Earlier this May 30th evening I had the pleasure of attending a fund-raiser for the Obama for America campaign featuring the appearance of possible Obama VP running mate Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius at the home of Wendy Holcombe and Carl Kawaja in San Francisco's Pacific Heights. It was by far not my first Obama money-party or event. I've lost count of the number of times I've attended these things.
But this one was such that I did not bring my trusty camcorder and it was out of respect for the campaign and for the feeling that after Huffington Post contributor Mayhill Fowler's "Bittergate" performance where she recorded Senator Obama's advice to volunteers on working in the rural areas of Pennsylvania, the campaign may be a bit paranoid and "under attack" in feeling.
While such was not the case, I did think to ask if I could bring the camcorder before I did it. But the main party Obama host told me that it wasn't necessary to do as it was not wanted. The campaign felt kind of "burned" by Mayhill Fowler and that's not the last we will hear of the matter.
What makes things more interesting is to learn that Mayhill wasn't even supposed to be allowed into the very event where the "Bittergate" comments occured. First, such events are closed to the press, but second, Mayhill had already developed a reputation for being hostile to the campaign, and so wasn't welcome on top of the standard restriction.
I got this news from a campaign official who I will not name and does not want to be identified. The point is that what the campaign would have preferred was a photo of Mayhill posted at the check-in table with the words "Do Not Admit This Person." Such did not exist, so Mayhill kind of "slipped in through the cracks," one could say.
I am way not kidding.
I can't think of a time when one media person has so upset so many people connected with an elected official either during a campaign run or in office. Mayhill's constant attempts at discrediting Obama for America's events and actions in the San Francisco Bay Area were the stuff of office gossip between Northern California Obama staffers and volunteers, more specifically people like me. As I've written before, Mayhill started off by just talking to people and not taking notes, then having to deal with reports that she misquoted someone in the process of trashing some aspect of campaign activity, and that was frequently and never under a consistent tune. And those charges were often considering the number of negative or at least not favorable articles she wrote and about every nit-picky thing one could think of.
Well, it's all over now, and for the future. Mayhill's been officially excluded from attending any Obama for America fundraising function on the scale of a house party and saying she's part of the media and is under the freedom of information act gives few any real comfort. It's not that Mayhill has the information, it's her diabolical media practices seemingly targeted to consistently harm Barack Obama's campaign that bother Obama for America.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
SHAME ON CNN FOR FORCING JESSICA YELLIN TO CHANGE HER STORY
DID YOU SEE THIS:
CNN's Jessica Yellin's turnabout statement taking the blame off her former employer, which was thought in this space to be ABC News and Yellin says was MSNBC. At any rate, here's her new statement:
J
All I can say is SHAME ON CNN for having Yellin make this statement. I seriously doubt she did this on her own. But now the cat's out of the bag and the emperor wears no clothes at all. It's sad to see CNN try to restore it's reputation. Good luck there.
CNN's Jessica Yellin's turnabout statement taking the blame off her former employer, which was thought in this space to be ABC News and Yellin says was MSNBC. At any rate, here's her new statement:
J
essica Yellin
Congressional Correspondent
I find myself in an interesting position. Today the blogs lit up with comments I made last night on AC360° and suddenly I’m being reported on.
It’s not the most comfortable position for a reporter.
So let me clarify what I said and what I experienced.
First, this involved my time on MSNBC where I worked during the lead up to war. I worked as a segment producer, overnight anchor, field reporter, and briefly covered the White House, the Pentagon, and general Washington stories.
Also, let me say: No, senior corporate leadership never asked me to take out a line in a script or re-write an anchor intro. I did not mean to leave the impression that corporate executives were interfering in my daily work; my interaction was with senior producers. What was clear to me is that many people running the broadcasts wanted coverage that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the country at the time. It was clear to me they wanted their coverage to reflect the mood of the country.
And now I’m going back to work covering the Puerto Rico primary from San Juan.
All I can say is SHAME ON CNN for having Yellin make this statement. I seriously doubt she did this on her own. But now the cat's out of the bag and the emperor wears no clothes at all. It's sad to see CNN try to restore it's reputation. Good luck there.
Young Hillary Clinton Video Shows What America Thinks Of Hillary
This is a totally funny video staring starring Jerry O'Connell and Brandon Johnson, and starring Laci Kay as Young Hillary Clinton. It reminds me of Reece Witherspoon's performance as Tracy Flick in the movie "Election" where she was a "do anything to win" high school kid.
Well, Laci Kay portrays a young Hillary Clinton who's totally power-hungry and manuevering. But what's interesting is that this video reflects how people see Senator Clinton and it's not good for her political future at all.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Father Michael Pfleger Is NOT Obama's Pastor or A Trinity Pastor; He's At Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church!!
