Right wing New Jerseyan and serial misrepresenter of facts James O'Keefe has decided that what's good for the goose is not good for the gander, and is suing the Star-Ledger for libel on the heels of his latest "operation" that just may have broken a number of federal and/or New Hampshire laws. Ironically, O'Keefe is the same person behind the heavily edited and usually recorded without consent videos used to "implicate" Planned Parenthood, ACORN, NPR and the New Jersey teacher's union (the NJEA) in acts that looked bad mainly because of the deceptive and selective editing.
His latest is a lawsuit alleging that he was defamed by the Star Ledger when it reported on the potential voter fraud and non-consent laws for recording conversations that his "sting operation" broke during the NH Republican Presidential Primary. While the Star Ledger incorrectly referred to O'Keefe's prior history as including "trying to tap the phone of Sen. Mary Landrieux" - which was a federal felony charge, O'Keefe did plead guilty to a misdemeanor for entering federal property under false pretenses, a different and lesser crime, but most certainly a crime.
The misdemeanor charge carried a sentence that included three years' probation, and it remains to be seen what the impact of the NH actions and investigation by the NH Attorney General will have on O'Keefe's probation, or his "filmmaking career". What is highly ironic here (other than the nature of his suit not even mentioning the NH investigation - just a years' old different crime that was called a crime of a different name) is that the ACORNs, NPRs, Planned Parenthoods, NH voters and NJ teachers union who were unfairly and misrepresented by O'Keefe and his videos for are really the ones damaged. The fact that O'Keefe is playing victim for what looks like the Star Ledger calling Crime B "Crime A" seems more like another stunt to get publicity than anything else.
This is classic for the right and its noise machine - to hammer away on a relatively minor and sometimes insignificant point to play the victim - all while distorting the truth in the name of whatever endgame they have at the moment. What would really make things interesting is for the Star Ledger to use its resources to fight back here - a retraction would probably be warranted to the extent it did misrepresent the crime O'Keefe pled guilty to - and maybe it teaches the folks on the Star Ledger Editorial Board to be more careful. But to push back against O'Keefe, his financial backers and take "disclosure" down a very uncomfortable road for O'Keefe would really be a good thing to see.
(Marie is a public school teacher, a former candidate for the NJ Assembly, and a long time member here at Blue Jersey. I've got more about how the S-L screwed up where Camden St. Elementary is, and why that's important, at my blog. - promoted by Jersey Jazzman)
I'm disappointed to see the Star Ledger Editorial Board miss another opportunity to set the record straight on education 'reform'. I've written previously about their lack of fact-checking, as has Blue Jersey staff writer, Jersey Jazzman.
Yes, editorials are opinions, but they are not the same as water cooler arguments. In order to have validity, the facts supporting the case being made should be accurate. The Ledger has not done its homework for this piece about The Urban Hope Act. As the state's largest newspaper, they reach millions of people who don't know all the issues surrounding education 'reform'. This piece paints the problems Camden and other poor school districts face with broad and misinformed brush strokes.
Given the current culture of ‘blame the teacher’, it’s easy to see how they place the blame for poor performance on ‘disastrous’ instructional programs. Never mind that Camden St. School isn't even in Camden (it's a special education school in Newark), no child can possibly learn and very few teachers can effectively teach in a high school riddled with crime and violence. However, I’ve never heard of any subject—not even math—being responsible for 249 reported incidents of violence. But I do know that things like homelessness, poverty, gang involvement, abuse, drugs, and parents with a history of criminal behavior are—not to mention drastic cuts to the local police force.
The Star Ledger, typically a friendly voice on the subject of marriage equality, went off the rails today in an editorial suggesting the state consider a referendum on "Gay Marriage." I could not disagree more.
As an initial matter, I wish once and for all that educated people would stop referring to the issue of marriage equality as the right to "gay marriage." They may as well call it "schmarriage" (as some have). There is no such thing as a right to "Italian marriage" or "Black marriage" or "Hindu marriage" or "Second marriage" - and, it's insulting in 2012 for the Star Ledger to still be framing the issue that way. Same-sex couples are not seeking a special right to engage in some subset of actual marriage - we are seeking equality in the freedom to marry our partners and have those marriages recognized by the state, no more and no less. Labels matter.
