Confession that practice was rife is likely to cost News International millions of pounds in compensation Rupert Murdoch’s News International has issued a public apology to eight victims of phone hacking, including Sienna Miller and Tessa Jowell, and admitted for the first time that the practice was rife at the News of the World. In a move likely to cost the company many millions of pounds, it said it would offer compensation to some of the 24 high-profile figures who have started legal proceedings against the paper in the high court for breach of privacy. It also admitted its previous investigations into hacking had not been “sufficiently robust”. The unprecedented statement of contrition is a remarkable volte face for the country’s most powerful news organisation, which was claiming until the start of this year, in the face of growing evidence to the contrary, that hacking was the work of a single reporter. It comes as a Scotland Yard investigation into phone hacking gathers pace. The News of the World’s chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, was questioned by police on Tuesday along with Ian Edmondson, who was sacked as associate editor (news) in January. The company said it had decided to offer an “unreserved apology” in certain cases but it would continue to fight others, including claims brought by Steve Coogan and the jockey Kieren Fallon. “Past behaviour at the News of the World in relation to voicemail interception is a matter of genuine regret,” it said. “It is now apparent that our previous inquiries failed to uncover important evidence and we acknowledge our actions then were not sufficiently robust.” At least one of the victims indicated privately that she was unlikely to accept News International’s offer, although others – including Miller – are believed to be considering the proposal. Lord Prescott, who is suing the Metropolitan police over its handling of the original 2006 phone-hacking inquiry, said: “The NoW has now admitted mass criminality.” He repeated his call for Murdoch’s bid for BSkyB to be blocked until the hacking allegations have been investigated fully. The eight people to be offered compensation, likely to be an estimated £100,000 each, include Joan Hammell, one of Prescott’s former advisers, and Jowell’s ex-husband, David Mills. The others are football agent Sky Andrew, Andy Gray, who was sacked as a Sky Sports presenter this year, publicist Nicola Phillips and Kelly Hoppen, the interior designer who is Sienna Miller’s mother-in-law. News International insiders said more offers are certain to follow as further evidence emerges in court cases. The action is an attempt to prevent further damaging revelations about hacking at the paper emerging in the course of court hearings, the first of which will take place in the autumn. Over the next few weeks, NI will be forced to hand over hundreds of internal emails sent by reporters and executives relating to Miller and Andrew in order to comply with a high court order. They could reveal how much senior executives at the paper knew about the activities of Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the NoW. Asked at a New York media conference about the damage hacking has inflicted on the company, Rupert Murdoch’s son James, who was promoted last week to become the third most powerful executive in his father’s media empire, said it had isolated the issue. He said: “What we were able to do is really put this problem into a box. If you get everybody sucked into something like that, then the whole business will sputter which you don’t want.” But Rod Dadak, a partner at the law firm Lewis Slikin, said dozens of potential victims would now scramble to launch legal claims in the expectation of receiving generous payouts. That could leave NI facing a bill of up to £40m. “The admission of liability is just the beginning,” he said. “The list of people who will now claim their phone may have been hacked will grow immeasurably.” Evidence seized from Mulcaire by the Met suggests that he targeted more than 3,000 people on the instructions of executives at the paper. Andrew Neil, an ex-Murdoch executive who edited the Sunday Times for a decade, said: “This is one of the most embarrassing apologies I’ve ever seen from a major British corporation. I don’t think NI had anywhere else to go. The evidence was piling up against them. It may cost them a lot more than they think. There are plenty of other people involved. They are trying to close it down with their chequebook but I don’t think they’re going to succeed.” Charlotte Harris, a media lawyer at Mischon de Reya, who represents Andrew, said: “An admission from the News of the World is something we’ve been working towards for years now. They persisted with their ‘one rogue’ defence for far too long. It was clear for a very long time that the practice of phone hacking was rife and that the News of the World should take responsibility. I hope these apologies do not come at the cost of finding out precisely what happened and who was responsible for covering it up.” James Robinson guardian.co.uk
