OZZIE FANS CHEER

BUSH JET LAGGED

MEDIA FEEDS GLOBALIZATION

Important matters first. Nuclear war may be threatening between India and Pakistan, the US will likely be delaying its highly vaunted peace conference initiative for the Middle East and the FBI has announced a reorganization with its Director admitting that they coulda, woulda, shoulda done more to stop the attacks of September 11 had they only read the tea leaves and reports from their own agents and overseas spy agencies.( Reporteth the Times: “Robert S. Mueller III said for the first time publicly thatthe Sept. 11 attacks might have been prevented if officialshad responded differently to available information.”) What a web we weave….

At Ground Zero, yet another ceremony, memorial, and self-congratulatory event today for the heroic effort it took to remove the tonnage of debris so quickly. (Well done — but how much self-backpatting do we need?) It has become an event destination….As all of this is underway, CNN is even having Noam Chomsky on for a quickie mini- “debate” with William Bennett, a mouthy right winger conjured up for mechanistic balance. (Writes Noam’s publicist: “Will CNN accurately represent Chomsky’s views?Will they give him sufficient time to make a point?Is William Bennett capable of rational debate? And also note TIME Magazine has also interviewed Chomsky recently.”) A better question might be: can Chomsky adopt to the short form bang-bang Q&A format? And why should he bother? Or is CNN having Chomsky on because TIME did the interview….plug,cross plug.…..

THERAPY FOR THE CATS

While all this world shaking is underway, what does America want to know, need to know, and is waking up to discover.

Ozzie Osbourne and family have resigned with MTV for another season of heavy metal family feud. The price tag: $5 to $7 million says MTV, $20 Million say the agents. The Media Guardian says $13,5 million pounds. That’s a lot of money for black T shirts> Part of the deal was a new house and life time psycotherapy for all the cats and dogs who add their droppings to this derby of dysfunctionality. Not to be outdone, E TV has signed “celebrity” model/wacko? Anna Nicole Smith to a “reality series.” “It will have to be shot with a wide angle lens,” quipped Jack Cafferty of CNN this morning. He didn’t mention that Larry King had spent much of his show the night before exploiting this sad excuse for bombshell, after CNN ran as many promos for this elevating mammary moment as it did for the Guf War. Cafferty didn’t forget to mention when promoing yet another up coming appearance of hero or life, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani that he been Time Magazine’s man of the year, yet another plug for another AOL Time Warner entity seemlessly woven into the news. He did not plug the upcoming Chomsly moment in that particular promo break.

GRAPHIC WATCH AT CNN

Since I am ranting about CNN, I can’t keep this next item from you. It is from the new ONION, (theonion.com), a humor magazine which blends fiction and non fiction together as smoothly as the network it lampoons does with news.

“CNN Graphic Designer Asked To Combine Dollar Sign, Syringe, Fighter Jets, Panda

“ATLANTA — Christine Kannberg, a CNN Headline News graphic designer, expressed befuddlement Monday when asked to create a story logo incorporating a dollar sign, a syringe, fighter jets, and a panda. “I can’t even begin to imagine what this one’s for,” Kannberg said from her workstation. “Maybe, like, the Beijing Zoo was smuggling drugs into the U.S. inside pandas, and we bombed them or something.” Last week, Kannberg was asked to create a graphic combining a football helmet, three DNA helixes, a rhubarb pie, and the state of Oregon.”

SUICIDE AT CBS

If this all sounds bizzaro, and even beyond the gonzo imagination, consider CBS’s post mortem in LA today about security procedures after someone decided to commit suicide inside its studios. (For years execs have contemplated doing something similar in its offices). Reports Variety from Hollywood Bablyon: “CBS is mulling new security procedures for its Television City studiocomplex after a suicidal gun-waving man broke into the net’s WestCoast headquarters, prompting the evacuation of 800 employees”

BUSH JET LAGGED, PASSES ON THE WINE

President Bush has returned to Junk Food Nation as Newsweek put it, revealing that he slipped out of the NATO summit an hour early according to Martha Brant writing on the Newsweek website, (When will the King has No Clothes stories like this start making the magazine proepr, or the front pages of our newspapers?)…Here is a croissont sized snack from this report: “…To make matters worse, Bush was clearly dragging. “I’m jet-lagged‚” he told reporters, when he couldn’t remember the questions they asked. One multiple-part question tripped him up, and Bush tried to make a joke of it. “That’s what happens when you’re over 55,” he said. Then he looked over at Chirac, who is 69, and said, “You know what I mean? Chirac, for whom age had been an issue in his recent reelection, just raised his eyebrows.

