*MEDIA PREPARES US FOR WAR*

*AT THE “CONCLAVE”*

*WORKER HOMICIDES*

Never has public opinion been so well prepared for a war –as in the endless media bantering about plans to attack Iraq. Almost every day, new stories appear that underscore the inevitability of armed conflict there, as a pseudo-debate rages in the higher reaches of Congress and on the opinion shows — with few critics present to question its wisdom and feasibility.

Today, page one of the New York Times waxes on about an “inside out strategy” to seize Baghdad, topple Hussein, and live happily ever after. The story does not quote anyone on the “risks” it alludes to. One has to plow through twenty-three (23!) paragraphs to find a murmur of dissent from others in the region, but NONE come from Americans. Democratic Senator Joseph Biden is now making more war-like noises as he announces a hearing this week.

The Defense Department does not comment on the record, but clearly there is a skillful game of “leaking” underway. The last time a story like this appeared Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld denounced it. So far, there has been silence from his office in the Pentagon.

The New York Post, usually far more hawkish than the Times, at least carries a page two response from Iraq, based on a mishmash of wire stories, calling Iraq “cocky:” but quote an official to the effect that Iraqis are getting ready for defend their country, “IRAQI BOAST: WE’RE READY TO RUMBLE” is the headline, as if we are talking about a World Wrestling Federation match. And so war becomes a game, even before it becomes a war.

WHO SHOULD WE THANK?

Back in the USA, we were thrilled that all nine miners were plucked alive from what in earlier years might have been their tomb — thanks to the latest technology and the engineering skill that deployed it. CNN.com reports on that this morning, as the Times carries a front-page picture in which the locals thank God for what happened. CNN thanks Bob Long:

“It’s becoming clear that some early decisions were vital in saving the men’s lives. One decision was to figure out exactly where to drill a shaft to pump much-needed air into the collapsed mine. Who madethat call? Meet Bob Long.” (Some responses to my report on the drama in Pennslvania can be read further down in the weblog.

MONEY ISN’T EVERYTHING, BUT IT HELPS

The Minneapolis Star Tribune gave more visibility to this story on Sunday than the New York Times did, although its significance deserves far more attention and analysis:

“WASHINGTON (AP) The Bush campaign spent $13.8 million on lawyers, salaries, travel and hotels to win the Florida recount vote, roughly four more times than the Gore campaign spent, according to Internal Revenue Service documents released Friday.

“The Gore campaign spent $3.2 million in its losing battle for Florida’s 25 electoral votes, mostly from large gifts. Donors included Hollywood producer Stephen Bing and actress Jane Fonda.

“In contrast, the Bush campaign contributions were almost all $5,000 or less,The Washington Post reported Saturday.

“Public Citizen, an activist group that advocates enforcing election laws, said Bush’s recount fund evaded a campaign-finance disclosure law for a year and a half. The campaign only filed the required forms on the last day of an IRS amnesty program for groups that don’t comply, Public Citizen said.

“Failure to meet the amnesty deadline could have resulted in fines of as much as $6.92 million, Public Citizen said.

OUR FLORIDA FILM NOW ONLINE

For one assessment of what all that money helped buy, check out our new film COUNTING ON DEMOCRACY, an investigation into why 175,000 votes went uncounted. A clip from the film and more information can be had at www.globalvision.org. Scroll down for a full description.

THE CONCLAVE MEETS IN MINNEAPOLIS; TWINS WIN

I was in Minneapolis for the annual convention of radio broadcasters at a conference called THE CONCLAVE, now in its 27th year. It’san educational organization that builds a community of radio people in the Midwest. My oldest love and earliest vocation was in broadcasting. I was honored to speak as a former DJ and now as a media consultant at Karen Young’s invitation along with Inja Coates of Media Tank, an imaginative media activist group in the Philadelphia area.

Our talk wasn’t as well attended as we had hoped, but those who came stayed for an hour after the session was supposed to end to discuss what’s happening in their industry where a company like CLEARCHANNEL now owns 1100 stations and imposes tight corporate control on outlets that were once so much freer, feistier and more independent than TV stations.

Many radio pros are uncomfortable with activism, even though many are unhappy with what’s happening in the industry. Only a few see how the political climate and legislation allowed the monopoly and monotony that’s just about destroyed radio.I have invited Karen to tell us more about these issues and she has promised to do so.