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Two suspects in custody and police say killers wanted to extort money from victim’s children in UK The decapitated remains of a British woman have been recovered by Indian police who claim she was murdered after a bungled attempt to extort money from her children in the UK. The head and body of Surjit Kaur, who is believed to have been in her 60s, were found separately this week. Two local men, one a relative of the victim, have been arrested and police said they had confessed to the killing. Kaur, who is said by police to have been a widow with three children, arrived in Punjab from Britain in early February. She disappeared 10 days ago and was reported missing by the caretaker at her home in the village of Shekhwali, in Kapurthala district, 220 miles north-west of the capital, Delhi. A neighbour told police she had seen Kaur in the vehicle of the two detained men, who were traced using mobile phone records. Sandip Sharma, the deputy superintendent of Phagwara police, who is investigating the murder, told the Guardian the attack took place after the two suspects lured her away under false pretences. “They drove her to Saharanpur, Uttar Pradhesh. At first they wanted money from her children, but changed their minds,” Sharma said. He said they strangled Kaur, cut off her head and threw it into a river. Her body was dismembered and scattered in nearby fields, he added. Police sub-inspector Harmel Singh said Kaur had previously lent money to her alleged killers. He could not confirm local press reports that the sum amounted to more than £2,500. “She wanted it back. They took her in their car with the intention of frightening her but instead they ended up killing her,” said Singh. The two suspects were remanded in custody by a local judge on Friday. A substantial proportion of the Indian community in the UK has links to Punjab. Tens of thousands of students travel from the state to the UK every year. There are many weddings between British citizens and local men and women. The village where Kaur lived is part of the so-called NRI belt of the state’s Doaba region, where many Britons of Indian origin – or non-residential Indians – have either retired or maintain holiday homes. The Foreign Office confirmed it was aware of the death of a British national in India. “Staff have been in touch with next of kin and are providing consular assistance,” a spokeswoman said. “We will not speculate on the circumstances surrounding the British national’s death.” India Crime Rajeev Syal Jason Burke guardian.co.uk
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With no new money for defence budget, critics say settlement is simply storing up problems for the future The Ministry of Defence and the Treasury have plugged a £1bn gap in the armed forces budget in a deal which was brokered by Downing Street but avoided the underlying pressures facing military spending, officials familiar with the negotations have said. “We have balanced this year’s budget, the big questions remain and are next year’s problem,” a senior defence source said. “We have stored up more pain for later on,” another source said. The Treasury has not provided any new money for the defence budget, senior officials said. Instead, plans to buy new Chinook helicopters will be delayed and will not now be delivered until British combat troops have left Afghanistan. Plans to upgrade Warrior armoured vehicles will also be put off. The MoD has agreed to impose tighter controls over a wide range of low priority spending as well as training and exercises, and has renegotiated 500 different arms contracts. “For instance, we had contracts with firms to refit ships that were going out of service, which made no sense,” a source said. The MoD also made clear that equipment identified for the axe under last year’s strategic defence review had not been reprieved. The frigate HMS Cumberland, which has been involved in operations off Libya, will be decommissioned as planned. Last month the RAF announced that two Tornado squadrons would be decommissioned in June – that will go ahead as planned. William Hague, the foreign secretary, said that while the Treasury was trying to be “helpful” to the MoD, there was no prospect of changing major decisions. However, the Treasury has agreed to pay for upgrades to Puma helicopters used by troops in Afghanistan out of the special reserve, a move that would save £250m from the core defence budget. The full cost of special allowances for troops deployed to Afghanistan – some £10m a year – will also be paid out of the Treasury’s reserve. There remains an estimated £38bn gap between what the MoD has agreed to spend on equipment and services over the next decade and the money available to it. Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said that ministers should now reopen the whole defence review. He added: “My worry is that if something like Libya was to happen next year when the ships and the aircraft had been sent away for scrap, then we couldn’t do the remarkable things the armed forces are doing.” Professor Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute warned that the MoD may simply be storing up problems for the future. “Because of Libya and also Afghanistan ongoing, it is very difficult to find areas in which to make cuts without there being very serious political problems,” he said. “This settlement will, I think, just about balance the books for this financial year that has just started with some difficulty. But it doesn’t address the medium term funding gap. We have this funding gap every year from now on for the next four years.” Military Defence policy Richard Norton-Taylor Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
