Site icon journal-isms.com

Radio Host Ballentine Found Guilty of Fraud

“People’s Lawyer” Accused of Bilking Lenders of $10 Million

Terrorists Targeting Western Journalists, FBI Warns

Leaks on Michael Brown Autopsy Said to Favor Officer

Ebola Victims Nameless, Voiceless, Says Nigerian American

NBCUniversal Settles Unpaid Intern Suit for $6.4 Million

Writer Denies Americans Are in Information Cocoons

Chicago Defender Names First Female Top Editor

Short Takes

“People’s Lawyer” Accused of Bilking Lenders of $10 Million

A federal jury convicted former national radio host Warren Ballentine on Friday of participating in Chicago-area mortgage fraud schemes that bilked lenders out of nearly $10 million,” Jason Meisner reported for the Chicago Tribune.

“The jury deliberated about an hour before finding Warren Ballentine guilty on all six counts of bank, mail and wire fraud and making false statements to lenders.

“As the verdict was read, Ballentine dropped his head slightly and whispered, ‘Oh, my God.’ U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly set sentencing for Jan. 21 for Ballentine, who remains free on bail. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, though his sentence under federal guidelines could be far less.

“At its peak, Ballentine’s three-hour daily radio show featured a wide range of issues affecting the African-American community and was syndicated on Radio One in 37 media markets, including Chicago. He billed himself as ‘the people’s attorney.’

“Prosecutors alleged that Ballentine acted as the real estate lawyer at closings involving nearly 30 fraudulent loans. He knew that the buyers did not qualify to buy the properties in Chicago and the suburbs, authorities said. . . .”

Reach Media, which syndicates the “Tom Joyner Morning Show,” canceled Ballentine’s show on Jan. 31, 2013, after his indictment by a federal grand jury. Ballentine claimed 3 million listeners.

At the time, his lawyers, Harvard Law Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. and Lewis Myers, Jr., a well-known attorney in Chicago, said they expected Ballentine to be fully vindicated, George E. Curry reported then for the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

Robert “Rob” Redding Jr. reported in May 2013 that Ballentine returned to the air on WAGF-AM in Dothan, Ala.; WJBE-AM in Knoxville, Tenn.; WOWE-AM in Flint, Mich.; WJMG-AM in Hattiesburg, Miss.; and WPUL-AM in Daytona Beach, Fla., via the Empowerment Radio Network.

Terrorists Targeting Western Journalists, FBI Warns

“The FBI on Thursday warned news organizations that it had recently obtained ‘credible information’ indicating that members of an Islamic State-affiliated group have been ‘tasked with kidnapping journalists’ in the region and taking them to Syria,” Ellen Nakashima reported for the Washington Post.

“The bureau noted that supporters of the terrorist group have called on members to retaliate against the United States and its allies for airstrikes in Iraq and Syria and have identified journalists as ‘desirable targets.’

“The warning was released as a rare intelligence bulletin to news outlets so they could take security precautions.

“The Islamic State has beheaded two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and two British aid workers. The group is believed to be holding a number of other Western hostages. . . .”

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. called the leaks “inappropriate and troubling.” (Credit: CNN) (video)

Leaks on Michael Brown Autopsy Said to Favor Officer

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has told Justice Department lawyers that he is ‘exasperated’ with leaks emerging from the grand jury involved in investigating the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, according to a Justice official,” Robert Samuels and Sari Horwitz reported Thursday in the Washington Post.

“Holder referred to the leaks as a ‘selective flow of information,’ and characterized them as ‘inappropriate and troubling.’

“The leaked information all appeared to support the case of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., officer who shot the unarmed Brown.

“Various parts of the leaked narrative have appeared in the New York Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Washington Post, drawing criticism from the nation’s top law enforcement official as well as from those still protesting on Ferguson’s streets.

“Critics have said the information appeared to be an effort to prepare a volatile community for the possibility that Wilson might not be indicted. . . .”