Given the Star Ledger's overtly biased opinions about public education and teachers—most notably their New Year's day work of fiction and the firestorm it created in the Twitter/blogospheres (this link to the piece and my response also contains links to other opposing opinions including SOSNJ and NJParents1)—I do commend their Dec. 27 editorial, The push-back against charter schools, for trying to see both sides of this debate. But it does not go far enough, and ends up perpetuating some long-standing myths about these publicly funded but privately run schools.
Let’s start with the myth that they are a cure for failing schools. They are not. Two extensive studies done in the past two years, and partially funded by billionaire-turned-education-reformer Bill Gates—the CREDO at Stanford University study, and Gates’ own Center for Reinventing Public Education study released in November—conclude that the majority of these for-profit institutions do no better than their public school counterparts. A small number are better; many are worse. The latter study went so far as to say that the better ones “are not statistically significant.” So why is the state pushing them? Because they provide cheap alternatives to state funded education, while allowing wealthy investors to double their money in seven years and get a 37% tax break on their investment with little to no financial or academic accountability.
Rereading the piece, I want to apologize for an ill-advised sentence:
If Moran really cared about education, he'd have insisted Tepper flesh out his positions and talk specifics.
It is unfair to imply that Moran does not care about education, and I apologize for saying so.
The rest of my post, however, stands.
Moran gave up a huge piece of prime real estate in the Sunday Star-Ledger to espouse the views of a man who has no standing to talk about education reform (other than his incredible wealth). Both his interview of Tepper and the accompanying editorial took nasty swipes at the NJEA without any serious attempt to either analyze or even just clarify the issues at stake.
I know this has been covered elsewhere on Blue Jersey (including today's roundup) but I wanted to comment on the Star Ledger's change of heart on Chris Christie. There's a little happiness that they've joined the game finally, but also a little fury that they waited until after the man got power to figure him out.
And two, we have learned more about Christie. His ethics are selective. As governor, he has solicited secret donations from state contractors, a practice he used to consider a form of legalized bribery. When officials at the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority were caught operating a sleazy, self-dealing patronage pit, he went ballistic in public; but when his friends on the Elizabeth Board of Education were caught behaving just as badly, he barely made a peep.
Yes, this is all guesswork, peering into Christie's heart to judge his motive. But for the record, our guess has changed.
Of course, we were doing that back in 2005, and the huntsus were having arguments with Tom Moran as far back as March 2007 in which he actually engaged Blue Jersey's reporting and investigations on Chris Christie.
There's been some "controversy" here between a number of front pagers regarding the Star Ledger, Tom Moran and boycotting the paper. In the last go 'round, I noted in the comments that the blogger writing in support of a boycott did not speak for Blue Jersey, but did speak for himself. There are a wide variety of voices here, and unless something is posted under the site's name it is not the site's opinion.
The same applies to the Star Ledger, which is why I do not support boycotting it (besides the disagreement I have with the interpretation of my fellow blogger). While Tom Moran said the other day that he supports the bulk of Governor Christie's program, the Star Ledger today came out with this:
Republicans aggressively fought the appointment of Elizabeth Warren to head the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and came away with a big scalp: Warren herself, the architect of the new agency, stepped down as nominee and returned to Massachusetts to run for the U.S. Senate. With any luck, voters there will send her back to Washington to continue challenging those who would shield banks and big business at the expense of the American consumer.
I maintain that we should support a paper that comes out that strongly for a good progressive like Elizabeth Warren, and against shielding the corporations that got us into this economic mess. And doing it about a race in another state.
Our reader, Couch Potato Politics, thinks Star-Ledger is taking Christie spin at face value and missing the real story of what's happening to New Jerseyans. What do you think, Blue Jersey? - promoted by Rosi
A lot can be said of Chris Christie and his campaign of destruction at the expense of the middle class public sector but the one thing that can't be said is that it's beneficial. Well, unless you're a spinmeister who considers truth just an inconvenient nuisance better left unsaid. It looks like the Star Ledger is taking a direct feed from the State House in Trenton.
