tagged w/ News_Featured
-
As Congress seems to get a little sillier with each passing day (did I see Kanye West interrupt the President?) its alums are left to keep the fire. Wait, no, I must be thinking of a different august institution.
How do you think Delay will do? As good as Woz?As Congress seems to get a little sillier with each passing day (did I see Kanye West... more
-
-
The NYTimes Lede blog points us to a couple of songs from Pakistani rock bands that sing (somewhat surprisingly) in American accents. Neither of these two songs seem to take a particularly pro-US bent - which strikes me as a question of great importance. If these songs, obviously influenced by American music (and sung in American accents) are not pro-American, are they indicative of a popular sentiment among a younger generation of Pakistanis?
What more can the US do to win people over in Pakistan?The NYTimes Lede blog points us to a couple of songs from Pakistani rock bands that... more
-
-
If you needed more of a reason to attend the National Equality March in Washington DC on October 11th, this is it- Gay bars in the south are being raided by police and patrons are being abused. Our queer forefathers stood up at Stonewall in 1969 to put an end to this and now it is recurring again 40 years later. Stand up! Fight back!If you needed more of a reason to attend the National Equality March in Washington DC... more
-
-
We’ve been passing around an article at Current this week from the Guardian in the UK that focuses on a “Newsroom view of user content”. It focuses on the UK, including the BBC, and how they make news out of user-generated content. Here’s an excerpt:
“…[T]he BBC UGC hub of 23 journalists [is] now based in the heart of the newsroom and dealing with 10-20,000 emails a day.
She added: ‘Now, every day on the hub there’s a core team out on Flickr and Twitter looking for news stories, going to where the conversation is taking place rather than waiting for it to come to them. The hub has an awareness of how it (social media) works, and is trying to get the rest of the BBC to take it on board.’”
I always find it interesting to read how other newsrooms are set up, and I thought this might be a good opportunity to share what we do and how we do it.
The interesting thing about the BBC’s approach is it sounds like they spend a lot of time scouring the internet. We do too, but we’ve got a big advantage that they don’t: You. We rely extensively on our audience to send us the stories out there that they think aren’t getting enough attention. We also on occasion ask people to do a little more. If you live somewhere where a story is happening, we ask you to tell us how you’re affected. Personal and local perspectives.
In the early days of Current, when “citizen journalism” was a big buzzword and some journalists were really worried that their jobs would be lost to everyday citizens, we asked a lot of people. Whole short documentaries. But now we’re focused on ways for people to contribute that are a little less daunting. Robin Sloan, a part of the Current News team here, likes to call it “committing little acts of journalism”.
The fun thing - it’s an open process. And it’s constantly changing. Have any suggestions? New ideas? Let us know!
(NOTE: NOT a picture of the Current newsroom!)We’ve been passing around an article at Current this week from the Guardian in... more
-
-
From the NY Times:
At least two rockets fired from southern Lebanon hit open areas in northern Israel on Friday, and Israel returned fire, Israeli military officials said. No injuries were reported on either side.
The Katyusha rockets were the first in six months to be fired at Israel from Lebanon. Israeli police said they had identified two sites where rockets fell near the northern town of Nahariya in the Western Galilee.From the NY Times:
At least two rockets fired from southern Lebanon hit open areas in... more
-
-
Remember those crazy syringe stabbings in China we covered a few weeks ago? Back then they were out in the western province of Xinjiang, but now authorities are concerned that they've moved to the capital, Beijing.
From the Times of London:
"The threat of such needle attacks comes as an enormous security blanket has been thrown across Beijing to ensure that a huge military parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule passes off without a hitch on October 1.
Indications that the bizarre attacks may have extended from the mostly Muslim, riot-torn region of Xinjiang to Beijing came in the form of directives from internet service providers to clients to prevent any mention of such violence on websites.
