OCCUPY THE CAUCUS? Media in 2011: The More You Watched, The Less You Knew

December 28th, 2011 - by: danny

Bill Bowles, Quote Of The Day:

Could it be because, trapped in a system of information control so complete, most of us suffer a kind of reverse sensory deprivation, overloaded with data but starved of contact with the real world?

How else to explain the almost total disconnect between our governments’ actions and the public’s response (or lack of one) to the barbarism of ‘civilized’ world? This is spite of the fact that we donate millions to ‘charities’ for the starving ‘them’.

How else to explain the hypocrisy of a government that slaughters in our name with total impunity and the public’s apparent indifference?

Watch: Dissecting Tuesday’s New York Times for NYTeXaminer.

Listen to the Podcast: Last Week’s Radio Show: Dissecting OWS On News Dissector Radio on Progressive Radio Network

On the Outside Looking in, On the Inside Looking Out

Rainy Day in Gotham. Had lunch at the vast Eat Italy complex with an old friend who was once reporting on real business for BBC years ago and is now reporting on Red Carpets in Hollywood for Disney. He seems to be finding the LA scene wanting.

In all of my critiquing of media coverage, I sometimes forget the people who do it even when they don’t want to pay the bills. They are often most aware of how the media business disappoints not only viewers but the people on the other side of the camera who have mad their deals with the devil. I am hardly one to judge. I worked in commercial media for decades.

Here are two other media critiques’

FAIR: Occupy The P.U.Litzers

This year has given us simply too many worthy contenders for FAIR’s annual P.U.-litzers–recognizing the stinkiest journalism of the year. A big part of the problem was that so many outlets were striving to distinguish themselves with especially awful coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. So to note those lowlights, we bring you a special installment of P.U.-litzers: The OWS edition.

–Early Warning System Award: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer

On September 19: “Protests here in New York on Wall Street entering a third day. Should New Yorkers be worried at all about what’s going on?”

–We Could Do It Better Award: New York Times’ Ginia Bellafante

Under the headline “Gunning for Wall Street, With Faulty Aim” (9/23/11), Bellafante turned in the quintessential corporate media dismissal of progressive protests. The reporter discovered “a default ambassador in a half-naked woman…with a marked likeness to Joni Mitchell and a seemingly even stronger wish to burrow through the space-time continuum and hunker down in 1968.”

The movement’s cause “was virtually impossible to decipher,” Bellafante complained, slamming [it] for “lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgeably.” And who has more knowledge about grassroots progressive activism than the New York Times.

–What’s News Award: NPR’s Dick Meyer; Washington Post

Asked to explain NPR’s non-coverage of OWS, executive editor Meyer said (NPR.org, 9/26/11): “The recent protests on Wall Street did not involve large numbers of people, prominent people, a great disruption or an especially clear objective.”

And the massive demonstrations around the world October 15th made it onto the front page of the next day’s Washington Post–in the form of a lower right-hand corner blurb approximately one column inch long, directing people to page A20 to find news about protests in “more than 900 cities in Europe, Africa and Asia.”

–Channeling Glenn Beck Award: Reuters

Under the headline (10/13/11) “Who’s Behind the Wall Street Protests,” the news agency provided an answer straight from one of Glenn Beck’s conspiratorial chalk boards:

One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

Who exactly is bringing up Soros’ name? Reuters names one slightly less than credible source: right-wing talker Rush Limbaugh. But Reuters did its own digging, going on to suggest “indirect financial links” between Soros and the group Adbusters, which issued the original call for the Occupy protest. The links were mostly figments of the right-wing imagination, as even some Reuters reporters pointed out. Reuters eventually changed the headline to “Soros: Not a Funder of Wall Street Protests.”

–The Suites to the Streets Award: New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin

The Times star business writer (10/4/11) did little to dispel criticism that he’s too close to his Wall Street sources by admitting that he checked out the protests–after a banker told him to:

I had gone down to Zuccotti Park to see the activist movement firsthand after getting a call from the chief executive of a major bank last week, before nearly 700 people were arrested over the weekend during a demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge.

