Articles
A clickable sampling of pieces by Debbie, written mostly in the last few years but some a bit older. In no special order.
“David and His 26 Roommates,” in New York Magazine
He’s an undocumented Mexican immigrant in Manhattan. He lives with more than two dozen other “illegals,” all stuffed in a basement in violation of the housing codes. By day, David is a shadowy denizen in an underground home and underground economy. By night he has dreams: of being Superman, of soaring over the Empire State Building, of finding love and living like a human in America.
“The New York Times, Kurt Eichenwald and the World of Justin Berry: Hysteria, Exploitation and Witch Hunting in the Age of Internet Sex,” in CounterPunch.
(This piece won the 2008 “Sexies” first place award for news journalism. The Sexies honor mass media writing that presents sex in a positive, rational and informative way while using professional reporting standards.)
In early 2007, the New York Times was embarrassed by revelations that while working for the paper, former reporter Kurt Eichenwald paid $2,000 to a young man who later became his major source for a block buster Times article on child pornography. This article looks at the back story to the the Times piece: at scandalous sloppiness and mischaracterization in Eichenwald’s story, and how child porn panic fuels bad work such as this.
“The Hunting of Dr. Craft,“ in The Nation (with co-author Judy Jackson).
Another dispatch from the frontlines of kiddie porn panic. If you snap a picture of an unclothed child — in a “Coppertone” pose, say — and you’re a mom or someone else with no discernable “sexual intent,” is the image pornographic? What if you do this and you’re a “pedophile”? And who decides if you are — how do they determine what was on your mind when you made the photo or video? Shutterbug Bruce Craft jumped unwittingly into this tortured conundrum. Now he’s in prison for life.
“Missing the Story,” in The Texas Observer
Despite what you’ve heard from Jennifer Lopez, Eve Ensler, and Senorita Extraviada director Lourdes Portillo, 400 slender, long-haired women have not been found murdered by strangers in Juarez, Mexico, with their breasts mutiliated. In fact, most of the 400 murders were shootings and beatings committed by husbands, boyfriends, and other relatives. Many of the women were middle aged and decidedly not long haired and thin. Do these women not also deserve our concern? Why aren’t they getting it? Here’s the story you missed.
“Complex Persecution,“ in The Village Voice
Manhattan children’s party magician David Friedman had a horrible secret: his father and brother were the demons of Long Island. Arnold and Jesse Friedman were accused, convicted and imprisoned in the late 1980s for sexually abusing hundreds of children, in a case that most likely was bogus. By 2000, social amnesia had set in. Then, millionaire Andrew Jarecki decided to make a documentary film about magicians, and he unearthed the Friedman family skeletons. “Complex Persecution” describes how Jarecki made the acclaimed film Capturing the Friedmans, how he marketed it, and how the Friedmans coped with their new fame — and renewed infamy. Debbie appears in the film as the talking-head-journalist “voice of reason.”
“The New Underground Railroad,” in New York Magazine
It’s getting harder and harder for poor women to get abortions and sometimes they wait till the eleventh hour. Then they come to New York City for a two-day, second-trimester procedure. Debbie belongs to a group of volunteers who open their homes to these women so they won’t have to sleep at the Port Authority. Her is her story, and theirs.
“ABC’s Primetime Fakery,” in Counterpunch
Girl-next-door teens kidnapped from shopping malls and their own front lawns! Then forced into sex slavery! Not true, for course. But mass media like ABC Primetime is pushing the hype, with help and encouragement from the government. What’s in it for the feds? Read here to find out.
“Oversexed,” in The Nation
Far more people are probably enslaved in the US picking broccoli and cleaning toilets than are being forced to have sex in brothels. But the government wants you to think otherwise. Another “what’s in it for the feds” story that also explains what’s in it for another set of strange bedfellows: feminists.
“The Ritual Sex Abuse Hoax” (originally in The Village Voice, reprinted by the National Center for Reason and Justice)
Anatomy of the political forces and illogic that created the ritual sex abuse and “satanic daycare” scare of the 1980s.
“Death, Life, Home,” in Tucson Weekly
Francisco Dominguez Rivera was only 17 when he left Mexico for California. His family lived in a shack with no running water. From afar, he sent money to build a new house, with a pink bathtub and whirlpool jets for his mom. After years Francisco returned to see his family and his 1000-square-foot castle. Then he returned northward to earn money for tiling and a wet bar. He never made it — he was shot to death by a US border agent while crossing into Arizona. Here are photos of Francisco’s house and other things he left behind while Bill O’Reilly was warning us how he was out to destroy our way of life.
“I’m Sorry” by Kyle Zirpolo as told to Debbie Nathan, in Los Angeles Times Magazine
In 2005 a young Californian, Kyle Zirpolo, rented Capturing the Friedmans. By the time the final credits rolled, he was beside himself, realizing he needed to come clean. As a child, Kyle had told authorities he was molested during satanic rituals at the infamous McMartin Preschool. But that was a lie, and Kyle always knew it. Here is his story about why he lied and why he finally came forward to apologize.
“Fortune Tattling,” in Detroit Metro
Debbie got a “degree” in Tarot card reading (after nine hours of study) in order to get a job at one of those echt-1990s Psychic Readers lines. Then she spent four months on the phone with America’s working class at their most desperate, and most eloquent.
“Race Wars,” in City Limits Magazine
Hate crimes used to be something only whites did to blacks. Not any more, at least in New York City. Nowadays, a large proportion are committed by people of color against others of color. African Americans against Mexicans, Dominicans against Bangladeshis, Pakistanis against Sikhs. It’s a new world of bad behavior, and the demographic change raises questions about whether the very concept of ‘hate crime’ should be thrown out.
“Miracle on 33rd Street,” in City Limits Magazine
Santa Claus was invented in New York City. So was “Operation Santa Claus.” It’s a huge charity project run each Christmas season from the post office, in which affluent people cozy up to poor people, poor people act soft and fuzzy, and everyone ends up feeling like individual charity — rather than equitable government policy — will bring peace on earth.
“Drawing on the Right Side,“ in The Texas Observer
What was it like to hang with Texas’ delegation to the 2004 Republican National Convention? Pretty grim, but Debbie had fun anyhow after she spotted a bunch of protestors, also from Texas. She hatched a fun contest to see who draws the Lone Star state better — native-son-and-daughter progressives, or conservatives? Check out the maps they sketched and decide for yourself!
“Talking Texan: Ya’lls, Drawls and Monophthongs,” in The Texas Observer
Youse probably already know this, but just in case: The late Molly Ivins’ cornpone Texas accent was pure TV and book-signing shtick — she actually sounded like a Smith College girl (which she was). But Molly talked Texan for a reason. The stereotypical accent has become political theater, according to sociolinguists who’ve been studying it lately. Why does Dubya say tairisss for terrorists? What’s he trying to communicate? And which Texans do not talk this way?
Debbie goes to her Dominican super’s funeral after 9/11 and tries to deal with his friends’ anti-Semitic remarks; Debbie worries that her ESL students think her English isn’t hip enough and her butt’s too big; Debbie sees an elephant humping a donkey at the Republican National Convention. All this and more at Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, an online site for the best New York City vignette writing.