HuffPost Coup at TPM; oust Marshall
Kilpatrick texts are the photo essay?
a) Are you guys fucking serious?
b) Is this an attempt to gain fair & balanced credentials at the expense of journalistic merit?
c) Is this some obviously not very "post-racial" voyeurism into the lives of some bourgeois Black people?
d) Is this TPM's version of Star/People/National Enquirer style compassion (see Rhianna/Chris Brown)?
e) It was written?
a) Are you guys fucking serious?
b) Is this an attempt to gain fair & balanced credentials at the expense of journalistic merit?
c) Is this some obviously not very "post-racial" voyeurism into the lives of some bourgeois Black people?
d) Is this TPM's version of Star/People/National Enquirer style compassion (see Rhianna/Chris Brown)?
e) It was written?
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Responding in order:
(a) Kilpatrick's texts are newsworthy. And they are (properly) public record.
(b) TPM covered L'Affaire Kilpatrick in some detail, as did much of the media. Incidentally, TPM was *hardly* the only news outlet to publicize the release of the Player Mayor's sexting.
(c) This is no more racially motivated than TPM muckraking with David Vitter, Larry Craig, et al.
(d) This isn't even in the same ZIP code as the Rihanna story. You'd be much closer to the truth if you said "John Edwards". Of course, that hurts the race angle, so that might explain why the more obvious parallel wasn't discussed.
(e) Obviously.
As an African-American, I'm infinitely more offended by Kwame Kilpatrick and his slimy, felonious behavior than I am by Josh Marshall posting his text messages.
March 13, 2009 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is newsworthy might be the sheer volume of texts, but do we really need their content? Did they deserve this level of play? Probably not. I think it's old news. Now if the case were on-going, perhaps...
Is there anything of news or other salacious detail that might warrant such coverage, in other words the "size does matter" question? Apparently not.
Did we get the same level of coverage with the former Empire State Governor and Sex God Extraordinaire Eliot Spitzer (Spitzer? I hardly even know her!)... I don't think we got the second by second play by play from Ashley Dupre.
Voyeurism? Absolutely.... although it's not just about bourgeois BUPPIES of Motown. Sex sells...
Leaving out the reference to Rihanna... it is a kind of gossipy TMZ-style expose...
It was written... but only in the STAR(s) or the Enquirer...
Could TPM have expended the effort on a story of greater importance... without a shadow of doubt, YES!...
Your outrage is noted and appreciated. You called it like you saw it.
March 13, 2009 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're comparing apples to tractors. Of course Spitzer didn't get the same coverage. This is because he resigned within a few days of his situation becoming known.
Kilpatrick, OTOH, dragged his situation out for months after the secret whistleblower compact and his involvement with Beatty became known, and it was clear that he couldn't politically survive. He actually made Jennifer Granholm convene a special session to remove him before he finally agreed to plead to a couple of felonies.
It should also be noted that Spitzer didn't use over $8M of his constituents' money to try and pay off witnesses who could have blown his cover. Nor did Spitzer force an impeachment hearing while blustering about his innocence (see also: Blagojevich, Rod). When people write about David Vitter, the word "madam" is still heavily used. If these folks want to stay in the limelight after they're busted, they have to accept the consequences. Page One coverage is part of that.
Kilpatrick's story is big news, but the texting, in and of itself, is only part of the bigger attraction. Kilpatrick's behavior as mayor of Detroit is exactly why anything with his name on it gets coverage. That's not TPM's (or any other news outlet's) fault.
As for stories of "greater importance", while I agree that Kilpatrick is certainly no longer "big news", the texts WERE a major basis for Kym Worthy's case against him and his subsequent guilty plea. And it's not like TPM (or any other news outlet) had to expend any "energy" besides providing a link to them. No investigative resources (except for Muckraker readers) were wasted. So what's the problem?
March 13, 2009 7:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I like both apples and tractors...
If I recall, there was a delay in whether or not the prosecutor was going to charge Spitzer, AFTER he had resigned. The search to reveal who the hooker now known as Ashley Dupre took days AFTER Spitzer resigned. The other details of Spitzer's trips to DC for sex came out AFTER Spitzer resigned. There were charges filed against other associated with the escort service that came out AFTER Spitzer resigned. Ms. Dupre is still making news. And I fervently pray that not only the email exchanges between Spitzer and the madam and Ms. Dupre and any videos or audios, however fuzzy, grainy, blurry or garbled are released when they are found. (Or maybe someone can make a YouTube mashup.) And that they get an equally prominent display on TPM, complete with the invitation to readers to "help" TPM sort through them for "any newsworthy details."
And while I appreciate your inclusion of the other roster of sinners, I believe ken patton's issue relates not to Kilpatrick's offenses on the whole, but to specifically to sleazy salacious nature of posting the sexually explicit text messages. That is the voyeuristic part.
We do not know if Blagojevich, Rod whipped out his tool for a quick BJ in exchange for some obscure post as commissioner of fishnet stockings in IL.
ken has posted his opinion and response.
We disagree, but that is why we're here.
March 13, 2009 7:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apples and tractors sometimes work well together. :-)
You should be aware that Spitzer did not, apparently, use government-issued equipment to communicate with Dupre. Because of the amount of money she was charging, he might have some issues with federal rules involving transfers of those kinds of dollars. But, aside from that and solicitation charges, there is nothing else the authorities can go after Spitzer for.
And herein lies a MAJOR difference on the Kilpatrick issue. Kilpatrick, Beatty, and other city officials used city-issued and city-paid devices to communicate. What's even dumber is that Kilpatrick himself enacted an order saying that all communication on city devices was property of the city and subject to review by the city at any time. These two facts formed the basis of the Free Press' successful FOIA action to get the messages released in the first place. In short, Kilpatrick's stupidity (in communicating in such a way on devices that were subject to government perusal per HIS OWN ORDER) is the story here.