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John Lewis reveals sales plunge in stores at Bluewater and Cribbs Causeway, in contrast to traditional shops Soaring petrol prices are hitting sales at out-of-town shopping centres as cash-strapped consumers think twice about making long journeys to retail destinations such as Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and the Metrocentre in Gateshead. As the price of oil breached $124 a barrel for the first time in two and a half years – and is now at a record in sterling terms, as a result of the weaker pound – John Lewis revealed big sales declines at its shops in key out-of-town malls, including Bluewater in Kent and Cribbs Causeway. Takings at the retailer’s Bluewater department store are down more than 9% since the end of January, with the decline accelerating to more than 12% in the most recent week. At the John Lewis store in Cribbs Causeway mall sales have tumbled more than 11% so far this year and were down more than 14% last week. City retail analyst Freddie George, at brokers Seymour Pierce, said: “With the petrol price so high, we knew this was coming and these John Lewis figures provide the first significant evidence.” The dismal sales at John Lewis’ out-of-town centres are in sharp contrast to its more traditional city centre branches and internet site. Retail research group Synovate, which monitors the number of shoppers visiting retail centres nationwide, said it had also detected a move for shoppers to stay local. The number of shoppers going through the doors of out-of-town centres fell nearly 12% in March, compared with last year, and compared with a 7% decline across all shops. With the price of oil predicted to hit $130 later this year, the cost of petrol is likely to climb even higher. Over the past year it has leaped by some 21p to its current level of around 134p a litre. Analysts say further increases will accelerate the move away from out-of-town centres as shoppers baulk at rising petrol costs. Tim Denison, director of retail intelligence at Synovate Retail Performance, said: “If petrol prices remain high, there is likely to be some kind of structural shift, with people going to out-of-town centres less frequently and spending more time there when they do. We would expect more promotion from the out-of-town centres, possibly by providing free bus services to customers, rather than expecting them to come in under their own steam.” The average shopper turning up at a regional mall like Meadowhall or Bluewater has driven around 32 miles, according to CACI, another retail research group. A shopper who decides to stay local instead will therefore save about £12 in petrol costs for the round trip. Jonathan De Mello, of property agents CB Richard Ellis, said history showed small out-of-town centres tend to suffer from rising petrol prices but that the larger ones actually benefit as shoppers ensure they visit a site “where everything is under one roof”. John Lewis played down the impact of rising petrol prices, arguing that the weather and timing of bank holidays were more significant. Nat Wakely, director of selling operations at John Lewis, said the equivalent period for last year included Good Friday, a day when city centre workers tend to avoid high street outlets in favour of a day out at an out-of-town mall. Motorists are cutting back on journeys in order to save money, according to an AA poll in January. Edmund King, the AA president, said short car journeys are less fuel-efficient because they involve stop-start driving and trips to shopping centres could fall victim to a domestic cost squeeze. “If the journey to the out-of-town shopping centre is on average five or six miles that is a particularly inefficient journey in terms of fuel use. So if people can avoid that, they will.” Although John Lewis’s more central stores tended to perform better than its out-of-town sites, the latest data from the group showed times remain tough on the high street. Reporting at the end of a week that saw Halfords and Carpetright becoming the latest retailers to issue profits warnings, John Lewis revealed that it too was suffering from British consumers’ dwindling confidence and purchasing power. The John Lewis department stores recorded year-on-year sales growth of just 1.1%, including the benefit of the January VAT rise, well down on the near-10% increase seen in the previous six months. Retail industry Petrol prices John Lewis Motoring Consumer spending Oil Tom Bawden Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …To sell the repeal of birthright citizenship, Republicans like Vitter lie about scope of ‘baby tourism’
