Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Whiskey Bar Unearths the Maoists Among Us

Posted on March 17, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Billmon, Whiskey Bar: Scenes From the Cultural Revolution juxtaposes the rantings of our local version of the Red Guards with the substantially similar rantings of the originals.

Posted in Politics: US | 2 Comments

Death to the Back-in Lede!

Posted on March 17, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

In what can only be described as a sign of impending doom for the print media, the Associated Press, the major US wire service, has announced that AP will offer two leads for some stories. One will be a straight 'inverted-pyramid' lead with the five W's at the top (who, what, where, when, how much — in order of importance), and the other will be that scourge of modern journalism, the back-in lead:

The other will be the 'optional,' an alternative approach that attempts to draw in the reader through imagery, narrative devices, perspective or other creative means.”

Bad. Bad. Bad.

Let me tell you how I know just how bad this is. I have a third grader. Once a week, my third grader has to do a three-paragraph essay for school about a news story, plus answer a few simple questions such as “Where did it happen” and “When did it happen” At the beginning of the year they get a sheaf of topics, and each week we can pick any one that hasn't been done yet and try to find a story on that topic.

You would not believe how hard it is for him — and sometimes for me — to figure out when and where most of these stories happened. Indeed, with back-in leads getting longer and longer and longer, it gets increasingly hard to figure out what it was that happened at all without reading more than half the story…and sometimes key details never appear at all.

Now, I understand that most newspapers are increasingly aimed at about an average sixth-grade reading level, which might be a little bit above the intelligent third grader, so maybe my son's difficulties here are understandable, even though I think he's pretty smart. But consider that I have three university degrees and even if I'm not all that smart, I have been reading newspapers regularly since I was eleven so I have some relevant experience. And even I can't figure out where or when many of these stories happened.

Print journalism has lost sight of its cardinal virtue of specificity. Until now the wire services tended to be a noble holdout against this trend, at least in their news coverage. This latest move by AP will only make the problem worse.

Posted in The Media | 2 Comments

The Navy Balked at Torture

Posted on March 16, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

According to the Boston Globe, Navy interrogators threatened to withdraw from the entire set of Guantanamo interrogations due to their disgust at the tactics being used by other interrogators — and actually withdrew in at least once case:

A top Navy psychologist reported to his supervisor in December 2002 that interrogators at Guantanamo were starting to use “abusive techniques.” In a separate incident that same month, the Defense Department's joint investigative service, which includes Navy investigators, formally “disassociated” itself from the interrogation of a detainee, after learning that he had been subjected to particularly abusive and degrading treatment.

The two events prompted Navy law enforcement officials to debate pulling out of the Guantanamo operation entirely unless the interrogation techniques were restricted. The Navy's general counsel, Alberto Mora, told colleagues that the techniques were “unlawful and unworthy of the military services.”

One again, the military lawyers stand out as the (only?) heroes of this sordid affair.

But don't give me any of this “few bad apples” stuff… it's just not at all credible.

Posted in Guantanamo, Torture | 1 Comment

Annals of Death and Destruction

Posted on March 16, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

How to destroy the earth — harder than you might think.

How to cause massive death and destruction in the US (zip file) — easier than it should be. (News article, infographic summary.)

Posted in 9/11 & Aftermath | 1 Comment

Three Things To Read Today

Posted on March 15, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Three blog postings you should read if you care about freedom or justice:

Posted in Civil Liberties | 2 Comments

Just Don’t Send a Brick

Posted on March 15, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The New York Times doesn't quite get the whole story on the front page in A Few Tips to Cope With Life's Annoyances. Ian Urbana reports that,

Wesley A. Williams spent more than a year exacting his revenge against junk mailers. When signing up for a no-junk-mail list failed to stem the flow, he resorted to writing at the top of each unwanted item: “Not at this address. Return to sender.” But the mail kept coming because the envelopes had “or current resident” on them, obligating mail carriers to deliver it, he said.

Next, he began stuffing the mail back into the “business reply” envelope and sending it back so that the mailer would have to pay the postage. “That wasn't exacting a heavy enough cost from them for bothering me,” said Mr. Williams, 35, a middle school science teacher who lives in Melrose, N.Y., near Albany.

After checking with a postal clerk about the legality of stepping up his efforts, he began cutting up magazines, heavy bond paper, and small strips of sheet metal and stuffing them into the business reply envelopes that came with the junk packages.

“You wouldn't believe how heavy I got some of these envelopes to weigh,” said Mr. Williams, who added that he saw an immediate drop in the amount of arriving junk mail.

Mr. Urbina doesn't take this on faith, he tries to check it out,

A spokesman for the United States Postal Service, Gerald McKiernan, said that Mr. Williams's actions sounded legal, as long as the envelope was properly sealed.

Problem is, the issue isn't legality — it's whether the postal service will actually deliver it.

Once upon a time, the rule was the post office would deliver anything with a business reply mail sticker on it. Back in the Vietnam War era, when Nixon was running for re-election, merry pranksters got the idea of mailing the CREEP, the Committee to Re-Elect the President, bricks. That annoyed the Nixionites, and they had the postal regulations changed.

According to the Straight Dope, this change is codified in Rule 917.243(b) in the Domestic Mail Manual: When a business reply card is “improperly used as a label”— such as being affixed to a brick—the package may be treated as “waste” and not delivered, which means no charge to the recipient.

Posted in Readings | Comments Off on Just Don’t Send a Brick