James Risen gets his due

Who is this James Risen guy? He's the NYT reporter who played a big role in crucifying Wen Ho Lee in the press before there was any solid information. So do I think it's more than slightly poetic that he was the target of NSA/FBI wiretaps?

Yes. Though overall, it's a scary thing when your nation is listening in on journalist's phone calls.

The reason he was targeted by the Bushies is because Risen broke the story about the whole illegal wiretapping in the first place.

If this were a movie, it would have lots of symmetry.

Lou Dobbs goes off on cotton (picking) politicians?

This is a fine way to criticize others' dialogues on race - Lou Dobbs gets into his rant and barely prevents himself from saying the full thing:

"not a single one of these cotton p-- erhm, these . . . just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race. We have to have a far better discussion than that."



Cotton picking?!?!?

REALLY?!?!

Wow, where is the media outrage over this one? That's such a racist thing to say - to say that black politicians are slaves.

Civil war at Fox News over race, hell froze over

Wonkette has the goods on civil war at Fox News over different interpretations of Obama's comments on his grandmother being a "typical white person" on a Philly sports show, and his speech in general.



Chris Wallace of FOX is defending Obama on his own show, and a Fox in the Morning anchor storms out over boneheaded arguments from his co-anchors.



I mean, what has the world come to when people try to have a normal and reasonable discussion about RACE on Fox?!? A debate that isn't just "pander and inflame"? I know we talk about the GOP driving a wedge, but I think it's possible that Obama is weding the traditionally Republican base. And this, my friends, this is amazing. Remember what I said about Obama taking progressive stances and making them so resaonable that most people could agree?

Well, it's happening to even conservatives. I have NEVER seen a Democrat able to wedge the GOP like he does, only the opposite (i.e., Reagan.)

Obama is the exceedingly rare politician who can do this, who can make people hope again, who can get things that never get talked about like race, back on the table. Our country is having an entire discourse on race and it's done much more for our nation's discourse than Bill Clinton's roundtable. Because EVERYBODY's talking about race around the watercooler and the dinner table. I am in awe of his political skills.

And this is totally separate from his ability as a politician. Because Obama didn't shy away from talking about the issue, he elevates our political discourse. When Romney talked about religion, the average person didn't care. Because he didn't really make us question our assumptions and re-examine our values. This speech - we are all reconsidering our impulses.

And if Obama can do that on race, he can do that on other issues, like immigration. Like war. By gods, can you imagine what this country would have been like if we fully weighed the implications of going to war with Iraq? If newcasters actually debated the merits and consequences?!?!?!? Instead of just being scribes, paid to write and read whatever the administration put out (to paraphrase the immortal Colbert.)

To be fair, not everyone who works for Fox is crazy conservative. I've known a few people who were producers and anchors, and they were normal, even *gasp* Democrats. Granted, these were people of color who said that working at Fox is a crazyhouse, and that they had to leave for their own sanity.

To be more in depth, I did my research, and Chris Wallace is a registered Democrat in D.C., which he says is because there is really only one party in DC and in order to have a voice on local elections, you have to be able to vote in the primary. Fair enough.

Previous wallflower states now treated like the prom queen

Well, all these states who are used to their votes not mattering now might get to decide who our nominee is. Pennsylvania for one has had Chelsea Clinton in the past few days and a massive influx of resources and staff.

Will Bunch of Attytood thinks that it's not PA Gov. Rendell who's the ace in the hole for Hillary, but rather Philly mayor Nutter, since his prominent support of Hillary assures white voters that they aren't being racist by voting against a black man.

A blogger finds that Obama has a hard time in Appalachia. This has big portents for Pennsylvania and explains a good deal about the Ohio turnout.

Puerto Rico is changing up its June 7th caucus to a June 1st primary (in a move that can only benefit Hillary.) Don't forget that one of the largest concentration of Puerto Ricans is in New York State, and that also Hillary has been doing better in primaries than in caucuses, where her field staff don't get how to organize (and admittedly the seniors have a hard time getting to, so there is an age discrepancy.)