“Is this Occupy Wall Street thing a big deal?” the CEO asked me. I didn’t have an answer. “We’re trying to figure out how much we should be worried about all of this,” he continued, clearly concerned. “Is this going to turn into a personal safety problem?”

As I wandered around the park, it was clear to me that most bankers probably don’t have to worry about being in imminent personal danger. This didn’t seem like a brutal group–at least not yet.

–Those Facts Are Biased Award: WNYC’s Takeaway

Web producer Caitlin Curran was photographed at an OWS protest holding a sign that said this:

It’s wrong to create a mortgage-backed security filled with loans you know are going to fail so that you can sell it to a client who isn’t aware that you sabotaged it by intentionally picking the misleadingly rated loans most likely to be defaulted upon.

Curran was promptly fired by the New York public radio station for her flagrant violation of journalistic objectivity. Who could trust a journalist who took a far-out radical position like that?

–Timeless Cliches Award: Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer

“Starbucks-sipping, Levi’s-clad, iPhone-clutching protesters denounce corporate America even as they weep for Steve Jobs,” wrote Post columnist Krauthammer (10/14/11), maligning the protesters as “indigant indolents saddled with their $50,000 student loans and English degrees” whose policy proposal boils down to “eat the rich.”

–We Smell a Rat Award: Washington Post

November 16: “Is this an occupation or an infestation?”

Media Trainer Jess Todfelt offers up an end of the year list of media stories. Here is #4 on his list:

#4 Occupy Wall Street-ers, while not all of their coverage was complimentary, received and continue to receive daily, worldwide coverage. In fact, their movement spread to cities all across the world. The idea of the 99% was very inclusive. Of course, people showing up wearing face paint, stilts or dressing like Vikings muddled the message at times

Times Co. Agrees to Sale of Local Papers

New York Times Co. said it has agreed to sell the 16 local papers that make up its regional media group to Halifax Media Holdings LLC, of Daytona Beach, Fla, for $143 million in cash.
The transaction, expected to close within weeks, continues a longer-term effort by Times Co. to streamline holdings and pay down debt as revenue at its flagship New York Times newspaper has declined.

Times Co. said it intends to use the estimated $150 million in after-tax gains from the sale for “general corporate purposes.”

In a statement, Times Co. chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said that the “sale of our Regional Media Group will enable The New York Times Company to continue our transformation to a digitally-focused, multiplatform media company.””

Hundreds of NY TIme Employees Write Publisher, Express “Extreme Dismay”

First reported on by the Huffington Post, the open letter was posted to saveourtimes.com last week, and has been signed by more than 270 staffers so far.

The aggrieved include film critic Manohla Dargis, basketball writer Howard Beck, Washington correspondent Eric Schmitt and art critic Roberta Smith, among many others.
Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone spoke with Bill O’Meara, president of the New York Newspaper Guild, who said that some staffers considered storming Sulzberger’s office, but opted for the letter instead.

So what are the grievances?

Last week, the Times notified foreign citizens working at the paper’s overseas bureaus that their pensions would be frozen.

In their letter, Times employees express dismay for foreign staffers who have “risked their lives so that we can do our jobs.”

Economy:

•Gonzalo Lira: A Run On The Global Banking System-How Close Are We?

The general public still hasn’t quite realized the implications of the MF Global scandal.

UK Telegraph: UK Treasury Plans For Euro Failure

Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone-RSN: “Towns and cities and states lose billions of dollars every year allowing financial services companies to overcharge them for underwriting. It gets even worse in the derivatives markets, where banks routinely overcharge state and local governments for things like interest rate swaps, for one very obvious reason – swaps are not traded on open exchanges, so only the banks know how to price them.”

