I can NOT believe this.
The Bears have let Lovie Smith go, but the Jets are keeping Rex Ryan?????????????
I always liked Lovie Smith, I always disliked the loudmouth Rex Ryan.
Lovie always handled himself with class and dignity, Ryan.....well, Ryan, class and dignity don't belong in the same sentence!
The Bears just missed the playoffs - they made the bad-karma mistake of rooting for the Packers! - while the Jets came nowhere close all year.
And yet Lovie is let go and Rex stays? Inconceivable!
Then there's Andy Reid...fired after a dismal season with the Eagles... but he's on the fast track apparently to get Norv Turner's job at San Diego, and Turner will return to being an offensive coordinator - probably for the Jets since the Jets will have Mark Sanchez next year as well.
I wonder how much of this news is just total gossip. Now that the internet demands instant "news" all the time, the sporting world is deluged with gossip and "predictions" and crap that look like it's news because it's on CBS Sportline, or because it's from a link at Yahoo.com making people think it's a real news site (Bleacher Report I think is the one I'm thinking of) when actually it's just a bunch of guys sitting in front of their TVs gossiping and making things up the way they want them to be.
And one of those reports said that Reid was already preparing assistant coaches for when he'd take over the Chargers.
It is interesting how the coaching carousel in any major league sport works - but particularly in football. There's very rarely any new blood, some guy gets fired after a 3-13 season with one team - and he's hired by another team who also just got done with a 3-13 season! Where's the logic in that???????
Then there's Tim Tebow. What a wasted year he had this season - plays about 4 plays per game. What a joke. Ryan could have ended the controversy any time in the last 3 games by starting Tebow and letting the world see whether he could have handled the offense or not. If he couldn't handle it, that would have silenced all the critics who complained he wasn't given a chance. But instead he was snubbed and dissed and it's just too damn bad.
I don't understand why he couldn't have been utilized like RGIII. Throw short passes, or run himself. The Redskins got into the playoffs doing that. The Broncos got into the playoffs last year doing that....
Ah, well, we'll see what happens with that next year....
Monday, December 31, 2012
Hilary Clinton and her blood clot
A lot of people think that Hilary's fainting, and now her blood clot are all rigged so she won't have to testify about Benghazi.
I don't know what to believe, frankly. It does seem verrrrry convenient that all this is happening just now.
On the other hand, these things do happen and Clinton has been under considerable stress - as would be any Secretary of State.
Of course opinion is also divided at the Hannity.com message boards (I confess, I read them alot, because the "arguments" between the two factions there are simultaneously entertaining and depressing), with everyone on the right saying she's faking it, and everyone on the left pointing out that their behavior is typical right-wing compassion.
There continues to be no schedule for anyone at the Secretary of State. It was the same last year. After Dec 21 either everyone was on vacation, or at the very least the person who was supposed to keep the schedule was on vacation. Same this year. No updates since Dec 21.
I don't know what to believe, frankly. It does seem verrrrry convenient that all this is happening just now.
On the other hand, these things do happen and Clinton has been under considerable stress - as would be any Secretary of State.
Of course opinion is also divided at the Hannity.com message boards (I confess, I read them alot, because the "arguments" between the two factions there are simultaneously entertaining and depressing), with everyone on the right saying she's faking it, and everyone on the left pointing out that their behavior is typical right-wing compassion.
There continues to be no schedule for anyone at the Secretary of State. It was the same last year. After Dec 21 either everyone was on vacation, or at the very least the person who was supposed to keep the schedule was on vacation. Same this year. No updates since Dec 21.
Goodbye Tax Holiday
I was browsing around the Hannity message boards today, and someone posted about "The tax increases begin" - meaning the ones we'll be getting under Obamacare. And we - the middle class - will be getting tax hikes, there's no doubt about that.
But this one was bogus.
Remember the 2% tax holiday from social security that we got last year. (Everyone in the country didn't have to pay 2% of their earnings into social security - you know, the program that's almost bankrupt).
I remember Rush laughing about it. As if 2% of one's earnings was going to help anyone pay off bills or not.
But now certain folk are whining about it, conveniently forgetting it was always a "holiday", not meant to be permanent.
Oh, we're in for a lot of tax increases in 2013, how could we not be? Everyone except for the Unions that have their waivers, and the poor who will be getting supplemental stuff to make up for the fact that they're losing $10 or so out of every paycheck - they'll get it back in the form of free phones or free this or that, of course.
But this one was bogus.
Remember the 2% tax holiday from social security that we got last year. (Everyone in the country didn't have to pay 2% of their earnings into social security - you know, the program that's almost bankrupt).
I remember Rush laughing about it. As if 2% of one's earnings was going to help anyone pay off bills or not.
But now certain folk are whining about it, conveniently forgetting it was always a "holiday", not meant to be permanent.
Oh, we're in for a lot of tax increases in 2013, how could we not be? Everyone except for the Unions that have their waivers, and the poor who will be getting supplemental stuff to make up for the fact that they're losing $10 or so out of every paycheck - they'll get it back in the form of free phones or free this or that, of course.
Laws Are for Little People...and not for David Gregory
From the National Review, by Mark Stein: Laws Are for Little People
A week ago on NBC’s Meet the Press, David Gregory brandished on screen a high-capacity magazine. To most media experts, a “high-capacity magazine” means an ad-stuffed double issue of Vanity Fair with the triple-page perfume-scented pullouts. But apparently in America’s gun-nut gun culture of gun-crazed gun kooks, it’s something else entirely, and it was this latter kind that Mr. Gregory produced in order to taunt Wayne LaPierre of the NRA. As the poster child for America’s gun-crazed gun-kook gun culture, Mr. LaPierre would probably have been more scared by the host waving around a headily perfumed Vanity Fair. But that was merely NBC’s first miscalculation. It seems a high-capacity magazine is illegal in the District of Columbia, and the flagrant breach of D.C. gun laws is now under investigation by the police.
This is, declared NYU professor Jay Rosen, “the dumbest media story of 2012.” Why? Because, as CNN’s Howard Kurtz breezily put it, everybody knows David Gregory wasn’t “planning to commit any crimes.”
So what? Neither are the overwhelming majority of his fellow high-capacity-magazine-owning Americans. Yet they’re expected to know, as they drive around visiting friends and family over Christmas, the various and contradictory gun laws in different jurisdictions. Ignorantia juris non excusat is one of the oldest concepts in civilized society: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Back when there was a modest and proportionate number of laws, that was just about doable. But in today’s America there are laws against everything, and any one of us at any time is unknowingly in breach of dozens of them. And in this case NBC were informed by the D.C. police that it would be illegal to show the thing on TV, and they went ahead and did it anyway: You’ll never take me alive, copper! You’ll have to pry my high-capacity magazine from my cold dead fingers! When the D.C. SWAT team, the FBI, and the ATF take out NBC News and the whole building goes up in one almighty fireball, David Gregory will be the crazed loon up on the roof like Jimmy Cagney in White Heat: “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!” At last, some actual must-see TV on that lousy network.
But, even if we’re denied that pleasure, the “dumbest media story of 2012” is actually rather instructive. David Gregory intended to demonstrate what he regards as the absurdity of America’s lax gun laws. Instead, he’s demonstrating the ever greater absurdity of America’s non-lax laws. His investigation, prosecution, and a sentence of 20–30 years with eligibility for parole after ten (assuming Mothers Against High-Capacity Magazines don’t object) would teach a far more useful lesson than whatever he thought he was doing by waving that clip under LaPierre’s nose.
To Howard Kurtz & Co., it’s “obvious” that Gregory didn’t intend to commit a crime. But, in a land choked with laws, “obviousness” is one of the first casualties — and “obviously” innocent citizens have their “obviously” well-intentioned actions criminalized every minute of the day. Not far away from David Gregory, across the Virginia border, eleven-year-old Skylar Capo made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days. For her pains, a federal Fish & Wildlife gauleiter accompanied by state troopers descended on her house, charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species, issued her a $535 fine, and made her cry. Why is it so “obvious” that David Gregory deserves to be treated more leniently than a sixth grader? Because he’s got a TV show and she hasn’t?
Anything involving guns is even less amenable to “obviousness.” A few years ago, Daniel Brown was detained at LAX while connecting to a Minneapolis flight because traces of gunpowder were found on his footwear. His footwear was combat boots. As the name suggests, the combat boots were returning from combat — eight months of it, in Iraq’s bloody and violent al-Anbar province. Above the boots he was wearing the uniform of a staff sergeant in the USMC Reserve Military Police and was accompanied by all 26 members of his unit, also in uniform. Staff Sergeant Brown doesn’t sound like an “obvious” terrorist. But the TSA put him on the no-fly list anyway. If it’s not “obvious” to the government that a serving member of the military has any legitimate reason for being around ammunition, why should it be “obvious” that a TV host has?
Three days after scofflaw Gregory committed his crime, a bail hearing was held in Massachusetts for Andrew Despres, 20, who’s charged with trespassing and possession of ammunition without a firearms license. Mr. Despres was recently expelled from Fitchburg State University and was returning to campus to pick up his stuff. Hence the trespassing charge. At the time of his arrest, he was wearing a “military-style ammunition belt.” Hence, the firearms charge.
His mom told WBZ that her son purchased the belt for $20 from a punk website and had worn it to class every day for two years as a “fashion statement.” He had no gun with which to fire the bullets. Nevertheless, Fitchburg police proudly displayed the $20 punk-website ammo belt as if they’d just raided the Fitchburg mafia’s armory, and an obliging judge ordered Mr. Despres held on $50,000 bail. Why should there be one law for Meet the Press and another for Meet Andrew Despres? Because David Gregory throws better cocktail parties?
The argument for letting him walk rests on his membership of a protected class — the media. Notwithstanding that (per Gallup) 54 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the NRA while only 40 percent have any trust in the media, the latter regard themselves as part of the ruling class. Which makes the rest of you the ruled. Laws are for the little people — and little people need lots of little laws, ensnaring them at every turn.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Fiscal cliff deadline hangs heavy as Obama makes final plea to Congress
From The Guaridan: Fiscal cliff deadline hangs heavy as Obama makes final plea to Congress
President Barack Obama made a final pitch to Congress to act on the fiscal cliff on Sunday, citing Republican intransigence as Senate leaders struggled to bash out a last-minute deal.
In a rare foray onto the weekly round of political talk shows, the president sought to put the blame for looming economic crisis firmly at the door of the Republican party, accusing his opponents of having "trouble saying yes" to any proposal put before them.
"They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme," Obama said.
The pointed remarks came as lawmakers in Washington prepared for a rare Sunday session. But with hours to go before they were due to sit, it was unclear if politicians would have any fiscal cliff legislation to debate.
Congress has until midnight on Monday to find a solution to the current fiasco. That deadline will automatically trigger a series of fiscal measures that experts have said could plunge the US back into a recession
If no deal is done, 88% of Americans will see their taxes rise on January 1, a wave of deep spending cuts will start to take effect, and 2 million long-term unemployed people will lose their benefits.
The task of reaching a compromise has fallen on Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Mitch McConnell, who heads the Senate's Republican minority.
Both men were summoned to the White House on Friday, alongside House speaker John Boehner and minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was also in attendance.
After that meeting, Obama said he remained "modestly optimistic" that a deal could be achieved.
But since then there has been no firm indication that a grand compromise was indeed obtainable.
