COLUMBUS DISPATCH: RUSH WALKS

Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has been telling his audience for days now that he could be indicted for encouraging Ohio Republicans to take a Democratic ballot in the March 4 primary in what he calls “Operation Chaos.”

Could that actually happen?

Not likely, Ohio officials say.

“We have no intention of prosecuting Rush Limbaugh because lying through your teeth and
being stupid isn’t a crime,” said Leo Jennings, a spokesman for Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann.

When asked whether she has concerns about what Limbaugh did, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, replied, “I think it’s very bad form, but I think most voters are intelligent enough to make their own decisions.”

Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” in Ohio, Pennsylvania and other states holding presidential primaries is designed to help presumptive Republican nominee John McCain win the Nov. 4 election.

The idea is to encourage Republicans in those states to vote for Hillary Clinton as a way to prolong the Democratic fight for the nomination with Barack Obama, possibly making it more difficult for Democrats to unite in the fall.

NPR News: National Pentagon Radio? By Norman Solomon

While the Iraqi government continued its large-scale military assault in Basra, the NPR reporter’s voice from Iraq was unequivocal on the morning of March 27: “There is no doubt that this operation needed to happen.”

BARRY DILLER WINS

A Delaware Chancery Court Judge ruled in favor of IAC/InterActiveCorp late March 28, dismissing Liberty Media’s attempt to block the Internet giant’s attempt to split into five separate companies.

GO WIKIPEDIA GO

Wikipedia Hits Milestone of Ten Million Articles Across 250 Languages

San Francisco, California March 28, 2008 – Earlier this week the Wikimedia Foundation reached a significant new milestone: on Thursday, March 27, at 00:07 UTC the official article count for all Wikipedias combined reached 10 million. The ten millionth article, a short biography of 16th century English goldsmith and painter Nicholas Hilliard, was created in the Hungarian Wikipedia by user Pataki Márta.

Wikipedia now boasts articles in more than 250 languages, with the English Wikipedia having the largest number, followed in descending order by the German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish Wikipedias. The project is also experiencing rapid growth in many young Wikipedias, including Marathi, Tagalog, and Cantonese.

Progressive Media MIA at Key News Events

People in independent media who complain about lack of coverage for important stories by mainstream media need to look at the mirror, argues Sam Husseini of the Institute for Public Accuracy in an essay making the rounds. The problem, he says, is a failure to show up and challenge government officials at key news events. The result is that important stories like the recent Winter Soldier hearings, although covered by alternative sources, are ignored the mainstream press.

For the full story, check out “Blackout of Winter Soldier Hearings Exposes Weakness of Indy Media” at Alternet.

Husseini points out that John Nichols, The Nation’s “Washington Correspondent,” is based in Wisconsin, while The Progressive hasn’t replaced its DC editor. “Last year Mother Jones magazine proclaimed in an email heralding the re-opening of its Washington office (the office was closed about a decade ago): ‘This Changes Everything’,” he writes. But despite some informative blog postings, he says that it’s not having much impact.

He also criticizes Pacifica Radio, Democracy Now! and Free Speech Radio News, noting that these progressive radio outlets rarely send reporters to ask tough questions at news conferences on Capitol Hill. This echoes recent comments on a Pacifica listserv. “We are not educating,” writes Kevin White, “we’re spoon feeding what they already know and are already comfortable with. And then we label it ‘Radio for Peace’.”

Independent media need to do more than preach to the choir, says Husseini. “The most obvious thing to do is set up the structures to question and scrutinize officials,” he concludes. “It will not only lead to a broader dialogue, but will force independent media to get to specifics, to not rely on demonizing Bush and sloganeering. This is the way to get to the truth: challenge, scrutinize, repeat.”

Maverick Media: Inside and outside media politics and the alternative press

David Simon, creator of The Wire, has something to say about cities, their problems, and the newspapers that cover them. He doesn’t think much of the modern metro daily, an institution he knows from the inside. Is he over the top? You be the judge. Here’s a podcast of his recent session at Columbia’s graduate school of journalism. And here, too, is “Secrets of the City: What The Wire reveals about urban journalism,” our cover story about the subject from January. We hope you enjoy them both.

The editors

CJR Podcast: The Wire’s David Simon
The Wire creator talks about the series, urban reporting, and, yes, the future of journalism

Secrets of the City: What The Wire reveals about urban journalism
By Lawrence Lanahan

YOUR LETTERS

Jane Allen writes from Carlsbad, CA:

Thanks for everything you do. Hang in there. Don’t let the “critics” get you down.

