*WEAPON OF MASS COMMUNICATION

*THE BUSH-HUSSEIN “DEBATE”

*PRESS THE PRESS?

Here we go again with more than you want but less than you need. Question: are you marching virtually today? This is the day the internet gets its test as a weapon of mass communication as anti-war groups mobilize to bombard the offices of Washington legislators and policymakers with faxes, emails and phone calls. Here’s what activists are planning:

THE NOT SO SECRET PLAN

“Every Senate office will receive a call every minute from a constituent, as they receive a simultaneous flood of faxes and e-mail. Hundreds of thousands of people from across the country will send the collective message: Don’t Attack Iraq. Every Senate switchboard will be lit up throughout the day with our message — a powerful reminder of the breadth and depth of opposition to a war in Iraq. And on that day, “antiwar rooms” in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles will highlight the day’s progress for the national media, while local media can visit the “antiwar room” online to monitor this constituent march throughout the day. It will also be a day to make our peace sentiments as visible as possible with signs and buttons, billboards, etc.”

I was surprised to see this protest highlighted this morning on CNN, a sign that some media outlets here are beginning to acknowledge that the anti-war movement exists, even if their spokespeople are still not interviewed with any regularity on news programs. There is a slight shift underway in the press — and by activists urging more protest against the press.

MEDIA QUESTIONS WAR, UNDERPLAYS PROTEST

PR Watch reports: A new survey by Editor & Publisher magazine shows that “the growing rift at the United Nations and massive antiwar demonstrations around the globe appear to have had an impact. E&P now finds that a majority of top papers oppose any attack on Iraq without broad international support… Some that once reluctantly accepted a quick war for different reasons are now calling for any invasion to be backed by a stronger world coalition or with the full support of the United Nations Security Council — a noteworthy condition at a time when the U.N. appears deeply fractured. Thirteen papers now occupy this middle ground, meaning that almost two-third’s of the total sample oppose any war for the time being.”

USA TODAY is picking up this story as Peter Johnson interviews Editor and Publisher chief Greg Mitchell: ‘The press woefully underplayed the anti-war movement until recently. Now coverage is growing, of the large marches at least.” Robert Lichter of the Center for Media and Public Affairs says it’s tough gauging public opinion. ‘’The media are better covering events than ideas,'’ he tells Johnson. ‘’You can see what people think from the polls, but you can’t really see what drives them unless you see people marching in the street. There’s a difference between ‘opposition’ and ‘an opposition.’”

GOING ON– OR AFTER MEDIA?

Some activists are arguing there is a need for more pressure on the media. Editor Lydia Sargent of Zmagazine says “We have to go after the media. For years activists have been complaining about and critiquing mainstream media. Even while making these critiques, many seem surprised, even upset, by the way our events and politics are covered in the very media we have long been describing as incapable, institutionally and ideologically, of ever giving our agenda any kind of legitimacy and credence, much less coverage–as if we don’t believe our own analysis.

“We forget at times that mainstream media (when not informing elites) is to (quote Chomsky) “keep[ing] the rabble in line. [It] make[s] sure that we are atoms of consumption, obedient tools of production, isolated from one another, lacking any concept of a decent human life. We are to be spectators in a political system run by elites blaming ourselves and each other for what’s wrong….”

“So it is time to direct more of our protests toward the media. What we want is for mainstream media to include peace and justice programming, prepared by the peace and justice movement, in their daily reports. If they do not agree to this demand, we picket their offices, occupy them if necessary, and shut them down.”

RATHER RULES (FOR THE NIGHT)

Dan Rather’s interview with Saddam Hussein, set to air tonight, is getting lots of media buzz, FOX NEWS called it “Dan and the Dictator” while the NY Post-–that other Murdoch outlet — reveals that it was shot by Iraqi TV and not CBS, so there! (For security reasons, it is said–after that phony TV crew killed a pro-US Afghan leader back in 2001.) I hate to tell you news fans that having a US outlet shoot the interview doesn’t mean that we get to see it all. There’s a little thing called editing — and political criteria often influence that. As a network veteran, I have been there and done that.