"I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement. And now the pressure's on Congress to produce," Obama told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.
The main sticking point is the threshold for raising income taxes on households with upper-level earnings.
Obama wants all earners of $250,000 a year and above to shoulder a greater burden. Analysts believe that any deal could be anchored on raising taxes for households earning more than $400,000 or $500,000 a year.
But many Republicans in the House have indicated that they will vote against any increase in tax.
Not only could this scupper the chances of a grand deal, it could also see the blocking of the White House's back-up plan to avert the fiscal cliff.
Obama has indicated that if Reid and McConnell fail to produce an agreement by the end of Sunday, he will strong-arm Congress into a vote on scaled-back measures that would avert the immediate cost of America heading over the fiscal cliff.
That simple "up-or-down vote on a basic package" would stop tax hikes for middle-income Americans, while "laying the groundwork for future progress on more economic growth and deficit reduction", Obama said on Saturday.
But even that may have difficulty passing through the House, given the entrenched position of some Tea Party-backed Republicans.
Obama appeared to prepare for that eventuality on Sunday.
"If all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on January 1, then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4 and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families," he said.
But he warned that missing the deadline would still result in "adverse reaction in the markets" and would "hurt our economy badly".
In a rare foray onto the weekly round of political talk shows, the president sought to put the blame for looming economic crisis firmly at the door of the Republican party, accusing his opponents of having "trouble saying yes" to any proposal put before them.
"They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme," Obama said.
The pointed remarks came as lawmakers in Washington prepared for a rare Sunday session. But with hours to go before they were due to sit, it was unclear if politicians would have any fiscal cliff legislation to debate.
Congress has until midnight on Monday to find a solution to the current fiasco. That deadline will automatically trigger a series of fiscal measures that experts have said could plunge the US back into a recession
If no deal is done, 88% of Americans will see their taxes rise on January 1, a wave of deep spending cuts will start to take effect, and 2 million long-term unemployed people will lose their benefits.
The task of reaching a compromise has fallen on Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Mitch McConnell, who heads the Senate's Republican minority.
Both men were summoned to the White House on Friday, alongside House speaker John Boehner and minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was also in attendance.
After that meeting, Obama said he remained "modestly optimistic" that a deal could be achieved.
But since then there has been no firm indication that a grand compromise was indeed obtainable.
"I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement. And now the pressure's on Congress to produce," Obama told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.
The main sticking point is the threshold for raising income taxes on households with upper-level earnings.
Obama wants all earners of $250,000 a year and above to shoulder a greater burden. Analysts believe that any deal could be anchored on raising taxes for households earning more than $400,000 or $500,000 a year.
But many Republicans in the House have indicated that they will vote against any increase in tax.
Not only could this scupper the chances of a grand deal, it could also see the blocking of the White House's back-up plan to avert the fiscal cliff.
Obama has indicated that if Reid and McConnell fail to produce an agreement by the end of Sunday, he will strong-arm Congress into a vote on scaled-back measures that would avert the immediate cost of America heading over the fiscal cliff.
That simple "up-or-down vote on a basic package" would stop tax hikes for middle-income Americans, while "laying the groundwork for future progress on more economic growth and deficit reduction", Obama said on Saturday.
But even that may have difficulty passing through the House, given the entrenched position of some Tea Party-backed Republicans.
Obama appeared to prepare for that eventuality on Sunday.
"If all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on January 1, then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4 and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families," he said.
But he warned that missing the deadline would still result in "adverse reaction in the markets" and would "hurt our economy badly".
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Nothing from SoS until the new year
It was the same last year. After the 21st, nothing was updated until Jan 1.
I don't know that it's because no one has anything scheduled, or because the person who is supposed to update the schedule is on vacation.
27 Dec 2012: Pres and VP Schedules
3:00 am
President Obama Departs Hawaii en route the White House
Local Event Time:
10:00PM HST
Open to pre-credentialed media
President Obama Departs Hawaii en route the White House
Local Event Time:
10:00PM HST
Open to pre-credentialed media
11:30
THE PRESIDENT arrives Joint Base Andrews
11:45 am
THE PRESIDENT arrives the White House
South Lawn |
Vice President Has no daily schedule
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Now there's a "Fight Hunger' Bowl?
Back when I was growing up, there were four Bowls, Sugar, Orange, Rose and Cotton.
And these bowls meant something! You'd never see a team in them with less than a 9-3 record.
Now there are over 20 Bowls, with names like the "Civil Rights Bowl" and the "Fight Hunger Bowl", the "Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl" and the "Meineke Car Bowl of Texas, even the GoDaddyBowl. (In other words, a lot of large corporations sponsor them.)
To what result?
Now we've got sub-.500 teams in bowls, which really defeats the purpose of the bowl - which used to be to showcase the best college talent and now is just used to showcase a company.
Blech.
And these bowls meant something! You'd never see a team in them with less than a 9-3 record.
Now there are over 20 Bowls, with names like the "Civil Rights Bowl" and the "Fight Hunger Bowl", the "Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl" and the "Meineke Car Bowl of Texas, even the GoDaddyBowl. (In other words, a lot of large corporations sponsor them.)
To what result?
Now we've got sub-.500 teams in bowls, which really defeats the purpose of the bowl - which used to be to showcase the best college talent and now is just used to showcase a company.
Blech.
Monday, December 24, 2012
24 Dec 2012, Mon: We're on our own until January 2
Rush is on vacation until January 2, and of course President Obama and his family are off to Hawaii.
I'll be posting occasionally with comments on news reports, but I'm not expecting any readers until after the new year!
I'll be posting occasionally with comments on news reports, but I'm not expecting any readers until after the new year!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Deport Piers Morgan? Do Americans Not See the Irony of this?
Piers Morgan, who is English, has spoken up for gun control in the US.
And 12,000 people - Conservatives - have signed a petition requesting that President Obama kick him out of the country for "attacks againat our Constitution and the 2nd amendment."
Well, gee...which amendment is it that guarantees the right to free speech?
And 12,000 people - Conservatives - have signed a petition requesting that President Obama kick him out of the country for "attacks againat our Constitution and the 2nd amendment."
Well, gee...which amendment is it that guarantees the right to free speech?
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Very interesting report on Benghazi
Surely what actually happened can't be hidden away.
RUSH: We got the report on Benghazi. Did you know that? The
independent panel review of Benghazi is out, and you know what? It says
that mistakes were made. Yes, it does. There were mistakes made at our
consulate in Benghazi, but nobody's really at fault, and nobody is going
to be disciplined. How many of you saw that coming? (laughing) I did.
No, I mean, that was as predictable as the sun coming up. I was so
shocked when I read the independent panel review today that said
mistakes were made but that nobody was at fault, and that nobody is
gonna be disciplined.
I was so shocked by that outcome that I almost fainted, and I almost got a concussion.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
Now, back to Benghazi. "As the State Department began Tuesday to circulate a highly anticipated report into what happened in the Sept. 11 Libya consulate attack, a separate analysis found that the first reference to the anti-Islam film that was initially blamed for sparking the attack was not detected on social media until a day later." In other words, they analyzed all the social media in Libya, whatever their version of Twitter is.
Maybe it's there. I don't know. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, My Butt, they looked at all of that. They could not find one reference to the video on the day of the attack. Well, naturally! The video had nothing to do with it, and yet this administration for three weeks said that it was the video. It was the whole Susan Rice going on five Sunday morning TV shows saying it was the video. It was Hillary Clinton and Obama doing a TV ad in Pok-ee-stahn (as it's pronounced now) blaming the video.
The filmmaker is still in jail. This guy who made this video is in jail. Nobody saw it. It's from back in June. They did an analysis of social media in Libya. They didn't find one reference to it, which means that whatever happened had nothing to do with the video. "The independent review of more than 4,000 postings was conducted by a leading social media monitoring firm. 'From the data we have, it's hard for us to reach the conclusion that the consulate attack was motivated by the movie.
"'Nothing in the immediate picture -- surrounding the attack in Libya -- suggests that,' said Jeff Chapman, chief executive with Agincourt Solutions." There was no mention of the movie. It had nothing to do with it! But it doesn't matter 'cause that's old news now. We've got the Benghazi report out, and mistakes were made, but nobody made them. "Mistakes were made." That's admitted to in the report, but nobody made those mistakes. That's essentially what the report says.
You understand why I'm reaching for the nurse button here?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You'll be happy to know that Obama and Clinton have escaped blame in the Benghazi report. In fact, everybody escaped blame. The official report is out, and it says mistakes were made but nobody made them. It's a whitewash. It's a cover-up. It's a scandal. Here's a pull quote from the story, Daily Caller: "Despite the chaos, top-level officials refused to recognize the dangers, say critics, partly because such recognition would highlight flaws in Obama's strategy." What is this?
The report refused to recognize the dangers at the consulate in Libya because naming the dangers would highlight the flaws in Obama's strategy? We can't have that in a report. No. Because nothing went wrong. There were mistakes, but nobody made them. And so it's over. Benghazi's now in the past. Hillary has a concussion and can't testify. It doesn't matter anyway because even if she had, nobody in this administration's responsible for anything that they do.
I was so shocked by that outcome that I almost fainted, and I almost got a concussion.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
Now, back to Benghazi. "As the State Department began Tuesday to circulate a highly anticipated report into what happened in the Sept. 11 Libya consulate attack, a separate analysis found that the first reference to the anti-Islam film that was initially blamed for sparking the attack was not detected on social media until a day later." In other words, they analyzed all the social media in Libya, whatever their version of Twitter is.
Maybe it's there. I don't know. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, My Butt, they looked at all of that. They could not find one reference to the video on the day of the attack. Well, naturally! The video had nothing to do with it, and yet this administration for three weeks said that it was the video. It was the whole Susan Rice going on five Sunday morning TV shows saying it was the video. It was Hillary Clinton and Obama doing a TV ad in Pok-ee-stahn (as it's pronounced now) blaming the video.
The filmmaker is still in jail. This guy who made this video is in jail. Nobody saw it. It's from back in June. They did an analysis of social media in Libya. They didn't find one reference to it, which means that whatever happened had nothing to do with the video. "The independent review of more than 4,000 postings was conducted by a leading social media monitoring firm. 'From the data we have, it's hard for us to reach the conclusion that the consulate attack was motivated by the movie.
"'Nothing in the immediate picture -- surrounding the attack in Libya -- suggests that,' said Jeff Chapman, chief executive with Agincourt Solutions." There was no mention of the movie. It had nothing to do with it! But it doesn't matter 'cause that's old news now. We've got the Benghazi report out, and mistakes were made, but nobody made them. "Mistakes were made." That's admitted to in the report, but nobody made those mistakes. That's essentially what the report says.
You understand why I'm reaching for the nurse button here?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You'll be happy to know that Obama and Clinton have escaped blame in the Benghazi report. In fact, everybody escaped blame. The official report is out, and it says mistakes were made but nobody made them. It's a whitewash. It's a cover-up. It's a scandal. Here's a pull quote from the story, Daily Caller: "Despite the chaos, top-level officials refused to recognize the dangers, say critics, partly because such recognition would highlight flaws in Obama's strategy." What is this?
The report refused to recognize the dangers at the consulate in Libya because naming the dangers would highlight the flaws in Obama's strategy? We can't have that in a report. No. Because nothing went wrong. There were mistakes, but nobody made them. And so it's over. Benghazi's now in the past. Hillary has a concussion and can't testify. It doesn't matter anyway because even if she had, nobody in this administration's responsible for anything that they do.
