OMAROSA TWO-FACED SNITCH vs APRIL RYAN & TRUMP (TALE OF TWO BLACK WOMEN)

OMAROSA TWO-FACED SNITCH vs APRIL RYAN & TRUMP (TALE OF TWO BLACK WOMEN):

OMAROSA IS NOT A VICTIM & COMMITTED A CRIME; LAWYER UP.

SECRETLY RECORDING WHITE HOUSE CONVERSATIONS IS A NATIONAL SECURITY CRIME.

OMAROSA USED TRUMP & BLACK JOURNALISTS LIKE APRIL RYAN UNTIL NEITHER OF THEM NO LONGER MATTERED TO HER.

THE MEDIA SHOULD NOT HAIL OMAROSA AS A SHERO.

CLEARLY OMAROSA DOES NOT UNDERSTAND DEFINITION OF THE WORD "LOYALTY".


Post Sources: Washington Examiner, NY Times, Washington Beacon, CNN, Youtube


******* April Ryan warns Omarosa not to name-check her: 'Your lies and crazy behavior are catching up to you'


Omarosa Manigault Newman and April Ryan traded barbs Sunday after the former reality TV star said the White House exploited American Urban Radio Networks' Washington bureau chief by leaking a colorful, unflattering story about her departure from the Trump administration.

"Don’t reference me or use my name. Keep my name out of your mouth," Ryan wrote on Twitter. "You have done enough. Your lies and crazy behavior are catching up to you. Can you say National Security breach? Lawyer up!"

Ryan's comments follow Manigault Newman's explosive interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," which aired a tape the former star of "The Apprentice" recorded in the Situation Room of White House chief of staff John Kelly talking to her about "leaving" her role in the Trump administration. The tape has raised concerns that Manigault Newman breached national security protocol by taking a recording device into what is supposed to be among the most secure parts of the presidential complex.

"He knew that John Kelly was going to take me into the Situation Room, and lock me in there, threaten me, and say that things were going to get ugly for me, and there would be damage to me reputation," Manigault Newman said Sunday, referring to President Trump. "And you know what, the next day there was damage to my reputation because they then put out a story using and exploiting an African-American reporter to say that I was running around the residence and trying to break into a Christmas party, which is ludicrous."

Ryan additionally slammed Manigault Newman as "evil" during a Sunday appearance on CNN's "Reliable Sources."

"She was complicit, but she was doing all this knowing that there was going to be a payoff in the end for her, and then once she got upset with him or he got upset with her or whatever happened, she decides to turn on him," Ryan said of Manigault Newman's initial support of Trump, despite now calling him "a racist, a bigot and a misogynist.” "She’s not a friend, she’s a liar, and I would say she’s evil," Ryan added.

Manigault Newman is promoting her book, "Unhinged," which is set to be released Aug. 14. Ryan also has a memoir coming out. Ryan's "Under Fire" will be widely available from Sept. 1.

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***** April Ryan Calls Omarosa ‘Evil’ and a ‘Liar’


April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and a CNN contributor, called former Trump administration aide Omarosa Manigault Newman a "liar" and "evil" on Sunday.

Ryan, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" where she told host Brian Stelter about her own dealings with Newman.

The former Trump aide and reality TV contestant said earlier on Sunday that she had provided NBC a recording she made of her firing from the administration. Newman had worked on Trump's campaign and then in the administration for about a year before White House Chief of Staff John Kelly fired her.

She had previously known the president from being on "The Apprentice," the reality TV show hosted by Donald Trump before he was won the 2016 presidential election.

Ryan first explained her current relationship with the former Trump aide.

"I've known Omarosa for years and we are not friends anymore," she said.

The CNN contributor said that while working in the Trump administration, Newman made moves to derail her career and reporting.

"She's not a friend; she's a liar and I would say she's evil," Ryan said.

"I hope she can respond to that at some point soon, calling her ‘evil,’" Stelter said.

"She will. I'm sure she will," Ryan said.

Newman has been making media appearances to promote her new book, Unhinged.

Ryan is not the only one to criticize Newman recently. Trump himself called her a "lowlife" on Saturday. The president followed up his comments on Monday via tweet, saying "Wacky Omarosa" was "vicious, but not smart" and "People in the White House hated her."

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway's husband, George Conway, a Democrat, also said that claims Trump made racial comments about him were untrue. Pollster Frank Luntz also said Newman's claims he heard Trump make racial slurs were "flat-out false."

MICHAEL FEENEY - ANOTHER GREAT JOURNALIST MYSTERIOUSLY DIES (BLOCK FREEDOM OF PRESS)

MICHAEL FEENEY - ANOTHER GREAT JOURNALIST MYSTERIOUSLY DIES (BLOCK FREEDOM OF PRESS):

Michael Feeney
Michael Hastings
Andrew Breitbart
Serena Shim
Nicholas Wiltgen
Sue Lloyd-Roberts

~ ARE OBAMA & OTHER WORLD LEADERS BLOCKING 1st AMENDMENT SPEECH TO INTIMIDATE CITIZENS??

*** Role Model' With A Bright Smile; Journalist Michael Feeney, Dies at 32

Michael J. Feeney, a former New York Daily News reporter and rising star among black journalists who became known for his exclusive interviews with celebrities such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Rihanna has died. He was 32.

"They (doctors) worked on him, and worked on him but couldn't get him back," said Feeney's mother, Reba Willis, 63, of Teaneck, New Jersey in a tearful phone Monday interview one day after his death. "The doctors didn't see this coming."

But Feeney, who died from complications from a staph infection to his kidneys, may have.

And as his conditioned worsened, the former journalist who covered the death of legendary pop singer Whitney Houston nearly four years ago, laid in a hospital bed crafting his own obituary.

