Courage Night At The RNC
August 31st, 2004 - by: danny
IN THE MID-DAY SUN: “SHUT UP A THON”
It’s Tuesday afternoon. Mediachannel’s Tim Karr just passed Ralph Nader going into a CNN studio. Ealier today I watched CNN anchor Bill Hemmer close an interview with President Bush’s Education Secretary with the words “Good Luck tonight.”
“Good Luck” from a (sic) journalist to a politician? Excuse me? Afterwards, he introduced veteran political analyst Jeff Greenfield by calling ” his reports so “interesting.” Interesting? Don’t you barf when you hear that word?
PROTESTS ABOUND
The Indy Media Center reports on protests going on at this hour:
“Infernal Noise Brigade is trying to rally crowd at FOX Shut-Up-Athon. Reports of a steady stream of arrests at the event.
“Bike Bloc amassing in Union Square. High energy. 50-100 bikers.
Johnny Cash protest: 100+ in protest pen, singing. Cops are keeping the sidewalk clear.
And this from wnbc.com:
Man Arrested After He Allegedly Tries To Enter VP’s Box
NEW YORK — A 21-year-old Yale student was arrested after entering a restricted area near Vice President Dick Cheney’s booth at the Republican National Convention, coming within 10 feet of him and shouting anti-war statements, authorities said Tuesday.
“Cheney was never in any danger, and no weapon was found on the man, the authorities said.
“The suspect, Thomas Frampton, was charged with assaulting federal officers and impeding the operation of the Secret Service in court papers filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
“Frampton was released on $50,000 bail and ordered to stay 100 feet from Cheney and President Bush. He also was ordered to give back a red volunteer’s shirt he used to get into the convention, along with any convention passes.”
MACARONI AND CHEESE
As for the politricks of the convention, we turn to a piece on Asia Times by our old friend Ian Williams, a Nation editor rarely in the Nation for reasons that are beyond me and everyone else I know:
NEW YORK – Part of the press kit for the Republican National Convention (RNC) is a packet of “Republican Macaroni Cheese Dinner”, provided by Kraft, which has a “Republican IQ test” on the back. Actually the real test, as with the convention itself, is to read the ingredients in the small print on the side. It contains as many chemicals as the chemistry set I used to have as a schoolboy, and was certainly not digestible for the discerning reader.
“The old saying has it that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. But as the convention opens in New York, that is not the challenge facing President George W Bush and his eminence grise Karl Rove. At worst, they only need to fool 50% plus one of the population for the next two months. And if Governor Jeb Bush, the president’s brother, controls Florida with his accustomed strong hand, maybe not even that.
“In fact, the target victims are the 20% or so swing voters, since the partisan spirit is such that each side takes its core voters for granted, assuming that they can take almost any degree of abuse for the cause of victory. And they can take it for granted that few, if any, of the voters, committed or undecided, will look at the actual ingredients but will act on their perception of the packaging.
“In the old days, the conventions were where the parties actually chose their presidential candidates and argued about their policies. Nowadays, the primaries and the party bosses have already made that choice, so the convention is more like a coronation ceremony, much glitter and little substance. The actual nomination of the candidate has all the tension of a North Korean general election, and nobody apart from the party faithful reads, let alone cares, about the party platforms, the policies on which the “party nominally goes to election.”
CAN YOU WIN IT?
What one media outlet reports one day is undercut by another the next. Here’s Dan Kennedy of the Boston Phoenix” George W. Bush told the truth on Saturday. But don’t worry. He’s not going to let it happen again. He made sure of that earlier this afternoon in a characteristically fawning interview conducted by Rush Limbaugh.
www.rushlimbaugh.com
“As you may recall, the president was asked by Matt Lauer, in an (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5866571/) interview for NBC’s Today show, whether the US could win the war on terrorism. (The interview was broadcast yesterday.) Bush replied: “I don’t think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world – let’s put it that way.”
“It was a good, honest answer. Unfortunately, it was also at odds with the triumphalism of his past remarks. As Elisabeth Bumiller
reported in today’s New York Times, Bush said as recently as July 14, “I have a clear vision and a strategy to win the war on terror.” Bumiller went on to write, “It was unclear if Mr. Bush had meant to make the remark to Mr. Lauer, or if he misspoke.” Misspoke? Re-read what he said. Rarely has he been so honest and coherent. “Of course, Bush’s candor was immediately labeled a mistake. It would have been nice if John Kerry or John Edwards had jokingly welcomed Bush to the real world. But no. Edwards made a stiff (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/2769652) statement insisting, “This is no time to declare defeat. It won’t be easy and it won’t be quick, but we have a comprehensive plan to make America safer.” (Note that Edwards didn’t say that Bush was wrong.) Even Bush’s sycophants on the Fox News Channel said Bush had stepped in it, though they tried to explain it away.”?
for Freedom of the Press reports: “An award-winning syndicated columnist was denied access byunidentified security officials to Vice President Dick Cheney’s speechlast Wednesday at Bloomsburg University, a public college innortheastern Pennsylvania, despite having received a media credentialfrom the Bush/Cheney ’04 campaign. Upon arriving to pick up hiscredential at the university’s gymnasium, where Cheney spoke,columnist Walter Brasch was told he could no longer attend the event.
“A journalism professor at Bloomsburg for the past 25 years, Braschsaid he was approached by a group of men who refused to identifythemselves, including who they worked for and why Brasch was suddenlyno longer allowed to attend the event. “I repeatedly said I was thereas a reporter, not a protestor or anything else,” Brasch, 59, said. “Ihad my notepad, and they could see that I was taking notes on whatthey were saying.
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2004/0827syndic.html
YOUR LETTERS
Anna Taylor writes: “I’m fighting the computer here so hardly have time to read, but your yesterday/today pieces are fantastic.
“CNN crawler says James Baker will be the Texas Two’s debate guy. Where is Mr. Murchison?
“Anyway, the divine retribution factor (see http://DeepEndNews.com) in the Shrock story:
“Think about it: first deluges in Texas, then Florida, now Virginia. Could it be that the Great Weatherman is stomping upon the terror of “Republican” misrule?
“Chairman Arnold, son of a Nazi as you note, endorsing the grandson of a Nazi. How clearer does it GET . . .”
“That’s the view this afternoon from Dissectorville. Stay tuned for more
Posted ar 5:12 PM
WHAT HAPPENED TO MICHAEL MOORE LAST NIGHT AT THE RNC
Before I dropped off into the world of much needed sleep, I wrote about seeing Michael Moore at the RNC last night. He seemed to be on his way out while I was just arriving. I wasn’t sure what happened until radio wizard Amy Goodman told me he had been publicly dissed by John McCain whose role last night was to defend the Bush Administration’s wars that Moore and so many others oppose.
