NY Times Editor Bill Keller Wishes His Staff Would Stop Writing All These Books
July 14, 2011 No CommentOne has to wonder if departing New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller will leave behind many friends in the newsroom. First he bothered his media-beat reporters by writing of his dislike for new media like Twitter . It turns out he’s not crazy about old media (books) either – at least when writing them take his reporters away on book leave or detracts from their reporting. His upcoming column for the July 17 Sunday Magazine, “ Let’s Ban Books, or at Least Stop Writing Them ,” sounded like a sotto voce corporate policy memo, with some surprisingly mocking cracks about his news staff: “ Two editors were writing books about their dogs. At the same time!” There was exciting news last month among the Twitterati. Brian Stelter, The New York Times prodigy and master of social media, announced to his 64,373 followers that he is going to write a book. The obvious question: What’s up with that? Not that I doubt he can do it. The man The New York Observer calls our “Svelte Twitter Svengali” has a history of setting the bar high and vaulting over it. He files prodigiously for The Times; stars in the new “Page One” documentary; and has promulgated, as of my last check, 21,376 Tweets — not counting the separate Twitter stream where he records every morsel of food he consumes. (Brian lost more than 90 pounds last year on a Twitter-assisted diet; it’s probably hard to feed yourself when your fingers are permanently affixed to a keyboard.) As his colleague in the media-reporting unit, David Carr, memorably said of the talented upstart, “I still can’t get over the feeling that Brian Stelter was a robot assembled in the basement of The New York Times to come and destroy me.” So yes, he can write a book. But why would he want to? Why, in fact, would anyone want to? …. Watching that trend, I find my grief for the state of civilization comes with a guilty surge of relief. Sure, I would miss books — and so, by the way, would my children — but at least the death of books would put an end to the annoying fact that everyone who works for me is either writing one or wants to. I would get my staff back! …. I’ve learned interesting things from the books of my staffers. I learned that I employed a financial writer who got himself so deep in debt he couldn’t make his mortgage payments, a media columnist who had been a crack addict and a restaurant critic with a history of eating disorders. (To those who found these cases problematic, I replied that there is no better qualification for writing about life in all its complexity than having lived it.) …. We indulge our writers because we want the talent happy, and because a little of their prestige accrues to The Times. But we do so at a cost. Books mean writers who are absent or distracted from daily journalism, writers who have to be replaced when they leave their reporting beats and landed somewhere when they return. There is the tricky relationship between what they unearth for their books and what goes into the paper. There is the awkwardness of reviewing books by colleagues — and the greater awkwardness of not reviewing them. There is the resentment of those left behind to take up the slack, especially where fat advances have been paid.
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Bonn University annuls MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis’s doctorate for insufficient acknowledgement of other authors Another high-profile German politician has been stripped of a doctorate for plagiarism. This time the culprit tried to explain away his bad habit, blaming it on a stint at Oxford in the 1990s. On Wednesday, the faculty of philosophy at the University of Bonn announced that it was annulling the doctorate awarded to MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, a member of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). The scandal is the latest political plagiarism case exposed in recent months, following those of former defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and MEP Silvana Koch-Mehrin. On Wednesday Bonn University said that Chatzimarkakis had used verbatim passages from other authors’ work without using quotation marks. While he did mark the passages with footnotes, there was insufficient acknowledgment of the original authors. Yet, the politician has insisted he thought his method was sound, saying he had picked it up at one of the most prestigious universities in the world while he was a research fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford University in 1995. Speaking on Germany’s premier political talkshow, Anna Will, in early July, he said that in Oxford, “they phrase things somewhat differently. They intertexualise, that is they make texts readable.” Bonn’s dean of philosophy, Günther Schulz, said the method the politician had used was simply not acceptable: “He didn’t use quotations marks, so the reader thinks that he is reading a text by Chatzimarkakis, when actually more than half the text is from other authors.” The FDP politician’s comments so infuriated a couple of Germans studying at Oxford that they decided to take action. Markus Gestler, studying for a doctorate in systems biology, fired off a string of letters to various bodies within the universities, including St Antony’s, alerting them to the slur on their reputations. “It was really his mistake. I can’t imagine that he learned that way of doing things in Oxford,” he said, adding he thought it was in the university’s interest to know what was being said about it in Germany. Meanwhile, Jan Rosenow, doing a doctorate in energy policy, decided to write to Philipp Rösler, the leader of the FDP, to complain. “I got really annoyed. I think actually in the UK there is much more emphasis on plagiarism compared to Germany. And I felt that he was throwing dirt at my university.” Ruth Collier, head of the press office at Oxford University, said that the academic standards expected of Oxford students were the highest internationally accepted. “It’s hard to believe there would have been encouragement to use substandard academic practices from Oxford.” Schulz said Bonn University had never accepted the excuse that this was common practice at Oxford, adding: “It is important that there are no bad feelings between German and British universities.” Germany Plagiarism Higher education Europe guardian.co.uk
