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Trump Picks White Nationalist’s Dream

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Breitbart News Leader Named Campaign Chief Exec

Boston Globe: Clinton Foundation Should Retreat

Louisianans Say Flood Deserves More Coverage

Clarence Page to Be Pallbearer for McLaughlin

Ever-Expanding Univision Buys Bankrupt Gawker

Milwaukee Paper: Can’t Wait for Politicians

‘Mortified’ Over Olympics Photo’s Mistaken ID

School Police Using Stun Guns on Students

Small Counties Seeing More Women of Color in Jail

Short Takes

Stephen Bannon “helped mainstream the ideas of white nationalists and resuscitate the reputations of anti-immigrant fear-mongers,” the Daily Beast reported. (Credit: Media Matters for America)

 

Breitbart News Leader Named Campaign Chief Exec

“Donald Trump’s campaign is under new management — and his white nationalist fanboys love it,” Betsy Woodruff and Gideon Resnick wrote Wednesday for the Daily Beast.

“The campaign’s new chief executive, Stephen Bannon, joins from Breitbart News — where he helped mainstream the ideas of white nationalists and resuscitate the reputations of anti-immigrant fear-mongers.

“White nationalists today invest a lot of energy worrying about growing Hispanic and Muslim populations in the U.S. Turns out, Breitbart News spends a lot of time worrying about those things, too. And in Bannon, they see a media-friendly, ethno-nationalist fellow traveler.

“ ‘Latterly, Breitbart emerged as a nationalist site and done great stuff on immigration in particular,’ VDARE.com editor Peter Brimelow told The Daily Beast.

” VDare is a white supremacist site. It’s named after Virginia Dare, the first white child born to British colonists in North America. Brimelow said he and Bannon met briefly last month and exchanged pleasantries about each other’s work. . . .”

Jonathan Martin, Jim Rutenberg and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times characterized Trump’s decision to make Bannon his campaign’s chief executive as “a defiant rejection of efforts by longtime Republican hands to wean him from the bombast and racially charged speech that helped propel him to the nomination but now threaten his candidacy by alienating the moderate voters who typically decide the presidency.

“It also formally completed a merger between the most strident elements of the conservative news media and Mr. Trump’s campaign, which was incubated and fostered in their boisterous coverage of his rise. . . .”

 

Bakari Sellers tells former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, left, that he hopes the Clinton campaign begins to “start talking about the millions of children that the Clinton Foundation helps around the world.”

Boston Globe: Clinton Foundation Should Retreat

“Although the Charity founded by former President Bill Clinton has done admirable work over the last 15 years, the Clinton Foundation is also clearly a liability for Hillary Clinton as she seeks the presidency,” (accessible via search engine) the Boston Globe editorialized on Wednesday.

“The once-and-maybe-future first family will have plenty to keep them busy next year if Hillary Clinton defeats Donald Trump in November. The foundation should remove a political — and actual — distraction and stop accepting funding. If Clinton is elected, the foundation should be shut down. . . .”

Separately, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, writing the Fact Checker column in the Washington Post, awarded Bill Clinton three Pinocchios for his defense of his wife’s use of her email server in a talk Friday before the Asian American Journalists Association and APIAVote.

“Bill Clinton also repeated the Democratic excuse that she used a personal email account just like her predecessor, and that she turned over more email records than her predecessors did,” Lee wrote.

“This comparison is a pathetic and misleading attempt to normalize Hillary Clinton’s use of her personal email account and play down the fact that she was the only secretary of state to use a private server. The decision to use a private server is the root of all of the political difficulties concerning her email practices.”

In Tuesday’s editorial, the Globe maintained that when Clinton became secretary of state in 2009, she “promised to maintain a separation between her official work and the foundation, but recently released emails written by staffers during her State Department tenure make clear that the supposed partition was far from impregnable.

“That was bad enough at State; if the Clinton Foundation continues to cash checks from foreign governments and other individuals seeking to ingratiate themselves with a President Hillary Clinton, it would be unacceptable.

“Winding down the foundation, and transferring its assets to some other established charity, doesn’t have to hurt charitable efforts. If the foundation’s donors are truly motivated by altruism, and not by the lure of access to the Clintons, then surely they can find other ways to support the foundation’s goals. And in four or eight years, the Clinton family could always form a new foundation and reestablish their charitable efforts. . . .”

On CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, political commentator Bakari Sellers protested that the good work of the foundation was being lost amid the speculation of scandal.

“When you look at it, one of the things that I hope the Clinton campaign begins to do is start talking about the millions of children that the Clinton Foundation helps around the world,” Sellers said. “The millions of women who now have health care around the world. The millions of young people who are now getting educated around the world because of the Clinton Foundation.

When political commentator Amanda Carpenter asked, “Isn’t being president possibly enough for her and Bill?,” Sellers replied, “. . . Because children need the Clinton Foundation throughout the world. You have 9.9 million kids who now have access to vaccinations because of the Clinton Foundation. . . .”

WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports

Louisianans Say Flood Deserves More Coverage

“In this age of social media, the harsh reality of the Louisiana Flood of 2016 has been all but inescapable online,” Mike Scott wrote Tuesday for NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune. “Click over to your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram feed, and you’ll become a de facto eyewitness to countless stories of heartbreaking loss, heroic rescues and utter devastation.

“But it’s not just water that’s rising. So is the frustration level of many observers who can’t help but notice a key absence amid the tragedy: the national media.

“With so-called 1,000-year rains hammering the region for days — in some places measuring 2 feet in less than three days — the National Guard was activated to rescue stranded residents. The self-appointed ‘Cajun Navy’ sprung into action. Ordinary citizens from Grand Isle to Ruston have stepped in to offer what aid they can to victims of what is being called the worst natural disaster since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

“But the national media has, by and large, rendered the flood a secondary story at best.

” ‘You have the Olympics. You got the election. If you look at the national news, (the flood is) probably on the third or fourth page,’ FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said Tuesday. . . .”

Emma Brown, Ashley Cusick and Mark Berman reported Wednesday for the Washington Post, “At least 40,000 homes have been damaged, according to Gov. John Bel Edwards (D). The death toll has risen to 13. . . .”

John McLaughlin, host of “The McLaughlin Group”, with Eleanor Clift of the Daily Beast and Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune during a 2015 show. (Credit: Screenshot via PBS.)

Clarence Page to Be Pallbearer for McLaughlin

Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page will be a pallbearer at services Saturday for John McLaughlin, the conservative political commentator and host of “The McLaughlin Group” television show who died Tuesday, Page told Journal-isms.

McLaughlin was 89. No cause of death was mentioned in the official announcement, Frazier Moore reported for the Associated Press. The future of the show has not been determined; there was never a substitute host, Page said by telephone on Thursday. When McLaughlin was not able to do the show, he taped one in advance.

Page has been with the show since 1988, at first flying in from Chicago before moving to Washington, where the show was based and transmitted via public television.

He and Michelle D. Bernard have been the only regular African American panelists, Page said, although others, such as Robert C. Woodson, head of the Washington-based National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, and Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, have appeared occasionally. Jonathan Capehart, a Washington Post columnist who now appears on MSBNC, appeared briefly.

“I attribute the fact that we haven’t had more people of color to the same excuses,” Page said, “the disappointingly low number of people of color on national political beats” and among pundits.

Moore reported Tuesday for the Associated Press, “Since its debut in April 1982, ‘The McLaughlin Group’ upended the soft-spoken and non-confrontational style of shows such as ‘Washington Week in Review’ and ‘Agronsky & Co.’ with a raucous format that largely dispensed with politicians. It instead featured journalists quizzing, talking over and sometimes insulting each other. In recent years, the show billed itself as ‘The American Original’ — a nod to all the shows that copied its format.

Page, who is writing a column about McLaughlin, called the show “high-energy punditry” that he said he hoped prompt viewers to seek out traditional news sources. He says he had to answer “yes” when asking himself whether “McLaughlin” was partly responsible for the rise of Donald J. Trump. The show did contribute to the rise of reality television and the merger of that genre with news. However, Page also said he believed the show did more good than harm.

“It made the complicated politics of Washington easier to comprehend,” he said. “No filibustering allowed. I wish I had a nickel for every m‎illennial who said, ‘I grew up with that show.’ ”

Page praised McLaughlin’s personal generosity. “He was still a Jesuit schoolteacher. The tough-minded instructor who really cared about his students. . . . He always made me feel welcome.”

Services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, 400 Michigan Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20017. They are open to the public, a spokeswoman said.

Ever-Expanding Univision Buys Bankrupt Gawker

“Gawker Media, whose fierce independence afforded it an unsparing approach to web journalism that influenced news organizations across the internet and the wider media world, was sold to Univision at auction on Tuesday, giving the freewheeling company an outside owner for the first time since its founding 14 years ago,” Sydney Ember reported Tuesday for the New York Times.

“Univision bid $135 million to beat out the digital media publisher Ziff Davis, according to three people with direct knowledge of the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity because the price had not been made public. A bankruptcy judge is to officially approve the sale at a hearing later this week. . . .”

Ember also wrote, “Univision, best known for its Spanish-language television network, has recently moved aggressively to expand its online portfolio, and adding Gawker’s sites fits with its plans to extend its reach beyond Spanish-speaking viewers.

“Univision bought a large stake in The Onion this year and acquired full control of Fusion, the news site and cable channel that it started with the Walt Disney Company in 2013. Univision also owns other digital media companies, including The Root, a site focused on African-American issues. . . .”

Milwaukee Paper: Can’t Wait for Politicians

Saying that its call last year for a citywide summit to address Milwaukee’s racial issues went unanswered by elected officials and business leaders, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Tuesday called on community members for ideas to solve the city’s “most pressing problems.”

