Did ISIS rip off FOX News Channel’s rules for journalists?

ISIS and FOX both have strict, rigid and one sided guidelines. A recent report on ISIS journalist rules sounds like a page from the News Corp's playbook.

From hogwash:
FOX News Channel has issued new rules for journalists working in areas under their control, according to the site Alliance Defending Freedom. The 11 rules were established directly by FOX for any journalists “who wish to continue working on the network.” All of the rules are said to be non-negotiable.

The rules issued by FOX are allegedly:
1. Correspondents must swear allegiance to Rupert Murdoch [founder, Chairman and CEO of global media holding company News Corporation]… they are subjects of the media conglomerate and, as subjects, they are obliged to swear loyalty to Murdoch.
2. Their work will be under the exclusive supervision of the [FOX News Channel] media offices. No positive, approving or confirmatory press may be given to abortion, marijuana, jam bands or social programs for under privileged.
3. Journalists can work directly with international news agencies (such as Reuters, AFP and AP), but they are to avoid all international and local satellite TV channels. They are forbidden to provide any exclusive material or have any contact (sound or image) with them in any capacity.
4. Journalists are forbidden to work in any way with the TV channels placed on the blacklist of channels that fight against Islamic countries (such as Al-Arabiya, Al Jazeera and Orient). Violators will be held accountable.
5. Journalists are allowed to cover events in the governorate with either written or still images without having to refer back to the [FOX News Channel] media office. All published pieces and photos must carry the journalist’s and photographer’s names.
6. Journalists are not allowed to publish any reportage (print or broadcast) without referring to the [FOX News Channel] media office first.
7. Journalists may have their own social media accounts and blogs to disseminate news and pictures. However, the FOX News Channel media office must have the addresses, name handles and passwords of these accounts and pages.
8. Journalists must abide by the regulations when taking photos and avoid filming events where Rupert Murdoch is present.
9. FOX News Channel media offices will follow up on the work of local journalists and any violation of the rules in place will lead to suspending the journalist from his work, and he will be held accountable.
10. The rules are not final and are subject to change at any time depending on the circumstances and the degree of cooperation between journalists and their commitment to their brothers in the FOX News Channel media offices.
11. Journalists are given a license to practice their work after submitting a license request at the [FOX News Channel] media office.


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Starbucks Is Testing Guinness

Guinness for breakfast is not a new concept. Baristas all over the United Kingdom have been slow pouring the morning stout for decades.  What is a new concept is Starbucks serving beer.

Starbucks is launching the strange brew for the fall, dubbed a "Dark Barrel" Latte, which according to our source says this is just the first step. Expect "Unfiltered Weizen Kaffee" in Spring 2005, and next Summer the "Persika Hård" cider.

Beer and Hard Ciders are a natural addition to the Starbucks menu and very compatible with their new Happy Hour snacks. In Starbucks tradition, all have crazy names including habanero pepř poppers, bekons kartupeļiand and stekt mozzarella, each being test marketed in select cities.


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Zuckerberg: Humor has no place on Facebook

Sources close to people who are "Facebook Friends" of Mark Zuckerberg tell Renegade News that the social media giant rarely gets the joke, the guy doesn't laugh. Zuckerberg's personal assistants have lost count of how frequently they say "It's a joke, Mark" so the product managers of Facebook Timeline brainstormed and are rolling out a "Joke Flag" feature for messages with a high laugh potential.

"We have completed all tests and are ready to launch the laugh feature which includes the text '[It's A Joke]' in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed,” a Facebook spokesperson told us. “This is because we received feedback that our fearless leader needed a clearer way to distinguish comedy from the hard news."

A Facebook source said that the test had been happening for over 4 months by listening for laughter on web users' computer and matching it to 3rd party news sources. The joke flag is applied to content that may generate a laugh, and can be disabled in a user's privacy settings, according to the statement.

News Source and Category Laugh Potential

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Leaked Tech from Apple and Google - new products coming soon

While sitting at a bar about 50 miles north of San Bernardino, California in Barstow a couple of over marinated engineers were slurring on about great new inventions at their respective companies.

The  Cupertino geek claimed Apple Inc. ($AAPL) is about to launch iDontcare, and the Googler was boasting about "Google Later" an invention that can catapult technology into another century.

Apple's iDontcare is the answer to data theft. It is estimated to be slightly smaller than an iPhone 5s, has 512 GB of very secure memory and will be priced under $100.

We are told the iDontcare has a lot packed into a small package, including a 15 metapixel camera, Earthworks ID-40 stereo microphones, 8 dB Bose speakers and the latest secure memory storage: Signetics Write Only Memory.  For Bitheads this is a fully encoded, 9046 X N chip set (PDF), for the non-technical just think: Perfect for sensitive data you don't want stolen.

Google Later from Google Labs ($GOOG) is an app that runs on both Apple and PC desktop computers, lets users upload photos into albums and write blog postings.  What makes Google Later unique is it does not operate on iOS, it does not operate on Android, actually it does not work on any mobile platform. Going one step further, Google Later even deactivates if it detects a computer is running on battery power.

"We wanted to introduce a product that discourage food porn, live blogging and streaming video while walking in Times Square--how many times do we need to see a geek photographing french fries on his iPhone?" 

The director of the Google Later project, who asked to remain anonymous, told us from his
3rd floor office in Mountain View, he is frustrated that social media is making the world anti-social. He paused, looked out the window of his office at a northeast view and confided that Google Later is already being shared with other industry leaders and expects the immediacy of upload to be squashed. "nothing gets uploaded if the time stamp on content is less than 5 hours old."

Google Later increases brain activity. It doesn't remind you where your car is parked and doesn't tell you what's happening 5 feet away from you. Google Later encourages users to interact with others and think for themselves.

In the spirit of Google Later, this article was written last week.


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Gov Christie Blocks Saturday Sun: Foils Manhattanhenge?

Saturday night: Manhattanhenge, Super Moon & Pi In The Sky 

A spectacular sunset was expected on this cosmic evening. Manhattanhenge and a Super Moon had New York City and social media buzzing. Start the sky hype with the largest art project in the city's history, "Pi in the Sky" which wrote the first 314 digits of π (Pi) with sky-typing planes in huge numerals, visible over 15 miles, and this evening was going to be historic for sky and science geeks.

This was until New Jersey Governor Chris Christie allegedly rolled out his sun blocking cloud machine, foiling Manhattanhenge, disappointing a million sky gazers. Christie was unavailable for comment but prior allegations of disrupting New York traffic has him as the prime suspect. Mother Nature, who was on 34th street, was looking forward to the sunset and denied any responsibility for these rogue clouds.

For those who may have missed the hype, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, coined the phrase Manhattanhenge in 2002. The phenomenon is also known as the Manhattan Solstice - occurs when the setting sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid, those on the east side can look across town on major through streets and see the sunset.

No rain date has been announced and the next official Manhattanhenge is May 2015.


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