ALL SADDAM’S TRIALS

MEDIA NEEDS REDEMPTION

WMD CITED IN BOSTON GLOBE

Ok class, let’s open our copies of Alice in Wonderland. Let me draw your attention to a phrase relevant to today’s news. It is a pithy one: “first the sentence, then the trial.”

And so from the rabbit hole of Iraq, we have this report topping Al Jazeera:

Saddam to appear before Iraqi judges

Saddam Hussein is to be handed over to Iraqi authorities on Wednesday, but US occupation forces would still be guarding him. He will be entitled to a lawyer in the proceedings of a special tribunal that is likely to drag on for months.

i justice, Bush style justice, with or without international standards? Will it rate the attention paid to the Laci Peterson case, or Allah forbid, the OJ case? Are we talking Court TV specials? What other news like the US election will this divert our attention from? Has this “evil doer” not already been tried and convicted by the media? And what are the charges likely to be? BBC takes a crack at that one coming up with a list:

• Invasion of Kuwait
• Suppression of Kurd and Shia uprisings
• Iran-Iraq War
• Gas attack on Kurds

aqi law? Was his invasion illegal while ours was not? No one has mentioned yet that Saddam may call as witnesses some of his co-conspirators, enablers and armers — like Donald Rumsfeld et.al. The jailed dictator deserves his day in court but so do others, don’t ya think?

WHY THE RUSH?

Again Al Jazeera has the story: “George W. Bush is under pressure from Republican allies to have Saddam Hussein put on trial swiftly, a move they hope might boost support for the Iraq war before the November presidential election.

“Putting a spotlight on Saddam’s record of execution and torture could help shore up public support for the invasion damaged by a US prison abuse scandal, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said on Wednesday.

“Specter said he has been lobbying Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to expedite Saddam’s trial to as early as August.”

Anyone remember Specter’s stellar performance in the interrogation of Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas Hearings, or before that his artful advocacy of the “single bullet theory” before the Warren Commission investigating the murder of JFK.

IS THE NEW GOVERNMENT IN IRAQ LEGIT?

Large chunks of the US press continue to treat the new Iraqi government as legitimate. The Independent’s Robert Fisk as usual takes another approach:

“So in the end, America’s enemies set the date. The handover of “fullsovereignty” was secretly brought forward so that the ex-CIA intelligenceofficer who is now “Prime Minister” of Iraq could avoid another bloodyoffensive by America’s enemies. What is supposed to be the most importantdate in Iraq’s modern history was changed - like a birthday party - becauseit might rain on Wednesday.

“Pitiful is the word that comes to mind. Here we were, handing “fullsovereignty” to the people of Iraq - “full”, of course, providing we forgetthe 160,000 foreign soldiers whom the Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, hasapparently asked to stay in Iraq, “full” providing we forget the 3,000 USdiplomats in Baghdad who will constitute the largest US embassy in theworld - without even telling the Iraqi people that we had changed the date.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp

MEDIA, REDEEM THYSELF

The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuval indicts the media coverage and calls for more probing in her blog: “Now more than at any time since Bush invaded Iraq, journalists need to give Americans a clear assessment of the mounting costs of this war. This is a great opportunity for the media to redeem itself for malpractice in the run-up to war when, as Washington Post ombudsperson Michael Getler wrote this month in a tough rebuke to his own paper—and the larger media world, “…the press, as a whole, did not do a very good job in challenging administration claims…Too many public events in which alternative views were expressed…were either missed, underreported or poorly displayed.”

“The costs are now detailed in a devastating report just released by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIP). It is an extraordinary compilation of the mounting human, economic, environmental, security and other costs of this war of choice.

“In human terms, seven hundred US servicemen and women have died since Bush declared “the end of major combat” in his infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech in May 2003, while more than 5,000 soldiers have been wounded since the war began. Many of them, as Michael Moore documents in his provocative new film Fahrenheit 911, have lost arms and legs. The cost to the Iraqi people has also been tragic. Up to 11,317 Iraqi civilians have died in the conflict so far–many of them children whose only crime was to be caught living in the middle of a war zone.

rom this disturbing factoid from today’s New York Times:” Occupation authorities acknowledge that fewer than 140 of2,300 promised Iraq construction projects are under way.”

http://tinyurl.com/2uh6o

Another Times report just in: The Lebanese American soldier captured in Iraq didn’t want to be there. “The U.S. marine was emotionally traumatized, and was abducted by his captors while trying to make his way hometo his native Lebanon.”