HP: Profile Of Federal Judge Rakoff Who Challenges Wall Street

Overseas

•Protests Against Hatred in Israel

Haaretz: Israelis Rally Against Discrimination by Hardline Jewish Extremists

Rally was originally slated to take place in the courtyard of a girl’s school, but the location was changed after Haredi extremists threatened organizers with violence

Thousands of Israelis amassed near the Orot girl’s school in Beit Shemesh on Tuesday to protest gender segregation in a city that has become a symbol for the struggle against religious extremism.

•RAIN: Background: Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews spit on “immodest” 8-year-old girl in Beit Shemesh

Since this news report last Friday, about a little girl from Beit Shemesh, secular-religious relations seem to be the only thing Israelis are talking about

Naama Margolis, an 8-year-old from Bet Shemesh, is the most famous girl in Israel today. In fact, nobody can stop talking about her.

And why is that? Well, on Friday evening, Naama told her story on the most watched news show in the country. Interviewed by Channel 2’s Shai Gal, Naama told how she was afraid to go to school, just a few hundred meters from her house in Bet Shemesh, because Haredim cursed and spit on her for being dressed “immodestly.”

The report, translated in full below, has sent Israeli public discourse on relations between secular and religious into a frenzy.

Since the report, the Israeli Prime Minister has spoken about it, the Haredi Beit Shemesh Mayor has condemned it, Haredim in Beit Shemesh attacked a Channel 2 news team who came to town again on Sunday, and rioted when municipal workers took down signs calling for segregation between men and women. They later put the signs back up. Today, the city announced plans to put up 400 security cameras.

But guess who hasn’t said anything? That’s right: the rabbis. Apparently, they don’t care. And why should they? It’s not like they recognize the state or anything. And guess what else: They don’t have to. Because the invalid who spoke from inside his car at the end of the item is actually right. Out of all the ignorance he spewed, he managed to say one correct thing at the end:

“All of Israel will be Haredi, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

He’s right. The numbers speak for themselves.

Actually, it makes the whole two-state, one-state discussion seem like a waste of time. What does it matter when in a few decades between the river and the sea, secular people of any nationality will be a small minority.

You’ll just have to chose your theocracy.

•Undernews: Secret EU document outlines discrimination against Israeli Arabs

Independent, UK – A growing gulf between Israel’s Jewish and Arab communities is highlighted in a critical EU paper which breaks new ground by suggesting that the international community has a role in ensuring “genuinely equal treatment” for the country’s Arab minority.

The confidential 27-page draft prepared by European diplomats and seen by The Independent charts a wide range of indicators showing that Israeli Arabs suffer “economic disparities … unequal access to land and housing … discriminatory draft legislation and a political climate in which discriminatory rhetoric and practice go unsanctioned.”

The paper also levels criticisms at some Israeli Arab leaders, charging that the most extreme feed accusations of disloyalty within the majority Jewish community. And it is careful to praise positive state measures affecting the Arab community, including on policing. But it charges that Israel has addressed “few” of the recommendations on the “socio-conomic causes of Israeli Arab frustration” made by the Or Commission, appointed after 12 Israeli Arabs were killed by police during demonstrations 11 years ago.

•ADC Condemns Cantor Statement that Palestinian Culture is “Infused with Resentment and Hatred”

Washington, DC | www.adc.org | December 27, 2011 — ADC strongly condemns House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R) offensive and ridiculous statement that Palestinian culture is “infused with resentment and hatred.” The sheer ignorance of such remarks, particularly from someone in his prominent position, is both distressing and depressing to millions of Americans.

“Palestinian culture” is, of course, not “infused with resentment and hatred,” but it is true that Palestinians resent intolerance and hate injustice. Palestinians resent being discriminated against by dozens of Israeli laws that render them second-class citizens in their own country. Palestinians hate having to use segregated roads rather than being free to travel on the same roads as Israeli Jews. Palestinians in Gaza resent that they are subject to an inhumane Israeli blockade that has deprived them of essential foods, medicines and building supplies. Palestinians hate the fact that they have lived under oppressive Israeli military rule for more than 44 years. And they resent that so-called “leaders” who are embarrassingly ignorant of Palestinian lives, circumstances, ideals and, yes, culture, deem themselves fit to speak about such subjects with even a modicum of authority.

