Mediaboss Marketing

Planet Jackson Hole

DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS: The Shattering of America Planet Jackson Hole How the events unfolded at the site of a potential domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville. JACKSON HOLE, WY Two middle-aged men, one black and one white, were walking a street in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, yelling at each other. It was ... and more »

Continue reading here:
DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS: The Shattering of America - Planet Jackson Hole

A democracy activist who claimed he was kidnapped and tortured by mainland Chinese agents in Hong Kong was charged on Wednesday night with misleading police after his story unravelled during their hunt for evidence.

Howard Lam Tsz-kins case will be heard in Kowloon City Court on Thursday morning, but he will not make an appearance as he remains in hospital after complaining of feeling unwell.

Lam held a press conference last week claiming that he was pushed into a van in Yau Ma Tei on Thursday afternoon by Putonghua-speaking men who took him to an unknown location, punched staples into his legs and dumped him on a beach in Sai Kung from where he made his own way home in a taxi.We received a report concerning unlawful detention, criminal intimidation and wounding. These are very serious allegations, acting police commissioner Alan Lau Yip-shing said on Wednesday.

These are very serious allegations

Acting police commissioner Alan Lau Yip-shing

But from our investigation result so far, we found these reports made by the informant were not correct. What he said to us did not comply with what we discovered.

Earlier on Wednesday, officers recovered a bloodstained tissue and a cigarette packet while hunting for evidence at a beach in Sai Kung.

Dozens of detectives and Police Tactical Unit officers combed the area after CCTV footage showed Lam travelling to the location on his own, instead of being taken there by kidnappers, as he had earlier claimed.

Officers were also searching for a stapler and other items linked to the case.

Lam was arrested on suspicion of misleading police at 12:30am on Tuesday.

The Democratic Party member remained in a detention ward at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Wednesday after he complained of feeling sick at about midnight at Hung Hom police station, where he was being detained for questioning.

A police insider said he was in a stable condition, but would spend another night in hospital because of a serious headache.

When being detained at the police station, he complained about having an acid reflux and a serious headache and requested medical treatment, the source said. He has remained silent under questioning with his lawyer present.

Around 50 police officers searched for evidence on Tai Mong Tsai Road and a surrounding beach in Sai Kung in the morning, as CCTV footage showed that Lam took a minibus from Mong Kok to Sai Kung and that he appeared in Tai Mong Tsai at around 6pm. Footage also revealed that he walked to a beach outside Luna House on the road on his own the beach that he claimed was where his abductors had dumped him.

If he had stayed in the area for long hours, he must have left some clues or traces in the area, the source said. We are looking for items related to the case maybe a stapler, packing paper or clothes.

The Post reported earlier that the force might look into Lams mental health, as he suffered from depression and had attempted suicide in the past. Investigators suspected he might have harmed himself instead of being tortured.

Detectives found the crosses stapled onto the activists thighs had been punched in so neatly, without any scratches or other bruises, that they doubted his claim his abductors had held him down against his will to punish him for intending to send a photograph signed by soccer star Lionel Messi to the wife of the late Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo.

See the original post here:
Hong Kong democracy activist charged with misleading police over kidnap claim - South China Morning Post

Evil arrived in Charlottesville this past weekend when white nationalists and Neo-Nazis terrorized this quiet college town. Lives were lost, many injured and hate was on full display and the President could only muster a tepid response about many sides which is a false moral equivalency. I honestly cant believe Im living in 2017 and after each egregious step of the Trump presidency I ask myself; is this what democracy looks like?

Even though racism is on the rise, perverted untruths are unloaded daily and fire and fury rhetoric is now common place, yes, I believe this is what democracy looks like. Our democracy is terrifying but at the same time this sort of beautiful chaos with the checks and balances of our government in full flex. This gives me hope.

We are seeing signs our democracy is working as it was designed to combat against destructive forces. Politicians are finding their profile in courage moments and listening to their constituents. People are organizing and attending town halls nationwide. Congress has made it impossible for Trump to fire the Attorney General or stop the Special Counsel through legislative action and political pressure.

Our government still works even though it can be slow, messy and frustrating with no straight path for ideas and policies to become law or fix problems which are complicated by ideology. I learned quickly as a legislative assistant at a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. how a bill becomes a law was not the sterilized version presented in civics class. Politicians, special interests and, advocacy organizations dont just rely on the merits of good legislation but branding, public relations, and polling play an important role. Also, constituents power is often underutilized or taken for granted with many citizens simply not voting which is a right at the heart of our democracy which is not exercised enough.

