LESS THAN AN HOUR AGO: our comrades at uchicago's gaza solidarity encampment are gathered around a speaker, listening to wkcr's coverage of the police raid happening at columbia.

meanwhile, just now on wkcr a field journalist trapped in pulitzer hall looking out a window reported a k9 unit is currently on site of the west lawn encampment.

Dear Media: The college demonstrations are anti-genocide, not "pro-Palestine." Israel's actions are horrifying no matter what population they're aimed at.

Writing that they're pro-Palestine brings the historic conflict into it and makes a good guys / bad guys narrative where none exists. The Israeli actions are freaking EVIL. There's no good and bad.

Columbia student reporters are showing more bravery and integrity than Shafik. The protestors are embodying democracy more than the fucking president of their university.

Listen to Columbia’s student radio here or on FM radio at 89.9 WKCR.

student journalists and the dean of journalism at columbia are being threatened with arrest by the NYPD if they attempt to leave the journalism building. the one named after joseph pulitzer.

This is an excellent summary of research that was done on two major mainstream news publications--The Washington Post and The New York Times--regarding whether the content of their front pages (from Sept. 1 to Nov. 8, 2022) provided readers with information that would help them to better understand policy differences between Democrats and Republicans in the leadup to the 2022 election. Unfortunately, the study discovered that these "liberal" newspapers of record both tended to post entertaining "horse race and campaign palace intrigue" articles rather than articles discussing political party policy differences.

When these two newspapers did report on policy issues, surprisingly (especially given its liberal reputation) the Times covered more topics related to Republican interests (i.e., "China, immigration, and crime"); whereas, the Post covered more topics of greater interest to Democrats (i.e., "affirmative action, police reform, LGBTQ rights")

Below are the opening and closing paragraphs from the article, which sum up the importance of how the mainstream media shapes public perceptions of election issues--often in ways that could wittingly or unwittingly help dangerous politicians like Trump win powerful positions in our government.

Seven years ago, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, media analysts rushed to explain Donald Trump’s victory. Misinformation was to blame, the theory went, fueled by Russian agents and carried on social networks. But as researchers, we wondered if fascination and fear over “fake news” had led people to underestimate the influence of traditional journalism outlets. After all, mainstream news organizations remain an important part of the media ecosystem—they’re widely read and watched; they help set the agenda, including on social networks. We decided to look at what had been featured on the printed front page of the New York Times in the three months leading up to Election Day. Of a hundred and fifty articles that discussed the campaign, only a handful mentioned policy; the vast majority covered horse race politics or personal scandals. Most strikingly, the Times ran ten front-page stories about Hillary Clinton’s email server. “If voters had wanted to educate themselves on issues,” we concluded, “they would not have learned much from reading the Times.” [...] The choices made by major publishers are not wrong, per se, for the same reason that one newsroom cannot objectively know how to cover an issue, or how much to cover it: no one can. Still, editorial choices are undeniably choices—and they will weigh heavily on the upcoming presidential race. Outlets can and should maintain a commitment to truth and accuracy. But absent an earnest and transparent assessment of what they choose to emphasize—and what they choose to ignore—their readers will be left misinformed. [color emphasis added]

[edited]

For anyone who has Apple:

Columbia Hall has been cleared by NYC police.

I'm on a school trip to the DuPont-Columbia award show and........ I thought this was something for Columbia grad students or something. I was at the social and there was news broadcasters and CEOs and people from PBS frontline, and it was pretty exclusive.......... Oh god I hope I socialized well

JUST NOW: a wkcr field journalist reports themself and multiple of their peers are seeking refuge in pulitzer hall, the journalism school, after the reporters were denied access to every building they tried to enter. a host in studio stated they likely would have been arrested if not for what one of the field journalists called "a moment of journalist to journalist solidarity." they said they will all wait there until its safe to get back to the studio. i will repeat, student journalists do not feel safe going out and reporting on events occurring on their own campus. these reporters, who have spent two weeks out at pro palestine protests and never felt unsafe, currently feel unsafe due to the militarized police presence.

