Category: Media

The Rich/Poor Divide on Immigration

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Dean Baker correctly criticizes the New York Times for mischaracterizing the nature of immigration in this article.

The Times claims that poor immigrants find far more in the way of barriers than do the rich, and rightly notes that while poor immigrants may run across the borders, “The United States much more severely restricts the flows of highly educated immigrants than less-educated immigrants, it just uses different mechanisms. In the case of highly educated immigrants, the government at least partially enforces laws that prohibit employers from hiring immigrants at wages that are lower than what citizens would be willing to work for. There are no newspapers, hospitals, universities, or law firms that bring in large numbers of undocumented professionals and pay them half of the prevailing wage in their occupation. Such an institution would almost certainly be shut down, with the employers facing prosecution.“

This is not entirely accurate either. While the poor may be smuggled across borders in the back of 18 wheelers, and the more well to do will fly in, which makes the trek for the former easier, the divide is not between rich and poor, but between workers, and “professionals”.

Programmers, engineers, and nurses (which kind of eliminates your hospital example) are routinely replaced by lower paid H1b/L1 workers, and these visas are also used to lower wages in the fields.

The divide is that people who draw up this policy (Lawyers, Economists, and other Academicians), those who belong to professions that they might want their children to go into (Doctors), and those who are needed to cheer lead these policies (Journalists), are protected.

It’s about protecting, “People like us”, more than it is about rich and poor.

Susan Collins Feeling the Heat of Her War Support

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It appears that the good Senator Collins is objecting to the Tom Allen campaign sending a staffer to follow her public appearances and video what she says.

Standard operating procedure for campaigns these days, and a great way of showing how a candidate talks out of both sides of their mouth.

Collins’ problem is that she’s been Bush’s bitch. When push comes to shove, she’s never voted against him. Her “bipartisanship” consists of joint pressers with Lieberman.

That’s how she guarantees no real opposition to her in the primaries (all of Bush’s support is from the party faithful), but she can’t go and talk to small wingnut audiences and tell them what a loyal Bushie she is if those speeches end up on Youtube.

CBS’s Bill Plante Practices Journalism

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At the ceremony announcing Rove’s departure, there was no question and answer session. Like any good reporter, Plante got a question in anyway:

As Karl Rove embraced President Bush today following an emotional farewell announcement on the South Lawn, the solemnity of the moment was shattered by Bill Plante of CBS, who bellowed to Bush: “If he’s so smart, how come you lost Congress?”

FWIW, it’s not the Carpetbagger (source of link) who called the moment “solemn”.

It was a political moment, not a solemn one, and questions should have been asked.

Billo Hacks Wicki

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It appears that Bill O’Reilley, or one of his evil minions™ at Fox News, hacked Wikipedia.

It’s much less amusing than when Stephen Colbert hacked Wiki.

Scratch that….It’s just as funny, but we are laughing at at Billo, not with him.

He/They got caught because a tool has been developed to allow for easy searches of Wiki edits and IP addresses.

Here is the edit:
Original:

The lawsuit focused a great deal of media attention upon Franken’s book and greatly enhanced its sales. Reflecting later on the lawsuit during an interview on the National Public Radio program ”Fresh Air” on September 3, 2003, Franken said that Fox’s case against him was “literally laughed out of court” and that “wholly (holy) without merit” is a good characterization of Fox News itself.

Fox News edit:

The lawsuit focused a great deal of media attention upon Franken’s book and greatly enhanced its sales. Reflecting later on the lawsuit during an interview on the liberal National Public Radio program ”Fresh Air” on September 3, 2003, Franken said that Fox’s case against him was the best thing to happen to his book sales.

Busted.

This is Not About Reporter-Source Privilige

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A judge has ordered 5 reporters to testify about their government sources in the Anthrax mailings.

There will be hand wringing from the press and journalism schools, but considering the abuses in the use of anonymous sources, including this case, there is a deeper principle:

When a Source Burns You, There is No Privilege

A source can have any number of reasons to talk to a reporter, and the reporter has a moral obligation to protect his source, so long as the source does not knowingly lie to him.

