50 Laid-Off Journalists to Teach 'News Literacy'

The State Univeristy of New York at Stony Brook has announced a plan to hire 50 laid-off journalists to undergo training this summer with the goal of joining dozens of U.S. university campuses this fall to teach "news literacy" to non-journalism majors, Editor and Publisher reports.

Nearly 100 university presidents, administrators, journalists and education activists gathered at Stony Brook on Thursday and Friday with the shared aim of proposing a national effort to teach high school and college students to think more critically and adopt a skeptical approach to the news.

"This is a healthy coming together of the worlds of journalism and higher education that has been needed for some time," Sanford J. Ungar, president of Coucher College, told mediagiraffe.org.

The 50 journalists' salaries would be paid for by a planning grant from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Howard Schneider, dean of the Stony Brook School of Journalism, told mediagiraffe.

Schneider told the site he will seek funding from two potential sources: the federal government's economic stimulus plan and from foundations. He is also seeking other universities to aid the effort.

Video: Jim Cramer Has a Tough Sell With Jon Stewart

After a tit-for-tat and back-and-forth for a couple of days, CNBC's Jim Cramer visited Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" last night. It was probab;y a night Cramer would like to forget.

Early on, Stewart told Cramer: "I understand you want to make finance entertaining, but it's not a f--king game." Like the stock market, it went downhill from there.

Part 1:



Part 2:


Part 3:


The reviews were not good.

Variety's Brian Lowry said that might have been the most foolish appearance by someone whose name sounded like "Cramer" since "Seinfeld" went off the air:

Jon Stewart grilled CNBC's Jim Cramer for all but five minutes of his show on Thursday night, while the "Mad Money" host feebly kept promising to do better. He should have stayed home.

In the process, Stewart again displayed journalistic instincts that put many conventional TV news organizations -- including CNBC -- to shame. The key exchange, in fact, hinged on Stewart explaining to Cramer what journalists do after Cramer threw up his hands at the idea that CNBC might have misled viewers because CEOs had lied to him.

"I'm under the assumption you don't just take their word at face value," Stewart said, hitting at his central point: That CNBC is so enamored with, and has been so deeply in bed with, the financial heavyweights that their breathless coverage was "disingenuous at best and criminal at worst."

Maureen Ryan of The Chicago Tribune said this:

Stewart's grilling of Cramer reminded me of David Letterman's confrontations with John McCain and Rod Blagojevich in the last year or so. Letterman is a master of being affable and accessible while not cutting his guests a bit of slack. On Thursday, it was as if Stewart was channeling Dave's homespun, regular-guy relentlessness. Cramer didn't know what hit him until it was much too late.

Steve Rosenbaum on The Huffington Post said this:

Cramer lamely sat sleeves rolled up and sweaty in the guest's chair and responded with "We could have done better", Stewart's basic line of questioning came back, time and time again, to the simple refrain: Is CNBC a news network? - and If so, do they have any obligation to investigate, report, question what they put on their air? This is no small matter. What Stewart charged last night was that CNBC was in fact a co-conspirator in the meltdown of the US Stock Markets. That while Cramer and his 'in the know' buddies operated a fast moving, highly leveraged, game of "Credit Default Swap Poker", Cramer on air was preaching the standard - long market vision, keep your money in - buy and sell shares, but overall accept that the markets are sound.

Finally, David Zurswik of The Baltimore Sun had this to offer:

At the end of The Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart said of his interview with CNBC host Jim Cramer, “I hope that was as uncomfortable to watch as it was to do.”

It was. But what a remarkable public service the Comedy Central comedian performed in gutting Cramer, CNBC and parts of the business news press corps before millions of viewers. And this on a half-hour cable comedy TV show.

As Stewart assumed the role of stern and angry prosecutor that he maintained through most of the 25 minute conversation, Cramer became more and more pathetic. At one point, he tried to slow Stewart’s assault by promising to be better in the future. But Stewart reminded him about how much damage had already been done to the economy, the country and citizens' lives by what Cramer blithely referred to as “shenanigans" last night.

