The News Dissector

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated Israel would only allow free movement after the full implementation of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas that killed 854 Lebanese and 159 Israelis.

AVNERY ON OLMERT: AN ISRAELI ON THE GREAT MAN

“Ehud Olmert has found a convincing proof of his great victory over Hassan Nasrallah: “I am touring the country freely while Nasrallah is hiding in his bunker!”

“It is said that “the style is the man,” and by these words Olmert shows his quality (or lack thereof). At the moment, dozens of Israeli airplanes and helicopter gunships are standing by, ready to kill Nasrallah if he as much as shows himself. Nasrallah does not have a
single airplane or helicopter to kill Olmert. The vast material superiority of the Israeli army over a guerilla organization is no achievement of Olmert – but Hizbullah’s ability to survive the massive onslaught of our army is certainly the achievement of Nasrallah.

And, by the way, why would Nasrallah want to kill Olmert? After all, why should he mind Israel being led by a failed politician, whose incompetence has been proved and who most Israelis say should go?

A cynic might say: Nasrallah wants Olmert to stay, and that’s why he hurried to help him out. When everyone in Israel believed that Olmert had failed miserably, Nasrallah said, this week, in an interview: “If I had known that Israel would react as it did, I would not have captured the two soldiers.”

“SHOCKING AND COMPLETELY IMMORAL”

The Australian Age reported earlier in the day the UN’s Humanitarian Chief Blasted Israel as “immoral”

” The UN humanitarian chief today accused Israel of “shocking” and “completely immoral” behaviour for dropping large numbers of cluster bombs when a ceasefire was in sight during its war with Hizbollah.

Jan Egeland said Israel had either made a “terribly wrong decision” or had “started thinking afterwards”.

The remarks were unusually harsh, even for Egeland, who often violates an unwritten rule that UN officials should not criticise member states too severely.

“What’s shocking and … completely immoral, is that 90 per cent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution,” Egeland said.

WHAT A CLUSTER BOMB LOOKS LIKE

http://elijahzarwan.net/blog/?p=231

BUSTED FOR CELLPHONE PIX

Maan News reports that Israeli soldiers in the West Bank are detaining Palestinian youths who have pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on their cellular phones, Palestinian citizens have told Ma’an.

C4 UK: WATCH REPORT ON WEST BANK

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14753.htm

Haaretz Israel delaying deal on Shalit

“A source involved in negotiations for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit told Haaretz that Israel was the one holding up the implementation of a deal that could lead to his release.”

JUSTIN RAIMANDO RESPONDS TO THE WASH POST ON LOBBY

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9625

THE NATION: KATRINA–WHEN A SOLUTION BECOMES THE PROBLEM

“One year ago, New Orleans’s working-class and poor citizens were stranded on their rooftops waiting for help that never came, while those who could pay their way escaped to safety. The country’s political leaders claim it was all some terrible mistake, but their solution, as Naomi Klein explains at The Nation online, is to go even further down the catastrophic road of “private-sector solutions.”

“Unless a radical change of course is demanded,” Klein argues, “New Orleans will prove to be a glimpse of a dystopic future, a future of disaster apartheid in which the wealthy are saved and everyone else is left behind.”

http://lists.thenation.com/t?ctl=6116:4F88B

W’s “DAY OF REMEMBRANCE:” Sid Blumenthal Remembers

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/08/31/katrina/print.html_

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Working To Change Journalism….

August 31st, 2006 - by: danny

Yesterday, Mediachannel’s “Diamond” Dave Olson and I trekked over the Carnegie Corporation in a building over on Madison advertising over 40 surveillance cameras. Did we feel secure!

We were there to meet media exec and consultant Merill Brown who is helping to shape an innovative media Fellows program at four major universities to produce innovative content, new forms of youth appealing “story telling” for major outlets. Columbia, Northwestern, Berkeley and USC are splitting $6 million from Carnegie and Knight to improve journalism education, consider ways to improve the media and fund new journalism initiatives through a project called News 21.

http://www.carnegie.org/sub/program/initiative-news21.html

Here is the website with the stores that are now available:

Http://www.newsinitiative.org

Deans of these schools have published a “manifesto” for change. It sounds in part like this:

“In today’s changing world of news consumption, journalism schools should be exploring the technological, intellectual, artistic, and literary possibilities of journalism to the fullest extent, and should be leading a constant expansion and improvement in the ability of the press to inform the public as fully, deeply, and interestingly as it can about matters of the highest importance and complexity.

http://www.carnegie.org/sub/program/initiative-manifesto.html

Dean Orville Schell at Berkeley’s Journalism program is someone I have always admired. He speaks about a responsible press on PBS’s NOW program:

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/231.html

Some media companies are working with them – partly because they know they have to adapt or die and besides, the stories are being subsidized. There will be project stories on CNN, AP and Good Morning America. One of the professors told me she fears that the network will “cut the story to shit.” But the fellows were very bullish on their work and this type of “”incubator” project is certainly a positive response to the crisis in Journalism which you can read about in the report by Carnegie posted on the Mediachannel’s home page.

