Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 168

Omidyar on PayPal and WikiLeaks--and WikiLeaks Responds

Pierre Omidyar, new media publisher (with Glenn Greenwald and others) and First Amendment advocate, tonight  at Huff Post revisited his former company's move to block donations to WikiLeaks three years ago (that would be PayPal), how he joined an editorial protest about that, but also hits Anonymous efforts to hurt PayPal (the trial of the "PayPal 14" is about to begin.  And now WikiLeaks responds already to his piece on Twitter, including:  "Appreciate some of the other comments but they are undermined by the central issue of the blockade being falsely presented....As far as we are aware the PayPal blockade of WikiLeaks has never been lifted. No direct transactions to WL. You list 3rd parties."

Beethoven: The Compete Quartets

Someone has uploaded to YouTube--in one nine-hour file (never seen anything this long there)--all 16 of LVB's string quartets, which some consider the Everest of music (though for that you really have to get to quartet 6 and onward, or from 2:15 on).  And it's by the fabled Quartetto Italiano in a legendary cycle.  And good sound quality, for such a file.  Go to YouTube for times for each quartet starting. If you're a newcomer, just go to 8:50 for the second movement of the first quartet (ten minutes long) and see if you get hooked.  Note:  Our new film and book explore one of Beethoven's other peaks, The Ninth Symphony, and it's influence around globe.  See trailer and Bill Moyers segment.

Major Film Awards Announced

The season is now upon us, with last night's Gotham Awards and today's announcement of the 15 finalists for the Oscar for bet doc.  Now here's the just-awarded and influential New York Film Critics Circle prize.   Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell just made the Oscar short-list for docs and is quite excellent.

Best First FilmRyan Coogler's "Fruitvale Station"Best Non-fiction Film (Documentary)"Stories We Tell" 
Best Actor
Robert Redford ("All is Lost")
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett ("Blue Jasmine")
Best DirectorSteve McQueen ("12 Years A Slave")Best Supporting ActressJennifer Lawrence ("American Hustle")Best Foreign Language Film"Blue Is The Warmest Color"Best Supporting ActorJared Leto ("Dallas Buyers Club")Best Animated FilmHayao Miyazaki's "The Wind Rises"Best Screenplay"American Hustle"Best CinematographyBruno Delbonnel ("Inside Llewyn Davis")

Today in Gun Nutty USA

Our entry today in my (sadly) continuing series sounds all too common in America:  a boy, 12, accidentally shoots and kills a distant cousin, age 15, claiming the gun somehow discharged.  Happens all the time.  Except in this case, drawing on this Slate piece today, the boy is none other than revered liberal and two-time Dem nominee for president, Adlai Stevenson.  The incident happened in 1912 and the author raises doubts about the official story--quite possibly young Adlai pointed gun at girl and pulled trigger to scare her, and didn't know it was loaded.  If happened today, parents might be brought up on charges, or even the boy, but back them, it was turn-the-page time.  Biographers, in any event, say it helped shape Stevenson's character.

Greenwald Replies--And Sirota Supports

Tuesday update:  Now Pando, which hit Glenn Greenwald in major piece, then defended it from his response (see below) just out with pro-Greenwald piece by David Sirota.    He says a "smear campaign" against Greemwald "is, in short, an effort by those reliant on an old power structure and outdated media business models to selfishly maintain that structure and those models — journalism, facts, and democracy be damned."

Sunday: Glenn Greenwald with lengthy response to Pando's Mark Ames and other critics who have hit him for alleged "profiteering"of NSA leaks after recent work with news outlets.   Just for starters he hits others--such as Josh Marshall--for hypocrisy since they also do work funded by billionaires.  Example:

I have nothing but contempt for the DC functionaries who are cynically embracing that Pando post that holds out the WikiLeaks dump-it-all model as the ideal - the Josh Marshalls and Fran Townsends of the world - as though they would prefer we did that instead. Those are the very same people who hate WikiLeaks, and would be first in line to accuse us of recklessness and likely demand our prosecution if we followed that model (here, for instance, is a CNN debate I did in 2010 with the very same Fran Townsend when I defended Julian Assange after he signed a $1.2 million book deal). 

Marshall just replied on Twitter:  "Notable: this twitter firestorm & @ ggreenwald 's new (as usual misleading) attacks have been triggered by my simply tweeting link to article."  The Ames article.