I have now learned that Moore was there on assignment from USA Today. Their version of what happened was this:
n also delivered an attack on filmmaker Michael Moore, whose “Fahrenheit 9/11″ movie is sharply critical of Bush’s leadership and motives for going to war. In his remarks, McCain referred to “a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe that Saddam’s Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls.” (DUH? Did he see the film?)
“The line was greeted with roars of approval. Moore, who is writing a convention column for USA TODAY and was in Madison Square Garden when McCain spoke, raised his arms as the crowd chanted, “Four more years.”
Moore held up two fingers for “Two more months.” Actually he held up two fingers that spelled out an L for “LOSER”
FAHRENHEIT l0:30
One of the bloggers at the RNC published a transcript of Secret Service harassment of Michael Moore as he was being interviewed by NPR. (I though they were there to protect the President, not squelch free speech.)
The headline: “Secret Service shuts down Michael Moore interviews
“NPR Reporter Andrea Seabrook: Hello Frank. I’m standing here with Michael Moore, the filmmaker who made Fahrenheit 911. Mr. Moore, why are you here?
Michael Moore: I’m here writing a guest column each day for USA Today.
Seabrook: OK, so you have credentials to…
Secret Service Agent Come around here
“Seabrook: I’m going to have to join him. They’re kicking me out of this exact area but I can go around to … They just asked me to come around to the other side here.
“NPR Convention Anchor Fred Stachio (phonetic spelling): Andrea Seabrook on the floor with Michael Moore.
Seabrook: [unintelligible]
Stachio: I know you’re still there. I just want to be sure that you can still hear us while your being moved, Andrea.
“Seabrook: Well, well I’m not … the Secret Service has blocked off that area. They’re calling it a .. .a hazard because of the number of people who are a gathered around him. Their aren’t that many people, but the Secret Service won’t let me around him anymore, so I think a the access to him might be cut off for a moment. We’ll try to get back with him.
“Seabrook: Yes, I am in the middle of a … you might be able to hear the Secret Service yelling into my mic at the same time. There, there are a bunch of Secret Service that have surrounded Michael Moore’s section. There are three or four reporters with him right now, but they are trying to kick all of the reporters and press photographers who are around him out of his area. The convention staff is also here. They’re standing here telling us that we have to move from this are … they’re obviously disturbed by the fact that Michael Moore is here and want as little public here as possible.
“Stachio: Can we hear? Can we hear what’s going on? Can you stick a mic in there? I don’t know if we can hear.
“Seabrook: Yeah … ah … eh … they’ve sort of moved me away from that area.
“Stachio: I don’t understand. Who is it. Is it Secret Service?
Seabrook: It’s Secret Service which is interesting because the Secret Service of all agencies is the one that remains… is the least involved in the sort of political… political kinds of things, but of course they always cover the candidates and they have to be involved in the convention like this. They claim that what they’re doing is for safety reasons, although there is a almost nobody around Michael Moore right now. So a we’ll see if I can a…
“Seabrook: Yeah, I’m being herded back in four different ways right now.”
WHAT HE WROTE FOR USA TODAY
“The GOP doesn’t reflect America
“Hanging out around the convention, I’ve encountered a number of the Republican faithful who aren’t delegates. They warm up to me when they don’t find horns or a tail. Talking to them, I discover they’re like many people who call themselves Republicans but aren’t really Republicans. At least not in the radical-right way that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft and Co. have defined Republicans.
“I’ve often found that if I go down the list of “liberal” issues with people who say they’re Republican, they are quite liberal and not in sync with the Republicans who run the country. Most don’t want America to be the world’s police officer and prefer peace to war. They applaud civil rights, believe all Americans should have health insurance and think assault weapons should be banned. Though they may personally oppose abortion, they usually don’t think the government has the right to tell a women what to do with her body.
“There’s a name for these Republicans: RINOs or Republican In Name Only. They possess a liberal, open mind and don’t believe in creating a worse life for anyone else?”
TO READ MORE MOORE:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2004-08-30-moore-gopamerica_x.htm
MCCAIN FEASTS MEDIA BEFORE MOORE ROAST
The Drudge Report offers this juicy social note that also shows the seduction of big media:
“Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain hosted a hyper-exclusive birthday party for himself at La Goulue on Mad Avenue on the eve of the convention, leaving no media icon behind.
WASHINGTON POST reports Tuesday how guests included NBC’s Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert, ABC’s Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters, Ted Koppel and George Stephanopoulos, CBS’s Mike Wallace, Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer, CBS News President Andrew Heyward, ABC News chief David Westin, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, CNN’s Judy Woodruff and Jeff Greenfield, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, CNBC’s Gloria Borger, PBS’s Charlie Rose _ pause here to exhale _ and U.S. News & World Report publisher Mort Zuckerman, Washington Post Chairman Don Graham, New York Times columnists William Safire and David Brooks, author Michael Lewis and USA Today columnist Walter Shapiro.
“They and others dined on lobster salad, loin of lamb, assorted wines, creme brulee, lemon souffle and French tarts.
INDY MEDIA UNDER INVESTIGATION
” ..the Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation andis demanding records concerning anti-RNC deleagte posts to thiswebsite. Specifically, the DOJ is seeking information on lists of2,200 RNC delegate names posted to our Open Newswire….
http://nyc.indymedia.org/feature/display/107119/index.php
YOUR LETTERS
Virgil writes from California:, “Good to see you at the RNC. I’ve been using you andC-SPAN almost exclusively today to find out what isgoing on at the Republican War Convention — RWC. C-SPAN caught Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Teleprompterwhile he was practicing last night. In a portion ofhis speech on Tuesday, he will reference how he sawcommunism first hand in his native country. Onewonders if he will also mention he’s the Son of a NaziParty Member?
“But in a completely unrelated item, and please forgiveme if you’ve already mentioned this on a previousblog, but I stumbled upon a new partisan product thatthe “for us” people would easily support — W Ketchup.That’s right! Now you can have W Ketchup with yourFreedom Fries!
Some excerpts from the official website: “You don’t support Democrats. Why should yourketchup?”
“W Ketchup? is made in America, from ingredients grownin the USA. The leading competitor not only has 57varieties, but has 57 foreign factories as well. WKetchup comes in one flavor: American.”
MEDIA NEWS: COURAGE IN JOURNALISM
Luke Harding reports in the Guardian: “Most American TV networks now rarely venture out of their Baghdad hotels. Last week not a single American TV reporter travelled to Najaf to cover the conflict there; instead the American networks prefer to “embed” with the US military, where the information on offer is, at best, one-sided. By contrast, the British media emerged well from what was the biggest story in Iraq since the Abu Ghraib scandal, with all major British newspapers and the BBC represented in Najaf.