MEDIA BAN PROTEST

News Insider passes along this AP report: “The mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq summoned news outlets to photograph her son’s flag-draped casket arriving at Sacramento International Airport to protest a Pentagon policy banning media coverage of America’s war dead. “I don’t care what President Bush wants,” Patrick McCaffrey’s mother, Nadia, told reporters. Patrick “did not die for nothing […]. The way he lived needs to be talked about. Patrick was not a fighter, he was a peacemaker.”

THE LONG MEMORY OF IRAQ

How do Iraqis feel about all this? Let’s ask one. Here’s Haifa Zangana writing in the Guardian:

“In Iraq, we have an expression: same donkey, different saddle. Iraq’s long-heralded interim government has now formally assumed sovereignty. Official labels and tags have duly changed. The US administrator will now be an ambassador, while Sheikh Ghazi al Yawar and Iyad Allawi, US-appointed members of the former governing council, are to be known as president and prime minister.

To formalize the change, the UN has already issued a resolution under which “multinational forces” will replace “US-led forces”. On the issue of control over US troops, the message is clear: the US forces are there to stay only because “Iraqi people” has asked them to. But which Iraqi people? Do they mean the new administration headed by the CIA’s Iyad Allawi? And why does all this sound strangely familiar?

In Iraq we don’t just read history at school - we carry it within ourselves. It’s no wonder, then, that we view what is happening in Iraq now of “liberation-mandate-nominal sovereignty” as a replay of what took place in the 1920s and afterwards.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1249549,00.html

“OUR JOHNNY ON THE SPOT”

Writing in the Toronto Star, Duncan Campbell does what few US media outlets bother to do and investigate the background of new US Ambassador John Negroponte:

“Suspicious deaths in custody. Allegations of torture. Claims of a military out of control. These are some of the key issues that will face JohnNegroponte, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Iraq.

Suspicious deaths in custody. Allegations of torture. Claims of a militaryout of control. Those were some of the key issues that faced JohnNegroponte 20 years ago when he was U.S. ambassador to Honduras. So it isworth examining how he reacted then when faced with evidence ofextra-judicial killings, torture and human rights abuses?

“A former Honduran congressman, Efrain Diaz, told the Baltimore Sun, whichre-examined the behavior of the U.S in 1995, of Negroponte and other U.S.officials: “Their attitude was one of tolerance and silence. They neededHonduras to loan its territory more than they were concerned about innocentpeople being killed.'’?.

Now a man who has been accused of not spotting human rights abuses taking place in front of his eyes in Honduras is being sent to Iraq at a time whenallegations of human rights abuses are at the heart of the occupation. As apolicy, the appointment of Negroponte at this point in the history of Iraqseems “exquisitely dangerous'’ indeed.”

http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/1883.cfm

BUSH WATCH

We know that that there is a strong relationship between media coverage and public opinion. When a candidate is on TV, his approval ratings usually go up. The international Media monitoring group Media Tenor, with a staff of 250 in six countries has been following this in detail and reports in its handsome newly redesigned magazine that John Kerry is loosing the battle for media attention to George Bush, Bill Clinton and even Ralph Nader. Here’s their most recent report:

New York, June 28, 2004 - John Kerry’s presidential campaign was overshadowed by the release of Bill Clinton’s autobiography, “My Life,” according to the latest report from Media Tenor, an independent media analysis institute. With the launch of Clinton’s book tour, his media coverage increased from less than 1% to 5% on the network evening news. Meanwhile coverage of John Kerry’s electoral campaign decreased to just 1.5% of the evening news broadcasts.

With Kerry practically absent from the evening news, independent candidate Nader returned to TV news, especially on ABC and NBC. Nader’s presence on ABC increased from zero to 4.3% during the past week, while Kerry received no coverage on that network. During that same period, NBC dedicated an equal amount of coverage to Kerry and Nader, with both receiving coverage for 4.8% of its evening news broadcast.

http://www.mediatenor.com

Today, the nominally liberal Nicholas Kristoff scolds Bush critics for calling the ?resident ?a “liar.” He writes “Simple-mindedly vilifying the president for dishonesty only polarizes the political?” But reports the Independent, “the worst may be yet to come, in the unlikeliest of forms: a slim volume of fiction from the ordinarily mild-mannered minimalist Nicholson Baker.

“Mr Baker’s new novel, Checkpoint, features two characters who spend much of its 115 pages discussing how to assassinate President George Bush. They don’t actually do the deed, or even attempt it, but the book is - according to early snippets - replete with deep-seated anger and elegantly nasty epithets hurled at both the President and his cabinet.

