Saturday 5 January 2008

Book Reviews on Islam in the International Herald Tribune

According to the Angry Arab http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2008/01/there-is-yet-another-book-review-on.html there is yet another book review on Islam by Irshad Manji in the International Herald Tribune.

Apparently this is "like having David Irving review books on Judaism. Both are ill-qualified on the matter, although Manji--who has no training in Middle East or Islamic studies--is fully capable of saying the word Madrasah, and she pronounces it as follows: Madraaaaaaaaaassssaeeeaoooh."

Who needs a subscription to the International Herald Tribune?

Here's a blogger who writes on doing business abroad, who claims not to subscribe to a single print business journal, including the IHT. Why?

Because a) it's all available online for free
and
b)he turns to blogs like people apparently turn to his blog.

Where does that leave the print edition of the IHT? Is any positioning for 'corporate suits' doomed to failure because they don't have the time or the money to read print, let alone general interest.

Anyway, your thoughts and more thoughts at http://doingbizabroad.com/keeping-up-with-international-business/#comment-158

International Herald Tribune Panders to Anti-Arab Stereotypes

There's lots of this sort of thing flying around about the International Herald Tribune, but this one is worth a quick read.

http://www.spj.org/blog/blogs/aaj/archive/2008/01/05/14340.aspx

Friday 4 January 2008

AP Via International Herald Tribune

When one cruises the blogosphere looking at who is blogging, quoting the International Herald Tribune as their source, what's interesting is that more often than not it is an AP article that is being referred to, not one written by an IHT or NYT journalist.

This fact is accentuated by the fact that the http://www.iht.com/ needs more material than the news resources of the NYT group can offer, and their wire of choice - for now; NB Reuters deal - is AP.

Which is why one blogger caught my eye quoting a story in the IHT on Number of journalists killed up 244 percent over 5 years, media watchdog says (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/02/news/Journalists-Killed.php)

This is how the blogger ( http://www.pdnpulse.com/2008/01/the-photo-fee-1.html ) sourced it:

A More Deadly World For Journalists (AP via International Herald Tribune)

That's it in a nutshell: most people aren't going to http://www.iht.com/ for NYT/IHT journalism, but AP journalism. If more bloggers and websites quoted their sources as above - making it clear that the IHT is just an intermediary - what would happen if AP decided to run their own news site with IHT style editing? And take their share of the advertising.

Come Monday, can we expect to see more stories from Reuters via the IHT?



Thursday 3 January 2008

When the International Herald Tribune comes to town

When the Germans, and rockets, came to town
By Shaila Dewan
Published: December 31, 2007


http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/31/america/31huntsville.php

No liberals please, we're southern is the plea of a blogger from near Huntsville, unhappy with the IHT's article above for being too darn'd accurate:

some residents bemoan this article from the International Herald Tribune about a town south of Moonshine Hollow. Some have complained that the article is frankly, too accurate, and they don't like that a bit! While it focuses on the 'Rocket City" aspects of the place it alludes to the fact that there is a lot more to the place ... and that gnaws at some locals."My God! This story will have liberals coming down here like ticks are drawn to dogs," said one.Another said, "If the secret about this place gets out, we will become just like the place I fled in California."

http://rofasix.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-liberals-please-were-southern.html

Alterman/Rosen Spat in the International Herald Tribune

Here's Eric Alterman on his recent column in the International Herald Tribune and the Letter to the Editor the IHT would not publish.

Because the column was reprinted in the International Herald Tribune, the American Jewish Committee's executive director, David Harris, wrote a nasty letter in reply, which the AJC then put out as a press release, here. I wrote a letter back to the IHT, which, as far as I can tell, they ignored, so I post it below:
To the Editor:
In response to my Nation column, "Bad for the Jews," reprinted in the IHT, David Harris of the American Jewish Committee casts many aspersions, calling my writing "bad for objectivity," calls me an "ideologue" and compares me to my (nameless) "mirror images on the right." What he fails to do amidst all this name-calling, however, is to dispute a single fact I presented in my column. But despite his charge that I "gloss over the survey data that does not bolster [my] case," Harris does not cite a single instance in which I do so.
Nothing in my column suggests that "you are with us or against us," as Harris falsely claims. His primary argument appears to be over the fact that I included his organization among those who have "historically associated itself with the hawkish side of the debate." But here again, he fails to cite a single instance in which his organization has associated itself with the dovish side of the foreign policy debate, save the AJC's rhetorical support for a "two-state solution," a position shared by both George W. Bush and the late Ariel Sharon, and hence, not so dovish. (And for the record, the position of "schizophrenia" and "anguished nuance" to which Harris attributes to most American Jews on the Palestinian question is precisely my own as well, which makes it difficult to see how I might have missed it.)
What Harris also fails to mention, however -- and I don't blame him -- are the decades in which the AJC underwrote Commentary, a magazine filled with extremely vicious and vituperative attacks on anyone -- particularly Jews -- who deviated even slightly from the hardline-Neocon agenda. Indeed, the Commentary considers itself rightly to be the proud birthplace of Neoconservatism itself, something that would have been impossible without the AJC's loyal support. Alas, Harris's protestations notwithstanding, more than three decades' underwriting of the most influential hard-right vehicle that Neoconservatives enjoyed anywhere speaks rather more powerfully than a single letter to the editor.
Eric Alterman
New York, New York


http://mediamatters.org/altercation/200801020001

International Herald Tribune Broadcasts Secret Democrat Test Returns

I'm not sure how long this will stay up on the web site of www.iht.com but here is the headline:

These are TEST returns. They must not be broadcast or published.
The Associated Press
Published: January 2, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/02/america/NH-Dem-Pres-Sum.php

In case they take it down, here's what it said:

267 of 301 precincts - 89 percent
John Edwards27,001 - 29 percent
Dennis Kucinich23,296 - 25 percent
Mike Gravel6,498 - 7 percent
Bill Richardson5,682 - 6 percent
Barack Obama5,471 - 6 percent
Joe Biden5,217 - 6 percent
Hillary Clinton4,753 - 5 percent
Chris Dodd3,781 - 4 percent
Michael Skok1,820 - 2 percent
Total Write-ins1,630 - 2 percent
O. Savior1,249 - 1 percent
Tom Laughlin1,159 - 1 percent
Tom Koos1,090 - 1 percent
Dal LaMagna1,052 - 1 percent
Caroline Killeen854 - 1 percent
Bill Keefe753 - 1 percent
D.R. Hunter656 - 1 percent
William Hughes588 - 1 percent
Richard Caligiuri492 - 1 percent
Kenneth Capalbo390 - 0 percent
Randy Crow296 - 0 percent
Henry Hewes194 - 0 percent

Another resounding scoop from www.apimeaniht.com

Monday 31 December 2007

International Herald Tribune wins award for Worst Advertising Account

The Four Winds Bar's presitgous 2008 Awards have been announced and the International Herald Tribune has won one!

http://thefourwindsbar.blogspot.com/2007/12/dishonest-reporting-awards.html

Worst Advertising Account: International Herald-Tribune

In April, the International Herald-Tribune made waves for advertising an Iranian tender to build two nuclear power plants. Ironically enough, the ad also appeared in Israel where Haaretz distributes an IHT supplement. The IHT is owned by the NY Times.

Kristol coming to the International Herald Tribune

I haven't read the International Herald Tribune since before Christmas, so forgive me if this old news.

Right-wing pundit Kristol has been signed to the NYT, starting in January.
http://lanr.blogspot.com/2007/12/one-more-reason-to-bash-new-york-times.html

Does that mean we have to read him too at the IHT?

Your thoughts on Kristol to ihtreaders@gmail.com please.....

The Future of Oreskes at the International Herald Tribune

I'm back, but I'm not sure with what regularity. A Christmas break away from the computer reminded me just how much time my blogging in December took up.

I had concluded that I would stop - as much as I love the International Herald Tribune, tapping away in the dark is just that, and to whose benefit I don't know.

But then you get an email or two, a chat here and there and you think, well, maybe now and again....

I thought I'd kick off 2008 with some classic in-house rumour reporting. That's the joy of blogging - I ain't no journalist and follow no school.

What's about then as we go into 2008?

It's clear that the NYT Co are bracing for a Murdoch onslaught, and their thinking seems to be that it will come in the USA.

The idea - as suggested on this blog - that it might come first in Europe and Asia, using other News Int properties like the London Times, to take on the IHT doesn't appear to be on the Ivy League NYT strategic planners' agenda.

Fearful of a direct assault on their home market rather than a flanking manoeuvre overseas, there is a lot of talk that the International Herald Tribune's exec editor Mike Oreskes will be spending a lot more time in NYC; perhaps even leaving the IHT altogether, in order to get home and help shore up the levies.

As to who would then control the IHT at this rather critical juncture is unclear, but the word is that there are 'issues' as to who runs the Paris ship going into 2008.

And if Oreskes is about to depart for matters perceived more important in NYC, how does that bode for continued effort and investment in the IHT? Presumably not well, especially if Golden feels he too needs to be regularly seated at the NYT table talking about Rupert.

The idea of attack (e.g going aggressively with the IHT in Murdoch central - London) being the best form of defence doesn't seem to be an idea being much talked about.

A pity, because there at my guess, c.150,000 upscale UK readers desperate for a truly independent international newspaper like the IHT.

But that would involve dropping the cover price and advertising in one of Europe's most expensive markets - London. And that means money that could be spent on defence in the USA vs the WSJ.

But don't take this rumour of Oreskes' departure to the bank.

Sources are vague, varied, and contradictory, so much so that it is very unclear to me if anything is happening at all vis a vis the top job.

If you've heard anything, drop me a line: full-discretion assured as always at ihtreaders@gmail.com