April 8, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media I guess this is how Republicans do the Latino-outreach thing: Demonize Latino children, threaten to take away their birthright citizenship, and blatantly lie about the numbers of “anchor babies” being born by mothers coming here specifically to have citizen children. Here’s Sen. David Vitter yesterday on Fox News, promoting his new federal bill to strip American-born children of undocumented immigrants of their birthright citizenship : VITTER: It’s a very real problem. About 200,000 women come into this country annually from other countries legally, with a tourist visa, something like that, to give birth in this country so that child can automatically become a U.S. citizen. 200,000 a year! I’m guessing that Vitter’s source for this number is either somewhere up his own nether regions, or those of hate groups such as FAIR and CIS that pump out fake statistics like this for eager Latino-bashers like Vitter and his three Senate colleagues to regurgitate into policy. Because, as ABC News explained in their own report on this legislation: Of the 4.2 million live births in the United States in 2006, the most recent data gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics, only 7,670 were children born to mothers who said they do not live here. Some of those mothers could be “baby tourists,” experts say, but many could be foreign college students, diplomatic staff, or vacationers. The government does not track the reasons non-resident mothers are in the United States at the time of the birth or their citizenship. Indeed, as the story notes, the “anchor baby” problem is a statistical pimple: “There’s no evidence that birth tourism is a widespread problem,” said Michele Waslin, a senior policy analyst with the Immigration Policy Center. “There are ways to dealing with that issue without such sweeping changes. This is like using a sledgehammer, not a scalpel.” Indeed, as we explained when Russell Pearce trotted out the same garbage in Arizona : [T]his is a sick joke. Surveys of undocumented workers have made indelibly clear that they don’t come here to have “anchor babies,” or to get our free health care, or any of the other fantasies harbored by nativists: they come here for jobs. Moreover, there’s no serious benefit to be had from having your child be born a citizen — because under American law, you can be deported anyway , and in fact thousands of parents of American birthright-citizen children are deported every year: 100,000 of them over 10 years, to be precise. There is an exemption available: After the immigrant parent has been present for no less than ten years, he or she may apply for Cancellation of Removal if he/she can prove ten years of good moral character and establish that deportation would create an exceptional hardship to her citizen child. There is an annual cap of 4,000 on the number of illegal immigrants who can be granted such relief, and for the past several years the government has not even reached that cap. Vitter goes on to make the shaky explanation that his bill would not require a repeal of the 14th Amendment — rather, it would force an interpretation of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” contained therein to somehow mean that non-citizens somehow are no longer “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. when on American soil. The Immigration Policy Center has a good rundown on the myths and facts about birthright citizenship. Among those facts are these: The arguments for Congressional authority to limit birthright citizenship are all reliant upon an expansive interpretation of the term “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. For example, some opponents of birthright citizenship dispute that the Citizenship Clause embodies the jus soli definition of citizenship and instead argue that it confers citizenship only to children of those who give their complete allegiance to the United States. Under this view, because citizens of foreign countries still owe “allegiance” to a foreign sovereign, children born on U.S. soil to non-U.S.-citizen parents do not owe complete allegiance to the United States. This argument is misleading and based on flawed premises. Even if “allegiance” were the defining characteristic of birthright citizenship, the Reconstruction framers understood allegiance to spring from the place of one’s birth, not the citizenship status of one’s parents. The 1866 debates established that a person “owes allegiance to the country of his birth, and that country owes him protection.” Similarly, one of the opinions from the Dred Scott decision, the backdrop against which the Citizenship Clause was drafted, acknowledged that “allegiance and citizenship spring from the place of birth.” This understanding of allegiance deriving from one’s place of birth underscores the Reconstruction framers’ focus on the child born within the United States, not the status of his