FeralBlog

Saw that interesting news item yesterday. All I can say is “ha ha ha ha ha!” Die, fuckers.

A bunch of things have happened in the last few days since my original post. Here there are in no particular order (some of them I already put into updates in my original post):

• The next issue of The Medium contained an apology. The issue is archived here.

• According to the emails I’m still getting between some former editors, Professor Jeff Buechner, who was faculty advisor to The Medium, has resigned. Below is the text of the email that was sent to him by one of the editors:

  Dear Professor Beuchner,

  I just received your voicemail indicating that you have resigned from your position as Faculty Advisor for The Medium because of your outrage over the publication of the holocaust cartoon. And while I certainly share your feelings about the content of the cartoon, I’d very much like to urge you to reconsider your resignation. But before going any further, I want to make very clear how I felt about the cartoon. It was utterly DREADFUL and I am very certain I would have opposed its publication with all of my ability had it landed on my front page when I was The Medium’s Managing Editor. I sent the current editors a letter saying I believed it was a “supremely dumb idea” and I am glad to see they’ve issued an apology for printing it. That being said, I urge you to put your personal anger at the cartoon (and perhaps the current editors) aside and recognize The Medium as a unique educational laboratory. It may not seem immediately self-evident that publishing “101 Uses For A Dead Liberace” or “Stupid Jew Baking Tricks” would instill an appreciation for the balance between First Amendment rights and journalistic responsibility. But it turns out getting hate mail, death threats, universal condemnation and being forced to stand up and explain one’s actions before the whithering attacks of a rabid public are uniquely effective at focusing the mind on matters of ethics and responsibility.

  I have no idea what the current staff is like. It may well be the current Medium is just a pathetic attempt to recreate something that the editors have never seen. Maybe they are just going through the motions and have never thought seriously about what they were doing. I don’t know. However, I believe deeply that the Medium needs to be cherished and yes, defended, as a place where students can and should explore the limits of free speech, screw up spectacularly, and feel the heat from their mistakes. I believe they should be encouraged to explore the ragged edges of good taste and required to defend themselves when they cross the line. I know the experience taught me more than I ever learned in “Expository Writing 101”. And more importantly, I know other alums from the past 20 years of the Medium experience who believe as passionately as I do. They are cc’d on this email and their numbers and convictions are not trivial.

  Of course, if you are not a tenured faculty member, then I’d have to say, “Good luck in your future endeavers” because I have seen first hand the Univerity’s willingness to harrass and fire Medium Faculty Advisors. But if you are tenured, then I’d ask you sincerely to please reconsider.

  Thanks,

  -Janus Cole LC 1988
  Medium Managing Editor 1986-1987

• Two former editors (and the cutest little couple you ever did see), Robin and Joshua, have also opined.

As a former editor for the fishwrapper that was The Medium (the “independant” campus paper; site currently down / slashdotted / farked), I always sit up and take notice whenever they cause outrage or “ire” (a favorite word used by the “legitimate” Daily Targum). Last year it was sort of indirect heat, as they published racist personal ads. One of the tenets of the paper was to publish whatever anyone sent in… 1st Amendment and all of that.

Last week they hit a new kind of problem. They put a cartoon on the front page (archived here for posterity) depicting a Jew in a carnival dunk tank-like setting, but over a kitchen oven instead of a water tank, and the tagline “Knock a Jew in the oven! Three throws for one dollar! Really! No, REALLY!” Understandably, this set off a firestorm of protests, from the ADL on down to the school administration. People want to know how they’re going to get rid of this dastardly evil publication, which is partially funded by (gasp) student tuition and fees! (more…)

NEW ORLEANS – The Marines are investigating a photograph circulating on the Internet that depicts a soldier with two Iraqi boys and a sign, in English, proclaiming the soldier had killed one boy’s father and impregnated the boy’s sister.

A Washington, D.C.-based Muslim civil rights group complained about the photo and urged the Marines to punish the soldier.

Investigators have not determined if the photo showing feralboy.com was altered, said Capt. Jeffrey Pool, a spokesman for Marine Reserves in New Orleans.

Results of the investigation and possible punishment were expected Wednesday, Pool said.

“How the military reacts to this case I think will send a message to Muslims in the Middle East and worldwide as to how seriously the United States takes these issues,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Feralboy.com is with the Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines; the company was deployed in Iraq from last May to September. Pool said he did not know exactly when feralboy.com was in Iraq.

No phone number for the soldier could be obtained Tuesday.

It didn’t work then, and it’s not going to work now. Nice try, tho.