"I'm going to die in here," Willis said Feeney told her days before dying.

He spent a total of three weeks this month as a patient at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck.

Feeney, who served as the president of the New York Association of Black Journalists from 2011 until December, was known among his colleagues and friends as someone who pushed for diversity in newsrooms across the country.

He also mentored high school and college students who aspired to be professional journalists.

Newsday reporter Aisha Al-Muslim asked Feeney for career advice on a few occasions.

"He was a role model for young journalists and for anyone who sought advice," said Al-Muslin. "I'm going to remember him for his dance skills and bright smile."

Feeney, who had recently accepted an entertainment reporting position with CNN.com, joined the Daily News in 2009 first as a police reporter and later covering Harlem.

It was there where he made his mark, landing exclusive interviews and taking popular selfies with A-list celebrities like Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Rihanna while also writing about the historic Apollo Theater.

In 2010, he was named the Emerging Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black journalists.

Feeney covered the Baltimore unrest after Freddie Gray's death for NBC News and NBCBLK, filing stories beyond the front lines of the marches; inside crowded churches, on college campuses with Black millennials stepping up as change agents, and beside the patrons of New Beginnings Barbershop.

As news of Feeney's death spread, so did the wide-ranging acknowledgements.

"He was a beacon of hope for young BLACK journalists.

He was passionate about creating a blue print for people to get ahead in the industry," said Candace Amos, a New York Daily News reporter. "He wanted to see you succeed and he would do anything in his power to make that happen."

Marlon A. Walker is an education reporter with the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Vice-President of Print for NABJ.

“It’s quickly becoming known the importance that somebody with Feeney's passion can have on people," Walker said.

"Everyone is talking about him, including people who didn't know him. For the people who did, the loss is much greater.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Rev. Al Sharpton, political analyst Roland Martin and Hot 97 host Charlamagne Tha God tweeted about Feeney's death.

By Monday morning, Feeney was trending on Facebook, something unthinkable for a newspaper reporter.

"The outpouring has been unbelievable," said Willis, who saved a voicemail from her elated son when he interviewed his idol, retired New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.

Funeral arrangements are pending and a memorial fund has been set up in his honor, the proceeds will be sent to his family.

Sources: NBC News, BBC, Independent.co.uk, NY Mag, AJC, NY Daily News, Youtube

Brian Williams Takes Leave Of Absence, CNN & Fox News Celebrates (Haters!)

‪#‎BrianWilliams‬

Why do journalists & network hosts at CNN and FOX NEWS appear to be Celebrating BRIAN WILLIAMS' fall from grace??

Haters!

I'm Praying for you Brian.



"A Personal Note From Brian Williams"

In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions.

As Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News, I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days, and Lester Holt has kindly agreed to sit in for me to allow us to adequately deal with this issue. Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us.

Sources: CNN; NBC News; Youtube

Rupert Murdoch's Media Empire Continues To Crumble: More Arrests!

Sun journalists and police officer arrested in corruption investigation

Four current and former senior Sun journalists and one serving police officer have been arrested as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into police corruption.

The Metropolitan police have also launched a search at News International's headquarters in Wapping, east London, in an attempt to secure any potential evidence relating to alleged payments to police by journalists.

Officers were accompanied by lawyers who arrived at the Sun's offices between 6am and 8am on Saturday morning. They are there to ensure that "journalist privilege" in relation to sources is not compromised.

It is the first time since the phone-hacking scandal erupted that the Sun has been targeted in such a major way, but sources stressed the dawn raid had nothing to do with voicemail interception and was solely related to paying police for stories.

The four Sun employees arrested are understood to be Mike Sullivan, the Sun's crime editor, the former managing editor Graham Dudman, the executive editor, Fergus Shanahan, and Chris Pharo, a newsdesk executive.

The arrests came after information was passed to the police by News Corporation's internal investigations unit, the Management and Standards Committee. It was set up by Rupert Murdoch in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, which erupted last July, and operates independently of News International.

It is understood that staff and management at the Sun had no warning of the police plans to make arrests or conduct a search of the paper's newsroom.

A statement from News Corp in New York said: "Metropolitan police service (MPS) officers from Operation Elveden today arrested four current and former employees from the Sun newspaper. Searches have also taken place at the homes and offices of those arrested.

"News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated.

"It commissioned the Management and Standards Committee to undertake a review of all News International titles, regardless of cost, and to proactively co-operate with law enforcement and other authorities if potentially relevant information arose at those titles.

"As a result of that review, which is ongoing, the MSC provided information to the Elveden investigation which led to today's arrests.

"No comment can be made on the nature of that information to avoid prejudicing the investigation and the rights of individuals."

The Management and Standards Committee has been charged with ridding the company of old practices and illegal activities such as phone hacking which led to the abrupt closure of the News of the World in July after 168 years. One source said. "They are there to drain the swamp."

In his witness statement to the Leveson inquiry earlier this month, the Sun's editor, Dominic Mohan, said: "To the best of my knowledge, the Sun has never knowingly paid or made payments in kind to police … for information."

Scotland Yard confirmed in a statement that the investigation "relates to suspected payments to police officers and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately."

It is understood that three of the four journalists were arrested before 8am on Saturday while the fourth was arrested in mid-morning.

"Home addresses of those arrested are currently being searched and officers are also carrying out a number of searches at the offices of News International in Wapping. These searches are expected to conclude this afternoon," the Met said in an earlier statement.

A source said police were interested in everything from "notepads, emails, Post-it notes".

All four men were being questioned at police stations in Essex and London, police said. Fourteen people have so far been arrested under Operation Elveden – 13 by the Metropolitan police and one by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The operation is being run in conjunction with Operation Weeting, the Met inquiry into the phone hacking of voicemail boxes.