What Father Michael Pfleger said about Senator Hillary Clinton is on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News (of course) but each of these mainstream media cable networks is telling a huge lie:
Father Michael Pfleger is not -- I repeat -- not a pastor of Trinity Church. He's also catholic, whereas Trinity is methodist. Father Michael Flager is the white pastor of predominantly black Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side.
So now, I guess the media's going to set up camera's over at Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church? Oh brother!
But the biggest problem is the ever-lowering credibility of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Thank God for Scott McClellan.
Father Michael Pfleger is not -- I repeat -- not a pastor of Trinity Church. He's also catholic, whereas Trinity is methodist. Father Michael Flager is the white pastor of predominantly black Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side.
So now, I guess the media's going to set up camera's over at Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church? Oh brother!
But the biggest problem is the ever-lowering credibility of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Thank God for Scott McClellan.
Did George Bush "Out" Valerie Wilson?
The question of the day: did Did George Bush "Out" Valerie Wilson ? Kpete certainly thinks so. In Democratic Underground, Kpete observes
During the (Today's Show) interview, Scottie revealed the two things that really pissed him off with the Bush Administration. First, being set up to lie by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. And second, learning that Bush had--himself--authorized the selective leaking of the NIE.
The "NIE" is a National Intelligence Estimate, and according to Wikipedia,
are United States federal government documents that are the authoritative assessment of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on intelligence related to a particular national security issue. NIEs are produced by the National Intelligence Council and express the coordinated judgments of the United States Intelligence Community, the group of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. NIEs are classified documents prepared for policymakers.
This NIE was the document that in this case contained Valerie's identity. Even though Scott McClellan has tried to protect the President and even fingered Vice President Dick Cheney, it seems that the more Scott talks, the more likely the President may be in some trouble. The reason is that while it's not clear that President Bush did do what Kpete asserts, and there's no direct smoking gun, it seems that McClellan may be giving more ammo for people to try and connect disparate dots. Stay tuned.
NYC Crane Collapses And Falls Killing Two - Why?
Ok. We've got to ask what's going on when we hear about yet another crane collapsing in New York City. These things are supposed to be reliable both for crew and the public below. What's going on?
I'm wondering if, overall there's a kind of "crisis of competence" in America, which could be the result of a terrible and poorly funded education system and low wage pay relative to the cost of living. What ever the case, something is clearly wrong. It kind of violates the overall faith we have that "things will work" -- you know?
I'm wondering if, overall there's a kind of "crisis of competence" in America, which could be the result of a terrible and poorly funded education system and low wage pay relative to the cost of living. What ever the case, something is clearly wrong. It kind of violates the overall faith we have that "things will work" -- you know?
¡VIVA OBAMA!
El Latino principal calcula en un vÃdeo español maravilloso que apoya la campaña de Barack Obama -- cambÃenos puede creer adentro. Podemos Con Obama. Siga este acoplamiento para ver el vÃdeo.
"Este es en hombre que nos entiende y que nos va a respetar."~Governor Bill Richardson
Next Democratic Battleground: DNC Rules Cmte meeting 5/31/08
Tomorrow may be a strange day at the Marriott Wardman Park in NW Washington D.C.UPDATE: DNC Rules Committee Online As of this writing.
While the Clinton campaign denies organizing a scene to influence the decision of the Democratic National Committee's Rules & Bylaws Committee, reports persist that they've been actively urging supporters to pressure the DNC to fix the game Hillary's Way - in marked contrast to messages to Obama's supporters. On a conference call with reporters, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe appeared to distance the Obama campaign's intentions from Clinton supporters' planned protests outside Saturday's meeting. "We are NOT encouraging our people to gather and protest on Saturday," he said.
Meanwhile, according to Carl Hulse in the NY Times, the two top Democrats in Congress were pressing superdelegates who had yet to declare a preference in the race to make their choice public by the middle of next week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly have been contacting uncommitted superdelegates, encouraging them to prepare to go public and resolve any last question about the contest between Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. "By this time next week, it will all be over, give or take a day," Mr. Reid said in a Thursday appearance at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
And Senator Obama does seem to be enhancing his delegate count with the support of Boyd and Betty Richie, two of the few uncommitted superdelegates from Texas. "I believe Senator Obama is the candidate who can best provide the leadership and change Texans desire," said Boyd Richie in a statement issued by the party. "Senator Obama has the skill and ability to unite Americans from all walks of life and put our country back on the right track."