After having us dragged into his station at gunpoint, meanwhile, Najaf’s police chief Ghalib al-Jazae’ri then gave us a classically neo-Ba’athist dressing down. “You are not under arrest, but you will listen to us to see what disasters you have caused,” he told us, before complaining about media coverage of the impending visit to Najaf of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.”
A FRENCH CNN ON THE WAY
EU Observer reports: “Plans to create an international French television channel along thelines of CNN or the BBC appear to be back on track, following commentsby French foreign minister Michel Barnier. “In the battle of imagesbeing played out today, as we see in Iraq, our country must be present”,he said, according to AFP. French President Jacques Chirac called forthe new channel during the height of the Iraqi war, so that the Frenchviewpoint, which was against the war, would have a better chance ofbeing exposed. How France is perceived in the world, and particularlyEurope, has led to much soul-searching lately among French politicians.Especially with the decline of the use of the French language in EUinstitutions and the perceived decline in French influence in Brussels.”
http://euobserver.com/?sid=9&aid=17151
Finally from my West Coast NY Times watcher, a quote for the day that activists call Direct Action Day: “New York City is a fortress, and I love it,” Joseph Kyrillos, the New Jersey state Republican chairman, said yesterday at a delegate breakfast…”
Don’t you love it. I don’t. Won’t be at the circus tonight since I am previewing WMD at a “Truth Convention” in Times Square, It is a preview screening with the film “State of the Union” and is already sold out. (See www.wmdthefil.com)
Keep your ee’s coming.Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org
MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS (Posted around midnight)
I couldn’t figure out why Michael Moore looked so glum when I passed him in the press area at the RNC. I was just entering and he seemed on the way out, flanked on all sides by a cordon of security guards. He said hello but with a glazed look.
I had been feeling good about Michael today and was perplexed. I spent a good part of the day editing some footage I shot of Moore and journalist Greg Palast in Boston at the Florida delegation breakfast discussing voting rights. It is for an update I am doing to our film Counting on Democracy, supplemented with some interviews I shot earlier today on the convention floor with Florida delegates here who assured me all the problems of 2000 have been straightened out.
So why the big chill from big Mike?
McCAIN VERSUS MOORE, ROUND ONE
Medea Benjamin of Code Pink was walking with me and we both commented on his unapproachability. It was only later when I walked out of the Garden, having had my fill of Rudy Giuliani’s slavish praise for the President and attack dog like rhetoric against Kerry that I discovered what had happened earlier.
In fact it was Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman who was going back in while I was fleeing who told me that after Moore was spotted in the press section, war hero John McCain bombed him the way he bombed Vietnam with a frontal assault from the podium against Fahrenheit 911. That led the delegates into a a lynch mob like mentality shouting four more years while Mike put up two fingers calling for two more months. And then he was shown the door. In that circumstance his stony face was understandable. Maybe he deserves the courage award for even being there!
What I did hear McCain say was "We are Americans first, Americans last, Americans always. Let us argue our differences,” he said. “But remember we are not enemies, but comrades in a war against a real enemy.” America first? Hasn’t that been used before?
EJECTED BY ABC
All I got tossed out of tonight was the ABC News work space where I committed the unforgivable crime of watching a TV monitor without permission. Forget my membership in the retirement plan, I was out of there. Happily I had the good sense to leave the network 16 years earlier.
So then it was off to the hall to watch "America’s Mayor" live and in person who had a brief post-9/11 experience as human being revert to form as warrior and wise guy. He sounded like those old Soviet apparatchiks who spent their lives praising Stalin. Bush was his Icon-in-Chief and even Dick Cheney was praised for his brilliance although the Veep did not deign to smile Rudy’s way. He told a bunch of old 9/11 homilies as if the 9/11 Commission had never met or its report had not indicted all the screw-ups that made the World Trade Center death toll far higher than it should have been.
Rudy was supposed to be the poster child for courage tonight and he played his part well, smirking for the camera, and playing the partisan card even as he kept stressing that we are all Americans regardless of party affiliations. He questioned Kerry’s integrity and intelligence while praising it. His speech was a veritable trick bag of slick rhetorical maneuvers. Example, so what if we didn’t find WMDs? Saddam WAS a WMD. Applause.
His applause lines played well in the hall. Will they be received as well in a more skeptical America?
PUBLIC OPINION ON 9/11 TURNING
Rudy’s narrative may not be too convincing to many if a new Zogby International poll is to be believed: "On the eve of a Republican National Convention invoking 9/11 symbols, sound bytes and imagery, half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders ‘knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act.’ The poll of New York residents was conducted from Tuesday August 24 through Thursday August 26, 2004. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/-3.5. The poll is the first of its kind conducted in America that surveys attitudes regarding US government complicity in the 9/11 tragedy. Despite the acute legal and political implications of this accusation, nearly 30% of registered Republicans and over 38% of those who described themselves as “very conservative” supported the claim."
MEDIA MONITORING
Dwayne Chandler, a member of the military, was not exactly the type of solider that the RNC troops had in mind when they waved signs backing the armed forces. He has been doing some insightful media monitoring over the weekend and shares it with us:
CNN reported on 28 August, 2004 that a cleanup had begun in Najaf now that weeks of intense fighting and US airstrikes had ended. It was also reported that “scores of decaying bodies have been found in the streets and destroyed buildings.” Before an hour had passed CNN refined the amount of decaying bodies down to “several.”
FYI: My copy of Webster’s dictionary includes in it’s definition of “scores” as being “groups of 20 or more.” Whereas the definition of “several” as “being more than two or three, but not many more.” Not surprisingly, the number of people protesting against the RNC is not the only fuzzy arithmetic practiced by the US media.
Unfortunately, the wounded and dead of Iraq are subjected to the magical math of propaganda.
Sunday, 29 August, 2004:
At the moment, CNN and Fox news have retreated inside MSG to conduct live broadcasts. Both networks have also conducted a preemptive barricading of their bay window’s which the public usually has access to for a close and personal view of the proceedings within. CNN has completely blocked their bay windows with large placards of the company logo. Meanwhile, Fox is using a combination of television monitors and logo placards to block their window; they also have steel barricade fencing outside their studio windows.
The following is a timeline of events based on C-Span’s exceptional coverage of the protests yesterday.
