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Monday, February 27, 2017

On Friday White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held an informal “gaggle” press briefing but made a point of excluding certain news outlets. The White House’s decision has drawn ire from across the field, including organizations invited to the briefing, such as Fox News and The Wall Street Journal.

The New York Times and CNN, as well as the BBC, The New York Daily News, Al Jazeera, the LA Times, BuzzFeed, The Hill, and The Daily Mail, were all barred from attending the meeting, while Reuters, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News, Bloomberg, and the heavily conservative news outlets Breitbart News, One America News Network, and The Washington Times were admitted. Time, the Associated Press, and some other outlets were invited to the briefing but refused to attend in protest.

Spicer held the meeting in his office rather than the usual briefing room. He told the press the smaller gathering was because Trump had already made a large speech earlier in the day. “We want to make sure we answer your questions, but we don’t need to do everything on camera every day.” However, he also criticized media coverage of the Trump administration, which President Trump has cited as unfair. “We’re going to aggressively push back,” one reporter recorded him saying at the gaggle. “We’re just not going to sit back and let, you know, false narratives, false stories, inaccurate facts get out there.”

This meeting took place the day after CNN issued a report claiming the White House had asked high-level employees at the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to rebut a story in The New York Times about the Trump administration’s alleged ties with Russia and Vladimir Putin.

“Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like. We’ll keep reporting regardless,” said CNN in a statement.

“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” said New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet. “We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.”

“While we strongly object to the White House’s apparent attempt to punish news outlets whose coverage it does not like,” said Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith, “we won’t let these latest antics distract us from the work of continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively.”

BBC bureau chief Paul Denahar was more formal: “We understand there may be occasions when, due to space or circumstances, the White House restricts press events to the established pool. However, what happened today did not fit into that pattern. On this occasion selected media were allowed to attend the briefing and the selected media, including the BBC, were not.”

National Review contributor David French also criticized the decision: “The only reason to exclude a news organization from a press briefing should be space available, with space allocated on a viewpoint-neutral basis. […] It’s one thing to bash the press. It’s another thing entirely to take steps to deny access to disfavored outlets. When it comes to access, Trump needs to be better than Obama, not worse.” He combined these remarks with a discussion of the Obama administration’s relationship with Fox News.

Some of the news organizations invited to Spicer’s meeting also opposed the exclusion of their peers:

“Some at CNN and New York Times stood with Fox News when the Obama admin attacked us and tried to exclude us,” said Fox anchor Bret Baier via Twitter, “a White House gaggle should be open to all credentialed orgs.”

“The Wall Street Journal strongly objects to the White House’s decision to bar certain media outlets from today’s gaggle,” added a representative for the newspaper. “Had we known at the time, we would not have participated and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association took a milder view: “We’re not happy with how things went today,” said association president Jeff Mason. “I don’t think that people should rush to judgment to suggest that this is the start of a big crackdown on media access.”

Donald Trump has stated the mainstream media portrayed the first month of his presidency unfairly, calling some of their reports “fake news” and the press themselves the “enemy of the people” and insisting they refrain from using anonymous sources. “I’m against the people that make up stories and make up sources,” he told the Conservative Political Action Committee in Washington D.C.

“President Trump’s calls for an end to anonymous sources was alarming. It is not the job of political leaders to determine how journalists should conduct their work, and sets a terrible example for the rest of the world, where sources often must remain anonymous to preserve their own lives,” said Joel Simon of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Monday, August 5, 2019

Wikinews attended the Texas Haunters Convention on the last weekend of July — July 27–28 — in Mesquite, Texas. The event was held at the Mesquite Convention Center and spanned roughly 35,000 square feet of exhibit and classroom space. Halloween-themed, the event was focused on equipment, techniques, props and costumes used in haunted attractions and home haunts.

A children’s costume contest was held each day, with an array of characters and monsters featured.

An array of classes were on offer, one of which allowed attendees to make a faux shrunken head. In a separate class, instructors taught attendees how to build a ‘bubbler’ prop, as might be displayed in a spooky laboratory scene.

Other classes included:

• Stunts and Stilts
• Circular Haunting
• Foam Fright Guns
• Facade Planning and Building

YouTube personality Mr. CreepyPasta was on hand and did a reading of scary stories. Belly dancing troupe Tribal Evolution performed on Saturday and again that evening at the adults-only Costume Ball.

