THE FEAR THAT EATS NEW YORK

MARCHING ON THE MEDIA

SHELDON DROBNY CALLS FOR A BOYCOTT

An old folk song pops into my head as I read the NY Times report that "fifty-three percent of New York residents say they are very or somewhat worried that a terrorist attack will happen during the convention." The refrain: "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song" and that’s the song that is being shouted from the rooftops here in Gotham. If Air America gets its way mad as hell New Yorkers will be opening their windows, Network style, to shout "FUGITABOUTIT" as a collective?gashry’ against the Repubarian invaders. (That is if everyone has not fled the city by then. Empty streets here speak to an unprecedented exodus.)

A deal was worked out to move the protest rally this Sunday from Central Park, where the rights of the grass comes before the people, to Union Square a center of polical insurgency that goes back to the beginnings of the last century. It was there that workers rallied and police riots occurred with frequency. A famous story tells of a marcher being chased by police shouting, "Stop Stop, I’m an anti-communist." Before they whacked him, legend has it, a cop responded, "I don’t care what kind of communist you are."

CENTRAL PARK A BATTLE GROUND

My hunch is that Central Park will not be immune from citizens who resent having been forbidden to meet in a place that has hosted mass rallies and protests over the years.

Reports the newspaper of record: "Organizers of two large protests against the Republican National Convention planned for this weekend said yesterday that they would not directly encourage supporters to go to demonstrations in Central Park. But the leader of one group said she would be in the park, and the other group began handing out fliers spelling out legal ways to gather there. The groups toed a fine line between not defying court rulings upholding the city’s refusal to grant permits for the use of the Great Lawn and acknowledging what appears to be a mounting effort among large numbers of people to gather there tomorrow and Sunday. City officials have refused to make the Great Lawn available for large demonstrations, saying they have to preserve the lawn’s grass."

The problem of course is that a protest against the Bush Empire has turned into a protest for the right to protest. In a sense, the city has been able to divert the focus of of mass anger. And the cops just love it.

DOES THE MEDIA WANT BLOODSHED?

Sarah Ferguson reports in the Village Voice that the press is fanning the flames of confrontation almost hoping for violence:

Is it just us, or are these scary stories about anarchists plotting mayhem at the Republican convention starting to read like a preemptive hit? Just today the Daily News led with “Police Intelligence Warning: Anarchy Inc. Hard-core troublemakers a threat to the Republican Convention.”

This kind of coverage sets the stage for brutal treatment of even peaceful activists. At last fall’s Free Trade of the Americas summit in Miami, police fed media hysteria about the ugly hordes descending on the city to justify their Rambo-like assault on union members and nonviolent demonstrators with rubber bullets and taser guns.

S AND A PROTESTS

Other writers warn protesters not to be provoked because that is what the Republicans want. One type of protest they don’t want took place yesterday in Florida. ABC carried the item:

"Melida Arredondo said her husband knew what was coming as three uniformed Marines approached their front door. And when they told him Wednesday afternoon that his Marine son, Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, had been killed in combat in Iraq, police say Carlos Arredondo simply snapped. Arredondo climbed into the Marine Corps van parked outside his home and set it ablaze, suffering severe burns."

Iraq veterans against the war will be speaking out at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater after the march on Sunday, Stephan Smith will sing.

TERROR WAR FOLLIES

Russian authorities say they have found explosives in the debris of one of two planes that crashed, claiming 89 lives. Chechens are suspected. One group has claimed responsibility. Peace talks continue in the Nigerian capital of Abujah by the African Union to negotiate a settlement in the Sudan in line with UN demands.

Who is winning in the war on terror? Who is losing? Two Muslim men in Buffalo were freed on bail after a judge ruled the government had not provided enough evidence to hold them. We keep reading stories like this of high profile arrests that the TV stations are tipped too, followed by warnings and "we told you so" comments by the fear police of Homeland inSecurity and then days, weeks or months later we learn it was all hyped, a mistake or totally false.

From Portland comes word via the AP: "An American lawyer who was falsely accused by the FBI of involvement in March’s Madrid train bombings has hired celebrity attorney Gerry Spence to represent him in a planned lawsuit against the U.S. government."

