Free Republic

Could the Kremlin censor an entertainment programme on live TV? According to Russian bloggers, that's exactly what happened on one of the country's national television channels. The programme, "Phenomenon," aired on the state-run Rossiya channel on Sept. 5. In the live broadcast, Russian magician and self-styled psychic Alexander Char played a version of the children's game Cluedo, telling the audience that the details of a murder were in a safe. Then he asked three audience members to name first a weapon, then a place, then the person who committed the crime. The first guinea pig in the audience chose a...

Russia could find that it is getting more than it bargained for EVEN by Russia’s recent bloody standards, it was a brazen killing. Magomed Yevloyev, the editor of an opposition website in Russia’s north Caucasus territory of Ingushetia, was detained by the police as he arrived in Nazran on a flight from Moscow on August 31st. Within minutes he was dead, having allegedly tried to seize a policeman’s rifle and been shot in the head. His body was dumped outside the region’s main hospital. The Ingush authorities say they are investigating an accidental death but nobody takes this seriously. There...

MOSCOW: Nearly 60% of Russians agree with state censorship of the media, according to an opinion poll this week, arguing it was necessary to tackle misinformation, violence and vulgarity. Results from the survey for the Russian Centre for Public Opinion Research (VTSIOM) showed that 26% of respondents said censorship was “absolutely necessary”, and a further 32% called it “fairly necessary”. Only 8% said it was “completely unnecessary.” After coming to power in 1999 the former Russian president Vladimir Putin, put large parts of the media under state control and, according to media rights campaigners, silenced several privately owned independent TV...

I want . . Freedom of the press to be the right not to be lied to. You are confused. So very seriously confused about the First Amendment, that you are not thinking any more clearly about it than I was before the mid-1990s, when I began to see through the system by which the "journalistic objectivity" con is perpetrated. And since I was already in my fifties by then, I have every reason to understand how you might see things the way you do. Freedom of the press is much more like "the right to lie to you"...

Obama's Soviet-style Press Relations By Greg McNeilly Feb 26th 2008 4:08PM Barack Obama's message has included "openness" from net neutrality to the government's relations with the public. He speaks of a new open era. But if his conduct, as a candidate, is a prelude to governance, then Obama's rhetoric is a sham and he'll be a hypocrite. The Politico reports today on the state of media openness with the Obama campaign. They compare his campaigning to the the 2000 campaign of then-Governor George W. Bush and the 2004 campaign of U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA). Bypassing the national media for...

AP Chief Cites Loss Of U.S. Press Freedoms Curley Honored For Pushing Openness In Government POSTED: 5:10 pm EST March 6, 2008 UPDATED: 5:12 pm EST March 6, 2008 The shadow of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is eclipsing press freedom and other constitutional safeguards in the United States, Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley says. Curley, CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer and NBC Universal vice president Paula Madison will be honored next week for their roles in promoting open government and free speech rights. "What has become clear in the aftermath of 9/11 is how much expediency...

What is the point of a paper of record that decides the untarnished record is too much for readers? Do you ever wonder what is the greatest enemy of the free press? One might mention a few conspicuous foes, such as the state censor, the monopolistic proprietor, the advertiser who wants either favorable coverage or at least an absence of unfavorable coverage, and so forth. But the most insidious enemy is the cowardly journalist and editor who doesn't need to be told what to do, because he or she has already internalized the need to please—or at least not to...

President Bush does not use e-mail. The most secretive chief executive since Richard Nixon does not want to risk having his digital communications revealed as part of the official record of the republic he is sworn to serve and protect. Other Americans do rely on the Internet, however. Unfortunately, our off-line president has set the tone for a White House that is almost ridiculously disengaged when it comes to the challenge of preparing the United States for a digital future. A Bush administration report released Thursday claims that high-speed Internet access is now available to virtually every American. This self-congratulatory...

Both Hillary Clinton and GQ have a lot of explaining to do if the Politico has this story correct: According to Ben Smith, Hillary's campaign pressured GQ to kill a piece critical of her by threatening to withhold Bill Clinton's cooperation in the future. The editors of GQ caved into the threat and spiked the article: Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president learned that the men’s magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland. So Clinton’s aides pulled a page from the book of Hollywood...

