I was off the Internets for most of yesterday, so I checked out some front pages to see if I missed anything.
Here’s the New York Times. Mitt Romney is so fascinating that he gets two stories. He’s beating Obama’s fundraising on Wall Street, if nowhere else, since Obama raised more than 5 times what Mitt did during the last cycle. And did you know he’s a Mormon? Things are also happening in Senegal and Iran, people are climbing mountains faster, and bank fees are going up. That’s it — all the most important news from yesterday, in the judgment of the nation’s paper of record.
I guess if you wanted to know that something else big happened in New York, you’d have to pick up a copy of the Daily News. And even the conservative New York Post gets it.
I’m disconnecting again, but I’ll be back to check comments later. Maybe one of you guys can explain why I’m supposed to pay money to subscribe to a paper with this kind of news judgment.
harlana
It seems the OWS protests are sexier than Mitt.
Who knew?!
Lit3Bolt
Royal Court sycophants ignore actions of Third Estate. News at 11.
Linda Featheringill
The NYT used to be a better source of information and analysis that WaPo. Not any more. And, of course, The Guardian blows them all away.
Why is the NYT making itself less than useful? That doesn’t sound like a good plan to me.
cathyx
@Linda Featheringill: Look who owns it. They are protecting and insulating themselves. They just want this “problem” to go away and they think if they ignore it, it will.
Cat Lady
La la la la la …..can’t hear you…. la la la la la la
ETA: That headline about Mitt collecting his bribes from the banksters maybe isn’t the best headline for him today.
Gin & Tonic
The “thing” that is happening in Senegal is that women are abandoning the practice of “cutting”, aka female genital mutilation. Maybe it’s not *today’s* news, in that sense, but it is important news.
JPL
The NYT’s had several articles on ows on the inside pages. Most articles were complimentary although one was pure fluff. link
link
IMO, the times could have moved the mountain climbing article from the front page and replaced that with an article about ows. (That’s not to say that mountain climbing articles aren’t news worthy.)
Shlemizel
NYT is getting a nice tongue bath on CBS Sunday Morning today!
JMG
Sunday New York Times front page stories are almost all submitted and edited by Friday PM at the latest (all Sunday papers are like that). But it is pretty weird for a newspaper to ignore a demonstration staged at a location named after itself.
Phylllis
@Shlemizel: Not only that, but the banksters as well, from their film guy, David Edelstein. His ‘review’ of some film with Kevin Spacey & Jeremy Irons about the financial meltdown was masterful in its bootlicking.
Davis X. Machina
I can buy the Portland (ME) Press-Herald‘s Sunday alter ego, The Maine Sunday Telegram, on Saturday. And it doesn’t have remotely as long a distribution chain as the Times even with the latter’s contracts to be printed in satellite plants.
MazeDancer
The “something happening” in Senegal is – at last – an effective campaign against genital mutilation of girls. A miracle, welcome and amazing that young girls are not being tortured in the name of being “clean” or “suitable for marriage.”
That this was front page news may help more girls. Because the Times featured the organization responsible for achieving this remarkable turn around, and linked them online: Tostan
“Tostan” means “breakthrough” in the local language, Wolof. And breakthrough it is. It’s a local organization that apparently appears to be succeeding. Consider donating to save more girls from the savagery.
Shlemizel
@Phylllis:
Not sure I agree – he made it clear those are bad people.
I loved his shout out to OWS: he said something along the line of ‘I am not a political pundit so I can’t comment on the OWS movement’ then held up a small sign of a smiley face with THANKS
Samara Morgan
@MazeDancer: tend your own garden, Candide.
why dont you donate to planned parenthood to save young american girls from unplanned pregnancy?
Mark S.
@Samara Morgan:
Huh? Are you being sarcastic?
Roger Moore
I’ll side with the people who said that the Sunday front page usually has a bunch of articles about longer-term stuff rather than the latest breaking news. I usually like that idea, since it’s good to have some in-depth coverage of slower developing news on the front page some time, rather than pure now, now, now events that have to be talked about today before they’re forgotten. I know the LA Times has a tendency to do that, though they’re at least capable of updating the front page to reflect anything especially exciting that happened on Saturday.
Amir Khalid
@Samara Morgan:
I was just telling you, commenters here find name-calling offensive. And how are you so sure that MazeDancer doesn’t already donate to Planned Parenthood?
Samara Morgan
Mitt Romney is so fascinating that he gets two stories.
look for more of this.
the only reason for the conservative base to vote for Mitt is electability.
But what if he isnt electable?
Bruce Barlett says hes not.
Joe Liebermen makes a plea.
and of course my white vote hypothesis. that anti-mormon sentiment among republicans and independents will mathematically deny Romney the 65% he needs to win.
