Updated on December 27, 5:18 pm ET.

R&B singer Teena Marie died at age 54, it was reported Sunday night, and the news spread by e-mail and by social-media tools such as Twitter before the mainstream media had a chance to catch up.

But it was old-school reporting that enabled Roland Martin, the analyst for CNN, TV One and the "Tom Joyner Morning Show," to tell the e-mail list of the National Association of Black Journalists at 8:19 p.m. Eastern, "It is true. I just confirmed it with her manager and publicist. I will have details in a moment." He was simultaneously keeping his Twitter followers up to date. Marie's daughter, Alia Rose, found the entertainer's body earlier Sunday at Marie's California home.

The Associated Press reported later that a statement from Pasadena police said the death appeared to be from natural causes. "The police and fire department were called to her home after family members found her unresponsive."

"I got a bunch of tweets and Facebook comments asking about it. I saw comedian Kym Whitley tweet that the story wasn't true of her death. I called Kym. Kym put me on the three-way with Teena's publicist, Lynn Jeter. Lynn said it wasn't true, but for me to call Teena's manager, Mike Gardner. She gave me his cell. Jeter had been trying to call Teena all day about it and had no luck getting through. I called Gardner immediately and he said, 'It's true.'

"I called Jeter back, she said she had just gotten through to the house, and talked to the folks there who said the coroner had just left with Teena's body."

For those unfamiliar with Marie, born Marie Christine Brockert, this is how she was described for a fall 2009 episode of "Unsung!," a TV One series that chronicles R&B stars of the '60s, '70s and '80s:

"There may never be a more soulful, sexy, funky combination of voice and music like that which emanates from the 'Ivory Queen of Soul,' Teena Marie. Signed by Motown at 17, and teamed up musically — and for a time, romantically — with funk master Rick James, who produced her debut album, 'Wild and Peaceful', and later put together their steamy duet, 'Fire and Desire,' one of the all time stage show-stoppers. That, and Teena’s robust sound and powerful delivery, helped to overcome long standing racial barriers between Black audiences and white singers.

"Under the auspices of James, she launched a ground-breaking initiative that allowed her to leave Motown at the height of her career, and also revolutionized the relationship between musicians and record labels throughout the industry. Teena went on to solely produce every subsequent album in her career, while earning four Grammy nominations, and recording a host of classic R&B hit singles, including 'Square Biz,' 'Lover Girl,' 'Oh La La La' and 'Portuguese Love.' She also shared a poignant reunion on stage with her friend and mentor Rick James, shortly before his passing in 2005. It’s all part of an inspirational story, still unfolding, of a woman who poured her life into music, and whose music has enriched our lives."

TV One tweeted Sunday night that it was re-running the episode Monday at 9 p.m. and midnight Eastern and Pacific times.

Kevin Ross, editor and contributing writer of Radio Facts, a Los Angeles-based site covering urban radio, claimed to be first with the story, posting at 5:09 p.m. Pacific time, and later updating:

"It has been confirmed Teena has died. WDAS stole the story from a link that we sent them and they are claiming she died of a heart attack, this has not been confirmed. They are in Philly and we are in Los Angeles where Teena lived. I was confident since Radio Facts broke the story that the source was a good one. Several people who are close to Teena and her family have called and emailed me to confirm it’s true. Sorry to report this sad news a day after Christmas. Ironically, I JUST finished the page on the Deaths for 2010 for a Radio Facts review of 2010 this afternoon. I guess I will have to edit it now. Still no word on the cause of her death. I will keep you posted. Kevin."

A Twitter report from Philadelphia's WDAS-FM sometime before 8:11 p.m. Eastern time said, "We regret to inform you that Music Legend Teena Marie has died at the age of 54. Tributes and further details soon at http://WDASfm.com." However, there were no details on the website until 9:01 p.m., when the station linked to Twitter messages from singer Ronald Isley and a drummer for singer-drummer Sheila E.

Meanwhile, at 7:50 p.m. Eastern, Denise Clay, a Philadelphia journalist who saw the news on the WDAS website, asked colleagues on the National Association of Black Journalists e-mail list, "Does anyone have any information confirming or denying a report that R n B singer Teena Marie is dead?"

"Tthe source wasn't one I recognized and I'm a part of the 'If your mama says she loves you, have it verified by three sources' school," she later told Journal-isms.

