Results tagged “journalists”

Former President Bill Clinton held a press conference at his Harlem office yesterday to announce that his foundation had negotiated with three drug companies to lower the price of medicines for HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries. Of course, the press packed into room was there for juicy details on Clinton's successful mission to North Korea, which secured the release of two American reporters after five months of detention. But while clearly savoring the attention, Bubba was tight lipped on the details, telling reporters:

My job was to do one thing, which I was profoundly honored to do, as an American, and as a father: I wanted those young women to be able to come home. Anything I say beyond that could inadvertently affect the decisions and moods either here or in North Korea, or the attitudes of our allies, and I have no business doing that. I’m not a policy maker anymore.

Last Sunday and Monday a collective of activists, journalists, retired government officials and theater makers gathered at The Culture Project to begin mock impeachment proceedings against President Bush. The “trial by theater” arose in part out of frustration with Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s pledge to leave impeachment “off the table” when her party seized the House majority. The month long series, called A Question of Impeachment, is intended to spark debate and, participants hope,...

Now that WABC-AM has announced the return of Don Imus to radio airwaves starting December 3, their morning programming is shifting. In fact, Ron Kuby, who with Curtis Sliwa, co-hosted the station's morning drive program, was asked not to come to work starting today in anticipation of Imus' arrival!

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck in a hit and run at Knickerbocker and Gates Aves. in Brooklyn, a wall collapse at Cromwell Ave. in the Bronx, and an escaped prisoner at 107th Ave. and 131st St. in Queens. Firefighters had to rescue a Queens cemetery worker who was buried up to his waist after a cave-in occurred in a 20-foot-deep pit where he was working. The cave-in broke the man's leg...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is getting a lot of ink in our newspapers today after it was revealed that (A) he had requested a visit to Ground Zero - to lay a wreath, no less - and then shortly later that (B) the city had denied the request. Way to work fast, city agencies!

TIP: According to Paper's Mr. Mickey, Chloë Sevigny is having a tag sale on her block this Saturday. We're guessing there will be lots of vintage Balenciaga. Check out her apartment in House & Garden...pretty nice!

Senator Larry Craig, whose guilty plea to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor at a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport bathroom effectively tanked his political career, resigned this morning. Craig had been arrested after soliciting an undercover police officer for sex (read a transcript of his arrest interview here and listen to the interview here) earlier this summer. Today he said:

"What is best for Idaho has always been the focus of my efforts and it is no different today. To Idahoans I represent, to my staff, my Senate colleagues but most importantly to my wife and my family, I apologize for what I have caused. I am deeply sorry.

Continue reading "Idaho Senator Larry Craig Resigns"

The Californians in Earlimart have apparently taken the West-Coast indie sound out of their West-Coast indie rock. Tonight you can catch them on this coast, where they'll be doing a show at Joe's Pub in support of their latest release Mentor Tormentor. Do you want to go? Email us at GothamistContest(a)gmail dot com and let us know -- the winner (who we'll choose by noon) will get two tickets. For now, get to know the leader of the band, Aaron Espinoza.

The Post and Daily News have a number of editorials and columns about the Deutsche Bank building fire response and fallout. The Post continues to demand FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta's resignation and faulted Mayor Bloomberg for standing by Scoppetta. The Daily News' Juan Gonzalez wonders why Bloomberg and Scoppetta have gone into "virtual hiding" and blasts Bloomberg for sending lobbyists to kill "legislation that would force tougher enforcement of safety laws by the city Buildings Department." The News also has an editorial saying that Spitzer must take charge (he "has the muscle to crack heads among the contractors and federal, state and city agencies that have made a perilous hash of the job").

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an aircraft emergency at Laguardia Airport in Queens, a carjacking on 7th Ave. and 115th St. in Manhattan, and a pedestrian fatally struck on Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn.
• The director of the Public Theater's production of A Midsummers Night's Dream suffered four broken ribs and a collapsed lung after falling through a trap door at Central Park's Delacorte Theater during a rehearsal this week.
• Do not adjust the controls on your radio, 1010 WINS will be off the air between 12:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Saturday morning to transition to HD broadcasting.
• Artists living in Carnegie Hall studio spaces are suing the Carnegie Hall Corporation to prevent their eviction. Carnegie Hall wants to renovate the space for educational programs.
• Spitzer aide Steven Mitnick resigned after admitting he threatened a Republican on the Public Service Commission. Mitnick repeatedly threatened the career of Cheryl Buley as she investigated ConEd after last summer's blackout.
• Streetsblog has a piece on citizen journalists filming the pernicious effects of traffic in Jackson Heights, Queens.
• Accused LES and East Village sex attacker Asuncion Dejesus-Garcia was released from custody after another crime fitting the same pattern as those he was accused of was committed while he was in jail.
• The New York Times looks at the decline of tar beach tanning in the city.

Film Forum

Zodiac

Brooke Gladstone is the managing editor and co-host of WNYC’s On the Media which is heard throughout the country on National Public Radio stations and as an internet podcast. She has won several awards, including two Peabody Awards, for her coverage at NPR, which she joined in 1987. She has been a foreign correspondent for NPR covering the reemergence of Russia out of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. She recently returned to Russia to report for On the Media about the current state of the Russian media and the challenges it faces. The result of her visit aired on the June 22nd edition of On the Media.

. Along the way she’s had a divorce and a daughter (Ruby, now 13), married the man who proposed to her back in her pre-Luka days, and been dubbed "The Mother of the Mp3" when her song Tom’s Diner was used as the model for the algorithm that compresses the Mp3!

