Andy Borowitz | Woman Quits Job After Being Forced to Spend Week With Trump

08 June 19

---

This Will Take a Miracle

We have perfected the practice of pulling rabbits from hats to an art form. Fourth quarter comebacks are routine on these fundraising drives.

This month however we’re going to need a full-blown miracle.

Who can help here?

Please and thank you.

Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

Update My Monthly Donation

If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611

08 June 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News THE WING-NUTS WILL FUND THEIR ORACLES, YOU CAN BE SURE: The right wing will fund their oracles, that's a given. We are told that we will always be without means, never know stability, never be able to provide. One more lie, after another. We know what to do with a budget. We know how to apply it, how to grow something of value to the community with it. Let's give them something to talk about. Thank you all sincerely. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Andy Borowitz | Woman Quits Job After Being Forced to Spend Week With Trump  Borowitz writes: "A British woman quit her job, on Friday, after being forced to spend the better part of a week with Donald J. Trump, the woman has confirmed." Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker READ MORE Rudy Giuliani. (photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images) House Democrats Reportedly Want to Go After Rudy Giuliani Paul Blest, Splinter Blest writes: "The Daily Beast reported on Friday that congressional Democrats are considering launching a probe into Trump lawyer and sycophant Rudy Giuliani and his work overseas." READ MORE A wall of flames lurches over a ridge in California. (photo: Kent Porter/AP) White House Blocked Intelligence Agency's Written Testimony Saying Climate Change Could Be 'Possibly Catastrophic' Juliet Eilperin, Josh Dawsey and Brady Dennis, The Washington Post Excerpt: "White House officials barred a State Department intelligence agency from submitting written testimony this week to the House Intelligence Committee warning that human-caused climate change could be 'possibly catastrophic.'" READ MORE 'The men had come to receive the inaugural Roger Baldwin Courage Award, and to accept another on behalf of director Ava DuVernay, whose recent Netflix series When They See Us retold their decades-long legal battle.' (photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) A 'Central Park Five' Survivor's Tear-Filled Plea: 'Trump Put a Bounty on Our Heads' Tarpley Hitt, The Daily Beast Hitt writes: "The five men who were arrested as teenagers, falsely convicted, sentenced to years in prison, and eventually exonerated for the rape and assault of a white jogger in Central Park in 1989, have never been keen on the name 'Central Park Five.'" READ MORE The news comes as pride celebrations are set to take place in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. (photo: Project Q) Trump Admin Tells US Embassies They Can't Fly Pride Flag on Flagpoles Josh Lederman, NBC News Lederman writes: "The Trump administration is rejecting requests from U.S. embassies to fly the rainbow pride flag on embassy flagpoles during June, LGBTQ Pride Month, three American diplomats told NBC News." READ MORE A Sudanese protester outside Khartoum's army headquarters as the army tries to break up a sit-in. (photo: AFP/Getty Images) "Massacre" in Sudan: Protesters Continue Call for Civilian Rule After Military Kills 100+ at Sit-In Democracy Now! Excerpt: "The death toll in Sudan has risen to more than 100 following a deadly military raid on a nonviolent sit-in in Khartoum Monday morning." READ MORE There are now at least six states that have passed or introduced legislation aimed at criminalizing pipeline protests. (photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images) Red States Are Criminalizing Speech to Wage War on Environmental Activists Luke Darby, GQ Darby writes: "Late in 2016, thousands of indigenous and environmental activists came together in North Dakota to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe maintained that the multi-state-spanning pipeline jeopardized both their burial sites and clean water supply, and they led a months-long encampment to stop the construction." READ MORE Contribute to RSN Update My Monthly Donation