Of course neither candidate can control what goes on outside the Wardmann Park hotel; even if they have generally good control over their own campaigns the passions are running high among volunteers and supporters - and one cannot totally ignore the potential that provocateurs might be inserted by parties interested in seeing the situation spin into a conflict which is then splashed all over the Sunday morning talk shows in pursuit of ratings.
What will Saturday foreshadow? The Denver nominating convention will be a lively affair, and the turnout in November's general election should reflect a highly energized desire to seat a Democrat in the Oval Office atop record numbers of first-time voters which increasingly looks like a mandate for change.
Zennie's Zeitgeist Blog Credentialed For 2008 Democratic Convention
I just saw the news in a weird way: checking our blog traffic, which I do regularly. In looking at a link from the blog "Demconwatch" it took me to a story on blogs approved for the historic 2008 Democratic Convention, and to the DNC Page itself. To cut to this chase, this blog is on the list! Yippee!
In other words we're going to be brings you both live and video blog coverage from the floor of the 2008 Democratic Convention. It also means a milestone in the assent of our blogs as a business unit of Sports Business Simulations and is major proof that I made the right bet in 2003 when I determined to establish a writer's group called SBS Personalities and in 2005 when I first started this blog network.
All I can say is thanks to Drew at the DNC, and thanks to the DNC. We -- Ashley, Tom, Dave, and myself -- are excited!
In other words we're going to be brings you both live and video blog coverage from the floor of the 2008 Democratic Convention. It also means a milestone in the assent of our blogs as a business unit of Sports Business Simulations and is major proof that I made the right bet in 2003 when I determined to establish a writer's group called SBS Personalities and in 2005 when I first started this blog network.
All I can say is thanks to Drew at the DNC, and thanks to the DNC. We -- Ashley, Tom, Dave, and myself -- are excited!
CNN's Jessica Yellin Blames ABC News Execs For "Fixing" President Bush Coverage
One major casualty of the release of the book by former White House Press Secretary Scott McCllellan was the White House Press Corp and ABC News (so far).
CNN's Jessica Yellin, who was employed by CNN during the initial years of the Iraq War, dropped a bomb of her own on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, when she revealed that her news was "fixed" -- my term -- by ABC News execs, who killed negative Bush stories and generally made her feel pressured to make positive stories about President Bush while his approval ratings were high.
Yellin says so in this video:
Charlie Gibson, the host of Good Morning America, essentially but unknowingly confirmed Yellin when he said this:
This bit of a revelation is damaging to the overall credibility of the mainstream media and calls into question the state of American Media. It may very well be that we've been the victims of fixed news coverage all along and are entering a new era of telling the actual story via new media. But for the present I think Yellin's revelations are stunning and I'm not sure what the fallout will be, but I do think the FCC should look into this ASAP. It seems Noam Chomsky was right after all.
CNN's Jessica Yellin, who was employed by CNN during the initial years of the Iraq War, dropped a bomb of her own on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, when she revealed that her news was "fixed" -- my term -- by ABC News execs, who killed negative Bush stories and generally made her feel pressured to make positive stories about President Bush while his approval ratings were high.
Yellin says so in this video:
Charlie Gibson, the host of Good Morning America, essentially but unknowingly confirmed Yellin when he said this:
I think the questions were asked. I respectfully disagree with the gentle lady from the Columbia Broadcasting System [group giggles]. I think the questions were asked. . . . I can remember getting in trouble with administration officials for asking questions they didn't feel comfortable with.
It was just a drumbeat of support from the administration. And it is not our job to debate them; it's our job to ask the questions.
This bit of a revelation is damaging to the overall credibility of the mainstream media and calls into question the state of American Media. It may very well be that we've been the victims of fixed news coverage all along and are entering a new era of telling the actual story via new media. But for the present I think Yellin's revelations are stunning and I'm not sure what the fallout will be, but I do think the FCC should look into this ASAP. It seems Noam Chomsky was right after all.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Emily Gould Attacks Gawker and "Henry" But Give Her A Break
Emily Gould was invited to write a first-person essay which appeared in the NY Times Magazine with a cool photo of Emily on its cover. No big deal to me, but it's caused a firestorm of criticism mostly aimed at the NYTimes itself for being, well, capitalist in trying to gain commenters for its new blog system.
But I think what's missing here are two things. First, is what I will call the struggle of mainstream media to have some influence and say in the blogsphere. Second, there's Emily's very revealing attack on Gawker. 
