Wednesday, August 5, 2009

UPDATE: Huffington Post Changes Misleading Banner Headline



Who knew the Huffington Post would actually respond to an insurgency among its commenters? Checking back in, helenwheels wrote: “I left. How many thousands of posts did it take before they changed it?”

Yep. The Huffington Post changed its tabloid banner headline Bill Upstages Hillary Once Again (see my previous post), to the less inflammatory Freed journalists home in US after N Korea pardon.

Keep up the good work folks; it might be possible to reform the mighty Arianna after all - despite her cherished acceptance among the good old boys.




When Will the Huffington Post Put the Adults in Charge?

It’s sad that a blog as successful as the Huffington Post has to stoop to such unethical behavior as the big red headline posted on its front page today announcing that Bill Upstages Hillary Once Again. Huffpo’s coverage of Bill Clinton’s trip to North Korea on behalf of imprisoned journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling had already drawn thousands of readers’ comments.

I’ve read the coverage of Clinton’s trip to North Korea and the return of Lee and Ling provided by most of the major online news sources. Any reader with at least an eighth grade education could easily discern from the articles at say, the NY Times, ABC News, the AP, or CNN that Bill and Hillary had engaged in an awesome team effort to release the two journalists. No one, I repeat no one, could have misinterpreted Hillary’s relief when she received the phone call from Bill to share his good news.

So what’s with the Huffingon Post? I could almost understand Huffpo’s compulsive smears of the Clintons during the Democratic primary – how else could Obama have been nominated? But someone should tell Arianna it’s over, and her beloved Obama is assured at least one term in the White House.

Oops! Maybe not a second term. Is that what Huffpo is worried about so early in the day?

Bill Clinton: Mission Accomplished – Journalists Freed; Hillary’s Statement (video)

UPDATE: Lee and Ling arrive home:

Secretary Hillary Clinton's statement on the release of the two journalists:

"Obviously I am very happy and relieved to have these two young woman, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, on their way home to their families," she told reporters in Nairobi, Kenya. "I spoke to my husband on the airplane and everything went well. They are extremely excited to be reunited soon when they touch down in California. It was just a good day to be able to see this happen."



The photo of Bill Clinton greeted in North Korea by a little girl offering him a bouquet of flowers stayed with me throughout the day yesterday. It formed the backdrop of descriptions of Bill’s star power and worldwide stature appearing in various news outlets across the Web headlining his successful rescue of Euna Lee and Laura Ling.


And I couldn’t help noting the contrast in this week’s effusive news coverage to the same media’s ugly caricatures of Clinton during last year’s Democratic primary.


Best to stay with the present moment.


ABC’s Martha Raddatz and Huma Khan report this morning:


It is homecoming day for the two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea for five months as they arrive back in the U.S. with former President Bill Clinton after his landmark trip to the nation.


A crowd of media, family and friends gathered for Euna Lee and Laura Ling's arrival at the Burbank, Calif., airport this morning.


Raddatz and Khan explain the how and why of Bill Clinton’s involvement:

While the trip may have been secretive, it was in the works for months. In July, Lee and Ling -- who were allowed to call their families weekly -- told them that the North Koreans specifically asked for Clinton to come to North Korea, and that they would be freed if he did. Clinton's former Vice President Al Gore, who founded Current TV, where the two journalists worked, asked Clinton to make the trip on behalf of the families.

Here's a video clip of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s response to the news that her husband and the two journalists were on their way home:


Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The Clintons Get It Done: North Korea Releases Journalists During Bill’s Visit

Well, that didn’t take long. Hillary had earlier called North Korea to account, and Bill went in and sealed the deal.

Andy Barr at Politico:

North Korea has ordered the release of the two American journalists detained since May following former President Bill Clinton’s meeting Tuesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

According to North Korea’s state news agency, the two journalists – Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36 – were pardoned after being visited by the former president.

“Kim Jong Il issued an order of the Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission on granting a special pardon to the two American journalists who had been sentenced to hard labor in accordance with Article 103 of the Socialist Constitution and releasing them,” read the report from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Clinton met with Kim shortly after landing in Pyongyang Tuesday.

