BUSH ‘CULTIVATES THE PRESS

MSNBC reports:

“Bush in ‘chipper’ mood at reporters’ dinner
It was twice the fun for members of the White House Correspondents’ Association and guests Saturday night when President Bush invited a look-alike, sound-alike sidekick to poke fun at himself and fellow politicians.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12555176/

But when Comedy Channel’s Stephen Colbert took on Bush at that dinner, the President was, shall we say, not amused:

http://www.SmirkingChimp.com/article.php?sid=25892&mode=nested&order=0
Low bandwidth link: http://www.SmirkingChimp.com/print.php?sid

“THE CNN LINE”

Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner’s analysis of how the Pentagon deployed information warfare against the press and the truth appears in my film WMD. In a new paper, Gardiner is now warning of military operations against Iran. He sent me a copy. Here is an excerpt:

“Rumsfeld had issued clear guidance to “stay below the CNN line,” Franks reported. Even so, CENTCOM for all intents and purposes was waging a quiet little war.”
Cobra II

“Stay below the CNN line. That was the guidance given to the Air Component Commander, General Mosley, as the secret air strikes began against Iraq in operation SOUTHERN FOCUS. It was July 2002. This classified bombing campaign would involve strikes on almost 400 targets. This campaign was initiated just after the President visited Europe where he announced numerous times, “I have no war plans on my desk.”

“There was no UN resolution. The Congressional authority was not to come for four months, but the United States was starting the war.

“The pressures are forcing all the other options off the table for the crisis with Iran. The evidence is mounting. The United States has picked regime change as the objective. Military operations are underway. Most likely, the same guidance has been given to military commanders. The pattern is repeating, and we can see the path ahead.

“I know there are many within the US State Department who believe we should be negotiating with Iran. That’s interesting but irrelevant. What is relevant when we’re talking about military options is the position of those who make the decisions inside the US Government. I think they hold seven truths:

• Iran is developing weapons of mass destruction…that’s most likely true.
• Iran is ignoring the international community…true
• Iran supports terrorism…true
• Iran is increasingly inserting itself in Iraq and beginning to be involved in Afghanistan…true
• The people of Iran want a regime change…most likely an exaggeration.
• Sanctions are not going to work…most likely true.
• You can’t negotiate with those people…not proven but there is some evidence to support the argument.

“If you accept these Big Seven as truth, you can understand why the Administration is left with the military option.

USES AND ABUSES OF THE WIKIPEDIA

The Mail & Guardian reports:

”Political operatives play dirty tricks on Wikipedia
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that can be altered by anyone with a computer, has proved remarkably useful for pulling political dirty tricks. Political operatives are covertly rewriting — or defacing — candidates’ biographical entries to make the boss look good or the opponent look ridiculous.

L.A. TV STATION AGREES TO MEET WITH ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS

Benjamin Parke reports:

”After repeated attempts—by phone, email, and post—to arrange a meeting with someone from CBS 2 News, Paul Skolnick, Managing Editor of KCBS-TV/KCAL-TV, called me this week and said he’s willing to meet with a small group of us in early June. (They’re busy with the Sweeps in May.) When he called, he said he hadn’t seen the AFSC/ICUJP joint statement (which had been mailed to the News Director), so I emailed it to him, and he’s confirmed that he received it.

“We also had a short conversation in which we exchanged our general perspectives on his stations’ coverage of the war. Skolnick acknowledged that he’d seen us outside Columbia Square on March 15 and, referring to our signs, said his news outfit had limited means to obtain information in Iraq. He said that his stations did have reporters there at the beginning of the war, and possibly one since, but that the security situation is so bad that many of the journalists in Iraq don’t leave their hotels very often. His local stations get footage on the war from sources that it doesn’t independently control, namely CBS News, AP-TV, and (for KCAL) CNN.

“I acknowledged that the security situation in Iraq is very bad, and that we’re not expecting a local station to send a bevy of reporters into the country. However, his station can certainly give context and fact-checking to whatever administration or military pronouncements it reports, and there are a number of community issues that are affected by this war, particularly local budgets that are affected by a war economy. Skolnick pointed to a story that they aired on a levee in California that broken, tying in with the war budget angle. I said that we certainly appreciate such stories, and that he could probably point to a number of stories that fit in with what we’re asking for. A big problem is the proportion of such stories to his stations’ overall news coverage, and that most of the stories that are broadcast deal with local crime and car chases.

“Skolnick spoke of the challenge in “finding an editorial voice in the highly competitive market of LA.” Things have to be seen from a marketing point of view, he said, though he added that he himself is not a marketer. Whereas AFSC and ICUJP might represent one segment of the population as a “faith-based niche,” there is another segment “who seem to be responding well” to the kinds of things broadcast by his stations.

“It’s a difficult balancing act,” said Skolnick, who grew up in the region and worked at KNBC for a number of years before moving to KCAL and KCBS. “Our goal is to be the news leader in this market.”

“He said that his stations are “trying very hard to use the public airwaves responsibly,” suggesting that when criticism from groups like ours is balanced relatively equally with criticism from folks like those who run right-wing blogs, then his newscasts are probably balanced.

“Particularly interesting among his comments, I think, was Skolnick’s acknowledgment that “groups on the left” complain about news outlets being controlled by huge conglomerates and that coverage reflects a corporate environment. He said he was around when “this whole thing” started in 1986.

“It’s a difficult tightrope to walk,” he said.