:)
Amir Khalid
@Mark S.:
That’s not sarcasm, that’s m_c being rude.
Phylllis
@Shlemizel: I missed that part. I apologize for yelling ‘f*cking douchebag’ at the teevee. Maybe he didn’t hear me.
Emma
The funniest thing about many people, here and in other blogs, is their inability to recognize that the New York Times has always been a paper geared to what they see as the “important segment” of society. That doesn’t include us peasants.
harlana
OT, but the ad on the left makes Ron Paul look cuddly. How can I make it go away?
arguingwithsignposts
The web site buries the lede as well.
Mark S.
@Emma:
I certainly concur.
harlana
i would rather read about a stinky protester any day than hear about Mitt. I know all I need to know. The very notion that Americans do not yet know Mitt Romney, considering he ran for the nomination in ’08, is astonishing to me.
arguingwithsignposts
@JMG:
Actually, the front page usually has a section reserved for up-to-the-minute news, which is why if you buy the Saturday version of the front page, you’ll often find a different front than the Sunday edition of the Sunday edition.
Features, Op/Ed, Business, Arts, etc. are all printed early. Front and sports have pages in reserve for Saturday night.
Mark S.
@harlana:
What do you mean? It’s a heartwarming picture of Uncle Ron telling that baby that his parents not being able to afford health care is the greatest freedom of all.
Samara Morgan
@Amir Khalid: calling someone Candide is offensive?
i just mean its time for americans to leave off the panty sniffing.
we have enough problems of our own.
capt
“Maybe one of you guys can explain why I’m supposed to pay money to subscribe to a paper with this kind of news judgment.”
Of you pay for a subscription to a newspaper you are paying someone to lie to you and that is a silly and pointless exercise.
Quit supporting the liars and cancel the subscription.
The Republic of Stupidity
Hey… the Times had a story about OWS on the front page…
Ya’ll just didn’t look close enough… it’s there…
Lower left hand corner…
Just look closer… closer…
Hooooooookay, so you damned near need a magnifying glass…
But it’s THERE…
cathyx
@Samara Morgan: What is wrong with helping out our fellow human beings? What difference does it make what country the person lives in? Should we discriminate over what color skin the person who gets help has, along with what country she lives in?
Amir Khalid
@Samara Morgan:
Again you miss the point. Your rudeness was in telling MazeDancer to mind his/her own business. The story from Senegal is not in any way your business to warn other people away from.
JPL
@The Republic of Stupidity: found it…right next to ohio’s battle over unions. Kay will be proud..I haven’t read that article yet though.
JPL
I have the Sunday Times delivered and I enjoy reading it. It might be a pointless, useless exercise but it’s my pointless, useless exercise.
arguingwithsignposts
@JPL: For those who can’t see the “article” (really a refer) on the Times’ front page, I’ve done an illustration: NYT: Clueless and lazy is no way to run a newspaper
Feel free to use and abuse as you see fit.
Samara Morgan
@Amir Khalid: no, it was sarc.
do i need a /sarc tag for the extra-dim?
cathyx
I love the New York Times crossword puzzles. I always do them.
Mokichi
That’s not fair! You must have missed the front page story in the Sunday Review part of the Times today in which their architecture critic mused on the use of public space in urban protests! That’s about OWS — sort of!
MBunge
@MazeDancer: “That this was front page news may help more girls.”
I don’t think anyone should belittle the issue, but should a story on female genital mutliation in Senegal EVER be on the front page of the most important newspaper in America? In particular, should it be on the front page at this point in the nation’s history?
With everything else going on, and with all the other pages of the paper to use, a story on female genital mutliation doesn’t make it to the front page of the NYT because it’s one of the most important stories of the day. It’s there as the result of elite liberal sensibilities.
Mike
Gex
@Samara Morgan: Certainly nothing will help the state of the world more than narrowing our areas of concern. Why worry about others and the big problems when you have concerns of your own? That’s a very good question. I think the answer is that we aren’t all anti-social assholes like you. Or dictator wannabes that need to tell everyone what they should think.
Just because you view supporting Planned Parenthood and supporting the end of FGM as mutually exclusive does not make it so. Perhaps they just aren’t as limited in their capabilities for concern as you are.
Samara Morgan
@cathyx: what is the mission in A-stan again? building fucking girls schools?
mind your own fucking bidness.
bush and cheney paved the road to hell with panty-sniffing busybody american “good” intentions.
befuggled
Samara Morgan in a nutshell.
Svensker
@MBunge:
You’re not a woman, are you Mike?
Samara Morgan
@Gex: supporting PP is our bidness.
ending FGM is not.
again, WTF are we doing in A-stan? building girls schools while slaughtering those girls dads with drones and turning their country into a war zone?
what did we accomplish in Iraq?
