Hey, @nytimes, why is a story on the white birthrate dropping a "top story"?

I mean, I know why, but first things, first. Have a look at this screencap I took of the NYTimes daily "top headlines" newsletter I got this morning:



A story on Caucasian births accounting for less than half of the births in the US is the TOP story in the newsletter. Meanwhile, here's where the the story ends up on NYTimes.com:



Also it's a top story...but why? Well, it's because fear sells. And the NYT thinks we are racist and afraid of being overrun by nonwhites. Why else would they use the term "white" instead of "caucasian" in the headline? There is even more fear-mongering in the subtitle that suggests the entire identity of the nation will change thanks to fewer whites being born.

First off, there will still be mostly rich white people running things. Secondly, why is this news? This trend has been going on for a while now. I remember, years ago, seeing John Gibson on Fox News "reporting" on this and encouraging white folks to have more babies.

Because, clearly, what the world needs is more white people >_< If we're supposed to ever move beyond racism, stories like this need to stop being the top headline. The NYTimes is being racist and encouraging racism and the classic "fear of the other" in it's caucasian readers. The somewhat sad truth is, America's racial identity doesn't matter all that much since it's still largely white people at the top. And really, non-caucasians are no less corruptible than caucasians, so even if the current ethnicity balance in Washington were different, the country's identity still wouldn't change. We'd just have African-Americans and Latinos ordering drone strikes in foreign countries and cutting health care spending...Oh and PLENTY of white people on TV and in our movies.

So, it's a real shame that the NYT is resorting to such tactics just to get more eyes on their articles. Sure, ethnicity stats in America should be a story they cover, but a "top story"? I don't think so.

Incidentally, hey, NYT, do you mind not putting literal asses on either side of your masthead? Kinda lowers my respect for you as a newsource. Plus they're just distracting. At least they're all caucasian asses. >_<

Oh and does anyone else find a clothing line called "Bonobos" a little racist? Especially with a black guy in their ad? I mean, Bonobos are a kind of monkey. I seem to recall it being racist to call African-Americans "monkeys".

Ah well. Just another day on Bizarro Earth...

Draw Every Day 3/14/12: EXTINCT: the Real News Man

Killed by the hot blondes of TV news!  OK, not really, but I do think there's been way too many TV News people hired due to their hotness and not for their ability as journalists.

Ballpoint Adventures for January 27, 2006: Billy Wonders Why TV Sucks

This is why I don't want broadcast TV anymore.

Another Example of How You Shouldn't Trust the Media: Even on the Little Things

From Coalspeaker.com:

More proof that nothing you see in the media is real.. or at least it is questionable.. the White House tipped off the AP of Michelle Obama's Target trip before she went

So, whether it's a story on protesters getting entrapped only to be rewritten 20 minutes later to be a story on protesters getting arrested, or even  the little, unimportant things like the above, the media isn't representing reality.  This whole "paying attention" thing is getting pretty tedious.

Then again, I suppose the idea is to get us to stop caring. >_<

 

 

Please read: The TSA is still bad, but the media sometimes isn’t even the media.

I found the above screencap and the quoted commentary on it below via stfuglennbeck (who has since taken it down and it’s still on strikegently at least as of this writing):

yoctavias:

mssswitch

Wait. Wait. Wait. WAIT.

“Goddamn Arab”?!

Thats not racial profiling. Motherfucker. He was jerking off at women athletes. Not a fucking Arab. I dont know how people think they can just get away with saying racist ass shit like that. Like SERIOUSLY?!

(I tend to curse when Im angry, sorry.)

It wasn’t long ago that everyone was screaming about needing more security.
But now we’ve taken it way too far and it’s turning into a sexual/racial issue.

I travel by train/boat/bus/car and I have no intention of getting on an airplane until this is taken care of. You have more privacy at the gynecologist anymore.

Yeah, well, don’t get your X-Ray-proof panties in a bunch about the above article or the image in the screengrab above. It’s a complete fake. I did a Google News search for the headline “Body Scanner Operator Caught Masturbating at Colorado Airport” and got no hits.  Then I did a regular web search and found an article explaining how the image, allegedly of an X-rayed woman, was actually just taken from a stock photography package and then inverted in Photoshop to give it that X-ray flavor.  Then I did a search for the reporter “Hugh Muzzbe” and found hundreds of hits, all on the same article being reposted and reblogged all over the place—but nothing else by him.

I know, I know, you’re thinking: “HUGH MUZZBE KIDDING ME!”

>_<

Does this mean that the X-ray machines and the body searches are any less invasive or any less of a violation of our rights? NOPE.  It just means that, as usual, we have to keep our heads when reading about this stuff—ALWAYS CONFIRM EVERYTHING.  If you’ve read one story in one place, don’t assume it’s accurate until you confirm it with other news sources.

