Tales from DC: A Student, a Homeless Guy, an Asshole

Now, I would not stoop to using a curse word in the title of a post unless it was absolutely necessary. For this story, ladies and gentlemen, it is absolutely necessary.

So one of the students from my first semester was a random guy. He's in Union Station one day and sees a stand of cookies. He thinks to himself, "Sweet! I totally need to get a cookie." So he turns to go get one and a homeless man steps into his path.

Man (furious): "Why you always in my asshole?"
(pause)
Student: "Sir, I'm not in your asshole, I really just want to get a cookie."
Man:"Why you always getting inside my asshole?"

The man punches my student in the face. My student gets pretty mad and gives him a shove back. Just then a police officer comes around the corner and separates the two of them.

Officer: "What seems to be the issue, here?"
Student: "This guy punched me in the face!"
Man: "He always getting in my asshole!"

The officer steps away and gets on her walkie. A few moments later, four or five other police officers appear. They huddle together and begin asking the original officer to explain the situation.

Officer: "Well, this man claims he got punched in the face by the other man. And that man claims that the first man keeps getting inside his asshole."

Man (shouting over the conversing officers): "This guy, he and his brother always inside my asshole!"

Student: "Look, I don't even have a brother. And I haven't been in anyone's asshole."

Eventually the police officers came to my student and, with a sort of repressed amusement asked, "So...do you think he's crazy? Like mentally deranged?"

Student: "Look, I don't know. All I wanted was a cookie."

The officers said they planned to keep the man overnight and let him go in the morning, which my students said was fine. As they took the man away, he continued to point at him and shout through Union Station, "That guy always inside my asshole!"

Students, welcome to Washington.

Tales from DC: Airport Security

Going through security at Washington Reagan National Airport. The TSA agent comes over while I'm in the midst of going preparing my bags for security, takes my digital camera and puts it in with my liquids and clothes.

Greg: "Shouldn't my digital camera go in it's own bin?"

TSA Agent: (sighing) "No. Only electronics need their own bin."

????

Alrighty then. Here's your sign.

100 Confessions: Work Problem

(44) I have a work problem. During the day, I tend to work until I can't work anymore. Even when I'm "relaxing," it's cover for more work. (ie. I read books and take notes for themes that might be helpful in my book. I play video games and take notes for an eventual paper I want to write on narratives in video games. I watch movies and television shows, waiting for a subject to blog on). I think the shower/bath is the only time of the day you are FORCED to relax. What can you really do in there? I guess you could read but you get the book wet. Only a fool takes their laptop/cellphone in there. (I actually did do that once with a cellphone. It led to a similar situation as this.)

100 Confessions: I'm a long shower guy

(43) I'm no longer afraid to admit it. I take obnoxiously long showers/baths. In high school, it was an embarrassing thing to share. But you know what? That's how I relax fool. To me, there's nothing better than laying down in a tub, enjoying the steam. This was especially problematic when we lived on the second story of a house in Mt. Pleasant. She had a jacuzzi tub. WHAT UP. I was in that thing every morning before work.

This is also emblematic of another problem I have (44).

100 Confessions: Husband/Wife Knick-knacks

(42) My wife has amassed a collection of different husband/wife knick-knacks that are spread across the house. However, accidents happen and from time to time, they break. What makes it creepy is that they all break the same way--with husband suffering some unspeakable fate. Usually the husband's head shatters or falls off. But today on a husband/wife Mickey/Minny jewelry box I gave her, Mickey lost his legs. Everything below the torso is still attached to the jewelry box while his ears, brains, heart and well, jewels, are not.

I keep trying to convince myself this isn't a sign of my eventual grizzly fate.

Batman: A Visual Analysis

Holy Sardines! How Batman has changed over the years! One of my colleagues at Georgetown did a digital media project in which he performed a content analysis on the covers of Batman comic books.

Here's the project. I know the text is hard to read, but this is the best resolution we've got.

H/T Gnovis Blog

Batman: A Visual Analysis from gnovis on Vimeo.

