Washington Post Fires Froomkin

I was shocked today to hear of the firing of Dan Froomkin. He was one of the few remaining reasons that I still even read the Post.

Froomkin was one of the few left that speak truth to power. His original column, "White House Watch" ran afoul of the Bush White House due to his stringent criticism of Bush's policies on torture and warrantless wiretaping. And he has been equally hard (justifiably so) on the Obama Administration, which seems in so many depressing ways to just be a continuation of Bush.

Froomkin was the most read online columnist at the Post. The Post Ombudsman article relating the firing has about 140 comments in about 8 hours (a typical article has about half a dozen). Almost all of the commenters declare how much they appreciated Froomkin, and reflect the same shock and anger that I feel.

The question I just don't understand is: Why? Actually, I fear that I understand only too well.

I almost hope it is because he was running a porn ring from his office computer. That at least would be a reasonable cause for firing.

But the reason seems to be obvious from the corporate-speak ejaculation of the Post's PR flack:

“Editors and our research teams are constantly reviewing our online content to ensure we bring readers the most value when they are on our Web site while balancing the need to make the most of our resources. Regrettably, this means that sometimes features must be eliminated, and this time it was the blog that Dan Froomkin freelanced...”

That's about the same excuse that my ex-girlfriend gave me when she dumped me for a taller guy: "It's just not working out..."

The problem is that the Post is lurching to the Right. Since Katherine Graham died 8 years ago, her idiot son Donald has been running things. Donald Graham has none of the journalistic integrity and ethics that Katherine fostered. To him it's a business.

Actually, the Post newspaper is a money-loosing business. But the Washington Post Company owns a lot of non-newspaper businesses. Their biggest money maker is Kaplan Learning Services---the testing and scholastic materials company. Donald sees the Post newspaper as a way to promote his other businesses.

That's the horrifying part---the Post is not a newspaper anymore, but a corporate propaganda sheet.

So if the No Child Left Behind program has money for a program that would benefit Kaplan, then Donald will see to it that the paper publishes articles explaining to us joe-six-packs how great NCLB is and all about the wonderful synergistic partnership between NCLB and private companies such as Kaplan.

It's all part of the corporatocracy. Donald hires Neo-cons like Krauthammer, Kagan, Kristol, and former Bush stooges like Gerson and Kathleen Parker. Former thoughtful columnists like Richard Cohen and David Broder are now toeing the corporate line.

And true journalists like Froomkin are shown the door.

Can't Get Enough of This Story

You of course have heard about Beccah Beushausen, the 26 year old single girl that faked a pregnancy on the internet?

Her blog, littleoneapril.blogspot.com documented her experience of being Christian, single, and pregnant with a terminally ill baby. She claimed the baby had Trisomy 13, a fatal birth defect, but being a strong Christian anti-abortion type, she was going to have the little girl, which she named April after the month she was due.

This chick really went all out. She posted sonograms; she described doctor visits in great detail; she went on and on about the emotional roller coaster she was enduring. She had pictures of herself taken with a pregnant belly by a creepy outfit that specializes in pictures of mothers about to give birth to terminal babies called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. The website was adorned with beautiful artwork---pastel colored flowers type stuff. A post office box was provided for those so inspired by this young girl's struggle to send gifts and donations.

Evidently there is a whole blogosphere of proudly Christian mothers that document every glass of spilled milk that their precious offspring knock over, posting pictures for the world to drool over. This is a subculture with its own language and acronyms like SAHM (stay at home mom). This was a deep well that a moderately talented scammer could pump for a long time without fearing it would run dry.

And this chick was a talented scammer---a beautiful writer and gifted artist. Her site was getting thousands of hits a day. But her story was becoming difficult to manage. The baby was supposedly due in April. April came and went, and the baby was not born yet. She had to up the ante.

So, in her miraculous story, her baby survived a difficult birth. Friends were posting about how she and the baby were doing. There were serious complications, but it was a miracle that the baby was alive at all. The updates contained detailed information about the minute to minute prognoses.

A picture of the newborn appeard on the site, and that's where the downfall began. Evidently there is a another subculture of realistic doll makers. They take existing dolls and change them, paint them, add hair, and create very realistic doll infants. They are known as "reborn dolls"---it's a Wikipedia entry if you don't believe me. Of course, one of the followers of this blog recognized the picture of little April as the exact doll that she herself makes.

