FTC Policy Recommendations for Improving Journalism

FTC STAFF DISCUSSION DRAFT FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION STAFF DISCUSSION DRAFT: POTENTIAL POLICY RECOMMENDATION

I like most of these recommendations. Let us go back to the development of the community newspaper. Not only will it promote literacy but the discrepancy between who gets vital information and who does not will narrow.

I caution the FTC to not be anxious to throw money at the problem. New publications should have help becoming established in the community. There are many people who think being a reporter is glamorous and easy and it is not. It can be dangerous, tedious and no fun at all. I would hate to see people who want to be committed to journalistic integrity take precious funding and squander it when the going gets tough or to use a newspaper as their personal platform.

I have felt for years that there should be some non-profit newspapers available to the community so that they can get vital information offered by government agencies. As long as the reader understands the source of the information, it will read about the same as a newspaper in mainstream. They get funding from businesses-national, regional and local.
They bend and sway under the weight of editorial sacrifices as well.
However, public affairs reporting could make a comeback. It is why I wanted to become a reporter in the first place but by the time I graduated with a degree in Journalism, those positions had been eliminated.

There seems to be some opposition to these suggestions by the FTC. I wonder if it is due to not wanting to compete for readership? Once fiduciary concerns are satisfied--news is news. Either the reader is being served news that is vital or they are being fed a diet of fluff.

I hope the FTC moves forward with these recommendations. The Gulf Oil Spill would not have happened. Enron would not have happened. You get the picture.

What I learned about the Gulf Coast Oil Spill

While writing an article for Demand Studios on Kirkuk oil, I learned a few things that relate to the current Gulf Coast Oil Spill.
I learned that oil companies and government fight all of the time over how to balance oil field management and not polluting the environment or damaging the oil well. (This degrades the oil quality.)
Sometimes, these fights stem from the oil industry's internal strife.
I also learned that all industry everywhere have this problem.
There is a rift often between college degreed workers and those who learned on the job and opt not to earn a degree. Sometimes people, who don't really know any better, challenge management and those people whom management place in important positions. You know the type. They can always do something better than you but they don't have a degree, did not want to go get one and consider education unnecessary.
It never occurred to me that this fight could extend to the oil industry and that simple rules put in place to protect the oil well, the environment, and the people–due to false pride– are undermined.
Not everyone is up for the fight and sometimes cave to pressure either to keep the peace or keep the job they have or both.
During research an article, I had to read many reports regarding routine problems on oil rigs and how they are managed. Corners are cut unofficially to increase profit--even though I know there is some engineer standing in corner shaking his or her head about how they should listen to him or her and not do the thing that they are doing. Rifts form between management and workers. People are afraid to step up because they want to keep their job.
False pride and greed are why there is a large amount of oil in the Gulf.
All of the oil companies have this problem with staff. It is when it becomes unmanageable and a situation occurs that we stop and examine our behavior.
Now everyone is running around with his or her hands up in the air complaining, worried and blaming the president.
What a mess.
Individual responsibility and the willingness to do the right thing within reason, is the way to prevent catastrophes that are difficult to solve.
I also learned that a major oil well in Iraq is running out of oil. The next 50 or so years will be crucial for America to turn around its obsession with fossil fuels, improve the electrical grid and start seriously building windmills. In 50 years, if I’m around, I will be too damn old and grouchy to deal with all of this crap.
Okay. BP just announced they will not be paying shareholder dividends. Any finance majors out there willing to expound on this revelation?
They did not say if this is a permanent situation or temporary.

The Presidential "Emote" is Classified!