Cramer must have been hung over by his performance. He skipped his scheduled appearance on "Morning Joe" with Joe Scarborough today.

Bad Idea Scrapped: Chicago Sun-Times Will Not Outsource Copy Desk

Management at the Chicago Sun-Times came to their senses and decided not to outsource its copy-desk operations to Canada or India. The move was considered as an effort to cut labor costs by cutting 30 jobs. In reality, it would have provided a daily dose of embarrassment for the paper as readers struggled through mangled copy.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune writes this morning:

If you see the colour, er, color returning to the faces of newsroom staffers at the Chicago Sun-Times, it's because one of their worst nightmares won't be realised, um, realized.

The need to dramatically cut costs to stem losses remains. A plan to outsource copy editing and page designing to Canada or India does not.

Union officials representing Sun-Times editorial employees said management informed them Thursday that the paper is scrapping the radical January proposal to eliminate up to 30 jobs.

The Newspaper Guild was braced for a fight. But, in the interim, a shareholder-led overhaul upended parent Sun-Times Media Group's board and a succession of other changes, including John Barron replacing Cyrus Freidheim as Sun-Times publisher and Don Hayner succeeding Michael Cooke as editor.

"We understand the financial difficulties, but this was a big problem for us, said Thomas Thibeault, executive director of the Chicago Newspaper Guild. "You weren't looking at alternatives to try to save money, you were just putting people out on the street and giving their jobs to people outside our country, and that's pretty bad.

"Their leadership took a fresh look. They get a 10 on my scorecard today. I think that shows good faith. That doesn't mean the problems are over. That doesn't mean the Sun-Times is rich today. That doesn't mean that the guild won't have to fight another battle tomorrow. But what it does mean is the Sun-Times took a fresh look at it, and the only denominator that's really changed is the leadership."

A spokeswoman for Sun-Times Media did not respond to a request for comment.

Paul Krugman Wins Scripps Howard National Award

Paul Krugman of The New York Times is among the winners of this year's Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award winners, announced today. The foundation cited Krugman's commentary "for courageously and prophetically clarifying complex economic issues, and months later influencing Washington policymakers with his insightful explanation of the global financial crisis."

Here is the list of other winners:

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
Rob Barry, Jack Dolan and Matthew Haggman of The Miami Herald receive the $25,000 Ursula and Gilbert Farfel prize for the series “Borrowers Betrayed,” an investigation of the Florida mortgage crisis that led to changes in state laws, policies and personnel.

Finalists: Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers, “Guantanamo: Beyond the Law;” and Amy Goldstein and Dana Priest, The Washington Post, “Careless Detention: The Medical Treatment of Immigrants”

PUBLIC SERVICE REPORTING
Las Vegas Sun receives $10,000 and the Roy W. Howard award for revealing how shoddy safety practices and lax government oversight contributed to 12 construction deaths in 18 months on the Las Vegas Strip. The stories led to sweeping safety improvements.

Finalist: Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, “American Dream Project”

EDITORIAL WRITING
David Barham of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock, receives $10,000 and the Walker Stone award for persuasive editorials on topics ranging from complex global politics to simply using the right word.

Finalists: Lawrence Harmon, The Boston Globe; and Bonnie Williams, Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail

COMMENTARY
Paul Krugman of The New York Times receives $10,000 and a trophy.

Finalists: John Kass, Chicago Tribune; and Roger Simon, Politico, Arlington, Va.

HUMAN INTEREST WRITING
Sean Kirst of The Post-Standard, Syracuse, N.Y., receives $10,000 and the Ernie Pyle award for leaving readers with lasting memories of the people and circumstances he introduced in his column.

Finalists: Stephanie Desmon, The Baltimore Sun; and Michael Phillips, The Wall Street Journal

WEB REPORTING
Los Angeles Times receives $10,000 and a trophy for “Mexico Under Siege,” (www.latimes.com/siege), continuously updated multimedia coverage of the Mexican government’s war against ruthless drug cartels.

