Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 22

Tunnel Vision

Q & A with me posted today at popular site of my local Gannett paper, the Journal News of Westchester/Rockland, re: my just-announced book (and maybe Greengrass movie).  Yes, I have some casting suggestions for movie...

Thin Coates

David Carr with a kind of mea culpa in NYT today as he admits he was one of many in the media who knew or suspected that many of the tales of drugging and raping king, Bill Cosby, were true and yet  did not raise the issue, or did so barely, in profiles or books about him.   Most stunning to me is not Mark Whitaker and others who claim they did not have a clear view of Cosby's guilt and so copped out, but the respected Ta-Nehisi Coates who says flatly that he believed "Bill Cosby was a rapist."   And yet gave him a pass.

Turkey: Pardon Me

John Oliver on hiatus from HBO but just posted vid on turkey pardoning.

Kids Shoot the Darndest Things

Yes, a kid, 4, shot a friend, 3, in the state of Washington on Friday night.  In home of alleged "firearms expert" (photo, left), the wounded kid's father.  Just an accident, of course.  He's now fighting for his little life.   "No one answered at Holzwarth's door where a sign reads: 'We don't dial 9-1-1' with a metal cutout of a pistol dangling below. There were also emblems about guns on his Jeep."  Freak's Facebook page features photos of him with little boy.

From On the Road to On the Block

Great AP story today on long rumored but long missing famous letter/manuscript from Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac that probably inspired his "On the Road" and in turn much of what came to be known as Beat writing.  Now it's been found--in an amazing tale, from a slush pile--and up for auction.

It turns out Ginsberg apparently was trying to get it published when he mailed the letter to Golden Goose Press in San Francisco. There it remained, unopened, until the small publishing house folded.

When it did, its owner planned to throw the letter in the trash, along with every other unopened submission he still had in his files.

That was when the operator of a small, independent music label who shared an office with publisher Richard Emerson came to the rescue. He took every manuscript, letter and receipt in the Golden Goose Archives home with him.

The World's Best Blueberry-Banana Muffins

 Or maybe the best, period.  I've fancied myself a good cook going back more than 30 years when we still lived at a kind of food epicenter on Bleecker Street in the West Village.  I've never posted a recipe here before but this one is simple and I thought I'd experiment and see if anyone cares. And here's my recipe for The World's Best Raspberry-Corn Muffins.

Mitch's Blueberry-Banana-Pecan Muffins

(Adapted from Paul Prudhomme without his usual excessive NOLA butter and sugar, and with my own additions.  You can skip pecans, if you really want.)

--Preheat oven to 385 degrees
--Melt 5 tbsp of butter
--Briefly roast a half cup of pecans, then break into small pieces
--Mash 2 very large (or 3 medium) bananas
--Pour the butter into bowl, drop in two large eggs and stir, add bananas and stir.
--Add 3 tablespoons of buttermilk or yogurt or vanilla almond milk.
--Add 1/4 tsp salt (no more)
--Add  3/4 teaspoon cinnamon and one teaspoon vanilla
--Add 2/3 cup of sugar--I use half white and half brown but do what you like
--Add 1 tbsp maple syrup if you like (optional)
--Sift and then fold in 2 tsp baking soda and 1 1/2 cups total of flour mix--I use 1/2 cup white, 1/3 cup whole wheat, 1/3 corn, 1/3 hazelnut flour (all from Red's), but do what you like. 
--Add 1 1/2  cups (more or less) of blueberries, plus the pecans if you are using.

(If you want a bit of a topping crumble up some more pecans or use a little granola or oats and maybe mix with some brown sugar)

Use your muffin tin.   Bake at 385 degrees for 22 minutes, no more.  Makes about a dozen. Enjoy.   Then fiddle with recipe as you wish.

'NYT' Mainly Gets a Pass (Again) on Israel-Palestinian Coverage

Since I've praised her a hundred times on other aspects of her work as a fine NYT public editor, it pains me to observe that Margaret Sullivan has a very late, and very weak, column today on the paper's generally biased coverage of Israel-Palestine issues and conflicts--which she calls "solid and often excellent." 

