I'm a frequent critic of President Obama, but sometimes it's really important to read between the lines. Yesterday the AP posted this story. In it the writer reports that the upcoming 'jobs summit' at the White House isn't about jobs:

President Barack Obama says creating jobs isn't the goal of a coming White House forum on jobs and economic growth.

And the headline reinforces the lede:

Obama: Job creation not goal of Dec. 3 jobs forum

However, a close reading of the story in question would leave the reader confused:

More after the jump.

What am I missing? I keep seeing this woman's story pop up everywhere, from Daily Kos to the Huffington Post. I mean, who really cares? Why do we expend so much useless energy on stories like this? (And yes, I do recognize the irony of me posting about it.)

On that note: I had dinner with my Mom last night and even she was talking about her. Good grief.

Richard Perez-Pena | November 12

NYT - The New York Times News Service will lay off at least 25 editorial employees next year and will move the editing of the service to a Florida newspaper owned by The New York Times Company, the newspaper and the Newspaper Guild said Thursday. A spokeswoman for The Times, Diane McNulty, said 25 of 30 news service jobs would be eliminated at the main office in New York, with five employees retaining their positions. The guild put the number of jobs to be cut at 28. Some of the layoffs were scheduled for February and the rest for May.

Also on Thursday, the Times Company told nonunion employees that it would stop making contributions to their pensions at the end of this year and would instead take the less expensive step of contributing 3 percent of their salaries each year to their 401(k) plans. The Times did not say how much it would save with the changes in the retirement programs or the news service.

The plan for the news service calls for The Gainesville Sun, whose newsroom is not unionized and has lower salaries, to take over editing and page design. Ms. McNulty said new jobs would be created at The Sun to handle the work.

The "Gains" vile Times?

Guardian - One of the best kept literary secrets of the decade was revealed last night when 34-year-old scientist Dr Brooke Magnanti announced she was the writer masquerading as call girl Belle de Jour.

The author behind the bestselling books detailing her secret life as a prostitute decided to come out to one of her fiercest critics, Sunday Times columnist India Knight, after claiming anonymity had become "no fun". "I couldn't even go to my own book launch party", she said.

Until last week, even her agent was unaware of her name. But now Magnanti, a respected specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology in a hospital research group in Bristol, has spoken of the time six years ago she worked as a £300 an hour prostitute working through a London escort agency. Magnanti turned to the agency in the final stages of her PhD thesis when she ran out of money. She was already an experienced science blogger and began writing about her experiences in a web diary later adapted into books and a television drama starring Billie Piper.

Minorities find a warm reception through online channels

Washington Post, By DeNeen L. Brown, November 15

A black superwoman appears on your laptop in shimmering blue tights, green socks and a midnight blue cape. Her hair in Afro puffs, she is sitting on a promenade bench. She looks worried and a bit worn out. Her makeup is smeared, probably from crying.

She tells us she has just caught her boyfriend with a "second-rate superhero." The nerve of him.

I think Rupert Murdoch might succeed at this.

On Sunday, the day before the 20th anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall, Rupert Murdoch appeared in an interview on Sky News in Australia, and promised to erect pay walls around all his company’s Web sites and then block Google from searching and linking to them.

Then again, anything that tweaks Google is usually something I approve of. But there is also a very real risk here of creating a full on right wing media ecosphere. The repercussions of such a development might be a purely right wing search engine full of fancy and empty of fact.

But I do think the days of free indexing are long gone. It's only a matter of time before content producers start charging for it to be indexed.

November 9

BBC - Rupert Murdoch has said he will try to block Google from using news content from his companies.

The billionaire told Sky News Australia he will explore ways to remove stories from Google's search indexes, including Google News.

Mr Murdoch's News Corp had previously said it would start charging online customers across all its websites.

He believes that search engines cannot legally use headlines and paragraphs of news stories as search results.

"There's a doctrine called 'fair use', which we believe to be challenged in the courts and would bar it altogether," Mr Murdoch told the TV channel. "But we'll take that slowly."

New York Times, By Charlie Savage. October 30

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, leading Senate Democrats and a coalition of news organizations have reached tentative agreement on legislation providing greater protections against the fining or imprisonment of reporters who refuse to identify confidential sources.

Under the deal, made public Friday, federal judges could quash subpoenas demanding testimony or information from reporters if the judges determined that the public interest in news gathering outweighed the need to uncover the source of a leak, including, in some circumstances, unauthorized disclosure of classified government information.

Protection under the so-called shield law would also be extended to unpaid bloggers engaged in gathering and disseminating news.

