“Unlike” News12

By Art Gallagher

News12 New Jersey has effectively fired reporter Sean Bergin for telling the truth.

In a report about Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago’s murder, Bergin went off script and closed the segment by saying, “The underlying cause of all of this, of course: Young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject.”

News12 executives responded by proving Bergin’s point about the spineless media. They suspended him and then offered him a one day a week job, for $300 per week, covering fluff like broken fire hydrants or other inane subjects.  They covered their asses by saying the discipline was for breaking company policy.  Bergin turned them down and quit.

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How Superstorm Sandy Created a New Breed of NJ Online Citizen Journalists on Facebook

How Superstorm Sandy Created a New Breed of NJ Online Citizen Journalists on Facebook (via NJ Tech Weekly)

During Sandy, Bob “Weatherman” Burger kept people informed. | Courtesy Bob Burger  October 29, 2012 — call it “the night the lights went out in Jersey,” literally. That’s when Superstorm Sandy roared up the East Coast as a hurricane, made…

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It would be great if The Star Ledger…

….put Cory Booker under a microscope like they have Governor Chris Christie and Rutgers Athletic Director Julie Hermann.

By Art Gallagher, [email protected]

photo via facebook

Star Ledger sports columnist Steve Politi has a column this morning that is part of his ongoing campaign to take down Rutgers Athletic Director Julie Hermann; Julie Hermann: It would be ‘great’ if The Star Ledger went out of business.

Politi has been trying to get Hermann fired since Rutgers hired her to turn around their Athletic Department last spring.  Something about alleged bullying and sex discrimination at a previous job and lying about whether or not she talked to the parent of a Rutgers student who alleged he had been bullied.

Turns out that Hermann doesn’t like The Star Ledger. Several weeks ago she told a journalism class that, “That’d be great [if the Star Ledger died]. I’m going to do all I can to not to give them a headline to keep them alive because I think I got them through the summer,” according to a Rutgers student alternative news site, Muckgers. (Note that Hermann didn’t actually say the words ‘if the Star Ledger died.’ She was responding to a student’s question that was not quoted.)  The Muckgers reporter broke the “news” of Hermann’s several weeks old remarks to a journalism class last Thursday, the same day The Star Ledger told 167 employees they would be out or work in September with severance pay.

As part of his pity party for his 167 colleagues, Politi wrote a column with a headline that implies Hermann threw a celebratory party to celebrate the coming hardship on those reporters, advertising execs, copy editors and clerks who don’t find work before their severance and unemployment benefits run out.

Forget, for a minute, what you think about the newspaper. It doesn’t matter if you think its Rutgers’ coverage stinks, or its news coverage is biased, or if its columnists are too smug for their own good.

What matters is this: The Star-Ledger employs a lot of people. And if the Rutgers athletic director thinks it would be great if it closed down, then she relishes the idea of seeing those people lose their livelihood, their benefits and maybe more.

I don’t know Hermann. Never talked to her.  But I’d bet that she doesn’t “relish the idea of seeing those people lose their livelihood, their benefits and maybe more.”  She probably just feels that way about Politi, who has been trying to see her lose her livelihood, benefits and more.

I don’t begrudge Politi taking his shots at Hermann.  I have no idea if his coverage of her career is accurate or not. I respect the fact that his bias against her is obvious.

But I think that The Star Ledger spending so much on an Athletic Director while giving a U.S. Senator a pass is disgraceful.

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‘State of the News Media’: New report tracks changing business

‘State of the News Media’: New report tracks changing business (via NJ.com)

Online news sites have added 5,000 full-time jobs to the news business over the last few years, while employment in the newspaper industry continues to decline, according to a new accounting by the Pew Research Center, a non-profit group. Pew released…

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A-Rod’s transgressions don’t make The Yankees dirty

Andrew Lucas, center, then the Republican mayor of Manalapan, with then Freeholder John D’Amico and Amy Mallet, both Democrats, in September of 2010, seven months after Lucas purchased Burke Farm.

Former future Hall of Famer Alex Rodriguez dropped his lawsuits against MLB last week and accepted his 162 game suspension for doping with performance enhancing drugs.

The suspension will cost A-Rod $25 million and very likely his induction to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

No one from the Red Sox Nation, not even a fan, has called for the Yankees to be banned from playoff contention in 2014 due to A-Rod’s transgressions. No sports writer has suggested Derek Jeter is dirty because A-Rod cheated or called for asterisks to be placed next to Mariano Rivera’s records.

Rightly so.

Too often in politics when a member of one team is accused or convicted or wrongdoing, the rivals attempt to paint the entire team as dirty.  Too often journalists hungry for content cooperate with the slander.

Thus is the case in Monmouth County were former Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas, a Republican, was indicted last week on charges of wire fraud, identity theft, bank fraud and providing false statements to the IRS and FBI.   A private equity manager, Lucas is accused of deploying a complex and fraudulent scheme to come up with the funds to purchase a farm in Manalapan which he then immediately tried to sell the development rights on to New Jersey’s Farmland Preservation Program.  The Farmland Preservation Program is funded by the state, county and municipal governments.

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Ask The Governor

Governor Chris Christie will make his first appearance since the Bridgegate controversy broke on NJ 101.5’s monthly Ask The Governor show with host Eric Scott this evening.

