EDITORIAL: Short takes on journalist heroes and a major Trump tweak
The journalist's job very often requires doing the opposite of what instinct tells us to do. When danger lurks, most people will try to get away from it. Whether it's a tornado, explosion, mass shooting or other catastrophe, our job is to go toward the danger, to see what's happening, talk to victims and witnesses, survey the damage and get the assessment of first responders. Rarely does our training prepare us for the kind of dangers experienced by the staff of
A gunman with a vendetta entered the newspaper building with a shotgun and methodically went about his business, killing veteran columnist
Surviving members of the reporting, editing and photo staff faced the most difficult task of all. They had to absorb the overwhelming grief of losing their colleagues, overcome the extreme stress of hiding under desks as the shootings progressed around them and, after that unbelievable ordeal, sit down and do the jobs that journalists do at the scene of any major news event. They covered it.
Despite being locked out of their newsroom, which police had cordoned off as a crime scene, the newspaper's reporters and editors rallied outside, got down to work and produced the next day's newspaper on deadline. This exemplifies the passion that drives our profession -- to serve the cause of keeping the public informed despite all the internet trolls, disgruntled officials and, yes, very serious threats designed to deter us from our mission.
Gazette editor
Against the advice of some senior aides, Trump announced plans this week to meet Putin in mid-July. But the mysterious 2013 visit overshadows everything and remains the topic of intense Russian gossip, largely because of a new music video, "Got Me Good." It depicts an unidentified computer hacker watching security camera monitors while an actor enters a hotel while coiffed to look like Trump -- or, really, more like actor
Other real footage includes Trump's daughter, Ivanka, interspersed with actor impersonations as the singer in the video progresses through a story of Trump interacting with businessmen and exchanging a mysterious briefcase. Another character portraying
In the real 2013 visit, the Miss Universe pageant took place at a performance venue owned by Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov. The new music video is by would-be pop star Emin Agalarov, the billionaire's son, which might explain how the real video footage surfaced.
The video is either poking fun of Trump or trying to re-create the more salacious aspects of a 2016 report by a British former intelligence agent
Bride of Frankenfood
The yellow stuff that Kraft fans squirt onto crackers from a can is not supposed to be referred to as "cheese." Kraft came up with the less-than artful term "cheese-food product" as a way of complying with federal labeling standards. So what do you call meat that's been grown in a lab?
The developers of the beefy, bloody fake stuff tried labeling it as "clean meat" as a way of marketing it to folks who don't like the idea of killing animals for food. Cattle ranchers balked because it implies that the real thing is somehow dirty or unsanitary.
Someone thought up the term "green meat," as if to accentuate the new product's eco-friendly qualities. But no. "Nobody wants to eat green meat,"
"Fake meat" got dismissed as too, well, Trumpian. So the search goes on. Nobody's really sure if consumers will want to buy the stuff anyway, given the nation's gradual turn away from red meat regardless of its source. Federal regulators may very well have the final word since they must approve the label that goes on it. Whatever. As long as it isn't green and doesn't squirt out from a can.
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