The New York Times...has already published five articles about Le's disappearance and murder and the apprehension of suspect Raymond Clark III. The Boston Globe has published at least six stories about the case, and the Washington Post has run at least three briefs from the Associated Press. The Times of London, published five time zones away, can't seem to sate its appetite for Annie Le news. Even the proletarian New York tabloids—the Post and the Daily News—have gone ape for the story.

...besides which, a slew of well-sourced and quick-response articles in the university's paper of record, and, by my count, two cover spots in the Washington Post Express.

My problem with Shafer's piece isn't his gripe that crimes at Yale and Harvard receive undue attention. (They do; always have.) I went to Yale—graduated, even—and Shafer's points are well taken. But what the media critic misses is that, when it comes to murder, the Ivy League's disproportionate share of media attention is part of a larger, and more regrettable, trend.

In D.C., the murders of (say) a white, affluent northwest couple like Michael and Virginia Spevak prompt the kind of media bonanza with which no targeted shooting in southeast could possibly compete. Then there's the case of Alice Swanson, a well-educated, middle-class white activist wired into the world of think tanks and nonprofits. A full year after her death, her memorial was still standing—and when, two weeks ago, the mayor's office removed the ghost bike, people freaked. Of course, as one commenter noted:

The law says the memorials come down they come down. If this was am unsightly teddy bear memorial surrounded by liquor bottles and candles for a gun shot victim you would be petioning the Mayor’s Office for it’s removal.

This isn't just about the media; it's about us and our assumptions. As a paper, we only put murders above the fold when they defeat expectations—sensationally or otherwise. As humans, we perk up when a story elicits a double-take, or forces us to reassess presuppositions that may have been bogus to begin with. Would this story have blown up in the mid- to late '80s? Probably not; New Haven was a lot grittier back then. But if a GWU student were kidnapped, brutalized, and discovered a week later in a wall, I'm pretty sure the event would garner more coverage than the corresponding death of a kid in Ward 8. (Ask Cherkis.)

Just saying. Newspapers have been on this treadmill for a long time. If anything, the Annie Le story is one that deserved to make it.

***

Closing hat-tip: After calling the New York Times "one of several Ivy League house organs," Shafer is wise to acknowledge that at Slate (which fits much the same description), "no Harvard or Yale story proposal will ever be laughed out of a story meeting, no matter how mundane."

"Yes, officer."

"So you are aware that this is a no-standing zone?"

"Yes, officer."

"And you are aware that it's five days after 9/11?"

"Um...yes, officer."*

"And that our country is at war right now?"

This pleasant exchange went down at Dulles yesterday evening between a vindictive TSA officer and yours truly. Went down at length, too—I was accused of terrorism, detained outside the terminal at which I'd dropped a friend, offered cuffs, and informed that I would "never see [my] car again." All of which struck me as, you know, overkill: My crime was standing in a no-standing zone for five minutes after entering the terminal to say goodbye.

Now, sure, I had blatantly disregarded a traffic sign and dithered slightly longer in the airport than I'd planned. But I'm not, nor have I ever been, a terrorist. And I'm usually good with cops.

This fucker was mean, though—and out to prove a point. First, he insisted that my car had been driven by a mystery individual, who—after parking illegally—had leaped into a cab and disappeared into the night. After that narrative tanked, he fell back on invocations of 9/11, Afghanistan, and "wiseasses like [me]" whom he'd dispossessed of their vehicles, freedom, dignity, &c. over the years. After demanding my driver's license, he refused to accept it, barking that I should stand "ten feet back." When I called him "sir," he accused me of "attitude." When I told him my address, he accused me of lying.

I don't hate cops. I don't mind removing my shoes at security and getting my toothpaste confiscated. I like the fact that I've never felt less than completely safe in an airport.

What I resent is the Crusader Rabbit attitude of boneheaded, ball-less individuals who think they're single-handedly staunching the tide of extremism by being tasteless pricks. No matter how much respect you show them, it's never enough—and if you're lucky enough to keep mum under their soulless tongue-lashing, you'll think twice next time you're tempted to needle your libertarian friends.

"You've got 30 seconds to get off my airport," the fellow finally told me. I gave him no lip and drove off, thankful that he had parked too far back to notice my missing headlight.

*Five days and eight fucking years, officer.

