FREEDOM FORUM CUTS BACK.

Media freedom stalwart Adam Powell reports that Mediachannel.org affiliate, the Freedom Forum, is closing overseas offices, as well as its New York First Ammendment Center and slashing staff because of falling stock prices. We wish the best to all of our Freedom Forum colleagues who have graciously hosted Media Channel events, and shared information with us. Please see the Washington Post story below.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29 (Mediachannel.org was down most of Sunday with some server problem.)

JOURNALIST SLAIN: A prominent journalist has been killed in a war setting. Not in Afghanistan, but in Northern Ireland. The Irish American Information Service reports that”Martin O’Hagan, who worked for the northern edition ofthe Dublin-based Sunday World, was murdered whil returning hom from a pub sith his wife at his side.”The news service adds some background:” Mr O’Hagan had been living with loyalist death threats foryears. He was a key witness in a case over the Channel Fourprogramme “The Committee,” which alleged leading members ofthe security forces colluded with loyalist paramilitariesin the killings of suspected republicans.” Unfortunately, because the media focus is elsewhere, for obvious reasons, cases like this, and conflicts like this, are not getting the attention they deserves.

Ironically, an American web site that specializes in covering Northern Ireland has been taken down because of its Republican sympathies. The Radio Free Eireann program on WBAI in New York reports” IRARADIO.COM, the web site which archives all Radio Free Eireannbroadcasts, has been taken down because the web service provider wasthreatened with seizure of their assets if they continued to host”terrorist” radio programs. Travis E. Towle, the Founder and CEO of CosmicEntertainment Company, which put up IRARADIO.COM, was told by theirinternet service provider, Hypervine, that they had been “strongly advised” to take the web site down.”

NOW, BACK TO THE OTHER WAR: MISINFORMATION WATCH

From MediaNews.com: “Various journalists and Middle East specialists are continuing to analyze a variety of US government disclosures raising troubling questions about their veracity and credibility. The Media News Site looks closely at White House pronoucements suggesting that they may be riddled with contradictions: “In a letter to MediaNews, Phillip Day notes that AP reported that White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Wednesday that Americans “need to watch what they say…” That line was apparently edited out of the White House transcript, says Day. Another MediaNews reader says: “I’m left wondering whatever happened to, ‘I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.’”

“SEVERAL MEDIANEWS READERS note that Fleischer’s briefings are archived at C-SPAN.org. One reader e-mails: “If you listen to the audio of Fleischer’s briefing, you can clearly hear Fleischer say ‘need to watch what they say, watch what they do…’ There’s no ambiguity whatsoever about his words. The White House clearly edited the phrase out of the transcript intentionally.”

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE “HIJACKERS HANDBOOK”

Writing in the Independent in London, Robert Fisks offers a detailed analysis of the “hijackers handbook” allegedly found the one of the hijackers luggage and on the downed plane in Pennsylvania. He says that parts of the translation do not seem to be consistent with what follower of Bin Ladin’s brand of Islam would write:

” There are no references to any of Osama bin Laden’s demands‚” for an American withdrawal from the Gulf, an end to Israeli occupation, the overthrow of pro-American Arab regimes,” nor any narrative context for the atrocities about to be committed. If the men had an aspiration‚ and if the document is above suspicion ‚ then they were sending their message direct to their God….

“In the past, CIA translators have turned out to be Lebanese Maronite Christians whose understanding of Islam and its prayers may have led to serious textual errors. Could this be to blame for the weird references in the note found in Atta’s baggage? Or is there something more mysterious about the background of those who committed a crime against humanity in New York and Washington, just over two weeks ago?” Read the whole story by clicking below:

MEDIA CRITICS ARE BEGINNING TO BE HEARD

More Media criticism of US coverage is beginning to be heard. Journalist and author Michael Massing takes a shot at TV coverage in The Nation:

“As the nation prepares to go to war, the coverage on TV–the primary source of news for most Americans–has been appallingly superficial. Constantly clicking my remote in search of insight, I was stunned at the narrowness of the views offered, at the Soviet-style reliance on official and semiofficial sources. On Meet the Press, for instance, Tim Russert’s guests were Colin Powell and (as he proudly announced) the “four leaders of the United States Congress”–Dennis Hastert, Richard Gephardt, Trent Lott and Tom Daschle. “How did the events of September 11 change you?” the normally feisty Russert tremulously asked each. Seeking wisdom on the question of Why They Hate Us, Barbara Walters turned to former Bush communications director, now senior White House counselor, Karen Hughes. “They hate the fact that we elect our leaders,” Hughes vacuously replied. On NBC, Brian Williams leaned heavily on failed-drug-czar-turned-TV-consultant Barry McCaffrey (”Americans are natural fighters,” McCaffrey fatuously informed us), while on The Capital Gang Mark Shields asked former Middle East diplomat Edward Walker, “Can the antiterrorism coalition really count this time on Saudi Arabia?”

WHY DON’T AMERICANS “GET IT?”

The lack of international news has kept Americans in the dark about many developments in the wold for years because media companies want higher profits, reports David Shaw in the LA Times. “Coverage of international news by the U.S. media has declined significantly in recent years in response to corporate demands for larger profits and an increasingly fragmented audience. Having decided that readers and viewers in post-Cold War America cared more about celebrities, scandals and local news, newspaper editors and television news executives have reduced the space and time devoted to foreign coverage by 70% to 80% during the past 15 to 20 years.

“Several prominent journalists say these cutbacks might have contributed to the uncertainty and confusion among many Americans about why terrorists committed so heinous an assault on Sept. 11. “I think most Americans are clueless when it comes to the politics and ideology and religion in [the Muslim] world and, in that sense, I think we do bear some responsibility,” says Martin Baron, editor of the Boston Globe. ” Check out the whole piece at:http://commondreams.org/headlines01/0927-03.htm

Thanks again for your letters and comments. You can click RESPOND below or write to me at Dissector@mediachannel.org