Oddly, on a day I have written about NYT foreign correspondents using relatively short-term postings as rungs on the corporate ladder, this story from New York City.
As it turns out the man who climbed the NYT HQ today was not a foreign correspondent, but an author, David Malone, who had a book published in November 2005 called 'Bin Laden's Plan'.
It was apparently a publicity stunt.
To see if it works I'll be keeping an eye on his Amazon ranking which currently stands at: Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,579,173
Obviously no one wants to give fuel to this guy's fire, so I obviously will:
Here's a product description of 'Bin Laden's Plan' from Amazon.com:
Since the 9/11 attack, Al Qaeda has chosen to not attack the vulnerable American homeland in order to cement the transfer of war guilt to the United States. This strategic decision was a product of the marriage between Osama bin Laden's terrorist group and an American neo-conservative group, The Project for the New American Century, both of whose leaders had been attempting, covertly and separately, to provoke a unilateral American invasion of Iraq since the end of the Cold War as a first step to world domination. In pursuit of this shared objective, Bin Laden christened the marriage with an October surprise that facilitated the closely contested millennial election of the hawkish American group's foremost representatives, the Bush Administration. After nine months of Bush's presidency, Al Qaeda and an immaculately impregnated American administration gave birth to the march to war against Iraq when Bin Laden intentionally unleashed the Bush Administration's crusade in the Middle East on 9/11. The American occupation of Iraq would prove to be the greatest boon to Bin Laden's most vital war objective, the global recruitment coup of transferring guilt for the war to the United States. Al Qaeda supported President Bush's reelection in 2004 with another October surprise so that his administration would complete the global vilification of America that is intended to be the foundation of Bin Laden's messianic bid for world domination by nuclear terrorism.
Now AP, from whom the below article on www.iht.com was taken, spells AQ as 'al-Qaida'.
David Malone spells it as Al Qaeda.
The NYT spells it as: Al Qaeda.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_qaeda/index.html?8qa&scp=1-spot&sq=Al+Qaeda&st=nyt
Reuters spells it as Al Qaeda.
So who's on the job banging up these 'al-Qaida' AP stories on www.iht.com?
How does Robert Fisk spell it?
Here's the thing, on the subject of journalists' credibility: if I had to choose between the spelling of AP, Reuters, the NYT, the IHT or Robert Fisk, I'd go with the one used by Fisk. I don't need to check how Fisk spells it, that's not the point. The point is that on this important subject I have more faith in the reporting of Robert Fisk than I do that of David Malone or the NYT.
That can't be a good thing for the NYT can it?
Man arrested after climbing part of The New York Times' 52-story headquarters
NEW YORK: A man climbed part-way up The New York Times' 52-story headquarters, becoming the third person to scale the skyscraper in less than five weeks. Within hours, crews were working to remove dozens of ladder-like white ceramic rods from the building's lower facade to deter further stunts.
The climber, identified by police as David Malone, made it to the 11th floor of the Manhattan building before descending to a lower level where he spent hours making cell phone calls and talking to police. He was arrested about 5:30 a.m. (0930 GMT) Wednesday, police said.
At one point, the climber unfurled a banner on the "T" of the Times' sign that referred to Osama bin Laden, police said. Malone is the author of a book, "Bin Laden's Plan," that argues that Sept. 11 was part of a plot by al-Qaida to provoke the U.S. into invading Iraq, according to a book summary at Amazon.com.
Malone, 29, said news reports about the earlier climbs had inspired him to get publicity for his crusade against al-Qaida, and said those reports also provided him with a roadmap on how to do it, according to police.
On June 5, Renaldo Clarke and French daredevil Alain Robert separately climbed the Times building, which the newspaper company moved into last year. It is covered with slats that the men used to climb the tower like a ladder.
Modifications were made to the building and security was added after the other stunts. Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said the company was investigating how Wednesday's climber was able to overcome the additional obstacles, but she refused to discuss whether other measures were being put into place.
Dozens of police and firefighters responded about 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) Wednesday after the new climber was spotted, police said. Streets were closed off and an inflatable cushion was placed in front of the main entrance.
One of the calls the climber made was to a night editor at the Daily News, telling the editor he was trying to bring al-Qaida to the public's attention because Americans do not think the terrorist group is enough of a threat to national security, authorities said.
