Five stories that have North Texas talking: Lance Armstrong's horrible day, Anderson Cooper interviews Arlington Reddit troll, binders full of debate recaps and more.
Lance Armstrong stepped down from his role as president of the cancer awareness-promoting Livestrong foundation this morning. This comes after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a reportwith testimony from 11 teammates saying the cyclist had broken doping rules while winning his seven Tour-de-France titles.
Well, now Nike has pulled its sponsorship of the cyclist. From the company’s release:
"Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him," Nike said in a statement. "Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner."
NPR’s Eyder Peralta is tracking the story on NPR’s Two-Way blog.
-- Lyndsay Knecht
Anderson Cooper To Do AMA -- Sort Of -- With Fired Arlington Reddit Troll
Reddit has reached mainstream curiosity with its free-form Ask Me Anything chat sessions with the likes of President Obama (and Ira Glass). But the sprawling online community’s dark side hit home when Gawker’s Adrian Chen revealed the identity of the aliased moderator of Reddit forum “Jailbait” last week: Arlington man Michael Brutsch.
Known as Violentacrez (“violent acres”) on the site, Brutsch lost his job for posting and approving photos of scantily clad underage girls and other related offenses. Brutsch used Reddit to mention he’ll be interviewed on CNN Thursday; the New York Times Mediadecoder blog confirms Brutsch will most likely appear on Anderson Cooper 360.
The show airs on weeknights at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. CT.
-- Lyndsay Knecht
Binders Full Of Debate Recaps!
If you missed a minute of last night’s debate, NPR has you covered as per usual:
- Alan Greenblatt has some takeaways, noting the exhausted voters’ downturned questions in the Town Hall format;
- Mark Memmott and Scott Montgomery have the fact check toasting moderator Candy Crowley for disputing claims and facilitating quick research;
- David Folkenflik has all the color and cringe-worthy moments from the auditorium at Hofstra University on Long Island.
PBS NewsHour’s post-debate analysis is here.
And get your good old-fashioned full text and audio here.
-- Lyndsay Knecht
UT Dallas Alum Helps Rebels In Syria With YouTube Videos
UT Dallas Obaida Hitto grad documented the Syrian war via YouTube video as he weathered the turmoil alongside members of the Free Syrian Army. He wasn’t there by chance: New York Times writer J. David Goodman has a story about how 25-year-old Hitto blew off law school to visit the country where his father was born and help rebels spread information via video posts like this one:
Hitto told NPR’s Robert Siegel he still has shrapnel in his back from the mortar attack last month that sent him home.
-- Lyndsay Knecht
Big Bird Has a Posse: ‘Million Puppet March’
Thousands of humans have signed up for the “Million Puppet March”, an unofficial Nov. 3rd event billed as a show-of-support for public broadcasting, children’s education, and all of puppet-kind.
In the Oct. 3rd Presidential Debate, Republican candidate Mitt Romney briefly mentioned big bird and said he was “going to stop the subsidy to PBS”. (He’s not alone; statements from various politicians over the years have touched ondefunding PBS.)
Romney’s statement instantly settwitter aflutter about the big yellow bird, eventually affecting the formation of the “Million Puppet March”.
Organizers hope to show the world their love of puppetry and are inviting participants to show up, puppets in tow.
And if you don’t think Texans take their puppets seriously, one need only recall the touching funeral for the belovedVernon Dailey, the man behind Mr. Peppermint’s ‘Muffin The Bear’.
The event isn’t sponsored by PBS, and Oscar the Grouch couldn’t be reached for comment.
-- Justin Martin