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Neil Wallis, who has been questioned over phone hacking, advised commissioner on communications, Scotland Yard says Scotland Yard has admitted it employed Neil Wallis, a former executive at the News of the World, as an adviser to the commissioner until September 2010. Wallis was employed to advise Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates on a part-time basis from October 2009 to September 2010. During this time the Yard was saying there was no need to reopen the phone-hacking investigation – a decision made by Yates despite allegations in the Guardian that the first police investigation had been inadequate. Wallis is a former News of the World executive editor. He was arrested on Thursday morning as part of the police’s renewed phone-hacking inquiry. Wallis joined the News of the World in 2003 as deputy to then editor Andy Coulson. In mid-2007 he became executive editor, eventually leaving the News International title in 2009. Police say he supplied “strategic communication advice”. The Met said his company was chosen because it offered to do the work for the lowest price. Relations between senior Met officers and News of the World senior executives have been under scrutiny. In September 2006 Stephenson, as deputy commissioner, accompanied by the Yard’s head PR man, Dick Fedorcio, dined with Wallis. This was a month after officers had arrested the paper’s royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, and at a time when detectives were still attempting to investigate whether other journalists or executives were involved in the interception of voicemail messages. In theory Wallis was a potential suspect in the inquiry. Scotland Yard said: “Chamy Media, owned by Neil Wallis, former executive editor of the News of the World, was appointed to provide strategic communication advice and support to the MPS, including advice on speechwriting and PR activity, while the Met’s deputy director of public affairs was on extended sick leave recovering from a serious illness. “In line with Metropolitan Police Service/Metropolitan Police Authority procurement procedures, three relevant companies were invited to provide costings for this service on the basis of two days per month. Chamy Media were appointed as they were significantly cheaper than the others. The contract ran from October 2009 until September 2010, when it was terminated by mutual consent. “The commissioner has made the chair of the police authority aware of this contract.” Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News of the World News International Metropolitan police Police Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Neil Wallis, who has been questioned over phone hacking, advised commissioner on communications, Scotland Yard says Scotland Yard has admitted it employed Neil Wallis, a former executive at the News of the World, as an adviser to the commissioner until September 2010. Wallis was employed to advise Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates on a part-time basis from October 2009 to September 2010. During this time the Yard was saying there was no need to reopen the phone-hacking investigation – a decision made by Yates despite allegations in the Guardian that the first police investigation had been inadequate. Wallis is a former News of the World executive editor. He was arrested on Thursday morning as part of the police’s renewed phone-hacking inquiry. Wallis joined the News of the World in 2003 as deputy to then editor Andy Coulson. In mid-2007 he became executive editor, eventually leaving the News International title in 2009. Police say he supplied “strategic communication advice”. The Met said his company was chosen because it offered to do the work for the lowest price. Relations between senior Met officers and News of the World senior executives have been under scrutiny. In September 2006 Stephenson, as deputy commissioner, accompanied by the Yard’s head PR man, Dick Fedorcio, dined with Wallis. This was a month after officers had arrested the paper’s royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, and at a time when detectives were still attempting to investigate whether other journalists or executives were involved in the interception of voicemail messages. In theory Wallis was a potential suspect in the inquiry. Scotland Yard said: “Chamy Media, owned by Neil Wallis, former executive editor of the News of the World, was appointed to provide strategic communication advice and support to the MPS, including advice on speechwriting and PR activity, while the Met’s deputy director of public affairs was on extended sick leave recovering from a serious illness. “In line with Metropolitan Police Service/Metropolitan Police Authority procurement procedures, three relevant companies were invited to provide costings for this service on the basis of two days per month. Chamy Media were appointed as they were significantly cheaper than the others. The contract ran from October 2009 until September 2010, when it was terminated by mutual consent. “The commissioner has made the chair of the police authority aware of this contract.” Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News of the World News International Metropolitan police Police Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Mo Brooks, my congressional representative, got special attention from Chris Matthews last night. He’s not the first Alabama politician to use eliminationist rhetoric regarding the undocumented, or the worst. But this is not the representation we need in Alabama’s 5th congressional district: Brooks had a little to say about immigration at the town hall I attended a couple of weeks ago. What struck me at the time was the tone of doom he had, which was in tune with the general tone of the affair. ( Click here to watch the whole thing ; I dare you). Illegal aliens are out for your job and your life — be afraid, very afraid! Because no one ever gets murdered or killed in a car wreck with an American citizen. Tourists leaving for Egypt are warned that if they are in a car accident, they should leave the scene as soon as possible so they don’t get blamed for the accident — on the supposition that if they had not been visiting Egypt, the accident would not have happened. That is exactly the logic Mo Brooks is using. He uses anecdotal, not empirical, evidence to paint undocumented immigrants as especially violent and prone to dangerous behavior. It’s an old meme, one used on people of color in times past. It’s ugly. It’s also completely false . Someone should put a bullet in the brainpan of this zombie idea.
