Grief: “The feeling of it is like a landscape engulfed in floodwater in the pitch darkness, and everything, hearth and byre, animal and human, terrified and threatened. It is as if someone, some great agency, some CIA of the heavens, knew well the little mechanism that I am, and how it is wrapped and fixed, and has the booklet or manual to undo me, and cog by cog and wire by wire is doing so, with no intention ever to put me back together again…”
“I’m a poet now, searching for the extraordinary, trying to express it in ordinary, everyday words.”
“The truth is that, however painful it is to admit it, at some time or other, all men are deceived by their wives. It’s like the menopause: it may come sooner or later; but nobody gets away scot-free.”
“Don Gaetano’s stories were abundant, and they fit inside a single person. He used to say it was because he had lived below, and stories are water that flows to the bottom of the slope. Man is a basin that collects stories – the lower he is, the more he receives.”
Wagga Wagga severs ties with Chinese sister city over 'death and destruction' from coronavirus
Where “it never hurts to ask” collides with “desperation is a bad look.”
UPDATE (FROM THE COMMENTS): “Talk about desperation, the sudden influx of pro-China accounts on Twitter is impossible to miss. It’s probably similar on other social networks. If you didn’t think they were desperate before you couldn’t help but think so now.”
SO WITH TRUMP VOWING TO CUT OFF FUNDING TO THE W.H.O. over its China-puppet status, Rob George has the perfect tweet
Coalition MPs call for review of Australia's WHO funding
A group of Coalition backbenchers has called for a review of Australia's funding to the World Health Organisation following Donald Trump's decision to halt US financial support to the global body.
A group of Coalition backbenchers has called for a review of Australia's funding to the World Health Organisation following Donald Trump's decision to halt US financial support to the global body.
NYC Death Toll Soars Past 10,000 in Revised Virus Count. The city has added more than 3,700 additional people who were presumed to have died of the coronavirus but had never tested positive
The Capture review: Is Big Brother doing more than just watching you ...
The Sydney Morning Herald-26 Mar 2020
The series opens with Emery on trial for a war crime, the execution of an unarmed civilian in Afghanistan. In a scenario ripped straight from recent ...
'If you live with wolves, you'll become a wolf'
As a foreign journalist in Afghanistan, I have an extensive list of dos and don'ts. Threatening a Kabul cop in broad daylight is definitely high on my list of don'ts. I was beginning to suspect Laila didn't have a list at all.
A union for tax officials is calling for the Tax Office to pay for computer monitors and transport for chairs it says are needed to make working from home safer for staff.
The Australian Services Union has said it will call in the Commonwealth's workplace regulator if the Australian Taxation Office doesn't address the problems it has raised about work health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However the ATO has said it is following the advice and guidance from the federal Department of Health and the public service commission in its response to COVID-19.
ASU official Jeff Lapidos has written to the Tax Office saying the agency should fund the computer monitors and the transport of work chairs to home offices with money saved through the government's freeze on public service pay rises.
A union for tax officials is calling for the Tax Office to pay for computer monitors and transport for chairs it says are needed to make working from home safer for staff.
The Australian Services Union has said it will call in the Commonwealth's workplace regulator if the Australian Taxation Office doesn't address the problems it has raised about work health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However the ATO has said it is following the advice and guidance from the federal Department of Health and the public service commission in its response to COVID-19.
ASU official Jeff Lapidos has written to the Tax Office saying the agency should fund the computer monitors and the transport of work chairs to home offices with money saved through the government's freeze on public service pay rises.
