* DRONING ON ABOUT PAKISTAN
* THE MYTH OF THE LIBERAL MEDIA (ONGOING)
* THE PRESIDENT WITHOUT A HEART

Drone down.

Another unmanned predator aircraft crashed in Pakistan. Number 26 for a weapons system that seems prone to “inefficiency” according to one news report today, even though these “predators” in the skies have been hyped my pentagon and media alike as the hottest new thing since, um, “smart bombs.” Also on its way down are US relations with War on terror ally Pakistan. Political parties in that country are calling for a US military withdrawal after some US troops clashed with Pakistani troops. Others are demanding the end of FBI harassment of Pakistani nationals, there and here. These calls are likely to grow after the disclosure yesterday that one of the pictures on that new FBI terror alert was a jeweler alive and well in Pakistan. Today the FBI was supposed to release 14 more photos but are holding up. The New York Post explains that “an accused Big apple passport-forger being held in Toronto provided the tip that sparked the FBI Hunt…”Garbage in; garbage out.

PISSING OFF PAKISTAN

Meanwhile, as Pakistan joins the UN Security Council with a call for a peaceful resolution of the Iraq crisis. Reports Dawn: “Pakistan hopes for a peaceful resolution of the Iraq dispute, that any enforcement of UN resolution 1441 should be explicitly authorized by the UN Security Council,” said Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram….” Now here’s a twist. As the US reels from criticism and the need to keep its “ally” in line, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is pissing off every Pakistani living in America by requiring new immigration checks of the kind that landed over 300 middle east men in jail in Los Angeles prompting charges of racism.

Pakistan’s government is protesting having its nationals added to a list of suspect nations that must register its citizens. Writes the Embassy:

” At all levels, the US side has been told in no uncertain terms that Pakistani nationals appear to have been singled out as a target of the United States Department of Justice as well as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for enforcement of the new and stringent policies.

“It has been conveyed to them that the inclusion of Pakistan in the list is offensive to Pakistani opinion and unnecessary for the purpose of ensuring the national security of the US. It is unacceptable to us. Pakistan is a frontline ally of the US in Operation Enduring Freedom; it does not deserve to be humiliated by inclusion in such discriminatory lists.

” It has been emphasized to the US side that Pakistan’s inclusion has sent shock waves through the law-abiding and peaceful Pakistani community in the United States, which has one of the lowest crime rates of all ethnic communities and has no links with terrorist organizations.”

HARD FEELINGS? TS

“Treatment of South Asians in the United States has hardly been a staple of media coverage even after a AMTRAK train was stopped north of Providence Rhode Island on September ll, 2001 so that an Indian Sikh could be hauled off after some passenger mistook his turban as a sign of membership in the Taliban. Another Indian man, 26 year old Hul Mohammad Shah has now returned home after being held for FIFTEEN MONTHS in New York where he claims he was harassed and deprived of sleep by guards. Headline in NY POST: CLEARED 9/11 GUY HAS HARD FEELINGS.” Once again the NY Post shows it has no feelings.

THE BOMBS OF KOREA

Korea remains in the spotlight. The Associated Press which won a Pulitzer for its reporting of a US massacre against SOUTH Koreans back in the l950/s has a new historical story of interest that may explain North Korea’s actions as less irrational than the media wisemen mouth off about:

“SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A Korean dictatorlaunches a clandestine campaign to build nuclearweapons, and the United States applies pressure inan effort to shut it down.

“That’s the scenario currently unfolding with NorthKorea, but it was also the case three decades ago,when Washington learned that its ally, SouthKorea, was trying to build atomic bombs.

“Fearful of a nuclear arms race in the region, theUnited States forced dictator Park Chung-hee todrop the plan, partly by threatening economicpenalties for a nation that was then poor andstill recovering from the 1950-53 Korean War.

CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS

“There are conflicting accounts about how closeSouth Korea came to possessing a nuclear bomb,with some saying it was several years away. SouthKorea has never acknowledged that it had a weaponsprogram, though its existence was widely known indiplomatic circles, and former governmentofficials later testified about it…

“But its attempt to secure the nuclear deterrentduring the 1970s illustrates why its communistneighbor, which preserves a Cold War-era,confrontational mindset, appears so intent onhaving nuclear bombs.