It was launched after officers were handed documents suggesting that News International journalists made illegal payments to police officers.

Others questioned as part of the inquiry include the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, the ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson, the former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, the paper's former royal editor Clive Goodman, the former News of the World crime editor Lucy Panton and the Sun district editor, Jamie Pyatt.

Brooks and Coulson are both former editors of the News of the World, which was closed in July at the height of the hacking scandal following revelations that the murdered teenager Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked.

Deborah Glass, the deputy chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said: "It will be clear from today's events that this investigation is following the evidence.

"I am satisfied with the strenuous efforts being made by this investigation to identify police officers who may have taken corrupt payments, and I believe the results will speak for themselves."


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Sources: Guardian, ITN News, RT, Youtube, Google Maps

Fox News Silent On Murdoch Empire Hacking Scandal (FBI Investigates)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Murdochs to give evidence at phone-hacking hearing

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his son James will attend a hearing over the phone-hacking scandal before British lawmakers next Tuesday, their company, News International, told CNN Thursday.

The House of Commons had issued the pair a summons to appear after the Murdochs initially told the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee they could not attend the July 19 hearing.

News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch wrote to the committee earlier that he was "not available to attend," although he said he was "fully prepared to give evidence to the forthcoming judge-led public inquiry."

That investigation was launched Wednesday by Prime Minister David Cameron in response to allegations that journalists working for Murdoch's media empire illegally eavesdropped on phone messages of thousands of people and bribed police.

James Murdoch, who heads the News International newspaper group, a News Corp. subsidiary, had said he could not appear before lawmakers before August 10 or 11.

Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, who is now chief executive of News International, had already agreed to testify before the committee on July 19.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee issued a statement saying it wanted all three to appear "to account for the behaviour of News International and for previous statements made to the committee in Parliament, now acknowledged to be false."

Some of the most serious hacking claims relate to the period when Brooks was editor of News of the World, one of News International's papers.

In a letter to the select committee, Brooks said she was available to appear "and welcome the opportunity to do so." However, she said she would not feel able to respond to questions that might prejudice the police investigation into the allegations.

Meanwhile, police announced they arrested a 60-year-old man Thursday morning in London in connection with the phone-hacking probe, the seventh person arrested in the investigation.

The suspect has not been formally named by police but the Press Association news agency reports that he is Neil Wallis, a former executive editor of the News of the World.

Wallis also served on the Press Complaints Commission, the British newspaper industry's self-regulating body, which has been broadly criticized in recent days for failing to act against press misconduct.



A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed to CNN Thursday that a media consultancy company owned by Wallis, Chamy Media, had been appointed to provide communications advice to the Metropolitan Police Service from 2009 to 2010.

Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May wrote to London's top police officer, Sir Paul Stephenson, Thursday evening asking for the full picture about his links to Wallis, a Home Office spokesman confirmed to CNN. The spokesman did not give his name, in line with Home Office policy.

The commissioner appeared earlier before the Metropolitan Police Authority Thursday to answer questions about Scotland Yard's investigation into allegations of phone hacking and police bribery by journalists working for News International.

Asked if he regretted his decision in 2006 to have dinner with Wallis, then deputy editor of the News of the World, Stephenson said he was confident he had acted appropriately.

"I do not believe that on any occasion I have acted inappropriately. I am very satisfied with my own integrity," he told the independent regulators' meeting.

But he acknowledged that public perceptions of such meetings between senior police and media figures could be different. At the time of the dinner, police were investigating earlier complaints of misconduct by the News of the World.

The Metropolitan Police Authority meeting followed the announcement of an independent probe into the press, including journalists' relations with police.

A relative of a Brazilian man shot dead by London police weeks after the July 2005 terror attacks is the latest to say his phone number was on a list belonging to a private investigator at the center of the phone-hacking investigation.



The family of Jean Charles de Menezes, whom officers shot dead after mistaking him for a suicide bomber, called for the prime minister to extend the inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal to look at whether police also leaked information on his case to the press.

Cameron launched the wide-ranging investigation into the British press Wednesday shortly before News Corp. withdrew its bid to take over British satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

The moves came in the wake of public and political fury at allegations that journalists working for Murdoch illegally eavesdropped on phone messages of thousands of people and bribed police.

"It has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate," News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey said in announcing the company would end its attempt to increase its 39.1% share in BSkyB.

Cameron blasted Murdoch's company as he launched the high-powered inquiry, saying News Corp. executives need to focus not on taking over BSkyB, "but on clearing up the mess and getting their house in order."

He welcomed the withdrawal of the bid, which came hours before lawmakers voted across party lines to pass a symbolic measure urging Murdoch to give up his effort to take full ownership of the broadcaster, in which he already owns a controlling stake.

Opposition leader Ed Miliband of the Labour party -- who pushed the vote against the takeover -- welcomed the News Corp. decision and said it would not have happened had lawmakers not pressured Murdoch.

"The will of politicians was clear, the will of the public was clear, and now Britain's most powerful media owner has had to bend to that will," said Miliband, speaking as politicians rowdily debated the measure in the House of Commons.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose family's private records are alleged to have been obtained by News International newspapers, said it was vital to maintain the right to a free press.

But, he said, staff at News International, a subsidiary of News Corp., "cynically manipulated our support of that vital freedom as their justification and then callously used the defense of a free press as the banner under which they marched in step, I say, with members of the criminal underworld."

The criminality was "not the misconduct of a few rogues or a few freelancers," he said, but was carried out "often on an industrial scale -- at its worst dependent on links with the British criminal underworld."

