Cadbury's an English company (that is owned by Nestles, based in the USA) put out a billboard ad saying, "Move over, Naomi Campbell, there's a new diva in town" - the Diva being a Cadbury's chocolate bar.
Blacks are outraged and are crying racism, and the billboards have been taken down, but you may be sure a lawsuit will shortly be filed and everyone who works at Cadbury's will have to go to sensitivity training, ya da ya da.
This despite the fact that blacks, in a romantic mood, have been known to refer to themselves as chocolate. "Try a bit of this dark chocolate tonight,". Well, maybe I've seen too many Eddie Murphy movies.
What I find incredulous about this story is that the Cadbury's advertising department apparently devised this advertisement without asking for permission from Naomi Campbell to use her likeness. That is just advertising 101! You can't use the likeness of anyone, let alone a celebrity, without getting their permission and paying them to do so!
So I'd say whoever devised this advertising campaign deserves to be fired, but not because of "racist content" but rather because he or she obviously does not know the simplest rules of his or her job.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Message boards on sports sites
Okay, it's not exactly devolution media - it's merely a showcase for the de-evolved.
Case in point, the news article on the death of Brandon Everage, "a safety on Oklahoma's national football championship team." He drowned while swimming in a river in Texas.
There are only 2 pages worth of comments so far, but most of them focus on the "bad news" that this is for Oklahoma, and only a relatively few confine themselves to "So sad, RIP, prayers to family."
Of course you can tell the difference between a male athlete being injured or dying and a female athlete doing so. For female athletes, the poster always has something to say about how pretty she is, or if she isn't pretty (or if he doesn't think she's pretty), then they're like - why do we even care about this woman?
For the male athlete, it's only about how good a player he was perceived to be.
Case in point, the news article on the death of Brandon Everage, "a safety on Oklahoma's national football championship team." He drowned while swimming in a river in Texas.
There are only 2 pages worth of comments so far, but most of them focus on the "bad news" that this is for Oklahoma, and only a relatively few confine themselves to "So sad, RIP, prayers to family."
Of course you can tell the difference between a male athlete being injured or dying and a female athlete doing so. For female athletes, the poster always has something to say about how pretty she is, or if she isn't pretty (or if he doesn't think she's pretty), then they're like - why do we even care about this woman?
For the male athlete, it's only about how good a player he was perceived to be.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Only in Spain - I hope
You'd have to be sick to even write/act in this movie. But to watch it? Anyone who'd want to watch this has some serious problems.
FOX 411 in Cannes: Horrified Viewers Flee Antonio Banderas' New Flick Due to Extreme Sex, Violence Scenes
Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's latest thriller, "The Skin I Live In," had filmgoers fleeing the theater Thursday night at its gala premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, due to some aggressively violent and disturbing content.
The film, which stars Antonio Banderas and budding actress Spanish actress Elena Anaya, focuses on a mad but brilliant surgeon (Banderas) who kidnaps a man who raped his daughter.
The doctor's daughter killed herself from the grief and it drives him to take very drastic measures. This is where it gets complicated and disturbing.
Banderas then gives the rapist a sex change and transplants his deceased daughter's face onto his body.
He later has sex with the man he has brutally experimented on and turned into a woman.
The movie also contained several disturbing rape scenes and nudity.
Guests, among them a group of sweepstakes winners flown specially to Cannes by Stella Artois from the U.S. to enjoy a once in a lifetime movie premiere were horrified by the experience. That group of Americans left and did not come back to the theater following a partiularly violent rape scene in the middle of the film.
A second exodus occurred when Banderas' character had relations with his victim at the end of the film, when even some of the French, who have a reputation for a higher tolerance for disturbing themes than Americans, had had enough.
"It was the fact that the victim was supposed to look like the doctor's daughter. I couldn't stop picturing the girl in the beginning of the movie when he was in bed with her, with him, later," said filmgoer Marie-Elise Martin who left three-quarters of the way through the picture.
The latest from the Spanish director is based on a French novel, "Tarantula," and the hometown crowd for the most part (the ones who stayed in the theater) did give Almodovar a five minute standing ovation for the adaptation.
Critics have also fallen in love with the upsetting film and are placing it in contention for the highest Cannes honor, the Palme d'or.
FOX 411 in Cannes: Horrified Viewers Flee Antonio Banderas' New Flick Due to Extreme Sex, Violence Scenes
Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's latest thriller, "The Skin I Live In," had filmgoers fleeing the theater Thursday night at its gala premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, due to some aggressively violent and disturbing content.