How Subway Saved 'Chuck'

It's no secret that I'm a TV geek. (Evidence: here, here, here, here and here.) But even those who aren't narrative nerds who love to watch serials in expectation of the next big plot twist have plenty of reasons to love Chuck.

For those who don't know Chuck, Chuck is the only quirky hour-long comedy about a Stanford flunky who works at a Geek Squad-style entity while solving top secret CIA investigations. Chuck is also unabashedly for the children of the '80s. Guest stars include Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap and Chevy Chase of the SNL and the Vacation franchise.

For those of you not obsessively following the story, Chuck was slated for the chopping block earlier this year. The niche television show faces the same conundrum that killed Arrested Development and has threatened both LOST and Gossip Girl--tons of web viewers, tons of iTunes downloads, low ratings in their broadcast slot.

What saved Chuck? Hint: Five Dollar, Foot-long. Yep, thanks to special sponsorship deal with Subway, Chuck will be getting another 13 episodes--not a full season, but hey it's still breathing. What could this sponsorship deal look like?

According to the New York Times:

Chuck’s girlfriend, Sarah, is a top CIA agent but she works undercover at the mall in different eateries. It is no leap to think she could be selling Subway sandwiches next season. An NBC executive said that discussions had been held about the specifics of the Subway tie-in and that the idea had been considered, though the terms were not formally decided yet.

NBC’s president of ad sales, Mike Pilot, said the deal validated what NBC had called its “infront,” process, in which it presented its lineup to ad executives two weeks before the other networks and sought ideas for tie-ins like the one developed with Subway.

What does this mean for the future of television? Well, NBC claims that Chuck will get more than 13-episodes if it improves it's ratings. This sponsorship deal leaves open the possibility of similar partnerships between advertisers and other television shows that lack ratings, but don't lack viewers. For advertisers, the right kind of product-placement in such shows could help prevent the death of niche shows. This sponsorship deal is dry run for such partnerships. Here's hoping that Subway will save Chuck.

Tale of Two Cities: Bus Cuts?

One of the things we emphasize at the Washington Journalism Center is the degree to which Washington, D.C. is two cities. There's Washington -- the home of government pomp and power that rides the metrorail from power center to power center; and there's DC -- the home of crime and generational poverty that rides the metrobuses from neighborhood to neighborhood.

And is there a cultural-racial divide? You'd better believe it:

» More than half of Metrobus riders are black, Latino or Asian/Pacific
Islander. But only a quarter of Metrorail riders are such racial or
ethnic minorities.

» Education levels vary, with 80 percent of rail riders having at least
a college degree compared with 59 percent of Metrobus riders.
Similarly, the median income of Metrorail riders is $102,110, while
Metrobus riders earn a median $69,620 annually.

And do the two mix? Sometimes. And it's grand when it happens. But this divide is in the background of the brilliant story by the Washington Examiner last week. There's a budget shortfall in Metro and where were the suggested cuts? The bus system. Here's a breakdown on the proposed changes:

Fare Increases: Riders on the J7, J9 I-270 express buses in
Montgomery County and the W19 Indian Head express in Prince George's
County would pay the express fare, $3.10 cash or $3 with a SmarTrip
card, rather than the regular fare.

Eliminated Routes: L7 (Connecticut Avenue-Maryland Line); C7 and C9 (Greenbelt-Glenmont), some off-peak service on Z2 (Colesville-Ashton).

Modifications: Buses would be added to the L8 route (Connecticut
Avenue-Maryland Line). The 21 A, B, C, D and F (Landmark-Pentagon)
routes would be consolidated into a single route.

Notice the cuts all hit the bus system. That's an angle all but ignored by the Washington Post (although at the mention of the name Obama in conjunction, they're glad to write something). Now as it turns out, the board overseeing the funds ultimately avoided any cuts by plowing through the remains of their reserve accounts. But the Washington Examiner did a marvelous job of highlighting what the differences between metrorail and metrobus riders in regards to the effect of such a change.