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and his distributor, Harvey Weinstein, appeared at a press conference yesterday to question why the government is investigating Moore's trip to Cuba for his upcoming film, Sicko. The film, which premiered at Cannes and is scheduled to open in a few weeks, questions the American health care system and, at one point, Moore takes three September 11 rescue workers to Cuba to get health care treatment for them there.

As we mentioned earlier this week, the vendors who set up shop at the Red Hook ballfields may be at risk for losing their permit. According to the New York Times, the vendors have operated for years under a series of temporary use permits, but now they will have to place a formal bid with the city in order to remain in the space. But the vendors are not guaranteed to win this bid, so the fans of this culinary community institution have rallied behind it.

No orange Sharpies in these goodie bags, honest.

She's asking her also-famous Governor for a pardon, and will likely get a shortened sentence, but Paris Hilton has some fans rallying for her freedom, too (though we suspect some of these websites are mainly to push merchandise). Seems like many don't want to see the heiress pay her dues...here in New York, however, Paris is a little light on a fanbase. Yesterday two "Free Paris" rallies took place and AMNY reports they had a "combined turnout of roughly eight participants, a throng of journalists, and a Paris double." Though it seems the few that did show up just wanted to witness a "freak show."

Rupert Murdoch did not become a media tycoon by turning tail at the first sign of resistance in his business dealings. New York Times media columnist David Carr examines Rupert Murdoch's past successes in wooing reluctant sellers into folding their companies into the News Corp. family with promises of benign oversight and marginal interference at best, only to run roughshod over the company and imprint it with Murdoch's style before the ink is dry on the corporate bill of sale.

Has the Tribeca Film Festival been using 9/11 as way to garner publicity and interest in their event? NYMag reports that an anonymous emailer sent out a press release today "accusing the Tribeca Film Festival of lying when they claim that Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, and Craig Hatkoff founded the festival in response to the 9/11 attacks."

As the Virginia Tech story broke last Monday, cable news, as always, took the lead with their normal oversaturated speculative coverage transferring the energy and resources normally reserved for non-story stories like the Anna Nicole Smith saga into covering a real story.

. The NBC Nightly News actually had "breaking news" about the decision, and here's the statement from NBC News president Steve Capus:

Effective immediately, MSNBC will no longer simulcast the "Imus in the Morning" radio program. This decision comes as a result of an ongoing review process, which initially included the announcement of a suspension. It also takes into account many conversations with our own employees. What matters to us most is that the men and women of NBC Universal have confidence in the values we have set for this company. This is the only decision that makes that possible. Once again, we apologize to the women of the Rutgers basketball team and to our viewers. We deeply regret the pain this incident has caused.

"Over the course of the last week many of you have reached out to me and expressed your strong viewpoints on the Don Imus situation. I've had countless conversations, e-mail exchanges and phone calls with people throughout this company. I've heard you loud and clear. Therefore, we are announcing tonight that MSNBC will no longer simulcast the Imus radio program...

Continue reading "Breaking: MSNBC Boots Imus Off The Cable Air"

THEATER: John Fugelsang, the son of an ex-nun and a former monk, declares war on right-wing evildoers in his one man comedy All the Wrong Reasons. Targets include sex, politics, Klansmen, stem cells and the drug war (which Fugelsang recently skewered on the Huffington Post.) Theater blogger What’s Good/What Blows raves: “…once he settles in to tell the story of trying to get through Orlando airport with an 1/8th of weed in his sock and another 1/8th in his girlfriend's bra, you're pretty much on the edge of your seat till the end. He even throws in some touching realizations. This is a great evening to take a date to.” - John Del Signore

White Light, by Brainware 3000.

THEATER: The esteemed Classical Theatre of Harlem is reviving Peter Weiss’s masterpiece Marat/Sade. The dizzying action takes place in an asylum in France, where the infamous Marquis de Sade is sequestered in 1808. To pass the time, he directs a play about the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat during the revolution. His asylum casting pool yields up some magnificent performances, though the production is almost squelched by the hospital administrator, a tool of Napoleon’s post-revolutionary regime. In the right hands, which CTH certainly has, the whole production is a multi-layered feast of subversion. - John Del Signore

VACATION: The Greater Fort Lauderdale visitors' bureau has brought the Sunshine State to NYC in the form of a 3,600-square foot virtual vacation. The space includes a palm tree-lined "beach", complimentary mini-massages and, of course, bikini clad models. Virtual fishing, golf and more, will make you forget the sudden drop in temperature.

In a move that was inevitable, NBC has now started to call the civil war in Iraq a civil war. On NBC News’ ”The Daily Nightly” Brian Williams writes, “We will also reference our decision today (after much consultation over the weekend with our colleagues, fellow journalists, historians, analysts and members of the military, both present and former) to describe the fighting in Iraq as a Civil War. We believe it is a more accurate reflection of what is happening there, and there was a fair amount of reaction to the decision today... even though a number of news organizations have already made a similar call.”

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

Federal prosecutors have indicted a United Nations official with bribery, for accepting bribes in return for very favorable real estate offerings. The U.N. Procurement Chief Sanjaya Bahel allegedly helped Nishan Kohli get contracts, and in return, Kohli offered an apartment at the Dag Hammarskjold Towers. From the NY Post:

The indictment alleged Kohli, who has also been charged with bribery, bought the condo in 2003 and rented the $8,600-a-month unit to Bahel and his family for $5,000 a month after they lived there for free for a while.

Continue reading "Trading U.N. Contracts for a Sweet Midtown Apartment"

Starting yesterday at the cavernous St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York City is getting its first chance to experience “Hell House”, an interactive spectacle that is fast becoming a Halloween tradition in churches across America.