Search This Blog

Thursday, September 3, 2009

THE HARTFORD COURANT GETS SLAPPED

Before I begin this post, let me just preface this by saying that I have the utmost respect for the two people that I know personally at the Hartford Courant, Jeff Cohen and Helen Ubinas. If anyone needs to be reminded, it was Jeff Cohen that originally broke the story regarding corruption in the Perez Administration. Cohen's story resulted in the States Attorney's Office beginning a full scale investigation that has resulted in the arrest of Perez and others. Helen Ubinas through her columns continues to identify all that is good with Hartford as well as the things that are wrong with Hartford (even though she threatened to punch me in the head Wednesday and then twittered how good it felt, it was a joke for those who have called wondering why she would do that). OK, so on with the story.

Recently, accusations of plagiarism have been made against the Hartford Courant. Apparently the Journal Inquirer of Manchester has been the most vocal in their criticism of the Courant. The claims seem to be that the Courant has been "ripping" stories from other media outlets and then publishing them in the Courant without crediting the original authors. In a strong release issued yesterday, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) stated that the Courant's actions violated fundamental standards and amounted to "theft". The release from SPJ is below, the Journal Inquirer's story on the issue can be found at www.journalinquirer.com


*****UPDATE- at 5:31 PM today the Courant's Publisher posted an apology on their website, it can be viewed at this address- http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-courant-apology-plagiarism-090309,0,1524843.story

SPJ Ethics Committee: Hartford Courant Violated Ethical Standards


9/2/2009

For immediate release:
9/2/2009

Contacts:
Kevin Z. Smith, SPJ President, (304) 367-4864, spjpresident@yahoo.com
Andy Schotz, Ethics Committee Chairman, lawngyland@aol.com



SPJ ETHICS COMMITTEE: HARTFORD COURANT
VIOLATED ETHICAL STANDARDS


INDIANAPOLIS – The Society of Professional Journalists’ Ethics Committee released the following statement regarding the Hartford Courant’s recent admission of and apology for using other newspapers' stories without duly attributing credit. The statement issued by the committee is as follows:

The Hartford Courant has acknowledged using stories from other Connecticut newspapers recently without giving them credit. The director of content has apologized and vowed the mistake won't be repeated.

The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists plainly exhorts newspapers and journalists, "Never plagiarize." When a newspaper invests reporting and editing time to produce a story, that story should not be used by another outlet without permission and without informing readers who actually did the work.

Many media outlets aggregate information online, summarizing a story and then linking to the original. The Courant failed to carry the credit from its online version to its print version.

"However it happened, the Courant violated fundamental standards," said Andy Schotz, the chairman of SPJ's Ethics Committee. "This was theft."

Integrity and credibility, two of the most important values in journalism, demand that all media outlets be clear about the source of stories they did not produce. Failure to follow that guideline results in plagiarism, taking credit for someone else’s work, as it did in this case.

SPJ admonishes all media outlets to take special care so that proper attribution is given at all times – especially when working with multiple news delivery platforms. For help in making strong ethical decisions, please consult the Society’s Code of Ethics (www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp) or call SPJ’s Ethics Hotline at (317) 927-8000, ext. 208.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well- informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.


-END-

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

ESI BONUS RECIPIENTS AND OTHER CITY BENIFICIARIES TURN OUT TO SUPPORT PEREZ AFTER LATEST ARREST

For those of you who are wondering who the people chanting "Eddie,Eddie" while standing on the chairs in the function room were today, the attached raw video below should answer a lot of questions. I would challenge anyone that takes the time to watch the video to try to identify 10 people out of the group that aren't either City employees, employees of non-profits or agencies that are funded by the City, political hacks loyal to Perez or poverty pimps. (sorry for that last term, but those of you who are,you know what I mean). The first question I have is whether this is an appropriate use of a City building to applaud elected officials for alleged criminal acts. Second question is whether we really need the size of city staff we have if we can afford this many employees chanting in the middle of the business day. Acting Chief of Staff Susan McMullen must have known that I would pose the question. As if it was a scene out of the movie "Rainman", (picture Dustin Hoffman shuffling around saying "10 minutes to Wapner, 10 minutes to Wapner") Mc Mullen passed me several times saying "lunchbreaks almost over, lunchbreaks almost over". The cast of characters chanting included Kelvin Roldan, Susan McMullen, Dave Medina, Cornell Lewis, Lew Brown, Luis Caban, Naomi McCoy, Carrie Saxon-Perry, Rosezina (rjo) Winch, Evelyn Mantilla, Sarah Barr, Noel McGregor, Sean Arena, Ted Carroll, Yasha Escalera, Anna Natal, Hernan LaFontaine (who has his own special segment below) and the list goes on, just watch the video below.

Don't forget my challenge, actually identify ten people in the video not beholding to the Mayor. Maybe we should organize our own rally supporting honest government outside the Courthouse at their arraignments on Tuesday. Anyone want to help organize it?

VIDEO CLIP PART 1




VIDEO CLIP PART 2

HARTFORD RECORDS LATEST HOMICIDE- #25 ?

Hartford's latest homicide victim was declared dead at 10:36Pm after being shot in the chest on Edgewood Street. I hate to say I've lost count, but I believe this victim is number 25 for the year.

SUPREME COURT GRAND JURY RULING RELEASED

The Connecticut Supreme Court today released its ruling regarding the sealing of the Perez Grand Jury report. In short, the Supreme Court concluded that the Grand Juror "improperly ordered that the interim report be sealed". Although the section of the final report referred to as part III, "the states motion to seal part III is affirmed". Could "part III" cover the next round of arrests? Is this where the "damning" information referred to by Judge Eveleigh, the Grand Juror, is contained?

Supreme Court Grand Jury Decision

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PEREZ RALLY, A CAMERA SHY HERNAN LaFONTAINE

I will eventually be posting the full video of the attendees at this afternoons rally held after Perez's latest arrest. But I wanted to post this video of former Superintendent of Schools and also former Council President Herna LaFontaine. After the "rally" I was in the function room panning the crowd to record who was actually in attendance. I noticed LaFontaine and former Hartford Courant Editor, now Hartford Board of Education $100,000 a year plus employee David Medina having a very close conversation. While filming that, a woman who others later told me was LaFontaine's wife, came over and with her hand tried to block the lens to prevent me from filming. When LaFontaine realized what was going on, he came over and attempted to grab the camera and break the monitor screen off. It makes you wonder what they have to hide, and does anyone in this administration understand the word transparency?

Note at 1:15, city employee Naomi McCoy as gate keeper to the inner sanctum of Perez's private office, peering through a crack in the door. Maybe her doorman skills helped earn her recent ESI bonus of $2679.82. Also at about 1:39, Perez lapdog Kelvin Roldan realized he was in the video and made a quick exit.

The video is a little rough, but let me know what you think. The LaFontaines said they would sue me if I put the video out, my number is here Hernan if you need to contact my attorney, just give me a call.


ARRESTS OF PEREZ, AIREY WILSON AND OTHERS TAKE PLACE



Photo courtesy of Angel Morales.


I will be posting the arrest warrant affidavits, video as they turned themselves in and more, but right now the computer is working overtime capturing video and scanning images, but it will all be here shortly. Also, if you ever wondered who would attend a Perez support rally, the video of that will be up shortly and you can see for yourself.