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Adam Clark Estes

Wednesday, Mar 23, 2011 11:24 AM UTC

Jon Stewart tracks Republican hypocrisy over Libya

First the GOP wanted a no-fly zone and then they were outraged when Obama committed to one

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The Daily Show offered its best gotcha-media perspective on Republicans’ criticism of Obama’s actions in Libya. Just a few weeks ago, prominent GOPers like John McCain and John Bolton insisted that a no-fly zone would be the best action the United States could take in the warring North African nation. When Obama committed to the no-fly zone with U.N. support, the same camp was quick to scold the President for his lack of leadership in gathering support for a no-fly zone.

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Tuesday, Mar 22, 2011 4:10 PM UTC

Fox News missed key facts with its Libya “human shield” exclusive

CNN's Nic Robertson lambastes Fox News for misreporting a visit to Gadhafi's compound, Fox issues correction

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CNN international correspondent Nic Robertson lit into Fox News for irresponsibly running an “exclusive” on journalists being used as human shields in Libya. According to the original story by Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, reporters from CNN, Reuters and others obstructed a British bombing mission due to their presence at a government-sponsored tour of the Gadhafi compound. Griffin also reported that Fox News had not sent a representative on the tour due to the Gadhafi regime’s intention to “effectively use” journalists as human shields.

As Nic Robertson pointed out on CNN last night, almost none of this is true. Calling the idea of using journalists as a human shield “nuts,” Robertson points out that a Fox News employee — who was later revealed to be a security guard — did in fact go on the tour with a small camera. Not present on this tour or many others, evidently, was Fox News’ reporter:

Steve Harrigan, the correspondent here, is somebody I’ve known for many years — I see him more times at breakfast than I see him out on trips with government officials here.

 Nic Robertson’s full tirade is worth a watch:

Jennifer Griffin replied to Robertson’s criticism late last night and apologized for the error over Fox News’ presence on the tour. Evidently, Harrigan wanted to stay back at the hotel in order to stay on the air and “provide full coverage of what was going on in Libya.” Griffin also defended her report about the Gadhafi regime’s “human shield” scoop, which she got from an unnamed British source.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

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Tuesday, Mar 22, 2011 11:23 AM UTC

Jon Stewart freaks out over Libyan bombings

"You can't simultaneously fire teachers and Tomahawk missiles"

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After a weeklong hiatus, Jon Stewart seemed stunned at how much the world had unravelled in just a week. A natural disaster of historical proportions struck in Japan. The United States bombed Libya on the anniversary of the Iraq War. Knut died.

Despite the stray scream or two, the Daily Show host managed to hold it together fairly well:

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Monday, Mar 21, 2011 4:22 PM UTC

New York Times editor’s internal memo on journalists’ release in Libya

In an internal memo, Bill Keller says release is a "moment to celebrate," reminds staff of forthcoming paywall

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The New York Times’ editor-in-chief Bill Keller offered up some really good news today: the four journalists captured and held by Libyan authorities have been released.

Detailing briefly why the Times kept mum on the journalists’ whereabouts, Keller is careful to call out unsung heroes like New York Times’ Assistant General Council David McCraw and war correspondent Chris Chivers who helped with the extrication. Keller did not mention in the memo the fate of the Times staff’s driver — Mohamed Shaglouf, whose whereabouts are still unknown — though he later tweeted about it. Keller also connected the “real, boots-on-the-ground journalism” of Times reporters in dangerous places like Libya with the recently imposed paywall for online content.

Read the full memo:

To the Staff:

We’re overjoyed to report that our four journalists missing in Libya since Tuesday morning are free and have arrived safely in Tunisia. The Libyan government informed us through various channels Thursday afternoon that Anthony, Tyler, Lynsey and Steve were in Tripoli, in the custody of the Libyan authorities, and would be freed soon. The four were allowed to speak to their families by phone Thursday night. Because of the volatile situation in Libya, we’ve kept our enthusiasm and comments in check until they were out of the country, but now feels like a moment for celebration. And before long we’ll all know the details of their experience.

We’re particularly indebted to the Government of Turkey, which intervened on our behalf to oversee the release of our journalists and bring them to Tunisia. We were also assisted throughout the week by diplomats from the United States and United Kingdom.

