Days away from walking out of LA with a graduate diploma in Online Journalism. More on that later. Today, I send you to my LAist post in which I rip apart Nancy Grace.
Previous Grace-bashing here.
Videos of MacArthur Park Mayday Police Violence
A couple truly outstanding videos came out of the unexpected police action during the May 1 Immigration Rights Rally at MacArthur Park on Wilshire and Alvarado Streets in LA, Tuesday. So, good, and important to see, that I’m compelled to offer them below.
The first video puts you right in the action, a great piece of live journalism by GameJew, aka Jonathan Mann.
Unbelievable to see cops chasing people like this.
The second video was shot by Sasha Constanza-Chock (his written account of the experience is here. The disturbing footage begins at about 2:00.
MayDay Immigration Rights Rally Melee, MacArthur Park, Los Angeles [ 3:21 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadMurdoch Bids $5 Billion for Dow Jones
Scary and unsolicited — are newspapers suddenly worth something again? (more to follow)…
Dow Jones owns the Wall Street Journal, among other things, and Murdoch’s News Corp. bends the rules of media ownership with it’s massive stable of multiple media in practically every English speaking market worldwide. Just who does that include? It’s all on this list.
The Bancroft family (which controls Dow Jones), along with practically the entire staff of the Wall Street Journal, currently oppose News Corp.’s offer, while others — like analyst Mort Zuckerman — are calling Murdoch “brilliant.”
Shares of Dow Jones jumped over 50% to just shy of Murdoch’s offering price of $60/share in Tuesday trading. Other publicly traded newspaper company’s saw prices surge as well.
But the offer raises numerous red flags, writes Mark @ News Corpse including News Corp.’s plans to launch a Fox Business Channel to compete with the likes of CNBC.
It may seem insulting to WSJ writers to be threatened with ownership by the likes of the mogul who has turned the likes of the New York Post into practically a supermarket tabloid. But more important and influential could be the residual effect of Murdoch’s lofty valuation of Dow Jones on the struggling (by Wall Street standards) newspaper industry.
Will Okun Wins NYT/Kristof Africa Trip
Big-time congrats to Will for penning a winning essay for the chance to join New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof (and one other winner) on an all-expenses-paid trip to Africa. Will is one of my Chi-town homies and also happens to be the best photographer you may have never heard of, unless you’ve seen his killer Players’ Ball spread for Vibe, which undoubtedly won over Kristof for good.
It wouldn’t be shocking to see Will’s photography show up, well, anywhere — but to catch his name while scrolling through my Google Reader (scanning the Times’ newsfeed) came as a total surprise.
Will’s professional qualification for winning is his status as a teacher at Chicago’s Westside Alternative High. Congrats, Willy! (Will Okun’s photos are here, his winning essay is here).
Kristof’s Win a Trip contest spawned out of a 2005 editorial in which he called out to Bill O’Reilly to accompany him on a trip to Darfur, and later asked readers to contribute and sponsor it. To nobody’s surprise, O’Reilly declined. The NYT later launched a Win a Trip With Nick Kristof contest which was won by Mizzou Journalism Master’s student Casey Parks (See her NYT blog).
Another thing I just realized is that TimesSelect is being offered free to .edu e-mails — one more thing I can take advantage of before my graduation in a couple weeks. I can finally re-subscribe to the Op-Ed podcasts! Any other tip-offs on good ol’ student discount action so I can get ’em while I can?