Brad Jacobson | Oct 29

Raw Story - [Also Read Part I and Part II of this series.]

The covert Bush administration program that used retired military analysts to generate favorable wartime news coverage may not have been terminated, Raw Story has found.

In interviews, Pentagon officials in charge of the press and community relations offices — which worked in partnership on the military analyst program — equivocated on the subject of whether the program has ended.

Last May, the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General issued a memorandum rescinding a Bush administration investigative report on the retired military analyst program because it “did not meet accepted quality standards for an Inspector General work product.” The now-retracted report had exonerated officials of using propaganda and referred to the program as just "one of many outreach groups."

Yet Donald Horstman, Pentagon Inspector General deputy director, also stated in the memorandum that his office wouldn’t probe further because the “outreach program has been terminated and responsible senior officials are no longer employed by the Department.”

Pentagon officials wont confirm Bush propaganda program endedRaw Story’s investigation, however, has shown that some “responsible senior officials” are still employed by the Defense Department, including Bryan Whitman, who remains a chief Pentagon spokesman and head of all media operations, and Roxie Merritt, who is head of the Pentagon’s community relations office.

Raw Story has discovered that Horstman’s other justification for not reopening an investigation at the time – “because the [retired military analyst] outreach program has been terminated” – remains an open question.

A week after David Barstow’s New York Times expose on the program broke in April 2008, Whitman said the military analyst program’s suspension was only “temporary.”

Related: Senior official in Bush domestic propaganda program remains Obama’s Pentagon spokesman

October 24

Salon - Something very unusual happened on The Washington Post Editorial Page today.

They deigned to address a response from one of their readers, who "challenged [them] to explain what he sees as a contradiction in [their] editorial positions": namely, the Post demands that Obama's health care plan not be paid for with borrowed money, yet the very same Post Editors vocally support escalation in Afghanistan without specifying how it should be paid for.

"Why is it okay to finance wars with debt, asks our reader, but not to pay for health care that way?"

October 25

Times Online - The Guardian warned users of its jobs website last night that their personal details might have been stolen by hackers.

Guardian Jobs, which has 1.4m users a month and stores the CVs of a wide range of professionals, including public-sector workers, told users it was the victim of a “sophisticated and deliberate hack”. They were advised by e-mail to contact an agency that helps the victims of identity fraud.

The security breach was detected on Friday and is being investigated by the Metropolitan police.

Last night I had the great misfortune of watching ABC's Nightly News. On it the anchor discussed this news of a recent poll on the public option. From the Post:

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that support for a government-run health-care plan to compete with private insurers has rebounded from its summertime lows and wins clear majority support from the public.

He then asked George Stephanapolous what he thought the poll meant. He answered something to this effect:

"It makes the country even more divided on the issue of healthcare."

I try not to make a habit of screaming at the TV, but I did.

This, folks, is why I don't watch TV anymore.

A Censored Headline and why it Matters:

German High Court Outlaws Electronic Voting

Justices of the German Federal Constitutional Court. Image

(DailyCensored.Com) The justices above are clearly the most rational group of high level functionaries in the industrialized world. They did what no other court would do in Europe or the United States. They effectively outlawed electronic voting. On March 3, 2009, the German Federal Constitutional Court declared that the electronic voting machines used in the 2005 Bundestag elections for the German national parliament were outside of the bounds of the German Constitution.

They reasoned that electronic voting is not verifiable because citizen votes are counted in secret. It obscured a technology inaccessible to all but a very few initiates. Most importantly, the German high court noted, electronic voting machines don't allow citizens to "reliably examine, when the vote is cast, whether the vote has been recorded in an unadulterated manner" Mar. 3, 2009.

The written opinion effectively bars electronic voting in future elections based on the complexity of voting machines and the inability of voters to watch their vote being counted. This raises the bar of acceptability well above the meaningless solutions offered by "paper trails" for touch screen voting or the so-called "paper ballots" for computerized optical scan voting machines, the most popular form of voting in the United States.

Germany's 2009 Bundestag elections were conducted with hand counted paper ballots.

Have you heard that one of the world's leading economic powers, the fourth largest economy in the world, banned electronic voting; said it was undemocratic? Given the multitude of problems encountered in the U.S. and the number of questionable election results, wouldn't it make sense that when Germany banned electronic voting and replaced it with paper ballots, there would be at least a days worth of national coverage in the United States?

Nothing like that occurred. The Associated Press (Times of India) story on the verdict danced around the periphery of the world media market with coverage in Turkey, India, Australia, and Ireland. But there were no major media takers for the AP story in the United States.

