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25 Apr 2011 16:07

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Politics: Rachel Maddow talks about responsibility, coming out

  • I’m sure other people in the business have considered reasons why they’re doing what they’re doing, but I do think that if you’re gay you have a responsibility to come out.
  • Rachel Maddow • Talking about closeted people working in the TV news business, in a profile and interview with British newspaper The Guardian. The paper asked Maddow whether she felt frustration towards an “equally well-known news presenter who is widely assumed to be gay but has never come out,” which prompted the above response. (Are they referring to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, a common is-he-or-isn’t-he target of celebrity gossip sites?) While the right to not divulge one’s sexual identity is (we would argue) an absolute one, Maddow’s argument is a classic advocate’s stance — that the importance (solidarity, mainstream appeal, and inspiration) of an uber-successful media professional coming out of the closet ought to trump that person’s reluctance to admit it. What do you all think? (EDIT: Maddow clarified her comments; she didn’t mean Anderson Cooper.) source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Mar 2011 22:10

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Culture, World: More Wikileaks: Steven Spielberg scores the movie rights

  • And Wikileaks is very unhappy about this. The mega-director, known as much for his Hollywood films as his historical pieces, has secured the rights to a book about Wikileaks, “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy.” (It’s written by two journalists for The Guardian, who have kind of been on the front lines of all this.) Now, Spielberg has done great work before, but he is not a man known for keeping his films 100 percent accurate. For example, “Catch Me if You Can” was based on a real guy who pretended to be a pilot, but Tom Hanks’ character didn’t exist in real life. (Frank Abagnale is OK with this.) It’s understandable, then, that Wikileaks would say, in response to this, that “this is how bull#(&@ ends up being history.” Your move, Spielberg. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jan 2011 10:13

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World: Palestine: Al-Jazeera’s “Palestine Papers” full of lies

  • We don’t have anything to hide. [The papers have been] taken out of context and contain lies … Al-Jazeera’s information is full of distortions and fraud.
  • PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat • Denying the claims of al-Jazeera and The Guardian, which published the Palestine Papers, which reportedly show that Palestinians were ready to give Israel a huge concession without getting much of anything from Israel. Hamas officials, on the other hand, is quite angry about the report, saying it shows “this leadership is not honest.” FYI: More stuff is coming this week. Keep an eye out. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Dec 2010 20:54

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U.S.: Air Force blocks newspapers that published Wikileaks materials

  • 25 news sites blocked by the Air Force over Wikileaks fears source
  • » What’s the point? Not allowing people to read The New York Times and The Guardian seems a little extreme, and the effect is futile, anyway. Why’s that? Well, see, all they have to do to read the cables is GO HOME AND FIRE UP THEIR LAPTOP. Wow, that’s some effective security there, guys. By the way, the Army, Navy and Marines aren’t doing this, and the Department of Defense is formally distancing itself from the Air Force on this issue.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2010 13:39

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World: Well, Wikileaks’ Cablegate pretty much sucks for the U.S.

  • At the start of a series of daily extracts from the US embassy cables – many of which are designated ‘secret’ – the Guardian can disclose that Arab leaders are privately urging an air strike on Iran and that US officials have been instructed to spy on the UN’s leadership.
  • A sentence at the start of the Guardian’s package on Wikileaks’ “Cablegate” • Which kind of says it all. The U.S. is going to have a lot of fun cleaning up this mess. Also worth reading: The New York Times’ package. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Oct 2009 09:59

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World: Clever mail-tracking bastards of The Guardian, we salute you

The Royal Mail was about to go on strike in the U.K., so The Guardian dropped a satellite device in the mail to see what happened. This is innovative journalism. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

13 Oct 2009 09:47

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World: Carter-Ruck had the U.K. press over a barrel in parliament

  • The media laws in this country increasingly place newspapers in a Kafkaesque world in which we cannot tell the public anything about information which is being suppressed, nor the proceedings which suppress it.
  • The Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger • Describing a bizarre situation in which his newspaper was not allowed to publish a question about the Trafigura toxic waste scandal. The gag pushed for by the Carter-Ruck law firm, was lifted just a short time ago. Reminder: The U.K. doesn’t have the same freedom of press as the U.S., so stuff like this occasionally happens. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

08 Jul 2009 23:46

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Music: Attack Attack!’s “Stick Stickly” video so bad, the Guardian dissected it

  • We were totally ahead of the game here. Back in mid-June, we saw the worst music video ever, an unspeakably bad concoction of gyration, cliché, screaming and in-unison headbanging called “Stick Stickly” by screamo band Attack Attack! It was so bad we posted about it twice. Well, we caught the trend just before that bastion of high culture, The Guardian, got a hold of it. And they dissected it in profound detail. Our favorite description of the band: “Like a set of dancers representing Undead versions of Jonas brothers on a Halloween-Pride parade.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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