MEDIA ON THE SUNNY SIDE

Reality-based lack-of-progress report by ambassador was met with stony silence

By Paul Mulshin

”If the ambassador to Iraq, over whose name the memo went out, is willing to admit that the United States has managed to hand Iraq over to Islamists even more fanatical than those in Iran, then any American “victory” in Iraq will be a Pyrrhic one indeed.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13778.htm

WILL THE FBI RAID THE NY TIMES?

Asks Dennis Persica, a staff writer and editor at The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans

”The New York Times has spurred the anger of the Bush administration by reporting on a program to monitor international banking transactions as part of the government’s counterterrorism program. Critics argue this is the equivalent of reporting on troop movements or disclosing the existence of secret weaponry. You don’t have to look too hard online to find posters of the World War II “loose lips sink ships” variety that pretty much blame the Times for the deaths of American soldiers.

The National Review urged the administration to revoke the Times’ White House credentials. U.S. Rep Peter King, R-N.Y., said the Times should be brought up on charges of treason.

The current climate leads me to ponder a what-if scenario. One that I hope is as far-fetched as I believe it to be. But imagine the possibility suggested by the recent rhetorical attacks and threats of prosecution.

What if the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York—bolstered by a cadre of federal marshals or FBI agents—entered the offices of The New York Times, looking to rummage through the paper’s files and computers either to find the source of the leaks for the banking story or to make sure the Times isn’t about to publish another story allegedly damaging to national security?

In raising this possibility, I am not suggesting the administration would do this to shut down all news media and establish an authoritarian regime. Let’s just assume the government has good intentions—guarding the nation’s security—when it orders the raid. But historians and polemicists of all political stripes know that since the dawn of humanity the road to catastrophe has often been paved with good intentions.

Far-fetched? Remember, we are talking about an administration that has angered even some members of its own party in Congress with its my-way-or-the-highway approach. Republicans screamed the loudest when the FBI raided the office of Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (who, coincidentally, is my congressman). Critics say this administration has seized the powers of the imperial presidency and expanded them farther than ever before. There are echoes of the Cold War here, when we were engaged in a similar debate: To defeat the totalitarians of the Eastern Bloc, do we have to become more like them or can we win without sacrificing our democratic soul?

COMMENT BY JOURNALIST CHRIS FLOYD

“Make no mistake: the Bush Regime intends to silence all dissenting voices and suppress all politically harmful information in the American establishment. It’s a not a drive toward totalitarianism:they don’t want or need to repress and control everything. They don’t care if bloggers rant, or Harper’s fulminates, or Michael Moore makes movies, or Noam Chomsky sells books (or even speaks at West Point).

They are perfectly happy to allow isolated enclaves of dissent to float around out there somewhere — as long they remain isolated and, above all, ineffectual.

What they cannot tolerate — and increasingly will not tolerate — is any institution, organization or person in a position of genuine influence on the American power structure to undermine the presidential dictatorship that the Regime has established….”

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=26683&mode=nested&order=0

NON ALIGNED MOVEMENT STARTS NEWS AGENCY

” KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia yesterday launched a news service created by the Non-Aligned Movement (Nam), saying it said would provide an antidote to deceptive Western media reports.
Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin said the West was cynical about the creation of the NAM News Network (NNN) but people had lost trust in Western media outlets after their reports on the Iraq War.

“Before, people had a strong confidence, (they) wholeheartedly believed in BBC, believed in CNN, but now the situation has changed,” he told reporters after launching the news service….”

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=June2006&file=World_News200606287277.xml

NETWORKS BUY UP OR INTO POPULAR WEBSITES

Yesterday, I reported that NBC was buying into YouTube.com and then, as if my magic, NBC’s Today Show carried a feature on You Tube.

As for MySpace, here’s a piece explaining what happened there from WIRED:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/murdoch.html

MAIL & GUARDIAN: FLA TEENS ENTRAP MEN ON MYSPACE.COM

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=275761&area=/breaki%20ng_news/breaking_news__international_news/

TIMES OF LONDON: “Rupert Murdoch to sell some of his company’s US TV stations and may use the profits to buy back the 18 per cent stake John Malone holds in News Corp.”

Alexander Cockburn Calls Blogosphere “Hot Air Factory”
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/cockburn