The film, which stars Antonio Banderas and budding actress Spanish actress Elena Anaya, focuses on a mad but brilliant surgeon (Banderas) who kidnaps a man who raped his daughter.
The doctor's daughter killed herself from the grief and it drives him to take very drastic measures. This is where it gets complicated and disturbing.
Banderas then gives the rapist a sex change and transplants his deceased daughter's face onto his body.
He later has sex with the man he has brutally experimented on and turned into a woman.
The movie also contained several disturbing rape scenes and nudity.
Guests, among them a group of sweepstakes winners flown specially to Cannes by Stella Artois from the U.S. to enjoy a once in a lifetime movie premiere were horrified by the experience. That group of Americans left and did not come back to the theater following a partiularly violent rape scene in the middle of the film.
A second exodus occurred when Banderas' character had relations with his victim at the end of the film, when even some of the French, who have a reputation for a higher tolerance for disturbing themes than Americans, had had enough.
"It was the fact that the victim was supposed to look like the doctor's daughter. I couldn't stop picturing the girl in the beginning of the movie when he was in bed with her, with him, later," said filmgoer Marie-Elise Martin who left three-quarters of the way through the picture.
The latest from the Spanish director is based on a French novel, "Tarantula," and the hometown crowd for the most part (the ones who stayed in the theater) did give Almodovar a five minute standing ovation for the adaptation.
Critics have also fallen in love with the upsetting film and are placing it in contention for the highest Cannes honor, the Palme d'or.
Friday, May 20, 2011
I Wonder What Her Parents Think?
She looks too young to have any kids...although what is "too young" these days? If she does have kids of newspaper-readable age, I wonder what they think? And then of course there's the people she works with - assuming she has a job. Will she be fired (as she would be if she made a racist or homophobic remark?) Or will she retain her job but be propositioned by every male she works with? Or treated by them as a pariah?
Would be interesting to find out the aftermath....
To explain, some woman at a San Jose Hockey game decided to flash her breasts for everyone near her to see, as well as everyone in the TV audience...
The sports media are reporting it of course. Here in the States you don't get to see anything, but I'm sure if it's reported in European countries they see the full monte. Not sure about Canada and England...they may well show her breasts as well.
Are we prudes, or are they too permissive? (England is the country that has a paper, the Sun, that has a Page 3 girl - a nude girl large as life, hopefully getting paid well to be a sex object.)
Anyway...I'm not really faulting the media on this one for reporting the story...I just wonder how many beers this woman had, or if she did the deed stone cold sober. Being a woman, I don't really understand the attraction of women's breats...certainly not bared like that, as opposed to in a sultry bedroom environment...but I guess guys are used to getting their thrills where they can find them.
(And women too, of course. Unfortunately)
Eager comments on fan's revealing display
SAN JOSE --- Not all the talk that centered around San Jose Sharks forward Ben Eager was about his check of Vancouver Canucks star Daniel Sedin.
There was a certain female Canucks fan who raised her jersey and flashed Eager as he sat in the penalty box during the third period of Game 2 of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday. The display was shown live on CBC, although Versus viewers here in the states missed out.
"I saw it, yeah," Eager said on Thursday. "I got a few text messages with the picture after the game, too. It was an interesting night, for sure."
Canucks spokesman Ben Brown told CBSSports.com the fan was removed from Rogers Arena immediately.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
The Love Child(ren) of Powerful Men
When Tiger Woods "fell from grace" with his 23 or more mistresses or - at any rate - sex partners - the media went ape trying to find out all about them... paying some of them big bucks for their exclusive stories. But at least they were grown women who would probably feed on the notoriety the press wanted to give them.
But a 10 year old illegitimate child of a famous actor? (Or for that matter, the famous actor's legitimate children? Although, they apparently have Twitter accounts and are sharing their private feelings of their own volition.)
Anyway, the media is not going to rest until they track down and interview this 10 year old kid. Sad.
Personally I think the conduct of the media over this is disgusting and embarrasing. The 10 year old son will probably never get over this, if these vultures track him down.
Newsmax.com: Palin: Schwarzenegger's Conduct 'Disgusting, Embarrassing'
But a 10 year old illegitimate child of a famous actor? (Or for that matter, the famous actor's legitimate children? Although, they apparently have Twitter accounts and are sharing their private feelings of their own volition.)
Anyway, the media is not going to rest until they track down and interview this 10 year old kid. Sad.
Personally I think the conduct of the media over this is disgusting and embarrasing. The 10 year old son will probably never get over this, if these vultures track him down.