For those who did vote in the 2016 election, your motivations were based on core values, a passion for issues you care about or out of desperation for a bad social or economic situation. I believe some who voted for Trump had no ill intent but must confront the rationalizations that were made to vote for a candidate who appeases white nationalists. This has had tangible negative consequences and Charlottesvilles Mayor Michael Signer said it best, When you dance with the devil, the devil changes you. The outcome of last years election has changed us but I do see people trying to live up to our American values even though our President doesnt.

People now more than ever hide behind the First Amendment to do say horrible things, as we saw in Charlottesville, and how we handle free speech will determine how great America will be in the future. Free speech is a responsibility and that can be wielded for good or evil purposes and Americans have proven throughout history we can handle this privilege and triumph because of it.

We may be saturated in an environment where lies are told often and with a tenacity which leads people to accept them as truths. But curiosity to seek out the truth will prevail and when we speak with compassion and tolerance, acknowledge philosophical differences divorced from conspiracy theories, think logically while trying to check our own biases at the door, we all will win.

I have faith that healthcare legislation with no real hope of delivering better coverage will never pass. The investigations regarding the Trump campaigns collusion with Russia will proceed unimpeded with a free press reporting along the way. Immigration policies meant to create fear and violate the Constitution will remain banned and our own immigrant history will be the clarion call for better immigration and refugee policies. Racism will be overcome and extinguished from our government.

I also try to remember our history and that democracy has never been easy. It comes in many forms too, such as lifetime government employees doing their jobs regardless of political party, phone calls to Capitol Hill and long lines to vote. For me I remember the rallying cry, this is what democracy looks like, from the millions of protesters at the Womens March and seeing the streets of D.C. overflowing with peaceful marchers. Well always be shaping our democracy for better or worse.

The Morning Email

Wake up to the day's most important news.

View original post here:
Is This What Democracy Looks Like? - HuffPost

Last month, the tiny oil-rich nation of Qatar filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization that its neighbours have been unfairly blocking its ability to trade goods, services and intellectual property. The countries are now in the midst of a 60-day consultation process that will probably go on to a formal dispute settlement. Amid this turmoil, the scientific community could offer a surprising source of influence and, for Qatari researchers, relief.

There are science academies in almost every region of the world. Some, such as the US National Academy of Sciences, established in 1863, are giants boasting a long history and tradition. Others, like the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan, established in 1978, are minnows yet to make a mark. Academies enable scientists to publicly recognize the leaders in their fields, but they have a broader purpose, too. They nurture young talent, publish research, help to resolve controversies and represent their members to policymakers. Academies are far from perfect, as the under-representation of women and minorities confirms. But they are essential to science and society.

And yet you won't find a single academy among the wealthy nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional alliance. Some parts of the GCC such as Abu Dhabi, which aspires to build one of the world's first zero-carbon, and Qatar, with a network of high-technology national laboratories employ many scientists. But these scientists are forbidden from setting up academies.

The Gulf's ruling monarchies fear that if scientists are permitted to establish independent organizations, then groups representing women, minority religions, lawyers, teachers and students will also ask to create institutions, publish journals, hold elections and present themselves to governments.

The problem for younger scientists, especially, is that their ambitions are held back because no organization looks after their interests. Nor is there a formal mechanism for redress when laws or regulations thwart research and innovation. For example, staff at national innovation agencies think that changes to laws governing business ownership would encourage more technology start-ups (with wider benefits for science, society and the economy). Currently, every GCC member state demands that a majority of any company be owned by a citizen of that state. This makes it hard to create start-ups, because so many potential tech entrepreneurs students and researchers are from other countries. A science academy, or similar, could take up such concerns and lobby ruling families on behalf of researchers.

Qatar's rulers could be the first to allow science academies, albeit for reasons that, even a few months ago, would have been hard to predict. Since June, the GCC states, along with Egypt, have closed their air, land and sea borders with Qatar. These countries claim that Qatar has been backing opposition groups, either directly, by funding them, or indirectly through its sponsorship of Al Jazeera TV the nearest that the region has to an independent broadcaster. This is the biggest political crisis in the Middle East since the Arab Spring revolutions.

you won't find a single academy among the wealthy nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Qatar's leaders insist that everything is under control. In reality, everything has changed and scientists are caught in the turmoil. International research partnerships must find new routes into and out of Qatar when scientists want to transport equipment or meet colleagues. GCC embassies in the Qatari capital, Doha, are refusing to renew passports, in effect expelling people from the country. Perhaps most heartbreaking is the effect on families of researchers if one partner is from Egypt or is a non-Qatari GCC national who has been ordered home by their government. And because the children of Qatari women who are married to non-Qatari men do not have Qatari nationality, they too can face deportation.