ALEX MITCHELL: The Ruby Princess scandal and Liberal Party links
The Ruby Princess scandal is not going away anytime soon. Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her key ministers may have perfectly plausible explanations for their role in the spread of the killer virus, COVID-19, from the luxury liner after it berthed in Sydney Harbour. Does anyone believe them? Continue reading
SUSAN CONNELLY. The World is Full of Scapegoats
Compromised politicians, muted religions, a distracted and increasingly partisan media and a malleable crowd combine in another tragedy. Scapegoating it is, but thanks to the Gospel it is not destined for seamless success. Continue reading
Magec rods are supposed to
straighten the spine, but after expert warnings, the controversial therapy has been banned in
the United Kingdom. The device, featured in our Implant Files
investigation, was approved for general use after scant testing. Britain
imposed an immediate, indefinite ban on all Magec rods last month.
Our look at the coronavirus
this week comes from senior data reporter Agustin Armendariz – a self-confessed
data skeptic. There is a huuuuuuuuge amount of data floating
around at the moment - especially when you start to survey all the various data
points across the world. Agustin takes a moment to really ask: what is it all
telling us? And how much can we trust?
COVID AND TAXES
We don’t normally re-up our stories, but I think this one is pretty important. If you missed our story last week about the effect tax evasion and avoidance is having on the world’s response to the coronavirus, here it is. And, if you read it… why not share it with a mate?When Truth Resembles Apocalyptic Fiction
Novelist Waubgeshig Rice: “It kind of blew my mind. … I wrote that plot point of Moon of the Crusted Snow just as a what if, not as a how-to guide.” – CBC
JERUSALEM—Roman authorities are investigating controversial religious leader Jesus of Nazareth for violating the Empire's clear "stay in tomb" order. After crucifying him and laying him in the tomb, Roman guards put Him under strict orders to stay there and not come back, rising victorious over sin and death.
But Jesus, answering to a higher authority, refused to stay dead and busted out of the tomb, establishing a kingdom that would never end -- again, in clear violation of the government's orders.
"Jesus is a dangerous rebel, refusing to bend the knee to Caesar and not abiding by the law of sin and death," said one Roman official. "He clearly broke the law by leaving the tomb, and we're going to be issuing a citation and placing him under mandatory quarantine for these crimes."
Trivializing Alexander Calder was all too easy, as if he were a naïf who stumbled onto success. That undersells his ambition and his intellectual rigor Underselling Jeremies
French pensioner ejected from fighter jet after accidentally grabbing bang seat* handle The Register
One lesson from the coronavirus is that we need leaders who prevent crises more than we need managers who scramble to handle them
Wall Street Journal op-ed: Covid-19 was a Leadership Test. It Came Back Negative., by Sam Walker (author, The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World’s Greatest Teams (2018))
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Analysis Reveals Most US Jobs Simply Can’t Be Done From Home.
What inclines even me to believe in Christ's Resurrection? It is as though I play with the thought. -- If he did not rise from the dead, then he decomposed in the grave like any other man. He is dead and decomposed. In that case he is a teacher like any other and can no longer help; and once more we are orphaned and alone. So we have to content ourselves with wisdom and speculation. We are in a sort of hell where we can do nothing but dream, roofed in, as it were, and cut off from heaven. But if I am to be REALLY saved, -- what I need is certainty -- not wisdom, dreams or speculation -- and this certainty is faith. And faith is faith in what is needed by my heart, my soul, not my speculative intelligence. For it is my soul with its passions, as it were with its flesh and blood, that has to be saved, not my abstract mind. Perhaps we can say: Only love can believe the Resurrection. Or: It is love that believes the Resurrection. We might say: Redeeming love believes even in the Resurrection; holds fast even to the Resurrection. What combats doubt is, as it were, redemption. Holding fast to this must be holding fast to that belief. So what that means is: first you must be redeemed and hold on to your redemption (keep hold of your redemption) -- then you will see that you are holding fast to this belief. So this can come about only if you no longer rest your weight on the earth but suspend yourself from heaven. Then everything will be different and it will be 'no wonder' if you can do things that you cannot do now. (A man who is suspended looks the same as one who is standing, but the interplay of forces within him is nevertheless quite different, so that he can act quite differently than can a standing man.)