Newsmax.com: Palin: Schwarzenegger's Conduct 'Disgusting, Embarrassing'
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin expressed disgust with fellow former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for secretly carrying on an affair and fathering a son with a housekeeper. Schwarzenegger showed “bad character,” Palin said on the Fox Business Network.
“It is irresponsible and pretty disgusting things that he did to deny that he had a child for 10 years,” Palin said. “I feel so bad for his children. It must be quite embarrassing for them.”
Schwarzenegger’s revelation about the affair and acknowledgement that it produced a child prompted wife Maria Shriver to leave the couple's home before they announced their separation last week. Schwarzenegger and Shriver jointly announced May 9 that they were splitting up after 25 years of marriage.
The affair, including the fact that the housekeeper was pregnant at the same time Shriver was, has prompted a media frenzy, including a flash mob of sorts when scores of reporters and photographers swarmed a quiet suburban cul-de-sac in the middle of California farm country amid unconfirmed reports it was the home of the love child’s mother.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Pau Gasol and the Tweets ridiculousness
Another "news" story - or I suppose blog story, that was up at CBS Sportsline a few days ago, and which I was unable to share here until too late - i.e., until the story disappeared.
So I'll try to recreate it from memory.
After the Lakers were defeated by the Mavericks, there were stories trying to figure out why. One of the stories was that Pau Gasol had played a lackluster series, because one of his teammates had slept with his wife.
And the story was that the teammate, whose name I'm blanking on, actually tweeted, to his 150,000 subscribers, that he had not slept with Gasol's wife.
And that is just so... unethical. First, to sleep with another person's marriage partner.
Second, to tweet your personal life, that kind of personal life, that you didnt' have sex with someone, to 150,000 people!
But that's what social media has done to the ethics and morals of this country. "Sexting" is the big thing now, where teenage girls will actually take nude photos of themselves (easy to do in this age of digital cameras) and then email them to a boy they'd like to sleep with!
And of course the boy turns around and shares this nude photo with all his friends, and the next day at school all the boys go around to the girl and suggest she come around to their home and "put out". They'll get free sex, she'll get a baby out of it, and they'll all be happy.
So I'll try to recreate it from memory.
After the Lakers were defeated by the Mavericks, there were stories trying to figure out why. One of the stories was that Pau Gasol had played a lackluster series, because one of his teammates had slept with his wife.
And the story was that the teammate, whose name I'm blanking on, actually tweeted, to his 150,000 subscribers, that he had not slept with Gasol's wife.
And that is just so... unethical. First, to sleep with another person's marriage partner.
Second, to tweet your personal life, that kind of personal life, that you didnt' have sex with someone, to 150,000 people!
But that's what social media has done to the ethics and morals of this country. "Sexting" is the big thing now, where teenage girls will actually take nude photos of themselves (easy to do in this age of digital cameras) and then email them to a boy they'd like to sleep with!
And of course the boy turns around and shares this nude photo with all his friends, and the next day at school all the boys go around to the girl and suggest she come around to their home and "put out". They'll get free sex, she'll get a baby out of it, and they'll all be happy.
Since when is a person's sexuality front-page news?
The Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts revealed over the weekend that he's gay, and had been living a "secret life" for years (pretending to be straight) and was interviewed in the New York Times.
And on the CBS Sports.com site, it's not exactly "top of the leaderboard," - the news about the Mavericks advance is, but it's right below that.
Don't misunderstand, I'm all for gay rights. The sad thing is that if a person in a high-profile job is gay, these days you'd think that it would not be newsworthy. But apparently it still is.
In the sports world, it's particularly disasterous for an athlete to come out, as remarks of various other athletes would suggest (as for example the NBA's Tim Hardaway.)
(But having said that...do people deserve to lose their jobs because they express their opinion that gay marriage is wrong, for example? Some Canadian TV reporter tweeted his opposition to gay marriage and was fired for it. That's wrong also. It's not like he'd said terrible things should happen to all gays! But it's like racism... let anyone call you "racist" - and if you criticize a minority for anything - justified or not - you can easily be branded racist - you can quite easily lose your job. People with differing opinions from the current norm should not be fired!)
And on the CBS Sports.com site, it's not exactly "top of the leaderboard," - the news about the Mavericks advance is, but it's right below that.
Don't misunderstand, I'm all for gay rights. The sad thing is that if a person in a high-profile job is gay, these days you'd think that it would not be newsworthy. But apparently it still is.
In the sports world, it's particularly disasterous for an athlete to come out, as remarks of various other athletes would suggest (as for example the NBA's Tim Hardaway.)