While we were wandering through downtown Minneapolis on our way back to the hotel from a TWINS game (they later won in the l0th inning), we passed the offices of QUEST Communications, formerly US WEST, another Telecom in trouble. At the time, neither of us knew if they were on “the list” of big corporations gone wrong. They weren’t on Saturday. They are today, as QUEST reports that it had incorrectly accounted for a mere $1.1 BILLION. They DISCOVERED this error and have since reported their DISCOVERY to the SEC, which it seems had not DISCOVERED it.

“DAS BOOT”

Meanwhile, over in Germany, the board of Bertelsmann DISCOVERED that they had differences of opinion with their own CEO Thomas Middelhoff and gave him, to quote VARIETY, “Das Boot.” He is the latest media CEO to go, as the game of musical chairs in the suites of media companies continues.

As it turns out, I met Middelhof several times, twice in his offices on the 44th floor of the Bertelsmann Tower, down the street from Globalvision’s offices in Times Square. His floor was called the “German floor” for the quiet efficiency with which secretaries from the motherland ran the biz, a dramatic contrast between the bedlam down at BMG on the floors below. I first heard him speak at a seminar at Columbia University and was impressed with the values he projected and his insights into the decline of American media.

I thought (wrongly, as it turned out) that he was open to alternatives. He was very friendly when I met him later. The company had sent him to New York six months before he was elevated to the CEO role just to familiarize himself with the US and the industry here. He caught on quickly and seemed more changed by our hyper-commercialism than by any old world values that he brought with him. He introduced us to his TV company in Europe with the suggestion that we try to place shows there. They were not interested having long-ago turned into tabloid formats and dumbing down content.

Middlehoff may soon take over a vacancy at Deusche Telecom. I must admit his engaging style and insights took me in. But now, he, like many of the other media execs who seem so powerful for a minute, is out.

HONORING ALAN LOMAX

I can safely predict that Middelhoff’s imprint will be temporary of Bertelsmann survives. (Who knows what “accounting” issues lie under those rocks?) Who will be missed is Folklorist Alan Lomax, who died last week. John Pareles understood his contribution in an obit in the New York Times last week:

“Alan Lomax, the legendary collector of folk music who was the first to record towering figures like Leadbelly, Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie, died yesterday at a nursing home in Sarasota, Fla. He was 87. Mr. Lomax was a musicologist, author, disc jockey, singer, photographer, talent scout, filmmaker, concert and recording producer and television host. He did whatever was necessary to preserve traditional music and take it to a wider audience. Although some of those he recorded would later become internationally famous, Mr. Lomax wasn’t interested in simply discovering stars. In a career that carried him from fishermen’s shacks and prison work farms to television studios and computer consoles, he strove to protect folk traditions from the homogenizing effects of modern media. He advocated what he called “cultural equity: the right of every culture to have equal time on the air and equal time in the classroom.”

Mr. Lomax’s programs spurred folk revivals in the United States and across Europe. Without his efforts, the world’s popular music would be very different today.”

Reports that Bob Dylan is going back to the Newport Folk Festival this summer should put Lomax’s role back into the spotlight as well. Folk song promoters Barbara Dane and Silber paid tribute to Lomax for his political contribution as well in a letter sent my way:

“Dear Family and Friends,

As you probably realize, both Irwin and I regard Alan as one of our most important teachers, resources and comrades in the struggle for people’s culture. For our generation he was an indispensable mentor and an exemplary cultural activist without parallel. He was much more than anyone could sum up in one article, but this one does a pretty damn good job of trying.

“The nation has just suffered a huge loss with Alan’s death, and most folks won’t even know it. If there is any justice, as time goes on his legacy will gather in force. Its importance is already beyond measure.Long may his name be known as one of the keys to a world of human cultural endeavor that reflects, better than most any other mirror, what it is to be part of the human condition.”

Carrying on in that tradition is the singer/songwriter Stephan Smith, who is creating a radio show to keep this spirit and tradition alive. For those of you who live in New York, you can see him in action tonight at the Bob Holman’s soon to be famous Bowery Poetry Club on the Bowery on the Lower East Side. Be there. I will.

Writes Stephan:

“This Monday: The World To Come at The Bowery Poetry Club! Earth-Changing radio broadcast before a live audience… with amazing musicians, entertainers, activists, experts, thinkers who are blazing the trail to the next world!