Why not daycare centers?
I'm surprised Rush didn't think there'd be daycare centers run on military bases - families live on military bases, you know!
Panetta Orders Global Probe of Military Daycare Centers
RUSH: Defense secretary Leon Panetta. This is something else I didn't know. "Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Tuesday ordered a worldwide review of hiring practices at all U.S. military day care centers after the Army revealed that it discovered problems with security background checks of workers at a Washington-area center.
"Shortly after the Army said it was launching an investigation of hiring practices at its 283 day care centers worldwide, Panetta's press secretary, George Little, issued a statement saying Panetta supports the review. Little said Panetta has directed each of the military services to conduct similar reviews. The actions stem from the Sept. 26 arrests of two Army employees accused of assaulting children at a Fort Myer, Va., day care center. But the problem there apparently is much deeper; indications are that at least 30 workers at the Fort Myer facility have histories that call into question their suitability to care for children, two officials said."
Well, then how did they get the position? When did the military start running day care centers? What have I missed? I read this whole story, I still don't know what it's really all about. "Panetta Orders Global Probe of Military Day Care Centers." Military day care centers?
Panetta Orders Global Probe of Military Daycare Centers
RUSH: Defense secretary Leon Panetta. This is something else I didn't know. "Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Tuesday ordered a worldwide review of hiring practices at all U.S. military day care centers after the Army revealed that it discovered problems with security background checks of workers at a Washington-area center.
"Shortly after the Army said it was launching an investigation of hiring practices at its 283 day care centers worldwide, Panetta's press secretary, George Little, issued a statement saying Panetta supports the review. Little said Panetta has directed each of the military services to conduct similar reviews. The actions stem from the Sept. 26 arrests of two Army employees accused of assaulting children at a Fort Myer, Va., day care center. But the problem there apparently is much deeper; indications are that at least 30 workers at the Fort Myer facility have histories that call into question their suitability to care for children, two officials said."
Well, then how did they get the position? When did the military start running day care centers? What have I missed? I read this whole story, I still don't know what it's really all about. "Panetta Orders Global Probe of Military Day Care Centers." Military day care centers?
Where's the sister?
The sister "occasionally" lets him crash on her couch?
And I dunno, but I would think if you get 4 roommates together, a guy working full time even at a fast-food place would be able to afford a place to stay! Buy a camper or something!
The Homeless Youth of Obamaville
RUSH: New York Times headline: "After Recession, More Young Adults Are Living on Street."This is the new face of the homeless problem, my friends. "Duane Taylor was studying the humanities in community college and living in his own place when he lost his job in a round of layoffs. Then he found, and lost, a second job. And a third. Now, with what he calls 'lowered standards' and a tenuous new position at a Jack in the Box restaurant, Mr. Taylor, 24, does not make enough to rent an apartment or share one. He sleeps on a mat in a homeless shelter, except when his sister lets him crash on her couch. 'At any time I could lose my job, my security,' said Mr. Taylor, explaining how he was always the last hired and the first fired. 'I’d like to be able to support myself. That’s my only goal.'" But boy, it's just so hard, it's so hard.
And the New York Times here says: "Across the country, tens of thousands of underemployed and jobless young people, many with college credits or work histories, are struggling to house themselves in the wake of the recession, which has left workers between the ages of 18 and 24 with the highest unemployment rate of all adults. ... These young adults are the new face of a national homeless population, one that poverty experts and case workers say is growing. Yet the problem is mostly invisible. Most cities and states, focusing on homeless families, have not made special efforts to identify young adults, who tend to shy away from ordinary shelters out of fear of being victimized by an older, chronically homeless population. The unemployment rate and the number of young adults who cannot afford college --" You realize we had a president reelected in all this.
As I read this story, how many of these people voted for him? That's what I can't get past. How many these people probably voted for him, believing that their circumstance is all because of George W. Bush?
"Mr. Taylor, the fast-food worker in Seattle, said he felt lucky when he could find a coveted space at Roots, a shelter for young adults in a church basement. Such shelters are rare. For generations, services for the homeless were directed to two groups: dependent children and older people. There was scant attention focused on what experts now call 'transitional age youth' -- young adults whose needs are distinct."
And then there's another guy here named Tano, T-a-n-o. "Two months ago, Mr. Tano gave up an apartment in his native Dallas after losing his job. He sold his Toyota and sought opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. He rented a room and set out with his resume." You know what his resume expertise is? Fundraising. So he set out with that resume, "But when his $2,000 in savings withered to nothing, 'I ended up sleeping on the street for the first time in my life,' he said. 'I just kind of had to walk around and try to stay warm.'"
His career strength was fundraising, asking people for money. He had $2,000 in savings, and now it's all gone, and now he's among the 18- to 24-year-old, brand-new problem, after the recession, more young adults living on the street. Do you believe it? A humanities major loses all these jobs, now homeless, working at Jack in the Box? No doubt voted for Obama. Well, I shouldn't say no doubt. Likely voted for Obama. Likely blames Republicans for his problems. Probably thought Romney was gonna come steal whatever he had left. So he voted, probably, for the guy who's the architect of the problem.
Meanwhile, unemployment's down. This administration is telling us job creation's happening. The unemployment rate is plummeting. There's just one shred of good news here, and that is that these homeless kids can still be on their parents' health insurance. But at the end of the day I still don't know how this is possible because I thought the recession had been over for three and a half years. The recession ended in 2009. The official calculation of the recession ended in 2009, and we've been growing. Slowly, but our economy's been expanding since then. That's what they tell us.
And I dunno, but I would think if you get 4 roommates together, a guy working full time even at a fast-food place would be able to afford a place to stay! Buy a camper or something!
The Homeless Youth of Obamaville
RUSH: New York Times headline: "After Recession, More Young Adults Are Living on Street."This is the new face of the homeless problem, my friends. "Duane Taylor was studying the humanities in community college and living in his own place when he lost his job in a round of layoffs. Then he found, and lost, a second job. And a third. Now, with what he calls 'lowered standards' and a tenuous new position at a Jack in the Box restaurant, Mr. Taylor, 24, does not make enough to rent an apartment or share one. He sleeps on a mat in a homeless shelter, except when his sister lets him crash on her couch. 'At any time I could lose my job, my security,' said Mr. Taylor, explaining how he was always the last hired and the first fired. 'I’d like to be able to support myself. That’s my only goal.'" But boy, it's just so hard, it's so hard.
And the New York Times here says: "Across the country, tens of thousands of underemployed and jobless young people, many with college credits or work histories, are struggling to house themselves in the wake of the recession, which has left workers between the ages of 18 and 24 with the highest unemployment rate of all adults. ... These young adults are the new face of a national homeless population, one that poverty experts and case workers say is growing. Yet the problem is mostly invisible. Most cities and states, focusing on homeless families, have not made special efforts to identify young adults, who tend to shy away from ordinary shelters out of fear of being victimized by an older, chronically homeless population. The unemployment rate and the number of young adults who cannot afford college --" You realize we had a president reelected in all this.
As I read this story, how many of these people voted for him? That's what I can't get past. How many these people probably voted for him, believing that their circumstance is all because of George W. Bush?
"Mr. Taylor, the fast-food worker in Seattle, said he felt lucky when he could find a coveted space at Roots, a shelter for young adults in a church basement. Such shelters are rare. For generations, services for the homeless were directed to two groups: dependent children and older people. There was scant attention focused on what experts now call 'transitional age youth' -- young adults whose needs are distinct."
And then there's another guy here named Tano, T-a-n-o. "Two months ago, Mr. Tano gave up an apartment in his native Dallas after losing his job. He sold his Toyota and sought opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. He rented a room and set out with his resume." You know what his resume expertise is? Fundraising. So he set out with that resume, "But when his $2,000 in savings withered to nothing, 'I ended up sleeping on the street for the first time in my life,' he said. 'I just kind of had to walk around and try to stay warm.'"
His career strength was fundraising, asking people for money. He had $2,000 in savings, and now it's all gone, and now he's among the 18- to 24-year-old, brand-new problem, after the recession, more young adults living on the street. Do you believe it? A humanities major loses all these jobs, now homeless, working at Jack in the Box? No doubt voted for Obama. Well, I shouldn't say no doubt. Likely voted for Obama. Likely blames Republicans for his problems. Probably thought Romney was gonna come steal whatever he had left. So he voted, probably, for the guy who's the architect of the problem.
Meanwhile, unemployment's down. This administration is telling us job creation's happening. The unemployment rate is plummeting. There's just one shred of good news here, and that is that these homeless kids can still be on their parents' health insurance. But at the end of the day I still don't know how this is possible because I thought the recession had been over for three and a half years. The recession ended in 2009. The official calculation of the recession ended in 2009, and we've been growing. Slowly, but our economy's been expanding since then. That's what they tell us.
19 Dec 2012, Wed, Rush Limbaugh Headlines
--Collective Solutions Rarely Solve Individual Problems
--Benghazi Report: Mistakes Were Made, But Nobody Made Them
--Obama Named TIME Person of the Year Because He Symbolizes the New, Low-Information America
--Obama Holds Press Conference to Brag About Boehner's Confession
--Jake Tapper Pops Obama's Bubble
--Remembering the Great Robert Bork
--Free Will and Self-Esteem
--Mother Blamed for Connecticut Shooting
--Democrats and the Culture of Death
Stack of Stuff
--ChiCom Envy at the New York Times
--The Homeless Youth of Obamaville
--Panetta Orders Global Probe of Military Daycare Centers
--Benghazi Report: Mistakes Were Made, But Nobody Made Them
--Obama Named TIME Person of the Year Because He Symbolizes the New, Low-Information America
--Obama Holds Press Conference to Brag About Boehner's Confession
--Jake Tapper Pops Obama's Bubble
--Remembering the Great Robert Bork
--Free Will and Self-Esteem
--Mother Blamed for Connecticut Shooting
--Democrats and the Culture of Death
Stack of Stuff
--ChiCom Envy at the New York Times
--The Homeless Youth of Obamaville
--Panetta Orders Global Probe of Military Daycare Centers
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Media's Errors and their corrections
From Poynter.com: http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/regret-the-error/197279/the-best-and-worst-media-errors-and-corrections-of-2012/
If my annual tally of plagiarism and fabrication incidents is the depressing part of “Regret the Error”‘s year-end coverage, then this annual collection of the best of the worst in errors and corrections is the highlight.
That’s not to say the mistakes detailed below are minor or purely amusing; many are serious failures.
But it’s important to acknowledge the amusing and outrageous, and to collect them to help journalists avoid making the same mistakes.I also want to celebrate the correction writers who went beyond the call of duty to offer something special.
Here’s the best and most notable of 2012′s media errors and corrections.
I hope you and your colleagues never make the list.
They’re rarely in alignment, but the summer saw CNN and Fox News come together to create the year’s most notable and high profile mistake. Both outlets wrongly interpreted the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act decision, declaring that the individual mandate had been struck down.
CNN said it on air, online, by email newsletter, on Twitter. This mistake was platform agnostic, which is one reason why it deserves error of the year status. It’s an example of how an error on a big breaking story can flow quickly, and move seemingly out of control, in a matter of seconds. The SCOTUS error takes the honor, too, because of the high profile nature of the story, and therefore of the mistakes.
There’s another important reason I elevated this to Error of the Year. It relates to what happened after the initial mistake.
