By David Kravets
Friday, March 13, 2009
Newspaper transition: Preserve local newsgathering
Newspapers will figure out the economics of online news though not all will survive the transition, writes Ryan Blethen, Seattle Times associate publisher. "My generation of Blethens, the fifth to own The Times, will preside over a much different organization than any of the previous four. Our goal is not so much to preserve the printed newspaper but to preserve a local newsgathering operation."
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What is a newspaper anymore? Many different things, judging from the e-mails I receive from readers and the feedback I get from friends and the community.
In my last column, I wrote that I am using this space during the next couple of months to examine the many ideas and business models that have been suggested to support professional journalism and the newspaper of the future. Before I can go further with this topic, I need to reconcile what I believe a newspaper is and what appears to be a large chunk of the community's and readers' definition and/or perception of newspapers.
A number of comments generated by the column claimed that newspapers were dead but might live online. Or that the Internet will kill newspapers and that society would be all the better for the digital slaying.
The latter notion was forcefully raised by a commentator called CougInLacey, from you guessed it, Lacey. "I think the Internet will kill off the newspapers. As in no news via PAPER. It's possible that newspapers will morph into online only but like you I don't see the economics in it."
I partially disagree. The Internet will not kill off newspapers. I can say this because of my definition of a newspaper. To me the word "newspaper" is a catchall for whatever way newspaper created content is delivered. This includes a newspaper's Web site. The content might be digital but it is still newspaper-created content.
When newspapers come up in conversation — which, with me, is often — I almost always ask people how they get their news. A decade ago, this conversation hinged on whether they were Seattle Times or Seattle Post-Intelligencer readers.
Today, the answer is much more convoluted. I usually get the generic "from the Internet" answer. This response prompts me to drill deeper. What I find is that "the Internet" is really a daily or multiple daily newspapers and a search engine.
Where I disagree with CougInLacey is that newspapers will figure out the economics of online news. An online news site does not rule out the continuation of print. The days of printing seven days a week for a mass audience might have to be sacrificed for old-time newspapers to make a successful transition into the digital age. Not all newspapers will survive the transition. But many will, and contrary to what a lot of commentators say, that is a good thing.
Another reader, cathy2010 from Bellevue, got to me with her comment: "Is the point to save the printed page or is it to save local news organizations?"
Good question. My mission is to save the local news organization, which to me is The Seattle Times. As much as I love news printed on paper, I have accepted the fact that the future is going to be different.
My generation of Blethens, the fifth to own The Times, will preside over a much different organization than any of the previous four. Our goal is not so much to preserve the printed newspaper but to preserve a local newsgathering operation.
I asked at the beginning of this column what a newspaper is, anymore. Let me answer that another way. The Times will be a company rooted in journalism as long as my cousins, brother and I are involved.
The question should be: How are we going to change to sustain the journalism that serves the community?
Ryan Blethen's e-mail address is rblethen@seattletimes.com
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008849779_opina13ryan.html
The CIA responds to Seymour Hersh
"Utter nonsense," is the quote from CIA spokester George Little.
In case you're out of context, I wrote yesterday about comments famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh made Tuesday night at the U of M, which included a description of a story he is working on that he said would show that "the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen."
CIA spokester Little emailed me:
"I saw your story on Seymour Hersh's recent allegations regarding CIA activities since 9/11. If you wish, you can attribute the quoted portion that follows to me, in name, as a CIA spokesman:
'This is utter nonsense.'"
I spoke to Little to clarify whether he was aware of the basis for Hersh's statement (which I am not, only that it's based on his reporting) or whether he was categorically stating that nothing the CIA has done post-9/11 could be reasonably characterized as domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. He said it was a categorical denial. He doesn't know what Hersh claims, but any claim that the CIA has engaged in domestic spying is "complete and utter nonsense," saith Little on behalf of the CIA.
http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/12/7344/the_cia_responds_to_seymour_hersh_via_minnpost
Secret State Police Report: Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, Libertarians are Terrorists
by Kurt Nimmo
Alex Jones has received a secret report distributed by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) entitled "The Modern Militia Movement" and dated February 20, 2009. A footer on the document indicates it is "unclassified" but "law enforcement sensitive," in other words not for public consumption. A copy of the report was sent to Jones by an anonymous Missouri police officer.