Those differences were highlighted earlier in the spring when Metro officials were eyeing $13.6 million in cuts to bus service amid a budget shortfall, while opting to spare the rail system.

Thousands of riders decried the plan, arguing that it unfairly hit minority communities, with the poorest and most transit-dependent riders. The bus service already provides less consistent service, with one of every four buses arriving late. Many of the routes have truncated schedules, they said, running only during rush hours on weekdays.

I'm glad no cuts had to occur. But what happens next year? Dare we ask if the Post will cover this one?

Review: Modern Arab Journalism by Noha Mellor

Noha Mellor’s book attempts to map the research gap of Arab Journalism. Through the course of the book, she notes empty areas of academic research: the social practices of Arab Journalists and the local/national Arab media as opposed to pan-Arab media. She also refuted the generalization of Arab media as a unified entity, viewing it instead as a diverse array of press models in a diverse culture.

Hybridity is a key concept in the understanding of this book. Hybridity is flows from the idea of globalization. When Arab countries encounter a force like McDonalds they don’t always (often?) react by forming a picture perfect western McDonalds. In hybridity, a culture forms their own style of fast food restaurant (Mellor 9-10). This is especially true in regards to journalism. Over the past two decades, increased western presence in Arab countries, along with the proliferation of cell phones and internet have given Arab countries unprecedented access to Western Journalism.

One of the key social practices adopted from the American model press is the idea of the objective reporter (Mellor 127). Acting as what Mellor, calls a “truth investigator,” arab journalists in numerous countries go in search of a set of facts (Mellor 123). What is perhaps less adopted from the American Model press is the idea of quoting numerous sides of an issue to find the truth. For example, Mellor notes that there are no arab news organization – at least none that she cites – that publish stories critical of Islam (Mellor 133). In this way, Arab Journalism is perhaps more easily identified with the openly-biased (by Western standards) style of the press used in European countires. But even there, the comparison still perhaps falls short. Numerous factors, such as the proliferation of Arab dialects used in news organizations, the medium and the country in question make Arab Journalism problematic to pin into a given slot of typology (Mellor 142-143; 91-92).

Mellor’s book also notes the problem of studying Arab Journalism in a pan-Arab manner. Perhaps the most well known Arab News Organization, Al-Jazeera, is not even universally supported by the Arab League. Many countries within the League dislike the idea of a media entity questioning the practices of their government (Mellor 86).

Mellor notes that the idea of a unified Arab people wipes away “any diversity in language, interests, goals, history, alliances, social problems and concerns…Furthermore, such a generalized view of the ‘Arab Public’ disregards the nuances and complexities brought about by the increased immigration of Arabs to the West and the enlargement of the Arab diasporic communities there” (Mellor 77). In addition, while the pan-Arab media may inadvertently push for Arab unity in their use of MSA Arabic (a form of pan-Arab Arabic that is standardized, and perhaps watered-down), the very laws of individual countries make that problematic (Mellor 82). Vernacular Arabic is at times radically different from MSA Arabic—so much so that one can’t comprehend the other (Mellor 91-92). So if the law includes that the official language of a given country, and the official state communitications is in vernacular, that makes pan-Arabic satellite channels and MSA Arabic publications largely unreadable in given Arab countries.

Largely implied by the diversity of vernacular Arabic languages, is a diversity of opinion on the press. While it may have at one time been fair to characterize all Arab media the mouthpiece of the government, with press freedom largely downtrodden, Mellor makes the case that the press is increasingly complex. The advent of news blogs and online news organizations makes prior-restraint more difficult. It’s easier to find a publisher if he has a printing press in his house, then if he goes from internet café to internet café uploading news content.

GopherLink! It the traditional 'tube being pushed out of the future of television? Read more here.

Radical Christian Terrorists?

This seems oddly familiar:

Religious right groups in Minnesota and across the country are enraged by a recent report by the Department of Homeland Security that they feel targets them as right-wing extremists and terrorists. The report was commissioned by the Bush administration but not finished until President Obama took office.

Maybe it's because it looks like this...