But remember, just because this one image and this one article was faked, it doesn’t mean the TSA isn’t super creepy or at all competent in their job or not violating our rights—they most certainly are all those things.  Alternet.org posted their list of the top 7 creepy things about the TSA and Mythbuster, Adam Savage, just the other day, admitted he walked right through one of the TSA’s machines and then onto a plane to Seattle with two 12-inch razor blades on his person (he carries a lot of weird stuff around with him and forgot he had them).

Oh and the good old fourth amendment of the Bill of Rights promises freedom from unlawful search and seizure.  Last time I checked, the TSA checks are not done by law, but by regulation.  Big difference. I was reminded of this while reading this account of the blogger behind NoBlasters.com being held up by TSA after flying.  Essentially, if you simply ask if you’re under arrest, and they say “no” you can go. I wouldn’t try this, but if you’ve got plenty of money for a lawyer and don’t mind missing your flight…

Ultimately, the moral of the story is that we can’t trust people to do their job, whether they claim to be in the media or that they’re doing it for our own good.

The need for clear, objective reporting in a world of rising religious fundamentalism, economic interdependence and global ecological problems is probably greater than it has ever been. But we are no longer a national audience receiving news from a handful of trusted gatekeepers; we’re now a million or more clusters of consumers, harvesting information from like-minded providers.

The need for clear, objective reporting in a world of rising religious fundamentalism, economic interdependence and global ecological problems is probably greater than it has ever been. But we are no longer a national audience receiving news from a handful of trusted gatekeepers; we’re now a million or more clusters of consumers, harvesting information from like-minded providers.

Ted Koppel: Olbermann, O’Reilly and the death of real news

It’s nice to see that someone sees the same problem I do.

Apparently, Olbermann said something against this, I think?  I’m so sick of that guy and 99.999% of the media.  They’ve made us rock stupid. They have no right to complain about us because they’re a serious part of why we say/do stupid things.  After all, most Americans just slurp up their crappy content and think nothing worse of it.  I think the MSM needs STFU and stop being so sensitive to criticism. 

It’s not like Ted Koppel has any kind of real influence any more.

AW, so nice to see Rick Sanchez working again! RT @MotherJones: What’s a singing chicken doing at ABC News?

motherjones:

politico:

newsweek:

braiker:

A singing chicken just came to our newsroom to serenade a colleague on her birthday. What happened at your office today?

Is it named Kathy Jones?

Man, nothing good ever happens at our office. More singing chickens, please. 

Here, here. Nothing this good happened at the Atlantic office today, either. There’s always tomorrow.

QUICK! TAZE HIM!

Maybe that’s the chicken Ernie Anastos was referring to?

New Television “Journalist” Barbie—she looks ready for her stint on Fox News!

Found via timeoutnewyork:

urlesque:

amyvernon:

Mattel introduces new Journalism Barbie

blerg.

Now with side bangs!

This is pretty much the opposite of what we wear to work. But then, this is “news anchor” Barbie, not “magazine writer who treats every day like casual Friday” Barbie.

Actually, scratch that—I don’t think she’s hot enough for Fox.

Juan Cole/TomDispatch on something I talked about in the last 666cast

No sooner do I post episode 25 of the 666cast which encourages us all to turn off the TV news to avoid it’s stupifying effects, than do I stumble across a post on Frederic Guarino’s tumblr linking to “Tomgram: Juan Cole, The Media as a Security Threat to America” on TomDispatch.com.  In part Juan Cole is quoted in the post as saying:

The great Pakistani deluge did not exist, it seems, because it was not on television, would not have delivered audiences to products, and was not all about us.  As we saw on September 11, 2001, and again in March 2003, however, the failure of our electronic media to inform the public about centrally important global developments is itself a security threat to the republic.

Earlier today, Frederic also reblogged this:

further proof US media is insular to the point of being ridiculous

notnadia:

Wow.

All right, so I guess I should have said turn off ALL mainstream media in the US, instead of just TV. :

Jesus, (if we can’t learn what’s really going on in the world) we’re fucked.

WashingtonPost.com parody viral video that reminds us why we’ll miss what little journalism we had.Found via jesseellison:newsweek:For some reason, this has been sent around the office all day todayNewZweek is gonna be so much better.I can’t believe I missed this when it was first going around… must’ve been when I was shooting that wacky web video instead of writing my novel. ;(Incidentally, if “context” was all that the MSM is supposed to give us, I’m really not going to miss it all that much. :

The Absurd Disconnect Continues: noticing greedy employers

If you’re not familiar with what I call “the Absurd Disconnect,” in a nutshell, it’s when people look at the sky and tell you it’s green—or when someone tells you it’s safe to go swimming in a part of the ocean that just had millions of gallons of oil dumped in it—like that.  There’s been a lot of this kind of thing going on lately and it’s continuing.