Finalists: roanoke.com and The Roanoke (Va.) Times, (http://blogs.roanoke.com/ageofuncertainty), “Age of Uncertainty;” and msnbc.com, (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27105655/), “Decision ’08 Dashboard”

ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING
Milwaukee (Wis.) Journal Sentinel receives $10,000 and the Edward J. Meeman award for “Chemical Fallout,” investigations by Meg Kissinger and Susanne Rust into toxic consumer goods and the derelict regulatory agencies that permit their sale.

Finalists: Tom Knudson, The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, “Sierra Warming;” and The Philadelphia Inquirer, (Tom Avril, John Shiffman and John Sullivan), “Smoke and Mirrors: The Subversion of the EPA”

WASHINGTON REPORTING
David Willman of the Los Angeles Times receives $10,000 and the Raymond Clapper award for revealing the FBI and Justice Department’s botched anthrax investigations that ended with a suicide rather than an arrest and a trial.

Finalists: Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle; and the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times

EDITORIAL CARTOONING
Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution receives $10,000 and a trophy for his ability to incite multiple emotions with the reading of a single cartoon.

Finalists: Don Asmussen, San Francisco Chronicle; and Alexander Hunter, The Washington Times

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman of The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., receive $10,000 and the Edward Willis Scripps award for “Big Time, Big Costs: The high price of Rutgers sports,” which pitted the newspaper against the state university over internal records, and led to reforms and new personnel.

Finalists: Joe Adams, The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville; and Aki Soga and Michael Townsend of The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press

PHOTOJOURNALISM
Michael Robinson Chávez of the Los Angeles Times receives $10,000 and a trophy for his ability to work intimately and analytically in unfamiliar cultures and situations, from Georgia, Mumbai, Nepal, Mexico and rural areas of the United States.

Finalists: Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times; and Damon Winter, The New York Times

BUSINESS/ECONOMICS REPORTING
Farah Stockman of The Boston Globe receives $10,000 and the William Brewster Styles award for identifying U.S. corporations that were covertly using international relationships and offshore operations to avoid taxes, side-step U.S. laws and deny workers’ rights.

Finalists: Lynn Arditi, The Providence (R.I.) Journal; and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock, (C.S. Murphy and Amy Upshaw)

EXCELLENCE IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA/RADIO
National Public Radio receives $10,000 and the Jack R. Howard award for “Dirty Money,” a series by Tanya Ballard Brown, John Burnett, Quinn O’Toole and Marisa Penaloza that exposed abuse of search-and-seizure laws under the guise of drug enforcement.

Finalists: JoAnn Mar, KALW-FM, San Francisco, “Prisons in Crisis;” and WBEZ-Chicago Public Radio, Aurora Aguilar, Joe DeCeault and Greg Scott, “The Brickyard”

EXCELLENCE IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA/TV-CABLE
Downtown Community Television Center of New York City receives $10,000 and the Jack R. Howard Award for “Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery,” a documentary by Rebecca Abrahams, Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill that took HBO viewers to the gravesites of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Finalists: Doug Smith, WTVT-TV, Tampa, Fla., “Small Town Justice;” and WTHR-TV, Indianapolis, “Broken Buses”

COLLEGE CARTOONIST
Grant Snider of The University News at the University of Missouri-Kansas City receives $10,000 and the Charles M. Schulz award for comic strips that reflect the influence of graphic novels.

Finalists: Joseph Devens, The Daily Texan, The University of Texas at Austin; and Christopher Sharron, Daily Kent Stater, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

JOURNALISM TEACHER OF THE YEAR
Charles Davis, associate professor of journalism studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia, receives $10,000 and the Charles E. Scripps award. His school also receives a $5,000 grant. The award is given in cooperation with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

JOURNALISM ADMINISTRATOR OF THE YEAR
Marilyn Weaver, chair of the department of journalism at Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., receives $10,000 and the Charles E. Scripps award. Her school also receives a $5,000 grant. The award is given in cooperation with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Minneapolis Star Tribune, Pressmen Union Reach Tentative Deal

The Minneapolis Star Tribune and its pressmen union reached a tentative deal this morning after an all-night bargaining session in New York City.