President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, April 14, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Bloomberg News founder Michael Bloomberg. (KGC-254/STAR MAX)
Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times. (AP Photo/Ted Anthony)
Actress Angelina Jolie. (Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Analysis Reveals Most US Jobs Simply Can’t Be Done From Home.
HE IS RISEN! Eight Reasons To Believe – HillFaith.
Here is something from Ludwig Wittgenstein (I particularly like his differentiation of beliefand faith):
Here is something from Ludwig Wittgenstein (I particularly like his differentiation of beliefand faith):
The curious case of the White House press conferences
President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, April 14, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
If a media writer were so inclined, he or she could write about
the White House coronavirus press conferences every day. Every single day.
Each day, it’s something — another testy exchange between
President Donald Trump and a journalist, more dubious Trump claims that send
fact-checkers scrambling and a bunch of other oddball moments unlike anything
we’ve ever seen before in the White House briefing room. Tuesday’s newser from
the Rose Garden was more of the same.
The press conferences have become simultaneously newsworthy and
repetitive. So, too, have the media columns and newsletters — like this one —
if they focus on the press conferences every day.
The point: While there are interesting media nuggets in the
briefings, media writers can’t write about it every day. Political reporters
have to cover it. News outlets must cover it. But not media writers.
Yet by not writing about it, there might be a sense that you’re
missing the big media story of the day or a guilty feeling that you’re ignoring
critical moments in our history.
There’s no question that these press conferences have turned
into something more than just updating the public on the latest coronavirus
data, government responses and future plans. Much of that can be blamed on the
president. But what role has the media played? And can anything be done to make
the press conferences more productive?
First, any reasonable person should acknowledge that President
Trump is using the coronavirus news conferences as, in part, campaign rallies.
Because the coronavirus has left him unable to hit the road and give stump
speeches, the daily press briefings allow him to get his message out to the
American people. This clearly matters to him, as he often talks about his
“ratings.” Much of his briefings are used to talk about how well he has handled
the crisis.
The
Washington Post’s Ashley Parker wrote, “Yet in the middle of this deadly
pandemic that shows no obvious signs of abating, the president made clear that
the paramount concern for Trump is Trump — his self-image, his media coverage,
his supplicants and his opponents, both real and imagined.”
You would think that the president and his team are so pressed
for time that they don’t have two hours each day to spare. But Trump has
clearly made these briefings a priority, as he is out there front and center
every day.
The debate rages on about whether networks should air the briefings
in their entirety. Two networks — Fox News and C-SPAN — typically show the
whole thing. CNN and MSNBC cut in and out, mostly showing them. The major
networks rarely show them because they conflict with the evening news. I cannot
see a scenario in which every network will just suddenly stop airing them.
But, what about the length? It feels odd to argue for less
access, but perhaps these news conferences would stay focused and be more
productive if they were closer to 30 or 45 minutes. Because it seems unlikely
that the president is eager to cut the news conferences off after a half-hour,
it would be left up to those in attendance to do their best to limit the
length.
That, too, seems unlikely.
With so many outlets in attendance, all working on various aspects
of the coronavirus story, it’s unlikely the press corps would be organized
enough to come up with a plan to limit the number of their own questions.
Trump supporters might argue that the media is using a portion
of these briefings to antagonize the president. But while not every question
has been perfect — and there might be examples of questions intended to get
under the president’s skin — most of the questions have been valid. Trump’s
biggest blow-ups have come when he is fairly challenged and cannot defend his
actions or inactions.
Because of Trump’s desire to hold daily press conferences and
because it seems unlikely that the White House media can coordinate a unified
plan for how to handle the Q&A portion of the daily briefings, expect more
the same.
But, fair warning, it’s just not something that media writers
can write about every day.
Bloomberg’s bad look
Bloomberg News founder Michael Bloomberg. (KGC-254/STAR MAX)
This is bad: Six years ago, Bloomberg News killed an
investigation into the wealth of some of the top members of the Communist Party
in China because it was afraid the Chinese government would retaliate. This is
bad, too: Bloomberg News tried to get the wife of one of the reporters to sign
a non-disclosure agreement so she couldn’t talk about it. This explosive story
was broken
by NPR.