Dorian Benkoil of Mediabistro asked some smart questions at our session, and writes about the discussions:

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/scholarly_pursuits/idealistic_journalism_for_real_42965.asp#more

BANNED IN BRITAIN

The New York Times’ efforts to block internet users in Britain from reading a page on its website are unlikely to succeed – and for some UK users do not work at all, allowing them normal access to the article.

On Monday, the newspaper attempted to block UK access to the story, headlined “Details emerge in British terror case”, on the investigation into alleged attempts to bomb transatlantic flights.

It gave English legal restrictions on reporting of investigations prior to a trial as its reason for the blocking.”

http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,1860583,00.html

Most UK users attempting to access the article see an error page explaining this, but staff at some organizations with international computer networks will reach it without hindrance.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,1861318,00.html

Toronto Star Online: CNN, SO SORRY

http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?e626340207&e=6421 r

DUDE!

This illustrates what happens when you attempt to fly too close to the sun. Ken Starr, former prosecutor of a fashion mishap, now lowers the bar even further:

“Former Whitewater special counsel Kenneth Starr petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Alaska’s “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, a dispute involving a high school student, a banner and a tough school policy.

“Starr, who gained national prominence while investigating former President Clinton’s Whitewater land deal and relationship with Monica Lewinsky, filed the petition Monday on behalf of the Juneau School District in response to a March ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The appeals court sided with a high school student who displayed a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” during an Olympic torch relay in 2002. It ruled former Juneau-Douglas High School principal Deborah Morse violated former student Joseph Frederick’s free speech rights.

“The U.S. Supreme Court petition must receive a minimum of four of the nine justices’ votes to be heard.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/29/bonghits.4jesus.ap/index.html

Billy Bragg: Who owns the music – MTV or me?

http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/comment/0,,1861349,00.html

RIP NAGUIB MAHFOUZ

Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, the only writer in Arabic to win the Nobel Prize for literature, died on Wednesday in Cairo aged 94, doctors said.

Mahfouz, whose writing on taboo topics often rankled conservatives in Egypt, survived an assassination attempt 12 years ago. He was hospitalized last month after he fell in the street, and died after suffering from a bleeding ulcer.

“He came to this world only to write,” Egyptian writer Youssef al-Quaid told Egyptian television. “He was the most famous writer in Egypt … He had an incredible ability to create and create all his life.”

Mahfouz, a prolific writer best known for his Cairo Trilogy, became a literary force when he moved beyond traditional novels to realistic descriptions of Egypt’s 20th century experience of colonialism and autocracy.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-08-30T114609Z_01_L30861000_RTRUKOC_0_US-EGYPT-MAHFOUZ.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C5-worldNews-8

POOR MEDIA COVERAGE OF POVERTY

http://www.cjrdaily.org/politics/roger_weisberg_on_waging_a_liv.php

KEITH OLBERMANN TAKES ON RUMSFELD
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12131617/#060830b”

TRYING TIMES FOR CHINESE JOURNOS

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HH29Ad01.html

ANOTHER T-SHIRT AIRLINE CASE

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060829/us_nm/security_tshirt_dc

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The News Dissector Daily Forum

August 31st, 2006 - by: danny

PRESS THE PRESS – FORGET IT

Stephen writes in response to my article on the Iraq War:

” I totally agree with most of your article ‘America is losing Iraq: is anybody watching?’ . Where I disagree is your closing comment as follows:

“Now is the time for all good news consumers to come to the aid or their media and demand coverage and courage to stop the blood letting and save what’s left of our national honor. We need to find the news which is there to be found and keep the Iraq war issue alive.”

“I’ve emailed ABC, CNN, or FOX news a million times about a million inaccuracies in their reporting. Never heard back a single time (not that I really expected to). Those people are total assholes, imho!

My point is this: do you really think Fox news gives a rat’s ass what people watching think? Of course they don’t . They aren’t even a news station in the traditional sense of the term. They are a most cynical re-invention of traditional news reporting into a GOP/bush-cheney propaganda station. It’s pure bullshit! Their mission is to relentlessly, in the most shrill and extreme fashion possible, SCREAM the GOP/bush propaganda points over, and over, and over….to brainwash the public into buying their lies and misinformation. They follow the german propagandist Goebbels tactic: “just keep saying it over and over and the public with follow you and do whatever you tell them to do”.

We all need to face it: the news media in the USA is total shit. Has been for years. It’s an insult to any thinking person’s intelligence. I used to know a German guy who lived here for a few months on business. I asked him what he thought of our news on CNN, or the local paper. He laughed and said “it’s total shit. I watched it for a couple of nights then turned off the TV altogether.”

And that’s what I do: I only use my TV to watch DVDs I rent. Never watch cable news anymore. I’m not missing anything, and I feel much happier and less annoyed. How any idiot could endure those assholes on Fox news it utterly beyond me. The internet is far superior for worthwhile information, like Guardian UK, or Zmag.org.”

