(h/t Chevy Chase)
Speaking of fake news, didja hear the one about FEMA’s fake news conference this week, featuring friendly questions from “reporters” who turned out to be FEMA staffers?
Weekends are the slowest time for actual news, and the time when the fewest people pay attention to the news, which is why so many interesting things happen Friday afternoon. The Bush administration in particular has perfected the art of the Friday Afternoon News Dump ™, in which embarrassing or unflattering news items are released at the very close of business Friday so as to show up, largely unnoticed, in Friday’s late-night news and the lightly read Saturday morning papers. It’s a cute (and often effective) way to bury a story.
No apparent FANDs today, though. The New York Times does have a nice piece on the real significance of George Bush’s tough new sanctions against Iran: the fact that they’re being carried out unilaterally, walking away from both the support of European allies and the diplomatic process the Europeans have championed. Pointedly, the sanctions came without any parallel diplomatic overtures. Another sign pointing toward the Bush cabal’s intent for war with Iran.
Back in the old war (well, the most recent of the old wars), the Iraqi government announced yesterday that it is revoking the law guaranteeing immunity for U.S. contractors. Of course, it still has to catch them, which, without cooperation from the U.S., will be virtually impossible, so it is in many ways a meaningless gesture. As is the Iraqi government itself.
The top local story: Puget Sound Energy’s sale, to an investment company comprised of Canadian and Australian firms — though you have to read to near the end of the P-I’s story to pick up on that nugget, or that the sale will take PSE private so that the utility’s finances will not be open to public inspection except during rate hikes.
The Bothell Times, on the other hand, has nothing at all on the PSE sale, but does have a lead story using a confirmed grand jury involvement to recycle the week-old news of rape allegations against illusionist David Copperfield
The P-I pulled the same stretching-for-a-story trick with a piece on the SEC investigating insider trading at Jones Soda. Well, maybe they are. Turns out the whole story is based on the paper’s reading of an SEC refusal of a FOIA request from the newspaper. That’s the basis for more digging, but not for a story in itself. Unless it’s Saturday and you’ve got space to fill.
And why is the P-I also flogging next Monday’s (sold-out) Hannah Montana Key Arena show on its front page, with not one but two stories? (The word “pandering” springs to mind — specifically, to kids who think their parents’ newspaper is boring.) Telling us above the fold that a Disney Channel teen sensation has fans who are teenagers is many things. “News” is not one of them.
Oh: while I’m here (and since Goldy does this so shamelessly, why shouldn’t I?), I’m on the radio this and every Saturday morning (and have been since 1996) from 8:30-9 AM, commenting on the news of the week on Mind Over Matters on KEXP-90.3 FM. The show is also archived, for those of you who don’t get up that early in the morning on a weekend; check it out at www.kexp.org.
Nothing shameless ab out that, good to be reminded.
Actually, in the same spirit, if anyone is desperate for reading ,,, as I am when my habit is not being fed, I have started posting stories from world news media that are not adequately covered in the US. Over at SeattleJew, you will find exerpts fomr Pravda and from the Antartic Sun.
Speaking of Pravda, I remember the old Pravda .. this one is worse! GWB neeeds a newspaper as dumb as this to report HIS views.
“GWB neeeds a newspaper as dumb as this to report HIS views.”
Bush needs no help in this regard. He has the following pretty much in his corner:
Moonie Washington Times
any paper owned by Rupert Murdoch (New York Post…)
Editorial pages of the Washington Post, Wall St. Journal
That’s just for starters.
The top local story: Puget Sound Energy’s sale, to an investment company comprised of Canadian and Australian firms.
*******************
I would have honored the Army’s tossing out the convictions of the soldiers who had rioted at Fort Lawton during the war (WWII, that is) with this distinction. The riot and the events/conditions leading up to it are a stark reminder of the pervasive racial injustices that occurred during the war. The Army’s decision was also noteworthy for being unprecedented.
@3…PTBAA…
Funny…aren’t those the papers and companies whose performance far exceeds the careening-like-a-car-off-a-cliff NY Times? And most of the rest of the slanted-to-one-side MSM, including The Seattle Times and Pravda-unIntelligencer?
