Mithridate Ombud's blog

New York Times Managing Editor Jill Abramson gave a lecture last week called "The Future of the New York Times." In it she drops this bomb:

She distinguished the Times from many bloggers, saying, "We believe in a journalism of verification rather than assertion."

Oh really, do you? Would that be anything like the verification done on Jayson Blair when he fabricated his own fabrications while the Times socially promoted him up through the ranks based on skin color? Or would that be like the verification done in the attribution of Rick Bragg's bylines? Or perhaps she's talking about the verification done on Nik Cohn's fabrications. Because I'm sure she's not talking about Michael Finkel's fabrications or A.J. Lieblings fabrications, or even when Jesse McKinley accepted a $50,000 "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" makeover. Maybe she's talking about the verification done on Bernard Weinraub's plagiarism, I just don't know.

Jonathan Last writes about the evils of the Internet for the Philly Inquirer, and by evil he means blogs.

After hearing that Sami Al-Arian confessed to a dirty laundry list of terrorism related activities, I was eager to see how the liberal St. Petersburg Times would handle the story. Today they posted an editorial about "The Real Al-Arian," writing about all the horrible things he has done and lies he told. But is that an accurate account of the role the Times played in defending him? Maybe when you consider it is a newspaper that employs a former ACLU director as a columnist and has a Huffinton Post contributor for a reporter and an F.B.I. wiretap exposing a Times reporter acting as Al-Arian's media coach.

With the benefit of this hindsight, hindsight that the rest of us had little problem seeing in foresight, let's take a look at some past quotes. One has to wonder why a huge newspaper with vast resources couldn't see what the rest of us saw so easily.

Robyn Blumner: "...[USF President] Genshaft's stated intention to fire tenured computer science professor Sami Al-Arian due to the swirl of controversy over his activist Islamist views. Here Genshaft cannot deflect blame for besmirching the university's reputation. She made the call, and it's once again the wrong one for academic freedom and free speech...

This is a confidential message to my fellow mainstream media journalists. All other "civilians" are to stop reading this right now.

First, I thank my commrades for the negative spin put on recent news of nearly full employment for college graduates. ABC News did a fine job of including this graf in their copy:

"Even as demand and salaries rise, college students should not be lulled into thinking that the job search will be easy or that jobs will be handed to anyone with a degree," he warned.

Sure, everyone might have a job, but your life will never be easy under this oppresive Bush regime. Let that be a lesson to the rest of you; just because this Bush economy is running great doesn't mean you have to paint it that way.

Speaking of ABC News, we all know it's perfectly acceptable to talk among ourselves about how much we hate Bush and ways we can destroy him, but come'on John Green, you need to remember that it can't be sent over your blackberry! As long as those Nazi's control the NSA, they will send all of that stuff straight to Drudge!

University of Saskatchewan newspaper, The Sheaf, has gone over the top taking a jab at Christians. Just a week after the newspaper refused to run the Danish cartoons because it so offended militant rioters in Europe, the paper ran a cartoon of Jesus performing oral sex on a "capitalist pig". They are blaming it on "editorial oversight", the editor has already resigned.

The real story I'd like to point your attention to is the lack of coverage in the Antique Media with regard to this story; it happened a week ago tomorrow. Right now there is a whopping 7 articles on Google News from huge mainstream papers like "Novopress" and "Fort Frances Times", and while a story from the "Saskatoon Home Page" is listed on Google News, the story has been removed. Where are you LA Times, NY Times, and Boston Globe?

Such coverage may lead Kayne West to proclaim "MSM doesn't care about Jesus Christ."

Orlando Sentinel ombudsman Manning Pynn apologizes for unknowingly exposing incompetence in the Florida school system. In a story that ran last week about how middle-income kids aren't getting what they should from schools, the Sentinel ran a picture of a teacher standing in front of a whiteboard with the word "government' written on it. Except the "r" was missing.

Wouldn't you want to know if your children were in a classroom with a teacher who can't spell 'government'? Not if you're a left-bent journalist covering for the education status quo.

Although that photo had been in the newsroom since it was taken Dec. 14 and had been seen by numerous editors, no one noticed the misspelling until early the morning of publication, well into the press run -- too late to redesign the front page. "We should have caught it," Photo Editor Ken Lyons lamented. He's right, of course. But if editors had caught the misspelling before the presses rolled, should they have substituted another picture? Would that act of seeming compassion have distorted reality and shielded readers from the truth? Yes and definitely not.