GINA BENTLEY WRITES FROM SEATTTLE

I found an interesting point while I did a search of the strange mix of politics and religion that’s unfolded recently over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright comments. The furor mainly is over his comments that due to inequality etc, instead of singing God bless America, people should sing God Damn America. A closer look into history would show that black anger finds it’s voice in the black church and it has been that way for generations. What I found most fascinating is that no one less than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, just four hours before his assassination, had called Ebeneezer Baptist Church to say that his sermon title for the next Sunday would be “Why America May Go to Hell.” In fact, in his book, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr, he says:

And I come by here to say that America too is going to hell if she doesn’t use her wealth. If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to hell. I will hear America through her historians, years and generations to come, saying, “We built gigantic buildings to kiss the skies. We built gargantuan bridges to span the seas. Through our space ships we were able to carve highways through the stratosphere. Through our submarines we were able to penetrate oceanic depths.” It seems that I can hear the God of the universe saying, “Even though you have done all of that, I was hungry and you fed me not. I was naked and you clothed me not. The children of my sons and daughters were in need of economic security and you didn’t provide it for them. And so you cannot enter the kingdom of greatness.” This may well be the indictment on America. And that same voice says in Memphis to the mayor, to the power structure, “If you do it unto the least of these of my children you do it unto me .

Do we have to renounce, denounce, reject and distance ourselves from Dr. King now? Sigh.

There is an interesting article dealing with this issue from an African American perspective

ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

Richard Trevis wrires:

I have really appreciated reading your articles that attempt to tell the truth about how the subprime mortgage crisis developed.

The three major presidential candidates issued statements two days ago on how to fix the housing situation. Not one of them mentioned nor were they asked what they thought about the Federal Reserve Bank’s diversion of hundreds of billions to the investment banks.

Then today I noticed that President Bush is preparing a statement announcement that sweeping new powers will be granted to the Federal Reserve Bank. Maybe Bush will announce next that there is a war in Iraq?

I would like to share just one more observation with you. The popular TV and newspaper media are constantly saying how drastically the housing prices are falling. They might say that last month home values fell by 10 or 15% in one whole year in the United States. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw the Treasury Secretary Paulson on TV saying some correction in housing prices is inevitable because the prices rose about 100% from about 2000 to 2006. To me those statements are incredible lies.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I recall reading headlines about 2003-2005 how housing prices were increasing by 10 or 20% in one month! In states like California, Nevada, Oregon and Arizona during 2000 to 2006 houses climbed in price 300% or more.

Do you notice the discrepancy about how the news media sound such alarms for drops in housing prices minor relative to how they rose? It takes about a year for a drop in price to approximate the rise in price for one month when the costs were skyrocketing.

Richard Belfanti writes from Walnut Creek, CA

What do I think about the comments you made to the CNBC journalist trying to get sound bites from the NACA protesters outside Bear Stearns? Brilliant! Poetic! Completely on the mark! God bless you! What you spoke about is a huge part of the problem. CNBC and its ilk are spokespersons for the Fed, the Treasury Secretary and their true Masters, the Banks, Brokerage Houses and Get-Rich-Quick Schemers. There is no way they will ever report anything that suggests the investment houses rig the game against the general public or for that matter, that any of the paper assets these entities sell are in the least bit vulnerable. I think part of the problem is also the reporters’ perceived need for sound bites in this new 24/7, report it before you understand it news environment.

You’re not going to get sound bites from your favorite Goldman Sachs analyst if you make some rather basic observation like Goldman minimized its exposure to subprime by betting against the same instruments they were hawking to the public as “safe as Treasuries.” You’re not going to get interviews with Secty. Paulson if you ask hard questions. He’ll give the exclusive to Neil Cavuto, who he knows will never ask him a question that’s in the least bit challenging or uncomplimentary. Still, the ultimate blame I think lies with all of us who think it’s safe to rely on coverage that’s paid for by advertising.

