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Nov
16
News Corp. actively biased for Guiliani? Noooooooo! They’re…journalists!
Filed Under Media, Scandal, WH2008 | 5 Comments
Vessels Sarcasm Alert Scale: 9
I’m no lover of Judith Regan but her allegations about how Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. worked to muzzle her re: her affair with Bernard Kerik because of how it would impact Rudy Guiliani sure are intriguing.
In December 2004, according to Regan’s complaint, when President Bush tapped Kerik, at Giuliani’s recommendation, to head the federal Department of Homeland Security, Regan was pressured to keep quiet, and asked to lie on Kerik’s behalf. “[A] senior executive in the News Corp. organization told Regan that he believed she had information about Kerik that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani’s presidential campaign. This executive advised Regan to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik. … [D]efendants knew they would be protecting Giuliani if they could preemptively discredit her.”
How unscrupulous! (VSAS: 
But then, it is still just an allegation.
So, how about this?
This is not the first time that News Corp. has been accused of having a political agenda. Fox News is often accused of favoring Republicans. In the current presidential election cycle, however, there have also been repeated suggestions, from critics on both the right and the left, that the network prefers Giuliani over the other GOP contenders.
Eh – that’s weak, too.
So the article goes on to detail numerous other scenarios in which News Corp. is portrayed as being Guiliani’s Beowolf. Except none of his mistresses even came close to looking like this.
Oh well, anyway. We know how important the ethic of not doing anything or engaging in any arrangement that could lead to perceptions of bias is to the journalism field. I’m sure this is all made-up. News Corp. and Guiliani would never allow anything like what Regan is implying.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:20 pm November 16th, 2007 in Media, Scandal, WH2008 | 5 Comments
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Nov
16
So says this commentary by Robert Niles at OJR (Online Journalism Review) that includes, “Two examples…[that] further drive home the lesson that the journalism media no longer provides the final word on the day’s news, thanks to the Internet.”
Read the two examples. There’s a lot to think about.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:08 pm November 16th, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Wide Open | Comments Off
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Nov
16
Mary gets what Mary wants, sort of: Strickland signs internal audit bill
Filed Under Government, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off
Despite concerns over cost, Gov. Ted Strickland yesterday signed a new law giving a stronger voice to internal state auditors whose warnings of wrongdoing are ignored by superiors.
[snip]
State agencies employ roughly 100 internal auditors. Although they would remain in their current locations, the new law would have them answer to Mr. Strickland’s Office of Budget and Management. The law also makes internal audit reports public records and open to scrutiny.
And it would create an independent committee of financial experts to review and publicly comment on audits submitted by internal auditors.
[snip]
At one point, Mr. Strickland had threatened to veto the bill, which was proposed by Ms. Taylor, the sole Republican statewide executive officeholder, and introduced by a pair of GOP lawmakers.
Yesterday, they sat together at his desk as he signed it into law.
The governor said he feared the original version would have usurped some of his authority and given it to another entity. He continues to have questions about the potential price-tag.
The Columbus Dispatch identifies what changed from the original bill to the final that persuaded Strickland to sign it:
Strickland initially had threatened to veto the bill on grounds it would be too costly and would usurp executive authority.
Although he said he still has concerns about potential costs, he agreed to support the bill when it was changed to give the committee the power merely to review and comment on audit plans rather than approve them.
“This is one more example of a bipartisan effort resulting in something good for our state,” he said.
State Auditor Mary Taylor has been pushing for the internal audit provisions since last spring (see #5).
However, before you give her unconditional kudos (never a smart move with anyone in politics although sometimes it’s hard to resist), please remember that just a little less than a year ago, when she was still a state rep, she was awarded the title, along with numerous other legislators, of “Legislators who sold you out.”
Funny how things change, or not. Only time will tell.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:57 pm November 16th, 2007 in Government, Ohio, Politics | Comments Off
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Nov
16
Kos & Karl: Will Newsweek work, where the PD didn’t? Plus, Wide Open feed o’ the day
Filed Under Blogging, Media, Wide Open | 2 Comments
From the Politico re: Markos of Daily Kos and Karl Rove will contribute to Newsweek:
“One of the reasons that I’m excited about this is because voices like mine and people I represent — our voices have not been portrayed in the traditional media at all,” Moulitsas added.
Of course, Moulitsas admitted he might have to adjust his style for a more general — and certainly less partisan — audience.
“I can’t assume that people know what I’m talking about,” he said. But Moulitsas added that he’s been published in mainstream publications before, and “can write AP style” when called upon.
Moulitsas said he hopes this is a first step in Newsweek bringing in more partisan voices from the blogosphere.
“I want to show that publications can take risks and use writers who are building their name online,” Moulitsas said. “This is actually a good place to find talent and use it. If I’m the one and only person, I think it will be a failure.”
National affairs editor Bret Begun will be editing both Rove and Moulitsas, the latter who told Politico that he has already filed his first piece for Newsweek’s website.
Well – will it? And why? Or why not?
Wide Open Feeds o’ the Day:
From Tish Grier, Journalism Moving Forward, Journalism Staring Backward
From Cyberjournalist.net: “Provocatively paranoid about the Internet”
The Changing Media Landscape:
Announcement on Cyberjournalist.net
New York Times blog post about the event, which was this past Tuesday evening
Archived webcast of it at GroundTV.org
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:53 pm November 16th, 2007 in Blogging, Media, Wide Open | 2 Comments
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Nov
16
From the We’ve Been Saying This All Along file: MSM pushes “gender card”
Filed Under Campaigning, Elections, Media, Social Issues, Women | Comments Off
The National Journal on how the MSM pushes the gender card.