Watch Rupert Murdoch take the respected brand of the WSJ, couple it with the new Fox Business Channel, and run CNBC out of the figurative journalistic town much the same way Fox News kicks butt on CNN and the anemic MSNBC.
Oh…in your list…don’t forget Investor’s Business Daily. One great editorial page!
The Piper
Piper — I often wake up to a Seattle Times editoial page with only the juvenile rantings of Jonah Goldberg and the crippled logic of Charles Krauthammer to start the day with.
You are living in an 80’s Reaganite time-warp. Ronald Reagan, he’s the sicko who started his presidential campaign in a town where 3 civil rights workers were murdered.
Can you say “code for pro-racist”? Anyone who supports Reagan’s tactic is a closet racist — and that means you, Piper.
@6
Monday’s editorial page only, I believe.
Of course, the first major daily to go under locally was the right wing East Side Journal American, the voice of the Republican party in Washington.
@4
MColluci, this wasn’t mentioned at all in any of the HA news summaries that I could find, though the story received prominent attention in the Times and PI as well as the NYT, WP and WSJ. Please correct me if I’m mistaken.
not sure what Seattle Times (Bothell Times) you are reading, but it’s right there on the front page upper left…PSE Sale…pointer to a big article on the Biz Section. Maybe you should actually buy a newspaper for once ?
Pooper – Investor’s Business Daily? Always has been and always will be extreme right wing. The WSJ at least had a classy newsroom, IBD vied to be to the RIGHT of the WSJ in BOTH the newsroom and the editorial page.
Murdoch and the WSJ? We’ll probably see bare breasts on page 3 within at most 3 years. Breasts and a wingnut slant is a heady cocktail for the brain-washed right wing male.
@11…YLB…
In three years, will there be a NY Times, MSNBC, or Seattle pastpulldatePost-Ineffectualencer? Good chance they’ll either be gone or radically transformed into something you will come to despise.
Take heart, though, as long as there’s a government teat upon which to suckle, you’ll always have PBS and NPR, a couple outfits that either wouldn’t be able to compete in the open market by themselves, or who have cash-cows like Big Bird, a multi-million dollar generating character who still gets a government subsidy.
When you think about it, public funding of “public broadcasting” is much like public funding of a new Sonics arena.
BTW…what ever happened in the bankruptcy of Air America?
The Piper
not sure what Seattle Times (Bothell Times) you are reading, but it’s right there on the front page upper left…PSE Sale…pointer to a big article on the Biz Section. Maybe you should actually buy a newspaper for once ?
*************
I believe @9 is referring to the “convictions being overturned” story, the point being it wasn’t mentioned in HA at all.
@13 and others…McC…
You know who the prosecutor was in that case? Who secured the now-overturned convictions? Who witheld exculpatory evidence?
Leon Jaworski.
Any of you recognize the name and what he subsequently became famous for?
The Piper
Pooperman @ 12
When I want news, all I want is facts with a smattering of views from the parties concerned. From the editorial page, I require sanity.
I don’t see much of that in the WSJ Editorial page or the WAPO for that matter. I probably wouldn’t see much of it from any kind of media you’d consume.
Oh and you don’t mention the Seattle Times? Ah so nice to be a suck up to the tax-dodging Blethen family.
@14: We lefties have always been critical of Jaworski’s role in the Ft. Lawton case, his admirable work re Nixon notwithstanding. So your point, is, well, pointless.
But do tell me more about the money losing moonie Times, Piper, and how it will dislodge the NYT, much less the Post. Or wax eloquent about it owner for us, will you?
We are all ears.
13: Actually, I was refering to the PSE sale…supposedly not mentioned in the Seattle times…
@15…YLB…
No reason for not mentioning The Times; another pea in the pod.
I do, though, agree with the Blethen position on estate and inheritance taxes. As a matter of principle, they’re wrong.
