The Day Saigon Changed Hands; Obama Marks l00 Days in Festival of Cliches
April 30th, 2009 - by: danny
WARNING FROM WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Levine Breaking News: The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second highest level, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent. WHO says the phase 5 alert means there is sustained human-to-human spread in at least two countries. It also signals that efforts to produce a vaccine will be ramped up. (Scroll Down For More Swine News.)
OBAMA ON THE HUSTINGS, BEATS THE PRESS
THE THREAT FROM THE RIGHT SHARPENS
TALKING WITH GIDEON YAGO OF IFC’S MEDIA PROJECT
It’s April 30th, a day that many in my generation know well even if we forgot the date and want to forget what happened. It is one of those anniversaries that our anniversary-driven media does not mark —and for good reason. The year was l975, the day the Vietnam War ended, not with some inconclusive drawn out “process” of staged withdrawals over decades but the cataclysmic way most wars end –with one side winning and the other not.
In our media, Saigon “fell;” in their media, it was “liberated.” In all media, it was a turning point day and despite years of debate and discussion about how and why we stumbled into that war, despite the memorials and ravaged veterans, few lessons were learned in part beeause American foreign policy has, in its fundamentals, changed so little over the decades. The parallels between Vietnam and Iraq are many. I said it before–and now I’ve said it again.
Another anniversary has been marked this past week too, marked again and again endlessly on program after program—the l00th day of Barack Obama’s presidency.
On his l00th day, Barack Obama did not rest but sought to shore up political support. His Press conference—not broadcast, surprise, surprise by FOX, won high marks from the Baltimore Sun:
“The economy is still a nightmare. The military situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan are perilous — and getting worse. But for all the troubles swirling around the nation these days, America has rarely seemed to be in such steady and capable hands.
That was the feeling that came across on TV Wednesday night watching President Barack Obama’s 100-days press conference. Even on his best nights, John F. Kennedy did not seem as calm, confident and masterful as Obama did in an hour’s worth of prime time give and take with the press.
As good as Obama has been in such settings before, Wednesday he seemed perfectly tuned to each shifting topic and tone
The president was appropriately sober, moral and earnest in talking about waterboarding as torture — without taking the bait and using the question to attack players in the previous administration for their excesses in prisoner abuse.
Earlier he was ‘out in the country” with a speech and “town meeting” Q&A a suburb of St. Louis “Missoura.”
First the speech as reported:
AP: ARNOLD, Mo. — Marking his symbolic 100th day in office, President Barack Obama told Midwesterners Wednesday: “I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made but I’m not satisfied.”
“I’m confident in the future but I’m not content with the present,” the president told a town-hall style event in a St. Louis suburb.
Later, the president planned to head back to Washington to send that same message to the rest of the country at a prime time news conference.
Even as his administration sought to minimize the symbolism of the 100-day marker, the White House staged these two high-profile, high-visibility events to promote Obama’s accomplishments while pressing his big-ticket agenda.”
Watching him work, walking back and forth in the stage, with often his back to the cameras, you get a sense of how masterful he is in these well practiced political events. He sees the Q&A as “the fun part,” and he can be funny and personal as when he told a massage therapist he could use a massage and she offered to discuss it later. (No innuendo – just very personable.) He showed what a good teacher he is in simplifying and explaining complicated issues – from his point of view of course. The audience ate it up, no doubt surpised to be treated like the adults they are.
In talking to a retired auto worked he referred to himself as a “union guy” And said “management decisions betrayed workers.” He praised the UAW for its willingness to compromise and said he is not sure if the investors and bondholders are willing to also compromise.
This audience may have been very supportive but many in the country are not. They are angry and armed as Max Blumenthal reports on the Daily Beast:
Many in the right are demonizing Obama in increasingly extreme language as Joe Conason explains in The Observer”
“Every day, reactionary bluster is exploited for theatrical purposes by radio and television personalities, rustic politicians, frothing bloggers and all the other clownish extremists who regale us with parodies of conservatism. For simple minds, that’s entertainment. But for the past several years, powerful officials in the United States applied the right’s bombastic prescriptions to policy, most disastrously on matters of war and peace and international cooperation. The last administration actually sent an ambassador to the U.N. who had publicly disparaged its very existence.
So it is unsurprising that the open mind and extended hand of Barack Obama would infuriate the same figures who once applauded John Bolton and cheered for war with mouths full of “freedom fries.” They cannot comprehend why the new president would take immediate steps toward repairing our reputation and our alliances. They would rather look for scapegoats than solutions.
Joe Klein writes in TIME:
The most important thing we now know about Barack Obama, after nearly 100 days in office, is that he means to confront (our economic) way of life directly and profoundly, to exchange sand for rock if he can. Whether you agree with him or not – whether you think he is too ambitious or just plain wrong – his is as serious and challenging a presidency as we have had in quite some time.