parents. The text of the Citizenship Clause thus refers to “[a]ll persons born … within the United States” and not “all persons born of parents born within the United States.” The Reconstruction framers expressly recognized this distinction: Senator Trumbull remarked that “even the infant child of a foreigner born in this land is a citizen of the United States long before his father.” Some even acknowledged that birthright citizenship could encourage immigration, noting that the civil rights bill was “not made for any class or creed, or race or color, but in the great future that awaits us will, if it become a law, protect every citizen, including the millions of people of foreign birth who will flock to our shores to become citizens and to find here a land of liberty and law.” As Elizabeth Wydra put it in her Issue Brief for the American Constitution Society (titled “Born Under the Constitution: Why Recent Attacks on Birthright Citizenship are Unfounded”) [PDF file]: A close study of the text of the Citizenship Clause and Reconstruction history demonstrates that the Citizenship Clause provides birthright citizenship to all those born on U.S. soil, regardless of the immigration status of their parents. To revoke birthright citizenship based on the status and national origin of a child‘s ancestors, as some anti-citizenship activists are suggesting, goes against the purpose of the Citizenship Clause and the text and context of the Fourteenth Amendment. Perhaps more important, the principles motivating the Framers of the Reconstruction Amendments, of which the Citizenship Clause is a part, suggest that we amend the Constitution to reject automatic citizenship at the peril of our core constitutional values. At the heart of the 14th Amendment is the fundamental belief that all people are born equal, and, if born in the United States, are born equal citizens regardless of color, creed or social status. It is no exaggeration to say that the 14th Amendment is the constitutional embodiment of the Declaration of Independence and lays the foundation for the American Dream. Because of the 14th Amendment, all American citizens are equal and equally American. Whether one‘s parents were rich or poor, saint or sinner, the 14th Amendment proclaims that ours is a nation where an American child will be judged by his or her own deeds. To Real Muricans like David Vitter and Rand Paul, though, such qualms are insignificant. It’s worth it to to destroy the meaning of the 14th Amendment and the long tradition of jus soli in America for the sake of a nonexistent “baby tourism” plague, you know.
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Anna Hazare’s hunger strike has inspired Indians as frustration grows at the subversion of the rule of law and moral values The Jantar Mantar in New Delhi is a hot favourite of the average tourist in the summer. But since 5 April 2011, the astronomical observation site has become a focus of an anti-corruption campaign that has never been seen before, thanks to Anna Hazare . After decades of utter frustration, this one man, a veteran Gandhian, has emerged as the champion for tackling the menace of corruption. His crusade is a measure of the pent-up anger, especially among the young, springing from the manner in which politicians of all hues are taking the country for a ride through misuse of office and naked corruption. With the gap between the haves and have-nots widening, there is a sense of frustration among the diminishing tribe of honest Indians which is ready to explode. Over the past six decades, the four pillars of democracy, the legislature, judiciary, executive and the press, have all developed serious problems in India. The rule of law stands subverted and moral values seriously eroded. The civil rights of women and children suffer blatant violations. Daily newspapers are replete with news of rape, dowry-deaths, trafficking, abduction and murder. The weak, the elderly and those living alone are robbed and killed every day. The police authorities prefer to look the other way. Attempts to lodge complaints with them are simply stonewalled unless some activist take the cudgels of justice in their hands. Members of the hallowed corridors of the law courts have succumbed to the temptations of underhand deals. Shanti Bhushan , a leading lawyer, claimed that half of the 16 supreme court chief justices before whom he had appeared were corrupt. Newspaper owners and managers are known to strike deals with corporate bosses to give them favourable coverage through “paid news”. Schools openly arm-twist parents to part with hefty sums of money before admitting children to their portals and euphemistically call it a “donation”. Indeed no receipt is given for this transaction. While the government feigns helplessness, the practice gains acceptance. Most of the emerging middle-class’s entrepreneurs are blinded by their desire to get rich quickly, by hook or by crook. Their conscience does not prick them when they resort to falsification, telling lies, fraudulent practices, cheating and adulteration. Dodging taxes in the name of tax planning