“South Korea’s nuclear history also reveals thatthe current divergence of U.S. and South Koreanpolicy toward North Korea is but the latestconflict in an alliance that has survived intactfor half a century…”

HEARTLESS

President Bush who runs an Administration that has presided over a rise in homelessness and cutbacks of social program says today of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il.: “I have no heart for somebody who starves his folks.” Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes today about another President who may be heartless:

“So put yourself in Kim Jong Il’s shoes. The Bush administration has denounced you. It broke off negotiations as soon as it came into office. Last year, though you were no nastier than you had been the year before, George W. Bush declared you part of the “axis of evil.” A few months later Mr. Bush called you a “pygmy,” saying: “I loathe Kim Jong Il — I’ve got a visceral reaction to this guy. . . . They tell me, well we may not need to move too fast, because the financial burdens on people will be so immense if this guy were to topple — I just don’t buy that.”

“Moreover, there’s every reason to take Mr. Bush’s viscera seriously. Under his doctrine of pre-emption, the U.S. can attack countries it thinks might support terrorism, whether or not they have actually done so. And who decides whether we attack? Here’s what Mr. Bush says: “You said we’re headed to war in Iraq. I don’t know why you say that. I’m the person who gets to decide, not you.” L’état, c’est moi.

“So Mr. Bush thinks you’re a bad guy — and that makes you a potential target, no matter what you do.”

“A SPAGHETTI WESTERN”

What’s really going on? According to Beijing correspondent Francesco Sisci for Asia Times Online. “North Korea was once strategically important because it had the Soviet Union and China behind it. Now this is no longer the case; moreover, China and South Korea, which fought against each other over North Korea half a century ago, have an idyllic relationship and both work in strong partnership for a peaceful transition in North Korea… the US can’t accept being pushed around by threats coming from a country wielding its missiles like a bully in a saloon in a spaghetti Western.”

WILL THERE BE A WAR IN IRAQ AFTER ALL?

One development to ponder in the Times — the Times of Tehran, that is. Albawaba.com reports from the Iranian capital: “Washington wants to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein without bloodshed or billions of dollars of a new Gulf war, an Iranian newspaper said on Thursday.

“But the German foreign ministry rejected Entekhab report that Germany’s Foreign Minister told his Iranian peer in their telephone conversation that the Bush administration sought a bloodless coup with the help of Russian President, Vladimir Putin….

CNN SAYS IRAQ SAYS INSPECTIONS SHOW TRUTH

CNN reports that the director of Iraq’s monitoring agency says five weeks and 230 inspections prove Iraq no longer has weapons of mass destruction. “We hope that this is astart point [to] think correctly and give the Iraqi people their rights tolive without embargo, without sanctions,” said Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin. President

NOT THE “SLIGHTEST INKLING”

President Bush is meanwhile visiting troops at Fort Hood in Texas to “thank them” for their service. He seems to be following in the footsteps of CBS Late Night comic David Letterman who flew to Afghanistan for what was described as a low profile, no publicity visit to “thank US troops.” That visit is heralded as the Second Coming on the front page of the New York Observer which awards Dave its “Media Mensch of the year award” They called his visit “stealthy” and a “well kept” secret visit even though he discussed it on air on December 26. Huh? “This is a very personal affair for Dave” said the director of entertainment for the USO, which arranged the whole visit. “He just wanted to go out and say thank you. He certainly didn’t want anyone to have the slightest inkling or feeling that he was doing this for publicity. This was personal,” So says Mitch Markovitz with straight face. Mitch “helped orchestrate” the secret visit. You can’t make this stuff up.

MEDIA KILLINGS DOWN

On the media front, first some good news. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports “A total of 19 journalists were killed worldwide for their work in 2002, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This number marks a sharp decrease from 2001 when 37 journalists were killed, eight of them while covering the war in Afghanistan. Of the 19 journalists killed in 2002, most were targeted in direct reprisal for their work, and their killers had not been brought to justice at year’s end. This is the lowest number of journalists killed in the line of duty that CPJ has recorded since it began tracking the deaths in 1985. The dramatic drop is partially attributed to a decline in the number of world conflicts.”

MEDIA CONSERVATISM UP

And then the usual bad news: There is no Liberal media. So argues Robert Parry in a must read article in ConsortiumNews.com: “The notion of a “liberal” national news media is one of the most enduring and influential political myths of modern U.S. history. Shaping the behavior of both conservatives and liberals over the past quarter century, the myth could be said to have altered the course of American democracy and led the nation into the dangerous corner it now finds itself……the endless repetition of the ‚”liberal media‚” myth has sedated liberals who have avoided a commitment to develop a comparable media infrastructure, apparently out of a hope that one is not needed. Indeed, if an honest history of this era is ever written, one of the most puzzling mysteries may be why the American liberal community ‚ with all its wealth and expertise in communications sat back while conservatives turned media into a potent weapon for dominating U.S. politics.”