In announcing the public inquiry into press practices and ethics, Cameron said anyone "found guilty of wrongdoing -- or of allowing it -- must not only be brought to justice, they must also have no future role in the running of a media company in our country."

The judge leading the inquiry will be able to summon witnesses, including newspaper owners, and compel them to testify in public, under oath, Cameron announced.

The investigation will look at whether News International, or other newspaper groups broke the law, their relations with the police and politicians and press ethics and practices.

The aim is to "bring this ugly chapter to a close and ensure that nothing like it ever happens again," the prime minister said.

The inquiries come in the wake of the accusation that victims of phone hacking included a missing 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler, who was later found to have been murdered.

Cameron met with the girl's family Wednesday. Miliband and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg met with them separately earlier in the week.

The Dowlers are "delighted" by the launch of the judge-led investigation and pleased that politicians across the spectrum are working together on the issue, the family's lawyer, Mark Lewis, said after the meeting with Cameron.

Miliband hammered Cameron for having hired a former top News International journalist to be his communications director after the editor left his newspaper, News of the World, in the wake of one of its journalists going to prison over phone hacking.

The editor, Andy Coulson, insisted he knew nothing about the crime but resigned from News of the World because it happened on his watch. Coulson resigned as Cameron's spokesman this year when the scandal blew up afresh.

Journalists are accused of attempting to bribe police officers for information -- including personal contact details for members of the royal family -- in addition to the violation of privacy allegations.

The News of the World, which was Britain's best-selling newspaper, folded Sunday over other allegations of illegal breach of privacy at the order of James Murdoch.

The police officer leading the investigation said Tuesday they had identified 3,870 potential targets of phone-hacking and had notified 170 of them. The officer, Sue Akers, said a team of 45 police were going through 11,000 pages of documents seized from a private investigator working for News of the World.

The documents contain some 4,000 cell phone numbers and 5,000 land lines, Cameron said.

Murdoch flew Sunday to London, hours after the final edition of News of the World hit the stands. The publication was the first British national paper Murdoch bought, in 1969, as he began to propel himself from Australian newspaper proprietor to international media magnate.

News International owns the Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times in Britain.

Murdoch's News Corp. also encompasses Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Harper Collins publishers.


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Sources: ABC News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Think Progress, Google Maps

Murdoch's "News Of The World" Shuts Down! Fox News Next?

Murdoch's scandal-hit News of the World to shut down

The embattled British tabloid News of the World, one of the oldest and best-selling newspapers in Britain, will shut down after Sunday's issue, its owner, News International, told CNN Thursday.

The dramatic announcement follows accusations that the paper illegally eavesdropped on the phone messages of murder and terror victims, politicians and celebrities.

The scandal "sullied" the newspaper and "has no place in our company," News International Chairman James Murdoch said Thursday in announcing the shutdown.

And paying out-of-court settlements to some victims was "wrong and a matter of serious regret," Murdoch said. He is a son of media magnate Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp., which owns News International.


The paper's roughly 200 employees are now out of jobs, but are free to apply for other positions within News International, the company said.

The 168-year-old newspaper, which sells more than 2.5 million copies every Sunday, was brought down by an avalanche of public and political fury in the wake of revelations that the hacking victims included a missing 13-year-old girl who was later found to have been murdered.

In an interview for UK media, James Murdoch said he, his father and the company felt "regret" over what had happened.

He insisted he was satisfied that Rebekah Brooks -- the current chief executive of News International and former editor of the News of the World who has been the target of calls to step down -- "neither had knowledge of nor directed the activities."

He said the company was committed to doing the right thing, by cooperating with police and putting in place a process to make sure such practices did not happen again. All revenue from the paper's final edition will go to "good causes," he said earlier.

On Wednesday, Rupert Murdoch himself called allegations against his flagship Sunday paper "deplorable and unacceptable."

Prime Minister David Cameron Wednesday called the possibility that the hacking had taken place "absolutely disgusting" and backed calls for an independent inquiry into the affair after a police investigation concludes.

The scandal is potentially damaging to Cameron himself because he is close to current and former top officials at the News of the World's parent company, former Tony Blair spokesman Alastair Campbell told CNN Thursday.

Police launched a special investigation into the allegations of phone hacking on behalf of the newspaper in January of this year. It was the second police probe into the issue.

On Thursday, shortly before James Murdoch's announcement, police said they have identified the names of nearly 4,000 potential victims.

Police launched the new investigation this year in response to widespread complaints from high-profile figures who feared they may have been targets.

But the revelation this week that victims may have included the murdered girl, the families of terror victims and of British troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, raised the scandal to a new level.

The Royal British Legion, a top military veterans' organization, said Thursday it was suspending ties with the newspaper after the accusations.

A flood of advertisers announced Wednesday and Thursday that they were dropping campaigns with the tabloid.

Prof. Steven Fielding, at the Centre for British Politics at the University of Nottingham, told CNN it seemed News International had decided the brand was so badly damaged that it made more sense to close the paper.

But he believes the company will soon launch another paper in its place.

"I'm deeply skeptical that this actually means they will not be producing a Sunday paper in the near future, relaunched and repackaged -- a Sunday newspaper that will do very similar things to the News of the World, because it's the biggest selling Sunday (paper). It's a cash cow that will be subsidizing other papers, certainly The Times."



Chris Goodall, an analyst at the media research firm Enders Analysis, said the News of the World was the "sacrificial lamb being taken out into the desert and killed" in order to try to save the Murdoch empire's bid to take over UK broadcaster BSkyB.

"It's a recognition that for whatever reason, the News of the World was affecting the public perception of the bid for BSkyB and was likely to make it more difficult, so it was easier and cheaper to close it down," he told CNN.