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Eliana Guerrero is the guardian angel of the Spanish city – blowing her whistle when she spots the thieves who prey on tourists in metro trains and stations but are rarely prosecuted A lone woman armed with a whistle and enormous courage has set herself the task of defending unsuspecting tourists from the pickpockets who plague Barcelona. Eliana Guerrero became so incensed by the way groups of thieves were able to freely roam the city’s underground network that she now patrols the metro on her own . She gives loud blasts on her whistle whenever she sees the thieves, who operate mostly in a dozen city centre stations including the Sagrada Familia and Placa Catalunya, and hands out flyers warning about the criminals. “They normally run off when they hear the whistle,” Guerrero told the Guardian. “But sometimes they threaten me and last week, after I stopped them robbing someone, one of them grabbed me and sprained my finger.” Guerrero, 38, started her campaign after seeing a thief snatch a bag from a German tourist, look inside and then hurl it away – smashing the insulin containers inside, despite the pleas of the tourist involved. “I couldn’t believe that they would do that. Why would they throw away a diabetic’s insulin?” she asked. She began by simply trailing the pickpockets and shouting out warnings while handing out the flyers that she prints herself, but found that not enough people could hear her – which is why she bought a whistle. “The whistle is what really gets them,” she says. “That, and a sign I hold up that tells people, in four different languages, there are pickpockets at work.” About 150 bag-snatchers operate on Barcelona’s metro, trains and buses, committing 90 robberies a day, according to police. The thieves form well-organised gangs that often co-ordinate the shifts they work. Guerrero blames Spanish law for the impunity enjoyed by Barcelona’s pickpockets. “If they take less than €400 [£350], then they only get a small fine – and then only if the victim turns up to give evidence, which is why they target tourists,” she said. “And the police don’t have a database that enables them to tell if the thief has been arrested before. “In Barcelona you get fined more for double-parking or wandering around with your shirt off than for stealing three purses in one day.” Families with small children, pushchairs and lots of suitcases were favourite targets, she said. “Who is going to chase a pickpocket if they have to worry about their child?” The thieves not only threaten her, but have sometimes tried to buy her off. “I am very careful about my own security and don’t tell anyone where I live,” says Guerrero, who moved to Barcelona from her native Colombia 12 years ago. She has become something of a celebrity in Barcelona, and has challenged the city mayor, Xavier Trias, to ride the metro with her. “Politicians and judges don’t use the metro, so they don’t understand what is going on,” she said. “We need more plainclothes police down there, but what really needs changing is the law.” She said she would like police not in uniform to take a trip with her. “And I am sure we would see at least one group of bag-snatchers. Every time I go with a film crew we always find some, but whoever has the camera needs to be fast – because I go like lightning.” Spain Barcelona Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Eliana Guerrero is the guardian angel of the Spanish city – blowing her whistle when she spots the thieves who prey on tourists in metro trains and stations but are rarely prosecuted A lone woman armed with a whistle and enormous courage has set herself the task of defending unsuspecting tourists from the pickpockets who plague Barcelona. Eliana Guerrero became so incensed by the way groups of thieves were able to freely roam the city’s underground network that she now patrols the metro on her own . She gives loud blasts on her whistle whenever she sees the thieves, who operate mostly in a dozen city centre stations including the Sagrada Familia and Placa Catalunya, and hands out flyers warning about the criminals. “They normally run off when they hear the whistle,” Guerrero told the Guardian. “But sometimes they threaten me and last week, after I stopped them robbing someone, one of them grabbed me and sprained my finger.” Guerrero, 38, started her campaign after seeing a thief snatch a bag from a German tourist, look inside and then hurl it away – smashing the insulin containers inside, despite the pleas of the tourist involved. “I couldn’t believe that they would do that. Why would they throw away a diabetic’s insulin?” she asked. She began by simply trailing the pickpockets and shouting out warnings while handing out the flyers that she prints herself, but found that not enough people could hear her – which is why she bought a whistle. “The whistle is what really gets them,” she says. “That, and a sign I hold up that tells people, in four different languages, there are pickpockets at work.” About 