LENNY BRUCE (R.I.P) FINALLY WINS ONE

MAD COWS IN A MAD LAND

PROTESTS AGAINST PENTAGON TV

When the late and great comedian Lenny Bruce quipped “In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls,” I am sure he could not anticipate that so many years later his conviction for “word crimes” would be lifted in the State of New York, which with other jurisdictions did so much to harass and torment him into an early grave. We can be grateful for this act of post facto compassion even though our prisons are stuffed with men and women whose appeals for amnesty and parole go unheard. Let us think of them on this Christmas Eve and of all the victims in the long parade of victims in this age of war, terror and counterterror.

Someone in the New York Times has picked up on the Red/Green versus Orange color war metaphor that I raised the other day. The last-minute stampede for Christmas gifts takes place under elevated alert and rainy skies on a warm and wet Christmas Eve.

I am the only mouse stirring in my office as the call of the blog drives me out of bed and to this all-too-familiar computer terminal groaning under an excess of words. Lenny Bruce spoke spontaneously; I have to write my words down hoping that someone will take notice. Incidentally, I live in Chelsea, not far from where Clement Moore wrote “The Night Before Christmas.” Talk about words that live on…

SAFE SKIES?

Maybe it’s because of the Christmas season but a jury was unexpectedly merciful in Virginia and the tormented John Lee Malvo will escape the death sentence for now. It is not clear if our country will. Slowly information leaks out — or more probably is leaked — to advise us of what our protectors of the homeland fear. MSNBC reports,

New intelligence information indicates that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy personally approved the attack plan that led the US government to raise the nation’s terror threat assessment this week. US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said US intelligence agencies had gathered detailed information about the plan, in which they said al-Qaida operatives would hijack foreign airliners and fly them into targets in the United States. In some instances, the intelligence is so detailed as to include specific flight numbers.

THAT MAD COW

As if there is not enough to worry about, now a mad cow — or rather a cow with this affliction has been found on our shores. And where there is one, more are likely to follow. This is a subject about which John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote a book, and they return to the subject today in their PR watch:

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber’s 1997 book Mad Cow USA warned that unless the US adopted the same strict regulations implemented in Britain, including a ban on feeding rendered slaughterhouse waste as animal feed, mad cow disease would eventually emerge in the US. The US failed to act and late Tuesday the Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced that the first US case of mad cow disease has appeared in a “downer cow” in the state of Washington. Within minutes of USDA’s news conference John Stauber was interviewed on CNN?. You can read an interview Stauber gave this August warning that the disease was likely also in the US. In related news, Nature reports what might be the first case of human mad cow disease spread by blood transfusion. In laboratory experiments blood plasma can spread mad cow-typed diseases, but the US government allows calves to be fed milk formula containing cattle blood plasma as a source of protein.

(http://www.prwatch.org/spin/December_2003.html#1072242000)

Editor’s note: Meanwhile, Steve Mitchell of UPI reports that the USDA can’t come up with the documentation for the testing they did in 2002 and 2003:

… [T]he agency for six months repeatedly refused to release its tests for mad cow to United Press International.

The USDA claims to have tested approximately 20,000 cows for the disease in 2002 and 2003, but has been unable to provide any documentation in support of this to UPI, which first requested the information in July.
. . .
USDA officials told UPI as recently as Dec. 17 the agency still is searching for documentation of its mad cow testing results from 2002 and 2003.
. . .
. . . Japan — the biggest importer of U.S. beef — and South Korea both banned the importation of American meat.

(http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/12230000aaa02d2e.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=LATEBRKN&Type=News&Filter=Late%20Breaking)

According to UPI, seven other countries have formally or informally banned American beef. (http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/12240000aaa04bd4.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=HELTHSCI&Type=News&Filter=Health/Science)

Interesting that South Korea was among the first to impose the ban. The Rev. Moon owns UPI and a substantial chunk of South Korea.