After CNN and Fox News were criticized and mocked, they each made public statements.
From CNN:
As Poynter’s Jeff Sonderman explained at the time, “Fox’s statement says it ‘reported the facts’ when in fact Fox, like CNN, misinterpreted the facts. CNN owned its error when it said it leapt from reporting Roberts’ words to ‘therefore the court struck down the mandate as unconstitutional.’ Fox is saying its interpretation was a fact. Not quite.”
CNN demonstrated professionalism by accepting responsibility for its error. It then worked to help spread the correct information. CNN issued corrections via email, Twitter and on TV. If we compare the number of retweets for its errant tweet with the number of RTs for the correction, we see that the correction actually managed to attract more attention:
By failing to fully correct its error, Fox News added to the confusion, provided fodder for its critics, and failed to be accountable for its reporting.
From The New York Times:
Other Favorites
San Francisco Chronicle:
National Review:
Kelvin MacKenzie, the editor of The Sun in 1989, also issued a personal apology for publishing the mistaken story and the related front page. Below is the original front page (left) and the one from 2012 with the apology:
Full text of the apology:
The Daily Mirror (U.K.):
Mail on Sunday:
Runner Up
The Toronto Sun misspelled the word “correction” in a correction note:
The Sun also misspelled Monday on its front page this year.
Other Favorites
The Ottawa Citizen (Canada) reported that the Titanic sank in 2012:
Also from Canada, the Hamilton Spectator confused a restaurant’s name with a form of cancer (the restaurant’s name is Sarcoa):
For a look at other typos of 2012, read this Atlantic piece.
The original episode proved very popular. It was also filled with fabrications.
Daisey made false claims about what he did and saw while in China, claims that were not caught by TAL during its checking process. After a reporter with “Marketplace” revealed Daisey’s lies, TAL set to work putting together a new show, “Retraction.”
It featured a lengthy conversation between TAL host Ira Glass and Daisey, a segment with the reporter who uncovered Daisey’s fabrications, and a look at working conditions in China.
Daisey was initially unapologetic and justified his lies. He eventually apologized.
In the end, “Retraction” attracted the largest audience for any TAL show ever in its first week of availability, and generated massive press coverage.
Runner Up
From the Daily Mail’s website:
Runner Up
New York Times:
There were many of note: the fake Bill Keller column from WikiLeaks, the teenager who fooled CNBC, the fake Army sniper who fooled “Marketplace,” the paper that got fooled by a contributing cartoonist, the amusing “Abraham Lincoln invented Facebook” hoax, and of course all of the hoax photos during Hurricane Sandy. (I’ll dig a bit deeper into what the increase in hoaxes means in my forthcoming post about the trends of note from 2012.)
But the most elaborate hoax was executed by Greenpeace. The target was oil giant Shell. Greenpeace’s hoax involved a faked viral video, misleading emails to media outlets that covered the fake video, two fake Twitter accounts, and an elaborate fake website. This was a multi-layered, well-planned hoax meant to repeatedly ensnare the press. Poynter’s Jeff Sonderman broke down the Shell Arctic hoax and tried to explain its layers:
Paula Broadwell’s book about David Petraeus was “All In,” not “All Up In My Snatch.”
“Based on our research,” wrote the kids in Mrs. Reed’s fifth-grade class at Burning Tree E.S. in Bethesda, Maryland, “the Titanic hit the iceberg shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912.” Not on the 15th, as Drabelle had written.
The Post soon published a story about the correction letter, including a photo of Drabelle holding up the request for correction:
And of course it made its way into print:
It was funny to see and to read about, but the reporter in question soon lost his job and regretted what he’d done:
But perhaps the most notable example from MailOnline this year was when one of its online reporters couldn’t explain how a false report about a dentist who pulled all of her ex-boyfriend’s teeth in revenge ended up on its website.
“I’ve drawn a bit of a blank,” MailOnline journalist Simon Tomlinson told msnbc.com (now NBCNews.com) for its story about how the hoax story spread far and wide.
“The (Daily) Mail Foreign Service, which did the piece for the paper, is really just an umbrella term for copy put together from agencies. My news desk isn’t sure where exactly it came from.”
Maybe that’s a nice reminder to end with: if you don’t know where the story came from, don’t publish it.
If my annual tally of plagiarism and fabrication incidents is the depressing part of “Regret the Error”‘s year-end coverage, then this annual collection of the best of the worst in errors and corrections is the highlight.
That’s not to say the mistakes detailed below are minor or purely amusing; many are serious failures.
But it’s important to acknowledge the amusing and outrageous, and to collect them to help journalists avoid making the same mistakes.I also want to celebrate the correction writers who went beyond the call of duty to offer something special.
Here’s the best and most notable of 2012′s media errors and corrections.
I hope you and your colleagues never make the list.
Error of the Year
They’re rarely in alignment, but the summer saw CNN and Fox News come together to create the year’s most notable and high profile mistake. Both outlets wrongly interpreted the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act decision, declaring that the individual mandate had been struck down.
CNN said it on air, online, by email newsletter, on Twitter. This mistake was platform agnostic, which is one reason why it deserves error of the year status. It’s an example of how an error on a big breaking story can flow quickly, and move seemingly out of control, in a matter of seconds. The SCOTUS error takes the honor, too, because of the high profile nature of the story, and therefore of the mistakes.
There’s another important reason I elevated this to Error of the Year. It relates to what happened after the initial mistake.
After CNN and Fox News were criticized and mocked, they each made public statements.
From CNN:
In his opinion, Chief Justice Roberts initially said that the individual mandate was not a valid exercise of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause. CNN reported that fact, but then wrongly reported that therefore the court struck down the mandate as unconstitutional. However, that was not the whole of the Court’s ruling. CNN regrets that it didn’t wait to report out the full and complete opinion regarding the mandate. We made a correction within a few minutes and apologize for the error.Fox News:
We gave our viewers the news as it happened. When Justice Roberts said, and we read, that the mandate was not valid under the Commerce clause, we reported it. Bill Hemmer even added, be patient as we work through this. Then when we heard and read, that the mandate could be upheld under the government’s power to tax, we reported that as well—all within two minutes.Same mistake made at the same time, and yet only one news outlet apologized.
By contrast, one other cable network was unable to get their Supreme Court reporter to the camera, and said as much. Another said it was a big setback for the President. Fox reported the facts, as they came in.
As Poynter’s Jeff Sonderman explained at the time, “Fox’s statement says it ‘reported the facts’ when in fact Fox, like CNN, misinterpreted the facts. CNN owned its error when it said it leapt from reporting Roberts’ words to ‘therefore the court struck down the mandate as unconstitutional.’ Fox is saying its interpretation was a fact. Not quite.”
CNN demonstrated professionalism by accepting responsibility for its error. It then worked to help spread the correct information. CNN issued corrections via email, Twitter and on TV. If we compare the number of retweets for its errant tweet with the number of RTs for the correction, we see that the correction actually managed to attract more attention:
By failing to fully correct its error, Fox News added to the confusion, provided fodder for its critics, and failed to be accountable for its reporting.
Correction of the Year
This year’s winner takes the award because of the strange and incorrect initial claim, the media-on-media nature of the mistake, and the witty correction offered as a result. The winner is The Economist for this:Correction: An earlier version of this article claimed that journalists at Bloomberg Businessweek could be disciplined for sipping a spritzer at work. This is not true. Sorry. We must have been drunk on the job.The above also deserves mention because Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel also drew attention to The Economist’s incorrect assertion on Twitter, which added even more humor to the mistake:
According to @TheEconomist, @BW is leading the new journalism temperance movement. We will have... VENGEANCE! econ.st/P76Dx1
Most Viral Correction
There’s another correction that deserves special recognition. It was published on December 30 of last year, thus making it a 2011 correction. (I noted it on January 2, 2012.) But it took until early January for it to attract attention and ultimately prove to be the most viral correction of 2012.From The New York Times:
An article on Monday about Jack Robison and Kirsten Lindsmith, two college students with Asperger syndrome who are navigating the perils of an intimate relationship, misidentified the character from the animated children’s TV show “My Little Pony” that Ms. Lindsmith said she visualized to cheer herself up. It is Twilight Sparkle, the nerdy intellectual, not Fluttershy, the kind animal lover.Jim Romenesko played a big part in helping spread the correction thanks to a January 6 post that offered the interesting backstory.
Other Favorites
San Francisco Chronicle:
C.W. Nevius’ column about Most Holy Redeemer banning drag queen performers incorrectly stated that entertainer Peaches Christ appeared at an event at the church’s hall with a dildo shaped like a crucifix. He did not appear at the event, nor does he use the prop.The Atlantic:
This post originally referred to Jennifer Grey as “Ferris Bueller’s sister.” As commenters have pointed out, her role alongside Swayze in Dirty Dancing is clearly the more relevant. We regret putting Baby in a corner.Vogue magazine:
Full Vogue correction on mistakingly calling Assist Scy of State Dan Baer an interior designer. pic.twitter.com/2veYu1zv
I misspoke this evening on the Special Report panel. I suggested that Godzilla was less destructive than King Kong. And everyone knows that it’s the other way around. I apologize for any offense to the Kong family or to Godzilla’s fans — or victims.New York Times:
An article on Sunday about the diplomatic life of J. Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador to Libya who was killed in an attack there last week, referred incompletely to an account Mr. Stevens gave of a meeting between Cécilia Sarkozy, then the wife of the French president, with the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2007. While Mr. Stevens passed along gossip that said Qaddafi had opened his robes during the meeting and was naked underneath, the former Mrs. Sarkozy, now Mrs. Attias, says that Mr. Stevens was not at the meeting and that the anecdote he repeated is not true.New York Times:
The article also misidentified the country in which Mr. Stevens served with a former diplomat, John Bell. They were in Egypt, not in Syria.
