Tag Archives: Washington Post

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Really, Facebook?!


By  ThinkProgress War Room

Grassroots Campaign Pressures Facebook Over Rape, Assault Imagery

More and more companies are dropping Facebook advertising over the social network’s refusal, heretofore, to address offensive imagery about rape and domestic violence posted by its users. More than a dozen companies have now dropped ads because of Facebook’s apparently permissive attitude toward images like this.

When asked about their policy, a Facebook spokesperson told ThinkProgress that content featuring battered women, rape, and violence falls under “poor taste” or “crude attempts at humor” and therefore does not violate its policies.

Meanwhile, just this weekend Facebook rejected an ad aimed at debunking the false claim that abortion leads to breast cancer because the ad featured the image of a breast. Facebook claimed the educational ad violated a ban on “adult products.”

The ad boycott has been gaining steam as a result of a grassroots campaign launched last week by Women, Action & the Media, the Everyday Sexism Project and other activists. According to Women, Action & the Media, “participants sent over 60,000 tweets and 5000 emails, and our coalition has grown to over 100 women’s movement and social justice organizations.”

This is not the first time in recent weeks that Facebook has come under pressure from progressives. After Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg founded and bankrolled a political group backing immigration reform that instead spent millions of dollars on ads touting dirty energy production and the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, progressive groups launched their own ad boycott and even held a protest outside Facebook’s headquarters. Facebook further enraged activists when it then banned ads going after Zuckerberg on the issue. The Zuckerberg group, FWD.us, also came under fire from others in Silicon Valley and two of its founding members — and top funders — dropped out of the group in protest.

BOTTOM LINE: Imagery celebrating rape and domestic violence is not merely in “poor taste” or just a “crude attempt at humor.”  It’s time for Facebook to get serious about addressing the offensive and violent imagery posted by some of its users and to learn the difference between “adult content” and educational materials.

Late Breaking Update: Just as we were about to click send, Women, Action & the Media announced an agreement with Facebook:

Facebook addressed our concerns and committed to evaluating and updating its policies, guidelines and practices relating to hate speech, improving training for its content moderators and increasing accountability for creators of misogynist content.

Facebook has also invited Women, Action & the Media, The Everyday Sexism Project and members of our coalition to contribute to these efforts and be part of an ongoing conversation. As part of these efforts, we will work closely with Facebook on the issue of how Community Standards around hate speech are evaluated and to ensure best practices represent the interests of our coalition.

Here’s more from Facebook:

In recent days, it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate. In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want. In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria. We have been working over the past several months to improve our systems to respond to reports of violations, but the guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards. We need to do better – and we will.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed 

Drudge’s latest bogus scoop.

The Washington Post and sexist coverage of women leaders.

Gay soccer player became the first out male athlete to play in a major team sports league after coming out.

Former GOP senator: Republicans need to “rethink their approach as a political party.”

A part of Obamacare that’s working even though it hasn’t even gone into effect yet.

George Zimmerman’s lawyer went on national TV with inadmissible evidence in order to smear Trayvon Martin.

Here’s what it’ll take to turn Texas blue.

Big news on the housing market — and it’s good!

Justice Scalia wants innocent people to just sit in prison.

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Liberal Media


By ThinkProgress War Room

The National Media’s Misbegotten Sequester Coverage

First, Republicans accused the president of over-hyping the impact of the sequester and many reporters dutifully began asking the White House if they regretted the alleged over-hyping. Soon, however, both Congressional Republicans and the media found one impact of the sequester that represented an all-out crisis: the cancellation of White House tours.

(The Secret Service is subject to sequester cuts — $84 MILLION worth — and suspending the tours will save $74,000 a week. This will allow them to avoid furloughing additional workers.)

One-quarter of Americans say that they’ve already been negatively affected by the painful sequester cuts; those making less than $50,000 were twice as likely to have been impacted as those making more than $100,000. The worst impacts of the cuts are still to come and will only get worse over time, yet cable news has hardly covered the impact on some of the most vulnerable among us. Instead there has been absolutely breathless coverage of the apparent national crisis caused by the cancellation of White House tours.

The Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein hits the nail on the head in his piece lamenting the “gross obsession with White House tours.” You should read the whole thing, but here’s the key paragraph:

There’s bargaining power for Republicans in upholding the convenient fiction that we can make these cuts and no one will really hurt, because government spending is just wasteful and unnecessary. But the effort here isn’t to make sure no one hurts. It’s to make sure no one with the political capital to do something about it hurts. As such, the minor inconveniences of the politically powerful have become a national crisis, even as some of the politically powerless are losing not just a White House tour, but the very roof over their heads.

The Beltway media should follow the lead of local media outlets covering the impact of the sequester. Instead of hyperventilating about White House tours, local outlets have been covering cuts to things like Head Start, medical research, public housing, schools, and the military (including active duty soldiers).

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

NRA president defends lobbyist’s shocking Newton comments.

Sen. Marco Rubio: Denying civil rights to gay people “does not make me a bigot.”

Senators, including Dianne Feinstein, destroy Ted Cruz’s argument against an Assault Weapons Ban, which passed a Senate committee today.

GOP rebranding: Rick Perry booed at conservative conference for calling for Latino outreach.

