[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]
Obama: A Jump to the Left, a Step to the Right
ByDaniel Politi
Posted Friday, May 22, 2009, at 6:44 AM ET
CONTINUED FROM news.notes20090522f
Nobody fronts the latest from Iraq, where at least 23 Iraqis and three American soldiers were killed yesterday. The Americans were killed by a roadside bomb in the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora. In the northern city of Kirkuk, a suicide bomber killed at least eight members of the Awakening, the U.S.-backed militia.
The NYT fronts, and everyone goes inside with, more details about the four men who were arrested yesterday on suspicion of trying to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes. Lots is still unknown, but there are troubling signs that the federal informant was more than a little instrumental in making the wild dreams of what mostly seem to be petty criminals into a reality. At a small mosque in Newburgh, NY, many became suspicious they had a federal informant in their midst since he loudly talked of jihad and even offered people money. Many stayed away. But four men who had previously served time in prison moved in and started hatching the plot, all of which "played out on a veritable soundstage of hidden cameras and secret microphones," notes the NYT. One of the men is on medication for schizophrenia and was living in squalor. Another told the informant he wanted to "do jihad" and told a story of how his parents used to live in Afghanistan, but that all appears to have been part of a fantasy.
The LAT profiles Jack Passion, a 25-year-old musician who won first place in the "full beard: natural" category of the World Beard and Moustache Championships and became an "overnight celebrity in the insular subculture of competitive facial hair." Yes, competitive facial hair is apparently serious business. He recently finished writing a how-to book called The Facial Hair Handbook and is recording his first solo album. But Satruday he'll have to defend his title at the biennial battle. "People are gunning for me," Passion said. " America doesn't love champions, America loves underdogs."
[News & Politics] from [Double X, Slate's magazine for women]
The Mystery of the Soldier in the Pink Boxers
Posted: May 21, 2009 at 5:46 PM
By Susannah Breslin
On May 12, the New York Times ran a photograph featuring a soldier in his underpants. The photo was eye-catching—I know it caught my eye—and appeared above the fold on the front page. The photo was taken by David Guttenfelder for the Associated Press, and its subject was Specialist Zachary Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas. But what made it a stand-out was that it was taken in Afghanistan, and Boyd was in his army gear and brandishing a weapon, but doing so in pink underwear. A few days later, an IT guy at the Times noticed that site visitors were searching for the usual subjects—"Obama," "India," and "cancer" among them—but there was something new, too: "pink boxers." As it turned out, they were looking for Boyd.
Lens, a wonderful new photojournalism blog the Times launched recentlly, has the story behind the photo that spawned the pink boxers searches.
"It had an impact on me immediately," [Times editor Michele McNally] said. "Your first reaction is: 'What? What’s going on?' Because you are smiling—and then you realize its meaning. War never stops, look how intense it could get. You understand then that he is fighting out of uniform, in underwear which reads "I Love NY," in the midst of really rough terrain in a remote region so very far from home. And New York.
"And yet again, it calls up what mom said, 'Always wear clean underwear, you never know.'"
[News & Politics] from [Double X, Slate's magazine for women]
He Had a Sex Change. So What?
Posted: May 22, 2009 at 8:39 AM
By Samantha Henig
On Wednesday, Hanna asked "Is it normal to be transgender?" On Thursday, Adam Reilly at the Boston Phoenix asked whether being transgender is newsworthy. Reilly analyzes the coverage of Aiden Quinn, the 24-year-old subway driver who crashed a Boston train earlier this month, injuring 50, moments after texting his girlfriend. And hey, by the way, he used to be a woman. Reilly writes:
Given Quinn's admission that he was, in fact, texting prior to the accident, there's a general consensus that he's a dumbass. But there's no such agreement among the Boston media as to whether his switch from identifying as a woman to a man was germane to the larger story.
According to Reilly's story, WFXT-TV and the Boston Herald played up Quinn's sex change. New England Cable News dropped the detail late in its story. And some Boston Globe pieces didn't even mention it. As Globe metro editor Brian McGrory told Reilly: "It's certainly a provocative part of his personal history, but the question we asked was, ‘Was it relevant to the crash itself?' And we couldn't determine that it was."
In the spirit of letting the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, the Bible of psychiatry, define what's "normal," it's interesting to turn to another definitive book—the New York Times style guide—for its take on gender identity. Here's how the old gray lady handled it. Reporting on Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick's plan, in response to the crash, to ban bus and train operators from having cell phones with them while on duty, the Times never mentions Quinn's sex change. Apparently it considers that fact irrelevant. And the paper does call him "Mr."
