Posts tagged Politics

#OpenGov President Obama signs an Executive Order: Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information. To promote continued job growth, Government efficiency, and the social good that can be gained from opening Government data to the public, the default state of new and modernized Government information resources shall be open and machine readable. Government information shall be managed as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness, and, wherever possible and legally permissible, to ensure that data are released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable. Image: Twitter post from Luke Fretwell.

#OpenGov

President Obama signs an Executive Order: Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information.

To promote continued job growth, Government efficiency, and the social good that can be gained from opening Government data to the public, the default state of new and modernized Government information resources shall be open and machine readable. Government information shall be managed as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness, and, wherever possible and legally permissible, to ensure that data are released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable.

Image: Twitter post from Luke Fretwell.

We’re changing the name ‘Palestinian Territories’ to ‘Palestine’ across our products. We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries. In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, ICANN, ISO and other international organizations

Nathan Tyler, a Google spokesperson, to the Huffington Post. Google Recognizes Palestine.

FJP: Watch the HuffPo interview with Yousef Munayyer, Executive Director of the Palestine Center, about why this is significant.

Image Management Beyonce Knowles has banned press photographers from her ‘Mrs. Carter’ concert tour in an attempt to prevent unbecoming photos of herself from being used by the media. This appears to be a response to unflattering photos published by Gawker and Buzzfeed from the singer’s Superbowl performance. Now, Beyonce’s personal photographer, Frank Micelotta, is the only one officially allowed to capture images of Beyonce during her concerts. The press is then given a link to an “official” website where they must register to download “approved” images. In an article in Slate, Alyssa Rosenberg points out the quandary of celebrities censoring — or otherwise trying to completely control — their pictures: “[Beyonce is] turning the media into a distribution machine for whatever message she wants to send, rather than accepting that others have the right to judge the tour, as a product she’s offering up.” FJP: Pop stars aren’t the only ones practicing the dark arts of image control. Earlier this winter Politico published an article about the Washington press corps’ frustration with their access to the White House. Part of that criticism was the Obama administration’s use of social media to bypass them with images and information posted directly to the public. For example, the White House Flickr gallery is made up of photographs by Pete Souza, the official Obama administration photographer. Souza captures and even stages pictures of the president — like Obama’s moment of silence photo op held in honor of the Boston bombings — and many of those images have been used by the news media. Is it acceptable that politicians can craft their own image, but not celebrities? And how authentic can journalism be if everyone gets their images from one, tightly controlled source? Sort of related: Attorney, Carolyn E. Wright, points out in Slate’s Manners For The Digital Age podcast: if you’re in a publicly-accessible area, and you don’t have an expectation of privacy, you’re fair game to be photographed. Famous people, beware: as long as the media have their will, they’ll get you on camera their way — be you Obama, or be you Beyonce. — Krissy Image: Beyonce from the Super Bowl, via Pocket-Lint.

Image Management

Beyonce Knowles has banned press photographers from her ‘Mrs. Carter’ concert tour in an attempt to prevent unbecoming photos of herself from being used by the media. This appears to be a response to unflattering photos published by Gawker and Buzzfeed from the singer’s Superbowl performance.

Now, Beyonce’s personal photographer, Frank Micelotta, is the only one officially allowed to capture images of Beyonce during her concerts. The press is then given a link to an “official” website where they must register to download “approved” images.

In an article in Slate, Alyssa Rosenberg points out the quandary of celebrities censoring — or otherwise trying to completely control — their pictures:

“[Beyonce is] turning the media into a distribution machine for whatever message she wants to send, rather than accepting that others have the right to judge the tour, as a product she’s offering up.”

FJP: Pop stars aren’t the only ones practicing the dark arts of image control.

Earlier this winter Politico published an article about the Washington press corps’ frustration with their access to the White House. Part of that criticism was the Obama administration’s use of social media to bypass them with images and information posted directly to the public.

For example, the White House Flickr gallery is made up of photographs by Pete Souza, the official Obama administration photographer. Souza captures and even stages pictures of the president — like Obama’s moment of silence photo op held in honor of the Boston bombings — and many of those images have been used by the news media.

Is it acceptable that politicians can craft their own image, but not celebrities? And how authentic can journalism be if everyone gets their images from one, tightly controlled source?