The real story here is that public education is a broken system, and journalists deliberately try to frame this story in a way that fuels more money being poured into the broken system rather than in a way to promote vouchers. Why? The short answer is control. When you have a voucher, you choose where you child goes and what they learn to a much larger extent. That is antithetical to journalists who would much rather your child be indoctrinated in a system that rejects God, promotes sex, "alternative lifestyles", and embraces tranny teachers.

While the New York Times preaches to us about the shameful lack of diversity in schools, politics and redistricting, while they talk down to us about the "race ceiling", write about those who call our President a racist, or just generally paint conservatives as racists themselves, it appears that they have a little house cleaning of their own to do.

An article from The New York Observer talks about the 39-page confidential internal report that surfaced yesterday at The Times about the racial makeup of the company.

According to the report, the Times newsroom is currently 82.5 percent white, slightly less than the industry average of 86.5 percent. Only 14 percent of newsroom managers are minorities, the council found, and there are currently no minorities on the newspaper masthead and only one nonwhite on the company's executive committee.

It apparently isn't just George Bush who doesn't care about black people.

My personal favorite part of the article:

The council defined diversity in terms of employees' race, gender and sexual orientation. Religious and political differences were not accounted for.

When Progress for America tried to air a commercial with Minnesota veterans defending U.S. war policy in Iraq, they soon found their money was no good at KSTP - Channel 5. What was the offending remark in the ad that caused this censorship?

The message contains the idea "That the media only reports the bad news" and "you would never know it from the news reports, but the enemy in Iraq is al Qaeda."

This is over the line for KSTP, who believes the statements to be untrue. "That, says [General Manager Rob] Hubbard, is plainly false. He points out that both KSTP and ABC, its parent network, have reported on the Iraqi elections, progress concerning reconstruction of the country, and the reopening of its schools--all of which qualifies as 'good' news. 'When someone is watching our news, we're "the media."' Hubbard explains. 'We know that [the claim in the advertisement] is inaccurate as it relates to us.'"

Apparently they believe it is inaccurate as it relates to all media, because the commercial never mentioned KSTP. I looked through the KSTP Web site to see all these examples of reporting "good news". I couldn't find a single story, perhaps they could point us toward some of this work. For instance, an article about the Iraqi elections opines:

One thing you can count on in life is that if your vulnerability is caught on tape, the news media is going to use it. If you get caught after a hurricane shirtless, they'll use it whether you like it or not. If a police dog rips off your clothes -- even if you're innocent -- they're going to use it. If a carjacker beats you up in the most humiliating way and it is caught on tape, watch the news because you'll be on it.

The dignity of others is of no consequence when you have advertising minutes to sell and ratings to get, and a personally embarrassing video is pure gold to a struggling news room because everyone can identify with it.

You might remember earlier this week when I wrote the following:

Bob Woodruff and his camera operator, Doug Vogt, were hit by an IED today while recording a stand-up. Godspeed to their recovery, but I have to wonder why this video hasn't aired yet. If it were anyone else it would be exploited with a constant loop. No doubt someone at ABC is rethinking the concept of privacy, unfortunately that concept of privacy will never be extended to any of us.

Now Drudge is reporting that special consideration is being given to the anchor.

ABCNEWS executives have made the controversial decision to hold off airing video footage that was being taped when anchorman Bob Woodruff was injured by an explosive in Iraq, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned... MORE...

A conversation took place at ABC to discuss whether that tape should air. Do you think the network has ever called the family of a soldier to ask if they wanted the tape of their loved one getting killed or maimed aired on network TV?

Democrats have figured out how to use the interwebs thingy. Staffers of Democrat representative Marty Meehan have gone into Wikipedia and removed all the (truthful) things they didn't like. Meanwhile, politicians wag a finger at Google for basically doing the exact same thing. You probably haven't heard anything about this story though because it was a Democrat and unless Karl Rove changes his Wikipedia entry it won't get much further than the Lowell Sun.

Bob Woodruff and his camera operator, Doug Vogt, were hit by an IED today while recording a stand-up. Godspeed to their recovery, but I have to wonder why this video hasn't aired yet. If it were anyone else it would be exploited with a constant loop. No doubt someone at ABC is rethinking the concept of privacy, unfortunately that concept of privacy will never be extended to any of us. While the impious media will probably plea for Woodruff and Vogt tonight, those of us with a soul will say a prayer for them.