There was every reason to carry the story. In a 2006 Zogby poll, 92% of the 1028 registered voters surveyed said they agreed with this statement:

Citizens have the right to view and obtain information about how election officials count votes - 92% agree. New Zogby Poll On Electronic Voting Attitudes Aug. 21, 2006

Arran Frood | Oct 6

BBC - Conspiracy theorists have used the internet to co-ordinate increasingly slick attacks on the accepted versions of events, but now a group of scientists and sceptics has decided it's time to organise and fight back.

Conspiracy theories are pervasive and popular.

A poll for the Scripps Howard media organisation in 2006 suggested 36% of Americans suspected government involvement or deliberate inaction in the 9/11 attacks, and belief in a Kennedy conspiracy ran at 40% in the same poll.

A decade after Princess Diana's death, one survey found a fifth of Britons believed she was murdered. And to millions across the world, 2009's Apollo Moon landing 40th anniversary was a hollow sham because we have never been there.

Conspiracy theories predate the internet but the web has provided a fast, accessible platform for groups to unite, gather research and disseminate information without even meeting or leaving their houses.

While many people find them harmless fun, others believe there is a darker truth - that conspiracy theories are rewriting history, warping the present and altering the future. Enough is enough they say - it's time to fight back.

September 18

Media Matters - The [Acorn "brothel"] story at this point really has a lot more to do with Fox News and conservative media activism than with ACORN.

The undercover videos first appeared on BigGovernment.com, founded by Andrew Breitbart, a protégé of Matt Drudge and a conservative with a long record of highly partisan and inflammatory statements. Giles, daughter of conservative blogger Doug Giles, attended the National Journalism Center in Washington, one of the many right-wing institutions conservatives have established to flood the field with young, motivated, and rabidly partisan "reporters."

On the offense, Breitbart has lashed out at the mainstream media for supposedly burying the story... Many mainstream reporters were indeed worthy of criticism, but for the opposite reason that Breitbart cited. Their real failure was discussing the ACORN issue on Fox News' terms and ignoring the network's role in pushing the smears.

The New York Times covered up conservatives' well-documented ACORN obsession in its reporting. In their reports, all three network evening news broadcasts -- ABC's World News, NBC's Nightly News, and the CBS Evening News -- left out substantive facts about the incidents that mitigate the accusations, exonerate ACORN employees, or undermine the credibility of the filmmakers. Moreover, none reported that Fox News, in its aggressive promotion of this story, had made false accusations.  more

Washington | Sept 14

AFP - Public trust in the US media is eroding and increasing numbers of Americans believe news coverage is inaccurate and biased, according to a study released on Monday.

Just 29 percent of the 1,506 adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press between July 22-26 said news organizations generally get the facts straight.

Sixty-three percent said news stories are often inaccurate, up from 34 percent in a 1985 study, Pew said.

Sixty percent of those polled said the press is biased, up from 45 percent in 1985. Just 26 percent in the latest survey said that news organizations are careful their reporting is not politically biased.

Seventy-four percent said news organizations tend to favor one side in dealing with political and social issues. Eighteen percent said they deal fairly with all sides.

Pew Research: Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low

Holy hell. I know news programs are pretty bad and tend to cover inane subjects--or, if covering something important, descend into inanity pretty quickly. That being said, I was just watching Rick Sanchez on CNN Newsroom while eating lunch when I saw the following.

Sanchez wrapped up a news segment on a teenage fight club somewhere in the state of TN, then some images of a flood-devastated area in Istanbul, Turkey appeared on screen. He mentions that dozens have died and many more have lost everything, while pictures of survivors picking through mud-caked ruins are played on the screen. He then says that watching flood waters come on so suddenly and strongly is amazing, like nothing you'd expect, etc. Sanchez must have then looked up at the screen for the first time since starting the flood story and said (paraphrased) "sorry folks, I thought we had better footage... this isn't that interesting."

He made one more trite, half-hearted statement and then asked his producers to cut back to him (before the segment was supposed to end), whereupon he stated that they'd be going to commercials and, after the break, be discussing what some person or another said about President Obama. Stay tuned!

Well, let's see here--what's the bigger story? Dozens die in floods deemed "disaster of the century" by the Turkish prime minister? Or discuss the latest gossip about something someone said about President Obama? Well, clearly the first one is just boring, so Sanchez decided that gossip was better. Actually, I bet he has a better feel for his audience than I do. Covering foreign disasters without spectacular footage of explosions or destruction probably loses viewers.

In 1989, newly elected president, Bush 1 pardoned Secretary of the Army Caspar Weinberger and other Iran/contra defendants ending the investigation of Iran/contra crimes. Stonewalling, perjury, obstructing justice, shredding evidence, retaliating against truth tellers had proved to be effective.

