Monday, January 10, 2005

breaking news...The American Hebrew Academy has settled all claims with the Japanese insurance companies that were suing it, according to a release from the school. The school will survive and keep at least some of the money lavished upon it by founder Chico Sabbah. From the release: "While the terms of the settlement are confidential, the Academy's Board Chairman, M. D. Sabbah, stated that 'the settlement provides a significant financial endowment, quiets all pending claims upon the Academy and its assets, and helps assure everyone as to the strength and viability of the Academy for generations to come.'  Mr. Sabbah further stated that 'the Academy is most pleased to have resolved this litigation and now looks forward to implementing a long term strategic plan for the future growth and development of the Academy which had previously been suspended.  I want everyone in the local Greensboro community and the greater Jewish world at large to know that with the assistance of our Board of Trustees, the Academy's viability is no longer in question.'" (emphasis added). Glenn Drew has been named interim executive director of the school, which has been threatened by Sabbah's legal problems after his business was destroyed on 9/11. Previously:Forbes: Who is Chico Sabbah? More here. 5:30:39 PM    comment []

James Wolcott picks up* the Coble withdraw-from-Iraq story and weaves it into a bleakly funny piece called Captain Video's Visor Yields Poor Visibility, riffing on the widely-circulated report that Bush refuses to listen to anything but "good news" from Iraq. Lots of people say we only hear the bad news from Iraq, and that's a real issue in news coverage well beyond the war. But the good news from Iraq doesn't seem to stay good for long. The good-newsers used to point to the reconstruction effort as evidence of stuff we weren't hearing, but then the news came that we had spent just a small fraction of our reconstruction funds because the territory was too dangerous to do much work. So that good news was not underreported, it was underexistent. Lately I've been hearing that only four provinces of Iraq's 18 provinces should be real troublespots in the upcoming election...That must be pretty good news, right? But it turns out that those four provinces have almost 50% of the country's population. And while estimates of insurgent numbers vary depending on the source, a detail jumped out at me from the Patick Eakes post about an attack on American soldiers : "75-100 armed and organized soldiers popped up and opened fire, alternating between waves of attacks by AK-47's and rocket propelled grenades." That does not bespeak some sort of rag-tag resistance. I wonder what Howard Coble knows that we don't. *New media foodchain: Wolcott got the story from Kos , Daou got it from me yesterday, and I got it in my driveway courtesy of the N&R's Stan Swofford. 4:24:07 PM    comment []

David Corn: Armstrong Williams says, "This happens all the time. There are others." Hmm. This could get interesting. 3:48:09 PM    comment []

TechnoFlak is looking for feedback on the subject of pitching stories to bloggers. Not just relevant  for PR people, really, but for any link-pimping blogger in search of traffic. My rules are the same on my blog as they are in my paid jobs: know what I write about, pitch me relevant stuff, understand that I'm busy, think less about what I can do for you than what you can do for me. 3:45:42 PM    comment []

I enjoy Orson Scott Card's movie and TV criticism, although our tastes are often quite different, but sometimes the chip on his shoulder makes him sound just plain silly. Here's Greensboro's best-known author on Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. "It's junk like this that makes audiences avoid pretentious independent movies." Scott? It's a stoner comedy from the guy who directed Dude, Where's My Car, not an art film. The tag line of the marketing campaign is "Fast Food, High Times." 11:21:28 AM    comment []

Dan Gillmor is coming to the Chapel Hill weblog conference next month, and they're putting him to work. We are working on getting him to GSO for a quick meeting with the N&R folks, too. 11:03:24 AM    comment []

CBS axes producer, asks three others to resign over doctored documents story. And of course, Dan Rather is already on his way out the door. From the investigative report: "Within hours after the Segment aired, questions about the authenticity of the Killian documents were raised, initially in an outpouring from the so-called blogosphere on the Internet." 11:00:00 AM    comment []

The first time I know of that I've been quoted in a novel: "Ed Cone was right though. Don't drink and blog." 10:06:52 AM    comment []

Patrick Eakes has news from Iraq: My friend Nick Sowers' platoon was ambushed three days ago... ...Suddenly, 75-100 armed and organized soldiers popped up and opened fire, alternating between waves of attacks by AK-47's and rocket propelled grenades.... ...Nick's humvee took a direct grenade hit from the rear. His gunner was killed instantly, and the humvee was engulfed in flames. Nick managed to get out, as did some others... ...Nick took shrapnel in his shoulder and back, and his vest was burned. He also lost hearing in his left ear, as the shock wave from the grenade blast put two holes in his left ear drum. Of his squad, Nick is the only one who was not killed or evacuated by helicopter to a hospital. Meanwhile, Ruby Sinreich reports on a friend wounded in Iraq. 10:04:40 AM    comment []

The next Scopes trial (click thru the ad to read it all). Alarming. Although to be fair, The Flintstones does support the coexistence of man and dinosaur theory. 9:49:56 AM    comment []

News sites picking up Howard Coble's remarks in the N&R about possible troop withdrawals from Iraq. Blog links here. 9:45:29 AM    comment []