Some Backstory on NBC News' Iraq Reporting

Watches Some Backstory on NBC News' Iraq Reporting
live reporting from the military convoy out of Iraq last evening left many non-NBCers wondering: How'd they get that "exclusive?" According to reports, the major broadcast was in the works for weeks and involved a request Engel submitted to the military. The word spread internally at NBC News and by Sunday MSNBC host Rachel Maddow was heading for Baghdad.

NBC News VP David Verdi told the NYTimes' Brian Stelter, "The military had said, 'You are the ones who are going to broadcast it first.'" Stelter reports:

NBC officials said their requests to report live during the withdrawal were first filed many weeks ago. The requests provoked debate within the military, with some people arguing that having reporters present would place excess attention on the fact that the troops were leaving.
A Pentagon spokesperson tells Yahoo! News' Michael Calderone that NBC did not receive exclusive coverage and that it was considered "a normal press request."

Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman in Iraq, also told The Upshot that the network wasn't handed the story. "NBC did not receive exclusive coverage," Johnson said. "Other media participated as well. However, at NBC's request and with the backing of the Pentagon, they were allowed to place a satellite truck in the convoy and report on the movement once it crossed the border."
Calderone reports that Fox News -- along with the AP and WaPo -- were among those other media outlets participating.

But it was NBC that had live video from a moving military convoy and, seemingly, the jump start.


Mediaite's Steve Krakauer writes, "But this fantastic coverage also showed a cooperation at least on some level between NBC and MSNBC and elements in the Obama administration... some elements within the military, so by extension the Obama administration, clearly worked with NBC (and MSNBC) to let them have this exclusive."

NBC's technological capability to have the live satellite feed with Engel aboard the convoy out of the country was obviously a factor in whatever permissions the military granted NBC. In the middle of the Iraqi desert, that's no small feat and, as made clear by the military's comments, the Bloommobile, which was in use in the Gulf as recently as a month ago, was a big part of the network's request. "We're not the only ones embedded with this last brigade that had just left Iraq," Chuck Todd said on MSNBC. "In fact I think there are four or five other news organizations. We happen to be the only one that has the technology to bring these pictures to the world tonight live, of this brigade leaving. You do get the sense, Keith, that that is what wasn't fully comprehended [by the White House]."

NBC also had the capability to deliver the largest evening news audience as well as several subsequent hours of cable coverage. Last week, "Nightly News" averaged 7.5 million viewers, the most of any network news program and more than double what the top-rated cable news program, "The O'Reilly Factor" averaged. And while its competitors at ABC and CBS also draw considerable audiences, there's not much live on-air coverage that can be offered following the 30-minute broadcast until the next morning, save the 30 minutes of "Nightline."

When Brian Williams signed off last night, Engel and Maddow, who was in Baghdad, were both live on MSNBC within eight minutes. As we reported, the network was subsequently in rolling coverage all night.
Coppied by http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/nbc/some_backstory_on_nbc_news_iraq_reporting_171215.asp

Doctors are putting pressure Britain's senior midwife criticises 'misogynistic' attacks on home births

Prof Warwick claims there is a 'concerted and calculated campaign' to demonise home birth Photo: Getty
watches now this Britain's senior midwife criticises 'misogynistic' attacks on home births
Doctors are putting pressure on pregnant women not to ask for home births in a “misogynistic” campaign based on flawed evidence, the country’s most senior midwife said.
Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, dismissed criticism of women who elect for home births as “shocking hype”, and accused sections of the medical establishment of scaremongering about the risks.
Prof Warwick was particularly scathing about a recent editorial in The Lancet, the respected medical journal, which argued that women “do not have the right” to gamble with the health of their baby by demanding a home birth.

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It cited a report published by US academics last month which claimed that children were three times more likely to die if they were born at home rather than at hospital.
In response, Prof Warwick claimed there was a “concerted and calculated campaign” to demonise home births by influential doctors and academics who saw pregnancy as “a medical problem and not a natural process”.
She said in a newspaper interview: "There is a danger that risk during childbirth is presented in a way which is leading women to believe that hospital birth equals a safe birth. It does not.
“There is no hard and fast guarantee that a woman will have a safer birth in a hospital than at home".
She added: "What shocked us about the Lancet editorial was its language and tone and how it pumped the hype about the dangers of home birth, and made sweeping and misogynistic statements."
The Lancet yesterday defended its article, noting that the original research by the Marine Medical Centre in Portland was based on an analysis of nearly 550,000 births.
Around three per cent of women in Britain currently choose to have their children at home.
Prof Warwick pointed to the experience in the Netherlands, which has an excellent survival rate even though 30 per cent of women opt for home births.
Coppied by http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7948419/Britains-senior-midwife-criticises-misogynistic-attacks-on-home-births.html

Israeli soldier puts photos of blindfolded Palestinians on Facebook

We see the enjoy Israeli soldier puts photos of blindfolded Palestinians on Facebook
A former Israeli soldier posted photos on Facebook of herself in uniform smiling beside bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners, drawing sharp criticism from the Israeli military and Palestinian officials.
Israeli army soldier poses in front of blindfolded men identified in the Israeli media as Palestinian prisoners Photo: AP
In one photo, she is sitting with her legs crossed beside a blindfolded Palestinian man who is slumped against a concrete barrier. His face is turned downwards, while she leans toward him with her face upturned.
Another shows her smiling at the camera with three Palestinian men with bound hands and blindfolds behind her.