Michigan will revote, Florida (in the form of Democratic senator Bill Nelson) is trying to shake down Howard Dean's DNC for money for a recount. I heard the Michigan definitely will revote line a few weeks back from an on the ground source. I'm glad that Michigan will revote - I'm all for people voting and being able to vote. But Florida - this is really ridiculous by the way - if the state hadn't decided to flaunt the rules to begin with and try to draw more national attention and prominence to their state and increase the value of their votes, then they shouldn't have changed their primary date. Now, they get the prominence that they want if they decide to schedule revotes in June, and they're trying to bribe/extort money for that revote from an entity that is supposed to be neutral?

If Dean gave Michigan and Florida the money, it would encourage other states in 4 years to also flaunt the rules and then whine and cry and extort more money to hold revotes. Moreover, holding a revote and paying for one would be seen as being partial to Hillary since it 1) encourages rule-breaking and 2) Michigan and Florida both went for Hillary already. That's not the role of the DNC. If Florida finally decides they want a revote, they have to figure out how to pay for it.

Lastly, on the press and bias, I wanted to point some attention to Marc Ambinder's excellent analysis. He brings up white guilt (I can't believe no other reporters have the guts to use this term.)

Then there is white guilt, magnified by the progressive political impulse found within the professional set's cultural liberalism. We are transfixed by race, obsessed with it, we whites are obsessed with expiating the collective sins of our country, and that works to Obama's advantage. I think we feel we are done with gender (we aren't, but we feel as if we are) and so we don't meditate on those questions as much.

Whether or not you agree that the press has been treating Obama kinder, or whether you believe that the press leans left, you need to read this. I don't know that it's just white guilt because there is also a class guilt that comes from being the white collar tastemakers/spinmakers and being the Fourth Estate. That comes from some of the top reporters and editors having been Ivy League educated. That comes from reporters generally being educated, and therefore falling into the Obama demographic camp is they tend to be Democratic.

Open letter to Asian American journalists

Dear Asian American journalist,

I am glad you succeeded in your dream of being an Asian American journalist. I understand you work long hours, with few resources, and frequently work under very short deadlines.

That said, you are in the business of writing or producing or editing or researching the "truth." Whatever you put out get believed by thousands (or millions, depending on your media market) of people. It gets quoted and recited as the gospel - "Did you hear what they said on Channel 11 about those alligators breaking out of their cages?"

Whether or not it's true, whether or not it's a story, whether or not you or your writers have done all the research, people still believe it. I don't know why, but media still shapes our views. Perhaps because you get access to politicians and decision-makers and business people who we've only ever seen on the front pages of your magazine.

Take, for example, this recent Austin News 8 story on how Asian Americans are the swing vote. Thank you for finally saying that we are the swing vote. It is so much better than when an Asian American AP reporter writes that the "Asian Population Lacks Political Clout" and it gets published everywhere and internationally. And, yes, this was in 2004.

I'm not going to get into all the stats he quoted that drove me crazy, when he could have looked at the numbers in a different way, but he chose to report on us as having the least political agency possible.

So back to the Austin tv story, which is reported on by Heidi Zhou. Although the premise of th story is positive, she doesn't interview any of the Asian American elected officials in Texas (Jennifer Kim is a city councilwoman in Austin) or even the local heads of the OCA, JACL, or other Asian American institutions. She doesn't interview anyone from the college, where I'm sure you could find some ardent pro-Hillary or Barack supporters who are APIA. She doesn't interview someone from suburbia who speaks proper English. No, instead she, like other reporters, interviews someone whose English is less than perfect:

If members of that community vote the same way they did on Super Tuesday when they voted 3-1 for Clinton, Obama could be in trouble.

"I think he probably needs more experience. Because from here jump to here, that needs a lot of work," Chialing, an Austin area resident said.

This doesn't mean that I disavow that Asian American immigrants who speak less than perfect English are not representative of our community. It does mean that I believe that APIA reporters can also do their bit to make sure that the few times that someone who looks like us appears on TV, that we don't reaffirm stereotypes about ourBlogger: Power and Politics - I am Not the Yellow Peril - Create Post community being unable to speak English.

Contrast that with this recent Los Angeles Times story on Vietnamese American voters moving left - well researched and written by an Asian American reporter (perhaps the LA Times is trying to make up for their hatchet job on Clinton and Chinese American donors in New York.)

The widening political bandwidth is a sign of change in the Vietnamese American community, where the agenda -- once sharply and nearly exclusively focused on foreign affairs -- now includes domestic issues such as poverty, healthcare and Social Security.

"For so long, there has been a one-party monopoly in the Vietnamese community," said Kim Oanh Nguyen-Lam, who became the first Vietnamese Democrat elected in Orange County in 2004 as a Garden Grove school board member. "We Democrats are coming out of the shadow."

Long Dinh Dang, 67, is an example of the shift. Dang became a Republican after he immigrated to Orange County in 1994 and was worried that Democrats had become too cozy with the Communist regime when former President Bill Clinton lifted the trade embargo with Vietnam.

But now, a man who twice voted for President Bush says he has had a change of heart. He switched to the Democratic ticket last month to vote in the presidential primary. More than communism, he worries about the slumping economy, Medicare and the Iraq war.

"Democrat, Republican, it doesn't matter," he said. Particularly in local elections, "I judge candidates more on their ability to be closely connected with our Vietnamese community," he said.

Granted, a newspaper article is much longer and in depth than a tv piece, but doesn't that just make the one person you interview that much more important, and the single representative? I mean, why not go interview someone in the suburbs as well?

I'm not asking for journalism advocacy, just for all sides and perspectives to be represented.

Sincerely,

Power and Politics

P.S. On a side note, here's a Los Angeles Times opinion on Fred Armisten playing Obama. The author has a different stance than I do and thinks he played a believable Obama. He also ties in the Miss Saigon yellowface controversy. Although I don't agree with his conclusion, I do appreciate that he researched and has included the yellowface travesty as a comparison point.

Throwing the baby out with the dishwasher - more APIA donor bashing

So much to blog about, and so little time. This LATimes front-page article on Clinton's fundraising in NYC Chinatown is currently hot, because it strikes some really low blows, alleging that Hillary is somehow twisting arms or taking advantage of immigrants who lack substantial financial security to give. The city's many Asian Americans woke up to this:

The Times examined the cases of more than 150 donors who provided checks to Clinton after fundraising events geared to the Chinese community. One-third of those donors could not be found using property, telephone or business records. Most have not registered to vote, according to public records.

And several dozen were described in financial reports as holding jobs -- including dishwasher, server or chef -- that would normally make it difficult to donate amounts ranging from $500 to the legal maximum of $2,300 per election.

Of 74 residents of New York's Chinatown, Flushing, the Bronx or Brooklyn that The Times called or visited, only 24 could be reached for comment.

Many said they gave to Clinton because they were instructed to do so by local association leaders. Some said they wanted help on immigration concerns. And several spoke of the pride they felt by being associated with a powerful figure such as Clinton.

I think that the article's slant is kinda muckracking, mud-slinging tabloid style journalism.

Just look at this description of the former Executive Director of the NYS Democratic Party, and former spokeswoman for the Department of Labor under Clinton. Ben Smith at the Politico justly points out that Chung Seto is more than the LATimes pieces makes her:

A key figure helping to secure Asian support for Clinton is a woman named Chung Seto, who came to this country as a child from Canton province and has supported Bill and Hillary Clinton since the 1990s. She called Fujian natives' support for Hillary Clinton the beginning of civic engagement for an immigrant group that had long been on the periphery.

She said she stationed translators at the entrance of one event to try to screen out improper contributions.

It makes her sound like some shadowy figure out of an overly exoticized movie, as opposed to a power player, getting featured in the NYTimes, someone who understands and has navigated the halls of power, and who would naturally be inclined to support Clinton. Smith also points out that 44 Henry, one of the addresses listed in the article, is no "grimy Chinatown tenement with peeling walls." Greg Sargent over at TPMemo has his take on things, featuring ringmaster Drudge leading a willing circus of editors and reporters.

The NYTimes piece has this to say:

BESIDES the prayer marathon, she thought long and hard about it, too. She and her friends are the type who dedicate their dinner party conversations to "figuring out" how to change the world: "We do it by making sure we have good people in government that look out for the more rather than just a privileged few." But she's also a pragmatist. Politics is all-consuming and is mostly why she is unmarried, independent, and lives on Mott Street, two blocks from her parents (her father is retired from his job as a chef in a Chinese restaurant; her mother is a retired union seamstress) and the apartment where she grew up. Her maternal instincts are parceled out among seven nephews and a niece.

Ms. Seto worked "exhaustive hours" for the past four years as executive director of the New York State Democratic Committee, where she was the first Asian to fill that post, just as she was the first Asian spokeswoman for the United States Labor Department, where she was press secretary for Alexis M. Herman, Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor.

. . . "The choice issue got me galvanized and threw me into the political battle. I wanted to work for the Department of Labor to combat sweatshops. And, mind you, there was another reason to keep working in politics: when I looked around, there sure weren't a lot of faces like mine. I want to stay long enough to help that change."

I mean seriously, it makes her sound like some refugee as opposed to a very powerful, confident and self-possessed woman.

I mean, yes, it could be weird that he could only find 24 of 70 plus people at home, but let's get real here: most immigrant communities tend to be suspicious of outsiders knocking on doors, especially outsiders who don't look like them. I've had walk lists where I only reached maybe 10% of the people on that list, by which I mean when I talked to neighbors, they would say that Mr. So and so doesn't live next door anymore, and don't bother even trying 6B, the Clemonses done gone moved.

I mean, I could be wrong, but based on the only photo I could find via a quick google search, Peter Nichols looks white, and so does Tom Hamburger will go away and leave me alone. (props for having a cool last name!) Most of the time when someone knocks on my door and I'm not expecting anyone in particular, I stay mad quiet and plays cat and mouse, waiting and hoping that whatever Jehovah's Witness/magazine subscriptionist/random weirdo. It's a normal reaction to not want to talk to random people who show up at your front door, distracting you from your Lifetime movie, crossword puzzle or whatever.

And as someone who has done voter registration and doorknocking in many immigrant communities, it's hard enough to find people at home, if they are even at home, because they are a hella private bunch. Moreover, immigrants often hold more than one job, so it also depends on what time of day these reporters are knocking on doors. If you come calling during the day, no one is home, and if you come at night, they might be working a second shift or a second job. So yeah, it may seem weird that you can only reach a third of the people, but that's actually a decent number. And one has to wonder how many times they tried and retried the same doors - did they try at different hours of the day, or did they just try once and give up? And if so, what kind of investigative journalism is that?!?

Additionally, I think it's possible that some of those dishwashers and low wage workers might be friends or neighbors of Chung Seto's and her parents who would be proud to support someone who has given one of the community's own a chance to rise.

Are there elements of the article that I think ring true? Absolutely - I've seen immigrants who haven't voted before give money to political campaigns and be incredibly proud to take photos with politicians who may or may not fulfill their campaign promises. And is it possible that there is some kinda of funky donating going on? Yeah, it's entirely possible, but one thing I know for sure is that immigrants only get involved when they feel like something's at stake, and the Fujianese community has a higher proportion of undocumented APIAs, and works in some of the worst-paying, menial jobs in NYC.

Personally, I believe that they are deluded if they think that Clinton's going to pass progressive immigration reform anytime soon, even if she gets elected, but I'm not sure that it's the Clinton campaign taking advantage of those misconceptions. However, if I found out that someone was WILLFULLY pushing that misinformation, I would get hella pissed.

I mean, how many millions of Americans voted for George W Bush under the delusion that he would make a good commander in chief in 2000 and 2004 who now regret their votes? That's just called not being a good educated voter.

As for being coerced to donate, that should NEVER happen, especially in lower income immigrant communities. But if people are motivated because they have found someone who they are proud to donate to, who they feel like speaks to their issues, well, that's fantastic. It's hat our democracy is all about, and we shouldn't be stepping on their ability to participate in civic life.

The article also gets into snakeheads and human smuggling (which is another reason why I hate its exotification of Chinatown) but even the FBI investigator who handled the Golden Venture believes that people should be allowed to engage in democracy:

A crackdown by the FBI's organized-crime task force led to the indictment of more than 20 Fujian native traffickers. Today, the problem has substantially dissipated, says Konrad Motyka of the FBI's New York field office, who participated in the investigation of the Golden Venture.