The American People focus on so many silly things. Fareed Zakaria GPS posed the question Sunday morning, something having to do with the President's "emotional response" to the BP Gulf Oil Spill.
"Emote?!"
A. He is a dude, not a girl
B. He is not a phony
C. Grow Up!
America has many, many serious problems that have yet to be solved (by the president) and the BP Gulf Oil Spill is only one of them.
We all care about it but I am upset in a selfish way because I love the beaches in Florida and hate the thought of the healing powers of the Atlantic Ocean being destroyed by an oil spill.
Seriously, the minerals contained within our salty and taken-for-granted ocean have the power to alleviate depression, minor aches and pains
(because of the buoyancy) and heal minor skin irritations. My eczema healed up within weeks of a daily dip in the ocean.
But I digress.
People act as if Barack Obama does not have the same natural rights to be president like any other U.S. born citizen. As if his first term is an experiment or test of our Constitution. As if to say, "if you do well on all points this time Black Man, we might let more of you help run the country." As if his presidency is contingent solely on the public whim as filtered through the news.
However, this particular president is transparent and the People cannot handle the truth. Not at all.
Most people don't pay close attention to the news if it does not affect them personally. People and their kitchen table issues like crime, local municipal gossip and how to make/spend more money are at the top of their agenda, not solving problems. We are a hedonistic group. Pleasure, entertainment and comfort are what we seek, not issues and problems--even if those issues and problems will come right around and bite us in the butt down the road.
Oil wells have been leaking into the ocean for years. If the American People could be a fly on the wall of the White House, I'm not sure they would view the president as unemotional. They would hear the voice of their father, brother, husband upset but asking the relevant, tough questions and participating in the back and forth it takes to solve a problem like educated adults.
Although, that's boring, isn't it? People want an episode of Jerry Springer or a moving speech.
What we want to hear and watch, is the president whoop and holler, threaten folks, stomp around in the sand and sling the oil around and yell and blame people and in general, act a complete uneducated, unsophisticated ass. If the president did break a bottle on the corner of the
boardwalk or pull a 9mm out and wave it around, guess what would happen?
Some of you already know.
The same damn thing. People would complain about how uncouth the president is behaving and that he isn't acting like the man who they voted for and how he should calm down because he is the leader...etc.
Geez. When will we ever be satisfied?
Instead of demanding an emotional speech that will take away from his valuable problem solving time or theatrics, why not let him quietly do his job with out the second guessing?

Literacy Levels in the Gulf Coast

Yesterday I received in my e-mail, a message from the President of the United States offering his ideas about the Gulf Coast. President Obama basically reported what he saw there.
I am beginning to think literacy may be an issue among the Gulf Coast fishers, based on what I read in the President's letter.
They work intergenerationally, what they learn is handed down through families, so formal education may not be stressed. I hope someone in charge is addressing this issue with them. It is the least one can do while disrupting their livelihood. Literacy classes should be offered
because many people won't ask. Any training BP offers probably requires a
particular reading level.
Partner with local literacy groups and get them to help with the training so that the people affected by illiteracy won't have to ask.
This what I read which led me to my ideas about literacy in the Gulf Coast region and training.
President Obama said:
Yesterday, I visited Caminada Bay in Grand Isle, Louisiana -- one of the first places to feel the devastation wrought by the oil spill in the Gulf
of Mexico. While I was here, at Camerdelle's Live Bait shop, I met with a group of local residents and small business owners.
Folks like Floyd Lasseigne, a fourth-generation oyster fisherman. This is the time of year when he ordinarily earns a lot of his income. But his
oyster bed has likely been destroyed by the spill. Terry Vegas had a similar story. He quit the 8th grade to become a shrimper with his grandfather. Ever since, he's earned his living during shrimping season -- working long, grueling days so that he could earn enough money to support himself year-round. But today, the waters where he
has worked are closed. And every day, as the spill worsens, he loses hope
that he will be able to return to the life he built.
Here, this spill has not just damaged livelihoods. It has upended whole
communities. And the fury people feel is not just about the money they
have lost. It is about the wrenching recognition that this time their lives may never be the same.
These people work hard. They meet their responsibilities. But now because
of a man made catastrophe -- one that is not their fault and beyond their control -- their lives have been thrown into turmoil. It is brutally
unfair. And what I told these men and women is that I will stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are again made whole.
That is why, from the beginning, we have worked to deploy every tool at
our disposal to respond to this crisis. Today, there are more than 20,000
people working around the clock to contain and clean up this spill. I have
authorized 17,500 National Guard troops to participate in the response.
More than 1,900 vessels are aiding in the containment and cleanup effort.
We have convened hundreds of top scientists and engineers from around the
world. This is the largest response to an environmental disaster of this
kind in the history of our country.
We have also ordered BP to pay economic injury claims, and this week, the
federal government sent BP a preliminary bill for $69 million to pay back
American taxpayers for some of the costs of the response so far. In
addition, after an emergency safety review, we are putting in place
aggressive new operating standards for offshore drilling. And I have appointed a bipartisan commission to look into the causes of this spill.
If laws are inadequate, they will be changed. If oversight was lacking, it will be strengthened. And if laws were broken, those responsible will be
brought to justice.
These are hard times in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast, an area that
has already seen more than its fair share of troubles. The people of this region have met this terrible catastrophe with seemingly boundless
strength and character in defense of their way of life. What we owe them is a commitment by our nation to match the resilience they have shown.
That is our mission. And it is one we will fulfill.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