(But having said that...do people deserve to lose their jobs because they express their opinion that gay marriage is wrong, for example? Some Canadian TV reporter tweeted his opposition to gay marriage and was fired for it. That's wrong also. It's not like he'd said terrible things should happen to all gays! But it's like racism... let anyone call you "racist" - and if you criticize a minority for anything - justified or not - you can easily be branded racist - you can quite easily lose your job. People with differing opinions from the current norm should not be fired!)
Saturday, May 14, 2011
NCAA College Sports - A Cesspool of Moral Degenerates
Jim Tressel, coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, deserves to be fired. Without a buyout. He knowing broke the rules for several years.
Yet not only is he not going to resign in shame, he's not going to resign at all, and if the Buckeyes try to fire him for gross dereliction of duty, he's going to file a lawsuit against them.
I'm the first to heap contempt on athletes who throw away their careers and gazillions of potential earnings on stupid stuff like stealing laptops,getting into fights, and so on, but when your own coach knows you do it and lets you get away with, or does not get punished for it, that is sending an extremely bad message to all college athletes.
Tressel isn't ashamed of himself, but he should be, and Ohio State should be ashamed of themselves if they don't fight tooth and nail to fire him without a buyout.
Jim Tressel won't be resigning
If it wasn't obvious before, it's pretty clear now that if Jim Tressel is not the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes next season it won't be because he stepped down from his posiiton willingly. It was reported on Friday that Tressel had hired the former chairman of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, Gene Marsh, to be his lawyer.
But nothing indicates quitting is part of Tressel's thinking right now. And Gene Marsh, the former chairman of the NCAA Committee on Infractions who has been retained by Tressel in recent weeks, agreed with that sentiment in a brief interview with The Plain Dealer on Friday.
According to conversations with others in the past week, Tressel's intentions, like it or not, are to stay with his players and continue what he sees as his mission at Ohio State.
Which, in my opinion, is incredibly selfish of Tressel.
I've already let my feeling be known about Jim Tressel and what his future at Ohio State should be, writing last week that Ohio State should part ways with its head coach. Then there was former Ohio State Buckeye Chris Spielman who said he would be surprised if Jim Tressel were still coaching the Buckeyes in 2011, and that he also thought there would be "more stuff coming out."
There truly is nothing good that can come to Ohio State by Tressel refusing to step down. His continued presence may not only bring a harsher penalty from the NCAA -- which Ohio State would deserve seeing as how it never fired him -- but also continued scrutiny of the school. Think of the damage that has been done to Ohio State's reputation in the college football world over the last few months. The worst part of Ohio State's old reputation was that it could win the Big Ten, but it couldn't compete with SEC schools on the BCS stage. Well, after finally beating an SEC team in Arkansas at the Sugar Bowl in January -- a win that itself was overshadowed by Terrelle Pryor and other suspended Buckeyes being allowed to play in the game -- Ohio State has only seen its image become one of a program gone awry.
While talking to The Birmingham News, Marsh said that he thought Tressel's history and record would benefit him during the investigation.
"Obviously, the track record should matter because some people's track records are good and some people's track records are bad," Marsh told the paper. "I was on the committee for nine years. All I can say is it always mattered to me."
Does Marsh mean the track record that former Buckeyes running back Maurice Clarett first tipped us off to seven years ago? Sure, back then we may have brushed off Clarett's comments because of the source, but the things he claimed were taking place at Ohio State then -- free loaner cars, payment for jobs he didn't have to do and payments from boosters -- sure do ring a bit of a bell now, don't they?
Yet not only is he not going to resign in shame, he's not going to resign at all, and if the Buckeyes try to fire him for gross dereliction of duty, he's going to file a lawsuit against them.
I'm the first to heap contempt on athletes who throw away their careers and gazillions of potential earnings on stupid stuff like stealing laptops,getting into fights, and so on, but when your own coach knows you do it and lets you get away with, or does not get punished for it, that is sending an extremely bad message to all college athletes.
Tressel isn't ashamed of himself, but he should be, and Ohio State should be ashamed of themselves if they don't fight tooth and nail to fire him without a buyout.
Jim Tressel won't be resigning
If it wasn't obvious before, it's pretty clear now that if Jim Tressel is not the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes next season it won't be because he stepped down from his posiiton willingly. It was reported on Friday that Tressel had hired the former chairman of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, Gene Marsh, to be his lawyer.
But nothing indicates quitting is part of Tressel's thinking right now. And Gene Marsh, the former chairman of the NCAA Committee on Infractions who has been retained by Tressel in recent weeks, agreed with that sentiment in a brief interview with The Plain Dealer on Friday.
According to conversations with others in the past week, Tressel's intentions, like it or not, are to stay with his players and continue what he sees as his mission at Ohio State.
