*SUMMERTIME FOR ADOLPH TOO?*

*TANKS ROLL INTO NABLUS*

*PERP WALKS AND THE RECESSION*

Just because they wanted us to know, CNN reminds that today is the anniversary of Adolph Hitler’s rise to absolute dictator status on this very date in l934. Why are we invoking the Fuehrer’s memory? To promote ticket sales for the Producers, the hit play on Broadway? You tell me.

Our Commander in Chief says he is furious with the deaths of Americans at Israel’s Hebrew University. And I am too. Furious not only by the loss of life but of the failure of the political will ON ALL SIDES to find some ways to resolve this cycle of violence without end. Why isn’t there more fury with this failure rather than the continued banging of the war drums and the blame game ON ALL SIDES? (Sadly, I know the answer to this one but need to ask it anyway.)

IT IS RETALIATION TIME (Again!)

The Israeli tanks and troops are back in motion, as I expected yesterday, rolling this time into the West Bank town of Nablus with three dead so far, including an elderly woman. The homes of families that are suspected of being related to terrorists who have not been tried or convicted are being blown up with the families in them being exiled to Gaza, a violation of international law, no doubt, but who seems to care about that any more? The Israelis are reading reports of Arabs dancing in the streets of Gaza, only hardening attitudes.

And in Toronto, There was a Bill Clinton sighting. The ex-prez is now a popular speaker. Three hundred fifty people paid $1000 a piece to hear, at what the NY Post described as a “Jewish fundraiser”, which did its first pro-Bill Clinton story in years. The paper reports that the man they now so cleverly call “GI BILL” brought the house down with a pledge to “carry a rifle and die for Israel’ if Iraq attacks. Pandering anyone?

Yesterday, in my naivete and with a sense of optimism, I wrote: “We all now await Israel’s response which is likely to be as deadly although not aimed at civilians.” This promoted a furious response from a reader who wrote to dissent: ” I’mnot sure what else one could call Israeli planes dropping bombs on fully-inhabited apartment buildings as occurred last week and regularly.”

A media-exposing fact in Harpers Index this month: “Chance an American knows that more Palestinians than Israelis have died in political violence since 2000: 1 in 3.”

VIEW FROM THE RIGHT

Debka.com, the web site now distributed by Globalvision News Network (gvnews.net) reported news I didn’t see elsewhere: “The Palestinian bomber who blasted the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria could have climbed the low fence dividing the campus from the Jerusalem Arab village of Issawiyeh, slipped through the National Botanical Garden, or thrown his bomb-laden bag over a fence and strolled empty-handed past the security guards at one of the gates. It is easy to reach the first elevator from the parking lot or the bus stop. The Hamas in Gaza proudly claimed responsibility for this massacre. In English, Sheikh Rantissi declared the strikes would continue until Israeli occupation ends. In Arabic, he put it differently: “until the Jews are thrown out of this land.”

The Palestinian cabinet headed by Yasser Arafat, with Rev. Jesse Jackson at his side, condemned the Mount Scopus attack on the grounds that it is ‘harmful to the Palestinian cause.’

“Earlier in the day, Jackson was on his way to call on the Hamas leader Sheikh Yasin in Gaza City. When he heard of the terrorist strike, he turned round and returned to Ramallah, where he rejoined Arafat. Answering charges of lax security, Hebrew University heads say they want the campus to be a serene, untroubled center of learning where students of many cultures and nations can commingle freely.”

THE UN REPORT ON JENIN

Yesterday, I told you about the UN report on Jenin which cleared Israel of accusations of carrying out a massacre. Now Human Rights Watch is criticizing the report:

“The U.N. report on events in Jenin is seriously flawed, Human Rights Watch said today. The report, mandated by a U.N. General Assembly resolution after Israeli objections forced the Secretary-General to disband a U.N. fact-finding team, largely limits itself to presenting competing accounts of the events during the Israeli military operations.

“The report doesn’t move us forward in terms of establishing the truth said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East andNorth Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. “Its watered-down account of the very serious violations in Jenin exposes the risk of compiling a report without any first-hand information.”

“While the report describes some general allegations that have been made about the conduct of the Israeli and Palestinian sides during the Israeli operation, it draws almost no conclusions on the merits of those claims. It makes only limited reference to the obligations of the parties under international law, makes few clear conclusions about violations of that law, and does not raise the issue of accountability for serious violations that may have been committed, some of which rise to the level of war crimes. Its information and analysis are strongest when dealing with the blockage of humanitarian and medical access to the camp.”

WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THE RECESSION?

In the ecowar in this country, we had the staged spectacle of two WorldCom execs doing the public “perp walk” in handcuffs as the Administration vows to continue to fight corporate crime, another crusade that President Bush is mad as all heck about. We have Maximum John Ashcroft, the Bush Attorney General thundering:

“Corporate executives who cheat investors, steal savings and squander pensions will meet the judgment they fear and the punishment they deserve.” Meanwhile the rest of us, all of us who are being punished by the economic downturn and recession, which is, truth be told, for some us, already a depression. It is also depressing as Paul Krugman, the economics prof now writing in the NY Times, makes clear again this morning:

“A few months ago the vast majority of business economists mocked concerns about a “double dip,” a second leg to the downturn. But there were a few dogged iconoclasts out there, most notably Stephen Roach at Morgan Stanley. As I’ve repeatedly said in this column, the arguments of the double-dippers made a lot of sense. And their story now looks more plausible than ever.

“The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn’t a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.

“Judging by Mr. Greenspan’s remarkably cheerful recent testimony, he still thinks he can pull that off. But the Fed chairman’s crystal ball has been cloudy lately; remember how he urged Congress to cut taxes to head off the risk of excessive budget surpluses? And a sober look at recent data is not encouraging…”

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

“Not encouraging” also has been the response so far on the American left to this crisis. Michah Sifrey takes the Green Party to task in the Los Angeles Weekly: “The Dow crashes another 390 points, another one of the world’s largest corporations files for bankruptcy, and half the country prepares to delay retirements or send the kids to community college.A new phrase, “corporate crime,” replaces “white-collar crime” in the mainstream lexicon. And worried Democrats and Republicans hastily promise a switch to a pro-consumer cookbook, after having fed America a strict menu of deregulatory dishes at the behest of their big- money sponsors for the last20 years. If this isn’t the moment for a third-party challenge, I don’t know what is.

“Enter the Greens. Or rather, wake them up first so they can stumble through the wide-open door. How else to explain the remarks of Peter Miguel Camejo, a savvy investor who is the Green Party candidate for governor of California? At the party’s first midterm convention in Philadelphia, Camejoratcheted up the rhetoric on behalf of solar energy and the World Court. Excuse me? Handed the juiciest hunk of red meat they’ve ever seen in their activist lives, Greens are showing that, despite their recent growth, they remain political vegans . .

“Even Ralph Nader, the party’s 2000 presidential candidate and longtime corporate critic, seems slow on the uptake, now that so many of his warnings about the dangers of unfettered corporate greed are coming true. He told reporters that he wanted to start an organization knitting together millions of small investors, and also talked vaguely about drafting an “omnibus corporate-reform package.” Glaringly missing was any sign that Nader and the Greens plan a coordinated national campaign to take their newly relevant concerns to voters . . .”

THE DEMS GET A GIFTThe Republicans meanwhile seem to be handing this issue on a platter to Democrats who are slowly responding. Back to California for this goody from the LA Times:

“Fretful Republicans from California to Washington were reassessing their commitment Thursday to the gubernatorial candidacy of Bill Simon Jr., as the GOP hopeful struggled to contain the political fallout from a jury’s multimillion-dollar fraud verdict.

“Simon dismissed the $78-million judgment at a campaign stop in Los Angeles, calling the decision by 12 jurors “fundamentally flawed.” He predicted it would eventually be overturned by the trial judge or an appeals court.

“Strategists for Democratic incumbent Gray Davis redoubled their attack on Simon, launching a new statewide television ad criticizing his business ethics and accusing him of dodging taxes. “If we can’t trust him in business, how can we trust him in the governor’s office?” the spot asked.”

ANOTHER FLORIDA FIASCO FROM THE PRODUCER OF THE LAST ONE

Any way, my favorite political story of the day is this one, from the State best known for the Everglades swamp. (As you would imagine, considering that we have just finished our film COUNTING ON DEMOCRACY about the last fiasco in Florida,(See: globalvision.org for more info). Here is the report:

“Again, Election Confusion for the Florida Secretary of State: Katherine Harris, who is leaving her post as Florida secretary of state to run for Congress, did not follow state elections procedures regarding her candidacy. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/02/national/02HARR.html?todaysheadlines

Why are we not surprised?

MEDIA NEWS: DISNEY IS DOWN AND OTHER STORIES OF WOE

In media news today, more bad news, at least for folks like me who still hold Disney stock (in my case as a result of having been employed for years at ABC.) The mouse is in disarray, the latest media company to feel the sting of the fall of the stock market. Profits down 31% in their latest quarter. VARIETY says they were ” felled by continuingTV ad woes and lingering Sept. 11 fallout on movie and theme park operations.”…That paper also reports that : “The American Assn. of Retired People has joined as co-counsel in 23 class-action age-bias lawsuits by TV scribes over 40 against nets, studios and agencies.”….

The Guardian in the UK reports: “The Columbia School of Journalism, the US’s leading journalismcollege, is in crisis over the way students should be educated.”

I ran into a Columbia J School Prof last night at a going away party for the distinguished John Philip Santos of the Ford Foundation — one of the truly brilliant minds and good guys in the often Byzantine world of what he called the foundation “juggernaut.” She told me that the School has yet to name a new Dean. The able David Klatell is doing the duties of the Deanery until a new leader is chosen…

ROCK OUT POVERTY

A new film is out on the way music can be used to fight poverty. This just in: “Rock A Mole Productions has just finished a documentary film, The Ultimate Song, that highlights the great importance of music in the battle to end poverty. The Ultimate Song includes interviews and/or performance footage of Ice T, Sara Hickman,Jackson Browne, Tom Morello of Rage Against theMachine, Bruce Springsteen, Brother Bank, Marah,Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule, Krown Ju-Elz, SteveEarle, Kindred, Wayne Kramer and Brian Blade.