The Wall of Hate

When the occupied are portrayed as violent and the occupier as victim, then democracy and justice have to be redefined.

EI: (Press TV) Qatar to overthrow Saudi regime

DS: Can’t vouch for the truthfulness of this. Sounds preposterous!

The Saudi Arabian monarchy will be overthrown by Qatar very soon, a leaked confidential conversation by Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani has revealed.

According to an audio file which has gone viral on the Internet, the premier said Qatari troops would occupy Qatif in Eastern Province and the Al Saud regime will disintegrate.

“The regime of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud is exhausted and powerless to control the country and the army cannot confront the future changes,” he asserted.

The remarks were made as people in Qatif have been staging protest rallies to demand freedom and equality over the past months.

The Qatari premier also revealed that the United States and Britain wanted him to report back to them on the situation in Saudi Arabia.

“They want to get rid of the Saudi regime while they are afraid of any new Islamic regime in the region,” Sheikh Hamad said.

“Therefore, Qatar has taken advantage to transfer US military bases to its country,” he added.

Sheikh Hamad said Qatar also has been able to gradually reduce the dominance of Saudi Arabia in the region and impose itself on Arab countries.

Qatari state-run news channel Aljazeera has refused to comment on the audio clip.

Qatari officials did not confirm the report when Press TV contacted the Qatari Embassy in Tehran.

Politricks: Occuoy The Caucus

•Prensa Latina: Occupy Movement Targets Iowa Caucus

•NY TImes Version of Caucus Story

Haaretz: Demonizing Ron Paul? Ron Paul is not anti-Semitic but is anti-Israel

Republican presidential hopeful ‘wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all,’ says former senior aide; Paul’s spokesman says former aide has zero credibility, should not be taken seriously.

Dave Lindorff: Why the Establishment is Terrified of Ron Paul

Ron Paul says he’d end the wars, end the drug “war” and “war” on terror, and respect the Bill of Rights. Who else would do that?

Fluent News: ‘Iran Reportedly Threatens to Cut Off Oil Flow Through Key Route Over Nuclear Sanctions’

Russ Banker, WhoWhatWhy: Jutifying War With Iran

.. the evidence points to a concerted campaign to prepare Americans and the world for war against Iran. This is not idle speculation. It fits a pattern that repeatedly preceded previous hostilities.

Here are the recent examples on Iran:

-The claim that Iran is a WMD threat. Pretty much everyone is familiar with the long-term, continuing efforts to paint Iran as some kind of nuclear threat. This ignores the possibility that Iran is telling the truth in contending it is embarked on solely non-military nuclear research (debatable), and serious doubts among many experts that Iran is preparing nuclear weapons. Perhaps most important, it discounts the fact that many countries (including Iran’s arch-enemy Israel) have nuclear weapons, and disregards the undoubted truth that if a country like Iran ever did launch nuclear weapons, it would be wiped out in a nanosecond, creating a very strong disincentive for offensive use. At the same time, by encouraging other countries and internal foes to believe that it has nuclear weapons, Iran creates an inexpensive protective shield for its regime. A dangerous game, to be sure, but without further evidence of Iranian nukes, hardly a reason to launch a war that would surely cause even more death and destruction than the misguided Iraq invasion.

-The claim that Iran tried to hire Mexican drug cartel hit squads to kill a Saudi ambassador on US soil (fizzled). Remember this one? So ludicrous that even ultra-cautious corporate news organizations laughed it out of the spotlight. Still, it may have been a test of what will fly—and likely did impact a percentage of the population, particularly those getting their info from jingoistic outlets like Fox.