FINANCIAL TIMES ON OBAMA WITH VIDEO AND INTERACTIVE FEATURE
In the FT, Christopher Buckley identifies some clichés in wide use in the coverage of our 100 day “anniversary.”
• Refreshing change: Obama’s brought a “new tone” to Washington, Michelle and the kids are so wonderful, and how ’bout that vegetable garden?
• A good start, but much remains to be done: Understandable, considering Obama faces a “historic challenge.”
• Change, schmange: How could The One fail to end global warming or withdraw Bush and Cheney’s security detail?
• We told you so: Some conservative classics. Obama is printing cash indiscriminately, or he’s palling around with Hugo Chávez, or he’s a Eurocrat in disguise.
•A (yawn) first-class temperament: “No-drama Obama” turns out to be a bit boring. Good thing he blew his top about that Air Force One flyover on Day 98.
DISGUST ON THE LEFT
If the right hates him, and the center respects him, the left is turning against him. Here’s the view of World Socialist Web Site:Obama’s 100 days
MIKE WHITNEY: A TAPESTRY OF LIES
• Harold Pinter to Obama. “The US has supported every right wing military dictatorship in the World since World War II” READ FULL STORY HERE
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No Recovery For Economy In Sight; Today’s Swine Report: Pigicide In Egypt
April 30th, 2009 - by: danny
MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE CRISIS
AP: The Federal Reserve today said it see signs the recession may b be easing, but warned that the U.S. economy is likely to remain weak.
Against that backdrop, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues left a key interest rate at a record low of between zero and 0.25 percent, and decided against taking any new steps to shore up the economy.
FT: Chrysler sliding closer to bankruptcy as some bondholders and banks refuse to compromise the way the unions have.
WSJ: The ailing bank Citigroup is caught between the strict regulations imposed by the Treasury for bailout recipients and disgruntled employees accustomed to big bonuses as incentives. Now workers in a very profitable department – ahem – within Citi are threatening to leave if they aren’t given their extra cash. The department, called Phibro, is described as “a legendary energy trading unit” that has earned the bank millions of dollars. Citi is now seeking special permission to allow bonuses for Phibro and also is pursuing an easing of restrictions on bonuses for other employees. A third of Citi will soon be owned by the government, and the bank has expressed concern that its employees will jump ship to other banks that face less severe pay restrictions.
“Jack Bauer can’t stop ‘The Goldman Conspiracy’: 10 reasons why Wall Street has absolute power over America’s Democracy.”
LBN: SWINE FLU UPDATE:
Mexico shutting down all business to cope with swine flu threat.
Catherine O Reagan offers more translations of Mexican press.
A piece about Mexico’s tarnished image with the spread on the internet of terms like “Mexican flu” and the damage this is doing to the reputation of the country also about the discrimination people with the virus are facing from their communities within Mexico itself.
FRANCE TO ASK EU TO SUSPEND FLIGHTS TO MEXICO:
France will ask the European Union on Thursday to suspend all flights going to Mexico because of the outbreak of swine flu, Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said on Wednesday. She said the request would be made at a meeting of the 27 European Union health ministers, due to be held in Luxembourg. She also said France was asking for a meeting of EU transport ministers where the proposal could also be discussed
“During these two meetings we will ask our European colleagues to consider the suspension of flights going to Mexico,” she said after a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the flu outbreak. She said suspending return flights could be counterproductive because it would force passengers to seek other ways of leaving the country and make it more difficult to trace travellers’ journeys.
• SWINE FLU SMOKING GUN? CDC MIXING VIRUSES IN 2004
• THE GLOBAL POLITICS OF SWINE FLU
• William Engdahl Flying Pig, Tamiflu and Factory farms
• AP Via Google: Egypt Orders Slaughter of All Pigs
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Talking To Gideon Yago About IFC’s Media Project; American Casino At Tribeca
April 30th, 2009 - by: danny
If you don’t know about the Independent Film Channel’s Media Project you should. It is one of the few, if only regularly scheduled hard hitting program examining media practices. To sample what they have done and will be doing this season, visit their site, IFC.com:
Their TV magazine formatted weekly program starts its second season this coming Sunday night at ll EST. You can see the trailer right here.
The series is hosted by Gideon Yago who Is smart and hip to the media issues that need to be raised. He worked at networks and MTV and lends some gravitas to the fast cut segments that seek to “expose the truth in news” or should we say the lack of truth.
