INSIDE THE WEF * PROTEST COVERAGE * ENRON MEDIA *

Getting into the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for the World Economic Forum was like getting through airport security. There may be a business conference going on inside the cavernous but rather fading symbol of elegance, but outside, there is a cops’ convention underway, with overtime galore. It may be justified in terms of all the heads of state and other heads present, but in terms of defending western civilization against activists, it has been a bit of a dud so far.

The luxury at the Waldorf doesn’t exactly reflect what civilization we do have, nor are the people on the inside or the outside quite the threat that each side believes. As Robert Thompson of the Financial Times put it the other day, “Let’s face it: it is not as important as either supporters or detractors suggest.”

POST ON PROTESTERS

That said, many media outlets are looking for some kind of apocalypse. The NY Post devoted two pages to the protests, hoping for violence but only poking fun at what it called ‘no shows.’ “Arrest Blotter is rally short,” it noted, reporting on the 4000 strong contingent of NY’s “bravest” working 12 hr shifts. Here’s what they found: 6 windows on a GAP store had the windows “scratched with an unknown object” a rubbish fire in front of one bank. No arrests yet. An arrest was made of a 23-year-old defacing a Starbucks, (with a photo captioned “Coffee Crime,” five women Aids activists “were spotted carrying a ladder and a banner” and charged with reckless endangerment and criminal trespass, and two more were busted for trying to hang a sign denouncing the high price of AIDS drugs. The comedians on their Metro desk blew up a picture of a single grinning idiot, a possible refugee from The Onion, staging a stunt with a sign: “Protesting the Lack of Protesters.” Ha Ha.

(Why no mention that today, Feb 1, is the 41st anniversary of the student sit-ins at their segregated corporate target of the day, Woolworths, a chain since deceased? Their protests ignited the student phase of the Southern civil rights movement. Remind people who put down protesters about that! And for how repression can crush protest and fuel confrontation, this week was also the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday protests by civil rights marchers in Ireland. They were singing “We Shall Overcome.”)

BONO ROCKS AT THE WALDORF

Meanwhile inside the Waldorf, U-2 star Bono was praising the protesters and calling them “passionate about the world.” He said “they have an urgency because the world is in an emergency.” Others like South Africa’s Bishop Tutu and Jordan’s Queen Raina seconded the emotion. While the media looked for confrontation, what is always missing is discussion of the issues under debate. The sideshow gets attention; the substance does not.

I will report on these issues in more detail when I can catch my breath. I found many old friends, socially-conscious entertainers, human rights advocates and union people on the inside. Maybe the lines are blurring more than many activists on the outside or mainstreamers on the inside realize. Their lifestyles and political priorities are different but there may be more of a consensus on some key questions than is commonly recognized. The key difference has to do with the corporate role, of course, and how responsible and accountable it can be, or, put another way, how exploitative and avaricious it is.

AT THE PUBLIC EYE ON DAVOS TODAY

Since I was inside yesterday — I will be moderating a panel at the Public Eye on Davos at 1 PM today (UN Church Center, 44th and First) where critics scrutinize the impacts of foreign direct investment — I wasn’t following the demos. All I saw was a big contingent of Falun Gong practitioners lined up across from the conference, appealing to the corporate world to speak out against continuing abuses against them. CNN carried pictures of them this morning, and to their credit called them a spiritual group, not a cult.

INDY MEDIA COVERAGE

I did check out the Indymedia.org site (as should you) which, as you would expect, offered a different take on the protests “Amidst massive police security, the World Economic Forum opened today in midtown Manhattan…The largest demonstration saw 800-1000 gather at a labor rally to protest sweatshop labor. (See photos) Scores of police lined the perimeter of the Gap’s flagship store in Midtown to keep away the peaceful protesters. Hundreds of police were also stationed at Starbucks, McDonald’s and other corporate chains throughout the city. (See photo) (NOT COVERED IN THE POST!)

Other highlights from the day included a discussion with Ralph Nader and Patti Smith on the WEF and the start of two counter-summits, the Students For Global Justice Conference at Columbia University and the Public Eye on Davos at the United Nations Church Center, 777 UN Plaza (44th Street & 1st Avenue).”

For background information, download a special 24-page of the Indypendent, the monthly newspaper of NYC Indymedia. Today’s Public Citizen also released its WEF expose, Davos World Economic Forum: Pricey Corporate Trade Association Loses Its Camouflage.

PLAYING “THE WEAKEST LINK”

Another group has been inspired by a TV show to protest the Forum. “Friends of the Earth International” will be inviting corporations to play the cult TV show, the Weakest Link, outside the World Economic Forum at 10 am, Friday, Feb. 1. Ten Anne Robinson look-alikes will be challenging corporations over their record on improving the state of the world with hard-hitting questions on the environment, poverty, and respect for human rights.

THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN NEWS AND WHAT’S NEW

Strange doings in the world of terror-fearing and watching. Reports in all the cable shows and tabloid papers warn of possible attacks on nuclear power plants by a three-man team of Al Qaeda “sleeper” cell agents. Isn’t this an old story, first reported months ago? Why is this news again? It was a source of speculation on 60 Minutes in September. The same tip was recycled by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency to all power plants on January 23. This is being hyped as a “CHILLING DISCLOSURE,” yet the FBI has not deemed it credible and the plants have not been required to do anything new. Maybe the point is to keep us scared shitless.

Nevertheless, US papers are giving NUKE PLOT the FRONT PAGE treatment as if it was new. Also, CNN reports on a response by Osama bin Ladin to Condaleeza Rice’s suggestions that he was using his videos to send coded messages. Remember that? It seems that Bin Laden called the National Security Advisor’s warning a “hilarious claim” in an interview with Al Jezeera October 21. Said OBL: “These are very humorous things. They discount people’s intellect.”

Not to be outdone in the intellect-discounting department, CNN reported this statement from months back for the first time LAST NIGHT. Huh? Is the news or the “olds?”

Worse, the US press stresses Secretary of Defense warnings of possible new deadly attacks- — with no evidence cited. HIS THREAT of an even deadlier attack was downplayed. Headline in the Post: “STAY ALERT, AMERICA: Rumsfeld warns of even deadlier attacks.” Headline same day in Financial Times. “More Aggressive Posture” RUMSFELD SAYS US MUST BE READY TO STRIKE.”

Ya dig the difference in emphasis between what they feed the masses and report to the classes?

ON TO SOME CORPORATE STORIES OF NOTE

Writing in this week’s NY Observer, Joe Conason notes: “When The New York Times published a long article about the failure of American institutions to scrutinize Enron, journalists rated only a few perfunctory closing sentences. The story didn’t note that, like so many other publications, The Times expended much newsprint celebrating Enron and the deregulatory fervor that made Enron’s fraud possible. Few journalists are publicly examining the difficult questions about media complicity in Enron’s rise‚ perhaps because to do so might explode the ‘free market’ ideology that warps so much business reporting and commentary. It should be obvious by now that deregulation of industries and markets is not invariably beneficial to investors‚ particularly not small investors like Enron’s employees.”

http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/conason.asp

WHAT WE DON”T KNOW ABOUT SOME CORPORATE MANEUVERS

Arianna Huffington, who I did run into at the Forum, talks about some little-known corporate maneuvers in her column this week — one that is about to be exposed. (PBS will also carry more on ENRON tonight, according to investigative reporter Lowell Bergman, whom I also ran into inside the forum.)

Arianna: “Chapter 11 is all the rage right now. And many of the biggest, the best and the brightest corporations are doing it. But while the multibillion-dollar bankruptcies of Enron and Global Crossing are grabbing all the headlines, there is another Chapter 11, one you most likely haven’t heard of, that poses an equally great danger to our democracy.

“The ‘other’ Chapter 11 is an obscure clause buried within the 555-page NAFTA document. It’s being used by multinational corporations to challenge the powers of government to protect its citizens, to undermine environmental and health laws, even to attack our system of justice.

“So reports Bill Moyers in a disturbing new documentary, “Trading Democracy,” airing Tuesday, February 5 on PBS.

According to Moyers, the fourth estate’s preeminent defender of democracy, this outrageous end-run around the Constitution could end up costing us billions of dollars. But, as they say, at least we’ve got our health, right? Not with this Chapter 11 that jeopardizes our health and the safety of the communities we live in.

“This story,” Moyers told me, “reflects what Enron is all about–that corporations have the power to trump the public interest at will these days.

“It’s not just one corruption in a small corner of the picture. It represents the systemic corruption that money has brought to American politics.”

DISSECTOR MEDIA NEWSWIRE

I was impressed by Vivendi Universal CEO Jean-Marie Messier’s passion for music and cultural diversity when he spoke before a company-sponsored concert put together by Quincy Jones at the Forum. It included activists Bono and Peter Gabriel, Youssou N’dour, Angelina Kidjo, Herbie Hancock, Bradford Marsellis, Arturo Sandoval, Sounds of South Africa and many others. The highlight, a singing of John Lennon’s IMAGINE in Hebrew and Arabic by the Israeli singer Noah and a great Arab musician who, apologies, I am afraid to misspell…

The Writer’s Guild has received authorization to strike ABC News even as parent company Walt Disney reported a 55 per cent drop in net income for the first quarter. However, sharp cost cutting at its theme parks helped push earnings and operating income above analysts’ forecasts… AOL-Time/Warner in the dumper too…how low the mighty often fall…..

Mediachannel.org gets a nice mention in Don Hazen’s Alternet.org distributed “Media Masher” column.

IN OUR EMAIL: ON BLACK HAWK DOWN, AIDS AND AFGHANISTAN

From Malaysia, Anil Netto sends a piece from the Star Online, the website of Malaysia’s top-selling English language newspaper about Black Hawk Down. Some Malaysians are pissed at how the movie portrays them as well: “KUALA LUMPUR: In the Hollywood action movie Black Hawk Down, there are only fleeting shots of Asians helping to rescue 75 US soldiers pinned down by militia fire in Mogadishu, Somalia.

