TrueNews: The Silence of the Pols and Press

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Silence of the Pols and Press

Queens Mortgage Fraud Called Worst in the U.S.; State Still $3 Billion Short (Henry Stern, NY Civic)

The Silence of the Pols and Press
There seem to be a secret covenant between the pols and the press to avoid talking about problems. Pols who avoid negative stories tend to have high poll numbers. It is interesting to see examine Paterson spin and his poll numbers. The more he talked about the state's defect the more the public turned against him. A fact that has not gone unnoticed by the leading candidate for Paterson job Behind Curtain, Cuomo Runs P.R. Machine (NYT) Cuomo's 74% job approval, continuing a nine-month string of plus 70 scores, includes a 64% to 24% approval among Republicans. Q-poll * Cuomo's Numbers Show the Value of Silence

Silence: Increase Crime
Mayor Bloomberg has spinned in response to the crime increase that they will not be any cuts in the police department this year. The question that has not been asked of him or any pol in the city is where is the money going to come from to hire more police. Which pol will give up his or her lulus or member items and donate that money to the police? City's crime spike worse murders spiked 22.5 percent for the year and shootings nearly doubled for the week compared to last year. Even the public seems to be Silent when it comes to crime Stand tall for Syniah: Stop protecting the thugs who shot Brooklyn 5-year-old (DN Ed) Not one of these potential witnesses - not one single person - provided any meaningful information to the police

Silence: Hospital Closed
Could Congressman Nadler, Assemblywoman Glick, State Senator Duane or Speaker Quinn come up with the money to keep the hospital open? Who knows the press never asked them. Maybe they should watch some tapes of 60 Minutes Mike Wallace and his ambush interviews 3,500 at St. Vincent’s Get Termination Notices A SI congressman in a hard reelection is asking for federal help for a boy scout camp why have not the Manhattan pols ask federal help to keep a hospital open Rep. Mike McMahon, again, asks for federal money to save Pouch Camp.

I See Nothing Reporters Who Appear on NY1
Not one reporter or blogger that has appeared on NY1 has written one word about a sexual harassment trial going on in Brooklyn Federal court. Both the NYP and the DN have stories about the case but on the first day all the city's bloggers stayed away. Perhaps that says more about the state of local journalism in the city than the trial. This is a serious issue because these are the people that report the news and must trust Boob-tube war NY1:

The jury would have to believe NY1 hard hitting lawyer that former NY1 reporter Adele Sammarco was not bothered by a flyer that was made up and passed around the office that enlarged her breasts. NY1 lawyers objected so much to the questioning of Peter Landis and another report that the NYP said it look like Sammarco lawyer looked somewhat unprepared yesterday. Sammarco claims she was fired in 2001, three months after she complained to management that she was sexually assaulted when former weekend anchor Gary Anthony Ramsay allegedly forced himself on her, kissing her passionately in his car after offering her a ride.*

She Looks Happy?
As proof the photo didn't bother her, NY1 lawyer Plevin pointed out in her opening statement that Sammarco posed for a New York Post article holding the boobs flyer in her hand.

"She wasn't doing a great job," Senior Vice President Steve Paulus testified in Brooklyn Federal Court for the reason he fired his Sammarco who had worked for the station for nine years. Execs testify against ex-NY1 reporter claiming sexual harrassment: 'She wasn't doing a great job' * NY1 Reporter’s Sex-Harassment Trial Begins in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

In True New First
Yesterdays True News
Open General Election Not Primary Rangel: I Didn't Oust Adam Clayton Powell. The Seat Was Open Powell Defeat Confirmed by Recount June 28, 1970, Sunday (NYT) The Board of Elections declared yesterday that State Assemblyman Charles B. Rangel was the official winner over Representative Adam Clayton Powell in last Tuesday's Democratic primary contest in the 18th Congressional District.

Today's News
Daily News and Chalie Rangel differ: "In 1970, Rangel wrested the seat from Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Powell's father."

Facebook Joseph Mercurio Rangel said he ran for an open seat, and did not unseat Adam Clayton Powell. Well duh, according to the 1972 Almanac of American Politics, Charles B. Rangel beat Adam Clayton Powell in the five way 1970 Democratic Congressional primary 8,032 33% to 7,882 32%.

Bloomberg: I Don't Think I Ever Said... What I Actually Said
“I don’t think I ever said that we should eliminate the Public Advocate,” Bloomberg said this morning when asked if his new Charter Revision Commission should consider sacking the guy currently second in the city’s line of succession. Last fall, Staten Island Advance's editorial board quoted him saying: “You should get rid of the public advocate … Nobody needs another gadfly and we have an aggressive enough press.”

