MadDAsHell
MadDAsHell's JournalSeeking opinions: should media do background checks to find controversy in even feel good stories?
That's the debate that's been going on in Iowa this week after the Des Moines Register, when profiling a 24-year-old who had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars (now millions) for an Iowa Children's Hospital, decided to include in that profile a reference to 2 offensive tweets he had made 8 years prior when he was a 16-year-old sophomore, referencing the Tosh.0 show on Comedy Central.
There's a lot more to this story, including the doxxing of the reporter himself for even more offensive tweets he had in his past (he's since been fired), but the Des Moines Register has doubled down and defended its background check practice (claiming they did it for 'the public good' and that readers insist on 'the whole story') and the editors that had approved the story are keeping their jobs unscathed. They've said very little about the hypocrisy of doing such thorough checks on the subjects of their stories but not on their own reporters.
What's everybody's thoughts on this practice? I can maybe see why you would do it on certain types of stories/subjects, but let's say someone saves a bus full of Girl Scouts from a fiery accident. Before writing that story, should the newspaper spend a bunch of time digging into the past of the rescuer to find out if they've ever done anything controversial? 
For good measure, another ironic twist: Anheuser-Busch was originally heavily involved in the fundraiser, but backed out on parts of it after the tweets came out. Internet sleuths dug into it and found that Anheuser-Busch was, ironically, a sponsor of Tosh.0, the very show the kid quoted. They're holding him accountable for quoting a show they themselves sponsored...
Carson King addresses controversial social media post from high school
This is why the world sucks:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kcci.com/amp/article/carson-king-addresses-controversial-social-media-post/29216476
An incredibly heartwarming story we've all been enjoying over the last couple weeks, and then a bored Des Moines Register reporter decides he doesn't just want to write headlines, he wants to make them. The kid referenced a freaking Comedy Central TV show at 16 years old. Apparently Comedy Central should be celebrated and receive awards for making these shows, but don't laugh or quote them, because that makes you a bad guy. The people that make desperately searching other people's past social media behavior need to GET A FUCKING LIFE. Carson King needs to out this reporter for the loser he is. If the media wants to know why people despise them, look no further than EXHIBIT A.
DES MOINES, Iowa — Carson King, the Iowa State fan who helped raise over $1 million for the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, held a press conference Tuesday regarding a controversial post made on social media eight years ago.
King said a reporter with the Des Moines Register called attention to an offensive social media post he made when he was 16 years old.
“Eight years ago, when I was a sophomore in high school, I made some social media posts with my friends that quoted and referenced the show ‘Tosh.0,’ King said. “One of those posts was brought to my attention by a member of the media today.”
Brutal series of assaults and robberies in Minneapolis highlights a critical police shortage
(CNN) - A series of brutal assaults in downtown Minneapolis is highlighting the city's skyrocketing robbery rate amid a critical shortage of police officers.
More than 6,000 "priority one" 911 calls, which include sexual assault, shootings and robberies, were made in the period of a year for which police didn't have an officer immediately able to respond, Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said in an email to CNN.
Police have several videos of the recent rash of vicious attacks.
In one obtained by CNN, a group of suspects is seen on surveillance videos repeatedly punching and kicking a man in a daytime attack outside Target Field. At various points in the video, they run and jump on him, ride over him with a bicycle, take off his shoes and pants, beat him with a belt and throw what appears to be potted plants at him
In another surveillance video, the suspects start grabbing a man and repeatedly punch and kick him as he tries to fight back. The group leaves him, apparently unconscious, on the ground.
The suspects arrested are between the ages of 13 and 25, and mainly male, though "sometimes a female is in the group," according to charging documents.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/16/us/minneapolis-robberies-police-shortage/index.html
Classy kids! Bet their parents are even classier!
Anybody seen this video of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick flashing the white power symbol last year?
This was probably seen by 10x the number of people as the guy at Wrigley. How does he still have an NFL job??
https://bleacherreport.com/post/nfl/34df91d3-5c49-4508-af85-3458c82dd06e
Feds find potential fraud in student loan repayment plans
Source: ABC News
Tens of thousands of federal student loan borrowers may be getting their monthly payments lowered by lying about their income and family size, yet the U.S. Education Department is doing little to catch them, according to a report released Thursday by a federal watchdog agency.
Among the most extreme cases reported by the Government Accountability Office are two separate borrowers who claimed to have 93 relatives in their households, along with 3,300 cases in which borrowers said they had no income even though federal data suggest they made $100,000 a year or more. All were approved for lower loan payments.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said her agency will conduct comprehensive review of the repayment plans and will refer cases of fraud to the Justice Department for prosecution. She placed blame on previous administrations, saying the problems are proof that "many of the policy ideas previously pursued were poorly implemented." "Misrepresenting income or family size is wrong, and we must have a system in place to ensure that dishonest people do not get away with it," DeVos said. "We didn't create that problem, but rest assured we will fix it."
The federal watchdog agency says it identified 95,100 cases in which borrowers were approved as having no income even though it appears they were earning money. Using wage data from the Department of Health and Human Services, investigators found that borrowers in a third of those cases may actually have been making $45,000 a year or more, including some who topped $100,000. They concluded that the department "does not have procedures to verify borrower reports of zero income, nor, for the most part, procedures to verify borrower reports of family size." Borrowers applying for the repayment plans can check a box indicating they have no income, and the department generally takes them at their word with no further documentation needed, the investigation found.
Read more: ABC News: Feds find potential fraud in student loan repayment plans. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/feds-find-potential-fraud-student-loan-repayment-plans-64575667
Our tax dollars at work. The federal student loan and the devastation it's caused will go down as one of the biggest political boondoggles ever.
Ralph Northam is a genius. The Trump way apparently works: deny, deny, deny and refuse to back down.
In 2019 it pretty much doesn't matter what you've done; if you have the spine, ego, or frankly gall to hold out for just a few days, the news cycle (and the people with it) always moves on.
Even Kavanugh went from America's most wanted serial gang-rapist to pretty much off the radar in a month or two.
When I think back to Weiner, Franken, etc. I wonder if they regret not giving it just a few more days. Something new ALWAYS comes along to distract the sheeple.
I'm sick of Democrats calling other Democrats racist for a 1% poll bump.
It doesn't get any more selfish than that.
Ethics aside, is there any real reason to be truthful with Congress, or even talk to them...
for that matter?
I'm almost 40, and I'm having trouble coming up with very many names of people in my lifetime who have faced real, substantial consequences for lying to Congress, ignoring subpoenas and other failures to cooperate with investigations, etc.
Combine the lack of real consequences with the perception that most Congressional inquiries are merely televised political grandstanding for future Presidential campaigns, and is it any wonder that even the guiltiest treat it more like a reality TV show than a constitutionally-mandated process that can have lifelong negative consequences for them?
This shit goes back to at least Iran-Contra, and I'm sure before that. Take some real freaking action on these criminals and maybe it would change things.
Frankly, based on the odds, anyone who's guilty would be stupid if they DIDN'T lie.
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