Newspaper & online reporters and analysts explore the cultural and news stories of the week, with photos frequently added by Esco20, and reveal their significance (with a slant towards Esco 20's opinions)
December 31, 2016
The media spent a LOT more time this election writing about Trump than Hillary Clinton. The Washington Post tracked the headlines on Google News throughout the election and found that basically, on any given day that wasn't dominated by news about Clinton's emails, the media was writing about Trump. In fact, Trump appeared prominently on the Google News homepage about two times more often than Clinton did.
Trump and his supporters are also correct in assuming much of that coverage was negative. A Harvard study after the election found Trump received negative coverage over positive coverage by a ratio as much as 8-to-1 at some outlets.
December 30, 2016
UNNATURAL CAUSES | SICK AND DYING IN SMALL-TOWN AMERICA:.
Chillicothe, Ohio, isn’t one of those Rust Belt towns where the economy collapsed. People point out that you can still get a decent job here. But the city is seeing opioid addiction rise — and more white working-class lives cut short.
WASHINGTON POST
December 29, 2016
December 28, 2016
December 25, 2016
The Tunisian national suspected of driving a truck into a Berlin Christmas market was shot dead in Milan, Italy.
From Anthony Faiola, Souad Mekhennet and Stefano Pitrelli: "Anis Amri was killed following a dramatic encounter in the Piazza I Maggio in the Sesto San Giovanni area outside Milan, after a two-man patrol stopped him for questioning around after 3 a.m. on suspicion of burglary. One of the officers requested his identification. Amri responded by pulling a gun, shooting one officer in the shoulder. The second patrolmen — trainee Luca Scatà — fired back, killing Amri, according to Italian officials. ‘He was the most-wanted man in Europe,’ said Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti. ‘There is absolutely no doubt that the person killed is Anis Amri.’”
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December 23, 2016
Berlin police ‘seeking Tunisian man’ in connection with attack
Police are searching for a Tunisian man in connection with the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people on Monday, German media are reporting. Der Spiegel reported that police had found an identity document under the driver’s seat of the truck in the name of Anis A, born in Tataouine in 1992, and that the suspect was believed to use different names. The documents announced a stay of deportation, Der Spiegel, Allgemeine Zeitung and Bild reported. Checks are being made in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the suspect was registered. Police sources have told German media that the suspect had applied for asylum and that his case was under review. He was reportedly known to police as a dangerous person with links to Salafist groups in western Germany. Authorities had previously said they had received more than 500 leads that could help them identify the suspect. A 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker who was arrested as a suspect was released on Tuesday evening after police acknowledged they had caught the wrong man.
Germany’s security services are facing mounting pressure to explain how Amri could have been able to carry out Monday’s attack despite being known to multiple intelligence agencies and being under covert surveillance for several months.
Germany’s security services are facing mounting pressure to explain how Amri could have been able to carry out Monday’s attack despite being known to multiple intelligence agencies and being under covert surveillance for several months.
December 22, 2016
Death penalty in decline
Judging by all the indicators, capital punishment is slowly disappearing from the US. The end of year report from the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonpartisan authority on the subject, reads like the final will and testimony of the practice. Among its findings: this year 20 prisoners have been judicially killed, down from 28 in 2015 and well below the peak of 98 in 1999. The slow decline seems poised to continue, as the power to terminate the practice rests with the supreme court and the president-elect is likely to nominate a hardline conservative to the bench. Despite the drop in executions, there was still a sufficient number to generate deep unease about the nature of the prisoners’ convictions and stomach-churning spectacles within the death chamber.
December 20, 2016
unreleased outtakes of Trump saying “every offensive, racist thing ever” on “The Apprentice,”
-- Actor Tom Arnold claims that he has unreleased outtakes of Trump saying “every offensive, racist thing ever” on “The Apprentice,” including footage of him calling his son a retard. The Hollywood Reporter’s Abid Rahman reports: “Asked [in a radio interview] why he was given the tapes in the first place and why he didn't release them before the election, Arnold said that the people who sent the clips to him worked on The Apprentice and put together a compilation of Trump saying controversial things as a ’funny’ ‘Christmas video,’ as they didn't expect the real estate mogul to win …. When it became clear that Trump had a realistic chance of taking the White House, Arnold claims [Clinton] as well as new Apprentice star Arnold Schwarzenegger's agent got involved and wanted the tapes released. ‘They said, ‘I need you to release him saying the N-word,’ [he recounted]. ‘I said, ‘Well, now these people – two editors and an associate producer — are scared to death. They’re scared of his people, they’re scared of they’ll never work again, there’s a $5 million confidentiality agreement.'”
-- Vanity Fair, “Inside the desperate, year-long hunt to find Trump’s rumored Apprentice outtakes,” by Nick Bilton: “Throughout the year, the tapes were a subject of almost mythical fascination within the media. Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign would also obsessively try to find the tapes up until Election Day. In fact, one person close to the Clinton campaign told me that he had spoken to someone, on the Sunday before the election, who said he had a damaging clip of Trump. But The Apprentice outtakes, whatever they contained, were never made public. … Could the tapes have changed that outcome? In the aftermath of Trump’s victory, many journalists, political operatives, and even celebrities have told me that they aren’t sure. But they’ve also said that one force impeded their hunt. Curiously, it was just about the most liberal place on earth: Hollywood.”
Latest: Berlin Christmas market attack
At least 12 people are dead and 48 injured after a truck drove through a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday evening.
“For now we know little of this deed for certain,” the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said at a press conference. “But given the current information we have we have to assume we are dealing with a terrorist attack.”
A suspect was taken into custody shortly after the attack. Details of the suspect were given at a press conference by Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, but police officials later said they were unsure whether the man in custody had committed the attack. The man, a 23-year-old originally from Pakistan, was not known to security forces for any “suspicious activity” and denied involvement in the attack, De Maizière said.
The number of victims rose overnight from nine to 12, as doctors in clinics around Berlin worked to save lives and treat injuries. One of the dead was the lorry’s registered driver, a Polish national who police said was shot in Potsdam, about nine miles west of Berlin, before the market attack.
Six detained after Russian ambassador shot dead in Ankara
Turkish authorities have detained six people for questioning over the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, as a team of Russian investigators arrived in the country to help the investigation. Those detained include the parents, sister, roommate and three other relatives of the gunman, Mevlut Mert Altıntas, according to local media reports. Andrei Karlov was shot multiple times by the off-duty riot police officer on Monday during the opening of a photography exhibition at a gallery in the Turkish capital. Altıntas was shot by police at the scene. Officials from both countries have been quick to stress their desire for cooperation in the aftermath of the attack and insist the killing will not lead to a downward spiral in diplomatic relations. Footage of the attack showed Altıntas, dressed in a suit and tie, standing calmly behind the ambassador. He pulled out a gun, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and fired at least eight shots. He then shouted in Turkish: “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria. Unless our towns are secure, you won’t enjoy security. Only death can take me from here. Everyone who is involved in this suffering will pay a price.”
December 17, 2016
How Google’s search algorithm spreads fake news
Google’s search algorithm appears to be systematically promoting information that is either false or slanted with an extreme rightwing bias. Following a recent investigation by the Observer, which found that Google’s search engine prominently suggests neo-Nazi websites and antisemitic writing, the Guardian has uncovered a dozen additional examples of biased search results. Google’s search algorithm and its autocomplete function prioritize websites that, for example, declare that climate change is a hoax, being gay is a sin, and the Sandy Hook mass shooting never happened. The increased scrutiny of Google comes at a time of tense debate surrounding the role of fake news in building support for conservative political leaders, particularly Trump.
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