Managers of websites said that they received notification today to delete any discussion or mention of syringe stabbings in Beijing as soon as these are spotted. "Remember those crazy syringe stabbings in China we covered a few weeks ago? Back then... more
-
-
On the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Americans are being encouraged to get out and serve their communities. However some feel that shifting the focus of Sept. 11 from memorials to service downplays the tragedy of what happened in 2001.
Do you plan to take part? Do you want to if you cannot? Or do you think a National Day of Service is a poor focus for today?On the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Americans are being encouraged to get... more
-
-
Presidential heckler Rep. Joe Wilson has called the White House and apologized. TPM reports that Obama has accepted his apology (so nice to see you boys playing nice).
What do you think will come of this? Wilson's opponent in his upcoming race has raised over $100K already out of this one incident and Wilson is being mercilessly skewered across the blogosphere. But what do his constituents think? (If you're in SC, please weigh in.) Is his "You lie!" the last shout of a crazy summer season? Or a reminder that this health care debate will be anything but civil?Presidential heckler Rep. Joe Wilson has called the White House and apologized. TPM... more
-
-
From the NYTimes Lede Blog:
"On Wednesday, Jarret Brachman, a former West Point terrorism expert who monitors jihadist Web sites, published images on his blog that appear to be the first photographs of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba."From the NYTimes Lede Blog:
"On Wednesday, Jarret Brachman, a former West... more
-
-
Consumerist published last week a pretty fantastic take-down of Cash 4 Gold - the company that takes your old, unwanted gold jewelry, gold chains, and gold toilets and sends you a check for them. Cash 4 Gold has become increasingly visible during the recession - starting with their big Super Bowl commercial featuring MCHammer and Ed McMahon.
Go read the article over at Consumerist, but let us know - what do you think of Cash4Gold? Would you still consider using their service? Have you ever?Consumerist published last week a pretty fantastic take-down of Cash 4 Gold - the... more
-
-
I don't know if you have been following the story of the "Arctic Sea", but it was a Russian ship that was 'hijacked' maybe by 'pirates' in the Atlantic off the African coast. The story just keeps getting weirder and weirder: the ship went missing, it was found and everyone was fine, maybe it wasn't hijacked after all, etc, etc.
The question now is about the cargo. Originally reported as timber, some have started asking whether the cargo was something a bit more sensitive. Like missiles. For Iran.
True/Slant has a great rundown of the key events along the timeline.I don't know if you have been following the story of the "Arctic Sea",... more
-
-
President Obama reportedly will call a joint session of Congress next week to give a big speech on health care. These sessions are rare, which underscores how important health care reform is to the President. Now while administration officials have not said much about what policy recommendations Obama will include in the speech, Talking Points Memo says that their sources say progressives should get ready to be disappointed.
What do you want Obama to say on health care reform? What do you think he should include or get rid of and how do you think he can inspire the bipartisanship he so badly wants (or can he at all)?President Obama reportedly will call a joint session of Congress next week to give a... more
-
-
News came out yesterday that the US government (and taxpayers) may actually make some money off of the TARP loans to banks. Now it's too soon to call the whole program profitable - these are only the banks that are able to repay now - and there are still a bunch left to come back.
But what if they all come back profitable? Should we call the TARP program a success? Does it mean that bailing out banks was the right plan for avoiding another Great Depression?
What do you think?News came out yesterday that the US government (and taxpayers) may actually make some... more
-
-
The Economist's Free Exchange blog pointed us to this great article about new strategies for selling cocaine in the lean times. Basically, when discretionary money dried up and people stopped calling to buy cocaine, coke dealers started calling their clients.
From NY Mag:
"Then the stock market crashed, and people started losing Sammy’s number. But he didn’t lose theirs. "It was a 646 number," says Nate, 26, who works at an investment bank; he got three calls from Sammy in one week. (Sammy's contacts — five years' worth — are stored in a small black notebook with cross streets, physical descriptors, and even sketches corresponding to each name.) When Nate called back, Sammy picked up right away: "He was like, Hey Nate, it's me, Sammy, where ya been?" Last November, Nate was forced to switch jobs, and took a notable pay cut. "It's not all fun and games anymore. I told him thanks but no thanks."