Iraq is planting a boot in america’s fat white ass in december.
10 years and trillions of dollars later A-stan is still 99% muslim and Iraq is still 97% muslim.
Mark S.
The US birth rate has declined a bunch during this recession.
kdaug
@JPL: Your Times, my Harper’s.
cathyx
@Samara Morgan: If you were stupid enough to buy the story that the Bush admin. fed to you that we went to the middle east for humanitarian reasons, then that’s your problem. I never bought that idea. Helping out people who are suffering is what human beings should do.
And it is my business if you put a comment on a public blog. If you want people to stay out of your business, go home.
Samara Morgan
@Svensker: you dumbass.
being a woman has NOTHING to do with it.
American busybody panty-sniffing meddling has everything to do with it.
Havent you had enough yet?
THE
@Samara Morgan:
Well there’s one thing that’s going quite well. I linked it for you on a previous thread, but you may have missed it or ignored it.
Samara Morgan
@cathyx: you are a dumbass too.
i guess you missed all the Peaceful Democracy Theory and armed social worker crap.
of-fucking-course we didnt go there to spread missionary democracy, retard– that is why we stayed there for 10 years.
Xenos
@harlana:
Sullivan (yeah, I know) linked to a study showing that a couple percentage points fewer respondents admit having heard of Romney now than in 2008. This implies that the respondents are being coy with the pollsters. I hate to reinforce one of the hobby horses of a certain commentor, but there a some republicans who clearly know all about Romney who don’t even want to admit they have heard his name.
Whether that number is enough to cost Romney his 65% is something we can’t know for some time yet. But there is indeed going to be something of a Mormon discount even if there is not a third party challenge or organized boycott of the election.
JPL
@cathyx: Today’s puzzle was fun but Friday and Saturday puzzles are a real struggle for me.
PGE
Somewhat OT, but from now on Rush Limbaugh only be referenced with the phrase “chief North American apologist and propagandist for the Lords Resistance Army, Rush Limbaugh,…”
Amir Khalid
@MBunge:
You should take a look at cathyx’s comment #31. She explains perfectly why this news should matter to Americans. Occupy Wall Street is important, certainly, but it’s not the only important thing going on in the world.
The Senegal story is good news about an African solution to a long-standing social problem succeeding where decades of well-meaning Western intervention have failed. It contradicts the prejudice, too common in the West, that Africans are helpless to solve their own problems. It’s also of interest to those who work with/in Africa, as well as those who, as fellow humans, care about Africans. Definitely newsworthy for Americans, I’d say.
cathyx
@JPL: My local paper carries the NYT crossword puzzle, but they are about 6 weeks behind. So I doubt I’ll remember six weeks from now that this Sunday puzzle was fun. What is the title of it?
Samara Morgan
@cathyx: i want panty-sniffing missionary white judeo-christian America to stay out of everybody elses bidness.
Josie
I can’t believe that anyone is still willing to engage with samara at this point. It is clearly evident that there will be no logical discussion or exchange of ideas, only carefully learned rants shortened to repetitive sentences and phrases. I’m almost ready to think that it is a robot programmed to spout these statements since there is no effort to understand or listen to anyone else.
boss bitch
OT but very important: the first African American POTUS will speak at the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial dedication on the National Mall right..about….now.
cathyx
@Samara Morgan: Does that mean we shouldn’t help out our fellow Americans either? Earlier you said we should only help out fellow Americans. But should we stay out of their bidness too? I just want to know the rules. If I’m a panty-sniffing missionary white judeo-christian American, should I just keep to myself?
Samara Morgan
@Amir Khalid: that is not what cathyxs comment says at all.
liar.
cathyx says its Murrikkka’s bidness.
its not.
that is what i said….americas bidness is PPP. fuck off missionaries.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Amir Khalid: I’d ask “what else is new?” but that would just provoke her to insult you by suggesting what I loves me some. Tedious, isn’t it?
arguingwithsignposts
@boss bitch: streaming on C-Span here.
harlana
@Mark S.:
That’s a good thing and a relief to hear. People need to stop popping out babies they can’t afford just because celebrities think it’s cute to have a baby bump. That’s another thing this country really needs to wake up about.
Also, in light of OWS, it goes without saying, insurance and drug companies are getting off light.
piratedan
all I know is that Samara is incredibly concerned about pie and I’m happy that she is……
Samara Morgan
@cathyx: no i EXPLICITLY said tend your own garden.
help your fellow americans.
fund PP.
americans have no understanding of the socio-religio-cultural aspects of FGM, or indeed, of Islam in general.
let me make it simple enough even for you.
they dont want our “help”, they didnt ask for our “help”, and they aint gunna take it.
arguingwithsignposts
Aaaaannnndddd, the young harridan-to-be has hijacked another thread …
JPL
@cathyx: Today’s puzzle is Getting in Shape..
