Campaign 2013 Media Failure And Broken Political Promises
The Media Cover Up of Citizens United
Job Well Done Muckbreaking Reporter Gonzalez
Gonzalez: After 29years of digging for the truth, I say adios to my readers
(NYDN) The first day I arrived at the Daily News in 1987 happened to be
the last day of work for more than 50 veteran reporters forced into
early retirement by one of those belt-tightening company buyouts that
would soon become an annual ritual at so many corporations across the
land. This was before the Internet and smartphones and social media
turned the printed versions of daily newspapers into quaint artifacts.
The newsrooms of this great city were brimming back then with legendary
columnists who could take your breath away with a single phrase — people
like Jimmy Breslin, Murray Kempton, Pete Hamill, Liz Smith, Jack
Newfield, Sidney Schanberg and Tom Wicker. I opted to become a voice
from another part of urban America . Not writing about outcast neighborhoods, but from them. Not simply to entertain, but to change.
Not
after the fact, but before it, when coverage could still make a
difference. Not reporting any neighborhood or workplace incident or
government policy or mind-numbing budget at face value, but digging deep
for facts that others didn't want the public to know. The biggest
payback, of course, was CityTime, the boondoggle of the Bloomberg era.
In 2009, I reported hundreds of private consultants were each pocketing
an average of $250,000 annually to develop a new computerized payroll
system for the city that was eight years behind schedule and hundreds of
millions of dollars over budget l In February 2015, I reported that
the city Department of Education was awarding a $635 million computer
contract to a Long Island firm that had not been the lowest bidder
and been cited in a criminal probe for looking the other way while a
corrupt school system consultant stole millions of dollars from the
city.The uproar that ensued prompted the DOE to rescind the contract and
launch a new bidding process, eventually shaving $163 million off the
final price. l The New York Yankees wrongly took millions of dollars in
rent credits from the city for costs supposedly connected to planning
the team's new stadium, when they actually spent the money on normal
team operations, I reported in 2007. The following year, after an audit
by city Controller Bill Thompson, the team agreed to pay back $11
million. l
Champion Learning, a company providing after-school tutoring for
at-risk public school children, was charging the city $79 an hour per
child, while paying its tutors, most of them college students, just $17
an hour, I reported in 2009. Three years later, following an audit by
city Controller John Liu, Champion paid back $1.8 million for
questionable and padded billings. But while tallying dollars and cents
is fine, the stories that stay with you most are the ones about human
suffering your stories were powerless to ease.
TONY GUIDA: So much of your life is spent in newspapers and you edited two of them here in the city. I don't know if I should even ask you but do you have any faith that we're going to, that the kind of newspaper that you grew up on and worked on is going to survive?
Failed Media Can Learn From the Flint Water Investigation and Forgotten Lessons of the Experts
How Team de Blasio (Berlin Rosen) Tried to Blame Homelessness and the NYCHA Mess On Cuomo
TONY GUIDA: Sure. What a lesson. I want to talk a recent piece, very recent piece, in The National Geographic about this city. I mean there's many people talk of you Pete as the poet of New York City . The bard of this city. No one sings the song of New York better than Pete Hamill and so here in the National Geographic you're reflecting on the city and I was a bit taken aback. You said, my beloved New York is in a bad way. How do you mean that?
The Media Cover Up of Citizens United
Job Well Done Muckbreaking Reporter Gonzalez
Pete Hamill: Because Newspaper Have Gone Fleet Street They Will Not Survive
PETE HAMILL: The short answer is no. Too many of the papers have gone Fleet Street, which means they drive all the women readers out. The women readers are the people that buy toasters at Macy's and if you drive them out of your readership you're making a terrible mistake but you know they think the world as about T&A on page 3. And if they continue to do that it's oblivion. It will be a memory. There’ll be people assembling at universities to go watch front page or something on an old television set.
TONY GUIDA: His Girl Friday.
PETE HAMILL: Yeah. And I feel terrible about that because I've had my life. I've had a wonderful life with disappointments and small defeats but the newspapers gave me a chance to have a life instead of an apology. The life allowed me to do something that helped other people, that helped my friends, that helped me live, in the best sense, a rich life where I could worry about murders in Brooklyn and read Balzac too.
DN's Editor-in-Chief Touts Tabloid Twitter Journalism Strong Intelligent Journalism
The Paper is Reinventing the Attention Grabbing Old School Front Page As An Agenda Setter on Social Media. But Can That Be A Business Model?
How the New York DailyNews Became Twitter’s Tabloid (NY Mag) It was past 10 p.m. on January 14 when New York Daily News editor-in-chief Jim Rich received an email from editors at the paper at his home in Park Slope. Earlier editions, with a cover featuring Andrew Cuomo, had already been put to bed. But now they told him that in the midst of the Republican presidential debate — which he hadn’t been watching — Ted Cruz had assailed “New York values” in his attack on Donald Trump. That morning Rich had reached out to Daily News columnist Mike Lupica about writing on an earlier salvo Cruz had made against the city, suggesting a headline reading “DROP DEAD, TED.” It evoked the famous 1975 Daily News headline “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD,” after President Gerald Ford refused a federal bailout for a beleaguered, broke city. Now, with Cruz’s second volley, Rich believed he deserved front-page treatment for the final edition. But how? He came up with a brash solution: the image of the Statue of Liberty giving the middle finger to Cruz, with the earlier headline, while adding, “Hey, Cruz, You don’t like N.Y. Values? Go back to Canada .” The image of the front page went viral on Facebook and Twitter, especially among the many people who want to give Cruz the finger anyway.
Drop Dead? Not the Newly Relevant Daily News (NYT) It was the latest in a series of attention-grabbing covers that have shifted the conversation around the struggling paper. Just a few months ago, after an aborted sale and sweeping layoffs, The News seemed to have completed its devolution from the model of a big-city tabloid to a battered symbol of the diminished state of America ’s newspapers. But the recent string of covers, which were all widely shared on social media, have sent a very different message — if not about the paper’s long-term financial prospects, then at least about its continuing cultural relevance. Put another way, Mr. Rich, a News veteran who took over the paper in October, seems determined to make sure that the tabloid that famously shamed President Ford for abandoning New York in its time of need will at least go down swinging.
Failed Media Can Learn From the Flint Water Investigation and Forgotten Lessons of the Experts
What we don’t knowcan hurt us (Louis, NYDN) This degree of turmoil isn’t good for anybody. Without a critical mass of well-trained journalists, news organizations can’t properly investigate political and corporate institutions, nail politicians on broken promises or scour dense government documents for revealing details and hidden inconsistencies. That’s especially needed in an election year, when the promises and rhetoric — and bull — will fly fast and thick. “There’s no scoops in the newsroom!” my friend and mentor, the late Jack Newfield, used to tell younger journalists. It was his shorthand reminder to get off our butts and spend time in the streets talking to people rather than wading through press releases and other prepackaged dreck sent by publicists and politicians. Jack, who left us too soon, was even more right than he realized.
How Can A Respected Reporter Say Reporters Are Not Covering the News &Nobody Notices?
How Can A Respected Reporter Say Reporters Are Not Covering the News &Nobody Notices?
Gabe Pressman: A Generation of Reporters Without Good Journalism Ethics
Not only are all the great stories “out there,” but in the digital age, members of the public who once might have sent information to our newsrooms are instead connecting with one another and cutting out the media middleman. It is why people are turning in droves to Facebook, Google and Twitter for news generated and curated by people they know and ignoring their local newspaper or nightly broadcast. The age-old image of journalism as a one-way provider of important information — All the News That’s Fit to Print! — is being replaced by a seemingly more modest, but exponentially more powerful definition suggested by Prof. Jeff Jarvis, my colleague at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism: “helping a community better organize its knowledge so it can better organize itself.”
Journalists Who Copy Press Releases Former DA Hynes Called Stenographer, Don't Protect the Public From Corruption
That is what happened in Flint , Mich. , where a 30-year veteran journalist, Curt Guyette, working as an organizer with the ACLU of Michigan, put his news chops to work by digging through scientific data, quizzing health professionals and knocking on doors in Flint to ask people to get their tap water tested for lead. Guyette uncovered a massive scandal that Michigan Public Radio and the Detroit Free Press masterfully probed and raised to national attention, exposing a monstrous series of falsehoods and unconscionable choices by the authorities running Michigan that led to the poisoning of thousands of residents. We need many more Guyette-style journalists who think like organizers, especially in this election year. This is exactly the time the public most needs media to help pull together widely dispersed data and help America avoid the roadblocks. As New York state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics is set to address proposed disclosure regulations, one type is attracting controversy because it could require conversations between consultants and the press to be logged and recorded, The Wall Street Journal reports:
Pete Hamill Gives A Real Snap Shot How New York City Tabloif Journalism Has Changed
From CUNY TV Tony Guida Interviews Journalist Pete Hamil About His Lone Love for the City (Video)
On Learning the Craft of Journalsim
TONY GUIDA: Well your interest in writing growing from the reading finally found a place at your first job writing at the Post. You were 25 years old. Much different paper, the Post, when you joined it then it is today.
PETE HAMILL: Yeah. It was Dorothy Schiff owned it and it was then the most liberal of the papers when there were seven papers at the time, dailies, and there was a staff of guys that really wanted to take a dumb kid like me and help train me, you know? They really believed in the whole development of craft you know? You can't do that. You can't use that many adjectives in the lead or else blah, blah, blah, blah. You know? And they did that for me and for Nora Ephron and for all kinds of people. The most brilliant writers Murray Kempton and people like that thought nothing of stepping over on the side and say, that piece you had today. You know would have been better if you moved this paragraph over there you know. You ended up with a kind of generosity and spirit that wanted to make the thing better and therefore make you better by encouraging you, buy showing you what a mistake you make doing it this way and once you heard that you didn't get upset. You said, I'll never do that again. You know? The craftsman had a way of doing it that didn't sound like punishment. They said, look the way we do it is X, Y or Z.
On How the Developers Suck the Power Out of the Neighborhoods
Hamill: New Yorkers Have Lost A Sense of Themselves As People in Control of Their Lives in This City
Hamill: New Yorkers Have Lost A Sense of Themselves As People in Control of Their Lives in This City
PETE HAMILL: I mean that certain things as epitomized by the super tall buildings that are going up everywhere erasing the sky and throwing shadows into our lives. Are more a triumph of money then of architecture. They’re more building refugees for people who don't want to live here. I don't get a sense walking past some of those buildings, there’s a few right here in Tribeca where I live that there are people living in these buildings who are not going to join the Parent Teachers Association. Who are not particularly interested in finding out the name of the guy that sells the newspaper or the butchers last name or the kinds of things that came from neighborhoods because the neighborhood was the kind of series of connected hamlets that made New York so rich particularly if you were a reporter. You know you could go from one block to another and it was a different world and the last two or three years with the explosion of these buildings, the super talls, I just felt that they were losing a sense of themselves as people in control of their lives in this city. That it was being determined by some other standard but not the standard that had shaped me and a whole lot of other people who grew up here.
TONY GUIDA: Your point about it's money and it's not community.
PETE HAMILL: Yeah. That's exactly the point. Yeah.
National Columnist Is Shocked How Little Investigative Journalism There is in NY
Davil Sirota on the state of investigative journalism in New York
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NY Magazine Once Known For Great Investigative Reporting Prints A Cover With A Small de Blasio
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NY Magazine Once Known For Great Investigative Reporting Prints A Cover With A Small de Blasio
But I tend to do what’s called enterprise work, like a number of other reporters, where you’re actually going out and you’re actively investigating something that hasn’t been brought to light yet, that hasn’t been brought there. And look, in Albany there’s plenty—and New Jersey I should add, too—these are places that there’s no shortage of topics and stories to do that are enterprise reporting. Doing enterprise reporting takes and lot of resources media organizations have to invest in it and you lose friends you’re not going to be on Cuomo’s Christmas card list . . . A Really Scary Time for Democracy when you have in the state capital in Albany media organizations both financial and imtidatition factor under attack not do investigation reporting ” (Effective Radio Interview With Sirota) David J. Sirota is an American political commentator and radio host based in Denver . He is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, Democratic political spokesperson, and blogger. Wikipedia * Who shrunk the mayor? @NYMag's latest cover, inspired by one of our classics from 1969: * The man behind NY corruption busting (Democrat Chronicle) Preet's public-corruption plan: "We were always looking for ways we could either get a wiretap or wire people up"
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.Why Does the Daily News Rely On Lobbyists Who Do Business With the City/State to Grade de Blasio?
TAKING NO VICTORY LAPS: Mired in record-low approval ratings, Mayor de Blasio admits failures midway into his term (NYDN “He is more comfortable exercising the levers of power now, but he’s more unsteady politically than would have been expected given his experiences,” said former City Councilman Kenneth Fisher (D-Brooklyn).De Blasio has said he has done poorly communicating, pledging more town halls and call-in radio appearances. “Sometimes it takes a couple of years to realize that certain things aren’t working.” said Kenneth Sherrill, a political science professor emeritus at Hunter College Staten Island that left a firefighter badly wounded. De Blasio insisted he was in touch with teams on the scene, but it certainly looked bad.“You can say being there is just optics, but what are you saying? You’re saying it doesn’t matter what the public sees,” said William Cunningham, Bloomberg’s first-term communications director. “That’s how the public judges you during a crisis.”* Anthony Weiner Tangling with Cuomo Grade B+ * Mary Brosnahan is the executive director of Coalition for the Homeless whose Group Does Business With the City and State Gives de Basio A B on Homeless?
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.Why Does the Daily News Rely On Lobbyists Who Do Business With the City/State to Grade de Blasio?
NYC Journalism: From Throw the Bums Out to Bharara's Stenographer Reporters
Campaign 2013 Media Failure And Broken Political Promises
The Media Cover Up of Citizens United
Very Little Chatter on the Internet About the Convictions
The Media Cover Up of Citizens United
Besides the Press There is An Avoidance of the Public and Activists From Getting Involved In the Corruption Discussion
Where is the Outrage Of What Berlin Rosen or Sheldon Silver Has Done to Out Democracy?
Very Little Chatter on the Internet About the Convictions
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It is Time for the Press to Explain to New Yorkers The Effects of Silver's 421-a and Cancer Pay to Play Cover-Up
“He’s trying to figure out how he got the referrals. It turns out to be an incredibly prescient question,” Caproni said. No hard feelings that it took federal investigators seven years to catch up to what The Post sniffed out a long time ago * Sheldon Silver's misleading statements to Daily News cited as evidence at corruption trial (NYDN) In the articles, the former Assembly speaker gave a limited description of his work for the personal injury firm Weitz & Luxenberg. Silver referred clients to the firm and received a percentage of any settlement or verdict. Silver’s chief spokesman at the time, Michael Whyland, provided the information and testified he believed it was true. “He said he represented ordinary, simple people who had been harmed,” Whyland said. The government also showed the jury a 2013 News article in which Whyland said Silver “invests in blue-chip stocks as do millions of Americans.” Silver is charged with trying to conceal his corrupt cash in an exclusive “high-yield, low-risk” investment vehicle.
NYC Journalism: A Race to the Bottom
Remember When New York Magazine Made the City Culture Now Badly Mimics Social Media BuzzFeed
In the 1960's through 2000 New York Magazine Defining the news, culture, fashion, food, and personalities that drive New York City. Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Gail Sheehy, Woody Allen, Judith Crist, Gael Greene, Clay Felker, Adam Smith, Pete Hamill
The Village Voice Was Murdered
Remember When the Village Voice Led New York's Counter Culture and Drove the City's Reform Movement With Its Investigative Reporting Norman Mailer, Jack Newfield, Wayne Barrett, Tom Robins, Nat Hentoff;, William Bastone ofthesmokinggun.com, Tom Stoppard, Lorraine Hansberry, Lester Bangs, Catholic activist and author Thomas E. Byers, Allen Ginsberg,Michael Musto,and Joshua Clover. Former editors have included Clay Felker and Tom Morgan.
The Daily News: From the Voice of New York to Polenta
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| From Community Control to Centralized PACs Control |
Wolff: The long death of N.Y.'s Daily News (USA East 42nd Street , and the more than $300 million he realized from selling his stake in the magazine Fast Company. But little of this was invested back into the News. In the last few years, the News became something of a late-to-the-party digital convert, shifting newsroom resources into a money-saving digital scheme, one that would hammer the paper’s existing print revenue and further diminish the paper’s news gathering operation.
Media Covers the WWW Political Fight, They Do Not Grade Pols on the Delivery of Services to New Yorkers
Yet Prendergast chided the mayor for refusing to cough up the $3.2 billion the MTA requested from City Hall to fund the agency’s five year capital plan to fund future projects, and pointed out that Gov. Cuomo has already pledged to contribute $8.3 billion.* Mayor Bill de Blasio and MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast clashed in separate speeches at the opening of the new 34th Street -Hudson Yards 7 train station over how much the city should fund the MTA, the Postreports: * Tension among de Blasio, the MTA, and the subway workers’ union spiked further Sundayduring the opening of the first city-funded subway station in more than 60 years. At the opening ceremony for the $2.4 billion station, the head of the MTA pushed the mayor on the deficit in the $26.8 billion capital plan.
U.S. Attorney Thinks NY Journalist Have Failed to Stop Corrupion
Press Will Continue to Ignoring Bharara Pleas to Investigate Corruption as Judge Silences Prosecutor
Bharara to Journalist Investigate Stop Copying My Press Releases do Investigative Reporting
One Year Ago in True News
Preet challenges journos to do investigative reporting (CrainsNY) "Rather than just covering the cases that my office and other offices are already bringing, figure out ways to break new ground and to cover new stories," Bharara said. "Groundbreaking corruption coverage is not just good copy, it's a path to good government." Bharara. The press has a role to play. "Rather than just covering the cases that my office and other offices are already bringing, figure out ways to break new ground and to cover new stories," he said
Look What the Media Controlled by Old Guard Lobbyists Have Done to NY
U.S. Attorney Over A Year Ago Beg the Press to Help Him Clean Up NY . . . They Turn Their Back to Him, Even Attack Him, Now He is Doing It Himself
One Year Ago Preet challenges journos to do investigative reporting (CrainsNY) "Rather than just covering the cases that my office and other offices are already bringing, figure out ways to break new ground and to cover new stories," Bharara said. "Groundbreaking corruption coverage is not just good copy, it's a path to good government." Bharara. The press has a role to play. "Rather than just covering the cases that my office and other offices are already bringing, figure out ways to break new ground and to cover new stories," he said
His crusade to “clean up government” is particularly essential because Albany has so much power over local municipalities, including New York City Albany Albany
Morning News Incessant Giggling All the News You Could Use?
When did local morning news shows become so contaminated with incessant giggling? I know it's a ancient refrain, I know it's not new, but this morning in particular the sound of mindless chortling seems even more annoying than usual. I think they could save oodles of dough by just having a laugh track. Don't get me wrong, the well-placed cachinnation is completely acceptable but when it becomes the source of much of the promised news heft, then we have a problem, Houston . More
True News Has Found Out the Identity of the Lobbyists Smith Interviewed for His Puff Piece On Albany Lobbyists
Smith: Dean Skelos has been accused of pressing a real-estate lobbyist to get his son a job and money.
Unnamed Lobbyist: "I was stunned by that. I've never had anybody ask me to help out anyone in their family in a financial way. I have over the years had a couple of people I knew well ask me to see if I could help their children get a job, generally when they were in college or something or looking at summer jobs. No one has ever suggested what the kid should be paid. But if they're good friends I try to help them. I have kids of my own. I may need their help someday."
Unnamed Lobbyist: "I was stunned by that. I've never had anybody ask me to help out anyone in their family in a financial way. I have over the years had a couple of people I knew well ask me to see if I could help their children get a job, generally when they were in college or something or looking at summer jobs. No one has ever suggested what the kid should be paid. But if they're good friends I try to help them. I have kids of my own. I may need their help someday."
NY Magizine's Smith Did Not Ask His Unnamed Lobbyists If He Ever Met Silver and Skelos Rat Lobbyists Meara
Smith: What about asking you for money in exchange for voting in your client’s favor on a bill?