The city’s Sherman Park neighborhood was the scene of a violent disturbance over the weekend after a police officer fatally shot an armed man. Both were African American. “For two nights, protesters torched a half dozen businesses, smashed cars and . . . hurled rocks at police on Milwaukee’s north side,” Ray Sanchez wrote Tuesday for CNN.

The Journal Sentinel editorial said Tuesday, “The metropolitan area is one of the nation’s most segregated; the black male unemployment rate in the city is around 50%; Wisconsin incarcerates the most black men in the country, and in Milwaukee County, more than half of all black men in their 30s and 40s have served time.

“Last year, as murder rates skyrocketed, we called for a summit that would include members of the community, business leaders and elected officials from all levels of government.

“We need to get people who can make a difference talking to one another about ways to meaningfully address the lack of jobs, education, skills and historic prejudice that are helping to hold down so many city residents. We need to examine best practices that have worked in other cities while also searching for uniquely local solutions.

“No one answered our call last year. We can no longer wait for politicians such as Gov. Scott Walker and [Mayor Tom] Barrett to set aside their ideological differences and work together to help Wisconsin’s poorest neighborhoods, but we can ask what, if anything, they’re going to do next.

“We can’t expect Milwaukee’s police to solve these deep-rooted economic and social problems, although they are the people who end up having to deal with them when they erupt in violence. . . .”

Editor Michael Days tweeted, “We ran a photo of @Simone_Biles with an uplifting column today about Gabby Douglas. We screwed up. We are embarrassed, and we apologize.” (Credit: WCAU-TV)

‘Mortified’ Over Olympics Photo’s Mistaken ID

“A Philadelphia Daily News columnist has been left ‘mortified’ after the paper mistakenly printed a photo of Simone Biles alongside her story about Gabby Douglas in Wednesday’s edition,” Vince Lattanzio reported for WCAU-TV in Philadelphia.

“Ronnie Polaneczky penned a column about the onslaught of mean comments Douglas has been receiving on social media during the summer games in Rio.

“The piece was the Daily News’ cover story, and when readers opened to the column, they found a large photo of Biles, mid-leap, smack in the center of the copy. A caption reads: ‘Gabby Douglas: Olympic gold medalist, need we say more?’

” ‘It makes you want to bash your head against a wall,’ Polaneczky told NBC10. ‘I’m mortified.’

“In the piece titled ‘She Can Vault Over the Vitriol,’ Polaneczky writes directly to Douglas, celebrating the young, gold-winning Olympian, saying the negative comments mean she’s doing well. . . .

Lattanzio also wrote, “In a tweet, Michael Days, editor of the Daily News, apologized for the mistake. . . .”

School Police Using Stun Guns on Students

An Aug. 11 story by Rebecca Klein in the Huffington Post describes a school police officer’s use of a Taser on a 17-year-old African American high school student that gave him “a piercing electric jolt in his right shoulder that sent convulsions running through the rest of his body.

“. . . This is one of at least 84 incidents of children being Tasered or shot with a stun gun by a school police officer since September 2011, according to media reports tracked by The Huffington Post.”

“The number is a gross underestimation because not every incident is reported, and no state or federal organization track how often children are zapped at schools. The children, who were all hit by a Taser or stun gun by school-based police officers, also called school resource officers, were 12 to 19 years old when the incidents occurred.

“They were shocked by a Taser or stun gun for mouthing off to a police officer. For trying to run from the principal’s office. For, at the age of 12, getting into a fight with another girl. . . .

“It can be medically risky to stun a child with an electrical weapon, especially if that child isn’t fully grown. The jolts of electricity puts them at greater risk for cardiac arrest, said Dr. Zian Tseng, a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of California in San Francisco who has studied the impact of Tasers. . . .”

Small Counties Seeing More Women of Color in Jail

Despite an ongoing national discussion about federal prison reforms, local jails have been overlooked and left out of those conversations, to the detriment of women, according to Liz Swavola, a co-author of Overlooked: Women and Jail in an Era of Reform [PDF], a newly released study from the Vera Institute of Justice, Nadege Green reported Wednesday for NPR’s “Code Switch.”

“Reform needs to happen at every decision point across the criminal justice system,” Green wrote.

Green also reported, “According to the study, the overall population of women in jails has ballooned since the 1970s, from just under 8,000 to nearly 110,000 nationwide in 2014, with low-income women of color disproportionately represented — 64 percent of women in jails across the country are women of color. . . .

“Small counties with less than 250,000 people are seeing the fastest rate of growth for women in jail, the Vera Institute researchers found. For instance, in Stokes County, North Carolina, women made up 32 percent of the jail population in 2013, much more than the national average.

“Swavola said existing research does not clearly explain the fast growth of the women’s population in small-county jails, but she pointed out that smaller counties can have fewer resources for social services, mental health resources and employment opportunities. ‘In those communities, they rely on incarceration to deal with people with mental and behavioral challenges,’ says Swavola. . . .”

 

Short Takes

J.A. Adande

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