PRISON ABUSE FROM IRAQ TO TEXAS

A classified report of the prison abuse in Iraq has now shown that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez approved the use in Iraq of "severe" interrogation practices. Last night, ABC Nightline carried a strong and overdue report by Jake Tapper on pervasive abuses in American prisons. Especially shocking were scenes of dogs biting prisoners in Texas at the time George Bush was Governor. He did not do much about it, the program reported, until a prison video was shown. One former prisoner in Texas, Aundray Wright, says "watching that prison abuse in Iraq brought me right back to Texas." And neither has much of the media jumped on the story largely ignoring the parallels, and similarities of approach, ie. Beating prisoners and keeping them naked.

Lest we think that Nightline is on any kind of crusade here, and to "balance" its excellent and hard-hitting report, the program threw in an obligatory look at abuses in prisons in Middle East countries to show a "double standard" by those who criticize us. Feel better?

Nightline did not talk about US support for governments that torture. Egypt, for example, one of the countries cited is a major recipient of US aid. The US military has admitted shipping prisoners from Afghanistan to Egypt. Not mentioned. The US press does not regularly report on these abuses.

GITMO GARBAGE

The ACLU’s Executive Director Anthony D. Romero has been observing th cfirst preliminary hearings taking place at the Guantᮡmo Bay Naval Base. He reports:

Today was the opening of the military commission against David Matthew Hicks, the 29-year-old Australian who has been held in Gitmo for over two years. Today Mr. Hicks saw his mom and dad for the first time in all those years in what was described as an intensely emotional meeting. We spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Hicks at lunch during a break and they held a press conference at the end of the day. Mr. Hicks actually reminded me of my dad. With a father’s unconditional love for his son, his concern was that his boy had been denied due process and had been kept from his family for all this time.

He also told us that his son had told him and Mrs. Hicks of his physical and emotional abuse while in U.S. government custody. He didn’t want to go into detail because that will be raised in the subsequent proceedings. But, I thought you would want to know that the ACLU received a response yesterday in our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding any documents relevant to the use of torture on U.S. government bases overseas, including Guantanamo.

Defying a judge’s order to turn over those documents in our litigation that pre-dated the Abu Ghraib scandal, the government has shown once again its disdain for the need to ensure accountability and transparency. This time they’re fighting a U.S. federal judge and we’ll definitely keep you posted on the lawsuit as it evolves.

uba: "The government of Cuba officially broke off diplomatic relations with the Republic of Panama following an early morning release of four terrorists who attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro in 2000."

AFTER PINOCHET, COULD KISINGER BE NEXT?

"SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile’s Supreme Court on Thursday stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution, paving the way for a possible trial for the former Chilean dictator on charges of human rights abuses. The court voted 9-8 to lift the immunity granted the 88-year-old former president, a court spokesman said. The decision removes the last legal obstacle for prosecutors seeking to bring Pinochet to face justice. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought on behalf of victims of ‘Operation Condor,’ a repression plan implemented by the military dictatorships that ruled South American nation in the 1970s and ’80s. Pinochet took power in a coup in 1973 and ruled until 1990."

NO EASY WALK FOR OIL

From Baghdad comes word that "A sabotage attack on a cluster of about 20 oil pipelines in southern Iraq has cut exports from the key oil producing region by half, a top oil official said Thursday." Reuters reports "It was the latest insurgent attack to set back Iraq’s oil sector, a key source of funding for reconstruction."

The Grand Ayatollah Sistani had just returned to Iraq in time to do a face saving deal with Al Sadr that repopened the shrine in Najav, stopped the fighting and allowed him and his forces to withdraw. Just like that.

AFP quotes an Iraqi (unlike most US news organizations) who says: “God is great. This is democracy, this is the new Iraq, this is the greatest defeat we could have inflicted on the Americans. It`s the most beautiful day in my life,” he shouted, hurrying inside the main mausoleum to pray. "Al-Sistani arrived earlier Thursday, leading a convoy of an estimated 20,000 followers on a peace march.”

“‘We answered the call of Sistani who ordered us to follow to Najaf to break the siege. Police sort of tried to arrest us, but there was nothing they could do. It`s the end of the siege,’” said one demonstrator, Kazem Hamid."

An Italian journalist who had been kidnapped was killed after Italy refused to withdraw its troops from the country.

