TrueNews

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

What If New York Goes Bust?
Comptrollers Report: NYC may lose $2 billion in tax revs from Wall Street and 175,000 jobs *** MORE FAMILIES IN CITY SHELTERS *** City faces budget gaps of $3.5 billion and $8 billion

KEEP THE FLAK JACKET, DAVE - Post, Dicker - Gov faces when he gets back from Iraq 1) Tax payer revolt 2) Wealthy leaving the state to avoid higher taxes 3) Budget Cuts 4) Kennedy, Cuomo and half a dozen congressmembers who want to be senator and their supporters 5) A Leaderless State Senate with Republicans sniping at Democrats using the Monserrate arrest as bullets 6) MTA threatening to raise the fare to $3 *** Fare Scare Shock *** MTA Warning subway fare could go to $3 a Ride?

Economic Meltdown
Panicking stores are practically giving the goods away with last-minute sales in a desperate bid to save the so-far-disastrous season - Post *** TOURISTS LOOKING BUT NOT BUYING - Post *** As Economy Dips, Arrests for Shoplifting Soar - Times, interesting how they look at suffering *** PARIS FAKER DUPES TIMES Times embarrassed itself yesterday by publishing a Fake Letter from someone purporting to be the mayor of Paris criticizing Caroline Kennedy *** France 24 a news agency reports on the fake Kennedy letter in French and English

Political Dog Fight Over Senate Seat Bloomberg: Attacks on Kennedy are 'Getting Out Of Control' *** Mike Asks Gov to Hurry Up *** Kennedy Declines to Make Financial Disclosure *** Elder statesman for Hillary seat to stop the political wars - Daily News, Hammond *** Kennedy will back Dem, aide says

Another Kennedy Started A Similar Fight
The 1964 Senate Campaign of Robert Kennedy also started a political war. Kennedy obtained the support of the Democratic bosses of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Buffalo and Harlem who were on the outs with Mayor Wagner who had run against them and won as a reformer in the 1961 election. A NY Times Editorial on August 12, 1964 said “Why Kennedy has any claim on New York to rescue him from non-office is a mystery . . . The constitutionality of Mr. Kennedy’s running in NY does not seem to be in doubt; his utter innocence as to New York State problems should be. . . . Does New York really need Bobby Kennedy?”

Fallout from Surrogate Indictment Suspension Recommended in a letter sent by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for indicted Surrogate Judge-Elect Nora Anderson *** Counsel Asks N.Y. High Court Not to Suspend Surrogate-Elect Over Campaign Contributions

No Accountability Anywhere

"We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to." - Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money

Where'd the bailout money go? Shhhh, it's a secret Not really, $1.6 B to execs in cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security and country club memberships *** No restrictions were put on the billions *** As winter sets in, 13% more in our city will be without shelter.

City says it now "accepts responsibility" for the firefighters' deaths.

DA Robert Morgenthau: Greed and incompetence sparked fatal Deutsche fire ***3 CONTRACTORS CHARGED in Deutsche Bank Fire deaths *** Post Editorial: TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE *** Daily News Editorial: DA charges fall short of full accountability for the sweeping malfeasance that enabled the two deaths *** Unforgivable crimes fueled Deutsche fire tragedy - Daily

"What message is this sending out to the New York City police officers today? " - Rosa Nazario, sister of slain Bronx cop Daniel Enchautegui

Former ‘Sopranos’ Actor Clear in Officer’s Killing *** Outrage *** SLAIN OFFICER'S KIN DEVASTATED BY THE VERDICT *** Juror’s Illness Leads to Mistrial in Killing of Officer

Cops Vs Monserrate, Republican Vs Democrats
Republican Golden introduces resolution to keep Monserrate out of the State Senate *** Where was Golden's outrage when one of his own senate aides was arrested last spring for his own alleged domestic violence incident? *** Cops fight back as details are leaked to the press *** Monserrate's girlfriend pushes prosecutors to drop assault charges *** Colleagues Are Reluctant to Criticize Monserrate *** Labor and interest groups appeal to “Gang of Three” to come back into fold *** Sexual harassment suit alleges Former City Commissioner Edwin Mendez-Santiago had lust in his blood

Political Roundup Finally a real good roundup about Bronx Politics by Kappstatter. Fix the headline Bob *** Empty Padavan seat in senate is grim prospect as election wrangling goes on *** Diaz Sr. on Diaz Jr.'s run for Bronx Borough President.: ‘My position is hurting him’ - he would not be anywhere without you dad!

