Thursday, February 12, 2015

The Newsroom


Journalist Bob Simon Dies

Yesterday I reported on the six-month suspension without pay of NBC new anchor Brian Williams here in NYC after embellishing his personal experiences on board a military helicopter during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.. Williams was ranked #28 of the most trusted people in America before this report which makes people once again question the credibility of news reporting - not only based on the integrity of journalists - but on what the government allows media to report. How much of the news is just made of?

Today's top story takes us to another famous journalist out of New York City - the death of CBS television correspondent Bob Simon, 73, who died in a car accident Wednesday night. Simon is survived by his wife, Francoise, and their daughter, Tanya a producer for 60 Minutes who was helping Simon prepare a report on the Ebola virus and the search for a cure for this Sunday's 60 Minutes broadcast.

Unlike Williams' Iraq war story - Simon's was very real. During the opening days of the Gulf War in January 1991, Simon and his CBS News team were captured by Iraqi forces and spent 40 days in Iraqi prison, most of it in solitary confinement. Simon later said that it was a "careless mistake" for him and his crew to have crossed the border. He chronicled the experience in the book Forty Days

Jeff Fager, executive producer of "60 Minutes," said in a statement, "It is such a tragedy made worse because we lost him in a car accident, a man who has escaped more difficult situations than almost any journalist in modern times. Bob was a reporter's reporter." Anderson Cooper, who does occasional stories for "60 Minutes," was near tears talking about Simon's death. He said that when Simon presented a story "you knew it was going to be something special."

During his career, Simon covered crises, war, and unrest in sixty-seven countries. Simon reported the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam, the Yom Kippur War in in 1973, and the student protests in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989. During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, he and four of his TV crew were captured and imprisoned by Iraq for forty days, about which experience he wrote a book, Forty Days. He became a regular correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes in 1996 and, in 1999, for 60 Minutes II. At the time of his death in an auto accident, he served as 60 Minutes senior foreign correspondent. Recognized as one of the few "elite journalists" who have covered most of the major overseas conflicts since 1969, he has received numerous awards during his career, including the Overseas Press Club awards and 27 Emmy Awards for journalism

  '60 Minutes' correspondent Bob Simon dies in car accident   CNN - February 12, 2015
"60 Minutes" correspondent Bob Simon, who covered both the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, died Wednesday in a car accident in New York, CBS News reported. He was 73. Simon's career in news spanned some 50 years and earned him countless awards.




My Daughter Tracy Reporting from Gilbert, Arizona

Chaparral students learn perseverance through Rubik's Cube




Ellie Reporting from Brooklyn, New York - Psychic Therapy - Being a Psychic Today


Photo taken Wednesday by music producer and performer William Silva after his reading

Happy Valentine's Day from my family to yours

To be a good psychic today means to not only "see" and "hear" and "sense" beyond this level of frequency, but to apply that to the psychological make-up of clients. You also have to read timelines and professionally explain to clients what they should do based on their psychological profile and - more to the point - their programming - what they actually will do. I have been doing this since starting out as a psychic reader 30 years ago. Read more ...

50 Shades of Reds, Blacks, and Crystals

William is into all things spiritual and thought a picture of me under the "pyramid" would be cool.

Once again I chose the same colors as my client before he got here - red and black.

We talked about "Fifty Shades of Grey" and agreed - not the kind of sex lives we embrace with our partners.




Fifty Shades of Grey (Film) Starts Friday -- Fifty Shades of Grey (Trilogy)

Do people really get off on this stuff? Call me old fashioned - but this is not my definition of romance, love,
and sexuality especially just before Valentine's Day. As they say - different strokes for different folks.