“Mr. Baker’s publisher, Alfred Knopf, plans to release the book on 24 August, on the eve of the Republican National Convention in New York. To call it a provocation would be an understatement. The author and publishers have no intention of giving anybody ideas - to do so would be a criminal offence - but they are certainly playing very close to the edge in a United States that, in the wake of the 11 September attacks, has shown no compunction about locking people up and asking questions later, free speech rights be damned.

ws, the Chicago Sun-Times’ circulation manager resigned after disclosures that he fudged the numbers in the the Hollinger-owned newspaper? William F Buckley Jnr, the leading US rightwing commentator for the past 50 years, is stepping down as publisher of the National Review.

YOUR LETTERS:

Mitch Pederson writes from Alexandria, La: “Was the turnover actually carried live by the media Monday at 730am EST as was indicated by all the breaking news from all the morning shows? In real time it was 10:30am Baghdad time, which would have been 230am Eastern time. That means that the feed was embargoed for 4 hours before it reached the air as ‘live’ just in time to be carried by all the morning shows. At least the networks could have done was to run a disclaimer saying ‘tape delayed’ or ‘earlier’ instead of leading us to believe we were watching history unfold in real time. I feel mislead.”

Leith A Elder writes from NSW Australia to say some nice things and distance himself from Citizen Murdoch, Unfortunately, his letter virtually disappeared when I tried posting it. Strange.

Joanne Giza writes from O Canada: “It’s always great to be a Canadian. But some days are better than others,and today I’m exceptionally proud to be Canadian.

Yesterday’s election was as close to perfect as you can get in the realworld.

“We sent the Liberal an unmistakably clear message that we’re fed up withtheir waste, mismanagement and just plain stupid handling of taxpayer’smoney. ?.Yes, Canadians have a lot to be proud of. Armed only with paper ballots andtiny, crappy pencils, we had a calm, orderly and truly democratic election.An election with better than average voter turnout, and an election resolvedthe same day it was held. It’s a shame Americans can’t take a page out ofour book.”

WMD IN THE NEWS

I expect this will be my last blog for a few days. I am in Washington tonight where a Mediachannel supporter is graciously throwing a party and screening to help me find financial support to finish WMD, my film on the Iraq war coverage. The film is beginning to get some media attention with a prominent mention today in the Boston Globe in a piece by Mark Jurkowitz. Here is an excerpt:

” Films critique coverage of Iraq war
News industry failed, they say

“The news industry is an inviting target in “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Michael Moore’s cinematic assault on the war in Iraq. “Fortunately, we have an independent media,” Moore intones sarcastically in the film before unleashing clips featuring patriotic pronouncements from major media figures.

“In his documentary “WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception,” veteran journalist and media watchdog Danny Schechter accuses news outlets of creating a “prowar narrative driven by jingoism, not journalism.”?

“But what about the news media? Did it fail, as some critics say, in its watchdog function by not aggressively scrutinizing the White House’s prewar assertions?

“There’s been a lot of talk about policy failures, there has been a lot of talk about intelligence failures, but there hasn’t been a lot of talk about media failures,” Schechter says.”

http://tinyurl.com/34fl4

From Washington, madman that I am, I am heading on to Brazil to represent Mediachannel at a World Cultural Forum for a few days. I was pleased to be invited by the government supported international forum. Back on July 4th in time to wave some flags and salute some fireworks.

WHAT THE FLAG STANDS FOR

As we anticipate the annual patriotic bang bang, Jackie Newbury reminded me of a wonderful essay by then 12 year old Charlotte Aldebron on “What the American Flag Stands For.” It was written in 2002 and is worth rereading:

“The American flag stands for the fact that cloth can be very important. It is against the law to let the flag touch the ground or to leave the flag flying when the weather is bad. The flag has to be treated with respect. You can tell just how important this cloth is because when you compare it to people, it gets much better treatment. Nobody cares if a homeless person touches the ground. A homeless person can lie all over the ground all night long without anyone picking him up, folding him neatly and sheltering him from the rain.

School children have to pledge loyalty to this piece of cloth every morning. No one has to pledge loyalty to justice and equality and human decency. No one has to promise that people will get a fair wage, or enough food to eat, or affordable medicine, or clean water, or air free of harmful chemicals. But we all have to promise to love a rectangle of red, white, and blue cloth.

Betsy Ross would be quite surprised to see how successful her creation has become. But Thomas Jefferson would be disappointed to see how little of the flag’s real meaning remains.”

2, wrote this essay for a competition in her 6th grade English class. She attends Cunningham Middle School in Presque Isle, Maine. Comments may be sent to her mom, Jillian Aldebron: aldebron@ainop.com

And your comments are always welcome here. Write: dissector@mediachannel.org