SHOW STARTS 8PMTAPING BEGINS AT 8:30 SO BE THERE EARLY TO ADD YER HOLLERS TO THE (r)Evolution

The Bowery Poetry Club is 308 at Bowery, Between Bleecker and Houston

ISRAELI FALLOUT

The fall out in Israel continues on what was behind that bombing in Gaza. I watched with revulsion this weekend as former New York Mayor Ed Koch uncritically lined up with Sharon on a TV interview with nary a word of sympathy for the children who were killed. In Israel Gideon Samet wrote about it with quite a different tone in Ha’aretz over the weekend:

“It was a troubling week, and not only because of what was explained as an intelligence failure, in the bombing of Salah Shehadeh’s house. It was no less a worrisome week - in fact, a horrifying one - because those Israelis curious enough to want to know, did not get a full picture of what looked like a chance to at least partially stem the stream of blood in the country and the territories.

“Government’s explanations and disinformation won’t help, nor will the singing chorus from most of the press, enlisted into the cause to obscure the facts. A small group of politicians and defense establishment officials did not do what was necessary - to make all possible efforts to preserve lives.

There has not been any authoritative confirmation of reports about a cease-fire agreement being finalized. Past lies by both sides and thick smoke screens are clouding the picture. So, this has to be phased with all due caution, but reports from every direction add up to a stream of proofs that show that along with the women and children, a genuine opportunity to break the cycle of terror and retaliation was buried in Gaza. If that’s true, the prime minister, along with two other ministers and a small group of senior army officials, behaved repulsively.”

The Israeli Peace Group, Gush Shalom, publishes an item of a kind that media organizations usually run when Palestinians are involved:

“Today, settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron - always notorious for their fanatacism and violent behaviour - made the funeral of one of their number, killed two days ago in a Palestinian ambush, into a pretext for a violent rampage and a wide-scale attack on the city’s Palestinian inhabitants. Several houses were broken into and set on fire, fifteen Palestinians wounded, some of them severely, and a fourteen year old girl killed. Footage on the Israeli First Channel news showed exactly how it began: the funeral first proceeding quietly, then a bunch of settlers shouting: “Revenge! revenge! revenge!”

… In a related development, The Guardian reports today:

“The press officer of the Israeli embassy in Dublin has been sacked after she criticized last week’s attack on Gaza in a letter to Irish newspapers.”

WHAT DID HE SAY?

In America, less significant things are debated, including the use of language, or rather its misuse by a person in high office. This item appeared in the Chicago Tribune, although I refer its readers and editors to Mark Crispin Miller’s book “The Bush Dysclexicon” for an informed discussion. This item belongs in the annals of contemporary journalism.

From the Chicago TribuneDon Wycliff:

“The following e-mail came to the public editor’s mailbox recently. It asks a question many readers may have wondered about:

“In the article published on the front page on July 9, you incorrectly quoted President Bush as denying there had been any “malfeasance” in his business dealings prior to becoming president. The word that he actually used during the press conference being quoted sounded to me something like “misfeance”–something [that] is not a word in any dictionary I’ve ever seen. I feel the Tribune should not be in the business of “cleansing” what the president says in order to make him sound more articulate than he is.” Sean Barnawell, Chicago

“Here, in part, was my response:

“Dear Mr. Barnawell:

“Ideally, we would have a president so articulate that we would never be in doubt as to what he said. In reality, we have one who regularly mispronounces . . . . This confronts us with the question whether our purpose is to transmit to readers what the president means when he speaks out or to simply relate what he says. I have always felt that transmitting meaning is paramount . . . .

“Unless his faulty locution becomes a story in itself, we work on the assumption that we do the greatest service to our readers by letting them know what the person meant to say. That, after all, is what determines what he will ultimately do and how he’ll affect the readers.”"

MEDIA NEWS; AL ON FIRE, RUPERT POISED, EARTH TIMES LIVES

In our media news, Tony Blair bows again to Mogul Murdoch as the Media Guardian reports:

“The government has rejected calls from a parliamentary committee not to let Rupert Murdoch buy into UK terrestrial TV.”…

Journalist Al Giordano of Narconews.com is on fire once again, hopping mad at media freedom groups who defend journalists from the mainstream media when they get in trouble, but often ignore community media people who often need their help an solidarity more. He has written to Ann Cooper of Committee to Protect Jounalists (CPJ):

“Today, Narco News, together with colleagues in authentic journalism and independent media around the world, has launched an international dialogue about the role of “press freedom” organizations. We are focusing on the three such organizations with the largest budgets: the New York-based CPJ, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and the Miami-based Inter-American Press Association.