Jill Barshay of the Star Tribune writes on its website:

The two sides were under threat of having their management-labor dispute resolved by a U.S. Bankruptcy court as early as this afternoon.

Union president George Osgood declined to reveal any details of the agreement, which involves layoffs, wage cuts and staffing changes, before explaining the deal to his membership and putting it to a vote.

"The membership has a right to know first. I will say that this agreement is more improved than the one the judge would have ruled on. We were able to make changes," said Osgood. "It is a better worse proposal."

The 116 members of the union must ratify the deal, but a date for a vote had not yet been set. Previous cost-cutting agreements last year were voted down by membership.

Star Tribune publisher Chris Harte said in a statement: "We’re very pleased to have reached an agreement with the Pressmen’s negotiating team. Implementing this deal is critical to the Star Tribune’s future. These are difficult but essential cost cuts, and we are glad to have reached an agreement through negotiation. We all want to move forward, emerge from bankruptcy and get the company back to financial stability."

Minneapolis Star Tribune Asks Court to Void Pressmen Union Contract

UPDATE, 8:40 p.m. Eastern: The Associated Press reported late today that the Star Tribune of Minneapolis and representatives of its printer's union said they will resume negotiations over cost cuts the newspaper insists it needs to survive.

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis is asking a bankruptcy court to void a labor contracts in order to reduce expenditures.

The Associated Press reported:

Lawyers for the newspaper, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, told Judge Robert Drain on Wednesday that it needs $3.5 million in concessions from its pressmen union as part of $20 million in total cuts from 10 unions.

"We're at a critical stage," Chief Financial Officer David Montgomery said. "We need to save every dollar we can possibly save to get us through this period and get us to the other side of the recession."

Montgomery said the nation's 15th-largest newspaper had failed to reach an agreement with the pressmen, forcing it to ask the court for the power to cancel the contract.

Drain did not indicate when he would rule. The second of three days of hearings was scheduled for Thursday afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

An Editor's Lament in Song for All Copy Editors, Laid Off or Not

Christopher Ave has spent his professional life filing stories to copy editors, the unsung heroes of newsrooms. Now he has put their story is sung. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch political editor has written and recorded "Copy Editor's Lament", a song in tribute to all the copy editors who have lost their jobs in the current economic chaos, as well as all the copy editor's left behind.

"In a way this song is kind of a love letter to copy editors and a mild reproach to people like me who aren't copy editors and who may not have always appreciated their work," Ave told Mallary Jean Tenore of Poynter in a phone interview. "A lot of us in journalism sort of chuckle at copy editors' slavish devotion to style, but you know what? They can really save your butt."

Here is the song.

Hearst Aims to Break Guild Contract at Albany Times Union

UPDATE, 6:02 p.m. Eastern: Word came out late this afternoon that management is planning to lay off at least 65 people. See story here.

Using what its union sees as a strong-armed tactic, the Hearst Corp., owners of the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, has notified the Guild that it will cancel its month-to-month contract on April 9. The Guild's website, albanyguild.wordpress.com, said the move was an effort to make it swallow all of the company's demands to reduce costs.

“The message to members is that if you don’t allow the Company to gut your contract, it will launch an unprecedented assault on your union,” Guild President Tim O’Brien said.

Canceling the contract would mean the union would no longer be able to take grievances to an independent arbitrator. The Company also claims it will be able to cease deducting dues from your paycheck. The union disagrees and will seek help from the Guild International.

“This in no way allows the Company to impose the contract language that it wants,” O’Brien said. “It cannot lay people off while ignoring the seniority language or outsource our work. This is meant to force the union to its knees because your bargaining team has stood up for you and continues to stand up for you.”

O’Brien told Publisher George Hearst it was the dumbest move the Company could make. The union has tremendous support from labor leaders in the Capital Region. “If the Company wants to target the union, the Guild will have no choice but to respond in kind, preparing to launch a circulation and advertising boycott should the Company follow through on its threat and cancel the contract.”