BTW.. The King memorial can be streamed online at MSNBC.com
and the speeches are quite powerful.
handsmile
The failure of the hometown NYT to provide comprehensive and proportionate coverage to the single largest story of the past month in the metropolitan area is deeply shameful and seemingly inexplicable.
In its dereliction, it even seems to exceed the paper’s long-standing bias in local news coverage to favor the financial and social elites of a city in which the median income is $54,500 (2009 US census).
In seeking an explanation for the paucity and prejudice of the Times’ coverage of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest, I suggest looking at two key personnel: Al Baker and Jill Abramson.
Baker has been the paper’s lead reporter on the story for the past three weeks. The son of the retired chief of the NYPD Emergency Services Unit, he is the paper’s bureau chief at police headquarters. Perhaps someone without such potential conflicts-of-interest could have assigned to lead coverage on a story in which aggressive police actions have played so prominent a role.
Such an assignment would ultimately by the responsibility of the paper’s new managing editor Jill Abramson. It should be noted that Abramson was the chief Washington reporter for the WSJ from 1988-1997. At that time, she accepted a position as Washington bureau chief for the NYT, a position she held until 2003. It was during her tenure there that the Washington bureau failed so spectacularly in its coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War and the implementation of a national security state by the Bush administration following the September 11 attacks.
A corollary to the maxim “Follow the money”: follow the careers of media personnel.
Amir Khalid
@Josie:
Don’t forget, m_c saw the significance of the Occupy movement well before anyone else who posts or comments here. She is not the most factually informed, perceptive, temperate, or courteous commenter here; and yes, we do love to make fun of her verbal idiosyncracies. But she does get it right once in a while.
If m_c would only learn to engage with others in discussion rather than constantly trying to one-up them, if she’d only learn to stay calm and polite (enough for Balloon-Juice, anyway), she could be a much better commenter.
Emma
@Samara Morgan: Panty sniffing? Trying to help a movement that stops young girls from being mutilated? You, madame, are a nasty piece of goods under all the faked insanity.
Emma
@MBunge: Jesus H. Christ on a Harley. Another example of “my issue is more important than your issue”. Or… don’t think about women issues when there are bigger political issues. Or… hey, you need to wait in pain and despair while we resolve the important stuff.
Samara Morgan
@Josie: look moron.
we spent 4.4 trillion dollars and 10 years in Iraq FOR FUCKING NOTHING.
what does this suggest to you?
you idiots whine about conservative panty sniffing– you are no different.
you are just sniffing muslim panties instead of american panties.
boss bitch
@arguingwithsignposts:
Thanks. He’s still not there yet but any minute now folks.
cathyx
I usually do pretty well ignoring all Samara Morgan comments, but sometimes she’s like that pimple that you just can’t ignore. You think once you pop it, it will go away, and sometimes it does. Other times it just gets bigger.
Amir Khalid
My $0.02 on the NYT front page? I agree that two stories on Mitt Romney is at least one too many, especially since there’s no breaking news in either. I’d move Sheryl Gay Stolterberg’s story (For Romney, A Role of Faith and Authority) to the national news section, and fill the hole with an OWS story.
ETA: oh, and the story about mountain climbers’ gear belongs in the lifestyle section.
Samara Morgan
@Emma: we regularily mutilate young boys in this country.
it is not americas bidness, because it doesnt happen here. there are laws here that prevent it. and we cant do anything about it.
you never read Candide either?
we should all work in our own gardens.
The undeniable twin horrorshows of Iraq and A-stan are sterling examples of what happens when we try to work in other peoples gardens.
Elizabelle
@boss bitch:
Am watching the dedication ceremony on TV. Inspiring. Music interlude now.
amk
Isn’t it time for ows to diversify and start focusing on the wallstreet enabling msm and congress critters too ? Dan Rather, who spoke at the King Memorial today, told that the 24×7 noise is deliberately misleading americans and I agree with him.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
Why the fuck is matoko still allowed to post here?
You know, tend to your own garden. Do some weeding. Just like she says you should.
Some front pager. Please. End this nonsense.
For someone who jabbers endlessly about how her religion opposes proselytization she sure can play the part of a deranged street corner preacher.
Emma
@Samara Morgan: I finally understand. You are either (1) a really bad (or really good, depending on your purpose) performance artist, or (2)you’re on really, really bad drugs, or (3) you’re just a jackass with no idea of what makes a real human interaction.
I now feel free to ignore you forever.
JPL
@boss bitch: Am I the only one with goose bumps? The towering Dr. King overlooking the square is impressive.
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid:
Agreed, Amir.
And most gracious of you to note some of m_c aka Samara’s better angels.
