TrueNews: True News Sunday Update

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

Sunday, June 26, 2011

True News Sunday Update

Brooklyn Homeless Problem

Shelter shock in B'klyn nabe The homeless are swamping Ocean Hill, Brooklyn(NYP)

UFT and Mayor Blink

Mayor Bloomberg holds on until foes fold on his budget goals(NYDN) * The school from hell Teachers fear for lives as students run amok(NYP) * Behind UFT deal'Empty' threat of layoffs(NYP)

6

4

TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads(Huff Post)

Sunday Update

The Victory Lap Parade

Saturday

Signs bill into Law 11:55 - Marriage starts July 24

Stonewall Inn Riot June 28, 1969

Stonewall Inn reacts to decision(NYDN) * N.Y. Legalizes Gay Marriage, 42 Years After Stonewall (NPR) *A Night of Celebration for New York's Gay Community(NBC) * Hundreds celebrate at Stonewall site (Wash Post) * Joyful Revelers Flock to Christopher Street After Gay Marriage Passes (Village Voice)

5

4

Cuomo: "This state, when it's at its finest, is a beacon for social justice"

The four Republicans who voted with the Democrats for marriage equality: Jim Alesi, Roy McDonald, Stephen Saland and Mark Grisanti.

Gay Lobbyist Played A Key Role

Gay marriage bill passes in New York: marriage bureau gears up for incoming applications (NYDN)

NYP DOWNPLAYS GAY VOTE

^

5

A Senator That Steals From Hospitals Talks About Integrity . . . The Seals Applaud

"The rights and the freedoms that this Empire State has built its integrity and reputation on should live forever. I vote yes." - Carl Kruger

A Taxi Grows in Brooklyn , Queens Staten Island and the Bronx

Plan Approved to Allow Hails of Livery Cabs(NYT) * Hands up! Street hails OKd for livery cabs in boroughs(NYDN) * Open road for boro-only cabs(NYP) * Passage of Taxi Plan Legalizes Street Hails of Livery Cars (WNYC)

Rent Regs and Tax Cap Were Linked

Rent, Tax-Cap Deal Reached(WSJ)

5

UFT Blinks Gives Back suspend sabbaticals for a year and by allowing teachers in a reserve pool who don't have full-time assignments to substitute

Deal Will Avert Plan to Lay Off City Teachers(NYT) * NYC Budget Deal Avoids Teacher Layoffs(WSJ) * 4,100 teach jobs saved in Bloomberg's budget deal with unions(NYDN) *NYC, UFT Deal Averts Teacher Layoffs(Fox 5) *Deal spares teachers & firehouses (NTP) * Political Allies Turn on Unions in NJ (WSJ)

8

CityTime payback(NYP) * CityTime Contractor Repays Nearly $2.5M To City(NY1)

CityTime, MTA and DOE Contract Scandal(True News)

f

8

5

5

Will Another Councilman Be Locked Up?

With H & H Bagels’ Closing, So Goes the Upper West Side?(NYT)

In Lean Times, Schools Squeeze Out Librarians(NYT)

EXCLUSIVE: Memo reveals Flushing High students get 50 just for showing up, teachers outraged by policy(NYDN)

New York Presidential Primary

New York is planning to hold the state's presidential primary on April 24. Spokesman Josh Vlasto says Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration consulted with both major parties, as is customary before determining the primary date. (Newsday)

City plugs pothole record(NYP)

Newtown Creek

Proposal for Superfund Site(WSJ)

Law and Order

Sunday

100 years ago on Tuesday, Samuel Jesse Battle became Greater New York's first African-American police officer Recalling First Black Named to City’s Police Dept.(NYT)

Banker Makes Guilty Plea as Sex Charge Is Reduced(NYT) * Egyptian Man Pleads Guilty in Hotel Assault(WSJ)

House rejects Obama’s Libya policy(Wash Post) 70 Dems Voted Against

What Would Nixon Do? Obama would do well to look at the complex way Nixon withdrew from Vietnam. Were it not for the domestic politics that complicated matters, it would have been successful.(NYT Ed)

Obama to step in on debt talks(Wash Post)

Michele Bachmann's Holy War The Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter (Taibbi, Rolling Stone)

Stonewall Inn reacts to decision(NYDN) * N.Y. Legalizes Gay Marriage, 42 Years After Stonewall (NPR) A Night of Celebration for New York's Gay Community(NBC) Hundreds celebrate at Stonewall site (Wash Post) * Joyful Revelers Flock to Christopher Street After Gay Marriage Passes (Village Voice)

Deal Will Avert Plan to Lay Off City Teachers(NYT) * NYC Budget Deal Avoids Teacher Layoffs(WSJ) * 4,100 teach jobs saved in Bloomberg's budget deal with unions(NYDN) NYC, UFT Deal Averts Teacher Layoffs(Fox 5) Deal spares teachers & firehouses (NTP) * Political Allies Turn on Unions in NJ (WSJ)