He suggested News International might publish the News of the World's sister paper, The Sun, seven days a week instead.

Meanwhile, News International says it is co-operating with the police investigation into the accusations against it, which also include bribing police officers, and has welcomed "calls for a broad public inquiry into standards and practices in the industry."

The company is "close to identifying" how the hacking of murdered teenager Milly Dowler's phone happened, a News International source told CNN, declining to be named discussing internal corporate business.

The revelation that the girl's phone had been hacked after she was reported missing in 2002, and that messages were deleted, giving her parents hope she was alive when she had already been murdered, outraged Britain this week.

News International said Thursday that if the accusation of hacking into the messages of fallen troops' families was true, "we are absolutely appalled and horrified."

It made similar statements about the Milly Dowler accusation and the allegation it had targeted the families of people killed in the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings in London.

Graham Foulkes, whose son was killed in the terrorist attack, said Wednesday his phone number and home address were found in the files of a private investigator working for the News of the World.

"We are no longer talking about politicians and celebrities but murder victims, potentially terrorist victims. It's absolutely disgusting what has taken place," Cameron said Wednesday. "I think everyone in this house and country will be revolted by what they've heard and seen on their TV screens."

But Cameron said the inquiry could not begin until after the police investigation was done, for fear of interfering with it.

Cameron hired the News of the World's former editor, Andy Coulson -- who resigned from the paper after an initial complaint of hacking led to a journalist and investigator being jailed in 2007 -- as his communications director.

Coulson stood down from that role in January as questions mounted over what he had known about the affair.

On Thursday, London's Metropolitan Police said they were asking the Independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate the possible bribery of police officers by people working for the media group.

The announcement came a day after the police said they would investigate the case themselves.

"However, in view of the significant public and political concern expressed following the publication of this information," police Thursday "made a formal referral to the IPCC," they said in a statement.

News International Wednesday confirmed it had given police paperwork related to the possible bribery, calling the handover evidence of its "determination as a company to deal responsibly and correctly with the issues."

Phone hacking involves calling a phone from two other phones at the same time, sending one caller to voice mail. That caller then enters the code number to retrieve voice mail remotely. Hackers depend on the fact that many people never change the default PIN for voice mail retrieval.

The paper has apologized for hacking into the voice mails of celebrities and politicians, paying compensation to actress Sienna Miller and offering money to others.

At least five people have been arrested in connection with phone hacking investigations this year since a new investigation, Operation Weeting, was launched in January.

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and a journalist working for the News of the World were sent to prison in 2007 for hacking into the voice mails of royal staff in an earlier investigation.

News of the World was the first British Fleet Street newspaper Rupert Murdoch bought, in 1969, as he began to propel himself from Australian newspaper proprietor to international media magnate.

In addition to owning News of the World, News International owns the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times in Britain.

Murdoch's News Corp. also encompasses Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Harper Collins publishers.


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Sources: AP, CNN, Youtube, Google Maps

Kathleen Parker Intentionally Calls Pres. Obama "A Black Woman"

Obama: Our First Female President


If Bill Clinton was our first black president, as Toni Morrison once proclaimed, then Barack Obama may be our first woman president.

Phew. That was fun. Now, if you'll just keep those hatchets holstered and hear me out.

No, I'm not calling Obama a girlie president. But . . . he may be suffering a rhetorical-testosterone deficit when it comes to dealing with crises, with which he has been richly endowed.

It isn't that he isn't "cowboy" enough, as others have suggested. Aren't we done with that? It is that his approach is feminine in a normative sense. That is, we perceive and appraise him according to cultural expectations, and he's not exactly causing anxiety in Alpha-maledom.

We've come a long way gender-wise. Not so long ago, women would be censured for speaking or writing in public. But cultural expectations are stickier and sludgier than oil. Our enlightened human selves may want to eliminate gender norms, but our lizard brains have a different agenda.

Women, inarguably, still are punished for failing to adhere to gender norms by acting "too masculine" or "not feminine enough." In her fascinating study about "Hating Hillary," Karlyn Kohrs Campbell details the ways our former first lady was chastised for the sin of talking like a lawyer and, by extension, "like a man."

Could it be that Obama is suffering from the inverse?

When Morrison wrote in the New Yorker about Bill Clinton's "blackness," she cited the characteristics he shared with the African American community:

"Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

If we accept that premise, even if unseriously proffered, then we could say that Obama displays many tropes of femaleness. I say this in the nicest possible way. I don't think that doing things a woman's way is evidence of deficiency but, rather, suggests an evolutionary achievement.

Nevertheless, we still do have certain cultural expectations, especially related to leadership. When we ask questions about a politician's beliefs, family or hobbies, we're looking for familiarity, what we can cite as "normal" and therefore reassuring.

Generally speaking, men and women communicate differently. Women tend to be coalition builders rather than mavericks (with the occasional rogue exception). While men seek ways to measure themselves against others, for reasons requiring no elaboration, women form Obama is a chatterbox who makes Alan Alda look like Genghis Khan.

The BP oil crisis has offered a textbook case of how Obama's rhetorical style has impeded his effectiveness. The president may not have had the ability to "plug the damn hole," as he put it in one of his manlier outbursts. No one expected him to don his wetsuit and dive into the gulf, but he did have the authority to intervene immediately and he didn't. Instead, he deferred to BP, weighing, considering, even delivering jokes to the White House Correspondents' Association dinner when he should have been on Air Force One to the Louisiana coast.

His lack of immediate, commanding action was perceived as a lack of leadership because, well, it was. When he finally addressed the nation on day 56 (!) of the crisis, Obama's speech featured 13 percent passive-voice constructions, the highest level measured in any major presidential address this century, according to the Global Language Monitor, which tracks and analyzes language.