"There's nothing on Google News ..." one journalist wrote back at 8:07 p.m.

"Twitter is going nuts right now, but I've got nothing," an entertainment writer added.

"twitter has killed tons of folks off this year — so this could be some nasty hoax, too. . . . Also: folks are citing a blurb from a radio station. That same radio station also killed Luther off years before he died, so there's that ...,"a reference to Luther Vandross.

Twitterers went back and forth.

Ahmir Thompson, better known as Questlove of the band The Roots, Tweeted "something is telling me my hacked instincts are right. im not accepting this. im sorry. until CNN says it. its not true..."

There was indeed bad information. As Martin explained, referring to comedian Kym Whitley, "Teena Marie's publicist told her, & me, that the news wasn't true. Then she finally got through 2 Marie's home."

And then he tweeted, "the manager of @teenamarie, just told me that it is true: the legendary R&B singer has indeed died."

The CNN news blog followed with a brief report at 8:43 p.m. Eastern.

And CNN anchor Don Lemon tweeted then, "cnn has confirmed from teena marie's manager that she has died."

*Andy Greene, Rolling Stone: R&B Singer Teena Marie Dead at 54

Larry Harnisch blog, Los Angeles Times: Teena Marie, 1956—2010: 'I wish I was colorless'

Nina Mandell and Oren Yaniv, New York Daily News: Soul singer Teena Marie, known for 'Lovergirl,' dead at 54

Roland Martin blog: R&B Singer Teena Marie Dead At 54

Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Associated Press: Teena Marie, Known as 'Ivory Queen of Soul,' Dies

Miki Turner, Jet: Perspective/Remembering Lady T

Was Obama's Year "Terrible, Horrible, No Good"?

"The AP yesterday posted an op-ed titled 'Obama's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.' And from the headline you might think that it would show why [President] Obama's year has been terrible, horrible, no good, and very bad," Tim Heffernan wrote Wednesday for Esquire.

"It doesn't. What it shows is that the president has been yelled at a few times by the opposition, that he nonetheless remains vastly more popular than legislators of both parties and Congress as a whole, and that he managed to win virtually every major policy change he sought. Actually, you wouldn't know that last point, because the column mentions only a single policy victory: health care reform. Missing are, among others, a major bill regulating the finance sector, the one that just ended discrimination against gays in the military, and (shortly) the one that will enact the new START treaty with Russia.

"Here is how the AP spins this annus horribilis:

"From the start, 2010 delivered a string of setbacks that built up to an electoral shellacking come November, to use the president's own word. . . . "

"By this logic, it does not matter either that on the same day this column was released, SenatorLindsey Graham was stamping his feet in frustration at the Democrats' ability to pass major bills with significant Republican support during the current lame-duck session. Nor does it matter that this morning a new poll shows the president's approval rating with Republicans rising by nine points in the last two weeks.

"If I were a cynic, I'd suggest that the AP column might be just a little bit slanted, perhaps because one of its authors, Calvin Woodward, has demonstrated clear anti-Obama bias repeatedly in columns past, which itself might be a consequence of his tutelage by an AP bureau chief who was considerably too chummy with the Republicans he was supposed to be reporting on, including Karl Rove. . . ."

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters agreed, saying the op-ed read "like it was pulled out of Rep. John Boehner's top desk drawer."

An AP spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Askia Muhammad, Washington Informer: Republican 'Tail" Wagging Congressional 'Dog' 

Ruben Navarrette, Washington Post Writers Group: Plot Twist in DREAM Act's Demise 

Richard Prince with Louis Jacobson on "The Michael Eric Dyson Show": Dyson Awards in Story of the Year 

Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: Finally, victory on 'don't ask, don't tell'

TheRoot.com: Top 20 News Stories of 2010

Albor Ruiz, New York Daily News: Senate makes sure DREAM is deferred, dashing hopes of thousands of young people

Top "Underreported Story": Designs on the U.S. Dollar

"Global Plans to Replace the Dollar" is the No. 1 underreported story for 2011, according to Project Censored, which has been compiling a list of such stories for more than 30 years.

"Nations have reached their limit in subsidizing the United States’ military adventures," it said.