-The claim that Iran was complicit in the 9/11 attacks (current). A federal judge, reviewing evidence presented in a lawsuit on behalf of 9/11 victims, concluded this month that it proved Iran “provided direct support to Al Qaeda specifically for the attacks…on September 11, 2001.” This one may gain traction due to powerful lingering emotions on the topic. (For complaints about the general operating style of the judge who ruled in the case, click here.) Because this ruling and the underlying lawsuit are based largely on the claims of defectors (and past experience shows that defectors frequently trade politically valuable assertions for personal benefits), more research is needed on this. (Remember discredited CIA Iraq source “Curveball”?) The cited “NSA intercepts” also bring to mind the intercepts put forward as proof that Saddam had WMDs.

Marvin Kitman:Many Vets need Help

Arthur Lee Pipes Jr., 25, of Chiefland, an Army veteran who completed two combat tours in Iraq, is accused of dousing his mother-in-law’s house with a 5-gallon gas can, intent on setting it ablaze, and fatally shooting the family dog after his wife told him she wanted a divorce and emptied the bank account, according to a media release by the Levy County Sheriff’s Office

CLG: U.S. finds new human infection with swine H3N2 flu –

H3N2 case is 12th in five states reported in U.S. since this new virus first spotted in July 23 Dec 2011 U.S. public health officials have found another case of human infection with a swine-origin H3N2 virus, this time in a child from West Virginia. And they also reported finding a human infection with a new swine influenza virus never before seen in humans, in a person in Wisconsin who had contact with pigs. The investigation into West Virginia case suggests the child was infected by another person and that some amount of human-to-human spread of the [US-created] virus took place in the unnamed community where the child lives, according to details released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

•LA Times: Studies of deadly H5N1 bird flu mutations test scientific ethics

In a top-security lab in the Netherlands, scientists guard specimens of a super-killer influenza that slays half of those it infects and spreads easily from victim to victim.

M&G: Apple slapped with fine for misleading consumers in Italy

Italy’s anti-trust authority has decided to impose a €900 000 fine on Apple for misleading consumers on assistance services and product guarantees.

Your Letters

Adrian De Villiers writes from South Africa:

just wanted to say praise God for been someone who cares for the people, and is been a beacon of light in a very dark world at the moment

these banking exec’s have lost control of themselves, like what was recently revealed in an interview with Madoff who pulled off the biggest ponzi scheme known to mankind, Madoff said since his been incarcerated, he feels so much more at peace, and calm, knowing now he’s not in control of his life anymore, i/e the greed he got caught up in ran away with him to the point he lost control of himself and his will power to break free was broken.

Danny, that’s what’s happened with these banking exec’s, they’ve lost it, and are out of control with some very dangerous people making sure they don’t turn around.

the sooner these exec’s get locked up the better for all of us and for themselves.

Someone even went so far as to pay themselves bonuses after the bailouts, it’s crazy, that’s like a women gettting raped, then a policeman sees her naked, and then locks her up for indecent exposure, and then wants a pat on the back and his pocket lined for locking her up.

Madoff, I believe also knows a lot more!!!!

just wanted to say, as long as you keep raising awareness about the economic injustices in the world and get a revelation of the truth about the one world elitists driving the recessions and wars with greed, lies, deceptions and trickery,

please be careful, try and get as many people on board about these wcked senseless wars and how the banking exec’s got away with the biggest bank robbery unknown to mankind,

the reason is. to avoid been signaled out, if many people around the world who are in the movie/music/radio/tv/news industry all raise awareness at the same time, these elitists can’t target any single person, this is the strategy

these guys are ruthless, so if u feel threatened, try and shuffle the deck to keep the truth getting out there, but at the same time, it will take the heat off u

i hope u are ok, I’m picking up high stress levels from u.

will keep u in my prayers”

Francis Ward is a professor-emeritus of journalism at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University on Christopher Hitchens:

I don’t doubt Hitchens’ skill as a writer and thinker. But as we remember and pay tribute to him, let’s not forget how deeply mistaken he was about the Iraq war and how blind hatred of a dictator can blind your sense of reality.

I welcome your comments on this daily blog. Write: DIssector@mediachannel.org

The News Dissector