Granted, the century is young -- and it shouldn't surprise anyone that Obama's rhetoric would simmer next to George W. Bush's boil. But passivity in a leader is not a reassuring posture.

Campbell's research, in which she affirms that men can assume feminine communication styles successfully (Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton), suggests holes in my own theory. She insists that men are safe assuming female styles as long as they meet rhetorical norms for effective advocacy -- clarity and cogency of argument, appropriate and compelling evidence, and preempting opposing positions.

I'm not so sure. The masculine-coded context of the Oval Office poses special challenges, further exacerbated by a crisis that demands decisive action. It would appear that Obama tests Campbell's argument that "nothing prevents" men from appropriating women's style without negative consequences.

Indeed, negative reaction to Obama's speech suggests the opposite. Obama may prove to be our first male president who pays a political price for acting too much like a woman.

And, perhaps, next time will be a real woman's turn.

kathleenparker@washpost.com




CNN’s Co-Host Kathleen Parker Thinks Obama’s Problem Is He Talks Like A Girl


Apparently Kathleen Parker, WaPo columnist and newly minted CNN host, swallowed a MoDo pill yesterday.

How else to explain her column pondering whether Barack Obama is our first "female president" (listen closely), that’s Hillary Clinton ripping the wood off of whatever podium she’s at today.

Parker’s column may lack the trite comparisons to fictional cartoon characters, however the message is the same: Obama throws like a girl. Too much Woody Allen, too little John Wayne. And to top it off he may be losing his presidency because he speaks like a girl:

No, I’m not calling Obama a girlie president. But . . . he may be suffering a rhetorical-testosterone deficit when it comes to dealing with crises, with which he has been richly endowed [pun intended?]…

The masculine-coded context of the Oval Office poses special challenges, further exacerbated by a crisis [BP] that demands decisive action. It would appear that Obama tests Campbell’s argument that “nothing prevents” men from appropriating women’s style without negative consequences.

Indeed, negative reaction to Obama’s speech suggests the opposite. Obama may prove to be our first male president who pays a political price for acting too much like a woman.

It’s hard to know where to begin. Does this mean that Hillary Clinton would not have been able to deal with the BP Oil crisis? Or that Hillary Clinton is better at speaking like a man that Obama (hello again MoDo!)

Or that Obama is paying the price for speaking intelligently? Or that Joan Walsh was right, and this nation has been so infantalized by a combination of overreaching government policies and the media we really just crave a daddy who will tell us it’s all right. No grey area allowed.

Perhaps it’s that grey area that’s been causing the trouble all along. The grey area of empty coverage space needed to be filled. And the grey area of where Obama fits in the national storyline.

At some point it will be easier to make a list of the things and people Obama hasn’t been compared to in the mediasphere’s continuing effort to pinpoint exactly who Obama is than it will be to comprise a list of the actual comparisons.

In the meantime, it’s hard not to wonder if this column is a preview of what we can expect from Parker and Spitzer’s new CNN show…lord knows the world is dying to discover whether Eliot Spitzer thinks Obama is man enough. In the meantime I suppose we can be grateful that no Bambi references made it into this piece.

Sources: ABC News, CNN, McClatchy Newspapers, mediaite, Washington Post,

"Jews Should Get the Hell Out of Palestine", Helen Thomas Resigns (Video)

Helen Thomas Retires Amid Controversy Over Israel Remarks



Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring, effective immediately, in the wake of a controversy over her comments on Israel, according to a report from her employer, Hearst News Service.

Thomas told a rabbi at a White House event last week that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Germany and Poland.

"I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians," Thomas said in a statement on her Web site. "They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."

Thomas's comments provoked sharp criticism within the close-knit world of White House reporters, and drew a rebuke from the White House podium Monday. With her seat conspicuously empty at the daily briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs assailed Thomas for her words.

"Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible," Gibbs said, noting that Thomas has apologized. Her sentiments "do not reflect certainly most of the people here and certainly not those of the administration."

Thomas, 89, who has covered the White House for decades, canceled a speech over the weekend and was dropped by a speakers' bureau that represented her. The controversy comes at a precarious moment in the Middle East, after an Israeli assault on an aid flotilla that left 11 dead and prompted an international outcry.

The Board of the White House Correspondents Association also issued a statement Monday calling her comment "indefensible."

The full WHCA statement follows:

Helen Thomas' comments were indefensible and the White House Correspondents Association board firmly dissociates itself from them. Many in our profession who have known Helen for years were saddened by the comments, which were especially unfortunate in light of her role as a trail blazer on the White House beat.

While Helen has not been a member of the WHCA for many years, her special status in the briefing room has helped solidify her as the dean of the White House press corps so we feel the need to speak out strongly on this matter.

We want to emphasize that the role of the WHCA is to represent the White House press corps in its dealings with the White House on coverage-related issues. We do not police the speech of our members or colleagues. We are not involved at all in issuing White House credentials, that is the purview of the White House itself.

But the incident does revive the issue of whether it is appropriate for an opinion columnist to have a front row seat in the WH briefing room. That is an issue under the jurisdiction of this board. We are actively seeking input from our association members on this important matter, and we have scheduled a special meeting of the WHCA board on Thursday to decide on the seating issue.


Sources: Washington Post, Youtube

353 Journalists Follow Tiger Woods & Mickelson To Charlotte (Quail Hollow)

National Media Descends On Quail Hollow For Tiger Coverage


Look around at the parking signs at the Quail Hollow Championship in south Charlotte, and you will see names you've never seen before: CNN, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News.

The Tiger Woods scandal and his return to golf have turned his second appearance at a tournament into something more than a sports event.

