Peoria Pundit

Steinberg doesn’t shine, either
From BILL DENNIS: One of the great ironies of the whole Bob-Greene-had-consensual-sex-with-someone-10-years-ago scandal is that while it cost him his job due to an ethics violation, his harshest critic, Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, still has his. Steinberg is hardly covered in glory from his authorship of the anonymous “BobWatch” column in the Chicago Reader. What I find offensive about Steinberg is his class-based criticism of Greene’s coverage of abused children. On Salon.com, he writes: “He would latch onto a subject — particularly the tales of tortured children he gleamed from trailer park America — and worry them like a dog with a beefsteak.”

In addition to being factually inaccurate, the tone of the comment speaks volumes about Steinberg’s contempt for the underclass. Now that Greene’s affair is public knowledge, his entire life is now fair game. How else could Steinberg get into print his latest anti-Greene diatribe, an interview with a woman who claims to have had an affair with Greene in 1983? Greene is portrayed as a letch, while the woman is treated with respect, even though she admitted to an affair with a married man and is going public with a story about her affair, even though she has a three-year-old daughter who may very well suffer because of the revelation.

Bob Greene,Neil Steinberg,Romenesko,Sun Times,Chicago Tribune

Smilies and other chat room and instant message shorthand symbols are popping into formal writing performed by high school students, according to a New York Times article.

“They were astonished when I began to point these things out to them,” said Henry Assetto, a social studies teacher at Twin Valley High School in Elverson, Pa. “Because I am a history teacher, they did not think a history teacher would be checking up on their grammar or their spelling,” said Mr. Assetto, who has been teaching for 34 years.

But Montana Hodgen, 16, another Montclair student, said she was so accustomed to instant-messaging abbreviations that she often read right past them. She proofread a paper last year only to get it returned with the messaging abbreviations circled in red.

“I was so used to reading what my friends wrote to me on Instant Messenger that I didn’t even realize that there was something wrong,” she said. She said her ability to separate formal and informal English declined the more she used instant messages. “Three years ago, if I had seen that, I would have been `What is that?’ ”

The spelling checker doesn’t always help either, students say. For one, Microsoft Word’s squiggly red spell-check lines don’t appear beneath single letters and numbers such as u, r, c, 2 and 4. Nor do they catch words which have numbers in them such as “l8r” and “b4″ by default.

Spell check? This is reason enough to not let students turn in assignments that are not handwritten. They take longer to grade, but it teachers students to think about what they write before they write. Word processing makes revisions too easy to perform.

Emoticons,Smilies ,chat room,instant messages

The Chicago Sun-Times‘ bias against former Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene is showing. In a remarkable story, on Saturday, reporter Scott Fornek quizzes the local branch of the FBI on its investigation of the woman with whom Greene had a sexual encounter 10 years ago. The second paragraph of the story states:

A spokesman for the bureau’s Chicago office said agents did not give the now-disgraced former Chicago Tribune columnist special treatment because of any influence he may have had as a media star.

So who was accusing Greene of using influence with the FBI? The Sun-Times story doesn’t name names. But Green’s detractors — many of them journalists at rival publication who lack Greene’s celebrity or commercial success — have been openly speculating that Greene sent the FBI after this woman as a way to intimidate her. No so says the FBI:

“What influence?” Special Agent Ross Rice quipped to a reporter. “You guys would probably get less response from us. No offense.”

None taken.

If the there serious allegations that Greene exercised influence, that the Sun-Times and the Tribune should have reported it, not speculated about it in a story. If the Tribune knows, and it should, it has an obligation to report it. But the Tribune gave up the ghost on the public’s right to know a long time ago by keeping important details about this case from the public. The Sun-Times isn’t distinguishing itself with its reporting about it either, preferring to let columnist Neil Steinberg, who has his own ethical problems, speak for the paper. Steinberg, in a Salon.com article, accused Greene of scouring “trailer-parks” to get information on child abuse cases. It is a racist and class-based slur on child abuse victims that would probably lead to Steinberg’s departure from the Sun-Times if more Chicago residents were aware of it. Steinberg also wrote the anonymous “Bob Watch” column in the Chicago Reader than regularly criticized Greene.

Fornek’s story has objectivity problems that a fresh-out-of-college copy editor should have caught. Fornek refers to Greene as a “now-disgraced former Chicago Tribune columnist.” That Greene is a former columnist for the Trib is a matter if fact. The exact details of the incident that led to the departure are a matter of conjecture, thanks to his and the Tribune’s reticence to reveal all the details. Whether Greene is “disgraced” is a matter of opinion, and opinion has no place in a news story. Well, it has no place in most newspapers. I have learned over the years that small newspapers tend to take objectivity more seriously than big city papers.