As American Thinker noted here yesterday, Jimmy Carter came out with some crocodile tears for the ongoing turmoil in Venezuela's democracy over the issue of free speech. Does anyone realize the extent to which Jimmy Carter created the conditions that led to today's turmoil in Venezuela? Not only did Carter validate a fraudulent recall referendum in 2004, which sealed Hugo Chavez's grip on political power based on a political capital and mandate he did not have, Carter also was instrumental in weakening the free press. It's not very well known, but Carter mediated a secretive meeting between Chavez and Gustavo...

Venezuelans protest opposition TV channel closure By Christian Oliver Sat May 19, 4:45 PM ET Tens of thousands of protesters on Saturday denounced President Hugo Chavez's plans to close an opposition television channel, accusing their leader of maiming Venezuelan democracy as he forges a socialist state. Chavez says RCTV, the country's oldest private broadcaster, supported a bungled coup against him in 2002. He has had a long-running battle with opposition television stations, calling them "horsemen of the apocalypse." "Let us defend democracy, let us defend freedom, let us defend free independent media such as RCTV," RCTV's managing director, Marcel Garnier,...

The Roanoke Times is the latest newspaper to discover that just because something can be done does not mean it should be done. As reported by Michelle Malkin and others, the Times on March 11 ran an editorial titled "Shedding Light on Concealed Handguns" announcing that it was publishing a list of everyone in Virginia's New River Valley possessing a concealed carry permit. This type of story has become a ritual event with second and third-tier news outlets across the country. Others who have published similar stories include the suburban New York Westchester-Rockland Journal News, the Argus Leader of South...

Officials identifying themselves as members of a state regulatory agency forced the U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network Telemundo to halt transmission Sunday of its presidential election coverage. "We're surprised by this," said Pablo Iacub, a member of Telemundo's eight-person team, which arrived last week. "We only want to do our work," he said by telephone. At least six people who identified themselves as members of the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL), which regulates electronic media in Venezuela, arrived Sunday afternoon at the hotel from which Telemundo had been transmitting since Friday, said Iacub. The officials said the network needed permission to...

140th in the world - just ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo? The France-based non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders recently released their Worldwide Press Freedom index, which ranks Russia as 140th on a list of 168 countries in terms of protecting journalists and media expression. Russia’s 140th ranking is exactly one spot ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the site of the bloodiest conflict in the world, and just a few spots ahead of Iraq, where 85 journalists have died violently since 2003. Russia even allegedly lags nine spots behind Kazakhstan, where President-for-Life Nursultan Nazarbayev erected a...

A U.S.-based press freedom group said Wednesday that President Hugo Chavez is using the courts and legal reforms to weaken journalists critical of his leftist government. Wrapping up a three-day visit to Venezuela, delegates from the Inter American Press Association expressed concern that threats to press freedom under Chavez could increase as Venezuela prepares for presidential elections in December. "The different branches of government appear to have a strategy to weaken the work of the independent press," IAPA President Diana Daniels of The Washington Post Co., told a press conference. "We are worried that, far from improving press conditions in...

CorridorWatch.org Media Alert (06.04.06) Media > News Media Bulletins & Press Releases CorridorWatch.org – June 4, 2006 TxDOT denies media credentials for David Stall of CorridorWatch.org to attend and report on the Texas Transportation Forum (June 8 & 9). CorridorWatch.org was notified Friday by e-mail from TxDOT Public Information Director Randall Dillard that "applications for media credentials are being accepted only for mainstream news media." This is the first time I have been denied media credentials to cover a transportation function. Many of you have seen me at Commission meetings or working at events, such as the Texas Transportation Summit...

MOSCOW, June 5, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Some 1,700 editors, publishers, and other media leaders from over 100 countries are in Moscow this week to attend the World Association of Newspapers' (WAN) 59th annual congress and the accompanying World Editors Forum. President Putin was clearly pleased to see so many world media leaders gather in his country. WAN's congress was indeed a prime opportunity for him to defend his regime against long-standing accusations that it is bent on muzzling the media. Addressing the delegates in his opening speech, he delivered a thinly veiled swipe at the Kremlin's detractors. "I was very...

