*MAY DAY, MAY DAY*

*BREAKTHROUGH IN BURMA*

*WORLD PRESS FREEDOM*

MAY 1: “May Day! May Day! May Day” is still an international call of distress as it should be in these tenuous times. Today, marks the birthday of the Irish American labor organizer “Mother Jones” in 1830, and the anniversary of the l886 strike for the 8-hour workday in Chicago that was set upon by police who killed four and wounded 200. It was that event that gave rise to May Day as a Workers’ holiday, now practiced everywhere but in the Uniited States, which created Labor Day on the first Monday in September as an alternative to depoliticize the occasion.

Other activists and advocates embrace May Day too, as this statement from People With AIDS in South Africa makes clear: “For the past 113 years workers have continuously commemorated the 1st of May as the Workers Day, seeking to address not only the issue of cold blooded massacre of workers in Chicago USA in 1886, but has been broadened to all issues affecting workers and the country at large. National Association of People living With HIV/AIDS (NAPWA-SA) takes this opportunity to send sincere words of gratitude to the workers’ trade unions of South Africa for their contribution to the freedom we are celebrating as a country.”

SHARON ON JENIN: “NO EFFORT TO DOUBT US WILL PREVAIL…”

The UN Mission to investigate what happened in the Jenin camp is dead. Canadian Broadcasting showed pictures of the team picked by Secretary General Anan sitting around a table in Geneva, ostensibly, according to him, “beginning their work.” But with Israel slamming the door in the UN’s face, prejudging an inquiry which it has convinced itself has already prejudged Israel, the idea of a third party probe is dead in the water. The Palestinians are charging cover-up but Sharon doesn’t seem to care and is willing to take what the New York Times gingerly calls “the short term cost in world opinion.” Short term costs tend to have long term memories, although power not principle is what is defining the terms of the debate.

Again, leave it to Sharon to be quite blunt in the language he uses. “No effort to doubt us or put us on an international trial will prevail.” Look at that sentence again, and send it to over whatever theatrical director is restaging the Theater of the Absurd. He forbids any and all efforts to “doubt us,” and at the same time doesn’t seem to realize that by barring an investigation that he had already agreed too, Israel is on trial — and being convicted in the eyes of the world. This fact seems to be dismissed by those who claim that “the world hates us already.” Fatalism like this will prove fatal in political terms.

To its credit last night, ABC Nightline, demonstrating the relevance questioned months back by Disney dabblers, held its own probe in Jenin of a rather formulaic type, interviewing Palestinians who lived in the camp and Israeli soldiers who attacked it. The former charged abusive treatment; the latter, denied it. A young man with a HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH T shirt was then presented as the final word, sharing his organization’s findings as if they are the final word. The problem of course is that TV compresses its Q&A’s and is no substitute for an official investigation that can be more systematic, request documents, cross examine witnesses, and better contextualize the developments. Nightline’s report concluded there was no massacre as the Israelis define it — large numbers of people being lined up against a wall and mowed down. But they did document human rights violations that could be construed as war crimes.

WILL THE TRUTH COME OUT?

The scale and look of the devastation was shocking with hundreds of homes destroyed and nearly 20 % of the residents left homeless. Civilians were killed, as I am sure, Israeli soldiers knew they would be, when you go door to door in a civilian home. One of the Israeli soldiers interviewed expressed admiration for the bravery of the camp’s defenders who were overpowered by superior force, but to the Palestinians, at least, are heroes and martyrs. The Palestinian side must be subjected to the same scrutiny as the Israeli. As seems to be that over time, the truth will come out.

As for other developments, the Saudis and the US seem to have reached a deal to each pressure its key ally, with the Crown Prince planning to press Arafat and the US claiming to influence Sharon when he comes to Washington next week. Can Sharon be pressured is the big question. Meanwhile Rome’s Missionary News Service (Misna.org) continues to provide the best updated coverage of the standoff in Bethlehem.

Here is this morning’s update by an organization which relies on reports from priests and missionaries world wide and often has the news ahead of the wires: “Despite the liberation of 27 Palestinians from the Nativity complex, it is still too soon to think that the siege of the Church is nearing a peaceful solution. This is the opinion of the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land. Their spokesperson, Fr. David Jaeger, contacted over the phone in Rome (Italy) does not hide a feeling of disappointment: “There are still no elements to indicate a definitive change of direction – commented the father after today’s release of a group of Palestinians that have been holed up in the complex for 28 days – unfortunately the Basilica remains under siege. We are happy for the 27 Palestinians that were able to leave the church and return to their families unharmed, but the problem remains the armed men occupying the holy sites”

BREAKTHRUGH IN BURMA?

While the world focuses on the end of the month long siege of Yasser Arafat, in another part of the world, there are indications that the 12 year confontation between the military rulers of Burma (Mymmar) and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi may be ending. UN intervention is expected to lead to an announcement as early as this week of a possible breakthrough in efforts to end the 12-year confrontation between the ruling State Peace and Development Council and Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy. It would open the way for a dialogue between the two sides on after the latest visit to the country of a special United Nations envoy.”