….Of course there was more foie gras as well as Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1986 which goes for as much as $550 a bottle. Bush, a teetotaler, had none. He remained true to the image the French have of the American president: uncultivated. Bush couldn’t have cared less. He was probably dreaming of hamburgers and a good night‚’ rest.” (See Msnbc.com for more.)

“DO YOU HAVE BLACKS TOO?”

The Germans were chuckling after this item appeared in Die Spiegel:”It was Condoleezza Rice, White House foreign affairs advisor to Bush, who helped her boss get out of an embarrassing situation. In a discussion between presidents George W. Bush, 55, (USA) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 71, (Brazil), Bush had astonished his colleague with the question: ‘Do you have blacks, too?’ While the Brazilian showed surprise over the Bush question, Rice, 47, cleared Bush up: “Mr. President, Brazil has probably more blacks than the USA. Some say it is the country with the most blacks outside of Africa.” Brazil president Cardoso judged afterwards: With reference to Latin America, Bush is “still in training.”

SUSPICIONS FROM AN INSECURE HOMELAND

Finally, closer to home, a poll I missed when it came out last week in the Washington Post:”Two-thirds of Americans think the Bush administration is hiding something about what it knew before Sept. 11, while just over a fifth think the administration is “telling the entire truth,” a CBS News poll released Tuesday said. But most, 62 percent, don’t believe congressional hearings are warranted on the situation….”

FISK FEARS A FIRESTORM

British journalist Robert Fisk of the Independent, who has covered the Middle East for two decades takes issue with US media reports that he says have no basis: “The growing evidence thatIsrael’s policies are America’s policies in the Middle East -or, more accurately, vice versa - is now being played out forreal in statements from Congress and on American television.First, we have the chairman of the US Senate Foreign RelationsCommittee announcing that Hizbollah - the Lebanese guerrillaforce that drove Israel’s demoralized army out of Lebanon inthe year 2000 - is planning attacks in the US. After that, wehad an American television network “revealing” thatHizbollah, Hamas and al- Qa’ida - Mr bin Laden’sorganization- have held a secret meeting in Lebanon to plotattacks on the US.

“American journalists insist on quoting “sources” but therewas, of course, no sourcing for this balderdash, which is nowrepeated ad nauseam in the American media. Then take the”Syrian Accountability Act” that was introduced into the USSenate by Israel’s friends on 18 April. This includes thefalsity uttered earlier by Israel’s Foreign Minister, ShimonPeres, that Iranian Revolutionary Guards “operate freely” onthe southern Lebanese border. Now there haven’t been IranianRevolutionary Guards in Lebanon - let alone the south of thecountry - for 18 years. So why is this lie repeated yetagain?…

Finally, and this may be prophetic given all the debate in the US about “intelligence, he fears something big is happening that the US is clueless about because it remains ignorant of and insensitive to growing anti-Americanism in the Arab world. (On this point, it was not reassuring to read in the New York Post today that many of the new improved FBI recruits do not come from the marines, as the old G-Men did, but from the ranks of the layed off dot.com engineers.) Concludes Fisk, who is critical of Arabs and Arafat as he is of Israeli’s and Sharon: ”

“Each morning now, I awake beside the Mediterranean in Beirutwith a feeling of great foreboding. There is a firestormcoming. And we are blissfully ignoring its arrival; indeed,we are provoking it.”

SATIRE AND TRUTH

When the reality seems absurd, is it any less absurd to joke about it. I know this subject is terribly serious, but sometimes satire can cut deeper. The ONION wades sophmorically into these waters even after TV shows like Politically Incorrect were cancelled for daring to express even less subversive views. Am off the deep end here by passing this item on to you? It is a joke — but what is it that Freud said about humor?

“JERUSALEM — The long-simmering sexual tension between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat finally reached a breaking point Monday, culminating in a passionate kiss before a shocked delegation of Mideast negotiators.

“You always got the feeling that there was something more behind all the anger and tension,” said European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana. “They wouldn’t agree on anything, even though their people were dying, locked in this unending conflict. It never made sense — until now.”

” Continued Solana: “All that repressed passion. And neither of them would admit it to the other… or to themselves.”

“According to sources, midway through a 10 a.m. meeting to discuss a possible pullout of Israeli troops from several West Bank settlements, Sharon accused Arafat of secretly channeling PLO funds into Hamas and other terrorist organizations. The accusation prompted Arafat to rise from his chair and stand toe-to-toe with his Israeli counterpart. The ensuing heated exchange quickly escalated into a shouting match, which reached an unexpected crescendo when the two leaders embraced in a deep, passionate kiss.

