This is an introduction of sorts to a six-part series. A few years ago, I invited the New York Time’s first Ombudsman to my journalism ethics/responsibility class. That position, now occupied by Clark Hoyt, is primarily known now as the New York Times Public Editor. I’m speculating that the presence of a Public Editor is more preferable to Ombudsman which sounds akin to a lawman enforcing the law in a lawless community (at least, that’s how I imagine the NYT natives perceive the position when it was announced in the wake of the Jason Blair scandal and other journalistic ignominies which didn’t get as much attention but contributed to marring the public image of the Times).
Archive for January, 2010
PUSHBACK – Resistance Is Futile But Anticipated
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010Get Ready to Run for Cover!
Monday, January 18th, 2010By Edward Kent
Monday, January 18, 08:17:51 EST 2010
To: OurStupidEconomy <OurStupidEconomy@yahoogroups.com>
If the Democrats lose the capacity to block Republican filibusters tomorrow, we had all better run for cover from the excesses we can expect from our banks, drug companies, and other corporate interests that already control too much of our lives. I was startled to learn the other day that one bank has initiated $100 penalties for overdrafts.
Bring Back Aristide to Lead Haiti?
Monday, January 18th, 2010By Ed Kent
Monday, January 18, 18 07:41:36 EST 2010
To: PeaceEfforts <PeaceEfforts@yahoogroups.com>
Haiti manifestly has no leadership now. President René Préval disappeared for the first two days after the earthquake and seems to be doing little if anything other than talking to Americans now. Perhaps it is time to bring back Jean-Bertrand Aristide from South Africa where he was shipped in 2004 after a questionable removal from the Haitian presidency? Reports on him range from viewing him as an effective reformer to a human rights violator.
MLK
Monday, January 18th, 2010By Ed Kent
Sunday, January 17 14:59:10 EST 2010
To: Ending Poverty <EndingPoverty@yahoogroups.com>
This is the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. I finally heard someone on TV mention his name a few hours ago – Obama giving a speech/sermon at a church in the Capitol. What most people forget is that King’s popularity was declining towards the end of his life as he moved on from desegregation to concerns about poverty and wealth.
[Kent is a retired Brooklyn College philosophy professor who is very opinionated but his “stuff” has always been well corroborated and his reach is broad.]
Hunter College: #2 “Best Value” Public College
Thursday, January 14th, 2010Sent to Hunter Faculty Via Email from President Jennifer Raab:
I am delighted to announce that Hunter has been named the #2 “Best Value” public college in the country for 2010, according to The Princeton Review and USA Today. This is the second year in a row that Hunter has ranked among the top 10.
Commute
Monday, January 11th, 2010
I like being so diverse, my ethnicity so diverse that it could overwhelm an U.S. Census taker because the blood flowing through my veins makes me so unique, and people don’t know what language I can or can’t speak, as well as guessing where I come from or “ I really like this “ who I am.
Natalia M. Clavijo
The commuting experience of students taking an advanced writing class I occasionally teach — MEDP 299.47, fated to morph real soon to a full-fledge course number sans a decimal point — is finally a functioning assignment.
The War on Terror As Reported by …
Sunday, January 10th, 2010Unable to work through the rumblings and exaggerations and distortions in the recent tsunami of news stories catalyzed by 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane over Detroit. In need of good sources for news and commentaries and analysis. Need to be able to assess independently and wisely. Clarity important. So, embarking on the search for the path to veraciousness, the search begins.
An Idiot’s Guide to the War on Terror?
Eunji Jang Redux
Friday, January 1st, 2010
File Photo: On assignment for a story.
For her journalistic work with New York Times Reporter Kirk Semple for “Suicides Soar Among New York Koreans,” Jang, who speaks and writes fluent Korean, and interns for New America Media, earned a Contributing Tag at the end of the story.
NYT news lead for the double suicide of Yongho and Soonhee Kim, February 25, 2008:
They had navigated the move from South Korea and opened a nail salon on Long Island, but by last winter, Yongho and Soonhee Kim were in debt and deeply unhappy. They were fighting a lawsuit over nonpayment of rent on the Long Beach salon and were months behind on rent payments for their apartment in Oakland Gardens, Queens. The bank had repossessed their car.
Courtesy The Korean TimesSoonhee, left, and Yongho Kim.
At dawn on Feb. 25, the couple left a note for their 20-year-old daughter outside their apartment door, doused themselves with gasoline and set themselves on fire, the police said. The blaze killed them and destroyed their home.
“They 100 percent lost hope,†said Mr. Kim’s brother-in-law, Chi Kun Park.
An earlier story was published/broadcast by NAM in July. NAM’s Odette Keely interviewed Jang about a piece that the Korean Times in NYC wrote about Korean suicides in America.
Naomi Klein: Capitalists Poise to Rip Off Haiti
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010Tags:Democracy Now, Haiti, Haitian crisis
Posted in I Didn't See This on the Evening News (A Work in Progress), Journalism, News/Commentary/Opinion | Comments Closed