In the early months of 2003, as the coalition offered Saddam Hussein's regime a final opportunity to comply with the United Nations Security Council, an Iraqi nicknamed "Baghdad Bob" served as a spokesman for Iraq's Information Ministry. He was not exactly a poster child for accuracy. When coalition troops took control of Baghdad's airport, this spokesman was on television denying they were there, saying such reports were "lies" or "a Hollywood movie." Even when shown video footage of U.S. soldiers on Saddam's parade grounds, just around the corner from where he was standing, "Baghdad Bob" said, "There is nothing going...

May 16, 1918: U.S. Congress passes Sedition Act http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwari&month=10272957&day=10272981 http://tinyurl.com/ol7sm On May 16, 1918, the United States Congress passes the Sedition Act, a piece of legislation designed to protect America’s participation in World War I. Along with the Espionage Act of the previous year, the Sedition Act was orchestrated largely by A. Mitchell Palmer, the United States attorney general under President Woodrow Wilson. The Espionage Act, passed shortly after the U.S. entrance into the war in early April 1917, made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces’ prosecution of the...

[First American magazine with a Mohammad cartoon on the cover!] In this issue, we’ve reprinted two of the now-infamous Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the Muhammad. We do so not to gratuitously offend Muslims; we do so because a vital principle is at stake—a principle that easily trumps any considerations of ill manners or hurt feelings. It is the founding principle of America: individual rights. For us, it is the pre-eminent concern for any publication or journalist: the right to speak and express oneself freely. The editors of this magazine are Objectivists. As advocates of reason, we reject religion and the...

Worldwide protests, riots, and threats aimed at Denmark and its citizens have taken place ever since the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed cartoons featuring the Islamic prophet Muhammed. In response to this unprecedented assault on the right to free speech, rallies supporting Denmark have occurred in Washington D.C. and New York,.  Others are planned for Chicago, London, Toronto, Montreal and Sydney. In addition, there will be a "Rally to Support Denmark and Free Speech" outside the Danish Consulate in San Francisco: When:  Friday, March 10, between noon and 1pm. Where:  Danish Consulate - One California Street (Suite 330) - San Francisco - Map....

03.02.06 Know Your Freedoms! Update III (3/3 @ 10:49 a.m.): I’m going to do something today that I haven’t done in a loooong time: go offline. I’ll check via the Treo periodically to approve comments caught in the moderation queue. Enjoy your freedom, and rest easy this weekend! ———————————————————————Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. - Abraham Lincoln It matters little to me, in 2006, that some of the men who drafted the U.S. Constitution owned slaves or that none of them had people like me in mind when they drafted what is still and will...

"When a thinking person sees or reads something that offends them in a newspaper, they write a letter to the editor; they don't torch KFC. Clearly, there is more than a touch of irony in the violent reactions of Muslims around the world as a result of these cartoons."

He's made his points with images of a cartoon Jesus being stabbed by Santa Claus, playing poker with other religious figures (including Muhammad), punching a heckler who referred to him as a "glorified Easter bunny" and wondering if he has the requisite male body part during a sexual encounter with a woman. Those depictions have sparked anger among many students, both Christians and non-Christians, and concern among administrators. In a statement Friday, Vice President for Student Affairs Norleen Pomerantz said a meeting between student affairs and student media about how to balance First Amendment rights while maintaining good taste will...

This time, the press failed the public By William J. Bennett and Alan M. Dershowitz February 24, 2006 There was a time when the press was the strongest guardian of free expression in this democracy. Stories and celebrations of intrepid and courageous reporters are many within the press corps. Cases such as New York Times v. Sullivan in the 1960s were litigated so that the press could report on and examine public officials with the unfettered reporting a free people deserved. In the 1970s the Pentagon Papers case reaffirmed the proposition that issues of public importance were fully protected by...