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The MIAC report specifically describes supporters of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as "militia" influenced terrorists and instructs the Missouri police to be on the lookout for supporters displaying bumper stickers and other paraphernalia associated with the Constitutional, Campaign for Liberty, and Libertarian parties.
"Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) provides a public safety partnership consisting of local, state and federal agencies, as well as the public sector and private entities that will collect, evaluate, analyze, and disseminate information and intelligence to the agencies tasked with Homeland Security responsibilities in a timely, effective, and secure manner," explains the MIAC website. "MIAC is the mechanism to collect incident reports of suspicious activities to be evaluated and analyzed in an effort to identify potential trends or patterns of terrorist or criminal operations within the state of Missouri. MIAC will also function as a vehicle for two-way communication between federal, state and local law enforcement community within our region."
MIAC is part of the federal "fusion" effort now underway around the country. "As of February 2009, there were 58 fusion centers around the country. The Department has deployed 31 officers as of December 2008 and plans to have 70 professionals deployed by the end of 2009. The Department has provided more than $254 million from FY 2004-2007 to state and local governments to support the centers," explains the Department of Homeland Security on its website. Missouri is mentioned as a participant in this federal "intelligence" effort.
Last month, the ACLU issued a news release highlighting the activity of a fusion center in Texas as the "latest example of inappropriate police intelligence operations targeting political, religious and social activists for investigation," in particular "Muslim civil rights organizations and anti-war protest groups."
The MIAC report does not concentrate on Muslim terrorists, but rather on the so-called "militia movement" and conflates it with supporters of Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, the so-called patriot movement and other political activist organizations opposed to the North American Union and the New World Order. The MIAC document is a classic guilt by association effort designed to demonize legitimate political activity that stands in opposition to the New World Order and its newly enshrined front man, Barack Obama.
Half of Americans Are Two Paychecks Away from Hardship
The eroding labor market is expected to trigger additional pain for banks as job losses undercut consumers' ability to make their mortgage payments.
With unemployment on the march, Julia Rodgers, a mortgage advisor with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, told me last week that homeowners should have at least three months of mortgage payments saved up to protect themselves from a job loss. But a recent study by MetLife indicates that consumers don't have nearly enough of a financial cushion to keep them afloat should a job loss occur.
From the report:
Many Employees Are Just Two Paychecks Away from Serious Financial Hardship
Sphere: Related ContentWith the number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits in early February 2009 at its highest rate since 1982 (Source: U.S. Department of Labor), few have cash reserves on hand to cover monthly expenses in the event of a job loss. Equally few have an adequate safety net to cover lost income or household emergencies. In this environment, work — and the paycheck and benefits associated with it — is propping up the American dream.
Now it's official: the entire beauty industry is built on the peddling of pernicious nonsense
It sells products that don't really work to people who don't really need them at prices they can't really afford
by Sam Leith
This - in outline - is the finding that has been made by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) against an advert in which "beauty journalist" Eve Cameron tells us that "if you're not ready for cosmetic injections" help is at hand in the form of Olay Regenerist.
"This study, revealed at the World Congress of Dermatology, showed that pentapeptides are effective in reducing the appearance of lines and wrinkles." Now, at last, it will allow you to "love the skin you're in".
The ASA pointed out unhelpfully that: a) this goo has no comparable effect to injections, and b) the ad misled customers by implying there was scientific evidence that this goo works. There was no proof that, if this goo's pentapeptides do do anything at all, it is "visually significant to the consumer". A home run, then, for Ms Cameron's investigative journalism.
The thing about anti-ageing cream - a thing so blatantly obvious that it seems a miracle the ASA hasn't coughed quietly and pointed it out more often - is that it doesn't sodding well exist. There is no such thing. Nowhere in the universe.
You cannot rub a mixture of water (or "aqua" as they, with embolism-inducing pretentiousness, call it on the pots) and vegetable oil into your skin, however many scientific-sounding branded ingredients they've stirred into it, and have any effect whatsoever on the process of ageing that is taking place in the cells throughout your body.
