Ombud Distress
Everyone’s in a big tizzy about OmbudAndy’s capitulation to the New Black Panther Party scandal machine in his column this weekend.
Thursday’s Post reported about a growing controversy over the Justice Department’s decision to scale down a voter-intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party. The story succinctly summarized the issues but left many readers with a question: What took you so long?
For months, readers have contacted the ombudsman wondering why The Post hasn’t been covering the case. The calls increased recently after competitors such as the New York Times and the Associated Press wrote stories. Fox News and right-wing bloggers have been pumping the story. Liberal bloggers have countered, accusing them of trying to manufacture a scandal.
But The Post has been virtually silent.
[snip]
The Post should never base coverage decisions on ideology, nor should it feel obligated to order stories simply because of blogosphere chatter from the right or the left.
But in this case, coverage is justified because it’s a controversy that screams for clarity that The Post should provide. If Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his department are not colorblind in enforcing civil rights laws, they should be nailed. If the Commission on Civil Rights’ investigation is purely partisan, that should be revealed. If Adams is pursuing a right-wing agenda, he should be exposed.
National Editor Kevin Merida, who termed the controversy “significant,” said he wished The Post had written about it sooner. The delay was a result of limited staffing and a heavy volume of other news on the Justice Department beat, he said.
Better late than never. There’s plenty left to explore.
Perhaps the best of many judicious rants about this capitulation comes from Joan Walsh:
The always smart Adam Serwer, writing for the American Prospect, called Friday “The Day The Controversy Over The New Black Panther Case Fell Apart.” He credited Politico’s interview with conservative Civil Rights Commission vice chair Abigail Thernstrom, who says her GOP commission colleagues and the right-wing media have tried to use the “small potatoes” story of alleged voter intimidation by the “New Black Panther Party” to “topple” the Obama administration, as well as other developments undermining the claims of former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams, the main right-winger hyping this case in the right-wing media, particularly Fox News and the Washington Times.
But right on time, Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander chimes in to keep the specious story alive, chiding his paper for ignoring it while valiant journalists like Fox’s Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh fought to bring light to the darkness.
[snip]
It’s the job of editors at big papers like the Post to expose those lies, and the movement behind them – not to flagellate themselves for not saying “How high?” when right-wing media watchdogs say “Jump!” Andrew Alexander botched his job today.
Thing is, it’s not just that OmbudAndy is not doing his job. Nor is it the odd way he seems to be channeling his predecessor, Debbie Howell, in her most craven days.
It’s the way this capitulation almost exactly mirrors that of WaPo’s rival this March, when NYT’s Clark Hoyt published a similar mea culpa about not covering the manufactured scandal about ACORN.
THE Times reported Saturday that Acorn, once considered the nation’s largest community organizing group for the poor and powerless, is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy. It has already ceased operating in many states, including Maryland, where two conservative activists pretending to be a pimp and a prostitute used a hidden camera and recorded Acorn employees advising them on how to conceal the source of illegal income and manage 14-year-old Salvadoran prostitutes in the country illegally: “Train them to keep their mouth shut.”
The Times was slow last fall to cover that sting in Baltimore, similar ones at Acorn offices in Brooklyn, Washington and other cities, and the resulting uproar, including criminal investigations and votes in Congress to cut off funds for the group. But the paper finally described how a succession of Acorn employees had advised the pair on obviously improper activities and how, as a result, many of the group’s allies had deserted it. Now Acorn and its supporters say The Times got the story wrong and, by failing to correct it, has played into the hands of a campaign that has pushed the group near extinction.
Both apologized for the correct reporting their journalists had done the previous year. Both appeared to bow to sheer volume of calls rather than a real assessment of evidence. And both promised–at a moment when any doubt the right wing scandal machine was simply blowing hot air–to make amends for not sufficiently doing what the scandal mongers expected.
(And in doing both, it should be said, made their papers the vehicle of racist fear-mongering.)
This is not just individual ombuds having a bad day discerning facts from right wing scandal-mongering. It is becoming institutional, such that our leading newspapers’ idea of policing their own content is simply capitulating to the right wing every time their scandals prove to be completely discredited.
This is not just individual ombuds having a bad day discerning facts from right wing scandal-mongering. Is it becoming institutional, such that our leading newspapers’ idea of policing their own content is simply capitulating to the right wing every time their scandals prove to be completely discredited.
No, it’s just the two newspapers showing whose bread they butter. They are corporate entities. And big time corporate entities almost always favor the right. Remember Sinclair Lewis: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on NOT understanding it.”?