Police brought the Daily News editor to the scene, and hostage negotiators worked to get the climber down to the fifth floor so he could speak to the editor in person, said Police Department spokesman Paul Browne.
Malone was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center for evaluation and arrested on charges of reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. He was awaiting arraignment.
On June 5, both Robert and Clarke made it to the top and were charged with reckless endangerment, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.
The criminal case against Robert evaporated when grand jurors refused to indict him after hearing about his climbing experience and safeguards. He still faced a disorderly conduct citation, a far less serious charge.
After the grand jury refused to indict Robert, prosecutors said they were weighing how to proceed against Clarke.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/09/america/NA-US-Skyscraper-Climber.php
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Thursday, 10 July 2008
An almost overlooked oasis.
I recently posted about the bizarre decision to post an equally bizarre letter from a potential IHT contributor who hadn't heard back from the op-ed editors.
http://ihtreaders.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-get-published-on-op-ed-pages.html
Here are some further thoughts on this from an IHT reader in the Netherlands, a Dutchman:
"I read the 'little screed' several times, and each time I had to smile from ear to ear. Bad news is hard to avoid, good news is sometimes hard to find. Perhaps the editors wanted us to find it in the last place we would expect it. This was a time-out, an almost overlooked oasis."
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
http://ihtreaders.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-get-published-on-op-ed-pages.html
Here are some further thoughts on this from an IHT reader in the Netherlands, a Dutchman:
"I read the 'little screed' several times, and each time I had to smile from ear to ear. Bad news is hard to avoid, good news is sometimes hard to find. Perhaps the editors wanted us to find it in the last place we would expect it. This was a time-out, an almost overlooked oasis."
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Some further thoughts on Fisk and the perils of embedded journalism
Thanks to OPL for this email, further to my posting on Fisk:
"Fisk is a powerful messenger of non-embedded journalism--all too rare in this corporate media dominated world. Shouldn't respectable news organizations only allow journalists to report from a region after having lived there long enough to really understand it?"
Here's audio of Fisk's lecture on journalism I recently attended in Rome (MP3). PART I: http://www.internazionale.it/pagine/journalism/media/mp3/fisk_part_1.mp3PART II: http://www.internazionale.it/pagine/journalism/media/mp3/fisk_part_2.mp3
I couldn't agree more about news organizations only allowing journalists to report from a region after having lived there long enough to really understand it. And, might I add, speak the language extremely well.
Fisk speaks of embedded journalists with disdain, those too who constantly rely on unnamed sources, and 'security experts' who speak from the comfort of a TV studio in London, not having spent more than a week here or there in countries they act as talking heads about. Their sources are then, inevitably, the 'pouvoir'. Witness J. Miller and WMD.
There's a powerful passage in Fisk's book when he is attacked by an angry crowd, civilians repeatedly bombed by American airplanes whilst fleeing the 'liberation' of Afghanistan en route to the Pakistani border. He fights with all his life to hang onto his bag - why? Because it contains his contacts book, the product of years of living in the region.
Fisk however is unusual. He is, as far as I know, unmarried and without a family (although no doubt without a shortage of female admirers), and this is something he has presumably had to trade off to persue his story. Equally, he constantly refers to journalists he has worked with who have done their shift in the Middle East, before returning to London or New York to work as TV presenters, editors, foreign editors, in short, people working the coroporate ladder, their goal being (although he doesn't say this) to 'make it' in their field. Fisk however is interested in his story, and has remained in the Middle East for over 25 years. He has no ambition, as far as I know, to be the editor of The Independent.
When injured in the above mentioned incident, the then President of Lebanon was the second person to call him, offering to send his private jet and get him to the American hospital in Beirut within hours. He politely declined, despite the trauma he had undergone and his injuries - 'reporters don't take favours from prime ministers' he writes. Later he was to be in Beirut and hear the explosion that killed the President, and ran there quickly enough to witness 'security personnel' apparently removing evidence from the crime scene, which was an extremely large crater caused by the bomb that killed the President and many of his entourage.
Christianne Annapour didn't make it time, but she was there in time for his funeral. Parachute journalism of zero value.
