SECTION NINE
EMAIL PAGE SIX

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COLUMN 104, APRIL 1, 2004
(Copyright © 2004 The Blacklisted Journalist)

OUR GREAT NUYORICAN POET, EL REV. PEDRO JUAN PIETRI APONTE, 60, IS DEAD

Subject: Rev Pedro (1944-2004)
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 21:37:52 EST
From: SAMDAYCAR@aol.com
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com

Pedro Juan Pietri Aponte (1944-2004)

It is with deep sorrow that I inform you that Pedro Juan Pietri Aponte, our beloved poet has been excused from further pain and sorrow. While on a journey coming back home. It was to be a temporary timeout from
a rigorous, intensive and expensive treatment. For him time is no longer of any concern, he belongs to eternity. 

His family, friends and poets from all over the world will grieve the absence of his laughter, genius and art, but the memory remains with all of us. Whether you met him for a moment or a lifetime you were a part of him. 

On behalf of his family I would like to Thank You for all the kindness, help and support that you have extended to him, especially in these last couple of months as he fought for his life. I am a witness that your kindness was very touching to him. He did not know that he was so admired, so loved by so many people. 

We will keep you informed as arrangements are finalized, through the Pedro Pietri Health Benefit voicemail (212-340-1237). 

There will be a public viewing at First Spanish United Methodist Church (The People's Church) 163 E. 111th St. from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM Sun Mar 7, 2004

On behalf on the Pietri Family and In the Service of Poetry, Art and Community,

Sam Diaz  ##

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THE TEXAS SWAGGER

Subject: Texas Swagger?
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 20:31:35 EST
From: Mcclungpj@aol.com 
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com 

Texas Swagger? No, President Bush has the classic Charlie Chaplin waddle.

Surprised that no other Texans noticed. We saw it during the Presidential campaign. We remember walking with our Texas fathers, uncles, and grandfathers, trying to match their long strides, each step straight forward not side to side, their heads held high, but not arrogantly. They walked as if scanning a far horizon, heads up, not thrust forward like a turtle. 

Gary Cooper and John Wayne could do it in movies about Texans. The swagger is in the shoulders. No native Texan swings his arms like Bush. Obviously he learned to walk from his non-Texan family members before
he came to Texas. The Great Dictator is now funnier than ever. Will somebody please give Bush a walking stick to twirl and a derby hat.

-- Jerry McClung, descended from five Texas generations on all sides.  ##

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CAN SOMEONE HELP DICK NICK?

Subject: NPR & GEORGE W BUSH
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 19:41:23 EST
From: NDicknick@aol.com 
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com 

I have looked & looked so now I must go to the Bush encyclopedia person. I know Geo. W. Bush said on NPR that one of his first things he would do as President was go after Iraq. I can't find it who would you help me please... Much thanks for a speedy
reply. Dick Nick  ##

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ANOTHER PERSON NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT DEVON WILSON

Subject: Devon Wilson
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 20:04:12 +0100
From: "Noemi Rinderknecht" noemi_r@abix.ch 
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com 

What do you know about Devon Wilson? Please, tell me...  ##

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BEAT HAPPENINGS

Subject: New e list: Beat Happening
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 22:37:57 -0700
From: "pat" desertaz@earthlink.net 
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com

Join Beat Happening today 
Beat_Happening-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
  

Subterraneans has pretty much disappeared - I understand there have been problems with mail not going through. This new group not meant to be a competition, but rather a continuation of Subs and Beat L. I am just a member - someone else has started the new Beat_Happening and we are asking friends and others who may be interested to join.  ##

* * *

COLUMNISTS AS REPORTERS

Subject: Columnists as reporters
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 11:15:31 -0800 (PST)
From: Paul Conant znewz1@yahoo.com 
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com 

Who is responsible for a columnist's claims? What means, other than the laws of libel, are used to hold the writer accountable for his or her words? Writing in Salon, http://www.salon.com Barry Lando reports his efforts to hold William Safire accountable for "facts" obtained from anonymous sources. News department editors do not screen Safire and other N.Y. Times columnists for factual accuracy, Lando was told. Rather, columnists enjoy a special relationship with Times Publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. and his op-ed editor, David Shipley -- who refused to run Lando's piece detailing what he saw as Safire's misstatements.

Lando says he confronted Walter Miller, managing editor of the Times-owned International Herald Tribune, with an analysis of some Safire reporting, and got this response: "It's apparent that Safire -- like Krugman or Friedman -- has free rein in his columns, even when he's dead wrong." And that's the nub of the issue: How free should the rein be when it comes to columnists doing their own reporting?

Paul Krugman does little independent reporting, beyond what he sifts from weighty economic documents, but
largely depends on input from the news department. And Krugman is typical. Editors feel little need to check
him or columnists like him for accuracy. Presumably facts have already been checked. But some columnists, such as Safire and Robert Novak, make a practice of inserting original reporting into their columns. In that case, who is responsible for backstopping their work?

I see no reason that a columnist, or other editorial page writer, should not do her or his own reporting. Novak played the classical role of reporter by very accurately reporting Valerie Plame's CIA status. Yet, had there been a real question about Novak's accuracy, it would not have been acceptable to say he had "free rein." 

Some years ago investigative reports of mine ended up in the news section of some papers and the op-ed
section of others. Yet, I am confident the editors who ran those pieces did not think they were granting me
"free rein." Even though some papers treated my stuff as op-ed material, there was no question that editors
believed that I had done my homework and I think it was clear that I had been very careful about anonymous
sources, with the most newsworthy facts openly attributed.

It has long bothered me that some editors think that because a writer's work appears in the opinion section, he or she need not be held to a high standard of accuracy. But accuracy conflicts with propaganda and the Safire
columns cited by Lando were assuredly intended as neocon war propaganda, some dovetailing with the sleazy New York Post's broadsides against France for failing to endorse Bush polcy. To this the Times shrugs, pointing out that Krugman serves as a counterweight to Safire. Yet, somehow, I don't think the Times would suffer if an editor were appointed to backstop the original reporting of its columnists.

And, if a serious error of fact or sin of omission by a columnist is brought to the attention of the opinion section, how would it hurt to publish a correction or clarification in the Times and on the Times news service wire?

Best regards,
Paul Conant  ##

* * *


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