In Other News

So I've been so glued to AJE tensely watching Egypt that I definitely forgot the rest of the world existed.
Believe it or not, Ash, things are still happening in places that aren't Cairo.

Let's look at some, shall we?

-Australia--you're falling apart! First brutal flooding, then no-longer-cyclone Yasi hits the flooded areas, and now an area near Perth is a disaster zone because of wildfires? I know you're a scrappy people, and these things happen every year, but... do they happen this bad?
And if so...can no one take a hint and move to somewhere that ISN'T totally insane? You're starting to look like California.

-Speaking of Australia, oh hey, remember Julian Assange? His Swedish extradition hearing is happening right now. The Guardian's liveblogging it, as they do--or you could follow the amazing in-court Tweeting journalists direct!

-Speaking of countries completely bent over by the elements, Greeks take to the streets to protest the austerity measures enacted to try and dig them out of the scariest economic clusterf*ck in recent memory. Which is really saying something lately.

-here in North America, the snowpocalypse happened. With apologies to those in Dallas having heart attacks, everyone up here in Canada was vaguely disappointed when it failed to meet the hype on our end. I, however, was thrilled to hear gems like 'snowmageddon', 'icetastrophe', and 'SnowMG' coming from the good ol' mainstream media. Because now I have proof that everyone is as lame as I am, and institutions care nothing about the sanctity of the English language. My plan is working perfectly.

-Here in Canada specifically, some jerkoffs summarily executed a hundred sled dogs in Whistler. The only good to come of this is a serious look at the seriously outdated and undertoothed Canadian animal cruelty laws, so this nonsense doesn't happen again.

-Also the collective petitioning and small-business-WTF?!-ing got the CRTC internet cap reversed. Phew!

-The new 'elected' president of Burma is.....a high-ranking member of the brutal and ridiculous ruling Junta. No way!

this is what bad news looks like.

-In an outstandingly awkward paparazzi moment, someone took photos of an "uncontacted tribe" of the Amazon rainforest. Naturally, because these people have been trying to avoid the involvement of Western society, they're all over the internet. Funny how much coverage is necessary for a movement that's trying to get people to leave them alone.
In related Amazon news, the climate-crisis-triggered drought in 2010 has people legitimately worried that large swathes of the rainforest are dying off at an alarming rate. I'd really love it if that didn't happen.

-In Haiti, they tossed out the provisional (and highly contested) election results, and are setting up a likely-more-legitimate runoff sans Celestin. They're also prepping for Presidential Problems 4: Return of Aristide.

-The Guardian is trying to convince people that the world is taking the African Union Summit seriously. I hope they're right, but considering how seriously some world powers are taking other big things that are happening in Africa right now, I have my doubts.

come on guys. that's lame. let him down.

-The South Sudanese secession referendum is over, and it looks overwhelmingly like we're gonna have a new country down there. Even head-jerk himself, President Omar Al Bashir, agrees. Time for another new map of Africa, I'm afraid. South Sudanese Independence Day July 9th, mark your calendars.

-A while ago, some jerk in Russia hooked a donkey up to parasail and sat back to see what happens. The donkey died. I hope he feels terrible. Donkeys are not for flying.

Fox "News" Skews truth to Avoid the Blues about Climate Change and Health Care

Or: Fox Management requires journalists to abandon sense, and instead mindrape their audiences.

That thud you heard was my forehead, hitting my desk.

A Fox News managing editor (one Mr. Bill Sammon) sent an email mere hours before the Copenhagen Climate Summit demanding that every time climate change was mentioned, reporters IMMEDIATELY said something to cast doubt on the veracity of global warming. From the Media Matters exposé:

"In addition to the email, it said Fox had tried to delegitimise the work of climate scientists in its coverage of the hacked emails from the University of East Anglia. The network had displayed a pattern of trying to skew coverage in favour of the fringe minority which doubts the existence of climate change, Media Matters said."

The email reads: "We should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question."

It goes on to say: "It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies."

...it's not your place as journalists to assert SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN FACTS as facts?!

I think I just threw up a little.

They were also at it in 2009 over the health care debate!

"At the height of the health care reform debate last fall, Bill Sammon, Fox News' controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network's journalists not to use the phrase 'public option.'

Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox's reporters should use "government option" and similar phrases -- wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats' reform efforts."

I mistakenly laboured under the impression that Fox News hired ready-made right-wingers--I never thought the management actually manufactured them.

If this is the state of First-Amendment-Protected news organizations, doesn't this make Wikileaks that much more important?