I chatted with Gideon yesterday morning who told me, “All we are hoping to do is contribute to a critical discussion. As is that is part of a void in the media. For a lot o the stories, that media has dropped the ball but beyond that there has not been a paradigm shift discussion. Now that the business model has made its way through the tubes, maybe we can have a discussion of what we are doing”
He sees media failures alongside other institutional failures in our society, like on Wall Street and believed that just as there is a need for a systemic shift there. He even thinks the unthinkable, that some regulation might help improve the news business just as it aspires to impose some rules on Wall Street. This idea sends free press advocates to the ramparts but as he noted because the business model is shot, changes are coming anyway (And its not just in newspapers, today NBC News disclosed it can’t afford the rent in its Washington DC headquarters and is looking for a university to sublet space.)
To get back to the financial parallel, he thinks we may need a bailout of the news business, a WPA type program to save the industry, perhaps along the lines of the BBC or a public private approach to strengthen the infrastructure of the news business. He says that back in the gilded age l00 years ago, there was chaos in the news world which in turn led to new institutions emerging like the NY Times. Now there is chaos again. What new form will emerge, he asks.
Yago is open to ideas and openly critical of what he says absurd practices in TV local news for example. Watch what he does and share your critiques with us. I like his spirit, admire his on air work, and appreciate the fact that IFC is investing money in this media project. I only wish it would take the independent media more seriously.
It does do an important story that I have been harping on for years—the exclusion of Al Jazeera from the airwaves in America. The Media Project sent me the segment that airs Sunday.
Ironically, Al Jazeera English may be making some progress in finally getting on the air in the land of the freest media in the whole wide world..
TV WEEK: Al Jazeera English Cracks Washington WashPost
Viewers in the Washington, D.C., will be able to see the Al Jazeera English channel, which has been without a U.S. outlet since it launched 30 months ago, the Washington Post reports. The channel made a deal with educational broadcaster MHz Networks that puts it in the capital area starting Wednesday and in 20 other cities in a few months, the paper says.
Other Media News:
Yevgeniya Plakhina, the Kazakhastan blogger I have been writing about, writes to report that the internet media restrictions she and her colleagues are battling were passed by the lower house of parliament. Not Good
Lower House of Parliament passed the amendments in the first reading. Of course, there’s an opportunity to call them back – senate and the president can. but it might not happen
EJC: Google is facing fresh accusations of anti-competitive behaviour, following reports that the US Justice Department is investigating the internet giant over its dealings with the book industry. Lawyers for the government are examining potential antitrust issues surrounding a USD 125m settlement made between Google and authors – in a move that could scupper the internet company’s plans to create an ‘iTunes for books’. The deal, struck last autumn between the web giant and authors’ groups, would see Google pay USD 125m for the right to digitise millions of books in the US, with the intention of selling the files online and taking a significant cut of the profit. The proposed settlement came after two years of negotiations and legal wranglings, and was hailed at the time as a ‘great leap’ by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
A SPECTRE HAUNTS THE SENATE
OPED NEWS: The Specter Switch By Mary Lion.
Jerry Policoff writes from Pennsylvania on the Specter “conversion”
I also wonder why our Party wants us to “come together” behind someone who boasts that he will vote against the Employee Free Choice Act and promises to oppose, perhaps even filibuster, the President’s choice to head the Office of Legal Council. He repeated these boasts only yesterday after announcing his party switch. Specter was likely heading for a Primary loss to Pat Toomey, and Toomey is so far right as to be unelectable, so why do we need or even want Arlen Specter? As recently as last Month Specter was telling “The Hill” that it would be just dreadful if the Democrats achieved a 60-vote majority in the Senate, and that he would not even consider running as a Democrat for that very reason.
I am not naïve. I know this kind of shit goes on all the time, but I will not roll over and play dead when they do it. I know it is difficult to prevail against the money and power these folks bring to the table, but it is not impossible, and it will never stop if we don’t at least make an effort to stop it.
The Great Mavis Staples: TV SHOW: MUSIC AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Finally, just what we need:
FOR WEARY TRAVELERS: NEW ISRAELI SECURITY BREAKTHROUGH
No more taking off shoes at the airport.
That’s all for me. I had a chance to see Andrew and Leslie Cockburn’s film American Casino at the Tribeca Film Festival yesterday. Thank you Leslie. It’s a powerful look at the orchestrated collapse of the housing market and the pain that so many families are suffering who have lost their homes because of subcrime mortgages. It shows in detail how banks and investment houses made billions by securitizing mortgages and causing so pain across Urban America. Much of it is shot in Baltimore where I worked as a community organizer in the civil rights movement. To see whats been done its neighborhoods and people’s lives by subcrime scammers is infuriating.
There is a great section at the end about how abandoned swimming pools in foreclosed homes have become breeding grounds for rodents, snakes and west nile virus spreading mosquitoes. You can bet the banks are not paying for this cleanup.
I welcome your comments and need need your support. It’s all that simple. It’s all that serious. Mediachannel is driving on empty. Nuff said.
Write: dissector@mediachannel.org
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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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