Chris Christie just told Tom Moran, editorial page editor at the Star-Ledger, to "get a life."
The pretext? Moran was seeking proof for Christie's claim to the Koch Brothers' June confab that Sheila Oliver called to ask him for his support to remain Speaker during the pension/benefits fight - a claim that has electrified Trenton in general and this site in particular over the past week. Christie stands by the leaked text of his remarks; Oliver called Christie "mentally deranged" and denied it.
Moran has an idea on how to prove who is right - asking for the release of the Governor's phone records.
Now, I don't know exactly how this even works - are there phone records that show incoming and outcoming calls? If so, presumably they would be subject to the state's Open Public Records Act. If not, Christie could just say that.
Instead, he told Moran to "get a life."
What is he hiding? And will the Ledger follow up with a formal public records request?
In a rather revealing interview for Ledger LiveTom Moran, Editorial Page Editor for the Star-Ledger, let it fly that he supports For-Profit Education LobbyistGovernor Christie's effort to bust the teachers unions.
Starting at 2:30
Moran: The next big fight coming up is over education reform and there the boogeyman again is the teachers union which is his favorite punching bag...
They are going to resist reforming tenure and things like that - I kind of hope he does go after them.
Ironically in the same interview Moran says he is upset on how Christie has attacked the "working poor" and that he has "protected the rich." I would say he has a clear case of schizophrenia but as I understand it one must have a brain in order to have that condition.
Well it has finally happened, the Star Ledger has snapped out of its love gaze and seen the real Chris Christie. As one might imagine, it's not a pleasant sight.
Turns out Progressives had Christie right all along.
At least this time, the governor spared us the blather about shared sacrifice.
He will no doubt consider it class warfare to point out the obvious, that he favors the rich at every turn and seems to go out of his way to pound on the working poor.
What? Oh my god, thanks Star Ledger where else could anyone have learned that... oh wait it was here all along.
Welcome to Reality. This is actually news to people at the Star Ledger apparently.
One more time because the New Jersey Press Corpse is a little slow:
Chris Christie is a former lobbyist for and current shill of Big Business interests, he poses as a working class hero in order to rally support to ram through his agenda which is designed for and by Big Business interests.
He doesn't care about poor and middle class people and never has.
Get it?
Sadly I expect another charm offensive by Chris "oh he's so funny at press conferences" Christie to probably work and turn these dumbasses around once again. Until another editorial is needed to point out the obvious.
Ira Mintz was first hired to work at NJ's Public Employee Relations Council in 1985, under a Republican administration. Put simply, PERC's role is to mediate the negotiation process between labor and management, allowing agreements to be reached through a reliable process. PERC is designed to oversee that process neutrally and independently, like a referee in a football game; as an agency, their reputation is excellent, and has been since the body's formation in 1968.
Today's Star Ledgerreports on Mintz's January termination, the first ever of its kind in state history. Because while the administration dismissed the firing as the kind of standard deck-shuffling that comes with new state leadership, nothing could be further form the truth.
"I think that my termination is directly related to my work on collective bargaining for public employees in New Jersey," Mintz told Blue Jersey. "The administration didn't like the neutral and independent results in recent PERC decisions." Specifically, Mintz and some of his colleagues believe that the firing came as a result of a decision made by PERC last year; the Council opposed Christie's attempt to void an agreement, made by Corzine administration, in which employees would work on Lincoln's birthday in exchange for no work the day after Thanksgiving. For whatever reason, the governor opposed this.
In other words, Mintz's firing was retaliation for ....
Polls: love 'em or hate 'em, but there is also more than one way to read 'em. A trend analysis which takes a longer view and accounts for changes in both approval and disapproval on the above two matters - Christie's approval rating and holding the line on spending - provides a significantly different opinion than that which the newspaper heralds.
The governor's approval rating has ranged from 52% to 43%. Since March 3, 2010, the reporting date of the first Fairleigh Dickinson poll after Christie took office, his approval rating worsened 1%, from 52% on March 3 to 51% now. His disapproval rating worsened 16%, from 21% to 37%. The net total damage to his approval is 17%. As time went on more respondents left the "unsure" or "I do not know" category and joined the disapproval category.