Media darling and Court TV founder Steven Brill came out and said journalism school "is a giant waste of time." Huzzah.

Arianna is still taking shots at Tim Russert for being a pushover. NYDN would have you believe Russert blew a gasket, puffed up his chest and had his publicist send the NY Daily News a "ballistic email". The nearly too-hot-for-primetime email said "The last time we heard from Ms. Huffington, she was hiring private eyes to investigate reporters." Oooh, snap. Liberals can't even get along with themselves.

But that's not all. On the heels of the WashPost having to shut down comments due to liberals attacking liberals, Columbia Liberal Journalism Review took a swipe at Katie Liberal Couric for mentioning Abramoff funneled money to Democrats as well as Republicans:

Couric did, however, spend over eight minutes of air time this morning searching for "the best pants for every behind," exploring "why some outfits make women's derrieres look too large," and letting female viewers know how to make the best of their butts.

Thanks, CJR, for pointing that out. I hadn't noticed in the last twenty years that The Today Show was filled with mindless nonsense stories.

Note: Today marks the beginning of a regular column here on NewsBusters called "Media Roundup." It'll keep track of that day's media news. Feel free to post a link to other stories you see in the comments for each entry.

Sugar Ray Nagin is still in the news for that horrible chocolate comment. I found the back tracking to be even more ridiculous than the original comment; "Do you know anything about chocolate? How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That's the chocolate I'm talkin' about." I know enough about dark chocolate to know that when you pour milk on it you get more of a chocolate cereal than a delicious drink. Calls to determine where that leaves Asians in New Orleans went unreturned.

Readers of the Louisville Courier-Journal may not know what we're talking about. Their Ombud explains:

Nagin's reference to "chocolate New Orleans" had been edited out of that same story in these pages. Instead, our version read, "Nagin also promised that New Orleans will be rebuilt and again will be 'a majority African American city.' " So, what gives? The short answer: We messed up.

There has been a lot of messing up by the media lately. Susan Orlean apparently messed up when she promoted the fact that she is rich because it "calls severely into question the journalist's ability to identify with the ordinary people about whom one is called upon, at least once in a while, to write." What the heck, it wouldn't be the first time journalists hid the truth from the public.

CNN finally hired a conservative talker, Glenn Beck. Media Matters is all flustered about the whole thing, but in the end they are just ticked off they are going to have to watch another hour of conservative TV every day.

The media, okay really just another reporter who hates O'Reilly, finally discovered that we aren't going to swallow everything they shovel on us without question. Another journalist admits there is plaigiarism in "every newsroom in America." The WashPost ombud admits their Abramoff coverage hasn't even begun to mention all the Democrats involved (very end of article) but that might change any minute now. Consider me holding my breath. The U.S. military saved a reporter who had been kidnapped in Iraq before anyone even knew he had been missing for 5 days (no need to thank them, they know you owe them your life.) And the media is taking heat for actually doing what the military asks of them, but only when it comes to saving one of their own.

90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association love gay cowboys and transvestites far more than American movie-goers do. Chalk up another 7500 articles. Meanwhile one of the cowpokes claimed the rural bans on the movie were due to "racism". Calls to determine what part of the world the "gay race" migrated from went unreturned.

Wishy washy mayor Ray Nagin said hurricanes are messages that God is mad at us for being in Iraq, and that New Orleans will be "chocolate" again (is that what you call it?) Don't worry, the media will only portray Pat Robertson as crazy for purporting to know what God is thinking.

Al Gore is on a rampage claiming that George Bush is a criminal for

New York Times Public Editor Byron Calame agrees that the refusal to answer a single question about the spy story is "woefully inadequate."

I e-mailed a list of 28 questions to Bill Keller, the executive editor, on Dec. 19, three days after the article appeared. He promptly declined to respond to them. I then sent the same questions to Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher, who also declined to respond. They held out no hope for a fuller explanation in the future.

With the top Times people involved in the final decisions refusing to talk and urging everyone else to remain silent, it seemed clear to me that chasing various editors and reporters probably would yield mostly anonymous comments that the ultimate decision-makers would not confirm or deny.

Keller's response to me: "There is really no way to have a full discussion of the back story without talking about when and how we knew what we knew, and we can't do that."

