“AMERICAN VALUES”???

SUPPORT JOHN CONYERS

MURDOCH GIVES TO GET

CNN was leading last night with Secretary of State Colin Powell’s profession of “American values” in which he linked fighting terrorism and delivering humanitarian aid. The idea is to get the Muslims of Indonesia who denounced the US war on Iraq to love us. See how generous we are. See. See. See.

I have seen half a dozen pictures of US soldiers cradling babies and rescuing those in distress. And they are — to some degree. Better that than dropping bombs … It is good to see the US military helping people in need with thousands of soldiers, and 42 helicopters overall. But, as is often the case , images can be misleading. BBC reports this morning that so far this total effort is barely impacting the zones of greatest need.

In Indonesia where the UN is gathering “donor nations” to respond to the crisis with a pledging conference Thursday, there is a positive spin. AP reports:

“A UN food agency said ts aid efforts for tsunami victims in Indonesia’s Aceh province were accelerating, with enough food and water delivered to the remote region to feed more than 100,000 people for a week.”

Food for a week! And then?

Where are the interviews with humanitarian workers from NGO’s on the ground who can tell us how things are really going? Why all the focus on “official sources” who are often the last to know what is really going on? What I have seen so far is Kofi arriving and Colin touring with little comment from the people themselves. Many do speak English. The limits of this “outside-in” approach to “journalism” is glaring.

THE VIEW FROM JAKARTA

We have all been reading the death tolls — in Indonesia it was 94,100 last night. But add to that an estimated 400,000 refugees and you get a sense of the scale of the disaster. If you poke your head into the local media as I did when I surfed over to the Jakarta Post site, the story doesn’t seem as positive as it is being depicted in the US media.

“Low Coordination Breeds Chaos”

“The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh/Lhokseumawe/Jakarta

“The massive relief operation for tsunami-hit areas in Aceh is on the brink of chaos with the absence of a single authority directing the aid effort.

“In Banda Aceh, the flow of aid stalled on Tuesday when a Boeing 737 cargo plane hit a stranded water buffalo and skidded off the runway at Sultan Iskandar Muda airport, the hub of humanitarian programs for Aceh….

“The role of Indonesian authorities in facilitating the international relief effort for survivors of the Dec. 26 disaster has also come under question. The massive aid program is the largest since World War II.

“A similar chaotic condition was observed in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, when a backlog of planes due to airlift aid built up at Polonia airport. The confusion was exacerbated by the presence of dozens of irked passengers thronging ticket counters because their flights were canceled or postponed.

“In Lhokseumawe, a telecommunications problem disrupted aid distribution to survivors in distant refugee camps, and the undistributed aid packages were left piled up in a warehouse belonging to the local administration.

“All cellular services are down,” head of North Aceh social welfare agency Iskandar Nasri said…

“Vice President Jusuf Kalla, …. did not deny suggestions that in the first week after the devastation, coordination among government agencies was poor, if not absent.”

Don’t you love how delicately that is put — “if not absent.”

GO TO THE SOURCE

And so, as is often the case, when you go to the sources that know the country best, the picture is very different — a total screw up compounded by political intrigues, military maneuvers by the Indonesian military still looking for Aceh “separatists” and inadequate resources.

As for “American values” — has anyone in the media mentioned the role the US played in helping the Suharto dictatorship come to power there with its killing of some 500,000 so-called communists, or the Ford-Kissinger backed invasion of East Timor, or the US companies which profited from the misery caused in Indonesia by the South East Asian financial crisis. Of course not.

If I was Colin Powell, I wouldn’t boast about “American values” but rather just ask people to judge us by what we do, not what we say. And that goes for his traveling companion too, the Governor of the Jebanna Republic of Flori-duh who is being groomed for you know what.

The New York Times reports today:

“Amid the rush of generous donations to the disaster relief effort in southern Asia, more donors have insisted that their gifts go exclusively to help those victims.”

GOD AND THE TSUNAMI ANYONE?

See Rabbi Michael Lerner’s article in Tikkun:

www.tikkun.org/index.cfm/action/current/article/286.html

South Africa’s Mail and Guardian adds this note:

“The skies over Asia are being darkened these days by an abundance of relief-bearing cargo planes, reflecting the huge outpouring of international sympathy and support in response to the tsunami crisis.”

But in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, people might reasonably ask: “How about some relief for us?” Additionally, there is devastation in Somalia which goes largely unreported.

AMERICAN VALUES IN AMERICA

All eyes on Congress where the election of 2004 is to be voted on — and probably up. Activists nationwide are besieging Senators to stand with Congressman Conyer of Michigan who wants to challenge the result based on the simple fact that not all the votes have been counted.