Bill Clinton called them "totally outrageous" and an "appalling example" of stereotyping. He was talking about the Danish cartoons that sparked the rioting and killings throughout the Islamic world. Similarly, Sen. John Kerry was appalled by the cartoon depictions of Mohammed -- one, for example, showing the prophet in a turban shaped as a bomb. "Inflammatory images deserve our scorn," he said. French President Jacques Chirac, likewise, urged caution in regard to upsetting anyone's apple cart, especially if it's a faith-based cart: "Anything liable to rub the wrong way the beliefs of others, particularly the religious beliefs, must be avoided."...

Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad I decided to publish in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words. They say that freedom of expression does not imply an endorsement of insulting people's religious feelings, and besides, they add, the media censor themselves every day. So, please do not teach us a lesson about limitless freedom of speech. I agree that the freedom to publish things doesn't mean you publish everything. Jyllands-Posten would not publish pornographic images or graphic details of dead...

Throughout the cartoon controversy people on both sides talk about free speech and a free press. While in general, these can be construed as the freedom to say what you want, people are conflating Constitutional protections with the idea that one shouldn't face any consequences to their speech. Free speech, but more specifically, the Constitutional protection of free speech has absolutely nothing to do with private individuals and what they can do. The First Amendment is not a protection from your fellow citizens (or foreigners). It is a protection against what the government can do, and the government alone. When...

It doesn't take Valentine's Day for me to acknowledge my lifelong love affair with the First Amendment. But these days as I read the free press and watch the TV news, I'm enraged by these violent, self-righteous, Islamo-fascists who are threatening to destroy and kill anyone who dares express beliefs in a fashion of which they do not approve. It disappoints me that anyone, never mind people of my guild, would kowtow to these fanatics. "I don't understand why anyone would even publish these cartoons," said Evan Thomas of Newsweek on the "Imus Show" last week, in a moment of...

Creeping Fascism in Europe: Press Regulation Coming What is the lesson to be learned here? 1) Muslims threaten Europe with boycotts and violence and demand press regulations.2) Europe begins the process of outlawing images deemed offensive to Muslims. Lesson: If you want Europe to adopt sharia (Islamic) law, simply threaten then. My guess is that next Muslims will demand an end to public displays of pornographic material, something common in Europe. Also expect a demand for the prohibition of Christian missionaries trying to convert Muslims in the near future, sex-segregates schools, and tax supported mosques. In fact, European Muslims are...

The Danish cartoon saga has placed the US media in a fantastic pickle over the competing cherished American imperatives of free speech and politically correct self-censorship. So far only one major media organisation - the Philadelphia Inquirer - has published the offending cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. The approach of the rest was captured by the New York Times in an editorial yesterday, a characteristically pompous and ponderous piece of chin-stroking sanctimony. News organisations, it noted, were right to "refrain from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols". That homily raised a few eyebrows among those who remember The Times's lovingly recaptured...

At View from the Right, Lawrence Auster observes that “Patrick Buchanan comes out 100 percent against the European papers that published the cartoons of Muhammad, seeing the act as an anti-religious provocation by secular modernists.” Auster notes that Buchanan’s piece was published by “the anarchist libertarian website lewrockwell.com.” This is not to say that the website endorses Buchanan’s view, but it’s important to note that lewrockwell.com is highly selective about content, usually posting perspectives—and people—that comport with its mission. “Patrick J. Buchanan on tweaking the Muslims” is how the column was billed on the site, clearly saddling the “tweakers” with...

Cartoons and the clash of 'freedoms' was written by Ehsan Ahrari, obviously a Muslim. I draw attention to it because it illustrates the attitude of Islam to the denigration of Islam in the name of free speech. In Austria, it is against the law to make any statements denying the occurrence of the Holocaust. But one can say anything about Islam and get away with it. Aren't Muslims right when they take the position that there is an open season against their religion, and that the exercise of freedom of expression is used only as a "civilized" excuse for insulting...

