Salon.com > David Daley

Here’s the most ignorant Jason Collins column ever

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:52:00 +0000

Brian Nielsen is the sports editor of the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier in Mattoon, Ill.

Earlier today the paper posted this column he wrote about Jason Collins becoming the first active gay player in the NBA -- and it might well be the most foul, ignorant and reprehensible piece of journalism written on Collins.

Here are the essential claims Nielsen makes, followed by the direct quotes from his piece:

Collins is making a lifestyle choice, and it's comparable to the lifestyle choice to have many children with many different mothers:

"Years ago Jackie Robinson fought a courageous, pioneering battle — a battle that was unfair for a man to have to fight just because he was born with a certain color of skin.

To compare the plight of Collins with his own lifestyle choice to Robinson’s should really insult Jackie’s family today. It even bothers me.

Still we have people calling Collins a pioneer.

I never heard that, and rightfully so, when NBA player Shawn Kemp had fathered several illegitimate children with different women."

Claire Messud to Publishers Weekly: “What kind of question is that?”

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:47:00 +0000

In Salon this week, Laura Miller raved that Claire Messud's new novel, "The Woman Upstairs," is "claustrophobically hypnotic" and "a ferocious portrait of creative and spiritual frustration."

The author's feeling some of that frustration as well, with reductive media questions about the likability of her main character -- a question that might not be posed to a male author in quite this way -- as this new interview with Publishers Weekly shows:

Tsarnaev: My brother wanted to defend Islam

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:29:00 +0000

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon attack, told federal investigators today that his brother, Tamerlan, was largely behind the bombing, CNN reported this evening.

CNN -- which erroneously reported Wednesday that an arrest in the case had been made -- cited a U.S. government source.

The network reports that:

Preliminary interviews with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicate the two brothers fit the classification of self-radicalized jihadists, the source said. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, wounded and held in a Boston hospital, said his brother wanted to defend Islam from attack, according to the source.

Report: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev failed American politics at UMass Dartmouth

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:54:00 +0000

Wednesday was just another routine day in the life of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev -- a workout on campus, a party with friends and then a night in his dorm.

That might explain why so many people who knew Tsarnaev -- the younger of the two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombing -- are struggling so mightily to reconcile the friendly and relaxed college sophomore they knew with the subject of a manhunt and shootout which shut down large parts of the Boston area on Friday.

Here are some of the details shared by college friends in stories in the Boston Globe and New York Times:

* He was at a party Wednesday with intramural soccer pals, said one student who did not give her name to the Globe. "He was just relaxed," she told the paper.

Reports: Gun shots in Watertown

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:56:00 +0000

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Report: Victim helped ID bombing suspect

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:33:00 +0000

Bloomberg reports an amazing story tonight about Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs in the bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line.

According to the report, Bauman watched as someone dropped a bag by his feet, and was then able to describe the man to the FBI, helping investigators sift through a massive amount of video and photographs and focus their search.

The story:

Anheuser-Busch heir resigns life-long NRA membership

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:07:00 +0000

The great-grandson of the Anheuser-Busch company renounced his membership in the National Rifle Association on Thursday, furious that the NRA helped defeat the Senate bill which would have expanded background checks in response to the tragedy in Newtown.

Adolphus Busch IV, in a letter to NRA president David Keene obtained by a St. Louis television station, wrote that "I fail to see how the NRA can disregard the overwhelming will of its members who see background checks as reasonable."

He said that the NRA seems to have become a lobby for gun and ammunition manufacturers, rather than one for hunters and gun owners.

"One only has to ask why the NRA reversed its original position on background checks. Was it not the NRA position to support background checks when Mr. (Wayne) LaPierre himself stated in 1999 that NRA saw checks as 'reasonable'?"

CNN: Unreleased footage shows suspects watched explosions

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 01:55:00 +0000

CNN reports this evening that federal investigators have much more footage of the two men wanted in relation to the Boston Marathon bombing -- and that some of that footage is shocking.

A federal law enforcement source "with knowledge of the investigation" told the network that the suspects stayed and watched as the two bombs exploded, then simply walked away from the horrific scene.

"When the bombs blow up, when most people are running away and victims were lying on the ground, the two suspects walk away pretty casually," said the source -- who CNN reported has seen the footage.

Officials found the behavior noticeable, the source said, because "they acted differently than everyone else."

“And then the bomb went off”: Boston columnists react to Marathon explosions

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:55:00 +0000

Boston has a tradition of great city columnists. Here's a sampling of what some of them are writing in today's editions of the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.

Kevin Cullen in The Boston Globe

This is how bad this is. I went out Monday night and bumped into some firefighters I know. They said one of the dead was an 8-year-old boy from Dorchester who had gone out to hug his dad after he crossed the finish line. The dad walked on; the boy went back to the sidewalk to join his mom and his little sister. And then the bomb went off. The boy was killed. His sister’s leg was blown off. His mother was badly injured. That’s just one family, one story.

Gerry Callahan in The Boston Herald

Watch: Rutgers basketball coach abusing players, throwing balls at their heads

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:55:00 +0000

ESPN's "Outside the Lines" today aired this video, assembled from various Rutgers basketball practices. Get through the footage at the beginning of coach Mike Rice abusing referees and you'll get to footage of him hitting, pushing and throwing balls at his players.