(psst ew: “Perhaps the best of
maymany judicious rants…”)Right you are–thank you.
ombudsman andy is a bigger joke than lil debbie snack cakes
but that isn’t news
High everybody
(wave)
Freep!! Where you been?
Was there supposed to be a question-mark at the end of this sentence?
Or was it simply a rhetorical question, making a question-mark optional?
My take is that our leading newspapers simply do not know how to police their own content. They appear to have outsourced this function to the Fox “News” Network.
I think they all must have fallen under the spell of some post-Modernist editor who has pounded into them that Objectivity is Impossible, and that Impartiality means Relativism Rules the Roost (On one hand… On the other hand). Truth and falsity is merely a matter of perspective, or spin.
And yet there is this marvelous statement that you quoted earlier:
What?!? The Post should provide clarity??? Who knew?
And where will the WaPo find this clarity, since they have all, apparently, lost their moral compasses?
Bob in AZ
C: none of the above. I meant “It is,” not “is it.” Thanks.
Yo Freep! Whassup?
Bob in AZ
Did anyone see this Wikileaks tweet that mentions the Washington Post? I wonder what this is about?
http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/18785390278
Freep! missed ya!
I call you the weedeater; cuts the weediest posts and the weediest comments down to four sentences.
Then ate Jodi‘s lunch. (I almost miss that part).
So the right want’s the Justice Department to prosecute everyone who shows up at a poll in camo or khaki cargo pants…and the organizations they are affiliated with? Because the DOJ still is moving ahead with the fellow with the nightstick (which was usually portrayed as a rifle or “military weapon” in the comments and blogs that I came across).
Or right…only Black and Brown folks have this rule apply to them (see Gov. Ronald Reagan’s signing of the Mulford Act banning the open-carrying and transport of firearms).
OT. Interesting story up at the Guardian about oil for terrorists and BP’s role.
EW, as you noted in this post (http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/07/03/bill-keller-suppresses-american-tradition-of-opposition-to-torture/), Andrew Alexander is simply following the example of Bill Keller, who, following entreaties from the Bush Administration, shifted away from using the word “torture” to describe (American) uses of waterboarding, and decided that telling the truth is tantamount to taking sides.
What Grover Norquist said about neutered farm animals in the context of Democrats applies equally well to the establishment press.
OmbudsAndy is doing what the Post pays him to. This is probably his ‘contract extension’ column — special work for that extra year, just like Debbie got herself, the very anti-definition of Ombudsing: another years’ pay for work that greatly pleases the papers’ owners and editorial team.
As Joan Walsh noted, when Andrew Alexander wanted to quote from the piles of outraged correspondence he received he cited a Mr. Royal S. Dellinger. When Debbie Howell wanted to quote from the piles of outraged correspondence she received she cited a Mr. Royal S. Dellinger.
Now I admit that probably 90% of the hate mail they received was either in all caps, too poorly spelled, or too insane to use as an example, but seriously, the fact that this Royal S. Dellinger asshole is the only person sending in coherent hate-mail is really telling about both the amounts and the validity of the concerns they are reacting to.
Googling that name gets some interesting results. His mother’s obituary, for one. And a reference to Royal as a Reagan-era labor official (one hit says ‘Administrator for Regional Management’).
Empty folder in the West Virginia Archives & History, Papers of Governor John D. Rockefeller IV, 1977-1985.
In 35 boxes of records, there are three folders marked empty:
Box 1 – Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (empty)
Box 2 – Department of Labor – Royal S. Dellinger (folder empty)
Box 4 – # 4:15 Economic and Community Development Industrial Development Division
# Community Partnership Grant (empty)
ot: via carol rosenberg –
another ot, as things are pretty quiet ’round here: for those in need of a positive story – Inspiration leads to indestructible soccer ball
Thanks for sharing the soccer ball story. I am in the injection molded foam business and I love to see when our process can make something that benefits people. Believe me, I know how hard it would be to create a ball like that. Gratitude to all who were involved.
I’m late to this story. If there’s a video, I haven’t seen it. I never heard of the New Black Panthers Party. And I have yet to see the two party members identified and discussed in their own right, instead of as roles. This sentence in Joan Walsh’s story is exactly where my curiosity goes:
Since we’re used now to seeing the Department of Justice politicized and unjust, and news bought by perception managers, I look for the script. Back in the Catholic Wikileaks diary, Sara made this comment about government informers and instigators:
Bush would raise terror alerts when he wanted to turn the tide on unfavorable news stories. Obama and the Hutarees, looks like more of the same. Has this been looked into, that this is a manufactured story started by the Bush adm before they left office, to be detonated later? Everytime I see a voter fraud story blaze up against the Democrats, I wonder where are the election and voter fraud prosecutions against the Republicans? They just disappear. It’s wonderful inoculation, wonderful vanishing cream. Handy stuff.