An earlier version misstated the term Mr. Vidal called William F. Buckley Jr. in a television appearance during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It was crypto-Nazi, not crypto-fascist. It also described incorrectly Mr. Vidal’s connection with former Vice President Al Gore. Although Mr. Vidal frequently referred jokingly to Mr. Gore as his cousin, they were not related. And Mr. Vidal’s relationship with his longtime live-in companion, Howard Austen, was also described incorrectly. According to Mr. Vidal’s memoir “Palimpsest,” they had sex the night they met, but did not sleep together after they began living together. It was not true that they never had sex.Wall Street Journal:
Talking about performing in the musical “The Who’s Tommy,” the actor and singer Michael Cerveris said, “I couldn’t sing it all when I got the job.” An article on Mr. Cerveris in the latest Friday Journal incorrectly quoted him as saying, “I couldn’t sing at all when I got the job.”The Guardian:
In an article about the numbers of gay members of the Conservative party, Evan Davis, the author, referred to remarks by Ben Fenton, the FT journalist. This was an error: Davis had intended to quote Ben Furnival, the former chairman of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender group ParliOut. We are happy to point out that Fenton made no contribution to this article and that Davis would have had no reason to include him as Fenton is neither gay nor has he ever given any public indication of his political leanings. The Guardian regrets the error (Glad to be Tory, 21 April, page 37, Weekend).The Globe And Mail:
François Mitterrand, the former French president, is reported to have said that Margaret Thatcher had the mouth of Marilyn Monroe and the eyes of Caligula — not Stalin, as reported in an earlier version of this article.The Australian:
Due to a production error, a quote attributed to Lieutenant Colonel Ghulam Jehlani Shafiq in a report in The Weekend Australian on Saturday (“Afghanistan battles scourge of corruption”, page 16) was altered to change its meaning. Colonel Jehlani did not say: “It’s not like 25 years ago. I was killing everybody.” In fact, he said: “It’s not like 25 years ago I was killing everybody. At that time too we tried not to have civilian casualties.” The Australian apologises for the error.Slate:
In a March 2 “Future Tense” blog post, Torie Bosch misspelled the science fiction award won by writer Bruce Sterling. It is of course the Hugo Award, not the Huge Award.The Guardian:
In an analysis piece – A shipwreck at this time in the life of Italy is almost painfully metaphoric, 19 January, page 18 – our English rendering of an Italian journalist’s blog comment contained a slip. ‘Italy,’ we had her saying, ‘is once again the laughing stocking of foreign newspapers.’Slate:
In an April 30 “TV Club,” Julia Turner misstated when Sally Draper ate the fish in Mad Men. It was before she saw the blow job.New York Times:
A Lens column earlier this month about introverts and extroverts misquoted the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. The correct quote is “Hell is other people,” not “Hell is other people at breakfast.”The Economist:
In “The value of a good editor” (January 7th), we unwittingly proved the point of the title by referring to Joshua Rosenthal of the University of Puerto Rico subsequently as “Ms Rosenthal”. The gender-identifying appellation had been intended for his colleague, Sandra Garrett. Apologies to both.Miami Herald:
A column by Glenn Garvin on Dec. 20 stated that the National Science Foundation “funded a study on Jell-O wrestling at the South Pole.” That is incorrect. The event took place during off-duty hours without NSF permission and did not involve taxpayer funds.
Apology of the Year
In September, U.K. tabloid The Sun issued a front page apology for the false accusations it made in 1989 related to the Hillsborough disaster that killed 96 soccer fans and injured more than 700 in England.Kelvin MacKenzie, the editor of The Sun in 1989, also issued a personal apology for publishing the mistaken story and the related front page. Below is the original front page (left) and the one from 2012 with the apology:
Full text of the apology:
THE Sun’s reporting of the Hillsborough tragedy 23 years ago is without doubt the blackest day in this newspaper’s history.Runner Up
The Hillsborough Independent Panel’s report into the disaster lays bare the disgraceful attempt by South Yorkshire Police to hide their culpability behind a smokescreen of lies.
It highlights a concerted campaign by senior officers to smear the innocent by fabricating lurid allegations about Liverpool fans — and then feeding them to the media.
But it is to the eternal discredit of The Sun that we reported as fact this misinformation which tarnished the reputation of Liverpool fans including the 96 victims.
Today we unreservedly apologise to the Hillsborough victims, their families, Liverpool supporters, the city of Liverpool and all our readers for that misjudgment.
The role of a newspaper is to uncover injustice. To forensically examine the claims made by those who are in positions of power.
In the aftermath of the Hillsborough tragedy we failed.
The Daily Mirror (U.K.):
WITH Saturday’s Daily Mirror we distributed a supplement entitled ‘Women who Kill’ which we trailed on the front page of the newspaper with a picture of the front page of the supplement.Other Favorites
One of the women whose story featured in the supplement was Vera Renczi who lived in the former Yugoslavia between 1903 and 1939 and who killed 35 men. Unfortunately due to an error the picture we used, both inside and on the front page of the supplement, was not of Vera Renczi but of Patricia Belda Martinez, who is otherwise known as Morgana and who is a fashion model. The picture we used belongs to Ms Martinez.
We apologise unreservedly to Ms Martinez for our error in wrongly using her picture in the supplement which she, of course, has no connection with and for the considerable embarrassment caused to her by our actions.
Mail on Sunday:
In an article that appeared in the print edition and online version of the Mail on Sunday on 7 August 2011, it was suggested that according to Mail on Sunday sources Société Générale, one of Europe’s largest banks, was in a ‘perilous’ state and possibly on the ‘brink of disaster’.Daily Star (U.K.):
We now accept that this was not true and we unreservedly apologise to Société Générale for any embarrassment caused.
IN our article “Mum blasts Lewis for abandoning baby” published on Sunday, January 8, 2012 we said that darts world champion Adrian Lewis had not paid a penny towards the upbringing of his daughter since separating from her mother and that he had effectively disappeared and abandoned her.The Sun (U.K.):
We accept that this is untrue. In fact Mr Lewis has made regular and substantial payments to his ex partner and has tried to maintain a relationship with his daughter.
We sincerely apologise to Mr Lewis for any distress or embarrassment our article may have caused.
An article on January 30 incorrectly stated that Graham Westley, Manager of Preston North End FC, had sent a bizarre late night text telling players to prepare for a 9/11 style terror attack and encouraging reaction to it.Daily Mirror (U.K.):
We accept that Mr Westley sent no such text to players or otherwise. We are happy to set the record straight and apologise to Mr Westley and Preston North End FC.
Following our article of 1 May 2012 in which it was reported that Lyn Paul of the New Seekers was a “conquest” of Tony Blackburn, Ms Paul has contacted us to say that she merely shared a dinner date with Tony Blackburn and neither slept with him nor had a relationship with him. We are happy to make this clear and apologise to Ms Paul for any upset caused.Metro (U.K.):
Metro and other publishers yesterday told the High Court they had paid substantial damages to an Algerian man for wrongly reporting that he offered a safe house in France to British al-Qaeda terrorists.
Associated Newspapers, the publisher of MailOnline and Metro; The Telegraph Media Group; MGN, the publisher of the Daily Mirror; and the publisher of the Daily Express apologised to Farid Boukemiche, 40. Some reports said he was on trial in France in January 2011 for associating with a known terrorist organisation and for financing terrorism. Others alleged he was a ‘gangster’ accused of carrying out robberies or had admitted to robbery.
The High Court heard the articles had been withdrawn from the newspapers’ websites, that they had accepted that the allegations were untrue and they had apologised to Mr Boukemiche.
Typo of the Year
The Charlotte Observer reported that an NBA player suffered a “herniated dick“:Runner Up
The Toronto Sun misspelled the word “correction” in a correction note:
The Sun also misspelled Monday on its front page this year.
Other Favorites
The Ottawa Citizen (Canada) reported that the Titanic sank in 2012:
Also from Canada, the Hamilton Spectator confused a restaurant’s name with a form of cancer (the restaurant’s name is Sarcoa):
For a look at other typos of 2012, read this Atlantic piece.
Retraction of the Year
The year’s most notable, and downloaded, retraction belongs to “This American Life.” In January it aired an episode, “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” that featured performer Mike Daisey delivering a monologue about a trip to China and the working conditions of the people who make the Apple devices so many of us covet.The original episode proved very popular. It was also filled with fabrications.
Daisey made false claims about what he did and saw while in China, claims that were not caught by TAL during its checking process. After a reporter with “Marketplace” revealed Daisey’s lies, TAL set to work putting together a new show, “Retraction.”
It featured a lengthy conversation between TAL host Ira Glass and Daisey, a segment with the reporter who uncovered Daisey’s fabrications, and a look at working conditions in China.
Daisey was initially unapologetic and justified his lies. He eventually apologized.
In the end, “Retraction” attracted the largest audience for any TAL show ever in its first week of availability, and generated massive press coverage.
Best Headline Error
From the Suffolk Journal of Suffolk University (via Romenesko):Runner Up
From the Daily Mail’s website:
Best Numerical Error
In January, CNN’s “Early Start” was all set to do its “Wake ‘Em Up” segment with comedian Chuck Nice. They rang him up a little after 6:30 a.m. his time. But it wasn’t Nice on the line. Ruh roh. Video via Mediaite:Runner Up
New York Times:
Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the number of years E.B. White wrote for The New Yorker. It was five decades, not centuries.
Best Hoax
2012 was a competitive year for hoaxes.There were many of note: the fake Bill Keller column from WikiLeaks, the teenager who fooled CNBC, the fake Army sniper who fooled “Marketplace,” the paper that got fooled by a contributing cartoonist, the amusing “Abraham Lincoln invented Facebook” hoax, and of course all of the hoax photos during Hurricane Sandy. (I’ll dig a bit deeper into what the increase in hoaxes means in my forthcoming post about the trends of note from 2012.)
But the most elaborate hoax was executed by Greenpeace. The target was oil giant Shell. Greenpeace’s hoax involved a faked viral video, misleading emails to media outlets that covered the fake video, two fake Twitter accounts, and an elaborate fake website. This was a multi-layered, well-planned hoax meant to repeatedly ensnare the press. Poynter’s Jeff Sonderman broke down the Shell Arctic hoax and tried to explain its layers:
Not only was the video fake, but journalists who wrote about the video received followup emails (also fake) from “Shell” calling the video a hoax and directing them to a company website. But that Arctic Ready website, it turns out, was yet another hoax.
So, activists produce a fake viral video, get journalists to write about it, send journalists a fake email admitting the video hoax but steering them to yet another Web hoax.
Best Photo Error
A Denver TV station used a doctored photo to illustrate a story about the David Petraeus resignation/affair:Paula Broadwell’s book about David Petraeus was “All In,” not “All Up In My Snatch.”
Best Error Report
After Washington Post writer Dennis Drabelle published a story with an incorrect fact about the sinking of the Titanic, he heard about it via unusual means. First, the error report came by snail mail. Even more notably, the letter itself was more than five feet long.“Based on our research,” wrote the kids in Mrs. Reed’s fifth-grade class at Burning Tree E.S. in Bethesda, Maryland, “the Titanic hit the iceberg shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912.” Not on the 15th, as Drabelle had written.
The Post soon published a story about the correction letter, including a photo of Drabelle holding up the request for correction:
Best Explanation of Missing Information
A young journalist for Louisiana’s Rayne Independent was frustrated after not getting all the information he wanted at the end of a local softball game. So in jest he noted in his copy that stats weren’t available for a specific player due to a coach’s “bullshit and laziness.”And of course it made its way into print:
It was funny to see and to read about, but the reporter in question soon lost his job and regretted what he’d done:
17 May 12I present the world's greatest piece of print journalism ever. instagr.am/p/KvZGZAHOqA/
@JL_Reports This is still haunting me. It will haunt me for a long time. I just wish in time i can be forgiven by everyone
Worst Explanation for Fake Story
The Daily Mail’s website, MailOnline, made frequent appearances in “Regret the Error” this year. There was the above mentioned Etta James headline flub and Société Générale apology, the time it plucked a fake photo from Facebook and reported it as true, and the time it was caught stealing the work of news outlets and bloggers. (There were other posts, as you can see here.)But perhaps the most notable example from MailOnline this year was when one of its online reporters couldn’t explain how a false report about a dentist who pulled all of her ex-boyfriend’s teeth in revenge ended up on its website.
“I’ve drawn a bit of a blank,” MailOnline journalist Simon Tomlinson told msnbc.com (now NBCNews.com) for its story about how the hoax story spread far and wide.
“The (Daily) Mail Foreign Service, which did the piece for the paper, is really just an umbrella term for copy put together from agencies. My news desk isn’t sure where exactly it came from.”
Maybe that’s a nice reminder to end with: if you don’t know where the story came from, don’t publish it.
Monday, December 17, 2012
How culpable is the media?