It would be interesting to know what is the average length of 'service' in a foreign bureau of a typical overseas NYT or IHT correspondent. Certainly IHT people like Dempsey and Smale, Vinocur of course, have served years in various countries, their connections deep, their knowledge profound.
I can't speak to this subject with regard to the ambitious NYT journalists, keen to do their time, earn their resume points and get back to NY. Tom Sheppard for example, the new IHT business editor worked in Paris in the early 90s for less than three years and is now back. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty certain he couldn't conduct an interview in French, however good a business editor he is.
As to German and Italian - just to name two other G8 countries in Europe on his beat, again, I don't know, but I doubt it.
This is an interesting point, because it means that many IHT editors in Paris, coming from the NYT are only able to follow and report the news, select the stories from English language sources, namely AP and Reuters. That's a pretty narrow window. (Most of the content on http://www.iht.com/ is in fact AP or Reuters copy.)
I think the solution has to be the ability of the IHT to hire its own people, and not to rely on the NYT and the wire services. But that's money, and counter to the goal of working within a seamless global NYT 24 hour news operation.
People like Fisk should be working for the IHT, it's that simple. Big name hires, journalists with no ambition to one day be the editor of the NYT. Expensive. But imagine the power of the paper.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
"Fisk is a powerful messenger of non-embedded journalism--all too rare in this corporate media dominated world. Shouldn't respectable news organizations only allow journalists to report from a region after having lived there long enough to really understand it?"
Here's audio of Fisk's lecture on journalism I recently attended in Rome (MP3). PART I: http://www.internazionale.it/pagine/journalism/media/mp3/fisk_part_1.mp3PART II: http://www.internazionale.it/pagine/journalism/media/mp3/fisk_part_2.mp3
I couldn't agree more about news organizations only allowing journalists to report from a region after having lived there long enough to really understand it. And, might I add, speak the language extremely well.
Fisk speaks of embedded journalists with disdain, those too who constantly rely on unnamed sources, and 'security experts' who speak from the comfort of a TV studio in London, not having spent more than a week here or there in countries they act as talking heads about. Their sources are then, inevitably, the 'pouvoir'. Witness J. Miller and WMD.
There's a powerful passage in Fisk's book when he is attacked by an angry crowd, civilians repeatedly bombed by American airplanes whilst fleeing the 'liberation' of Afghanistan en route to the Pakistani border. He fights with all his life to hang onto his bag - why? Because it contains his contacts book, the product of years of living in the region.
Fisk however is unusual. He is, as far as I know, unmarried and without a family (although no doubt without a shortage of female admirers), and this is something he has presumably had to trade off to persue his story. Equally, he constantly refers to journalists he has worked with who have done their shift in the Middle East, before returning to London or New York to work as TV presenters, editors, foreign editors, in short, people working the coroporate ladder, their goal being (although he doesn't say this) to 'make it' in their field. Fisk however is interested in his story, and has remained in the Middle East for over 25 years. He has no ambition, as far as I know, to be the editor of The Independent.
When injured in the above mentioned incident, the then President of Lebanon was the second person to call him, offering to send his private jet and get him to the American hospital in Beirut within hours. He politely declined, despite the trauma he had undergone and his injuries - 'reporters don't take favours from prime ministers' he writes. Later he was to be in Beirut and hear the explosion that killed the President, and ran there quickly enough to witness 'security personnel' apparently removing evidence from the crime scene, which was an extremely large crater caused by the bomb that killed the President and many of his entourage.
Christianne Annapour didn't make it time, but she was there in time for his funeral. Parachute journalism of zero value.
It would be interesting to know what is the average length of 'service' in a foreign bureau of a typical overseas NYT or IHT correspondent. Certainly IHT people like Dempsey and Smale, Vinocur of course, have served years in various countries, their connections deep, their knowledge profound.
I can't speak to this subject with regard to the ambitious NYT journalists, keen to do their time, earn their resume points and get back to NY. Tom Sheppard for example, the new IHT business editor worked in Paris in the early 90s for less than three years and is now back. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty certain he couldn't conduct an interview in French, however good a business editor he is.
As to German and Italian - just to name two other G8 countries in Europe on his beat, again, I don't know, but I doubt it.