There are 353 journalists who've been given permission to cover the tournament -- about 100 more than in 2009. The group was so large that the tent where members of the media are asked to work was expanded.

"We've obviously had to create a little more desk space, a little more working space," explained Lee Patterson, the tournament's Director of Communications.

The attention is so high that reporters and photographers will need a special credential to follow Woods along the golf course during tournament play. A separate credential will allow them to follow any other golfer.

"There is so much more reaction, response, readership, viewership, e-mails, comments when he plays," said Bob Harig from ESPN.com

"He really does heighten the interest in so many ways."


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Sources: CBS, ESPN, WCNC, Youtube, Google Maps

Don Blankenship & Massey Energy Should Be Sued For Miners' Deaths

"You're Liable to Get Shot!"


The company is well known in West Virginia, in part because CEO Don Blankenship grew to become a fixture in state politics, doling out thousands of dollars to candidates he favored – most of them Republicans. In 2004, he spent millions on advertising that attacked a West Virginia state Supreme Court justice, leading to the election of challenger Brent Benjamin.

Massey had a $70 million case before the state Supreme Court and, once elected, Benjamin made the controversial decision not to recuse himself because of Blankenship's support of him and to hear arguments anyway. Another member of the court hearing the case was Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard.

He later recused himself after photographs surfaced showing that he vacationed with Blankenship in the French Riviera.

When an ABC News reporter tried to interview Blankenship about the possible conflicts in the parking lot of a Massey Energy office in Belfry, Ky., Blankenship became agitated.

"If you're going to start taking pictures of me, you're liable to get shot," Blankenship told the reporter before grabbing his camera.

Blankenship later told the Charleston Daily Mail he couldn't recall making any threats. "Quite frankly, I don't know what I said except that I know I'm never loud, vulgar or rude to strangers," he said.

The conflicts surrounding the state Supreme Court saga triggered a cascade of changes, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that called on judges to recuse themselves when major donors come before them in court, and a vote by the West Virginia legislature to adopt public financing of judicial campaigns.








4 Missing West Virginia Miners Found Dead


Days of rescue efforts came to a grim end after crews found the bodies of four miners who had been missing since an explosion almost a week ago in a West Virginia mine, authorities said early Saturday.

"We did not receive the miracle we prayed for," said West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. "This journey has ended and now the healing will start."

Authorities first notified the families of the four miners about their fate before revealing it to the media.

The death toll from Monday's blast at the Upper Big Branch mine now stands at 29, making it the worst mining disaster in the United States in nearly four decades.

On Friday, crews had reached a refuge chamber that had not been used, but the bad air forced them to evacuate before they reached the second chamber.

The airtight chambers were stocked with enough food, water and air to keep 15 miners alive for four days, but Manchin said none of the chambers had been deployed.

Rescue efforts have now turned to the difficult task of recovery, said Kevin Stricklin, of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

Of the 29 dead, the bodies of 22 still remain inside the mine. Stricklin said most of them will have to be hand-carried out because of the lack of equipment.

"It's hard to turn a rescue into a recovery with the same group of people," he said.

As days of rescue came to an end, funerals were held Friday for some of the seven dead whose bodies have been removed from the mine.

At the funeral for Benny Willingham, the Rev. Gary Pollard said the 61-year-old miner had three loves in life: God, his family and his job. "He loved God so much that every day was a holiday, every meal was a buffet," Pollard said at Mullens Pentecostal Holiness Church in Mullens.

Willingham, who was married for 33 years, was devoted to his church, Pollard said, and had been a Christian for 19 years. And though Willingham had been set to retire soon, Pollard said he didn't know whether retirement would have suited him: He loved the work.

Three other funerals were held Friday and one is set for Saturday.

The cause of Monday's blast is unknown, and state and federal officials have pledged a full investigation.

The explosion has prompted renewed questions about mine safety. Obama said Friday that "it's clear more needs to be done" to improve mine safety.

He will meet next week with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and a Mine Safety and Health Administration official to hear their initial assessment of the cause of the blast and their recommendations on steps the federal government should take to improve safety.

Richmond, Virginia-based Massey Energy Co., which owns the mine, said in a statement released Friday that it will conduct "extensive" reviews of the mine accident "to ensure that a similar incident doesn't happen again."

It said the mine has had less than one violation per day in inspections by the Mine Safety and Health Administration and added that that rate is "consistent with national averages."

"Most of the citations issued by MSHA to [Upper Big Branch] in the last year were resolved on the same day they were issued," it said. "The safety of our members has been and will continue to be our top priority every day."

One of the unaccounted-for miners and 18 of the dead were working in an area where long wall cutting was taking place. The technique uses a large grinder to extract the coal and creates large amounts of coal dust and methane, both of which are explosive.

Manchin said that even though it's not clear what caused the explosion, there needs to be a focus on better ventilation and sensors to alert mine personnel when gas levels become dangerous.

"There was no way to protect them against this," he said. "You just have to prevent it and make sure it doesn't happen again."

The West Virginia blast was the worst mining disaster since 1972 when 91 miners were killed in a fire at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

West Virginia Mine EXPLOSION: Massey Energy Mine Had Scores Of Safety Citations


A huge underground explosion blamed on methane gas killed 25 coal miners in the worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades.

Four others were missing Tuesday, their chances of survival dimming as rescuers were held back by poison gases that accumulated near the blast site, about 1.5 miles from the entrance to Massey Energy Co.'s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine.

The mine, about 30 miles south of Charleston, has a significant history of safety violations, including 57 infractions just last month for (among other things) not properly ventilating the highly combustible methane.

ABC News reported:

The federal records catalog the problems at the Upper Big Branch mine, operated by the Performance Coal Company. They show the company was fighting many of the steepest fines, or simply refusing to pay them. Performance is a subsidiary of Massey Energy.