"During meetings in June 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, world leaders such as China’s President Hu Jintao, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation took the first formal step to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The United States was denied admission to the meetings. If the world leaders succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value; the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket; and interest rates will climb."

As Rebecca Bowe noted in the Colorado Springs Independent, "In 1976, Project Censored first distributed its list nationwide to shed light on the top stories not brought to you by the mainstream press. These days, stories are submitted, researched by students, filtered through LexisNexis to determine which outlets have covered them, and then voted on by a team of judges.

"An international network of 30 colleges and universities contributes to the project, and volunteers from around the world submit stories for consideration. At the end of each project cycle, the work is released in a compendium."

The rest of the Project Censored list:

2. U.S. Department of Defense is the Worst Polluter on the Planet

3. Internet Privacy and Personal Access at Risk 

4. ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Operates Secret Detention and Courts 

5. Blackwater (Xe): The Secret U.S. War in Pakistan 

6. Health Care Restrictions Cost Thousands of Lives in U.S. 

7. External Capitalist Forces Wreak Havoc in Africa 

8. Massacre in Peruvian Amazon over U.S. Free Trade Agreement 

9. Human Rights Abuses Continue in Palestine 

10. U.S. Funds and Supports the Taliban

Do the Electric Slide With Columnist and His Readers

Barry Saunders, columnist for the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., "danced the Electric Slide while wearing a Duke basketball jersey today in front of The News & Observer. He'll also be getting a new column photo that doesn't have a cigar," the newspaper reported on Friday, posting a video of the midday event.

"When we announced our N&O Holiday Giving Guide last month, readers were challenged to donate at least $10,000 to the 130 local charities registered in the guide, and Barry would dance. Those charities received a grand total of $43,614 from readers.

"Disc jockey Mark Speed, owner of Speed of Sound, donated his record-spinning services to play the Electric Slide for the occasion."

"It's all right to make a fool of yourself for a good cause," Saunders told Journal-isms. He explained that "It's been my goal in life never to do the electric slide" but said he was challenged to do so for charity. Saunders said that line dances such as the slide "make men obsolete" because women don't need a partner. Thus, that was the first and last time he would do it, Saunders said.

Other columnists commemorated the holiday season with stories, some involving themselves.

Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution told how she adopted her daughter, Carly Robbins Tucker, declaring, "Today is my daughter’s second birthday, but I’m the one who received the awesome gift."

In the Washington Post, Courtland Milloy Jr. wrote about overwhelming reader response to his column last week about Cheyenne Browne, who passed up the toy fire truck she wanted in order to buy gifts for her grandmother and friends. Her father, Michael Browne, was a volunteer fire fighter who was killed saving Cheyenne from a tornado.

"To say the response was tremendous would be an understatement," said Diane Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Charles County (Md.) Sheriff's Office, in the follow-up column

Jenice Armstrong, Philadelphia Daily News: Fewer African-Americans are observing Kwanzaa — why? 

Betty Bayé, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: For Christmas, how about relief from foolishness? 

Solomon Jones, Philadelphia Daily News: Santa's got a swagga that can't be copied 

Julianne Malveaux, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Surviving, Thriving, and Holiday Kwanzaa 

Julianne Malveaux, USA Today: New frugality mustn't sacrifice the homeless 

Ruben Rosario, St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press: He killed her son; she forgave him 

Ana Veciana-Suarez, Miami Herald: Holidays demand the rite stuff 

Gay, Lesbian Journalists Group to End 2010 With a Surplus

"It's definitely been a tough few years for all of the minority journalism organizations," David A. Steinberg, national president of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, wrote Journal-isms Wednesday after reading about the financial plight of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

"I'm happy to say that NLGJA is projected to end this year with a small but significant surplus. I've had discussions with many people in NLGJA and in our sister groups, and I think NLGJA got hit harder and earlier than some of the other groups — but that forced us to deal with the situation earlier, too. As a result, we spent time restructuring our operations and now don't find ourselves scrambling to make ends meet as we did just a couple years ago. We're actually in the rebuilding stage now and are restoring programs that had been cut back. (For example, we have relaunched our newsletter to members, at the same time transforming it from a printed quarterly publication to a more timely bimonthly electronic communication.)

"Hope you're having a good holiday season — and that 2011 brings good news to all of us!"