You’re a better person than most of us for making that point.
TV NOTE: President Obama walking site of memorial now, en route to speaking soon.
Chris
Amazing. Now you can’t even talk about what’s going on in any other country, and if you even so much as bring up the subject, let alone give a shit about it either way, YOU’RE JUST LIKE BUSH!
THE
@Samara Morgan:
But that’s good news Samara. It means the Iraqi government is feeling confident. My previous link covered some of the factors that are underpinning that.
Samara Morgan
@Amir Khalid: i think the two mitt stories are the start of a trend.
people are starting to think mitt cant win, and the only reason any base conservative would vote for him is electability.
But what if questions arise about his electability?
no horse race.
Obama beats the other occupants of the insane clown crash car.
who do the oligarchs and the conservative elite want to win the nom?
Romney.
if there are questions about his electability they are going to want shape the discussion up front.
this is in the fiscal times, not the new york times.
Samara Morgan
@Chris: you can talk all you want.
mazedancer was advocating some STOP THE FGM! fund.
i just suggested that mazedancer should tend its own garden first.
Amir Khalid
@Samara Morgan:
It’s interesting that you claim to be Muslim and
1. don’t know that circumcision is mandatory for Muslim boys even if they’re American
2. don’t think it’s Americans’ business to know that Muslim girls in Senegal are now spared a cruel and disfiguring ritual that Islam does not require.
boss bitch
@JPL:
I can’t wait to see the memorial in person.
Samara Morgan
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
this is my garden.
soi disant “liberal” america.
again, muslims simply cannot proselytize christians or jews. we all believe in the same Allah.
As a Sufi i cannot proselytize any human.
Man cannot acquire what he cannot use.
:)
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Amir Khalid:
Big fucking deal. She still thinks that Anonymous is running OWS too. Blind squirrels and nuts.
She’s pitching a fit in this thread over the idea that Americans should even be able to read about cutting. As though somehow Americans being glad that girls might have their goddam genitals sliced up less often is a crime on par with invading Iraq.
Fuck you matoko. You are a terrible human being. Even if it’s all an act, you are fucking hideous.
Get rid of her.
Shawn in ShowMe
In contrast, the Guardian has OWS as the 2nd story on the web site and Alabama’s brutal immigration law as the 4th story.
I appreciate the Senegal story getting some shine but does it really belong on the front page of an American newspaper? It strikes me as an exercise in misdirection: a feel-good story abroad to distract from the crooked shit that’s going on at home.
Samara Morgan
@Amir Khalid: i know that. that is why i said to Emma that american boy children are ritually mutilated.
i dont object to number 2.
i objected to mazedancer soliciting funds for STOP FGM NAOW! when its not his/her bidness.
Samara Morgan
and i was polite.
i referenced a great work of literature to subtly say mid your own bidness.
:)
Elizabelle
Aretha Franklin singing a spiritual now. So glad she is healthy enough to be at the MLK dedication. Voice in good form.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Samara Morgan: Right, right.
Little African girls being sexually mutilated for no good reason? No big deal. You Americans don’t get it.
Iran executing Christian preachers? Well, that’s the law. Nothing to get worked up about, really.
E. D. Kain posts on Balloon Juice every couple months? OH MY GAWD THIS IS THE GREATEST TRAVESTY TO EVER OCCUR. SOMEBODY OUTTA MAKE A LAW! HARPING ABOUT THIS ENDLESSLY WILL NOW BECOME MY LIFE’S WORK!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Samara Morgan:
Really, now.
You’re certain that “it doesn’t happen here”
Then why do you suppose this
suggestion was made?
Facts are terribly inconvenient, I know.
Samara Morgan
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
i never said that…i said anonops STARTED OpOccupyWallstreet, and i gave thelinks on twitter.
i didnt say that either.
i suggested to mazedancer that he/she work in its own garden and fund PP to benefit AMERICAN kids instead of STOP FGM NAOW.
Because busy-body panty-sniffing other human cultures hasnt worked out well for america in the past.
eg, A-stan, Iraq
you do not even know what FGM is, or how it is performed. sometimes its just a ritual pinprick. when goverments outlaw it it goes to the broken glass grannies in the back alleys. Like abortion in america used to before roe.
arguingwithsignposts
The pres is speaking now.
Peter
@Amir Khalid: She ‘saw the significance of it’ because she jumps on everything new, shiny, and organized over the Internet as the next big world-changing inevitable thing. A stopped clock is right twice a day, but that doesn’t mean that a stopped clock has any real value.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Samara Morgan: You think the problem with Afghanistan and Iraq was “panty-sniffing?”
What the fuck is wrong with you? What kind of soulless monster do you have to be to think that way? Just how twisted and evil can you be?
Samara Morgan
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): it is ILLEGAL here.
