Why do I have to hear, see, read about Donald Trump every day as if he really is a serious, viable, candidate for president of the United States of America? Because of our wonderful press - gawd bless 'em!
"You can say what you want I have no doubt that it (waterboarding) does work in term of information and other things," Trump told (Jake) Tapper. ["other things"? - my note]
Jacob Paul "Jake" Tapper is an American journalist, cartoonist and author. As of 2016, he is the Chief Washington Correspondent, anchor of the CNN weekday television news show The Lead with Jake Tapper
Did Jake Tapper ask Trump to provide empirical evidence of maybe an example or two of instances where he (Trump) could prove that the statement he had just made was, in fact, accurate?
NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Our dedicated, objective, informative press at work? (Maybe "Jake" is a better cartoonist?)
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Jayson Blair, a reporter for the New York Times, was a rising star in journalsim until someone noticed similarities between one of his articles one by one of their reporters Macarena Hernandez. The Times eventually discovered that at least 36 of his 73 articles contained plagiarism, fabrication or other unethical behavior. Blair resigned from the New York Times.
Kaavya Viswanathan was a Harvard student who got a book deal rumored to be worth $1 million and her first work had reached number 32 on the New York Times bestseller list. Talk of movie deals and more books was abound. Allegations surfaced that she copied portions of her book from other authors.
Lloyd Brown was the editorial page editor for the Florida Times-Union when allegations arose that he had used plagiarized material in some of his editorials prompting an investigation. Brown later resigned amidst incidents of plagiarism and other instances of lack of complete attribution dating back to 1996.
Nada Behziz was a reporter at The Bakersfield Californian focusing on health issues later fired when editors discovered a plagiarized quotation from a 1995 story in the San Francisco Examiner. Additional investigation revealed 29 other pieces she had written contained plagiarized material representing more than a third of the work.
Veteran Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Olesker was dismissed over several instances where he plagiarized wording of other journalists without proper attribution. Olesker was a Baltimore columnist for nearly three decades and said he did not intentionally engage in plagiarism. He said, "I screwed up. I made mistakes. Would I do it intentionally? My God, no. That would be professional suicide, unethical and immoral. I'm sick over what happened."
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt)
When (Theodore) Roosevelt read [my(Jacob Riis, the muckraking Evening Sun newspaper journalist)] book (How the Other Half Lives), he came... No one ever helped as he did. For two years we were brothers in (New York City's crime-ridden) Mulberry Street. When he left I had seen its golden age... There is very little ease where Theodore Roosevelt leads, as we all of us found out. The lawbreaker found it out who predicted scornfully that he would "knuckle down to politics the way they all did," and lived to respect him, though he swore at him, as the one of them all who was stronger than pull... that was what made the age golden, that for the first time a moral purpose came into the street. In the light of it everything was transformed.
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music will be released April 7, 2014 Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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(http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/joe-bennett/8324052/Meteor-message-for-unbelievers%5C) by Joe Bennett An amazing thing happened in Switzerland last weekend during the annual Peace and Light Symposium. This inter-faith conference, renowned for its catering, had attracted leaders from every major belief system. Top of this year's agenda was the Russian meteor. All the theologians except the Archimandrite of Easter Island had seen it on television and were frightfully excited.
At the plenary session, held in the Davos Convention Centre, the Peace and Light Moderator told journalists that despite two days of commitment to the gravy train, the thinkers had been unable to reach a consensus on the meaning of the meteor. So the various factions would present their conclusions separately.
First to step to the microphone was a mullah, gravely wiping crumbs of strawberry gateau from his beard. "God is not mocked," he said. "And neither are his faithful followers. So when a member of the New Zealand Parliament chooses to denounce all 2 billion of us as misogynist troglodytes from Wogistan, it is hardly surprising that He should choose to express his wrath meteorically."
A journalist interrupted to ask why the meteor should have been biffed at Russia rather than New Zealand, but the mullah was not fazed. "Do you have any idea where New Zealand is?" he asked.
The journalist shook his head and conceded the point.
Next up was a cardinal from Omen Dei (De Imaginis in Pane Immolatis), the powerful Vatican committee for the interpretation of portents, cloud shapes and pieces of toast burnt with the image of the Virgin. "With all due respect to my friend the mullah," he began in Latin, "God could hardly have spoken more clearly. In the same week as the Holy Father resigns, whoompha. Coincidence? I don't think so. Our Almighty has a long history of communicating through celestial show, and this meteor is a clear warning to the Russian Orthodox church and other eastern schismatics. Now is the time for them to renounce their heresy and to return to the one true mother church. And I am assured by the Vatican Bank Enforcement Division that a suitable accommodation can be reached with regard to centuries of unpaid . . . "
"Poppycock," exclaimed a small man, leaping to his feet and shrugging off a straitjacket in what looked like a practised manoeuvre. He grabbed the cardinal by the chasubles and flung him into the wings, to applause from the Eastern Orthodox churches.