150 bag-snatchers operate on Barcelona’s metro, trains and buses, committing 90 robberies a day, according to police. The thieves form well-organised gangs that often co-ordinate the shifts they work. Guerrero blames Spanish law for the impunity enjoyed by Barcelona’s pickpockets. “If they take less than €400 [£350], then they only get a small fine – and then only if the victim turns up to give evidence, which is why they target tourists,” she said. “And the police don’t have a database that enables them to tell if the thief has been arrested before. “In Barcelona you get fined more for double-parking or wandering around with your shirt off than for stealing three purses in one day.” Families with small children, pushchairs and lots of suitcases were favourite targets, she said. “Who is going to chase a pickpocket if they have to worry about their child?” The thieves not only threaten her, but have sometimes tried to buy her off. “I am very careful about my own security and don’t tell anyone where I live,” says Guerrero, who moved to Barcelona from her native Colombia 12 years ago. She has become something of a celebrity in Barcelona, and has challenged the city mayor, Xavier Trias, to ride the metro with her. “Politicians and judges don’t use the metro, so they don’t understand what is going on,” she said. “We need more plainclothes police down there, but what really needs changing is the law.” She said she would like police not in uniform to take a trip with her. “And I am sure we would see at least one group of bag-snatchers. Every time I go with a film crew we always find some, but whoever has the camera needs to be fast – because I go like lightning.” Spain Barcelona Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media The liquor industry has become the latest victim of a government shutdown in Minnesota. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Tuesday that bars, restaurants and stores are already running out of supplies because many of them must renew their $20 state-issued alcohol purchasing cards before replenishing inventories. Already 425 establishments have been left with expired cards and it’s just expected to get worse. Another 116 cannot buy liquor because they can’t pay their delinquent tax bills. “This is going to treadmill across the whole state the longer [the Republican lawmakers] hold out,” Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton told the paper. “It’s going to hit every bar and restaurant that needs a liquor license.” “This doesn’t just affect retailers, but wholesalers, and the manufacturers, and wedding parties, and church functions, and one day liquor licenses for charity events, and festivals and the list goes on and on and on,” Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association’s Frank Ball told KARE 11 . If the issue isn’t resolved by Labor Day, cigarette smokers could be in the same situation. Update (1 p.m. ET): MillerCoors has been ordered to pull all of their beer products from Minnesota store shelves. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety told the Star Tribune that the products had to be removed because the company did not renew their brand label registration before a government shutdown began. Some of the popular brands included Coors Light, Miller Lite and Blue Moon. MillerCoors said they would fight decision.
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Click here to view this media The liquor industry has become the latest victim of a government shutdown in Minnesota. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Tuesday that bars, restaurants and stores are already running out of supplies because many of them must renew their $20 state-issued alcohol purchasing cards before replenishing inventories. Already 425 establishments have been left with expired cards and it’s just expected to get worse. Another 116 cannot buy liquor because they can’t pay their delinquent tax bills. “This is going to treadmill across the whole state the longer [the Republican lawmakers] hold out,” Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton told the paper. “It’s going to hit every bar and restaurant that needs a liquor license.” “This doesn’t just affect retailers, but wholesalers, and the manufacturers, and wedding parties, and church functions, and one day liquor licenses for charity events, and festivals and the list goes on and on and on,” Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association’s Frank Ball told KARE 11 . If the issue isn’t resolved by Labor Day, cigarette smokers could be in the same situation. Update (1 p.m. ET): MillerCoors has been ordered to pull all of their beer products from Minnesota store shelves. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety told the Star Tribune that the products had to be removed because the company did not renew their brand label registration before a government shutdown began. Some of the popular brands included Coors Light, Miller Lite and Blue Moon. MillerCoors said they would fight decision.