Arthur spoke on Thursday about The Times as a family, and it certainly felt like one during the many hours of worry and activity focused on our missing journalists. In fact it felt like something of an extended family, as journalists from rival news organizations, governments (our own and others), press freedom groups and other intermediaries rushed to offer their help in locating our people and securing their release. There are too many people to thank, but I will tip my hat to David McCraw, who has become entirely too expert at the business of extricating Times journalists from peril. I also need to thank Chris Chivers, who dropped everything to come in Thursday night and spent the last three days (and nights) dug in with David working on the release.

And, in a week when we have dared to declare that the work we do is worth paying for, this is a reminder that real, boots-on-the-ground journalism is hard and sometimes dangerous work. To the many colleagues who are deployed in hard places — the battleground streets of North Africa and the Middle East, the battered landscape of Japan — we implore you to be careful.

Best,

Bill

 

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Monday, Mar 21, 2011 12:22 PM UTC

Ed Schultz thinks Ann Coulter is “toxic”

The MSNBC host reacts to a controversial blog post by Coulter who claims that radiation is good for you

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Ed Schultz targeted Ann Coulter and her recent comments on radiation’s positive health benefits in his “Take Down” segment on Friday night. Last week, Ann Coulter wrote a blog post about the positive health benefits of radiation and made national headlines when Bill O’Reilly scolded her on his show for the shoddy research and inappropriate timing of her incendiary claims. Schultz agreed and took the scolding to the next level saying:

A lot of people say Ann Coulter is toxic. But we had no idea that she would take that literally. You would laugh at her if she wasn’t making light of a terrible tragedy.

Watch Schultz’s segment in full. Note Ann Coulter’s glowing green head.

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Friday, Mar 18, 2011 11:01 PM UTC

Week in weird science: Zombie ants, time travel and laser beams

A roundup of strange, exciting and perplexing stories from the world of science and technology

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Did you ever wonder what methane rain would look like? Or what about whales — do they use names when they sing to each other? And all that trash in space that obscures the Earth more every day — why don’t we just zap all that stuff with lasers?

Well, we’ve got some answers.

Zombie ants are actually kind of beautiful
In the Brazilian rain forest, entomologists discovered four new species of mind-altering fungi that turn ants in zombies. If the spores are ingested, the ants involuntarily trudge to a sunny leaf so the fungus can grow, take over the ant’s body, and release spores for up to a year. Check out the ants in action below. (Wired Science)

Speaking of mind control, mosquitoes do it through sex
Male mosquito sperm evidently releases proteins that change the behavior of females. (After mating, females will mate less and eat less blood.) Scientists hope they can manipulate these proteins so that affected females wouldn’t bite and spread diseases like Dengue fever. (io9)

Space junk is a problem; NASA wants to shoot it with a laser
With 20,000 pieces of debris in Earth’s low orbit — old satellites, old parts of satellites, parts of parts — space flight is becoming increasingly dangerous. (A stray bolt traveling at 5 miles per second can do some vicious damage to a space shuttle.) NASA scientists are seriously considering focusing mid-powered laser beams through a telescope to knock the trash into outer space. (Wired Science)

(Image via Wired)

Time travel maybe could be potentially possible
The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, and theoretical physicists from Vanderbilt University believe it could create a type of particle that can travel through time. (Discovery News)

When it rains on Titan, poisonous lakes of methane form
Saturn’s Earth-like moon has sand dunes, river beds and white clouds. In the springtime, Titan gets “April showers” just like we do here on Earth — except theirs are methane, colder and definitely deadly. (NASA)

(Image via NASA)

Wondering what to name your pet whale? She already has one
Based on a very small study, a marine biologist believes that subtle variations in how sperm whales announce themselves indicate the sea mammals’ unique calls are equivalent to names. (Wired Science)

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Page 1 of 27 in Adam Clark Estes

Adam Clark Estes blogs the news for Salon. Previously, he worked as the social news editor at the Huffington Post. He is the former editor of IvyGate, a blog covering the news and gossip of the Ivy League, as well as a former editor at Let's Go Publications.

He attended Harvard College where he was an editor at the Harvard Crimson and president of Current Magazine, a national student magazine partnered with Newsweek.

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