Which, in my opinion, is incredibly selfish of Tressel.
I've already let my feeling be known about Jim Tressel and what his future at Ohio State should be, writing last week that Ohio State should part ways with its head coach. Then there was former Ohio State Buckeye Chris Spielman who said he would be surprised if Jim Tressel were still coaching the Buckeyes in 2011, and that he also thought there would be "more stuff coming out."
There truly is nothing good that can come to Ohio State by Tressel refusing to step down. His continued presence may not only bring a harsher penalty from the NCAA -- which Ohio State would deserve seeing as how it never fired him -- but also continued scrutiny of the school. Think of the damage that has been done to Ohio State's reputation in the college football world over the last few months. The worst part of Ohio State's old reputation was that it could win the Big Ten, but it couldn't compete with SEC schools on the BCS stage. Well, after finally beating an SEC team in Arkansas at the Sugar Bowl in January -- a win that itself was overshadowed by Terrelle Pryor and other suspended Buckeyes being allowed to play in the game -- Ohio State has only seen its image become one of a program gone awry.
While talking to The Birmingham News, Marsh said that he thought Tressel's history and record would benefit him during the investigation.
"Obviously, the track record should matter because some people's track records are good and some people's track records are bad," Marsh told the paper. "I was on the committee for nine years. All I can say is it always mattered to me."
Does Marsh mean the track record that former Buckeyes running back Maurice Clarett first tipped us off to seven years ago? Sure, back then we may have brushed off Clarett's comments because of the source, but the things he claimed were taking place at Ohio State then -- free loaner cars, payment for jobs he didn't have to do and payments from boosters -- sure do ring a bit of a bell now, don't they?
Friday, May 13, 2011
No, you are not losing your mind
If there were posts here yesterday that you read, which are not here today, it's because...they're not here.
Blogger.com, the platform that hosts this blog, was down for much of yesterday afternoon and all night...just coming up now (11 am mountain time.) And all posts made yesterday have disappeared.
Supposedly, those posts will be restored. I'll give them a day to do so, and if not, will re-post them tomorrow.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
Blogger.com, the platform that hosts this blog, was down for much of yesterday afternoon and all night...just coming up now (11 am mountain time.) And all posts made yesterday have disappeared.
Supposedly, those posts will be restored. I'll give them a day to do so, and if not, will re-post them tomorrow.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Sports, men and vulgarity
Men seem to have an affinity for the four letter word. Depending on where you are and the age of the people to whom you're listening, every other word is f*ck. They're not swearing, they just can't put a sentence together without every other word being a f*ck.
It used to be that men would never swear in front of the rose petal ears of women - but get them alone, and the f-bombs and other cuss words fly. (Now, of course, you're just as likely to hear the f-bombs combing from 8 year old girls as 8 year old boys...but there was a time when that didn't happen.
Thus it is with athletes. Get a team of men (and increasingly, it must be admitted) women on the field of play and those f-bombs just come flying. I've never understood why.
*I* swear. If I drop an extremely heavy table on my foot, I'll let loose with an f-bomb, make no mistake. But to use these words in ordinary conversation? No.
There are other things I don't use...vulgarities.
Take for example Steve Elling's article today on the 17 most unforgettable moments at Sawgrass. He had this to say:
Frankly, I doubt that it's true...that the tension of playing golf at such a high
level gives you gas, or wind, as the Brits say.
But even if it is...is it necessary to say so. Couldn't he just say... there palms begin to sweat and the stomach begins to roil? Oh, no...he's got to get in his joke about rabiit-eared Colin Montgomerie, and gas, and the puckering of orifices.
This from a guy who continues to slam Tiger Woods on a regular basis for his vulgarities on the course while playing golf (plenty of f-bombs, throwing of clubs, etc.), yet in a piece read by thousands of people - albeit mostly men, he has to get in this vulgar joke?
Gas is a natural function, and depending on when and where one lets loose with gas, it can be extremely embarrassing, mainly because of writers like Steve Elling who like it to remain embarrassing so they can make jokes about it (and the animators of children's movies who know that a fart joke is a surefire laugh in any audience of little boys.)
http://www.cbssports.com/#!/golf/story/15050628/new-world-order-most-unforgettable-sawgrass-17-moments
It used to be that men would never swear in front of the rose petal ears of women - but get them alone, and the f-bombs and other cuss words fly. (Now, of course, you're just as likely to hear the f-bombs combing from 8 year old girls as 8 year old boys...but there was a time when that didn't happen.
Thus it is with athletes. Get a team of men (and increasingly, it must be admitted) women on the field of play and those f-bombs just come flying. I've never understood why.
