Archive for March, 2003
Monday, March 31st, 2003
Last week Page posted about the military using dolphins to find mines.
I have to wonder at what point a group of marine biologists decided, “Hey! Let’s put cameras on dolphins and see what happens! Maybe they can find mines and mark them!”I proposed a theory (scroll down, you’ll see it).Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great idea. I’m just wondering where the inspiration was found.
Thanks to Last Page for the props.
Monday, March 31st, 2003
Embedded journalists get their asses kicked. Na na na na…. na na na na….. hey hey hey…. good bye!
Hooters Girl butt signing Geraldo Rivera has been escourted out of Iraq after drawing a map on television and pointing out where his unit was and where it was heading. Smart man, that Geraldo. They should have broken a chair over his face, would have been just like old times.
Celebrity TV journalist Geraldo Rivera kicked out of Iraq: Pentagon
US Military Moves Reporter Geraldo Rivera from Iraq
Of course, he denies his removal.
Geraldo Denies Being Kicked Out of Iraq
And he’s not the only one in trouble.
NBC Fires Arnett After Iraq TV Interview
NBC fired journalist Peter Arnett on Monday, saying it was wrong for him to give an interview with state-run Iraqi TV saying that the American-led coalition’s first war plan had failed because of Iraq’s resistance. Arnett himself called the interview a “misjudgment.”Oops. Guess I should say America screwed up on the enemy’s television station. Better luck next time.Arnett, on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday, said he was sorry for his statement but added, “I said over the weekend what we all know about the war.”
“I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgment,” Arnett said.
NBC had defended him on Sunday, saying he had given the interview as a professional courtesy and that his remarks were analytical in nature. But by Monday morning the network switched course and, after Arnett spoke with NBC News President Neal Shapiro, said it would no longer work with Arnett.
“It was wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at a time of war,” NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said. “And it was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions in that interview.”
But, wait, he’s not going down without a fight!
I am still in shock and awe at being fired. There is enormous sensitivity within the US government to reports coming out from Baghdad.Yep, you just keep telling yourself that.They don’t want credible news organisations reporting from here because it presents them with enormous problems.
I reported on the original bombing for NBC and we were half a mile away from those massive explosions. Now I am really shocked that I am no longer reporting this story for the US and awed by the fact that it actually happened.
That overnight my successful NBC reporting career was turned to ashes. And why?
Because I stated the obvious to Iraqi television; that the US war timetable has fallen by the wayside.
I have made those comments to television stations around the world and now I’m making them again in the Daily Mirror.
I’m not angry. I’m not crying. But I’m also awed by this media phenomenon.
The right-wing media and politicians are looking for any opportunity to be critical of the reporters who are here, whatever their nationality. I made the misjudgment which gave them the opportunity to do so.
I gave an impromptu interview to Iraqi television feeling that after four months of interviewing hundreds of them it was only professional courtesy to give them a few comments.
That was my Waterloo - bang!
God, these people are blowing golden opportunities over there.
Monday, March 31st, 2003
I am POWER BABY! What’s your superhero name?
Sunday, March 30th, 2003
This BlogShares thing RULES! You all really need to check it out. It’s playing the stock market with blogs! Go buy shares of J’s Notes and I’ll link to ya singing your praises!
Props to Jonathan for investing in J’s Notes and Renee as well.
UPDATE: Here’s what I own:
1500 shares of J’s Notes
940 shares of R3n33 - Rants and Raves
400 shares of Beer Blog
300 shares of anthonyjhicks.com
100 shares of Jish.nu
100 shares of Gary Turner’s weblog
50 shares of Tech TV Resource
29 shares of LSN Blog
25 shares of The Presurfer
25 shares of The Last Page
20 shares of Evhead
20 shares of StillPixels.org
10 shares of Instapundit
10 shares of Jason DeFillippo’s weblog
5 shares of Boing Boing Blog
5 shares of Wil Wheaton Weblog
My portfolio is worth $782.75
J’s Notes has a valuation of $276.90 and is sold for 10 cents a share, up three cents from today’s morning IPO of 7 cents.
This is cool.
Another Note: I am now a majority shareholder of Ei Baa Hashne’ with 2520 shares. Woo!