The NLGJA was founded in 1990 by the late Leroy F. Aarons, a co-founder of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. It now has 650 to 700 members, said Steinberg, copy desk chief and stylebook editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. "That's down from a few years ago (and from our high earlier in the decade), but has held relatively steady this year.

"I can't definitively answer why we got hit harder/earlier, though I have a few theories. For one, we're a smaller group with a smaller budget, so big shifts really impact us. The frustrating thing to me, in many ways, is that we had taken a lot of the steps that one would think would have helped to insulate us from the huge shifts in the media. For one, we had diversified our funding base substantially, so that we didn't rely entirely on media companies. Unfortunately, many of the companies that had started to support us were also caught up in the deep recession (Fannie Mae and GM, for example).

"Also, unlike some of the other groups, we have never had a big endowment/reserve. (It's been my goal for a while, but as of now we're just not there.) For that reason, when revenue fell, we had to make cuts immediately and didn't have the option of putting that off by tapping a reserve.

"Another way in which we were hit earlier and have subsequently been able to rebound: Like the other groups, we had to pay penalties for failing to meet our convention room block commitment (in our case starting in 2007). Because of our size, our penalties were probably smaller than those incurred by, say, NABJ or NAHJ," referring to the national associations of black and Hispanic journalists. "As soon as we saw the big drop-off in convention attendance, we started very early and worked very hard to renegotiate those hotel contracts, and as a result, we paid no penalties to our convention hotels in either 2009 or 2010.

". . . NLGJA has downsized for several years. Our staffing was at seven full-time employees just a few years ago. Through attrition, that dropped to two staffers by 2008. In 2009, we hired Michael Tune, our executive director, and he along with Bach Polakowski now staff our office.

"Many of the actions being taken by our fellow minority journalism groups are actions NLGJA took two or three years ago. We made a big push to encourage lifetime membership; we updated members on the specifics and depths of the organization's financial challenges; and we made pleas for donations and monthly giving.

"So, yes, NLGJA is a smaller organization than it was three, five or seven years ago. But we're much leaner and we are trying to focus on the things that will be of the most benefit to our members, specifically professional development and networking."

Reginald Stuart Follows Kemba Smith, 10 Years Later

Reginald Stuart, who wrote the 10,000-word "Kemba's Nightmare" cover piece about federal prisoner Kemba Smith for the old Emerge Magazine in 1996, has an update on Kemba Smith Pradia, as she is now known, in Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

"Smith’s 'nightmare' was a case of a promising college student who became a poster child for the failures of a hastily written federal mandatory minimum drug sentencing law. In December 2000, during his final days in office, President Bill Clinton commuted Smith’s prison sentence to the 6½ she had served," Stuart wrote in the piece, posted online Friday.

"With her new lease on life, Kemba Smith Pradia has worked to get her life on track, advocate for drug sentencing law reform and help students learn from her misfortune. Today, Pradia is a college graduate and married mother of two who tours college campuses telling her tale and warning students about the consequences of their life choices."

Wayne Dawkins wrote in Black Issues Book Review that "Stuart's reporting in 1996 and 1998 mobilized blacks nationwide and probably influenced President Clinton's decision to commute Smith's sentence."

Stuart's Diverse piece continued, " 'There are few days that go by when I am not thinking about the past and how far God has brought me, the lessons I’ve learned from it and the struggles that continue over sentencing and the women I left behind,' says Pradia, 39. 'I just take it a day at a time.'

”Smith, now married and living in Indianapolis, had become the poster child in the mid-1990's for all that was wrong with the tough mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws enacted by Congress after the death of University of Maryland basketball sensation Len Bias.

". . . Women are the fastest-growing segment of the prison population, and 56 percent of them are in prison for drug or property crimes, according to Families Against Mandatory Minimums. Like Pradia, many of these women were victims of violence before incarceration. Nearly six in 10 women in state prison have experienced physical or sexual abuse in the past."

Stuart, a recruiter for the McClatchy Co., told Journal-isms, "I'm proud of this journalistic journey — one starfish at a time." He also wrote a brief update on Pradia for the December-January issue of Heart and Soul.

FCC Chairman Signals Approval of Comcast-NBC Merger

"The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Julius Genachowski, signaled his approval of Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal on Thursday, but that approval will come with conditions,"Brian Stelter wrote for the New York Times.

