Tag: Media Watch

No Offense? Not Anymore

Trish

A lot of us have gotten lessons lately in how easy it’s become to offend.

An entertainment reporter for Jacksonville’s WJXT Channel 4, John Citrone, was recently fired* ala Don Imus. He joked on the air about something profoundly unfunny — runaway wildfires in South Georgia.

“Do we really care if Georgia burns?” he asked.

Being offended has become a national pastime.

Fair question* but as Citrone’s editor at Folio, the independent weekly he also writes for and that stands by him, pointed out in an editorial entitled, “Playing With Fire,” the columnist lacked a sense of timing.

“…the formula for comedy is tragedy plus time. And the exact moment when homes are engulfed in flames and people are being evacuated isn’t the time. For the people involved, it may never be the time.”

In calling the T.V. station which aired Citrone’s segment of early morning entertainment news to express their outrage, Georgians said what really burned their biscuit* was the tone of the Florida coverage. Reports centered on the effects of smoke blown two hours southeast into Jacksonville, which produced asthma attacks and watery eyes. And while these conditions are bad, they are not exactly up there with having to throw the kids in the car and run for your life before a wall of fire.

“Did we get some smoke on you?” the Georgians asked. “Well excuuuse me!”

And yet…It is human nature to make light of terrible situations, even really terrible ones, like losing basketball tournaments and fighting wildfire.*

Florida had its own bout with wildfire almost 10 years ago, and no one who lived through it has forgotten the choking ash, the constant prayers for rain, and the fear that losing everything in a wanton inferno is very close at hand. We don’t wish such things on our worst enemies.

We also don’t stop making bad jokes about it. Palm Coast, south of me in Flagler County and especially hard-hit in ’99, will forever be known to long-time residents as Palm Toast.*

I found out for myself recently how very fragile people’s feelings are with regard to diet. Take it from me and don’t go there.

I think it was right to speak out against Don Imus calling females athletes “nappy-headed hos.” I said so in this very format. I think it was right for Georgians to call foul when Citrone maligned their plight. And I think it’s good to articulate our culinary preferences.

But I think we need to lighten up too. We are too quick to rant and rave and shout each other out, going for the kill. We have become a nation of Bill O’Reillys and Al Sharptons and all it gets us is further apart. Being offended has become a national pastime. And as Imus and Citrone found out, there is no forgiveness. Apologies are no longer accepted.

* I sincerely apologize for my inappropriate and insensitive use of humor to convey any concept in a way that was offensive to some or all readers and promise to do better from now on.

Tenet on CIA’s ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’

Jon Ponder

George Tenet’s book, “At the Center of the Storm,” will be published soon, and the former CIA director (and Medal of Freedom winner) is kicking off the publicity campaign with an interview on 60 Minutes, on Sunday, April 29, 2007.

“Let me say that again to you. We don’t torture people. OK?”
— George Tenet

In an article about the CBS website, it appears that Tenet wrote the book more to clear his name than to settle scores, as many us hoped. At the top of his list is correcting the record about the story he advised the president that invading Iraq would be a “slam dunk.” He says the Bushies have misrepresented what happened in order to make him a fall guy for the WMD fiasco.

Much more interesting is what he has to say about accusations that the CIA tortured its terror suspects. He denies it (at least three times), insisting instead that “enhanced interrogation techniques” were used — and that they saved lives:

[…]

Costly Collaboration: Mainstream Media Gave the Bush Administration a Pass on Run-Up to the Iraq War

Buck Banks

Perhaps Jon would not have been so surprised at the New York Post’s creative editing of an Associated Press story if he had watched the premiere of Bill Moyers’ new PBS series, “Buying the War,” last night. He would have still been angry and depressed after watching the parade of well-known journalists admit to giving the Bushites a pass on such important stories as Saddam’s ties to al Qaeda and 9/11, weapons of mass destruction and the Iraq war as an essential component of the neocons’ War on Terror.

While all of those stories have since come to be labeled lies, the lack of skepticism from the press at the time and the incessant drumming of the Bush admin’s messages into the ears and minds of a shell-shocked populace have resulted in the grim fact that more than half of Americans still believe that Saddam had WMDs and links to al Qaeda. That’s what happens when the press abdicates its role as watchdog over freedom.

You can watch the 90-minute documentary here or read a transcript of it here. But be prepared to get angry and depressed by what you see and read.