Sort of related: Attorney, Carolyn E. Wright, points out in Slate’s Manners For The Digital Age podcast: if you’re in a publicly-accessible area, and you don’t have an expectation of privacy, you’re fair game to be photographed.

Famous people, beware: as long as the media have their will, they’ll get you on camera their way — be you Obama, or be you Beyonce. — Krissy

Image: Beyonce from the Super Bowl, via Pocket-Lint.

Jackie Robinson

todaysdocument:

Jackie Robinson broke the color line in Major League Baseball when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. This decision would not only integrate baseball, but would help the country work to achieve equal rights for all. Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., once commented to baseball pitcher Don Newcombe, “Don, you and Jackie will never know how easy you made my job, through what you went through on the baseball field.”

Before becoming famous, Lt. Jack R. Robinson was court-martialed at Camp Hood, Texas, because he refused to move to the back of the bus after being told to do so by a bus driver and disobeying an order from a superior officer. Robinson was acquitted of all charges and received an honorable discharge, but this was not the only experience he would have in fighting discrimination.

After retiring from baseball, Robinson turned much of his attention to civil rights issues. He wrote to several Presidents about the cause, and even attended the March on Washington.

Many of these milestone events from Robinson’s life are documented in primary sources from the National Archives.

via The Rest of 42’s Story: Jackie Robinson as Civil Rights Activist

FJP: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives,” Robinson wrote in his autobiography. “I cannot possibly believe I have it made while so many of my black brothers and sisters are hungry, inadequately housed, insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity as they live in slums or barely exist on welfare.”

How We Talk About North Korea Via Alex Pareene: [North Korea] is the sort of story that our news media is absolutely awful at covering. Most people on cable news are brainless idiots hired primarily for their ability to talk on camera for long periods of time without saying “uh” that often, and even when they have a simplistic-but-workable grasp of domestic affairs they rarely know shit about the rest of the world. North Korea is a secretive hermit state that even the CIA can’t penetrate, and every report on the capabilities and motivations of the primary actors there will by necessity involve a lot of guesswork… …This rampant uninformed speculation seems harmless until you recall the sort of effect hysterical uniformed speculation has had on America’s foreign policy in the past. It became clear in the run-up to the Iraq War that the news media was a very useful tool to get the public on board with wars. Through insinuation and misdirection, the false notion that Saddam Hussein was in some way responsible for 9/11 was spread with very few examples of actual lies from the administration — they just made the suggestions and let the idiot-media run with it. Via Jack Shafer: Like sportswriters, political reporters, financial news staffers, reporters on the police beat, and other breaking-news artists, foreign correspondents must tell their story with economy and describe what has happened as opposed to why something happened. “Typical Mindbending $#*! By the North Koreans” may accurately describe the latest provocation or retreat by Pyongyang, but it’s not the way breaking news generally gets framed… …A brief survey of North Korea news clips reveals a spate of clichés… Pyongyang reliably remains defiant; talks have resumed or been proposed, canceled,or stalled, while a U.S. envoy seeks to lure the North back to those talks to restart the dialog; North Korea is bluffing,blustering, or is engaging in brinksmanship; tensions are grim, rising, or growing—but rarely reduced, probably because when tensions go down it doesn’t qualify for coverage; North Korea seeks recognition, respect, or improved or restored relations, or to rejoin the international community, or increased ties to the West that will lead to understanding; deals with North Korea are sought; North Korea feels insulted and is isolated by but threatens the West; the Japanese consider the North Koreans “untrustworthy“; the West seeks positive signs or signals or messages in North Korean conduct but worries about its intentions; diplomats seek to resolve, solve, respond to, overcome, defuse, the brewing, serious, real crisis; the escalating confrontation remains dangerous; the stakes are high, but the standoff endures. The reliance on stock phrases indicates a lack of imagination on the part of foreign correspondents (and their editors), who if they are serving old wine they should find some new bottles from which to decant it. But it also confirms Shafer’s First Law of Journalistic Thermodynamics, which states, “Copy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change form.” North Korea coverage reiterates itself in language that is as pale as dead coral because, of course, the North Koreans insist on echoing themselves, even when acquiring new weapons, such as nuclear bombs and missiles. We’re in no position to ask the North Koreans to speak their minds more articulately (or honestly) but we’re within our rights to ask our favorite hacks to dump the hackneyed. Alex Pareene, Salon, Pretending to Know about North Korea. Jack Shafer, Reuters, The Enduring Cliche’s of North Korea Coverage. Image: Korean peninsula at night, 2012, via NASA/Wikimedia Commons.