Unnamed Lobbyist: Now, if you’re saying, I'll vote for it if you’ll give $5,000 to my campaign … I don’t think I've ever had anybody be that direct.
Smith: With all the recent investigations and arrests, has anyone ever asked you whether you’re wearing a wire or patted you down going into a meeting?
Unnamed Lobbyist: No
Unnamed Lobbyist: No
Smith: In the longer run, will all this scandal fundamentally change the way Albany
Smith: But the real problem is that it takes ever-increasing amounts of money to get access to the system, and then to grease the system’s wheels.Unnamed Lobbyist: Do not think money is the only thing that works up here, or works best.
Just When You Thought NYC Journalism Has Sunk As Low As It Could Get . . .
A day after City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito criticized Curtis Sliwa for making sexist comments about her on TV, the Guardian Angels founder refused to back off and made comments perceived as sexist, the Daily News reports: * Sliwa’s comments about Mark-Viverito bring a new level of offensiveness and are quite stunning in the depths of their ignorance, former New York
#NerdProm as the city burned the journalists fiddled. * L. Joy Williams @ljoywilliams Is every single reporter at the #WHCD that NOBODY is on the street to cover what is happening in Baltimore America in taped programming. No Baltimore . * Tens of thousands of fans stuck in Baltimore Orioles stadium. update Police say it is ok to leave the Ball Park
Great Essay By Bill Maher Has Journalism Has Become A Race to the Bottom
Maher: The Real Brian Williams Problem Is That ‘NBCNightly NewsSucks’ Bill Maher doesn’t really care that much aboutBrian Williams‘ series of misstatements. No, the real reason Williams should “go away,” according to Maher, is that “NBC Nightly News sucks.” (But to be fair, he also thinks CBS Evening News and ABC World News Tonight suck too.) See, what “destroyed” Brian Williams’ credibility in Maher’s eyes was “ten years of wasting precious news time with bullshit stories.” It really bothers him that national nightly newscasts shirk their “sacred responsibility” to report the news in favor of viral YouTube videos, cutesy human interest stories, and lots and lots of weather coverage. He called it “journalistic malpractice” for Williams to spend so little time reporting on climate change and instead covering east coast blizzards “like white Godzilla is on the way.”
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The Inner Circle Has Become the Symbol of Defining Journalism Down, Corrupt Govt and A City Run By Developers
The media limited their coverage of the Inner Circle to the mayor and the press taking out their frustrations by roasting each other. What the papers failed to notice how the what started out in 1920’s as drunken bar room brawl, has turned into to scripted reporters want-to-be actors love taps, played out in front of the real city’s welfare cheats. What the papers did not cover was most of the tickets were brought by the city’s permanent government and their lobbyists, The people who make money off of the tax payers, while the press keeps the public clueless on their rip-off. It was wall to wall developers according to one elected officials in attendance. There we no homeless, people who live in public housing or member of the middle class being forced out of the city at attendance at the dinner which charges up to $2000 for a ticket dinner, 25,000 for a table. The Inner Circle has become the symbol for a press that no longer follows what John Peter Zenger in 1733 gave them the right to do. Zenger after being jailed by the king for publishing in his paper what was really going on in the city, won in court the right to do so.
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When Journalist Protected New Yorkers From Their Government
1920's Drunk Men, 2013 Acting Press and Scripted Mayor
As Flacks Have Taken Over Govt, Politics and the Media Mayors Have Become Actors
Campaign Manager Mayor Understands the Importance of the Act
De Blasio gets roasted at Inner Circle bash (NYP) The occasion was Saturday night’s Inner Circle bash at the New York Hilton, where each year the City Hall press corps and the mayor take out their frustrations by roasting each other. The mayor, a former hippie, relived his past as a picture of a young “Bill de BLAZEio’’ — photoshopped smoking a spliff — was flashed on a screen. Alexander Hamilton soon appears on a video complaining that de Blasio was running two hours late for a duel. “I think I’m going to call my homies at the New York Post, which I founded,” the founding father muses. In one of the reporters scene, a bodega owner named John Catsimatidis catches a young Bill de Blasio stealing a Snickers Bar and a copy of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. He calls cops — and when they arrive, Catsimatidis shouts at his young shoplifter:’ “Assume the position!’’ The cops, mistaking that Catsimatidis meant them, turn their backs on de Blasio. Another highlight was the mayor confronted by a virtual zoo — including the ghost of the groundhog he dropped, the ferrets he refused to legalize and a carriage horse who wants to keep his job.
The Gays Proved the Best Place for the Homeless, Affordable Housing and Transit Activists to Win Support for Their Issues Is to Protest at the 2016 Inner Circle Dinner
Among those attending the event at the New York Hilton were Gov. Cuomo and Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bahara, who is investigating the governor’s very controversial dissolution of the Moreland Commission which was investigating corruption in Albany . Maybe the attack the permanent government and lobbyists corruption in NYC today is to follow the example of the the Gay Alliance at the 1972 Inner Circle dinner. The Gay leaders used the annual show to hand out leaflets to raise awareness about gay rights issues at the time. The leaflets accused the news media and New York City government of discriminating against gay people. While coming up the escalator to hand out fliers to the crowd, one of the activists grabbed Mickey Maye, the leader of the firefighter's union at the time, by the groin. Maye, a former Golden Gloves boxer, knocked the activist down the escalator. * The Inner Circle NYC is a circle jerk of conflicts of interests (Progressive)
How Inner Circle Journalism Enabled Real Estate to Changed NYC
Why I got out of New York City (NYDN) The super-rich are driving rents up, and character out.
How Inner Circle Journalism Enabled Real Estate to Changed NYC
Why I got out of New York City (NYDN) The super-rich are driving rents up, and character out.
Break Down of Journalism: Puts Narrative Over Facts
What Rolling Stone got wrong with its U-Va. rape story(Wash Post) Journalists are paid to be skeptical and to distinguish facts from assertions: Don’t get too close to your sources and check what they tell you. Rolling Stone magazine, it appears, ignored both principles in its explosive story, “A Rape on Campus.” The 9,000-word article about Jackie, a University of Virginia
Everyone in the Media and Politics Knew About the Love Affair
The Mayor's Flack and the City Hall Reporter
A City Hall Affair to Remember (Daily Beast) Capital New York ’s City Hall correspondent is in a relationship with the mayor’s chief spokesman, but the website’s editor insists there is no conflict of interest. And, inevitably, it’s a story about love’s complications and the awkward circumstances they occasionally provoke. In this instance, the complications and awkwardness arise from a romance between New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s chief spokesman and the lead City Hall correspondent for the Capital New York online outlet, and they are prompting questions about journalistic ethics and governmental fairness. Recently, insiders wondered about the motive for Goldenberg’s tweet after The New York Times’s City Hall bureau chief, Michael Grynbaum, wrote an Oct. 9 story about the mayor’s apparent aversion to openness regarding his wife’s chief of staff, Rachel Noerdlinger, and her failure to disclose details about her problematic live-in boyfriend, a man with a criminal record, including a homicide as a teenager. To illustrate the de Blasio administration’s possible lack of transparency, Grynbaum wrote that after the mayor defended Noerdlinger in a news conference and declared the controversy “case closed,” the mayor’s press staff departed from its usual practice of sending out a same-day transcript and instead delayed for days. Goldenberg tweeted: “Pretty sure transcript’s been on city site since monday”—the same day as de Blasio’s remarks. Was she rising to the defense of her boyfriend’s underlings—or simply making an accurate observation?
The Mayor Met His Wife At City Hall Also
At least one critic, Columbia University Journalism School Prof. Richard Wald, a former president of both NBC News and ABC News, suggests the arrangement smacks of “insanity” and can’t reasonably be sustained. The main dramatis personae are Sally Goldenberg, of Capital New York, and Phil Walzak, the mayor’s press secretary. Instead they are seriously dating; indeed, spend time together in their respective apartments and have been romantically involved for more than a year (and a public couple at least since the New York Daily News’ gossip column, Confidential, outed the lovebirds last January, 28 days after de Blasio took office). In an arrangement that strains the credulity of certain cynics in New York ’s media-political complex, the mayor’s office has determined that any potential conflicts of interest have been resolved by a policy in which Walzak has no workplace contact with Goldenberg regarding her stories, and instead delegates the task to a deputy. It’s unclear whether this policy applies to pillow talk.
Investigative Journalism At Last . . . Undercover Elmo The Mayor Met His Wife At City Hall Also
SEE IT — Daily News reporter goes undercover as Elmo in Times Square , bearing heat and crowds for just a buck (NYDN) * BIG APPLE TO BIG EASY: Daily News takes roadtrip withstellar cabbie
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Hynes Calls Reporters Stenographers in His Emails to A Judge
Former DA Hynes in his emails wasclosely attuned to how he’s portrayed in the press, using a variety of disparaging adjectives to describe journalists. One is called “irrelevant,” another “sloppy” while others are dismissed as “stenographers.”
The Political Class Jerking Off for the Press. . .
A News Pioneer Calls On Reporters to Stand Up to City Hall's Restrictions
Gabe Pressman of the Press Club and press corps wants press uprising at City Hall
Koch Look Forward to Answering Every Question, He Saw As Part of the Requirements/Responsibility of the Office of Mayor
Awards And Media Coverage for Failed Lobbyists Parkside Group
Lobbyists Groups Parkside Spent $7.5 Million of Real Estate Developers Money and Failed to Elected A Council Speaker. . . Making Their Queens Boss Crowley Their Benefactor A Loser
Last week the New York City-based political consulting firm The Parkside Group were recognized with Gold Medals by both the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) and Campaign & Elections Magazine for their direct mail work in the 2013 election cycle, which included literature promoting many of this year’s incoming class of New York City Council members. These latest accolades make Parkside one of the most decorated firms in New York City, with 24 total awards for its direct mail, television and radio commercials and print design. Evan Stavisky, a co-founder and managing director at the Parkside Group, emails. (City and State)
Horse Feathers Media Meets "Vinny the Chin" Avoidance and Pretending Not to Know
The Making of An Uninformed Public
NYT and MSM Think Protecting Horse-Carriages is More Important That Uncovering An Election Sandal That May Have Determined the Outcome of the Mayor and City Council Speaker Races
In 2009 when Tom Robbins wrote The Mayor's Press Pass, in the Village Voice it look like independent media coverage of politics was dead for good, and that elected officials like Mayor Bloomberg would control news coverage for good. Now five years latter an explosion of blogs covering politics the question of news coverage is not quite as clear. Yes there is more news, but it is clearly not anywhere near the investigative independent journalism that Robbins, Jack Newfield and Wayne Barrett produced for years at the voice. Just ask the biggest corruption fighter in town today, U.S. Attorney who criticized the lack of investigating reporting in today's NYC media:
When it comes to investigative journalism reporters and newspapers become "Vinny the Chin" ignoring the issues while pretending not to know what is going on. Today's reporters operating in very weak media economy and with lack of experience or historical understand think good journalism is reporting first what the mayor or any pol said, now what is really going on. * U.S. Lost 30% of its Paid Journalists in 6 Years
No Investigative Journalism Allows Corruption to Grow U.S. Attorney Bharara (Update)
NY's Media Gang Ignores Bharara
As the media goes after every detail of Gov Christie defense of closing a bridge, not a Preet is heard about Albany Speaker Silver and the rest of the crooks cutting Moreland's investigation funds. New York City's media seems to have an on and off switch on investigative journalism or who they go after. Ask Liu or Spitzer. Every elected official and the flacks, media barrons and prosecutors who protect them understand that only media attention to government scandals can cause enough public pressure to an demand investigation. Over 90% of media coverage are press releases or tipped stories from lobbyists, flacks or elected officials. Today's new generation of journalists think publishing information first is more important than independent analysis to inform the public what is really going on. They have become dependent on the lobbyists, flacks to get them their fix of breaking news which usually is limited to who an elected officials will appoint, new programs and the spin of the day coming from people payed to cover up the truth. Helps create batzarro politics where pols take credit for what they promise not how well they deliver services or make proper decisions.
NY Observer Calls the Daily New Investigation of NYCLASS A Crusade . . . We Thought That Was What the Obsever Was Doing to the AG Schneiderman
Trump the NY Observer Vs Schneiderman
NY Observer: "LESS THAN FIVE years ago, Mr. Schneiderman was an anonymous cog in the chaotic, dysfunctional New York State Senate."
The NY Observer, owned by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, published a scathing story on AG Eric Schneiderman, that focuses in part on the AG’s dealings with the Trump family. The original reporter on the story was “spooked” by a conversation with an AG spokesman. “Given his plans to attend law school someday, this reporter resigned from this assignment.” The reporter who ultimately wrote the story said he was “not discouraged or encouraged” by his employer to write anything in particular about Schneiderman.
Cuomo bemoans "24-hour blogs": "You have this constant chatter that is not necessarily the most credible"
Dumbing Down News
24-Hour News Cycle Makes Governing More Difficult, Gov. Cuomo Says(NYDN) Gov. Cuomo, media observer: "They have to get it up first. They have to get it up fast." “I don’t believe it raises the quality,” he added. “As a matter of fact, I think it lowers the quality, but it increases the frequency. So you have this constant chatter, that is not necessarily the most credible, the most insightful. But it’s constant and that dictates a rhythm to the governmental dialogue, which again is fast, and quick and facile, but not necessarily intellectual or correct.”
Media Blackout Keeps the Public Ill Informed On the Closing of the Moreland Commission
Voters Disapprove of Cuomo’s Shutdown of Anticorruption Panel, Poll Shows(NYT)
More on the Closing of the Moreland Commission
Discontent with the move, criticized publicly by the United States
attorney in Manhattan, crosses party lines in the survey by Siena
College. * Cuomo, Astorino Spar Over Disbanding of Anti-Corruption Commission(NY1)
The NY Media Covers Putin's Corrupt Election in Crimeans and is Silent About Selling the Mayor's Ballot Line in A NYC
Will Putin Take Over NYC Next?
In two weeks it will be one year since Senator Malcolm Smith, Councilman Dan Halloran, Bronx Republican Chairman Jay Savino and Queens GOP VP Vince Tabone. The media has not done one investigative story about the Smith attempt to buy the mayor's seat. As U.S. Attorney Bharara pointedly asked: “What can we expect when transgressions seem to be tolerated and nothing ever seems to change?” “Putting dirty politicians in prison may be necessary, but is not sufficient. Hard as it is to believe, New York’s public-corruption crisis is getting worse.
The press has a role to play, Mr. Bharara said, noting that he is
saddened by recent reports of newspaper closings and staff downsizing. "Rather
than just covering the cases that my office and other offices are
already bringing, figure out ways to break new ground and to cover new
stories," he said. "Groundbreaking corruption coverage
is not just good copy, it's a path to good government." Bharara Preet Bharara hopes for more muckraking in ... - Capital Sept 18, 2013 As Queens City Councilman Dan Halloran, who was also
arrested, put it in an FBI transcript, “Money is what greases the
wheels.” Politics is “all about how much.”
Increasing Narcissism Inner Circle
As journalism and politics disconnect from the average Joe, more and more reporters cover themselves much more. It not only the growing narcissism in the journalism trade it is connected to a shocking lack of knowledge about the topics being covered and no shame or morals on protecting pols and the hired lobbyists who work for them. It is no accident that a lot of the members of the reporters inner circle are ex reporters working for lobbyists.
Now the lobbyists gets a puff piece in an article in an online blog that takes ads from lobbyist. The 60-second interview: Andrew Kirtzman, VP at Global Strategy Group(Capital)
CM Dromm' Joe McCarthy Hearing
With No Evidence of Corruption in A City Full of It, Progressive CM Drumm Wants to Asked Charter School Leader Moskowitz if She is Corrupt
Where is Murrow?
Council’s education head: Ask charter network boss about corruption(NYP) The head of the City Council’s Education Committee said Tuesday he intends to call charter chief Eva Moskowitz to a hearing just in case “corruption were to exist” in the finances of her 22-school network. “We need accountability, we need transparency, and we need to know who is giving them the money and what they’re doing with that money,” Dromm said. “This is an opportunity, if corruption were to exist . . . I can’t just let it go.” Moskowitz, a former council member, has never been accused of corruption even by her harshest critics. It’s not clear if Dromm has jurisdiction over Moskowitz, who is not a city employee. Moskowitz has not received an invitation to testify, said a spokeswoman who would not comment further. McCarthy-Welch Exchange: “Have You No Sense of Decency” Councilman Dromm? * NYC Councilman Danny Dromm, the chairman of the Education Committee, asked the city’s top investigator whether he has the power to probe the political activities of charter schools.
As We Mark the 60th Anniversary Edward R. Murrow Attack on Joe McCarthy With All the Corruption Going On In New York Where Are this Generation of Journalist? Edward R Murrow vs Joe McCarthy - YouTube
2014 As Mayor Limits Access Press Warms to Him With Selfie
MARK SIMONE
de Blasio dramatically limits the press's access to him. The liberal media says nothing * De Blasio Talks With Press on City Hall Steps(NY1)
* De Blasio talks getting 'out of the bubble,' snaps selfie with press corps(SI Advance) * De Blasio clowns with press, takes selfie on City Hall steps * De Blasio has a message problem, but who’s to blame? (Nation)
Local TV News Has Become Wires and Lights in A Box
* De Blasio talks getting 'out of the bubble,' snaps selfie with press corps(SI Advance) * De Blasio clowns with press, takes selfie on City Hall steps * De Blasio has a message problem, but who’s to blame? (Nation)
Local TV News Has Become Wires and Lights in A Box
This instrument (television) can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.”Edward R. Murrow 1958 speech * Good Night, and Good Luck: Edward Murrow Speech
Local TV News Which Makes Millions Off of the Culture of Big Campaign Spending Has Not Cover the Moreland Commission
Pay to Report Local TV
Spending on advertising has fueled the increase in TV lobbying costs. Well-funded special interests funnel millions to lobbyists for public campaigns to sway lawmakers on hot-button issues (TU) Local News which is mainly weather, traffic, cooking and dog segments is making millions in lobbyists spending. Union and business interest like the pro fracking interest are also spending millions on ads to local stations. All this money is coming in as local news dumbs down. Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill)*CSNY’s budget blitz: $3.9 million (updated)(TU) *Save NY airing tax cap ad(TU) *Budget opponents up their ads and mailers(TU) *Bloomberg Blames Negative Ads For Poor Showing In Education ...(Politico) *Save NY now airs on school money(TU) *NYC's Bloomberg Pays for TV Ads Backing Cuomo's Pension * Bloomberg Defends His Administration With TV Ad - NY1.com * Local TV News For $ale: How Special Interests Control News Content and Public Opinion
Moreland Updates _
,
The Only Way the NY Media Will Investigate the Campaign PACS if They Were Run By A NJ Governor
Since the election there have been no reports on the effects of PAC on the 20013 election. The only coverage of one of the major PAC leaders was for the Advance Group free help to Mark-Viverito speakers campaign. Nothing about the work Advance did for NYCLASS, United for the Future and the Citizens Action PAC. Ms. Mark-Viverito was escorted around Brooklyn's Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club recently by Michael Cohen, a Bishop Pitta consultant, according a source in attendance. Mr. Cohen has retained an attorney in relation to the indictment of Democratic political consultant Melvin Lowe but says he's not in the complaint.* The Advance Group admitted its work for City Action Coalition PAC was problematic. “We Advance Group did a favor for a political operative that we have a longstanding relationship with by sending his mailer to a printer,” an Advance Group spokeswoman said. “It was a mistake that we regret and is completely inconsistent with our history.”
