Apalachicolan Apprehensions
Not surprisingly, the atmosphere of introspection at the New York Times in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal has quickly turned into a self-consuming paranoia. Now Rick Bragg, a veteran Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner, has been suspended for not adding the name of a freelance contributor to his byline despite receiving background research from him on a story about imperiled oystermen on the Florida coast. But reporters in the field and on deadline frequently make use of research and even interviews conducted by assistants and interns back in the home office. Did Bragg’s uncredited reliance on aspiring stringer J. Wes Yoder cross the line? Perhaps – but the fact that such a minor matter is now national news is a clear sign that the public beating of the Times is far from over. Conventional wisdom has it that Executive Editor Howell Raines’s hold on the paper can’t stand another scandal, which means that borderline infractions on the paper’s ostensible code of conduct are now being treated as severe offenses, lest anyone suspect that laxity in journalistic ethics is too deeply ingrained in the Times editorial offices to be overcome. Bragg, I suspect, is merely the first of a large number of people at the Times who have none nothing seriously wrong who will hung out to dry in order to atone for the sins of Blair – and Raines.
Respond
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Come Home, Nimrod
Finally, John Ashcroft is doing something other than secretly wiretapping Americans’ phone lines. The Attorney General has announced an international investigation into the organized theft of the antiquities from the Iraqi National Museum. The investigators are also getting help from the British Museum, which has estimated only 30-40 major pieces were missing – far less than previous news reports have led the world to believe.
Respond
Finally, John Ashcroft is doing something other than secretly wiretapping Americans’ phone lines. The Attorney General has announced an international investigation into the organized theft of the antiquities from the Iraqi National Museum. The investigators are also getting help from the British Museum, which has estimated only 30-40 major pieces were missing – far less than previous news reports have led the world to believe.
Respond
Friday, April 25, 2003
Looters Be Damned
As usual, Mark Steyn has the best piece so far on the thefts from the Iraqi National Museum by organized thieves (not random looters as has generally been reported around the world). He made light of the impact in a previous column, sparking an indignant letter to the National Post, to which he responded:
[Editor of the London Spectator] Boris Johnson called the Iraqi museum's contents "the equivalent of the Crown Jewels, things that were meant eternally to incarnate the culture of your land." But the Crown Jewels matter because they symbolize reality -- the peaceful constitutional order that the Queen's subjects have enjoyed for centuries. By contrast, the contents of the Baghdad museum symbolize everything that the monstrous reality of Saddam's Iraq rejected -- law, government, progress, innovation, vitality. So a lawless regime preserved the records of the first legal code in a glass case, and for most of the last few years you couldn't even get in to see it. The past was just another Saddamite plaything, appropriated for some useful regime-propping imagery but otherwise disposable. Before they got diverted into jumping on the Bush-bashing bandwagon, the students of antiquity were more concerned with Saddam's dam project at Makhul, which was threatening to submerge Assur, the old capital of the Assyrian empire. There's a fine image: civilization's cradle being thrown out by the Baath water. As usual, it fell to British, American and European archaeological teams to plan to rescue as much of "Iraq's past" as they could.
Respond
As usual, Mark Steyn has the best piece so far on the thefts from the Iraqi National Museum by organized thieves (not random looters as has generally been reported around the world). He made light of the impact in a previous column, sparking an indignant letter to the National Post, to which he responded:
[Editor of the London Spectator] Boris Johnson called the Iraqi museum's contents "the equivalent of the Crown Jewels, things that were meant eternally to incarnate the culture of your land." But the Crown Jewels matter because they symbolize reality -- the peaceful constitutional order that the Queen's subjects have enjoyed for centuries. By contrast, the contents of the Baghdad museum symbolize everything that the monstrous reality of Saddam's Iraq rejected -- law, government, progress, innovation, vitality. So a lawless regime preserved the records of the first legal code in a glass case, and for most of the last few years you couldn't even get in to see it. The past was just another Saddamite plaything, appropriated for some useful regime-propping imagery but otherwise disposable. Before they got diverted into jumping on the Bush-bashing bandwagon, the students of antiquity were more concerned with Saddam's dam project at Makhul, which was threatening to submerge Assur, the old capital of the Assyrian empire. There's a fine image: civilization's cradle being thrown out by the Baath water. As usual, it fell to British, American and European archaeological teams to plan to rescue as much of "Iraq's past" as they could.
Respond
Democratic Primary Report
I’ve always considered Senators Kerry and Lieberman to be the only serious candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2004, but the lofty position the Senator from Connecticut held even after the 2000 defeat is clearly slipping. He’s running fourth in a declared field of ten in fundraising so far, barely beating Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont as of the last SEC filing deadline. If Lieberman, as the default national leader of his party, has to run hard just to overtake a wildly leftwing antiwar candidate like Dean he’s got a lot of work to do in the next three months.
Respond
I’ve always considered Senators Kerry and Lieberman to be the only serious candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2004, but the lofty position the Senator from Connecticut held even after the 2000 defeat is clearly slipping. He’s running fourth in a declared field of ten in fundraising so far, barely beating Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont as of the last SEC filing deadline. If Lieberman, as the default national leader of his party, has to run hard just to overtake a wildly leftwing antiwar candidate like Dean he’s got a lot of work to do in the next three months.