The Kerry subcommittee reported: "the saga of Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures for the United States...It is clear that each US government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing, even as he was emerging as a key player on behalf of the Medellin Cartel. Manuel Noriega was allowed to establish "the hemisphere's first ‘narcokleptocracy.’”

The best email EVER

from Kristen Atkinson <[REDACTED]>

to ken@wonkette.com

cc jim@wonkette.com

date Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 3:26 AM

subject my story

Dear Wonkette editors,

I posted a very serious article recently in Townhall.com about witchcraft in the White House, and later realized that your website had made a farce out of it. I saw that your staff and readers made a lot of extremely cruel comments about me and my story. Why are you people so rude? Does anybody take anything seriously anymore?

Do you really, truly, seriously think it is OK for a president to use a forged birth certificate? Do you actually believe it is appropriate for a man who was raised a Muslim to pretend he is a Christian and go to a church for 20 years with an anti-American preacher? Do you really want a president who was brainwashed by communists since he was a child, up through university, to hate America to be our president? Do you think that it is fine if a family member of the president defiles the White House with voodoo? Don't you know what fate could befall our nation as a result of allowing Satanic forces to gather over the White House?

After 8 years of a president sent by God to lead the American people and rescue us from the horrors of 911 and Islamo-fascists, it now boils down to this? How incredibly tragic. You folks don't really seem to understand the extreme peril that our nation confronts. Stop making fun of me. Take off your blinders! Wake up!

Respectfully, Kristen

Man, who needs to make fun of Kristen Atkinson...when she's doing a bang-up job all by herself? I could care less that I despise everything she believes in and stands for. It's a free country, and she's free to hold whatever opinions get her through the night. What I find so stunningly amusing is that Atkinson is genuinely offended by the idea that anyone would find her breathless bleatings to be the height of the comedic art. (STOP MAKING FUN OF ME!!)

rcfp | Aug 18

A blogger lost his bid to keep his identity secret after a judge in New York City ruled that a fashion model had established a legitimate defamation claim against the blogger.

Establishing a legitimate underlying claim is necessary under New York rules of discovery before a subpoena to reveal an anonymous speaker will be enforced, according to the court.

The blogger had created a site called "Skanks in NYC," and had featured model Liskula Cohen in several postings. One posting labelled her a "psychotic, lying, whoring ... skank." more

** Judge: 'Skanks in NYC' blogger may be unmasked
** Vogue model Liskula Cohen wins right to unmask offensive blogger

The model was looking forward last night to discovering the identity of the alleged acquaintance who insulted her.

This post by Paul Krugman is hysterical and brutal. He pwns Niall Ferguson and is TEH harsh:

For the record, I don’t think that Professor Ferguson is a racist.

I think he’s a poseur.

I literally laughed out loud at that. It's a beauty. And sums Ferguson up pretty well.

My upbringing was such that it was always said, 'let us not speak ill of the dead.' At least on the day of their death. But I'm having a hard time finding anything positive to say about Robert Novak.

Alas, there is much positive to be said about the just passed, Kim Dae-chung, 83, and former South Korean president. A man of true vision and rare courage.

I can't help thinking that much of the current debate in the US over health care, foreign wars, other domestic policies, climate change, etc. is not unlike a debate over the color of unicorns. That guy over there says they're yellow, that gal says they're green, and the talking head on TV says they're checkered pink and black. Almost no one takes a step back and asks why we're debating such a silly thing that is so disconnected from reality. Those who do step back to ponder are pretty well drowned out, their voices unheard. Meanwhile, our societal machine chugs onward, expending thousands of bullets and trillions of dollars on targets that don't deserve them.

My most recent favored quote to describe the situation in this country: This is what the ouroboros looks like when it's gotten all the way to the back of its own head. Yes, I had to look up just what an ouroborous was too.

Some other short, cutting observations on the situation:
Lady Poverty
Dennis Perrin

Andrew Clark | New York | Aug 6

The Guardian - Times and Sun readers to pay as loss-making Murdoch declares end to free-for-all

The billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch suffered the indignity of seeing his global empire make a huge financial loss yesterday and promptly pledged to shake up the newspaper industry by introducing charges for access to all his news websites, including the Times, the Sun and the News of the World, by next summer.

Stung by a collapse in advertising revenue as the recession shredded Fleet Street's traditional business model, Murdoch declared that the era of a free-for-all in online news was over.

"Quality journalism is not cheap," said Murdoch. "The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites."