Tag Archives: New York Times

NYT: Trump Asked DOJ to Put Loyalist In Charge of “Hush Money to Whores” Probe

EFEB 20, 2019

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A new report by The New York Times details a number of possible obstruction of justice efforts by President Trump as he tried to suppress or contain multiple investigations about him. The Times says Trump asked former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to place a loyalist in charge of an investigation into hush money payments made to women who allegedly had affairs with Trump by his former personal attorney Michael Cohen. Trump reportedly asked for New York federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman to head the investigation, but Berman had already recused himself from the case. Whitaker testified to Congress earlier this month that Trump never pressured him to intervene in an investigation. Did he perjure himself? The report also details Trump’s ongoing efforts to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which he publicly attacked over 1,100 times.

U.S. Spy Agencies: Saudi Crown Prince Said He Would Go After Khashoggi “With a Bullet!”

FEB 08, 2019

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The New York Times is reporting U.S. intelligence agencies have uncovered a 2017 conversation in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told a top aide that he would go after Jamal Khashoggi “with a bullet” if the exiled journalist could not be brought back to Saudi Arabia. Thirteen months later, in October 2018, Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The discovery of the crown prince’s statement was made as the National Security Agency and other U.S. spy agencies are reviewing years of intercepted Saudi voice and text communications. According to the Times, Mohammed bin Salman made the comment about Khashoggi in September 2017, the same month when Khashoggi began writing columns in The Washington Post critical of the Saudi government. The White House faces a deadline today to determine whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was personally responsible for Khashoggi’s killing.

 

(All of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.)
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Jill Abramson: Ex-New York Times editor accused of plagiarism

Jill AbramsonJill Abramson has promised to review some passages of her book Merchants of Truth.

Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson has responded to claims that parts of her book are plagiarised.

The allegation about Merchants of Truth, which was released on Tuesday, was made by Vice News journalist Michael C Moynihan.

Ms Abramson says she takes the accusations “seriously” and will now “review the passages in question”.

Merchants of Truth looks at how journalism has changed over the last decade.

In a Twitter thread, Mr Moynihan copied out excerpts from the book and compared them to passages published elsewhere.

He said he first started looking into the book after seeing “an egregious error” about a Vice News colleague, Arielle Duhaime-Ross, who was wrongly identified as transgender in an initial review copy.

After Ms Abramson corrected the mistake for the final publication, Mr Moynihan said he wanted to fact-check all three chapters about Vice because he felt they were “clotted with mistakes”.

“While trying to corroborate certain claims, I noticed that it also contained… plagiarised passages,” he wrote.

He then tweeted out a series of passages from the final copy of the book, alongside other articles and essays which he believed used very similar language.

Others in the media were quick to respond, with some saying the book was “a masterclass in how not to do journalism“.

Speaking soon after the accusations, Ms Abramson told Fox News that she “certainly didn’t plagiarise in my book”.

A few hours later she issued a new response on Twitter, promising to look into Mr Moynihan’s claims.

“The attacks on my book from some in @vicenews reflect their unhappiness with what I consider a balanced portrayal,” she wrote. “I endeavoured to accurately and properly give attribution to the hundreds of sources that were part of my research. I take seriously the issues raised and will review the passages in question.”

North Carolina Elections Board Dissolves, Adding New Chaos in House Race

The unwinding of the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement was a consequence of a long-running battle over partisan power in North Carolina and separate from the election fraud investigation. Yet the dissolution heightened the possibility that the Ninth District seat would remain empty for weeks or even months, and it plunged the chaotic fight for the House seat into deeper turmoil.

“We have entered no man’s land,” said J. Michael Bitzer, a professor of politics and history at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C. “It is symptomatic of the bigger partisan polarization that we are living in and experiencing hour by hour in this state.”

The board’s dissolution on Friday only complicated the clash over the Ninth District, where Mark Harris, the Republican nominee for Congress, appeared to defeat Dan McCready, the Democratic candidate, by 905 votes in last month’s general election. But state officials have been investigating whether a contractor for Mr. Harris engaged in illegal activity to compromise the election on the Republican’s behalf. According to witnesses and affidavits, the contractor, L. McCrae Dowless Jr., and people working for him collected absentee ballots in violation of state law.

The allegations of misconduct prompted the elections board to refuse to certify Mr. Harris as the winner, and to order an inquiry. That investigation has involved more than 100 interviews and at least 182,000 pages of records, and state officials said Friday that it would continue at the staff level, even if a board was not in place to consider evidence and chart a way forward.

“The staff will continue to investigate the Ninth District irregularities and perform all other elections-related functions,” said Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the state board.

No one has been charged in connection with the allegations, including Mr. Dowless, who has a history of convictions for fraud and perjury and was previously scrutinized by the authorities for possible election tampering. Mr. Dowless, who has declined to comment, refused a request to meet with state investigators.

Around the time of the board’s dissolution on Friday, Joshua D. Malcolm, the Democrat who was chairman of the panel, complained that Mr. Harris’s campaign had not been forthcoming with information that investigators demanded with a subpoena.

Mr. Malcolm, in a letter to a lawyer for the campaign, said investigators had received 398 pages of campaign records — and believed there were about 140,000 other documents that “may be responsive but have not yet been produced.”

What Dangerous Food Additives Are Banned in Europe but Not Banned in the U.S.?

The European Union prohibits many food additives and various drugs that are widely used in American foods.  Some foods, like those found in this grocery store in Nice, France, don’t contain food additives that would otherwise be allowed in foods in the United States.
Some foods, like those found in this grocery store in Nice, France, don’t contain food additives that would otherwise be allowed in foods in the United States.