With an influential, independent science academy, Qatar could capture researchers' concerns and put these to the government. A Qatari academy would also be able to call on the help of sister academies, and of international federations such as the World Academy of Sciences and the InterAcademy Partnership, both based in Trieste, Italy.

Qatar's science leaders already have strong links to Western organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, based in Washington DC, and the Royal Society in London. Elias Zerhouni, a former director of the US National Institutes of Health, led a team that advised the Qatari government on its research priorities. These Western groups should, collectively, urge Doha to make the leap.

Qatar is an absolute monarchy, with an indigenous population of just 300,000, so political power is distributed among a small number of families who are likely to prefer an academy in which members are endorsed, if not appointed, through Qatari royals. But such a body would not be a genuine science academy. And it would be ineligible for membership of the major global academy networks.

The nation's leaders fear that a science academy might shelter seeds of what could become a larger democratic revolution, and they are not wrong. But they should be able to see that a little more democracy, especially in a form that strengthens science and innovation, will help to preserve the long-term security of their tiny nation: moral arguments to protect a democracy against dictatorship are still compelling.

Who knows, where one nation leads, others may in time follow.

See the original post:
A little democracy could go a long way - Nature.com

For more than a half century, the Philadelphia TV station now branded as PHL17 was the place where baby boomer kids flipped on the Wee Willie Webber Colorful Cartoon Club as soon as they got home from school, where teens grooved to Dancin on Air in the go-go 1980s, and where Schmitty, Lefty and the rest of their Phillies squad marched toward their first world championship in the long hot summer of 1980.

But if a planned sale of the station along with dozens of other TV outlets from coast-to-coast to the Sinclair Broadcast Group wins approval from federal regulators, PHL17 may become the go-to place on your local remote for pro-government curve balls from the Terrorism Alert Desk and a blast of commentaries dancin on rhetorical hot air in support of President Trump during the run-up to the 2020 election.

STEVE RUARK / AP

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.s headquarters in Hunt Valley, Md. STEVE RUARK / AP

Experts caution that Sinclairs ultimate plan for the Philadelphia station is a little unclear because unlike most of the 42 stations in 33 key markets that it seeks to acquire in its pending deal to buy Tribune Media PHL17 doesnt currently have its own in-house-produced nightly newscast where Sinclair could plant its conservative propaganda flag. But they still express alarm about the bigger national picture less local journalism and less choice for viewers, with federal government in the process of twisting the licensing rules in a way to benefit a media company that so enthusiastically cheerleads for the head of that government, Trump.

Craig Aaron, the president and CEO of Free Press, an advocacy group that fights against media consolidation, said the massive Sinclair deal puts too much media power in the hands of one company, especially because the firms business model lays off independent journalists covering local stories, like corruption in City Hall, and instead orders stations to run commentaries from a handful of right-wing national pundits who push pro-GOP and increasingly, pro-Trump propaganda. We need competent sources of local news and the Sinclair model is to eliminate them.

Sinclairs $3.9 million push into untapped local markets may be the last puzzle piece in the move that more than anything else defines Donald Trumps America. Success will create a seamless media bubble for the presidents rabid base, from the blather of Fox & Friends when they turn on their TV in the morning to right-wing talk radio as they drive to the supermarket to the anti-liberal diatribes, some of it fake news or even manufactured on Russian content farms, in their Facebook feed, now bolstered by Trump-boosting commentaries from the presidents former aide Boris Epshteyn on their local Sinclair-owned TV news. All while the president brands the traditional news media as enemies of the American people.

Whats revealing about this scheme is that the Sinclair acquisitions of local TV outlets are heavily focused in the presidential swing states like Ohio, Wisconsin, and, of course, Pennsylvania where the Trump-lovin broadcaster would own a station in every key media market after gaining PHL17 and Fox43 in Harrisburg. Thats a huge two-fer for Sinclair, since in addition to its unbroken web of pro-Trump agitprop. the company will reaps hundreds of millions of dollars from battleground-state political spending. Thats your modern kleptocracy at work.