--

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

*Remember the huff over Monica Hesse's piece on Brian Brown? The one from August 28, in which she describes the NOM executive director as "pleasantly, ruthlessly sane"? Nearly two weeks later, this thing still has legs. About this time last week, Rebecca Armendariz of the Washington Blade denounced Hesse's story as a dangerous “puff piece.” Now, on WorldMagBlog—the online arm of (yes) the evangelical rag World—Les Sillars claims the controversy as evidence of liberal bias. Media Matters, on the other hand, says the Post's ombud response "illustrates fundamental flaw in 'liberal bias' claims." (Hey, guys, it's like a goddamn Rorschach test up in here!) The Awl weighed in from 20,000 feet with a post on Hesse's status as a "failed lesbian." And the better angels of our nature wept. [Seriously, though, I'll leave the final word here to Wemple—or to our very own Hess!—but having read the piece, I'd call it a.) misplaced aggression and b.) self-defeating to accuse the woman of "journalistic vandalism," or what have you. Hesse tried for a human(e) feature on an easy-to-revile fellow (with whom many of us disagree), and her conceit backfired. Doesn't make her a monster.]

*NEOLOGISM FAIL: NBC Washington (see above) gets trigger twigger happy with some regrettable twucked-up wordplay after oh God I can't go on like this:

You know how we know it's a modern kinda world? 'Cause everything starts with a Tw- these days. Sorry, did we say "everything"? We meant "tweverything."

Thanks, Twitter!

So it should come as no big shock that a mid-year D.C. Twestival is coming to the third floor of the newly launched MidTown Loft....

If this sort of badinage appeals to you, hit up the Loft (1219 Connecticut Ave. NW) tomorrow from 7-11 p.m.

*FILE UNDER "SWEET WEB GADGET OF THE MOMENT": Slate's new "News Dots" feature, a visualizer of major news stories and the interrelation between them, launched yesterday as part of the Web pub's "Slatest" aggregation thing. And it's pretty neat! See how Obama is the sun 'round which all stories turn?

*TONIGHT IN CITY LIGHTS: The Cult at the 9:30 Club. Fischer sez:

In the current age of album-centered nostalgia tours, it’s no surprise that the chameleonic five-piece is exhuming its 1985 breakthrough Love, which took from the best of that decade’s left-of-the-dial music—postpunk, goth, neopsychedelia—and made it muscular and accessible.

*UNWANTED SLUMBER PARTY: WTOP reports that a Georgetown student discovered a strange man in her bed yesterday morning. The G'town Cuddler strikes again? Police aren't sure:

"She screamed, he fled, and detectives responded," says D.C. Police Commander Matt Klein, "and subsequently took a report for a second degree sexual abuse."

The only description detectives have is the man had a scruffy beard.

*ALONG THE SAME LINES: WUSA9 has the story of Richard Abner Simon, who is being charged with "Felony Indecent Liberties" after being accused of exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl in Arlington.

*WASHINGTON POST WRITES GRAF ABOUT INTERVEW SUBJECT TWITTERING ABOUT WASHINGTON POST INTERVIEW:

Kaitlyn [Maher], one of the top 10 finalists on "America's Got Talent," who has an upcoming Disney movie and debut album, was still very much a 5-year-old. Already, though, her Twitter account read: "kaitlynmaher Is looking forward to 'Washington Post' reporter visiting tonight to do an interview with her! :)."

*...and Rebecca Armendariz of the Washington Blade takes the Post to task for its NOM "puff piece." To wit:

Did everybody read the Washington Post's puff piece on the hate-spewers at the National Organization for Marriage that ran on Friday? The one that basically said, "Hey gays, we're going to not only run this sunny portrait of a bigot, but also plaster a photo of him and his lovely wife across the top of the page!" The one with the headline, "Opposing gay unions with sanity and a smile"?

*TONIGHT'S CITY LIGHTS PICK: Traffic at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. As Erik Wemple observes: "Stress is the essence of Michael Douglas." Also, special prize for anyone who can answer the following: Why does AFI use the British spelling for "Theatre" but the American spelling for "Center"?

Photograph by Flickr user striatic, Creative Commons Attribution License.

*Checked out NBC Washington's new "Moods"/Washington Is... section? I hadn't! (Sorry, vacay.) Definitely interactive. Also, leads to hilarious/tacky catchphrases at the top of the homepage (see above). My problem with this is the same problem I have with "viewers' choice awards" on reality TV shows. (Full disclosure: don't watch many reality TV shows.) The whole "America has spoken" thing smacks of a.) Regis Philbin and b.) hypergeneralization. Still, Washington has spoken...and NBC's new site, moodswings and all? Pretty baller! Or maybe not.