BUSH FEARS FOREIGN DONORS

In politics, there is no respite from nastiness for the holidays. A fund solicitation from the Republican Party accuses liberals of seeking “foreign money” to defeat Bush. So-called foreign money has usually been the province of the GOP and rarely disclosed until years later. But the bashing has begun. Here’s part of an email from “Ken Mehlman Campaign Manager”:

In my last e-mail I told you wealthy liberals, led by billionaire George Soros, plan to spend $400 million to defeat President Bush. Now comes word that Soros and his anti-war allies are soliciting foreign money to use against President Bush.

One group Soros supports is telling liberal foreign donors they have “a chance to defeat [Bush] — even if you are not an American.” Read more at: www.gopusa.com/news/2003/december/1216_moveon_scandal.shtml

To beat these billionaire liberals and the flood of foreign money they’re encouraging, we need your help today.

If you thought liberal special interest groups raising foreign cash to attack our President was bad enough … Democrat presidential candidates are doing it too!

Web sites for Wesley Clark and Howard Dean direct visitors from outside the United States to liberal fundraising Web sites where foreign donors can pledge money to fund left-wing efforts to defeat President Bush.

This news comes days after Democrat candidate Howard Dean floated the absurd conspiracy theory that President Bush knew of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, saying, “The most interesting theory that I’ve heard so far … is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis.”

It doesn’t stop there. This week, Dean declared that, “The capture of Saddam has not made America safer.” Etc. etc.

TONY AND GEORGE — HAS THE ROMANCE DIMMED?

On another political front, London’s Mirror reports a falling in the old “Coalition of the Willing.” It seems that Tony Blair may not be as willing as he once was. Political editor Chris Mclaughlin writes about “the big fall out”:

Tony Blair and George Bush’s love-in has collapsed over the rebuilding of Iraq.

The two leaders have fallen out over plans for the reconstruction of the country and the heavy-handed action of American troops against the civilian population. And the rift has been deepened by a Washington ban on a proposed morale-boosting visit by the PM to British troops in Iraq during the Christmas holiday.

According to diplomats, relations between the allies have gone into “deep freeze” since the capture of Saddam Hussein last weekend. President Bush was incensed that Mr Blair stole Washington’s thunder by being the first Western leader to confirm that the former dictator had been arrested by US troops.

Downing Street rushed out Mr Blair’s announcement before he had spoken to the American leader early last Sunday, when Mr Bush - six hours behind London - was still in bed.

Whitehall insiders confirmed that Mr Blair’s decision was partly out of anger over a US veto on his proposed visit to British troops in Iraq during the Christmas holiday.

Presidential advisers in Washington wanted Mr Bush to be the sole leader to make a Christmas visit to troops in Baghdad and urged Downing Street to postpone any visit.

The US refused to co-operate on security arrangements for a Christmas visit by Mr Blair, who is going to spend the festive season with his family in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh.

Mr Blair and Mr Bush have had at least three phone conversations during the past seven days which Whitehall officials described as “increasingly terse.”

(http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/news/content_objectid=13746358_method=full_siteid=106694_headline=-BUSH-AND-BLAIR–THE-BIG-FALL-OUT-name_page.html)

C-SPAN BAGHDAD OR BREMER TV?

Resistance seems to be emerging to government plans for “Occupation TV,” the Pentagon Good News network. They are calling it “CSPAN Baghdad,” but you can bet what they have in mind has little resemblance to CSPAN, which on a good day does offer a diversity of views.

This is the brainchild of Dorrance Smith, who went from Ted Koppel’s Nightline to the White House and is now Paul Bremer’s media advisor. Joe Hagan of the New York Observer quotes him as saying the goal is to “get our message out without having to create an event and have it be covered by somebody and be seen through their filter.” Writing in the Boston Globe, Mark Jurkowitz reports:

News executives of most Boston television stations are decidedly unenthusiastic about a Bush administration plan to transmit news footage from Iraq for local TV outlets in an attempt to supplement media coverage from that war-torn country.