Since March 3 on the issue of "the state should hold the line on spending even if many programs are reduced," Christie's position worsened by 6%, from 66% on March 3 to 60% now. On the opposite issue of "the state should raise taxes if necessary and continue to support state programs," the governor's position worsened by 1% from 21% to 22% - net damage to his position 7%.
In spite of the fact that 51% approve his job performance and 60% support holding the line and reducing programs, the current trend is not favorable to Governor Christie. Be not of faint heart. The headline in this case may be positive for him but the bottom line trend is less so.
"The problem was not that Americans lived beyond their means but that their means had not kept up with what the larger economy could and should have been able to provide. The American economy had been growing briskly ... but a larger portion of the economy's winnings had gone to people at the top.... The central challenge is to rebalance the American economy so that its benefits are shared more widely." - Robert Reich: AFTERSHOCK (Alfred A. Knopf - 2010)
Brescia:The Cost of Inequality substantiates this lack of balance. Inequality in NJ can be viewed in terms of 1) our poverty rate: 8.7%; 2) differences in our median household income: Whites: $47,036, Black: $29,293 and Latino: $35,744; and 3) the difference between the median income of the three above groups and the State median income of $64,470, suggesting a number of individuals with a disproportionately high income. In comparison with other states NJ fares worse, but not significantly so because these disparities have become widespread throughout the U.S.
(continue reading below)
We have to await more information to understand the potential impact of Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg's generous donation of $100 million to Newark for education. Money alone will not solve Newark's long-standing school woes, but in this "once in a lifetime opportunity," if used wisely it can certainly help. The total amount of money to be received is unclear. The "too many cooks spoil the broth" could present serious problems. However, it is likely that the award is open-ended enough to provide latitude for the creativity needed to strengthen Newark's education system.
It's easy to imagine the high-fives and doofy text messages between Christie and his gang when the Tom Moran viral video first started catching on. [Watch the video here - Rosi]
Holy crap, right? He totally took a legitimate question about his confrontational style from a reputable journalist and turned it into a bloodbath! No matter that the governor's response itself completely answered the question; all attention was now trained on Moran's twitching remains. Confrontational style? Honest. Refreshing. Move along, and let me humiliate you like the true bully I am, so you never mess with me again. Oh, and everyone in the room better take note. Chris Christie - here to kick your ass if I don't like the question.
The Moran clip helped cement Chris Christie as a viral video genius.
(find out why below the fold)
Screen shot of Star Ledger Editorial, 7am. Somebody there doesn't grasp the idea of the possessive. It's since been corrected but it stood that way for hours, until somebody snapped to attention around 9am. Hello? There any their there?
This is an appeal to read newspapers. Not just the on line versions, but the inky versions that used to arrive with a plop! somewhere in the vicinity of everybody's front door forever, but now is delivered to far fewer of those doors.
It takes about 2 hours to write a Blue Jersey News Roundup. Longer on weekends, because of the Op-Ed pages. But after I post Sunday's, with the heavy paper version of Star Ledger spread out on the table at The Shaker Cafe in Flemington, next to my blueberry pancakes, I always find things I don't see in the electronic versions. Including stuff that's not on line.
So no links. This is from the crunchy paper version. Stuff I'm reading today:
Teacher of the Year: Merit pay is the wrong way - Maryann Woods-Murphy, judged the very best in New Jersey this year, is against forcing teachers into competing with each other, instead of supporting each others work. And she resents S-L columnist Kevin Manahan calling some of her colleagues "lazy, unprepared, and uninspiring slug(s)."
On race, power, culture and tea - Miami Heral columnist Leonard Pitts, in a piece run in S-L examines a recent commentary from Keith Olbermann on the inherent racism infecting tea party activists. He's not writing about New Jersey specifically, but he might as well be. After all, New Jersey's tea party has given their endorsement to Michael Halfacre, hoping that the Fair Haven mayor, who led a teaparty rally during Rush Holt's summer health care town hall, will now get the GOP nomination to run against him in November.