*WUSA-9 reports that four teenagers are being charged by Prince William County police for white supremacist-style vandalism:

First Sgt. Kim Chinn says police received a call at about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday that some sod had been pulled from a pallet and used to write "White Power," "KKK" and form a swastika at Sinclair Elementary School. She says the incident may have occurred overnight.

*BREAD & BUTTER WaTimes SCOOP: Jennifer Harper upbraids the Obama admininstration for cheapening the annual remembrance of 9/11. Biggest faux pas? Evites for families of those killed at the Pentagon.

*INSPIRATIONAL REUTERS QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "The amount of solar energy falling upon the earth's desert regions during 6 hours of a typical day equals the total amount of energy from all sources consumed by the entire population of the globe in a year's time."

*JUST IN TIME FOR VALENTINE'S DAY, SORT OF: Studies show that candlelit dinners are bad for the environment!

*AWKWARD TOWN HALL/HEALTHCARE VIDEO DU JOUR:

*WMATA begins installing wireless service in "20 of Metro's busiest underground stations." Project slated for completion by October 16. All the better to tweet when you see a Metro employee asleep at the wheel, dear! Meanwhile, as the Baltimore Sun observes, Metro's "summer of horrors" continues.

*This week in Cal Thomas: The over-syndicated enfant vieillard terrible compares Britain's coverage of the health care debate to the War of 1812.

*The Washington Independent's Dave Weigel files one of the more readable eulogies for Robert Novak, in which he recalls the columnist's abundant disdain for blogs:

[Novak] was wrong in diagnosing blogs as a source of rot in journalism; the real problems with political reporting are reliance on spoon-feeding and spin, deference to powerful people even when they’re wrong or lying, and the elevation of experts who don’t know anything beyond what their sponsors tell them. At his worst, on cable news, Novak enabled that. At his best, Novak cut through all of that and did real reporting that exposed what powerful people were thinking when the cameras were off. We need more of that.

*Tonight's City Lights pick: Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy at AFI. All about Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten. Beaujon sez go! (Sort of.)

*And who doesn't miss Mr. T in DC? A little bird tells me you're more likely to find him on Twitter than on LiveJournal.

*Remember LiveJournal?

Photograph by Flickr user vitalyzator, Creative Commons Attribution License.

A Friday extravaganza, in which we present our top blog posts from the past week.

1. Gay T-Shirts In Windows A Problem For American Apparel
2. Real World D.C. House [Possibly] Identified
3. Doggie Style: A Sex Toy for Dogs
4. “He Could Have Sex With Anybody He Wanted.”
5. Library Conference Secret Twitter Proves Librarians Sexy, Stern
6. Could Condom Shame Be Good for Pharmacies?
7. Banita Jacks Case: Breakdowns, Lies, And Laziness
8. Dick Sucking Economics 101 @ 6th and K Streets NW
9. Chris Brown Wedding Video: Unbearable Cuteness With a Side of Domestic Abuse
10. Real World D.C. Cast Arriving Now! Really?

Photograph above: "Living Room, 1990" by Darrow Montgomery

1. Gay T-Shirts In Windows A Problem For American Apparel
2. Real World D.C. House [Possibly] Identified
3. American Apparel Windows Will Stay Gay
4. Playing the Feud™ — Celebrity Edition!
5. Library Conference Secret Twitter Proves Librarians Sexy, Stern
6. Can’t Feminists and Anti-Misandrists Just Get Along?
7. Capital Fringe Fest 2009: Our Comprehensive Rundown
8. Sexy Secrets From Librarians: The Lost Tweets
9. Real World D.C. Cast Arriving Now! Really?
10. Fenty Takes Ax to Earmarks: Loose Lips Daily

Photograph above: "Man and Superman" by Darrow Montgomery, 2001

Mmm...South Australian salt flats....

As ever, be sure to refer to our comprehensive, super-sweet, blah blah &c. guide to Silverdocs for all your documentary needs!

Opening tonight:

Act of God, in which people who've been struck by lightning proffer "anecdotes [that] may have you zoning out between crashes of thunder," Tricia Olszewski reports.

Intangible Asset No. 82, about a quest to find South Korea's greatest drummer. Justin Moyer calls it "a testament to the power of music and mysticism." Harrumph!

Ella Es El Matador, a film about female matadors that centers on the charsimatic Maripaz Vega. Sarah Godfrey says: "It’s impossible not to immerse yourself in the action."

Ma Bar, about 73-year-old Scottish power-lifter Bill McFayden. According to Justin Moyer, it "packs the primal emotional punch of a feature film."