Mummies of the World Exhibition at California Science Center

Mummies Arrive in Los Angeles 
Under Heavy Security; Motorcade 
Accompanies Rare Collection
to California Science Center 
for World Premiere of Mummies 
of the World Exhibition

American Exhibitions, Inc. Brings the Largest-Ever Exhibition of Mummies To the California Science Center July 1, 2010 for a Limited Engagement


LOS ANGELES, May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The largest collection of mummies ever assembled will travel nearly 6,000 miles to make its highly anticipated arrival in Los Angeles on Friday, May 28. The mummies are traveling to the United States for the first time as part of the Mummies of the World exhibition, set to make its world debut at the California Science Center on July 1.
American Exhibitions, Inc. (AEI), will bring the priceless,
 carefully guarded mummies and related artifacts on an 11-hour journey from Germany and land at Los Angeles International Airport, where a security-detailed motorcade will escort the treasured mummies along a 13.5-mile route to the California Science Center.
There, security will unload its precious cargo, and experts will spend the month of June unpacking and preparing Mummies of the World for its opening. This must-see exhibition premieres on July 1, launching a limited engagement at the California Science Center and a three-year, seven-city tour around the country.

"Inside every mummy is a story waiting to be told," says James Delay, vice president of American Exhibitions, Inc., who is traveling with the mummies as they make their journey to the U.S. "Using state-of-the-art scientific research, the secrets of the mummies are now revealed."

Mummies of the World is a highly distinguished project that has been years in the making for AEI, working with 15 world-renowned museums in seven countries to bring to the U.S. a never-before-seen collection of mummies and related artifacts from South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Egypt. Its treasures include one of the oldest mummy infants ever discovered; a mummified family; a German nobleman discovered by his own descendants; and intentionally preserved Egyptian animal mummies.

-- The Detmold Child is a remarkably preserved Peruvian child mummy,
radiocarbon dated to 4504-4457 B.C. - more than 3,000 years before the
birth of King Tut.
-- The Orlovits family - Michael, Veronica and their son Johannes - was
part of a group of 18th-century mummies found in a long-forgotten
church crypt in Vac, Hungary in 1994.
-- Baron von Holz is a 17th-century nobleman believed to have died in
Sommersdorf, Germany during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), who was
discovered in the crypt of his family's 14th-century castle still
wearing his boots.
-- Egyptian cat mummies, elaborately wrapped in painted linen bandaging,
date to the Ptolemaic period, and show how Egyptian cats were
intentionally preserved to accompany their royals into the afterlife.

This important exhibition dispels the notions and misconceptions about mummies and uses science tools to reach across time, demonstrating how scientific methods can illuminate the history of people and enhance our knowledge about cultures around the world. It also shows that mummification - both through natural processes and intentional practices - has taken place all over the globe, from the hot desert sands of South America to remote European moors and bogs.

Mummies of the World is a ticketed event and requires a timed-entry. Advance reservations are highly recommended. Tickets can be purchased online beginning June 6 at www.californiasciencecenter.org or by calling 323-SCIENCE (323-724-3623). Group reservations are available at 888-MUMMY TIX (888-686-6984)

More information about the exhibition is online: www.mummiesoftheworld.com.