It seems like whenever there's a tragedy - a gunman kills innocents in a school, at a mall or what have you - the news folks on TV and probably even on Twitter start gossiping. Someone tells them something, and they report it instead of saying they'll wait until they learn all the facts.
Rush pointed out this very well today:
Although you know something was very wrong there, because I frankly find it very hard to believe that Hillary Clinton can't testify about Benghazi because she has a concussion!
Rush pointed out this very well today:
They were looking desperately to find a way. And if you want to pooh-pooh that, I just want to remind you that after the Aurora mass shootings at the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, ABC News first reported the shooter was a member of a Tea Party, in an effort to cast aspersions on peaceful, nonviolent conservative Republicans. Of course, it turned out not to be true. After the event involving Gabby Giffords wound badly in Arizona, the first thing they did was try to blame Sarah Palin and then me. They even went so far as to blame a graphic on Sarah Palin's website that featured crosshairs. Without knowing anything that was the knee-jerk reaction. And the same thing was happening here.Now, having said that, anyone notice any similarities between this and Benghazi? Was there a rush to judgement against Obama, based solely on what the media was reporting?
The other part of the agenda that was being advanced was, of course, gun control. And there was glee, there was excitement at the opportunity that was presented here. And I firmly believe that this is why so much of the initial reporting is wrong, is because it's all the result of a tainted universe in which these people live in the first place. The things that they believe are wrong. The things that guide them are incorrect. About us, at least. And so they start looking for evidence to prove what they feel, because what they are constantly doing is attempting to advance their political agenda. And that is what's going on with this now.
So any attempt to report factually about it or to try to put it in any kind of perspective is going to be met with complete derision, criticism, mocking, and what have you. When in fact the real sickness in this can be found in the left-wing media. Mark "Maxi" Shields, what did he say? Mark Shields said that it is easier to get an assault rifle than it is to rent a car. Now, that's not true. It simply isn't true, but that kind of stuff is out there left and right, and, of course, your average low-information voter hears this, and starts thinking, "Wow, what a rotten country. What a rotten place, a horrible place." It's just the sheer volume of incorrect data that is passed on.
John Hinderaker had a post at Power Line: "Desperate to profit by satisfying the public’s thirst for information about the Sandy Hook murders, news outlets -- just about all of them, as far as I can tell -- rushed to publicize 'facts' that turned out to be largely wrong. They reported that Ryan Lanza was a mass murderer, when in fact he is a respectable accountant who learned of the murders -- and his own alleged responsibility -- via CNN, while working in his office in Times Square. They reported that the killer’s younger brother was found in the woods after the murders, and was hauled out while protesting his innocence.
"Adam Lanza didn’t have a younger brother, and we have heard nothing further about this second person who supposedly had something to do with the killings. They told us that Nancy Lanza was a kindergarten teacher at Sandy Hook and was murdered in her classroom, along with her students. It turned out that she had no connection to Sandy Hook and was shot at home as she lay in her bed, likely asleep. They reported, entirely falsely, that Lanza had murdered his father in New Jersey. On fact after fact, the news media turned out to be wrong. Likely more errors will emerge over time."
And these people that are wrong, wrong, wrong, they are the primary news source for a vast majority of people in this country. "The broader and more important question relates to the news media’s responsibility for Sandy Hook and similar incidents. As I wrote here, it seems rather obvious that mass murderers like Adam Lanza are inspired in part by a desire for fame, which our news media are happy to supply."
Although you know something was very wrong there, because I frankly find it very hard to believe that Hillary Clinton can't testify about Benghazi because she has a concussion!
17 Dec 2012, Mon, Rush Limbaugh headlines
--We're Living the Collapse of Our Culture
--The Left Won't Allow Facts to Get in the Way of Their Agenda
--We Need Lunatic Control
--I Don't Pretend to Have the Answers
--"Assault Weapon" is a Manufactured Term
--Carney Ties Fiscal Cliff to School Shooting
--An Interesting E-Mail on Young, White Males
Stack of Sruff
--Leave Junk Food Addicts Alone, Libs!
--Texas Gun Shop Owner Offers Discount to Teachers
--CBS: Gun Show Draws Huge Crowd...
--The Left Won't Allow Facts to Get in the Way of Their Agenda
--We Need Lunatic Control
--I Don't Pretend to Have the Answers
--"Assault Weapon" is a Manufactured Term
--Carney Ties Fiscal Cliff to School Shooting
--An Interesting E-Mail on Young, White Males
Stack of Sruff
--Leave Junk Food Addicts Alone, Libs!
--Texas Gun Shop Owner Offers Discount to Teachers
--CBS: Gun Show Draws Huge Crowd...
17 Dec 2012, Mon, Sos Clinton and Staff Schedule
Until SoS Clinton (who apparently has a concussion after fainting and will not be testifying abut Benghazi) has events of her own on this schedule, I will post them all in the same post. Once she (and after her, her successor) actually start doing stuff, I'll break this post apart into what the Secretary does and what the rest of the staff does.
SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
Secretary Clinton has no public events.
DEPUTY SECRETARY BURNS
12:00 p.m. Deputy Secretary Burns attends a luncheon in honor of Senator Richard Lugar, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
4:00 p.m. Deputy Secretary Burns meets with Ambassador David Satterfield, Director General of Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) , at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
DEPUTY SECRETARY TOM NIDES
10:00 a.m. Deputy Secretary Nides meets with USAID Administrator Shah, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:15 p.m. Deputy Secretary Nides attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS WENDY SHERMAN
7:00 p.m. Under Secretary Sherman attends a dinner hosted by United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, in honor of United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, at the Ambassador’s residence.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT ROBERT HORMATS
12:15 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats holds a conference call with Marc Maurer, President of National Federation of the Blind, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
2:30 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats holds a conference call with former Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
5:00 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats holds a conference call with Clyde Tuggle, Senior Vice President and Chief Public Affairs and Communications Officer at The Coca-Cola Company.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
6:30 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats delivers remarks at the European Institute’s Annual Ambassadors’ Dinner, in Washington, DC.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIAN AFFAIRS ROBERT BLAKE
9:45 a.m. Assistant Secretary Blake participates in a video conference with the World Bank, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED MEDIA COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AFFAIRS ESTHER BRIMMER
Assistant Secretary Brimmer hosts an Australian delegation led by Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Gary Quinlan, and including representatives from the Australian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York and the Embassy of Australia to the U.S., at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AFFAIRS WILLIAM BROWNFIELD
Assistant Secretary Brownfield is on foreign travel in China through December 19 to meet with senior government officials.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS KURT CAMPBELL
Assistant Secretary Campbell is on foreign travel to the Philippines, Malaysia, and New Zealand through December 17. Please click here for more information.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND NONPROLIFERATION TOM COUNTRYMAN
Assistant Secretary Countryman is on foreign travel in Brussels, Belgium through December 17. Please click here for more information.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS ROBERTA JACOBSON
3:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson meets with Peter Kornbluh, Director of the National Security Archive‘s Chile Documentation Project and of the Cuba Documentation Project, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:30 p.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson attends a Holiday Open House Reception, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
7:30 p.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson attends a reception in honor of Canadian Deputy Ministers, at the Ambassador of Canada’s residence.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND LABOR MICHAEL POSNER
2:30 p.m. Assistant Secretary Posner meets with Deputy Head of Mission to the UK Philip Barton to receive the UK’s Lifeline Donation, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE).
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS LUIS CDEBACA
Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Luis CdeBaca is on foreign travel in Burma.
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE FOR GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES MELANNE VERVEER
Ambassador Verveer is on official travel to Little Rock, Arkansas to speak at the Club of Madrid Conference: Harnessing 21st Century Solutions: A Focus on Women. Please click here for more information.
(MEDIA DETEMINED BY HOST)
SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR GLOBAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS RETA JO LEWIS
10:30 a.m. Special Representative Lewis speaks about “Advancing Global Collaboration at the Local Level,” at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington, DC.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)
3:00 p.m. Special Representative Lewis meets with Dan Crippen, Executive Director and David Quam, Director, Office of Federal Relations, National Governors Association, in the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS KRIS BALDERSTON
11: 00 a.m. Special Representative Balderston and Director of U.S. Cookstoves Initiatives Jacob Moss attend a panel discussion, “The New Global Burden of Disease Estimates for Household Air Pollution,” organized by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, at the National Press Club.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
DIRECTOR OF POLICY PLANNING JAKE SULLIVAN
2:30 p.m. Director Sullivan meets with Greek Ambassador to the U.S. Christos Panagopoulos, at the Department of State.
SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
Secretary Clinton has no public events.
DEPUTY SECRETARY BURNS
12:00 p.m. Deputy Secretary Burns attends a luncheon in honor of Senator Richard Lugar, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
4:00 p.m. Deputy Secretary Burns meets with Ambassador David Satterfield, Director General of Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) , at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
DEPUTY SECRETARY TOM NIDES
10:00 a.m. Deputy Secretary Nides meets with USAID Administrator Shah, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:15 p.m. Deputy Secretary Nides attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS WENDY SHERMAN
7:00 p.m. Under Secretary Sherman attends a dinner hosted by United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, in honor of United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, at the Ambassador’s residence.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT ROBERT HORMATS
12:15 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats holds a conference call with Marc Maurer, President of National Federation of the Blind, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
2:30 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats holds a conference call with former Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
5:00 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats holds a conference call with Clyde Tuggle, Senior Vice President and Chief Public Affairs and Communications Officer at The Coca-Cola Company.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
6:30 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats delivers remarks at the European Institute’s Annual Ambassadors’ Dinner, in Washington, DC.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIAN AFFAIRS ROBERT BLAKE
9:45 a.m. Assistant Secretary Blake participates in a video conference with the World Bank, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED MEDIA COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AFFAIRS ESTHER BRIMMER
Assistant Secretary Brimmer hosts an Australian delegation led by Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Gary Quinlan, and including representatives from the Australian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York and the Embassy of Australia to the U.S., at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AFFAIRS WILLIAM BROWNFIELD
Assistant Secretary Brownfield is on foreign travel in China through December 19 to meet with senior government officials.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS KURT CAMPBELL
Assistant Secretary Campbell is on foreign travel to the Philippines, Malaysia, and New Zealand through December 17. Please click here for more information.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND NONPROLIFERATION TOM COUNTRYMAN
Assistant Secretary Countryman is on foreign travel in Brussels, Belgium through December 17. Please click here for more information.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS ROBERTA JACOBSON
3:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson meets with Peter Kornbluh, Director of the National Security Archive‘s Chile Documentation Project and of the Cuba Documentation Project, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:30 p.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson attends a Holiday Open House Reception, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
7:30 p.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson attends a reception in honor of Canadian Deputy Ministers, at the Ambassador of Canada’s residence.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND LABOR MICHAEL POSNER
2:30 p.m. Assistant Secretary Posner meets with Deputy Head of Mission to the UK Philip Barton to receive the UK’s Lifeline Donation, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE).
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS LUIS CDEBACA
Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Luis CdeBaca is on foreign travel in Burma.
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE FOR GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES MELANNE VERVEER
Ambassador Verveer is on official travel to Little Rock, Arkansas to speak at the Club of Madrid Conference: Harnessing 21st Century Solutions: A Focus on Women. Please click here for more information.