3:04P ET: NY fire dept. is extinguishing the burning remains of a large dragon float. I can hear people chanting “Fox news set the fire, FOX news set the fire!” The fire occurred directly in front of Sbarros pizzeria. Fox reports the fire at 3:06P ET. As a result of the fire the march has been stopped at 7th Ave. and 33rd. street. At 3:13P ET the march has restarted. Once again it is stopped at 3:16P ET. Finally it continues, more or less, at 3:21P ET.
4:05P ET: CNN’s Bob Franken is reporting live from a building behind MSG. Also, he is indoors and on the second floor of the building. Apparently, the quiet of being indoor and the empty streets behind MSG is being used to portray the march as over and done.
4:08P ET: CNN has just announced that the march is over. It is not over. I am still watching C-Span’s live broadcast from outside MSG; the march is massive and thousands upon thousands can be seen stretching down 7th Ave. Once again, C-Span is announcing that people have been marching past MSG since 12P ET; it is now 4:15P ET.
4:21P ET: CNN is intentionally portraying the protests as over. CNN is now broadcasting footage that has been recorded over the past few days, of the buildup to the RNC convention. Without question, the footage is not live and not from today, but is being simultaneously while a live interview is conducted with the infamous Chief of the Miami PD, John Timoney, who is in Miami, not New York. Once again, that live interview is being spliced with stock footage of MSG and the immediate surroundings, which is being intentionally used to support the lie that the march is over. It is not."
LET US NOW PRAISE MEDIA MEN (AND WOMEN)
AJ Rowley writes from Canada:
I just thought I’d share a little observation. Watching the formal broadcast beginning of the RNC on CNN (SNL spoof and all), I noticed something very interesting. It would appear that Wolf Blitzer, Judy Woodruff, and Jeff Greenfield, all employees of CNN suddenly had a moment where they got their journalistic balls back. The three of them speaking with White House Communications Director, Dan Bartlett actually challenged him on his points. As if a robot extra for a bad Sci-Fi movie, Bartlett answered none of the questions he was asked directly and instead re-directed the answers to comply with Bush and Co certified sound bites.
Normally when I watch CNN and listen to the ‘chatter’ between guest and host there is a sense of the chronic complacency plaguing the major news organizations, and I am forced to change the channel or have my intelligence impaired. But this! Greenfield even shook his head while Bartlett was talking! And the three of them challenged him on his points and made clarifications. Such as Bush’s slip over the "War on Terror is not something that can be won." But the simple fact is that they were able to challenge and stand up to a senior Bush authority. Which means! (Insert preferred Eureka-like expression) That they ARE capable of continuing to do so, and that they CAN challenge the Orwellian hocus pocus, the carpet bombing sound bites, and over all FLIP FLOPPING of the Republican powers-that-be.
Since they choose to be complacent, rather then do their jobs, they are proving they know exactly what is going on. And that, that is unacceptable failure. No longer can they hide behind the ‘flawed intelligence,’ they’ve proven they CAN challenge the lies, and more importantly, if they can do it once, they can damn well do it again.
The helicopters are back buzzing the neighborhood. Can I drown them out? Keep your commentaries coming. Write dissector@mediachannel.org
See the whole Post / →
Convention Converging And Diverging
August 27th, 2004 - by: danny
THE FEAR THAT EATS NEW YORK
MARCHING ON THE MEDIA
SHELDON DROBNY CALLS FOR A BOYCOTT
An old folk song pops into my head as I read the NY Times report that "fifty-three percent of New York residents say they are very or somewhat worried that a terrorist attack will happen during the convention." The refrain: "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song" and that’s the song that is being shouted from the rooftops here in Gotham. If Air America gets its way mad as hell New Yorkers will be opening their windows, Network style, to shout "FUGITABOUTIT" as a collective?gashry’ against the Repubarian invaders. (That is if everyone has not fled the city by then. Empty streets here speak to an unprecedented exodus.)
A deal was worked out to move the protest rally this Sunday from Central Park, where the rights of the grass comes before the people, to Union Square a center of polical insurgency that goes back to the beginnings of the last century. It was there that workers rallied and police riots occurred with frequency. A famous story tells of a marcher being chased by police shouting, "Stop Stop, I’m an anti-communist." Before they whacked him, legend has it, a cop responded, "I don’t care what kind of communist you are."
CENTRAL PARK A BATTLE GROUND
My hunch is that Central Park will not be immune from citizens who resent having been forbidden to meet in a place that has hosted mass rallies and protests over the years.
Reports the newspaper of record: "Organizers of two large protests against the Republican National Convention planned for this weekend said yesterday that they would not directly encourage supporters to go to demonstrations in Central Park. But the leader of one group said she would be in the park, and the other group began handing out fliers spelling out legal ways to gather there. The groups toed a fine line between not defying court rulings upholding the city’s refusal to grant permits for the use of the Great Lawn and acknowledging what appears to be a mounting effort among large numbers of people to gather there tomorrow and Sunday. City officials have refused to make the Great Lawn available for large demonstrations, saying they have to preserve the lawn’s grass."
The problem of course is that a protest against the Bush Empire has turned into a protest for the right to protest. In a sense, the city has been able to divert the focus of of mass anger. And the cops just love it.
DOES THE MEDIA WANT BLOODSHED?
Sarah Ferguson reports in the Village Voice that the press is fanning the flames of confrontation almost hoping for violence:
Is it just us, or are these scary stories about anarchists plotting mayhem at the Republican convention starting to read like a preemptive hit? Just today the Daily News led with “Police Intelligence Warning: Anarchy Inc. Hard-core troublemakers a threat to the Republican Convention.”
This kind of coverage sets the stage for brutal treatment of even peaceful activists. At last fall’s Free Trade of the Americas summit in Miami, police fed media hysteria about the ugly hordes descending on the city to justify their Rambo-like assault on union members and nonviolent demonstrators with rubber bullets and taser guns.
S AND A PROTESTS
Other writers warn protesters not to be provoked because that is what the Republicans want. One type of protest they don’t want took place yesterday in Florida. ABC carried the item:
"Melida Arredondo said her husband knew what was coming as three uniformed Marines approached their front door. And when they told him Wednesday afternoon that his Marine son, Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, had been killed in combat in Iraq, police say Carlos Arredondo simply snapped. Arredondo climbed into the Marine Corps van parked outside his home and set it ablaze, suffering severe burns."
Iraq veterans against the war will be speaking out at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater after the march on Sunday, Stephan Smith will sing.
TERROR WAR FOLLIES
Russian authorities say they have found explosives in the debris of one of two planes that crashed, claiming 89 lives. Chechens are suspected. One group has claimed responsibility. Peace talks continue in the Nigerian capital of Abujah by the African Union to negotiate a settlement in the Sudan in line with UN demands.
