Archive for August, 2009

UWIRE.COM Looking for the Weird to Begin the 2009 Fall Semester

Friday, August 28th, 2009

From: Michelle Starr
News Editor | UWIRE
www.uwire.com

I’m really sorry to send so many messages out in the last few days, but it’s the start of the semester and pretty crazy. UWIRE is trying to compile a list of weird classes and we’re hoping all of you can help out. Are there any new, interesting, strange classes this fall…Think “Harry Potter and British Comedy” or something like that. As always we’ll make it available to anyone who pitches in!

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New York City Spites Court Decision About Discriminatory Hiring Practices in Its Fire Department

Monday, August 24th, 2009

From the New York Daily News: A federal judge’s ruling that two FDNY entrance exams discriminated against minorities hasn’t persuaded the city to settle a controversial lawsuit. City lawyers are balking at a demand by the U.S. Justice Department and the Vulcan Society that black and Hispanic candidates who took the tests in 1999 and 2002 be given retroactive seniority. Read complete NYDN story here.

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Free the Hikers

Friday, August 21st, 2009

From New America Media: The families of detained journalists Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shour  have created a website seeking their diplomatic release as well as posting news and information about them as it filters in. Click here for more info.

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The WORD Still Waiting on a Response from NYC Comptroller William Thompson, Jr.

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

An earlier post recalled his meeting with the WORD a few years ago and stated that he had been contacted about a possible meeting again.

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President Obama Is the Real Target of Health Care Protesters, Not Policy

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Love that headline of Mike Lupica’s New York Daily News column today, August 17. Such sentiment should have been echoed in the TV news broadcasts purporting to report on the town hall meetings when and where rabid vocalizers seemed more interested in trash talking than health care changes.

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From New America Media: Korean Media Cheer Reporters’ Release

Monday, August 17th, 2009

New America Media News Report, Anthony Advincula and Eunji Jang, Posted: Aug 04, 2009
Editor’s Note: Eunji Jang is a creative writing major and media studies major at Hunter College and a writer for the WORD.

NEW YORK — As the news spread about the release of two U.S. journalists from a North Korean prison, the biggest question for some Korean ethnic media is: How about the South Koreans the North has been holding as hostages for years?

Read full story here.

Message from Eunji Jang: “I wrote an article with Oni [NAM New York City Editor AKA Anthony Advinclua} a week ago, and Oni told me it was featured on yahoo. We had only 2 hours to write it and we wrote it with our blackberries!

MA REPORT: News Media Debunking the Sara Palin’s Death Panels

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

News media outlets are debuning right-wing claims that the House health care reform bill would encourage euthanasia of the elderly, including Sarah Palin’s claim, forwarded by the conservative media, that the bill would create a “death panel.”

Read more here.

PEN American Says Write a Letter, the WORD Accepts the Challenge

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Mailed August 14, 2009:

His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei and
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
c/o H.E. Mr. Mohammad Khazaee
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN
622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 867-7086

Your Excellencies,

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Despite Air America “Blackout,” Companies Support Beck, Dobbs, and Limbaugh

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

August 12, 2009 10:07 am ET — 187 Comments

Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Lou Dobbs have used their radio and television shows to incite hatred and push wild conspiracy theories, leading several of Beck’s advertisers to reportedly pull out of his broadcasts. Many advertisers have nonetheless sponsored these hosts’ hate speech in recent weeks, including major corporations and organizations that, in 2006, reportedly requested that ABC Radio Networks not air their advertisements during any Air America programs.

Read more about this revelation.

Bill Moyers’ Journal: Towards a Healthier Debate on Health Reform

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Great August 14 show, very informative and providing great clarity with guests Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, about the slipshod news media presenting “unhelpful and misleading narratives that have not adequately informed the public about important issues.”

Shows how the news media’s lust for conflict in its images distorts and misleads and can negatively affect good public policy. See more here.