* ROCKING IN THE ROCKING CHAIR
* US ROLE IN KOREA CRISIS
* BBC DEBATE CONTINUES

Welcome 2003, our new news year that so far feels like the old one. I have already heard a new phrase on CNN that I like and must share. It was “deployed” in reference to Senator John Edwards, the North Carolinian presidential wannabe. One of his critics referred to him as “substance-free” a zeitgeist catching buzzword that certainly should be in greater use, not just on the media but in reference to it.

And speaking of zeitgeists, here are two more items to get us off to a good start. First, I notice that Chief Justice Rehnquist, the supreme fond wearing a home made robe that makes him look like a cast member in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado, is advising that in the last decade there has been an increase of more than 570,000 bankruptcy cases. Each judge now handles a mere 4,777 cases apiece. What fun. In its ZC (Zeitgeist catcher) today, the New York Times offer this quote of the day:

“When you see 25 percent of the screens playing solitaire, besides its being distracting, you feel like a sucker for paying attention.” -IAN AYRES, professor at Yale Law School, on problems with computer use in class.”

WATCHING THE BALL DROP

So, please, class, pay attention as we hop aboard this weblog express leaving our Globalvision station in Times Square just after we remember the annual media event that filled these streets a day ago.

Were you watching the ball drop on New Year’s eve? Supposedly there were a billion of us. eyes glued to that spot, in some ritualistic custom that in another culture might be called a cargo cult. Chief of cargo of course was once again, one time DJ Dick Clark, who a lifetime ago was rockin’ on bandstand, Philadelphia Pee Ay. For the last three decades or more this professional youth icon with the mummified face and zombied look (you bet, he has had “work”)has played TV’s designated ‘welcome wagon to the New Year. He lapped Guy Lombardo years ago. He is an old acquaintance who can’t be forgotten even if we wanted to (tho’ after watching Dick reveal his real dick self in Bowling for Columbine, I wanted to.)

But there he was again reading his lines, mostly lists of how many cops there were on the streets, how many kids in the crowds and how many lights on the big ball, and how many garbage trucks waiting to clean up the potlatch. He too was “substance-free: with nothing to say and the ability to say it as if it had the gravitas of a Breaking News alert from Fox News. (He even had a FOXoid on his “team” to shtick with the crowds). His game was off. He was missing cues left and right, but remembering to hype ABC to the skies. What was new this year was the use of the sky cam/chopper cam/eye in the sky the perfect surveillance tool for watching the people below.

DRUGS FOR SALE

Times Square was the perfect place to try out this metaphor of our times as our government gets ready to spy on us all. All the spontaneity and good cheer in the Square was secondary to Dick’s Dickensian teleprompter moment, interrupted five times, at least, by that totally manipulative ad for a drug called VIOXX featuring Dorothy Hamill , ageing figure skater with arthritis, pitching a pricey remedy sold by Merck. (”Ask Your Doctor if Vioxx is right for you?) This on a rock show?

I guess New Year’s eve is a time for drugging, but not with Vioxx. What the show was really selling was another addiction, the TV drug. The plug in drug remains America’s favorite. All of Times Square was nothing but a TV set, pre-lit, with people squeezed into pens from which they could not move, No one even bothered to bring in porta potties for crowd relief. Why bother. Who cared about the people. They were there only as a crowd to simulate populism. The whole show was really an ABC sales scenario for parent company Disney which had marionette Clark switching from Times Square not to the other great capitols of the world, but to their owned and operated theme parks (”the fantasy capitols of the world”) Disney World and Disneyland. After the ball dropped, Clark “threw” to one of his ‘correspondent’ boy toys in the street, who told us was still hanging out with the revelers. But, by the time the cameras caught up with him, he was all by his lonesome. Everyone in the crowd had split, off to having real fun as opposed to being extras on a TV spectacle. Back to you “Buddy,” he said “Thanks for having me on Dick.” Cut to commercial.

THE DEBATE ON NORTH KOREA

There seems to be a split on the right with how to handle North Korea. “Let Pyongyang rush: argues a retired intelligence office Ralph Peters in the New York Post. “Baghdad or Bush” is the header. He says forget about North Korea. Meanwhile. Over on Faux news there is one of those Washington “experts” who is saying the opposite calling for more “focus” on the North and less worry about mounting anti-Americanism in South Korea. On the left liberal side of the agenda, we have Robert Scheer in the LA Times saying it doesn’t make sense to target Iraq and give North Korea a pass. “Darn, but those weapons of mass destruction keep turning up in the wrong places. That’s pretty scary because American intelligence agencies believe that bizarre, unpredictable North Korea already has enough plutonium and tested bomb technology for one or two functioning nuclear warheads that can easily be lobbed at our ally South Korea, home base of 37,000 U.S. soldiers. Pyongyang in 1998 fired one of its long-range Taepodong missiles over Japanese territory. American intelligence officials believe that the regime is working on missiles capable of reaching Hawaii and beyond.”

