London's "Little Pyongyang"

North Korean defectors make a home in a London suburb. Do take a look at some of their stories, such as that of the former North Korean army officer who now runs the Free NK newspaper.

Quote of the Day: Charlie Hebdo

Time to repeat this fundamental point:

... it is vitally important to resist the impulse–so common among “responsible” institutions, whether foreign ministries or large newspapers–at a time like this to somehow imply that the victims brought their fate upon themselves and that the best line of defense against such attacks is to practice greater self-restraint in the future. ... That is giving the terrorists precisely what they want, indeed the very reason they carry out such attacks is to deter others from similar mockery in the future.

The right to offend is the very essence of free speech–and as long as a publication doesn’t incite violence (which neither Charlie Hebdo nor The Interview did) its right to say whatever it likes must be defended to the last inch.  That is, after all, the very bedrock of freedom upon which Western democracies rest–and the very opposite of the kind of totalitarian state that Islamists have created in Iran and a large chunk of Syria/Iraq.

Quote of the Day: Seymour Hersh on Modern Journalism

The old Pulitzer Prize winner is none too pleased with the current state of things.  Here's a piece of it:

"... the New York Times still has investigative journalists but they do much more of carrying water for the president than I ever thought they would … it's like you don't dare be an outsider any more."

A Cartoonist Vs. the AP and James Rosen Scandal

Indeed.  Click to enlarge for more detail.

All the President's Men

"Erdoğan Over the Edge"

Claire Berlinski is an American journalist living in Istanbul.  Do take a look at her account of the current tumult in Turkey.  A blurb:

"But in truth, these protests weren’t about the park or even about the shopping malls. They were about a people exhausted by Istanbul’s uncontrolled growth; by its relentless traffic; by the incessant noise (especially that of construction); by massive immigration from the countryside; by predatory construction companies—widely and for good reason believed to be in bed with the government—which have, over the past decade, destroyed a great deal of the city’s loveliness and cultural heritage. But most of all, they are about a nation’s fury with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s growing authoritarianism, symbolized by Istanbul’s omnipresent police ... "

Quote of the Day: Eric Holder's "Off the Record" Meeting

Here's an understatement:

"There is an uncomfortable irony in the fact that an attorney general investigating his policy for spying on the media is asking the media to keep his words secret."

Y'THINK?  Besides, when you find that media outlets from the New York Times to Fox News are refusing to go to your meeting, you're doing it wrong.  As for the few outlets who are going to the Holder meeting, they should probably leak everything immediately.  

Quote of the Day: On Obama and Journalism

From the guys at TechDirt:

The Obama administration has used the Espionage Act against more cases of whistleblowing to the press than all other Presidents combined. 

... Obama said that "journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs," but that the "focus must be on those who break the law." Oh really? Then why did your own DOJ claim that a journalist was an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator for reporting on a leak -- just like tons of other reporters?  

President Obama sounds like someone campaigning against his own policies. Either Eric Holder and the DOJ have "gone rogue" or the President is hastily pretending that his administration is not doing what it clearly has been doing for years.

Scandal-a-Palooza As Animated Gifs

"How the Obama Administration Is Having the Worst Week Ever."  Sure, but seeing as it's self-inflicted and, especially in the case of the IRS scandal, born of a total abuse of power, I am utterly unsympathetic.  Karma's a b*tch ... and so am I.

UPDATE: Check out this video from Reason.

Scandal-a-Palooza!

It's getting to the point where it's hard to keep track of all these exploding government scandals (wow, the snarky guys at Ace of Spades totally called it today).  There's too much fresh hell going on (need a scorecard?).  Here's your quote of the day, complete with awesome Arrested Development reference:

pissing off the tea party, natsec hawks, the press AND russia in a week's time is a Gob Bluth level of difficulty feat.
— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) May 14, 2013

"Why the Spectator Won't Sign the Royal Charter"

From the mess about oversight, regulation, and press freedom in the UK comes a moment of clarity from The Spectator:

It is just as the advocates of press freedom feared: politicians cannot stop themselves. Give them control over print and they’ll come back for digital. Next they will want to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ journalists, to reward their friends and punish their enemies. Just a whiff of this sort of power has intoxicated Alex Salmond, who commissioned a review which recommended that Scotland make licensing of the press compulsory. His devolved government would license bloggers, a handy tool in the run-up to the 2014 referendum. He was forced to drop the plans after they caused an uproar, but his intention was clear. 

Perhaps the general public think state regulation is a good thing; that hacks should be restrained by people who aren’t themselves in the media. But what may not be appreciated is the insidious influence politicians already try to exert over the press: the quiet words over dinner, the phone calls made to editors, myself included. I have been asked to chastise ‘irresponsible’ reporters and remove articles that politicians find insulting from the website. On minister called to ask if I was aware that a Spectator journalist had been rude about him without first seeking the advice of his spin doctor. It’s as if MPs have lost sight of what a free press is for. 

When the public think of a ‘bad journalist’, they imagine a hack who plagiarises, lies, or in some other way breaks the law. When a politician thinks of a bad journalist, more often than not he imagines someone who has criticised him, unfairly in his opinion. So of course there’s political lip-smacking about an era in which politicians have the power to define what is acceptable journalism. Or, as Labour’s Jim Sheridan put it on Tuesday, expel the ‘parasitical elements’ within the press. But this is an attack on freedom.

Rant: Press Freedom in the UK

Take a good look.  Here's a more humorous commentary on the topic by the famously eccentric Mayor of London.