(MEDIA DETEMINED BY HOST)
SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR GLOBAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS RETA JO LEWIS
10:30 a.m. Special Representative Lewis speaks about “Advancing Global Collaboration at the Local Level,” at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington, DC.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)
3:00 p.m. Special Representative Lewis meets with Dan Crippen, Executive Director and David Quam, Director, Office of Federal Relations, National Governors Association, in the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS KRIS BALDERSTON
11: 00 a.m. Special Representative Balderston and Director of U.S. Cookstoves Initiatives Jacob Moss attend a panel discussion, “The New Global Burden of Disease Estimates for Household Air Pollution,” organized by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, at the National Press Club.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
DIRECTOR OF POLICY PLANNING JAKE SULLIVAN
2:30 p.m. Director Sullivan meets with Greek Ambassador to the U.S. Christos Panagopoulos, at the Department of State.
17 Dec 2012, Mon, Pres and VP Schedule
Neither the President nor the VP have any public schedule today.
Perhaps the President is still in Newtown?
Perhaps the President is still in Newtown?
Friday, December 14, 2012
Should we boycott CBS Evening News?
I have not watched any of the TV bews broadcasts about what happened in CT today, and only a couple of articles.
But according to some guy on a message board I read: "CBS Evening News showed of parents breaking down as they learned their child was dead."
And I want to know...why were these parent's told of their child's death in a public place with cameras watching, and why did CBS air this footage.
This isn't unique, of course - any family tragedy and the reporters and cameras are there invading people's privacy and filming them implacably as they break down in tears..
It's not necessary, and it's not right.
But according to some guy on a message board I read: "CBS Evening News showed of parents breaking down as they learned their child was dead."
And I want to know...why were these parent's told of their child's death in a public place with cameras watching, and why did CBS air this footage.
This isn't unique, of course - any family tragedy and the reporters and cameras are there invading people's privacy and filming them implacably as they break down in tears..
It's not necessary, and it's not right.
Gun control and the slaughter of 18 little kids
Rush was complaining today that Liberals are attempting to "politicize" the tragedy in Connecticut.
And over on the Sean Hannity forums, threads have been started but it's been requested that the political aspect be left out of it for today.
But really...how can this not be political?
If this guy had had only a knife rather than a gun... he wouldn't have been able to kill so many people!
I don't know what the solution is - I'm all for people owning guns - though, I certainly don't think people need to own assault rifles - if you can't kill a deer with a single shot you have no business being out there in the wilderness braving the elements in your little deer blind with your bottle of liquor...
I think inner cities schools do have armed guards there (and how sad is that!) but now it seems that we need armed guards in every school.
And over on the Sean Hannity forums, threads have been started but it's been requested that the political aspect be left out of it for today.
But really...how can this not be political?
If this guy had had only a knife rather than a gun... he wouldn't have been able to kill so many people!
I don't know what the solution is - I'm all for people owning guns - though, I certainly don't think people need to own assault rifles - if you can't kill a deer with a single shot you have no business being out there in the wilderness braving the elements in your little deer blind with your bottle of liquor...
I think inner cities schools do have armed guards there (and how sad is that!) but now it seems that we need armed guards in every school.
Who is racist?
RUSH: You don't know what that's about? Oh, you haven't heard about
the latest racist incident on ESPN? Yeah, this black reporter for ESPN
was on some typically pointless, designed for controversy only ESPN
show. His name is Rob Parker, used to be in Detroit. He said that
RGIII is not down for the struggle, is not an authentic black. He has a
white fiancee, might be a Republican. Can't be an authentic black, not
down for the cause, and he's a cornball brother. He's not really a
black guy. He's not one of us. And, of course, this is being debated
as though there is some possibility that Parker... A lot of people are
outraged by it, naturally, but depending who you are and what your skin
color, you can say anything and have it treated as an intellectual
addition to the public domain and have it discussed.
Now, this is not like going after Clarence Thomas, who's an acknowledged conservative, or not like going after Walter Williams or Shelby Steele. RGIII is the most popular black guy in DC. He is single-handedly saving the Washington Redskins. There's still playoff potential there with the Redskins. Going after this guy as a conservative, as a Republican, is not an automatic score for you. But, once again, who is it in our culture that are the real racists? And who is it that's determining who's authentically this and who's not authentically that?
This Rob Parker guy (paraphrasing), "Yeah, well, he's black. He kind of does his thing, but he's not really down with the cause, he's not one of us. He's kind of black. But he's not really the guy you'd really want to hang out with 'cause he's off to do something else." Essentially he's too white. He's not authentically-black, Snerdley. This is the kind of stuff, by the way, that they were talking about, not as pointedly, about Obama during the 2007, 2008 campaign. That's what the LA Times column, the "Magic Negro," was all about. I can't believe you hadn't heard about that. ESPN's response is they are looking at it. ESPN is looking at it, determining, you know, what they might want to do. Let's grab the sound bite. Here's Rob Parker. It's on the program called First Take, and this is the show that he appears on with Skip Bayless. Stephen A. Smith is on this show. And the cohost, Cari Champion, says, "What does this say about RGIII?"
PARKER: My question, which is just a straight honest question, is he a brother or is he a cornball brother? He's black, he does his thing, but he's not really down with the cause. He's not one of us. He's kind of black, but he's not really like the guy you really want to hang out with 'cause he's off to something. We all know he has a white fiancee and there's all this talk about he's Republican, which, there's no information at all. I'm just trying to dig deeper into why he has an issue, because we did find out with Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods was like, I don't want to -- I got black skin but don't call me black. So people got a little... wondered about Tiger Woods early on about him.
RUSH: This guy's a separatist. This guy doesn't want any kind of integration. This guy's a full-fledged separatist. They're investigating to see if he's Republican. And if it can be proven that he's Republican, then ESPN probably say no foul. If they can remove that RGIII is a Republican then there will be no problem and Parker get even more airtime. They're investigating whether he's a Republican. That's gonna be the determine factor.
Now, RGIII has said (paraphrased), "Look, I don't want to be defined by my race." That's a big problem. He has said publicly he doesn't want to be defined by race. He wants to be defined by the kind of person he is. Like Martin Luther King said. The content of his character, the degree to which he performs well, his character in public. That's how he wants to be known and that's how he wants to live his life. He doesn't want to live his life as a skin color.
Now, this is not like going after Clarence Thomas, who's an acknowledged conservative, or not like going after Walter Williams or Shelby Steele. RGIII is the most popular black guy in DC. He is single-handedly saving the Washington Redskins. There's still playoff potential there with the Redskins. Going after this guy as a conservative, as a Republican, is not an automatic score for you. But, once again, who is it in our culture that are the real racists? And who is it that's determining who's authentically this and who's not authentically that?
This Rob Parker guy (paraphrasing), "Yeah, well, he's black. He kind of does his thing, but he's not really down with the cause, he's not one of us. He's kind of black. But he's not really the guy you'd really want to hang out with 'cause he's off to do something else." Essentially he's too white. He's not authentically-black, Snerdley. This is the kind of stuff, by the way, that they were talking about, not as pointedly, about Obama during the 2007, 2008 campaign. That's what the LA Times column, the "Magic Negro," was all about. I can't believe you hadn't heard about that. ESPN's response is they are looking at it. ESPN is looking at it, determining, you know, what they might want to do. Let's grab the sound bite. Here's Rob Parker. It's on the program called First Take, and this is the show that he appears on with Skip Bayless. Stephen A. Smith is on this show. And the cohost, Cari Champion, says, "What does this say about RGIII?"
PARKER: My question, which is just a straight honest question, is he a brother or is he a cornball brother? He's black, he does his thing, but he's not really down with the cause. He's not one of us. He's kind of black, but he's not really like the guy you really want to hang out with 'cause he's off to something. We all know he has a white fiancee and there's all this talk about he's Republican, which, there's no information at all. I'm just trying to dig deeper into why he has an issue, because we did find out with Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods was like, I don't want to -- I got black skin but don't call me black. So people got a little... wondered about Tiger Woods early on about him.
RUSH: This guy's a separatist. This guy doesn't want any kind of integration. This guy's a full-fledged separatist. They're investigating to see if he's Republican. And if it can be proven that he's Republican, then ESPN probably say no foul. If they can remove that RGIII is a Republican then there will be no problem and Parker get even more airtime. They're investigating whether he's a Republican. That's gonna be the determine factor.
Now, RGIII has said (paraphrased), "Look, I don't want to be defined by my race." That's a big problem. He has said publicly he doesn't want to be defined by race. He wants to be defined by the kind of person he is. Like Martin Luther King said. The content of his character, the degree to which he performs well, his character in public. That's how he wants to be known and that's how he wants to live his life. He doesn't want to live his life as a skin color.
Let's Use Some Common Sense about the "M-word"
If there is a "little person" in front of you, it would be rude to call him a midget.
But if you're in a room with people and you're talking about something that has nothing to do with "little people," and you're not even referring to little people when you use the word "Midget" - then it's ridiculous for that minority to get their knickers in a twist.
It's like that guy who got all upset when someone used the term "black hole." It's got nothing to do with blacks.
Anyway, some poor politician had to apologize over and over and over again because he dared to use the word "midget" when referring to giants and midgets.
Just stupid. He never should have apologized.
RUSH: Let's go to the floor of the House. African-American Hank Johnson, Democrat from Georgia, had some comments Wednesday.
JOHNSON: Put 30 midgets in with the giant and the midgets then have a chance collectively. And so that is how the situation has unfolded here in America. Seventy-five years ago, almost 75 years ago, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act which helps to protect American workers' rights to organize and negotiate the terms of employment with corporations. The midgets get a chance to speak with one voice to the giant.
RUSH: This is well-known mental giant Hank Johnson, Georgia Democrat, complaining about the "midgets" having no chance with the giants. Now, apparently his use of the word "midget..." It's now the M-word, by the way. Can't say it. His use of the word is now socially unacceptable, and he had to go back to the House floor and try again.
JOHNSON: Last night, I used an analogy that some find offensive, and I certainly was not meaning to be offensive or use a derogatory term.
RUSH: Okay.
JOHNSON: You know, everybody knows what the N-word is. We don't say the N-word. We refer to that word as the N-word. I had never heard of the M-word. Through my discovery, just within the last 12 hours or so, I have found that the use of the midget -- excuse me, the use of the M-word -- is no longer socially acceptable. Now, the M-word refers to a group of people, the little people.
RUSH: And in some cases, we're talking about their brains, Hank. There are many mental midgets. You may be one! They permeate throughout our society. Little people. The M-word. He didn't know. He didn't know that to say the word "midget" was a pejorative. Hank, you might want to go see the movie Django. The N-word is used like a thousand times in that movie.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have two Hank Johnson bites. He continued here, elaborated on his midget controversy -- M-word controversy -- for his low-information constituents.
JOHNSON: I'm not talking about the 47%. I'm not talking about the takers instead of the makers, as some would describe them. I'm not talking about the middle class, working people, poor people, working-poor people. That's not what is meant by the little people term. It really refers to medical condition. Dwarfism is the name of that medical condition, and sometimes, I guess, one can even say "abnormally small" people, abnormally small people -- which, to me, is... I like that term better than "dwarfism."
But if you're in a room with people and you're talking about something that has nothing to do with "little people," and you're not even referring to little people when you use the word "Midget" - then it's ridiculous for that minority to get their knickers in a twist.
It's like that guy who got all upset when someone used the term "black hole." It's got nothing to do with blacks.
Anyway, some poor politician had to apologize over and over and over again because he dared to use the word "midget" when referring to giants and midgets.