So now this Becca chick has discovered that Hell has no fury like Christian Blogging SAHMs. Before she could delete the evidence they had unleashed a torrent of anger and vengance around the Bloggosphere. It was so much anger and hatred that it almost approached one-thousandth of what you see outside your average abortion clinic.

Beccah lay low for a week, then gave a self-serving interview with the Chicago Tribune (with a Glamour Shot style picture of her looking pensively to the side). She then posted an apology on her site to all her former fans ("i am sorry" all in lowercase for maximum apologitic effect) which only enflamed everyone more. The apology was originally invitation only, then made open to all with comments (suprisingly forgiving comments), then she got tired of deleting all the nasty ones and just turned off comments. She claimed that she could not bring herself to read about herself, although the apology evolved over time to respond to comments on other blogs that she evidently was poring over.

Of course the story here is not about anti-abortion views, or single pregnancy, or Christian love, or Cuo-cou-for-Cocoa-Puffs artsy chicks. It's just a funny story.

First Post

I'm a long-time blog reader; first time blogger. So here is my first ever post---Enjoy:

What's in the news at this moment? War in Iraq, Election stolen in Iran, War in Afghanistan, Nukes in North Korea.

So I think I'll write about the David Letterman/Sarah Palin flap.

Point one is that what Letterman said was definitely in terrible taste. I didn't really think it was funny to suggest that any of Palin's (still teenage) daughters had sex with (adults) Alex Rodrigues or Eliot Spitzer. You shouldn't joke about a public official's kids, even if that public official shamelessly exploits their kids in campaign appearances, as Palin has done with all of her children and grandchild.

But here's what really annoys me---it's the POM in action. The Phony Outrage Machine.

The Phony Outrage Machine is run primarily by Fox News. The POM selects a target, then all the news, interviews, commentary, etc. is geared towards generating a gigantic reverberation of outrage in a huge echo chamber. Sean Hannity will have a blonde on to discuss the "issue" in his trademark santimonious manner; Bill O'Rielly will have two blondes on to discuss the issue, and Neil Cavuto will have a scrolling banner along the lowest portion of the screen, "David Letterman---Has He Gone Too Far?" Since this is the fair and balanced network, the banner always ends with a question mark, because, hey, they aren't necessarily saying he went too far; they're just askin', you know.

And Greta Van Susteren will have Sarah Palin on herself to keep the outrage alive, never mentioning that her husband John Coale serves as an advisor to the Palin campaign.

We need to realize two things---one is about David Letterman, and the other is about Sarah Palin.

Letterman is a comedian. He is in show business. He is not in politics, at least not in any way that I know of. I have no way of knowing if he is a Democrat or Republican.

Letterman's joke, while in terrible taste, is simply true to a standard Letterman-style comedic construct: Briefly discuss a current happenning (Palin's New York visit) and suddenly end it with a shocking incongruity (her daughter had sex with some famous New Yorker known for sexual transgressions). The humor is derrived from the sudden jump from the mundane to the shocking. This is Letterman's standard humour technique. It is a ruder style than, say, Jay Leno, but maybe that's simply the New York humor. Usually I find it funny (not in this case, however).

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is a politician. Her party nominated her for the second highest office in the United States. If elected, she would have been one 72 year old cancer survivor's heartbeat away from being President.

When Hillary briefly showed a tear during her own campaign, the POM jumped all over her. "How can we expect her to stand up to Al Qaeda if she breaks down in tears during a speech?" I think the same should be said about Sarah Palin in this episode.

I certainly understand Palin's desire to protect her daughters from public insult and ridicule, but she seems determined to keep the outrage alive. Going on the the Matt Lauer show and accusing Letterman of being a pervert was really just too much. Letterman may not be funny to some, but there is no reason to think he is a pervert. I certainly believe him when he said that he was refering to the older daughter Bristol.

And if you think it is simply over the line to make the joke about Bristol, I guess I still agree---but there is overwhelming issues of hypocrisy that cannot be ignored. Bristol did in fact pregnant out of wedlock while her mother was promoting the idea that the best way (actually the only acceptable way) to stop teen pregnancy is to teach abstinance. Bristol and baby Track were prominately displayed during Sarah's campaign (when she, Bristol, should have been back in Alaska caring for her baby and attempting to graduate from high school). After the campaign, Bristol casts herself as self-appointed spokesperson for preventing teenage pregnancies (motto: Don't end up like me!), pausing only to go on morning TV shows to refute what she says are slanders promoted by the baby's father, her ex-fiancee.

So, while Letterman's joke was definitely over the line, there still is, in fact, a good joke in all that!