_____________________________________
Dump Down Local Media
Media Failed At Its Coverage of Campaign 2013 but WNBC TV Does Give Us Bloopers
Local TV News Which Makes Millions Off of the Culture of Big Campaign Spending Has Not Cover the Moreland Commission
Pay to Report Local TV
Spending on advertising has fueled the increase in TV lobbying costs. Well-funded special interests funnel millions to lobbyists for public campaigns to sway lawmakers on hot-button issues (TU) Local News which is mainly weather, traffic, cooking and dog segments is making millions in lobbyists spending. Union and business interest like the pro fracking interest are also spending millions on ads to local stations. All this money is coming in as local news dumbs down. Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill)*CSNY’s budget blitz: $3.9 million (updated)(TU) *Save NY airing tax cap ad(TU) *Budget opponents up their ads and mailers(TU) *Bloomberg Blames Negative Ads For Poor Showing In Education ...(Politico) *Save NY now airs on school money(TU) *NYC's Bloomberg Pays for TV Ads Backing Cuomo's Pension * Bloomberg Defends His Administration With TV Ad - NY1.com * Local TV News For $ale: How Special Interests Control News Content and Public Opinion
_____________________________________
Trump Throws A Bone
Campaign 2013 Media Failure
New and Post Copy News From Local Paper
_______________________________________________________
The Silence of the Media On the Vote Count
Why Did NYC Spend $95 Million for New Voting Scanner That Don't Work?
Where is the Demand for A City Council Investigation of the BOE Scanner Contracts
What Happen to the BOE Machine Count Due Out Sunday Night? Why is the media so passive? The Daily News was the first to ask for the old machines but has not said a word about counting the votes. The truth is the scanner were bought after lobbyist made deals with the BOE commissioners and party leaders. Only True News has investigated those deals.
____________________________________
Dying Newspaper Power
Biggest E-Day Loser: NYPost/Dicker. Wrong on casinos, wrong on DeBlasio, wrong on judges.
Murdoch's Power Lost Over 36 Years
De Blasio’s two-borough campaign trail(NYP) Bill de Blasio promised not to be Manhattan-centric if he’s elected mayor Tuesday — but the only other borough he’s shown much love on the campaign trail is his own. A review of de Blasio’s campaign itinerary since the Sept. 10 primary shows the Brooklyn-based Democrat made 27 stops in Manhattan — the most of any borough — followed by 16 in Brooklyn. That left the three remaining outer boroughs getting short shrift: He made seven visits to Queens, four to The Bronx and just two to Staten Island.* New York Post Asks if Mayor de Blasio Will Rap With Violent Gangbangers(NYP)
Latest Poll: NYC Media Disconnected With the Public
NY Media's Deviant Elite Subculture
The once powerful NY Newspapers has become a subculture that the public no longer believes. The editorial boards and newsrooms are in shock that their over the top endorsements of stringer and Quinn are being rejected by the voters of New York. A media revolution is going on in New York. And its Tea Party moment (we are talking about the Boston Tea Party of 1773) was de Blasio standing up to those trying to close two Brooklyn hospitals. Not one newspaper editorial has backed Bill in his efforts to keep the hospitals open. In fact the NYT in their endorsement of Quinn said that de Blasio efforts were hopeless. New Yorkers are tired of the Bull Shit words coming out of the newspaper and candidates. They know they are being priced out of the city and those that they elected don't care.
3/3/2013
What Has Happen to the Watchdog of Government or Politics?
Because newspapers have always serve as tip sheets for local television
reporters and for reporters on the national level, the newspaper cutbacks because of lose of readerhip to the Internet have had
“ripple effects throughout the whole media system.: With fewer reporters available to tackle in-depth topics, news releases
from politicians and policy makers end up having more influence in some
cases, he said, contributing to a kind of power shift toward
institutions and away from citizens. *Local News Dumb Down Journalism (True News) * Top 5 Cover Ups of Corruption by the Media
3/1/2013
Pay to Read Journalism
Newspaper gives vote of approval to paying politicalcandidates (New York World)
A New York World review of campaign finance records and
endorsements found that of the 15 candidates who purchased services from
Multi-Media Advertising in competitive races for amounts exceeding $1,000, 11
also received a public endorsement from the Tribune in that race.
In
queens the local newspaper, the political machine and government all
work together. The paper do not preform the role of checks and balances
that Founding Father envisioned to protect the people from the
government and ensure a working democracy. Instead Queens local
newspapers have gamed journalism to operate as a co-machine in Queens.
More on Nussbaum and the Queens Tribune
They work in campaigns and are lobbyist to the same elected officials they help elect or reelect. The papers operate as the house organ for the Democratic party to controling who becomes gets elected or becomes a judge in Queens county. The judges in turn send the legal ads worth tens of thousands dollars to the local papers.* FOR MENG CONSULTANT NUSSBAUM, A HISTORY OF VOTE-SPLITTING(True News) NUSSBAUM...should have gone to jail back in the Manes days when he was caught red handed in ...wasn't it a Time Warner bribery scandal? And this is the man who is "representing" the RKO Keith's owner de jour...Patrick Thompson. . .* True News: A Takeover Of Journalism by Lobbyist and Politicians * True News: True News: Nussbaum Unplugged A New Organized ... * True News: The Queens Chronicle Asks Why is A Sex Sex Trafficker ...
2/13/2013
Corruption Everywhere, 8.8% Unemployment, Hospitals Closing and 23% of HS Graduates are Ready for College and All Local TV News Can Do Show YouTubes of A Squirrel on A Surf Board
“An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.” - Thomas Jefferson
The pathetic state of New York’s newscasts, all of which boast to best serve the public’s needs and trust. And not one of the local networks seems the least bit interested in changing anything, at least not for the better. Let's face it: TV and radio stations rely on the local newspaper for most of their news. So what happens to those "rip and read" broadcasters as print staffs shrivel amid the draconian layoffs strafing the newspaper industry? Print journalists have long chafed at broadcast media pilfering their stories, often without bothering to credit the source. The thinness in assembling TV news -- and the manner in which they use newspapers as de facto tip sheets and newsgathering surrogates - has long been one of broadcasting's dirty little secrets. Today, most Americans say they get most of their information from local television news. Local broadcasters are not living up to the public promise to keep the public informed that made in order to get their licenses? As print fades, the fallout promises to hasten broadcast news' descent as well -- from "Rip and read" to simply "read it and weep." Our Democracy is in serious trouble.
Local TV News Has Become Wires and Lights in A Box
This instrument (television) can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.”Edward R. Murrow 1958 speech * Good Night, and Good Luck: Edward Murrow Speech
Instead of Outrage and Condemnation of Albany On Day Tenants Screwed MSM Defends and Protect Them
On the Day the Albany 3 Men in the Room Could Not Protect Tenants Newday Blames the Corruption Probes for Lack of Reforms
The NYP Uses A Child Abuse Law Blocked By Former Speaker Silver to Blast the Assembly Democrats Who They Hate
The Post Failed to Report The Child Abuse Bill That Has 61 Sponsors in the Assembly and Whose Supporters Has Led Protests for 6 Years All Over the City. The Post Also Failed to Report That Former Speaker Silver Urged On By the Catholic League and Agudath Israel
No Media Coverage of the Surrogate Trial
The Media Does Not Even Cover Tammany Hall Corrupt Court That Steal Money From Families of Their Readers
Only News of the Decision Came From the Manhattan DAs Website
NYT, WSJ Covers the Indictment, But Not the Trial or Conviction
Ex-City Bookkeeper Indicted for Stealing from Dead People: DA (NBC) Richard Paul, 34, the former Kings County Public Administrator's office bookkeeper, was charged with grand larceny and defrauding the government * City Bookkeeper Charged With Stealing $2.6 Million From Estates(NYT) An employee in the office of the Brooklyn public administrator and three others pleaded not guilty to what prosecutors said was a scheme that targeted estates without wills. * Scheme Targeted Funds of the Dead(WSJ) * Bookkeeper robbed dead of $2.6M, went on shopping sprees: DA * Surrogate's Court And Why It Should Go (True News)
1/30/2013
Affor d able BrainwashingThe money-tree challenge to pols(Goodwin,NYP)You got to find money to make makes things afforable, but from where? The pols sell “affordability” as a magic antidote to the fact that the middle class is being squeezed out of New York.
The word is “affordable,” and New Yorkers had better get used to hearing it. It is a code word among the candidates hoping to succeed Mayor Bloomberg. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio used a version of it six times in his announcement speech Sunday. He said that the city needed more “affordable housing” and that many parents lack “child care and afterschool programs they can afford.” Former Comptroller Bill Thompson said he would focus on “affordable mass transit” and “quality, affordable housing.” Council Speaker Christine Quinn pushes a program that would require new housing units to be “affordable” for 60 years!The Bronx is News Starved
The Bronx the Most News Deprived Borough Only 10.7% of the Voters Followed the 3 Papers Endorsements of Quinn
The Bronx's Newspapers Disconnect
In the borough of New York which received the most newspaper coverage 22.5% of the voters supported Quinn. Quinn received 15.6% citywide. Only 17.5% of the Bronx Democrats Voted. Citywide Turnout was 24%
Why Big Newspapers Skip the Bronx(City Limits) For Metro, there's a simple explanation: Fewer Bronxites have full-time jobs, the Bronx is the borough with the highest unemployment 12.2% wrote Wilf Maunoir, Metro's director of marketing, in an email. “Metro is 100 percent advertising funded,” he said. “As any advertising business, the demographic matters.” As a result, Metro distributes about 3,000 copies of its paper in the Bronx out of about 300,000 citywide. New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy would not say how many papers it sells in the Bronx, but suggested that stores there might not stock the paper “if there is no reader demand.” “This is a problem with advertiser funded media,” said Jim Naureckas, the editor of Extra!, which is published by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a progressive media watchdog group. “It puts a skew in your media system towards people with more money and away from people with less money.” The median household income in the Bronx is about $35,000, compared to about $51,000 for all five boroughs, according to census data. The poor, meanwhile, are tuning out: people who make less than $30,000 a year read, watch, and listen to the news about 30 percent less than people who make at least $75,000, according to the Pew Research Center
More on NY's Journalism Disconnect
Content Free Reporting ... Reporters Are Not Doing Their Jobs
When was the last time you heard a reporter ask a NYC mayoral candidate to reduce the sky-high cost of government? Or What is Their Plan to Reduce Uemployment?
1/27/2013
Spitting in the Face of Thomas Jefferson Today's Journalist Do Not Feel It is There Job to Inform the Public. . . And They Do Not Care What You Think
As
True News reported yesterday New Yorkers have no clue what the 2013
candidates for mayor will do if they are elected. Today's journalist
spend more time spreading candidates and consultants spin instead of
doing research to find out who these candidates are. We have a public
that knows nothing more about the candidates then the consultants want
them to know and many in the press feel they are doing their job. Many play ball with insiders, looking for high paying jobs from consultants like George Arzt or in government. Reporter Adam Lisberg last year got a high paying job with the MTA. Other journalist play ball because they need the tips and explanations of insiders because they are clueless about the subject they are covering.
The lessons of John Peter Zenger and generations of reporters who saw themselves as Jeffersonian truth seekers are lost. Today's journalist like their pols they cover lack the embarrassed gene. They dismiss any person blame for dumb down the public. It is ironic that in an era where the internet and bloggers put information at the finger tips of today's main stream journalist they have stop doing investigative reportering. These same insiders journalist go out of their way to ignor and black list bloggers who write the real stories. For 13 years blogger Rafael Martínez Alequín exposed the corruption of Padro Espada, he was even beaten by Espada thugs for information he was exposing about them. The take over of Albany and the millions that the senator rip off from the government would not have happen if the media did not blacklist what Alequin exposed.
Not only did Martínez break one of the biggest corruption stories of the decade, the ignoring of his finding led to one of the most disgraceful era in Albany history. The takeover of the State Senate by the GOP and the disgusting deals that the senate democrats made with Espada to make him their leader to buy back the chamber. Martinez was ignored because he is an independent blogger who writes the truth. Main
Street Media owned by corporations are more concerned with sticking with a news narratives that kiss the ass of incumbents and lobbyist who do their businesses favors. DN Editorial "Espada was abetted by many in Albany who should have known better — including every state senator in 2009 and 2010." More about Rafael Martínez Alequín
Why Does Main Stream Media Hate Bloggers?
The NYT Public Editor Was Departed Shortly After He Exposed the Bias of the Paper's Metro Editor Carolyn Ryan Against Bloggers and Freelance Journalists
Today's Daily News Agrees with True News That the Public Has No Idea Who They Are Voting for for Mayor
Political Promise Written By A Campaign Consultant Do Not Make the Public Informed
Godzilla and Gabe Keep Tearing About NYC
If the Media Does Not Step In A Demand Answers, This Will Be Nothing More Than A Campaign of Empty Promises
Weiner Tells the Media You Kissed My Ass Too Much
Election 2013 Journalism Failure
Spin Over Fact
Weiner Blames Reporter For Not Grlling Him On Sexting (TPM)
Copy cat media fails New York voters
Frankencandidates Born Without An Embarrassment Gene
Born without the “embarrassment gene.” as the debate this week proved they will say anything to get elected. And they don't care or feel ashamed. The whole debate despite being moderated by NY1's Errol Lewis turned into 7 years old snarky put downs not against other candidates but aimed at Bloomberg. Lewis said later in the day on his show that it is late in the game and we still do not know what these mayoral candidates stand for. "What does de Blasio believe in, what does Thompson stand for?" asked Lewis last night. It is unclear what caused the dumb down of these candidates. Are they just part of the dumb down generation as Senator Moynihan described 30 years ago? Or have they just not been challenged properly?
Poor Journalism is the Reason Mayoral Candidates Get Away With Meaningless One Liners
The Journalist Blogger That Got Pedro Espada, Still Ignored By Main Stream Media
At First Rafael Martínez Stood Up to Pedro Espada Alone Putting His Life in Danger . . . 13 Years After He Started His Investigation of the Former Senator's Corruption He Watch, the U.S. Attorney Declared "The Espada Era Is Over"
Martínez: "Pedro All Your Family Should Be in Jail" Video
Media and Political Bias Against Blogger Martínez Changed NYS History
If there was any value left in the local Pulitzer or TV news Emmy
awards, a journalist who most of his City Hall colleagues try to ignore,
discredit and humiliate because they feel he is not worthy of their
status, should win this year. Rafael Martínez Alequín,
long a pariah among the City Hall press corps, did what his
colleagues don’t bother to do anymore, investigative reporting.
For over 13 years Martínez has been investigating Pedro Espada. First in his newspaper Your Free Press and then on the online edition. Yesterday his reporting work paid off. Espada Speaks Softly as He Pleads Guilty to a Single Tax Charge * Espada Guilty of Tax Fraud In Plea Deal(WSJ) * U.S. Attorney Declares "Espada Era Is Over"(NY1) * Disgraced pol Pedro Espada pleads guilty to tax evasion; son Pedro Gautier Espada pleads guilty to theft(NYDN) * The end of the road for Pedro Espada (NYDN Ed)
If the Media, Pols and DA's Used the Corruption Information Martínez Uncovered Years Ago, the Democrats Would Still Be in Control of the State Senate
For over 13 years Martínez has been investigating Pedro Espada. First in his newspaper Your Free Press and then on the online edition. Yesterday his reporting work paid off. Espada Speaks Softly as He Pleads Guilty to a Single Tax Charge * Espada Guilty of Tax Fraud In Plea Deal(WSJ) * U.S. Attorney Declares "Espada Era Is Over"(NY1) * Disgraced pol Pedro Espada pleads guilty to tax evasion; son Pedro Gautier Espada pleads guilty to theft(NYDN) * The end of the road for Pedro Espada (NYDN Ed)
Not only did Martínez break one of the biggest corruption stories of the decade, the ignoring of his finding led to one of the most disgraceful era in Albany history. The takeover of the State Senate by the GOP and the disgusting deals that the senate democrats made with Espada to make him their leader to buy back the chamber. Martinez was ignored because he is an independent blogger who writes the truth. Main
Street Media owned by corporations are more concerned with sticking with a news narratives that kiss the ass of incumbents and lobbyist who do their businesses favors. DN Editorial "Espada was abetted by many in Albany who should have known better — including every state senator in 2009 and 2010."
Martinez Watch NYC Reporting Change From the Dignity, Power and Abilty of Murray Kempton To A Generation of Crap Reporters With No Shame
The
media hires young snarky clueless reporters who do not have the ability
to understand how to do investigative reporting, or the will. Most of
today reporters generate stories from elected officials or the lobbyist
that work for them. Or they copy each other stories adding gossip. It was only after Espada voted with the GOP, putting Sprinkles the Clown in charge of the Senate, that the prosecutors started real investigations into Espada’s
health care clinic and subpoenaed Martinez’s video and materials. All
the MSM has done is report on what the prosecutors have done to Espada.
Only Martinez generated orgional informations on Espada which the prosecutors used to go after him
The physical Violence and Threats Martinez Received at the Hands of Espada Thugs was covered up by the Bronx D.A. and the Media
Martinez Watch NYC Reporting Change From the Dignity, Power and Abilty of Murray Kempton To A Generation of Crap Reporters With No Shame
The physical Violence and Threats Martinez Received at the Hands of Espada Thugs was covered up by the Bronx D.A. and the Media
Martinez's Investigative Reporting Uncovered How Espada Used His Health Center As A Personal Piggy Bank and As His Campaign Machine
Espada's Physical Attack On A Reporter Doing His Job, Goes Unnoticed in the Bronx's Courts and By Fellow Journalists
TO THE HONORABLE JUDGE JOSEPH DAWSON
Bronx Criminal Court, January 14, 2010
"Your Honor in the name of Justice you must appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and make the proper charges in this case. The same political machine that supports Senator Espada is critical for the reelection of the Bronx DA. In fact the political operative who works for Espada represented the Bronx DA in a case where he was accused of not living in the Bronx. I am appalled at the way our County legal system allowed Alejandro Espada to get away with a simple “slap on the wrist. Even considering my limited understanding of the criminal justice system, Alejandro should have been convicted of assault. Pedro Espada Jr., who avoided even being charged, should have been convicted of being an accessory to a crime. He encouraged his son, Alejandro to attack me. And then, as I was being assaulted, he said to me “this is to teach you manners papa. . . " Rafael Martinez
The DA Espada Fix in the Bronx Allowed the Corruption to Go On . . . It Also Allowed An Attack on A Journalist in NYC By A Pol to Be Cover Up
The Media Even Ignored the Fact that the Bronx DA Protected the Espada Thugs Who Attacked Martinez, A Fellow Journist
Espada
knew that if you’re a member of the ruling political class of the Bronx, the
mainstream media and DA's will protect you. Bronx power broker Stanley Schlein Protected Espada
Boss Schlein worked for Senator Espada and helped DA Johnson win an
important residency case when he first ran for office. Schlein is also
the right hand man to the powerful Bronx County Leader Carl
Heastie, rules the Board of Elections and still has a working
relationship with the powerful Rivera family (he was her lawyer Noemi
Rivera who tried to knock the man who beat her Mark Gjonaj off the ballot for assembly).
If DA Johnson wanted to be reelected (which he does) there was no way
that DA Johnson was going to go after Espada's before his protection was
ended. Espada became road kill when
he joined Monserrate and held the state hostage for over a month with no government, that the NYP called the A;lbany circus.
Once you embarrassed the establishment the protection deal is
canceled. If you look at the establishment coming down on Vito Lopez
after his sexual harassment case became public, you can concluded that
the city's rulers are OK with corruption as long as those pols doing the
stealing don't embarrass them in public.
After MSM the Espada Protection Deal Ended Reporters Like WCBS TV's Marsha Kramer Used Martinez's Residency Video Without Giving the Him Credit
Rafael Martínez also produced a video in which he interviewed several Bronx neighbors of State Senator Pedro Espada, who had never seen Espada in the building before. The excellent video, which shows Espada’s car parked later that night at his real home in Mamaroneck, proves outright that Senator Espada had never lived at the Bronx address which he listed as his official in district State Senate residence.