SOUTH KOREA SPEAKS UP

No wonder then that South Korea’s new president is trying to get Washington to cool its rhetorical jets. Reports Reuters: “President-elect Roh Moo-Hyun on Tuesday reinforced South Korea’s rejection of US moves to punish North Korea with economic sanctions over its nuclear ambitions, saying any US policy toward the North must take into account Seoul’s stance.

“It ought to be borne in mind that a failed US policy toward the North would be a matter of life and death for South Koreans while it would not be to US citizens,” Roh told journalists. He expressed regret at “politically-motivated allegations by those who criticize Seoul “for not following blindly US lead.”

CAUSES OF THE CRISIS

Who is to blame for the escalating crisis. A Canadian researcher says the US is more than co-complicit: Stephen Gowans reports that “The United States has forced North Korea, which suffers from a critical energy shortage, to reopen its mothballed nuclear power plant at Yongbyon, after Washington violated every provision of a Clinton-era agreement to normalize relations with the Communist country and provide it with light water nuclear reactors to meet its energy needs, says Gregory Elich, an independent writer and researcher.

“Targeting North Korea,” published yesterday at www.globalresearch.ca, points out that a 1994 agreement between the two countries obligated North Korea to shut down its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, which are capable of producing weapons grade plutonium, in exchange for Washington arranging to provide light water reactors by 2003S But despite the agreement, the light water reactors have yet to be built. And fuel oil shipments to the energy-desperate country were ordered halted last month by US President George W. Bush.

” The Bush administration says North Korea violated the terms of the 1994 Agreed Framework by secretly developing a nuclear weapons program. US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly claimed that a North Korean official admitted at an October meeting that the Communist country had developed the program. “It never happened,” says Elich. “No North Korean official ever made such a statement…”

PEACE OR PIECES IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

In the Middle East, there are press reports that despite all the bluster, Israel’s Ariel Sharon is secretly negotiating a peace deal with Yassir Arafat’s Palestinian authority. The Christian Science Monitor carried a report from Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper, on “a group of Holocaust survivors, calling itself the “Forum of Holocaust survivors and descendants to halt the deterioration of Israeli humanism” has begun a petition to protest the way Israeli defense forces are treating Palestinians. The petition reads “Israeli society is descending into a quagmire of violence, brutality, disrespect for human rights, and contempt for human life” and that “domination of another people against its will contradicts the lessons of the Holocaust, morally, humanely, and politically.”

Meanwhile a group called Honest Reporting that claims 55,000 members who believe there is an anti-Israel bias in reporting is blasting the British media with a new Dishonest reporting award. ” The collective awardee is the British media, mainly for its hook, line and sinker acceptance of the Palestinian version of a “massacre” in Jenin this past AprilSHonestReporting, noting that the media often relied on “specious and inaccurate claims made by Palestinian spokesmen.” claims.”

BBC RESPONDS TO CRITICS

Also in Britain, a debate continues over the role of the BBC. We carried a critique of BBC reporting by a group called Media Lens arguing that coverage there is skewed, critic free, and tilted towards the British government and US views. When criticisms like this are made in the US, broadcast executives ignore them as if they have no obligation to respond to critics. In Britain, the head of BBC News has had the guts to enter the fray and respond. For his efforts. The media watchdogs call News chief Richard Sambrook “a sincere and well-intentioned person – your willingness to respond to, and even to praise, our Media Alerts suggests as much” But then argue that good person or not, he is ” at the heart of a system of lethal, institutionalized deception.” Well, if I was them I wouldn’t be quite so self-righteous about it all. Part of every media critics’ hope is to be taken seriously and to engage in a debate. Hats off to Sambrook for taking the issues on. Can you picture a US news exec writing anything like this:

Sambrook: “In terms of the debate over war with Iraq the BBC has frequently broadcast a range of views including many from those opposed to war - and we shall continue to do so. In recent months we have broadcast views from, among others, Noam Chomsky, Dennis Kucinich, Denis Halliday, Hana Ashwari, Kamila Shamsie, Dr Mercy Heatley, Ken Loach, Prof. Paul Rogers, Paul Robinson from Hull University, George Galloway, Scott Ritter, Ken Livingstone, Tony Benn and the views of citizens in the UK, Iraq and elsewhere in the world who have all questioned the plans for war. A month ago an entire edition of Panorama was devoted to “The Case Against War” which included views from a number of people connected with the US and British military establishments in the last Gulf War who are opposed to conflict now. The BBC will continue to report all issues, including Iraq, with impartiality and to provide a platform for a wide range of views.”

Media Lens responds: “You claim that the BBC has featured a large number of dissident voices in recent months. We tend to concentrate on the performance of the BBC’s more important TV output, and here leading dissident voices have, of course, been almost completely invisible. There has been no attempt whatever to balance the huge number of appearances of warmongers like Bush, Blair, Perle, Rumsfeld and Powell, with appearances of anti-war dissidents.”

