{"id":535,"date":"2008-04-25T09:41:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-25T16:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=535"},"modified":"2011-06-14T23:31:21","modified_gmt":"2011-06-15T03:31:21","slug":"does-daddy-likey-plus-serious-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/does-daddy-likey-plus-serious-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Daddy Likey? Plus, Serious Stuff."},"content":{"rendered":"

Does this Antik Batik<\/a> dress qualify me for the Don’t Show-Cha Your Chocha<\/a> feature, Winona<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hello!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Goodbye!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

I wore this to a dinner for the Overseas Press Club Awards<\/a> last night, where I had the pleasure of bumping into glamorous author Tracy Quan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tracy and her friend Keith.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

MrB gave the keynote speech with Fernando<\/a> in his pocket.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Establishing shot of iHog in pocket<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Giving the speech<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

The iHog was completely hidden in the depths of the pocket during the speech. The Overseas Press Club<\/a> was honoring people for doing incredible and risky reporting. Fernando didn’t want to distract from their achievements, so he lay low, but I assure you he was there. To give you an understanding of the work that was being recognized, here is an except from MrB’s speech:<\/p>\n

\n

Six years ago I stood before this group and, like Ali Fadeel tonight, lit a candle to honor a fallen journalist, in that case Danny Pearl, who had just been murdered in Pakistan. Since then, 292 more journalists have been killed in the line of duty, an average of about 47 a year. As a reader and viewer, therefore — and even more as the chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which is my moonlighting job — I’m deeply appreciative of what you do, and how challenging it often is to do it…<\/span><\/p>\n

I think it’s useful, in this regard, to name names. <\/span>Vladimir Putin in Russia has essentially seized personal control of national television, and has facilitated a political and legal climate in which journalists are murdered with impunity: 14 since he took office in 2000. <\/span>Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has also brought television in his country to heel. <\/span>The ruling regimes in China and Cuba are neck and neck in terms of which country is jailing the most journalists in the world, with China the dubious leader, 25 to 22. <\/span>Robert Mugabe’s instinctive reaction to the will of the Zimbabwean people — that he leave office — was to suppress the press reporting the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this country, we are particularly blessed by the First Amendment, and a tradition of support for press freedom that stretches back to Franklin and Jefferson and Madison and beyond. <\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

But I think we also need to acknowledge the fraying of the informal compact among the Executive Branch, the courts and the press that for many years made sure that leak inquiries, when undertaken in earnest, would center on the leakers themselves. <\/span>In recent years, the Executive Branch — unable to police its own house — has turned on journalists in such cases, with the courts increasingly declining to stand up for free-press values….<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you want to read the whole speech, contact me at wbjewelry at hotmail dot com and I will send it to you.<\/p>\n

Because there were 21 awards<\/a> plus a special one for photojournalist James Nachtwey<\/a>, I won’t list all the winners here but will point out a few:<\/p>\n