As Reporters Ignored Espada Until the Albany Take Over, It Put Martinez More in Danger . . . All Reporters Cared About Was Getting His Videos
The Mayor and Member of the City Hall Press Tried to Take Away Martinez's Press Pass and Kick Him Out of City Hall
David Seifman from the NYP and a guy named Michael Blood from Daily News both tried to convince other journalist in Room 9 that Martinez did not deserve a press pass. They were working on behalf of the mayor (as they often do) who canceled Martinez press pass. It took Norman Siegel defending Martinez to defeat the Mayor’s NYPD attempt to not renew Martinez's press pass. Bloomberg wanted to limited his blue room press conferences to only puppet reporters who do his bidding. He wanted to end the real questions that Martinez has been firing at mayors for the last 30 years. Siegel’s lawsuit resulted in Martínez getting a new press pass, that open up press passes to other bloggers. Martínez said a lot of the old media blame him for losing their parking permits. With Espada headed to jail Martinez is content that his work is done. Don't worry Martinez is not going anywhere, he still has a lifetime of stories to tell and corrupt pols to fight against. “You’re still alive?” Pedro often called to the 79-year-old journalist as he attended everyday of Espada Trial. Yesterday at the plea deal Martinez told Espada that "I am very much alive and your going to jail" Journalist Espada Breaks Through City Hall's "The Media's Wall of Silence"
A New Media Champ Local TV stations who do not cover political campaigns are sure giving Newark Mayor Cory Booker a lot of air time
Old Media Vs Political Bloggers
As
political coverage on the Internet gains readershop we now get to see
how Main Stream Media controlled the news for generations. For the last
two days the blogs lead by City and State have dug into the Queens
machine ticket fixing first broken by True News over last weekend. At
the MSM has boycotted the story and spinned a Boss Crowley story. In yesterday Observer Joe Crowley: ‘Mr. Lancman Is Misinformed’. In today's Daily News Crowley says Visa waivers would boost Queens tourism. * Meng Adviser Urged Bay Terrace Resident to Help Spit Jewish Vote: Report (Patch) * Meng Responds To Gottlieb Controversy, Says “Everyone Has a Right to Run”(Patch)
If it it bleeds it leads
Why Local TV News Fails to Inform
After a year of study, a Federal Communications Commission special report, “The Information Needs of Communities,” says there is a lot of journalism out there, just not much “accountability reporting” of local and state government. The study, based on interviews with 600 journalists, scholars and industry leaders, found that newsrooms are scaling back their coverage of important institutions such as local and state government.
Keeping the Public Uninformed While Racking In the Millions
This Is What WNBC Calls Informing the Public (The same headline news is repeated every half hour from 4:30AM to 7:00 AM by clueless newsreaders):
Local TV News For $ale: How Special Interests Control News Content and Public Opinion
If you were watching WCBSTV local news this weekend you would have seen a commercials paid for by The Committee to Save New York (business interests supporting Cuomo) called "Turn the Tide" which told the views that Governor Cuomo did a wonderful job at fixing pensions and the states economy. Spending on advertising has fueled the increase in lobbying costs. Well-funded special interests funnel millions to lobbyists for public campaigns to sway lawmakers on hot-button issues (TU) Local News which is mainly weather, traffic, cooking and dog segments is making millions in lobbyists spending.
Cuomo and his supporters spent over $10 million last year to gain public support to push through his agenda. Union and business interest like the pro fracking interest are also spending millions on ads to local stations. All this money is coming in as local news dumbs down. It is not a secret that TV and radio stations rely on the local newspaper for most of their hard news. So those "rip and read" broadcasters have offered their views much less hard news as newspaper staffs shrivel amid the draconian layoffs caused by the internet and the recession? Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill)*CSNY’s budget blitz: $3.9 million (updated)(TU) *Save NY airing tax cap ad(TU) *Budget opponents up their ads and mailers(TU) *Bloomberg Blames Negative Ads For Poor Showing In Education ...(Politico) *Save NY now airs on school money(TU) *NYC's Bloomberg Pays for TV Ads Backing Cuomo's Pension * Bloomberg Defends His Administration With TV Ad - NY1.com * Local TV News For $ale: How Special Interests Control News Content and Public Opinion
Dumb Down Local News Makes Millions on PAC and Other Special Interests Spending
Keeping the Public Uninformed While Racking In the Millions
Local News which is mainly weather, traffic, cooking and dog segments is making millions in lobbyists spending. Cuomo and his supporters spent over $10 million last year to gain public support to push through his agenda. Union and business interest like the pro fracking interest are also spending millions on ads to local stations. All this money is coming in as local news dumbs down. It is not a secret that TV and radio stations rely on the local newspaper for most of their hard news. So those "rip and read" broadcasters have offered their views much less hard news as newspaper staffs shrivel amid the draconian layoffs caused by the internet and the recession? Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill) * Local News Dumb Down Journalism (True News)
"Real journalism is publishing something someone else does not want published - the rest is just public relations." Orwell
Shrinking Coverage Means Less Real News - More SexLet's face it: TV and radio stations rely on the local newspaper for most of their news. So what happens to those "rip and read" broadcasters as print staffs shrivel amid the draconian layoffs strafing the newspaper industry? Print journalists have long chafed at broadcast media pilfering their stories, often without bothering to credit the source. The thinness in assembling TV news -- and the manner in which they use newspapers as de facto tip sheets and newsgathering surrogates - has long been one of broadcasting's dirty little secrets.
Several experienced New York TV Reporters were "let go" recently. This is a national cost cutting trend in local television news that can only make TV news' already weakened ability to go beyond rip and read news content even weaker. High definition will guarantee even more inexpensive, and inexperienced anchors and reporters . Why you ask? It's simple really -- only 20- and 30-years-olds look good on high definition. Even though the seasoned reporter might deliver invaluable information, some idiot from some focus group tells the corporations " I just hate her hair!" The corporations next move? An ad -- fresh meat wanted. . . Secret tape of next years new NY local TV news program.
As newspapers go out of business and experienced reporters leave, local news will have more time for ratings grabbers “Happy Talk” also called banter. It may consist of simple jokes or simply a modified wording in asking a question of another reporter. For instance, instead of a simple handoff to a sportscaster, an anchor might say, "So, Dave, what the heck happened out on that field today? Is our team going down the tubes?"
Today, most Americans say they get most of their information from local television news. How well are local broadcasters living up to the public interest promises they made in order to get their licenses? Edward R. Murrow answered that question 50 years ago. “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box."
TV News consultants design sexy reporting "happy talk" news formats not with the idea to inform but with the goal of attracting high ratings. That role for TV news was not as dangerous, with strong newspapers fulfilling the role of informing the public with what they need to know. As print fades, the fallout promises to hasten broadcast news' descent as well -- from "Rip and read" to simply "read it and weep." Our Democracy is in serious trouble.
Local newscasts that are turning to jokes need to can the act, consider cutting back(DN)
“An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.” - Thomas Jefferson
Local TV News Plays Us for Dummies: Ernie Anastos: "Keep f@#xing that chicken"
Debate Designed to Confuse
The Sad State of Journalism in New York
A Journalist Breaks Through City Hall's "Blue Wall of Silence"
Newspapers Coverage of the Budget Crisis: A Tail of Two Standards of Coverage
Media and Pols: The Real Story is What They Don't 'Say
Media and Pols: The Real Story is What They Don't 'Say
Tribune's Zell: Newspapers Can't Survive
Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News More Sexy Reporters
The Times They Are A Changing
Spin is the Cancer of Jounalism
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
New York Pols Governs by Blinders Enabled by the Media Who Write with Blinders
New York Pols Governs by Blinders Enabled by the Media Who Write with Blinders
Governing by blinders simply means making budget decision disconnected from a single narrative which both the pols and the media are failing to give city residence. The media has allowed the pols to create a new culture that allows them to deliver government to their supports or good causes without taking responsibility for those actions on the city budget or the economic health of New York It means paying a developer $95 million while cutting the police force. Since 2001 the police force shrunk by over 6000 cops to 34,304 members and we had to wait until after the election to find out what the city will cut because of the recession. We used to have police classes of thousands of new office a year today we are down to a couple of hundred a year. We are paying over a billion on a new police academy as we cut police officers.
New Yorkers want to pay a fair wage Paterson Prepares Wage Bill for Construction Sites We are good people. It make sense to pay people not to go to work sick during the swine flu winter Making business sicker We even hate traffic tickets Traffic Agents and Politicians Debate Value of 5 Minutes. Bloomberg is using the ticket blitz to pay for city services that would otherwise be cut. What is the cost of the council's parking bill and what will the council cut to make up the debt is never discussed. In other words the pols get away with being irresponsible to the city budget. Daily News Edit shows that the council bill to make a parking hour 65 minutes, does not even help motorists Parking space cadets: City Council pretends to befriend beleaguered motorists
Question the Media Fails to Ask Over and Over How we do balance the budget, continue to fix education and not tax the middle class and businesses out of New York? NYC Faces Middle Class Exodus * Schools’ Grades Reflect Persistent Disparity * Businesses rip mandate on sick days , Labor advocates, small business groups clash over proposed paid sick leave bill , Businesses say paid sick days would cost $8.8 billion annually. Don't look for the media or pols to take off their blinders as today's Orwellian double speak Daily News headline proves Mayor: Layoffs likely, but $683M tax windfall will save jobs Talk about blinders, only the Daily News editorial board covered the ongoing budget impasse in Albany The worst of times: Legislature fiddles in Albany while mayor faces down city deficit * Gov. David Paterson doesn’t understand why people are sounding optimistic about budget negotiations — but if it’s an effort to cheer up the media, we appreciate it. (TU). As the state goes broke both and nobody will take the leadership in balancing the budget the NYT writes about New York Is Set for Strict Stand on D.W.I. Cases and the NYP does not even give an update of the budget stalemate in Albany today
The News At Night Begins the Internet News Revolution
Watch Cuomo News
This is what the evening news will look like when all the journalists get laid off. * A Newscast Unveiled by Cuomo, for Cuomo(NYT)
Jimmy Vielkind
Mayor, Bishop, NYPD, Transparency Meet Nixon's Rosemary Woods 18 1/2?
amNewYork writes that the more time that passes without answers about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s involvement with the legal case of Bishop Orlando Findlayter, the more questionable the mayor’s position becomes:
Monday Update
"I dont comment on the details of the FOIL process," de Blasio says ...*
De Blasio Dodges FOIL Questions(NYO) * Asked about FOIL requests, de Blasio says he’s no lawyer(NYO) * De Blasio said he was “not a lawyer” when asked about his administration’s refusal to release documents related to the arrest and release of a political ally, Capital New York reports:
No Emails Exist?
After 3 Months and A Foil Request Mayor's Office Reports That They Never Existed
De Blasio’s Office Says No Bishop Findlayter Emails Exist (NYO) The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Mr. de Blasio’s inquiries into the status of Mr. Findlayer after the bishop, an early campaign supporter, said specifically that, “The mayor’s office sent emails to the NYPD officials and Deputy Chief Royster said Mr. de Blasio called her to inquire about the arrest. He didn’t ask that the bishop be released, she said.”
Capital New York detailed its extensive efforts to get Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s administration to release information on the arrest of Bishop Orlando Findlayter.
In short: Records officers appeared to do their best to ignore and
delay repeated inquiries before one said that “he had not been
authorized to release the information.” Mr. de Blasio championed
information transparency as public advocate.Mayor de Blasio First 3 Months
de Blasion 2.0 After the Albany War
Journalism in NYC is No Profile in Courage
NYC Media Run Away From the Observer's Email Story Even WSJ Which Was the First To Report on the Emails has No Story
De Blasio FOIL: No record of Findlayter correspondence(Capital)
New York Emmy Awards Journalism Winners No Profiles in Courage
Taco Mayor Scandal. January 24,
2012. (WPIXTV).Mario Diaz, Reporter
Occupy Wall Street Erupts October 5,
2011. (WABC-TV).Jeff Pegues, Reporter
Mace In Your Face? May 7, 2012. (WABC-TV).Sarah
Wallace
9/11
We Remember. September 10, 2011. (WNBC-TV).Chuck Scarboroug
Dumb Down Local News Makes Millions on PAC and Other Special Interests Spending
Keeping the Public Uninformed While Racking In the Millions
Local News which is mainly weather, traffic, cooking and dog segments is making millions in lobbyists spending. Cuomo and his supporters spent over $10 million last year to gain public support to push through his agenda. Union and business interest like the pro fracking interest are also spending millions on ads to local stations. All this money is coming in as local news dumbs down. It is not a secret that TV and radio stations rely on the local newspaper for most of their hard news. So those "rip and read" broadcasters have offered their views much less hard news as newspaper staffs shrivel amid the draconian layoffs caused by the internet and the recession? Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill) * Local News Dumb Down Journalism (True News)
Jefferson Informed Citizens Need for A Democracy
"An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the
proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible
unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to
exercise oversight." Thomas JeffersonJefferson Explains How Tyranny Develops
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.
If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." * The new boundaries for state Senate and Assembly districts proposed by LATFOR would increase the number of seats held by the majority parties in both chambers. From 32 to 34 for the Senate GOP, and from 98 to 102 for the Assembly Democrats.
Pols Increasing Bypassing the Media
Elected Officials Increasing Use Social Media to Bypass a Very Weakened Media
Elected officials are using social media technologies like blogs, Facebook and Twitter to communicate directly to voters. More than ever before, they can bypass the professional press and deliver an uncensored, unfiltered — and unchecked — message spinned by their flacks and lobbyists. The information put out by elected officials not only intends to put the pols in a positive light, it is increasing designed to mislead the public on what is really going on in they city. Yesterday Mayor de Blasio said “We have reduced crime, the numbers are overwhelming clear” His own chief of police has reported that the number of shooting and murders are up.
We are entering a perfect storm of the weakening of the Freedom of the Press protections created by the founding fathers. “The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to bare the secrets of government and inform the people.” Hugo Black, Supreme Court Judge. The invention of the Internet has disrupted a system that has offered the public a reliable independent way to find out what their government was up to for the past 250 years. The media has also given up its very important investigative reporting role.
One Year Ago U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara challenged journos to do investigative reporting (CrainsNY) "Rather than just covering the cases that my office and other offices are already bringing, figure out ways to break new ground and to cover new stories," Bharara said. "Groundbreaking corruption coverage is not just good copy, it's a path to good government." Bharara. The press has a role to play. "Rather than just covering the cases that my office and other offices are already bringing, figure out ways to break new ground and to cover new stories," he said The media has not responded to the U.S. Attorney request. Today mostly what you read in newspapers feels like press releases. The former DA of Brooklyn called reporters stenographers. The entire 2013 campaign was full of press release promising more services for NYCHA tenants. The press never asked the candidates with the federal cuts in public housing where the funds were going to come from to repair the building. As recent events have indicated there is no money to fix public housing. Media Today Press Release Journalism After a spike in shootings in New York, de Blasio predicts his policieswill ‘turn the tide’: (NY Mag)
de Blasio on the Social Media
More than 5,000 New Yorkers are calling on Albany
Diversity is strength. @FDNY, the world's greatest fire department, will grow even stronger when it more closely resembles our city. *
Democracies corrode quite fast once the public stops being informed about the activities of their government
Why journalism is important: "to fill the space that grows between the two parts of democracy: the governed and the governors(Atlantic Yard Review)
Jay Rosen, the NYU journalism scholar and, among other things, coiner of the very useful "View from Nowhere" observation, explains: Why I study journalism and criticize it and try to make it better when I can figure out how. The reason is there in this quote from Thinking the Twentieth Century, by Tony Judt with Timothy Snyder. (Penguin Books, 2012)
Democracies corrode quite fast; they corrode linguistically, or rhetorically if you like— that’s the Orwellian point about language. They corrode because most people don’t care about them. Notice that the European Union, whose first parliamentary elections were held in 1979 and had an average turnout of over 62 percent, is now looking at turnout of less than 30 percent, even though the European Parliament matters more now and has more power. The difficulty of sustaining voluntary interest in the business of choosing the people who will rule over you is well attested. And the reason why we need intellectuals, as well as all the good journalists we can find, is to fill the space that grows between the two parts of democracy: the governed and the governors.
Times Publisher Compares Print Media to the Titanic
The News At Night Begins the Internet News Revolution
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Steven Slater: Copy Cat Journalism
Steven Slater: Copy Cat Journalism
Internet and the Cutbacks have made their opponents internet site the sole investigative tool of the old media
Instead of digging out new stories today's media is content to put out the same stories as their opposition. Even the old gray lady could not resist the Slater "Mad As Hell Moment" We cannot wait until Atlantic or the Nation does a story about how Americans upset with the direction of their country are making Slater their hero.
News in today's newspaper was online yesterday afternoon. How much longer will readers buy papers filled with news they could have read about the day before online? We see what is happen to Newsweek for untimely news. Reader also learn of many of these stories the night before on TV or radio news. Since TV and Radio know from ripping and reading the morning papers are now ripping and reading the blogs, even they can have the news before the morning papers. Has the media cuts hurt the ability to offer original content and investigative stories? Yes. How can they expect readers to keep buying their product?
Four month after the Wall Street Journal stated its New York section the hope that the newspaper war would generate a more comprehensive coverage of New York has been dashed by both papers need to make sure that they cover the same stories. On same days more than half of both papers stories are the same. Is this how news is controlled? Or is this the result of cuts in news reporter? How much longer can media outlets and reporters get away with posting other new organizations on their Facebook or Twitter pages as if it were their own?
NY Media Copies Stories, No Longer Investigates or Analyse
David Paterson: A Lame Duck, Sure, But Why the Lame Media Coverage? When a powerful public official is a lame duck, it's not supposed to mean that the coverage of him becomes lame. As tepid as Kaye's conclusions were, her evidence was explosive. If a reader focuses on footnotes and nuance, Kaye implicitly makes the case that the man who is still governor is right now orchestrating a cover-up of his own earlier attempts to cover up a criminal outburst of apartment rage (Barrett, Village Voice) * Pediatric Nurse Suspended in Connection with Paterson/Johnson Case * Worker in Paterson scandal received raises during probe (DN) * Gov. Paterson spends $700k fighting AG's probes into domestic violence case, World Series tickets
HOW POLITICANS AND THEIR PUBLICISTS TOOK OVER THE PRESS
Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News More Sexy Reporters
2025 Pulitzer to Local News Coverage of A Snow Storm
With all the local newspapers out of business, the Pulitzer committee has been turning more and more to local TV news. This year the committee award its prize to the entire local TV industry for is coverage of a snow storm. It cited the creativeness of reporters using rulers to measure the snow on live TV and the quick thinking of a reporters with time to fill makings snow angels. The Pulitzer in the awarding of this years award cited the investigative skills of reporters who found out that local airports have hundreds of canceled flights and the buses had more delays then the subways. Finally the committee was very impressed with the local reporters ability to get the big interviews citing how each station was about to interview the same man dressed as Santa in Times Square.
Media Spins: A Broken City Sunday UPDATE
Corporate Owners: NY1 Dummy Us All Down
Local TV News Plays Us for Dummies: Ernie Anastos: "Keep f@#xing that chicken"
A Broken Debate Caused by Clueless Reporters
True News Answer to NY1
NY1 Spins Like Pols and Lobbyists What kind of journalist operation is Robert Hardt, the political director at NY1 makes running. Both True News and Fred Siegel of the Manhattan Institute pointed out that the mayoral debate on NY1 did not asked about the most important iusse facing all New Yorkers, the economy Instead of admitting to the mistake Hardt makes up a cock and bull story that there was not enough time to ask about the economy. What about the time you wasted with the dumb lighting round? Are we to believe Mr. Hardt that it is more important to asked the next mayor who will cut services to New Yorkers than if the candidates ever had a pedicures, exercise or what they think should be done in Afghanistan? (all questions asked during the lighting round) Even candidate William Thompson called the lightning round format “dumb.” Thompson which has been very supportive of gay rights his entire life in public office was trip up by your dumb format Mr. Hardt and had to explain to the Advocate that he is pro gay rights. All the lighting round did was trip up the candidate, it did not get at the truth abot anything. How could it when you ask who is better Espada or Bruno? One is on trial right not for corruption and the other one will soon be.
