Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The Real Hevesi Ethic Lecture

Hevesi -- used to lecture on the importance of high ethical standards -- admitted to using his position as head of the state's pension fund to enrich himself, his family and his top political adviser -- already in prison -- at taxpayer expense.

Here’s Alan Hevesi, a disgraced, broken, jailed man — a symbol of Albany’s systemic corruption and a warning for other crooked politicians who follow in his footsteps. Hevesi a jail poster boy for corruption * Alan Hevesi's mugshot released (NYP) * Mug Shot Is Released of Inmate Hevesi (NYT)

6 Bloomberg Give Millions of Dollars of Tax Breaks to luxury housing developers, but not a penny to create job

Brooklyn Lost 1,000 Jobs As City Failed to Off Panasonic Incentives

Newark offered a subsidy package worth more than $100 million

Panasonic Snubs Brooklyn, Settles on Newark * Newark Lands Panasonic With Subsidies (WSJ)

Mike Plans to Hand Pick the Next Mayor

Is this move related to the Haggerty trial?

Mike's sham-paign Has 'weird' non-elex committee (NYP) * Rolling Out Bloomberg's Newest Campaign (NYO)

Bloomberg's Campaign: New one on file with state officials "to disclose the expenditures" behind recent ads.

Covering (and Working for) Bloomberg(NYT)

Henry Goldman, a reporter for Bloomberg News, has the task of impartially chronicling news about Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. * Covering Bloomberg: Goldman " has never been granted an exclusive interview with him."

Yesterday the Mayor Told Liu, Thompson and de Blasio to Pay Their Poster Fines, Today the Daily News Sends the Same Message

Thompson, de Blasio and Liu took millions for campaigns, but won’t pay fines for their illegal signs(NYDN Ed)

Mike redirects 'flier' ire at pols

Bloomberg's Campaign: As he chided others for illegal postering, a reminder he did it too

Incumbent Protection Society Untouched By Efforts to Throw the Bums Out and the Blameless for the New York's Economic Meltdown

Why Don't the Good Government Groups Make All the Candidates for Mayor to Pledge They Will If Elected Create A Charter Commission to Remove the Term Limits Grandfather Clause

An Effort to Alter Term Limits Dies (WSJ) * When Incumbency Overpowers All Efforts(WSJ)

New Yorkers, your civic ignorance is showing: We're government illiterates, no thanks to schools

Putting the 'Public' in Public Meetings (Gotham Gazette)

Union official "has recorded an audio message asking current and retired members of the NYPD of all ranks to come forward with stories about fixing tickets to show it's not anything nefarious.

Police Union Fights Back Against an Inquiry, Calling Ticket-Fixing a Courtesy (NYT)

* NYPD Ticket-Fixing Probe: Story So Far (WSJ) * Union boss: Tix-fix cops just aim to please(NYP) * Cop: Precinct chief OK'd double-parking, voided tickets(NYDN)

5

Ray Kelly Brushes Aside Questions About His Future(YNN)

Mobsters clubbed 'Last' Mafia hangout now dainty tea shop (NYP)

Schools boss hails single-sex classes (NYP) * Budget cuts shrink after-school programs, dealing a blow to families (NYDN)* School Politics: Critic blames Bloomberg administration for KGIA closing.

5

Red-faced state officials rip up controversial list of 'risky' summer camp activities Among the dozens of activities on the list were dodge ball, tag, red rover, Steal the Bacon and kickball. The new list should be ready by mid-May. (NYDN) * Nutty kid-game regs get kicked Responding to growing criticism, Gov. Cuomo yesterday halted state Health Department efforts to restrict summer youth camps from offering such "dangerous" traditional games as Red Rover and kickball. (NYP) * Andrew's nanny problem (NYP Ed) * Albany retreats on making dumb rules for summer camp play (NYDN Ed)

OTB Space Sitting Empty

Cuomo Helps Groups Mobilize for Gay Marriage Bill (NYT)

Really, New York Has Had Snowier Winters

Law aids mom-daughter murder fugitive (NYP) * Russian 'Rambo' accused in double slay lied to cabbie: 'I have to fly right away. My wife is sick' (NYDN) * Slain 'angel' Tatyana Prikhodko was proud mom, dedicated nurse (NYDN)* Vinny Goreous mob trial: Victim's mouth got him killed(NYDN) * Brooklyn Murders Highlight Hard Road to Extradition (WSJ)* Bronx mom clings to life after shooting (NYP)

City not dropping charges against five men wrongly convicted in the case.

City Vows to Fight Suits in Central Park Jogger Case

DA aide's kid stabbed to death (NYP) * Straphanger stabbed in whack-y weed attack (NYP) * Brooklyn Teen's Murder Caught On Tape (NY1) * Police Seek Two More Suspects In Shooting Of MTA Officer (NY1) * In Paying $25,000 Bail, Church Seeks 2nd Chance for a Girl It Nurtured (NYT)

Facebook Seeking Friends in Beltway

Some Might Take Trump’s Candidacy Seriously, But Now That The Media Does, He Could Be In Trouble

2012: 54-38, Obama leads Trump. * 2012: Trump touches New Hampshire next week. Calls South Carolina too.

Sliwa Takes A Break For Prostate Surgery

Washington Post Today Launches News Aggregation Website ‘Trove’

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

Send News Tips to True News

True New NYC@aol.com

"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

The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution

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

There is no final reliance but upon us; Democracy rests finally upon us. - Walt Whitman