the Star Retirees sent an invitation out just the other day. It is run by an old production manager from back when they were an independent employee owned company and it is for retirees. Management, Union, non union and trades, it doesn't matter.

I understand that since the Star stopped sponsoring it, it has become a popular event with a nice lunch and lots of talk about when papers were revered.