By the way Mr. Hardt your political coverage is infected with lobbyists like Al D'amato who are enablers to the corruption in this city. The owner of Parkside lobbyist who was in the middle of the council's slush fund , Carl McCall and Freddie Ferrer who go paid as a money managers by the city or state pension funds, the same thing Ex-Comptroller Carl McCall Is Part of New York Pension Inquiry, After Introduction From Ferrer, Firm Earned $100000 From State Mr. Hardt do you feel responsible for the lobbyist McCall and Ferrer trying to tap into the new comptroller who has not committed to get rid of the money managers like NYS Comptroller DiNapoli has? H. Carl McCall, Freddy Ferrer, Betsy Gotbaum Endorse John Liu More Time Warner who owns NY1 gets tons of ads from the Brooklyn housing complex Flatbush Gardens. He is one story your never see on NY1 Landlord's letting Flatbush Gardens rot to flush us out, say tenants (DN) *** Corporate News Media executives’ desire for acquisitions has led to $200 billion in write-offs since 2000, write the authors of “The Curse of the Mogul.” The Hunger of the Media Empire
. Journalism: Another Knockdown The dieing News business as the Voice's Robbin in his latest article, what is left of it in New York has taken a hit this morning as a top TV reporter is accused of domestic violence and an editor quit the Observer Wife: NY1 star hit & choked me ***
JibJab.com - What We Call The News
Albany Cannot Fix Itself; If Sex Sells Newspapers Why Not the True News Blog?
Incumbent TV The state legislature will launch C-SPAN style channels in January. C-SPAN has independent journalist that devote a large amount of time to callers opinions. All the pols and jack asses in the clueless good government groups are talking about is increasing what gets covered on the Legislature cable TV station. With there member items Albany has used the government budget to get reelected and for personal pocket cash. Now they are onto corrupting journalism and good government groups who have failed to achieve any real reforms in decades in Albany are waving them in to corrupt freedom of the press. Unreal
The News At Night Begins the Internet News Revolution
The News At Night Begins the Internet News Revolution
In the days before the Internet and cable many New Yorkers did not receive most of their in the morning like they do today, but by evening additions of the Daily News, Post, the Mirror, Journal American, Harold Tribune and World Telegram and PM. The Christmas Terror plot has brought out into the open what has quietly been happening on the Internet for the few year, the news has moved online. Newspapers Covered Terror Plot Without Home Delivery Edition
Much of the news in the morning papers is available on the Internet from many sources not only the night before but in many cases days before it is printed in the daily papers. A second important trend on what New Yorkers read as news is the increasingly copy cat nature of the media. While much of what appears on morning local TV news has always been taken from the newspapers, it is clear that the permanent shelf life of stories online is become the main source for daily journalist, who are increasingly feeling that if people are reading a story on the Internet they must cover that story in their paper. Independent bloggers have also increasingly been complaining that old journalism or mainstream journalist have rips off their stories without giving them credit. A third trend is the cutbacks in the news media caused by the recession and loss readers to the Internet has meant that less news is being covered by the mainstream media, especially on weekend. Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News, More Sexy Reporters The final and most important trend is that during this transition period from Newspapers to online journalism, the most important job of a free press, that of being a watchdog of the pols and government has failed. The failure is not only because of the move to online, it has a lot to do with the loss of mom pop owners of the newspapers and the fact that in the past copy boys become reporters after they learned journalism with the attitude of their owners that pols and rich were the bad guys. Today newsroom are filled reporter from very expensive Ivy League journalism school and the owners of papers are big businessman who make their money by tapping onto the government's tit, mostly thought real estate. So over the last 3 decades it gone from and adversary relationship with government and pols to a partnership.
Tom Robbins wrote an excellent column last year about the results of the change in journalism The unexamined world of Mike Bloomberg. Robins could have also said the same thing about the unexamined slush fund at the City Council or the corruption in the city's pension funds or how Albany has become an organized crime enterprise. The sad thing is now that Albany has really become a clown show and newspaper really want to make change there, their editorials and corruption stories no longer carry the power in the days they were the only kid on the block. The pols know about the lost readership of the papers and ignore the editorial boards call for reform. Can Apple's Tablet Save the News?
Monday, April 26, 2010
New York's Last Newspaper War: Old Media Fights Last Battle Before the Internet Gains Total Control of News
New York's Last Newspaper War
Old Media Fights Last Battle Before the Internet Gains Total Control of News
US Newspaper Circulations Fell 8.7 Percent in Last Six Months * Drilling Down - Internet Eclipses Magazines in Ad Revenue in 2009 The Journal increased circulation by 0.5% (Only paper to show an increse), while the New York Times fell by 8.5%.
Murdoch knows how to use all his news resources to help each other, today's NYP Times may lose NY ad turf to Wall Street Journal * WABC TV is already using the WSJ to do their news. Are rats taking over the Upper East Side? (WABC TV) * Rats Mob the Upper East Side (WSJ) True News on TV News Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News More Sexy Reporters On the Newspaper War * Manhattan showdown will be a bare-knuckle fight (TF Times) * Wall Street Journal revs up New York Times rivalry The Associated Press * RPT-EXTRA! Wall Street Journal heads into NY hyperdrive Reuters * Murdoch's Wall Street Journal takes on New York Times Sydney Morning Herald* Murdoch aims for the New York Times' jugular American Thinker (blog) * Wall Street Journal Revs Up New York Times Rivalry * Times Greets WSJ Metro With Mean Memo * Times Ad: You Don't Become The Times Video * WSJ Trounces USA Today For #1 Newspaper In US... See Top 25.. * Print War Between NYT and WSJ Is Really About Digital Wired News * Wall Street Journal chief gets personal in battle with New York Times Robert Thomson criticises NYT's 'journalistic elite' for producing 'social activist journalism' as WSJ launches metro sectio
"Some Folks Just Have A Different Learning Curve"
Sulzberger Memo to His Staff On WSJ New York Section
The Newspaper War BeginsSulzberger Memo to His Staff On WSJ New York Section
Bloomberg
Friday, April 30, 2010
Is the Newspaper War A Dud? NYT WSJ New York Section Lack Passion and Substance
Reformers Frustrated By Legislative Inaction But They Keep Trying (Henry Stern, NY Civic) * Here’s That Photo You Were Expecting of a Bird Covered in Oil (NY Magazine)
Is the Newspaper War A Dud?
NYT WSJ New York Section Lack Passion and Substance
After A Week the Newspaper War Seem to Be Out of Steam
Reading today NYT and WSJ you would never know that the papers were in the head to head competition that the parties and dozens of stories about the coming newspaper war declared. Both papers New York sections are weak, breaking no new ground and boring. Read more like the free give away and local papers than papers trying to impress their readers with their abilities. * Newspaper Wars The Journal Appears to be Inching Away from Subtlety
The NYT Metro Section today breaks little or no news and has way to many color pieces. The only piece about politics printed today has been on the papers web site since Thursday morning. Adviser to Cuomo Is Also Top Lobbyist. The papers editorial called for voters to find a replacement to anger damaged State Senator Kevin Parker. A Toxic Anger Parker’s outbursts are inappropriate. New York’s Democrats should address the problem, and voters should start recruiting a replacement. The story about the cop being convicted about the lying not the shove has also been all over the news media since Thursday afternoon Ex-Officer Convicted of Lying About Confrontation With Cyclist. There are background stories on Last Call Looms at Freddy’s, in the Path of Atlantic Yards, Leslie Buck, Designer of Iconic Coffee Cup, Dies at 87 and Professor Is a Rock Star — in Pakistan
New York Attorney General Primary DebateSunday Update
The Media Covers-Up of Important Issues in New York
It been over a year since the papers reported on the Council Slush Fund (True News). Despite no budget in Albany the NYT has not called for Throwing the Bums Out since May when True News pointed out to them that the state's election law and member items millions make that goal almost impossible NYT Missing the Boat Again Can't Throw the Bums Out. Now we learn today that even the unions are using the silent treatment against their member as pay and pensions are being cut. Lisberg: Unions facing pay, pension cuts quietly (DN). What ever happen to the media's role to inform?
Pay to Play Espaillat Job #1 for nonprofit: Employing Dem's pals
Pay to Play Ackerman Queens Congressman Gary Ackerman hires high-powered defender with campaign funds (DN) * Congress for sale (NYP ED) Countrywide VIP loan scandal on Capitol Hill had just gotten a whole lot bigger
Pay to Play Meeks Pol's shady moneyman a 'loan' wolf Mortgage 'fraud' suit The mysterious benefactor of embattled Queens Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks is a scandal-scarred real-estate agent and importer under fire for alleged fraud. Edul Ahmad, who gave Meeks $40,000 in 2007, has been called "untrustworthy" by state authorities and is being sued for predatory lending, The Post has learned. (NYP)
Ted Koppel: Olbermann, O'Reilly and the death of real news
More Evidence of Copy Cat Journalism
Gabrielle Giffords' husband recalls hearing reports of her death on flight to Arizona
Congress Giffords Husband in the early moments heard on the radio that his wife died. The Washington Post, NYT and NPR all reported that his wife died An Intimate Interview with Astronaut Mark Kelly (ABC) * NPR Editor calls Reporting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ Death ‘a serious and grave error’
True News: Copy Cat Journalism
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The dumbest Snow Press Conference In History
Dumb or Ass Kissers?
Even Fox 5 Rosanna Scotto could not believe how crazy the reporters at the mayor's snow press conference acted this morning. City Hall reporters were always known to specialize in sucking up to the mayor, but today they acted not as journalist but like bad girls on an episode of Gossip Girl.
As New Yorkers worry about ambulances getting down their streets to save their loved ones life, City Hall reporters after the first three questions were asking the mayor about Glen Beck, Donald Trump the Staten Island Groundhog. Three question about regents test scheduled for today after the mayor answered after the first question that the tests were a state issue and Albany would have to rescheduled.
The two important questions given to the mayor about the failings of the first snow storm were easily ducked by the mayor, because he was not forced to answer a follow up question. The first question the mayor ducked was about what the mayor thought of Councilman Dan Halloran not giving the NYT specifics about his charges of a sanitation slow down. The mayor just bushed aside the question saying it was a City Council matter. All that reporter or any other reporter had to do was ask why the mayor investigators have not interviewed Halloran as part of his promised investigation of why the city failed to clean the streets after the Xmass storm. The second question a reporter asked the mayor was why the city was doing a better job today then during the Xmass storm. The mayor brushed that reporter aside by saying they used what they learned after the failed snow cleanup. What that reporter or any other reporter should have asked was why was today's cleanup was more like the successful snow cleanups the mayor has enjoyed from the time he took office until the Xmass storm.
True News: Bloomberg Joins NY'S Orwellian TV Journalism
On local TV news, if it bleeds it (still) leads
Asked what he would do to improve a government, the ancient Chinese sage Confucius answered that his first measure would be "to correct language." He meant that if words don't mean what they seem to mean people cannot put any plan into action as intended. The state of language at the dawn of the twenty-first century appears to be more confused than ever--thanks in large part to the enormous influence of television
The Growing Power of Blogers
A look at the growing clout of bloggers (via @CBSSunday)
If the president thinks the Internet can cause revolution against dictators why not use it to overthrow the political dictators in NY?
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
A Journalist Breaks Through City Hall's "Blue Wall of Silence"
A Journalist Breaks Through City Hall's
"Blue Wall of Silence"
If there was any value left in the local Pulitzer or TV news Emmy awards, a journalist who most of his City Hall colleagues try to discredit and humiliate because they feel he is not worthy of their status, should win this year. Rafael Martínez Alequín, long a pariah among the City Hall press corps, did what his colleagues don’t bother to do anymore. He investigated corruption - and in so doing, broke one of the biggest stories of the year.
Last year, Martínez produced a video in which he interviewed several Bronx neighbors of State Senator Pedro Espada, who had never seen Espada in the building before. The excellent video, which shows Espada’s car parked later that night at his real home in Mamaroneck, proves outright that Senator Espada had never lived at the address he listed as his official State Senate residence. An old lady tenant even confronted Espada, who is now second-in-line to be Governor, after his staff member, in an attempt to intimidate her, took a picture of her while Martinez was interviewing her. As a reward for his five-star video did Rafael make the front page of the dailies last year? On the contrary, not one of his City Hall colleagues continued Martínez the investigation to prove Espada did not live in the Bronx.
It is not only the press who is trying to marginalize Martínez. It took Norman Siegel defending Martinez to defeat the Mayor’s attempt to throw Martinez out of City Hall by not renewing his press pass, despite the fact that Martinez has covered City Hall for 30 years. Siegel’s lawsuit has already resulted in Martínez getting a new press pass, and it is still ongoing to win press pass rights for other bloggers. Martínez is still not allow to ask any questions at mayoral press conferences.
A short time after the video was released, Martínez was attacked and threatened when he attempted to ask Espada a questions about his residence and non profit medical heath care organization he funds with government money and runs. Martinez’s camera was broken and he was told that if he continued to investigate Espara he would be put in a body bag by those close to Espada.
Martínez was attacked because Espada’s people knew he was doing the job of a real journalist and the so-called real journalists were of no danger to them. Espada knew that if you’re a member of the ruling class, the mainstream media will protect you. More importantly, Espada knew that he could use his vote to turn the Senate Democratic as not only a shield to avoid negative press stories, but, more importantly, to hold off and stall criminal investigations into his conduct.
It was only after Espada voted with the GOP, putting Sprinkles the Clown in charge of the Senate, that the Bronx DA Robert Johnson started his investigation into Espada’s residence, empanelling a grand jury and subpoenaed Martinez’s Video. Since then, even the society journalists have been calling Martínez, now that they see his work as a real journalist could put Espada behind bars and end the circus that has become the State Senate.
Mr. Martinez, it is time to get back to work and expose why the DAs, the Mayor’s DOI and the FBI are delaying the investigation into the City Council slush fund scandal. We already know, as we witnessed during the Council’s term limits vote, why the city’s establishment has convinced itself that only the reelection of Bloomberg will save the city from financial disaster. Who else can spend millions of dollars on TV commercials convincing the voters he is creating jobs, while the city’s employment rate climes over 9% for the first time in 16 years. You can do this, Rafael. Just remember those journalists who hate you really secretly envy you, because you’re the only real journalist at City Hall.
Last year, Martínez produced a video in which he interviewed several Bronx neighbors of State Senator Pedro Espada, who had never seen Espada in the building before. The excellent video, which shows Espada’s car parked later that night at his real home in Mamaroneck, proves outright that Senator Espada had never lived at the address he listed as his official State Senate residence. An old lady tenant even confronted Espada, who is now second-in-line to be Governor, after his staff member, in an attempt to intimidate her, took a picture of her while Martinez was interviewing her. As a reward for his five-star video did Rafael make the front page of the dailies last year? On the contrary, not one of his City Hall colleagues continued Martínez the investigation to prove Espada did not live in the Bronx.
It is not only the press who is trying to marginalize Martínez. It took Norman Siegel defending Martinez to defeat the Mayor’s attempt to throw Martinez out of City Hall by not renewing his press pass, despite the fact that Martinez has covered City Hall for 30 years. Siegel’s lawsuit has already resulted in Martínez getting a new press pass, and it is still ongoing to win press pass rights for other bloggers. Martínez is still not allow to ask any questions at mayoral press conferences.
A short time after the video was released, Martínez was attacked and threatened when he attempted to ask Espada a questions about his residence and non profit medical heath care organization he funds with government money and runs. Martinez’s camera was broken and he was told that if he continued to investigate Espara he would be put in a body bag by those close to Espada.
Martínez was attacked because Espada’s people knew he was doing the job of a real journalist and the so-called real journalists were of no danger to them. Espada knew that if you’re a member of the ruling class, the mainstream media will protect you. More importantly, Espada knew that he could use his vote to turn the Senate Democratic as not only a shield to avoid negative press stories, but, more importantly, to hold off and stall criminal investigations into his conduct.
It was only after Espada voted with the GOP, putting Sprinkles the Clown in charge of the Senate, that the Bronx DA Robert Johnson started his investigation into Espada’s residence, empanelling a grand jury and subpoenaed Martinez’s Video. Since then, even the society journalists have been calling Martínez, now that they see his work as a real journalist could put Espada behind bars and end the circus that has become the State Senate.
Mr. Martinez, it is time to get back to work and expose why the DAs, the Mayor’s DOI and the FBI are delaying the investigation into the City Council slush fund scandal. We already know, as we witnessed during the Council’s term limits vote, why the city’s establishment has convinced itself that only the reelection of Bloomberg will save the city from financial disaster. Who else can spend millions of dollars on TV commercials convincing the voters he is creating jobs, while the city’s employment rate climes over 9% for the first time in 16 years. You can do this, Rafael. Just remember those journalists who hate you really secretly envy you, because you’re the only real journalist at City Hall.
"Giuliani Once Called Me A 'Jerk' "
Blogger Rafael Martínez Alequin on his reputation for asking NYC mayors uncomfortable questions.
Journalist Rafael Martínez Stood Up to Espada When Nobody Else Would and He is Still Getting Hurt
NY Times Co. said profits dropped by 26% in the 4th quarter. Maybe if we ignore bad news, it'll just go away?
More than two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson said that the strength of our democracy would depend on how well-informed the American electorate is
The
Radio & TV Act of 1932 before it was destroyed by congress and
Reagan in the 1980's required those who possess a broadcast license had a
contract between media owners and the public. In order to use the electromagnetic spectrum, which belongs to the public, the broadcaster promises to serve the
public interest. Today it is
not about serving
the public interest, it is about maximizing profits. In the quest for
$$$ they have dumb down the public and given the wealthy special
Interests , not an informed public the ability to shape and control
government.
When Congress Got Rid of the Fairness Doctrine It Created A Media That Controls Rather Than Informs the Public
Serving the public interest, as the Supreme Court said in Red Lion v. FCC, means that
“[t]he broadcaster must give adequate coverage to public issues.” Giving adequate coverage to public issues is what media owners promise the public to do in exchange for
getting their licenses. In 1987 congress elimited the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest,
and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were
given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be
done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials.
The
doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that
contrasting viewpoints be presented. In 2011 the Federal Communications Commission special report, “The Information Needs of Communities,”
says there is a lot of journalism out there, just not much
“accountability reporting” of local and state government. It is
not a secret that TV and radio stations rely on the local newspaper
for most of their hard news. So those "rip and read" TV broadcasters
have offered their views much less hard and investigative news as newspaper staffs
shrivel amid because of draconian layoffs caused by the internet and the
recession?
When Congress Got Rid of the Fairness Doctrine It Created A Media That Controls Rather Than Informs the Public
Serving the public interest, as the Supreme Court said in Red Lion v. FCC, means that
“[t]he broadcaster must give adequate coverage to public issues.” Giving adequate coverage to public issues is what media owners promise the public to do in exchange for
getting their licenses. In 1987 congress elimited the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest,
and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were
given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be
done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. 
Local TV news devotes most of its time to crime and gossip stories, almost nothing to local government
NYC Local TV Keeping the Public Uninformed While Racking In the Millions
This Is What WNBC (4) Calls Informing the Public This Morning
6:30
Weather, 6:31 - Dead baby found beaten in the Bronx, 6:32 NJ Man
trying to lures teens into his car in NJ, 6:34 A 25-year-old motorist
was hauled into court yesterday on charges his drunken driving led to
the death of a Nassau cop, 6:35 Missing killer in Harrington State
Park, 6:35 Skate Board Event on Broadway canceled may go on anyway,
6:36 Sun screen that caught fire, 6:37 Mediator shower in the sky, 6:37
Weather, 6:39 Commercials, 6:42 Shredding personal documents, 6:42
Reporter out west has a cockroach crawing on him during a stand up, 6:43
Commercials, 6:46 Europe Royal Wedding. Justin Timberlake Wedding,
6::47 Movie Reviews, 6:48 Commercials, 6:51 Check in with the Today
Show, 6:52 How Halloween can be dangerous for you pets, 6:55
Commercials, 6:57 Top Stories Baby died with bruses on her body, wake
for nassau cop, Drill Simulating Plane Accident To Take Place At Newark, 6:58 Weather
Not
Only Does TV News Make the Public Uninformed, It Makes Millions From
Wealthy Candidates and Special Interests Seeking Public Support
Local TV News Has abandoned Its 1927 FCC Mission to Keep the Public Informed
Happy talk local news has been around for decades but the local TV news stations always had experienced political reporters who knew how to go beyond the spin to give the public a realist view of what their government was up to. Some have directly blamed today epidemic of political corruption on the TV news media which have put good looking people in change of reporting who can do little more than read the fake spins of pols or their consultants. In fact local TV has become the enables of the dysfunctional political system. Raking in millions in TV ads by the special interests like The Committee to Save New York while keeping the public poorly informed on the real causes of the economic melt down of New York which will lower the quality of lives of all New Yorkers if not kill them with poor health care or depression from joblessness. The media has not even explain the severer level of the cuts coming this year.