Yes, it is possible these were plants from Bush. That is why the Obama administration slapped one on the wrist and let the others go. Why would they want to teach the Bush infiltrators lessons??
Maybe this ties in with Leen’s idea. Bush set this up and then Obama had to go along.
I am beginning to think that Bush set up Obama to run his third term. Obama was a plant all along. I mean, how could come out of the blue so quickly if he didn’t have some kind of secret right wing backing?
Has anyone checked for Richard Mellon Scaife donations to Obama?
I went over to youtube and found the video. Who’s the videographer? It looks more like the faked Acorn video. Do any of these guys–videographer, black guys–actually talk, have names, answer questions to the press? Because as I understand it, the subjects were “guarding” a black, heavily Democratic precinct. Voter intimidation would seem to be the last thing they would be trying to do. Guarding an election box from Republican vote stealers, that occurs to me. I mean, history and all. People were asked to be election observers. But that’s my conjecture.
The youtube is posted by “ElectionJournal” and if you click on their name, you notice a common theme to EJ’s videos. And here is their website: http://www.electionjournal.org, inclusive of an anti-Acorn, donate-to-us ad (kickboxer kicking Acorn logo, “Kick Voter Fraud in the Nuts”). They have an agenda.
Tell you what, I’d love it if this went to trial, then we might see the evidence and accused and accuser and cross examination and blogging and get a lesson in how the law actually works. I feel that way about birthers and truthers too. Until then, it’s all sneer and bluff with no fact-checking process that the other side trusts. Keeps us divided and angry and stupid.
First, polls don’t need ANY citizens in para-military uniforms “guarding” them.
Second, you see the guy hitting his other hand with the billy club? That does not look very “inviting” or neutral.
Third, there is another video of this same guy–obviously the same guy–talking some real smack at some kind of rally (don’t remember what). Berating other blacks at the rally actually. I think he was upset that they weren’t killing enough “crackers.”
A joke, except he’s a real guy.
I’m all for giving somebody the benefit of the doubt, but this guy is beyond the doubt stage.
To me, just milling around and wearing a para-military uniform in front of a polling place is forbidden. Doesn’t matter what you say or even what you do. That is enough.
Put it on trial. Cross examine. Lay out evidence. Have a jury weigh the evidence. That’s the whole point of having governance by reason and justice by citizen, isn’t it? This isn’t rocket science, this is civics.
OmsBudAndy wants to have his contract extended and probably figures channeling Lil Debbie is the best way to make that happen.
Iranian Scientist Would Not Play ‘Curveball’
by Ray McGovern, July 18
http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2010/07/17/iranian-scientist-would-not-play-curveball/
So hold onto your hats. I’m waiting for arch-neoconservative Ken Adelman, erstwhile clone of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to arise from – and dust off – the ashes of Iraq to reassure us that attacking Iran, too, will be a “cake walk.”
Pressure Building
What is abundantly clear is that Israel and the neocons are determined to ratchet up the conclusions of the 2007 NIE and make them sound far more ominous in the Memorandum to Holders.
And if no one better than Amiri shows up, they can always make him into Curveball #2 anyway, and then order the excellent CIA graphics shoppe to create artists renderings of the kind they did for Curveball’s imaginary mobile chemical weapons labs. (The danger here is that this ruse would be all too reminiscent of Powell’s bravura performance in February 2003.)”
If the White House decides that a Curveball #2 approach might be so obvious as to backfire and perhaps even raise doubts even among the stenographers of the FCM, administration’s hawks would probably opt for further delay in drafting the Memorandum to Holders, allowing more time to bring on board more malleable managers, to twist the arms of intelligence analysts, and to leak to the FCM how the updated estimate is sure to abandon the findings of the NIE from 2007.
If I am right in surmising that there has been no reliable intelligence requiring change in the NIE’s key judgments, publication (or, more likely) leaking of an honest Memorandum to Holders could again thwart the Israelis and those who are encouraging an attack on Iran.
Uh, since no “neo-cons” are in charge of the White House–who is in charge of the Defense Department, who the F are you talking about?
Or, are you saying Bush has been running the CIA the last few years?
Yes, it is true that in 2011 Bush is going to order the military to not pull out of Afghanistan except in small amounts that keep the literal promise but not practical promise.