Sunday, March 30th, 2003
Yesterday it was 70 degrees out. Today’s it’s snowing.
God is trying to kill us.
Sunday, March 30th, 2003
Artifice Comics Presents
Bush43 #7 - You Say Inmate, I Say Outmate, Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off
By Jason Kenney
“You seem to have been talking to yourself a lot lately,” said Doctor William Tage as he sat himself down in his comfy seat across the room from me. I sat in my harsh, hard chair, my wrists and ankles cuffed as to not allow me to scratch the itch on my nose that screamed for attention.Longest issue I’ve ever written and it’s actually not all that bad. Hey, when I like my stuff it’s got to be okay, I usually hate it when other like it.“I do that when I’m thinking,” I said, wrinkling my nose in a failed attempt to ease the itch.
“And what have you been thinking about?”
“Well, if you know I’ve been talking to myself, I’m sure you know what I’ve been saying, right?”
“I’ve heard recordings,” said Tage, confirming my suspicious that they did indeed record me in my room, those peeping bastards. “But I want to hear it from you, first hand.”
“Oh, just dreams of freedom and stuff like that. I’m sure you get that a lot.”
“Yes,” said Tage, opening the folder in his hands. “Jeffery, who are you talking to?”
“Myself,” I said.
“Do you realize you’ve been talking to yourself in the second person?”
“Really?”
“And you’re speaking as if you’re getting a response. Jeffery, who’s talking back?”
“I am.”
Saturday, March 29th, 2003
BlogShares looks like a neat little game.
The Iraqometer has a few interesting tidbits of data.
Kim Jong Il now has a LiveJournal as well. Man, EVERYONE has a LiveJournal. Guess I need to get to work on my Bush43 one…
Saturday, March 29th, 2003
At first I was thinking that maybe Iraq Body Count would be interesting and somewhat accurate given their criteria and what not. At the very least I had hoped they’d link to their sources seeing as how everything is on the web. But they’re counting the two explosions in Baghdad that may not have been our forces as our fault and those killed over 70 folks. And, when something is genuinely targeted, how to they represent it? With QUOTES. ‘customs office’, ‘military air defense radar’. Cause, you know, we’re really targeting schools but we’re going to give them offical government names so it’s okay.
But the kicker is this. Remember how were were bombing that bridge last weekend and a Syrian bus drove on it while the bomb was in the air? Yeah, they say we were targeting the bus.
So, not only does their biasness show through, but they fail to take into consideration the sources they claim to review, the same sources that say what the target truly was or that certain things may not be thefault of the military.
Could we have goofed and bombed a market? Yes, we could have.
Could the Iraqi government have put a viable military target in the middle of a civilian area? Oh yeah.
Could the Iraqi government blown up the market themselves with either a misfired munition or more questionable means? That’s just as plausible as us doing it.
But we’ll ignore the last two cause this war is bad anyway.
Friday, March 28th, 2003
Tim Sandling has a new book coming out in May. Honey, Don’t looks to be based off of a screen play he’s had available online for a while now. The story was great and I’m looking forward to the novel. This guy’s an amazing writer, perhaps the single greatest influence in my desire to write. Really. All of his works are great.
Christopher Moore’s got a new one too. Another great author who never fails to deliver. Man, it’s gonna be good readin’ this summer.
Friday, March 28th, 2003
Appellate Court Rules Media Can Legally Lie
On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.Huh. Public service my ass.On August 18, 2000, a six-person jury was unanimous in its conclusion that Akre was indeed fired for threatening to report the station’s pressure to broadcast what jurors decided was “a false, distorted, or slanted” story about the widespread use of growth hormone in dairy cows. The court did not dispute the heart of Akre’s claim, that Fox pressured her to broadcast a false story to protect the broadcaster from having to defend the truth in court, as well as suffer the ire of irate advertisers.
Fox argued from the first, and failed on three separate occasions, in front of three different judges, to have the case tossed out on the grounds there is no hard, fast, and written rule against deliberate distortion of the news. The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdock, argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves.
In its six-page written decision, the Court of Appeals held that the Federal Communications Commission position against news distortion is only a “policy,” not a promulgated law, rule, or regulation.
Fox aired a report after the ruling saying it was “totally vindicated” by the verdict.