Decades After False Convictions, ‘When They See Us’ Highlights Media Failure view post on FAIR.org by Xavier Best Ava DuVernay on Democracy Now! (6/7/19): “They are not the Central Park Five. I came to feel that that was a political moniker. It was something that was given to them by the press. It was something that was given to them by the prosecution. It was something that allowed them to be seen as a gang, as a wolf pack, and not as Yusef, Korey, Kevin, Antron and Raymond, you know, real people, real boys, with real families, memories, hopes, dreams, that were dashed the day that they were captured at a park.” When They See Us, Ava DuVernay’s harrowing retelling for Netflix of the false conviction of the five New York youths who became nationally known as the Central Park Five, has reignited discussions about race, stereotypes and how America’s penal system has historically brutalized black people under the banner of “criminal justice.” Yet this conversation would be incomplete without a serious reckoning with corporate media’s role in fanning the flames of racist hysteria and misinformation, which condemned these innocent youth—Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise—as guilty in the court of public opinion long before the official verdict was handed down. “The press response to this, and the press failure around this case, is something really important to interrogate,” DuVernay told The Root (5/28/19). While the highly publicized antics of Donald Trump and the coldhearted manipulation of lead investigator Linda Fairstein have received a great deal of condemnation, less attention has been paid to how prominent media outlets, like the New York Times and the New York Daily News, fell in lockstep with the myth of five deranged black youths randomly attacking white cyclists and joggers in Central Park. Take, for example, a Times article written by David E. Pitt (4/25/89). Under the headline “Gang Attack: Unusual for Its Viciousness,” Pitt indulged all of the now disproven cliches that accompanied the public vilification of the five young men, including the media buzzword of “wilding” and the reference to the brutal rape of Trisha Meilia—in a phrase borrowed from New York prosecutor Peter Reinharz—as a “wolf-pack attack.” Aside from disregarding the elementary fact that it had yet to be established that the rape was carried out by more than one person (DNA testing later found evidence of only one rapist), the use of the “wolf pack” label to describe a rape allegedly carried out by black youth was disturbingly consistent with the general trend of dehumanization that prevailed in mainstream discussion of the five defendants. From the beginning, coverage emphasized the non-human nature of the accused (Daily News, 4/21/89). Some of the most flagrant examples of this brand of dehumanization occurred in the pages of the Daily News, which ran fear-mongering headlines like “Marauding Packs Have Run of the City” (4/25/89). News writers Adam Nagourney (who now writes for the Times) and David J. Krajicek exemplified this mood, writing: Bands of marauding teenagers similar to the one that ran wild in Central Park last week are creating pockets of anarchy in the city by taking over subway trains …. Cops call them wolf packs; merchants call them rat packs. A social worker says they rampage because “there are no more rules.” These alarmist portrayals of young people of color, often accompanied by highly dubious psychiatric diagnoses of the teens as uniquely remorseless and cruel, helped to create a climate of mass panic that ensured once the suspects were punished, there would be no serious reflection on the ethical, moral or legal reasoning that informed judicial decision-making. Tragically, this absence of reflection is more the rule than the exception in current media treatment of the case. Although these outlets ran numerous propagandistic and highly misleading stories—neglecting even to use the word “alleged” to describe the accused in 95 percent of news articles—barely any instances of contrition can be found today. One exception is an article by New York Times journalist Jim Dwyer (5/30/19), who accepts personal accountability, wishing he “had been more skeptical,” and “had shouted, rather than mumbled, the doubts [he] did express.” Interestingly, he notes in the next sentence: The enormity of what went wrong was first revealed to a broad audience in a 2012 documentary, Central Park Five, by Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns. This was a full ten years after the sentences against the five exonerees were vacated in 2002, thanks to DNA evidence revealing the crime to have been committed by serial rapist Matias Reyes, but the “enormity of what went wrong”—namely, the public persecution and false imprisonment of five teens for 6 to 13 years—didn’t dawn on him until a filmmaker made a documentary about it? Go figure. The Daily News TV critic (5/31/19) complains that Ava DuVernay presents false convictions as an entirely bad thing. And where the New York Times is halfhearted in regret, the New York Daily News is wholly unapologetic in its disregard for basic journalistic integrity. Reviewing When They See Us, Daily Newswriter Kate Feldman (5/31/19) criticizes the “black-and-white version of the Central Park Five case,” and calls attention to “details DuVernay glosses over,” specifically the fact that some believe “the teens should have been exonerated for the rape, but not other beatings and muggings that occurred that night.” DuVernay’s refusal to engage with this idea that the five teens may have been violent muggers despite not being rapists prompts Feldman to conclude, “More important than the facts is the idea that the facts no longer matter.” It is the height of irony that a writer for a publication that regularly trafficked in the worst forms of counterfactual, anti-black racism during this period has more to say about the artistic choices of a filmmaker than the real-life decisions of her editors, or the systems of authority to which these editors often subordinate themselves. While individual gestures of accountability are certainly welcome, no meaningful reconciliation for the trauma inflicted on these youths and their communities at the hands of the most respected media outlets can be achieved until there is a recognition of the systemic character of the misrepresentations that paved the way for many other young black people like them to enter the penitentiary. This would mean official statements from the New York Times board of editors pointing out the errors in judgement they participated in, and, more importantly, steps being taken today to ensure those moral failures are not repeated. Anything less would be a disservice to McCray, Richardson, Salaam, Santana and Wise, their families, and the countless others who strive every day for a more just and equitable culture of justice. Featured image: Jharrel Jerome as Korey Wise in When They See Us.