Damien, 27, who quit doing coke almost two years ago, has been contacted by three different cocaine dealers, all wanting his business, since June. "None of my friends mess with that anymore," Damien says, "It's like they grew up overnight when the banks died." Eddie was one of the dealers who has recently contacted Damien. When demand first dropped, Eddie took a vacation. But when the situation failed to improve, he decided to call every name in his phone book until he'd arranged a deal. "It worked," he says. "I'll keep doing it until it stops working. But I don't like small talk. I don't like having to ask them how their day was."The Economist's Free Exchange blog pointed us to this great article about new... more
-
-
Turkey and Armenia, after decades of hostile relations, are making moves to re-open their shared border by the end of the year.
From the NYTimes:
"The joint statement said they had agreed “to start political negotiations” but did not touch on when or how some of their more intractable disputes would be addressed, starting with the killing of more than a million Armenians by the Ottoman Turk government from 1915 to 1918, which the Turkish government has denied was genocide.
The two countries have never had diplomatic relations, and their border has been closed since 1993, when Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics, went to war over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. At the border, soldiers of Turkey, a NATO country, face Russian ones, called in by Armenia, across a mini-Iron Curtain."
Will this eventually lead to a decision of the language around the Armenian Genocide?Turkey and Armenia, after decades of hostile relations, are making moves to re-open... more
-
-
News today is that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has swine flu. Now not that that's a harbinger of apocalypse and it's time to go running down to your local medical supply store to stock up on surgical masks - the Colombian President says he'll just be working from home as he heals.
But this is the latest in a string of swine flu stories (in fact, Uribe is the second Latin American leader to contract H1N1) and the Washington Post reminds us that flu season is fast approaching.
So honestly - is this really something we need to be worried about? Is this an overhyped story from a media in the August doldrums?News today is that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has swine flu. Now not that... more
-
-
A clever parody of the (500) Days of Summer trailer that's a part of the effort to remove Mark Sanford, the disgraced governor of South Carolina.
Do you think this sort of ad is effective? Clever enough? Too clever? Will it resonate with the constituency it needs to?A clever parody of the (500) Days of Summer trailer that's a part of the effort... more
-
-
You can expect a lot of Hurricane Katrina retrospectives this weekend as the fourth anniversary is upon us. I'm originally from New Orleans so it's an anniversary that unfortunately really resonates with me. This blog talks about how the storm still resonates today.You can expect a lot of Hurricane Katrina retrospectives this weekend as the fourth... more
-
-
Vanguard's Darren Foster writes:
"Just as we’re getting ready to put the finishing touches on our Sri Lanka story for the upcoming season of Vanguard (premieres Sept. 30) comes video footage of what appears to be Sri Lankan troops summarily executing Tamils. The video was apparently shot on a cellphone camera by a Sri Lankan soldier; obtained by “Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka”, a group Sri Lankan journalists, writers and human rights advocates in exile; and passed along to Channel 4 News in the UK."
Read more on the Vanguard blog...Vanguard's Darren Foster writes:
"Just as we’re getting ready to... more
-
-
He's not the VP yet (votes are still being tallied), but Hamid Karzai's VP candidate Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim has apparently long been suspected of being a drug lord.
From the NYTimes:
"It was a heated debate during the Bush administration: What to do about evidence that Afghanistan’s powerful defense minister was involved in drug trafficking? Officials from the time say they needed him to help run the troubled country. So the answer, in the end: look the other way.
Today that debate will be even more fraught for a new administration, for the former defense minister, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, stands a strong chance of becoming the next vice president of Afghanistan."
The Times article goes on to point out that Fahim is just one of many potentially unsavory characters surrounding Karzai in his bid for reelection. What will this mean for Afghanistan in the near future?He's not the VP yet (votes are still being tallied), but Hamid Karzai's VP... more
-