Just stupid. He never should have apologized.
RUSH: Let's go to the floor of the House. African-American Hank Johnson, Democrat from Georgia, had some comments Wednesday.
JOHNSON: Put 30 midgets in with the giant and the midgets then have a chance collectively. And so that is how the situation has unfolded here in America. Seventy-five years ago, almost 75 years ago, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act which helps to protect American workers' rights to organize and negotiate the terms of employment with corporations. The midgets get a chance to speak with one voice to the giant.
RUSH: This is well-known mental giant Hank Johnson, Georgia Democrat, complaining about the "midgets" having no chance with the giants. Now, apparently his use of the word "midget..." It's now the M-word, by the way. Can't say it. His use of the word is now socially unacceptable, and he had to go back to the House floor and try again.
JOHNSON: Last night, I used an analogy that some find offensive, and I certainly was not meaning to be offensive or use a derogatory term.
RUSH: Okay.
JOHNSON: You know, everybody knows what the N-word is. We don't say the N-word. We refer to that word as the N-word. I had never heard of the M-word. Through my discovery, just within the last 12 hours or so, I have found that the use of the midget -- excuse me, the use of the M-word -- is no longer socially acceptable. Now, the M-word refers to a group of people, the little people.
RUSH: And in some cases, we're talking about their brains, Hank. There are many mental midgets. You may be one! They permeate throughout our society. Little people. The M-word. He didn't know. He didn't know that to say the word "midget" was a pejorative. Hank, you might want to go see the movie Django. The N-word is used like a thousand times in that movie.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have two Hank Johnson bites. He continued here, elaborated on his midget controversy -- M-word controversy -- for his low-information constituents.
JOHNSON: I'm not talking about the 47%. I'm not talking about the takers instead of the makers, as some would describe them. I'm not talking about the middle class, working people, poor people, working-poor people. That's not what is meant by the little people term. It really refers to medical condition. Dwarfism is the name of that medical condition, and sometimes, I guess, one can even say "abnormally small" people, abnormally small people -- which, to me, is... I like that term better than "dwarfism."
14 Dec 2012, Fri, Rush Limbaugh headlines
--Left Mobilizes to Politicize School Shooting
--I Hereby Withdraw My Name from Consideration for Secretary of Business
--ESPN Analyst Suspended for Separatist Remarks About RGIII
--Congressman Apologizes for Using "M-Word"
--What We're Up Against as Expressed by Tech Bloggers on Google's Tax Avoidance
--Rice: Hillary Too Tired for Sunday Shows
--Far Past the Entitlement Tipping Point
--The Fiscal Cliff Story is a Farce
--Liberals Rewrite History of CIA Interrogations (and 230 Years of US History)
--Caller's Experience at a Union Meeting
--A Three-Day Super Bowl Weekend?
Stack of Stuff
--An Inside Source on Hillary's Health
--ESPN Hosts Mock First Transgender College Basketball Player
--Study: Riding Bike No Healthier Than Golf.
--Obamacare Leaves Fewer Health Care Options For Illegal Immigrants
--I Hereby Withdraw My Name from Consideration for Secretary of Business
--ESPN Analyst Suspended for Separatist Remarks About RGIII
--Congressman Apologizes for Using "M-Word"
--What We're Up Against as Expressed by Tech Bloggers on Google's Tax Avoidance
--Rice: Hillary Too Tired for Sunday Shows
--Far Past the Entitlement Tipping Point
--The Fiscal Cliff Story is a Farce
--Liberals Rewrite History of CIA Interrogations (and 230 Years of US History)
--Caller's Experience at a Union Meeting
--A Three-Day Super Bowl Weekend?
Stack of Stuff
--An Inside Source on Hillary's Health
--ESPN Hosts Mock First Transgender College Basketball Player
--Study: Riding Bike No Healthier Than Golf.
--Obamacare Leaves Fewer Health Care Options For Illegal Immigrants
14 Dec 2012, Fri, Sos Clinton and Staff Schedule
SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
Secretary Clinton has no public events.
DEPUTY SECRETARY TOM NIDES
11:00 a.m. Deputy Secretary Nides attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS WENDY SHERMAN
9:30 a.m. Under Secretary Sherman meets with South African activist Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT ROBERT HORMATS
9:30 a.m. Under Secretary Hormats meets with Nancy McLernon, President and CEO, Organization for International Investment, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
10:00 a.m. Under Secretary Hormats delivers keynote remarks at the annual State Department Retirement Ceremony, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
11:00 a.m. Under Secretary Hormats meets with Alice Wells, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs, at the Department of State. (CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:30 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats meets with Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, Secretary-General of Boao Forum, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
4:30 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats meets with CEMEX USA Representatives Bob Sullivan and Alan Stoga, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS TARA SONENSHINE
9:00 a.m. Under Secretary Sonenshine delivers remarks at the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Mid-Year Conference, in Washington, DC.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
10:00 a.m. Under Secretary Sonenshine attends the board meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, in Washington, DC.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIAN AFFAIRS ROBERT BLAKE
1:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Blake meets with George Hamilton, President of the Institute for Sustainable Communities, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Blake meets with former Kyrgyz Republic President Roza Otunbayeva, at the Department.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AFFAIRS ESTHER BRIMMER
Assistant Secretary Brimmer hosts consultations on multilateral issues with a delegation from the United Kingdom led by Vijay Rangarajan, Director for Multilateral Policy for the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
4:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Brimmer meets with Mr. Ján Kubis, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan, to discuss the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS KURT CAMPBELL
Assistant Secretary Campbell is on foreign travel to the Philippines, Malaysia, and New Zealand through December 17.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND NONPROLIFERATION TOM COUNTRYMAN
Assistant Secretary Countryman is on foreign travel to Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Belgium through December 17. Please click here for more information.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS ROBERTA JACOBSON
10:30 a.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson meets with The Netherlands MFA Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs Maryem van den Heuvel, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
11:30 a.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)
1:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson meets with Gustavo Arnavat, U.S. executive director to the Inter-American Development Bank, in Washington.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR OCEANS AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS KERRI-ANN JONES
11:00 a.m. Assistant Secretary Jones participates in an interagency meeting regarding the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedure, and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, at the Environmental Protection Agency.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE AND COORDINATOR FOR COUNTERTERRORISM DANIEL BENJAMIN
Ambassador Benjamin is on foreign travel to Abu Dhabi, UAE to participate in the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) Ministerial and launch the International Center of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism.
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS LUIS CDEBACA
10:00 a.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Foreign Minister Wunna Lwin, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
11:00 a.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Minister of Home Affairs Lt. General Ko Ko, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
1:00 p.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Minister of Defense Lt. General Wai Lwin, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
2:00 p.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security Maung Myint, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:00 p.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr. Myat Myat Ohn Khin, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE AND U.S. GLOBAL AIDS COORDINATOR ERIC GOOSBY
3:00 p.m. Ambassador Goosby delivers remarks at a Center for Strategic and International Studies-hosted “AIDS-free Generation Post-Blueprint” event, in Washington, DC.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE FOR GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES MELANNE VERVEER
Ambassador Verveer is on foreign travel to Tunis, Tunisia through December 14 to participates in the Forum for the Future Conference, women’s empowerment session.
SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TO MUSLIM COMMUNITIES FARAH PANDITH
Special Representative Pandith is on foreign travel to Kampala, Uganda through December 16. On December 14, Special Representative Pandith and the Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues Zeenat Rahman host TEDx Youth @ Bukoto, which is themed “Our Moment” and features young leaders from around Africa. On December 15 and 16 she speaks at the Muslim Youth Development Conference and meets with youth and civil society groups.
Secretary Clinton has no public events.
DEPUTY SECRETARY TOM NIDES
11:00 a.m. Deputy Secretary Nides attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS WENDY SHERMAN
9:30 a.m. Under Secretary Sherman meets with South African activist Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT ROBERT HORMATS
9:30 a.m. Under Secretary Hormats meets with Nancy McLernon, President and CEO, Organization for International Investment, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
10:00 a.m. Under Secretary Hormats delivers keynote remarks at the annual State Department Retirement Ceremony, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
11:00 a.m. Under Secretary Hormats meets with Alice Wells, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs, at the Department of State. (CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:30 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats meets with Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, Secretary-General of Boao Forum, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
4:30 p.m. Under Secretary Hormats meets with CEMEX USA Representatives Bob Sullivan and Alan Stoga, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
UNDER SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS TARA SONENSHINE
9:00 a.m. Under Secretary Sonenshine delivers remarks at the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Mid-Year Conference, in Washington, DC.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
10:00 a.m. Under Secretary Sonenshine attends the board meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, in Washington, DC.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIAN AFFAIRS ROBERT BLAKE
1:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Blake meets with George Hamilton, President of the Institute for Sustainable Communities, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Blake meets with former Kyrgyz Republic President Roza Otunbayeva, at the Department.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AFFAIRS ESTHER BRIMMER
Assistant Secretary Brimmer hosts consultations on multilateral issues with a delegation from the United Kingdom led by Vijay Rangarajan, Director for Multilateral Policy for the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
4:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Brimmer meets with Mr. Ján Kubis, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan, to discuss the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS KURT CAMPBELL
Assistant Secretary Campbell is on foreign travel to the Philippines, Malaysia, and New Zealand through December 17.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND NONPROLIFERATION TOM COUNTRYMAN
Assistant Secretary Countryman is on foreign travel to Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Belgium through December 17. Please click here for more information.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS ROBERTA JACOBSON
10:30 a.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson meets with The Netherlands MFA Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs Maryem van den Heuvel, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
11:30 a.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)
1:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Jacobson meets with Gustavo Arnavat, U.S. executive director to the Inter-American Development Bank, in Washington.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR OCEANS AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS KERRI-ANN JONES
11:00 a.m. Assistant Secretary Jones participates in an interagency meeting regarding the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedure, and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, at the Environmental Protection Agency.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE AND COORDINATOR FOR COUNTERTERRORISM DANIEL BENJAMIN
Ambassador Benjamin is on foreign travel to Abu Dhabi, UAE to participate in the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) Ministerial and launch the International Center of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism.
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS LUIS CDEBACA
10:00 a.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Foreign Minister Wunna Lwin, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
11:00 a.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Minister of Home Affairs Lt. General Ko Ko, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
1:00 p.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Minister of Defense Lt. General Wai Lwin, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
2:00 p.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security Maung Myint, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
3:00 p.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr. Myat Myat Ohn Khin, in Rangoon, Burma.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE AND U.S. GLOBAL AIDS COORDINATOR ERIC GOOSBY
3:00 p.m. Ambassador Goosby delivers remarks at a Center for Strategic and International Studies-hosted “AIDS-free Generation Post-Blueprint” event, in Washington, DC.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)
AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE FOR GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES MELANNE VERVEER
Ambassador Verveer is on foreign travel to Tunis, Tunisia through December 14 to participates in the Forum for the Future Conference, women’s empowerment session.
SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TO MUSLIM COMMUNITIES FARAH PANDITH
Special Representative Pandith is on foreign travel to Kampala, Uganda through December 16. On December 14, Special Representative Pandith and the Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues Zeenat Rahman host TEDx Youth @ Bukoto, which is themed “Our Moment” and features young leaders from around Africa. On December 15 and 16 she speaks at the Muslim Youth Development Conference and meets with youth and civil society groups.
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