1/5/11
The Last Investigators
The Future of Investigative Journalism
The City's latest Newspaper War, Not About New York
The NYT launched a personal attack at the NYP that is part of a nation wide newspaper war between the NYT and Murdoch WSJ that is being fought on the streets of New York. With a redesigned Wall Street Journal, mogul Rupert Murdoch is launching an old-fashioned newspaper war against The New York Times. Not since William Randolph Hearst took on Joseph Pulitzer have we seen such a fight.
Out of Towners This newspaper war is different than Hearst vs. Pulitzer in the 1800 or the Post against the Daily News and Newsday in the 1970's and 80's. This Newspaper war is not only about capturing New York's newspaper readers. As papers like the NYP and Daily News continue on their decades long loss of circulation in the city, the Journal and the Times are engaged in a pitched but unusually quiet battle for readers outside the New York metro area who might be persuaded to abandon their local dailies. The Times recently announced a deal that will extend newsstand sales and home delivery of the newspaper to Nashville, Tenn. That becomes the 26th North American city where the Times is printed, link to a mapped of NYT distribution deals. New York Times expanding circulation battlefield with Bay Area
Today, nearly 50% of all subscribers to the weekday Times live somewhere other than Gotham. Last week Murdoch announced that he was hiring NYC rep0rters for the WSJ to cover the city Wall Street Journal Seeks Reporters to Cover New York - NYTimes.com Today the NYT respond by attacking Murdoch NYP stating that while every paper in America has lost circulation, The New York Post more than most — down almost 30 percent in 2.5 years. The NYT story did not mention that in the last 6 months the NYT has lost 8% of its readers and the Daily News which dropped 14%. One wonders why the NYT thinks losing money is a problem for the NY Post. Murdoch has keeped his paper alive for years as a money loser The New York Post: Profitless Paper In Relentless Pursuit (2005). Why does the NYT think Murdoch would shut down the NY Post now with WSJ trying to take readers away from the NYT? If your trying to put the NYT out of business buy cutting into its reader base, your don't close a NYP. Most Post readers would go to the Daily News but a few would go to the NYT. Murdoch who is betting his movie studio on the movie Avatar, does not fold over a few million in loses or a Sober Mood of its workers. The bottom line for the Post and Daily News is not profit, it is influence and power, which is also being lost as circulation falls and readers switch to the Internet The papers have not only lost circulation they have lost the power to influence voters with their editorials. All three daily endorsed losing comptroller candidate David Yassky and Bloomberg for Mayor. The weakness of their editorial is not lost on the Albany gang, they have ignored for months calls for more responsible budget for the state. The once proud papers now beg Albany’s most important job right now is to make certain that New York does not become another California (NYT) *** Going for broke: Time and money have all but run out on dysfunctional Albany (NYDN)
The NYT should read another Pulitzer quote to understand Murdoch and thyself better “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” This transparent newspaper war just is exposing the self serving ways papers are run compared to the newspaper era of Joseph "Joe" Pulitzer *** Going for broke: Time and money have all but run out on dysfunctional Albany (NYDN) *** Rupert Murdoch Launches Old-Fashioned Newspaper War Against New York Times *** Sober Mood at New York Post as Circulation Spirals Lower *** New York Times Circulation Plummets *** Marvin L. Kalb and Nicholas Kralev - The Afternoon Newspaper War *** Newspaper War: Spanish-Language Press Battles for Booming Audience *** Rupert Murdoch Launches Old-Fashioned Newspaper War Against New York Times
The Real Newspaper Racket Tough Guys and Wiseguys in the Truck Drivers Union (2001). If the newspapers cannot get the mob out or their own companies who do they expect or demand that the mob leave the city's building department? The Luchese crime family has controlled for generations the distribution of all the papers in the city and the building department. Newspaper Union Chief Accused of Corruption (1993) City’s Largest Dailies Raided in Deliverers’ Union Inquiry (2009) *** Stars celebrate the installation of our state-of-the-art presses If the newspapers cannot get the mob out or their own companies who do they expect or demand that the mob level the city's construction business? Equal Opportunity Raiders Hit All NYC Dailies (Robbins Village Voice) NYPD Changes we wonders if this had anything to do with the newspaper raids by the NYPD Organized-crime overhaul by Kelly and this Nearly two dozen 'mobsters' busted in bookie, loansharking ring , NYC Company Faces Trial over Questioned Concrete Tests , Sanitation Chief Among 22 Arrested On Mob Charges Newspapers Trumped Post said he got the art of the deal with his Atlantic City bankrupt Trump Entertainment Resorts companyTrumps trump claim (NYP) the NYT said he settled Trump Settles for 10% of Casino Company (NYT) Zuckerman at the Daily News must not get alone with the Donald because that paper said Trumps walk away from Trump Entertainment Resorts (NYDN) Jersey City Daily News? Is the New York Daily News ashamed of the location of its new presses in Jersey City? In today Daily News a report about the celebration with the mayor and other New York VIP for the new presses said that by the end of the year all copies of the Daily News in the New York area will be printed on the new presses, which have been installed in a new facility near the Statue of Liberty Stars come out to celebrate installation of our state-of-the-art presses.
Jimmy Breslin on the Media
JB: Oh, sure. It has to be… The Daily News [and] the Post, I think their days are gone. There’s an open field with the newspapers stumbling and going out of style, and the television news—when you see people in their suits and ties coming on news programs, and obviously they’ve never done any reporting, and they read a script, I mean, it’s terrible.
The cutbacks in newspaper staffs has also change the experience of reporters hired and what they report. The beat reporter who know his or her sources beyond the public relations consultants and lobbyists have been replaced by young inexperienced people who get their reporting material from the internet. Copycat journalism has always been the norm on local TV has now corrupted the entire media. While much of what appears on morning local TV news has always been taken from the newspapers, it is clear that today's newspaper reporters are using the internet as the main source of the news they report. The epidemic of copycat journalism and cutbacks in the news media caused has resulted in less news being covered by the mainstream media, especially on weekend. Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News, More Sexy Reporters
Spin is the Cancer of Jounalism
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
New York Pols Governs by Blinders Enabled by the Media Who Write with Blinders
Governing by blinders simply means making budget decision disconnected from a single narrative which both the pols and the media are failing to give city residence. The media has allowed the pols to create a new culture that allows them to deliver government to their supports or good causes without taking responsibility for those actions on the city budget or the economic health of New York It means paying a developer $95 million while cutting the police force. Since 2001 the police force shrunk by over 6000 cops to 34,304 members and we had to wait until after the election to find out what the city will cut because of the recession. We used to have police classes of thousands of new office a year today we are down to a couple of hundred a year. We are paying over a billion on a new police academy as we cut police officers.
New Yorkers want to pay a fair wage Paterson Prepares Wage Bill for Construction Sites We are good people. It make sense to pay people not to go to work sick during the swine flu winter Making business sicker We even hate traffic tickets Traffic Agents and Politicians Debate Value of 5 Minutes. Bloomberg is using the ticket blitz to pay for city services that would otherwise be cut. What is the cost of the council's parking bill and what will the council cut to make up the debt is never discussed. In other words the pols get away with being irresponsible to the city budget. Daily News Edit shows that the council bill to make a parking hour 65 minutes, does not even help motorists Parking space cadets: City Council pretends to befriend beleaguered motorists
Question the Media Fails to Ask Over and Over How we do balance the budget, continue to fix education and not tax the middle class and businesses out of New York? NYC Faces Middle Class Exodus * Schools’ Grades Reflect Persistent Disparity * Businesses rip mandate on sick days , Labor advocates, small business groups clash over proposed paid sick leave bill , Businesses say paid sick days would cost $8.8 billion annually. Don't look for the media or pols to take off their blinders as today's Orwellian double speak Daily News headline proves Mayor: Layoffs likely, but $683M tax windfall will save jobs Talk about blinders, only the Daily News editorial board covered the ongoing budget impasse in Albany The worst of times: Legislature fiddles in Albany while mayor faces down city deficit * Gov. David Paterson doesn’t understand why people are sounding optimistic about budget negotiations — but if it’s an effort to cheer up the media, we appreciate it. (TU). As the state goes broke both and nobody will take the leadership in balancing the budget the NYT writes about New York Is Set for Strict Stand on D.W.I. Cases and the NYP does not even give an update of the budget stalemate in Albany today
Steven Slater: Copy Cat Journalism
Internet and the Cutbacks have made their opponents internet site the sole investigative tool of the old media
Instead of digging out new stories today's media is content to put out the same stories as their opposition. Even the old gray lady could not resist the Slater "Mad As Hell Moment" We cannot wait until Atlantic or the Nation does a story about how Americans upset with the direction of their country are making Slater their hero.
News in today's newspaper was online yesterday afternoon. How much longer will readers buy papers filled with news they could have read about the day before online? We see what is happen to Newsweek for untimely news. Reader also learn of many of these stories the night before on TV or radio news. Since TV and Radio know from ripping and reading the morning papers are now ripping and reading the blogs, even they can have the news before the morning papers. Has the media cuts hurt the ability to offer original content and investigative stories? Yes. How can they expect readers to keep buying their product?
Four month after the Wall Street Journal stated its New York section the hope that the newspaper war would generate a more comprehensive coverage of New York has been dashed by both papers need to make sure that they cover the same stories. On same days more than half of both papers stories are the same. Is this how news is controlled? Or is this the result of cuts in news reporter? How much longer can media outlets and reporters get away with posting other new organizations on their Facebook or Twitter pages as if it were their own?
NY Media Copies Stories, No Longer Investigates or Analyse
David Paterson: A Lame Duck, Sure, But Why the Lame Media Coverage? When a powerful public official is a lame duck, it's not supposed to mean that the coverage of him becomes lame. As tepid as Kaye's conclusions were, her evidence was explosive. If a reader focuses on footnotes and nuance, Kaye implicitly makes the case that the man who is still governor is right now orchestrating a cover-up of his own earlier attempts to cover up a criminal outburst of apartment rage (Barrett, Village Voice) * Pediatric Nurse Suspended in Connection with Paterson/Johnson Case * Worker in Paterson scandal received raises during probe (DN) * Gov. Paterson spends $700k fighting AG's probes into domestic violence case, World Series tickets
2025 Pulitzer to Local News Coverage of A Snow Storm
With all the local newspapers out of business, the Pulitzer committee has been turning more and more to local TV news. This year the committee award its prize to the entire local TV industry for is coverage of a snow storm. It cited the creativeness of reporters using rulers to measure the snow on live TV and the quick thinking of a reporters with time to fill makings snow angels. The Pulitzer in the awarding of this years award cited the investigative skills of reporters who found out that local airports have hundreds of canceled flights and the buses had more delays then the subways. Finally the committee was very impressed with the local reporters ability to get the big interviews citing how each station was about to interview the same man dressed as Santa in Times Square.
True News Answer to NY1
NY1 Spins Like Pols and Lobbyists What kind of journalist operation is Robert Hardt, the political director at NY1 makes running. Both True News and Fred Siegel of the Manhattan Institute pointed out that the mayoral debate on NY1 did not asked about the most important iusse facing all New Yorkers, the economy Instead of admitting to the mistake Hardt makes up a cock and bull story that there was not enough time to ask about the economy. What about the time you wasted with the dumb lighting round? Are we to believe Mr. Hardt that it is more important to asked the next mayor who will cut services to New Yorkers than if the candidates ever had a pedicures, exercise or what they think should be done in Afghanistan? (all questions asked during the lighting round) Even candidate William Thompson called the lightning round format “dumb.” Thompson which has been very supportive of gay rights his entire life in public office was trip up by your dumb format Mr. Hardt and had to explain to the Advocate that he is pro gay rights. All the lighting round did was trip up the candidate, it did not get at the truth abot anything. How could it when you ask who is better Espada or Bruno? One is on trial right not for corruption and the other one will soon be.
By the way Mr. Hardt your political coverage is infected with lobbyists like Al D'amato who are enablers to the corruption in this city. The owner of Parkside lobbyist who was in the middle of the council's slush fund , Carl McCall and Freddie Ferrer who go paid as a money managers by the city or state pension funds, the same thing Ex-Comptroller Carl McCall Is Part of New York Pension Inquiry, After Introduction From Ferrer, Firm Earned $100000 From State Mr. Hardt do you feel responsible for the lobbyist McCall and Ferrer trying to tap into the new comptroller who has not committed to get rid of the money managers like NYS Comptroller DiNapoli has? H. Carl McCall, Freddy Ferrer, Betsy Gotbaum Endorse John Liu More Time Warner who owns NY1 gets tons of ads from the Brooklyn housing complex Flatbush Gardens. He is one story your never see on NY1 Landlord's letting Flatbush Gardens rot to flush us out, say tenants (DN) *** Corporate News Media executives’ desire for acquisitions has led to $200 billion in write-offs since 2000, write the authors of “The Curse of the Mogul.” The Hunger of the Media Empire
. Journalism: Another Knockdown The dieing News business as the Voice's Robbin in his latest article, what is left of it in New York has taken a hit this morning as a top TV reporter is accused of domestic violence and an editor quit the Observer Wife: NY1 star hit & choked me ***
JibJab.com - What We Call The News
Lobbyists Reporter Joined
De Blasio Performs First Marriage at City Hall(NYO)“Yup. i got married yesterday to sid davidoff. the mayor presided at city hall and it was his first wedding,” tweeted Linda Stasi, a columnist for the Daily News.
Albany
Press Crop goes after a guy who loves journalism who is try to pay his
bills but says not a word about Journalist who take high paying jobs
with government like Adam Lisberg. How many ex journalist work as
lobbyists. Can you say George Artz. Question to the Albany Press Crop
Do you think journalist slat or plant stories for pols and lobbyists in
the hopes of better paying future high paying jobs. The Albany press
corps wants to expel one of its members who took a part-time job with
the legislature. [Azi Paybarh] Adam Lisberg Leaving City & State to Handle Communications for MTA (NYO)
More than two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson said that the strength of our democracy would depend on how well-informed the American electorate is
The End of the Fairness Doctrine Has Allowed the Media to Dumb Down the Public and Make $$ Off Them
Local TV news devotes most of its time to crime and gossip stories, almost nothing to local government
NYC Local TV Keeping the Public Uninformed While Racking In the Millions
Besides candidates running for office unions and business interest spend millions on TV ads to local
stations to push their candidacy or interest. In other words the media makes money of the same public they dumb down. Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill)*CSNY’s budget blitz: $3.9 million (updated)(TU) *Save NY airing tax cap ad(TU) *Budget opponents up their ads and mailers(TU) *Bloomberg Blames Negative Ads For Poor Showing In Education ...(Politico) *Save NY now airs on school money(TU) *NYC's Bloomberg Pays for TV Ads Backing Cuomo's Pension * Bloomberg Defends His Administration With TV Ad - NY1.com * Local TV News For $ale: How Special Interests Control News Content and Public Opinion ***Local News Dumb Down Journalism(True News)
True News Top Stories That Are Cover Up By the Media
1. Albany Hush Fund Cover Up, Press Containment Timeline
2. CityTime Scandal
3. Journalism Dumbing Down
4. New York's Corrupt Political Parties
5. Goo Goos: Reformers Have Their Press Conferences,And Nothing Happens
Latest Poll: NYC Media Disconnected With the Public
NY Media's Deviant Elite Subculture
The once powerful NY Newspapers has become a subculture that the public no longer believes. The editorial boards and newsrooms are in shock that their over the top endorsements of stringer and Quinn are being rejected by the voters of New York. A media revolution is going on in New York. And its Tea Party moment (we are talking about the Boston Tea Party of 1773) was de Blasio standing up to those trying to close two Brooklyn hospitals. Not one newspaper editorial has backed Bill in his efforts to keep the hospitals open. In fact the NYT in their endorsement of Quinn said that de Blasio efforts were hopeless. New Yorkers are tired of the Bull Shit words coming out of the newspaper and candidates. They know they are being priced out of the city and those that they elected don't care.
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The de Blasio Revolution: New Yorkers Have Reject the Media- Class Warfare
When
de Blasio campaign went to court to keep the hospitals open the voters
saw action not words. Every candidate this year has said they were
going to say the middle class. That issue must be pollng high. There
are other reasons that voters are turning to de Dlasio, his son TV ads,
but the main factor is that New Yorkers are mad what has been done to
their city. They think their pols have turned against them. Taking cash
from developers who luxury building are pushing them out of the city.
By standing in front of Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn
Heights with a court order to keep the hospital from closing and being given to developers they saw someone who would protect their interests. Well NYT with 46%
of NYers living in or near poverty and where apartments sell for $3
million or rent for $3000 a month in Brooklyn how long did the NYT think
the public would go without rebelling?
1/5/11
The Last Investigators
Yesterday the Internet chatter exploded when news broke that Wayne Barrett and Tom Robbins were leaving the Village Voice. With the large number of people commenting it was clear that we lost more than just two excellent writers. We lost Local journalism.
Over a decade ago the Voice's power to publish a investigative story that would shake the politician or city government to the core has past. Despite the lose of power Barrett and Robbins keep the old time muckraking going with quality investigative reports that because of their institutional understand and excellent contacts produced information and connected the dots for all of us. Barrett said yesterday, "Tom and I do things on the beat that are very valuable to it," he said. "We can read a news story that every other reporter has read and we can bring a new set of eyes to it, see it as a pattern of conduct, grasp the history, put in context. We bring a body of experience that is important to this beat." When all the media was airbrushing Al Sharpton, Barrett told the truth about the skeeviness of this shakedown artist, racial arsonist, and former FBI informer. Wayne didn't pick sides, he picked you apart: "Barrett said, It was always the conduct that prodded me to write, not the person. And that is what I lived for, a chance to say something that revealed and mattered. To me, the story will always be the thing. It is all I can see."
During his 35 years Barrett was at the Voice corporate owners bought up most media outlets and newspapers. In a city of media owners who use their papers as a cheerleader to allow Bloomberg to change term limits and run for a third term, Barrett and Robbins were like old time artisans, from and era when journalist were free to tell the public the truth. These new owners are more interested in what they can do with the power of ownership for themselves, than quality journalism designed to inform the public what their government was really up to. Our First Amendment Right.
Old Media Final Days
While eyes remain on the impact of the recent tsunami that devastated Japan, the latest State of the News Media report from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism describes another kind of tsunami — digital news. This year's overview of the major trends impacting American journalism brings bad news for news organizations because "in the digital realm, the news industry is no longer in control of its own future."
This shifting landscape is demonstrated through some dramatic statistics: 47% of all Americans now get some form of local news on a mobile device, according to Pew's latest research. In 2010, every news outlet was stagnant or declined except the web. For the first time, more people said they got the news from the web than from newspapers. For the first time, more money was spent on online advertising than was spent on newspaper print advertising. And by January of this year, about 7% of Americans reported owning some kind of tablet.
Social Media the New Newspaper
Social media is now a major news source, with user reports augmenting links from traditional media outlets on Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn, through its new newsfeed, and even personal Tumblrs and blogs are all competing to aggregate the news where editors and journalists once acted as gatekeepers and programmers.
Huffington Bridges the News Gap
Witness the ascension of The Huffington Post, the SEO- and social media-savvy web media brand recently acquired by AOL. Arianna Huffington may have been slightly tongue in cheek by referencing The Washington Post in naming her site, but turns out she was prescient as it's just one example of web properties outlasting traditional newspapers in the fight for digital dominance. That said, AOL has yet to figure out the online news business; hence their recent merger. * Big Editors Return To Print: Is It Coming Back? (Huff Post) * Media: A Huffington-Booker partnership raises questions.
The Future of Investigative Journalism NY1 Online: Wayne Barrett, Tom Robbins On "Inside City Hall" 1/13/11
With the departure of Wayne Barrett and Tom Robbins from the Village Voice an era of investigative reporting in NYC is coming to a close and will not be replaced any time soon. Jack Newfield, Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, Murray Kempton are just a few of the journalist that New Yorkers turned to to find the truth. They are all gone or out of journalism now and our democracy is greatly damaged as a result.