Just cancelled my MBNA credit card after discovering they are they 2nd largest contributor to bush’s political campaigns (second only to Enron, and even then only by a few thousand).

The woman who took my call was rather shocked, and quickly said “I can’t debate this with you” before switching me to her supervisor. I wasn’t even debating, I swear… just explaining why I was closing my account. I don’t feel like a vote matters all that much when corporations have such a strong hand in what happens in politics, but I can at least vote with my dollars.

Definitely an interesting bit of news. There are two things at work here that annoy me about this.

First off is the new “zero-tolerence” policies of Clear Channel and Viacom. This is all due of course to boobie-gate, and the new moral standard that politicians are clamoring for in the absence of doing something useful, like maybe finding out about Iraq pre-war intelligence, or investigating the Valerie Plame matter. I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: it is not the media’s job to raise your kids, people… it’s yours. Quit trying to pawn them off on everyone else, take some responsibility for monitoring what your kids watch and listen to, and be active in their lives. Sure, when you got knocked up you didn’t think that it would actually require work on your end, but sorry; it does.

The second thing, and bear with me on this one, is the relationship between Clear Channel and President bush (note the upper-case “P” and lower-case “b”... respect the office, not the man). There is absolutely no question about the seedy relationship between CC and bush. In recent weeks, I’ve noticed Stern shifting from his previously unwavering support of bush; probably in no small part due to the FCC’s stringent and vague new definitions of obscenity. He recently reviewed Al Franken’s book on the air, and even just yesterday in talking about bush was saying ”...it’s time for him to go. You’ll be a one-term loser like your father.” We already know that this is an amazingly vindictive administration, outing CIA operatives and already-out gay journalists left and right as payback for anything less than unquestioning support of policies, so it’s not much of a stretch to think that CC, either because of a phonecall or maybe even just trying to be a go-getter political lackey decided to pull the plug on Stern.

However it came about, I still have ways to hear what he has to say about it this morning. My feeling is he’ll be out of his job at Viacom and on to satellite radio within 6 months.

Update: Apparently I’m not the only person with this same wild theory. Check out this Salon piece which draws pretty much the same conclusion that I did.

All praises due.

I don’t really care at all if he didn’t want to go to war; that shouldn’t be what defines someone’s character. In fact, I’d be happier with someone at the helm who was less eager to do so. I guess it’s easy when you send kids over there instead of yourself, and your Veep’s former company makes an assload of money from it, to boot! Score!

In any case, why not release all the records? It wasn’t really an issue until you made it one. My guess it has something to do with his mysterious grounding… fail the pee test, maybe?

(Image from Kevin Drum at CalPundit)

I saw a story this morning about a lawsuit being filed against Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, CBS, MTV and Viacom by a 47-year old bank employee because viewers were caused to “suffer outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury.”

A quick Google search turned up a page about the Plantiff’s attorney, and I couldn’t resist sending him an email.

bq.. Dear Mr. Ritchie,

You are kidding, right? You absolutely have to be
kidding me, right? You can’t honestly expect that
your frivolous suit filed against JJ, Viacom, etc.
(http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/janetsuit1.html)
is going to go anywhere, can you?

You, sir, are what’s wrong with this country. Some
bank employee who hates her life so much that she
thinks making a quick buck she didn’t earn is going to
make it all better comes to you, and all you can see
are dollar signs. Have you always been morally
bankrupt, or did law school suck any last semblance of
humanity and/or common decency right out of you?

I’m sure the only thing in an email that would get a
response would be something along the lines of “I done
hurted myself on a sidewalk and I likes to sue so’s I
kin watch Jerry Springer all day long”, but I wanted
to tell you that I truly hope there’s a special room
in hell for the likes of you, Jack Thompson
(http://www.loonyboi.com/blog/archives/000328.php),
and that woman who claimed a Wal-Mart DVD player ran
her over (I’ll bet you wished you could have gotten in
on that action, eh Wayne?). Maybe you’ll be serenaded
by Yoko Ono until your ears fall off.

If there’s any justice in this world, not only will
your suit get laughed out, but you’ll be required to
pay the legal fees for the defendant, as well.

Yours very sincerely,

Matthew Comroe

P.S. Tort reform is going to come sooner rather than
later, and you better brush up on your other skills
for when that day comes. You can probably get a head
start by standing in front of a mirror and saying
“Would you like fries with that?”, slowly and clearly.

His email address is war@rfdlaw.com if you care to drop him a little love note. After all, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner.