WELCOME MOVE ON: LINKING MEDIA, WAR, AND THE FCC DEBATE

MEDIA DOWNPLAYS WMDs

ROSTER OF NY MEDIA EVENTS

Happy May Day. If you are a worker outside the United States, in many parts of the world (save China this year because of SARS) this is a holiday you mark by marches and meetings. It was actually a holiday birthed by activists and anarchists in the US in the l880s as part of the fight for the 8-hour day which is now being eroded.

Like many a progressive innovation, May Day was soon negated. Labor Day at summer’s end was conceived as a safer substitute to replace the whiff of insurgency in the streets with the smell of barbecue at backyard picnics. And then in l958 May Day itself was officially proclaimed Law Day by President Eisenhower after being lobbied by the American Bar Association. And this year, we go higher (keeping with the evangelical spirit of the Messiah in Chief), Congress has proclaimed today NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. You will hear about this a lot on TV tonight as we watch President Bush 1 on the deck of an aircraft carrier named after a completely different type of Republican, Abraham Lincoln. Your News Dissector brings you this short Mediachannel History Moment because no else will.

MEDIA SILENCE ON FCC PLANSThree hundred prominent academics are calling on FCC Chairman Michael, son of Colin, Powell to challenge a proposed “Diversity” index that will be used to lift certain broadcast regulation. You won’t hear much about this because it is not being covered, as media scholar Nancy Snow, a Mediachannel advisor, noted in recent public hearings conducted by the FCC to allow the public to comment on new media rules that most of the public know nothing about.

Said Snow in part: “Brian Lowry, media writer of the Los Angeles Times, has stated that the FCC new rule changes affecting consolidation and ownership of media are tremendously underreported, perhaps the most underreported news story of our time. In fact, the consolidation story is being reported, but not on the front pages of our newspapers. It is in the business and finance sections of newspapers and broadcast industry publications where only those in-the-know and industry insiders follow the subject. We the people have become Walter Lippmann’s “bewildered herd,” and are forced to function like the angry mob at the gates or the proverbial peanut gallery, occasionally whining that nothing is on to watch, but we know not where to turn for help, so we just keep watching. And by the way, no one in this room has bothered to address the addictive qualities of television. Jerry Mander wrote about the insidiousness of TV over twenty years ago in Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.

“It is truly ironic that as we sit here today discussing American press ownership, the United States Government is rebroadcasting Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jennings on Iraqi TV to show the Iraqi people what a free press looks like in a democracy. Before we teach others about democracy, we might try practicing it here at home”

MEDIACHANNEL.ORG WELCOMES MOVE ON

On that note, we welcome members of Move On who may be receiving the following short essay that offers a link between this issue — and what we see and hear on TV. (A version appears today as a guest editorial in TV Week, the industry trade paper.)

LINKING MEDIA, THE WAR, AND OUR RIGHT TO KNOW

By now, all of us realize that there was a media war promoting the war on Iraq and a high powered media campaign aimed at shaping the views of the American people, relying on a media savvy political strategy to sell the Administrations priorities and policies.

There is a link between the media, the war, and the Bush Administration that many activists are even unaware of.

Few Administrations in history have been as adept at using polling, focus groups, “perception managers,” spinners and IO (”information operations”) specialists to sell slogans to further a “patriotically correct” climate. Orchestrating media coverage is one of their most well-honed skills, aided and abetted by professional PR firms, corporate consultants, and media outlets.

Our Republican Guard relies on Murdoch owned media assets like The Fox News Channel, supportive newspapers, aggressive talk radio, conservative columnists, and an arsenal of on-air pundits adept at polarizing opinion and devaluing independent journalism.

MEDIA MERGERS MAKE IT WORSE

They benefit from a media environment shaped by a wave of media consolidation that has seen the number of companies controlling our media dropping from fifty to seven in just ten years has put control in fewer and fewer hands as well as a merger of news biz and show biz. Entertainment-oriented reality shows help depoliticize viewers while sensational driven cable news limits analytical journalism and in-depth issue oriented coverage.

Is it any wonder that most Americans admit to being uninformed about many of the key issues we confront? Is it surprising that many blindly follow feel good slogans or appeals to national unity and conformity?

This media problem is at the heart of all the issues that we face. And it is getting worse not better.

TIME TO “MOVE ON THE MEDIA”

If we want to save our democracy, we have to move on the media and press the press with a creative campaign to encourage media outlets to do their constitutionally protected job as a watchdog on power. We must insist that all views be given access, and that the concerns of critics of this Administration be heard and debated.

We are in a climate where even journalists are being intimidated for stepping out of line. In Iraq, the hotel assigned to journalists was fired on by soldiers., Two media workers died. In America Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh was baited as “media terrorist” by Pentagon advisor Richard Perle. Hundreds of journalists were “embedded” to sanitize war coverage. Independent journalists were harassed or ignored. Anti-war commercials have been suppressed and censored while conservative talking heads outnumber all the others by several hundred percent.

BANFIELD IS BASHED FOR SPEAKING OUT

Last week MSNBC’s Ashleigh Banfield spoke at a college about coverage of the war. She was honest and critical.

“There were horrors that were completely left out of this war. So was this journalism? Or was this coverage?” she asked. “As a journalist, I have been ostracized just from going on television and saying, ‘Here’s what the leaders of Hezbollah, a radical Moslem group, are telling me about what is needed to bring peace to Israel,’” she said. “And, ‘Here’s what the Lebanese are saying.’ Like it or lump it, don’t shoot the messenger, but that’s what they do.”

The “they” undoubtedly was her bosses at the GE and Microsoft-owned channel who fired top-rated talk show host Phil Donahue and then used the war to try to out -fox Fox with promos proclaiming “God Bless America.” They quickly sought to silence Banfield.

“NBC News president Neal Shapiro has taken correspondent Ashleigh Banfield to the woodshed for a speech in which she criticized the networks for portraying the Iraqi war as “glorious and wonderful” reported the Hollywood Reporter.

An official spokesperson said: “She and we both agreed that she didn’t intend to demean the work of her colleagues, and she will choose her words more carefully in the future.” This sounds like the kind of patronizing statement you would expect in Pravda — or Baghdad’s old Ministry of misinformation. In Saddam’s Iraq, she would have been done for. Let’s see what happens at NBC.

DENOUNCED BY RUSH,. CALLED A “SLUT”

Already, Rush Limbaugh is calling on her to move to Al Jazeera. Michael Savidge, a new right wing host on MSNBC who has replaced Donahue, has even branded his own colleague a “slut.” On the air! Today’s New York Post bashes Banfield some more with a report implying that her comments were part of a plot to save a failing career and that MSNBC was planning not to renew her contract. Sources at that equally brave CNN supposedly said “there was ‘no way’Banfield would be hired after what she pulled.”

What she pulled was to simply speak out without network approval. We will see if NBC takes action against another of its news stars. Johnathan Alter, male, who usually sits in the middle of the road on these issues told a media forum this week that there is a lack of explanation on the air of what we see.

THE “WASTELAND OF MIRRORS”

“It becomes a wasteland of mirrors which can reflect or distort our impression of the world. Being informed isn’t enough anymore. Did anybody see a single American corpse? …That’s how we wanted it.”

Even mainstream media monitor Howard Kurtz is now looking back in anguish. “Despite the investment of tens of millions of dollars and deployment of hundreds of journalists, the collective picture they produced was often blurry,” he wrote, raising questions like: “Were readers and viewers well-served or deluged with confusing information? And what does all of this portend for coverage of future wars?”

There are other questions that need asking. What is the connection between the war and pro-Bush coverage we have been seeing and the upcoming June 2 FCC decision, which is expected to relax broadcast regulations. Is it unthinkable to suggest that big media companies–who stand to make windfall profits once Colin Powell’s son, Michael Powell, engineers rules that permit more media mergers and concentration–would want to appease and please an administration that frequently bullies its opponents?

IF MEDIA MOGULS GET WHAT THEY WANT

According to experts cited by the Los Angeles Times, if the media moguls get what they want, only a dozen or so companies will own most U.S. stations, giving them even more control over the marketplace of ideas than they already have.

Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy explains why this issue is so important: “The ownership rules on the FCC chopping block have been developed over the last fifty years. They have been an important safeguard ensuring the public’s basic First Amendment rights. The rationale for these policies is that they help provide for a diverse media marketplace of ideas, essential for a democracy. They have not been perfect. But the rules have helped constrain the power of the corporate media giants.”

The FCC is, in effect, holding out the possibility of freeing the networks from restrictions on buying up more stations. At a time when the industry is hurting financially, big bucks are once again being dangled in front of media moguls. No wonder none will challenge the government on the current war effort?

ONLY BIG MEDIA CAN REPORT OUR WARS

Would you be surprised that the conservative news service gave its award for best Iraq war coverage of the war to Dan Rather (not Fox because of Geraldo). CBS was once admired for the reporting of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.

Michael Powell of the FCC makes the connection between the war and his agenda. He says that bigger media companies are needed more than ever because only they can cover the war they way the Iraq war was covered. He warns that free TV will end if his new rules don’t pass.

Need he say any more?

At first glance, the relationship between media concentration and what we see on TV seems tenuous. But is it? The cutbacks in coverage of the world that left so many Americans uninformed and unprepared for what happened on 9/11 took place amidst this greatest wave of media consolidation in history. It has already had an effect. And yes it can get worse.

Unless and until Americans of conscience who care about their country make the media issue their own.

ROAD MAP TO NOWHERE

The “road map” to peace in the Middle East is off to a predictably rocky start with yesterday’s smiles by members of the Quartet who are seeking to impose its terms and this morning’s sense of horror as a new suicide bomber strikes in Tel Aviv and Israeli tanks and helicopters attack “terrorists” in Gaza. As usual also is the play-by-play type reporting that describes what is happening with little context or background offered. Unreported everywhere but in South Africa was this report from Johannesburg’s Mail and Guardian: “South African leaders are to share their experience of the transition to democracy with Israeli and Palestinians at a special conference beginning on Sunday.”

Lloyd Hart, a member of our informal frequent reader and contributors club comments on the road map with a clarity that one doesn’t find on the air. He calls it “Just More Catch-22:” “This so-called road map to peace that was delivered to the Palestinian and Israeli governments today is just a continuation of the unstated Bush regime policy of “no negotiations as long as there’s violence which means no negotiations at all ever.” This has been Ariel Sharon’s policy and when Bush came to power it became the Bush regime’s policy. In the first phase of this so-called road map to peace there must be a cease-fire by the end of May, 2003. Both Bush and Sharon knew almost for certain that Hamas and Islamic Jihad would not agree to a cease-fire as they are fighting for immediate withdrawal of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank as well as the total abolition of the Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. So for anyone from the Bush regime, to the Blair regime to claim to be honest brokers is of course simply the second lie after the first lie. The first lie being the road map to peace itself….’

COMEDY CENTRAL’S DAILY SHOW HUNTS FOR MISSING WEAPONS

Last night’s Daily Show with John Stewart proved once again why so many people, sick of the newsless news on other channels, are tuning in. In about two minutes, it hilariously parodied the hunt for weapons allegedly underway in Iraq. The thrust was that it is the US which is now asking for more time, sounding increasingly like the UN’s Hans Blix did when he sought support for the inspections process.

Writing in Yellow Times.org, Mathew Riemer indicts weapons of “mass deception” for starting to downplay the issue that was the main rationale for war. ‘

“Now, as the memory of the U.S. invasion of Iraq is fading and thesupposed process of rebuilding has begun, many in the media — includingNational Public Radio — are asking whether or not it’s important if theU.S. (or someone) finds WMD in Iraq. It seems the obvious, almostreflexive, response to this is: “Wasn’t this one of the major pretextsfor the fighting of this war, if not the most significant one. How,under any circumstances, could this issue become unimportant?” It’s likeasking the relevance of whether or not someone has actually committedthe crime for which they have been found guilty as they are beingincarcerated. Yet the conclusion the pundits seem to be reaching is thatWMD are now indeed irrelevant. In fact, the NPR news show “Here and Now”was so excited about it that they emphasized the fact by stating thatthis is how Thomas Friedman feels.

“Washington’s expert use of the term “weapons of mass destruction,” then,has, through exaggeration and manipulation, created a distorted pictureof Iraq’s military capability, which then created a much-needed pretextfor war — a preemptive war at that — and has now proven to bedisposable as, suddenly, the phrase that used to be on everyone’s lipshas become the hottest non-topic.”

TRIBUNAL FOR IRAQ, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE US?

Human Rights Watch has been lobbying on the need to have an international tribunal prosecute past human rights abuses committed in Iraq. Their monthly email report says: “Several days later, the U.S. Congress passed a supplemental appropriations bill. One provision of the bill sets aside $10,000,000 for an international tribunal, as well as related investigations, on the Iraqi government’s genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”

Another Al Qaeda suspect has been nabbed in Pakistan even as Newsweek suspects that an investigation of 9/11 is being suppressed. The magazine is reporting on its web site “Even as White House political aides plot a 2004 campaign plan designed to capitalize on the emotions and issues raised by the September 11 terror attacks, administration officials are waging a behind-the-scenes battle to restrict public disclosure of key events relating to the attacks.<

“At the Center of the dispute is a more-than-800-page secret report preparedby a joint congressional inquiry detailing the intelligence and law-enforcement failures that preceded the attacks including provocative, if unheeded warnings, given President Bush and his top advisers during the summer of 2001. The report was completed last December; only a bare-bones list of “findings” with virtually no details was made public…”

SARS COVERAGE MISLEADING

Doug George sent along this item on SARs by Yvonne Liu, who complains about the media coverage: “I consciously boycott corporate media and was interested to find thesestirrings of fear arise after browsing on the NY Times and Newsweek site,where stories about SARS are interwoven with not too subtle political jabsat the Chinese state, and its veil of secrecy surrounding the outbreak. Idistrust this line of thinking, just as I resent the extension of controlthe state exerts because of a “public health threat” over people’s bodies,which limits your mobility, your freedom in its immediate sense.

“Some interesting facts from ZNet, compare these numbers to the total 353deaths worldwide of SARS as of 29 April 2003 from the World HealthOrganization:

“250,000 to 500,000 people die every year around the world due to ordinaryinfluenza, the common `garden variety’ flu. In the United States alone,with a vaccine and medical care available, flu kills 36,000 people dieevery year.

“- Anywhere between 1 to 2.7 million die every year due to Malaria–a vastmajority of them in Africa, particularly children.

“- Tuberculosis kills 2 million people every year and 98 per cent of these in developing countries.

‘- HIV/AIDS claimed 3 million lives in 2002, including an estimated 610,000children.

MORE OF YOUR LETTERS

Bob Russell of Neahtawanta Center writes from Traverse City, Michigan: “MediaChannel.org is a great resource! Thanks. We have a small media project just starting in the Traverse City area. If you have a moment please visit the site about media bias at local TV station. After people visited our web page, http://ventingmedia.com/forton , the reporter was written-up and taken off any future stories about anti-war protests.”