At least one Senator is needed to join the call for an investigation before ratifying the Electoral College results. Activists are asking supporters to call Senators TODAY insist they investigate the numerous examples of vote fraud in Ohio (and other states) The phone numbers for all 100 Senators can be reached via http://www.senate.gov or call the US Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

TrueMajority.org is just one of the groups calling for pressure on Congress.

“The whole world now knows what went on in Ohio and other states on Election Day, and we simply can’t let it happen anymore.

“We know that many Americans in inner cities were prevented from voting by eight-hour lines. We know that local officials changed the rules on which votes they counted. We know that technicians from computerized voting companies were allowed to tamper with balloting machines unsupervised.

“… This Thursday, Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) plans to challenge the voting tally from his state, and if even one senator joins him, Congress will be compelled to debate the widespread problems that have been exposed. This Congress isn’t going to overturn the election, but it would be forced into a debate that would serve as a national teach-in on voting rights, computer voting that can’t be audited and the continued suppression of minority votes. In short — Honest Elections or not?”

IRAQI “ELECTIONS”

I guess if we can’t have reliable elections here, we can export them elsewhere. Listen to Riverbend’s description of the outbreak of democracy in Baghdad where Governor Ali al-Haidri and his bodyguards were assassinated by armed men yesterday.

“The elections are set for the 29th. It’s an interesting situation. The different sects and factions just can’t seem to agree. Sunni Arabs are going to boycott elections. It’s not about religion or fatwas or any of that so much as the principle of holding elections while you are under occupation. People don’t really sense that this is the first stepping stone to democracy as western media is implying. Many people sense that this is just the final act of a really bad play. It’s the tying of the ribbon on the “democracy parcel” we’ve been handed. It’s being stuck with an occupation government that has been labeled ‘legitimate’ through elections.

“We’re being bombarded with cute Iraqi commercials of happy Iraqi families preparing to vote. Signs and billboards remind us that the elections are getting closer…

“Can you just imagine what our history books are going to look like 20 years from now?

“The first democratic elections were held in Iraq on January 29, 2005 under the ever-watchful collective eye of the occupation forces, headed by the United States of America. Troops in tanks watched as swarms of warm, fuzzy Iraqis headed for the ballot boxes to select one of the American-approved candidates…

“It won’t look good.”

TORTURE, AMERICAN STYLE

Vanity Fair is reporting that:

“Sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners continued at least three months after the Abu Ghraib scandal was revealed,..

“Iraqi inmates were sexually assaulted, beaten, administered electric shocks and kept in cages or crates, states a report in the magazine based on 60 hours of interviews with 10 former inmates including a 15-year-old boy.

“Writer Donovan Webster quotes an inmate saying he was hung naked from handcuffs in a frigid room while soldiers threw buckets of ice water on him.”

http://tinyurl.com/64kc7

MEDIA NEWS: MILITARISM AIRS AMOK

My partner Rory O’Connor had a recent Media is Plural blog (www.roryoconnor.org) on the Discovery Channel’s announcement that they are creating a military channel to offer all the mili-tainment all the time. This just in from Mediaweek: Not to be outdone in the copycat environment that pervades cable TV, A&E Networks says it is launching THE MILITARY HISTORY CHANNEL. (The History Channel used to be nicknamed The “Hitler Channel” because of all the Nazi docs it ran.)

What about a PEACE CHANNEL? Why can’t be have one of those? Doesn’t the world need one? A: No one in the TV biz thinks they can make money on it. War sells. Peace doesn’t. Memo to the Nobel Prize Committee — why not put some of Albert’s money into a channel that promotes peace?

MEDIA TELETHON HAPPENS

Not here folks. Not yet. In Hong Kong, AP reports:

“Hong Kong’s total donations for tsunami-stricken areas climbed to $50 million as pop stars including Andy Lau and Nicholas Tse performed at weekend charity concerts. Lau appeared with Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok, Leo Koo and Alan Tam at a Sunday night fund-raiser aired by local broadcaster TVB. The event took in more than $6.2 million, TVB said Monday.”

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, says it has donated a million doillars for Tsuami Relief. The money went to a President Bush designated charity. In England, Murdoch was in the news for a different reason:

“Ahead of a relaxation of Australian media laws, freedom of information files released in the UK show that News Corp, one of the world’s largest media companies, lobbied hard to buy into Britain’s free-to-air television market.

“The files, released to the Guardian newspaper, reveal that News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch secured private reassurances from UK Government ministers during heavy lobbying that he would be able to buy commercial network Channel Five if he wanted to, according to partly censored documents released by the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell.