Winnebago Man, about the angriest man in the world on the worst day of his life. Jule Banville calls it "a classic This American Life quest."

Voices from El-Sayed, about a community of deaf in the Negev desert...and the new technology that wants to change their way of life. The film, Chris Klimek says, "finds the right balance between narrative and atmosphere, giving us in 73 unhurried minutes a beautifully detailed portrait of a hidden place."

The Horse Boy, in which the parents of an autistic boy lead him on an equestrian trek across Mongolia in search of shamans. Hilary Crowe: "Through interviews with anthropologists and autism experts and unflinching footage of Rowan’s hectic healings, the filmmakers undermine not just Western medicine but also the conventional view that autism is a disability instead of a blessing."

RiP: A Remix Manifesto, in which Brett Gaylor makes copyright policy seem, according to Aaron Leitko, "vital, interesting, and surprisingly entertaining."

The Archive, about Paul Mawhinny, owner of the world's largest collection of vinyl LPs. Despite the film's apparent lack of irony, Jeff Winkler calls it "a hipster’s wet documentary."

Shorts Program 2: Lost & Found, in which we learn a great deal about Australian salt flats, Cuban prisons, Polish post offices, and...self-storage units.

...the California court said voters spoke clearly, through last fall's ballot initiative known as Proposition 8, in wanting to limit marriage to a man and a woman. At the same time, the court said that the marriages of the approximately 18,000 couples who wed before the ban was passed remain valid and that same-sex partners can still enjoy equal legal benefits through recognized civil unions.

NBC Washington has stuff on the Dupont Circle protest. I found the Sexist's coverage less depressing.

*OH, YEAH, ABOUT SOTOMAYOR: Slate's Andy Bowers teaches you how to pronounce the SupCo nominee's surname. Spoiler: It's ""so-toe-my-YORE." (Bowers has the audio, though.)

*WJLA has coverage—and, naturally, video—of yesterday's flooding.

*Over at Young & Hungry, Tim Carman previews the H Street Country Club, admonishing, "you'll never get a tee time." He's referring to that 9-hole indoor putt putt course, of course, and he's got awesome photos to prove it. Prince of Petworth's take on the situation:

Upstairs is where it gets really interesting. Why? Because that is where you can find the indoor putt putt. Which is as insane in reality as it sounds. But it is awesome. It is a 9 hole course with names like U Street, K Street Lego Lawyers, The Awakening of Marion Barry etc. It will cost $7 dollars.

*District, Schmistrict hates "sorry for the lack of posts" posts as much as you do. But the Iowan couple really is sorry about the lack of posts, chalks it up to "serious lack of blog-motivation lately" spurred by "ever-more pleasant weather," and promises they'll be back, keyboards ablaze, in the near future. (The forecast, if nothing else, should help just a bit.)

*D.C. Police report that they've made an arrest in Sunday's fatal stabbing of 34-year-old Tyrone Wheaten in the 2400 block of Elvans Rd. SE. 38-year-old Troy Richardson is being held for Murder One:

Mr. Richardson had reportedly stabbed the decedent and then fled, barricading himself inside of his own apartment at the above location. Member’s from the Department’s Emergency Response Team responded to the scene and were able to successfully remove the suspect from the apartment and take him into custody.

*Mr. T in DC was shocked to find a street vendor selling baby turtles in Columbia Heights.

Where did this guy get the turtles? Did he raid a wildlife sanctuary, or plunder Rock Creek Park? Were they a rare species, smuggled into the country? Does he breed them in his home? I'm guessing he didn't have proper permits and whatnot.

*The Prince of Petworth is pleased to announce that a "real historic diner" is coming to Trinidad. One of the owners even wrote him an email:

“My partner and I are moving an historic 1940’s diner from New York to Washington, DC tomorrow. We bought a Silk City Diner, manufactured by Paterson Vehicle Company in 1947, that has been in upstate New York ever since it was put into service."

*Today's City Paper must-do: "Presidents in Waiting" at the National Portrait Gallery.

Putting it bluntly, Riggs says: "Dowd stole some shit and admitted it." Fair enough.

