New York Times Ethics Cop Mulls the Many Masters of David Pogue
NYT Public Editor Clark Hoyt: our love affair continues. You're like the Internal Affairs of the Times! All the cops/writers probably hate/fear you. Especially after giving David Pogue a curbside beating for shilling his Apple book with a Times review. See, NYT tech columnist David Pogue reviewed Apple's new operating system, Snow Leopard, for the Times. He gave it a very positive, wonderful, glowing review, calling it "sleek" in the headline. Which might be troublesome when viewed in light of his book about how to use Snow Leopard! Sleek! Now, watch Clark bring down the Hammer of Hoyt upon his face: I presented the facts to three ethicists: Kelly McBride at the Poynter Institute, a journalism training center in Florida; Bob Steele, a professor at DePauw University and a scholar at Poynter; and Stephen Ward, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. All agreed that Pogue and The Times were facing a clear conflict of interest. Aw, shit, son! You got yourself a C.O.A.. Hoyt then proceeds to go all Denzel in Training Day on him, and the rest of the Times: Pogue is by no means the only Times writer with other interests. Thomas Friedman commands $75,000 for a speech, and his books are blockbusters. Another Op-Ed columnist, Frank Rich, is a consultant helping HBO develop new programming. A. O. Scott, the film critic, is about to become co-host of "At the Movies," produced by ABC Media Productions. Mark Bittman, The Minimalist, an independent contractor like Pogue, writes cookbooks and appears on PBS. John Harwood, who writes from Washington, is CNBC's chief Washington correspondent. Okay, great. So Hoyt goes on to name the various levels on which this is a sticky conflict of interest, and the different ways in which the Times tries to circumnavigate this kind of situation. And the end result of all of Hoyt's bustin' heads? Larry Ingrassia, the business editor, said that, prompted by my questions, editors decided to make disclosures to readers regarding Pogue's outside activities. On his Times Topics page online, Pogue posted a statement of ethics, saying manufacturers have no involvement in his manuals and that from now on, if he is writing a book about a product he is reviewing, he will disclose it to readers. It says his personal investments are in a blind trust to avoid any question of reviewing products in which he has a direct financial interest. A disclosure was appended to the Snow Leopard column online. Times' readers get a disclosure. That's it. Not a vigilant, angry, pissed off tech nerd who's willing to actively take the piss out of Apple no matter what the consequence, but some guy who's basically a symbiotic leech of their company's product, and a statement for their readers that they know he's one. Hoyt may have a badge, a gun, and a big nightstick, but he ain't allowed to kill with it. Which is too bad. Because with kickers like this... It was good that The Times addressed the issue now.... MORE >>
NFL Star Shawne Merriman Arrested for Allegedly Choking Tila Tequila
That's choked, not choked on, which is what many a sports and pop culture fan are doing sometime during or after reading about this one. Tabloid Media, we present your new Domestic Abuse News Cycle: Tila Tequila and Shawne Merriman. Tila Tequila (née Tila Nguyen)—the MySpace sensation turned metasexual MTV reality star—has been dating Merriman for a while, now. She signed a citizens arrest warrant sometime around 3AM last night after calling cops, accusing Merriman of battery and false imprisonment at Merriman's house. San Diego Charger Merriman's been taken into police custody; Tequila went to the hospital and was recently released. NBC Sports estimates that ...because he's a first offender, there's a chance that neither the league nor the team will act until the legal process plays itself out. Interestingly enough, ESPN rushed to the story on this one. They certainly didn't have a problem holding out on Ben Roethlisberger's rape allegations. They cited the reason for that one as lacking an official criminal complaint, but given Deadspin's breakdown of the accusations against him, ESPN's Innocent-Until-Proven-Black policy remains in full effect. Tequila's been out of the spotlight for a while, and this is definitely going to put her back in it. Public opinion of her's going to be interesting, given that (A) this is the male-dominated sports community looking at (B) someone who's lived their life as a sex symbol and (C) has lied time and time again about her sexual orientation for profit. Also of interest: the photos TMZ has before the spat of Tequila giving Merriman a lap dance earlier in the night. Finally, domestic abuse scandals: two's a trend? This one's gonna get ugly. Don't bother reading the comments on TMZ or on Twitter about this. You won't like what you'll see. These things bring out the worst in people: primal reactions elicit primal opinions. Or as one TMZ commenter put it: 23. While I don't know exactly how it went down, I do know that Tila Tequila is a grade A narcissistic beeyotch. I'm 90% sure she deserved what happened. Kudos to Merriman for having the balls to set her straight. Maybe she will act a little less annoying going forward. Posted at 1:40PM on Sep 6th 2009 by Charles Ugh. MORE >>
The Resignation of Van Jones: An Obama Political Achilles Heel, Exposed
Apparently, all that needs to happen to provoke a White House Administration official's resignation is: a bunch of blowhards and crazies find something someone once said that was once extreme. Fixate, extrapolate, instigate, bring mainstream. And Van Jones resigned yesterday. What happened? The White House was weakened and brought to their knees by a media campaign they—with all of their supposed love, affection, and adoration from the mainstream media—couldn't fight to win on a bloodied mainstream media's battleground. And the mainstream media played right along with a narrative they couldn't drive, so instead, piggybacked on: check it out: the White House employs a guy with extreme beliefs. Easy enough. Not that Van Jones, an environmental czar, was the biggest bounty in the world, but this can't be seen as anything other than a huge setback in their war to move forward against the insane lies, conspiracies, and successful media guerrilla tactics pushed forward by neoconservative (for lack of a better word) crazies: Birthers, Death Panel Pushers, and their ilk. The question is: why? Republican Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina lies about his whereabouts, getting his colleagues to appropriate his story, and admits to having an Argentinean lovebird, going against a basic republican talking point of family values. Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada: an affair, exposed, sans resignation. All Van Jones did was say some incendiary things—without any cover-up, or illicit activity, things that were more or less in his past and distanced from his current political agenda—and he became the Obama administration's biggest casualty to date. Politico points out the other casualties of the Obama administration: Military Office Director Louis Caldera, White House Communications Director Ellen Moran's supposedly lateral promotion, Gen. David McKiernan, and Steve Rattner. Caldera and Moran were victims of media battles, McKiernan and Rattner to lesser degrees. If you went through any administration's subscription cards of yore, you'd probably find a few anarchists amongst their ranks going by what they read. Maybe shuffling through every comment they've ever tossed out on the internet, or in private conversation, or in a paper could turn over a few pretty interesting rocks. And if this is all it takes for an administration official to resign, damn. But it isn't. It requires the intricate, smart campaign waged on Van Jones. One way said campaign wasn't fought: hard. Is Obama gonna keep bowing to the will of political extremists every time something "gets in the way" of his agenda? At the rate they're going, they're not going to have any foot soldiers left to fight it. Next up: his school speech. Despite picking up a Republican ally here and there—who, as traditionalists, think Obama should be able to address schools, like any other president—they've already started to lose ground on it. Schools are offering students whose... MORE >>
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