“At first, I thought they were wrestling or something,” said Anthony Zinni, U.S. envoy to the Middle East. “But then, I was like, ‘Holy shit: They’re kissing.’”

Were that that were true.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ANYONE?

Elsewhere from the media world comes this item, from David Honig, fearless defender of minorities in media. He reveals that “of the 837 job listings on the 35 state broadcasters’ websites, 348 (42%) did not have EOE notices. For over 30 years, virtually all broadcasters held out to the public that they were equal opportunity employers by putting “EOE” or a comparable tag at the end of their help wanted ads. Now, however, a very substantial number of broadcasters have actually gone to the trouble to take down their self-identifications as equal opportunity employers. In our view, this pretty much demolishes the … that broadcasters will abide by nondiscrimination requirements even without FCC oversight.”

CONGRATS TO ANTONIA

From the Toronto Star, a welcome announcement from a top editor about a columnist who has chimed in on this weblog and is as feisty a media critic writing anywhere in the mainstream: “I’m delighted to announce the appointment of Antonia Zerbisias as The Star’s media columnist. “In a newsroom abundant with icons and talent, Antonia has carved out a singular voice and style. As our daily television critic, she has displayed nerve, integrity and an unwavering commitment to the idea that the airwaves are a public resource vital to the function of a democracy.

“Even those whom she criticizes, and who criticize her, must acknowledge, however grudgingly, her influence. No less a broadcaster than Leonard Asper has called her, “Toronto’s television columnist of record.” Antonia’s columns and reviews, always a pleasure to read, are necessary homework in the industry….”

HAGUE: PRESS PEES ON PROSECUTORS

From the Hague, Mirko Karin is covering the Molosovic Trial which has dropped out of the headlines — no OJ treatment for this event. He says much of the coverage is unfairly negative towards the prosecutors:

“Is negative press coverage of the prosecution’s performance in theMilosevic trial justified? “From Belgrade to Paris, media that have almost nothing in common ideologically use remarkably similar language when describing theperformance of the prosecution in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic.

“Here comes a disgrace,” said Serbia’s liberal weekly magazine Vreme,which called the prosecutors “amateurish”. Le Monde Diplomatique of Parisdescribed their performance as the “Fiasco a la Haye” while Britain’sconservative Daily Telegraph said they would pay a heavy price for what itcalled an “opera” that had been “badly prepared and poorly executed”.

“Does the course of the trial truly justify these harsh words?…” For his answer, see his account on Iwwpr.org.

ATTAC: ITALIAN MEDIA AND GLOBLIZATION

Finally, to counterbalance my stabs at humor, an excerpt from a more serious analysis on the ATTAC website in Europe about the state of the Italian media. It is”by Giulietto Chiesa and many others.” “The state of the communication of information in Italy and in theworld is highly disturbing. The plurality of information is moreapparent than real, and the tendency is for things to become worse.That is, what millions and millions of people listen to, read andabove all see - every day - is defined by restricted groups who decidewhat the greater public ought to know and what they ought not to know.The so-called “fourth estate” is at this time in large part sointertwined with political power and dependent on strong privateinterests, owners and controllers of the media, that it has rejectedalmost totally its function of checks and criticism. Our country hadalways been thus dominated by headlines that act as “party” newspapers( even while loudly declaring and pompously qualifying themselves as”independent”).

“The Italian situation - of total television monopoly and of almosttotal media monopoly, both contaminated by a huge conflict ofinterests - is a limited case. Elsewhere things are only slightly lessserious. The overwhelming majority of communication flows (information in the strict sense is a part of communication and not themain point) is thus produced by a handful of global colossi, fromwhich spin off such conglomerates as “America-on-Line”, Time Warner,Vivendi International, Sky News, Bertelsman etc., which are impressivefor their size and power.”The global society, the so-called “knowledge society” is literally inthe hands of producers of a gigantic “dream factory”; this works tocreate collective stupidity and, being at the same time daughter andsister, serves the interests of American globalization. If there isone place where this globalization has already expressed all its forceand virulence, it is the area of communication….”

WHY WE ARE HERE, AND WHERE ARE YOU?

In many ways, this last point offers a rationale for the Mediachannel that we bring you online every say. I don’t think there is another site quite like it, with as many global offerings and diverse media critical perspectives. Your support, financially and morally, is needed. Your input is welcomed.Please share your thoughts and suggestions. Write to me, Danny Schechter, your newsdissector at: dissector@mediachannel.org