This is combined with interviews and action footage of the growing poor people’s movement in the United States. The leaders from the ranks of the poor detail the importance of music in their work, how it helps break down the isolation of individuals and organizations, and how it keeps spirits up during trying times.

“A VHS copy of the Ultimate Song will be provided FREE to any musician who wants one. If that’s you, just email us at rockrap@aol.com with your name and postal address. For everyone else, we request a $10 donation. Please send to:RRC, Box 341305, Los Angeles CA 90034

US WAR COVERAGE

Check out Aleternet’s story on ” The Corruption of Journalism in Wartime ” Ted Rall, who was there and done that, writes:

“American reporters covering the war in Afghanistan were often ignorant, lazy, and self-indulgent. And it showed in the stories they filed.

BACK TO IRAQ: WHAT MOST MEDIA MISS

Finally, some perspectives on the media and Iraq, as Saddam Hussein goes back to the UN to invite weapons inspectors in. The last ones were not forced out by the Iraqi dictator but withdrawn by former UN inspection chief Richard Butler during the last major round of US and British airstrikes on that country. In his media column this week, Norman Solomon notes that the media has forgotten another issue that was associated with these arms watchers: ie. espionage.

“Three and a half years ago, some key information about U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq briefly surfaced on the front pages of American newspapers — and promptly vanished. Now, with righteous war drums beating loudly in Washington, let’s reach deep down into the news media’s Orwellian memory hole and retrieve the story.

“U.S. Spied on Iraq Under U.N. Cover, Officials Now Say,” a front-page New York Times headline announced on Jan. 7, 1999. The article was unequivocal: “United States officials said today that American spies had worked undercover on teams of United Nations arms inspectors ferreting out secret Iraqi weapons programs…. By being part of the team, the Americans gained a first-hand knowledge of the investigation and a protected presence inside Baghdad.

A day later, a follow-up Times story pointed out:

“Reports that the United States used the United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq as cover for spying on Saddam Hussein are dimming any chances that the inspection system will survive.

“With its credibility badly damaged by the spying, the U.N. inspection system did not survive. Another factor in its demise was the U.S. government’s declaration that sanctions against Iraq would remain in place whether or not Baghdad fully complied with the inspection regimen.

“But such facts don’t assist the conditioned media reflex of blaming everything on Saddam Hussein. No matter how hard you search major American media databases of the last couple of years for mention of the spy caper, you’ll come up nearly empty. George Orwell would have understood.”

KACA: THE SCANDANAVIAN REVELATION

The final word, as in saving the best for last, comes all the way from Helsinki, Finland where the vigilant Anna Kaca had had one eye on this column and the other on the news of the pre-war build up. “Thanks Danny for your web log alert about how American media are preparing the Americans for war on Iraq. Once again a sobering reminding of how easily mass produced, mass distributed sloppy, uncritical research and mechanic reporting may turn journalists into war mongers.

“Lately Scandinavian media (mainstream media) have in general been critical in comments and reporting about president George W Bush’s promises to get rid of Saddam Hussein by war. Earlier, during the 1990s Scandinavian media focused on conflicts between the UN and Iraq about the mission and mandate of the weapon inspectors–Saddam was the bad guy who refused to let the weapon inspectors do their job to map and destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

“Now new revelations from Rolf Ekèus, the Swedish diplomat in charge of the UN weapon inspectors alters that picture.

“Rolf Ekèus confirmed in an interview with Sweden’s Public Service Radio earlier media allegations that USA pressed the UN Unscom personal to spy on Iraq and to provoke conflicts which could legitimate a major military attack on Iraq.

“According to Ekèus USA wanted to use Unscom personal for spying on Iraqi conventional weapons, for mapping the whereabouts and residences of Saddam Hussein, for demanding provocative inspections of the Ministry of Defense in Baghdad… all in all missions way beyond the mandate of the weapon inspectors.

“He says that Unscom during his time ( 1991-1997 ) however never gave in to the American pressure. Asked whether USA has been more successful lately Ekèus is more evasive and says that ” the pressure has become more powerful “.

“Rolf Ekèus also reveals that intense international efforts and diplomatic activities are going on behind the scene to urge Iraq to accept UN’s weapon inspectors to come back - if needed, with the help of powerful military backing.

“With the inspectors back in Iraq it would be more difficult for president George W. Bush to start a war in order to topple Saddam Hussein,” says Ekèus

(As we know Unscom was dismissed and replaced by a new UN organ, Unmovic. The head of Unmovic is Hans Blix, another Swedish diplomat who has never been allowed to continue the work in Iraq) ”

TIME FOR A BREAK

Thank you Anna for adding a perspective and context that is often missing in other western media accounts. This is precisely the type of item and report that we welcome on Mediachannel and in this weblog. Every reader of this column is a potential contributor. Please think of yourself that way. Just drop a note to me, Danny Schechter, your news dissector, at dissector@medichannel.org.

Have a great weekend. I will be back Monday (or sooner) with more.