FAIR/Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201
New York NY 10001
USA

Jeffrey Toobin | Why Mitch McConnell Outmaneuvers Democrats on the Supreme Court

03 June 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News Jeffrey Toobin | Why Mitch McConnell Outmaneuvers Democrats on the Supreme Court  Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker Toobin writes: "The boundless cynicism of Mitch McConnell is again on display." READ MORE LGBTQ Rally. (photo: Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA) Trump Wants Credit for Acknowledging LGBTQ Pride Month, but He Still Didn't Proclaim It Zack Ford, ThinkProgress Ford writes: "President Donald Trump made a splash in the news Friday when he tweeted about celebrating LGBTQ Pride Month and bragged about his alleged effort to decriminalize homosexuality abroad." READ MORE Ava DuVernay's compelling Netflix mini-series. (photo: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix) Netflix's Harrowing Central Park Five Demands a New Fight Against Racism Rashad Robinson, Guardian UK Robinson writes: "If the Central Park Five story proved one thing that should motivate us today, it's that we must ensure prosecutors stand on the side of justice - and on the side of the people they're elected to serve. We cannot let them serve as enablers of racist politics, corporate profits and increasing mass incarceration." READ MORE Protesters stand in solidarity with rape victims on the campus of Brigham Young University during a sexual assault awareness demonstration Wednesday, April 20, 2016, in Provo, Utah. (photo: Rick Bowmer/AP) Lili Loofbourow | Why Society Goes Easy on Rapists Lili Loofbourow, Slate Loofbourow writes: "Our criminal justice system still doesn't take seriously one of the most heinous acts a person can commit." READ MORE The Westward Look Resort in Tucson, one of the many resort locations where Manne seminars were held. (photo: Westward Look Grand Resort & Spa) How a Resort Weekend for Judges Made Courts More Conservative Dylan Matthews and Byrd Pinkerton, Vox    Excerpt: "Judges who went to the seminars were likelier to rule against unions and environmental regulations." READ MORE

Pope Francis. (photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images)

Pope Asks Forgiveness for Historical Mistreatment of Roma People
Philip Pullella, Reuters
Pullella writes: "Pope Francis on Sunday asked forgiveness in the name of the Catholic Church for the mistreatment of the Roma people, a move likely to increase tensions with Italy's anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini."
READ MORE

Recycling. (photo: Getty Images)

We're All Recycling Wrong, So Companies Are Finally Trying to Make It Easier
Catharine Smith, Grist
Smith writes: "If you've ever dropped a potato chip bag into a recycling bin full of bottles and cans and hoped it might get recycled, there's something you should know: It's almost certainly sitting in a landfill right now."
READ MORE

---

Contribute to RSN

Update My Monthly Donation

RSN: Hillary Clinton Calls Out Climate Deniers at Clean Energy Summit, The US Government's Secret Plans to Spy for American Corporations

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

---

Glenn Greenwald | The US Government's Secret Plans to Spy for American Corporations

Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept
Greenwald writes: "Throughout the last year, the U.S. government has repeatedly insisted that it does not engage in economic and industrial espionage, in an effort to distinguish its own spying from China's infiltrations of Google, Nortel, and other corporate targets."
READ MORE

Ceasefire Holds in Eastern Ukraine, Exchange of POWs Planned
Gabriela Baczynska and Aleksandar Vasovic, Reuters
Excerpt: "An uneasy calm prevailed in eastern Ukraine on Saturday after Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists signed a ceasefire as part of a drive to end a war that has triggered a deep crisis in relations between Russia and the West."
READ MORE

Obama Enlists 9 Allies to Help in the Battle Against ISIS
Helene Cooper, The New York Times
Cooper writes: "President Obama escalated the American response to the marauding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Friday, recruiting at least nine allies to help crush the organization and offering the outlines of a coordinated military strategy that echoes the war on terror developed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, more than a decade ago."
READ MORE

Judge Approves Central Park Five's $41M Wrongful Conviction Settlement
Guardian UK
Excerpt: "A US federal judge has approved New York City's $41m (£25m) settlement with five men who were wrongfully convicted in the brutal rape and beating of a Central Park jogger in 1989."
READ MORE

Oklahoma Governor: No Executions Without New Rules
Tim Talley, Associated Press
Talley writes: " New procedures to improve Oklahoma's execution process must be implemented before the state resumes putting prisoners to death by lethal injection, Gov. Mary Fallin said after investigators presented their findings about an April case in which the inmate writhed and moaned on the gurney."
READ MORE

Hillary Clinton Calls Out Climate Deniers at Clean Energy Summit
Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch
Pantsios writes: "As she continues to play a game of 'will-she/won't she' regarding a potential 2016 presidential run, Hillary Clinton called out climate change deniers while delivering a keynote address at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas this week."
READ MORE