The economic gloom continues to loom over the media industry. With major U.S. media companies dealing with decline in revenue and diving into bankruptcy, news publications have been forced to cut costs to maintain profit margins. Among the hardest hit are those staff in the newsroom, particularly those involved in public investigative and accountability reporting. During this dismal economic climate, the expense to fund a potentially lengthy, time-consuming investigative story, the reluctance to engage potential legal consequences, and their possibility to be fruitless endeavors are often the reasons why media companies are still reluctant to keep funding investigative issues, media critics say.
Our founding fathers put in place freedom of the press to get out the truth. Investigative journalism long articles put together over weeks and months is the only way at getting at the truth in our complex society. The reduction or end of investigative journalism means that elected officials and the special interest will step into the void and become the provides of the news, news designed to benefit their interests. Many say it has already happen way beyond what George Orwell described in 1984. Is Bloomberg's new op-ed section going to be a conflict of interest for the mayor?
A public blocked from obtaining the truth is doomed
Zuckerman's ax set to swing at the Daily News Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman is apparently unhappy with advertisers' response to the new four-color paper, and the word inside is that more...
The City's latest Newspaper War, Not About New York or Democracy
The City's latest Newspaper War, Not About New York
The NYT launched a personal attack at the NYP that is part of a nation wide newspaper war between the NYT and Murdoch WSJ that is being fought on the streets of New York. With a redesigned Wall Street Journal, mogul Rupert Murdoch is launching an old-fashioned newspaper war against The New York Times. Not since William Randolph Hearst took on Joseph Pulitzer have we seen such a fight.
Out of Towners This newspaper war is different than Hearst vs. Pulitzer in the 1800 or the Post against the Daily News and Newsday in the 1970's and 80's. This Newspaper war is not only about capturing New York's newspaper readers. As papers like the NYP and Daily News continue on their decades long loss of circulation in the city, the Journal and the Times are engaged in a pitched but unusually quiet battle for readers outside the New York metro area who might be persuaded to abandon their local dailies. The Times recently announced a deal that will extend newsstand sales and home delivery of the newspaper to Nashville, Tenn. That becomes the 26th North American city where the Times is printed, link to a mapped of NYT distribution deals. New York Times expanding circulation battlefield with Bay Area
Today, nearly 50% of all subscribers to the weekday Times live somewhere other than Gotham. Last week Murdoch announced that he was hiring NYC rep0rters for the WSJ to cover the city Wall Street Journal Seeks Reporters to Cover New York - NYTimes.com Today the NYT respond by attacking Murdoch NYP stating that while every paper in America has lost circulation, The New York Post more than most — down almost 30 percent in 2.5 years. The NYT story did not mention that in the last 6 months the NYT has lost 8% of its readers and the Daily News which dropped 14%. One wonders why the NYT thinks losing money is a problem for the NY Post. Murdoch has keeped his paper alive for years as a money loser The New York Post: Profitless Paper In Relentless Pursuit (2005). Why does the NYT think Murdoch would shut down the NY Post now with WSJ trying to take readers away from the NYT? If your trying to put the NYT out of business buy cutting into its reader base, your don't close a NYP. Most Post readers would go to the Daily News but a few would go to the NYT. Murdoch who is betting his movie studio on the movie Avatar, does not fold over a few million in loses or a Sober Mood of its workers. The bottom line for the Post and Daily News is not profit, it is influence and power, which is also being lost as circulation falls and readers switch to the Internet The papers have not only lost circulation they have lost the power to influence voters with their editorials. All three daily endorsed losing comptroller candidate David Yassky and Bloomberg for Mayor. The weakness of their editorial is not lost on the Albany gang, they have ignored for months calls for more responsible budget for the state. The once proud papers now beg Albany’s most important job right now is to make certain that New York does not become another California (NYT) *** Going for broke: Time and money have all but run out on dysfunctional Albany (NYDN)
The NYT should read another Pulitzer quote to understand Murdoch and thyself better “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” This transparent newspaper war just is exposing the self serving ways papers are run compared to the newspaper era of Joseph "Joe" Pulitzer *** Going for broke: Time and money have all but run out on dysfunctional Albany (NYDN) *** Rupert Murdoch Launches Old-Fashioned Newspaper War Against New York Times *** Sober Mood at New York Post as Circulation Spirals Lower *** New York Times Circulation Plummets *** Marvin L. Kalb and Nicholas Kralev - The Afternoon Newspaper War *** Newspaper War: Spanish-Language Press Battles for Booming Audience *** Rupert Murdoch Launches Old-Fashioned Newspaper War Against New York Times
The Real Newspaper Racket Tough Guys and Wiseguys in the Truck Drivers Union (2001). If the newspapers cannot get the mob out or their own companies who do they expect or demand that the mob leave the city's building department? The Luchese crime family has controlled for generations the distribution of all the papers in the city and the building department. Newspaper Union Chief Accused of Corruption (1993) City’s Largest Dailies Raided in Deliverers’ Union Inquiry (2009) *** Stars celebrate the installation of our state-of-the-art presses If the newspapers cannot get the mob out or their own companies who do they expect or demand that the mob level the city's construction business? Equal Opportunity Raiders Hit All NYC Dailies (Robbins Village Voice) NYPD Changes we wonders if this had anything to do with the newspaper raids by the NYPD Organized-crime overhaul by Kelly and this Nearly two dozen 'mobsters' busted in bookie, loansharking ring , NYC Company Faces Trial over Questioned Concrete Tests , Sanitation Chief Among 22 Arrested On Mob Charges Newspapers Trumped Post said he got the art of the deal with his Atlantic City bankrupt Trump Entertainment Resorts companyTrumps trump claim (NYP) the NYT said he settled Trump Settles for 10% of Casino Company (NYT) Zuckerman at the Daily News must not get alone with the Donald because that paper said Trumps walk away from Trump Entertainment Resorts (NYDN) Jersey City Daily News? Is the New York Daily News ashamed of the location of its new presses in Jersey City? In today Daily News a report about the celebration with the mayor and other New York VIP for the new presses said that by the end of the year all copies of the Daily News in the New York area will be printed on the new presses, which have been installed in a new facility near the Statue of Liberty Stars come out to celebrate installation of our state-of-the-art presses.
Jimmy Breslin on the Media
The New Yorker: An Interview With Jimmy Breslin (City and State )
CS: One of your great sayings is, “Media is the plural of mediocrity.” Do you still feel that is so?JB: Oh, sure. It has to be… The Daily News [and] the Post, I think their days are gone. There’s an open field with the newspapers stumbling and going out of style, and the television news—when you see people in their suits and ties coming on news programs, and obviously they’ve never done any reporting, and they read a script, I mean, it’s terrible.
Dicker Uses Journalism to Get His Political Agenda Accomplished
A Reporter Slugs Away in Albany Fredric U. Dicker’s brand of journalism — old-school beat reporting, searing commentary and a dose of showmanship — has made him a potent force in Albany.(NYT) * Unnamed source said Cuomo compared his dealing with Fred Dicker to feeding a caged animal. Dicker declined to participate in the profile. Writing the NY Post a huge part of his influence. * Jeremy Peters tries to deconstruct the complex relationship between The Post’s Fred Dicker and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.* When Cuomo officially arrived in the governor's mansion, Reid Pillifant looked at his relationship with Dicker. When David Paterson became governor, Ben McGrath hung out in Dicker's office for the day. Back in 2005, Ben Smith's profile called Dicker "The Undisputed King of Albany Press."
Has the Lack of Investigative Stories By the NYT Led to the Epidemic of Political Corruption?
Today's NYT claims that the media’s coverage of the Triangle Waist Factory fire helped to embed the blaze, and its aftermath, in the public’s conscience. Which means that the newspaper coverage led to the growth of unions and to the workers safety reforms passed by government to protect workers. If the NYT did investigative series like last months Daily News investigation of the city council member including misconduct charges, cheating the city, ignoring personal debts, failing to file documents, making false and misleading statements, and misrepresenting addresses in order get tax reductions, affordable housing or district residency, public outrage would grow and be focused for reform.
Confucius on Journalism
Asked what he would do to improve a government, the ancient Chinese sage Confucius answered that his first measure would be "to correct language." He meant that if words don't mean what they seem to mean people cannot put any plan into action as intended. The state of language in New York appears to be more confused than ever--thanks in large part to the enormous failure of journalism to report on and investigate the corruption of government in the city and state.
Bloomberg Dumb Down Reporters Hurts Journalism and Democracy
Bloomberg rips social media for dumbing down society in candid interview(AMNY)
Bloomberg, who runs one of the largest business news networks in the world, said the quality of journalism is going down dramatically. Inexperienced reporters, microblogging and social media are not only killing the industry, but also hurting the population as a whole, according to the mayor.
"I think we've dumbed down, and it's not good for society," he said. "It's hard to argue that we aren't going more towards an instant-gratification, sound-bite kind of world." * Bloomberg Unimpressed With Bin Laden Raid(NY Mag)
Spin Vs Reality of Corruption
You Choose the Future of Journalism
"An informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy." Thomas Jefferson
Sad Journalism Written By A Political Consultants and the Events They Set Up . . .Reporters Cheerleaders for Seddio
Bloomberg, who runs one of the largest business news networks in the world, said the quality of journalism is going down dramatically. Inexperienced reporters, microblogging and social media are not only killing the industry, but also hurting the population as a whole, according to the mayor.
"I think we've dumbed down, and it's not good for society," he said. "It's hard to argue that we aren't going more towards an instant-gratification, sound-bite kind of world." * Bloomberg Unimpressed With Bin Laden Raid(NY Mag)
You Choose the Future of Journalism
"An informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy." Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson
though all it took was a free press to protect the
American people from the power of government. He never considered the
possibility of the pols and power brokers corrupting a free press.
Local media has always been bias toward incumbents and power. The press
protected pols by not covering up stories that would hurt them for
years. The internet has forced pols and the power brokers to reach out
to media experts.
Today
political consultants are teaching pols how to use the internet,
Facebook and twitter for spin and power. This comes at the same time as
cut backs in newspapers and changing standards of what is acceptable in
journalism. A mover always from serious investigative reporters to
young journalist who can do no more than print fluff fed to them by pols
and consultants. Master media spinners like George Artz playing the
press for sucker for his clients like political boss Seddio. Who the
real Frank Seddio and what he is really up to is lost in the Pasta
sauce.
Sad Journalism Written By A Political Consultants and the Events They Set Up . . .
Frank Seddio Is Your Italian Grandmother(City and State) “You should use cold water with chicken cutlets,” says Frank Seddio, the
new chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party. “You want to keep
them fresh. You don’t want it to get too warm. You have to be careful
with chicken. When you cook it, you can’t leave it out too long.
Temperature is very important with chicken.” * The New Leader of Brooklyn's Democratic Party Hopes Cannoli Diplomacy Can Heal Old Wounds
Real Investigative Journalism (All Alone) by True News
Seddio: Leave the Gun Take the Cannolis(True News) The
problem the reformers have with Seddio is that except for the Daily
News warning the press has done very little to inform them who is the
real Frank Seddio. There is a lot to be learned by investigating how
Seddio used the machine and government to make $$$ and remain in power
in a community with dramatic racial change and his loss of ability to
deliver the vote.Moderator
Mark Fertig asked Seddio and the other candidates running if Planning
Board 18 manager Dorothy Turano should be fired because of her
involvement in the Kruger scandal. Seddio did not only answer the
question but he called Fertig a very inappropriate name.It
is clear from the guilty plea of Kruger and his lobbyist Lipsky that
Planning Board 18 manager Dorothy Turano was deeply involved in the
Kruger corruption. Yet astonishly she still remains as chairman of that
board. In 2007 when a BJ was chosen for that site with a different developer (the
developer who the indictment said sent checks to Turaino house) Frank
Seddio small business group changed their mind and accepted BJ’s at
Canarsie Plaza. The Feds say Kruger partner Michael Dorothy son was
delivered the bribe money shortly after the vote.
The Changing Media = Changing News
The cutbacks in newspaper staffs has also change the experience of reporters hired and what they report. The beat reporter who know his or her sources beyond the public relations consultants and lobbyists have been replaced by young inexperienced people who get their reporting material from the internet. Copycat journalism has always been the norm on local TV has now corrupted the entire media. While much of what appears on morning local TV news has always been taken from the newspapers, it is clear that today's newspaper reporters are using the internet as the main source of the news they report. The epidemic of copycat journalism and cutbacks in the news media caused has resulted in less news being covered by the mainstream media, especially on weekend. Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News, More Sexy Reporters
5
5
5
When the Press is Weak Government Corruption Grows
The most important job of the free press is being the watchdog of the pols and government has failed. The failure is not only because of the move to online, it has a lot to do with the loss of mom pop owners of the newspapers and the fact that in the past copy boys become reporters after they learned journalism with the attitude of their owners that pols and rich were the bad guys. Today newsroom are filled reporter from very expensive Ivy League journalism school and the owners of papers are big businessman who make their money by tapping onto the government's tit, mostly thought real estate. So over the last 3 decades it gone from and adversary relationship with government and pols to a partnership.
Debate Designed to Confuse
The Sad State of Journalism in New York
A Journalist Breaks Through City Hall's "Blue Wall of Silence"
When the Press is Weak Government Corruption Grows
The most important job of the free press is being the watchdog of the pols and government has failed. The failure is not only because of the move to online, it has a lot to do with the loss of mom pop owners of the newspapers and the fact that in the past copy boys become reporters after they learned journalism with the attitude of their owners that pols and rich were the bad guys. Today newsroom are filled reporter from very expensive Ivy League journalism school and the owners of papers are big businessman who make their money by tapping onto the government's tit, mostly thought real estate. So over the last 3 decades it gone from and adversary relationship with government and pols to a partnership.
Internet Exclusive #2: Bruno's Daughter No Show Job
The story about convicted former Senator Bruno's daughter first appeared on the Politics on the Hudson website yesterday at 2PM Watchdog: Bruno's daughter got no-show SUNY Research Foundation job Politics on the Hudson
Today's Papers Probe says it was no-show job State ethics commission files complaint into how Bruno's daughter got job (TU) * A Top SUNY Official Is Accused of Giving a No-Show Job (NYT) * Top SUNY official in flap over no-show job for Bruno's daughter (NYDN)
Internet Exclusive #6: Charter School Stalls in Court
The judge ruling on the hold of Upper West Side charter school construction first appeared yesterday on the NY1 website at 1PM Judge Halts Plan To Expand Manhattan High School (NY1) at 1PM and the DNAinfo website 5PM Judge Blocks Construction of Controversial New UWS Charter School
Today newspapers Charter School Stalls in Court(WSJ) * Judge's ruling puts Upper West Success charter construction on hold
Internet Exclusive #7: NYP Rips Off Story from Gawker Without Giving It Credit
Blogger Finds Sensitive NYPD Counterterrorism Documents In the Trash (Gawker) Posted yesterday at 6PM
Today's NYP No 'shred of evidence' for lax anti-terror cops (NYP) * Blog Posts NYPD Papers Found in Trash (Fox 5) * Blog posts sensitive NYPD documents found in trash (WABC) * Sensitive NYPD Documents Found in Trash (NBC) * Blogger Posts NYPD Documents Online (NY1)
Local TV News Plays Us for Dummies: Ernie Anastos: "Keep f@#xing that chicken"
Debate Designed to Confuse
The Sad State of Journalism in New York
A Journalist Breaks Through City Hall's "Blue Wall of Silence"
Newspapers Coverage of the Budget Crisis: A Tail of Two Standards of Coverage
Media and Pols: The Real Story is What They Don't 'Say
Media and Pols: The Real Story is What They Don't 'Say
Tribune's Zell: Newspapers Can't Survive
Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News More Sexy Reporters
The Times They Are A Changing
Spin is the Cancer of Jounalism
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
New York Pols Governs by Blinders Enabled by the Media Who Write with Blinders
New York Pols Governs by Blinders Enabled by the Media Who Write with Blinders
Governing by blinders simply means making budget decision disconnected from a single narrative which both the pols and the media are failing to give city residence. The media has allowed the pols to create a new culture that allows them to deliver government to their supports or good causes without taking responsibility for those actions on the city budget or the economic health of New York It means paying a developer $95 million while cutting the police force. Since 2001 the police force shrunk by over 6000 cops to 34,304 members and we had to wait until after the election to find out what the city will cut because of the recession. We used to have police classes of thousands of new office a year today we are down to a couple of hundred a year. We are paying over a billion on a new police academy as we cut police officers.
New Yorkers want to pay a fair wage Paterson Prepares Wage Bill for Construction Sites We are good people. It make sense to pay people not to go to work sick during the swine flu winter Making business sicker We even hate traffic tickets Traffic Agents and Politicians Debate Value of 5 Minutes. Bloomberg is using the ticket blitz to pay for city services that would otherwise be cut. What is the cost of the council's parking bill and what will the council cut to make up the debt is never discussed. In other words the pols get away with being irresponsible to the city budget. Daily News Edit shows that the council bill to make a parking hour 65 minutes, does not even help motorists Parking space cadets: City Council pretends to befriend beleaguered motorists
Question the Media Fails to Ask Over and Over How we do balance the budget, continue to fix education and not tax the middle class and businesses out of New York? NYC Faces Middle Class Exodus * Schools’ Grades Reflect Persistent Disparity * Businesses rip mandate on sick days , Labor advocates, small business groups clash over proposed paid sick leave bill , Businesses say paid sick days would cost $8.8 billion annually. Don't look for the media or pols to take off their blinders as today's Orwellian double speak Daily News headline proves Mayor: Layoffs likely, but $683M tax windfall will save jobs Talk about blinders, only the Daily News editorial board covered the ongoing budget impasse in Albany The worst of times: Legislature fiddles in Albany while mayor faces down city deficit * Gov. David Paterson doesn’t understand why people are sounding optimistic about budget negotiations — but if it’s an effort to cheer up the media, we appreciate it. (TU). As the state goes broke both and nobody will take the leadership in balancing the budget the NYT writes about New York Is Set for Strict Stand on D.W.I. Cases and the NYP does not even give an update of the budget stalemate in Albany today
The News At Night Begins the Internet News Revolution
October 28, 2009
Times Publisher Compares Print Media to the Titanic
The News At Night Begins the Internet News Revolution
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Steven Slater: Copy Cat Journalism
Steven Slater: Copy Cat Journalism
Internet and the Cutbacks have made their opponents internet site the sole investigative tool of the old media
Instead of digging out new stories today's media is content to put out the same stories as their opposition. Even the old gray lady could not resist the Slater "Mad As Hell Moment" We cannot wait until Atlantic or the Nation does a story about how Americans upset with the direction of their country are making Slater their hero.
News in today's newspaper was online yesterday afternoon. How much longer will readers buy papers filled with news they could have read about the day before online? We see what is happen to Newsweek for untimely news. Reader also learn of many of these stories the night before on TV or radio news. Since TV and Radio know from ripping and reading the morning papers are now ripping and reading the blogs, even they can have the news before the morning papers. Has the media cuts hurt the ability to offer original content and investigative stories? Yes. How can they expect readers to keep buying their product?
Four month after the Wall Street Journal stated its New York section the hope that the newspaper war would generate a more comprehensive coverage of New York has been dashed by both papers need to make sure that they cover the same stories. On same days more than half of both papers stories are the same. Is this how news is controlled? Or is this the result of cuts in news reporter? How much longer can media outlets and reporters get away with posting other new organizations on their Facebook or Twitter pages as if it were their own?
When Negative Stories Are Printed by News About Airbnb or Cuomo's Moreland Problems Local TV News Makes Money and is the Main Source of News For Most Americans
Local TV News Makes More oney Keeping Us Misinformed and Giving the Special Interest News Control Though Paid Ads
Why is the agency studying 'perceived station bias' and asking about coverage choices?
The report notes the important role of television news but also describes how cutbacks have resulted in newsrooms without deep, beat-oriented expertise. It also says that news stations need to do a better job disclosing paid programming and how they serve the public interest.