Tea Party wows CPAC with faux-”Hunger Games” trailer

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:40:00 +0000

CPAC has its first viral hit -- this video about a "Liberty Party" freeing America from the chains of a "Development Party" that only wants to provide and make you stand in line. Watch it below:

A Salon: Lloyd Cole and Rhett Miller on the new David Bowie album

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:01:00 +0000

It's been a decade since David Bowie's last album. Over that time, there have been rumors that the iconic glam-rocker had retired or even that he was dying. But today brings new music from the Thin White Duke, "The Next Day," which some critics are hailing as his best work in 25 years.

We've asked two famed musicians and Bowie fans to discuss "The Next Day" -- both of whom wrote for Salon last year about wanting to pass their love of '70s Bowie on to their kids, as part of our Trust Me On This series. (Lloyd Cole picked "Low," while Rhett Miller chose "Hunky Dory.")

Justin Timberlake joins “SNL’s” five-timer club

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 13:12:00 +0000

Juan Williams pre-scandal: “I think standards are falling down”

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:52:00 +0000

Juan Williams, the Fox News pundit who -- in a story broken by Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald -- admitted that parts of his column on immigration last month were taken word-for-word from a Center for American Progress report, previously bemoaned the collapse of journalistic ethics when other outlets were embroiled in scandal.

Williams blamed his researcher for this apparent plagiarism. He told Salon that he did not know that the "young man" did not summarize the report himself, and instead borrowed the language directly from CAP. According to that reasoning, the disputed sections of his column -- which were rewritten after CAP pointed out the similarities to D.C. newspaper The Hill -- must have simply been cut-and-pasted by Williams from his researcher and into the column that appeared under the highly paid commentator's name.

Bill Clinton: Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:13:00 +0000

In an Op-Ed in Thursday's Washington Post, Bill Clinton -- who signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law in 1996 -- says he now believes DOMA is unconstitutional and should be overturned by the Supreme Court:

When I signed the bill, I included a statement with the admonition that “enactment of this legislation should not, despite the fierce and at times divisive rhetoric surrounding it, be understood to provide an excuse for discrimination.” Reading those words today, I know now that, even worse than providing an excuse for discrimination, the law is itself discriminatory. It should be overturned.

We are still a young country, and many of our landmark civil rights decisions are fresh enough that the voices of their champions still echo, even as the world that preceded them becomes less and less familiar. We have yet to celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment, but a society that denied women the vote would seem to us now not unusual or old-fashioned but alien. I believe that in 2013 DOMA and opposition to marriage equality are vestiges of just such an unfamiliar society.

Obama: Now it’s all about 2014

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 02:40:00 +0000

President Obama has apparently given up on the idea that the GOP majority in the House will work with him, Instead, he will actively work to elect a Democratic majority in 2014, according to a story in Sunday's Washington Post.

The Post reports that almost immediately after his re-election, Obama began working behind the scenes to win back the lower chamber and attempt to secure his legacy. The plan, the paper suggests, is to nationalize the 2014 race around issues which have popular public appeal -- gun control, immigration reform, the minimum wage, climate change and others -- but little chance of moving through the House.

Obama used his State of the Union to begin to build support for his agenda, and has continued in campaign mode over recent weeks to illustrate the effects of the sequester cuts on the economy. The Post says he'll continue to voice his frustration that popular legislation can't move through the House.

Stream new David Bowie album

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:45:00 +0000

The first David Bowie album in a decade -- held under close wraps ever since the glam-rock icon announced it on his birthday in January -- can finally be heard.

"The Next Day" began streaming on iTunes this evening, where it will remain for free and in its entirety until its release on March 12.

Listen here.

Morrissey bashes Jimmy Kimmel!

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:25:00 +0000

There is an argument that will never go out? Jimmy Kimmel started something he couldn't finish? That joke isn't funny anymore?

Morrissey and Jimmy Kimmel continued their battle of words on Wednesday, after the former Smiths singer canceled an appearance on Kimmel's show because the longtime vegetarian and animal rights activist did not want to appear on the same broadcast as the stars of A&E's "Duck Dynasty."

"I can't take the risk of being on a show alongside people who, in effect, amount to animal serial killers," Morrissey said.

Kimmel addressed the issue on his show last night with a video showing the duck hunters heading out in search of vegetables. He then cracked that he chose the hunters over Morrissey because they have guns, and Morrissey just depresses people.

But Moz fired back in a statement today which charged Kimmel of mocking depression and the parents of Sandy Hook, then blasted Kimmel for hosting a show with "an overwhelming loss of meaning."

Tina Fey: “No way” would I host Oscars

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:43:00 +0000

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are on most everyone's short list to host the Oscars, after their star turn at the Golden Globes and the unfunny douchebaggery of Seth MacFarlane.

But Fey told the Huffington Post that she has no interest in the job. "I just feel like that gig is so hard," she said. "Especially for, like, a woman -- the amount of months that would be spent trying on dresses alone ... no way."

The reaction to Amy and you hosting the Golden Globes was really great.
Oh, thank you. We had fun.

It's disappointing to hear, "No way." I was hoping for at least "a one in a million chance."
I wish I could tell you there was.

Anyone you would like to see host next year? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

“We saw your junk”: The inevitable parody arrives

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:29:00 +0000