The adverts might as well say "defy the second law of thermodynamics with face cream" or "thanks to the special scientifically developed molecules in our moisturiser, the earth's gravitational field need not affect you". This is an entire industry built on pernicious horse manure, and the only wrinkles it's likely to reduce are the ones on your cerebellum.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/05/beauty-industry-fraud
Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a 'National Security' Secret
But now, like Bush before him, Obama is playing the national security card to hide details of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated across the globe.
The White House this week declared (.pdf) the text of the proposed treaty a "properly classified" national security secret, in rejecting a Freedom of Information Act request by Knowledge Ecology International.
"Please be advised the documents you seek are being withheld in full," wrote Carmen Suro-Bredie, chief FOIA officer in the White House's Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The national security claim is stunning, given that the treaty negotiations have included the 27 member states of the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand, all of whom presumably have access to the "classified" information.
In early January, the Bush administration made the same claim in rejecting (.pdf) a similar FOIA request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
If ratified, leaked documents posted on WikiLeaks and other comments suggest the proposed trade accord would criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing, subject iPods to border searches and allow internet service providers to monitor their customers' communications.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/obama-declares.html
The Fair Use Massacre Continues: Now Warner’s Going After the Babies
Commentary by Corynne McSherry
Sphere: Related Content
First they came for the teenagers. Could toddlers be far behind? Nope. Thanks to the good folks at YouTomb, we've learned that Warner Music's automated takedown net has now caught two videos of little kids being little kids.
Of course we can't show you the videos since they're, well, censored, but the YouTomb snapshots tell most of the story. One showed a 4 year old lip-syncing to the old Foreigner hit, "Juke Box Hero." The other apparently showed a baby smacking its lips to the tune of "I Love My Lips"—a song originally sung by a cucumber in an episode of "Veggie Tales." Both videos are obvious fair uses (these are transformative, noncommercial videos that are not substitutes for the original songs, and there is no plausible market for "licensing" parents before they video their own children singing) and perfectly legal—just like the video of a baby dancing to a Prince song that Universal Music Group took down in 2007.
These are just a few of the thousands of videos Warner has instructed YouTube to block in the past few months. According to statistics kept by YouTomb, there were twice as many videos removed from YouTube in January 2009 as in the entire previous year combined. The numbers are all more appalling because, thanks to Warner's reliance on YouTube's automated, censorship-friendly Content I.D. tool, there is no reason to think that Warner even bothered to watch these videos to decide whether it actually objects them before blocking them.
We've said it before, and we'll keep saying it until the folks at Warner come to their senses: it's time to stop the censorship. The Content ID system should be set to flag possible infringing works and then Warner should have a human review those works before they are taken down.
And if Warner won't reverse course altogether, it should at least promise that no one will be sued for simply disputing a Content I.D. removal. Warner loses nothing by this: even after a user files Content I.D. dispute, Warner still has the option of using a DMCA takedown notice to target videos to which it really objects. By publicly committing to using the DMCA process, Warner will reassure fair users that they can raise the red flag without fear of finding themselves in the middle of an expensive and unexpected lawsuit.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/03/fair-use-massacre-continues-now-warner-s-going-aft
The Chicken Little Sky Is Falling Bizarre Corporate Panic over Workers’ Rights Award
The wing nuts speaking for Corporate America are getting—well, wing nuttier. Their anti-worker, anti-union lies and distortions about the Employee Free Choice Act have reached just plain bizarre levels.
Now it's your turn to weigh in: Who deserves the Chicken Little Sky Is Falling Bizarre Corporate Panic over Workers' Rights Award? The award will go to the corporate mouthpiece that spews the most outrageous claims about the Employee Free Choice Act—proposed federal legislation that strikes fear in the heart of corporate giants because it would restore workers' freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Give Me a Union, Not a Wheelchair: The Case for EFCA
By Mike Elk
"If the penalty for robbing a bank was you had to post a piece of paper saying you robbed a bank, we'd all be bank robbers!" a long-time union organizer once said to me.
Currently under U.S. labor law, the penalty for an employer that robs someone of their job for expressing their right to join a union is just that. They have to post a piece of paper saying they illegally fired an employee from their job. As a result, nearly, one in five workers are fired from their jobs during the lead up to an NLRB union certification election.