Are you worried about creeping shariah law too?
Amir Khalid
@Shawn in ShowMe:
I’ve had occasion to look at American newspapers, during my trips there as a journalist on assignment, and since then as a retiree frittering his time away on the Intertoobz. My impression is that American newspapers, even the New York Times, carry far less news from outside the US than would comparable newspapers in another country. And the same is true of other American news media.
Local and national news are important, but following world news helps broaden the perspective with which one takes in all news. Americans could do with more exposure to news from the rest of the world. As it is, they take a more parochial view of what’s newsworthy than we do on the rest of the planet. Not a good approach for a nation that has a position of world leadership.
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid:
Word.
Samara Morgan
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
partly. why are our
armed social workersmissionaries with guns building girls schools again?this is actually an interesting discussion for me.
hypoth: FGM is to liberals as abortion is to conservatives.
arguingwithsignposts
@Amir Khalid:
When you think the world revolves around your country, that tends to be the consequence.
Peter
@Samara Morgan:
That makes one of us. How about you fuck off with your insane bullshit and your false equivalencies?
Samara Morgan
@Amir Khalid: i think this is really true.
i successfully predicted that America would not be able leave any troops in Iraq months ago by reading the Iraqi dinar traders.
all the mainstream media carried a Panetta bias, because the Pentagon REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to leave troops in Iraq, and the MSM got all their quotes from them.
PeakVT
Even on a slow news day, the 2nd Romney article belongs in the Opinion or Religion section, and the mountain-climbing article belongs in Style or Travel.
I poked around a bit and there’s fluff on the front of most papers. The only one that was 100% news was The Arizona Republic. And it actually got the Rome headline right: Rioters hijack Rome protest.
Samara Morgan
@arguingwithsignposts: yup.
Fukayama was wrong.
Its not the end of history, just the end of America-centric history.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
P.S. AdBusters started OWS. Not Anonymous. Notice how almost nobody has been wearing masks? That’s because they’re not anonymous.
matoko is wrong about everything. She can troll it up, though. Apparently those who run things around here think that having at least half of the threads dominated by her bullshit is hunky-dory, A-OK, peachy keen, and totally awesome.
THE
@Samara Morgan:
I drew the same conclusion by considering only internal US anxieties.
I always saw as covering your ass against future failure. And generally it’s the military’s job to worry about what might go wrong. They have invested a lot of resources in the new Iraq.
MBunge
@Emma: “Jesus H. Christ on a Harley. Another example of “my issue is more important than your issue”.”
Yes. Putting a story about female genital mutilation in Senegal on the front page of the New York Times is pretty much a perfect example of “my issue is more important than your issue” because the only reason for such a story to be on the NYT front page is because someone decided to put it there.
Is female genital mutiliation an important issue? Yes. Can anyone make a rational, logical argument that it’s so much more important than other issues that it merits the front page of the NYT at this particular moment? Can anyone argue it’s more important than any other story in Africa, let alone America or the rest of the world?
Mike
Samara Morgan
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: nope, they didnt. i followed OpOccupyWallstreet on twitter. It kicked off right after OpBart in August.
OpBart was organizing in july, and OpOccupyWS started organizing in August.
the actual occupation in NY started sept 17th. i posted it here. :)
i posted about OpBart too…no one cared.
One of sully’s readers mentioned Adbusters. i guess you read sully.
they are just joiners.
cathyx
@MBunge: There are too many important stories to fit all of them on a front page. So decisions have to be made to select the ones that go on it. Should the NYT take a poll of the most important stories to it’s readers before deciding which ones to run on the front page?
The Thin Black Duke
Uh, I think you folks are making this “Samara Morgan” problem more complicated than it needs to be.
If you believe that this thing is a black hole where civility and intelligent discourse goes to die, then the answer is actually quite simple:
Ignore it.
SiubhanDuinne
@boss bitch:
He was worth the wait. That was one terrific speech.
Samara Morgan
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
a lot of the anti-corporatists wont wear a V mask. warner brothers trademarked it and makes a profit on every one sold.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Samara Morgan: Nope, not a bit. Just wanted to point out that because “it’s ILLEGAL here” doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, but I know that facts are quite irrelevant to your ranting. Thus I’m really wasting my time.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Amir
And if I believed that was the tack the NY Times was taking here, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. But I know better. Where is the rest of the international news on the front page?
That’s right, we get a feel good story about a U.S. nonprofit in Senegal that barely registers in a Google news search and another Iran boogeyman story. Is that really broadening Americans’ perspective?
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Samara Morgan: Well obviously if people talked about it on twitter that means Anonymous did it.
No, I don’t read Sully. I read the AdBusters website. Like this page in particular from July 13th But I suppose you think they made this page in September and back-dated it or some shit.