Murdoch’s NY Post Fakes AP Story to Smear Dems and Promote Perpetual War

Jon Ponder

It may sound like my tin-foil hat talking but it really is fundamental to the right’s authoritarian agenda to keep the country in a perpetual state of war. But evidence of their true intent is rarely so brazenly exposed as it was this week by the intentional manipulation of a story at Rupert Murdoch’s flagship U.S. newspaper:

In the changed story, the Post added a quote from the White House saying Sen. Harry Reid and the Democrats would issue a death sentence “for millions of Iraqis.”

[The New York] Post completely rewrote [an Associated Press] story to make it a hit on Dems — than ran the piece with the imprimatur of the AP and Espo. While papers are free to edit AP copy, this complete makeover is nonetheless extraordinary — and extraordinarily revealing.

The lede from the original AP story:

A historic veto showdown assured, Democratic leaders agreed Monday on legislation that requires the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later.

‘No more will Congress turn a blind eye to the Bush administration’s incompetence and dishonesty,’ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a speech in which he accused the president of living in a state of denial about events in Iraq more than four years after the U.S.-led invasion.

The Post changed this to:

The White House warned yesterday that Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid’s new legislation requiring the first U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by Oct. 1 is a “death sentence” for millions of freedom-loving Iraqis.

The stinging comments from President Bush’s spokeswoman came just days after Reid declared the war is already “lost” and as negotiators for the House and Senate nailed down the details of the war bill, which also set a goal of completing the pullout by April 2008.

Dana Perino, the president’s spokeswoman, charged that Reid is in denial about the vicious nature of the enemy and about the U.S.-led plan to provide more security in Iraq.

Reid (Nev.) had earlier accused Bush of being in a “state of denial” about what’s happening in Iraq four years after America went to war.

Perino fumed about Reid, “He’s also in denial that a surrender date – he thinks it is a good idea. It is not a good idea. It is defeat.

“It is a death sentence for the millions of Iraqis who voted for a constitution, who voted for a government, who voted for a free and democratic society,” she added.

I thought I was unshockable by this crowd but they continue to amaze.

E! Online Reports Bush Drinking and Marriage Troubles Rumors

Jon Ponder

Ted Casablanca, the former gossip columnist for Premiere Magazine who now writes for E! online, is reporting rumors that circulated on supermarket tabloids, at BuzzFlash and here at Pensito Review months ago — Pres. Bush is drinking again and Laura has moved out:

Is there trouble at the White House between Dubya and first lady Laura Bush? I hear someone’s headed for a hotel, could she already be there? Hmmm…

“She’s staying at the Hay-Adams. I don’t know how many people know…but it’s probably not many.”

That’s my Desk DeeCee, hard at busybody work, informing me further of what this column has more than hinted at before: that the U.S. Chief of Grief, George W. Bush, has a wife (by the name of Laura, ‘course) who’s so damn put out by the teetotaling Texan’s return to drinking that she had to get outta the White House. Woo-hoo! That be first-class First Lady dish there, my darlin’ goss[ip] lovers!

“She just couldn’t take it anymore,” whispered a former White House staffer who remains superclose to Miz Bush. “She’s had it.”

…Oh, for the official record, neither the president’s press office nor the president’s wife’s press office would comment. Which I find damn insulting, as I help pay those persnickety peep’s salaries!

I’m still a bit wombly from the Gonzales testimony drinking game yesterday and the cutesiness of the writing is quasi sick-making. So Ted Casablanca ain’t Liz Smith, but E! Entertainment is owned by cableco Comcast, which gives the rumor a little more legitmacy than the tabs do.

Update: (4-25-07) Laura Bush appeared on the Today Show this morning but Ann Curry did not ask about these rumors. It is impossible to imagine that had Curry been interviewing First Lady Hillary Clinton 10 years ago, she would have failed to ask about stories in the tabloids. Laura did misspeak egregiously, however, when she said about Iraq, “no one suffers more than [the] president and I.” The media has one standard for Republicans and another, much lower standard for Democrats.

Winter Haven News Chief Announces Ryan Skipper Vigil at Polkonline.com

Jon Ponder

We’re updating our list of local papers that have reported online on the upcoming vigil for hate crime victim Ryan Skipper:

The Lakeland Ledger continues to ignore or be unaware of the upcoming vigils.

As you can see, we added the Tampa Tribune to the list. A concerned citizen contacted a reporter at the Tribune to ask why the paper had not covered the vigil. According to the caller, the reporter said he hadn’t heard about the vigil. Perhaps the news release from Equality Florida was misdirected to the wrong department.