Since our relationship with Israel is such a key part of our foreign policy--which in turns plays a key role in how we are viewed by so many a broad, in and out of the Middle East and other war zones--and the Times'  coverage therefore so important, I can't imagine why Sullivan would open with, "This is the column I never wanted to write."  Instead of, say, "This is a column that is way overdue" or even "This is one of the most important columns I may ever write."   

As she admits, it took her many, many months to even write this--despite the vast criticism of the Jerusalem bureau's awful (sometimes laughable, if one could laugh about this subject) coverage of the latest Gaza war this year.   She took so long to write anything she allowed so many excellent specific and timely examples of contested coverage during that war to pass.  So we are left with nearly worthless general replies by a Times editor along the lines of (to paraphrase) "we're not partisans, of course" and "we can't tell the whole history in a single article."

Her brushing off the clear bias of reporters in bureau--one was practically embedded with the IDF on many days during the recent war--is especially disappointing.   (See my links below.)  Then she wastes space on the paper responding to invalid complaints that it offers too much coverage of the conflict.

And while she denies she is embracing the view that "since we're criticized by both sides we must be doing something right" the column actually perfectly reflects that, as each complaint by a critic of Israel is always and equally balanced by a defender (the Times is just "a propaganda outlet for Hamas"). Yet she calls on the Times in its coverage to reject "symmetry."   

She does in the end offer a couple of useful suggestions on improvements--such as hiring an Arabic speaker for the bureau (yes, it has none!) and opening a Ramallah bureau (which the paper promptly rejects).

After all this, Times reporter/editor Dave Leonhardt tweets:  "When you think about it, this @ Sulliview column is a celebration of @ rudoren 's great talent as a journalist." 

I don't have time today to critique fully so I'll simply link to some of my past posts and as the day goes on I will link to the response by others.

Some of my posts from a few months ago  here and here and here and here and here and here.

M.J. Rosenberg tweets:  "Hey, New York Times, why not cover Israel the way Ha'aretz does?"

Here's a comment at the Times on the Sullivan column:

You avoided hard facts here. I am a supporter of Israel, an ardent Zionist, but it is reckless to write about this conflict without stating up front in any article covering it, that the settlements in the West Bank are illegal, and that the increasing expansion of them is itself a war crime. The Times avoids that almost consistently and it contributes to a gross misunderstanding of the dynamics. You needn't be an anti Semite to acknowledge that Israel has become it's own worst enemy. It is difficult to demand justice when you are committing war crimes daily through this occupation.

Joni Still Has Spark

Typically frank new interview with Joni Mitchell in major magazine in her native Canada.  Her four-disc (plus paintings) retrospective coming up.  One excerpt:

Q: You’ve stated in your liner notes that the Grammys look like a porn convention. Many people consider Beyoncé to be subversive.

I once found the whole pimp-ho underbelly very interesting too. I’m not afraid or critical of that scene—I find it very colourful. But when it rises to the top and you find a five-year-old saying, “Plant it here, bitch,” we’ve got a problem. America loves to glorify its criminals. It’s not good for children.

Q: Sinead O’Connor wrote an open letter to Miley Cyrus pleading she not allow the music industry to make a prostitute out of her.

Right on. That’s what it’s become: “show us your tits!” I also got buried at Geffen Records because of it. Girls were being harassed and [executives] told me, “Your music doesn’t make me feel young and happy.” Whitesnake was their lead act and when the company got sold for the fourth time, I called the owner and said, “My name is Joni Mitchell, I am an artist on your label, did you know that?” He said, “No.” I said, “Of course you didn’t because you haven’t made a dime so the people buying from you don’t know either, so give me back my masters.” Well, he wouldn’t.

Thanks (and No Thanks)

Next week's New Yorker cover by Bruce McCall skewers Washington pro football team...

Razing McCain

Jimmy Carter responds to John McCain charge that Carter was truly bad but Obama even worse.  Jimmy accurately calls McCain a "warmonger."