PROTEST CITY: MEDIA AS A TARGET

Add a "March on the Media" to the list of protests during convention week in New York on Wednesday, September 1 from 7-10 pm. FAIR issues the call:

"For the past few years, the mainstream media have marched in lockstep with the Bush administration. Now it’s time to march on the media. Whether the issue is the Iraq war, the 2000 Florida recount, the Patriot Act or post- 9/11 detentions, the mainstream media have behaved more like lapdogs than watchdogs. We come to challenge their domination of the public discourse and to celebrate what the people of the world are achieving through new independent media based on responsibility and a commitment to justice."

In the old days we would say meet at such and such a place, Today, it’s "Converge"at 52nd and 6th."

SHELDON DROBNY IS MARCHING ANOTHER WAY

Media Channel and your News Dissector welcome Chicago businessman Sheldon Drobny to our blog, and corner of cyberspace, where we hope he will appear more frequently. It was Drobny and his wife Anita who first came up with the idea of the liberal talk radio network that turned into Air America. He put up the original capital and worked hard to level the playing field in a radio world long dominated by the right. Air America’s recent ratings success seems to have vindicated his early faith in it prospects.

As you will read, his concerns (and visions) are broader than just one station. It is not every day that a CPA and venture capitalist speaks out on the need for media reform with so much passion (and guts!). His company is called "Paradigm" and as its founder, he seems to have gone through a paradigm shift personally towards a bold new direction

Drobny’s experiences have turned him into an insightful media critic as well, with a new book on media on the way from Select Books. At my request, he is sharing a column about what he brands a "fifth column." He calls it: "THE FOURTH ESTATE BECOMES THE FIFTH COLUMN."

The press is commonly called the fourth estate. It is a phrase that has been used for hundreds of years and had its origins in the UK. In America today, I am sorry to say that the corporate controlled media have now become part of the fifth column. For those of you who are unaware of the definition of the fifth column, here it is:

fifth column
Function: noun
Etymology: name applied to rebel sympathizers in Madrid in 1936 when four rebel columns were advancing on the city
Date: 1936 : a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders"

? 2001 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated Merriam-Webster Privacy Policy

The latest crime of omission by these fifth columnists has been their handling of the Swift boat incident that has trashed the outstanding military record of Senator John Kerry. This is part of the problem when the media represents only the powerful and privileged and not the people at large. Instead of using appropriate skepticism and their own research capability, they report the controversy as if it had any credibility. The official military records on Kerry’s citations have never been questioned or refuted. Thirty five years later these swift boat commanders come up with a story during the Presidential election. This is too ridiculous to be on any credible news broadcast and Bush’s fingerprints are all over this. But the media does not care about truth, credibility, or fairness. They care about topics that are controversial and provide infotainment to their audiences.

In my last piece I suggested that liberals boycott the major media. That is the only thing that will hurt them where it counts, in their pocket books. I violated my own suggestion yesterday by watching Hardball with Chris Matthews. However, I made an exception because I wanted to see how Matthews would handle the Max Cleland letter delivered by the former Senator to Bush’s ranch in Crawford Texas. Matthews again used his typical technique of putting guests on both sides of the case to make their arguments. After he interviewed Cleland, he put on guests that argued the totally unproven and unsupported case for the swift boat commanders against Kerry. Never mind that the story has no credibility. Never mind that a child of three could figure that the story was a political hatchet job. Never mind that the President is saying he had nothing to do with the ads. Can you imagine Matthews allowing Clinton or Gore to get away with that? So this so-called hardball interviewer moderated a debate between crazy political zealots and those who have on the record served their country honorably in war.

The excuse always given by Matthews and the other fifth columnists is that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, it is irresponsible for the media to feed lies and report on unproven allegations. I thought that the media was also supposed to be a filter to news that is truthful.

Again, the infotainment era has made truthfulness a casualty. In my world, extraordinary claims after 35 years require extraordinary proof. This is not the case with Matthews. He is just an entertaining bully who rarely does his homework. At least Tim Russert does extensive research before he conducts an interview. Matthews has demonstrated that he does not care who is right or wrong. He interposes his opinion based upon how he feels without any proof. But that is his gig and it is a shame. Matthews also has a weekly syndicated show about politics in which he has his "expert panelists" of usual suspects report about strategies of the candidates and not much detail about their positions or the viability of the positions of either side.

These and other so called news analysts view the political process as a team sport and are only interested in viewing the opposing positions of the candidates as to the their effectiveness in being elected. So to Matthews, Karl Rove is a genius of propaganda much like Joseph Goebbels. At long last: does Matthews have any shame?

