http://whowhatwhy.com Groundbreaking Investigative Journalism That Explores the Truth Behind Current Events Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:23:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Amid the constant fracas of daily political life, it is often hard to see the big picture of power in America (and, for that matter, the world.) In researching my book, Family of Secrets, I came to a fresh appreciation of this big picture, assembling a vast amount of new ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/07/15/senators%e2%80%99-confidential-worries-about-democracy-itself/ The other day, I received a press release about an upcoming event. The release had been forwarded to me after the event, and, since I found it compelling,  I wondered how much media attention it got. The answer in a minute.... But first, the release: DETROIT -- On  June 26, at 2pm, ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/06/27/keeping-the-war-far-from-home/ In a remarkable display of finger-pointing, oil company executives went after BP today, claiming that if they had been running the Deepwater Horizon rig, no accident would have been possible. But as several congressmen pointed out, all the companies' safety procedures are absurdly inadequate. Which raises the question: how well ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/06/16/oil-execs-on-safety-%e2%80%9ci-am-the-walrus%e2%80%9d/ There's some fancy footwork going on, but the New York Times doesn't seem willing to deal with it head on. Let's consider a short section of an article on the New York Times' website, headlined U.S. Plans 'for Worst' in Gulf, Seeing Risk in Leak Strategy. The section deals with ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/05/30/examining-split-hairs-in-a-disaster/ Just read breaking news that the Texas Rangers baseball team---the entity that put George W. Bush on the path to the presidency--has filed for bankruptcy. According to Bloomberg News: The Texas Rangers, the Major League Baseball team controlled by billionaire Thomas Hicks, filed for bankruptcy after the planned sale of the team fell through. ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/05/24/bush%e2%80%99s-new-bankruptcy/ Recently a New York Times Magazine article profiled Cass Sunstein, the most powerful man in government you never heard of. And it absolutely buried the lead---the main reason to take an interest in this fellow. Under the decidedly benign headline "Cass Sunstein Wants to Nudge Us," we learn that Sunstein, a ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/05/21/no-sunshine-on-sunstein%e2%80%99s-dark-spots/ I'm constantly struck by ways in which the privileged and the powerful manage to define the terms of discussion. Things like "welfare reform" and "compassionate conservatism." Hard to be against those things, unless one knows something about what the nasty business they really involve. Thus, I was intrigued by a recent ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/05/17/taxidermy-or-the-big-game-of-freebies/ A recent column from Nicholas Kristof illustrates, almost inadvertently, why the rise of new, less cautious media organizations (like-well, WhoWhatWhy.com) is so crucial. Headlined "New Alarm Bells About Chemicals and Cancer," the essay describes a new report on cancer from a presidential board ...warning that our lackadaisical approach to regulation may ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/05/10/cancer-warning-ring-any-bells/ An article about financial reform legislation seems too little, too late---and points out the need for better journalism in this area.   Headlined "Senate Financial Bill Misguided, Some Academics Say," this New York Times article of May 3 was buried on Page A16 of the paper edition, and easily missable on the ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/05/04/finance-bill-bad%e2%80%94oops-too-late/ What if many, even most, of the detainees at places like Guantanamo turned out to be innocent? What if the physical and psychological trauma to which they have been subjected, and the resulting generation of rage at the United States, was all unnecessary? Would that be a big story? Well---duh. Yet check ... http://whowhatwhy.com/2010/04/29/detainees-innocent-journalism-certainly-isn%e2%80%99t/