If you ever wondered why union members refer to themselves as "brothers and sisters" during union rallies, it's because of the bond of solidarity that is formed during the intense harassment and firing of workers leading up to union certification elections. Companies hire union busting or "union relations consultants" 82 percent of the time to run expensive, aggressive anti-union campaigns, costing typically in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. These union-busting firms are so effective that the biggest one, Labor Relations Institute, guarantees a defeat of a union-organizing drive or your money back.
Workers are forced to watch anti-union videos that imply starting a union will ruin their jobs, lower their wages, and erase their benefits. Employers threaten to close a factory 49 percent of the time if a union wins an election (a violation of federal law)—despite the fact that only 2 percent of the time does this actually occur if a union wins an election. Workers are called in for a one-on-one meeting with their direct supervisor 90 percent of the time, where they make it known that they will be denied a promotion, stripped of their health benefits or perhaps even fired if they are suspected of supporting a union. Then to make sure there aren't enough votes for the union, employers will just fire a large number of union organizers right before the election
As a result of such Gestapo-style, union-busting tactics, only about half the time that workers petition for a union certification election are they actually successful. I have seen cases where we have nearly two-thirds of workers sign union cards when they petition for an NLRB union certification only to lose the election in a landslide after a long intimidation campaign. Studies have shown that 60 percent of workers want to join a union if they were able to but only 8 percent of private sector employees are members of unions.
Today, Sen.Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., will introduce the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give workers an opportunity to form unions freely. The Employee Free Choice Act would allow a union to be certified once a majority of the members of a plant signed a petition or card saying they wanted to be recognized as a union. No several-month period would exist between the initial certification petition and the NLRB certification election as it currently exists, limiting the ability of employers to pick off union organizers. In addition, the Employee Free Choice Act puts serious teeth into U.S. labor law, fining employers $20,000 for each employee fired—a lot more than the cost of the piece of paper employers are currently required to post.
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009031110/give-me-union-not-wheelchair-case-efca
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh describes 'executive assassination ring'
At a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota last night, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an "executive assassination ring."
Hersh spoke with great confidence about these findings from his current reporting, which he hasn't written about yet.
In an email exchange afterward, Hersh said that his statements were "an honest response to a question" from the event's moderator, U of M Political Scientist Larry Jacobs and "not something I wanted to dwell about in public."
Hersh didn't take back the statements, which he said arise from reporting he is doing for a book, but that it might be a year or two before he has what he needs on the topic to be "effective...that is, empirical, for even the most skeptical."
The evening of great conversation, featuring Walter Mondale and Hersh, moderated by Jacobs and titled "America's Constitutional Crisis," looked to be a mostly historical review of events that have tested our Constitution, by a journalist and a high government officials who had experience with many of the crises.
And it was mostly historical, and a great conversation, in which Hersh and Mondale talked about the patterns by which presidents seem to get intoxicated by executive power, frustrated by the limitations on that power from Congress and the public, drawn into improper covert actions that exceed their constitutional powers, in the belief that they can get results and will never be found out. Despite a few references to the Founding Fathers, the history was mostly recent, starting with the Viethnam War with much of it arising from the George W. Bush administration, which both men roundly denounced.
At the end of one answer by Hersh about how these things tend to happen, Jacobs asked: "And do they continue to happen to this day?"
Replied Hersh:
"Yuh. After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen.
"Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ...
"Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths.
"Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us.
"It's complicated because the guys doing it are not murderers, and yet they are committing what we would normally call murder. It's a very complicated issue. Because they are young men that went into the Special Forces. The Delta Forces you've heard about. Navy Seal teams. Highly specialized.
"In many cases, they were the best and the brightest. Really, no exaggerations. Really fine guys that went in to do the kind of necessary jobs that they think you need to do to protect America. And then they find themselves torturing people.
"I've had people say to me -- five years ago, I had one say: 'What do you call it when you interrogate somebody and you leave them bleeding and they don't get any medical committee and two days later he dies. Is that murder? What happens if I get before a committee?'
"But they're not gonna get before a committee."
Hersh, the best-known investigative reporter of his generation, writes about these kinds of issues for The New Yorker.