It is clear that the Hatfill sources were deliberately lying. In so doing, the contract between reporter and source is broken.

Hero Tells Bush: No Photo Op.

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Jeremy Hernandez saved the 50 children on the school bus during the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

As a result, Dunwoody College of Technology had offered him a full scholarship toward a degree in applied science. (Sounds like an associates degree.)

What’s more, he’s turned down a photo op with George Bush:

Mr. Hernandez was not available to comment on the offer; Ms. Schwartz said he left town for northern Minnesota late on Friday, overwhelmed by the attention and concerned that his co-workers were being overlooked. He spent the weekend fishing. When President Bush’s staff contacted him to request a photo opportunity, “He was just, like, ‘Nope,’ ” she said.

Props to him if he just doesn’t want to make too much out of this, humility is far too rare these days.

Double props if he decided that he did not want to shake hands with Bush.

Of Course Fox is Screaming “Terrorism”

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I was exercising (stationary bicycle), and watching TV at the Gym. CNN was focusing the bridge collapse and the trapped miners, and on the next TV over, Fox News was screaming “run for your lives, and put your trust in Bush”, about the Foot and Mouth* outbreak in the UK.

Fox News is really into creating terror as a way to hold onto viewers.

Let’s be clear. This is not terrorism. The subvariant of the virus is not one commonly found, but it is very close to the one in the 1967 outbreak, which is used for vaccine manufacture at a laboratory in Pirbright, which is is within the 3- kilometer protection zone.

If someone wanted to do bio-terrorism with hoof and mouth, it would be easier to go to areas of Asia or Africa where the disease is endemic (the 2001 outbreak was the “Type O pan Asia” strain), collect samples, and cover most of the country in a car for multiple outbreaks in multiple locations.

I once priced it out, and you could probably do this for less than 50 grand.

*Foot and Mouth and Hoof and Mouth are the same thing. The Brits call it the former, and we call it the latter.

Glenn Greenwald is 100% Correct

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He says America is plagued by a self-anointed, highly influential, and insular so-called Foreign Policy Community which spans both political parties, and this assesment is absolutely correct.

I’m not sold on Obama. I’m leaning towards Edwards in fact, but his statement that using a nuclear weapon to take out one individual, and in the process taking out a whole city, is counterproductive and ….well …. insane…is spot on.

Glenn Greenwald’s point about the general uselessness of the Washington foreign policy establishment is correct.

My only quibble is that it should not be limited to the foreign policy establishment.

Signs of the Apocalypse: The WaPo Editorial Page Gets it Right

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They cut the Democrats a new one for rolling over on warrantless surveillance.

Truth, the WaPo editorial page being what it is, which is to say only marginally more sane and truthful than the Wall Street Journal and New York Sun editorial pages, one wonders if this is more an attempt to cut the Dems a new one, like the rest of the beltway kool kidz krowd, and less of a real statement of values.

NBC Producer Owned at Def Con.

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It appears that an overzealous, and quite frankly not very bright Producer for the NBC program Dateline, Michelle Madigan, got outed at Def Con, the hackers convention.

Reporters are allowed, they are supposed to wear a press badge, and not to photograph or record without the subject’s consent.

Def Con is a bit of an odd bird, it resembles those “Christmas Truces” during the first world war, with white hats, black hats, and law enforcement all mingling in relative peace.

There is a hacking contest, and numerous demonstrations of security holes and hacking tools, which is why law enforcement shows up. This is just as useful to them as it is to the Nigerian spammers who attempt to get you to give them your bank account information.

It appears that the hopefully soon to be unemployed Ms. Madigan was attempting to create a bogus story about law enforcement folks being there.

While probably not factually false, it’s an attempt to create a scandal where none exists. Def Con is as valuable an asset to people combating hackers as it is for hackers, and any security professional who gets his undies in a bunch about people attending should not be in the field.

There is a description, with photos and video, of Ms. Madigan’s flight once she was outed here.

It appears that she was chased from the show by reporters looking for pictures and video once she was outed.

I love the irony.

Bush Admin Wants Official Secrets Act

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Bush and his evil minions™ at the department of justice are using the threat of prosecution under the espionage act to attempt to create a US version of the Official Secrets Act.

