How Yahoo News engages its readers with the news on important stories. (ht @stefanjbecket)
EDIT: In related news, Russian police are on the lookout for other members of Pussy Riot.
EDIT 2: It gets worse. This tweet was the launch of a brand new Yahoo News feature.
“As a member of Congress, I believe that working to protect the most vulnerable in our society is one of my most important responsibilities, and that includes protecting both the unborn and victims of sexual assault. In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year. Those who perpetrate these crimes are the lowest of the low in our society and their victims will have no stronger advocate in the Senate to help ensure they have the justice they deserve.
“I recognize that abortion, and particularly in the case of rape, is a very emotionally charged issue. But I believe deeply in the protection of all life and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action. I also recognize that there are those who, like my opponent, support abortion and I understand I may not have their support in this election.
“But I also believe that this election is about a wide-range of very important issues, starting with the economy and the type of country we will be leaving our children and grandchildren. We’ve had 42 straight months of unacceptably high unemployment, trillion dollar deficits, and Democratic leaders in Washington who are focused on growing government, instead of jobs. That is my primary focus in this campaign and while there are those who want to distract from that, knowing they cannot defend the Democrats’ failed economic record of the last four years, that will continue to be my focus in the months ahead.”
The comments have clearly riled people up today, understandably.
“As a woman & former prosecutor who handled 100s of rape cases,I’m stunned by Rep Akin’s comments about victims this AM http://bit.ly/NahiHz
- Senator Claire McCaskill responding to Senate challenger Rep. Todd Akin’s stupid comments on rape and abortion.
Cause and effect: Thanks to his comments, Akin just gave his opponent some ammo and momentum in the race — a race that was going to be difficult for McCaskill because her state’s leaning right these days and she barely won in 2006 as it is. The question — with a weak opponent who just drew a firestorm of controversy, can McCaskill claw her way to another term?
EDIT: For sake of numbers, McCaskill was down five points on Akin before he made his comments, based on a RealClearPolitics average of polls.
In a bizarre attempt to avoid a 50-game drug suspension, San Francisco Giants star Melky Cabrera created a fictitious website and a nonexistent product designed to prove he inadvertently took the banned substance that caused a positive test under Major League Baseball’s drug program.
But instead of exonerating Cabrera of steroid use, the Internet stunt trapped him in a web of lies. Amid the information-gathering phase of his doping case last month, his cover story unraveled quickly, and what might have been a simple suspension has attracted further attention from federal investigators and MLB, the Daily News has learned.
Just saying — making up a fake Web site to hide the fact that you screwed up only makes you look more guilty. Just ask Stephen Glass.
“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Missouri Rep. Todd Akin said in a Sunday interview. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Akin, who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill in November, then claimed that even if these biological mechanisms don’t work, the perpetrator, not the child, should be punished. Kind of tough to defend that.
UPDATE: Akin has apologized for the comments.
The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency warned its employees and contractors last week to stop using their government computers to surf the Internet for pornographic sites, according to the agency’s executive director.
In a one-page memo, Executive Director John James Jr. wrote that in recent months government employees and contractors were detected “engaging in inappropriate use of the MDA network.”
“Specifically, there have been instances of employees and contractors accessing websites, or transmitting messages, containing pornographic or sexually explicit images,” James wrote in the July 27 memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
“These actions are not only unprofessional, they reflect time taken away from designated duties, are in clear violation of federal and DoD and regulations, consume network resources and can compromise the security of the network though the introduction of malware or malicious code,” he wrote.
Haven’t Pentagon officials ever heard of Websense? More importantly, if this is all that’s going on behind closed doors at the Missile Defense Agency, does Russia really need to be worried about our expansion of the project?
neightkelly asks: What seems rather suspect? That twitter silenced him or that he leaked the email?
» SFB says: That Twitter silenced him. That sets a very bad precedent for the company and suggests it was for reasons other than those specifically stated. — Ernie @ SFB
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
When I asked about aspects of his interactions with Rosen, Lehrer provided a sketchy timeframe and contradictory specifics—he first told me that he had personally exchanged emails with Rosen, then attributed this supposed email exchange to his literary agent—then further claimed that Dylan’s management had approved the chapter after being sent a copy of Imagine. He added that Dylan’s management didn’t want their cooperation sourced in the book. But when I contacted Dylan’s management, they told me that they were unfamiliar with Lehrer, had never read his book, there was no bobdylan.com headquarters, and, to the best of their recollection, no one there had screened outtakes from No Direction Home for Lehrer. Confronted with this, Lehrer admitted that he had invented it.
Holy. Shit. (via popsins)
Jonah Lehrer has since resigned from the New Yorker and his publisher is halting shipments of print copies of Imagine. (via capitalnewyork)
In other words, a slow news day in the world of journalism scandal. This is actually round two for Lehrer. As it is, Dylan says so much interesting stuff already — why do you have to make it up, anyway? (Update: Joe Hanson has pasted a version of the article on Google Docs, because the site is down.)
The Independent’s Guy Adams, a prominent critic of NBC’s Olympic coverage, just got suspended from Twitter … for tweeting out an NBC official’s relatively-public e-mail address ahead of the opening ceremonies. *wince* That seems kind of … suspect, don’t you think, especially considering the network’s standing relationship with Twitter? Read the tweets here.
![thecallus:
theatlantic:
This Is the Obama-Aurora Billboard Everyone’s Talking About
[Image: The Hollywood Reporter]
Sanctioned v. unsanctioned violence.
“That’s a technique of trying to make a point, and maybe it was poorly done.” — Maurice Clements, the guy behind this billboard.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7z9bvVfcY1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
This Is the Obama-Aurora Billboard Everyone’s Talking About
[Image: The Hollywood Reporter]
Sanctioned v. unsanctioned violence.
“That’s a technique of trying to make a point, and maybe it was poorly done.” — Maurice Clements, the guy behind this billboard.
I made a bad judgment call with my material last night & regret making a joke at such a sensitive time. My heart goes out to all of the families & friends of the victims.Comedian Dane Cook • Apologizing for making a poorly-timed joke regarding the Aurora shooting, in which he suggested that the shooter was doing the victims a favor by getting them out of a terrible movie. In other words, a joke you can’t really defend at all. (If you want to subject yourself to it, The Daily Caller has video.) Bad form, bro.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
