Gawker: atlanta journal-constitution

Journo Needs Constitutional Law Expert to Explain How Hawaii Is in America

Pareene — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:26:03 EDT

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports today on the Marine who refuses to go to Afghanistan because Barack Obama is not qualified to be president. If this ProfNet inquiry is any indication, reporter Alyse Knorr found his arguments compelling!

LAW/TODAY: Obama's Presidential Eligibility — Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionTOP
[Limited to the Northeast/Southeast] I need an expert in constitutional law to tell me why Obama *is* eligible to be the president of the United States. Many people claim he is not the president because he was born in Hawaii. I need an expert to explain the eligibility requirement. Contact: Alyse Knorr, [redacted]

Submitted by:Alyse Knorr
Organization:Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Deadline:Jul 15, 2009 01:30 PM EST(America/New_York)

Here are some funny things:

Birthers do not actually believe that Obama isn't qualified to be president because he was born in Hawaii. They don't believe he was born in Hawaii!
She sent out this query 30 minutes before her deadline. Hah.

Also, this Tweet. (Update: She deleted her account; screenshots next time.) The more you know!

If You're Not Paying, World's Worst Person John Fitzgerald Page Isn't Talking

Emily Gould — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:10:46 EDT

The Atlanta Journal -Constitution did a story about their native son John Fitzgerald Page, nightmare internet dater and official world's worst person. The comments are the best part! They're are sort of a funhouse mirror of the comments here.

They run the gamut from first-person observations:"So unless he's gonna sue himself for defamation, I really don't think he's got a case. And you know what, I've actually ran into this joker a time or two at The Tavern at Phipps. He was repeatedly manhandling the female servers and completely unable to hold his liquor...."

To "deep thots":

"Wait a minute—I don't see any comments on the fact that the woman publicly posted a private email. How many of us have sent an email that doesn't necessarily reflect our best qualities? This seems to be an unfortunate side effect of the internet—nothing is private. Is this what we really want?"

But wat does JFP himself have to say about all this? Well, at press time, the AJC had been unable to secure an interview with the man himself! But why? "In an e-mail exchange with the AJC on Friday, Page declined to comment after he asked whether he would be compensated for the interview and was told no. In a follow-up, he said, "'Inside Edition' is offering me cash for an exclusive....'"

Is 'Campaign To Save Book Reviewing' Just About Saving Status Quo?

Emily Gould — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:40:23 EDT

If you're bookish, you might've heard about the lit imbroglio swirling around the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In the wake of similar reorganizations at the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, that paper has made a controversial decision to eliminate its book review section, along with the job of its books editor, Teresa Weaver. Maybe you got an email from a friend urging you to sign a petition to keep her employed, or someone hipped you to the read-in protest taking place in Atlanta this Thursday. Or maybe you read author Michael Connelly's impassioned essay about the important but foundering symbiosis between newspapers and reading culture. "My 10-year-old daughter's love of reading books is slowly leading her toward the newspaper sections that are spread every morning across the breakfast table," he says, asking, "Now where will new voices be discovered?" Well, Michael, maybe they'll be discovered by... blogs. Crazy, right?

That's the point of view that some book bloggers think is missing from the debate. Because, you know, readers do tend to log on the internets. "It makes one wonder why these folks waited so long to begin their campaigns to save the review sections, doesn't it? Did they not see this coming when their newspapers became part of the mega-conglomerates? Why weren't steps taken then to assure that what they were doing was significant enough to warrant preserving?" asks Jeff B., who writes a blog about 'underrated writers.'

"And now, instead of falling back on the mostly ineffective (though I do hope this one does work) act of petition signing (aka pissing in the wind), instead of gathering the old guard together for what amounts to eulogies for the dead, why not convene to figuring out what should be done, what direction to take, where to go from here? The act isn't going away, the stage is just in need of some remodeling. Lucky for all of you blue hairs, we kids have found some cheap, fairly easy, and rather effective tools and materials from which to build your new platforms. Oh, and the audience is already there and waiting." —Emily

The New Equation [Syntax of Things]
The Folly of Downsizing Book Reviews [LAT]