WORLD PRESS FREDOM DAY

May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, an occasion explored by Mediachannel this week. The occasion has prompted many reports about media issues including panel discussions including one at the National Press Club on safety issues, AP reports: “… in an era of regional conflicts and terrorism in which groups seek influence and publicity, reporters are more frequently becoming targets because of their craft rather than in spite of it, agreed members of a panel of media representatives and security experts convened by the National Press Club.

“Not only are you soft targets, you are attractive targets because terrorism is about changing opinions,'’ said Robert Klamser, executive director of Crisis Consulting International, which helps aid groups and religious organizations cope with hostage situations…

“This profession is really stupid when it comes to certain things - safety, stress,'’ said Chris Cramer, president of CNN International Networks. “There are an army of news organizations in this country who do not get it.'’

AT RISK ON EVERY FRONT

I attended another panel, sponsored by the French Institute and Nour Foundation, that CNN’s Cramer appeared at on the Media and the Pysche. Hosted by Charlie Rose of CBS and PBS, it featured a debate by an international group including Italy’s Carlo Sartori and the UN’s Edward Mortimer. He was at times critical of his own network, especially CNN America, and decried the lack of international coverage an issues that speaks to how and if the public here is being informed.

He was dismissive of the time given over to the Robert Blake murder arrest. Today CNN focuses on the Chandra Levy case one more time. Largely, these discussions about problems the press faces deal with terrorist threats and government censors, not internal corporate pressures that lead to self-censorship and pro-status quo spins. Happily at this event, ably organized by Mariam Azarm, there was a disscusion of the conflict between the market mentality and the public interest.

AN INDY MEDIA SECTOR IS GROWING

There are some positive signs. Kathy Eldon sent me an op-ed from the International Herald Tribune by David Hoffman and Tare Sonenshine, with whom I once worked at ABC, plugging the spread of independent media. Unfortunately, many of these outlets have little impact on global news flows:

“…. there are hopeful signs in the Arab and Muslim world. Pressure from satellite stations and foreign media is forcing many countries with large Muslim populations to open their media spaces to privately owned, independent television channels. Lebanon, Jordan and several Gulf states are now introducing new commercial broadcast laws. Pakistan is starting to privatize its media because of the influence of satellite programs coming across the border from India.

“Thirty independent television channels and 11 independent radio stations operated in the West Bank before the Israeli military offensive forced many to shut down. Even Syria has allowed its first privately owned and operated newspapers to start publishing. In Afghanistan, local television is back on the air for the first time since the fall of the Taliban nearly five months ago.

“In today’s world the power of media as a force for social and democratic change has grown exponentially. And so, as we mourn the setbacks, let us also celebrate the growing power of independent media to inform and educate citizens in the most remote and intolerant of places. Old media and new media are helping to turn on the lights in the darkest corners of the world. That is worth celebrating on May 3, World Press FreedomDay.

MONITORING MEDIA SPIN

Not worth celebrating is the way world news is sometimes massaged. As a rule, I am not a big fan of Jared Israel’s Emperor’s clothes site, in part, because of his one-sided lobbying in defense of the genius and Socialist purity of Slobodan Milosovic. But he does raise an interesting point today, as he reveals the methodology he uses to track press coverage and spin in order to show how news is selected. He writes:

“Journalists sometimes - perhaps often - write accurate pieces. However, when the issues are important, foreign policy stories get edited or replaced, with the end result supporting a slant which is so consistently in tune with the long-term goals of the US foreign policy elite that it is possible, by analyzing news stories, to predict positions which will be adopted by the US government….

“Every day we test the above-stated thesis using the excellent Lexis search engine. It enables us to scan millions of newspaper articles and TV news transcripts in seconds. We can focus on particular dates or periods of time. We can check for the presence or absence of certain words or phrases. In this way, we can fashion an hypothesis and test it - see if we are right about the line being taken by most or all the media. Or we can just “go fishing” and see what we find.

“On April 13th, the Associated Press published what is by far the best - indeed, from what I’ve seen, the only - mainstream article reporting the massive police terror against pro-Chavez Venezuelans after the recent coup d’etat. It was a scoop… by Christopher Toothaker.

“Soon after AP released the Toothaker dispatch, they sent out a new piece. This covered some of the same ground but left out Toothaker’s account of police terror in poor neighborhoods. The new dispatch, by Andrew Selsky, retained only one thing from the original: the first sentence of an important paragraph. But while this sentence remained the same, the rest of the paragraph was rewritten to reverse the meaning.

“The key thing is that all the original material in the Toothaker dispatch had been removed. AP had gutted their scoop.