This is an interesting point, because it means that many IHT editors in Paris, coming from the NYT are only able to follow and report the news, select the stories from English language sources, namely AP and Reuters. That's a pretty narrow window. (Most of the content on http://www.iht.com/ is in fact AP or Reuters copy.)
I think the solution has to be the ability of the IHT to hire its own people, and not to rely on the NYT and the wire services. But that's money, and counter to the goal of working within a seamless global NYT 24 hour news operation.
People like Fisk should be working for the IHT, it's that simple. Big name hires, journalists with no ambition to one day be the editor of the NYT. Expensive. But imagine the power of the paper.
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
www.ianwalthew.com
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Seeing the world through non-American eyes
I have recently finished a book I should have read long ago. Fisk is controversial, not much loved by the American Jewish lobby, but a respected and long standing Middle East correspondent of first The Times (of London) and then The Independent.
He has lots to say about how western media has covered the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the wider Middle East story.
He also has lots to say (mostly bad, some good) about how the NYT has covered the Middle East.
Whether one agrees with him or not (and I largely do) this book should be given to every NYT employee joining the IHT, because it gets inside the difference of perspective that one has when one is looking at international news from Manhattan, Paris or Beirut. The same stories look remarkably different.
Give me some time and I'll post more on this book, and in particular what it has to say about the NYT, but in the meantime, if you happen to be one of those NYT editors in Manhattan, or coming to Paris, read this book.
How to get published on the Op-Ed pages
I wasn't quite sure what to make of this decision to publish this letter yesterday.
A despondent writer
Dear opinion page editors:
I'm waiting to hear from you regarding my unsolicited submission on my experiences as an expatriate American living in Thailand.
In my wilder moments, I have imagined my little screed being circulated among your top editors, possibly even to the publisher, conceivably even to Pope Benedict XVI, President Bush and Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary general.
I have fantasized about their reactions: universal cries of joy, wonder and amazement at my scintillating insights enshrined in crystalline prose. I have entertained the pleasant delusion that you were waiting till you could nominate me for the Pulitzer Prize before finally informing me that you planned to publish it on your front page, and syndicate it to a dozen other publications, thereby making me world-famous and fantastically rich.
But in my sober moments, a little voice tells me that it is not to be, and that your lack of response is due merely to an oversight.
So go ahead. Crush my ego, destroy my soul. Tell me you're not going to publish it. I am waiting.
S. Tsow, Bangkok
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/07/opinion/edlet.php
It appeared last Tuesday, and I was thinking if this publication would make Mr or Ms. Tsow feel better. Clearly it was well enough written in the view of the IHT editors to publish it, but I wonder if they also sent him/her a reply about his/her op-ed piece. I am sure they did.
Having dealt with these pages, and been published on them, my sense is that they are deluged with submissions, and only efficiently get back to those that appeal to them. I could be wrong. Is this letter a way of telling all people who submit what to expect?
One thing I do know is that there used to be a persistent complaint about the quality of English used by non-mother tongue speakers (who am I to speak of this on this bang it out and publish without proofing blog?), and that due to the lack of editorial resources, and the problem of timeliness, there simply isn't time to contact writers with good ideas and credentials and work with them to knock their pieces into shape.
So my advice would be to do what authors have to do these days to get published: deliver a manuscript that is near-perfect and ready to go, or don't bother. It seems editors, be they books or newspapers (more understandable) don't have the time these days to edit what people have taken the time to write.
All that said, in my experience I received a very nice phone call from a very affable IHT guy, who walked me through my piece, made one minor clarification in the editing, and it was published. But it did take them a while to get back to me.
http://www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com/
http://www.ianwalthew.com/
A despondent writer
Dear opinion page editors:
I'm waiting to hear from you regarding my unsolicited submission on my experiences as an expatriate American living in Thailand.
In my wilder moments, I have imagined my little screed being circulated among your top editors, possibly even to the publisher, conceivably even to Pope Benedict XVI, President Bush and Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary general.
I have fantasized about their reactions: universal cries of joy, wonder and amazement at my scintillating insights enshrined in crystalline prose. I have entertained the pleasant delusion that you were waiting till you could nominate me for the Pulitzer Prize before finally informing me that you planned to publish it on your front page, and syndicate it to a dozen other publications, thereby making me world-famous and fantastically rich.