“In previously undisclosed meetings, News Corp representatives were able to lobby ministers six times in a crucial five-month period when an important bill was passing through parliament.

Citizens’ groups have said they were unable to get similar face-to-face access to ministers.”

TUCKER THIS

MediaBistro reports that

“an aside by Tucker Carlson on Crossfire today perked up the ears of CNN fans. ‘This, by the way, is the last day James and I are on television together. I want you to know that I’m enjoying every moment of it,’ Carlson said. A few minutes later, Rahm Emanuel suggested Carlson invite John Kerry on the show ‘before you leave CNN.’

“But it wasn’t necessarily an indication that Carlson is leaving CNN. Carlson’s last day on Crossfire is coming this Thursday. Today was his last day with Carville; Paula Begala will be “on the left” tomorrow and Thursday. Klein may offer Carlson a deal to stay at CNN later this week — but it won’t be on Crossfire.

“‘The wait is excruciating — even worse than the show itself!,’ Wonkette smirks.”

For a deliciously devastating assessment of Carlson’s on-air work, read ” Bowtie me up” by Matt Taibbi in this week’s New York Press”

Here’s a taste:

“Carlson is CNN’s idea of a conservative. His right-wing ideas come from his changeable, expensive brains instead of his stomach. In the same way that the helpless, ineffectual Colmes is a reassuring image to hardcore conservatives, Carlson puts a soothing face on conservatism for educated East-coast progressives–because even the biggest neo-Marxist wanker from Brown takes one look at Carlson and sees the one man in America he would feel sure of being able to kick the shit out of in a back alley.

www.nypress.com/18/1/news&columns/taibbi.cfm

MOTLEY CREW/CRUE ALERT

The motley crew at the FCC is now investigating Motley Crue:

“LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — When Motley Crue’s Vince Neil wished bandmate Tommy Lee a happy New Year live on NBC, he couldn’t resist inserting a profanity — and now the FCC is involved.

“The Federal Communications Commission has received complaints about the New Year’s Eve Tonight show and is beginning a preliminary probe, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. But it’s likely little will come of it.

“Motley Crue was performing shortly after midnight when Neil turned to Lee and said, ‘Happy ****ing New Year, Tommy!’”

In England, the Independent reports:

“Mediawatch UK has urged the BBC not to ‘push back the boundaries of taste and decency’ by screening the musical Jerry Springer: the Opera.”

CAMERAMEN SHOULD SHOOT — NOT BE SHOT

A Palestinian news source reports:

“A Palestinian cameraman, Majdi al Arabid, was wounded by Israeli fire yesterday while he was covering an army invasion of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza strip for Israel’s Channel 10.

“Schlomi Eldar, an Israeli journalist who witnessed the incident, says Al-Arabid, 40, was shot by Israeli soldiers ‘who opened fire without any warning.’”

THE AIDS TSUNAMI WE TEND TO FORGET

The latest UN report says:

“Women are increasingly affected by HIV and make up nearly half of the 37.2 million living with HIV world wide. In sub-Saharan Africa, almost 60 percent of adults living with HIV are women. The report identifies Southern Africa as the worst-hit region with HIV prevalence rates surpassing 25 percent. The Caribbean continues as the second worst-affected region in the world.

Although global AIDS spending has tripled since 2001 and access to services has improved significantly, the epidemic is still spreading.”

www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC16886

YOUR LETTERS

Robert Deward writes from Walnut Creek, CA to me about priorities for the new year:

“The Dissector is a real breath of fresh air, and I’ve shared it with a number of people, who have shared it with still more.

“There are a couple of positive developments I think you should be covering: the Web is emerging as an antidote to the corporate media’s poison and a medium for grassroots organizing. Also it has become clear that the federal government has become so corrupt and disfunctional that it is incapable of addressing such problems as health care, food and product safety, and election reform. The next big fight should be about freeing states to define and address problems as they see fit.

“Like many of your readers, you’re probably using the occasion of the new year to re-examine your priorities. I hope you will place these two items near the top of your priorities.”

Spencer Stall of Taos, NM has a suggestion:

“I suggest you and other media watchdogs keep a close eye on the Bush administration during the current media flood of Tsunami coverage. This will be the perfect time, when the media’s eye is focused elsewhere, for the Bushites to pull some shenanigans with underhanded appointments, passing of bills with sleazy riders attached, etc. This would just be normal operations for Rove, Cheney, Wolfowitz, etc., but if they think nobody is watching they just might step up their pace.”