14 GOP congressmen who think the government shouldn’t borrow have big debts of their own.

Family Research Council: Unmarried people should be denied birth control and punished for having sex.

The latest Republican whopper about the Democratic budget.

The man behind the 47% tape revealed.

Longtime crank with no actual accomplishments is rock star of conservative conference.

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Why We Vote: Obama Rescinds Controversial Bush “Conscience Clause”


 

Care2

Why We Vote: Obama Rescinds Controversial Bush “Conscience Clause”

NOTE: This election will be decided on turnout.  We’ll be running posts from the past three and a half years to remind ourselves why we really do need to vote – and get our friends out too!

After two years of trying, the Obama administration finally succeeded, late last week, in rescinding the “conscience clause,” a federal regulation designed to protect pharmacists and health care workers who want to refuse to provide care based on moral or religious grounds. This often translated into pharmacists being able to deny their customers contraceptives or HIV medications, and health care workers refusing to perform in-vitro fertilizations for lesbians or single women. An ambulance driver in Chicago even rejected a woman’s need for transportation for abortion, and there were reports of drugstore workers refusing to sell condoms to men they perceived to be gay.

The new rule only leaves space, which is far less controversial, for doctors and nurses who conscientiously refuse to perform abortions or sterilizations. Health care workers who feel that their rights have been violated can also file complaints.

As the Washington Post points out, this is likely to spark intense debate, especially since Republican legislators are trying to ensconce these regulations in law. The Bush regulation, which was put in place in the last days of his presidency, would have cut off federal funding to institutions that did not comply with these conscience rules. One of the most commonly cited objections to the regulation was that the rules extended far beyond health care workers, allowing receptionists to refuse to make appointments for abortions and janitors to decline to clean up operating rooms where abortions were performed.

This is a clear victory for women’s ability to access abortion, and more generally for people to gain access to contraceptives, HIV medications, and other procedures to which some may morally object.

“Without the rescission of this regulation, we would see tremendous discrimination against patients based on their behavior and based just on who they are,” said Susan Berke Fogel of the National Health Law Program, an advocacy group based in the District. “We would see real people suffer, and more women could die.”

But some Republicans are, clearly, eager to undermine this step forward.  We will continue to watch what happens in Congress, and keep you posted on future choice victories or encroachments on women’s rights.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/obama-administration-rescinds-controversial-bush-conscience-clause.html#ixzz26APFFkcP

 

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“Pioneers” of outsourcin​g … Stephanie Cutter, BarackObama.com

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The Washington Post reported that “Mitt Romney‘s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.”

This is the same guy that goes around the campaign trail talking a huge game about being able to protect American jobs by standing up to foreign countries like China. But now we know that Romney and his partners made millions while sending American jobs overseas.

This is a critical point, and we need to make sure everyone knows it. Check out this video I recorded today, and share it far and wide:

Romney’s support of outsourcing didn’t just happen in the private sector. As governor of Massachusetts, he vetoed legislation that would have banned companies from shipping state jobs overseas — and he actually outsourced state jobs to a call center in India.

In contrast, President Obama has a jobs plan that could put up to a million people back to work — including teachers, cops, firefighters, construction workers, and veterans — help small businesses create jobs right now, and help to put an end to American jobs being shipped overseas. He’s also fighting for tax breaks for companies that bring jobs back to America.

Mitt Romney is fighting for tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas — the type of companies he ran in the private sector.

This isn’t just a policy position for Romney, it’s his economic philosophy — and it’s his record.

Read the article, watch the video, and share them both far and wide — doesn’t get a lot more important than this one:

Thanks,

Stephanie

P.S. — Chip in $5 or more today, and help make sure we have the resources to spread the truth about Romney’s record.

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Sign the petition to congressional Democrats asking them to stop a terrible debt deal


BREAKING: Reports say the president just offered to cut Social Security benefits, if Republicans agree not to let the U.S. default on its debts.1
It’s his offering to the out-of-control Republicans, who are threatening to crash the economy in order to ram through savage cuts to crucial government programs.
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It’s sickening to think that millions of seniors would have to sacrifice in order to appease Republican hostage-takers. Especially because every poll shows overwhelming majority of Americans support raising taxes on the rich and protecting Social Security and Medicare.2
But there’s still time to stop this “bargain” in its tracks. Whatever deal the president offers Republicans will need Democratic votes to pass Congress. So we need Democrats in Congress to stand strong and oppose any benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
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Can you sign our emergency petition to Democrats in Congress and tell them to stand up and tell the President they will not vote for Social Security and Medicare benefits cuts?       Add your name here.
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President Obama is making a huge mistake that will cost our country dearly.
This is one of those moments where we either stand up and demand that the Democrats in Congress show a real spine. Or we sit back and watch the Republicans destroy decades’ worth of progress.
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Will you help send a message demanding that Democrats draw a clear line in the sand: no cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits?
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Thanks for all you do.

–Daniel, Wes, Elena, Julia, and the rest of the team

Source:

1. “In Debt Talks, Obama Offers Social Security Cuts,” The Washington Post, July 6, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=210871&id=28665-17809870-IiKa5ex&t=5

2. “Poll: To Reduce Deficit, Most Americans say Tax the Rich More,” CBS News, January 3, 2011
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20027036-503544.html