*I* swear. If I drop an extremely heavy table on my foot, I'll let loose with an f-bomb, make no mistake. But to use these words in ordinary conversation? No.
There are other things I don't use...vulgarities.
Take for example Steve Elling's article today on the 17 most unforgettable moments at Sawgrass. He had this to say:
That's not all that puckers. Gas begins emanating from player orifices at a frequency so high, only dogs and rabbit-eared Colin Montgomerie can hear it.
Frankly, I doubt that it's true...that the tension of playing golf at such a high
level gives you gas, or wind, as the Brits say.
But even if it is...is it necessary to say so. Couldn't he just say... there palms begin to sweat and the stomach begins to roil? Oh, no...he's got to get in his joke about rabiit-eared Colin Montgomerie, and gas, and the puckering of orifices.
This from a guy who continues to slam Tiger Woods on a regular basis for his vulgarities on the course while playing golf (plenty of f-bombs, throwing of clubs, etc.), yet in a piece read by thousands of people - albeit mostly men, he has to get in this vulgar joke?
Gas is a natural function, and depending on when and where one lets loose with gas, it can be extremely embarrassing, mainly because of writers like Steve Elling who like it to remain embarrassing so they can make jokes about it (and the animators of children's movies who know that a fart joke is a surefire laugh in any audience of little boys.)
http://www.cbssports.com/#!/golf/story/15050628/new-world-order-most-unforgettable-sawgrass-17-moments
Thursday, May 5, 2011
TMZ and the Outlets That Feed From It.
TMZ is a cite devoted to celebrity gossip, and entertainment and celebrity "news."
The title comes from the "Thirty Mile Zone" - referring to the "studio zone" within a 30-mile (50 km) radius of the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.[5] Shooting within this zone is considered local. Locations outside this zone are subject to mileage and travel time charges by the talent and crew. It's an affiliate of Timee Warner, apparently.
Anyway, I went to CBSSports today to check baseball stats to choose my next player for the Beat the Streak game, and one of the headlines the chose to run with was: Police hold [Hines] Ward at gunpoint."
Well, it was on a news site, so, although I should have known better, for a second I actualy thought there was something in it. So I clicked on the headline to read the story - which is of course what headline writers want. Then you get to the story...and there is no story.
Ward was a passenger in a car that had been reported stolen. So he'd been handcuffed as a precaution - along presumably with everyone else in the car - until the police discovered that the car had been found and returned to its owner, who hadn't told the police of its recovery.
So Ward did nothing bad, yet he's got his name plastered over headlines in probably every sports "news" outlet, despite the fact that this isn't news.
Similiarly, yesterday, some CBSSportsline blogger shared the video of baseball player Shin-Shin Soo's arrest - how they made him walk a line, how he said if he had to return to Korea his life was over... stuff that was nobody's business but his, his lawyer, and the police. Arrest videos should not be public property.
The title comes from the "Thirty Mile Zone" - referring to the "studio zone" within a 30-mile (50 km) radius of the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.[5] Shooting within this zone is considered local. Locations outside this zone are subject to mileage and travel time charges by the talent and crew. It's an affiliate of Timee Warner, apparently.
Anyway, I went to CBSSports today to check baseball stats to choose my next player for the Beat the Streak game, and one of the headlines the chose to run with was: Police hold [Hines] Ward at gunpoint."
Well, it was on a news site, so, although I should have known better, for a second I actualy thought there was something in it. So I clicked on the headline to read the story - which is of course what headline writers want. Then you get to the story...and there is no story.
Ward was a passenger in a car that had been reported stolen. So he'd been handcuffed as a precaution - along presumably with everyone else in the car - until the police discovered that the car had been found and returned to its owner, who hadn't told the police of its recovery.
So Ward did nothing bad, yet he's got his name plastered over headlines in probably every sports "news" outlet, despite the fact that this isn't news.
Similiarly, yesterday, some CBSSportsline blogger shared the video of baseball player Shin-Shin Soo's arrest - how they made him walk a line, how he said if he had to return to Korea his life was over... stuff that was nobody's business but his, his lawyer, and the police. Arrest videos should not be public property.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Ah, found it
From the VIllage Voice blogs: Osama Bin Laden Story Changes: No Weapon, Wife Human Shield? Death Photo Coming Soon
White House officials can't get their story straight about what happened in the Pakistani compound where Osama Bin Laden was killed. Though officials have clarified that he was shot twice -- in the head and in the chest -- reports from Monday that Bin Laden was using a woman, probably his wife, as a human shield so he could fire back at U.S. troops are now being backpedaled on, horrifying and villainous as they are. "He was firing behind her," an anonymous official said Monday morning. Later on Monday, an official told Politico, "I'm not aware of him having a weapon." Another official gave conflicting information that, "A different guy's wife was killed, while Bin Laden's wife was "injured but not killed." A separate official said no woman was used as a human shield.
