SUNDAY — This just in as the “hits” keep coming: From the Times of London. More From Downing Street
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-523-1660300-523,00.html

OFF IN THE WORLD
DANA MILBANK TAKES A DUMP
JULE IN LONDON

My “World Tour” promoting my film “WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception)” will soon be over, for the summer at least, after screenings next week in South Africa at the Durban Film Festival then in Johannesburg. From there I head to London. This means, as I mentioned yesterday, that I will only be writing sporadically. Back first week in July.

As the song says, “do not forsake me.” (Smile)

Miles to go before I sleep, but first, may I weep.

I can’t leave without commenting on the “sketch” by Dana Milbank on Friday’s Congressional Downing Street Forum that appeared in the Washington Post. It wasn’t even a report — just a smarmy and snide put-down of a column from the reporter who has in the past tended to be credible and even critical of Bush policies.

Milbank’s writing at times was all that was left of the “liberal media” in a newspaper that is anything but.

You have to understand that media people who get labeled or stand out often feel compelled to show how “balanced” they are, how objective, how “as tough on the left” as they are on the right. You see that every time PBS’s Frontline follows a tough investigative piece on the Busheviks with a slam at Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

“See how balanced we are?” is the mantra in an obvious bid to stay in the centrist power club, maintain access and be taken seriously.

What’s especially upsetting is that I expected more from Milbank, who did good work when he wrote a “White House Notebook.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13200-2004Jun28.html

What was even more telling is that this piece appeared in the Post on the anniversary of the Watergate break-in, the story that made that newspaper’s global reputation.

Former Associated Press reporter Robert Parry writes about this in the context of D.C. media culture on his Consortiumnews.com:

“Those of us who have covered Washington for years have seen the pattern before. A group without sufficient inside-the-Beltway clout tries to draw attention to a scandal that the Post and other prestigious news arbiters have missed or gotten wrong. After ignoring the grievances for a while — and sensing that the complainers have no real muscle — the news arbiters start heaping on the abuse…

“[I]f Milbank were tempted to write an over-the-top attack on Bush — like he did on Conyers and the Downing Street Memo hearing — he would pay a high price from retaliating conservatives who would accuse him of bias and flood his editors with complaints.”

Years ago, the WaPo stood up to power and war mongers; now, it puts down critics of war and power.

“KNOW IT ALL-ISM:” AN INDUSTRY CONCEIT

Milbank’s work has gone from note-booking to sketching. A sketch is often a rough draft.

Inside the Beltway where know it all-ism and suck up journalism is a fine art, it was left to Dana to trash John Conyers and Friday’s Downing Street Memo hearing. The right mostly ignored it. They needed someone with more respect in opposition circles to do him in.

And Dana took on the assignment with gusto in a “Washington Sketch” column written no doubt to please his editors, show Howie Kurtz how cool and independent he is, and maintain his trustworthiness as a Washington Post insider.

Here’s part of what he wrote. You can just sense the pleasure he had in making fun of the only people in town who are standing up to the Bush onslaught, a role he probably considered his own, as an “army of one,” as one blogger put it.

I am sure he will not be able to hear why so many are disgusted with his showing his true colors and wise-guy orientation — and I say that as someone who does not believe that the Downing Street Memo is the second coming or can be, in itself, a tool for impeachment.

A SKETCHY SKETCH

“Democrats Play House to Rally Against the War

“In the Capitol basement yesterday, long-suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe.

“They pretended a small conference room was the Judiciary Committee hearing room, draping white linens over folding tables to make them look like witness tables and bringing in cardboard name tags and extra flags to make the whole thing look official.

“Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) banged a large wooden gavel and got the other lawmakers to call him ‘Mr. Chairman.’ He liked that so much that he started calling himself ‘the chairman’ and spouted other chairmanly phrases, such as ‘unanimous consent’ and “without objection so ordered.’ The dress-up game looked realistic enough on C-SPAN, so two dozen more Democrats came downstairs to play along.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/16/AR2005061601570.html

This infuriating “ha-ha” tone was the subject of a blast from the Brad Blog:

“New York Times’ Scott Shane wrote a serious article covering yesterday’s Downing Street Hearings and the facts it examined concerning a President of the United States who may have committed Impeachable High Crimes by fixing intelligence and misleading the country into an unnecessary war leading to the death of thousands.

“On the other hand, Washington Post’s embarrassing Dana Milbank wrote an obnoxious and condescending little screed which begins, ‘In the Capitol basement yesterday, long-suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe.’

“And, oh yeah, speaking of ‘the land of make-believe’, Milbank gets one fact wrong after another as he plays ‘journalist’ in the pages of one of the countries once-greatest newspapers.”

