Carolyn Taplin writes:

“I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet. It’s a picture taken by the CCTV cameras outside the Luton subway station (London) on the morning of the London bombings of July 7th. It’s supposed to be an actual shot of the supposed terrorists. Look at the guy in the white cap, Mohammed Khan. Look at his left arm. (His left, not yours.) The railing is in front of his arm. A railing that is supposed to be behind him. Apparently, if you blow this picture up on Photoshop you can also see that the top railing goes through his head. I was not the first person to notice this but it certainly raises some questions. Is at least one image in this picture superimposed? If so, why? And by whom? Or, is there some reasonable explanation for this oddity? I’m rather curious now.”

http://www.incredimail.com/index.asp?id=54475

DLC SCHEME: END OF DEM PRIMARIES?

Mark Crispin Miller passes along this letter by Roxanne Jekot:

“I was at a private house party on August 2nd in Georgia with Senators Reid, Schumer and Pryor.

“And the grand DLC plan is simple for 2006 — no DEM primaries. They plan to choose the DLC candidate and force all others out of the race. Just like they did in PA with Casey.

“The exact Schumer (DSCC Chair) quote is: ‘We are no longer letting Democrats get in a circle and shoot each other. We are going to intervene if any one Democrat attacks another. We are doing that in states where there are primaries… this always happens in the primaries, people throw up the cards and see where they land. No more. We’re finding the best candidates in every one of the seats where republicans are vulnerable.’”

Nancy Morgan writes from Florida:

“Is it true that the U.S. is constructing permanent military bases in Iraq, at leas a dozen and some as big as San Diego??? I want to know why the media are not investigating this, as it exposes another lie — that we are going to leave Iraq to the Iraqis as soon as they can defend themselves. This should be frontpage news, but so little has been reported on this. I just finished John Dean’s book Worse Than Watergate, and it is very upsetting. I still cannot understand how this administration is getting away with such secrecy and corruption. And now this 9/11 march!!! What have we come to?”

THE WIKI DEBATE: A ‘UNION MAID’ CHIMES IN

Jody Kolodzey, who edits this blog and also serves as Philadelphia Co-Chair of the National Writers Union, responds to yesterday’s query by Debra Cash of WBUR Online Arts:

“You raise an important issue in wondering whether ‘only the very young and marginal and the very wealthy (who can afford to contribute their work for free) can write, take photographs and generally act as media contributors.’ This is something that the National Writers Union has been struggling with for years.

“Indeed, how much real ‘freedom of the press’ is there in a country where only the rich can afford to publish their opinions on the op-ed pages of our daily newspapers? Where only the independently wealthy can afford to write feature articles for magazines? These are questions that also reach to the very heart of the media consolidation issue.

“Workers are the first to feel the effects of corporate takeovers of the media, takeovers which impact not just news content, but the lives of these so-called ‘content providers’ via the imposition of more draconian wages and hours, along with decreased benefits, fewer job resources and lessened job security. The media consolidation that is so problematic in so many areas is creating a huge base of freelance writers out of journalists who are being downsized from their staff jobs, at the same time that large media companies are finding it cheaper to buy freelance material than to pay staff writers.

“A lot cheaper.

“While media consolidation has been creating a larger base of freelancers, rates paid for freelance material have been declining; one major daily paper recently cut its per-article payments by 50%. At the same time, newspapers and magazines are demanding that freelance contributors sign ‘all-rights’ or ‘work for hire’ contracts, enabling the publishers to reproduce and even sell the writers’ works online without additional compensation, while prohibiting the writers from reprinting their articles elsewhere, or even publishing their own work in a personal anthology without paying royalties to the original publisher.

“An NWU survey indicated that the average fulltime freelance writer in America makes substantially less than the median income for college graduates in this country, less than $30,000 per year, and therefore must rely on a day job, spouse or trust fund to make ends meet.

“Not long ago, John McCutcheon, head of United Federation of Musicians Local 1000 (and perhaps best known as the author of ‘Christmas in the Trenches’), and I were commiserating over how even on the left, the efforts of cultural workers are devalued in our society. A group that wants to put out a newsletter to publicize its worthy cause will be careful to use a union printshop, recycled paper and soy ink — even though they are more expensive, because it’s important to show support for labor and the environment — but will expect writers, editors, cartoonists and photographers to contribute their work for free. Likewise, an organization that wants to raise funds for a particular cause will put on a benefit concert — again being careful to book it in a union hall, hire a union sound engineer, and select a union printshop, recycled paper etc. for the promotional flyers and posters — but will expect the musicians and graphic designer to work for free.

“The National Writers Union is planning a conference at the Free Library of Philadelphia on Oct. 29. We will be devoting a panel to this issue. We’ll have more details in a few weeks.”

http://www.nwu.org/journ/journalismweb.pdf

FROM THE WIKI MASTER

Ward Cunningham, the father of the Wiki media concept, writes:

“Danny — I was pleased to finally have a chance to view the WMD disk you gave me. I was generally aware of each of the criticisms but the specific details were stunning. I’m pleased that I had a chance to meet you and Rory. I will watch carefully for everything you do.”

ENMITY

The Guardian editorializes today on Tony Blair’s absence from the funeral of Robin Cook, his one-time friend and cabinet minister, who broke with him on the war:

“…perhaps there is something inherently theatrical about enmity itself. There is nothing like a really good enemy, one whose enmity you can cherish and nurture over months and years, to define who you are. You are everything your enemy is not. You are in the white hat, he is in the black. He is wrong, you are right. Iraq was a vain self-indulgence, Iraq was a noble necessity. You are principled, he is opportunist. All the grey fuzziness and undefinition of things disappears under these more exciting and more dramatic conditions. And that, maybe, is the meaning of Blair’s absence from the funeral: a way of knowing who he is.”

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