CNBC is in the business of selling advertising, plain and simple. They are paid by the entities that buy advertising time on their channel. There is no public interest requirement for cable channel operators that there used to be (to a limited degree) for broadcasters based on the rationale that they were licensed to used a limited public resource, the broadcast spectrum. We should be willing, if not anxious, to pay significant amounts of money to private news services that do not accept advertising revenue. We should refuse to follow any reporting of serious issues that is paid for by advertising. It’s a very simple proposition, but it’s fallen though the cracks because we fail to realize how much it is costing us to be mislead with respect to these issues. The only reliable news comes from the bloggers but it’s unrealistic to believe these individuals can fill the void. In most cases they have to pay out of pocket to provide us their services. We all need to be sufficiently self-interested to realize we want reporters who are not beholden to the moneyed interests to have equal (if not greater) resources than the ones who are.

Anyhow, getting back to you and the CNBC reporter, once again, it was terrific. It really made my day. Thank God for people like you who tell it straight.

As for the reader/critic who asks why I didn’t let CNBC reporter t get a word in: simple. She was just collecting soundbites. I wish she wanted to discuss the coverage. She didn’t. Reporters rarely do. Note that Mediachannel did run a clip of a pretty good report by another CNBC reporter on the protests. So much for lack of “balance.” I would love to go on CNBC and debate this issue. What do you think the chances of that are Mr. “Little Colt?,” (apologies, au contraire, Ms. Little Colt.)

JACKIE NEWBERRY WRITES FROM HOUSTON

Danny, I learned new things from you when I heard you on Wally’s show on KPFT the other night. I really appreciated your comments about the whole messed up system, not just the war that led us to where we are today. I listened to Counterspin this week. Dean Baker is so on your page. He addressed exactly what you did about the missed potential of the media to teach and inform instead of lazing around. He also talked about how the networks use the same pundits and have ignored a lot of economists who recognized the decline much earlier than the now more visible credit crunch and subprime mortgages. ….All the work that you and Carolyn (Baker) and others do isn’t on the cable networks, but it’s getting through. It takes time and is a process. However, I am convinced that we are looking at critical mass on a lot of disgust for the past 7 years and real hope for decency and getting back our self respect. Thank you for all of your efforts.

ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE CRISIS

L.A. Times Article On Payday Loans Falls Short

It’s good I suppose that Los Angeles Times writer Hector Becerra is writing today about Payday Loans, or predatory lending, but Becerra is not nearly tough enough on this sleazy business.

His article focuses on the efforts of the city of Baldwin Park, and some other California cities to restrain or get rid of these small loans, in which the annualized interest rate can run 700% or even higher. It also discusses the successful efforts of the military to rein in such loans made to military personnel near major military bases.

But Becerra scarcely mentions the worst aspects of these loans, and he spares corrupt lawmakers who have thwarted efforts to regulate them, accepting political contributions from the Pay Day lobby, from the scrutiny they deserve. Herb Wesson, a former Speaker of the California State Assembly, and other minority legislators have been especially guilty of this.

A Payday loan allows anyone to walk in and pay a customary $300 to actually receive $255. Theoretically, the check for $300 is not cashed for two weeks, or until the next pay day. Thus the name, payday loans.

Becerra’s article does not mention that many of these loans are rolled over. In other words, when the borrower is unable to pay the money in two weeks, he takes another loan, and the debt quickly mounts up to what can be astronomical sums. Someone may start out taking $255, and end up owing thousands of dollars.

When I wrote a consumer column for the L.A. Times, I once calculated that the interest rate eventually could mount to 941% a year. Becerra does not mention this in his article.

MULTICHANNEL NEWS: AFTRA Splits From SAG; Will Negotiate Own Deal

On the eve of what was supposed to be a joint campaign to negotiate a new contract for actors, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has split ranks with the Screen Actors Guild and will negotiate on its own on behalf of its 70,000 members.

So much for Labor Unity.

In Memorium: Dith Pran, “Killing Fields” Photographer, Dies at 65

In The New York Times, Douglas Martin writes: “Dith Pran, a photojournalist for The New York Times whose gruesome ordeal in the killing fields of Cambodia was re-created in a 1984 movie that gave him an eminence he tenaciously used to press for his people’s rights, died on Sunday.”

Thanks to all who write and all who care. I spent Sunday night with some 30 amazing youth leaders from 18 countries in New York for a youth summit. It was organized by the WE ARE FAMILY foundation. We (Nile Rodgers, Tom Silverman, Nancy Hunt and I) showed our 2002 film chronicling the post 911 We are Family recording session to promote tolerance and global understanding. They felt it was still relevant. It was great to see that We Are Family is still going and growing. More on this summit tomorrow.

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