In this instance, I saw a link on Newsweek’s Tumblr to an article on Newsweek’s main site claiming to be “What the JetBlue Guy Says About the Economy” well, it wasn’t that. I was hoping to literally hear Slater’s take on the job situation, but alas, I got some reporter-guy’s opinion of it. Part of his opinion was based on USG docs.  Yeah, yeah, let’s trust USG docs.  They’ve never been wrong before.  Anyway, so here’s the part of the article that pissed me off the most (italics are mine):

For the past year, the U.S. economy has been whipping roughly the same number of workers to do more, produce more, serve more, with each passing week, without much assistance, and without much of a raise. Over the past four quarters, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, “unit labor costs fell 2.8 percent as output per hour increased faster than hourly compensation.” But when the BLS reported the second-quarter productivity numbers on Tuesday, Aug. 10, the results were a little shocking. For the first time in several years, productivity actually fell—at a 0.9 percent annual rate. Workers put in more hours, but output didn’t keep up. They simply can’t run any faster.

via newsweek.com

OH, REALLY? Just the past year?

Since college, I can’t name a single boss I’ve ever worked for who didn’t hire me for one thing who didn’t then pile on extra responsibilities.  Sometimes those responsibilities were tenuously related to the work I was paid to do (so I dealt with them) but *every* time I didn’t get a raise to make up for the extra work.  I finished college in the early 90s, right when the downsizing trend was kicking into high gear.  Shortly thereafter, it stopped being a trend and became business as usual.

Seems like some folks never noticed that. I remember Paul Krugman, not too long ago, saying something about how he was worried high unemployment would stop getting apologized for and would just be assumed to be part of the system.  He hadn’t noticed that it’s already part of the system. But that’s what he gets for being one of those people that base their reality almost entirely on what they are told by “authorities” and not what they’ve experienced or heard from other “grunts.” 

I worked for a company from 1999 to 2006 and held two positions. In that time, the first position never saw a raise. Not for the 7 years I worked there.  In the other position I only got a 75¢/hr raise after I demanded $1/hr.  This was after they tried to get me to become the receptionist for the entire company, sort the company’s mail AND do my original job of running my department (which was something I did only because my boss, the actual head of the department, wasn’t doing it).

That’s just one example. 

It’s amazing to see the media just now catching on that employers are greedy.  What’s next? Choice words for executives for this “new trend” of owning expensive luxury cars and wearing expensive suits?

Yes, that op-ed will no doubt be written by Sherlock Holmes—for only someone as brilliant as the fictional detective would be able to make such profound observations on humanity today.

>_<

Why is the media so slow to do it’s job?  Why are we so willing to put up with being shit on by our bosses?  The last time I had an office job where my boss tried to dump more duties on me, I put my foot down and they survived without me having to do work I didn’t sign up to do.  The work I was not willing to do was absorbed by other employees whose job it already was.  Later they laid me off when all of my duties got folded into other folks’ jobs (d’oh!).  They offered to hire me elsewhere in the company but couldn’t tell me how much more I’d be making but that I’d be working directly for the top executives at the company.  Bleh—not for me.  So, I turned it down.  Turns out the woman who got the job ended up being forced to work 6 days a week without OT. Yep. She felt compelled to not risk the gig because she was a single mom. 

This was three years ago—before the recession.

Well, it was before the officially recognized recession, anyway.

That’s the other falsehood that the media and other “authority” types haven’t noticed yet.  Thanks to a number of factors, our economy is on a downward trajectory and has been for some time.  It was just easier to ignore before.

Shame we can’t all just face reality and do something about it.

What are those factors?

Outsourcing

Offshoring

a money system not based on anything tangible

lousy regulation

corporations having the “right” to “give” as much as they want to campaigns

These five factors, I believe, are behind every problem facing America, and the western world, really.

The Miley Cyrus Pic CNN Mobile left up for 45 Minutes

The Miley Cyrus Pic CNN Mobile left up for 45 Minutes, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

CNN's mobile page for 45 minutes earlier tonight. Can't imagine why!

Time: BHO=FDR

Time: BHO=FDR, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

I saw this on a news stand the other day while I was out with my fried
Keith and it cracked me up. Don't know if I agree or not. I just
hope BHO doesn't let a Pearl-Harbory thing happen the way FDR did. Oh
and building the bomb--that was pretty lame, too.