Anna Boyle Daniher writes in response to same piece:

“For those of us who thought this was a bad decision way back then, well we certainly aren’t about to budge now. As I understand it, the good news will begin to flow tomorrow. The nightmare in Iraq has again been renamed. Something about IslamoFacism. Rumor has is that this will go just swimmingly. Rumor also has it that our military can’t get the Iraqis troops they train to go into Baghdad.

“There have been new calls for Rummy’s resignation. Our military is being treated badly. I find this to be unconscionable. I’ve seen many presidents since Roosevelt. Some better than others. I don’t believe we’ve ever had a president who simply doesn’t care and who appears to have no conscience. He surrounds himself with people just like himself. Can’t help but wonder about an approval rating of 34%.

“Who are these people who still think he’s an OK guy ? Maybe it depends on where you get your news. In March of 2003 I was was part of a pathetic minority. That has all changed. Somehow I don’t see this new war marketing idea catching on. The American people have had enough.”

THANKS TO ALL WHO SEND THANKS (Yes, I need to know!)

Virginia Weldon is one of our “regulars:”

“Yesterday I “happened” to catch a very knowledgeable article chronicling the events of the past five years we have all passed through. It has amazing scope and dove-tails information with other happenings some might never have linked together, while filling in the squares that propaganda has glossed over.

Twenty Things We Now Know Five Years 5 Years After 9/11

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_bernard__060829

_twenty_things_we_now.htm

Danny, we are all “reading, listening & paying attention.” More so every day. Kudos to you and your Spirit. I was heartened by the remarks given by Melanie Turner Miller in today’s Dissector about the fact that we are facing a “tipping point” and can assist in it by becoming individual and collective calming influences in a world gone quite mad. Hermeneutic interpretation & explanation (as is applied to scripture) leads to discussion and consensus (hopefully). We need to know the “truth” of what w think we know in order to do what we need to do to change our world. One thing: hold the vision of the world we want to create as if it were already in place.

Jo Murphy checks in from San Diego CA

“We’re out here, and are thanking YOU. As a fan of Gibran some 50 years, I hope you will not forget, or will become acquainted with, The Rubiyat of Omar Khyyam (The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ, moves on…) and my personal epiphany (in 7th Grade) Leigh Hunt’s “Abou ben Adhem”. Both are on the net. Or I can send them, if you’d like.”

Barb Goetz adds from Columbia Maryland:

“Those of us who read your site throw pebbles of your information into a sea of others who will eventually cause waves.”

Mr. K (aks Steve Katona) is all too kind:

“my god you seem to write like me!!! check out the chomsky blogs and look for mr k. if you don’t have the time i’d like to say your my new hero. bravo on your essay there’s no other way to bring enlightenment to the masses other than by the usage of
language that the masses can understand. …

Kelly Griffith, MCP:

“I always want to share my thoughts & comments after reading your News Dissector emails. I never get around to it, b/c I’m always reading in spare moments throughout the workday.

“You do a great job at what is next to impossible these days — bringing truthful & critically important information to light & holding the mainstream media accountable to their part in the systematic destruction of our democracy….

RUMMY THE MUMMY

Graig Gingold writes:

“With the delusional Donald Rumsfeld viciously attacking the anti-war movement and spouting off about the need to confront the growth of fascism in the world, the obvious rejoinder is something along the lines of “Go look in the mirror, asshole!”
In that spirit, I offer the following quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt:

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism ­- ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power.”

BROOKLYN IN DA HOUSE….YIKES

Speaking of assholes, here’s the kind of retarded, macho, delusional attitude produced in so many Americans by much of our media and culture. Watch it and weep.

http://www.thekidfrombrooklyn.com/video_disp.asp?videoid=1301

Yo Brooklyn. I am from Da Bronx and have a certain cheer for youse guys…You see dis finger? Nuke U….

ANOTHER CULTURE, ANOTHER COUNTRY, ANOTHER VIEW

MC Riz’s “Post 911 Bues”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pxoIJGg9C0

NEW RESOURCE: HAS ANYONE TRIED IT?

TV from around the world on your PC

http://sava.rosenemitts1whush1seko.cheerful-nursing-degree.net/MATHESONISLAND/bxn7cd.bxn/

THE ONION’S LEAD STORY:

Bush Urges Nation To Be Quiet For A Minute While He Tries To Think

WASHINGTON, DC: While acknowledging every American’s inalienable right to free speech, the president asked citizens to “hold off on it for, say, 60 seconds.”

http://click.theonion.com/ct.html?s=6jy,mif5,7kb,f1r6,l8z5,3i2z,9jqm ?

I NEED TO THINK OR SOMETHIN TOO

Well, I am going to be holding off for a few days to try to catch my breath and take a break. I’ve earned a day, dontcha think?” Back Tuesday. Keep the world together till then. Happy Labor Day for all the right reasons even if it is the ultimate contrived depoliticized holiday!

Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org

Tax deductible checks for Mediachannel to The Global Center, 575 8th Avenue, New York, New York l0018. And to quote my main man Scoop Nisker, “if you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.”

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