I’m Not The Only One

I didn’t know who Ellis Henican was before he wrote a scathing column about bloggers earlier this month.  The piece titled, “The Perils of Bathrobe Reporting” begins with a focus on the “pesky” nature of facts.

“They have this maddening habit of refusing to present themselves.

Often — and I know this from many years of wrestling facts as newspaper reporter and columnist — you have to go outside and grab the jumpy suckers one by one. Then, you have to shine a light in their eyes and slap ’em upside the head, stunning them long enough for the rest of the world to get a good, clear view and start to figure out exactly what these particular facts might mean.”

First of all, fact-finding is not as difficult as Henican describes above.  This couldn’t be more of an exaggeration.  It’s natural to regard one’s own profession as the best or better than others, but the passage above is really going too far.

Unlike most bloggers, I have a significant background as a journalist.  From 2000 to 2007 I worked as an intern, editor, photographer, staff reporter, columnist and later as a freelance reporter,  Henican speaks about journalism with all the naive enthusiasm of a journalism major-in other words, someone who has never stepped into a real newsroom in his life.  I can think of a few members of this “noble profession” who didn’t find facts to be that pesky, especially when these facts can be complete works of fiction or worse, copied word for word from the works of other journalists and passed off as their own: (more…)

Now that Sen. Hillary Clinton’s appointment to Secretary of State in the Obama Administration is almost a done deal, it seems that Caroline Kennedy, whose only claim to fame or a political career consists of being the daughter of martyred President John F. Kennedy, appears to be a very likely appointee to fill Clinton’s New York Senate seat.

Already she has begun campaigning for a vote of one in Harlem, the same State senate district New York Governor David Paterson used to represent.  Not surprisingly, New York City’s own self-appointed “black leader”, Al Sharpton took Caroline out to lunch at Sylvia’s, a restaurant in Harlem known locally as one of the few soul food joints in the world white people aren’t afraid to walk into. Scores of white politicians, including the Clintons, have enjoyed photo ops and overpriced soul food at Sylvia’s to show the press how much they care about the African-American community.  No word as of yet if Caroline plans to further impress the Governor by hawking shea butter and incense on 125th Street. (more…)

A few days ago I received an interesting piece of mail which reminded me why I should be proud to be an American.

This piece of mail was from Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere or CARE, a nonprofit that appears to only care about impoverished females in Third World countries.  Not being a woman, I’m not sure why an organization that only serves women would solicit donations from me; I guess they’re really desperate.  CARE’s letter informed me of their campaign in Africa against female genital cutting (FGC).  CARE President Dr. Helene Gayle wrote a very compelling and occasionally graphic four-page letter describing what FGC is, the gruesome manner in which the procedure is executed, why FGC exists at all and the myriad short and long-term health risks and psychological damage done to the young girls whose clitorises (or is it clitori?) are carved out of their bodies.  What CARE does is go to these villages and “educate” the tribal elders on the medical dangers of FGC and how it permanently damages the victim psycholgically, etc., etc.

As graphic and compelling as Dr. Gayle’s story was, even if I wasn’t broke I wouldn’t be compelled to send them any money.  Here are a few reasons why: (more…)