I wish that Bush would get out of the driver’s seat and let Obama drive for once.
Sorry forgot to put quotation marks around former Cia analyst Ray McGovern’s words.
I need to ask for clarification on how the NY Times got their reportage of the ACORN fraudulent recording correct. Because, as far as I know, the NY Times reporting is still incorrect and unrepentant.
I want to add that…ALL of the MSM got the ACORN video story wrong, which really, led to the horrific Congressional decision to defund. But when the truth began to come out, only then to the NY Times publish the actually fact challenged assertion of ACORN Criminal behavior.
We all know now that there was no criminal behavior on ACORN’s part…right?
And NY Times ombudsman refuse to print a retraction or correction, unlike most all but FOX news have now done.
Empty, I hate to say it, but you need to turn in your champion of truth and justice title.
You know that if someone told you, without naming the race of the persons, that someone stood in front of a polling place in para-military uniform and one with a billy club in his hand, you would be pretty steamed. And, your fingers would likely not be able to wait the few seconds it would take you to bring up the Empty Wheel page.
So, either you think having a few people show up at a polling place and one with a billy club in hand is no big deal, or you think that the race of the person holding the club makes it OK.
You talk about facts, but the only “facts” you bring up are about the people reporting the story or blowing the whistle.
Maybe you CAN explain how the guy holding the club wasn’t actually holding a club. Or that the two weren’t actually wearing para-military uniforms. If you have it, I’d be quite open to the explanation. Maybe you can also explain that the Justice department DIDN’T drop the case except a slap on the wrist for the one guy.
Until then, I don’t think it matters a bit who is bringing it to our attention–there are aspects that sound quite crooked that need explaining.
THAT relates the direct facts of the case, not some attack on someone’s motives for squealing or reporting. Those facts are unimportant.
Just like the facts of who in the media was pushing the Plame case had nothing to do with whether it was a legitimate case or not.
Leen, are you saying that the neo-cons under Bush decided to try to make the Iranian curveball, but when the Obama admin took over they stopped it and then sat on the guy for 19 months?
Again, I hope someday Obama takes over the government so we can see what he can do. I wish he would quit letting Bush run things.
In 2012, as he exits; Obama, “I am sorry we didn’t solve anything, but Bush wouldn’t let me get anything done or change anything. Yes, unemployment is 10%, but it’s all because of Bush. I tried my best, but I couldn’t undo Bush. I tried to close Gitmo, but Bush wouldn’t let me. He tied my hands.”
Oh my Prof Cole /Sarah Palin..ouch
Pissed off Patricia “every time Sarah speaks we all feel smarter”
http://www.juancole.com/2010/07/palin-on-the-ground-zero-mosque-vs-the-founding-fathers.html
Palin on the Ground Zero Mosque vs. the Founding Fathers
Sarah Palin tweeted, “Ground Zero mosque supporters, doesn’t it stab you in the heart as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls. refudiate.”
The tweet was later taken down and replaced with English, though to the same effect. Here is the original, courtesy twitpic.
Prof Cole
“The US Senate, full of founding fathers, and the Adams government, approved the Treaty with Tripoli (now Libya) of 1797, which included this language:
“As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”
The treaty is important for showing the mindset of the fashioners of the American system.”
errr… has become.
It’s a done deal.
Virtually no issue guiding health of country has received anything resembling thoughtful, disciplined dissection and analysis in any MSM that I’m aware. And as through juvenile incessant Clinton attack through the 90’s, then same thing directed towards Bush critics this decade, the ensuing black hole of ignorance has solidified into daily MSM representations of reality.
It’s not just this Black Panther thing, the racial epitaphs towards BO have gotten stronger and stronger, through more varied sources in just the 2 short years of his presidency. (and yeah, he’s done a really lousy job). The utter disconnect… a bevy of neo-confederate voices (some of them lawmakers) blaming BO’s policy’s for the bank’ster mortgage bond fraud that nearly bankrupted the planet. And their logic concludes w/a solution: less government, lower taxes.
Built upon a righteous white supremacy/BO hates whites thingie.
This Black Panther deal is just tried and true template executed to perfection throughout Bush years, rinsing/repeating, making stuff up, getting loud, saturating the message across channels…
My view: until a preponderance of US public demands even basic honesty in public matters, US is getting what it deserves.
Not to be blithe or anything, I just don’t see any light on the horizon. Rather, looks to me like we’re headed for also ran/3 world/vastly diminished standard of living country. The US has adopted all the attributes of stagnating, dictatorial nations we railed against for decades.