American Exhibitions, Inc. is one of the leading exhibition producers in the United States, specializing in world-class touring exhibitions for science centers and museums. please visit our website at www.californiasciencecenter.org.

Texas Textbook Scandal and the Black Community

Considering the Texas Textbook Scandal, is there a national Pan African American history curriculum for K-12 and college level? There should be.

Contained within the organizations of the National Urban League and the NAACP are many, many educated professionals who know how and what
components comprise a proper school curriculum for all levels. Why not create a joint task force/partnership between the two organizations and create a national Pan African American history curriculum?

When we take leadership seriously and control our own history and information as a group, no one will change it, no one will challenge it.

No one changes Jewish and Hebrew history. They send their children to school to learn it. They are in control of keeping their cultural identity alive.

They take responsibility for it. African Americans should mimic that and control our historical identity so that no one does it for us.

On the TJ Holmes CNN blog website, a woman who said she writes textbooks

for a living pointed out that textbooks can be made to order as to highlight each state's contribution to American history or whatever.
On May 22nd, "maryann warren" said, "I write textbooks . . . and the major
publishers make an edition ONLY FOR TEXAS! Everything in that edition is NOT put into the National Edition. Other states also have their own
editions to meet their specific standards and "play up" their state history. So please don't panic people nationwide about good old Texas and
their unique material in social studies. science, and even health..."Additionally, any information disseminated within a textbook
should be made as accurate as possible by passing through a system of checks and balances. That history, in turn, can be taught in our churches
and community groups; made available to parents to read and teach to our children; placed into books at every reading level so that whosoever is
willing, can learn about our African American history, with African Americans serving as gatekeepers.
Those outside the race will continue to use us and any other group to their advantage and our disadvantage--that is just the way it is. What are
we doing that we cannot properly monitor our own history and information pertaining to it? Managing African American history alone is capable of creating a new commerce in which to employ people full-time to manage it.

Is the management of our historical information worth it? Are we worth it to ourselves?
I guess the first hurdle will be making the agreement or commitment to
work with ourselves, amongst ourselves.

CNN Special Black and White: Kids on Color

Please don't show it. Please don't tell!
Sitting and watching TJ Holmes present CNN's Black & White: Kids on Color, Tuesday morning,
I hoped that after the commercial break, I would not hear a discussion on blacks still being color struck.
But it happened anyway.
I guess it doesn't matter how wide a range of skin colors exist in American families.
The tester in the segment asked again and again: Which child is the pretty one, smart one, bad one, etc.
Most of the children chose darker skinned pictures as bad or ugly children and the lighter one as good or pretty. Only a few opted out of complexion stereotyping or as old folks say, being color struck.
The CNN series examines complexion-based internalized racism in school aged children from white and black races. The study mimics the 1939-1940 doll studies conducted
by two black psychologists.
First, the white children were asked questions about the cartoon pictures of asexual dolls, nearly hairless, arranged in a range of complexions from light to dark.
Most chose the lightest ones as a representation of good and the darkest ones of bad.
Then comes the African American children's responses. I held my breath. I tried not to watch. I didn't want to hear the truth.
"Why is this one pretty?" a tester asked after a child pointed to the lightest example as pretty.
"...because she is light-skinned," a pretty dark-skinned girl said.
"Bias towards white is still a part of our culture." A voice over said.
Don't fret Blacks because Whites have the same color struck conversations in their households. A
pinkish hue is still favored over ruddy or olive complexion--as long as there is still an ability to tan reasonably well.
But one needs only to look throughout their own friends and family to see these hurtful stereotypes repeated and reinforced.
It is a good thing that stunning beauty is held in the facial bone structure of an individual and not the skin color.
I wish someone would tell the kids the truth about beauty because skin color stereotypes are perpetuated through the generations, maintained in the home and reinforced in society. (Oh, good hair counts too.)
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Commentary on Roland Martin's blog

I have a lot to say today.