Bloomberg did a story in 2012 on the finances of China’s richest
man, Wang Jianlin, and the family of Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the time,
Bloomberg’s founder, Michael Bloomberg, was mayor of New York City. A follow-up
story was eventually quashed. NPR has audio of Bloomberg News editor-in-chief
Matthew Winkler, on a conference call, saying, “It is for sure going to, you
know, invite the Communist Party to, you know, completely shut us down and kick
us out of the country. So, I just don’t see that as a story that is justified.”
One of the reporters on the story was Mike Forsythe. After the
initial story, Forsythe received death threats and Bloomberg News moved him and
his wife from Beijing to Hong Kong. After killing the follow-up story,
Bloomberg News tried to get reporters who had worked on the story to sign
nondisclosure agreements, as well as trying to get one from Forsythe’s wife,
Leta Hong Fincher.
She told NPR, “They assumed that because I was the wife of their
employee, I was the wife. I was just an appendage of their employee. I was not
a human being.”
Bloomberg News ultimately suspended Forsythe after accusing him
of leaking the whole controversy to other news outlets. He was eventually
fired. He’s now an investigative reporter at The New York Times.
Check out the NPR story for more of the details, including
Michael Bloomberg’s complicated relationship between being a politician and the
owner of a media company.
Why wait?
Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times. (AP Photo/Ted Anthony)
Relatively new New York Times media writer Ben
Smith has a compelling interview with a newspaper editor about why it took
that editor’s paper 19 days to
report a sexual assault allegation against Democratic presidential
candidate Joe Biden. It just so happens that Smith’s interview is with his boss
— the Times’ Dean Baquet. And give Smith credit, he asked good questions.
On March 25, a woman named Tara Reade accused Biden of
assaulting her in 1993. But the Times didn’t run a story until April 12. Smith
asked Baquet what took so long, and Baquet showed transparency in explaining
the Times’ thought process.
“ … mainly I thought that what The New York Times could offer
and should try to offer was the reporting to help people understand what to
make of a fairly serious allegation against a guy who had been a vice president
of the United States and was knocking on the door of being his party’s
nominee,” Baquet told Smith.
That’s where things get complicated. Biden was still in a battle
(although in control) with Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination from
March 25 until Sanders dropped out on April 8.
Baquet told Smith, “I thought the biggest obligation we had,
frankly, was to the story and to having multiple conversations with Tara Reade.
And to be honest at that point it wasn’t like we were in a heated race with the
clock ticking. The main obligation was to get a really sensitive story as close
to right as we could.”
It’s an interesting interview by Smith that did a good job of
getting Baquet to pull back the curtain on the story.
In addition, check out Times opinion columnist Michelle
Goldberg, who wrote, “What
to Do with Tara Reade’s Allegation Against Joe Biden.”
Trouble in L.A.
The grim news in local journalism continues. The latest came
Tuesday when the company that owns the Los Angeles Times announced furloughs
for up to 16 weeks to those on the business side (non-newsroom). And it’s
possible some of those employees — around 40 in all — will be laid off at the
end of the furloughs.
The reason? It’s starting to sound familiar. In a memo to staff,
Chris Argentieri — president of the California Times, which owns the LA Times
and San Diego Union-Tribune — said, “Due to the unexpected effects of Covid-19,
our advertising revenue has nearly been eliminated.”
According
to The New York Times’ Marc Tracy, Argentieri told LA Times staffers, “The
Times has lost more than one-third of its advertising revenue and expects to
lose more than half of its advertising revenue in the coming months.”
In addition to the furloughs, senior leadership in both
editorial and business departments at the LA Times and San Diego Union-Tribune
will take a pay cut, perhaps as much as 15% for three months.