But in my sober moments, a little voice tells me that it is not to be, and that your lack of response is due merely to an oversight.
So go ahead. Crush my ego, destroy my soul. Tell me you're not going to publish it. I am waiting.
S. Tsow, Bangkok
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/07/opinion/edlet.php
It appeared last Tuesday, and I was thinking if this publication would make Mr or Ms. Tsow feel better. Clearly it was well enough written in the view of the IHT editors to publish it, but I wonder if they also sent him/her a reply about his/her op-ed piece. I am sure they did.
Having dealt with these pages, and been published on them, my sense is that they are deluged with submissions, and only efficiently get back to those that appeal to them. I could be wrong. Is this letter a way of telling all people who submit what to expect?
One thing I do know is that there used to be a persistent complaint about the quality of English used by non-mother tongue speakers (who am I to speak of this on this bang it out and publish without proofing blog?), and that due to the lack of editorial resources, and the problem of timeliness, there simply isn't time to contact writers with good ideas and credentials and work with them to knock their pieces into shape.
So my advice would be to do what authors have to do these days to get published: deliver a manuscript that is near-perfect and ready to go, or don't bother. It seems editors, be they books or newspapers (more understandable) don't have the time these days to edit what people have taken the time to write.
All that said, in my experience I received a very nice phone call from a very affable IHT guy, who walked me through my piece, made one minor clarification in the editing, and it was published. But it did take them a while to get back to me.
http://www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com/
http://www.ianwalthew.com/
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Pertinent thoughts from Vinocurs interview
AT EASE
A star anchorman in France is saying farewell
When I talked to Poivre d'Arvor last week he was not exactly high on the future of television news.
"We are tipping from one era to another," he said. "In the future everybody will resemble each other."
"I was the boss," not a news reader, but the editor. "It was continual stimulation. We went to the scene. In the Golden Age of great audiences you'd run into Dan Rather or Peter Jennings in Baghdad or Jerusalem.
"It will never be same. All the 24-hour newscasts now, they're uniform. Aseptic. The old guard had culture, wide shoulders and moral strength. It won't be anything like that anymore.
"It's the same manner of thinking, of appearing. It's the look. These days, appearing, seeming are more important than the fundamentals."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/04/europe/atease.php
We are tipping from one era to another.
The question is how will newspapers tip from Newspaper 1.0 to 2.0. I don't believe the web is the solution.
A star anchorman in France is saying farewell
When I talked to Poivre d'Arvor last week he was not exactly high on the future of television news.
"We are tipping from one era to another," he said. "In the future everybody will resemble each other."
"I was the boss," not a news reader, but the editor. "It was continual stimulation. We went to the scene. In the Golden Age of great audiences you'd run into Dan Rather or Peter Jennings in Baghdad or Jerusalem.
"It will never be same. All the 24-hour newscasts now, they're uniform. Aseptic. The old guard had culture, wide shoulders and moral strength. It won't be anything like that anymore.
"It's the same manner of thinking, of appearing. It's the look. These days, appearing, seeming are more important than the fundamentals."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/04/europe/atease.php
We are tipping from one era to another.
The question is how will newspapers tip from Newspaper 1.0 to 2.0. I don't believe the web is the solution.
Lesson for iht.com/nytimes.com about community
I'm a big believer in one of the IHT's main problems being, because of its dispersed readership and no metropolitan or national base, its lack of community.
As www.iht.com migrates to www.nytimes.com those involved could do well to bear in mind this quote from one of the founders of Facebook, who is now heading up Obama's online activity:
"You can have the best technology in the world," he (Hughes) said, "but if you don't have a community who wants to use it and who are excited about it, then it has no purpose."
For the full article, you can find it here:
Obama draws on social network of support
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/06/business/hughes07.php
As www.iht.com migrates to www.nytimes.com those involved could do well to bear in mind this quote from one of the founders of Facebook, who is now heading up Obama's online activity:
"You can have the best technology in the world," he (Hughes) said, "but if you don't have a community who wants to use it and who are excited about it, then it has no purpose."
For the full article, you can find it here:
Obama draws on social network of support
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/06/business/hughes07.php
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