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001475.htm

Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher was not laughing either. He knew a hatchet job when he saw one:

“Oddly, he [Milbank] seem less interested in the far more serious ‘make-believe’ that inspired the basement session: the administration’s fake case for WMDs in Iraq that has already led to the deaths of over 1,700 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis. No, Milbank used the valuable real estate of the Post to mock Rep. John Conyers, who arranged the meeting, and his ‘hearty band of playmates…’”

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000964303

CONYERS FIRES BACK

In a letter to the Post, Conyers critiques the critique:

“In sum, the piece cherry-picks some facts, manufactures others out of whole cloth, and does a disservice to some 30 members of Congress who persevered under difficult circumstances, not of our own making, to examine a very serious subject: whether the American people were deliberately misled in the lead up to war. The fact that this was the Post’s only coverage of this event makes the journalistic shortcomings in this piece even more egregious.

“In an inaccurate piece of reporting that typifies the article, Milbank implies that one of the obstacles the Members in the meeting have is that ‘only one’ member has mentioned the Downing Street Minutes on the floor of either the House or Senate. This is not only incorrect but misleading. In fact, just yesterday, the Senate Democratic Leader, Harry Reid, mentioned it on the Senate floor. Senator Boxer talked at some length about it at the recent confirmation hearing for the Ambassador to Iraq. The House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi, recently signed on to my letter, along with 121 other Democrats asking for answers about the memo. This information is not difficult to find either. For example, the Reid speech was the subject of an AP wire service report posted on the Washington Post website with the headline “Democrats Cite Downing Street Memo in Bolton Fight”. Other similar mistakes, mischaracterizations and cheap shots are littered throughout the article.

“…to express my profound disappointment with Dana Milbank’s June 17 report, “Democrats Play House to Rally Against the War,” which purports to describe a Democratic hearing I chaired in the Capitol yesterday. In sum, the piece cherry-picks some facts, manufactures others out of whole cloth, and does a disservice to some 30 members of Congress who persevered under difficult circumstances, not of our own making, to examine a very serious subject: whether the American people were deliberately misled in the lead up to war. The fact that this was the Post’s only coverage of this event makes the journalistic shortcomings in this piece even more egregious.

“…The fact that I and my fellow Democrats had to stuff a hearing into a room the size of a large closet to hold a hearing on an important issue shouldn’t make us the object of ridicule. In my opinion, the ridicule should be placed in two places: first, at the feet of Republicans who are so afraid to discuss ideas and facts that they try to sabotage our efforts to do so; and second, on Dana Milbank and the Washington Post, who do not feel the need to give serious coverage on a serious hearing about a serious matter-whether more than 1700 Americans have died because of a deliberate lie. Milbank may disagree, but the Post certainly owed its readers some coverage of that viewpoint.”

CONSISTENT

This from the Washington Post, which finally did a mea culpa of sorts on its inaccurate coverage of the run-up to the war. Comments by Post ombudsman Michael Getler to the effect that the Post ignored and downplayed large anti-war demonstrations in Washington and overseas appear in my film ‘WMD’ (which the Post reviewer predictably also trashed).

This seems to be the institutional function of the WashPost these days — to go so far, but no further, to keep up appearances as a guardian of the center while tilting right and righteous.

“A JOKE OF A PIECE”

JesseLee posted a comment on the Stakeholder, a Democratic congressional committee blog:

“Actually, I would add something to that as well regarding this passage from Milbank’s joke of a piece:

“‘At Democratic headquarters, where an overflow crowd watched the hearing on television, activists handed out documents repeating two accusations — that an Israeli company had warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that there was an “insider trading scam” on 9/11 — that previously has been used to suggest Israel was behind the attacks.

“‘The event organizer, Democrats.com, distributed stickers saying “Bush lied/100,000 people died.” One man’s T-shirt proclaimed, “Whether you like Bush or not, he’s still an incompetent liar,” while a large poster of Uncle Sam announced: “Got kids? I want yours for cannon fodder.”‘”

JesseLee then comments on the way Millbank conflated people WATCHING the hearing into “an event:”

“In what sense Democrats.com was ‘the event organizer’ I can scarcely imagine. In fact, what is ‘the event’? Is it simply ‘an overflow crowd watch[ing] the hearing on television’? Because that seems to me solely a function of the hearing itself, which was quite obviously organized by Conyers. In fact, I know Conyers’ folks and was in touch with them at the very time they were arranging for room here in DNHQ. ‘The event’ consisted of those from the public who could not fit into the public hearing room (which was exceedingly small for the reasons Conyers explains) being allowed to watch it on television in a large empty space in DNHQ. Some in the public handed out fliers that neither Conyers nor anybody in DNHQ would condone, but unlike some we know, we do not screen people for anything we might find offensive before we let them into a public event.

“Furthermore, Milbank’s reporting leaves an uninformed reader with a flagrant misconception. By claiming that Democrats.com organized the event, whatever that event was, without noting that they are an entirely independent group, he left the distinct impression that they were some form of an official Democratic organization, and that the Democrats were handing out these fliers in their own headquarters.