is smart business. Even godly men and religious preachers are embroiled in corruption and scandals of various types. The country has an abysmal record of penalising offenders who have someone to protect. Hazare, a social worker, has been demanding that the government enact a comprehensive anti-corruption law and draft a citizen’s ombudsman bill, or Lokpal bill. He looks to have won his battle , so has announced that he will break his fast on Saturday. India must fully embrace his plan to root out the cancer of corruption. Otherwise, this climate of economic hardship, with high food prices and rising unemployment, could become a catalyst for political turmoil of the sort seen elsewhere in the world, with even more serious consequences not only for India but also for the rest of the world. The Facebook youth of India might just wake up. India Kailash Chand guardian.co.uk
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One person is dead and another in critical condition after shooting on board HMS Astute in Southampton One person has been killed and another is in a critical condition after being shot on board a British nuclear submarine. A navy serviceman has been arrested after the incident on HMS Astute, which is docked in Southampton. Hampshire police and the Ministry of Defence have said the incident was not terrorist related and there had been no risk to the public. All three involved were Royal Navy personnel. Several police vehicles were sent to the Eastern Docks and officers could be seen on the gangway of the £1bn submarine. A police spokesman said: “Hampshire police were called by their Ministry of Defence colleagues at 12.12pm today and are currently liaising with them to establish the exact circumstances of the incident.” An MoD spokesman said: “Two Royal Navy personnel have been involved in a firearms incident at Southampton docks where HMS Astute is alongside. Sadly one has now died as a result of his injuries. “The Royal Navy is now attempting to inform their families as a matter of urgency. A third Royal Navy serviceman has been arrested by Hampshire constabulary and is now in custody. “This incident was not terrorist-related and there is no threat to the wider public. We are co-operating fully with the police investigation and a Royal Navy service investigation will begin in due course.” Police were refusing to confirm reports that the shooting took place in a control room, or that the two victims were officers and the person arrested an able seaman. A spokesman said details would not be given until next of kin had been informed. A navy source said it was believed a pistol was used. Detectives are meeting naval officials on board the vessel. Astute was not open to the public while in Southampton but civic leaders, sea cadets, scouts and school and college parties were being invited on board. Visitors on board at the time of the shooting included the leader of Southampton city council, Royston Smith; the mayor, Carol Cunio; and the chief executive, Alistair Meill. Southampton Itchen MP and former cabinet member John Denham expressed concern about security issues relating to the incident. “It is a matter of grave concern that an incident like this could occur on a visiting Royal Navy vessel. In due course I will be asking ministers to ensure this incident is fully explained with complete openness about any potential risk to the public. “I wish to express my deepest sypathy to the victims of this incident and their families.” HMS Astute is described by the Royal Navy as the first of a new class of vessel designed to be the largest and most powerful nuclear attack submarine it has ever sailed. This is Astute’s first trip south. It was built in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and is based at Faslane, in Scotland. The five-day visit to Southampton was billed as the first chance for people outside north-west England and Scotland to see it. Astute’s commanding officer, Commander Iain Breckenridge, said before arriving in Southampton: “My ship’s company and I are very much looking forward to the visit and meeting the people of the city. And I’m sure scouts, school pupils and other visitors will be impressed with the capabilities of this formidable vessel.” Since commissioning last August the Astute has had what the navy calls an interesting time, including running aground off the Isle of Skye . It is in the middle of a “demanding” trials programme. The submarine’s Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles are capable of delivering pinpoint strikes from 1,240 miles with conventional weapons. Its nuclear reactor means it does not need refuelling and it makes its own air and water, enabling it to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing. It was the first in a fleet of six that will replace the Royal Navy’s Trafalgar class submarines. The Ministry of Defence said anyone worried about loved ones on HMS Astute could call 08457 800 900. Crime Military Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Scott Walker’s Patronage Hire Resigns His Sweet Gig. What, Does He Think He’s Sarah Palin?