Continue reading …Martin Bashir on NBC’s ‘Today’: Rupert Murdoch ‘A Combination of Jack Abramoff and James ‘Whitey’ Bulger’
July 14, 2011 No Comment
Appearing on Thursday's NBC Today, MSNBC host Martin Bashir shared his thoughts on the tabloid phone hacking scandal in Britain and proclaimed that News Corporation owner Rupert Murdoch was “…a combination of Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist, and someone like James 'Whitey' Bulger, the mobster.” [ Audio available here ] Despite Bashir's outrageous comparison – Abramoff was convicted on corruption charges and Bulger is accused of 19 murders during his time as the head of the Irish mob in Boston – co-host Matt Lauer offered no objection to the claim. View video after the jump In fact, Lauer began the discussion by praising Bashir's insight into news stories: “Sometimes when I have you, I like to just ask the simplest question first because I like your take.” Lauer then asked: “So as you've watched this story unfold over the last month or so, what jumps out at you?” In addition to describing Murdoch as a crime boss, Bashir declared: “It's the power of Rupert Murdoch. It's hard to imagine the power that he exerted on politicians….And what he had was the power to reward and to punish….Coercion by humiliation.” Lauer followed up by attacking the close relationship between many British politicians and Murdoch: “Look at what's happened over the last week or so. These politicians who used to have a very close, some would say incestuous relationship with Murdoch are now running from him as fast as they can run from him. Which, by the way, is typical of politics, but how much of a problem is it for Rupert Murdoch?” Bashir replied: “It's a massive problem.” Here is a full transcript of the July 14 discussion: 7:13AM ET MATT LAUER: Martin Bashir is the host of the Martin Bashir Show on MSNBC. Martin, it's good to have you here. BASHIR: Thank you, Matt. LAUER: Sometimes when I have you, I like to just ask the simplest question first because I like your take, you spent a lot of time as a journalist in the UK and here in the United States. MARTIN BASHIR: I worked for the Sunday Times between 1984 and 1985. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Murdoch Under Fire; How Will Phone Hacking Scandal Impact Media Empire?] LAUER: Exactly. So as you've watched this story unfold over the last month or so, what jumps out at you? BASHIR: It's the power of Rupert Murdoch. It's hard to imagine the power that he exerted on politicians. Imagine a combination of Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist, and someone like James 'Whitey' Bulger, the mobster. And what he had was the power to reward and to punish. So for example, in 2004, when an MP stood up and said she thought having semi-naked women on page three of The Sun newspaper was now something we shouldn't do anymore, they sent 20 semi-naked people to her constituency office and called her 'fat, frumpy and dumpy.' Coercion by humiliation. LAUER: So – but look at what's happened over the last week or so. These politicians who used to have a very close, some would say incestuous relationship with Murdoch… BASHIR: Absolutely. Indeed. LAUER: …are now running from him as fast as they can run from him. Which, by the way, is typical of politics, but how much of a problem is it for Rupert Murdoch? BASHIR: It's a massive problem. Remember, The Sun and the News of the World were the only two newspapers that made him any money. The Times loses money in London. But the thing he desperately wanted BSkyB Broadcasting, because it's the television arm that makes the billions of pounds and now he's had to withdraw because he knows the politicians were not going to support that. LAUER: Well, but also, not only the politicians wouldn't support it, but does he also – do you think that deal is now dead because the people in Murdoch's organization understand that there is probably more damaging evidence about to come out? BASHIR: When they did the inquiry in 2007, they said there was one rogue reporter and about eight people had been hacked. Yesterday I spoke to a senior officer at the Metropolitan Police who said 4,800 people's phones had been hacked and they haven't even started to get to the bottom of the things that have been done. LAUER: This has pulled back a curtain, if you will, and exposed a very dark side of tabloid journalism. I guess the question a lot of people here in the States want to know, and let's face it, you could almost hear this story being pulled across the Atlantic… BASHIR: No doubt. LAUER: …yesterday, with these Senators writing letters to Eric Holder and a congressman writing to Mr. Mueller at the FBI. How much further does this go? Do you think this is a standard practice for tabloid newspaper and scandal magazines here in the U.S.? BASHIR: It's hard to know, but imagine, they said one reporter, but now it was clearly widespread in the News of the World news room. Are you telling me that people who work in that organization in this country have never ever used the same tactics? They may not have, but at the end of the day, the pressure to deliver the kind of stories, the kind of access – remember, we're talk about the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom's disabled son's medical records. He stands up in the House of Commons yesterday and he says the Sunday Times newspaper paid a criminal to procure those records. Now, we can't confirm whether that's true. But that's the level of interest that people had. And when stories kept appearing in tabloid papers, you had to ask yourself, 'How did they get that story?' After I interviewed Princess Diana in 1995, we had our third child in '96, Eliza, and she was incubated after birth because she was – she had problems with her lungs. Within two day, two journalists attempted to get into the ward, both of them working for The Sun newspaper. How did they know, when nobody else knew, that our daughter, who was just two days old, was unwell? LAUER: Clearly someone had access they shouldn't have had. BASHIR: Somebody had access. LAUER: Martin Bashir. Martin, always good to have you here. BASHIR: Great to be here. LAUER: Thanks very much. 17 after the hour. You can catch Martin's show weekdays at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on MSNBC.
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