Al Gore, III: GOOD guy with bad timing

Even a GOOD guy can have moments of spectacularly bad judgment, and speeding down the freeway in a ecologically correct Prius hybrid car at 2 am on the 4th of July was bound to provoke the cops in Southern California's stridently Republican Orange County, better known to tv viewers as the O.C. If it'd been a stretch Hummer, maybe the cops would have looked the other way.

The embarrassing drugbust of Al Gore III-- scion of Tipper and (Big Green) Al Jr and publisher of Good magazine-- grabbed headlines around the world.
There had been some odoriferous global warming going on inside the silent-running car before the police pulled him over and insisted he roll down his window. This ill-timed joint , along with a collection of feel-Good drugs like Valium, Xanax, Vicodin, Adderall and Soma which had no scrips, put young Al in the joint for 12 hours, until he could raises $20,000 bail. Why do they call it a high-way, he must have mused. (Coincidentally, Laguna Niguel, the spot where Gore was pulled over, is not far from the old haunts of last century's turn on, tune in, drop out guru ,Timothy Leary.)

Gore III, 24, rates as a new media personality, and is quite bloggable in his own right. Gawker covered both of his launch parties last fall and remarked that he was "no douchebag" . They doled out this rather faint praise because he'd confessed to "refreshing Gawker and Wonkette religiously." The bloggers kidded Al for taking time off "from saving the world on recycled stock paper", and joked that his launch party at the trendy Beaver club in Chelsea and the new issue were both, well, appropriately Good. Lauren Bush, the niece of the numbskull in the White House, attended the party as did Gore's rather straitlaced parents.

The timing of this arrest, on the eve of the Live Earth concerts on 07/07/07, could not have been worse. But so far there have been few reports of blood and gore on the home front. The hearing for speeding at 100 mph and drug possession will take place in 30 days. We bet it gets Good coverage.

Note: This piece was corrected when a reader pointed out that the ex-Vice Prez is Al Junior, named after his lawmaker father, so his son was christened Albert Arnold Gore the third. Similar confusion about the famous moniker cost an Irish bookie ten thousand euros. He'd run a pool on the next celebrity to go to jail, and fifty people had placed money on 14-1 odds that it would be Al Gore Jr.
Al leaves Orange County Jail on the morning after, heading to get treatment, according to his father.

Strange but True: sci-fi writers brainstorm for DHS

The US Department of Homeland Security recently joined forces with SIGMA, a group of science fiction writers. DHS wants to tap the writers' futuristic notions for border control, disaster preparedness and terrorist tactics. SIGMA founder Arlan Andrews says sci-fi writers have more to offer than lasers and flying spaceships.
Click below to hear a podcast.

Covert hack smacked in DC

Maybe he's not as sly as Nellie Bly (left).
An expose of the lowdown world of Washington DC lobbyists has been greeted with muttering about the writer Ken Silverstein's own journalistic ethics while playing gotcha with the suits. When Howard Kurtz tsk-tsked about webs of deceit in his Washington Post media column, the correspondent for Harper's Magazine explained his side in his former rag, the LA Times. Ken takes a swipe at the cowardice of beltway reporters, many of whom consider themselves part of the establishment these days, and hearkens back to the days of resourceful Nellie Bly, an 1880s ace reporter who once pretended to be insane to get inside and investigate asylum conditions. Harpers stands behind their July-issue slapdown of highly-paid advocates for corrupt regimes.

Kurtz asserted that clandestine stings have not had much approval in high profile US media outlets since the 1970s (Hmmmm- five years ago People magazine reporters would switch wigs and don waiter's uniforms to penetrate celebrity bashes; now the stars accept money for cooperation and product placement.)
Things are rather different in Britain, where Mark Daly of the BBC won kudos for exposing five notorious pedophiles.
And in 2003 the tabloid Daily Mirror exposed security gaps at Buckingham Palace, despite a severe lockdown for a state visit by Bush, by planting a cub reporter among the royal servants.
Mazher Mahmood,pictured at right after Member of Parliament George Galloway unmasked him as the "Fake Sheikh", was considered a stealth weapon by the British red-top News of the World, coloquially known as News of the Screws. More than 100 criminals were exposed through his relentless undercover reporting, as well as revelations of the seamier side of star athletes and some politicians.
But the Fake sheikh came under a cloud after an alleged plot to kidnap "Posh Spice" (mega-footballer's wife, Victoria Beckham) backfired.