The move also came at the end of a day when the Guild leadership offered significant concessions: including a 5 percent across-the-board wage cut, the elimination of overtime until employees have worked 40 hours a week (not just 7.5 hours a day), the end of the bonus day for those who never take sick time.

Later in the day, the Guild offered an amendment to the layoff language, allowing the Company to lay off employees by job title rather than department: Layoffs would still have to be done by reverse order of seniority, a significant give on the union’s part.

The Company said it intends to lay off 20-25 percent of Guild members, but the numbers it provided — 65 to 70 workers – make up closer to 30 percent of the bargaining unit.

“While this action is not unusual in most labor-management negotiations, it is unprecedented here,” Hearst explained in the statement. “We took this action only after much internal contemplation and discussion, but we felt that it was an essential step to stimulate progress in this negotiation.”

FOX: Carville Wanted Bush to Fail in 2001

The mass media has been having a field day with Rush Limbaugh's assertion that he wanted President Barack Obama to fail in his efforts to socialize the American economy. But FOX News is reporting today that a leading Democrat had the same sentiments about President George Bush, and voiced those thoughts on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 just before the terrorist attacks.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just minutes before learning of the terrorist attacks on America, Democratic strategist James Carville was hoping for President Bush to fail, telling a group of Washington reporters: "I certainly hope he doesn't succeed."

Carville was joined by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who seemed encouraged by a survey he had just completed that revealed public misgivings about the newly minted president.

"We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about him, and I'm wanting them to turn against him," Greenberg admitted.

The pollster added with a chuckle of disbelief: "They don't want him to fail. I mean, they think it matters if the president of the United States fails."

Minutes later, as news of the terrorist attacks reached the hotel conference room where the Democrats were having breakfast with the reporters, Carville announced: "Disregard everything we just said! This changes everything!"

The press followed Carville's orders, never reporting his or Greenberg's desire for Bush to fail. The omission was understandable at first, as reporters were consumed with chronicling the new war on terror. But months and even years later, the mainstream media chose to never resurrect those controversial sentiments, voiced by the Democratic Party's top strategists, that Bush should fail.

That omission stands in stark contrast to the feeding frenzy that ensued when radio host Rush Limbaugh recently said he wanted President Obama to fail. The press devoted wall-to-wall coverage to the remark, suggesting that Limbaugh and, by extension, conservative Republicans, were unpatriotic.

"The most influential Republican in the United States today, Mr. Rush Limbaugh, said he did not want President Obama to succeed," Carville railed on CNN recently. "He is the daddy of this Republican Congress."

Limbaugh, a staunch conservative, emphasized that he is rooting for the failure of Obama's liberal policies.

"The difference between Carville and his ilk and me is that I care about what happens to my country," Limbaugh told Fox on Wednesday. "I am not saying what I say for political advantage. I oppose actions, such as Obama's socialist agenda, that hurt my country.

Miami Herald Lays Off 175 People, Eliminates 30 Additional Positions

The Miami Herald is the latest major newspaper in the United States to make drastic cuts in its personnel, giving about 175 employees pink slips today. Thirty more vacant positions will be eliminated. That figure represents about 19 percent of its workforce.

Staff got the news via email.

''About 175 employees will lose their jobs as a result, and we will eliminate another 30 vacant positions, for a total reduction of 205. Reductions will occur in all areas of our operation and at every level in the organization,'' publisher David Landsberg said in an e-mail to employees this morning.

Here's a report from John Dorschner of the Herald writing about his colleagues losing their jobs:

Remaining full-time employees earning between $25,000 and $50,000 a year will have their pay reduced 5 percent. For employees earning more than $50,000, the pay cut will be 10 percent.

Employees will also lose one week of pay this year through an unpaid furlough program.

As part of the cost cutting, The Miami Herald's presses will be converted to a 44-inch web format and the International Edition will cease publication.

Many of the jobs will happen through involuntary layoffs, but some employees will be offered the chance to voluntarily take severance packages. ''If enough employees do not take the voluntary option, then the work groups will be reduced either by function or according to least tenure, depending on the work group,'' Landsberg wrote.