April 8, 2011 No Comment
enlarge Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he’s concerned about the budget. Anything that gives Scott Walker agita is fine with me, and I’m happy to have played some small part in spreading the word when it results in at least one privileged Republican trustafarian losing his job. How does it feel, Brian? Via Wonkette: The short, meteoric rise of some drunken loser flunk-out has come to an end, despite his dad being a wealthy GOP construction-industry lobbyist who demanded Scott Walker’s new administration hire up all the rich white Republican drunken loser flunk-out kids at $81,500 annual salaries. Brian Deschane, 27, was given the sweet job because his daddy gave Scott Walker $121,000 to run for governor. But then the mean old liberal newspaper wrote about young Deschane and his two DUI convictions that not even his daddy could make go away with a check to the judge, and then the socialists all started blogging it, and then Deschane got a demotion back to his previous sweet job, making $64,728 a year, also for nothing more than being the unemployable result of one of Scott Walker’s corporate donor’s ejaculating into a woman’s vagina some 28 years ago. And now, the adult-child has “resigned” from this job, probably because the Wisconsin Builders Association has had just about all the terrible publicity they’re willing to take from the slacker son of a guy hired to advance their interests, not see their dumb corporate newsletter used as a punchline on Wonkette. The Journal Sentinel reports on this controversy that is all the fault of dirty Milwaukee newspaper for people who don’t share the values of the minority of Wisconsin voters who don’t live in the state’s population centers.
Continue reading …In Story on Town Hall Meeting About Shutdown, WaPo Reporter Buries Complaint About Dems in Very Last Paragraph
April 8, 2011 No CommentIn his 20-paragraph April 8 article* on a congressional townhall hosted by liberal Democrat Jim Moran (D-Va.), reporter Ben Pershing buried in the very last paragraph the complaint of at least one attendee about the failure of Democrats to approve the 2011 budget last year when they controlled both houses of Congress: Even before finishing his opening remarks, Moran was sharply interrupted by members of the audience. One asked why Democrats hadn’t completed a spending bill for 2011 last year, when they still controlled both chambers of Congress. Moran didn’t answer but said he wasn’t there to “argue or defend any of this.” Moran's district is a very safe Democratic seat, so it is instructive that this was the very first question Moran was posed in last night's townhall meeting. Pershing's bias-by-burial follows the media template of shutdown coverage as the media fail to criticize Democrats for setting the stage for a shutdown by failing to do such a basic task as approving the government's 2011 budget last year when they controlled both houses of Congress. *the online article had two additional paragraphs that followed: Two attendees asked whether furloughed federal workers would qualify for unemployment benefits. Moran said the answer wasn’t clear yet — it depends on how long a shutdown lasts.
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Comedian hails pundit’s ‘transition off’ from Fox News with extended skit, mocking him for comparing himself to Paul Revere Jon Stewart had his own take on the reason for Glenn Beck’s “transition off” from Fox News in his Comedy Central Daily Show on Thursday: “Glenn Beck still had the third highest show in cable news … Maybe Fox News thought it would be useful to pick some random talk radio host rehashing all same tired old John Birch Society conspiracy theories to seed ultra-conservative viewpoints into the news cycle, while making the rest of the network seem centrist by comparison. But, he then began to believe his own messianic delusions and became a giant pain in the ass. So they dropped his ass.” For his farewell to Beck, Stewart once again adopted his trademark glasses and chalk boards for an extended spoof, including a clip of the Fox News presenter explaining his departure from the network by way of a comparison with Paul Revere. Stewart wasn’t going to let that pass without comment: “Glenn could’ve likened himself to any character from the American revolution … But he decided to go with the first and loudest character. And the only real difference between Glenn and Paul Revere is that when Paul Revere told you the British were coming, they were in fact coming.” Stewart himself must be at least a teeny bit sad that Beck is leaving Fox News, given how much material he has provided over the past couple of years. Perhaps most memorably, in March 2010 the first half of the Daily Show was given over to a 15-minute spoof by Stewart of Beck’s presenting style and conspiracy theories. . Glenn Beck Jon Stewart Fox News Fox TV news Television industry US television industry US television Television United States Jason Deans guardian.co.uk
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