And that is not good enough for Brig-Gen (Rtd) Datuk Abdul Latif Ahmad. He wants the real story of what happened on October 3, 1993 told.

“He was the commander of the Malaysian contingent which was part of the UN peacekeeping force in the tumultuous African state.

“He saw 114 of his men go into battle with US forces on Oct 3, 1993 and emerged six hours later with one man killed, nine injured and four armed personnel carriers destroyed.

“We were there in the thick of the battle. It is only right to set the record straight or Malaysian movie-goers will be under the wrong impression that the battle was fought by the Americans alone, while we were mere bus drivers to ferry them out, said the 59-year-old former officer, who kept a scrapbook of his tour of duty in Somalia.”

Take that, Ridley Scott!

Article here.

MEDIA WILL NOT COVER AIDS IN AFRICA

Peter Burgess writes about the News Dissector column this week on AIDS coverage; “We are concerned that the mainstream US and NORTH media is not going to communicate the news about AIDS in Africa other than in ways that have simple corporate media value. The NORTH media is not going to mobilize the PUBLIC to get engaged in this crisis in an effective way. Though we are talking about ONE MILLION dead Africans SINCE SEPTEMBER 11–and there are probably more than 10 million AIDS orphans in Africa today–these statistics do not serve to put the emergency community and global PUBLIC into high gear for massive assistance.

“Up to now, what is happening ? … it is business as usual for all the official development assistance (ODA) community … the UN and its agencies, the World Bank, the bilateral agencies (USAID, CIDA, SIDA, etc) … even though it is a crisis of major proportions in Africa, indeed of historic proportion.

“My experience is that people who realize the scale of the crisis get overwhelmed. They cannot relate to the magnitude of the crisis, and they easily give up, turn away, and do nothing.”

A VIEW FROM THE GULF

Jeffrey Poehnert writes from the United Arab Emirates: “I have just joined your Dissector’s weblog, and thank you for the opportunity to become part of it. I have written some of my thoughts. Here I sit on the other side of the world, the Middle East, where I teach, far away from my beloved New England…and I am deeply troubled. I have actually begun to wonder if the Government has been putting something in the water since September 11th to assure people back home act like zombified lemmings. Or, just as Hitler isolated his own people from learning the truth in the 30s– by controlling all that they heard and read–does the constant drone of propaganda aimed at the populace foment this outcome, no matter who the audience is?

“And I wonder at what point will the American people wake up from their trance and see this for what it is–a world power grab that has far more to do with the control of oil than any attempt to eradicate terrorism–and domestically, a pure smokescreen to hide the dismantling of the Constitution. Perhaps having witnessed this whole thing from the outside looking in, my point of view is forced to take all factors in to account.

“If this is the case, let’s have every citizen get out for a while, so they too can look back in. I thank God for the Internet, and for web sites like this where there is rational thinking.”

THE WRONG SIDE OF THE “RIOT FENCE”

My editor JF who sees antisemitism involved in the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan asks me to name the journalist who says that, “any journalist who covered an Israeli settlers funeral would be killed and hence when you see one side mourning, and not the other, it is because the media is barred by settlers and threatened as well. “… .who did this and when? I want to know so I can take them apart. If any settler threatened to kill a reporter for filming an Israeli funeral, I want to know who he is. Please. Thanks.” Ok, JF, it was Stephen Jukes, a top and very respected editor at Reuters speaking at the Reuters Forum at the Columbia Journalism School on Wednesday night, as reported here yesterday. He was drawing on his years on the ground as a reporter in Israel. He was talking about how hard it is to cover every side on every issue there, which he then said he is committed to doing, but can’t always succeed. …My antisemitism detector did NOT go off at these remarks. Incidentally, I think the crazies went after Pearl because he was on their case and getting closer. The WSJ has done an excellent job of investigating the terrorist networks. Let’s hope he is released. (JF-I didn’t say Jukes was an antisemite, but I did say that Pearl is being treated the way he is being treated because he is Jewish. Why else call him an agent for the Mossad? His Jewishness just intensifies the situation says Ellen Friedland, a producer friend of mine on her return from Kosovo.)

A note from a journalist of note from the North: “My son is with Foreign Affairs and, after Genoa, told me that, after all these years, I was right and that he was on the wrong side of the riot fences. He’s quitting right after the Kanasakis summit this summer and going back to school.”

And I am going back into the Waldorf. Obviously, I haven’t had enough. If you can come to the Public Eye on Davos, come along today at 3. I will also be interviewed on WORLD LINKS TV tomorrow at 4. Sorry, I can’t invite you to the WEF meeting. Not sure if I will get back in today myself. In the meantime, keep your eees coming: This is the place with the space: dissector@mediachannel.org