The Piper
@17…Dutch…
You mean the PSE sale that will result in a huge infusion of cash for capital improvements? The sale being applauded by PSE employees and Wall Street alike? The sale that will result in a windfall to PSE employee shareholders? That sale?
The Piper
@13: Believe it or not, we’re not getting up at 4 AM to compile and write these summaries for a 6 AM posting; they’re usually written (unless Goldy gets tired and falls asleep first) by one of us late at night, when the papers post their stories for the next day. Same thing the papers do. The P-I does a good job of updating throughout the day, and has an online edition of the front page for the next day by evening and the whole paper (as PDF) by early morning. The other papers (e.g. TNT) and TV stations are also fully updated. East Coast and British papers, of course, can be done by mid-evening due to time zones.
The Times (local version) does none of this, and is a pain for writing these summaries. It posts its next days’ stories, allegedly, late, about 12:30 AM. At 1 AM this morning they had nothing, absolutely nothing, on the PSE sale. I’m glad they got it into the print edition, but I can only go with what I have.
As for the Fort Lawton story, I thought about including it, but, well, I didn’t. It seemed more historical human interest than headline material. Judgment call, to each their own.
@20…Geov…
Crosscut did a couple stories several weeks ago on newspaper websites around the region. Good things were said about the P-I’s, average things about the Times, and awful things about the Oregonian.
Might pay, though, as someone said in a comment in this thread to pick up a real newspaper to see how the front page layout in order to get a better handle on how a particular paper prioritizes.
Besides…the help wanteds aren’t on-line.
The Piper
I read the blather in the Pea-Eye article about how PSE’s customers don’t have to worry about any rate increases, how all the PSE employees are going to keep their jobs, and how there won’t be any changes in PSE management. Somehow I got a mental picture of a giant laughing session in the PI newsroom as they let that bullshit go to press.
@22…AF…
Any guarantee that no change in ownership won’t result in higher rates, job losses, management changes?
What caught my attention straight away was the huge infusion of capital dollars, including some almost right away. Raiders generally don’t pump their own money in something they intend to milk then cast aside. That the Canadian money comes out of pension funds also says that this is, to them, a long term investment. Pension funds don’t generlly go for “churn and burn” investment strategies.
This may prove to be a good move for PSE customers. Who knows? Let the process work itself out.
The Piper
Piper: How can you consider a media market dominated by a few corporate behemoths to be the ‘free market’. The only free market that exists is hydroponic buds — and they spend billions every year trying to squelch that.
Your ‘free market’ is the monster that’s suckling on the public teat.
Piper: You are stupid, yet, at the same time, smug. It makes me hope you walk in front of a car.
And please, don’t start bleating about someone wishing you harm. Not after all the bullshit your side has pulled.
re 21: Like the New York Sun?
@24…JP…
You’re free to start a newspaper any time you choose. But why? They’re going the way of the dodo bird.
You’re also free to start a blog of your own at any time you choose…for a whole lot less money than is needed to start a newspaper. The future of journalism is elecronic, and right now the blogosphere is open to every enterprising soul. Goldy, for example, built himself a name and reputation with a huge following on the left. Stefan Sharkansky did the same on the right.
Where’s yours? What’s to prevent you from getting in on the ground floor?
You have a unique talent: you never fail to see the downside of anything; the glass is always half-empty where you’re concerned.
As Oddball said in Kelly’s Heroes, “There ya’ go again with all that negativity! Woof, woof!”
Tell you what…you start a blog, and I’ll post the first comment! You can even tell me to gargle with razor blades!
Cheers!
The Piper
@16…PTBAA…
Missed your post…sorry…
Even Rev. Sun Myung Moon is entitled to free speech.
And I never said the Washington Times would supplant anyone; my point was that the odds are long in favor of the NY Times, MSNBC, etc., imploding on their own.
BTW…the post to which I responded lumped the Washington Post together with the WS Journal, et al. I found that an interesting comparison.
The Piper
#27: Right. And you are free to start an oil company in Alaska. Real freedoms and hypothetical ones are very, very different.
By the way, Piper, I’m the second coming of Jesus H. Christ. Moon was lying.
Give me a donation.
Dope.