Who is winning in the war on terror? Who is losing? Two Muslim men in Buffalo were freed on bail after a judge ruled the government had not provided enough evidence to hold them. We keep reading stories like this of high profile arrests that the TV stations are tipped too, followed by warnings and "we told you so" comments by the fear police of Homeland inSecurity and then days, weeks or months later we learn it was all hyped, a mistake or totally false.
From Portland comes word via the AP: "An American lawyer who was falsely accused by the FBI of involvement in March’s Madrid train bombings has hired celebrity attorney Gerry Spence to represent him in a planned lawsuit against the U.S. government."
PRISON ABUSE FROM IRAQ TO TEXAS
A classified report of the prison abuse in Iraq has now shown that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez approved the use in Iraq of "severe" interrogation practices. Last night, ABC Nightline carried a strong and overdue report by Jake Tapper on pervasive abuses in American prisons. Especially shocking were scenes of dogs biting prisoners in Texas at the time George Bush was Governor. He did not do much about it, the program reported, until a prison video was shown. One former prisoner in Texas, Aundray Wright, says "watching that prison abuse in Iraq brought me right back to Texas." And neither has much of the media jumped on the story largely ignoring the parallels, and similarities of approach, ie. Beating prisoners and keeping them naked.
Lest we think that Nightline is on any kind of crusade here, and to "balance" its excellent and hard-hitting report, the program threw in an obligatory look at abuses in prisons in Middle East countries to show a "double standard" by those who criticize us. Feel better?
Nightline did not talk about US support for governments that torture. Egypt, for example, one of the countries cited is a major recipient of US aid. The US military has admitted shipping prisoners from Afghanistan to Egypt. Not mentioned. The US press does not regularly report on these abuses.
GITMO GARBAGE
The ACLU’s Executive Director Anthony D. Romero has been observing th cfirst preliminary hearings taking place at the Guantᮡmo Bay Naval Base. He reports:
Today was the opening of the military commission against David Matthew Hicks, the 29-year-old Australian who has been held in Gitmo for over two years. Today Mr. Hicks saw his mom and dad for the first time in all those years in what was described as an intensely emotional meeting. We spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Hicks at lunch during a break and they held a press conference at the end of the day. Mr. Hicks actually reminded me of my dad. With a father’s unconditional love for his son, his concern was that his boy had been denied due process and had been kept from his family for all this time.
He also told us that his son had told him and Mrs. Hicks of his physical and emotional abuse while in U.S. government custody. He didn’t want to go into detail because that will be raised in the subsequent proceedings. But, I thought you would want to know that the ACLU received a response yesterday in our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding any documents relevant to the use of torture on U.S. government bases overseas, including Guantanamo.
Defying a judge’s order to turn over those documents in our litigation that pre-dated the Abu Ghraib scandal, the government has shown once again its disdain for the need to ensure accountability and transparency. This time they’re fighting a U.S. federal judge and we’ll definitely keep you posted on the lawsuit as it evolves.
uba: "The government of Cuba officially broke off diplomatic relations with the Republic of Panama following an early morning release of four terrorists who attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro in 2000."
AFTER PINOCHET, COULD KISINGER BE NEXT?
"SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile’s Supreme Court on Thursday stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution, paving the way for a possible trial for the former Chilean dictator on charges of human rights abuses. The court voted 9-8 to lift the immunity granted the 88-year-old former president, a court spokesman said. The decision removes the last legal obstacle for prosecutors seeking to bring Pinochet to face justice. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought on behalf of victims of ‘Operation Condor,’ a repression plan implemented by the military dictatorships that ruled South American nation in the 1970s and ’80s. Pinochet took power in a coup in 1973 and ruled until 1990."
NO EASY WALK FOR OIL
From Baghdad comes word that "A sabotage attack on a cluster of about 20 oil pipelines in southern Iraq has cut exports from the key oil producing region by half, a top oil official said Thursday." Reuters reports "It was the latest insurgent attack to set back Iraq’s oil sector, a key source of funding for reconstruction."
The Grand Ayatollah Sistani had just returned to Iraq in time to do a face saving deal with Al Sadr that repopened the shrine in Najav, stopped the fighting and allowed him and his forces to withdraw. Just like that.
AFP quotes an Iraqi (unlike most US news organizations) who says: “God is great. This is democracy, this is the new Iraq, this is the greatest defeat we could have inflicted on the Americans. It`s the most beautiful day in my life,” he shouted, hurrying inside the main mausoleum to pray. "Al-Sistani arrived earlier Thursday, leading a convoy of an estimated 20,000 followers on a peace march.”
“‘We answered the call of Sistani who ordered us to follow to Najaf to break the siege. Police sort of tried to arrest us, but there was nothing they could do. It`s the end of the siege,’” said one demonstrator, Kazem Hamid."
An Italian journalist who had been kidnapped was killed after Italy refused to withdraw its troops from the country.
PROTEST CITY: MEDIA AS A TARGET
Add a "March on the Media" to the list of protests during convention week in New York on Wednesday, September 1 from 7-10 pm. FAIR issues the call:
"For the past few years, the mainstream media have marched in lockstep with the Bush administration. Now it’s time to march on the media. Whether the issue is the Iraq war, the 2000 Florida recount, the Patriot Act or post- 9/11 detentions, the mainstream media have behaved more like lapdogs than watchdogs. We come to challenge their domination of the public discourse and to celebrate what the people of the world are achieving through new independent media based on responsibility and a commitment to justice."
In the old days we would say meet at such and such a place, Today, it’s "Converge"at 52nd and 6th."
SHELDON DROBNY IS MARCHING ANOTHER WAY
Media Channel and your News Dissector welcome Chicago businessman Sheldon Drobny to our blog, and corner of cyberspace, where we hope he will appear more frequently. It was Drobny and his wife Anita who first came up with the idea of the liberal talk radio network that turned into Air America. He put up the original capital and worked hard to level the playing field in a radio world long dominated by the right. Air America’s recent ratings success seems to have vindicated his early faith in it prospects.
As you will read, his concerns (and visions) are broader than just one station. It is not every day that a CPA and venture capitalist speaks out on the need for media reform with so much passion (and guts!). His company is called "Paradigm" and as its founder, he seems to have gone through a paradigm shift personally towards a bold new direction
Drobny’s experiences have turned him into an insightful media critic as well, with a new book on media on the way from Select Books. At my request, he is sharing a column about what he brands a "fifth column." He calls it: "THE FOURTH ESTATE BECOMES THE FIFTH COLUMN."