Local actor and producer Joshua Winch was on hand offering DVD’s of his films and promo photos and posters. Winch told Wikinews he began acting in theater 20 years ago and also worked on several film projects as a Production Assistant. Ultimately, he began producing film projects writers would present to him in 2004. Winch said he has produced a great deal of horror-comedy films, but grew tired of reading reviews that his films weren’t horror because they had comedic elements. He then approached a director and said, “I want you to make a pure horror movie.” The result was his recent film, Fall of Grace. Winch said the film has been screened at 14 film festivals and he was named Best Actor at one of those events.

More than 70 vendors were present at the event, coming from various parts of the U.S., including California and Florida. A mobile escape room was onsite and allowed playthroughs for VIP attendees.

Friday, January 12, 2007

The iPhone only made its appearance as a prototype and there have been controversies aroused.

The dispute has come up between the manufacturer of the iPhone (which was presented on Wednesday for the first time) — Apple Inc. — and a leader in network and communication systems, based in San Jose — Cisco. The company claims to possess the trademark for iPhone, and moreover, that it sells devices under the same brand through one of its divisions.

This became the reason for Cisco to file a lawsuit against Apple Inc. so that the latter would stop selling the device.

Cisco states that it has received the trademark in 2000, when the company overtook Infogear Technology Corp., which took place in 1996.

The Vice President and general counsel of the company, Mark Chandler, explained that there was no doubt about the excitement of the new device from Apple, but they should not use a trademark, which belongs to Cisco.

The iPhone developed by Cisco is a device which allows users to make phone calls over the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).

Monday, May 3, 2010

Widespread protests occurred Saturday against measures being enacted by the Greek government to reduce spending in order to reduce a severe debt crisis.

The capital of Athens was filled with an estimated 17,000 protesters at gatherings called by three separate political groups. During the protests, small groups of youth broke windows of several buildings, set a government press van on fire, burned trash barrels in barricades and threw rocks and firebombs at police officers.

Riot police arrested at least fourteen people and sprayed tear gas to disperse crowds. Seven policemen and two demonstrators were reported to be injured. Another estimated 5.000 people took to the streets in Thessaloniki.

The demonstrations were called to protest against government plans to cut major portions of the national budget in order to receive an estimated 120 billion euros in aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The government formally requested the activation of the bailout plan on April 23, 2010, after the cost of borrowing funds on the open market became prohibitively high.

About 9 billion euros in Greek government bonds will come due on May 19th; without the ability to borrow from the market, government officials had to turn elsewhere. The looming deadline, in combination with the recent uncertainty of the markets over the economic stability of Greece, Portugal and Spain, has put pressure on Greek, IMF and EU negotiators to work out the final details of the aid plan quickly so that it can go into effect as soon as possible.

Among the items to be agreed upon are the exact measures the Greek government is going to put in place over the next three years to cut its debt, and the precise amount of aid it will receive in exchange. The Greek Cabinet is to meet tomorrow morning to finalize the measures before the formal announcement at noon.

The cuts in spending are expected to cut both pensions and salaries to public service workers, while raising consumer taxes. Greek unions have opposed the measures and were a major part of the protests. A nation-wide strike in protest of the budget cuts is planned May 5.

A participant in one of the protests said that “These measures are death. How people are going to live tomorrow, how they’re going to survive, I do not understand.” Alexis Tsipras, of the Coalition of the Radical Left, opposed the budget cuts, saying that “The Greek people do not owe anything to anybody. Those who have brazenly robbed public money and pension funds should pay for the crisis.”

Greece’s Prime Minister, George Papandreou, however, said that the cost-cutting measures were inevitable, and that they were essential to the survival of the country.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

A man has abandoned his nine children at a hospital emergency room in Nebraska, but will not be prosecuted under Nebraska state law.

The children, whose ages range from 1 to 17 years old, were dropped off by their unnamed father at Saint Joseph Hospital at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha on Wednesday evening. Authorities are still trying to find the children’s mother.

According to Nebraska’s ‘safe haven law’, the parents or caretaker of any children aged 17 and under are allowed to abandon them at any facility that has a valid license with the state. As a result, the parents would not be prosecuted for doing so. Originally the law was to prevent infants from being abandoned, but was recently amended to include toddlers and teenagers.

Since the law was changed, at least 14 children have been abandoned at hospitals and police stations in Nebraska. State law says that all facilities must keep a monthly count of all abandoned children.

Friday, September 9, 2005

Italian-based Fiat Auto SPA and US-based Ford Motor Co. announced they signed an agreement to cooperate in designing two small car models. This came only seven months after General Motors severed their relationship with Fiat.