By the way, I was serious about a liberal boycott of the corporate media that I mentioned in my last column. I hope we can do this during "sweeps" week so that we can have a real impact on their advertising revenue. At the very least, we should email them with complaints much like the right wing has done to influence and scare these corporate cowards to cancel network made for TV movies like the one about Ronald Regan. So let’s do what any responsible group does about fifth columnists: let’s execute them metaphorically.

radigm shifts, I went to see "The Corporation," a strong indictment of corporate power and abuse. The high point for me were not the brilliant critics like Chomsky, Zinn, Shiva and Klein (sounds like a law firm, doesn’t it?) but corporate exec Ray Anderson who speaks of his own paradigm shift and moment of epiphany when he realized the environmental damage his own company was inflicting on the earth and set about to stop it. In a bleak movie (and world) his was a voice of hope and inspiration Also hopeful was the turnout. The film’s run has been extended. Incidentally, as corporate power grows, the Census is just out with a report that more Americans live in poverty than ever.

OTHER VIETNAM VETERANS

FOX was still beating the corpse of the Swift Boat story this morning. So far not one Vietnamese person has been invited to comment on this new outbreak of the Vietnam War. I was discussing this with my friend Tiana, the Vietnamese born filmmaker who did the excellent "From Hollywood to Hanoi." She is a different kind of Vietnam veteran, a member of a family that supported the US invasion even as she later dissented and went back to Vietnam to promote friendship between our two countries. She is writing about this current flap and sent me some notes:

She asks "What happened to our principled Vietnam vet who cared to tell the truth, who braved not only the battlefield but in facing congress, he and his fellow Americans were proven right. That was then, now the agenda is for the art of politics, (bloodsport in America) to rewrite history. Never mind that those of us affected by Viet Nam, American and Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans alike, are caught in the crossfire."

She appeals directly to John Kerry: "WE THE PUBLIC KNOW BY NOW THAT THE VN WAR WAS WRONG. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO DUST OFF YOUR MEDALS, EVEN RETRIEVE THOSE RIBBONS, AND INSIST ON YOUR HEROISM (WHICH I NEVER QUESTIONED IN THE FIRST PLACE), IN ORDER TO GET MY VOTE.

AFTER THE WAR, YOU STOOD UP FOR TRUTH, HONOR, AND FOR THAT YOU EARNED MY RESPECT AND GRATITUDE. DO NOT GO BACK ON US NOW."

YOUR LETTERS

Shar writes: "Hello danny, I love your blog and read it as often as possible. I was listening to Air America this am, with Ted Rall (go ted!) and they mentioned that the Bushies could not have picked a more hostile city for the RNC! They must be looking for a fight and hoping the ensuing confrontation will push the swing voters towards their agend! These guys are more slimy than anything I have ever seen! Thanks for listening! "

IT STINKS

To cope with unwelcome marches, Reuters reports that "Israel’s army has developed a pungent new weapon for driving back Palestinian protesters — the skunk bomb. The stink bomb, containing a synthetic version of the odor skunks release to deter predators, has been developed for breaking up protests and stone-throwing confrontations without causing casualties, security officials said Wednesday. The foul-smelling weapon was invented as part of efforts to replace rubber bullets, which have killed scores of Palestinians during a nearly four-year-old uprising.The new device, which is not yet operational, releases a cloud so pungent that according to initial tests it permeates clothes for five years, the officials said."

COVERING THE CONVENTIONAL AND UNCONVENTIONAL

I will be offering regular updated reports throughout the convention. I might be popping on to some TV and radio shows too. Tomorrow night I will be infiltrating the TIME WARNER media party as an invited guest. 5000 media people and officials will be on hand. We will try to give out copies of the new Mediachannel media guide. (You can download yours from our home page.)

I am part of a private screening of a version of my film WMD on Times Square at what we call our own "truth convention" on Tuesday night. WMD screens along with the movie State of the Union. So we invited the press to come in hopes of getting some substance into the wall to wall coverage. The response from both the NY POST and The NY TIMES: "what celebrities will be there?" (For more on the film, see our new site)

I am going to ‘RUN RNC,’ but why don’t you share your media experience of this orchestrated event with me as well? What are you watching? How is the media coverage where you live? Write: dissector@medichannel.org