I have now learned that Saddam’s offer to debate President Bush was deadly serious, with Iraq’s Mr. H. even suggesting that Dan Rather moderate. Rather backed off by saying he has enough problems. The White House rejected the offer amidst reports that President Bush wants to kill the evil one, not to talk with him. The Commander in Chief has repoprtedly authorized an assassination of Hussein. Hence my use of the term “deadly” serious. Sometimes, I wonder if these two shouldn’t just settle this like a man in the way that Hamilton handled Burr with a shootout. (ed. note: that was the other way around. Burr nailed Hamilton.) The spot is marked up on Boulevard East in Weehawken, with a great view of the Empire State.

CBS: GLOATING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK

The Independent says the clear winner in the Rather-Hussein face off is….envelope, please…CBS, writing: “In the hyper-competitive multimillion-dollar world of America’s superstar newscasters – usually far better known than the politicians, movie stars and celebrities they interview – such scoops are known as ‘gets.’

“They come in varying shades of fame or notoriety. O J Simpson, the President of Russia, Monica Lewinsky, the universally admired Vaclav Havel or the disgraced former California congressman Gary Condit – all human beings are equal before their maker, and when they are potential ‘gets’ for the prime-time news magazine shows on US television.

“And right now ‘gets’ don’t get bigger than Saddam Hussein. Assuming CBS gets the tape in time, the choice segments will be aired tonight opposite what was previously seen as the scoop of the season, the interview with Robert Blake, Hollywood B-lister and accused wife-killer, by ABC’s indefatigable Barbara Walters. A true connoisseur of American television might wonder what the difference is, in terms of luring the punters, between a film star accused of one murder and a foreign ruler who is known to have murdered millions. Was it not Stalin who said that ‘one death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic’? But in this land of the 15-minute sensation, President Saddam is the exception.”

REFERENCING WALTER C

The fact that Iraqi TV shot the interview is the reason that you have not seen clips on all the news shows. CBS gets the exclusive — I am sure a bargaining point. Interesting also is that the Independent refers to Rather as the “man who sits in legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite’s chair.” At a times like this, a little more Cronkite is in order. How about that CBS?

The New York Times had its own angle on the Hussein interview, putting it in a cultural context: “The appearance of Mr. Hussein in the midst of it makes for a truly eclectic, if not peculiar, mix. His interview is sandwiched between an episode of “Star Search” and an interview with Robert Chambers, the ‘preppy murderer.’ABC News’s “20/20,” unable to round up any intriguing foreign despots of its own, is going later in the evening with Robert Blake, the has-been actor accused of killing his wife.

“The nation may be cruising toward one of those moments of cultural humiliation when the world compares the number of people who watch the Hussein interview with the 40 million who last week watched Joe Millionaire pick wholesome Zora over Sarah, the presumed gold-digger.”

COMEDY CHANNEL BONANZA

The very idea of a Bush-Hussein debate is also more grist for the comedy mill. I am not sure what the Comedy Channel is planning but over in the UK, Tim Dowling — I believe, in the Guardian –imagines what that could be like:

“Tony Blair, moderator: Welcome to the first televised debate between GeorgeW Bush and Saddam Hussein, live from United Nations headquarters in NewYork. We will begin with a brief opening statement from each of you.Bush: First of all I would just like to welcome my evil friend to the UN, one of the great American institutions for the propulsion of freedom throughout the world.

“Saddam: Thank you, Great Satan. I hope that in today’s debate we may find some common ground between the Iraqi people’s commitment to peace and human progress and America’s desire to destroy the Middle East.

“Bush: Do I answer that?

“Blair: No. The first question is quite simply this: do you have any links with al-Qaeda?

“Bush: I do not.

“Blair: The question is for President Saddam.

Saddam: As I told Mr Tony Benn clearly and simply, if I had links with al-Qaida and I enjoyed those links then I would not be ashamed to tell the world, but since I am ashamed to tell the world of this, it follows that I have no such links.

“Bush: Neither do I.

“Blair: The second question is for Mr Bush. Mr Bush, if America and Iraq were to go to war tomorrow, who would win?”…And on it goes.

