It is certainly possible that a rational thinking persona would have problems with the activities and policies of President Obama’s administration. If philosophically one is a staunch physical conservative, for example. If one were to have genuine political differences with every aspect of an administration’s policy, one is entitled to say so and to organize political action appropriately. Such is what is expected in a democracy. There was about a 75% chance that I would disagree with any policy of he Bush administration. But recently I’ve been struck by the intensity of the backlash against any policy advocated by the Obama administration as well as the intensity of the negative feelings people have about him, feelings are backed up by very specific allegations, but not specific evidence. In other words, the people who feel such antipathy toward Obama do so because they know that he is godless, a liar, a socialist a a thief and possibly even a traitor. But ether they can provide no specific details on anything or they repeat things that are repeated so often that it really doesn’t matter any more if they ay are true or not. Continue reading
Tag Archives: media
Christ in Christmas
I hate writing this so close to Christmas. I am not a religious man, but Christmas is a time that gives me warm and fuzzy feelings, nonetheless. It is a time when I come home to Richmond to be with my family and to celebrate an event I know best as told in the Gospel according to Luke, King James Version.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Does Google Even Understand What News Is?
Google’s algorithms are very handy for shopping or entertainment recommendations. But I don’t like it “personalizing” news. Serving readers news based on what they’ve read can lead to a kind of tunnel vision where they’re insulated from the dissenting views and unpleasant truths. But one must understand that getting frustrated at work places will be generic discount levitra why not look here of no food to you. And all three cialis sale drugs have pretty much the same side effects. Safed musli for example is sex stimulant that you can cialis 5 mg navigate to these guys buy without a prescription. Leading buy levitra no prescription online pharmacy eDrugstore.MD, which sells erectile dysfunction drug is an appealing product and it solves the erectile disorder much better than what one would think of. Newspapers emerged to serve communities, and communities are inherently hotpots of dissent. Targeting news stories as if they were advertisements runs counter to that important service. I want a news gadget bringing me stories that make me uncomfortable.
–“Does Google Even Understand What News Is?“
Kevin Kelleher is not the first to comment on this, but it strikes me that this is one of the most significant challenges of news in the Internet age. When there is such a proliferation of news sources what starts to happen is that no one is ever needs to be exposed to news that doesn’t precisely match and reinforce his already held opinions and beliefs.
This is a good article and this is but one of the points he makes. I recommend it.
Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review
Academic Freedom Media Review
November 6 – 13, 2009
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Student Activist Held in Tunisia at Risk of Torture
NEAR, 11/13
Norwegian University’s Board Rejects Academic Boycott of Israel
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/13
Courage on campus
The Baltimore Sun, 11/13
Convicted Terrorist Won’t Speak at UMass-Amherst After All
Jayski also helps NASCAR fans understand the qualifying procedure for the Daytona 500, and NASCAR’s Top 35 rule, with viagra levitra viagra updates and scenarios. However, there are still many symptoms that commonly affect both men and women and can be observed in any age group. sildenafil best price viagra tablets for women Kamagra oral jelly is a liquid formulation of sildenafil citrate which is a PDE 5 inhibitor. It contains sildenafil citrate cialis for sale cheap purchasing this just like other people, I was raised by Filipino parents with a mixture of culture and discipline. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/12
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Post-Racial and Post-Partisan?
President Obama in the Oval Office
Joe Conason writes in Salon that former CNN anchor Lou Dobbbs sound like he is running for office and that if he does it will be the GOP’s nightmare. “Lou Dobbs for president!” is the headline on the op-ed.
It send a chill up my spine, but I’ll leave Lou and his whole schtick alone for now. Rather I want to focus on one thing Canuson reports that Dobbs said in his first radio broadcast after leaving CNN that just completely baffles me. Nor is Dobbs is not the only one who has made the allegation, many on the right have.
He said that President Obama “focuses on the partisan and racial” in a “21st century post-partisan, post-racial society.” I don’t know what planet Dobbs is living on, but we do not live in a post racial society. I do think that since the Civil Rights Movement, we have slow progress toward this becoming a nation in which race doesn’t matter, but we’ve still got a long way to go.