How We Talk About North Korea

Via Alex Pareene:

[North Korea] is the sort of story that our news media is absolutely awful at covering. Most people on cable news are brainless idiots hired primarily for their ability to talk on camera for long periods of time without saying “uh” that often, and even when they have a simplistic-but-workable grasp of domestic affairs they rarely know shit about the rest of the world. North Korea is a secretive hermit state that even the CIA can’t penetrate, and every report on the capabilities and motivations of the primary actors there will by necessity involve a lot of guesswork…

…This rampant uninformed speculation seems harmless until you recall the sort of effect hysterical uniformed speculation has had on America’s foreign policy in the past. It became clear in the run-up to the Iraq War that the news media was a very useful tool to get the public on board with wars. Through insinuation and misdirection, the false notion that Saddam Hussein was in some way responsible for 9/11 was spread with very few examples of actual lies from the administration — they just made the suggestions and let the idiot-media run with it.

Via Jack Shafer:

Like sportswriters, political reporters, financial news staffers, reporters on the police beat, and other breaking-news artists, foreign correspondents must tell their story with economy and describe what has happened as opposed to why something happened. “Typical Mindbending $#*! By the North Koreans” may accurately describe the latest provocation or retreat by Pyongyang, but it’s not the way breaking news generally gets framed…

…A brief survey of North Korea news clips reveals a spate of clichés… Pyongyang reliably remains defiant; talks have resumed or been proposed, canceled,or stalled, while a U.S. envoy seeks to lure the North back to those talks to restart the dialog; North Korea is bluffing,blustering, or is engaging in brinksmanship; tensions are grim, rising, or growing—but rarely reduced, probably because when tensions go down it doesn’t qualify for coverage; North Korea seeks recognition, respect, or improved or restored relations, or to rejoin the international community, or increased ties to the West that will lead to understanding; deals with North Korea are sought; North Korea feels insulted and is isolated by but threatens the West; the Japanese consider the North Koreans “untrustworthy“; the West seeks positive signs or signals or messages in North Korean conduct but worries about its intentions; diplomats seek to resolve, solve, respond to, overcome, defuse, the brewing, serious, real crisis; the escalating confrontation remains dangerous; the stakes are high, but the standoff endures.

The reliance on stock phrases indicates a lack of imagination on the part of foreign correspondents (and their editors), who if they are serving old wine they should find some new bottles from which to decant it. But it also confirms Shafer’s First Law of Journalistic Thermodynamics, which states, “Copy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change form.” North Korea coverage reiterates itself in language that is as pale as dead coral because, of course, the North Koreans insist on echoing themselves, even when acquiring new weapons, such as nuclear bombs and missiles. We’re in no position to ask the North Koreans to speak their minds more articulately (or honestly) but we’re within our rights to ask our favorite hacks to dump the hackneyed.

Alex Pareene, Salon, Pretending to Know about North Korea.

Jack Shafer, Reuters, The Enduring Cliche’s of North Korea Coverage.

Image: Korean peninsula at night, 2012, via NASA/Wikimedia Commons.

macnaughtonart: Alright everyone, I am teaching an online class through skillshare.com about political illustration. This class is open to all of my 60,000 followers and also the general public. Class begins on April 15th, so you have about a month to sign up for the class. This will be a great opportunity for all of you who have asked me for advice, and any art student or person who has interest in politics. The class costs $15, but from now until March 28th I will be offering a limited discount. The first 20 people who enter the code ARTUNION will receive $5 off of the class cost. If those run out I may offer more. For more information or to sign up, click here. FJP: I can’t draw outside of stick figures but this is fantastic. — Michael

macnaughtonart:

Alright everyone, I am teaching an online class through skillshare.com about political illustration. This class is open to all of my 60,000 followers and also the general public.

Class begins on April 15th, so you have about a month to sign up for the class. This will be a great opportunity for all of you who have asked me for advice, and any art student or person who has interest in politics.