Who Defines Leadership in the Black Community?

There are not many who do what Roland does in Our Community.
Usually, the only thing I hear about The Black Community is how we quiet often end up in jail or arrested or beat up by cops or have some other type of issue

interfering with quality of life. Maybe it's because I live in a black

city with an African-American based infrastructure, that I don't

understand much of what I see in the main news stream on the issue of the

Black Community. Then again, it is not necessarily their responsibility to

report to me through their eyesight on My Community. However, I heard what

Roland was saying.

Many people feel that way. Working people.

Even white people expect a bone or two to be thrown towards the Black Community from the current administration. They do it in Their Community. If anyone else

should somehow benefit from it, fine because they don't care. It's cool

because the bulk goes to them.
Example: If you have graduated from college, think of the number of offers

from African American companies compared to non-African American

companies. Can we not find work in our own community? Do we always have to

leave our community and beg another community for work? All the time? It

is an anomaly when non-African Americans can graduate from college and

find work in an African American company. It happens but they are not

dependent on Our Community for work as we are to them. If it were the

other way around, I would probably get irritated after a while--especially

if jobs were scarce.
Further evidence is a report by Wilhelmina Leigh, Ph.D Senior Research

Associate for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies--a think

tank.

Ms. Leigh testified before the Congressional Black Caucus on March 17,

2010 about reasons why certain people are chronically unemployed. She said

a part of the reason was that there is an education gap between the races,

persistent discrimination and a lack of access to "job acquisition

networks." Can the NAACP or the Urban League help with these issues? How

about some of the Black Leaders? I don't know if any of these quality-of-

life issues require presidential intervention. However, a grassroots approach to the problem might help.

People who don't have jobs usually don't date, marry or start families. If

45 percent of Black men who ARE NOT IN PRISON, are considered chronically

unemployed, how does one thinks this impacts the Black Community as a

whole? It degrades the community so that it is not so much a community

rather than a group of similar people with no cohesiveness whatsoever.
People are going half on a baby these days. Why? What if Black women who

are unmarried just stopped having babies all together? It too would have a

negative impact on the community.

But I digress.

People judge others through how they understand themselves to be, so when there is no visible authoritative connection between the President and Black Leaders it seems strange because other racial groups seem more cohesive.
However, there has never been a president of color in office in anyone's

lifetime. It is as if the rope on the other end of the tug-of-war was

suddenly released and there is a big "Now What" in the middle of things. (wink)

President Obama is a prototype of sorts. He is a lot of things and a

good representation of an American. Our cultures rub off on the other and

we are all a little blended. However, the Office of the President is a

part of a system. It is not a stand alone office. Black Leaders and the

President should be working together in that system, since the Civil

Rights Movement has placed a lot of Black Leaders in office and in many

instances, long term. But things unseen are things unknown.

Should we all be on one page as far as the state of the Black Community?

Do we listen when the President of the Urban League or National

Association for the Advancement of Colored People, speak? Do we read the

Black Press and what they have to say? Are members of the Black Press remembering their audience and saying relevant things? I distinctly

remember one of the President's campaign mantras of, "change comes from the bottom

up." That means me and others standing next to me should be taking this

time to affect change when and where we can.
Finally, can the President count on The Black Community to pitch in on his

re-election efforts? It's a lot of hard work everyday but it pays off.

Average People

Times have changed and so have Black people. The President only appears to

have lost connection with black leaders but he has not lost touch with the black community. Coming up, he got in where he fit in, just like all the

other Black People I know. He said so in his books. Did anyone read them?

I make this assessment based on actions and inactions of the President. (what he does and does not do)

Note: I live in a 85 percent Black city,
with a black mayor and where the Black Power Movement found it's footing and it's strength, so when I say, "Any Other Black Person I Know"--I know black generalizations. (in my peer group)
The President lived in Hyde Park, on the South Side of Chicago. He is familiar with Average People in the Black Community.
I am not from the suburbs nor the modern ghetto but from Average Avenue. I

attended Average Public School and Average State College. There is a big group of us Average Folks.

