The New News Landscape: Rise of the Internet

We're number three. Not really too fucking shabby for a bunch of monkeys with keyboards.

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Note: Headline links to source. Clicking on image will enlarge it (usually).

Do you have a clue where your info comes from?

Granted, most news sources give attribution, but Yahoo! News, Google News, USA Today, the Times (all of them), etc often pull from the same source...AP or Reuters.

That's why my last post had so many exactly the same headlines.

This is why I search other sources of news. Sources which may have a different angle or slant and, I assume, a modicum of research to verify accuracy.

Not to degrade AP or Reuters. I also assume they do their homework.

Just be aware of your sources. They may not be plural.

Ain't it the truth

In case your eyes are old and tired like mine, it reads:

EVENING NEWS IS WHERE THEY BEGIN WITH 'GOOD EVENING' AND THEN PROCEED TO TELL YOU WHY IT ISN'T.

(via Jonco)

Reuters has a little problem

Apparently someone forgot to translate this one. Or someone posted it to the wrong Reuters site. This one is supposed to be in English.

Uganda: 1500 Kindersoldaten Opfer von Polit-Poker

In Uganda

Caritas - Germany Freiburg, 12. Februar 2007. Eine sofortige Freilassung der 1500 ugandischen Kindersoldaten, die sich noch immer in Händen der Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) befinden, fordert Caritas international. „ ...

(read more...if you can)

This story illustrates how boring the news is right now

Actually, boring isn't exactly right, but repetitive and silly (the astronaut love triangle?). Actually some of the reports of talks between various groups is boring. None have reached a point where anything of substance has come out.

(Update below)

I love this. if the purpose to marry is procreation, as fundies insist, there should be consequences if a couple doesn't and those incapable should be denied marriage. So an organization in Washington State has presented an initiative to the Secretary of State.

This will go down in flames at the polls, but its sorta fun to push fundie's buttons.

Ballot Title
Statement of Subject: Initiative Measure No. 957 concerns eligibility for marriage.

Concise Description: This measure would limit marriage to those couples who are biologically capable of having children together, and would invalidate the marriages of couples who fail to procreate children within three years after marrying.

Ballot Measure Summary
This measure would restrict marriage to a male and a female who are capable of having children together. Couples would be required to declare their ability to procreate children together in order to obtain marriage licenses. If a couple failed to procreate children within three years of marriage, their marriage would be subject to annulment. All other marriages would be defined as “unrecognized.” Persons in unrecognized marriages would be ineligible to receive any marriage benefits.

(read more)

From the the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance press release>

The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance (WA-DOMA) announced on Thursday that their proposed initiative to make procreation a requirement for legal marriage has been accepted by the Secretary of State and assigned the serial number 957. The initiative has been in the planning stages since the Washington Supreme Court ruled last July that the state’s Defense of Marriage Act was constitutional.

“For many years, social conservatives have claimed that marriage exists solely for the purpose of procreation,” said WA-DOMA organizer Gregory Gadow in a printed statement. “The Washington Supreme Court echoed that claim in their lead ruling on Andersen v. King County. The time has come for these conservatives to be dosed with their own medicine. If same-sex couples should be barred from marriage because they can not have children together, it follows that all couples who can not or will not have children together should equally be barred from marriage. And this is what the Defense of Marriage Initiative will do.”

Mr. Gadow also stated, “Our agenda is to shine a very bright light on the injustice and prejudice that underlie the Andersen decision by giving that decision the full force of law.

If passed by Washington voters, I-957 would:

* add the phrase, “who are capable of having children with one another” to the legal definition of marriage;
* require that couples married in Washington file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage automatically annulled;
* require that couples married out of state file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage classed as “unrecognized;”
* establish a process for filing proof of procreation; and
* make it a criminal act for people in an unrecognized marriage to receive marriage benefits.

Update: I need to clarify the use of the word "silly" in reference to the astronaut love triangle. This appears to be, at least, a case of stalking and possibly a case of intent to murder. Neither of those is silly at all. They are quite serious.

I used the word "silly" to reflect the fact every single news outlet is giving more attention to this than is deserved, probably because of the astronaut angle. I'm sure this sort of thing is happening all the time with other people and those incidences never get into national and international news sources.

(read more)

When is news just a headline?

Who, what, when, where and why?

No idea of casualties, mission or how many in crew. Thanks for the detailed report, MSM.

A U.S. military helicopter went down in Iraq Friday, the third in the past two weeks, an officer confirmed. Maj. David Small, a spokesman at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., said he had no details on possible casualties, what mission the helicopter was supporting, nor how many were in the crew.

(read more)