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The incident was a reminder of the fraught relations between Israeli soldiers and the West Bank Palestinians under their control.
Israeli soldiers have run into trouble on social media sites like Facebook and YouTube before.
Most recently a group of combat soldiers were reprimanded for breaking into choreographed dance moves while on patrol in the West Bank town of Hebron. The dance featured prominently on YouTube.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib condemned the photos and said they pointed to a deeper malaise – how Israel's 43-year-old occupation of Palestinians has affected the Israelis who enforce it.
"This shows the mentality of the occupier," Mr Khatib said, "to be proud of humiliating Palestinians. The occupation is unjust, immoral and, as these pictures show, corrupting."
The Israeli military also criticised the young woman, who was identified from her Facebook page as Eden Aberjil of the southern Israeli port town of Ashdod.
"These are disgraceful photos," said Capt Barak Raz, an Israeli military spokesman.
"Aside from matters of information security, we are talking about a serious violation of our morals and our ethical code and should this soldier be serving in active duty today, I would imagine that no doubt she would be court-martialed immediately," he said.
It was not clear whether the army could punish the woman, because she has finished her compulsory military service.
The comments by the woman and her friend in an exchange below one photograph suggested how casually the picture was treated, including jokes and sexual innuendoes.
"You're the sexiest like that," her friend wrote.
"I wonder if he's got Facebook!" the woman in the photograph responded. "I have to tag him in the picture!"
The photographs were a reminder of pictures taken in 2003 by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that showed Iraqi detainees naked, humiliated and terrified.
The photographs of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinians, by contrast, show no overt physical abuse or coercion of the prisoners, although they are ridiculed in the comments between the soldier and her friends.
Palestinians are routinely handcuffed and blindfolded when they are arrested to stop them from trying to flee.
coppied by http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7949152/Israeli-soldier-puts-photos-of-blindfolded-Palestinians-on-Facebook.html

California same-sex weddings put on hold

Backers of same-sex marriage hailed an earlier ruling that would have allowed gay weddings to begin
Watched now California same-sex weddings put on hold
A federal appeals court has put same-sex weddings in California on hold while it considers whether the state's gay marriage ban is constitutional.
A three-judge panel in the US Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a lower court's ruling that would have allowed gay marriages to begin on Wednesday.

The gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, was passed by voters in 2008 and overturned earlier this month.

Lawyers for two couples who challenged the ban said they would not appeal.

"We are very gratified that the 9th Circuit has recognized the importance and the pressing nature of this case," said Ted Boutrous, a member of the plaintiffs' legal team.

Continue reading the main story
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The three judges gave the two sides in the case several months to file briefs on the ruling made by Judge Vaughn Walker, who overturned the ban on same-sex marriage.

The next round of arguments is now set for 6 December, which would probably push a decision on same-sex marriages into next year.

Supporters of Proposition 8 had appealed against Judge Walker's decision last week to allow gay weddings to begin on Wednesday. Many observers now believe the case may ultimately land at the feet of the Supreme Court.

The legal staff of the two same-sex couples who challenged the ban had argued that keeping the measure in place infringed upon the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

Equal protection
The 2008 ballot measure, which came only months after California's Supreme Court legalised same-sex unions, amended the state's constitution to say that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognised in California".

It was passed in a ballot referendum by a vote of 52% to 48%.

Two same-sex couples originally challenged the measure, saying it breached their right to equal protection under the US constitution.
Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10994651

We see are Jetliner crashes on Colombian island; 1 killed

Watches this Jetliner crashes on Colombian island; 1 killed
But suddenly it hit short and then slid onto the runway on its belly as the fuselage fractured. It wound up on one end of the runway, crumpled and in pieces, as passengers scrambled or were helped to safety.
Firefighters quickly doused the beginnings of a fire on a wing, said police Gen. Orlando Paez.
Ninety-nine passengers were taken to the Amor de Patria Hospital on San Andres, said the hospital director, Dr. Robert Sanchez. He said only four suffered major injuries.
"It's incredible. For the dimension (of the accident), there should be more," he said.
Sanchez said an initial examination indicated that Fernandez de Barreto may have died of a heart attack.
Barrero, commander of the Caribbean Air Group, said by telephone from San Andres that "the skill of the pilot kept the plane from colliding with the airport."
He said the cause of the accident was uncertain. "You can't speculate. Lightning? A gust of wind? The investigation will say."
Barrero said part of the 7,800-foot (2,380-meter) runway had been closed because parts of the plane were still scattered across it. But enough was usable that air ambulances would be able to land.
Paez said by telephone that a group of police officers who had been waiting at the airport for the plane to take them back to the Colombian mainland aided in rescuing the victims.
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