The satellite link, dubbed “C-SPAN Baghdad,” is designed to put a more positive spin on events and circumvent the major networks by making it possible for press conferences, interviews with troops and dignitaries, and even footage from the field to be transmitted from Iraq for use by regional and local media outlets, according to news accounts.

“I’m kind of appalled by it. I think it’s very troubling,” said Charles Kravetz, vice president of news at the regional cable news outlet NECN. “I think the government has no business being in the news business.”

“We have no interest in this,” said WBZ-TV (Channel 4) news director Peter Brown. “The Fourth Estate is independent and should remain so. As news providers, we should go there and see for ourselves.”

In Globe interviews, government officials downplayed the suggestion that this is an attempt to manage the news. . . .

(http://search.boston.com/dailyglobe2/353/nation/Iraq_news_feed_draws_criticism+.shtml)

LEAKS THAT HURT

On another media issue that raises questions about media overreaching rather than government media management, Robert Scheer writes about the case of Chinese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee. Lee was convicted of spying in the press but later exonerated in the courts.

Should government agents, operating on their own authority and in violation of privacy law, be allowed to smear Americans by leaking false information to the media? Are journalists who print those lies protected by the 1st Amendment from revealing their sources, thereby preventing those falsely accused from obtaining justice through lawsuits?

Those issues were raised by a federal judge’s recent ruling that demanded the names of the sources used by reporters who in 1999 printed false claims that scientist Wen Ho Lee had passed on nuclear secrets to China.

Lee was held in solitary confinement for nine months before the government’s case collapsed and 58 of the 59 charges against him were dropped. The conservative Reagan-appointed judge in the case said in freeing Lee, “I sincerely apologize to you, Dr. Lee, for the unfair manner in which you were held in custody by the executive branch.”

To sue for violation of his rights under the federal Privacy Act, Lee must identify the government agencies that leaked the defamatory information. Last week, New York Times reporters Jeff Gerth and James Risen, who did the most to hype claims of Lee spying for China, for which the paper later apologized, defied the judge’s order to reveal their sources. (Three other reporters — including one from the Los Angeles Times — are also under subpoena.)
. . .
Lee is now exercising a sacred legal right — that of the accused to confront his accuser. Free-press advocates should be more interested in exposing how the government manipulated the media to malign a loyal citizen than in defending the right of reporters to protect anonymous sources.

(http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=16193)

O JERUSALEM

Wasn’t it a year ago when the church in Bethlehem had become the epicenter of a conflict between the Israeli Army and Palestinians? Now from Israel comes a story that speaks to the underside of that country’s economy and the audacity of its leaders. The Guardian reports:

Chinese workers at a company in Israel have been forced to agree not to have sex with or marry Israelis as a condition of getting a job.

According to a contact they are required to sign, male workers may not have any contact with Israeli women - including prostitutes, a police spokesman, Rafi Yaffe, said.

He said there was nothing illegal about the requirement and no investigation had been opened against the company.
. . .
The labourers are also forbidden in the contract from engaging in any religious or political activity. Those who violate the agreement will be sent back to China at their own expense.

About 260,000 foreigners work in Israel, having replaced Palestinian labourers during three years of fighting. When the government first began to allow the entrance of the foreign workers in the late 1990s, ministers warned of a “social time bomb” caused by workers assimilating with Israelis.

(www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1112442,00.html)

FIDEL ON SADDAM

AP reports that

Cuban leader Fidel Castro said he repeatedly warned Saddam Hussein to leave Kuwait after the 1990 invasion but that the former Iraqi dictator’s “mistakes'’ did not justify the U.S.-led war.

Castro, who was in Venezuela for one day to meet with President Hugo Chavez, said he tried on numerous occasions to persuade Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait, warning the Iraqi leader that, not just Western countries, but also Arab nations, would turn against him.

(http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/world/7552239.htm)

DISSECTOR VIEWS NETWORK

Donald writes:

Hi Danny. I only sporadically read you, but after I do I realize I should do so more often. So many blogs to read, but yours is one of the best. I have a couple of related topics to rant about–I hope you’re interested.