"Among the anticipated stipulations is that Comcast not withhold NBC programming from its competitors in the online video market and that it allow rival distributors to have reasonable access to NBC Universal programming.

"Details about the proposed conditions started to trickle out Thursday after the F.C.C. started to share its order for the deal internally. Essentially, the order is a draft of the rules that Comcast and NBC will have to operate under."

The merger has divided organizations of color. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists opposed it in April, saying that "this massive media consolidation will lead to fewer journalism jobs, less coverage of the Latino community, less diversity of voices, and excessive control for one company over the country's media."

Danny J. Bakewell Sr., National Newspaper Publishers Association: FCC Appears to Find Middle Road to Hope 

Susan Crawford blog: Why Comcast/NBCU matters 

John Eggerton, Multichannel News: Rep. Waters: FCC Net Neutrality Rules Could Harm Minorities

Juan Williams Signs Contract for Two-Book Deal

"Since his contract as a senior news analyst at NPR was terminated in October, Juan Williams has found no shortage of platforms from which he can express himself," Dave Itzkoff wrote Tuesday in the New York Times. "In addition to the new contract he signed with the Fox News Channel, amid a dispute over remarks he made on 'The O’Reilly Factor,' he has now entered into a two-book deal with the Crown Publishers imprint of the Crown Publishing Group at Random House, the imprint said on Tuesday.

"Crown said in a statement that the first book from Mr. Williams, planned for a summer publication and not yet titled, will 'focus on free speech and the growing difficulty in America of speaking out on sensitive topics.' In the book Mr. Williams 'will argue that the American public benefits from a vigorous and full-throated debate on hot button issues of political and cultural import' and 'chronicle his own first-hand experience of the consequences of crossing the line in public expression,' the statement said. . . .

"Crown said the second book from Mr. Williams, which does not yet have a publication date, will 'examine the changing face of America since the time of the Founding Fathers, as seen through the eyes of some of the noteworthy individuals who have helped to expand on and transform our ideas of what it means to be an American.' "

[In the Washington Post on Thursday, Paul Farhi reported that "after an initial flurry of mostly angry e-mails and calls in the wake of the Oct. 20 firing of Williams, the controversy waned quickly and has all but disappeared, station managers say.

["More important, perhaps, is that few contributors revoked financial pledges made to the stations during fundraising drives held the week of Williams's firing."]

Huffington Post Lets Readers Judge Its Diversity

"The staff of the Huffington Post came together on Monday night for our annual holiday party at Manhattan's Bar 89," the Huffington Post website reported Tuesday, wishing everyone happy holidays.

Asked to name the one or two staffers in the photo who appeared to be African American, Mario Ruiz, spokesman for the operation, replied by e-mail, "sorry, cant identify folks for you."

In April, the American Society of News Editors completed its second attempt at measuring diversity at online news organizations, but the Huffington Post did not participate.

Meanwhile, site founder Arianna Huffington told Brett Pulley of Bloomberg News that the news site, which began in 2005, "will post its first annual profit this year and aims to keep sales rising as it turns readers into pundits," Pulley reported on Tuesday.

*Jeff Bercovici blog, Forbes.com: Huffington Post vs. New York Times: A Productivity Comparison

Poll Finds a Downbeat Nation, Pessimistic on Rich-Poor Gap

"Consistent with the mood of the nation all year, 2010 is closing on a down note. Fully 72% are dissatisfied with national conditions, 89% rate national economic conditions as only fair or poor, and majorities or pluralities think the country is losing ground on nine of 12 major issues," the Pew Research Center reported on Wednesday.

"The public is especially bearish about the federal budget deficit, the cost of living, the financial condition of Social Security and the availability of good-paying jobs. At least six-in-ten say the country is losing ground in each of these areas.

"Smaller majorities say the nation is losing ground on the gap between rich and poor (58%), the ability to compete economically with other countries (55%) and the financial condition of Medicare (51%).

"The latest national poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Dec. 1-5 among 1,500 adults, finds only two issues where relatively small minorities say the United States is losing ground — international terrorism (25% losing ground) and environmental pollution (23%). Even in these areas, however, most Americans do not see progress being achieved; rather, pluralities say things are staying about the same as they have been.