The former president, in a surprise visit, supplied Kim with a verbal message from President Barack Obama. The report said Clinton’s message was “courteously” conveyed. Thus far, neither the White House or the State Department has given any details about what message Obama sent to Kim or whether it touched on tensions created by North Korea's budding nuclear weapons program.

Kim and the former president then sat down for what the state media described as a “wide-ranging exchange
of views.”

Following his meeting with Kim, Clinton spoke in person to the two journalists, according to ABC News, which cited a government source.

“This is thrilling it’s a wonderful opportunity for these two women to come back to America,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said shortly after the journalists’ release during an interview on MSNBC.


Read more:

The Clintons Team Up to Rescue Journalists Imprisoned in North Korea

It’s good to see Bill Clinton representing America on behalf of two female television journalists imprisoned in North Korea. Although a private mission, the former president is actually assisting his spouse, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has been working on the case for some time.

The NY Times’ Mark Landler and Peter Baker report:

WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton landed in North Korea on Tuesday to negotiate the release of two American television journalists sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory, according to a person briefed on the mission.


Mr. Clinton flew into Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in an unmarked jet early Tuesday morning local time, Central TV, a North Korean station, reported. The White House confirmed the visit on Tuesday, but said it was a private, not public mission, and therefore that it could not comment on its details.


Television footage from Pyongyang showed Mr. Clinton being greeted at the airport by North Korean officials including the chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan and Yang Hyong-sop, the vice parliamentary speaker. The footage showed him smiling and bowing as a young girl presented him with flowers.

Read More:

Monday, August 3, 2009

Krugman: “If You Aren’t Outraged, You Haven’t Been Paying Attention

Paul Krugman goes after Wall Street in his NY Times op-ed column, and he does not fail to call the Obama Administration to account:

Americans are angry at Wall Street, and rightly so. First the financial industry plunged us into economic crisis, then it was bailed out at taxpayer expense. And now, with the economy still deeply depressed, the industry is paying itself gigantic bonuses. If you aren’t outraged, you haven’t been paying attention.

But crashing the economy and fleecing the taxpayer aren’t Wall Street’s only sins. Even before the crisis and the bailouts, many financial-industry high-fliers made fortunes through activities that were worthless if not destructive from a social point of view.

And they’re still at it. Consider two recent news stories.

Read more:

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Gallup Poll: Go Figure - Seniors Most Skeptical of Health Care Reform

A recent Gallup poll shows seniors as the most skeptical of healthcare reform. Lydia Saad reports:

PRINCETON, NJ -- Seniors are the least likely of all age groups in the U.S. to say that healthcare reform will benefit their personal healthcare situation. By a margin of three to one, 36% to 12%, adults 65 and older are more likely to believe healthcare reform will reduce rather than expand their access to healthcare. And by 39% to 20%, they are more likely to say their own medical care will worsen rather than improve.

It’s no wonder seniors are skeptical.


Listening to President Obama and leadership of both the Democratic and Republican Parties in recent debates over health care reform, you’d think the government was single-handedly funding top-of-the line health care coverage for America’s seniors through Medicare, routinely lumped with Social Security as an “entitlement” program.


Seldom mentioned is that these same seniors paid into Social Security throughout their working years. Post retirement, a hefty sum is deducted from their monthly Social Security check for Medicare. Medicare’s inadequate coverage explains why those who can afford to do so, feel compelled to purchase private supplemental policies.


Most troubling for seniors have been proposed requirements such as those of reform legislation recently sponsored by U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. The Democratic senator no doubt means well, but his Senior Navigation and Planning Act of 2009 appears to encourage seniors to refuse medical care and “go gentle into that good night,” Dylan Thomas be damned. Warner’s bill includes the following provisions:



* enhances Medicare and Medicaid coverage of advanced illness care management services;

* requires doctors to provide patients with information on living wills and other planning tools;

* gives providers incentives to achieve accreditation and certification in hospice and palliative care;

* encourages more comprehensive discharge planning; and

*increases public awareness about the importance of end-of-life planning.


Don’t’ get me wrong; I believe in end-of-life planning. I just get nervous with the thought of governmental intrusion in such a critical personal matter.