Campbell Brown – if you are a journalist, leave me out.
Why are they always picking on women to fabricate fights?
GAWD.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:47 pm November 16th, 2007 in Campaigning, Elections, Media, Social Issues, Women | Comments Off
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Nov
16
How did record request reveal Dann’s internal e-mail, but Mandel gets to refuse to comply?
Filed Under Politics | 9 Comments
Has anyone else wondered about that?
Here’s my post, which was prompted by this Columbus Dispatch story, about how my state rep, Josh Mandel (R-Lyndhurst) has refused to provide e-mails from his personal account that had to do with official business.
Here’s the Dispatch article that recites policy made by his colleagues that all such e-mails are subject to public record requests, specifically, the Dispatch reported:
State and local government officials should no longer be allowed to skirt Ohio public-records laws by using private e-mail accounts to conduct official government business.
That is the view of a 22-member committee created by the legislature to examine public-records issues. The panel approved its final recommendations yesterday, including one that says electronic communication “in the course of public business should be treated consistently under existing public records laws and court decisions.”
My emphasis.
So – how is it that a communication between Attorney General Marc Dann and his communications director got turned over (and warranted a Jeer on the Plain Dealer’s editorial page), but Josh Mandel refuses to comply with his colleagues’ dictates and no one has said boo? What am I missing?
[And btw, PD - are you sure that it was Dann who was smarting? Here's what the Dayton Daily News, who made the original records request, wrote about the e-mail:
• Dann, who is Jewish, e-mailed Jennings on April 6 about an editorial that ran in his hometown paper, The (Youngstown) Vindicator: "Bentley said there are six nasty posts after the Vindy editorial. All about you," he wrote. "Jesus had it better on good friday."
Dann wrote to Jennings. Dann wrote that the nasty posts were, "All about you." Doesn't that mean that the nasty posts were all about Jennings, not Dann?? And that Dann is saying to Jennings that Jesus had it better than Jennings?
That's not consistent with the PD saying that Dann was smarting from the editorial. Rather, it sounds like Jennings might have been smarting from it. I've gone to the Vindy.com site, I've tracked down some items from April 2007, I've reviewed comments on those items and I don't really see what was being said about Jennings that would give rise to him needing empathy, but based on what the DDN is reporting, Dann was not whining for himself but rather offering Jennings (a bad example of) empathy.]
As for why Dann’s e-mails were discoverable and not really even about official business, but Mandel is a hold-out when the e-mails in question are allegedly unquestionably about official business, there’s a comment section, there’s my e-mail. Whatever.
Explain it to me.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:34 pm November 16th, 2007 in Politics | 9 Comments
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Nov
16
CNN Democratic debate transcript
Filed Under Announcements, Campaigning, Elections, Politics, Tools, WH2008 | Comments Off
From the Plain Dealer’s Open, you can read it here. As a lover of transcripts as well as being someone who missed the first hour of the debate, I thank them for posting the transcript (and, I assume, paying for it, sincerely).
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:41 am November 16th, 2007 in Announcements, Campaigning, Elections, Politics, Tools, WH2008 | Comments Off
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Nov
16
I finally got the exact link from Bill Hershey, thank you!
Dayton Daily News’ Ohio Politics blog. Add it to your RSS, although I’m not seeing an exact RSS feed for that one blog…?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:47 am November 16th, 2007 in Blogging | 1 Comment
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Nov
16
PD does nice profile of a blogger…from New Haven
Filed Under Blogging, Ohio, Tech, Wide Open | 14 Comments
This profile of blogger Jane Genova is a great example of how blogging instigates and gives expression to latent activists, but Genova lives in New Haven, CT and her blog, Speechwriting-Ghostwriting, isn’t even named in the Plain Dealer piece (there is a hyperlink to her blog).
The hook, I am guessing, is that she’s blogged lead paint trials on the East Coast. Otherwise, I’m not quite sure why, in the PD’s first blogger-focused profile since the spring of 2006, she was chosen.
This is no slight and nothing personal re: Genova AT ALL – she’s from my hometown and I am a huge champion of boomers blogging – though I think she might technically be just a tad older than a boomer. But after the experience with Wide Open, where I got schooled in newspaper ethics, I can’t help but want to be sure that she doesn’t have any specific ties to the PD that led the paper to a resident of CT (as opposed to the 1000s in Ohio who blog), that could lead to the article being an in-kind contribution to her writing career, since she does seem to hope that her blog attracts work for her.
So, my beef? It’s a nice piece. But there are more than enough Ohio bloggers to choose from.
Anyway – enough about my sour grapes days. Here’s what she says about blogging in the PD story:
While much of the blogosphere shoots first and asks questions later, Genova believes she brings a level of analysis and clear thinking that readers want. She did graduate work in linguistics and literature at the University of Michigan and later entered business. She wrote speeches, commentaries and the like for executives at several companies, including Gulf Oil, Chrysler, IBM and Kraft Foods.
But Genova foundered in that world. She couldn’t rise above middle management. Something didn’t click. Her Bohemian personality didn’t mesh with corporate life. Her failures left her in a funk. But it led to some self-realization, and finally a way out.
“I don’t know how to comport myself naturally in an organization,” Genova said.
But when you’re blogging in your pajamas, you don’t have to.
Hmm…bloggers who bring “a level of analysis and clear thinking that readers want.”
You mean, like the ones the PD engaged for Wide Open?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:26 am November 16th, 2007 in Blogging, Ohio, Tech, Wide Open | 14 Comments
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Nov
16
Rove and Markos sitting in a tree…
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:07 am November 16th, 2007 in Blogging, Wide Open | Comments Off
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