Claims And Issues

TAKING A BREAK.

We at the Claims and Issues Blog are taking a temporary break.  In the meantime, feel free to visit our sister blog at Claims and Bad Faith Law.

Thanks for being here.  We'll see you again soon.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

SO WHAT WERE WE TALKING ABOUT? THE UNREDACTED EMAILS?

So what were we talking about before the drone exploded?

It is hard to recall, which is a measure of distraction in itself.

As best I recall, we were talking about the unredacted emails. An online blog or zine or whatever called Just Security published some totally redacted emails which the current regime had filed in a court file in response to a court order to release those emails. Just Security says that it "viewed" many of those emails, unredacted, and it published them along with the redacted version.

The emails evidenced communications between political appointees in the current regime, and officers in the Department of Defense and in the Department of State, over the illegality of impounding funds which Congress had already appropriated and ordered spent, and over who ordered this action.

One of the more significant emails, which the regime had blacked out, revealed that the head of our government directed it.

That is what we were talking about before the drone exploded.

Since the drone exploded, it is hard to find any reporting in any medium anywhere about the message in the unredacted emails. Keep your eyes on the ball, media. Keep your focus, publishers and editors and reporters. The people could use your help and we are not getting it.

Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All Rights Reserved.

ANNIE KARNI, SHARE THIS WITH YOUR NYT ONLINE EDITOR.

This is kind of a postscript to an article published here yesterday, CNN'S JIM ACOSTA WON, BUT PLAYING "MASOCHIST MAN" A LOSING DEAL.

The thing that originally drew my attention was Ms. Annie Karni's reporting in the print edition of last Saturday's New York Times.  When I went to the Online Edition, however, that part of her reporting was edited out.  As I wrote yesterday, Mr. Trump reportedly pointed to a few of the people in attendance at last Friday's so-called press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House.  These were supposedly mothers of children killed by undocumented immigrants -- mothers whom the White House invited to sit in the front row of this "press conference."  Mr. Trump then reportedly turned back to Mr. Acosta.

Here is the reporting that was edited out of the print edition when it was posted online, including the reporting that attracted my attention in the first place:

... , accusing Mr. Acosta of being "fake news" and driven by an agenda.

          Earlier, Mr. Trump had asked one of the grieving mothers to stand up and show off a picture of her child.  Ms. [Kirstjen] Nielsen [the current head of the Department of Homeland Security] sat next to her and rubbed her back when she sat down.

Annie Karni, White House Memo / Playbook After a Loss:  Defense by Distraction, New York Times, Saturday, February 16, 2019, at p. A17.

This morning I compared the entire edited online version of this reporting with the print edition.  I found that there were three times that the online version differed from the paper's own print reporting.  Here are the three differences, and a description of who might be benefitting from the changes:

1. The online edition added a quote from the current Federal Government. Apparently the online editor was of the opinion that there were not enough quotes in the print edition from the people currently in charge.
2. Apparently the online editor also recoiled from giving Mr. Acosta, a fellow reporter, 'free publicity' so the accusations made to Mr. Acosta, quoted above from the print edition, were airbrushed out of the online edition.
3. Kirstjen Nielsen's attempt at showing empathy -- from the same person who is in charge of separating children from their families as a matter of public policy -- was inexplicably deleted online as well, as the above quotation also shows. Rubbing one supposed mother's back while separating other mothers from their children may have been too much negative publicity for Ms. Nielsen, or appeared much too phony to believe, or so even the online editor may have decided.

When online newspaper editors delete reporting and add quotes from government officials, they add fuel to the speculation about "fake news," inadvertently or otherwise.  There is an old Irish saying that they would do well to follow:  "Don't give it to them to say about you."

Please Read The Disclaimer.  ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.

 

Linked "Sunshine State Shanda Update" on Florida Health Insurance Plans!

A vital new article has been posted on Insureblog about the pitfalls of certain health insurance "plans" offered in Florida.  The link to the particular article, is here: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019 Sunshine State Shanda Update.  Insureblog is a great blog for vital information like the information reported in the linked article, and Insureblog is one of the relatively few blogs listed on Claims and Issue's own Blogroll.

A sign of Insureblog's incomparable good taste:  Insureblog lists this blog on its site as one of several "Blogs of Interest".  Seriously, Insureblog offers seriously important reporting on health insurance plans and on health insurance issues for people like you and me who pay for the plans and sometimes have questions about them.  The linked article that they published this week is only one example among many.  Try it, you'll like it!

Please Read The Disclaimer.  ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.

 

 

IS ANYBODY THERE AT THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION BLAWGS DIRECTORY?

Does anyone know how to get the attention of the American Bar Association Blawgs Directory?  This is their web address:  www.abajournal.com/blawgs/.  I have been blogging since 2006 and I have listed both of my two blogs on the ABA Blawgs since then.  (When the ABA was keeping these statistics, my 2 blogs were No. 1 and No. 2 in their respective categories.)

I have tried a lot to contact them especially in the past four months, but I am asking now for your help on how to get their attention.  That's something different apparently.

You can contact them here, they say:  [email protected].  But I am asking about getting their attention.  In particular, has anyone listed a blog on the ABA's Blawg Directory?  (The ABA uses the word "blawg" to describe a blog about things related to law.)

Over the past 4 months, I have emailed them 3 or 4 times to tell them that they need to use the current (for the last eight months or so) feed on this blog, which is https://feeds.feedblitz.com/claimsissues.  Instead, all that time the ABA has incorrectly said this about the feed on this blog:  "This headline feed is not available."  I just want them to fix their mistake when it comes down to it.

Thanks.  I appreciate all the help I can get, not just in this, but in everything.

Please Read The Disclaimer.  ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.