The press is commonly called the fourth estate. It is a phrase that has been used for hundreds of years and had its origins in the UK. In America today, I am sorry to say that the corporate controlled media have now become part of the fifth column. For those of you who are unaware of the definition of the fifth column, here it is:
fifth column
Function: noun
Etymology: name applied to rebel sympathizers in Madrid in 1936 when four rebel columns were advancing on the city
Date: 1936 : a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders"? 2001 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated Merriam-Webster Privacy Policy
The latest crime of omission by these fifth columnists has been their handling of the Swift boat incident that has trashed the outstanding military record of Senator John Kerry. This is part of the problem when the media represents only the powerful and privileged and not the people at large. Instead of using appropriate skepticism and their own research capability, they report the controversy as if it had any credibility. The official military records on Kerry’s citations have never been questioned or refuted. Thirty five years later these swift boat commanders come up with a story during the Presidential election. This is too ridiculous to be on any credible news broadcast and Bush’s fingerprints are all over this. But the media does not care about truth, credibility, or fairness. They care about topics that are controversial and provide infotainment to their audiences.
In my last piece I suggested that liberals boycott the major media. That is the only thing that will hurt them where it counts, in their pocket books. I violated my own suggestion yesterday by watching Hardball with Chris Matthews. However, I made an exception because I wanted to see how Matthews would handle the Max Cleland letter delivered by the former Senator to Bush’s ranch in Crawford Texas. Matthews again used his typical technique of putting guests on both sides of the case to make their arguments. After he interviewed Cleland, he put on guests that argued the totally unproven and unsupported case for the swift boat commanders against Kerry. Never mind that the story has no credibility. Never mind that a child of three could figure that the story was a political hatchet job. Never mind that the President is saying he had nothing to do with the ads. Can you imagine Matthews allowing Clinton or Gore to get away with that? So this so-called hardball interviewer moderated a debate between crazy political zealots and those who have on the record served their country honorably in war.
The excuse always given by Matthews and the other fifth columnists is that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, it is irresponsible for the media to feed lies and report on unproven allegations. I thought that the media was also supposed to be a filter to news that is truthful.
Again, the infotainment era has made truthfulness a casualty. In my world, extraordinary claims after 35 years require extraordinary proof. This is not the case with Matthews. He is just an entertaining bully who rarely does his homework. At least Tim Russert does extensive research before he conducts an interview. Matthews has demonstrated that he does not care who is right or wrong. He interposes his opinion based upon how he feels without any proof. But that is his gig and it is a shame. Matthews also has a weekly syndicated show about politics in which he has his "expert panelists" of usual suspects report about strategies of the candidates and not much detail about their positions or the viability of the positions of either side.
These and other so called news analysts view the political process as a team sport and are only interested in viewing the opposing positions of the candidates as to the their effectiveness in being elected. So to Matthews, Karl Rove is a genius of propaganda much like Joseph Goebbels. At long last: does Matthews have any shame?
By the way, I was serious about a liberal boycott of the corporate media that I mentioned in my last column. I hope we can do this during "sweeps" week so that we can have a real impact on their advertising revenue. At the very least, we should email them with complaints much like the right wing has done to influence and scare these corporate cowards to cancel network made for TV movies like the one about Ronald Regan. So let’s do what any responsible group does about fifth columnists: let’s execute them metaphorically.
radigm shifts, I went to see "The Corporation," a strong indictment of corporate power and abuse. The high point for me were not the brilliant critics like Chomsky, Zinn, Shiva and Klein (sounds like a law firm, doesn’t it?) but corporate exec Ray Anderson who speaks of his own paradigm shift and moment of epiphany when he realized the environmental damage his own company was inflicting on the earth and set about to stop it. In a bleak movie (and world) his was a voice of hope and inspiration Also hopeful was the turnout. The film’s run has been extended. Incidentally, as corporate power grows, the Census is just out with a report that more Americans live in poverty than ever.
OTHER VIETNAM VETERANS
FOX was still beating the corpse of the Swift Boat story this morning. So far not one Vietnamese person has been invited to comment on this new outbreak of the Vietnam War. I was discussing this with my friend Tiana, the Vietnamese born filmmaker who did the excellent "From Hollywood to Hanoi." She is a different kind of Vietnam veteran, a member of a family that supported the US invasion even as she later dissented and went back to Vietnam to promote friendship between our two countries. She is writing about this current flap and sent me some notes:
She asks "What happened to our principled Vietnam vet who cared to tell the truth, who braved not only the battlefield but in facing congress, he and his fellow Americans were proven right. That was then, now the agenda is for the art of politics, (bloodsport in America) to rewrite history. Never mind that those of us affected by Viet Nam, American and Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans alike, are caught in the crossfire."
She appeals directly to John Kerry: "WE THE PUBLIC KNOW BY NOW THAT THE VN WAR WAS WRONG. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO DUST OFF YOUR MEDALS, EVEN RETRIEVE THOSE RIBBONS, AND INSIST ON YOUR HEROISM (WHICH I NEVER QUESTIONED IN THE FIRST PLACE), IN ORDER TO GET MY VOTE.
AFTER THE WAR, YOU STOOD UP FOR TRUTH, HONOR, AND FOR THAT YOU EARNED MY RESPECT AND GRATITUDE. DO NOT GO BACK ON US NOW."
YOUR LETTERS
Shar writes: "Hello danny, I love your blog and read it as often as possible. I was listening to Air America this am, with Ted Rall (go ted!) and they mentioned that the Bushies could not have picked a more hostile city for the RNC! They must be looking for a fight and hoping the ensuing confrontation will push the swing voters towards their agend! These guys are more slimy than anything I have ever seen! Thanks for listening! "
IT STINKS
To cope with unwelcome marches, Reuters reports that "Israel’s army has developed a pungent new weapon for driving back Palestinian protesters — the skunk bomb. The stink bomb, containing a synthetic version of the odor skunks release to deter predators, has been developed for breaking up protests and stone-throwing confrontations without causing casualties, security officials said Wednesday. The foul-smelling weapon was invented as part of efforts to replace rubber bullets, which have killed scores of Palestinians during a nearly four-year-old uprising.The new device, which is not yet operational, releases a cloud so pungent that according to initial tests it permeates clothes for five years, the officials said."
COVERING THE CONVENTIONAL AND UNCONVENTIONAL
I will be offering regular updated reports throughout the convention. I might be popping on to some TV and radio shows too. Tomorrow night I will be infiltrating the TIME WARNER media party as an invited guest. 5000 media people and officials will be on hand. We will try to give out copies of the new Mediachannel media guide. (You can download yours from our home page.)
