The News Dissector Daily Forum

November 4th, 2005 - by: danny

Adam McConnel writes from Istanbul:

” thought I should mention that it is Eid (Bayram to those in the Turkic world) now, the holiday following Ramadan. Thus I’ve got time to send in a note!

Birdflu: you may have noticed that birdflu “arrived” in Turkey several weeks ago. Suffice to say that no one here is worried, except for bureaucrats who mandated the mass-slaughter of everything with wings in several rural areas; the same thing happened in Russia, Greece, and Romania. As far as I know, not a single person in Eastern Europe has gotten ill from bird-flu. Apparently, it’s our new Y2K scare. Even Turkey’s youngest, brightest parodist, Shahan Gokbakar, made fun of the bird-flu phenomenon in his show two weeks ago.
. .

I’d like to pass on a “chin-up” to Mike Collins, from Fairview, Montana. I grew up in Billings, Montana, personally knew other school-age kids from Fairview, and can say that what is happening to Mike illustrates why I chose to escape from Montana as soon as I graduated from high school. Mike, you’re braver than me (I fled!) and fighting the good fight, but be careful. . .

SHOULD WE WORRY ABOUT THE BIRDS

DS: I am not sure how dismissive of the bird flu threat we should be. The UN is relaying serious warnings, Virgin Airways is buying flu serum for its employees, and a big tourism website is reporting:

” Estimated impact of a flu pandemic in the US may result to 15-35% of the population affected including outpatients visits between 18 and 34 million, 24 to 74 million additional illnesses, 314,000 to 734,000 hospitalizations, and possibly 89,000 — 207,000 deaths.

THOSE RIOTS IN PARIS

Simon Kiss from West of the Fourth writes:

“Great site. I’ve linked to it from my blog westofthefourth.blogspot.com

“I’m astounded though at the lack of information on the alternative online media about the Paris riots. I noticed you have one post from a dude named Meagher on your site. But there’s no link. I’m going to try to search around for it, but do you know any other good sites? This seems to be an extremely significant story and one that probably isn’t being reported properly…”

Want more on Paris, try this:

PARIS BURNING: REBELLION AGAINST RACIST OPPRESSION

Patrice de Beer writes:

“Nicolas Sarkozy’s hardline, zero-tolerance – and pre-election – rhetoric is foundering on France’s intractable urban realities, reports Patrice de Beer.

“A week after the riots in the Lozells area of Birmingham, England, between people of African-Caribbean descent and those of Asian origin, the northeast Paris banlieues (suburbs) of Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil exploded in violent confrontation between police and black and Beurs (north African)
youths. There have been clashes for six nights in a row – extending on the night of 1-2 November to the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois. They involve the stoning of police vans, the burning of dozens of cars, attacks on firemen, and the vandalizing of a police station, a post office, and a city hall. The disturbances have gone as far as a bullet being fired at a police van and a tear-gas canister being thrown at a local mosque during evening prayers — in the midst of the Muslim fasting month, Ramadan. (…)

http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-institutions_government/paris_298

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Dear Danny S. at Danny@mediachannel.org,

You have been sent an MTV.com news article by bradley laing at bk-laing@wiu.edu: “New Orleans Levees Still Aren’t Safe … And Maybe Never Were.”

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1512890/20051103/index.jhtml?headlines=true

Ivy Rieger writes:

“Just read your newsletter. I am so totally saddened to learn that CNN dropped Aaron Brown, however, I am not surprised. The next one that will be terminated is Keith Oberman, he has tackled some unpopular subjects.

“Basically, this is our own fault. Advertising is based on ratings and instead of supporting reasonable people, we tune into Fox to see what they are saying. There are so many organizations that monitor “right wing” media and we can read what is going on from them. We need to get more organized. If everyone that we know, stopped watching Fox for one week, their ratings would be cut in half and so would their revenues.

“We do not seem to put our money where our mouth is. A majority of the people in the entertainment industry, supported John Carey and yet they tour with Clear Channel and AEG and make money for them. AEG makes Clear Channel seem like a “left wing” company, that is how extreme they are.

“Clear Channel has quite a few Air America radio stations. So the success of Air America is with people who do not believe in what they do and if successful in a market, they take those profits and give it to conservative America.

It almost feels hopeless.”

AS disagrees:

“Re Aaron Brown, I never saw any particular talent in him, and his rapid rise to the top seemed undeserved. Perhaps as important a question as why he was dumped was why he was chosen in the first place.”

Ned Conner writes to NBC:

“Many of us not only watch the news, we also watch the news “reporters”. Please consider how insulting to the American people it is for NBC to use Pete Williams, a former press secretary to Dick Cheney to report on the CIA leak investigation. Can NBC really do no better than this?”

Somebody claiming to be Carl Chipp wrote:

“Dear Senor Schecter–

I love your site! I read it almost daily. Great work; may you live long & prosper.I finally am able to afford (& truly covet) a copy of WMD– but I don’t do paypal, or credit cards. Is there a way I can purchase with a good ol’ stone age money order?

You bet. Checks to WMD Globalvision Inc. at 575 8th Avenue #2200 NY NY 10018 Send $23.95 for DVD and S&H

Another week done gone. Thanks for all of your supportive letters, financial help and offers to volunteer. This is your Mediachannel. Help us strengthen it.

Write: dissector@mediachannel.org

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