“I’m sure Milbank gets a daily pile of hate mail from the Republican bully squad, but that is no excuse. That column is a joke.”

There is a deeper problem here. Washington insiders hate activists because basically they detest popular democracy. To them, the only legitimate voices are to be found in office or institutions. That’s how elitist our lame stream media have become.

And lest Dana doesn’t know Mediachannel.org or my work — allow me to indicate that I spent nearly 20 years in mainstream commercial media.

IT’S THE MEDIA, STUPID (STILL)

I was told that former President Clinton was on the David Letterman show last week and Letterman asked him about the Downing Street Memo. Clinton seemed not to know what he was talking about. So CBS’s late-night jokester told him about it. Clinton admitted he hadn’t read it. Why? Probably because it wasn’t in the New York Times or Washington Post.

At the same time, hard-hitting political columnist Joe Conason was writing about these same media outlets in Salon:

“Deciding what constitutes news is a subjective exercise, of course, with all the uncertainty that implies. Yet there are several obvious guidelines to keep in mind while listening to the excuses proffered in the New York Times and the Washington Post by reporters who must know better.

“A classified document recording deliberations by the highest officials of our most important ally over the decision to wage war is always news. A document that shows those officials believed the justification for war was ‘thin’ and that the intelligence was being ‘fixed’ is always news. A document that indicates the president was misleading the world about his determination to wage war only as a last resort is always news.

“And when such a document is leaked, whatever editors, reporters and producers may think ‘everyone’ already knows or believes about its contents emphatically does not affect whether that piece of paper is news. The journalists’ job is to determine whether it is authentic and then to probe into its circumstances and meaning. There are many questions still to be answered about the Downing Street memo, but the nation’s most prominent journalists still aren’t asking them.”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/06/17/dsm_press/print.html

“COINCIDENCE” OF NOTE

The other day, Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton, chimed in to say that the Gitmo Gulag would not be closed. What he did not reveal is that it is to be rebuilt. And guess who is getting the contract?

From the Houston Chronicle:

“The U.S. Navy wants Houston-based Halliburton Co. to build a $30 million prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command has assigned Halliburton subsidiary KBR to construct a two-story facility capable of handling 220 prisoners, along with a security fence. Known as Detention Camp No. 6, the facility will feature day rooms, exercise areas, medical and dental wards and a security control room. The prison will be large enough to accommodate nearly half the 520 suspected enemy combatants being kept at Guantanamo. The work is scheduled to be completed by July of next year.

“‘The future detention facility will be based on prison models in the U.S. and is designed to be safer for the long-term detention of detainees and guards who serve’ at Guantanamo, a Pentagon spokesman said in a prepared statement. ‘It is also expected to require less manpower.’”

COMMENTS

Jule of the band Vortex writes again to share her remarks at the ‘WMD’ screening in London:

”D, did my best to share what I felt were your comments that your film taught me as a citizen, that we have a crisis in media when it can’t afford to be honest. That in America, Danny leads a growing voice in bringing back truth in journalism. That your film labored to bring the truth to the public (quoted that one of your reviews calls you ‘the Michael Moore of Michael Moore’). \I also noted to the journalists there that as an American citizen you can imagine how outraged we felt… for it’s a real eye opener. And that as journalists you have a privileged opportunity to guard safely the truth that we your public receive and that I hoped none would take it for granted.

“Herman Porter — a great leader in media for UK, said ‘the situation in American media has undermined our freedom… the right to know’, your film said the media in covering the war ‘assumed accuracy’ which he noted some account of 414 stories that originated from the pentagon… He held up an American sticker that said if you’re not outraged, then you’re not paying attention. Herman cited issues like media has become pornography of violence…with tepid real coverage… power goes with power, ‘dominate the message’ etc.”

TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

As one’s birthday draws nearer, thoughts of mortality flash into mind even when you’d rather they didn’t. Your attention is called to news of those you knew who have passed on. Today (Sunday), I learned that the publisher, writer, historian and a distant friend, James Weinstein, is no longer with us. He worked to reinvigorate American journalism.

Doug Ireland passes on the word:

New from DIRELAND, June 18, 2005: JAMES WEINSTEIN, 1926-2005

“James Weinstein — author, historian, editor, publisher, Founder of In These Times magazine, and an important figure in the life of the mind of American radicalism for four decades — died Thursday morning at his home on the North Side of Chicago, after a long bout with brain cancer. On his death, Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont — the Independent member of Congress who is a democratic socialist — told the AP, “Jim Weinstein was one of the intellectual leaders of the American progressive movement.”

For my appreciation of Jimmy’s life and work, click on:

http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2005/06/james_weinstein.html

I could go on but I can’t. I have to pack, take off and take a break.

I will still be online at Dissector@mediachannel.org.