I am part of a private screening of a version of my film WMD on Times Square at what we call our own "truth convention" on Tuesday night. WMD screens along with the movie State of the Union. So we invited the press to come in hopes of getting some substance into the wall to wall coverage. The response from both the NY POST and The NY TIMES: "what celebrities will be there?" (For more on the film, see our new site)
I am going to ‘RUN RNC,’ but why don’t you share your media experience of this orchestrated event with me as well? What are you watching? How is the media coverage where you live? Write: dissector@medichannel.org
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GOP Fears Aids, Pies In NYC
August 26th, 2004 - by: danny
l:30 PM THE STORY ABOUT THE GOP “MEMO” IS BOGUS,,,,,SEE KEERECTION BELOW
THEIR REPUBLICAN GUARD AND OURS
BUSH LAWYER QUITS, BLAMES MEDIA
JOURNALISTS HARRASSED IN NAJAV
A year and a half ago, we kept hearing about that fanatical and feared Republican Guard as the force that Saddam was relying on to save his regime. He didn’t have just one Republican Guard, the “Butcher of Baghdad” had two — a SPECIAL Republican Guard. Remember? Now, here in America another Republican Guard is trying to save the Bush Regime. And it is not so special. Iraq’s RG crumbled in the face of superior force. How will ours do in the week ahead?
Cry don’t laugh. There are striking similarities. Both Guards relied on deception, manipulation of information and brute force, including torture. The Bathists crushed protests; the Bushists do the same but stealthfully behind the scenes with FBI intimidation and the refusal to allow demonstrators to assemble in a park that has long been a rallying ground. New York’s Republican Guard mayor toadies up to the party hierarchy.
SAVE THE GRASS
In Britain and around the world this is front page news — a peace rally banned in New York. The BBC reported it that way: "Organizers say the ban is a violation of their constitutional rights of assembly and free speech. A judge at New York’s state Supreme Court has ruled that the rally, which was expected to attract a quarter of a million demonstrators, cannot be held in Central Park because of the damage which may be caused to the grass.”
Save the grass and kill the constitution seems to be the order of the day. What is one likely result: "?organizers have warned that in the absence of a place to gather legally, demonstrators may move on Central Park afterwards and that could bring the possibility of provoking clashes with the police."
A PROVOCATION?
Increasingly this seems to be a planned provocation. The GOP knows how hostile this city is to them, how furious and enraged. They know how easy it is to get the kids fighting the cops — and voila we have a modern day Reichstag fire without the fire, a scene of just the kind of chaos that can be twisted and used to win support for strengthening the Patriot Act and keeping the gang in power in power.
Bush is planning to Nixon on this — to demagogue about the need for order and a strong America. If there is violence, as is probable given the hard-headed attitude of the city, the consequences are unpredictable. It is all escalating with few calm heads to cool things down. Another Vietnam parallel is threatening in the streets.
BUSH OPERERATIVE CAUGHT IN THE ACT, QUITS
Maybe that’s why all the talk of the NAM is so timely and relevant. AP reports that: “One of President Bush’s top lawyers resigned from his campaign Wednesday, a day after disclosing that he had given legal advice to a veterans group airing TV ads challenging Democrat John Kerry’s Vietnam War service. Benjamin Ginsberg, who also represented Bush in the 2000 Florida recount that made the Republican president, told Bush in a letter that he felt his legal work for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had become a distraction for the re-election campaign."
Another distraction was swatted away like a fly from the same wire story: "In Texas, Democrat Max Cleland was rebuffed when he tried to deliver a letter protesting the attack ad at Bush’s ranch. The former Georgia senator, a triple amputee from his service in Vietnam, carried a letter from several Senate Democrats who wrote Bush that “you owe a special duty” to condemn the attacks on Kerry’s military service."
Ginsberg blamed the media for hounding him from his job. Of course.
NOT SO SWIFT
Meanwhile, that Swift Boat flap is still with us even thought most if not all of the charges against John Kerry have been demonstrated as bogus. (I for one don’t trust military sources on Vietnam period!)
Why let the facts get in the way of a good smear? Todd Gitlin writes on Salon:
William Faulkner got it right: The past is not dead, it is not even past. In a rancid and ghostly way, the Vietnam War churns on. So does the White House slime machine, though that runs more smoothly today — George W. Bush’s plumbers don’t operate out of a Nixonian Committee to Re-elect the President.
Today’s stench of lies about John Kerry is a stale remnant of the old lies about the war Kerry fought in. As the nation fights another botched war, today’s purveyors of war lies are ghastly descendants of the last generation’s unpunished deceivers. Indeed, John O’Neill of the outrageously named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (and every TV talk show within reach) is the very same — the young man recruited by Charles Colson to do Richard Nixon’s dirty work against the young Kerry in 1971.
GAIN
Iraq feels more and more like Vietnam every day with more bombing in Najav and Fallujah. Kill the enemy, kill. And alienate all the Shia in the process. And destroy a city. Al Jazeera reports: "As US AC-130s and artillery units continued their sixth day of bombing al-Mahdi Army positions in Najaf, Grand Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani has issued a call for Iraqis to march to the city to “save it from destruction.”
F-ING THE PRESS
To control coverage of this ongoing atrocity, the Iraqi police are moving on the press. 60 journalists were threatened with violence. The Guardian reports: "The police officer who burst into the Guardian’s room, wearing a balaclava and pointing a Kalashnikov, said in Arabic: ‘We’re going to fuck the lot of you.”
Al Jazeera has this story: "Iraqi policemen rounded up dozens of journalists at gunpoint in a Najaf hotel and took them to police headquarters before later releasing them. Firing their guns in the air, the dozen odd policemen, some masked, stormed into the rooms of journalists in the Najaf Sea hotel and forced them into vans and a truck."
ATTACKS ON THE MEDIA CONTINUE
Another journo in trouble. Reporters Without Frontiers reports: "Enzo Baldoni, 56, of the independent weekly Diario, was abducted by an armed group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq. According to a video broadcast on 24 August on the Arab-language al-Jazeera television networt, the film that also carried an ultimatum demanding withdrawal of Italian forces from Iraq within 48 hours. The footage was shown in Italy on the Canale 5 channel. In the al-Jazeera video, said to come from Baldoni’s kidnappers who described themselves as members of the Islamic Army in Iraqi, the journalist briefly identifies himself, his passport and journalist’s professional identity card are seen."
And in Israel, being naﶥ in the eyes of authorities can get you tossed. The Guardian reports: "A British journalist, Ewa Jasiewicz, was ordered to be deported from Israel yesterday after a court ruled that her ‘naivety’ could be exploited by Palestinian militants. Jasiewicz, 26, a freelance journalist who writes for the leftwing monthly Red Pepper, went to court after being refused entry to the country on August 11. She has been detained at Ben Gurion airport.”