Al Qaeda Planned to Bomb Grand Central
Fourth suspect in NYC bomb plot arrested in Pakistan: Report‎Times of India * Video: Foiled NYC Subway Terror Plot * Zazi, Al Qaeda pals planned rush-hour attack on Grand Central ...‎ - New York Daily News Terror Plot Aimed at Times Square Daily Beast

Cops Pull A Rosemary Woods? Is there an 18 minute gap in the video of cops and firefighers fighting? Cop, FDNY bar-brawl video doctored four of the five suspects in the brawl are all nephews of state Sen. Martin Golden of Brooklyn.

Charter Commission Koppell Gets A Bronx Cheer at Bronx Charter Revision Hearing * Espada: Let's Dump The PA and Beeps

Not part of Harold Rubinstein Rehab of Spitzer image Ex-call girl Ashley Dupre bares all for Playboy * An eyeful of T&Ashley

Brooklyn Beep Markowitz hates bikes but love his siren to run red lights Markowitz lays into DOT boss for being bicycling 'zealot' *Pol's sins of the 'flash'Beep uses lights & sirens to zip past signals

Judge Sees No Progress on Ground Zero Settlement

Before City’s Worst Fire in Years, History of Neglect

Meat Pulitzer Winner
The NYT won the Pulitzer for stories about unhealthy meat practices and the dangers of cell phones in the car PULITZER WINNERS We would have like to see the National Enquirer Win the Pulitzer for John Edwards Story but the Enquirer shut out of Pulitzers We would have like the NYT win the Pulitzer for uncovering corruption on Wall Street and Albany or why Jobs are not coming back to America's unemployed workers. AIG CEO received $2.7M for 2009 * ‘A Different Creature’ The House speaker and the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. want an intensified focus on the unemployment crisis, which is unprecedented in the post-Depression era.(Herbert NYT) * Senate votes to consider rescuing jobless benefits * Greece's Bailout, Lehman's Deceit, And Tim Geithner's Short Memory * Confessions Of A Bank Insider: 'The System Is Built To Be Gamed' * The Pulitzer Prizes: Who Killed Journalism? (Wolff Newser) * Driving the Conversation New York Times reporter Matt Richtel talks about his Pulitzer-winning series on texting while driving

New York Economic Melt Down Mayor Bloomberg’s IslandNow that New York City is responsible for revitalizing Governors Island, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has to develop the space without crippling the city’s finances (NYT Ed) *Should NYC spend millions to redevelop Governors Island?‎* Some public employees are getting raises after all. (TU/GNS) * NYC property sales defy expectations, go nowhere * Study: Taxpayers owe teacher pensions $933B Stock market would have to double overnight to fill current funding gap, reports national survey. NYC's underfunding is significantly worse than U.S. average *Teachers' pension fund under-funded by $36B

Election 2010 Son of Former Congressman Enters Race to Take Rangel’s House Seat * Powell on Rangel: He won't finish his term if he wins * Poll: Cuomo Rules, Lazio Leads GOP, Gillibrand Trails Pataki *** Cuomo Moves to Control State Dem Party * Carroll: Delaying Announcement Not Impacting Cuomo’s Campaign * Cuomo’s Attack Dog Charles King

Who is Keeping This Guy in the Race? Racist E-Mail Tied to Candidate for Governor * Paladino under fire for sending out racist, trashy e-mails *Paladino shrugs off racist e-mails * Paladino can kiss the Post good-bye . "Paladino sounds like a low-rent version of Eliot "Client 9" Spitzer." * Obama For Maloney

Money Money NBA backs Nets buyer * War of Words Heats Up Over Prokhorov's Zimbabwegate

Brooklyn blogger exposes subway "train pigs"

Pay to Play Albany IG: Sampson 'obstructing' Aqueduct probe

Pay to Play Congress Hedge Fund Managers Invest on Hill - Politico * Lehman Channeled Risks Through ‘Alter Ego’ Firm - New York Times * Big Banks Draw Big Profits From Microloans to Poor

Media and New Tech Twitter Unveils Plans to Draw Money From Ads * Conan O'Brien to return with late-night show on TBS, but has a steep climb to top of TV mountain * NEWSPAPER WAR! NYT Goes After WSJ With Revamped Business Section * CNN: Forget Ratings, We're In A 'Category Of One' * Apple Upgrades MacBook Pros

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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

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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.

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