WiredPen

From Antidotal earlier this month: as of 9 April, since becoming President Bush had spent 500 days at one of his three retreats (Texas, Maine, Camp David). That’s more than 40% of his presidency.

With a war on.

The New York Times reported Friday that

Sinclair, which owns 62 television stations in 39 markets, also made news in September 2001, when it ordered news personnel at its Baltimore station to read patriotic statements supporting President Bush.

A net search reveals these reports from the time:
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Senator John McCain has weighed in on today’s war coverage controversy, calling Sinclair’s ban of tonight’s Nightline special “unpatriotic.”

His letter also says:

I supported the president’s decision to go to war in Iraq, and remain a strong supporter of that decision. But every American has a responsibility to understand fully the terrible costs of war and the extraordinary sacrifices it requires of those brave men and women who volunteer to defend the rest of us.

As the world turns (literally), the Sinclair/Nightline story is making its way around the globe. At this writing, news.google.com shows 342 stories. Let’s take a look at a few:

– The Guardian leads with an error in graph one. Yes, Sinclair owns stations reaching 24% of the US population. But most of its stations are FOX, not ABC.

– Sam Roberts, the Frances L. Wolfson chair and broadcast journalism professor at the University of Miami School of Communication told the Miami Herald that this could “easily be interpreted as a pro-Bush policy move on [Nightline's] part, because it honors the armed forces. That’s if you were going to read into it a political motive, which I don’t. I’m really astonished by this reaction.”
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Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns TV stations reaching 24% of the US population, has banned its ABC-affiliates from carrying Friday night’s Nightline because it finds the show “contrary to public interest.”

The show will air a tribute to fallen soldiers by showing the names and photos of servicemen and women killed in Iraq — currently 533 killed in action and 204 killed in “nonhostile” incidents.

The news made its way through the blogosphere. (I started with BOP and DailyKOS, then went to Newberry for Congress and finally to Poynter, which has the full statement from ABC news and Sinclair.)

There is a grassroots campaign afoot according to comments on BOP and Eschaton.
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Rather than recommend a wholesale ban of touchscreen voting machines in November, a California panel has proposed a freeze on new equipment unless it produces a voter-verified paper audit trail, accelerating the due date for this technology from 2006 to 2004.

At least 20 states have introduced legislation requiring a paper audit trail. Oregon, New Hampshire and Illinois already require this accountability; Missouri and Nevada will require it by 2006. Secretaries of state in Washington and West Virginia are also calling for paper trails.

Panelist John Mott-Smith, California elections division chief, said:

It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. …it confuses me the extent of the reaction against paper. It is now in the public radar, and it is not going off the public radar.

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Yesterday I posted my first entry at Wikipedia on Brian J. Williams, a presumed expert on electronic voting technologies.

I’m posting the first cut here with its links to external resources embedded. Hopefully anyone who knows more about him will comment here or update the Wiki entry.
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Another dose of personal empowerment, courtesy of technology. I just posted my first Wiki entry on Britain J. Williams, a man who appears to have zero computing security credentials but who is still touted as an expert on electronic voting systems. This is an outgrowth of my work with e-voting.

From Bush advisor Karen Hughes on CNN Sunday during the March for Women’s Lives:

I think after September 11, the American people are valuing life more … and the fundamental issue between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life.

So, according to Hughes, being pro-choice and opposing Bush’s policies on reproductive rights puts me in the same category as those militants who crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I’m so glad I’m a Democratic delegate, at least at the precinct level.

I would have never known about this quote had I not read online news; I don’t watch CNN, where she uttered these remarks.

Links:
LifeNews (27 Apr); CNN (27 Apr)

I just had my first brush with an advocacy site positioning itself as an honest news source … when its “news” was so dishonest I did a double-take. I thought I was more worldly.

I was looking for updates to Sunday’s Women’s March in Washington, DC. Yesterday’s mainstream news reported turnout around 1 million. DC police said the march met or exceeded expecatations; the parade permit was for 750,000.

So imagine my surprise when the first story I read after a news.Google search said that there were only a few hundred thousand marchers.
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