In news coverage, fair is fair

January 13, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Criticism can help. But just as news reports must be fair, so too must criticism.

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Prominent Republicans leapt to the defense of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Sunday, insisting that an ongoing traffic scandal wouldn’t ruin any presidential ambitions, while Democrats say it’s difficult to believe such a hands-on manager knew nothing about a plan by a top aide to close lanes at a bridge into New York City. Politicians from both sides of the aisle took to the Sunday talk shows to debate the fallout from the traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge in September and any role Republican Christie may have played.

Antigovernment demonstrators began to occupy major intersections in Thailand’s capital on Sunday in what they say is an effort to shut down Bangkok, a plan that has raised fears of violence that could trigger a military coup. The protesters are trying to force caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to resign and have her government replaced by a nonelected interim administration to implement reforms they say are needed to stop corruption. They want to scuttle an early general election called for Feb. 2.

Syria’s Western-backed opposition came under steely pressure Sunday to attend peace talks in just over a week, as envoys from 11 countries converged to try and restore the credibility of a rebel coalition sapped by vicious infighting and indecision. But diplomacy’s limits were starkly apparent in Syria itself, where activists said rebel-on-rebel clashes have killed nearly 700 people in the deadliest bout of infighting since the civil war began.

Pope Francis named his first batch of cardinals Sunday, choosing 19 men from around the world, including Haiti and Burkina Faso, in line with his belief the church must pay more attention to the poor. But advocates for victims of sex abuse by Roman Catholic clergy said they felt let down that the pope didn’t unequivocally embrace their calls that prelates who hadn’t made a clean break with past practices of covering up pedophile behavior never be promoted.

Alex Rodriguez was dealt the most severe punishment in the history of baseball’s drug agreement when an arbitrator ruled the New York Yankees third baseman is suspended for the entire 2014 season as a result of a drug investigation by Major League Baseball. The decision by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz on Saturday cut the suspension issued Aug. 5 by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig from 211 games to this year’s entire 162-game regular-season schedule plus any postseason games.

Gunfire erupted Sunday in western Mexico as hundreds of vigilantes pressed their fight over territory with a drug cartel, and Mexico’s top security officials prepared to make yet another effort to try to stop the violence. Members of so-called self-defense groups entered the town of Nueva Italia on a campaign they say is designed to liberate towns from the control of the Knights Templar cartel. Opponents and critics say the vigilantes are backed by a rival cartel, something the groups vehemently deny.

Compiled from wire service reports

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

Compiled from wire service reports

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

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