"Two women were shot here. It sounds like their fates were mixed up," an anonymous official explained. "This is hours old and the full facts are still being ascertained as those involved are debriefed."
Bin Laden's son Khalid was said to have been killed in the raid, but maybe it was Hamza, according to an official transcript. Based on what Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan has said, it seems that the important people watched a live feed of the raid and then read reports afterward to flesh out what they saw, though confirmation about the existence of a video feed has been hard to come by, too.
From the White House's point of view, what should probably happen is that officials should shut their mouths about what happened if they're going to conflict one another because rumors are spreading like crazy in this case. That said, as journalists, getting anyone and everyone who knows anything to talk, even if they're contradicting one another, is a victory because the only way we'll ever settle on a truth is if those with doubts and eyes and ears for detail keep asking questions and comparing answers.
As far as basic confirmation of what happened in that house, ABC's Jake Tapper reports that President Obama and the White House are considering releasing a "bloody and gruesome" photograph today of Bin Laden's corpse, "with a bullet wound to his head above his left eye," in order to "put to rest any skepticism about the death of this nation's public enemy number one."
White House officials can't get their story straight about what happened in the Pakistani compound where Osama Bin Laden was killed. Though officials have clarified that he was shot twice -- in the head and in the chest -- reports from Monday that Bin Laden was using a woman, probably his wife, as a human shield so he could fire back at U.S. troops are now being backpedaled on, horrifying and villainous as they are. "He was firing behind her," an anonymous official said Monday morning. Later on Monday, an official told Politico, "I'm not aware of him having a weapon." Another official gave conflicting information that, "A different guy's wife was killed, while Bin Laden's wife was "injured but not killed." A separate official said no woman was used as a human shield.
"Two women were shot here. It sounds like their fates were mixed up," an anonymous official explained. "This is hours old and the full facts are still being ascertained as those involved are debriefed."
Bin Laden's son Khalid was said to have been killed in the raid, but maybe it was Hamza, according to an official transcript. Based on what Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan has said, it seems that the important people watched a live feed of the raid and then read reports afterward to flesh out what they saw, though confirmation about the existence of a video feed has been hard to come by, too.
From the White House's point of view, what should probably happen is that officials should shut their mouths about what happened if they're going to conflict one another because rumors are spreading like crazy in this case. That said, as journalists, getting anyone and everyone who knows anything to talk, even if they're contradicting one another, is a victory because the only way we'll ever settle on a truth is if those with doubts and eyes and ears for detail keep asking questions and comparing answers.
As far as basic confirmation of what happened in that house, ABC's Jake Tapper reports that President Obama and the White House are considering releasing a "bloody and gruesome" photograph today of Bin Laden's corpse, "with a bullet wound to his head above his left eye," in order to "put to rest any skepticism about the death of this nation's public enemy number one."
The Feeding Frenzy on Osama Bin Laden's Death
A couple nights ago, Presient Obama broke into prime time TV to announce that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in a raid. The news outlets have been going crazy ever since. Indeed, this morning, every five minutes, if I "refresh" my Google News main page, there's a new article on Bin Laden out there.
This is a pain...because five minutes ago I could swear I saw an article that said, "US Changes story on how Bin Laden was killed." I was busy reporting space news and so didn't read the story. I have come back to the page, and the article is gone. Not just way down the page...gone entirely.
I wonder why?
Top Stories
Osama bin Laden »
Globe and M... Man live-tweets bin Laden operation
USA Today - Jon Swartz - May 2, 2011
Seven hours before President Obama announced that US forces had launched a fatal assault on bin Laden's compound, a computer programmer in northern Pakistan -- startled by a clattering helicopter in the wee hours Sunday ...
Video: Gaddafi son, grandkids death buried by Bin Laden breaking news RT
Tweeting Osama Chicago Tribune CNET - Wall Street Journal - San Francisco Chronicle - New York Times (blog) - Wikipedia: Death of Osama bin Laden
all 789 news articles »
Osama bin Laden »
Boston Hera... Rethinking Guantanamo After Detainee Info Led to Bin Laden
The Atlantic Wire - Heather Horn - 41 minutes ago
Suppose we're classifying the controversial Bush administration "harsh interrogation" practices at Guantanamo as "torture.