What's more, the text messages show clear evidence of criminal activity. Kilpatrick used city funds to lease a Navigator - for his wife's personal use. Even worse, he used his city device to coordinate public statements about the firing of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown and the payoffs to him and Harold Nelthorpe.
Yes, the sexual messages are the more titillating part of the release. But the messages, in whole, represent a clear pattern of criminal activity by Kilpatrick directly related to the charges for which he was ultimately convicted.
It's not that I don't get Mr. Patton's point. I just don't see how TPM abdicated its duty by reporting on the issue, especially since they didn't have to do more than post information that anyone with a web browser and Internet access could have posted.
We do disagree, but I respect your views, as well as Mr. Patton's. That shouldn't be lost here.
March 13, 2009 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
a) the texts are not newsworthy. a mayor lying, resigning and going to jail months ago was newsworthy. i am in haiti right now-- i just watched 23 kids die from contaminated drinking water-- the fact that stale text messages are considered newsworty and human life isn't is pathetic.
b) tpm covered a sitting mayor in a political scandal in a city that has been in crisis for 3 decades. it was newsworthy particularly given campaign season, democratic charges about republican corruption, and the kilpatrick family's support of obama. as for being the only news outlet-- that is the point of the post. tpm and josh in particular usually stick to what's relevant. if it is dirt, it is posted because of the politics surrounding the dirt. i expect retarded morality from other outlets; i have generally respected most of josh's editorial decisions, and it is my guess that this photo essay was not his call, hence the title.
c) there is a difference between racial motivation , i.e., something would not happen save the presence of race, and something being influenced by a racial lens, be it conscious or subconscious. i raised the question, which is different than making a charge. i don't think it is implausible, given the pathological obsession with black male sexuality/criminality that is deeply embedded in american culture, that some of these cats at tpm and many of their faithful readers were interested enough in these texts to pour over them for juicy tidbits. it is possible that if there were reams of documents in the craig or vitter scandals that would have ocurred; it is possible that folks did that with o'reilly because it is good journalistic practice or maybe it is linked to his particular brand of hypocrisy; but perhaps race and gender tropes continue to factor into the way we view these stories.
d) actually, there was no race angle. rhianna/c.brown is raised in the context that these publications don't give a shit about these 20 year old kids, as evidenced by the recent lambasting she has taken for allegedly "taking him back." they don't care about 1/3 of all u.s. women being the victims of sexual violence or a woman being battered every 12 seconds; they don't care but put on a show of compassion for the first round of headlines to sell some rags. and now the second round of sales is about plastering her victimhood everywhere. so the parallel was about this game we and the media play-- like we care about kilpatrick's wife? or the girlfriend? or the city of detroit? bullshit. and edwards was running for president-- different ball of wax, different stakes, different post-clinton context.
as an african american, american, human being or whatever, you should be offended by the escapism and voyeurism, not to mention criminal intrusion into your fellow citizens' privacy, that passes as news and information.
thanks for playing.
March 13, 2009 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ahhh. I love the smell of misplaced outrage in the morning.
People are dying everywhere (including here) from a wide variety of things. It sucks, and it should not be ignored. But what makes the news is a lot more than just death, crime and war (though these are generally the lead stories). If you did not want to read the story (and I sometimes don't want to read some stories on here), well, there's a handy scroll bar on the right. Pull it down and move on.
Your argument that it isn't "newsworthy" is refuted by the number and breadth of news organizations that reported on it. And, again, this was directly up Muckraker's alley.
Is it *possible* there was a race angle? Yes. Is it *likely*, especially given TPM's history of covering such stories? No. It's difficult to make the rational case, given the way this site has eviscerated politicians and supporters of both parties, that they were going after Kilpatrick in particular. You'd have an easier time making that argument about the Detroit Free Press (which was the #1 source for most national outlets' KK news).
Again, this is TPM. Do a search here for "Rihanna". You'll find reader blogs and reader comments. No regular TPM articles, though. It's because that story is outside TPM's purview. You'll find John Edwards coverage, though - because he's in the political world. And nowhere in TPM's coverage did they do anything but report the story coming out of Detroit. They probably couldn't care less about the humanitarian angle on such stories - and truthfully, it's really not relevant to the *newsworthiness* of the story. If TPM prints the unvarnished truth, they're doing their jobs. Same for any other news outlet. If you want to get upset about who's looking out for Carlita Kilpatrick or Christine Beatty, I suggest you speak with the former mayor. His actions made them newsworthy - not the media's.
Escapism? Into what? Voyeurism? Into what? I have plenty of real issues to expend outrage on. This text message release is entirely appropriate for TPM Muckraker, which is where it was released. It's not worth getting angry about, because all TPM did was put up information that was made freely available elsewhere to follow up on a previous story.
Edwards is a MUCH more relevant context than a 20-year-old non-political singer. And it's certainly not pre-Clinton, post-Clinton, or whatever-Clinton related. Sex sells, period. Put a politician or influential figure in a compromising sexual situation, add a reporter, and voila! Instant coverage. Recent modern examples include Edwards, Gary Hart, Vitter, Craig, Haggard, B. Clinton, Thomas Abrams (husband of Sen. Debbie Stabenow), Spitzer, and Kilpatrick.
And, as I said in a different reply, TPM didn't have to send a team of investigators to do this. The Free Press dug it up, indexed it and made it available in bulk.
March 13, 2009 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I found the TPM presentation trashy, and not ironically so.
Not one of TPM's better moments, imo.
March 13, 2009 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink