Hanif on Media

News Media, New Media, Politics, Culture & Spiritual Perspectives from South Florida to Infinity.

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Inlet Grove student staff at work

January 22nd · Uncategorized

We’re here in the fourth period Journalism class getting an introduction to updating a website by using this photo from the 34th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Breakfast at the Palm Beach County Convention Center on Monday. Go ‘Canes!

McDermott, Pientka

At the Inlet Grove table (L-R), Mr. Banks, Mr. McDermott, Ms. Pientka and Mr. Lopez.

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Students star at MLK Breakfast

January 22nd · Uncategorized

We’re here in the third period Journalism class updating this site with info from the 34th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Breakfast. Three Inlet Grove Community High School students won honorable mention awards in the MLK Essay Contest, including Breanna Moore, a senior student in the Medical Academy, pictured below with fellow Inlet Grove students.

Brianna Elliot, Joanna Joseph and Breanna Moore at the annual MLK event.

Brianna Elliot, Joanna Joseph and Breanna Moore at the annual MLK event.

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For journalists, another sobering reminder…

August 6th · 9/11, George W. Bush, Iraq, news media

… of how we got here:

Jill Abramson’s sad admission

Why did the  New York Times back down again and again and hold important stories? The reasons are infuriating. — Patrick L. Smith

Also worthy of note:

Heather Digby Parton on

Cheney’s old pal Ahmed Chalabi is back

And more media mess:

Media Matters on

How The Iraq War Still Haunts New York Times

 

— C.B. Hanif

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Catching up is good to do

June 23rd · Inlet Grove Community High School, Iraq, South Florida Times

Graduation style,  June 2014.

Graduation style, June 2014.

Just finished a great year with my Journalism students at Inlet Grove Community High School, plus two before that as managing editor of the South Florida Times. Now summer’s back again, I’m missing my students and the newsroom — so what better to do than pause and give thanks for all the good. It’s also a good time to catch up on missed family and friends, obligations and opportunities, community service and activities. To get in some biking and swimming. And of course, with so much going on — from the regrettable (Iraq. Again.) to the unforgettable (Gooooooooooooooooooooal!) — more writing, editing and reading. Meanwhile I’m back up for air; feel free to be in touch.

6.22.14

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Juan Cole on Libya: Looking back. And forward

August 25th · Iraq, Juan Cole

The illegal American invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation was so epochal a catastrophe that it spawned a negative phrase in Arabic, “to Iraqize” or `arqana…So how can Libyans and the world avoid the Iraqization of Libya?

— Juan Cole, “How to Avoid Bush’s Iraq Mistakes in Libya”

University of Michigan Prof. Juan Cole’s analyses on all things Middle Eastern at his Informed Comment site (juancole.com), are like music to a thinking person’s ears. Take a look back over the past few days’ postings, including his “Top Ten Myths about the Libya War.”

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Now, who will lay bare Rupert Murdock’s shenanigans on this side of the pond?

July 14th · 9/11, Alan Rusbridger, Juan Cole, news media, Newspapers, The Guardian

The News of the World debacle is a huge media story — and in typical fashion, our “Fair & Balanced” major news media organizations generally don’t know how to deal with it. Namely, by stating the facts. Such as:
“It seems increasingly likely that the techniques of bullying, coercion, spying, and the politics of personal destruction common at the News of the World were not limited to this one piece of the Murdoch media empire. Even short of hacking, Murdoch’s properties often behave like cults, not news organizations. We have known for a long time that Fox Cable News instructs reporters on how to spin the news and promotes fascist demagogues in the evening magazine shows.” — Professor Juan Cole at Informed Comment: “Is Murdoch’s Media Empire A Cult?”

This week, Murdock tried to head it all off by backing out of his $12 billion BSkyB satellite broadcast takeover bid. Today, the Guardian reported that “A threat of imprisonment by parliament forced Rupert Murdoch and his son James to perform a volte face and agree to give evidence next week to a Commons committee investigating why News International executives provided false information to MPs.”
It couldn’t happen to more deserving guys. As things continue falling apart, here for those just tuning in are a couple of compelling videos that really lay bare the Murdoch mess. 
The first features Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, who I’ve greatly admired since I first got to know him during our annual international Organization of News Ombudsmen meetings:

The second features Nick Davies, the amazing reporter who refused to take no for a story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2011/jul/07/news-of-the-world-phone-hacking-nick-davies-rupert-murdoch-video

Now, who will lay bare Murdock’s shenanigans on this side of the pond? Just in from the Guardian“FBI launches investigation into allegations that 9/11 victims’ phones were targeted.” Faux News anyone? Fixed News? I’m surprised that anyone’s surprised.
— C.B. Hanif

 

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‘Our News and their News’

June 7th · Juan Cole

Juan Cole pretty much says it re our depressing media landscape:

Americans live in a late capitalist society where the rich have gotten many times richer and the middle class has gotten poorer, where Wall Street bankers have stolen us blind and blamed us for living above our means, where persistent unemployment is worse than in the Great Depression, where most politicians and some judges have been bought by corporations or special interests, where authorities actively conspire to keep people from voting, where the government spies on citizens assiduously without warrant or probable cause, and where the minds of the sheep are kept off their fleecing by substituting celebrity gossip, sex scandals, and half-disguised bigotry for genuine news…

http://www.juancole.com/2011/06/our-news-and-their-news.html#comments

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I’d run that TV ‘Green Hornet’ marathon, if I had time

January 27th · Florida Weekly

I’ve seen the movie trailer. It seemed to shout, ‘Invest your money, intelligence and dignity elsewhere: Catch the Syfy marathon.’

— From my latest commentary in Florida Weekly.

Read the column here. See the page here. See this week’s entire Digital Edition here. Or just keep reading:

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Ten Days In Baku That Shook (Her) World

January 2nd · Azerbaijan, Baku, ONO, Organization of News Ombudsmen

“Isn’t Azerbaijan a democratic republic? Constitutionally, it is, of course. But the constitution is one thing and the political culture and practice are something else.”

— Christel Fricke, director of the Center for the Study of Mind in Nature at the University of Oslo, Norway, writing at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

It’s a new year in Baku, Azerbaijan, which I last wrote about here, after visiting, on behalf of the international Organization of News Ombudsmen, here.

Even as bustling Baku booms, it seems the more things change, the more things…don’t? As Ms. Fricke observes, the struggle continues.

More Baku scenes:

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2010: An eclectic best and worst list

January 1st · Florida Weekly

For example,  for 2010’s Worst Christmas Tree, I nominate the $11 million, jewel-encrusted, “most expensive Christmas tree ever.”

— From my latest commentary in Florida Weekly.

Read it here. See the page here. See this week’s entire Digital Edition here. Or just keep reading:

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