“The catalyst for this international dialogue, which we have begun on our own website as well as through the www.indymedia.org networks and others, was our recent fact-finding mission to Venezuela, where we encountered a very different set of circumstances and facts than those described by the Committee to Protect Journalists’ statements regarding events in Venezuela.

“In fact, we found that an entire class of journalists in Venezuela is under attack and has been left undefended by your organization and the other large-budget “press freedom” organizations: the journalists of the Community Media, particularly those from the 25 non-profit TV and radio stations that were legalized under Venezuela’s Bolivarian Constitution of 1999 and the Telecommunications Law of 2001.”

I will report in CPJ’s response when I find out what it is. In the meantime, it looks like Earth Times is rising like a Phoenix. The journal that called it quits a few weeks back will now be back with more: Earthtimes plans to produce 10 daily newspaper editions in print and onthe Web, and a special print magazine edition at the World Summit onSustainable Development in Johannesburg, August 26 to September 4.

The summit is expected to be the largest international conference held by the United Nations…..Our daily newspaper will be printed and distributed jointly with theSummit Star, a special conference newspaper that is being published by the prestigious Independent Newspapers of South Africa.”

IN OUR EMAIL: ON THE MINE DISASTER

G. Humes writes from PA in response to my comments about the mine disaster in her Commonwealth:

“I read the column this a.m. It took me back to the fall of 1968 and the Mannington mine accident in WVA that took over 70 lives. I’ll never forget those days, as I was there covering that horrible disaster. Your mother’s words brought tears to my eyes and reminded me of that whole ordeal. Oh my heart goes out to those miners and their families. When my grandfather, my nanno, first came to the US he worked in the deep mines - with canaries for “protection” from the gases and blind mules who were worked to death without ever seeing sunlight. I can’t imagine working in those hell holes.”

WORKERS KILL WORKERS

In my column, I wondered about why there is not more reporting on industrial accidents in the US. I was told that there is — and that OSHA makes it available. (My point was that their findings rarely make the mainsream press.)

Anyway, Shebar Windstone thinks I am missing the point out of some desire to bash corporations and that the problem is not what I think it is:

“In honor of your mother (& your daughter, & your father, & yourself & your coworkers & friends), I hope you’ll look beyond the leftist stereotypes. Consider this:

“The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has found that an average of 20 workers are murdered each week in the United States. In addition, an estimated 1 million workers -18,000 per week - are victims of nonfatal workplace assaults each year.

“Homicide is the second leading cause of death on the job, second only to motor vehicle crashes. Homicide is the leading cause of workplace death among females. [emphasis added] However, men are at three times higher risk of becoming victims of workplace homicides than women. Homicide is also the leading cause of death for workers under 18 years of age. The majority of workplace homicides are robbery-related crimes (71%) with only 9% committed by coworkers or former coworkers. Additionally, 76% of all workplace homicides are committed with a firearm.”

excerpted from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/violfs.html (June 1997)

“In the past, violence that occurred in the home was considered a private problem and not the business of a victim’s employer or co-workers. The truth is that domestic violence frequently spills into the workplace. For example, according to the New York City Victim Services Agency, during a one-year period three-quarters of battered women were harassed by their abusive partners in person or by telephone while at work. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that husbands and boyfriends commit 13,000 acts of violence against women in the workplace every year.” [emphasis added]

“excerpted from http://www.afscme.org/health/viol06.htm

More details based on 1980-89 statistics are here:http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/homicide.html.. Thank you for research…

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

Finally, a kinder tone: Scott Rahilly writes, I think , from Hawaii: ” Thanks for being so dedicated to publishing the weblog….it is certainly a light in the darkness that is our media culture… Anyway, the reason I’m writing to you is because I am a sticker artist (www.neverbetter.com) and have been printing some political stickers lately that I would love to send out to you and see whatcha think….soooo…. ALOHA! scott :-)

I was amused earlier today when CNN interviewed DJ Tom Joyner, who discussed a story that black media is discussing but white media is not: the HBO story about Al Sharpton that he is now suing HBO for running. What Joyner or Sharpton have yet to mention is that that the reporter on the story is Bernard Goldberg, author of that book BIAS so embraced by the right wing. It seems clear that the report was a political hit. It also is possible that it was true as far as it went. (which was not all that far.) Thanks to all for writing. Keep me in your loop by sending in your comments and responses to media practices. I am always here, on line, at dissector@mediachannel.org