The nation's sixth biggest mining company by production, Massey Energy took in $24 million in net income in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company paid what was then the largest financial settlement in the history of the coal industry for the 2006 fire at the Aracoma mine, also in West Virginia. The fire trapped 12 miners. Two suffocated as they looked for a way to escape. Aracoma later admitted in a plea agreement that two permanent ventilation controls had been removed in 2005 and not replaced, according to published reports.

Rescuers on Tuesday had to bulldoze an access road above it so they could begin drilling three shafts over 1,000 feet each to release methane and carbon monoxide that chased them from the mine after the blast Monday afternoon, Gov. Joe Manchin said at an early morning news briefing Tuesday. Drilling and ensuring rescuers can safely go in could take up to 12 hours, meaning the search was unlikely to resume before 6 p.m. Tuesday.

"It's going to be a long day and we're not going to have a lot of information until we can get the first hole through," Manchin said.

It had already been a long day for grieving relatives, some angry because they found out their loved ones were among the dead from government officials or a company Web site, not from Massey Energy executives.

"They're supposed to be a big company," said Michelle McKinney, whose father, 62-year-old Benny R. Willingham, died in the blast. She found out from a local official at a school near the mine. "These guys, they took a chance every day to work and make them big. And they couldn't even call us."

McKinney said her husband is a miner too and her 16-year-old son doesn't want him to go back to work. Willingham, who had mined for 30 years, the last 17 with Massey, was just five weeks from retiring and planned to take his wife on a cruise to the Virgin Islands next month.

"Benny was the type – he probably wouldn't have stayed retired long," said his sister-in-law, Sheila Prillaman said. "He wasn't much of a homebody."

Meanwhile, others waited for word about missing loved ones. Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said the situation looked grim.

"All we have left is hope, and we're going to continue to do what we can," he said.

Officials hoped the four miners still unaccounted for were able to reach airtight chambers stocked with food, water and enough oxygen for them to live for four days, but rescue teams checked one of two such chambers nearby and it was empty. The buildup of gases prevented teams from reaching other chambers, officials said.

A total of 31 miners were in the area during a shift change when the explosion rocked the mine.

"Before you knew it, it was just like your ears stopped up, you couldn't hear and the next thing you know, it's just like you're just right in the middle of a tornado," miner Steve Smith, who heard the explosion but was able to escape, told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Some of those killed may have died in the blast and others when they breathed in the gas-filled air, Stricklin said. Eleven bodies had been recovered and identified, but the other 14 have not. Names weren't released publicly, but Manchin said three of the dead are members of the same family.

He said investigators still don't know what ignited the blast, but methane likely played a part.

The death toll is the highest in a U.S. mine since 1984, when 27 died in a fire at Emery Mining Corp.'s mine in Orangeville, Utah. If the four missing bring the total to 29, it would be the most killed in a U.S. mine since a 1970 explosion killed 38 at Finley Coal Co., in Hyden, Ky.

"There's always danger. There's so many ways you can get hurt, or your life taken," said Gary Williams, a miner and pastor of New Life Assembly, a church near the southern West Virginia mine. "It's not something you dread every day, but there's always that danger. But for this area, it's the only way you're going to make a living."

Though the situation looked bleak, Manchin said miracles can happen and pointed to the 2006 Sago Mine explosion that killed 12. Crews found miner Randal McCloy Jr. alive after he was trapped for more than 40 hours in an atmosphere poisoned with carbon monoxide.

In Monday's blast, nine miners were leaving on a vehicle that takes them in and out of the mine's long shaft when a crew ahead of them felt a blast of air and went back to investigate, Stricklin said.

They found seven workers dead. Others were hurt or missing about a mile and a half inside the mine, though there was some confusion over how many. Others made it out.

Massey Energy, a publicly traded company based in Richmond, Va., has 2.2 billion tons of coal reserves in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia and Tennessee. It ranks among the nation's top five coal producers and is among the industry's most profitable. It has a spotty safety record.

In the past year, federal inspectors fined the company more than $382,000 for repeated serious violations involving its ventilation plan and equipment at Upper Big Branch.

ABC News has also documented the highly controversial relationship between Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and a local judge who has refused to recuse himself from cases involving Massey Energy despite long fundraising and personal ties between the two men. In 2004, Blankenship physically resisted an ABC reporter trying to ask him about the matter.

Methane is one of the great dangers of coal mining, and federal records say the Eagle coal seam releases up to 2 million cubic feet of methane gas into the Upper Big Branch mine every 24 hours, which is a large amount, said Dennis O'Dell, health and safety director for the United Mine Workers labor union.

In mines, giant fans are used to keep the colorless, odorless gas concentrations below certain levels. If concentrations are allowed to build up, the gas can explode with a spark roughly similar to the static charge created by walking across a carpet in winter, as at the Sago mine, also in West Virginia.

Since then, federal and state regulators have required mine operators to store extra oxygen supplies. Upper Big Branch uses containers that can generate about an hour of breathable air, and all miners carry a container on their belts besides the stockpiles inside the mine. Upper Big Branch has had three other fatalities in the last dozen years.

Upper Big Branch has 19 openings and roughly 7-foot ceilings. Inside, it's crisscrossed with railroad tracks used for hauling people and equipment. It is located in a mine-laced swath of Raleigh and Boone counties that is the heart of West Virginia's coal country.

The seam produced 1.2 million tons of coal in 2009, according to the mine safety agency, and has about 200 employees.

"The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration will investigate this tragedy, and take action," U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said in a statement. "Miners should never have to sacrifice their lives for their livelihood."


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Sources: ABC News, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, Huffington Post, Google Maps