Look you idiot: the protesters aren’t wearing masks. That means they’re not anonymous. For someone who runs diarrhea of the mouth about Anonymous you sure don’t actually understand what it is.
Edit: The point of the mask isn’t to look like Guy Fawkes. The point is to be anonymous. As in the name. Anonymous. And yeah, there are always a few people wearing bandanas on their faces or the GF mask, but the vast vast majority don’t and never did.
MBunge
@cathyx: “Should the NYT take a poll of the most important stories to it’s readers before deciding which ones to run on the front page?”
Let me repeat myself.
“Can anyone make a rational, logical argument that it’s so much more important than other issues that it merits the front page of the NYT at this particular moment?”
Not why should a story on female genital mutiliation in Senegal be in the NYT, but why on the front page? I’d ask the same question about at least one of the Romney stories and the mountain climbing thing, but no one’s defending their front page placement.
Mike
Jay C
@handsmile:
The New York Times‘ coverage of the OWS protests isn’t quite all that “inexplicable” when you view it in terms of who they most likely view as their real audience. As it was put in an article in their august pages yesterday covering “Wall Street’s” reaction to the protests: citing an unidentified “trader”:
I sent emails, BTW, to those two worthies asking their opinions on who they felt their “constituencies” were; ‘tho I’m not expecting any substantive response outside a form-letter; but if you accept that the NYT’s “constituency” isn’t their readership, but rather the rest of the “Mainstream Media” and the “Beltway Village”, then their dismissal of the largest protest movement to hit their hometown in decades makes a little more sense,
Sucks, but makes a sort of sense…..
Luthe
Really, the answer to the m_c/Samara Morgan problem is as easy as pie.
…some days I wish John would implement a universal pie filter, so that everyone would read about certain commenters’ obsession with pie instead of feeding the trolls.
arguingwithsignposts
@cathyx:
Not really. The problem is putting them on the front page in a way that appeals to modern design sensibilities (especially among page designers). If you look at older newspapers, before the advent of pagination (desktop publishing), there were loads more stories on the front page.
See, for instance, this one from October 16, 1911
Shawn in ShowMe
@MBunge:
Especially when this same organization and its efforts has been covered in great detail by the NY Times over 2 years ago.
New York, NY, October 1, 2009 – Judith Warner of the New York Times wrote of the ‘Molly Melching – Tostan’ approach to Female Genital Cutting (FGC) that it is a “truly radical — and, as it turns out, effective — vision of change.”
The article goes to some length to describe and praise the methodology Tostan employs to facilitate positive social transformation in eight countries across Africa.
…………..
Warner suggests that this model, which has succeeded where many others has failed, could prove ‘pretty powerful’ in America if put to work on divisive social issues such as abortion and health care reform. Warner also argues that it is the ‘farthest thing possible’ from the relentless ‘vilification tactics’ employed by Michael Moore in his new film “Capitalism,” which she dubs “the shame game.”
Samara Morgan
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
let me help you.
you do not have to wear a mask to be in anonymous.
and again, anonops dictated the start of occupy wallstreet for sept 17th.
and that is when it started.
ops are organized and coordinated through twitter and facebook like the Arab Spring…i dont follow adbusters on twiiter– do they have a twitter stream?
Anya
@PGE: Lords Resistance Army supporter, Rush Limbaugh.
Samara Morgan
@THE: you were wrong. :)
i find the financial times and business insider (for example) to be orders of magnitude more accurate about world events than the american media.
hmmm..i thought you taught me that…but it might have been the Lounsbury.
THE
@Samara Morgan:
I never argued that US would stay after this year. I always argued it was just Kabuki.
This was one of the very few times we agreed about something.
magurakurin
What a weird track of argument here. I don’t think anyone was implying that the news stories on today’s front page of the New York Times had no merit whatsoever, but rather that it was seemingly odd that there was no mention, whatsoever, of a protest of thousands and thousands of people that needed to be dispersed by police (and somewhat violently). It is especially odd that the New York Times made no mention of it considering that it literally happened on their front door step. The Times is on 8th Avenue between 40th and 41st Street. That’s a frickin block from Times Square, which was named after, you guessed it, the New York Fucking Times. I pretty fucking sure that, if the Yankees were still in the playoffs and Derek Jeter had been arrested last night one of those front page stories would have been bumped off. But yeah, helping our fellow man, or some such shit. Color me confused as to why anyone wants to defend the Times here.
magurakurin
@THE: No one actually argued with her about it. Most people just fucking ignore her unless they are bored. I mean, who isn’t happy that all the troops are leaving? Shit, I’m overjoyed. It’s great news. Don’t talk to that person…unless you are bored.
