THE SUPERBOWLS* CRITICS IN BRAZIL * MEDIA NEWS OF NOTE

Americans are Superbowl obsessed. The showdown between leading football contenders, the Rams and the Patriots (a most appropriate “brand” these days in the USA) displaced weightier subjects in the halls at the World Economic Forum as several top financial journalists from CNN, CNBC and a member of Congress focused on what REALLY matters. For me, the Forum is like a superbowl soiree, a superbowl of salons, perhaps more accurately, a fishbowl really, where hanging out in suits is also a way to see and be seen. Today, as the Sun warms up the city, another showdown takes place, as demonstrators get ready to march on Moloch at high noon. For what happens. see www.indymedia.org.

Yesterday, I alternated between two worlds in collision. In the morning, I buzzed around the Forum foraging for contacts and some insights into how the business world feels about globalization now that it is doing so poorly in many parts of the world. The Economist asks “Is Globalization at risk” in a long take out on shaky state of the global economic order. They note all the prophets of doom warning that the big G has had its day and did not pay. But then, the rose colored glasses came out to bolster confidence with a “Better than It Looks” subhead. At least that is qualified when you flip the page to learn that indeed only one part of the world is globally integrated at all. 24 countries have seen some improvements while 2 BILLION people have become less globalized, poverty is up, and income per head is down. “In short” reports the world’s pre-eminent business magazine, “globalization is not, and never was global.”

AN FORUM IN OPPOSITION IN BRAZIL

Perhaps that’s why thousand have assembled at a counter forum, the World Social Forum, in Porto Alegre Brazil. The Earth Times (Earthtimes.org) reports from the gathering of 12000 delegates, 60,000 activists from 150 countries that MIT’s Noam Chomsky gave their keynote. “One should be scrupulous in not defining the World Social Forum as anti-globalization. There is no one who is anti-globalization. This is the Globalization forum. There is an anti-globalization forum taking place in New York which is tying to prevent international poplar movements which will develop a form of globalization that will help the population. They are actively involved in an institution designed to preserve power.”

I was struck that two Porto Alegre partisans flew into New York to speak at a panel organized by the Public Eye on Davos which has opposed the Forum back home in Switzerland, and followed it to New York to offer alternate perspectives under the banner of the BERNE DECLARTION, a call for global justice. I moderated their panel on foreign investment which at a packed meeting at the Church Center for the UN. It was a sober and tres SEE-RIOUS crowd that listened to concerns that foreign investment, usually considered necessary to fuel growth in developing countries is anything but. There were demands for checks on corporate power, more accountability, and international rules for more economic equality. When challenged by more audience members to be more specific about how they would solve poverty and third world misery, there was much vagueness than I would have liked to have heard. The insistence by one African economist that there is not one example of outside investment benefiting any country certainly raised my eyebrows. What was missing was a coherent shared program, or the language with which to communicate it. There were many bright and very committed people in the room, but I sensed that they felt that too — slogans are not solutions.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN BABYLON

Perhaps that’s why some activists are working both sides of the barricade and serving a critical function within the Waldorf and its environs. The press is not helping as fellow media participant Ariana Huffington notes in her new column by offering distorted coverage.:

“NEW YORK — “Rich and Powerful Gathering at Elite Forum on Economy,” trumpeted the headline of a front page New York Times story on the WorldEconomic Forum. So how come I keep running into activists, academics, social entrepreneurs, consumer advocates and fellow journalists rather than the corporate elite?

“Another news story on the five-day conference, which, after three decades in Davos, Switzerland was moved to New York City, ominously predicted that “phalanxes of demonstrators are expected to shadow [the participants] at every turn.” So far, I have been going in and out of the Waldorf, where the Forum is being held, unshadowed by a single demonstrator (it’s too bad, because I’m kind of interested in talking to one) but stopped by dozens of policemen, despite my WEF badge.

“Harping on the “exclusivity” of the event, reporters have delighted in mentioning that the Forum’s 3,000 participants “are paying $25,000 a head for the privilege of hobnobbing with each other.” In fact, while there certainly are corporations here laying out that kind of money, most of the folks I’ve talked to are doing their hobnobbing for free.

So the media have been peddling a caricature and the demonstrators gathered outside have been attacking it. As someone who shares the protesters’ commitment to shaking up the status quo, I cringe when they dilute their power by railing against an ill-defined bogeyman. They are proving that if you protest everything, you end up changing nothing.”