Reuters: Everything Good is Bad Again

Spotted this article on Reuters.com this morning called "October consumer prices and home starts plummet" and found it really fascinating.  If you read it, it talks about things like housing prices dropping and deflation as bad things.  Think about that for a moment.

Houses dropping in price means more people can afford houses and fewer new loans will be defaulted on.

Isn't that good for the economy?

It's certainly good for people who want to buy homes.

But the Reuters article insists that the economy is weakening even further than it has.

The article also mentions deflation as another example of an ever-sinking economy.  The thing is, what do we mostly bitch about when it comes to money? 

Inflation.

So, shouldn't deflation be a good thing to us?

I say yes.

While the article also reports on consumer prices dropping and a few other things that generally the economy is weakening, I say prices dropping are part of the system working.  Yep, that's right--this is ThePete saying capitalism and free market economics both work just fine when not abused.  Leaving them be, letting losses and crashes occur means that things were getting to big for the system to support.  Now we can rebuild on more stable footing. 

Prices dropping is a natural function of the law of supply and demand.  We American consumers have stopped spending as much as we used to--THIS IS A GOOD THING.

This fills my heart with hope for humanity that we're not just a bunch of dumb sheep doing what we're told.  This is proof we can react to what is really happening and do the right, logical thing.

So, we stop spending, prices drop to entice us to buy, to a certain degree we do, and slowly but surely, the economy builds back up again.

Color me malfunctioning, but my memory circuits tell me this is how things are supposed to work.

Bailouts now would just delay our economy's recovery.

Tell me I'm wrong--please--and tell me how so I can learn.  Thanks.

One last thing about this article.  Since it puts everything in terms of its level of badness for the economy, despite those things being good for consumers and really the stability of the whole system, doesn't this article end up coming off like an advertisement for the corporate greed mindset?  That we all need to be buying and borrowing at all times to keep the economy moving and growing and dominating (despite it's complete crashing and bleeding out recently)?  It reminds me of how the media isn't liberally biased, it's biased toward money--and the furthering of the belief that "greed is good."

Gordon Gecco is dead.  Let's leave him buried, shall we?

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CNN No Longer Biassed Against Obama!

D'oh! They changed it!

Earlier today I posted this: http://thepete.com/cnncom-biassed-against-obama

Luckily for CNN.com, they changed it!

My faith in them has been restored!

Or NOT...

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Bill O'Reilly: Hypocrite

I grabbed this video clip from http://MediaMatters.org/ back in 2006 shortly after Mike Farrell was on Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox. I added a few bits of text to make a point or two. This is relevant in light of O'Reilly's recent comments about lynching Barack Obama's wife.

In case you missed it, O'Reilly said this: "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels--that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever--then that's legit. We'll track it down."

Read more about it in the transcript to last Friday's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23337804/

I know everyone is overreacting the same way they did when Don Imus made his racist comments, but if we don't overreact things will never change.

Yes, it's obvious O'Reilly wasn't really talking about stringing her up from a tree-branch, but the comment is still racist. However, it's not the right exaggeration to use when referring to a black person.

Also, if you take O'Reilly's most recent comments, combine them with the examples in the clip and you'll see that this is a man who makes his career off of being a horrible person. Should this guy have a show on one of America's most popular "news" channels? I don't think so. I'm not saying he should be silenced nor am I saying we should somehow force Fox News to fire him.

All I'm saying is that he should SHUT UP!

;)

Nooo, I'm kidding! Free speech is our most important right. However, what he was doing was threatening Michelle Obama's life figuratively for something she said--she was critical of the United States and O'Reilly threatened to figuratively hang her from a figurative tree.

That's quite an attempt to squash free speech in itself, isn't it?

So, do we shut the man up? No, not completely. If I were Fox News I'd have fired his ass a long time ago but this is a good straw to break the camel's back. He'll still be able to say what he wants on the Internet.

No one's censoring him--he'd just have his volume turned down.

And wouldn't everyone appreciate that?
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CNN.com and Pals Do a Suck Job at News

By looking at CNN.com's main page as I type this you wouldn't know that:

America has troops in Iraq
America has troops in Afghanistan
Turkey has troops in Iraq
The US economy is in bad shape
Poverty is still a huge problem in the US
Katrina victims are still struggling

Granted, they are letting us know about the earthquake that just struck off of Sumatra, but they're also reporting that:

The US Mil is "pretty sure" they shot down that dead spy satellite with the toxic fuel aboard. I'm "pretty sure" I'm relieved knowing that!

Clinton and Obama are arguing about trade--well that's... different.

