-30- for Bagdikian; The candidates take the tech test; Trump press-bashing too much for Breitbart scribe; Missing the sick elephant in the room; Hacking the NY Fed; New NYT editorial page head
Ben H. Bagdikian, Reporter of Broad Range and Conscience, Dies at 96 - Robert D. McFadden (New York Times)
Tech Policy Activists Find Bernie Sanders is Best Bet – While Trump is the Worst - Sam Thielman (The Guardian)
Reporter Who Says She was Manhandled by Trump Campaign Manager Resigns from Breitbart - Sarah Kaplan (Washington Post)
Blowing the Biggest Political Story of the Last Fifty Years - Neal Gabler (Moyers & Co.)
The Incredible Story Of How Hackers Stole $100 Million From The New York Fed - Tyler Durden (Zero Hedge)
James Bennet leaves the Atlantic for the New York Times - Erik Wemple (Washington Post)
Ben H. Bagdikian, Reporter of Broad Range and Conscience, Dies at 96
By Robert D. McFadden
March 11, 2016
New York Times
Ben H. Bagdikian, a journalist and news media critic who became a celebrated voice of conscience for his profession, calling for tougher standards of integrity and public service in an era of changing tastes and technology, died on Friday at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 96.
He was The Washington Post’s conduit for the Pentagon Papers, the secret Defense Department study of decades of American duplicity in Indochina that was disclosed by the military analyst Daniel Ellsberg and published by The Post and The New York Times in 1971 in defiance of the Nixon administration’s attempts at suppression as the nation debated its deepening involvement in the war in Vietnam.
But he was perhaps best known as the author of “The Media Monopoly” (1983), which warned that freedom of expression and independent journalism were threatened by the consolidation of news and entertainment outlets in a shrinking circle of corporate owners. A mere 50 companies, he wrote, controlled what most Americans read in newspapers and books and saw on television and at the movies.
Tech Policy Activists Find Bernie Sanders is Best Bet – While Trump is the Worst
By Sam Thielman
March 14, 2016
The Guardian
The top candidate from the great state of the internet is Bernie Sanders, according to an analysis of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates’ campaign platforms by tech policy activists at the Free Press Action Fund. The worst candidate on policy positions that affect citizens’ digital lives? Donald J Trump.
The issues at hand are pressing: censorship, industry consolidation and mass surveillance are among policy positions Free Press opposes. The group is in favor of net neutrality, strong encryption, inexpensive internet access and local broadband competition.
Reporter Who Says She was Manhandled by Trump Campaign Manager Resigns from Breitbart
By Sarah Kaplan
March 14, 2016
Washington Post
Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro have resigned from the conservative site over its handling of an alleged assault on Fields by Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
“I don’t think they took my side,” Fields told The Washington Post early Monday. “They were protecting Trump more than me.”
Last week, Fields recounted in a post for Breitbart how Lewandowski allegedly grabbed her by the arm and yanked her away as she attempted to ask Trump a question after a news conference in Florida. The encounter left finger-shaped bruises on the 28-year-old reporter’s arm.
Blowing the Biggest Political Story of the Last Fifty Years
By Neal Gabler
March 11, 2016
Moyers & Co.
The media have been acting as if the Trump debacle were the biggest political story to come down the pike in some time. But the real story – one the popularity of Trump’s candidacy has revealed and inarguably the biggest political story of the last 50 years — is the decades-long transformation of Republicanism from a business-centered, small town, white Protestant set of beliefs into quite possibly America’s primary institutional force of bigotry, intellectual dishonesty, ignorance, warmongering, intractability and cruelty against the vulnerable and powerless.
It is a story you didn’t read, hear or see in the mainstream media, only in lefty journals like The Nation and Rolling Stone, on websites like People for the American Way, and in columns like Paul Krugman’s. And it wasn’t exactly because the MSM in its myopia missed the story. It was because they chose not to tell it – to pretend it wasn’t happening. They are still pretending.
The Incredible Story Of How Hackers Stole $100 Million From The New York Fed
by Tyler Durden
March 10, 2016
Zero Hedge
On February 5, Bill Dudley's New York Fed was allegedly “penetrated” when “hackers” (of supposed Chinese origin) stole $100 million from accounts belonging to the Bangladesh central bank. The money was then channeled to the Philippines where it was sold on the black market and funneled to “local casinos” (to quote AFP). After the casino laundering, it was sent back to the same black market FX broker who promptly moved it to “overseas accounts within days.”
As it turns out there is much more to the story, and as Bloomberg reports today now that this incredible story is finally making the mainstream, there is everything from casinos, to money laundering and ultimately a scheme to steal $1 billion from the Bangladeshi central bank. In fact, the story is shaping up to be "one of the biggest documented cases of potential money laundering in the Philippines. It risks setting back the Southeast Asian nation’s efforts to stamp out the use of the country to clean cash, and tarnishing the legacy of President Benigno Aquino as elections loom in May."
And yes, it does appear that hackers managed to bypass the Fed's firewall.
James Bennet Leaves the Atlantic for the New York Times
By Erik Wemple
March 14, 2016
Washington Post
James Bennet is leaving the Atlantic to lead the editorial page of the New York Times, the two publications announced today, confirming a story over the weekend in Politico Media. It is a very big deal for both publications.
Among the hallmarks of Bennet’s tenure was giving his top writers space and time to craft big-impact stories, packed not only with thinking but also reporting.
Whether Bennet continues the combative ways of outgoing New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal — well, we hope so. Agree or disagree with its output, the New York Times editorial page under Rosenthal has had a knack for letting people know where it stood.