Amir Khalid
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Well, it’s a start. To give world news the prominence it deserves, the New York Times would need to do both a big redesign of the newspaper and a fundamental re-think of its priorities. As it is, commenters here complain that national newspapers in the NYT’s league (WSJ, Washington Post LA times etc.) are too Washington DC focused. Even a more national focus would be an improvement over that.
The choice of which story goes on the front page, which is to be the page lead, which gets the most column inches or the biggest picture is almost always arbitrary. On any given day, you could make a plausible case in favor of this or that story. And in part, such decisions often come down to what editors think will sell the most copies tomorrow morning. As long as newspapers are a business, that’s not going to change.
It’s not so much about having a front-page quota of so many non-US stories, or so many column-inches. It’s more about having the right news priorities that recognizes more stories as having some global import. And of leading readers away from a narrow conception of what belongs on the front page. (I’m looking at you, MBunge.)
patrick II
@harlana: The right eyebrow is only a drawn in button. Push it and the ad goes away.
Bob
mistermix, you should read Chunky Bobo in today’s paper. As usual he looks the problem, religion, square in the face and proceeds to tie himself in knots trying to pronounce it good.
Shorter CB, religious warfare all works out for the best in the end.
RalfW
You’re not getting a ‘splain from me.
In fact, I dislike the 20 free views per month so much, i rarely give the NYT more than 5-6 page loads per month now. And 99% of those are for K-Thug.
F*ck the Times and their “all the news that’s fit to print” prima-donna crap. I don’t want the advertisers to be able to count the number of page views on all ten toes.
Samara Morgan
@magurakurin: bulshytt.
a lotta juicers argued with me.
especially that the us would leave 10k troops and then come back with an invasion force if the Mahdi army started cutting them down.
David in NY
Why is it that some newish commenters here are making a specialty of misconstruing, and then insulting, perfectly adequate comments, thus provoking a food fight that detracts from the important issues being discussed?
Samara Morgan
@Bob: but religion is good.
its proselytizing, trying to tell/force others what to believe that is bad.
Samara Morgan
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): you sound like a creeping shariah fan to me.
OOOOO scary FGM IN AMERICA!
Josie
@Amir Khalid: I will readily admit that she makes a good point now and then, but she completely ruins it with the repetitions and name calling, so that no one wants to even read her comments. She also gives people who actually agree with her a bad name. Her comment to me proves my point. She has no idea that I opposed the war since before it even started and did my share of protesting and letter writing. Without finding out the truth of my position, she calls me a moron. Sounds strangely like projection to me.
Samara Morgan
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): i repeat its not a problem here.
how many fgms occur in america? one? two? i cant find any data.
statistically indistinguishable from zero?
if muslim parents really want to have it done, they will just go on hajj and have it done there.
not your bidness.
CarolDuhart
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: And it was thanks to prior generations of “panty-sniffing” missionary Americans and others that women had a chance to get an education in places like Senegal, move to the west, and find out that practice was indeed, not universal and that they didn’t have to put up with it anymore. Horrible practices like that fed on ignorance and isolation and shame. Educating women meant that they didn’t have to take certain people’s word about having to do this. It meant that they found out it wasn’t necessary. They learned the skills they needed to leave if they didn’t want to submit. They ran into women who never had something like that done to them and began asking why they had to suffer.
Great news indeed for the women of Senegal.
Samara Morgan
@Josie: you are a moron on observation.
you do not agree with me.
you think islamic women’s rights are somehow your bidness.
they are not.
Josie
@Samara Morgan: Actually, you don’t know what I think, and, at this point, it’s not worth the effort to educate you.
arguingwithsignposts
@Samara Morgan:
Wow. What a philosophy. I think we should apply that to other things, no?
“you think
islamic women’sslaves’ rights are somehow your bidness.”“you think
islamic women’sEuropean Jews’ rights are somehow your bidness.”“you think
islamic women’sAfrican childrens’ rights are somehow your bidness.”This is fun, and not only that, it’s a twisted form of glibertarian IGMFU.
I didn’t know you were a glib, toko. You and EDK should get along quite well. Maybe that’s why you stalk threads about him so much – you’re really hot for him.
Svensker
@Samara Morgan:
Matoko, what’s happened to you? You are resorting to name calling and nastiness all the time these days. You didn’t used to do that. I have no problem arguing, but have no interest in talking to someone who immediately resorts to name calling. It’s not nice and it’s childish.
Peter
I’m really not sure how FourLoko can possible reconcile this ‘mind your own bidness’ turbo-isolationism with her professed advocacy for social justice.
Oh, wait, never mind, forgot who I was talking about.
Xenos
@Josie: re Samara: anyone else here remember Serdar Argic?
Yutsano
@Svensker: The name calling and attention get the child more attention. Therefore she goes back to the tactics that produce the desired results.