As Maryland-based Sinclair has grown its coast-to-coast reach, its also found with too little fanfare new and creative ways to boost its far-right agenda, dating back to the early 2000s when its ABC affiliates wouldnt air a Nightline episode simply listing the names of American troops whod died in Iraq, an act apparently seen at Sinclair HQ as anti-war propaganda. Its affiliates did, however, run on the eve of the 2004 a documentary called Stolen Valor that slammed the Vietnam War-era record of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a piece heavily promoted by Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth. They also broadcast a mix of news pieces and a dishonest infomerical that slammed Barack Obama during his presidency, most under the banner of must-run commentaries.

That trend has only increased in the Trump Era, with the hiring of Epshteyn, who worked on the 2016 campaign and for a short time in the White House, and whose Trump-talking-point commentaries must run a whopping nine times a week. Viewers who switch on their local news on a day when things arent going well for the Trump White House wont get that story but instead get a Terrorism Desk Alert on the fighting in Syria or blasting the Muslim treatment of women. Meanwhile, its been reported that Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner cut a deal giving Sinclair access to Trump in return for favorable coverage.

I realize that a lot of you are saying at this pointso what? The 1st Amendment not only permits but implicitly encourages an opinionated media, and liberals certainly have their own outlets, like MSNBCs The Rachel Maddow Show, to name just one. Theres nothing inherently wrong with conservative commentary on your high-def screen. But what Sinclair and its allies in the Trump administration are seeking to pull with this Tribune acquisition is radically different upending the once-cherished ideal of diverse, locally based voices, replacing that quaint vision with a large centralized media monopoly. And they are deliberately gaming the federal licensing rules to get there.

As investigative journalists from the New York Times reported this week, Sinclairs chairman David Smith met with the FCC commissioner whom Trump was naming as its chairman, Ajit Pai, on the day before Trumps inauguration to map out the plan for radical deregulation that the FCC has largely carried out since January lifting the cap on how many stations a broadcaster like Sinclair can own, as well as relaxing other restrictions in ways that would benefit the Trump-friendly companys bottom line.

Its not front-page news not surprising in a time of nuclear bluster and white-supremacist marches through American cities but the average citizens should still be alarmed. For one thing, all the must-run pro-Trump blather emerging from Sinclairs offices kills any chance for real journalism on local issues. Hannah Jane Sassaman, policy director for the Philadelphia-based Media Mobilizing Project, told me that activists in Harrisburg have been pleased with the coverage that Fox43 gives to immigrant-rights issues and are alarmed that such reports might dry up under Sinclair. A conservative media that uses dog whistles, Sassaman said, is being expanded to our broadcast news outlets that should be terrifying.

That said, the picture in Philadelphia is fuzzy. Some analysts have wondered if Sinclair ultimately aims to flip PHL17 to another buyer. The channels current line-up, with a short morning news show and a 10 p.m. newscast produced by ABC 6/WPVI Action News, doesnt offer at the moment the opportunities for running conservative commentary that exist at other stations that its buying. But that could change quickly if the sale goes through.

Regardless of what happens on the local dial, Sassaman is right that the prospects for U.S. democracy are terrifying. One of the gateway drugs for authoritarian rule is state control of the mass media. If Americans in key battleground states start getting spoon-fed pro-White House propaganda in between their local weather and the 76ers highlights, were much farther down that rocky road than we ever want to be.

The good news is that while the path for FCC approval of the Sinclair-Tribune deal appears to be well-greased, the sale is still not final. Both Sassaman and Aaron from Free Press which has challenged the sale on both the legal and regulatory front urged citizens to contact the FCC and register their objection. They also recommended calling public officials, from Mayor Kenney to members of Congress, to urge public hearings or at least strong condemnations. Its worth a shot, because the stakes are so high. Like a batter facing a Steve Carlton fastball from the glory days of Sunday afternoon baseball on Channel 17, this dangerous scheme needs to be struck out.

Published: August 15, 2017 3:01 AM EDT | Updated: August 15, 2017 2:05 PM EDT

We recently asked you to support our journalism. The response, in a word, is heartening. You have encouraged us in our mission to provide quality news and watchdog journalism. Some of you have even followed through with subscriptions, which is especially gratifying. Our role as an independent, fact-based news organization has never been clearer. And our promise to you is that we will always strive to provide indispensable journalism to our community. Subscriptions are available for home delivery of the print edition and for a digital replica viewable on your mobile device or computer. Subscriptions start as low as 25 per day. We're thankful for your support in every way.

See more here:
Why the looming sale of PHL17 is a threat to democracy - Philly.com