DOROTHY HAMMIL’S PHARMACEUTICAL ADS

Yesterday, I commented on all those VIOXX ads on the air on New Year’s Eve. Maybe the New York Times noticed, The paper runs an op-ed on the subject this morning by Erin N. Marcus an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine:

“Last summer, Wyeth, the manufacturer of Prempro, stopped running the ads after a major federal study found that women taking the drug for four years or more had a higher risk of breast cancer than those who took a placebo. Patients have stopped asking for Prempro but they continue to ask about other heavily promoted drugs, like Vioxx, a pain medicine whose ads feature Dorothy Hamill skating lithely around a rink.

“Since the Food and Drug Administration relaxed its rules governing advertising of prescription drugs five years ago, I’ve seen a steady increase in the number of patients asking for certain expensive new medicines. Often these patients don’t really know the purpose of these drugs or their risks or side effects — they’ve just seen a nice ad on TV or in a magazine. While I’ve usually found that I can convince patients that they don’t need these drugs (if they’re inappropriate), it can be very hard to persuade patients to try pain relievers other than Vioxx and Celebrex, since often patients in pain are looking for anything that will help, and these drugs are effective and well known.

“A recent report by the General Accounting Office estimates that every year at least 8.5 million Americans request and obtain specific prescriptions after seeing or hearing ads for particular drugs. In 2001 drug companies spent about $2.7 billion on such advertising, a 150 percent increase since 1997, when the F.D.A. loosened its rules on advertising.”

We know the ads are irresponsible — but what about the networks that air them? Has anyone in the TV networks shown the slightest hesitancy NOT to carry these slick, dangerous and deceptive ads? No! The same networks that say they need the money do not, however, usually take ads by advocacy groups challenging US policies. Enuff said.

MEDIA CONCERNS ARE GLOBAL

Concerns about media distortion is growing worldwide. Geert Lovink sends in an announcement for an upcoming workshop in India March 2 and 3: “Crisis/Media, is a conference that will bring together mediaprofessionals, activists, and scholars to discuss crisis in the media,and the crisis of the media today.

Since September 11, crises in the media have become everyday eventsand have taken on global dimensions. But what happens when crisisbecomes commonplace? How can media tell the storiesbehind/beneath the crisis? How are the tensions between local/global,mainstream /alternative, event/representation unfolding? In thinkingabout these and other questions, the conference will try to focus on boththe ways in which media cover/create/manage spectacular crisisevents, and on the crisis that this reportage has produced for mediaitself. For more info write: rachel@sarai.net.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: THE INT’L HERALD TRIB

Sad to read about the New York Times takeover of the International Herald Tribune which used to carry the best of Washington Post, New York Times and its own correspondents. It had a flavor and punch missing in both of the papers which owned it and seemed a model of how collaboration could trump competition. I even had an op-ed in the Herald Trib about Vivendi, warning of the dangers of its media empire building. At least I was mostly right on that one. I did not at the time foresee the empire building of the New York Times who the Observer reports has had its corporate jet busy ferrying execs in to remake the news paper which raising the news stand price of its own paper here at home.

Thanks to reader Mike Garvin for sending along great quotes on the media including the following which is the final thought this morning uttered by one who knew and knows:

“When I was Times bureau chief in Washington, I was a member of the League of Gentlemen [i.e., the established elite]; otherwise I never would have been bureau chief. Time after time, good reporters … complained about not being able to get stories in the paper. And time after time I said to them, ‘You’re just not going to get that in the New York Times… it’s too reliant on your judgement rather than on official judgement, it’s too complex, it contradicts the official record more flagrantly than the conventions of daily journalism allow.’”

Tom Wicker,
New York Times columnist,
Guardian (London),
February 13, 1985,
quoted in Democracy for the Few, by Michael Parenti,
and “‘League of Gentlemen’ Rates Media,” by Kevin Kelly.

And so, the first week of the New Year comes to a sudden close. Please hang with us as we try to keep Mediachannel going and growing in the year ahead. You financial help helps more than you know. As do your letters and comments. Write: dissector@mediachannel.org