Mitt’s Biggest Pander Yet

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I’ve noticed of course that Mitt Romney will do virtually anything to get a vote, but I didn’t quite understand how far he’s willing to push the envelope until I saw this picture. Evidently, he donned a green yarmulke, or skullcap, at this recent event with voters. These exercised citizens don’t look like they’re part of an orthodox Jewish congregation, so it may have been a very pious, ecumenical crowd. Of course, popes also wears yarmulkes, so he may have also been trying to ramp up his appeal to Catholic voters. Note the rakish tilt at which Mitt’s wearing his yarmulke, conveying a pious image coupled with an insouciant flair.

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A Modest Proposal to Media: Please Replace “Said” with “Claimed”

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“Should the Times be a Truth Vigilante?” is the title of an online column today by New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane. It’s raising a lot of dust, and well it should. Is there something lawless about printing the truth? Are reporters some sort of lynch mob? Brisbane chose a terrible word for his headline. What’s more, news consumers have been expressing their frustation for years about politicians and public figures uttering lie after lie and getting away with it, while news organization stand by abetting the outrage by uncritically repeating these statements. By now, readers might well appreciate a reader going rogue and unleashing a fury of anger on an obfuscating source. To cut Brisbane some slack, I think he’s asks readers if Times reporters and editors should be calling out the falsehoods uttered by public figures–calling a lie a lie line by line–or continue simply reporting the statements of those figures, surround those statements with deep and solid reporting, allow readers to judge the veracity of those remarks, and leave the up-front opining on such statements to features clearly marked “News Analysis” and to writers and columnists on the Editorial and Op-Ed pages. While I’ve also long been frustrated with news reporting’s refusal to call a lie a lie (i.e. the Swift Boating of John Kerry), I think before we make reporters into referees of truth–which could make reading a news story as boring as watching a football game when a disputed touchdown has been sent up to the replay booth for labored review–there is a very simple way to ameliorate much of the problem. I recommend that news organizations institue the following policy.

Reporters and editors at newspapers and all news orgs should routinely replace the word “said,” as in “Mitt Romney SAID President Obama apologized for America”–which is the false statement at issue in the public editor’s column–to”Mitt Romney CLAIMED President Obama apologized for America.” This would signal clearly to readers that Romney’s statement was an assertion of opinion, not a statement of objective or established fact.

I’ve been doing this for years as I read news article and I urge you to do it for yourself. Try it the next time you read or hear a news story that does little more than give a platform to a typically tendentious statement by say, a press flack blowing smoke about a defective consumer product, duly repeated in a news story. Like this,

“Spokesman Joe Flaherty said that Prostate & Grumble uses only the finest materials in assembling their baby cribs. Flaherty also said the company had received no other complaints about their cribs collapsing in a heap.” Now, try this:  “Spokesman Joe Flaherty claimed that Prostate & Grumble uses only the finest materials in assembling their baby cribs. Flaherty also claimed the company had received no other complaints about their cribs collapsing in a heap.” It takes the unearned authority away from the statement, rendering it less powerful, not so magisterial.

A final point regarding Mr. Brisbane’s column. Why did the Times close comments online so quickly? Yes, there was lots of pushback, but so what. Guess they can’t handle the truth.

Please try it and let me know what you think. If you like it as much as I do, please recommend it to your favorite news organization.

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“Classy” Way to Bow Out of a Job

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As reported by ace media observer Jim Romenesko, the delivery person of the NY Times for a subscriber in the Bay Area lost his job delivering the paper. This subscriber is like me a Romenesko reader. Under the Twitter handle ‘@KatieS’ she sent Jim a tweet: “Sad day for my @nytimes delivery man. Laid off as they find a cheaper delivery service.” As a goodbye to his customers, the gentleman found it in himself to make a final delivery to his customers–this large-hearted farewell letter. Later, Romenesko received an update from @KatieS: “Thanks to everyone for the kind words (and better yet, some great job leads!) for our classy @nytimes delivery man.”

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Putin Pranks Himself & Gives Russians a Good Belly Laugh

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I’ve found a new example of a media-affiliated organization clumsily pranking itself–Vladmir Putin’s political operation. According to this New York Times article, in trying to discredit Alexsei Navalny, a blogger critical of the Russian’s regime, Putin and corrupt media allies made an absurdly bad alteration of a photograph that included Navalny, pasting in beside him the imprisoned oligarch, Boris Beresovsky. In reality, Navalny’s counterpart in the photo had been Mikhail Prokorov, a declared candidate in the coming elections versus Putin. . . . Since the discovery of the clumsy forgery, with the original photographer Alexey Yushenkov quickly confirming that his photograph had been altered, Putin’s critics have been unrestrained in their mischief. They’ve made mirth, and much political satire, placing such characters in the picture beside Navalny as Stalin; a space alien; Napoleon; a very buff and nearly naked, strongman; and of course, Putin himself. // more…

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From the Annals of Colossal Republican Nerve & Media Failure

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From the NY Times article: “The president [Addington] said violated constitutional law. ‘I’m kind of surprised he did it, because more so than most presidents, this guy has a personal ability to assess the constitutional implications,’ Mr. Addington said, referring to Mr. Obama’s experience as a teacher of constitutional law. ‘It’s flabbergasting and, to be honest, a little chilling.’”

Nowhere in the following paragraphs does reporter Weisman point to the appalling and rich irony that this statement was made by a veteran of an administration that never failed to arrogate more power to itself. Surely, Weisman could have pointed at this without injecting the dreaded appearance of undue opinion-making into his piece. His editor should have insisted on more perspective in the story. It is journalism like this that makes news consumers like me disgusted with the New York Times and other media that consistently refuse to point out self-serving and tendentious statements made by partisan sources. // more. . .

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Is the FBI probing Bain Capital?

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A letter the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request suggests that an investigation of Bain Capital–the company that Mitt Romney worked at for many years, and from which the New York Times has reported continues to receive significant compensation–is ongoing or possibly commencing within the Bureau. The letter, viewable on Scribd.com, has had the name of the person requesting information redacted, as well as the date it was written. The top of the letter reads “Subject: Bain Capital” The relevant paragraph in the letter, signed by the FBI’s David Hardy, Records/Information Dissemination Section Chief reads,

“I have determined that the records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; that there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records; and that the release of the information contained in these responsive records could reasonably be expected to interfere with the enforcement proceedings.” // see letter in post . . .

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The 99% at the NY Times

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Since I’m an optimist, I’ll offer a hopeful observation that this labor conflict at the Times ought to make the paper’s coverage of the #OWS Movement more respectful and less dismissive, as so much of their reporting has been over the past few months, like this snarky article by Ginia Bellafante from last September. I’ll be watching for any change of tone, even as I realize my optimism is probably unwarranted. // more. . .

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George W. Bush, Skunk at the Party

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Though Repub officials and candidates would clearly prefer to see the rest of the country forget about George W. Bush, all current polling shows that much of the country continues to hold him responsible for our economic troubles. Meanwhile, Repubs, hoping to fumigate the bad odor of Bush from the midst of voters are quick to claim that any mention by President Obama of the Bush years is sour grapes or somehow offensive. That’s crap, and the president should not refrain from mentioning the preceding administration when necessary, but it can be handled well by national DEMs and articulate surrogates. All supporters of the president should make sure the country remembers the twisted, ideological partisanship of the Bush administration, the nightmare at the beginning of this century, lest the country saddle itself with a replay of Republican extremism in the White House.

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