The opinion piece by Jeffrey Rosen (Dec 21 Week in Review) talks about the problems that might come up in a Saddam trial–he might mention how the US used to help him when he was using poison gas, and he might question the legality of the invasion. He might also use the trial to stir up anti-American sentiment. All that is true. What is interesting is that the NYT writer then gives advice to the future court on how to keep embarrassing facts from playing any role.

Now on the one hand they have a point–Saddam’s trial should be about the crimes of Saddam. But on the other hand, shouldn’t there also be public accountability for US officials? They will never come to trial, so the only chance that we’ll ever have to see their misdeeds come to light in a courtroom would be in a situation like Saddam’s trial. But the NYT, which always sees foreign policy from the US government viewpoint, is more worried about anti-Americanism than it is about uncovering the truth in a legal setting. It took them days to write their own story about the National Security Archive’s discovery of files concerning Rumsfeld’s 1984 trip to Iraq, and I suspect that if the Washington Post and probably others hadn’t covered it, they might have ignored it. The NYT story came out today, but weblog readers knew about it last week.

Getting back to Saddam’s trial, his crimes should be fully exposed. But unfortunately it’s only going to happen because he became an enemy of the US. If he had remained an ally, there wouldn’t be this massive US interest in uncovering his crimes….

THE “MEDIA TORRENT”

Danny Cassidy bellows from his sinecure in the hills of San Francisco:

The aircraft carrier, the airport turkey, the capture of Saddam? these photo-op moments of triumph are already becoming a pattern, just in case no one noticed. There is the euphoria; there are the declarations of November election success by the pundits; there is the glow; there is the nectar; there is victory in the air; and then the media torrent (to use Todd Gitlin’s wonderful phrase) sweeps on to another moment, the banners droop, and in Iraq, where an under-armed group of insurgents continue somehow to drive events, where an oppositional mood is deeply embedded, where in this century as in the last nationalism and occupation are a combustible brew? well, you finish this sentence.

“GLORIFIED GRIFTERS”

Dominick Mastroserio sent me the Bush Campaign letter above (”BUSH FEARS FOREIGN DONORS”) and this comment:

Get a good look at this. Imagine what sociopathic, xenophobic paranoia must course through the cold blooded circulatory systems of these maniacs if they think they need to augment their already overflowing pirate’s chests of illegal contributions by attempting to appeal to the zombified hordes of quasi-organisms struggling to rise up from the primal slime who have propensities to follow them into Armageddon if spending millions on ads such as these below will do the trick. I thought that perhaps the mendacity and swinish ordure these glorified grifters and murderers seem to love to bask roil in was putrid enough. I was mistaken as you can see?

MERRY MUSINGS

And so as the rain falls on and e-mail falls off, its time to say adieu for a few days of holiday relief and meditation. We have been heartened by all of the generous gifts flooding in via PAY PAL and the US mail. If you do send us checks make them out to THE GLOBAL CENTER (and mark “Mediachannel” below). Donations are tax-deductible.

My special thanks goes out to Andy Hughes who stepped up to the plate and has done such a great job of editing the column, to Tim, Elizabeth and Doug who do the work of a small army on Mediachannel, to my partner Rory who has been contributing more of late and also now writes for AM New York, to Tony Sutton and Coldtype net which is coming out with a best of next week, to Anna Pizzaro and Kozo Okumura who have been helping to make our film WMD against the odds, to all of our GlobalVisioneers, interns, volunteers and well-wishers.

This has not been the best of years, but we made it through to another Christmas Eve. That is an achievement at a time when many funders look the other way and money continues to pour into the spider hole of politics where mighty war chests are amassed that will end up being spent financing TV ads. Reminder: Our media is often the problem, folks, not the solution.

OK, I will give you a rest from my rants and dissections for a few days. I am sure I will be back if there are some world-shaking events to worry about. For now, a Merry Christmas, Happy News Year and to all a good night.

Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org