Kamloops - Goose Lake Loop (BC)

18 June 2023

We spent the last night of our trip in a hotel on the main highway and I spent the evening looking online at possible rides for the next morning. This turned out to be a great choice given where we were staying. I considered expanding the route to include downtown and the river, but that would have added an awful lot of climbing to a ride that already had plenty.

The first leg was a short, steep climb through suburbia. The second leg was a long, gradual climb on Long Lake (paved) and Goose Lake (gravel) Roads. And the final leg was a fast downhill (mostly downhill) on Lac Le Juene Road towards Kamloops. It was Sunday morning and there was very little traffic anywhere.

Goose Lake Road crosses the TransMountain pipeline corridor, and while there were crews working in places, the huge construction project didn’t interfere with the ride. The route crosses the pipeline again where the corridor crosses the TransCanada Highway near the end of my loop. The ride provided some time to ponder the logistical and financial challenges of huge infrastructure projects, the tradeoffs inherent in improving petroleum distribution in a world moving away from carbon, the visual and environmental realities of corridor-style construction in rural and natural landscapes, and the regional politics of a controversial initiative.

twenty-sun-and-sea.png

I don’t know, I just think it would be nice to feel content and happy for a little bit.

«For the past year and a half, CJR has been examining the American media’s coverage of Trump and Russia in granular detail, and what it means as the country enters a new political cycle. Investigative reporter Jeff Gerth interviewed dozens of people at the center of the story—editors and reporters, Trump himself, and others in his orbit.

The result is an encyclopedic look at one of the most consequential moments in American media history. Gerth’s findings aren’t always flattering, either for the press or for Trump and his team. Doubtless they’ll be debated and maybe even used as ammunition in the ongoing media war being waged in the country. But they are important, and worthy of deep reflection as the campaign for the presidency is about, once again, to begin.»

Columbia Journalism Review again offers an intelligent & non partisan examination of both “the news” and the manner in which it is covered by the press. Nearly everyone involved in this specific story generates an unflagging disdain from me, no heroes whatsoever from the New York Times to Pres. Trump to Sec. Clinton. This country needs options beyond the terminally dysfunctional, two headed beast currently expectorating endless bullshit from both the left and right

New Florida Teacher Training Downplays Role Of Slavery In U.S. History

"This past Wednesday, April 17, current University President Minouche Shafik disgraced Columbia with her abject groveling before a right-wing-led committee of the House of Representatives. In response to every Republican importuning Shafik to metaphorically “jump,” her response was a metaphorical “how high?” Her appeasement of these MAGA culture warriors renders Neville Chamberlain in Munich a comparative profile in courage.

In Washington, D.C., Shafik seemingly promised those who stand for everything base in our politics to unleash an ideological reign of terror on faculty and students who support the Palestinians who are being massacred in Gaza. This was nothing new, but rather a continuation of months of repression against those whose speech Shafik, the trustees, and major donors disagree with. Based upon the flimsiest of purported justifications, the University suspended Columbia’s chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace—hardly an antisemitic group—and Students for Justice in Palestine.

Shafik and her administrators rewrote University policies to try to strangle and isolate peaceful protest. Together, they mobilized the University disciplinary processes to summarily suspend students, including several evictions of Barnard students. At her testimony, she made clear that faculty who supported the Palestinian cause would do so at the risk of their continued employment, not to mention their future advancement.

After abasing herself on Wednesday in Washington—in what appeared to this observer as a cynical attempt to avoid losing her prestigious position—Shafik called in the police on Thursday leading to the arrest of pro-Palestinian students who were camped out on South Lawn. These students were doing nothing to disrupt the University, nor threaten Jewish students. Maybe they were maliciously “threatening” the grass on the lawn. More seriously, what conceivable harm were those camped out on South Lawn causing? Was Shafik worried that letting them remain would make her look “weak,” or undercut her support from the trustees and major donors?"