Greenwald concludes:

Being skeptical and asking questions about any new media organization is completely appropriate. I'm sure I'd be doing the same thing of other new organizations. But we haven't even begun yet. When I moved to Salon and then to the Guardian, I heard all sorts of claims about how I'd have to moderate or dilute my work to accommodate those environments and the interests and views of those who own and run them. I don't think anyone can reasonably claim that happened. And I am quite certain that the same will be true here. The people we work with and, ultimately, the journalism we produce will speak volumes about exactly the reasons we're doing this and why I'm so excited about it.

On Twitter,  David Frum mocked Greenwald for writing at length.  Yes, Frum used just 3 words to shame himself as the author of "axis of evil." 

And now a back and forth on Twitter between Greenwald and James Manley, former top spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid who has just gotten a new job.   Manley today tweeted link to the Mark Ames hit on Greenwald at Pando.  Glenn tweeted referring to Manley's new post: "Revolving door sleaze", noun: disease plaguing Washington & destroying the nation - see e.g. @ JamesPManley  http://t.co/QTHKaZQLsz."     Manley then replied: "and you are a dangerous man. A zealot, full of sanctimonious self righteousness playing a game way out of your league." 

What's Up, Docs? 15 Short-Listed for Oscar

Unlike other major categories, the Academy Awards folks announce 15 finalists in the full-length documentary category far in advance.  Here, they are announced today.  I've seen about half. One major oversight (ha, ha):

The Act of Killing (just won Gotham award)
The Armstrong Lie  (Gibney on Lance but no WikiLeaks)
Blackfish
The Crash Reel
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars  (Scahill)
First Cousin Once Removed
God Loves Uganda
Life According to Sam
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (the Russian dissidents)
The Square
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley's fine one)
Tim’s Vermeer
20 Feet from Stardom  (great on backup singers)
Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington  (photog slain in Libya)

As Obama Drones On

One of strongest mainstream columns yet hitting the president for his drone attacks that kill the innocent--dubbed "immoral"  by liberal pundit Eugene Robinson at the Wash Post.   Usually punches are pulled but here's this:

The nonpartisan New America Foundation, which has attempted to keep a running tally, says drone strikes under both presidents have killed between 258 and 307 civilians in Pakistan, and between 66 and 68 in Yemen. Those numbers may seem small, but each victim was a human being who posed no threat to the United States or its interests — in some cases a child who was here one minute, full of laughter and life’s promise, and gone the next.

I believe historians will look at Obama’s second term and see the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, despite its rocky launch, as a great moral triumph. I fear they will see the drone war as a great moral failure.

"The Coach Who Never Punts"--and Now a 'NYT' Bot

Update:  Possibly sparked by the following (below), the NYT today launched a "4th Down Bot."  They will analyze every 4th down play in the NFL  the rest of the season and report on what the coach SHOULD have done, based on stats and probability.  They've already posted on what they know already and in general, they declare--as I've long held--that coaches are far too consevative and should "go for it" more often.  

Earlier: Well, almost never.  High school coach has been successful, even winning championships, since 2005 with his bold scheme of rarely punting on 4th down (and also doing a lot of onside kicking).  And stats bear him out, all the way up to the pros.  I've long wondered about the automatic punting strategy and now it seems I may have been on to something--but very few are following this coach's example, although it's more risky when you get to NFL.  Still, stats show if it's 4th and less than 4, it's the right thing to do.

What I'd add is that it changes the whole way you play the game--and that's probably the key, if followed regularly.  Instead of starting each series feeling you only have 3 downs to get a first, you act like you have 4.  So if you don't gain much on first down, say, you don't panic and automatically heave a pass on second, but maybe run again.  Then maybe it's 3rd and 5.  Need to throw at least a 6 yard pass for the first? No, you can run again or throw a little screen and set up a 4th and 1.  And so on...

Nikki, Don't Lose That Number

Wicked "Funny or Die" trailer for an alleged Nikki Finke "Deadline" flick with Jean Smart.


DEADLINE: The Nikki Finke Story with Jean Smart and Christina Applegate from Jean Smart

The Other Jackie

No, not talking Kennedy, but one of the great artists of the century, Ms. duPre, here quite young (she would later die, still young), with then-husband Daniel Barenboim and Pinchas Zukerman in genius version of Beethoven's "The Ghost" slow movement.