“AP dispatches are sent out to news media “outlets” around the world. Thus, byApril 14th, most of the important newspapers and TV stations had received two very different AP dispatches. The first (Toothaker) was detailed and refuted the official line on what had happened in Venezuela. The second (Selsky) was general and supported the official line.

“This is as close to a scientific experiment as one could fashion to test our thesis that key media “outlets” censor themselves to support the US establishment’s agenda.”

COVERING WARS

Sometimes the best journalists are not journalists at all. Salon.com’s book section carries a fascinating story about “Robert Young Pelton, a sort of anti-travel writer who, over the course of several books and magazine articles, has demonstrated a strong affinity for war zones and rebel causes. For Pelton, this coup of an interview was another interesting case of being in the right place at the right time.” He snagged the first interviiew with John Walker Lindh in the aftermath of the Qala Jangi fortress uprising,

“…Accessibility continues to be a bone of contention between the press and the Pentagon. Meanwhile, Pelton thinks the real story of the war is either being told too late, after the public has moved on to other topics, or is never even properly explored by mainstream media outlets that allow foreign governments to promulgate a more Western friendly side of the story.

Pelton’s blunt appraisals find their way into his travel books too; they focus on skulls and crossbones rather than sandy beaches. He’s the author of “The World’s Most Dangerous Places,” a compendium of key information about how to get into — and, more important, how to get out of — various war zones, drug dens and atrocity-ridden enclaves the world over…

Here’s Pelton: “Well, I’m not a journalist first of all, so that’s probably why I have better access. There were about 200 journalists that had been waiting for six weeks in Termiz and Tashkent when I went over. I was quite intrigued by the activities in Mazar-e Sharif because I knew that most of the journalists had gone to the Panjshir Valley, which was a popular way to get into Afghanistan. But there wasn’t much going on there. So there were about 2,000 journalists, according to my friends, sitting in the Panjshir area north of Kabul twiddling their thumbs, and I knew there was something going on in the north….

“…It felt like nobody was really covering the war; they were all talking about what they had for breakfast and what it’s like to hear a bullet fly by and all this kind of crap. But nobody was really involved in the actual war. And obviously it was ongoing…That’s the thing. You hear a lot about the press talking about how they have such limited access, but the military actually says that they can go wherever they want to go. ” Read the rest

EMAIL FROM BELGIUM:

Michael Garvin A’court, writes: “I have just been reading that the reason why the UN mission to the refugee camp at Jenin has been called off is because Israel struck a deal with the US to end Yasser Arafat’s confinement in Ramallah in exchange for the PA (forced?) agreeing not to investigate or seek to investigate what happened in Jenin. If this is the case, and after repeated calls by the Israelis that they ‘have nothing to hide’ this latest development just demonstrates how low politics have sunk in that wretched corner of the earth. I am pretty sure Yasser Arafat will accept this ‘deal’ just so that he can walk free again, even if this means the inevitable murder of dozens of innocent civilians will briskly, but shamelessly be swept under the carpet. The number of dead must be high as the IDF employed Apache helicopters and fired over 300 missiles in night missions during the attack on the camp.

“With this deal, Yasser Arafat will no doubt have chosen to draw a veil on these events and relegate them firmly to history. It is alleged that the US has offered guarantees to Israel that it will not have to face the embarrassment of a possible investigation into what happened. I also was listening to the World Service where a spokesperson for the Israeli government made a rather telling slip of the tongue when he said that he does not want the UN to investigate ‘what went wrong’. Facts are coming out, such as the one you reported about crimes some hopelessly young and inexperienced Israeli soldiers committed in the camp.

“Politicians in the Middle East truly have the adversaries they deserve to have… I will end on a positive note and say how precious and vital what you do is, Danny. I have become an avid reader of your Weblog and Internet media sites generally for a number of months and have stopped buying the mainstream paper press a long time ago out of frustration with its corporate and general demagogue bias. Keep it up, Danny.”

HOLIDAY GREETINGS

Thank you. I will try to keep it up in every sense. It is sometimes hard to get up at 6 each morning to tackle this monster of a weblog . We thank all of you for checking in with us every day, and continue to welcome your items, comments and commentary. Fortunately, we have the space to print as much as possible. I write this week on media moguls and the media biz on the Mediachannel.org home page. More big companies like Clear Channel Communications are being targeted by protests — there is one led by Media Alliance in San Francisco today. Others seem to be crumbling with Vivendi reporting losses, and the CEO of Worldcomm taking a hike while reporting $698 million dollar loss and admitting to a huge debt owed to the company. One by one, the “Masters of the Universe” are flying off into deep space. For a peek into what that looks like, check out the trippy color photos from the Hubble Space Telescope on the front page of the New York Times today. They label these spectacular shots “Postcards From The Edge.”

These days, we at Globalvision feel like we may be falling off the edge. Wish us luck as we greet you, O’ workers of the world on this May Day known for a century for its passionate calls for economic justice, worker rights, bread and roses. Your feedback to dissector@mediachannel.org