Obama: A Jump to the Left, a Step to the Right
ByDaniel Politi
Posted Friday, May 22, 2009, at 6:44 AM ET
CONTINUED FROM news.notes20090522f
Nobody fronts the latest from Iraq, where at least 23 Iraqis and three American soldiers were killed yesterday. The Americans were killed by a roadside bomb in the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora. In the northern city of Kirkuk, a suicide bomber killed at least eight members of the Awakening, the U.S.-backed militia.
The NYT fronts, and everyone goes inside with, more details about the four men who were arrested yesterday on suspicion of trying to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes. Lots is still unknown, but there are troubling signs that the federal informant was more than a little instrumental in making the wild dreams of what mostly seem to be petty criminals into a reality. At a small mosque in Newburgh, NY, many became suspicious they had a federal informant in their midst since he loudly talked of jihad and even offered people money. Many stayed away. But four men who had previously served time in prison moved in and started hatching the plot, all of which "played out on a veritable soundstage of hidden cameras and secret microphones," notes the NYT. One of the men is on medication for schizophrenia and was living in squalor. Another told the informant he wanted to "do jihad" and told a story of how his parents used to live in Afghanistan, but that all appears to have been part of a fantasy.
The LAT profiles Jack Passion, a 25-year-old musician who won first place in the "full beard: natural" category of the World Beard and Moustache Championships and became an "overnight celebrity in the insular subculture of competitive facial hair." Yes, competitive facial hair is apparently serious business. He recently finished writing a how-to book called The Facial Hair Handbook and is recording his first solo album. But Satruday he'll have to defend his title at the biennial battle. "People are gunning for me," Passion said. " America doesn't love champions, America loves underdogs."
[News & Politics] from [Double X, Slate's magazine for women]
The Mystery of the Soldier in the Pink Boxers
Posted: May 21, 2009 at 5:46 PM
By Susannah Breslin
On May 12, the New York Times ran a photograph featuring a soldier in his underpants. The photo was eye-catching—I know it caught my eye—and appeared above the fold on the front page. The photo was taken by David Guttenfelder for the Associated Press, and its subject was Specialist Zachary Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas. But what made it a stand-out was that it was taken in Afghanistan, and Boyd was in his army gear and brandishing a weapon, but doing so in pink underwear. A few days later, an IT guy at the Times noticed that site visitors were searching for the usual subjects—"Obama," "India," and "cancer" among them—but there was something new, too: "pink boxers." As it turned out, they were looking for Boyd.
Lens, a wonderful new photojournalism blog the Times launched recentlly, has the story behind the photo that spawned the pink boxers searches.
"It had an impact on me immediately," [Times editor Michele McNally] said. "Your first reaction is: 'What? What’s going on?' Because you are smiling—and then you realize its meaning. War never stops, look how intense it could get. You understand then that he is fighting out of uniform, in underwear which reads "I Love NY," in the midst of really rough terrain in a remote region so very far from home. And New York.
"And yet again, it calls up what mom said, 'Always wear clean underwear, you never know.'"
[News & Politics] from [Double X, Slate's magazine for women]
He Had a Sex Change. So What?
Posted: May 22, 2009 at 8:39 AM
By Samantha Henig
On Wednesday, Hanna asked "Is it normal to be transgender?" On Thursday, Adam Reilly at the Boston Phoenix asked whether being transgender is newsworthy. Reilly analyzes the coverage of Aiden Quinn, the 24-year-old subway driver who crashed a Boston train earlier this month, injuring 50, moments after texting his girlfriend. And hey, by the way, he used to be a woman. Reilly writes:
Given Quinn's admission that he was, in fact, texting prior to the accident, there's a general consensus that he's a dumbass. But there's no such agreement among the Boston media as to whether his switch from identifying as a woman to a man was germane to the larger story.
According to Reilly's story, WFXT-TV and the Boston Herald played up Quinn's sex change. New England Cable News dropped the detail late in its story. And some Boston Globe pieces didn't even mention it. As Globe metro editor Brian McGrory told Reilly: "It's certainly a provocative part of his personal history, but the question we asked was, ‘Was it relevant to the crash itself?' And we couldn't determine that it was."
In the spirit of letting the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, the Bible of psychiatry, define what's "normal," it's interesting to turn to another definitive book—the New York Times style guide—for its take on gender identity. Here's how the old gray lady handled it. Reporting on Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick's plan, in response to the crash, to ban bus and train operators from having cell phones with them while on duty, the Times never mentions Quinn's sex change. Apparently it considers that fact irrelevant. And the paper does call him "Mr."
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