text stringlengths 10 78.4k |
|---|
Mr Sunil and his family was released from jail on 1995. The government of India maintained it had been taken into custody in order to protect them from attacks by Indians outraged by the assassination of their prime minister. |
Nevertheless, even after two decades, some refugees who had been taken into jail like Mr Sunil and his family are still imprisoned in Vellore and Puzhal in Tamil Nadu even though, Mr Sunil says, they had proved they had no LTTE connections. |
When asked about such Sri Lankan refugee prisoners in India, the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Resettlement said it was aware of this fact and was in talks with New Delhi. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is facilitating the return of Sri Lankan refugees, said it could not comment as th... |
Good Riddance to the MSM? |
On October 27 I was part of the "Intelligence Squared" debate series, squaring off with NPR's John Hockenberry, Politico's Jim VandeHei, and Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff about the future of media. My side of the debate - with fine debating partners, David Carr of the New York Times and Phil Bronstein of the San ... |
On October 27 I was part of the "Intelligence Squared" debate series, squaring off with NPR’s John Hockenberry, Politico‘s Jim VandeHei, and Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff about the future of media. My side of the debate – with fine debating partners, David Carr of the New York Times and Phil Bronstein of the San ... |
As The Nations editor and publisher it was an unusual position for me to take given how regularly the magazine criticizes the MSM’S missteps. But the values and virtues of a vigilant, powerful press are more critical now than ever and the answer to media bias and infotainment is not to throw "the baby out with the bath... |
The debate was lively, and at times contentious, with Carr quickly emerging as the star of the evening. He is an extraordinary and idiosyncratic character — a cross between a figure out of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet and Clark Kent with a deep, gravelly voice colored by life’s vicissitudes. He employed a highly effective... |
Wolff himself did his team no favors with a generally rude and insulting posture that seemed to alienate much of the audience. It also distracted people from some strong arguments put forth by his partner Hockenberry, who was valiant in his passionate defense of the first amendment. |
Phil Bronstein was equally passionate about the critical need for the MSM to continue functioning. He eloquently explained why big institutions were critical to take on unaccountable mega-corporations and unchecked government abuses. In the Q&A session, a woman, who just happened to be the chief counsel for the Hearst ... |
Each debater began with an opening statement. Read mine below and below that are video highlights from the evening; the entire event will be broadcast, re-broadcast and streamed on NPR affiliates around the country and at NPR.org. Thanks to Intelligence Squared for inviting me to participate in such a spirited and inte... |
I never imagined that as editor and publisher of The Nation I’d be standing **Against** the resolution: "good riddance to the mainstream media." for 144 years, the nation has challenged the limits, exposed the flaws of the msm; in fact, we’ve chronicled the msm’s corporate consolidation which –through the gutting of ne... |
But these are times when as an old media guy antonio Gramsci would say, the old media order may be dying, but a new one is not yet born. That’s why I believe to state without nuance **good riddance to the msm** may get the testosterone flowing but it distracts from the tough work of salvaging AND reviving quality journ... |
So I am ready to separate my frustration with the many weaknesses of the msm from a recognition of the valuable role it plays in our democracy. The best of the msm–look at last 15 years of pulitzers–has exposed, shamed, reformed, rectified. |
Don’t get me wrong. Few people were more frustrated than i was with the msm’s coverage of –well, to take a few examples: the 2000 election debacle, the run up to last year’s financial meltdown and most centrally, the Iraq war. With important exceptions the msm acted more as stenographers to power than the independent-m... |
Even worse, the reporting of the war was not exactly an isolated incident. Up until hurricane Katrina, it was almost impossible for reporters and editors to tell the truths that many of them spoke of privately about the degree of incompetence, ideological obsession, corruption, and politicization inside the bush admini... |
But the fact is, we can’t let our emotions, whether on the right or the left, get in the way of our better judgment. And from the standpoint of the health of our democracy, for all the frustration it causes us, the msm is something we can’t live without–at least until we have some idea of what’s going to replace it. An... |
The fact is nobody but institutions like the ny times, the wash post, the wall street journal–excluding its nutty editorial pages–and a small group of regional papers do most of the reporting in this country that the rest of us depend on to try to hold power accountable. And while mistakes (often arrogant, infuriating ... |
Here’s another reason not say good riddance to the msm. For all their flaws, in a flawed world, newspapers at their best try to provide a check on corruption and crooked politicians. Without this check, as David Simon, former crime reporter for the baltimore sun and creator of the wire, mused : "oh, to be a state or lo... |
What’s more, we need to consider what will become of those people, both at home and abroad, who depend on such journalistic enterprises to keep them safe from various forms of torture, oppression, and injustice. "people do awful things to each other," the veteran war photographer george guthrie says in "night and day,"... |
And the problem goes further than just what gets reported and what doesn’t and can be seen not only at the level of the great national newspapers but also at the local level. A recent study of the consequences of the shutdown of the cincinnati post in 2007 found a decline in the number of people voting in local electio... |
If the current journalistic model is unsustainable, and i think it is. Then it’s up to those in our society who care about the continued ability to function as a democracy–to keep the powerful even remotely accountable to the rest of us–to find ways to fund reporting and ensure the dissemination of reliable information... |
To imagine that philanthropy or other hybrids–for profit, low profit, can fill all the gaps arising from journalistic cutbacks is wishful thinking. Especially if we believe quality journalism and indpt reporting is a public good. |
So the fundamental problem remains. Without powerful media institutions to take on the powerful on behalf of the rest of us, we become more vulnerable as a society to those who would use their influence for private gain, damn the public consequences. We need a plan B. And we don’t have one yet. Which come to think of i... |
Vote against the resolution: "good riddance to the mainstream media." |
A woman is critically ill after being hit by a bus in Tulse Hill, south London. |
The 37-year-old pedestrian suffered serious head injuries in the rush-hour collision in Norwood Road yesterday afternoon. |
Emergency services were called shortly before 5pm and the woman was taken to hospital where she remains in a critical condition. |
The driver of the route 322 bus stopped at the scene. |
Police are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to call 020 8543 5157 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.