Controversial Cartoons Stir Media Debate By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 20 minutes ago PARIS - Unflattering, some say offensive or sacrilegious, newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad are casting the spotlight on the battle between free speech and religious beliefs. ADVERTISEMENT The conflict is focused on Europe, where the cartoons — and the 300-year-old concept of a free press — originated, and where large Muslim populations make the drawings particularly divisive. Newspapers elsewhere, from North America to Asia, have largely avoided the caricatures.The question of whether to publish has divided newsrooms, cutting to the heart of...

The controversy over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed is expanding, as more Muslims join the boycott and protests against Denmark and various European newspapers decide to publish the cartoons, mostly out of solidarity with Jyllands Posten and to make a strong political stand. One issue that puzzles many Danes is the timing of this outburst. The cartoons were published in September: Why have the protests erupted from Muslims worldwide only now? The person who knows the answer to this question is Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, a man that the Washington Post has recently profiled as “one...

Last week, Muslims marched in the centre of London chanting "Freedom go to Hell!" There could be no more graphic illustration of the paradox at the heart of the cartoon row. These protesters were exercising - and in many cases abusing - the freedom of protest and freedom of assembly that are foundation stones of British democracy. Yet, even as they exploited these hard-won liberties, they were calling for them to be abolished. This newspaper would not have published the cartoons of Mohammed at the centre of this controversy, images which we regard as vulgar and fatuously insulting. But -...

TRIPOLI (AFP) - Libya said it is heading toward allowing private newspapers, radio and television news in what has been a state-controlled media environment for more than 30 years. Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, who also runs the Kadhafi Goodwill Foundation, was given the green light by his father to spearhead the plan though a new company. "The first experimental program on one of the radio stations will take place in March," said Abdel Salam al-Mushri, an official at the company, which is called "1/9" in reference to the September 1 date of the 1969 Libyan revolution. "Preparations...

Arab lying racists (still) criticize beautiful democratic Israel? What happens when the Atlas (Arab) of Racism invents-lies libel "racism" on a remarkable democracy? Ignoring Israel's reality First, the Arab Islamic hate media Golitah is systematically ingnoring or lying openly about the fact that Israel's Arabs are not only equal, but giving opportunities & rights without demanding of them the natural obligation that exists on all Israelis to serve in it's service, moreover they're often first class citizens in courts etc. even ahead of Israeli Jews. Remarkable! Israel's free, democratic status should be held especially remarkable giving the fact of...

Mindful of the jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, reporters are increasingly wary of pursuing stories based on confidential sources and need the protection of a federal "shield" law, a panel of journalists told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. U.S. Justice Department officials told senators, however, that they strongly oppose such a shield law, saying it is unnecessary and harmful to national security because it could prevent prosecutors from obtaining potentially vital information. Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., indicated yesterday that he doesn't accept the Justice Department argument and plans to try to win his panel's approval...

FreeRepublic – an online community "I had not been all that politically active prior to President Clinton's election," Robinson recalls. "Yes, I complained about government and politics just like everyone else … but politics was not particularly high on my list of priorities – until Slick came along." Robinson saw that the Clintons had brought a new and dangerous level of corruption to American politics. He could no longer remain aloof. "I knew that the newspapers and news media were lying and I knew that government had been encroaching on our individual rights and that our politicians were as corrupt...

The New York Times, NBC and other dominant media have destroyed the Constitution's Freedom of the Press. Today giant tears are shed at the New York Times because one of their own, Judith Miller, appears to be on the way to prison for up to 120-days because she nobly refused to give up a source. The Supreme Court recently ruled that she, as a journalist, must assist a federal government investigation when ordered to do so. The First Amendment, in pertinent part, says: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or...

Journalists Say Threat of Subpoena Intensifies By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE In 1991, when Timothy Phelps, a reporter for Newsday, and Nina Totenberg, a reporter for National Public Radio, broke the news that Anita Hill had accused Clarence Thomas, then a Supreme Court nominee, of sexual harassment, a special Senate counsel tried to subpoena the reporters' telephone records to unmask their confidential source. The accusations prompted a second round of highly contentious confirmation hearings, but Senate leaders ultimately refused to give the special counsel permission to pursue the records, and eventually the matter was dropped. Mr. Phelps, who is now Newsday's...

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that a newspaper cannot be sued for printing a letter that suggested Americans respond to attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq by going to the nearest mosque and killing the first five Muslims they see. The high court unanimously held that the letter to the editor was political speech protected by the First Amendment. It threw out a lawsuit accusing the Tucson Citizen of intentionally inflicting emotional distress on residents. Two Tucson men had sued the Gannett Co. newspaper for unspecified damages after it ran the letter in 2003. The letter frightened...

A group of legislators has introduced a bill called the Free Flow of Information Act. It is termed a "Media Shield Law" that will make it very difficult to compel journalists to appear in federal court cases and turn over information and identify confidential sources. In a column headlined, "Republicans Vs. the Press," Robert Novak said that Senator Richard Lugar, one of the main sponsors, could find only three other Republicans Senators willing to co-sponsor it, "thanks to anti-media hostility in GOP ranks." There are better reasons to oppose this bill. One is that journalists don't deserve special rights or...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Newspaper publisher Chris Simcox, who helped organize last month's Minuteman vigils and promised more in the future, was denied access to a Department of Homeland Security press conference in Arizona last week. Mr. Simcox, who writes for, edits and owns the Tombstone, Ariz., Tumbleweed, wants the American Civil Liberties Union to determine whether his First Amendment free-press rights were violated. He said the Border Patrol refused to let him attend the Thursday press conference featuring Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who spoke in Douglas, Ariz., on the need for additional agents and increased technology to gain control...

WASHINGTON - Unfavorable court rulings have the news media facing their most serious challenge in more than three decades over protecting the identities of confidential sources. The latest defeat came last week when a federal appeals court in Washington declined to reconsider a three-judge panel's ruling compelling Time magazine's Matthew Cooper and The New York Times' Judith Miller to testify before a federal grand jury about their sources or go to jail for up to 18 months. The two reporters have been called to testify about the leak of an undercover CIA's officer's name. In a separate case, The Associated...

There's a practical reason for having an independent press in a healthy democracy. It's because all governments spin news to serve their needs and the press is responsible for separating spin from facts. But to hear some Democrats tell it, the press should only be as responsible as the government it covers. They and their liberal journalist partners were shocked -- shocked, they told us -- on learning that the Bush administration distributes video news releases, or news videos, to broadcasters. Propaganda, they proclaimed. The United States was just one news video away from being a clone of Soviet Russia,...

Knight Ridder Down in Circ, Too By Jennifer Saba Published: April 15, 2005 3:25 PM ET NEW YORK Like other newspaper companies that have reported Q1 earnings this week, Knight Ridder this afternoon announced that its newspapers would see circulation decreases in the upcoming Fas-Fax report. “It's not a story we like,” Tony Ridder, Knight Ridder's CEO, told analysts. “But it's a reality.” Daily circulation is down 1.8% and Sunday circulation dropped 2.2% for the six-month period ending March 2005. Like other companies, Knight Ridder attributed the decline to a renewed a focus on home delivery and single-copy sales as...

Albom Column Suspended While 'Freep' Investigates By Dave Astor Published: April 11, 2005 2:15 PM ET NEW YORK Mitch Albom's work will not appear in the Detroit Free Press while the newspaper investigates his past-tense column about something that hadn't happened yet. John X. Miller, the Free Press' public editor, told E&P today that not publishing the work of an under-investigation staffer is standard practice at the paper. "His salary will continue to be paid," he added, noting that this is also standard practice at the paper in these situations. Miller said the investigation -- being conducted by a Free...

Mitch Albom apologizes to readers for error in column 4/7/2005, 11:55 p.m. ET The Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Best-selling author Mitch Albom apologized Thursday to readers of the Detroit Free Press for incorrectly reporting that two former Michigan State players attended Saturday's Michigan State-North Carolina NCAA basketball game. He said he wrote the column before the game took place. Albom said he based the column on what former Michigan State players Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson told him they planned to do. He said he wrote the column in the past tense, as if the events already had happened,...