McClatchy previously announced it would trim its national workforce by 1,600. They are more than halfway to their goal, as at least 806 positions have been cut recently by the chain.

Already the Kansas City Star said it would let go about 150 people, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram said it would let go 130 people; and the Sacramento Bee said it would cut 128 people.

Other McClatchy trims in payroll include:

* The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C., which has laid off 20 employees and reduced wages 9.1 percent, effective May 4. An additional 58 were lost when it moving printing operations.
* Fresno (Calif.) Bee, 63 people.
* The Modesto (Calif.) Bee, 40 people, including the 11 announced on March 10.
* State Media Co., of South Carolina, eliminated 38 people.
* Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer, 20 people.
* The Beaufort (S.C.) Gazette and The Island Packet in Hilton Head, S.C., let 17 people go.
* The Wichita Eagle cut 14 people.
* The Sun-Star, Los Banos Enterprise and Chowchilla News in California released 10 people.
* The Tribune of San Luis Obispo, Calif., will lay off seven people.
* The Rock Hill (S.C.) Herald will lay off six people.

The chain also runs The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer.

UPDATE, 4:04 p.m. Eastern: A reader notes that there is a McClatchy blog (cancelthebee.blogspot.com) that is on top of these layoffs and more. Thanks Kevin!

News Groups Demand Iran Release Info on Saberi, CPJ Petition Full

Seven major news organizations have demanded that Iran allow access to one or two organizations to evaluate Roxana Saberi's condition, and that the charges against her be made public.

Roxana Saberi, 31, has been held for about a month by Iranian officials who claim that the freelance journalist was engaged in "illegal" activities because she continued working in Iran after the government revoked her press credentials in 2006. She has not been heard from since Feb. 10.

In addition, the Committee to Protect Journalists has started a Facebook petition demanding President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intervene in the situation. By Tuesday evening 10,669 people have signed the petition, more than the goal of 10,000 signatures.

CPJ said the petition will be delivered early next week to the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York.

The petition can be found at CPJ's Cause page on Facebook.

Guild Tentatively Agrees to Concessions at SF Chronicle

The California Media Workers Guild's negotiators have reached a tentative agreement with management at the San Francisco Chronicle over concessions aimed at keeping the struggling newspaper printing. Ratification is set for Thursday, and the Guild negotiators are recommending its approval.

The terms reached late Monday include expanded management ability to lay off employees without regard to seniority. All employees who are discharged in a layoff or who accept voluntary buyouts are guaranteed two weeks’ pay per year of service up to a maximum of one year, plus company-paid health care for the severance term, even in the event of a shutdown – which today’s agreement is designed to avoid.

Guild membership will remain a condition of continued employment for all employees. However, new hires in certain advertising sales positions will be given the option of membership, even though they will retain Guild protection under the contract.

On-callers will be limited to no more than 10 percent in any classification or department.

Pension changes are not part of this agreement, but are being discussed by pension authorities and must be implemented under terms of the Pension Protection Act, due to the recent declines in investment markets. Because those changes may affect the decisions of many members concerning buyouts, we are attempting to reach some key understandings now as to the nature of the changes and when they will take effect.

Sign of the Times: NY Times Reaches Sale-Lease Deal for Part of Its Office

The New York Times Co. got a cash influx of $225 million when it agreed to a sale and leaseback of space in its new Manhattan headquarters today.

The premier media outlet in North America struck a deal with W.P. Carey & Co. to sell 21 floors, or about 750,000 rentable square feet, of its 52-story midtown Manhattan building. The Times will then rent the space back under a 15-year lease that gives it the option of buying back the space for $250 million after 10 years. The rental payment will be $24.0 million for the first year alone, and will escalate through the term of the lease.

That initial rate amounts to $32 per square foot, a bargain in midtown as Class A commercial space rents for at least $50 per square foot in the current market.

Like all other news organizations in this recession, the Times is short of cash, admitting to $1.1 billion of long-term debt. It's not the first move by the Times to improve its cash position. The company recently gained a $250 million loan from the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu.