Both companies plan to work together on a new version of the popular Fiat Cinquecento and on a replacement for the Ford Ka, both to be based on the Fiat Panda platform.

The cooperation can help reduce the companies’ small car production costs and ease financial difficulties they are facing. Ford is struggling with high labor and health care costs, while Fiat suffers from its unprofitable Italian plants.

After the deal was announced, shares of Fiat rose $0.06 to $9.44, while Ford gained $0.06 to $9.95 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Friday, January 12, 2007

The iPhone only made its appearance as a prototype and there have been controversies aroused.

The dispute has come up between the manufacturer of the iPhone (which was presented on Wednesday for the first time) — Apple Inc. — and a leader in network and communication systems, based in San Jose — Cisco. The company claims to possess the trademark for iPhone, and moreover, that it sells devices under the same brand through one of its divisions.

This became the reason for Cisco to file a lawsuit against Apple Inc. so that the latter would stop selling the device.

Cisco states that it has received the trademark in 2000, when the company overtook Infogear Technology Corp., which took place in 1996.

The Vice President and general counsel of the company, Mark Chandler, explained that there was no doubt about the excitement of the new device from Apple, but they should not use a trademark, which belongs to Cisco.

The iPhone developed by Cisco is a device which allows users to make phone calls over the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Australia’s Department of Defence spent thousands of dollars on controversial development seminars, Australian media reported Wednesday. The seminars are run by a San Francisco, California-based training company called Landmark Education. The company evolved from Erhard Seminars Training “est”, and has faced criticism regarding its techniques and its use of unpaid labor.

Australia’s Defence Minister Warren Snowdon said that the government is in the process of reviewing Defence Department expenditures on career development. “We’re in the process now of doing an audit, completely unrelated with anything to do with Landmark, which is being undertaken into learning and development to make sure that they meet our needs. … We have to be very sure that the courses that people do undertake are relevant, appropriate and indeed in line with what community expectations might be,” said Snowdon in an appearance on ABC Radio.

The Australian and Australia’s ABC News reported that Landmark Education had been listed in France as a “possible cult” in the mid 1990s. When asked about this on ABC Radio, a spokeswoman for the company in the United States, Deborah Beroset, responded: “What happened in France was that a commission established by the French parliament issued a report in which they listed almost 200 organisations as being possible cults … We were never contacted. We were inappropriately included in that list”.

In a program which aired Wednesday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio program AM reported that Australia’s Defence Department spent at least AUD12,270 of taxpayer funds to send government employees to Landmark Education courses. According to AM, the Defence Department said it does not appear that further funds have been sent to Landmark Education since 2004.

In a statement released by the Defence Department, the government stated: “A search of Defence records does not indicate exactly how many individuals attended courses with this training provider, however it is believed it was a small number of individuals. … Defence has been unable to determine individual reasons for why groups within Defence choose this training provider.”

AM also reported that the use of unpaid labor by Landmark Education “has attracted the attention of the US and French governments,” and that some individuals in the mental health field have accused the company of brainwashing. When asked about the allegations by mental health experts that Landmark Education’s techniques amounted to brainwashing, Deborah Beroset responded: “Well, there is absolutely no credence to that whatsoever.”

In a March 9 article in the Herald Sun, Peter Rolfe reported that taxpayer money was used to send at least 37 police and government staff from Victoria, Australia to seminars run by Landmark Education. Police and Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron said that “Decisions on the appropriateness of staff attending courses by Landmark Education are made by individual managers who remain best-placed to assess the development needs of their staff,” but State Liberal MP Murray Thompson told the Herald Sun that the funds should have been put towards fighting crime. Apple Inc., Reebok, and Mercedes-Benz have sent employees to Landmark Education seminars, according to a spokeswoman for Landmark.

In October 2006, Landmark Education took legal action against Google, YouTube, the Internet Archive, and a website owner in Queensland, Australia in attempts to remove criticism of its products from the Internet. The company sought a subpoena under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in an attempt to discover the identity of an anonymous critic who uploaded a 2004 French documentary of the Landmark Forum to the Internet. “Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous” (Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus) was produced by Pièces à Conviction, a French investigative journalism news program. The Electronic Frontier Foundation represented the anonymous critic and the Internet Archive, and Landmark withdrew its subpoena in November 2006 in exchange for a promise from the anonymous critic not to repost the video.

Landmark Education is descended from Erhard Seminars Training, also called “est”, which was founded by Werner Erhard. est began in 1971, and Erhard’s company Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as “The Forum” in 1985. Associates of Erhard bought the license to his “technology” and incorporated Landmark Education in California in 1991.