*DEMOCRACY NOW (AGAIN)*

*CHRIS HEDGES, REPORTER EXTRAORDINAIRE*

*SHARON OSBOURNE HAS SECOND THOUGHTS*

A bit later this morning, I hope to be on a radio show called Democracy Now, to talk about the election underway this morning in the US of A. I have just come back from taking part in democracy now at my local polling place–located appropriately enough in a building housing the blind. That is more than a metaphor.

As I signed in as voter #3 in my precinct, the woman behind the desk alerted me to the fact that lights in one of New York’s City’s creaky voting machines was not working. I joked. “Is this another Florida?” I ask. The woman looked shocked. “My God no!” was her response.

DOING MY DUTY

And so I did my duty even if I couldn’t always see what I was doing. Clearly, I hope you will do yours because so many races seem to be so close. When I looked at the “choices” I was being asked to make, I was ill. There was Governor Pataki, the Republican frontrunner, who some commentators say sounds more like the Green candidate than what he is; McCall, the Democrat whose timidity has made him sound like the Republican and Golisano, the “independent” who is financing his own campaign to the tune of tens of millions with the advice of Roger Stone–who led President Bush’s stealth efforts to sabotage the recount in Florida two years ago. How depressing!

At least the Greens were running Stanley Aronowitz. I first met him as a labor organizer during the civil rights movement, He is a brilliant analyst and cultural commentator, but did he make it as a candidate? “Wouldn’t it be amazing if he won?” I thought. In my mind, he is the best qualified. But my senses soon brought me back to earth. His campaign has received virtually no coverage. How do any voters know about him? And in the age of politics as media and media as politics, that is a death sentence for any serious candidate.

As I left my house this morning, I heard CNN reporting that Bush raised over $100 million, in this economy no less. And what does most of that moolah shaken from the trees of the wealthy go? Well, class? It goes for TV ads, of course. We may lose, but the TV stations profit.

DISCLAIMERS ON TV

My film, Counting on Democracy (Globalvision.org) on Florida had a community screening yesterday and I was struck by the folks who stuck around afterwards to say how deeply and emotionally affected they had been when the Supreme Court turned a political matter into a judicial one and gave the election to GWB, by using the 14th Amendment. Ironically, that amendment was passed to guarantee the rights of minority voters.

The film aired on Channel 13 at midnight in a series for which the station disclaims any responsibility for the views expressed. (As if all shows are not the product of the perspectives of their producers.)

This evening, it airs in Los Angeles on KCET at ten. From what I could see on the web, The LA Times did not run a piece they commissioned on the film. The author who interviewed me told me yesterday that her editor had slashed the piece and that she was sorry. I felt badly for her, and I know the feeling.

DEPOLITICIZING POLITICS

Both the LA Times and the New York Times did run reviews of an apolitical documentary on politics, a documentary on the 2000 Bush campaign. The Times calls it “breezily a political”–just perfect on a medium that depoliticizes all politics as a matter of course.

The paper DID NOT review my investigative effort which had a New York Times reporter who ran the media review in Florida saying that Gore won while his paper in a heavily edited piece reported the opposite. The headline: “Food, Jokes and few Issues on the Bush 2000 campaign.” And you ask why people don’t vote.

(I will be speaking after a screening of Counting on Democracy tonight at the Puffin Foundation at 7 PM on Oakdene Avenue in Teaneck New Jersey.) Other upcoming air dates: November 6, 2002 8:00 AM ET WHUT WASHINGTON, DC November 16, 2002 10:00 PM ET CPTV2 HARTFORD & NEW HAVEN CT November 24, 2002 1:00 AM PT KPBS SAN DIEGO, CA *check your local public television listings for more air dates* For what seems like a rightist orchestrated write-in and other comments on the film, see ITVS.org/countingondemocracy.

WHERE TO WATCH

The LA Times does offer info on where to watch election coverage. Note how they start their listings:

Election night: The elections are covered by “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” (5:30 and 11 p.m. Comedy Central).

— S P E C I A L S —

Election night coverage: CBS, NBC and ABC offer in-depth national coverage of the 2002 elections at 10 p.m. CNN’s coverage begins at 3 p.m.; MSNBC, 4 p.m.; CNBC, 5 p.m. Fox News, 6 p.m.

ARIANNA:”AN INTEMINABLE BATAAN DEATH MARCH”

I also understood just how Arianna Huffington feels:

“What an absolutely dreadful campaign season this has been – an interminable Bataan death march of ruffle-no-feathers issues, sleazy, mud-slinging TV ads, and insipid poll-driven candidates.

“In fact, the only truly compelling aspect of Election 2002 has been trying to decide which campaign was the most inept. There were so many contenders: Sen. Robert ‘The Torch’ Torricelli’s corruption-fueled flame out in New Jersey; Andrew Cuomo’s ‘I had too many ideas’ nosedive in New York; Janet Reno’s red pickup truck breakdown on her way to the Florida statehouse; Montana senatorial candidate Mike Taylor’s bizarre, Perot-esque ‘I quit, No, wait, I don’t’ temper tantrum after the opposition ran an ad he felt implied that he was gay. It was the most amusing display of heterosexual panic since baseball superstar Mike Piazza called a press conference to insist that he liked girls…

Read her if you can and vote because you must.