Ace ex-Aussie Murdoch keeps cards close to his chest

Time's lengthy profile of Rupert Murdoch, 76, and the flattering set of black and white photos that accompany it online have raised some questions

What does a restless septuagenarian moving headlong into the digital age want with a somewhat beaten-down media property like Dow Jones, which over the years has misplayed some juicy opportunities to sell financial information in the digital world? Others may look at Dow Jones and see an excellent, world-renowned (though economically stagnant) print newspaper with a successful subscription-only website; Murdoch sees the engine of a global, interactive, multiplatform business-and-finance network that will drive his soon-to-be-launched Fox Business Channel, power up his 24-hour Sky News channel in Europe and fuel a still inchoate collection of online financial services. "We've got to lift our game tremendously," he says. "We'll sell our business news and information in print, we'll sell it to anyone who's got a cable system, and we'll sell it on the Web." Says News Corp. president Peter Chernin: "There are millions of people throughout the world joining the financial class, and the Journal is the premier financial brand. We have the size and international strength to monetize it globally."

This definitely is worth reading, even though you may not warm to the subject.

Sicko-phancy mars the Daily Show

Moore was bumped off CNN's Larry King show by Paris Hilton last week, but still looms large on talk show radar after appearances on Letterman, the View, and the Daily Show. Truthdig screens a droll exchange on health care blues between Jon Stewart, the Daily Show cynic, and the "Sicko" director, Michael Moore. Stewart appears a tad sicko-phantic as he jaws away with the shambolic blue-collar, white-bread uber-iconolast from Motown. Visibly less obese now, Moore's been learning medical tips on the docu-trail after shooting 500 hours of medical muddles. The recently released film had a mixed reception from critics; there are some rather cheap shots, like the Gitmo gotcha tactic. E for effort and fierceness of approach.

Grim Statistics: kill the messenger

We are now into the second half of 2007, and the risks of reporting are increasing. So far this year, 50 journalists and 8 fixers have been killed, 125 journalists and six fixers jailed, plus 66 cyberdissidents held in detention, according to the NGO
Reporters Without Borders. It is unacceptable that the media death toll is skyrocketing: in all of 2006, 84 were killed, compared to 63 reporter deaths last year and 25 in 2002.
Not all were accidents or 'getting caught in crossfire' while covering combat zones; many victims were intrepid beat reporters targetted while exposing injustices. It's important to stay safe out there. Accordingly, Reporters Without Borders offers the following:

Insurance for freelance journalists

Loan of bulletproof jackets, helmets and personal distress beacons

First-aid kits

A hotline for journalists in danger

The Practical Guide for journalists

Training for journalists on dangerous assignments

Beast of Baghdad

The Jerusalem press corps notes the departure of a familiar Farrell Beast, specifically Stephen Farrell, former Middle East correspondent for the London Times, who has just joined the New York Times as a veteran reinforcement for their Baghdad bureau. It recently underwent a major overhaul, with Dexter Filkins and John Burns back to civilization of sorts (although with car bombs planted in the UK, Burns' new patch of Londonistan is none too calm.)

This alpha male was famously kidnapped at gunpoint by bandits near Fallujah, then re-kidnapped by Baathist insurgents, interrogated as a suspected CIA spy and released after 8 hours. The kidnappers discovered that both their captives had been based in Israel, and things looked pretty hairy for awhile.

"See, not soldier. Just bald," the shaved-headed Farrell joked to the second lot of gunmen, to convince them there was no threat. Dinner then was served to Farrell and his petite female colleague, freelancer and fluent Arabic speaker Orly Halpern, before they were blindfolded and driven to Baghdad.

Steve manages to keep his head down a bit more these days, but has a great nose for news and a knack for danger.

Well, Farrell is back for more Iraq hi-jinks, full-on. He did not exactly slink away from the Holy Land hotspot. The send-off party at his Jerusalem apartment, for which he donned his ratty Iraq t-shirt, was classic. Sushi was served and the press corps was roasted with "Golden Bollocks" awards for ace blunders. The winner was a strapping Scandinavian hack who, when grilled by agents at the Ben Gurion airport, had managed to leave them sputtering and speechless. "Did you have contact with any Arabs?" they had asked, attempting to assess whether he was a threat to the Nation of Israel. "Well,Arabs, Jews, whatever... I can't really tell you guys apart," he had replied. Doh! They must have been rough with him.
James Hider, who is assuming Farrell's old beat at the London Times, is also an old Baghdad hand. It's a beastly business.