The class costs $15, but from now until March 28th I will be offering a limited discount. The first 20 people who enter the code ARTUNION will receive $5 off of the class cost. If those run out I may offer more.

For more information or to sign up, click here.

FJP: I can’t draw outside of stick figures but this is fantastic. — Michael

Income Growth, or not, 1966 to 2011 Average income growth for Americans in the bottom 90% increased just $59 in real terms from the 1960s to today. For those in the top .01%, it increased $18,362,740. Put that in a chart, represent the 90% as an inch and the bar for the top .01% would tower 4.9 miles above it. Read more at Tax Analysts, Income Inequality: 1 Inch to 5 Miles. H/T: BoingBoing.

Income Growth, or not, 1966 to 2011

Average income growth for Americans in the bottom 90% increased just $59 in real terms from the 1960s to today. For those in the top .01%, it increased $18,362,740.

Put that in a chart, represent the 90% as an inch and the bar for the top .01% would tower 4.9 miles above it.

Read more at Tax Analysts, Income Inequality: 1 Inch to 5 Miles.

H/T: BoingBoing.

Twitter Diplomacy Last week Egypt issued an arrest warrant for the comedian Bassem Youssef for insulting Islam and the country’s President, Mohamed Morsi. Jon Stewart, to whom Youssef is often compared, spent 10 minutes on his show Monday defending Youssef, talking about free speech and satire, and generally roasting Morsi. Yesterday, someone at the US Embassy in Cairo sent out a link to The Daily Show clip. Morsi’s office is not amused. Details at the New York Times. Image: Screenshot, Storify by Rami Reda Khanfar capturing the exchange.

Twitter Diplomacy

Last week Egypt issued an arrest warrant for the comedian Bassem Youssef for insulting Islam and the country’s President, Mohamed Morsi.

Jon Stewart, to whom Youssef is often compared, spent 10 minutes on his show Monday defending Youssef, talking about free speech and satire, and generally roasting Morsi.

Yesterday, someone at the US Embassy in Cairo sent out a link to The Daily Show clip.

Morsi’s office is not amused. Details at the New York Times.

Image: Screenshot, Storify by Rami Reda Khanfar capturing the exchange.

The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term “illegal immigrant” or the use of “illegal” to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that “illegal” should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally.

Associated Press, in a post about its changes to “illegal immigration” and labels used to describe mental health issues in the AP Stylebook. ‘Illegal immigrant’ no more.

Via Slate:

This is a victory by activists who you may never have paid attention to. For more than two years, the writer and reporter Jose Antonio Vargas—who discovered in his teenage years that he had come to the United States illegally from the Phillippines—has been on a crusade to literally “define ‘American.’” One of his slogans and causes was “no human being is illegal.”

FJP: The AP’s Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll explains in the post that the changes reflect the evolution of the English language. 

UPDATE: The New York Times is considering removing the term “Illegal Immigrant” as well.

North Korean Political Rallies are Mesmerizing

Via The Telegraph:

Chanting “Death to the US imperialists” and “Sweep away the US aggressors,” soldiers and students marched through Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang on Friday during a 90-minute rally…

…State media reported early on Friday that leader Kim Jong-un had called an emergency military meeting to order the army’s rocket unit to prepare to strike the US and South Korea in case of a “reckless provocation” by Washington or Seoul.

FJP: The video comes via the Associated Press which opened the first Western bureau in North Korea last January.

President Barack Obama, who vastly expanded U.S. drone strikes against terrorism suspects overseas under the cloak of secrecy, is now openly seeking to influence global guidelines for their use as China and other countries pursue their own drone programs

Via Reuters:

“People say what’s going to happen when the Chinese and the Russians get this technology? The president is well aware of those concerns and wants to set the standard for the international community on these tools,” said Tommy Vietor, until earlier this month a White House spokesman.

FJP: Standards.