See Alternet.org for 11th-hour election information? Check out AlterNet’s “Top 10 Election Day Sites” for the best voting information on the Web:

ELECTIONS CALLED IN ISRAEL

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government is going with new elections slated for February. Sharon defended his record and promised not to change any of his retrograde policies in a speech to the Knesset….The other day Human Rights Watch blasted Arafat for not taking stronger action against suicide bombers. Today Amnesty International attacks Israel for war crimes in Jenin. More crimes seem to be underway judging from this report just in to Dissector Central. Small incidents like this continue to define the conflict, at least to Palestinians.

“Over 20 foreign civilians are walking in front of fire trucks in Nablus (10:15pm) to try to get the trucks to the scene of a blazing factory fire in between the Balata and Askar Refugee Camps in Nablus. Though the actual cause of the fire is not yet clear, for the past two hours, the Israeli military has been preventing Palestinian fire trucks from approaching the burning building to extinguish the fire. The factory is in a residential neighborhood and the danger of this fire spreading and causing massive harm is great….”

MEET CHRIS HEDGES, LEARN ABOUT WAR

When it comes to covering war, there are no finer journalists than New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges, an old friend of mine who has just written a fine book called “A Force that Gives us Meaning.” See Tompaine.com for an interview with him Here is an excerpt to give you a taste:

Chris Hedges: “I went to war, not because I was a gun nut, or wanted adventure, although to be honest, that was part of it. I did have a longing for that kind of epic battle that could define my life. I grew up reading everything on the Holocaust and on the Spanish Civil War, but I went as an idealist. I went to Latin America in the early ‘80s when most of these countries were ruled by pretty heinous military dictatorships. And I thought this was as close as I was going to come in my lifetime to fighting fascism. I wanted that.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t understand what war was. And I got caught up in the subculture, and to be honest, the addiction that war was. And I ended up over the next 15 years traveling from war zone to war zone to war zone with that fraternity of dysfunctional war correspondents who became my friends — some of whom were killed, including my closest friend who was killed in Sierra Leone in May of 2000. So I got sucked into the kind of whirlpool that war is — into the death instinct. ”

TP: “For people here, in the states, who have never been in a war zone, can you just talk about some of the situations you put yourself into and what you saw about war that is completely counterpoint to the rhetoric about the cause.”

Hedges: “Well, the cause is… is always a lie. If people understood, or individuals or societies understood in sensory way what war was, they’d never do it. War is organized industrial slaughter.”

BRAIN DEAD

In Los Angeles, Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin accused of anti-Arab violence and terrorism in the US has been pronouced brain dead after a suicide attempt, according to today’s LA Times. Funny, I always thought he was brain dead before this incident. Oops, I know one should not speak ill of the brain dead. (My editor says, “Suicide? Slashing your own throat and falling 18 ft from a balcony? Uh huh.)

BOSTON PROTEST

Among the protests not getting big national coverage, The Boston Globe reports”An estimated 15,000 protesters converged on Boston Common yesterday for a three-hour rally to demonstrate against a possible US war with Iraq. The turnout, estimated by police, rivaled any Boston peace rally since the Gulf War, organizers said.

“I just think it’s really a testament to how uneasy thepublic is with this war that we got this massive aturnout even before the troops invade,” said JenniferHoran, an organizer with United for Justice with Peace, a local coalition formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.”

Speaking of protest coverage, I was chatting with radio broadcaster Amy Goodman the other day who told me she thinks the New York Times reversed gears on its coverage of the big protest in Washington after she and others discovered that the Times DID not even have a reporter on the scene — but reported it anyway. Can this be true?

MEDIA NEWS WRAP UP

In media news, US prosecutors announced a probe of Vivendi’s former Chairman and the mogul I met for a minute, Jean Marie Messier. European Journalism Center reports that “Khazak journalist Sergei Duvanov has embarked on a hunger strike after being refused permission to accept food parcels from his family. Mr Duvanov was detained in Almaty on October 28 on charges of rape.

Meanwhile in Kuwait: “The Kuwaiti government has ordered the closure of the local office of the Qatar-based regional TV station Al-Jazeera. The decision, taken by the information ministry on November 3, came the day after the station had broadcast a report that a quarter of Kuwait’s territory had been sealed off to allow US-Kuwaiti military maneuvers to take place there. The government said the report harmed the country’s interests, while Al-Jazeera editors insisted it was objective and impartial.”

And finally from the Independent in London comes this troubling word: ” Sharon Osbourne says she regrets letting the cameras into Ozzy’s home.” She probably does not regret the money she and her hubby now have in the bank thanks to that TV invasion, which brought a new dumb and dumber orientation to MTV–however much we smirked. If you don’t want to get F***ED, Sharon and Oz, stay out of the W***E House.

Please vote early and often. I will be back tomorrow. Please share your comments by writing: dissector@mediachannel.org