Although Motyka is wary of the havoc wreaked in the past by Fujianese organized crime, he said: "I welcome signs that the community is participating in politics."

I wish journalists were more careful with what they write, and how they write. They are smearing a broad segment of the population by implying that this is dirty money.

PS: I want to clarify - I have yet to endorse any serious candidates for president. I am not for Hillary, but rather against unqualified orientalizing of our community, and against efforts to silence our voices.

Reporting gets outsourced and APA men in media

Asian American NYTimes guest columnist Atul Gawande offered up a thought-provoking op-ed on abortion today called Let's Talk About Sex. It's hidden behind a firewall, but here are the choicest bits:

One statistic seems to me to give the lie to all the rhetoric about abortion, and it’s this: one in three women under the age of 45 have an abortion during their lifetime. One in three. All politicians — Democrat and Republican — say they want to make abortion at least rare (as Giuliani did in Wednesday’s debate). On, this they could reach agreement. But it’s clear they haven’t been serious; the U.S. has 1.3 million abortions a year.

...More children are, in fact, getting this message. Pregnancies at age 15 to 17 are down 35 percent since 1995, according to federal data; one-fourth of the drop is from delaying sex, and three-fourths is from increased use of contraceptives. Today, just 7 percent of abortions occur in minors.

Fact two follows from this: Abortion is mainly an adult problem. Forty-five percent of abortions occur in adults ages 18 to 24; 48 percent occur after age 25. Most are in women who have already had a child. The kids are all right. We are the issue.

Why am I so psyched about the NYTimes having what is to my knowledge the first Asian American guest columnist if they aren't even a full-time contributor? Because Atul Gawande is a fantastic writer - he writes with nuanced precision. He writes cool, clean lines, fraught with the weight of wrestling moral ambiguities. His book Complications (along with The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down) is one of the must reads for young pre-meds and medical students. He is a Thinker and a Doer. He is the model minority personified, a Chair of surgery at Harvard Medical School, a practicing surgeon, a writer. But he also loves listening to rock n roll in his OR and his skills aren't just limited to the sci-tech realm.

Second, guest columnist positions can turn into full-time gigs - Barbara Enrenreich did a guest gig last summer which turned into a fulltime position (it ended abruptly but that's another story.) And the Times remains the "paper of record" - the one paper that brides seek to get their wedding announcements in, the one that politicians seek to be quoted in, the one that the President's war apparatus seeks to put out propaganda in. In a field of influencers, it reigns supreme. (Despite the Jayson Blair and Judith Miller scandals, and their blatantly wrong and racist handling of Wen Ho Lee's persecution.)

Which led me to consider how many other Asian American men are in prominent positions at the NYTimes and other outlets. Sewall Chan, nicknamed "one of the hardest working reporters" there, recently switched over from the Metro beat to blogging.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has crossover visibility in Newsweek and CNN. Fareed Zakaria is one of the go-to international relations analysts for Newsweek. Peter Bhatijia is the Executive Editor of the Oregonian. We are still underrepresented in the mainstream media, but these are some pretty impressive figures.
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In other news, a Pasadena paper has decided to outsource reporting on City Council news to India. The time difference between CA and India is about 12 hours, but the publisher believes it's doable because proceedings are all streamed online. A lot of people in service industries think that their jobs are safe but technology keeps evolving and you might not care when the steelworker's job goes, but then wham! Radiologists face an uncertain future since the scans can be read by people in other countries for cheaper. And this is how the middle and upper classes begin to care about globalization.

Is the outsourcing of reportage the natural extension of blogging? Currently, bloggers like Abu Aardvark have become the first stop resource for academics, reporters, and for goings on in the Middle East. Theoretcally, I can read up on local elections in Japan, become well-versed in the local dynamic, and give my own thoughts on these issues. If I get enough exposure, I become a source for others. The authors of one of the most popular and well-read state political blogs - Archpundit (Illinois) has done picked up and moved to another state.

I'm not defending or justifying anything here, just wondering if it wasn't inevitable.