Larry Piltz checks in from Austin Texas: “Earthlink’s homepage news is provided by the Associated Press. A recent early morning headline specifically included the death toll of 13 Iraqi civilians (something like — U.S. Troops Kill 13 Iraqis at Protest). Disturbingly, by that afternoon the identical story had a headline reading, “U.S. Troops Fire on Protest.” Now, today’s Earthlink news includes another “unethically cleansed” headline about another protest massacre that makes no mention whatsoever of an additional two Iraqi civilians killed. Whitewash is the antithesis of journalism. It’s a form of censorship. And racism is at its heart, along with craven cowardice. Editors who give the orders to manipulate the news like this, and those who obey them, all deserve their own media Nuremberg, perhaps presented as the game show the news has become.

“In another matter, do you think it’s likely that CNN’s and the other networks’ TV-analyst generals were part of the Pentagon’s promised disinformation campaign, that had everybody saying that there weren’t enough troops or supplies to take Baghdad? Suddenly, after that studied clamor of criticism by the analysts of Rumsfeld’s tactics, Baghdad almost immediately was captured. I think we were intentionally misled by these retired military, as part of a strategy that egregiously used news media naivete and predictability. These retired generals’ loyalties are and will always be with the Pentagon’s line, and they should all be banned from the public air waves. Remember, Rumsfeld long ago promised disinformation against “the enemy” throughout the “terror wars.” Some of us knew even then who that enemy really included. It’s typical of the Bush junta’s operative manifesto: “You’re either with us, or we hate you.”

MEDIA CHANNEL URGED TO EMULATE MOVE ON

Ironically this letter came in just we were asked to share some information for an action alert that MoveOn.org is sending to its members. If you are a MOVEOner, welcome. Please sign up for our weblog and mediachanne weekly email.

“Don’t get me wrong. MC is FANTASTIC. It’s smart, appealing, chock-full of the right stuff. But…I read the statement by Nancy Snow to the FCC. I really felt that there is no coherent movement addressing the most immediate cause of American ignorance and hypocrisy. (The most direct cause is unchecked corporatism of course, but theeffective route to the root - in the U.S.A – is via the immediate.) I’ve been reading through the fantastic reports on MC, yet come away feeling scared and lonely. MC amounts to reasoned lefty complaining about the problem, offering very little that we can REALLY do about it beyond the small, feel-good, and more thansometimes symbolic. Groups like MC need to be taking an example from MOVEON.org and working – as if it’s a national emergency, which it is – to appeal to and rouse the mainstream American mind. MC is situated to help do this.

“MoveOn.org will always have a role to play in America as long as “trusted” information is controlled by the rich few. And the rest of us will have good reason to remain lonely and scared.

ROSTER OF UPCOMING EVENTS

Thanks for joining us this morning. I will be busy these next few days with a series of events that you are most welcome to attend if you live in the New York area

Today, May l: I will be speaking at Columbia University at a UN panel for World Press Freedom Day. 4-6 PM, 6th Floor, School of International Public Affairs ll8th street and Amsterdam.

Saturday May 3: 3 PM Media Panel with Amy Goodman and others at the City University Graduate Center at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. This is a big weekend long event with Ralph Nader and a cast of thousands. Our appreciation to Rick Ulfik of WE for inviting us.

Saturday NIGHT — 8-11, TRIBUTE TO ALLEN GINSBERG and benefit for alternative media including Democracy Now, FAIR and Mediachannel.org. Amy Goodman and Peter Hart will join me at the Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery, New York City. .Thanks to poet Eliot Katz for arranging this fun event.

Sunday, May 4, 8 PM: INDY MEDIA EVENT, Walker Stage, 56 Walker Street, Lower Manhattan, See http://www.informationliberationfront.net for details. Hats off to War Cry for her vision in this event.

If you live in these parts, we hope you can share this media weekend with us. If you can’t, stay in touch with me and mediachannel. Write dissector@mediachannel.org. IF YOU ARE A NEW READER, SCROLL UP FOR HOW YOU CAN JOIN MEDIA CHANNEL: The # 1 source of media news and views.

There is also information on how to order MEDIA WARS, our new book on news at a time of terror. Please donate to support our work, by clicking on PAYPAL ON THE HOME PAGE.