In Their Own Words

On tossing out the baby with the bathwater: Jill Abramson fired from the NYTimes

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I'm old enough to have had the NYTimes delivered daily to my door and to especially savor Sundays when the paper arrived with all of its bulk and I knew that a good part of my day would be devoted to the Book Review and the Magazine and one of Will Shortz' crosswords, all while sipping many cups of coffee. And then the digital age happened...I get the NYTimes, as I do most everything I read, online. Digitized. And we all know the order of the day is different, as is the order of everything we read. No more beginning to end. We jump around. Like bees on flowers. There's another flower. And another. 

How does a newspaper respond to this? That's the question the New York Times set out to explore and here is a link to their findings, as reported on Buzzfeed:

Exclusive: New York Times Internal Report Painted Dire Digital Picture

It's a tough business, no doubt. Amidst all of this turmoil, the NYTimes quite unceremoniously showed Jill Abramson the door. Mere readers will never know any, or all, of the machinations that went into the decision of tossing out the first female executive editor in NYTime's history, but I can say, most definitely, that the way it was done stinks to high heaven. They do want to assure everyone that her firing had nothing to do with gender discrimination or equal pay issues:

Times Seeks to Reassure its Staff After Abramson's Ouster - NYTimes

For the first time ever, I'm thinking of cancelling my subscription to the NYTimes. 


For sheer genius, there is nothing better than this instagram photo of Jill Abramson posted by her daughter the day after the NYTimes tossed out the baby with the bathwater:

http://instagram.com/p/oBhfS8jcGQ/



Krista Tippett - On Being - Interviews Physicist Leonard Mlodinow

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I'm a big fan of Krista Tippett's interviews on her show On Being. I especially love it when she talks to physicists. I can't get enough of the ideas of multi-verses and the beyond the headlines explanations of the Higgs boson; exoplanets that resemble the earth; and the new map of the cosmos that is unfolding at this moment. It's the physicists who bring these worlds to us; it's Krista Tippett's ability to ask the questions that bring the world of science into the realm of interested listeners in a down to earth way as we look in wonder at all that is out there.

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow

 

Martin Luther King: Advancing the Dream

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A little background on this shot: I took it on January 11, 2005 in Gainesville, FL, at the corner of University Avenue and 13th ST. The Iraq War was nearing its 2 year mark and people were organizing Peace Rallies around the country. That's my mom holding up the banner with Martin Luther King's powerful words; she was 76 years old. 

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.' MLK

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.' MLK

President Obama's Powerful Speech on Race

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I love this quote, in particular: 

 


"On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there’s a possibility that people are a little bit more honest, and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can; am I judging people, as much as I can, based on not the color of their skin but the content of their character? That would, I think, be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy."  -- President Obama

President Obama's Remarks on Trayvon Martin - full transcript - The Washington Post

President Obama's Anguish - The New York Times