How Local TV News Make Millions Rehabilitating Candidates and Cleaning Up Policies Harmful to the Public
NY Media Copies Stories, No Longer Investigates or Analyse
David Paterson: A Lame Duck, Sure, But Why the Lame Media Coverage? When a powerful public official is a lame duck, it's not supposed to mean that the coverage of him becomes lame. As tepid as Kaye's conclusions were, her evidence was explosive. If a reader focuses on footnotes and nuance, Kaye implicitly makes the case that the man who is still governor is right now orchestrating a cover-up of his own earlier attempts to cover up a criminal outburst of apartment rage (Barrett, Village Voice) * Pediatric Nurse Suspended in Connection with Paterson/Johnson Case * Worker in Paterson scandal received raises during probe (DN) * Gov. Paterson spends $700k fighting AG's probes into domestic violence case, World Series tickets
Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News More Sexy Reporters
2025 Pulitzer to Local News Coverage of A Snow Storm
With all the local newspapers out of business, the Pulitzer committee has been turning more and more to local TV news. This year the committee award its prize to the entire local TV industry for is coverage of a snow storm. It cited the creativeness of reporters using rulers to measure the snow on live TV and the quick thinking of a reporters with time to fill makings snow angels. The Pulitzer in the awarding of this years award cited the investigative skills of reporters who found out that local airports have hundreds of canceled flights and the buses had more delays then the subways. Finally the committee was very impressed with the local reporters ability to get the big interviews citing how each station was about to interview the same man dressed as Santa in Times Square.
Media Spins: A Broken City Sunday UPDATE
Corporate Owners: NY1 Dummy Us All Down
Local TV News Plays Us for Dummies: Ernie Anastos: "Keep f@#xing that chicken"
A Broken Debate Caused by Clueless Reporters
True News Answer to NY1
NY1 Spins Like Pols and Lobbyists What kind of journalist operation is Robert Hardt, the political director at NY1 makes running. Both True News and Fred Siegel of the Manhattan Institute pointed out that the mayoral debate on NY1 did not asked about the most important iusse facing all New Yorkers, the economy Instead of admitting to the mistake Hardt makes up a cock and bull story that there was not enough time to ask about the economy. What about the time you wasted with the dumb lighting round? Are we to believe Mr. Hardt that it is more important to asked the next mayor who will cut services to New Yorkers than if the candidates ever had a pedicures, exercise or what they think should be done in Afghanistan? (all questions asked during the lighting round) Even candidate William Thompson called the lightning round format “dumb.” Thompson which has been very supportive of gay rights his entire life in public office was trip up by your dumb format Mr. Hardt and had to explain to the Advocate that he is pro gay rights. All the lighting round did was trip up the candidate, it did not get at the truth abot anything. How could it when you ask who is better Espada or Bruno? One is on trial right not for corruption and the other one will soon be.
By the way Mr. Hardt your political coverage is infected with lobbyists like Al D'amato who are enablers to the corruption in this city. The owner of Parkside lobbyist who was in the middle of the council's slush fund , Carl McCall and Freddie Ferrer who go paid as a money managers by the city or state pension funds, the same thing Ex-Comptroller Carl McCall Is Part of New York Pension Inquiry, After Introduction From Ferrer, Firm Earned $100000 From State Mr. Hardt do you feel responsible for the lobbyist McCall and Ferrer trying to tap into the new comptroller who has not committed to get rid of the money managers like NYS Comptroller DiNapoli has? H. Carl McCall, Freddy Ferrer, Betsy Gotbaum Endorse John Liu More Time Warner who owns NY1 gets tons of ads from the Brooklyn housing complex Flatbush Gardens. He is one story your never see on NY1 Landlord's letting Flatbush Gardens rot to flush us out, say tenants (DN) *** Corporate News Media executives’ desire for acquisitions has led to $200 billion in write-offs since 2000, write the authors of “The Curse of the Mogul.” The Hunger of the Media Empire
. Journalism: Another Knockdown The dieing News business as the Voice's Robbin in his latest article, what is left of it in New York has taken a hit this morning as a top TV reporter is accused of domestic violence and an editor quit the Observer Wife: NY1 star hit & choked me ***
JibJab.com - What We Call The News
Media Spins Light Stories From the Mayor and Gov as Major Issues Go Uncovered
Distracting A Willing Press
Mayor Spin: Each day the mayor's team has stories ready for the accepting media that have nothing to do with the major issues facing the city. Today's mayor's spin is about high-calorie beverages. Corruption in the CityTime contracts, the NYPD ticket scandal, rising crime and cutbacks are not covered aggressively by the press if at all. Can you imagine what would happen if the Washington Post did not investigate the Watergate break in. There is never an effort to blame the mayor for rising crime like the media blamed Mayor Dinkins. Without an aggressive press the pols can get away with anything. Like a 9+% unemployment rate.
A Lobbyist and a Columnist Get Married At City Hall, 1st Marriage By the Mayor
Lobbyists Reporter Joined
De Blasio Performs First Marriage at City Hall(NYO)“Yup. i got married yesterday to sid davidoff. the mayor presided at city hall and it was his first wedding,” tweeted Linda Stasi, a columnist for the Daily News.
Does Cuomo Have An Enemies List? Political Blogger Liz Benjamin too "Snarky"? Cuomo's secret file on her seemed to think so
Cuomo Aide Slammed Reporter In Dossier (Buzz Feed) The charge for suggesting Cuomo will run for president: “GENERALLY SNARKY.” The “meaningless” leak sets a “dangerous precedent,” responds his communications director. A top aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo assembled a 35-page dossier
on the work of an Albany political reporter considered hostile to his
administration, highlighting any shred of criticism in a document that
reflects the intense sensitivity of a governor on the brink of taking
the national stage. Ben Smith reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office kept a dossier on super-blogger Liz Benjamin in which moments of snark on her blog were pulled out and underlined. * The Daily Q: Does Cuomo reporter file make him the Nixon of Albany? (NY World) * Casey Seiler has what may be the definitive take on what he calls “L’Affaire Liz.” * How Does Press Irk Cuomo? Document Offers Clues(NYT)
Journalist Roll Model Mike Wallace Was Snarky
For 40 years, it was the sound of the stop watch and Mike's voice that signaled the start of another edition of 60 Minutes. Last night the tiffany network paid tribute to a great reporter and colleague. * Remembering My Dad - Chris Wallace, Fox News Sunday * Chris Wallace's Moving Tribute To His Father(Huff Post)
NYT Report on Cuomo Aide Report On Blogger Journalist Liz Benjamin
How Does Press Irk Cuomo? Document Offers Clues(NYT) A leaked document assessing a journalist’s work sent the Cuomo administration into damage-control mode. * Manhattan Institute's Sykes coins phrase "CuomoCare," asks if gov has power to create health exchange w/exec order. * Former Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp: “A governor who is perceived as cooperating with lawmakers and getting things done isn’t going to be hurt by the revelation that his office has a combative relationship with the press corps.” *Fred Dicker interviewed Cuomo’s press secretary Josh Vlasto about the “dossier.” (Village Voice) * Unlike Cuomo, Paterson Says He Didn’t Keep Files on Reporters(YNN) * A generally snarky cover for the Book of Cuomo * Buzzfeed Ben Defends “Dossier” to Dicker (C&S) * Ben Smith and Fred Dicker Disagree About Liz Benjamin, Andrew Cuomo, Journalistic Values and The Meaning of ‘Dossier’(NYO)* The Village Voice’s “Running Scared” blog has a poll on Snarkgate.* Former Gov. David Paterson didn’t keep files on reporters. He thinks it was the other way around.* Here’s a transcript of Ben Smith’s chat this morning with Fred Dicker on Talk 1300.
Albany Press Corp: Department of Fakes and Phonies
More than two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson said that the strength of our democracy would depend on how well-informed the American electorate is
The
Radio & TV Act of 1932 before it was destroyed by congress and
Reagan in the 1980's required those who possess a broadcast license had a
contract between media owners and the public. In order to use the electromagnetic spectrum, which belongs to the public, the broadcaster promises to serve the
public interest. Today it is
not about serving
the public interest, it is about maximizing profits. In the quest for
$$$ they have dumb down the public and given the wealthy special
Interests , not an informed public the ability to shape and control
government.
When Congress Got Rid of the Fairness Doctrine It Created A Media That Controls Rather Than Informs the Public
Serving the public interest, as the Supreme Court said in Red Lion v. FCC, means that
“[t]he broadcaster must give adequate coverage to public issues.” Giving adequate coverage to public issues is what media owners promise the public to do in exchange for
getting their licenses. In 1987 congress elimited the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest,
and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were
given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be
done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials.
The
doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that
contrasting viewpoints be presented. In 2011 the Federal Communications Commission special report, “The Information Needs of Communities,”
says there is a lot of journalism out there, just not much
“accountability reporting” of local and state government. It is
not a secret that TV and radio stations rely on the local newspaper
for most of their hard news. So those "rip and read" TV broadcasters
have offered their views much less hard and investigative news as newspaper staffs
shrivel amid because of draconian layoffs caused by the internet and the
recession?
When Congress Got Rid of the Fairness Doctrine It Created A Media That Controls Rather Than Informs the Public
Serving the public interest, as the Supreme Court said in Red Lion v. FCC, means that
“[t]he broadcaster must give adequate coverage to public issues.” Giving adequate coverage to public issues is what media owners promise the public to do in exchange for
getting their licenses. In 1987 congress elimited the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest,
and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were
given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be
done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. Local TV news devotes most of its time to crime and gossip stories, almost nothing to local government
NYC Local TV Keeping the Public Uninformed While Racking In the Millions
This Is What WNBC (4) Calls Informing the Public This Morning
6:30
Weather, 6:31 - Dead baby found beaten in the Bronx, 6:32 NJ Man
trying to lures teens into his car in NJ, 6:34 A 25-year-old motorist
was hauled into court yesterday on charges his drunken driving led to
the death of a Nassau cop, 6:35 Missing killer in Harrington State
Park, 6:35 Skate Board Event on Broadway canceled may go on anyway,
6:36 Sun screen that caught fire, 6:37 Mediator shower in the sky, 6:37
Weather, 6:39 Commercials, 6:42 Shredding personal documents, 6:42
Reporter out west has a cockroach crawing on him during a stand up, 6:43
Commercials, 6:46 Europe Royal Wedding. Justin Timberlake Wedding,
6::47 Movie Reviews, 6:48 Commercials, 6:51 Check in with the Today
Show, 6:52 How Halloween can be dangerous for you pets, 6:55
Commercials, 6:57 Top Stories Baby died with bruses on her body, wake
for nassau cop, Drill Simulating Plane Accident To Take Place At Newark, 6:58 Weather
Not
Only Does TV News Make the Public Uninformed, It Makes Millions From
Wealthy Candidates and Special Interests Seeking Public Support
1. Albany Hush Fund Cover Up, Press Containment Timeline
2. CityTime Scandal
3. Journalism Dumbing Down
4. New York's Corrupt Political Parties
5. Goo Goos: Reformers Have Their Press Conferences,And Nothing Happens
Latest Poll: NYC Media Disconnected With the Public
NY Media's Deviant Elite Subculture
The once powerful NY Newspapers has become a subculture that the public no longer believes. The editorial boards and newsrooms are in shock that their over the top endorsements of stringer and Quinn are being rejected by the voters of New York. A media revolution is going on in New York. And its Tea Party moment (we are talking about the Boston Tea Party of 1773) was de Blasio standing up to those trying to close two Brooklyn hospitals. Not one newspaper editorial has backed Bill in his efforts to keep the hospitals open. In fact the NYT in their endorsement of Quinn said that de Blasio efforts were hopeless. New Yorkers are tired of the Bull Shit words coming out of the newspaper and candidates. They know they are being priced out of the city and those that they elected don't care.
.
.
The de Blasio Revolution: New Yorkers Have Reject the Media- Class Warfare
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If de Blasio should win w/out runoff in NY mayor's race, it'd tell us that papers' endorsements (Post, Times, News backed Quinn) mean zip.
NYT Always for Quinn
Breaking: The New York Times Endorses Christine Quinn for Mayor of New York City:
Ms. Quinn has been an impressive leader since her days as a neighborhood advocate and her early years on the City Council. We endorsed her for the Council in 1999 as someone “who can both work within the system and criticize it when necessary” — a judgment she has validated many times since. She has shepherded through important laws protecting New Yorkers’ health, safety and civil rights, including measures banning public smoking, protecting tenants and small businesses, and battling slumlord. Quinn fought, for example, for a Bloomberg plan to keep a year’s surplus as a rainy-day fund. There was fierce opposition from Council members who wanted to spend the money. Ms. Quinn was right, and the city had a cushion when the recession hit. We admire her staunch support for the city’s solid-waste management plan, which is good for the whole city but bitterly opposed in some neighborhoods.
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NY1 Offer Correction to Missing Debate Questions
True News Wags NY1 Debate Team
On Thursday True News said the mayoral debate was poorly run by the moderator and reporters asking questions. We said the many important topic were not covered, union contracts, rising pension and health care costs and nothing was said about housing, education and homelessness.
Errol Lewis and NYT's David Chen On Last Nights Road to City Hall Agreed
"Lewis: I do not want to bore everyone with the difficulties of time management when you doing a live debate, like we were handing before. We prepared more questions than we had time ito ask … what was one of the topic that you would like us to get to David Chen from the NYT (who was a questioner at the debate)."Chen: "We wanted to ask them how they would deal with contracts and pension. . .We wanted to ask more about education, housing and homelessness."
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Thursday's True News on the Mayoral Debate
No Hard Hitting Questions From Debate Moderator the Candidates Tag Team Mud Fight About Nothing
At times, taken aback by the intensifying barrage, Mr. de Blasio appealed to the moderator to intervene. “In professional wrestling,” Mr. de Blasio moaned, “they allow tag teams.” The Moderator who many believe did not show up for the debate not only let the mud fight go on he and his fellow journalist did not ask on question that got the candidates go beyond their talking points. No questions were ask about how to pay for new union contracts, rising pension and health care costs. No questions about affordable housing and homelessness and no questions about education. They did for the dumb lightening round questions when we found out the important information that the candidates would not want to be mayor of any other city.
Remember David Yassky Got All Newspaper Endorsement in 2009 for Comptroller and Lost
NYT mayoral endorsement puts city on edge?
Nick Confessore
@nickconfessore
NYT edit board divided on mayoral endorsement,@DylanByers reports: http://politi.co/16DKc9e@nickconfessore The divided story sound like a spin to cover their ass with progressives with there coming Quinn endorsement.
@unitedNYblogs@BKcolin Don't ever change, True News.
Albany Lawmakers Hiding Behind Lawyers
If MikeWallace Can Interview Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Why Can't New York's Journalists Ask Individual Lawmakers to Produce the Financial Information the Moreland Commission is Requesting
The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics said it would change regulations to require public disclosure of special interests and lobbying groups seeking to exempt their donor list from being made public, Gannett Albany reports * Video: Soares, Fitzpatrick after Moreland panel hearing
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Jobs4NY's Parkside Lobbyists for the Media
Not One Story About Parkside's Role in Jobs4NY
The New York Newspaper Guild pays the Parkside Group $60,000 a year to lobby for them. It is strange that the major role Parkside plays in state and local elections it never gets written about. Parkside ran Jobs4NY for the real estate industry which spent millions buying future councilmembers. The Newspaper Guild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933 who noticed that unionized printers and truck drivers were making more money than they did. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practices.
REBNY | Jobs For New York PAC - The Real Deal * Lobbyist Has a Dual Role at City Hall - New York Times(2005) * True News: A Takeover Of Journalism by Lobbyist and Politicians * A Letter to Garcia: (Michael) Garcia U.S. Attorney | Room Eight
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Watergate Reporting Gone
Why We Lost Investigative Reporting
NYT Correspondent: A Watergate Scandal Would Never Be Uncovered by Journalists Today(Fishbow)
In recent years, as Ken Auletta discussed not too long ago on PBS NewsHour alongside David Carr, The Guardian has broken three massive, Woodward & Bernstein-like stories. But over in D.C., at least according to New York Times Magazine chief national correspondent Mark Leibovich, it’s a much sadder story.
Liebovich spoke on Wednesday to students at the University of Montana as part of the President’s Lectures Series. Per a report in the Montana Kaimin by Andrew Visscher, he says it all has to do with the rise of D.C. self-congratulation:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The media provides the fuel necessary for this new order of self-seeking politicians, Leibovich said. He claims a journalistic takedown like Watergate could never happen in modern times, where journalists are often more focused on Facebook statuses and Twitter followers. He said most modern consumers have no interest in reading a 5,000-word feature. A new strategy among newspapers is to blur the lines between hard news and opinion columns on the front page, he said. Most readers want more of a feature-sounding voice to big news, he said. Leibovich claimed that by giving the consumers what they want, the media often gives incredible amounts of airtime to anyone who is standing out.* Carr: "polarized political map is now accompanied by a media ecosystem that is equally gerrymandered"(NYT) * When Journalists Are Labelled Traitors(New Yorker)
All the Media Silent On Local Impact on Citizens United
We have just gone though the first local election since the Citizen United ruling where two major IE groups Jobs4NT and NYClass has pumped money into almost every first time winning candidate or attacked their opponent. CrainsNY reporter Chris Bragg has done a good job showing that on of the big PAC groups headed by Advance's Scott Levinson was not following the election law and was in some elections working against the interests of his council clients. Only True News has asked where is the media on Citizens United effect on the city's elections. Mark Levine ran in a minority created district he did not even live in won with the help of Jobs4NY, NYClass and United for the Future.* Politicians for Sale (NYT Ed)The Supreme Court should follow its own precedent and uphold overall campaign contribution limits.
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Breaking NYT's Saturday Endorses
Daniel Squadron For Public Advocate
Mr. Squadron has shown himself to be a strong advocate for ethics reform in Albany. He helped pass tough gun laws earlier this year; forced the Bloomberg administration to stop charging rent to homeless families; proposed an alliance to get wealthier park lovers to help fund poorer parks; and helped end the interminable negotiations over Brooklyn Bridge Park, now a celebrated part of the city’s waterfront. He promises to fight for the city’s “overlooked orphans in our political system” — just what a public advocate should do.
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Bronx Publisher Says Engel, Koppell Helped Secure Loan, But Denies Political Bias (C&S)
Andy Wolf, the editor and publisher of the Riverdale Review, acknowledged in a phone interview this afternoon that Congressman Eliot Engel and Councilman Oliver Koppell helped him secure a loan that allowed him to buy the newspaper – but says that’s had no effect on the paper’s coverage of the local elected officials. Wolf was responding to an article I posted this morning on a boycott of the Riverdale Review. The boycott’s organizers say that Koppell and Engel have gotten overly favorable coverage in the weekly northwest Bronx newspaper. * A Bronx Council Race Wrapped In A Newspaper Boycott (C& S)
It Not Just the Bronx Pols Who Own Local Papers Queens AlsoA Takeover Of Journalism by Lobbyist and Politicians (True News) Soviet Queens Pravda In queens the local newspaper, the political machine and government all work together. The paper do not preform the role of checks and balances that Founding Father envisioned to protect the people from the government and ensure a working democracy. Instead Queens local newspapers have gamed journalism to operate as a co-machine in Queens. They work in campaigns and are lobbyist to the same elected officials they help elect or reelect. The papers operate as the house organ for the Democratic party to controling who becomes gets elected or becomes a judge in Queens county. The judges in turn send the legal ads worth tens of thousands dollars to the local papers. * Chicago Sun-Times will stop endorsing candidates to increase appearance of impartiality
Local TV News Has abandoned Its 1927 FCC Mission to Keep the Public Informed
Happy talk local news has been around for decades but the local TV news stations always had experienced political reporters who knew how to go beyond the spin to give the public a realist view of what their government was up to. Some have directly blamed today epidemic of political corruption on the TV news media which have put good looking people in change of reporting who can do little more than read the fake spins of pols or their consultants. In fact local TV has become the enables of the dysfunctional political system. Raking in millions in TV ads by the special interests like The Committee to Save New York while keeping the public poorly informed on the real causes of the economic melt down of New York which will lower the quality of lives of all New Yorkers if not kill them with poor health care or depression from joblessness. The media has not even explain the severer level of the cuts coming this year.
Jeff Greenfield
True News
Nick Confessore
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