MEDIA COVERAGE TOUCHING MINDS

The news reporting on the war’s build up continues, with more reports of military personnel shipping out, floating around on ships–as in the case of Turkey where 90% of the population is said to oppose US troops on their soil and where the Parliament is still debating (or being bought) as the case might be. The New York Times’ Eric Shmitt reports

‘Turkey Seems Set to Let 60,000 G.I.’s Use Bases for War At the same time, the U.S. Army’s top general said the military force for postwar Iraq could total several hundredthousand.” Globalvision News Network correspondent Adam McDonnel writes from Istanbul that men and materiel have already landed.

“USA Today’s (a headline) and yesterday’s NY Times reports on Turkey have specifically avoided the fact that the U.S. has been unloading armaments illegally for the last week in Iskenderun. Today CNN International broadcast a remarkable shot of one of the US military ships that is docked in Iskenderun. It was an extreme closeup since, if they had shown any more, it would have shown the hundreds of military vehicles that have already been unloaded. The commentary accompanying the shot also suggested that the armaments were still waiting offshore. The reportage in the Times and on CNN is, from my viewpoint, scandalous and highly misleading.”

MEDIA COVERAGE TOUCHING NERVES

On the print side, Jim Romanescu reports this morning on the dissatisfaction of some Washington Post readers with stories that name military units and personnel as if that is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, (Remember many of those who live in the Beltway work for the military,.”

Thomas Ricks’ story about U.S. forces hunting for weapon sites in Iraq, setting up a communications network and seeking defectors from Iraqi military units “not surprisingly drew complaints from many readers who said they were ‘aghast,’ ‘appalled’ and ‘incensed,’ among other descriptions, that The Post would publish such a story,” says Michael Getler. Ricks tells the omsbud: “I understand readers’ concerns. I think we should try to speak better to those concerns in stories like this,” but sometimes “that can be difficult to do.”

AND TOUCHING WALLETS

Magazines including Newsweek and US News and World Report are planning advertising free sections for their war coverage. Yahoo reports Princess Diana’s Ex-Lover James Hewitt is suing Fox News for more than $1 million for allegedly breaking a deal to hire him as a war correspondent. The prospect of war is leading to a unique kind of “trading between broadcast and print outlets. E&P reports that the Cox Newspapers are agreeing “to swap some of its reporters’ military embedding slots for newspaper stories from CNN staffers.”

CRACKING DOWN ON THE PRESS

Final note on anti-war news coverage. More than ten days after the anti-war march here in NY, the press is finally talking about how some members of the press were mistreated by the New York Police. Cynthia Cotts reports in the Village Voice:

“Mayor Bloomberg may love the way the NYPD handled the February 15 anti-war rally, but how do photographers who covered the rally rate the NYPD? Lensmen expect a certain amount of roughing up at rallies, even a broken lens or two, but some are calling this one too rough. Photogs from Britain and Maine felt disrespected and the Daily News complained that police mistreated two of its staff photographers. At times, police denied photographers access, forcing them into some areas and out of others, particularly when arrests were under way. Some cops viewed anyone with a camera as a target for verbal or physical aggression.

“There is a smoking gun behind these allegations: photos of police pushing a Daily News photographer, taken by New York-based freelance photographer Rob Bennett. See VillageVoice.com for some of these non-satellite photos.”

LOST AND FOUND

Meanwhile Iraq appears to be making progress on finding new weapons with Hans Blix, chief UN inspector calling these are “new positive” steps. Yesterday I had lunch with a top news personality who confirmed for me that the US has great deal of trouble tracking all of its weapons, including weapons of mass destruction. My partner Rory O’Connor told us about his research for a book on nukes that found vast amounts of inventory — including uranium–unaccounted for because it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. This is by far worse than my perennial efforts to find my glasses–which always go missing at the wrong time.

TRIAL BY MEDIA

In our media news, there’s some soul searching underway in England about the treatment of a news anchor accused and cleared of sexual abuse charge. An editorial in the Independent argues:

“We should not tolerate the injustice of trial by media. Matthew Kelly is hardly the first celebrity to have seen his reputation damaged by the excesses of the tabloid press and its equivalents in the broadcast media, but his case still raises some important, if familiar, questions about the reporting of serious allegations of sexual abuse.