The show is Christie’s monthly unfiltered interaction with New Jersey residents.   You can watch it via livestream here between 7 and 8 PM.

To call into the show and speak to Christie dial 1-800-282-1015.   You can also submit questions via 101.5’s website, here.  Questions can also be submitted via TEXT, by texting GOV to 8900.  A bounceback text will take your question.  Finally, you can tweet questions via #AskGov .

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Christie Uncorks On Wildstein, NY Times

Governor Chris Christie’s office went on the offensive today, attacking The New York Times and David Wildstein, in an email to friends and allies, according to a report at Politico.

The email reads as follows:

5 Things You Should Know About The Bombshell That’s Not A Bombshell

 

1. New York Times Bombshell Not A Bombshell. A media firestorm was set off by sloppy reporting from the New York Times and their suggestion that there was actually “evidence” when it was a letter alleging that “evidence exists.” Forced to change the lead almost immediately, the Times was roundly criticized, and its editor was forced to issue this extraordinary statement to the Huffington Post:

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Who leaked the letter?

Most people who are paying attention to ‘Bridgegate’ now realize that the letter from David Wildstein’s attorney, Alan Zegas, released to the press yesterday afternoon is not the smoking gun that many in the media have been hoping for that would put an end to Governor Chris Christie’s presidential ambitions or possibly lead to his resignation or impeachment.

The letter, part of a negotiation with Port Authority over Wildstein’s legal fees, is not evidence that Christie lied in his January 9, 2013 press conference.  The letter raises many questions and answers few if any.  Some of those questions could complicate Wildstein’s legal problems.  Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the co-chair of the state legislative committee investigating Bridgegate, wants to know why Wildstein did not include the evidence referred to in the letter with all the other documents he provided to the Assembly Transportation Committee, including the now infamous email exchange between Wildstein and Bridget Ann Kelly that blew the Bridgegate story open on January 8.

If any of the news outlets that reported on the letter revealed who released it, I missed it.

The release of the letter reignited the media frenzy over Bridgegate just as Christie was generating non-scandal related publicity associated with the Super Bowl and Howard Stern’s birthday.   That was obviously the intent of releasing the letter. By protecting the identity of the leaker, the media is complicit with that agenda.

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Christie to attend Howard Stern’s Birthday Bash

Governor Chris Christie is scheduled to attend radio shock jock Howard Stern’s Birthday Bash tomorrow evening at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.   Stern is turning 60.

Stern spoke out in support of Christie last week.

It’s Stern. There is language that some may find offensive in this video.

The birthday show, which published reports say will last from 2 1/2 – 4 hours will be livestreamed here.  There is a pre-show at 4PM.  The main event starts at 6PM.

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RNC Chairman calls for boycott of MSNBC over racist tweet

UPDATED:  MSNBC CHIEF APOLOGIZES. FIRES THE PERSON WHO LAUNCHED THE RACIST TWEET.

According to a report on Brietbart  MSNBC President Phil Griffin issued an apology to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and “everyone offended” by the tweet (see below) posted last night that implied that the “rightwing” hates biracial families.

The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable. We immediately acknowledged that is was offensive and wrong, apologized and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet.

I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone  offended.

At MSNBC, we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.

Phil Griffin

In a memo to  All Republican Elected Officials, Strategists, Surrogates, and Pundits and in an email to contributors, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called for a national boycott of MSNBC until the cable network’s president, Phil Griffin, apologizes for a tweet posted last night which suggested that the “rightwing” hates bi-racial families.  The tweet linked to a Cheerios commercial featuring a bi-racial family using the breakfast cereal as a discussion prop between father and daughter, rather than as food.

Here’s there tweet:

Here is the commercial

Priebus said:

While we understand MSNBC will go to great lengths to discredit Republicans and conservatives, this kind of attack on the millions of Americans who identify with the political right is offensive and unacceptable. Unfortunately, this tweet is just the latest in a pattern of poor statements by MSNBC and its hosts.

This morning I left a message with MSNBC President Phil Griffin to express my displeasure. I have sent him a letter demanding that he personally, as president of the network, take responsibility and apologize for the disgusting tweet. Until he takes internal corrective action and personally apologizes—not just to the RNC but to all right-of-center Americans—I’m banning all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC.

As an elected official, strategist, or surrogate, I’m asking for you to agree to the same.

We can have our political disagreements with MSNBC, but using biracial families to launch petty and ridiculous political attacks is low, even by MSNBC’s standards. It only coarsens our political discourse.

MSNBC hosts—including Alec Baldwin, Martin Bashir, Melissa Harris-Perry, Alex Wagner, and Ronan Farrow just to name a few—have had a troubling streak in the last several weeks of making comments that belittle and demean Americans without furthering any thoughtful dialogue. Perhaps it’s time for the executives at MSNBC to consider whether their network is upholding a meaningful journalistic mission.

This is more than just a tweet or an offhand comment. This is part of a pattern of behavior that has gotten markedly worse, and until Phil Griffin personally apologizes and takes corrective action, we cannot be part of this network’s toxic programming.

I am confident that he will want to “lean forward” and prove to the American people that he does not condone this behavior. I look forward to his apology and corrective action.

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