The Trib’s Crystal Yednak and Jim Kirk double-teamed to write a very matter-of-fact article about the same subject. The story ended with prepared quotes from publisher Scott Smith that repeat the company line that Greene’s firing had nothing to do with sex, but about an ethics violation. It is a contention that is getting harder and harder to believe as more details are revealed. An incident of consensual sex with a person above the age of consent with a person who was the subject of a column ten years ago is, by itself, an ethical violation so serious, it required termination of employment. It just doesn’t pass the smell test and there isn’t any reporter worth a byline who believes this is the whole story.

Sun Times,Bob Greene,Chicago Tribune,Salon,Neil Steinberg

I wonder how many hits this article on cnn.com received because of its provocative headline: ‘Star makes shock waves in ‘X-ray’-ted flick.’

astronomy

I usually have no use for Slate. But it carried a interesting article about how college campuses have abandoned free speech.

Free speech does not encompass the right to fire, suspend, or riot your way into a universe in which everyone agrees with your views, even if you have legitimate grievances. The courts are well aware of this, but it seems that universities, both here and in Canada, are not. On campus, you may “speak” freely — with fists, chairs, and broken glass — so long as you are a member of an aggrieved minority with delicate sensibilities and a narrative of oppression.

college censorship,speech codes,slate,free speech

Randy Cassingham has a great site about Zero Tolerance.

zero tolerance,gun control

Ten years ago, I sat in a newsroom reading a wire story in which someone of the liberal persuasion called someone of the conservative persuasion a “fascist.” Twenty years ago, I professor I respect used the term ‘fascist” to refer to science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein as a “fascist.” I grew up a liberal Democrat. We worshiped JFK’s sainted memory and believed FDR saved us all from the capitalists. But, the older I got, the more I heard people who espoused the ideas I was supposed to share hurl this ugly epithet at anyone whose ideas dared to be to the right of their own. To these people, agreeing to expand the social welfare system at a slightly slower rate of speed is exactly the same as wanting to send the poor to the gas chambers. Heinlein was a fascist in some circles because he glorified the military. These same circles ignored his opposition to the draft. Calling such people “fascist” or “nazi” dishonors the memory of the millions of real victims of fascism.

A member of the government in Germany has compared George W. Bush to Hitler. This person believes Bush wants to invade Iraq for pretty much the same reason Hitler invaded Poland. Personally, I’m was not aware Poland a rogue terrorist nation on the verge of developing nuclear weaponry, but what do I know. I went to public schools.

On the day of the attack, I sat at work, numb, watching Bush address the nation. Bush said he would tolerate no acts of vengeance against people of Muslims or people of Arab descent. That is not what America is all about, he said, adding that the War on terrorism would be conducted against terrorists, not religions or nationalities. Yeah, that sounds real Hitler-like.

Speaking of Hitler-like behavior, high-ranking Germans have apparently taken to claiming that the Jews are behind the United State’s war mongering. Apparently, some of these folks need a few more field trips to see the death camps, because somehow it hasn’t quite sunk in with them that this kind of scapegoating behavior has consequences. The New York Times’ William Safire suggests Germany is too unreliable an ally to host troops. My father, an unreconstructed FDR Democrat and no fan of Bush 1 or 2, upon hearing that the President of the United States of America was being compared to Hitler, suggested Germany be given the opportunity to run its economy while paying for its own national defense.

A 37-year-old man who does not believe humans ever walked on the moon has accused 72-year-old Buzz Aldrin of hitting him. Anyone who does not know who Buzz Aldrin is, shame on your teachers.

Buzz Aldrin,Apollo 11,moon landing,astronauts,flat earth society,conspiracy theories

Dave Barry’s take on the Flight 93 crash site.

September 11,Dave Berry,Flight 93

“Closed sessions” are a fact of life for journalists who cover public meetings. And, it is in these meetings where the dirty laundry gets aired. Illinois has a strong open meetings law. But, it requires state’s attorney’s to enforce and that is almost never done. But public bodies are required to keep minutes of meetings, then release those minutes at a later date. The Peoria Journal Star mines these documents for pieces of gold.

The Word on the Street column, a weekly round of local political news, often includes fascinating bits of information about public controversies that were previously unknown to the general public. Take, for instance, the matter of a Peoria police captain who was demoted to lieutenant after being being involved in a drunk driving accident with a city-owned vehicle. The Illinois State Police report said there was open liquor in the car, and his blood alcohol content at the scene was .18 percent.

Also, former Assistant Chief of Police Mike Button was officially on duty on the night he arranged for a stripper to perform (all she did was remove her top) as part of a practical joke (the story was revealed by the Peoria Times-Observer, by the way). But the most interesting nugget was that a detective who was conducting a real interview about a real crime was told to relocate the interview because the room he was using was needed for the practical joke. Button was suspended and is now chief of the tiny Creve Coeur Police Department.

More newspapers need to use this news gathering tool.

Mike Button,open meetings,Creve Coeur,strippergate,closed session,word on the street,PTO,Peoria Times Observer