“In fact, Mr Kelly, released without charge on Monday, may count himself lucky, insofar as his employers, Granada TV, have indicated that he can keep his job. That is an outcome that many of his peers, their careers shredded after similar allegations… ”

The Guardian reported yesterday in Britain that “A group of leading British academics are calling on members of the UK parliament to block changes to cross-media ownership laws that would allow Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to take control of the country’s channel Five. The communications bill would clear the way for foreign companies to acquire UK broadcasters for the first time and relaxes a host of other cross-media ownership rules.”

WEAR A FLOWER IN YOUR HAIR

In San Francisco, the Examiner, an old Hearst daily, is now to be offered for free. E&P reports:

“In a story about itself, the paper said its new strategy ‘follows an innovative publishing model that has proven successful in Philadelphia and Boston, following in the European tradition of free newspapers in urban centers.’… The once-mighty Examiner lost its battle for parity with the larger San Francisco Chronicle in 2000, when Hearst bought the Chronicle and sold the Examiner to a family that runs free papers in the San Francisco area.

TKO: JACK DOWNS RUDY:

Last night I hopped down to the National Arts Club for journalist Jack Newfield’s latest book party for the release (by For Nation Books) of Fully Rudy. Here at last, after years of deifying the former Mayor of the city he used to call the greatest on earth, is the information TIME magazine glossed over when they named him “Person of the Year.”

Newfield is fair but tough, and calls him a “C+ Mayor who has become a A+ myth.” Jack was saluted for his “fidelity to the truth” and praised for his skill at spotting “the bogus.” In his talk, he called Rudy a bully who misrepresented the true spirit of New York. (”He was the opposite of what New York City means to me,” and lambasted Rudy as a “moralist with a mistress.”

I liked his publisher’s description of his home study as “Dickensian” for all of its clutter — I can identify. The source of some amusement: Three people from the New York Sun “covered” the launch, hunting for gossip in a decidedly leftward leaning but all too humorless and straight crowd. The Sun suggested that each anti-war demonstrator on February 15th be flanked by two cops so they could all be prosecuted for treason. Earlier they editorialized against putting fluoride in the drinking water.

EMAIL: FIGHT BACK

In the email, in response to my invitation for more volunteers, an activist –a David out to slay the media Goliath–writes in to encourage all of us to become more media-active:

“i would suggest . . .Inject a little activism! I know you have been against this in the past, however, when you are pushed to the wall you have to start pushing back. Danny, you have an ARMY of affiliates, and you are respected by everybody in the media democracy movement. Launch a campaign for open media - be LOUD!! As MLK said “NOW IS THE TIME!” It is more evident than ever how biased and narrow minded our media is. We need to stand up and fight. Fight, danny, FIGHT! Think of a battle plan. Create an outreach program to YOUR 1000 troops (affiliates) - rally them - then we can milk the internet for everything it’s worth (and it’s worth a lot), and build up from there. also, put on some little events - conferences / workshops / spoken word / etc.. You know where i am coming from. Public Events = great marketing. There is a lot of exciting things happening now. Look at the quick success of the antiwar movement, the virtual march on washington, the poets against the war. With your affiliates you are siting on a gold mine of passion and commitment. AWAKE the masses!

“It takes a spectacle to beat a spectacle. ”

I have never been accused of being too tepid before….Ummmm….

PENPAL UGES PAYPAL

Nick writes to say “I enjoy your blog on a daily basis. It’s a great antidote to mainstream media bilge” and then offers a suggestion we have already acted upon:” allow people to contribute to your organization via Paypal. It wouldn’t require much effort and there are a very large number of people with Paypal accounts who feel more comfortable contributing through the Paypal mechanism as they would rather not fill out yet-another-credit-card-form on the Internet - especially since we hear about web sites being broken into and credit card numbers being stolen on a daily basis. (How’s that for a run-on sentence! :-) I for one would welcome it and would contribute.”

Thank you for your suggestion. We have already joined Paypal, and I hope to have a button up on the site later today. ( I want our tech people to make sure I don’t screw up.) Thanks for being here, and tuning in. Help us spread the word about the column. Circulate it to your friends and enemies. Help us keep Mediachannel channeling. Write to me, Danny Schechter, your news dissector: dissector@mediachannel.org