Should the Ford Foundation Buy the NY Times?
Wither Print
by Steve Brodner
Gradually coming into focus is the very harsh prospect of a world without newspapers. McClatchy just announced more job cuts, the LA Times is becoming a shadow of what it was. The Rocky Mountain News is gone and the SF Chronicle may be the first newspaper to go, leaving a major city newspaperless. The NY Times, though privately owned, cannot sustain huge losses indefinitely. So what does this mean? I wouldn't be so gravely concerned if there was something even remotely like a newspaper for organizing and delivering news. It is not just the investment in newsgathering that will be lost. It is also the issue of DESIGN. Unlike the Web, which has almost no design in media sites. Here design is integral in giving the reader a sense of the scope and weight of news. Only a newspaper does that. In the future I am sure the web will because it will have to. But what about in the interim? It is in those cracks that very bad things can grow. Journalism is the fourth branch of government. Losing a big part of it will mean important things can be more easily hidden. I feel this is too important for the market to solve. Here is the first of a series of voices on the topic. The first is Bruce Bartlett, former Treasury Dept. economist under HW Bush.
"Personally, I am partial to the nonprofit model. Foundations, universities, think tanks and even political parties might sponsor publications. For example, the Ford Foundation might take over The New York Times, Harvard University might buy The Boston Globe and the Heritage Foundation might assume control of the The Washington Times. They could run these publications without expectation of profit and a least keep alive the basic journalistic function."
"Personally, I am partial to the nonprofit model. Foundations, universities, think tanks and even political parties might sponsor publications. For example, the Ford Foundation might take over The New York Times, Harvard University might buy The Boston Globe and the Heritage Foundation might assume control of the The Washington Times. They could run these publications without expectation of profit and a least keep alive the basic journalistic function."
Tent Cities: Welcome to the new Bushvilles
By David Neiwert
MSNBC has been reporting on the huge tent city forming outside Sacramento, including a remarkable photo essay on the encampment. Similarly, a Daily Mail piece offers more detail:
Mikkel Fishman at The Moderate Voice has more details on the economic and political background.
As Chris Jansing reports, this isn't the only "tent city" gaining in size: So are similar encampments near Seattle, and Reno, and Nashville. Down in Dallas, the need for an encampment is rising quickly.
In other words, by mid-summer, we may see these encampments around the country. And they deserve a name:
Bushvilles.
When Americans had to endure such hardships 80 years ago -- forming shantytowns made of wood shacks and canvas tents -- they named them in honor of the president who had done nothing to prevent the oncoming recession and ultimately Depression into which he had led them.
They called them Hoovervilles:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/tent-cities-welcome-new-bushvilles?=2
Sphere: Related Content
Gimme Shelter: U.S. Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada to Avoid Iraq War
Looks like this time they picked the wrong country
By MEGAN FELDMAN
Just 5 feet tall, with a baby strapped to her chest and a soft, faltering voice, Kim Rivera is anything but soldierly. Yet, two years ago she was a private in the "War on Terror," guarding a gate with an M4 rifle and frisking Iraqi civilians at a base in eastern Baghdad.
Now, on a Wednesday evening in January, the 26-year-old mother of three stands in a room in frigid, snow-covered Toronto. Her fair-skinned face and round blue eyes are framed by auburn hair pulled back in a low ponytail, and she places a hand on her bundled baby as she faces about 100 people seated in folding chairs in the middle-class apartment building's community room.
Rivera clears her throat and unfolds a sheet of paper.
"I was fighting your kind for killing my kind," she begins, reading a poem she wrote last summer and dedicated to the people of Iraq. "I was fighting for your liberty; I was fighting for peace." She pauses and takes a deep breath. "But in reality, I was fighting to destroy everything you know and love."
The audience listens in silence. Some nod. A few wipe tears from their eyes. They are peace activists and professors, fellow American Iraq War deserters in their 20s and American hippies in their 60s, Vietnam draft dodgers and Canadian mothers.
They're all rooting for Rivera, red state–warrior-turned-peacenik deserter. They're hoping and praying that by some lucky chance or the benevolent hand of a politician or judge, the young mother will escape the deportation order that has been issued here and the court martial that awaits back home.
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