Seizing the microphone the little man glared at the gathering with eyes that swivelled independently. "As president of the Mayan Calendar Straw Clutchers I am thrilled to announce the imminent end of the world. We were right, you were wrong, so suck on that, sceptics."
"Wasn't it meant to be December?" shouted a journalist.
"What's a few months in an 18,000-year calendar cycle?" bellowed the little man with glee. "We're talking stone-age people here. They didn't have digital calculators, you know. We're all going to die."
"I refuse to share a stage with a doom-saying poltroon," exclaimed a Texan Baptist, rising to his enormous feet.
"Not so fast, big boy," exclaimed the swivel-eyed Mayan. "All of you have got a doomsday scenario, same as we have. Fire, brimstone, rapture, apocalyptic horses and so on. We're just the only ones prepared to put a date on it."
But the Texan had seized his chair and was advancing on the little man with obvious intent. Other divines rose to their feet, shouting. An ecclesiastical donnybrook seemed seconds away, with the journos cheering them on. The Archbishop of Canterbury squealed "No violence, please, I beg you," but no one paid him the least attention, which made him feel at home. But then just as the Texan raised the chair above his head there came a mighty crack and the roof of the convention centre split asunder.
The divines fell to their knees as one and gawped in awestruck silence. Above them lay the sweep of the cosmos in the form of a limitless multi-dimensional skittle alley. Meteorites by the billion criss-crossed the alley at dizzying speed.
And as their eyes grew used to the darkness of forever, the clerics made out a huge dim figure hunched in the heart of the cosmos, launching the meteorites arbitrarily into space like intergalactic bowling balls. And though the figure had neither ears to hear with, nor yet eyes to see with, whenever a meteorite struck a celestial body, wiping out a race of dinosaurs here, a whole planet there, a huge and eerie cackle rang through the reaches of eternity.
"Gosh," said the Archimandrite of Easter Island, reaching for an anchovy sandwich.
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AMBIENCE & WINE
That's right, a journalist. Possibly writing for a newspaper or magazine or another media outlet of some iteration. Of course, fate would not have it and I am what I am. My awareness of, and level of emotional involvement in, certain social and political issues, has changed (read increased) with the years. Like my journalism professor in college, and many bright and better-read peers of mine who criticized the media (which has evolved drastically since then) for various transgressions of which I, at the time, gave very little thought, I now see, more clearly every day, how the media, primarily the news media, fail us each and every day.
Take, for example, my 'beloved' Baltimore Sun, who printed these little gems the other day following violence at the Baltimore Inner Harbor 4th of July celebration. . .
"Child shot at harbor says he would punch gunman in the face Police still seeking person who fired random shot after fireworks A stick-on bandage is the only thing covering Kavin Benson's dime-size bullet wound. It hasn't stopped the rambunctious 4-year-old, who was shot moments after the July 4 fireworks ended at the Inner Harbor, from dancing, jumping and climbing all over his family's Brooklyn apartment. And it hasn't stopped the child, sporting a red T-shirt and Dr. Seuss shoes, from seeking revenge. . ."
and. . . "Calo, of Opelika, Ala., got into a shoving match with a group of men, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said Tuesday. Calo "re-engaged" the suspect later and was stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle, he said. "He was a really good father, and we miss him," Reilly said. "There's a little girl that's going to grow up without a father because someone felt the need to be big and tough and use a deadly weapon instead of his fists like a real man."'
No doubt the latter is a tragedy, the former an unsettling coincidence. And whoever thought shooting a firearm in a crowd of thousands in celebration of Independence Day was a good idea could certainly use some education and possibly rehabilitation. But what bothers me are the 'revenge' statements (I'm not so sure the kid wouldn't use a firearm for THAT if he could get his hands on one [too many Mel Gibson movies?]) and the "instead of [using] his fists like a real man" quote, after all (pertaining to the latter) the victim did "re-engage" the suspect after the initial 'shoving' encounter.
I take four lessons from these 4th of July tragedies: ** LET'S BE CIVIL Some people are dumber than others. Revenge won't make them smart. In fact, calling for revenge in such a case places us on a comparable level with the perpretrator. ** DON'T RE-ENGAGE This act is the non-vehicular equivalent of Road-Rage. Let it go, man. And there's no need to fight "like a man" or a woman or a child for that matter. ** DON'T READ THE NEWSPAPER Or at least don't let it scare you unnecessarily. The Baltimore Sun claims now that Baltimore isn't as dangerous as some people perceive it to be, but they are your outlet of choice to read about every crime, no matter how small, petty or 'inbred' , in order to make you think that 'this could happen to you.' ** LET'S PLAY SOME MUSIC. . .
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