Jon Kopnnenhoefer:

“When President Bush (I call him that with utmost reluctance) names his father and Bill Clinton to ‘head up disaster relief’ for the victims of a tsunami, nobody comments on the obvious redundancy of using a separate coalition of the willing — oddly, the same countries who supported Bush’s invasion of Iraq — to channel relief when another existing set of institutions and organizations already exists: the UN, WHO, and a number of other groups with long experience in providing disaster relief on a global scale.

“Bush wants to re-invent the wheel, simply because he can then distract domestic media from the international relief effort. Sending his brother to the disaster area in the company of the ultimate waterboy, Colin Powell, is the icing on the cake.

“Using this tragedy to groom his brother for 2008 is another despicably cynical stroke by the ‘compassionate conservative’ and ‘born-again Christian’, but no one seems aware of it except John Stewart, on Comedy Central’s Daily Show.”

AM I GADFLY?

The NY Times thinks so and so did one our correspondents yesterday. This prompted Bonnie Parker-Duke of Magnolia Arkansas to come to my defense:

“Danny, I would like to respond to Paul Palmer and his media gadfly comment.

“Danny a political gadfly? So small as not to be noticed on the national or world level? There was a time that Howard Dean was a political gadfly…but he came very close to winning the Democratic nomination this year. And how much money was it he unprecidentedly raised? What you think of Danny Schecher is not my problem although I think Danny Schechter and people like him give me more honest news than I get on TV or in the newspapers. My problem is your thinking that he is inconsequential in the larger scheme of things.

“Margaret Mead once said, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Your seeing Danny and others like him as only small inconsequential cogs in a HUGE wheel is what is wrong with the way so many people think today. One Danny Schechter may not do much (except reach how many of us every day, Danny?), but when you put many Danny Schechters together with the number of people they reach with their messages, and the number of other people that those people reach, etc., Danny Schechter and his ilk can move mountains.”

My “ilk?” Thanks a lot.

ON THE TSUNAMI

Daena Giardella writes:

“As I look at the unimaginable images of devastation and loss in the coverage of the Asia earthquake and tsunami, I am grappling with the overwhelming suffering and grief that is engulfing so many people from so many countries. My heart is broken open again and again as I see the agony and shock of the survivors who lost loved ones. The miles of destruction, the piles of rubble that were once homes and thriving communities, the thousands of orphaned children, the stories of terror and heroism leave me speechless, moved, and profoundly saddened. At times, I feel I cannot continue to look, but I also cannot look away. The geologists and earthquake specialists tell us that these occurrences are part of the earth’s history. The scientist in me understands and accepts that. Still, I find myself searching for a deeper meaning behind these cataclysmic events especially in light of the tremendous political, social and worldwide upheaval of recent months/years.

“The earth is quaking. It has literally shaken us. Its very rotation has been altered. Like a lumbering giant elephant that has been patiently carrying us on its back while withstanding the indignities of our mistreatment and disrespect, it has finally met our arrogant self-absorption with an unmistakable rumble. It is as if our planet is saying: “Wake up! You are destroying my environment, polluting my atmosphere, defiling my waters, and defying the laws of nature that are essential for a thriving ecosystem. And you are killing each other in acts of brutal violence all over my land.

“Wake up! Pay attention to the essential necessity of protecting your water sources from contamination. Pay attention to your respiratory systems as they develop epidemic levels of asthma from the toxic additives you release into the air. Pay attention to the fragility of life, the commonality of all humans, and the universal need for compassion.”

“We are reminded that with all our technological and industrial advances, we cannot control nature…. The historic tragedy in Asia has the potential to shake us out of our unconsciousness as we realize that we must rely upon each other if we hope to survive. ”

Chris McGill on the media’s conscience. (sic)

“I find it sad that the media seems to have developed a sudden conscience on this matter and not yet on Iraq, though I could do without some minute details such as reporters standing by boats that have washed up on shore way inland. I think we get it. Forgive them - It’s hard to break them of the long-standing conditioned habit of idiotically blowing around in a hurricane to tell people it’s windy. I also have noticed the emphasis on english speaking surviving tourists and Sports Illustrated supermodels and not on locals except for the occasional doctor. Do you think the media’s actions here and in Iraq may condone or perpetuate jingoism, bigotry, and/or possibly racism, here in this country?

“I also feel the Bush administration may be trying to capitalize on this tragedy to try and reclaim lost credibility from Iraq - This would be a true horror story in light of what I wrote above. I trust the world, and we in the US, are not that gullible.”

MILAN ON THE MOVE

From Milan:

“My organization is a fundraising group and we will support any initiative that creates and allows transparency in raising funds for aid. We are ready to participate and will mobilize friends here in Milan in the Media and the communications industry for your ONE campaign.