Post-Dispatch Editor Gilbert Bailon told the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple, “The grand jury didn’t leak this information. This information came from other sources,” Wemple reported Friday.

Bailon argued “that the paper’s scoops are nothing more than ‘public accountability’ journalism. Nor has the Post-Dispatch, he continues, published any details from the grand jury proceedings — for instance, the testimony of Wilson himself. ‘We’ve reported that Darren Wilson has testified. We don’t know what he told them,’ says Bailon. ‘It’s an important distinction that’s not being made right now.’ . . .”

Ebola Victims Nameless, Voiceless, Says Nigerian American

“As an African woman, it’s frustrating and disheartening to constantly feel as if mainstream media and even Black Americans are committed to painting Africa as the golden land where all of us are lumped together in one category, who aren’t even deserving of designation of country origin,” Nneka M. Okona, a Nigerian American writer, wrote Monday for Ebony.

“Never mind that Africa is a vast continent with 53 countries, people with different experiences and representations of culture, language, tradition and food. Nothing about Africa is as simplistic to portray it as a monolithic existence.

“It’s also downright infuriating and insulting to continuously typecast the Africans who have been infected with Ebola as mere nameless, voiceless, to be pitied carriers of the disease, with no extension of the respect each and every human should receive. These are people, people who are living and breathing, not sick monsters who are to be feared, cast out and treated as insignificant and unimportant. Will we ever know their stories?

“Ebola is not an African issue. It’s not a disease ‘over there’ which any of us can afford to be silent or ignorant about. It’s a serious world health problem and a humanitarian crisis. It is something which can have a ripple effect if not handled properly, if the prejudice, racism and bias to the brown faces it is mostly affecting aren’t discarded. . . .”

NBCUniversal Settles Unpaid Intern Suit for $6.4 Million

NBCUniversal and a group of former interns have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit contending the interns should have been paid for their work,” Daniel Miller reported Friday for the Los Angeles Times.

“The $6.4-million settlement, subject to court approval, would be shared by thousands of interns, including some who worked at ‘Saturday Night Live.’

“The lawsuit is among several that have roiled the entertainment industry in New York and Los Angeles, where unpaid internships have long been a cost-saver for television networks, movie studios, production companies and music labels — and a foot in the door for Hollywood hopefuls. . . “

Writer Denies Americans Are in Information Cocoons

In this polarized age, have citizens retreated into information cocoons of like-minded media sources?Brendan Nyhan asked Friday on the New York Times’ blog “TheUpshot.”

A new Pew Research Center report [PDF] found that the outlets people name as their main sources of information about news and politics are strongly correlated with their political views.

“Almost half of all respondents that Pew classified as consistent conservatives named Fox News as their primary news source, while consistent liberals were disproportionately likely to name National Public Radio (13 percent), MSNBC (12 percent) and The New York Times (10 percent). These results are in line with studies suggesting that people tend to select news and information that is consistent with their political preferences in controlled settings.

“The Pew study has been widely interpreted to mean that people are living in partisan and ideological echo chambers — a fear that has been frequently expressed as new communication technologies have expanded the media choices of consumers. One of the most famous examples is Cass Sunstein’s Republic.com, a 2001 book that warned of a future in which people could filter out unwelcome viewpoints from the information they consume, potentially creating a more extreme and misinformed citizenry.

“But have the predictions of widespread media echo chambers really come true? It’s hard to tell using questions like Pew’s, which ask people to self-report where they get their news. People can be biased in what outlets they choose to name or forgetful of the media they did consume in different settings and contexts. In particular, liberals or conservatives may be prone to exaggerating their exposure to ideologically consistent news outlets.

“Naming Fox or MSNBC in response to a question like the one Pew used may thus be more of a marker of tribal affiliation than a direct measure of news consumption. . . .”

Short Takes

Follow Richard Prince on Twitter @princeeditor

Facebook users: “Like” “Richard Prince’s Journal-isms” on Facebook.

Exit mobile version