The espionage statutes concerning classified information could be employed against journalists who publish such information without authorization, a Justice Department official told Congress recently, elaborating on remarks made last year by Attorney General Gonzales.

These people have American freedoms, and they are doing their level best to destroy them.

Impeach Dick Cheney Today. Impeach George W. Bush Tomorrow.

Neocons are to Journalism as Ebola is to French Kissing

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This is a very interesting article describing why everyone at the Jerusalem Post views Conrad Black’s conviction on fraud with the same glee as HPers did over Fiorina’s departure.

Larry Derfner puts it nicely:

THERE’S ONE other misconception about him that ought to be cleared up – that he was a friend of Israel. Maybe in his words he was, but in his deeds? In his deeds he went as far as he could to gut an Israeli newspaper that’s been around for 75 years, one that’s very important to this country and the Diaspora.

Furthermore, he fired hundreds of Israelis, he destabilized hundreds of Israeli families, for nothing but his own greed. He had more money than even his wife could spend, yet for 14 years he fired as many Jerusalem Post employees as he could manage.

No, Lord Black of Crossharbour isn’t a friend of Israel; he’s as contemptuous of Israelis as he is of anybody else.

He’s due to be sentenced on November 30. He could get up to 35 years in prison for fraud and obstruction of justice. I wish the Post would throw a party that day and invite all the hundreds of people Black pushed out of here to come to the newsroom and wait for news of the verdict. I guess it’s just a fantasy.

But reality ought to be festive enough. There will be dozens of current Post employees, many of them Hollinger survivors, in the newsroom on the day of Black’s sentencing. All will be newspapermen and newspaperwomen, all of them pro-Israel – right-wingers, left-wingers and centrists, religious and secular, all sharing the same hope or prayer.

And on that day, God willing, when a roar of exultation is suddenly heard from the old Jerusalem Post building on Yermiyahu Street, it will mean that there is still some justice in the world.

Johnah Goldberg Calls for Return To Jim Crow Laws

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Jonah Goldberg, the second most egregious example of hepotism taken to extremeshas an editorial in the Los Angeles Times in which he calls for a return to Jim Crow era voter qualification tests.

He asks, “Why not test people about the basic functions of government? Immigrants have to pass a test to vote; why not all citizens?”

Well, given that Fox News watchers are the least informed news consumers out there, this could benefit Democrats.

So let’s ask some basic questions of citizens:

  • Which Branch of government has the exclusive right to delcare war?
  • Give conditions in which executive privilege do not apply.
  • How does the 13th amendment effect the powers of the states?
  • Who appoints federal judges?
  • Who appoints Ambassadors?
  • Who appoints Cabinet Members?

Here re the answers: Senate, almost all of them (at least from the rulings from the Clinton days), that all rights in the constitution apply to the states too, Senate, Senate, Senate

The president does not appoint these folks, he nominates them, the senate appoints them.

Seriously the only person stupider than Goldberg is the idiot who suggest that he write OP/Eds for the LA Times.

This Won’t Translate into Balls, Because Bush Has Those in His Desk Drawer.

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Well, it looks like Senator Specter criticized Abu Gonzalez on Air Force one.

Senator Arlen Specter violated both points of decorum on Thursday. He visited with reporters aboard the presidential airplane before it lifted off for Philadelphia and lambasted the attorney general.

Don’t think that this will mean that he’ll stand up to Bush though. He only votes against Bush when his vote does not count.

What Alan Said

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As an aside, I rather imagine that Princes William and Harry would like to see the same thing with Paparazzi’s motor bikes.

Ground those TV choppers
The senseless death of four helicopter newsmen in Phoenix underscores the stupidity and wastefulness of broadcasters who squander their precious resources on cheap chopper chases instead of more worthy pursuits.

This journalistically indefensible insanity must be stopped. If broadcasters won’t do it voluntarily, then the Federal Aviation Administration, acting on behalf of us innocents on the ground, ought to step in and do it for them.

So says Alan Mutter, and so say we all.

Helicopter footage of a car chase or a fire is not news, it’s porn masquerading as news.