We are not ballers or wear grills or any other shiny jewelry in our faces

but we listen to the songs of those who do such things. Those who do

participate in the Glamorous Life, are not Average and are not in the

group. We have children and are for the most part, Average Parents. We are

Thirty and FortySomethings. And anyone who remembers that show is either

in The Group or actively avoiding the Group!
We are never found too far outside of Normal. We are not unlike conformists.

This blog post is a really an exciting and daring thing for me to be doing. Really.

However, when was the last time black leaders, whoever and wherever they may be, checked in with the black community on the same issues pressed upon the POTUS? I'm talking about kitchen table issues important to

Families and Individuals. I'm talking about Black Leaders paying attention

to their own community and all of our own business, outside of any talk show or mainstream newspaper column. There is a such thing as the Black Press. We used to get all of our news from the Black Church but I don't know too many people who have culled out the time to attend church every day. Things have changed.
Maybe the Black leaders are a little out of touch, then again who said all

Black People think the same? We all want different things out of our leaders. Until the Individual takes responsibility for his or her

community there will always be an "at issue" situation. That is a

description of change from the bottom up. No one agreement, train of thought or campaign will do for the entire black community--and

apparently, this is as close as we will get to a national conversation on

the issue--blogs and commentary.

What About the Black Agenda?

There is no Black Agenda that is promoted actively but there used to be

one. The idea is revived and batted around but no real press or marketing structure is involved. It has been rendered kitchen table discussion of

the past almost lore and in spite of conventions held in honor and

celebration of the Black Agenda, the Average Person has no idea of what

the Black Agenda is or who is involved in it and if they, are indeed

involved in it. Then, I ask, whose agenda is it?

Those who do know what the Black Agenda is, may want to avoid it and any

label of Black Nationalism. That's the thing about Average Folks. They

want to be Average and they have responsibilities and chores more so that

goals and dreams. They don't always pay attention to the news. Sometimes,

they are too tired to stay up for it or they are already at work. Maybe

they don't have cable or satellite.

Maybe they are not the voracious reader and settle for the local paper.

Sometimes, that is what Average People do: Go to work, read the paper,

listen to the radio in the car on the way to work as they sit in traffic.

After work, maybe they can snag a few minutes of their favorite show in

between household chores and children and spouse. That doesn't leave much

room for Agendas.

Average Folks have to make room for it and if no one bothers to explain

why they should sacrifice their valuable time to dedicate to moving

forward with the Agenda, then they won't do it. That is where Black

Leaders should step in. They can explain it to members of the Black Press

and they can in turn, write about it and write about it and write about

it. The Agenda does not have to be promoted in the mainstream as it is not

a message pertinent to everyone but to Blacks, thus, The Black Agenda.

If Average Folks hear or sense the attitude that no one should have to

explain the Agenda to them, then the attention of a very large and

influential group of people have been lost. What a loss.
It would be nice if interested people with MBAs and degrees in Marketing

and Advertising could help the Black Leaders advance the Agenda.

Out of Work but Not Out of Hope: Addressing the Crisis of the Chronically Unemployed

Roland Martin's Blog

What About the Kids, Arizona Legislators?

Arizona was the last state to sign the Martin Luther King Day bill into law. I took note of that then and I take note with parts of their anti-ethnic education bill.
Why is it that the people of Arizona feel the way they do about minorities? What are they going through every day that makes them not accepting of minorities and why can't they handle their frustrations any better than they have been doing?
Granted, if a politician runs for office and is elected by the people for the people he or she should serve the people completely. More qualified people should have run for office if the people wanted a smarter legislature. However, why stop the African American education curriculum in public schools? Really.
Every ethnic race, Eastern European, African, Hispanic, Dominican, Italian etc. deserves to be highlighted for their race's achievements in American history. The culmination is that we have all contributed in making this country great, so why cull those parts out? It is not a good solution to the problems in Arizona. Students in Arizona won't know or understand who they are or where they come from when they are not taught about European immigrants and what they did to establish their place in American history and culture. Damn shame. There are a lot of European immigrants in this country.
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