THE REPUBLIC OF TORTURE
As John Kerry calls again for Rumsfeld to step down, a military report finds 57 intelligence officials implicated in that torture in the gulags of Iraq. A top journalist Dr. Muthana al-Dhari, editor-in-chief of al-Basaer newspaper and media officer of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), shares his experience in detention with Al Jazeera. I will quote this at length because Americans are rarely informed about the experience of Iraqis:
They handcuffed us and blindfolded us and put us in a military vehicle. I could not see anything, but being a son of Baghdad, I could figure out that we were heading to the airport area, which was proved right the next morning.
What were conditions like in the detention centre?
I spent the first hours until the morning sitting on a chair. Then they took us to a prison cell where they did an initial interrogation. Then a doctor checked us, and said everything is OK. But his diagnosis was wrong, because the next morning an Egyptian doctor came and gave us another checkup, and found my blood pressure was high, while my colleague had breathing difficulties.
LUELESS
And then he described the interrogation he went through
They asked me, why we hate them? I told them that we do not hate the American people, they are welcomed as tourists, traders?etc., but not as occupiers. An interrogator blamed the Israeli-Arab conflict for the hostility between Arabs and Americans, and if Israel removes the settlements everything would be alright. I did not agree with him, and reminded him of Jerusalem, and how it is occupied. I let him know that Muslims do not mind Jews and Christians living with them in Jerusalem, but they must ask for permission not come by force.”
What was your conclusion?
I got the impression that US interrogators and CIA officers have not a clue about what they are doing. Their questions were shallow and indicated serious ignorance of the Iraqi scene. I also noticed they are so keen to mock, ridicule, and insult us. Some of them are good people, and are very angry at [President] George Bush, one of them told me if he (Bush) loves Iraq so much, why does he not bring his family and live here? But interestingly, some of them (US soldiers) are just thieves. They stole my agenda and wrist watch in front of my eyes.
APARTHEID CRITIC CRITICIZES ISRAEL
Aluf Benn writes in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz: "South African law professor John Dugard, the special rapporteur for the United Nations on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, has written in a report to the UN General Assembly that there is ‘an apartheid regime’ in the territories ‘worse than the one that existed in South Africa.’ As an example, Dugard points to the roads only open to settlers, from which Palestinians are banned. In his report, presented early this month, Dugard is highly critical of Israel for its ‘continuing violations of human rights in the territories.’ He said Israel is blatantly violating the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the separation fence, and has declared it will not obey it."
NIGERIA TO SHELL OIL: PAY UP
The Mail and Guardian of South Africa reports: "The Nigerian senate has ordered Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell to pay $1,5-billion compensation for damages caused by nearly 60 years of exploration in the Niger Delta. The senate adopted the Bill which ordered the payment to members of the Ijaws ethnic group ‘for the severe health hazards, economic hardship, injurious affection, avoidable deaths and sundry maladies’ resulting from oil spills at Shell facilities."
PUT MEDIA ON THE AGENDA
Media scholars and activists like Peter Phillips of Project Censored are calling on both parties to address media issues if our democracy is to be renewed:
By not addressing relevant issues facing everyday Americans, the corporate media are weakening democracy in the US. More than half the eligible voters in the country do not vote in elections. Most non-voters believe their vote matters very little. Therefore, they do not make the effort to distinguish important issues between candidates nor do the corporate media do it for them. Non-voters often see little difference between the two primary political parties and tend to believe that voting is a waste of time.
The corporate media agenda of maximum profits undermines the public purpose of a free press by creating the fiscal necessity for cutting costs and increasing the entertainment content. Ratings and audience share translate to higher advertising value and higher profits. This structural arrangement of corporate media results in an electorate who perceive few personal reasons to get involved, not just as voters but as activists on political issues as well.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
This just in: "Bucking a national wave of media consolidation by large corporations, Boulder community radio station KGNU (88.5 FM) announced today that it has reached terms to buy Denver AM radio signal KJME (1390 AM), offering metro Denver listeners independent news and diverse music currently unavailable in Denver. ‘The corporate media’s failure to challenge the Administration’s case for war created a real demand for an independent broadcast news outlet in Denver,’ said KGNU’s Denver Campaign Coordinator, Kris Abrams. ‘For years, people in Denver have asked KGNU to find a way to broadcast there. But these requests reached a high-intensity pitch when the White House rolled out its pro-war PR campaign. People knew they weren’t getting the full story, and they demanded an alternative.’”
YOUR LETTERS
Dwayne Chandler writes from inside the US Army. He is one angry man, I can’t share the whole message but you get the drift:
Hope is on the way because it’s not tangible.
No leader can be held accountable for failing to provide hope; you can be criticized, but criticism can be overcome:
Hope does not feed the hungry.
Hope does not provide a home.
Hope does not provide a job.
Hope does not provide healthcare.
Hope does not provide an education.
However, a promise to help, to provide, the necessities of daily life is tangible and accountable …
PARANOIA ON THE RIGHT
Back in l968, the Chicago police issued an alert , warning that Yippies would put LSD into the water supply. Now, fast forward 36 years: Greg Palast found these warnings on a GOP site.
[I couldn't make this up ... direct from the Republican National Committee website ....]
NEXT WEEK, people who hate Republicans plan to release swarms of mice in New York City to terrorize delegates to the National Republican Convention. Republican-haters plan on dressing up as RNC volunteers, and giving false directions to little blue hair ladies from Kansas, sending them into the sectors of New York City that are unfit for human habitation. They plan on throwing pies and Lord knows what else at Republican visitors to the city. Prostitutes with AIDS plan to seduce Republican visitors, and discourage the use of condoms.
CHOPPERS OVERHEAD
I can’t top this. Its time to post before I start blinking in total disbelief at the line "tossing pies and Lord knows what else."
Praise the Lord and pass the strawberry rhubarb. Please visit Media Channel and download our cool new unofficial media guide to the RNC. Already we have had calls from major mainstream media outlets including the New York Post. They will be carrying it.
Uh-oh, my dissector hole in the ground is being buzzed by helicopters. Another day in occupied New York. Stay with us. Share your reports. Write: dissector@mediachannel.org
RED-FACED KERRECTION AS OF l:30 PM
Brad Youtz writes: ” Regarding your item on Palast’s info about the RNC web site. Those quotes were attributed to Ted Rall. See:
Blog: Uncle Horn Head
Link: http://unclehornhead.blogspot.com/2004/08/good-joke-rnc-web-site-links-to-story.html
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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