I just read her entire post -- it's long; perhaps 20,000 words or so -- and what I came away with was that, 1) she broke the heart of her now-ex boyfriend Henry who she made read like someone who's afraid of success and was good for nothing except growing out of, and 2) that she essentially jumped into a relationship with a guy -- Gawker blogger Josh Stein -- who she worked with who didn't really "get" her like Henry did, but was able to convince her to spread her legs on cue, 3), she totally hated the Gawker Culture (but not its people) but worked her way into it because she was slowly becoming like Julia Allison, who's attention seeking personality Gould claims to dislike, but only because it's really the completion of what Emily was becoming (and since they're friends, arguably has become - see photo), and 4) Emily needs a new Mac as the one she's using is really old. I think about five years old at least. 
Of course, getting wrapped up in all that totally causes one to miss the bird's eye view of things. In this case, from the air there are a lot of people really pissed off about what Jezebel blogger "Moe" -- who's a friend of Emily's -- called a "masterbatory" blog.
It was. Writing the line "Josh and I sat together on the couch, and I put my head on his shoulder in a completely friendly, professional way" made Moe and me LOL, because there's no fucking way that one could even think of such an action as either just friendly or professional. But I'm sure it gave Emily much quasi-sexual pleasure to write that. But what's not a feel-good moment is the reaction to Gould's work.
Rachel Skalar at the Huffington Post just plain unloads on Emily , taking her to the woodshed for being so, well, self-revealing. Rachel ties together every negative blog and article on Emily's "Exposed" Times work, and leaves no whipping lash unused. Rachel's point -- again -- is that there are more interesting topics than the musings of a self-absorbed blogger with boyfriend problems.
What I find totally facinating about all of the crying and whining about Emily's NYTimes blog is that people are complaining that people are reading about this; Let's face it, no one's forcing us to do so. Rachel read it -- so did thousands of others. People don't seem to get that they like to read about other people. We're voyeurs. Period. Bravo that the NY Times and NYTimes Mag Editor Gerry Marzorati recognizes that -- I guess. Of course, it could have been the happy accident of some editor there -- perhaps Gerry Marzorati -- who thinks Emily's hot. I was about to write we'll never know, but in this "new revealling media" society, I take that back. We'll find out at some point in time.
Do we care? Yes. The simple proof of this shows up in the numbers. Not just for Emily, but on a smaller scale for what -- for example -- I wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle. A revealing article on a defense mechanism I used to deal with subtle racism I call my "Iron Man" suit. In writing it I discovered I gave a voice to many people who felt like me. And let's face it, we like feedback and appreciation; it's a drug that has all of us under its spell.
So what?
I think we're seeing the seeds of why some people don't succeed in new media on a personal level. One does have to be comfortable with a certain degree -- a high level -- of self-revelation. Either by the person or someone else.
What's funny is that no one is free from this, and choosing not to blog is no escape -- just ask Henry. I'm sure somewhere, he's hating every word of Emily's article as he plays a major part in it, and just because of his former association with her.
Welcome to the 21st Century. Eventually, therapists will have to properly sooth clients who's lives were exposed by some wayward blogger working for or starting their own media company. It's more the norm than you think. 
And if that's scary to you, I'm glad to get your attention because this new, revealing world of masterbatory blogging also has a sibling called "masterbatory video-blogging" both draw eyeballs, but there's something baserly attractive about seeing a video of someone talking about themselves or doing something either completely stupid or sexy or interesting. Plus, we have videos of people being caught doing something completely stupid or sexy or interesting, and its those works that get the most attention -- and that leads to money.
The eyeball economy meets "Masterbating Emily" - film at 11, Emily in metallic bikini.
SEX AND THE CITY LOOK A LIKE CONTEST in NY - WINNERS ON FRIDAY
Just in time to capitalize on the "Sex And The City" craze we have this "Sex In The City" look-alike contest. Here are the details of this event to take place in Port Washington, NY, on Long Island, NY:
SEX AND THE CITY LOOK A LIKE CONTEST
Winners to be announced at Long Island at Press Conference
One of the hottest TV shows in history to open, brings millions to box office
with Fab Four LOOK A LIKES
Port Washington, NY Town of North Hempstead officials and a local radio station will join with LOOK A LIKES of the popular of Sex and the City television program. The LOOK A LIKES that recently won a contest in which 4 local Long Island women were chosen from thousands of residents from the tri-state area. The LOOK A LIKES winners will be announced in a ceremony and a press conference on Friday May 30th, 2008 at 11:30am at Harbor Links club at 1 Fairway Drive off West Shore Road in Port Washington.
The 4 women that resemble Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda will be treated like royalty with free designer shoes, manicures, cosmos etc. The blockbuster opens the same day and is expected to be one of the most popular movie openings in recent history. These women have gotten instant fame and now because of the movie are becoming rockstars.
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