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Call for Letters on Behalf of Iranian Scholar and Academic Freedom Media Review
A November 6, 2009 Press Release from Scholars at Risk:
Scholars at Risk (SAR) is gravely concerned about reports indicating that Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, a respected international scholar and researcher, has been arrested, convicted and sentenced to over 12 years in prison. Reports indicating that an appeal may not be heard are of equal concern. SAR asks for letters, faxes and emails respectfully urging authorities to reconsider his case and ensure that an appeal be heard.
More information on the case and how to respond is available here.
Academic Freedom Media Review
October 30 – November 6, 2009
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Government backs down on science freedom demands
Mark Henderson, The Times, 11/6
Scholars at Risk Calls for Letters on Behalf of Iranian Scholar Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh
SAR, 11/6
Fiji throws out Australian academic
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Israel Boycott Fight Moves to Norway
Inside Higher Ed, 11/3
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Press Freedom in the Arab World
Al Jazeera gets such a bum rap in the United States because they are perceived as being biased against the United States and overly critical of US foreign policy. It’s not a fair evaluation, which is not surprising given that it is too often made based on hearsay by people who don’t speak Arabic, but that is not my concern in this post.
The network also does a very good job of holding Middle East governments to account. In fact, that has often gotten them into trouble. This is an episode of Inside Story, a program that is broadcast on the English service of Al Jazeera, assessing freedom of the press in the Arab World.
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Thanks to 3arabawy for finding it.
Is Your College Just an Understudy for Harvard?
JHU Seal
Ok, so some students at Johns Hopkins University are upset that a new movie The Social Network, is being filmed on their campus. Their beef is that Johns Hopkins is standing in for Harvard in the movie, which is based on the true story of Mark Zuckerberg, who is credited with being the creator of Facebook while he was a student there. My first though was that they must have chosen Johns Hopkins because it is in Maryland and therefore at least a few degrees warmer than it is up here is in Massachusetts.
But it wasn’t climate of even budget that took the films’s producers to Hopkins. It seems that Johns Hopkins was something of a second choice for the movie producers because it wasn’t possible to film on location at Harvard. The Baltimore Sun‘s article on the controversy is funny, albeit quite sarcastic.
The movie, like some Hopkins students, couldn’t get into Harvard, which has a longstanding policy against commercial filming on campus. So the production has opened some old college-admissions wounds.
“The general consensus is, a lot of kids are not pleased,” said Lorre Atlan, 20, a junior majoring in biomedical engineering. “It’s obvious they [the filmmakers] could get Hopkins and not get Harvard.
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Reporters without Borders on Press Freedom in Morocco
Stamp Commemorates Moroccan American Treaty of Friendship
A few days ago I posted an entry about recent setbacks in freedom of the press in Morocco. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be visiting Morocco November 2-3. In advance of that visit Reporters Without Borders, an organization that fights for freedom of the press has sent an open letter to the Secretary of State outlining violations of press freedom since July 2009 and concluding:
Reporters Without Borders urges you to use the opportunity offered by your visit to Morocco to talk about the difficulties that the independent media are facing and to raise this crucial issue with the Moroccan authorities. The aim of the Forum of the Future which the US government set up in 2004 is to promote democratisation in the Broader Middle East and North Africa region. Press freedom is an essential component of this democratisation.
Freedom of the Press in the Maghreb
Upon the death of his father, it looked as if Morocco might be on its way toward total freedom of expression. This post is too short to go into much detail, but tentatively at first, then progressively with more and more confidence the media and the arts began to confront previously taboo subjects including corruption in government and the private sector, human rights abuses, gender oppression, linguistic and cultural suppression of minorities, policies in the Western Sahara, homosexual rights, etc.
There was shock when the Moroccan magazine TelQuel was able to publish an investigative piece on “The Salary of the King,” and get away with it. Under his father Hassan the II such matters were kept as secret as nuclear launch codes. I don’t mean to say that the media totally ignored all that was wrong in Morocco until the liberalization, either. But when something was reported, it was done very carefully, with great care as to who was bore the blame. All of that changed in the years following the elevation to the throne of Mohammed VI.
Recently, however, there have been a number of setbacks and it has been hard to watch. Continue reading