Faces of Deportation The New York Time Lens Blog is carrying “Detained, Deported and Determined,” a photo essay by Getty photographer John Moore. In an accompanying article, Moore writes: During President Obama’s first term of office, authorities deported a record 1.5 million people. A majority fell into several categories — those who had recently crossed United States borders illegally, repeat violators of immigration laws and those with a criminal record, according to the White House. I have photographed this stark ritual often in the last few years. But in the United States, law enforcement restrictions that photojournalists not show the faces of immigrants in their custody has made it hard, at times, to humanize the images. So, on this last trip to Arizona, the challenge for me was to find deported — or soon-to-be-deported — immigrants not in federal custody. Moore did so by going to the San Juan Bosco shelter in Nogales, Mexico and to Maricopa County in Arizona. Image: Gilbert Mendez, 28, arrested for driving without a license and deported. Mendez claims he worked for five years as a farm laborer in Washington State and plans to try to get back into the United States. By John Moore via The New York Times.

Faces of Deportation

The New York Time Lens Blog is carrying “Detained, Deported and Determined,” a photo essay by Getty photographer John Moore.

In an accompanying article, Moore writes:

During President Obama’s first term of office, authorities deported a record 1.5 million people. A majority fell into several categories — those who had recently crossed United States borders illegally, repeat violators of immigration laws and those with a criminal record, according to the White House.

I have photographed this stark ritual often in the last few years. But in the United States, law enforcement restrictions that photojournalists not show the faces of immigrants in their custody has made it hard, at times, to humanize the images.

So, on this last trip to Arizona, the challenge for me was to find deported — or soon-to-be-deported — immigrants not in federal custody.

Moore did so by going to the San Juan Bosco shelter in Nogales, Mexico and to Maricopa County in Arizona.

Image: Gilbert Mendez, 28, arrested for driving without a license and deported. Mendez claims he worked for five years as a farm laborer in Washington State and plans to try to get back into the United States. By John Moore via The New York Times.

As an entrepreneurial company with 60,000 employees around the world, we are constantly exploring profitable opportunities in many industries and sectors. So, it is natural that our name would come up in connection with this rumor. We respect the independence of the journalistic institutions referenced in today’s news stories, but it is our long-standing policy not to comment on deals or rumors of deals we may or may not be exploring.

Missy Cohlmia, spokeswoman for Koch Companies Public Sector, in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter on rumors that the Koch brothers are seeking to buy the Tribune Company’s newspapers. These include the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times. Hollywood Reporter, Koch Brothers Mulling LA Times Bid.

The Kochs own Koch Industries, the second largest privately held company in America, founded Americans for Prosperity in 2010 and spent $40 million on a successful drive to help Republicans regain congress, and then spent millions more this last election cycle on supporting Tea Party and Republican candidates.

For better background, see LA Weekly, which calls the rumor “a doozy wrapped in a bombshell exploding inside a Drudge siren.”

A World Without Leaks

Via Margaret Sullivan, Public Editor, New York Times.

Imagine if American citizens never learned about the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Imagine not knowing about the brutal treatment of terror suspects at United States government “black sites.” Or about the drone program that is expanding under President Obama, or the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

This is a world without leaks.

And a world without leaks — the secret government information slipped to the press — may be the direction we’re headed in. Since 9/11, leakers and whistle-blowers have become an increasingly endangered species. Some, like the former C.I.A. official John Kiriakou, have gone to jail. Another, Pfc. Bradley Manning, is charged with “aiding the enemy” for the masses of classified information he gave to Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks. He could face life in prison…

…Declan Walsh, a reporter who wrote many WikiLeaks-based stories for The Guardian before coming to The Times, calls leaks “the unfiltered lifeblood of investigative journalism.” He wrote in an e-mail from his post in Pakistan: “They may come from difficult, even compromised sources, be ridden with impurities and require careful handling to produce an accurate story. None of that reduces their importance to journalism.”…

…Whatever one’s view, one fact is clear: Leakers are being prosecuted and punished like never before. Consider that the federal Espionage Act, passed in 1917, was used only three times in its first 92 years to prosecute government officials for press leaks. But the Obama administration, in the president’s first term alone, used it six times to go after leakers. Now some of them have gone to jail.

The crackdown sends a loud message. Scott Shane, who covers national security for The Times, says that message is being heard — and heeded.

“There’s definitely a chilling effect,” he told me. “Government officials who might otherwise discuss sensitive topics will refer to these cases in rebuffing a request for background information.”

Margaret Sullivan, New York Times. The Danger of Suppressing Leaks.