"Yet Americans’ views about how the nation is doing on several major issues have improved since December 2008, a time when Americans expressed an even more negative view of the economy than they do today."

*Dan Balz and Jon Cohen, Washington Post: Washington Post-ABC poll: Public is not yet sold on GOP

*Corey Dade, NPR: Obama Should 'Man Up' Columnist Explains What He Meant

*Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: A repeal that’ll be dangerous to our health

*Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup Organization: Obama Approval Rating Holding Steady Since Midterms (Dec. 7)

*Lenny McAllister, theRoot.com: Is Democratic Opposition to Obama Also Racial?

*Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Don't cry for me, John Boehner — really

*Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Tag-team smackdown

*Elmer Smith, Philadelphia Daily News: For Prez & tax bill, a different week

Media Said to Miss Threat to Jail Bankers on Foreclosures

"Iowa’s attorney general said yesterday that he will bring criminal charges over the foreclosure scandal. But most of the press doesn’t have the news," Ryan Chittum reported Wednesday for the Columbia Journalism Review.

"Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism picks up on this story, as does The Huffington Post and HousingWire.

"But the only mainstream media coverage it got was in the Des Moines Register and Reuters.

"This is a story the rest of the press might want to report. The ante just got upped bit on this scandal.

"This isn’t necessarily just another politician blowing smoke. BusinessWeek put the longtime AG, Tom Miller, on its cover a couple of years ago with the headline 'They Warned Us About the Mortgage Crisis.' He and other state attorneys general tried to crack down on predatory lending but were preempted by the Bush administration. And he’s heading up the joint investigation by all fifty states into the scandal. It’s worth following what he has to say.

"Especially when it’s 'we will put people in jail.'

"That’s also notable, since as we discussed last week, no major executive has gone to jail for the financial crisis and its fallout. It’s unclear, of course, if Iowa will be able to prosecute executives or just the low-level employees who implemented the fraud."

At a hearing on the causes of the foreclosure crisis Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., Detroit lawyer Vanessa Fluker said she would like to address "this media perception has been that for some reason we have all these massive foreclosures because you have this multitude of people who bit off more than they could chew; who went into homes that just were exorbitant and beyond their reach.

"This is not true," Fluker said. "The majority of people in subprime mortgages are the working poor — minorities and senior citizens — and that is what constitutes and makes up the majority of my practice. Unfortunately, the scenario is such that these subprime mortgages were marketed and pushed disparately on the working poor, minorities and senior citizens.

"For instance, to give a real-life first-hand perspective, my client, Ms. Harp [phonetic spelling], works every day as a legal assistant; mother dying of cancer; been fighting for two years to get a modification with Bank of America. Who, by the way, just got $7 billion additionally in January of this year to do that.

"No go. They're proceeding to eviction on that matter right now. The only reason eviction hasn't occurred is because there may be some impropriety with the affidavits and documentation.

"My client is a senior citizen who was diagnosed with dementia in 2000, who was put in a pay-option ARM mortgage in 2007, who we're still fighting. Of course, this is family now, seeing as we've been fighting so long. He died a week and a half ago.

"My client who has a farm in Michigan who was put in a subprime residential mortgage, interest-only, but now it covers his house and his whole farm. And they're foreclosing and trying to take the whole farm.

"Or most — even more egregious, my client who is on active duty in Iraq, serving his country, comes back. He's in foreclosure. They're like, 'Oh, well, too bad. We can't work with you. We can't modify your loan.'

"This is just a sampling of what I deal with every day, and it is voluminous."

"Democracy, Now!" Breaks With Holbrooke Tributes

"While tributes have been pouring in for Richard Holbrooke," the veteran U.S. diplomat who died Monday at age 69, "little attention has been paid to his role in implementing and backing U.S. policies that killed thousands of civilians," host Amy Goodman said Wednesday on Pacifica Radio's "Democracy, Now!"

"As assistant secretary of state in the Carter administration, Holbrooke oversaw weapons shipments to the Indonesian military as it killed a third of East Timor's population. In 1980, he played a key role in the Carter administration's support for a South Korean military crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising in the city of Kwangju that killed hundreds of people. Details of Holbrooke's role in East Timor and Korea have been entirely ignored by the corporate media since his death — hardly covered before, as well. Richard Holbrooke was also a prominent Democratic backer of the Bush administration's decision to attack Iraq in 2003," she asserted.