Respond
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Finally, Protestors Make an Impact on Government Spending
Given their failure to stop Operation Iraqi Freedom from proceeding, antiwar protestors across the country have been understandably dejected lately. Now the reports are coming in, however, that their demonstrations are having an impact after all. All of the extra police and emergency response presence needed to maintain order has ended up costing the cities in which protests were staged millions of dollars. Even my humble hometown of Portland, Oregon is footing the bill for around an extra million. This in a state that is laying off teachers because of a state-wide budget crisis. Congratulations, you brave street activists. You might not have changed the White House’s mind, but you helped deprived the state’s kids of a quality education.
Respond
Given their failure to stop Operation Iraqi Freedom from proceeding, antiwar protestors across the country have been understandably dejected lately. Now the reports are coming in, however, that their demonstrations are having an impact after all. All of the extra police and emergency response presence needed to maintain order has ended up costing the cities in which protests were staged millions of dollars. Even my humble hometown of Portland, Oregon is footing the bill for around an extra million. This in a state that is laying off teachers because of a state-wide budget crisis. Congratulations, you brave street activists. You might not have changed the White House’s mind, but you helped deprived the state’s kids of a quality education.
Respond
Thursday, April 10, 2003
The Language of Diplomacy
As my good friend ZCC has noted, subtlety is not the U.S.'s strong suit when it comes to foreign policy. The State Department has already begun warning rogue nations and their compatriots to “draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq” – which would be something along the lines of “you’re next.” Given the informed speculation about top Iraqi officials being given refuge by former ophthalmologist and regional strongman Bashar Assad, the Syrians should be especially nervous.
Respond
As my good friend ZCC has noted, subtlety is not the U.S.'s strong suit when it comes to foreign policy. The State Department has already begun warning rogue nations and their compatriots to “draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq” – which would be something along the lines of “you’re next.” Given the informed speculation about top Iraqi officials being given refuge by former ophthalmologist and regional strongman Bashar Assad, the Syrians should be especially nervous.
Respond
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
The Jackal That Didn’t Bark
Dalal Saoud, writing for United Press International today, surveys how what was supposed to be the Mother of All Battles is ending up more like Oakland after a championship game loss – lots of general looting and lawlessness, but no organized military action. The house-by-house urban bloodbath that antiwar pundits predicted we would find in Baghdad is nowhere to be seen.
Respond
Dalal Saoud, writing for United Press International today, surveys how what was supposed to be the Mother of All Battles is ending up more like Oakland after a championship game loss – lots of general looting and lawlessness, but no organized military action. The house-by-house urban bloodbath that antiwar pundits predicted we would find in Baghdad is nowhere to be seen.
Respond
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
Just Say No to Misleading Propaganda
In perhaps the rarest of all occurrences within the federal government, an agency is recognizing a failed policy and choosing to discontinue it. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is discontinuing it’s shameless All Drug Users Are Terrorists campaign. The spots premiered at this year’s Superbowl, to the tune of $3 million wasted taxpayer dollars.
Respond
In perhaps the rarest of all occurrences within the federal government, an agency is recognizing a failed policy and choosing to discontinue it. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is discontinuing it’s shameless All Drug Users Are Terrorists campaign. The spots premiered at this year’s Superbowl, to the tune of $3 million wasted taxpayer dollars.
Respond
The View from Medicine Hat
Canadian MP Monte Solberg takes his countrymen to task for their reflexive anti-Americanism and inane protests: “For a good number of people this is not about war at all. It's just primal-scream therapy for people who hate George W. Bush.”
Respond
Canadian MP Monte Solberg takes his countrymen to task for their reflexive anti-Americanism and inane protests: “For a good number of people this is not about war at all. It's just primal-scream therapy for people who hate George W. Bush.”
Respond
Sunday, March 23, 2003
Signs O’ the Times
The antiwar protests in Washington, D.C., as elsewhere continue apace; nothing new there. There were a couple new posters posted near the White House, though.
This poster, appropriating the memorable phrase uttered by Todd Beamer aboard Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, depicts an anthropomorphic pig driving an SUV over a pile of crushed Iraqi bodies. It was pasted up on a utility box across from Lafayette Square, next to the Hay-Adams Hotel.
This one, likely torn by ideological opponents, invited people to walk out of their jobs and schools when hostilities commenced: “When the Bombing Starts, America Stops.” Looking back to earlier in the week, very few Americans followed the invitation.
Also near Lafayette Square, the drawing in this example has become almost completely destroyed. It used to be a depiction of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney:
Here’s what it looked like on March 15, 2003. At that time a couple people had pasted over it with bumper stickers reading “This Poster Paid For By Saddam Hussein.”
It was fresh and new on March 8, 2003 when this photo was taken.
Respond
The antiwar protests in Washington, D.C., as elsewhere continue apace; nothing new there. There were a couple new posters posted near the White House, though.
This poster, appropriating the memorable phrase uttered by Todd Beamer aboard Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, depicts an anthropomorphic pig driving an SUV over a pile of crushed Iraqi bodies. It was pasted up on a utility box across from Lafayette Square, next to the Hay-Adams Hotel.
This one, likely torn by ideological opponents, invited people to walk out of their jobs and schools when hostilities commenced: “When the Bombing Starts, America Stops.” Looking back to earlier in the week, very few Americans followed the invitation.
Also near Lafayette Square, the drawing in this example has become almost completely destroyed. It used to be a depiction of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney:
Here’s what it looked like on March 15, 2003. At that time a couple people had pasted over it with bumper stickers reading “This Poster Paid For By Saddam Hussein.”
It was fresh and new on March 8, 2003 when this photo was taken.
Respond