Q. What foods are banned in Europe that are not banned in the United States, and what are the implications of eating those foods?

A. The European Union prohibits or severely restricts many food additives that have been linked to cancer that are still used in American-made bread, cookies, soft drinks and other processed foods. Europe also bars the use of several drugs that are used in farm animals in the United States, and many European countries limit the cultivation and import of genetically modified foods.

“In some cases, food-processing companies will reformulate a food product for sale in Europe” but continue to sell the product with the additives in the United States, said Lisa Y. Lefferts, senior scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food safety advocacy organization.

A 1958 amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from approving food additives that are linked to cancer, but an agency spokeswoman said that many substances that were in use before passage of the amendment, known as the Delaney amendment, are considered to have had prior approval and “therefore are not regulated as food additives.”

In October, the F.D.A. agreed to ban six artificial flavoring substances shown to cause cancer in animals, following petitions and a lawsuit filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and other organizations. The F.D.A. insists the six artificial flavors “do not pose a risk to public health,” but concedes that the law requires it not approve the food additives. Food companies will have at least two years to remove them from their products.

Here’s a short list of some of the food additives restricted by the European Union but allowed in American foods. Most must be listed as ingredients on the labels, though information about drugs used to increase the yield in farm animals is generally not provided.

Potassium bromate and azodicarbonamide (ADA)

These additives are commonly added to baked goods, but neither is required, and both are banned in Europe because they may cause cancer. In recent years, some American restaurant chains have responded to consumer pressure and removed them from their food.

Potassium bromate is often added to flour used in bread, rolls, cookies, buns, pastry dough, pizza dough and other items to make the dough rise higher and give it a white glow. The International Agency for Research on Cancer considers it a possible human carcinogen, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the F.D.A. to ban it nearly 20 years ago. The F.D.A. says potassium bromate has been in use since before the Delaney amendment on carcinogenic food additives was passed.

Azodicarbonamide, or ADA, which is used as a whitening agent in cereal flour and as a dough conditioner, breaks down during baking into chemicals that cause cancer in lab animals. It is used by many chain restaurants that serve sandwiches and buns. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has urged the F.D.A. to bar its use. The F.D.A. says it is safe in limited amounts.

The flavor enhancers and preservatives BHA and BHT are subject to severe restrictions in Europe but are widely used in American food products. While evidence on BHT is mixed, BHA is listed in a United States government report on carcinogens as “reasonably anticipated” to be a human carcinogen.

BVO is used in some citrus-flavored soft drinks like Mountain Dew and in some sports drinks to prevent separation of ingredients, but it is banned in Europe. It contains bromine, the element found in brominated flame retardants, and studies suggest it can build up in the body and can potentially lead to memory loss and skin and nerve problems. An F.D.A. spokeswoman said it is safe in limited amounts, and that the agency would take action “should new safety studies become available that raise questions about the safety of BVO.”

These dyes can be used in foods sold in Europe, but the products must carry a warning saying the coloring agents “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.” No such warning is required in the United States, though the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the F.D.A. in 2008 to ban the dyes. Consumers can try to avoid the dyes by reading lists of ingredients on labels, “but they’re used in so many things you wouldn’t even think of, not just candy and icing and cereal, but things like mustard and ketchup,” marshmallows, chocolate, and breakfast bars that appear to contain fruit, Ms. Lefferts, the food safety scientist, said.

The F.D.A.’s website says reactions to food coloring are rare, but acknowledges that yellow dye No. 5, used widely in drinks, desserts, processed vegetables and drugs, may cause itching and hives.

The European Union also bans some drugs that are used on farm animals in the United States, citing health concerns. These drugs include bovine growth hormone, which the United States dairy industry uses to increase milk production. The European Union also does not allow the drug ractopamine, used in the United States to increase weight gain in pigs, cattle and turkeys before slaughter, saying that “risks to human health cannot be ruled out.” An F.D.A. spokeswoman said the drugs are safe.

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Color of Change: Facebook Retaliated Against Protests by Pushing Anti-Semitic, Anti-Black Narratives. #quitfacebook

NOVEMBER 16, 2018

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A New York Times investigation has revealed that Facebook fought critics and a growing number of scandals following the 2016 election by launching a PR offensive backed by a dubious Republican opposition-research firm: Definers Public Affairs. We speak with Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, one of the organizations targeted by Definers Public Affairs. We also speak with Siva Vaidhyanathan, the author of “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” He is a professor of media studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. Vaidhyanathan’s new article for Slate is titled “Facebook Is a Normal Sleazy Company Now.”

NYT Investigation: How Facebook Used a Republican Firm to Attack Critics & Spread Disinformation

NOVEMBER 16, 2018

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“Delay, Deny and Deflect.” That’s the name of a new bombshell investigation by The New York Times revealing that Facebook executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, were aware of a Russian misinformation campaign on the social media network and took a series of extraordinary private actions to preserve the company’s reputation, launching an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat critics and spread misinformation. The New York Times investigation reveals that Facebook hired the Republican opposition-research firm Definers Public Affairs to discredit critics of Facebook, linking them to the billionaire liberal donor George Soros. Facebook also allegedly lobbied the Anti-Defamation League to condemn criticism of the company as anti-Semitic. Since the publication of the investigation, Facebook has announced it will cut ties with Definers. We speak with Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, one of the organizations targeted by Definers Public Affairs. We also speak with Siva Vaidhyanathan, the author of “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” He is a professor of media studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. Vaidhyanathan’s new article for Slate is titled “Facebook Is a Normal Sleazy Company Now.”