The New Prop 8

This looks like Prop 8 all over again:

Gay activists are disputing claims by angry ministers that a majority of city residents would rise up in opposition to the D.C. City Council’s 12-1 vote Tuesday to approve a bill that allows the city to recognize same-sex marriages from other states and countries...

Council member and former D.C. mayor Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was the only Council member to vote against the bill, saying he has supported gay rights in his more than 30 years in politics but could not bring himself to vote for a measure that “goes against my moral compass"...

Barry’s comments came after more than a dozen black ministers and members of their churches in D.C. and Maryland rushed out of the Council chamber following the vote and shouted their disapproval of the Council’s action.

It's no wonder the Obama's have found picking a home church so problematic.

Is Bias Killing the Newspaper?

If only it were that easy. Jacoby addresses that question very well in his recent Op-Ed for the Boston Globe:

I wish the lack of ideological diversity that tends to characterize most major newspapers - the reflexive support for Democrats, the distaste for religion and the military, the cheerleading for liberal enthusiasms from gun control to gay marriage - really did explain the industry's present woes. Because then newspaper companies would know what it would take to recover: a reorienting of their editorial views from left to center-right and the recruitment of editors and writers with a more conservative outlook.

But if liberal media bias is the explanation, why are undeniably left-of-center papers like the Globe, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle attracting more readers than ever when visitors to their websites are taken into account? How does liberal bias explain the shutdown of Denver's more conservative Rocky Mountain News, but not the more liberal Denver Post? How does it explain the collapse of newspapers in lefty enclaves like Seattle and San Francisco? How does it explain why the great majority of Americans - 60 percent, according to a recent CBS/New York Times poll - get most of their news from TV?

Newspapers are in extremis not because of their political agenda, but because the world around them has been transformed.

Islam and the FBI

When it comes to matters of Islam, too often we hear about American press and foreign press coming out with divergent coverage. It's neat to see them come out on the same side for once. Here's the AP story which also appeared on FOXNews (but not on the other broadcast networks. Interesting):

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Mohammad Qatanani's mosque was full of FBI agents the night before he was to find out if he would be deported.

But even though the federal government was trying to link Qatanani to foreign extremists, the agents weren't there to keep an eye on him. They wanted to show their support for a Muslim leader they considered a valued ally for the relationships he helped forge between the FBI and Muslims in the wake of 9/11.

Across the nation, such grass-roots relationships between Muslims and the federal government are in jeopardy. A coalition of Muslim groups is calling for Muslims to stop cooperating with the FBI — not on national security or safety issues but on community outreach.

Of course, the second paragraph begs the question: is there a link? Now in scenarios like this, I tend to fall on the "stop picking on religious folks" side, but this is the sort of story that comes across as one-sided because the government can't talk about their investigation. So instead, we have a story that is heavily slanted (and well written) on the side of Mohammad Qatanani, but lacks the opposing side. Because the government can't express their side.

That said, I really think the AP reporter did everything the could here. They did note that this mosque had federal agents showing sort for the imam. And that's coverage that I think would have polished the American governments image a bit in the "Daily Times" of Pakistan:

WASHINGTON: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is facing allegations that it infiltrated and put several mosques and prominent Muslims in the US under surveillance, using egregious tactics to investigate possible militant activities.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the FBI reached out to Muslim leaders and institutions, promising to investigate a spate of hate crimes directed at Muslims, while community leaders vowed to warn of any suspicious activity. But those fragile links have frayed.

This story is of course, referring to the broader concern about FBI infiltration. There's no consensus in the FBI on this issue (which is evidenced by Mohammad Qatanani's broad support), but there's also no consensus in the Muslim community on how to respond to the FBI:

A petition that opposes FBI tactics is circulating in Muslim communities and has been gaining support, said coalition chairman Agha Saeed...A number of Muslim groups — including some of the nation's most prominent — have declined to sign the petition. Other organizations say they agree with parts of the petition but also support ongoing dialogue with law enforcement.

There hasn't been a ton of coverage on this one, but I sure appreciate more.