A woman was apparently refused life-saving oxygen on a plane. Sucks to be her for sure, but is one person's death worth the attention CNN.com is giving it?

Obama is upset over Clinton playing dirty politics. Well, that's... different.

Iraqis use animals and wheelchairs to blow things up. YOU DON'T SAY! HOW CLEVER OF THEM.

Two Cuban groups arrive in the US. That's, uh, nice. Care to tell us WHO THEY ARE?

Apparently an 8th grade kid who was shot was bullied first. This is important to know, if you happened to be the parent of an 8th grader who is currently being bullied and is about to be shot. Which is, you know, a lot of us, I'm sure.

The elephant population of *some* nation *somewhere* in the world has more than doubled. Said nation decides killing some is cool. That'll teach those damn elephants to, uh, procreate.

A man was trapped underwater in a backhoe--what was he doing with a backhoe underwater in the first place?

Places where lots of people died are locations living people are interested in. YOU'RE LYING! No one finds death fascinating!! You're so full of shit, CNN!

;)

The guy who won the lottery recently almost didn't buy a ticket this week, making the rest of us who did feel like asses for bothering.

Apparently, all the best actors aren't American and the Academy knows it.

Credit card debt is up three times the previous measured level and most people pay their bill late. WOW, THAT IS NEWS! I AM SORRY I DOUBTED YOU, CNN!

An iguana that eats it's own kind gets a toy lizard stuck in his throat. Ooo, they've got video of it! What is this America's Funniest Home Videos? Does Tom Bergeron work for CNN now???

Someone called Anne Geddes can't control the babies that she uses in her... project of some kind?

OH and the best bit is their top story--which comes complete with a picture of a "dead nuke plant." Check it out:

"Talk about descent. Eighteen months ago, North Korea could test fire a nuke. Now, the same plant that produced that feat has severed pipes and crumbling concrete. It's a far cry from the place that earned President Bush's 'evil' label."

Nice journalism.

"Talk about descent."??? I didn't go to journalism school or anything, but this doesn't strike me as a very balanced statement. Follow that up with the statement about how this plant is a "far cry" from the plant that made Bush call NoKo 'evil' and you're really tipping the scales. I mean, is the reporter an expert in judging the effects of aging on nuclear plants?

SERIOUSLY, CNN, you guys need to catch a clue before more people defect to MNSBC and Fox News--not that either of those guys are doing any sort of job either.

MSNBC.com is currently reporting on:

The Oscars (important *entertainment* news)
The fact that existing-home sales have fallen to a 10-year low (important)
Clinton and Obama sharpening attacks (not important)
Computers are being taught to appreciate art (not important for top-story billing)
The spy-satellite shoot-down was successful (they should check out what CNN is reporting!)

...and a few other things that have nothing to do with the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the invasion of northern Iraq by Turkey and no mention of the Sumatran earthquake either.

Meanwhile Fox News is even worse. In a story on an American political scientist you've never heard of they actually use the LOLCatz method to announce he's in league with terrorism (to see, go here: http://thepete.com/lolfoxnooz ).

Either way, we're in a world of hurt, news-wise.

Part of a strong, healthy democracy is knowing what the hell is going on and when we know so little about the important stuff, we really can't make the best choice for our leaders. Kinda makes you wonder if this hasn't been going on for a while now.

I mean, look at the state of the Earth.
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911 Whistleblower Talking Again

Above is a screencap of part of the very first post I wrote about Sibel Edmonds way back in 2004 (http://thepete.com/…efore-911).

As a translator for the FBI, Edmonds says she saw hard evidence in the days after 911 that there were warnings that 911 was going to happen. When she tried to tell people about this, Ashcroft legally gagged her. She eventually got fired and she's been trying to get her story out sideways ever since--that was almost four years ago.

She was quiet for a long time (or maybe it was just that the media wasn't covering her), but now she's spoken to http://TimesOnline.co.uk/ and to BradBlog.com--why to only them? Because, essentially, no one else will listen.

Here are some links if you're interested:

All of my posts on Edmonds:
http://thepete.com/index.php

A CBS story from August 2004 on her:
http://www.cbsnews.com/…6954.shtml

The Times Online article about/with her from January 6, 2008:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/…137695.ece

BradBlog.com's piece on her from two days ago:
http://www.bradblog.com/

Finally, Edmonds' own website:
http://www.justacitizen.com/

Please check this stuff out--if only to learn about it for yourself. But if you are as concerned as I am, please pass on this story to other folks.

Seems there are a lot of well-known-names that are involved in allowing nuclear secrets to get out and, essentially, allowing 911 to happen.

Weee, nothing like some conspiracy crap to make your morning exciting!
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