Washington Clinton Moves to Widen Role of State Dept. *** Franken Leads in Recount

Why Donate to True News Keep Real News Alive. Put simply, True News -- and the truth – cannot do more and could even end without financial help from the people who want to hold the government accountable for their actions. As you know True News, without any support, has fought to keep the real NYC’s investigative and analysis reporting era of great journalism alive. True News is a living memorial to publisher John Peter Zenger who was jailed in 1733 by the King for reporting to New Yorkers what was going on in their city. It is also in the tradition of the Ben Bradlee generation that believes that all reporters would not be doing their job if they did not follow the story until they got to the truth. Today’s reporters copy press releases from elected officials and lobbyists hired by the special interests who want to control the message. The lost circulation of newspapers has created a generation of young reporters who not only rely on elected officials and lobbyists for stories, but don’t even Google to find the historical context or, more importantly, the truth behind the stories they write. In this era of sell-out journalism, the public has become disconnected, powerless and trapped by a permanent government that has turned against them. The media blames an apathetic public for not voting even after democratic consultants act like an Orwellian 'Big Bother' threatening them to vote or be looked into. True News reports that the reason for the decreasing turn-out is the public no longer feel their votes matter. If you value hard hitting Investigative Journalism, don't let True News go the way of the Passenger Pigeon. The Newfield, Barrett, Kempton, Hammel of yesteryear are no more. Local TV news limits itself to good looking women and men reading about breaking fires and crimes, with few exceptions. What's left that isn't tabloid is a wasteland of superficial news, driven by political and corporate PR machines, sowing the fertile seeds of corruption public and private hand in glove. Despite the soft news we see, standard bearers play a significant albeit vestigial role. Newspapers constantly pick up stories from True News (without crediting us of course) avoiding the costs to investigate themselves. Without True News, the New York Press and this blog's over one and half million readers will be utterly lost in the wilderness. Only True News is explaining: How Blacks, the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Pushed out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers and Apartments Gives Details How Lobbyists and Developers Run A Secret Shadow Government that Also Controls Elections With Big Money and Their Control Over the Media Investigates How Political Party Bosses Have Been Replaced By Lobbyists' Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine Reports How the WFP and the Elected Officials Who Are Supported By Them Have Abused and Aggressively Broken Campaign Finance Laws. True news is not funded by special interests like the other news blogs. True News has been self-funded all these years. True News does not make nice with sitting politicians, developers, lobbyists to fund it or to provide its young clueless reporters with story ideas. True News wants nothing more than to scratch out a modest living in its aim to investigate, connect the dots, and get to the truth of every newsworthy story. To carry on in this mission, True News needs funding from people like you -- People Who Want Better Journalism in order to learn what is really going on in their government and fight the corrupt politicians. It's been written about True News Those of you who have an involvement in the dangerous game of politics, it may be of interest to know who’s telling the truth these days, and, whether the articles we read are real or imagined disinformation, emanating directly out of a governmental PR department. No genuine journalist would ever rely on such a source for the truth. As publisher of the SoHo Journal, through personal experience, take it from me that it is possible to become a political target for simply writing about the truth. And the mainstream media and writers eat their own for sales— as well as take orders from their masters— corporate, financial and political masters. Always pay attention to the agenda. Read between the lines. That is the basis of real reporting and political comprehension. Not the rehashing of a press release. OWS had a handle on this reality as well. Pay attention to the current daily blog written by Gary Tilzer. His True News is one of the few remaining sources for political investigative reporting. His fearless reporting of the truth in political circles is worth noting. Contributors names are confidential

Other Views

On October 15, 1958, veteran broadcaster Edward R. Murrow delivered his famous "wires and lights in a box" speech (VIDEO) The Last Lion of Tammany HOW JIMMY McMANUS, MANHATTAN’S LAST GREAT TAMMANY DISTRICT LEADER, HELPED TO REVIVE HELL’S KITCHEN AND THE THEATER DISTRICT c By James S. Kaplan f On January 13, 2011, the law firm of Proskauer Rose moved into 11 Times Square, which is located on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. In moving west to the final building of the City’s Times Square redevelopment, the Proskauer firm joined such other major law firms as Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Covington & Burling, Roberts & Holland, and the advertising firm of Ogilvy & Mather. That such major professional firms, along with a number of newly constructed luxury apartment buildings on 42nd Street from ninth to eleventh avenue and trendy restaurants and off Broadway theaters would be located west of 8th Avenue in midtown would have been almost inconceivable fifty years ago. Tammany Last Stand Continued

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"I don't care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures." Boss Tweed

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Thomas Jefferson

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Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. ” -Thomas Jefferson

“Nearly all the newspaper accounts published at the time were manufactured by journalists at a distance, and were not only inaccurate in their facts but intentionally misleading.”
- George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia)

Gene Kelley in “Inherit the Wind” described the job of a newsman: “Comfort the afflicted; and afflict the comfortable.”

In the beginning of the last century, Lincoln Steffens and Jacob Riis were the muck rakers. Steffens tried to rouse the public to take action against the misdeeds of government and corporate leaders. Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant, was the pioneer of photo journalism. He took his camera into the miserable tenement slums of the city. Depicting the plight of the poor, he wrote a book called “How the Other Half Lives.”

"Through the years of the 20th century even the most mercenary of newspaper owners were, above all, conscious of their duty to inform the public and they backed their reporters to the hilt. It was not just a matter of right or wrong---but common sense. The ethics of good journalism in this era, alas, seems to have been forgotten." Gabe Pressman

"A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues." Theodore Roosevelt

As a 19th-century Manhattan politician once observed, “no man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock." — Ben Hecht

Kempton once said, "There's no excuse for kicking somebody unless he's up." Murray Kempton used to kick people who were up all the time, and though he was half their weight and underpaid it was beautiful to watch. Quite beautiful.

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations. - George Orwell

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