MEANWHILE IN “HOMELAND” MEDIA

I note that Scott Ritter was mentioned above. A CNN staffer told me yesterday about a recent 90 minute interview with Ritter. Has it aired?”, I asked. “Not a second.” I was told. Hmmm…When you watch the news shows, you will notice an increase in the presence of retired military types. One of them, ex NATO commander Wesley Clark was hired by CNN as its consultant early on in the Iraq crisis. He seems to have liked the limelight. Now this report: “Former NATO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark is planning to run for US President as a Democrat. The retired general has canvassed support with Democrat activists and donors, and visited Iowa and New Hampshire, sites of the first two primary contests. General Clark, who now works as an investment banker in his native Little Rock, has also appointed a member of former Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign team as his top aide.”

DEMOCRATS WAKE UP

Meanwhile the Democrats, after a long sleep with ear plugs on, have woke up to the reality of right-wing media all over the dial. Now, after Al Gore spoke out about this trend before leaving politics, others are following his lead. A good friend of mine woke me on New Year’s day by reading a piece from the New York Times suggesting that it foreshadows my chance to get back on the air. I shared my doubts that they would back anyone from independent media. (Especially after my experience with Counting On Democracy, a film on the Florida fiasco which the institutional dems ignored. It ran by the by on a PBS station in Western New York over the weekend with no advance notice)

Here’s part of the Times report: “Worried that their party has been outgunned in the political propaganda wars by conservative radio and television personalities, influential Democrats are scouring the nation for a liberal answer to Rush Limbaugh and the many others on the deep bench of Republican friends. For years, Democrats have groused about their inability to balance what they see as the increasing influence over the electorate by advocates of Republican policies. People working on these projects acknowledged they were venturing into territory where liberals have failed and failed again, most notably with the short-lived radio programs of Mario M. Cuomo and Jim Hightower, not to mention Phil Donahue’s struggling liberal talk show on MSNBC…”

BUSINESS MEDIA: ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH

On another media front, the Times carries a piece by Jim Ledbetter, formerly of the business magazine Industry Standard (and the Village Voice before that) blasting the hand that once fed him (and well as I recall a dinner we had in Stockholm): “The late 1990’s witnessed an explosion of business media. CNBC became the most profitable cable channel in America. New magazines and Web sites sprang up: Business 2.0, Red Herring, The Street.com and the publication I worked for, The Industry Standard. All purported to untangle the mysteries of the burgeoning Internet economy.

“Yet for all that increased attention, it’s difficult to say that the enlarged business media played a decisive role in exposing the shortcomings of American corporate practices. Indeed, too often the new magazines and Web sites acted as incurious cheerleaders, championing executives and innovative companies without questioning their books. Do a search, for example, of the word “Enron” in the databases of those publications prior to 2000 and you’ll find little but praise for its market innovations.

“The mainstream media, too, did its share of hyping the technology boom, but no one did as much evangelizing as the so-called new economy publications. They preached about how technology created new paradigms. But they were frequently slow to note when technology didn’t work, or markets didn’t exist, and they relied far too much on a handful of self-interested bankers for information.” Read the rest on the Times today.

THE IZZY AWARDS BUILD STEAM

As readers know, I am pushing for a new media award called The Izzy in honor of I.F. Stone to encourage better war/crisis reporting. My thanks to those who have nominated me. Lawrence Houghteling has another nominee: “I suggest not one award but several. For different media - daily press, magazines, TV etc; for different sorts of activities ó daily reporting, background reporting, commentary etc. To be practical about it, this would allow the judges the chance to single out for praise both little-known journalists from obscure places AND worthy members of the staff of the great (or at least HUGE) media outlets. Perhaps assuring more publicity for the small, less-known medium.

“I nominate Bob Herbert of the Times for his unflagging pursuit of the truth as he sees it. As out of step as he most feel in the increasingly cynical, “knowing” new Times culture, nonetheless he plugs on, bringing to light things that need to be brought to light.

“Short Izzy story. I never actually knew him (though my Mom took me to tea with him and his wife when I was about two months old), but of course I admired him greatly, and a few years ago I was wandering through the Mt. Auburn cemetery when I somehow lost my bearings. I took what I thought was a shortcut back, found myself fighting my way through a thicket, then slid down a slope, and landed in some private glen I had certainly never seen before. Looking around to see if I’d managed to find my way back to civilization, I realized I had landed right at the foot of Izzy’s grave. Lost no more, I thought.”

CRISIS NEWS ANYONE?

Please have a look at the Crisis News Capsule at Gvnews.net, a daily exercise in original reporting on Iraq related war news of urgent but underreported interest. I am writing for the Globalvision News Network weekly with a new report that I have to write now.

So sorry to the apparently innocent Pakistani jeweler whose picture somehow was flashed on every TV screen in the world as one of five men wanted by the FBI as suspected terrorists. He recognized himself and is pissed off at being on the list. Who can he sue? I don’t think the red-faced Feebees want to talk to him anymore… It’s time to welcome all of you back and repeat my invite for more input and commentary from readers. You can share yours by writing: dissector@mediachannel.org