"Mulligan - A golf shot not tallied against the score, granted in informal play after a poor shot especially from the tee."
                                                           - The American Heritage Dictionary

A Mulligan is where you act like what just happened didn't really happen even though everyone really knows what really happened. The following, in my opinion, are the 8 worst Mulligans the collective media took in 2005. They are areas of failure in the media that we are supposed to pretend don't exist.

1. UN

The UN is a failure. While the United States pays the biggest portion of the tab, the UN makes backroom deals with our enemies. In 2005 UN diplomats lounged around on what looks like a 1970s Merv Griffin set by day and double parked their cars by night. "Peacekeepers" of the UN raped those they were sent to help, including children, across the world. In the 10 years since Black Hawk Down, 9 million more Africans have been killed from conflict. The last time that many people died, we held people accountable. What, if not this, is the UN for?

Where are the editorials condemning the current state of the UN? The media was too busy in 2005 trying to scuttle the John Bolton nomination because he might be hard on the UN.

Last week an article came out claiming that the big brother tactics of the Patriot Act were abused to go after a poor little old college student just trying to do a paper on Chairman Mao. Apparently he had requested "The Little Red Book" and the next thing you know agents "dressed in black suits with thin black ties, 'just like the guys in Men in Black'" showed up to harass him and deliver a brow beating signed by President Bush. The gullible college jumped in on the act:

"My instinct is that there is a lot more monitoring than we think," he said. Dr. Williams said he had been planning to offer a course on terrorism next semester, but is reconsidering, because it might put his students at risk. "I shudder to think of all the students I've had monitoring al-Qaeda Web sites, what the government must think of that," he said. "Mao Tse-Tung is completely harmless."

Yes, completely harmless, unless you happen to have been killed by him.  (more...)

Dear journalists of the New York Times,

Perhaps you'd like to take a few moments to gather yourselves and figure out which of your stories are correct and which stories are politically motivated fabrications.

COURT SAYS U.S. SPY AGENCY CAN TAP OVERSEAS MESSAGES

By DAVID BURNHAM, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES (NYT) 1051 words Published: November 7, 1982

A Federal appeals court has ruled that the National Security Agency may lawfully intercept messages between United States citizens and people overseas, even if there is no cause to believe the Americans are foreign agents, and then provide summaries of these messages to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Because the National Security Agency is among the largest and most secretive intelligence agencies and because millions of electronic messages enter and leave the United States each day, lawyers familiar with the intelligence agency consider the decision to mark a significant increase in the legal authority of the Government to keep track of its citizens.

UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose releases results from a study that objectively quantifies media bias.

Take a wild guess how that came out.

Yes, Virginia, there is a leftist media bias. The only real surprises are that the Wall Street Journal news pages and the Drudge Report are more liberal than they get credit for.

While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left. ...

Two stories on the same Manpower employment report:

Hiring Outlook Bright For 2006 - CBS News

New year job market bleak - Newsday

I like the opening to the Newsday article:

Waiting for January to find a new job?

It might not happen even then.

If you need a job, you might not want to just sit around for a month waiting for one to fall in your lap, because as Newsday so insightfully points out, it might not happen even then.

This weekend you might have seen one of the 370 stories about Mel Gibson signing a deal to make a Holocaust mini-series. They ran with headlines like "Furor over Gibson Holocaust project". Yes, it appears Mel wants to make up for the sins of his father in his own way, and no doubt he will still be flogged by the press for it.

But here's a father-son story you won't see 370 stories about:

Chris Wallace: Mike Wallace Has 'Lost It'
"Fox News Sunday" anchorman Chris Wallace says father Mike Wallace has "lost it" - after the legendary CBS newsman told the Boston Globe last week that the fact George Bush had been elected president shows America is "[expletive]-up."

The San Francisco Chronicle created a comic today to suggest what it would look like if al Qaeda planted propaganda stories in US newspapers. This is evidently a take on the recent story of the US using the means necessary to do what needs to be done in Iraq.

Let me be the first to suggest al Qaeda doesn't need to; MSM is doing just fine on their own. But seriously, if they were to plant stories the headlines might read like this:

• We’re on a road to nowhere - Huffington Post
• Prisons of Darkness - The Villiage Voice
• The Insurgencies Are Winning - Tom Paine
• Reports of Secret U.S. Prisons in Europe Draw Ire and Otherwise Red Faces - New York Times
• Taking on torture: Vermonter arrested while protesting U.S. military school - Vermont Guardian
• Democrat asserts that Army is 'broken' - Boston Globe