In Slate, Jack Shafer has an uncharacteristically mellow view of the proceedings. After chiding, "Bad, Dowd, bad—deserving of hard time in a pillory!," Shafer proceeds to exonerate the columnist—Dowd "almost sets things right," he says, a conclusion the media critic arrives at through six-point reasoning:

1. She responded promptly to the charge of plagiarism when confronted by the Huffington Post and Politico. (Many plagiarists go into hiding or deny getting material from other sources.)
2. She and her paper quickly amended her column and published a correction (although the correction is a little soft for my taste).
3. Her explanation of how the plagiarism happened seems plausible—if a tad incomplete.
4. She's not yet used the explanation as an excuse, nor has she said it's "time to move on."
5. She's not yet protested that her lifting wasn't plagiarism.
6. She's taking her lumps and not whining about it.

Taking these points one by one:

1. Two of the most highly trafficked politics and commentary sites rub your nose in your own literary pilfering. What do you do: Retire to your Georgetown manse and burnish your Pulitzer, or acknowledge the obvious?

2. Could Times spokesperson Diane McNulty possibly have been squishier in her apologia? McNulty writes: "There is no need to do anything further since there is no allegation, hint or anything else from Marshall that this was anything but an error." Does the Times really need Marshall to come knocking before they force Dowd to grovel?

3. OK.

4. This smacks of a Chris Rock sketch. Regardless, Dowd deserves no props on this count.

5. Ditto, but OK.

6. Still got a job, check. Still got a column, check. Plenty of heavyweights coming to her defense, check. Them's some pretty meager lumps.

A major point that Shafer misses is the question of medium. When a book plagiarizes another book, or a print publication plagiarizes a book, reaction is likely to come slowly and by narrow avenues. When one of the most-read columnists in the country cribs from one of the most-read bloggers in the country, well, that's a different story: backlash is likely to come quickly and from all sides. Leaving the cribber on the defensive, and with little equivocal recourse.

All of which sidesteps one of the most troubling points: How often has Dowd done this exact thing before?

A final point: Shafer apparently misunderstands the purpose of a pillory. Pillorying a writer isn't the equivalent of slapping him or her on the wrist—it's a full-on public humiliation (see above), after which the writer's reputation is tarnished forever. Seditious pamphleteering, Papism, sexual deviancy—these were the crimes that merited a good pillorying back in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Far be it from me to recommend such for Dowd. But let's at least be consistent in our hyperbole.

Illustration above: "Defoe in the Pillory," engraving by J.C. Armytage, 1868.

The piece itself is pretty harrowing, describing monstrosities straight out of the biography of Rasputin:

The latest victim in Chicago's long year of student killings is 15-year-old Alex Arellano. On May 1, he was chased, beaten with baseball bats, run over by a car, shot and burned. His body was found days after he disappeared from his family's home on the city's South Side.

All of which is unspeakably depressing. But what the hell does it have to do with the President's daughters?

*The Washington Times condemns Rep. Jim Moran for "champion[ing] the idea of bringing terrorists like 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other al Qaeda detainees to historic Alexandria." Back in March, our own Amanda Hess noted the furor over a sex shop that threatened to undermine the dignity—nay, the decency—of Old Town Alexandria. First a naughty boutique, then political detainees—what's next? According to the Times: "the nuclear waste that Nevada won't take."

*D.C. Police report that 82-year-old James Booker went missing from his home in the 1700 block of Irving Street NE:

James L. Booker is described as a light to medium complexioned black male, 6’ 3” tall, weighing approximately 160 pounds, and is nearly bald with some gray hair. He has a mustache and may be wearing eyeglasses. He was last seen wearing a blue and gray jacket, black pants, and a black baseball cap with the word, “Veteran" on it. He is in need of medication and may appear to be disoriented. Anyone with information regarding Mr. Booker’s whereabouts is asked to call police at 202-727-9099.

*Tonight's City Paper pick: Point Juncture, WA at the Black Cat.

*New Columbia Heights commemorates Limerick Day by writing his own:

There once was a man from the Heights
Who liked to get in fights.
He went to Wonder-bar
Drank beer for many hour
then wished he'd only had Sprite.

Endearing—but Edward Lear he ain't.

*Prince of Petworth was "stunned by the beauty of this place."

*Mr. T in DC misses his jet-setting wife. And so does their dog!

TO OUR WONDERFUL CUSTOMERS:

DURING THE LAST WEEKS WE HAVE EXPERIENCED TROUBLES WITH OUR CREDIT CARD TERMINAL. WE WILL TRY TO RUN YOUR CARD, BUT ARE ALSO ACCEPTING CASH & CHECKS (WEDDING & ENGAGEMENT RINGS—AND SEXY UNDERWEAR).

—PANCHO VILLA, MEXICAN BANDOLERO

Photo by avlxyz