The new normal
Time and again, I’ve pointed readers of this newsletter to the
elite coronavirus coverage being done by The Atlantic. Among the most
insightful reads is science writer Ed Yong. His latest piece — “Our
Pandemic Summer” — looks at what our new normal might look like when we get
back to so-called normal. In other words, there might not be a normal again, at
least not for a long time.
One health expert told Yong, “I think people haven’t understood
that this isn’t about the next couple of weeks. This is about the next two
years.”
It’s another must-read piece that lays out exactly what summer
and beyond might look like, based on the science and the models. And you might
not like the answer to “When will things go back to normal?”
Yong writes, “As the rest of the U.S. comes to terms with the
same restless impermanence, it must abandon the question When do we go back to
normal? That outlook ignores the immense disparities in what different
Americans experience as normal. It wastes the rare opportunity to reimagine
what a fairer and less vulnerable society might look like. It glosses over the
ongoing nature of the coronavirus threat. There is no going back. The only way
out is through — past a turbulent spring, across an unusual summer, and into an
unsettled year beyond.”
Speaking of The Atlantic …
Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Barton Gellman has joined The
Atlantic as a staff writer. He is best known for breaking the story of National
Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden for The Washington Post. The
Atlantic said Gellman, who was at The Post for more than 20 years, will start
by focusing on covering the coronavirus pandemic and the government’s response
to the crisis.
It’s just another sign of The Atlantic’s commitment to covering
the coronavirus, and it’s paying off. The Atlantic reports that, in March, it
more than doubled its previous one-month audience record with 87 million unique
visitors and more than 168 million pageviews. It also has added 36,000 new
subscribers even though most of its coronavirus coverage has been free.
Brit Hume’s new role
Aside from his various duties as Fox News’ senior political
analyst, Brit Hume has now taken up an unofficial role as a media critic. And
Trump defender.
Certainly, he has the right to comment on anything he likes, but
it should be noted that he has spent the past few days criticizing the media
while, seemingly, defending President Trump.
In a strange tweet Tuesday, Hume seemed to frown on the media
for reacting to things Trump actually said. He
tweeted:
“POTUS claims of absolute power in Covid 19 emergency are
constitutional nonsense, another of his serial exaggerations. The reaction to
them are another case of media’s insistent focus on the stuff he says, as if
that is more important than what he actually does.”
Hume followed that tweet with
another that said there’s no indication Trump will exercise total authority
… even though he said he has that right, which he does not. (Trump did back
away from that stance Tuesday.)
This just comes off as odd commentary from Hume, a media member
himself. The gist of Hume’s comments appear to be that the media should know
better than to listen to someone who says a bunch of things that aren’t true.
Instead of taking the media to task for reporting on some of the outrageous
things Trump says, shouldn’t he be taking Trump to task for saying outrageous
things? It’s not as if Trump is some conspiracy theorist or cable TV host
looking for ratings. He’s the president of the United States.
Hume’s comments follow what has often been a talking point from
those inside the administration: Don’t pay attention to what the president
says, but what he does.
In recent days, Hume also criticized
media questions in the White House press conferences, the banners
CNN puts on its screen during press conferences and The
New York Times’ coverage of the sexual assault allegations against Joe
Biden as compared to its coverage of the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.
Again, Hume has the right to express his opinion however he
likes about whatever he wants, but he is considered more of a reporter than
pundit and those Twitter comments come off as biased punditry.
Hot type
Actress Angelina Jolie. (Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)
- Angelina Jolie has an interview with Mariane Pearl, the widow of journalist Daniel Pearl, about overcoming trauma and the search for truth.
- Wow. This is really good. The New York Times with a 3D simulation that shows why social distancing is so important. (And why six feet might not be enough.)
- Stuck at home and hungry? Opening up the fridge and seeing a bunch of opened condiment bottles and jars? How long does that stuff last anyway? The Washington Post’s Becky Krystal has the answers.
- The New York Times’ Glenn Thrush with Barack Obama’s endorsement of Joe Biden for president.