Goodman then played a tape of investigative journalist Allan Nairn confronting Holbrooke in 1997 at Brown University about East Timor.

"If you want to accuse me of genocide, you're welcome to do so," Holbrooke replied. "And if — as far as extending the war crimes tribunal to Timor, or for that matter, Cambodia, where it's incomprehensibly not of a mandate, I'm all for it. In fact, I have recently written a letter to the Holocaust Commission at the museum recommending that they take this issue on, precisely because it's incomprehensible to me why various people who are equally as murderous as Radovan Karadžic and Ratko Mladic have never been investigated.

"But I tell you here, for the benefit of everyone else, that the Timor issue is not as simple as described just now. It just isn't. This is not what happened, and I don't think anyone who knows Jimmy Carter or what he stands for would agree that this was a deliberate policy of giving low-flying airplanes or helicopters to the Indonesians so that they could go out and kill people in the hills."

Holbrooke was well-liked by reporters, and he was married to television journalist Kati Marton, the daughter of Endre Marton, an Associated Press White House correspondent. She was previously the wife of the late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings.

Last year, Holbrooke gave the keynote address at the International Center for Journalists' 25th Anniversary Awards Dinner in Washington.

On the e-mail list of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, Jonathan Gurwitz of the San Antonio Express-News wrote Wednesday, "Those of us who attended State Department briefings in 2009 and 2010 got to spend a total of approximately two hours with Richard Holbrooke. He was not shy about letting us know that he was able to utilize the media to his advantage. He had been in and around Washington long enough to prove it. Beyond the posturing, he also was without doubt a patron of journalism. This was evident in his extended, off-the-record sessions with us about Afghanistan and Pakistan. The nation lost a diplomat. Journalism lost a friend."

At the 2009 session, Holbrooke volunteered to this columnist that he remembered Robert C. Maynard when Maynard was an editorial writer at the Washington Post.

*Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Karen DeYoung blog, Washington Post: Holbrooke's last words on the Afghan war

*Robert Mackey blog, New York Times: Revisiting Holbrooke’s Last Remarks

Activists Deliver 2 Million Petitions for "Open Internet"

"In a two-day marathon, SavetheInternet.com Coalition allies and activists delivered 2 million petitions for real Net Neutrality to the Federal Communications Commission before the close of the public comment period on new FCC rules," the activist group Free Press reported on Tuesday. "The petitions, collected from across the country, urged the FCC to stand up for real Net Neutrality and safeguard the open Internet. The agency is scheduled to vote on its proposed Net Neutrality rules at its Dec. 21 open meeting.

". . . The petitions were delivered by local volunteers and representatives of the many groups that helped collect them, including Free Press, New America Foundation, Media Access Project, Public Knowledge, Future of Music Coalition, the Media and Democracy Coalition, [CREDO] Action, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, MoveOn.org, ColorofChange.org, Common Cause, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Prometheus Radio Project, the Harry Potter Alliance and the Open Source Democracy Foundation."

In addition, "a quartet of network neutrality proponents led by MoveOn.org said they would rather the FCC do nothing than adopt the chairman's current compromise proposal to expand and codify network neutrality guidelines," John Eggerton reported for Broadcasting & Cable. The other groups are ColorOfChange.org. CREDO Action and Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

*James Rucker, theRoot.com: Why We Need Net Neutrality

*David Sutphen, theRoot.com: Let's Ensure Web for All

Star Jones to Write Uptown Magazine Column

Television personality Star Jones has joined Uptown magazine as editor-at-large, the magazine announced on Wednesday.

"Jones’ first UPTOWN editorial contribution to the publication will be in the first ever Weddings and Travel special issue available on newsstands January 20. She will make her on-line debut in late December. Among her Editor-at-Large duties, Jones will act as a contributor with a regular column as well as writing political, entertainment and celebrity feature stories," an announcement said.

Spokeswoman Jackie Saril told Journal-isms that although Jones' first column will be about weddings, it would not directly address her lavish and widely publicized 2004 wedding to investment banker Al Reynolds, attended by nearly 500 people. They divorced four years later.

Uptown, published eight times a year, describes itself as "the only luxury lifestyle publication for affluent African Americans."