“Lets us know”

LIKES CNN INTERNATIONAL

Jackie Newberry:

“I agree with you about CNN…too bad more people don’t get CNN International. It has really been doing a superb job, including getting the perspective from journalists other than Americans. CNN is so American centric and doesn’t show as much of the phenomenal relief efforts being provided by the Asian countries so hard hit themselves. Those are the stories that are interesting and uplifting….”

Cynthia DiSanto writes from Beantown:

“Danny, i am a Boston girl, born in Cambridge and was a Bostonian college student in the days when u were on ‘bcn ..

“the protests about the US being stingy & not acting quickly enough are ridiculous!

“GW, aka the idiot in residence should give the $$ he is going to spend on this crowning of his second term to the families and soldiers defending our country abroad, as well as to the children, wives, mothers, sisters fathers and brothers who are missing their significant others here at home. it is pitiful to decry the lack of contribution that the US is making abroad, when we have displaced, widowed and orphaned American families and citizens in the name of WMD.

“Rock on…

“if we believed in the dream of the Red Sox and they slew Goliath, surely a little ground swell against the coronation of the rich conservative in Washington is not misplaced optimism.”

MAD COW RESPONSE

Canada strikes back. Here’s Carolyn Taplin:

“O.K., I couldn’t resist this one. In response to one of your readers: first, the original cow found to be infected was owned by an American from Mississippi living in Alberta who had acquired the cow from an auction in the U.S. Don’t think the Alberta beef producers didn’t find that suspicious. American companies have been trying to take over our industry here for years. I doubt there’s an Albertan who doesn’t think that cow was planted. And right after we refused to join the coalition of the murderous on their way to Iraq and your government had threatened economic payback. Secondly, this new cow is a dairy cow, a family ‘pet’ as it were, not intended for beef production. The animal ruminant feed in question that the agriculture people suspect may have introduced the illness was produced using U.S. and Canadian animals and sold in the U.S. as well. The practice of feeding animals back to animals was stopped in Canada in 1998. I don’t know if there’s a ban on that in the U.S.

“During the initial ’scare’ I was listening to a Washington state radio station interviewing an American veterinarian. During this interview he pointed out that scores of infected cattle have been found in the U.S. and nobody says anything. Nobody goes public because they don’t want the American people to know. You’re right, your governments aren’t protecting your interests but if you honestly believe that the ban on Canadian beef imports was anything but a political move on your governments’ part, then you’ve fallen for the same media crap that Danny and friends are trying to help you to avoid…”

CAN IT HAPPEN HERE?

I.W.M. Rieger writes from Portland, ME to say IT CAN HAPPEN HERE:

“This is just the most recent of articles about the Canary Island volcano, Cumbre Vieja, that threatens anyone living in an area bordering the Atlantic ocean but most notably us, living on the eastern seaboard of the United States. I think it’s unfortunate a story like this, one that’s been circulating for years now, is only now starting to have an effect. I hope that it has a deeply galvanising effect…one that helps us reach deeply into our pockets for Asian Tsunami victims, but also one that helps us deal with our own vulnerability. We (America) have shown ourselves capable of starting wars without imminent threats but ignore perfectly clear geophysical, and environmental threats. These forces that shape this planet, and our reality, they cannot be wished away.

Scientists: Volcano Could Swamp U.S. with Mega-Tsunami

http://tinyurl.com/6md44

A RESOURCE TO CHECK OUT

Visit John Brockman’s The Edge: www.edge.org

This site invited a wide range of smart people to answer this question:

“WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?”

MEDIA BLOGGERS ANNOUNCEMENT

Here’s an effort worthy of supporting from the Media Bloggers Association.

“Tsunami Video Hosting Initiative is a public service offered by Media Bloggers Association in partnership with Zubr Communications. The Initiative was launched in response to concerns over bandwidth issues facing bloggers doing a tremendous public service by providing video of the tsunami to the world.

“The initiative matches web hosts willing to donate server space and bandwidth with bloggers and other Tsunami video sources looking to defray their cost of hosting Tsunami video. The Content-broker allows only the provider of the video to reference the video from within their blog or web site.”

http://mediabloggers.org/tsunamivideohosting

SPEAKING TONIGHT

Check it out. You can check me out tonight at 7 PM at the Bluestockings book store 183 Allen St (two blocks down from Houston.) I will be reading from my essay in the new MELVILLE House book “WHAT WE DO NOW.”

My film WMD has moved to the RED VIC theater in San Francisco. Also, the Freedom Cinema Festival slated at the end of January in Park City Utah announced its line up today, They will be honoring me with a retrospective of my work.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0104-15.htm

Until tomorrow, when we do It all again. Comments welcome to dissector@mediachannel.org