Update: A source close to the organization of the vigil locally says the Tribune plans to cover it.

We also updated the list to show that News Chief, one of the two news services based in Polk County, has covered the details of Saturday’s events via its website, polkonline.com:

Statewide vigils are scheduled for Saturday to honor 25-year-old Ryan Skipper, whose body was found near Wahneta early on March 14…

Equality Florida, an organization dedicated to securing equality and justice for the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, will assist with vigil plans, in Polk County, around the state and possibly in other parts of the nation Saturday to mourn Skipper’s death…

The Polk County vigil will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday in Winter Haven at Central Park, located on Central Avenue at Fourth and Fifth streets. For details, call 813-849-3919 or russ@eqfl.org.

The Lakeland Ledger continues to ignore or be unaware of the upcoming vigils. (I’m planning a separate article on this later.)

Local Coverage of the Lack of Local Coverage

Our coverage of the local media’s lack of coverage of the murder of Ryan Skipper has been noticed by a writer at Lakelandlocal.com:

[Posts] at the Pensito Review are proving a point about local newspapers. The public hasn’t written them off yet. The newspaper is where we expect to find local news. Not 60 Seconds of Local News at Six. We’re looking for The Ledger to cover the CSX story and Pensito Review is asking why the Ledger hasn’t mention the vigils for Ryan Skipper to be held Saturday in 13 Florida cities and Washington, D.C.

H/t thesue2u

Lakeland Ledger Grabs at a Little Good News in Ryan Skipper Mess

Buck Banks

The Lakeland Ledger ain’t the New York Times. Duh. But the Lakeland Ledger is the local paper doing the bad reporting on the Ryan Skipper murder case, not the Times.

I wonder how many negative letters the Lakeland Ledger has received and whether we’ll ever see any of those in print.

We had an e-mail at Pensito Review the other day from a guy who was trying to call the Ledger to task over its bad reporting. Garry, from Louisiana, was frustrated by what he’d read, so he sent an e-mail to the Ledger expressing his frustration (and quoting from Pensito Review). The Ledger, surprise, responded:

Thank you for your email. Everything we printed that you dispute has come from the Sheriff’s Office. If they change what they think happened at some point, we’ll report on that. But for now, that’s its official report.

Best,
Lenore Devore
Managing Editor
The Ledger
Lakeland, Florida

(from Garry’s e-mail to us)

But not everybody is disappointed in the Ledger’s reportage, and the paper printed a letter to the editor today that congratulates it on its coverage of the murder:

Re: Ryan Skipper, thank you for the nice article about Ryan [“2 Indicted In Slaying Of Polk Man,” March 30, page B1]. He was a great guy and a good friend. I will miss him terribly.

Hopefully, I can one day make it through the entire article, but as of right now I can’t without breaking down in tears. I’ll never understand how anyone can do such a thing. Disliking gays is one thing, but there is no rationale for killing them.

Ryan wasn’t just some random gay guy. He was someone’s friend and some parent’s child. There are no words that could make him less of a human being. But I have to wonder if the same can be said for the young men accused of taking Ryan’s life. Their reason for killing him isn’t justified. If they truly felt uncomfortable around him, they could’ve just walked away.

I read an article, recently, about a man who has to spend the rest of his days looking at a picture of the woman he killed. Maybe these men should face that same reality. Putting them to death wouldn’t inflict nearly the same amount of heartache they’ve put Ryan’s friends through.

They should have to be reminded every day of what they took from us, as long as they draw breath on this Earth. We won’t get a quick exit from our pain, why should they?

TODD A. JOHNSON

Lakeland

I hope Todd at some point is able to read the entire article because I think then he would join the rest of us in our assessment that the Ledger is doing a crappy job of reporting on this case.

Parroting back the homophobic assumptions and allegations offered BY THE GUYS WHO DID THE CRIME that Sheriff Judd has said is not good newspaper reportage. It’s not journalism, and all it does is slander a dead guy who, by most accounts was a good egg, not a bad fellow, and by any account did not deserve to be killed.

And printing a letter from a guy who hasn’t even read the whole article is no mea culpa, nor does it let the Ledger off the hook for screwing up.

It’s pitiful that the Lakeland Ledger, out of desperation, prints the only positive letter it has received about its coverage of the Skipper murder. I wonder how many negative letters it has received and whether we’ll ever see any of those in print.