McClatchy Plans to Cut 1,600 jobs

McClatchy has announced plans to eliminate 1,600 jobs representing 15 percent of its workforce.

From The Associated Press:

Sacramento, Calif.-based McClatchy Co. says the job cuts, which will start by the end of the first quarter, will come through attrition, consolidating and outsourcing some functions and will include about $30 million in severance costs.

The newspaper publisher also plans to lower salaries across its operations, with Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Pruitt taking 15 percent base pay cut. Last month Pruitt decided to forgo his 2008 and 2009 bonuses. No executives will receive 2009 bonuses.

McClatchy owns a number of newspapers including The Charlotte Observer, The Miami Herald, Kansas City (Mo.) Star and Sacramento (Calif.) Bee. Here is the company's press release concerning the cuts.

Obama: We're Losing in Afghanistan, So We Must Reach Out to 'Moderate' Taliban

President Barack Obama had an interesting take on the situation on the ground in Afghanistan during his interview with Helene Cooper and Sheryl Gay Stolberg in The New York Times yesterday:

Asked if the United States was winning in Afghanistan, a war he effectively adopted as his own last month by ordering an additional 17,000 troops sent there, Mr. Obama replied flatly, “No.”

Mr. Obama said on the campaign trail last year that the possibility of breaking away some elements of the Taliban “should be explored,” an idea also considered by some military leaders. But now he has started a review of policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan intended to find a new strategy, and he signaled that reconciliation could emerge as an important initiative, mirroring the strategy used by Gen. David H. Petraeus in Iraq.

“If you talk to General Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al Qaeda in Iraq,” Mr. Obama said.

At the same time, he acknowledged that outreach may not yield the same success. “The situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex,” he said. “You have a less governed region, a history of fierce independence among tribes. Those tribes are multiple and sometimes operate at cross purposes, and so figuring all that out is going to be much more of a challenge.”

For American military planners, reaching out to some members of the Taliban is fraught with complexities. For one thing, officials would have to figure out which Taliban members might be within the reach of a reconciliation campaign, no easy task in a lawless country with feuding groups of insurgents.

And administration officials have criticized the Pakistani government for its own reconciliation deal with local Taliban leaders in the Swat Valley, where Islamic law has been imposed and radical figures hold sway. Pakistani officials have sought to reassure administration officials that their deal was not a surrender to the Taliban, but rather an attempt to drive a wedge between hard-core Taliban leaders and local Islamists.

Wouldn't this had been like reaching out to "moderate Nazis" in 1943? I'm not clear on what a moderate Taliban looks like. Would he be just semi-ruthless and only cut off one hand of his victim? How does a moderate Taliban treat women? Does he allow them to speak but must still wear a burka?

There are some elements on this planet that do not deserve the luxury of negotiation. The Taliban is one of the most ruthless, despotic group of terrorists the world has seen since Stalin and Pol Pot.

Here's what Amy Waldman of The New York Times wrote about the Taliban and the Sharia code it brutally enforces in November 2001:

The code's first article says that if a woman leaves home with her face unveiled, ''her home will be marked, and her husband punished.'' Other articles delineate banned behaviors and possessions. Any man who wears his hair ''Beatle-ly'' will be arrested and have his head shaved.

Those who fly pigeons -- a favorite Afghan pastime -- will be imprisoned until ''their pigeons disappear from their home.'' Female doctors must wear old clothes and no ornamentation. Male doctors who must treat a female patient because of a medical emergency ''can only look at the part that the patient needs looked at; nowhere else can be touched or seen.''

A kite seller will be imprisoned for three days. The owner of a house will be punished if women are heard singing during a wedding. No images or photographs are to be posted in public places. The following are considered ''unclean things'': ''pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, any equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computer, VCR's, televisions, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards.''

Nothing was left to chance or the imagination under the Taliban. Merchants importing products like shampoo would find that Taliban customs officials had gouged out the eyes of the female models on the boxes. The merchants were then required to display the products with black tape over female faces, or be subject to a beating or jailing.

Here is the Taliban at work executing two women:



So, where are the moderate elements of this ban of thugs?