'Jihad' Jack Thomas welcomes bin Laden death but warns of martyrdom Herald Sun
Bush Advisors Defend Interrogation Practices After bin Laden's Death National Journal Western Front - The Australian - Wall Street Journal
all 103 news articles »
Osama bin Laden »
The Guardia... Bin Laden couldn't change American character
CNN - Bob Greene - 18 minutes ago
Editor's note: CNN contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose books include "Late Edition: A Love Story" and "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War.
Video: Local blog watcher catalogs reaction to bin Laden news WISH TV
Hudson County political leaders react to Osama bin Laden's death The Jersey Journal - NJ.com The Guardian - Los Angeles Times - San Diego Union Tribune - Wikipedia: Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden
all 116 news articles »
Osama bin Laden »
Reuters Lawmakers Want Answers From Pakistan on Bin Laden Hideaway
Fox News - Anne McGinn, Wendell Goler - 35 minutes ago
Pressure is building on Capitol Hill to find out whether Pakistani officials knew about Usama bin Laden's location on the outskirts of a military town and withheld that information from Americans for years.
Video: How Osama bin Laden was killed NewsX
Osama bin Laden: US changes account of al-Qaida leader's death The Guardian
CBS News - MiamiHerald.com - msnbc.com - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com - Wikipedia: Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden
all 54,364 news articles »
Osama bin Laden »
CBC.ca Inside the SEAL team that 'doesn't exist'
msnbc.com - 19 minutes ago
>> reporter: good morning, matt. you can see behind me the seal training compound. the people inside here politely declined our requests for interviews today, but as the seals are fond of saying, "we are the quiet professionals.
Video: MI former Navy Seal explains process Wood TV8
Navy SEAL Foundation sees donations increase Boston Herald
This is a pain...because five minutes ago I could swear I saw an article that said, "US Changes story on how Bin Laden was killed." I was busy reporting space news and so didn't read the story. I have come back to the page, and the article is gone. Not just way down the page...gone entirely.
I wonder why?
Top Stories
Osama bin Laden »
Globe and M... Man live-tweets bin Laden operation
USA Today - Jon Swartz - May 2, 2011
Seven hours before President Obama announced that US forces had launched a fatal assault on bin Laden's compound, a computer programmer in northern Pakistan -- startled by a clattering helicopter in the wee hours Sunday ...
Video: Gaddafi son, grandkids death buried by Bin Laden breaking news RT
Tweeting Osama Chicago Tribune CNET - Wall Street Journal - San Francisco Chronicle - New York Times (blog) - Wikipedia: Death of Osama bin Laden
all 789 news articles »
Osama bin Laden »
Boston Hera... Rethinking Guantanamo After Detainee Info Led to Bin Laden
The Atlantic Wire - Heather Horn - 41 minutes ago
Suppose we're classifying the controversial Bush administration "harsh interrogation" practices at Guantanamo as "torture.
'Jihad' Jack Thomas welcomes bin Laden death but warns of martyrdom Herald Sun
Bush Advisors Defend Interrogation Practices After bin Laden's Death National Journal Western Front - The Australian - Wall Street Journal
all 103 news articles »
Osama bin Laden »
The Guardia... Bin Laden couldn't change American character
CNN - Bob Greene - 18 minutes ago
Editor's note: CNN contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose books include "Late Edition: A Love Story" and "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War.
Video: Local blog watcher catalogs reaction to bin Laden news WISH TV
Hudson County political leaders react to Osama bin Laden's death The Jersey Journal - NJ.com The Guardian - Los Angeles Times - San Diego Union Tribune - Wikipedia: Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden
all 116 news articles »
Osama bin Laden »
Reuters Lawmakers Want Answers From Pakistan on Bin Laden Hideaway
Fox News - Anne McGinn, Wendell Goler - 35 minutes ago
Pressure is building on Capitol Hill to find out whether Pakistani officials knew about Usama bin Laden's location on the outskirts of a military town and withheld that information from Americans for years.
Video: How Osama bin Laden was killed NewsX
Osama bin Laden: US changes account of al-Qaida leader's death The Guardian
CBS News - MiamiHerald.com - msnbc.com - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com - Wikipedia: Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden
all 54,364 news articles »
Osama bin Laden »
CBC.ca Inside the SEAL team that 'doesn't exist'
msnbc.com - 19 minutes ago
>> reporter: good morning, matt. you can see behind me the seal training compound. the people inside here politely declined our requests for interviews today, but as the seals are fond of saying, "we are the quiet professionals.
Video: MI former Navy Seal explains process Wood TV8
Navy SEAL Foundation sees donations increase Boston Herald
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