Obit, Robert C. Hare, 95, former Passaic mayor - The man for whom the city's City Hall was named in a ceremony in 2005.
AP, Democrats ready to go it alone on health care - Again, not New Jersey, but of interest given that Rep. Rob Andrews was a player in the president's bi-partisan meeting. (also wire service, just below it on the page, the how-it-works of reconciliation).
When we see problems in how NJ's newspapers are covering the news, it's not like we'd ever just shut up about it. But there's depth, analysis, and good writing to be found in newsprint in (almost) every corner of the state. And for just pennies. You can't help drive journalism to be better, or the newspaper industry to perform better, if you're not a participant. K'thanks, gotta go wash ink off my fingers now.
Before Chris Christie gets used to walking his pugilistic swagger into the Governor's office every day, before he gets too comfortable resting that big thumb on the executive order button, and before newspapers run out of phrases like "martial law" and "we don't even know if it's legal," New Jersey's brand-new governor ought to think about something: 51% of the people in this state did not support him. But Instead of recognizing that and proceeding to work with the Legislature to make the changes he wants, Christie has charged head on in the opposite direction:
But Christie seems to think his blueprint is a sacred scroll. He claims imperial powers for himself and says he needs no consent from the Legislature.
The mandate he is claiming has a Bush like appearance that is eerily reminiscent of 2001 when Christie's mentor came into office. Governor Christie has signed 14 Executive Orders in his first 23 days in office. Let's look at how the new Governor's use of Executive Orders compares to his predecessors:
By comparison, former Gov. Jon Corzine issued three executive orders during the same time period, according to the website, and 167 total during his four-year term.
Former Gov. Jim McGreevey issued five executive orders in his first 30 days, while former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman issued eight in her first 30 days
On the question of whether it's legal, it appears we're headed for a showdown in the courts as Christie embarks on his strategy of governing by executive order and leaving the Legislative Branch to react once it's done. The Republicans in the Legislative branch are enjoying power they haven't had for years, but the Democrats as the majority party in the Legislature are pushing back trying to enforce the separation of powers. It reminds me of the arguments I heard made for the unitary executive when the Bush Administration was expanding their power. Both Thurman and Adam have written about this talking about ideology meeting reality:
But what Gov. Christie is doing is claiming that he can unilaterally change governmental policy simply by refusing to spend funds. It is based on the concept of the unitary executive. It means that the Executive has complete control of the bureaucracy, including the prerogative to simply not spend money deliberately set aside for a purpose with which the Governor disagrees.
In this, Adam might be closer to the truth than he thinks. Nixon didn't use the power of impoundment as described above. He used it to control budget expenditures and to control governmental policy (sound familiar?). Nixon tried to trim roughly 20 percent of controllable expenditures simply by refusing to spend the money. Then he began refusing to spend money on policies he didn't like.
It's all about power and Christie is trying to take as much of it as he can for his office. The Republicans in the Legislative branch are enjoying power they haven't had for years, but the Democrats as the majority party in the Legislature are pushing back trying to enforce the separation of powers. Right now we're on a collision course to the courts.
It's not exactly the most reassuring time to be an employee at the Star Ledger. According to the Editor & Publisher in Exile blog, the paper had said they would lift a long-held "no-layoffs" pledge for non-union employees and on February 5, that change will become permanent:
A memo to staffers Monday from Publisher Richard Vezza, who took over at the beginning of 2010, states that the pledge would be lifted as of that date. Former Publisher George Arwady, who left in December to take the publisher post at The Republican in Springfield, Mass., announced last August that the pledge would be lifted.
"They had announced it to give everyone time to be aware of it," Vezza said. "Nothing is going to happen at the Ledger on Feb. 5." But Vezza did not rule out further job cuts later in the year: "I don't know, I have been there a week and I have to go in and get a look at the budget, and do my own budget. But right now there are no plans to lay people off."
They've already had furloughs and buyouts that we have talked about on Blue Jersey even cutting 40% of the newsroom. I'll put the full memo to employees below the fold. You just keep wondering who will be left to cover the news when all the cuts and changes are done in the future, even if they don't have further plans for right now.