LABOR LEADERS ARE THERE

Labor unions were protesting too without much coverage, but you can find out what was going on from the radio show Between the Lines:” we’ve uploaded 2 MP3 audio segments from the AFL-CIO Workers Forum in New York City.

“1) Working people from around the globe held their own meeting in midtown Manhattan. Scott Harris attended the event and filed a report for Free Speech Radio News 2/1/02.

“2) AFL CIO President John Sweeney discusses economic globalization, the World Economic Forum and why labor, environmental, and student activists are protesting the gathering in NYC.”

THE FATE OF DANIEL PEARL

In other news of media import, we still don’t know if Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is alive or dead. That newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize winning Beijing correspondent Ian Johnson shared the concern of many of his colleagues and told me about conflicting emails, one claiming he has been killed, another demanding a ransom which is quite common in kidnappings there. The Globalvision News Network carried this report by Syed Saleem Shahzad of Asia Times:

“KARACHI, Feb. 2, 2002 — While the kidnapping case of the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl continues to take bizarre twists and turns, Pakistan has officially blamed the Indian state apparatus for the kidnapping, saying the aim is to defame Pakistan.

“Meanwhile, as Asia Times Online has previously reported, investigation of the case is resulting in exposure of the role of Pakistani intelligence agencies in the affairs of Afghanistan and Kashmir, and their channels of operation. The latest example of this is the detention of a high-profile, retired official of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, ostensibly as part of the United States-coordinated - in reality, US-supervised - investigation of the kidnapping….”

AL JAZEERA REDUX

The fallout from the recent broadcaster of an old Bin Laden interview conducted but not relaesd by Al Jazeera continues with the Qatar based Arabic language network blasting CNN and now, according to CNN, Vice President Cheney is was involved behind the scenes: ” A day before Al-Jazeera network interviewed Osama bin Laden, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney urged the network to act “in a more responsible and representative way” when reporting on the suspected terrorist mastermind, a senior administration source told CNN Friday…. http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/02/01/cheney.al.jazeera/index.html”

DISSECTOR MEDIA NEWS WIRE:

The Washington Post reports that the Administration’s favorite TV station is getting some federal monies. “The White House spent nearly $3.5 million to buy two anti-terrorism commercials during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast on Fox, according to a network source. The 30-second ads from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy imply that the illegal drug trade finances worldwide terrorism…”

“Digital News Gaining Public Acceptance as Credible News Source Results of Year-long Online News Association Study

“Washington, DC - January 31, 2002– The public has largely accepted digital news as an important source of credible news, according to a study by the Online News Association (ONA).

“Internet users say online news is about as credible as news they obtain from other, more traditional sources. In fact, 13 percent of online readers say the Internet is their most trusted source for news.

“But journalists surveyed weren’t so positive. Many of them say they’re concerned that online media have departed from traditional journalistic ethics - and that departure has had an effect on the credibility of online news.”

CARTOONISTS WANTED

“The Film and Television Action Committee (FTAC) is a nationwide grassroots multi-union coalition of film and television workers fighting to save our jobs by securing countervailing duties against the Canadian film subsidies that are exporting film jobs from our shores.

We are a David and Goliath struggle against the global media corporations and we are Jack Valenti’s worst nightmare. The media corporations have already committed $6 million in legal fees to block us. We desperately need talented and creative cartoonists/graphic artists for our media and organizing campaigns. Other than fame and glory and the thrill of kicking the media corporations in the ass, there is no pay as we are all volunteers. For more info, contact: Michael Everett: ia728@adelphia.net

THE ARAFAT DEBATE

Eric Bogan writes from Portland about my associate Jeanne’s attitudes toward Arafat and Arabs: “Me thinks she needs to read Edward Said’s current editorial in Al-Ahram because while she goes on about Arafat, I hear nothing being said about Israel and its particular gov’t efforts to humiliate and kill Palestinians, in her admonitions with regards to Arafat. She seems rather silly and naive from the comments you post in your web-column.”

I am probably the silly one for writing 7 days a week, but I hope you have found some of it instructive. I am a glutton for punishment. I will head back over to the Waldorf fortress and see if it will survive the assault of the unwashed. Keep your comments coming. Write: dissector@mediachannel.org