Onion Taken Seriously, Film at 11
Posted Friday, April 16, 2004 by mediababe

Daniel Terdiman, Wired News

The article in the Beijing Evening News told a shocking story of American hubris: Congress was behaving like a petulant baseball team and threatening to bolt Washington, D.C., unless it got a new, modern Capitol building, complete with retractable roof.

There was a problem with the story. Rather than do his own original reporting, Evening News writer Huang Ke had cribbed, nearly word for word, his text from an American publication. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Ke hadn't bothered to vet the source he had plagiarized: The Onion. >>More

"Comfortable" War Propaganda
Posted Sunday, April 11, 2004 by mediababe

William Marvel, Intervention Magazine

From the Revolutionary War to the Civil War to Vietnam to Iraq, the propaganda machine has rewritten reality and molded opinion.

The manipulation of history for political purposes has arisen nearly every time I have studied a Civil War topic enough to feel comfortable with the sources. Ambrose Burnside was clearly not the bumbling idiot that his partisan critics painted him; Andersonville prison was not the crucible of deliberate attrition that Union survivors claimed. Prison commandant Henry Wirz was not the murderous demon of federal infamy.

The same misrepresentation crops up in all aspects of our history, though, as it certainly must in other cultures. Much of the American Revolution, for instance, was undertaken more by self-interested demagogues and the mobs they incited than by altruistic patriots. The Indian wars and the Spanish American War amounted to nothing but thieving expeditions conducted on the excuse of imaginary provocations, and our government turned Vietnam's civil war into our Vietnam War on the strength of a similarly fictional attack in the Tonkin Gulf.

The truly amazing thing about Americans is that they still fall for it every time... >>More

50+ U.S. Cities Holding Emergency Iraq Protests
Posted Friday, April 9, 2004 by mediababe

International A.N.S.W.E.R.

The Iraqi people are uniting in widespread opposition to the occupation of their country and the U.S. government is attempting to crush this revolt with overwhelming violence. The Iraqi city of Fallujah is under siege. According to the director of the city's hospital, at least 280 Iraqi people have been killed since Sunday in Fallujah alone - and at least 460 have been killed throughout the country. The number of injured in Fallujah has surpassed 400, and hospitals report that there are many more people who are dead or wounded but who are unreachable because of the fighting. U.S. helicopters and snipers have been firing on ambulances and civilian vehicles trying to bring the wounded to hospitals. The Iraqi people want the U.S. occupation to end and the U.S. troops and their families increasingly demand that the U.S. leave Iraq. More than 40 U.S. soldiers have been killed since Sunday, and now Pentagon and White House officials are saying they may increase the number of troops in Iraq as well as prevent the troops that are scheduled to return from leaving.

The time to act is now! More than 50 U.S. cities have answered the call put out by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition to hold nationally-coordinated emergency demonstrations between Friday, April 9 and Monday, April 12 to demand U.S. OUT OF IRAQ, Bring the Troops Home Now and Money for jobs, education and healthcare - Not for wars of aggression. New cities are announcing their plans by the hour. Demonstrations are also taking place around the world. See below for details on how you can join these important demonstrations. >>More

On Day of Crucial Pre-9/11 Memo, Bush Had 45-Minute Workday
Posted Friday, April 9, 2004 by mediababe

Jeff Elliott, Albion Monitor

Condoleezza Rice's testimony on Thursday provided few surprises, but 9/11 Commission member Richard Ben-Veniste pressed the National Security Advisor to reveal details of a Presidential Daily Briefing that was presented to President Bush a month before the attack.

...What President Bush was doing that August has renewed importance because of the emphasis in Rice's testimony on the lack of time for the new administration to prepare. No fewer than five times did she point out that "We were in office 233 days" when the Sept. 11 attack occurred. What she neglected to say was that Bush had spent nearly half of his presidency on vacation up to that time, and was heavily criticized for it. >>More

Al Gets Gore TV
Posted Thursday, April 1, 2004 by mediababe

Joe Hagan, The New York Observer

The Observer has learned that former Vice President Al Gore and business partner Joel Hyatt, an entrepreneur and Democratic fund-raiser, will close the deal to pay around $70 million to French-owned Vivendi Universal this week, making them the owners of the tiny digital-cable channel Newsworld International (NWI), moving Mr. Gore from politics to mini-media-moguldom.

Mr. Gore’s group plans to transform the sleepy foreign-news outlet into a youth-oriented public-affairs channel, a jump-cut news network for the iPod set. Despite vociferous claims that the network isn’t attempting to be the liberal antidote to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, it’s difficult to ignore the obvious: It may be fair, it may be balanced, but it’s going to be owned by Al Gore. >>More

Air America Is Live!
Posted Wednesday, March 31, 2004 by mediababe

March 31 is the debut of Air America Radio featuring Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, and Randi Rhodes. >>Check it out!

Why Fox Has Higher Ratings -- When CNN Has More Viewers
Posted Wednesday, March 31, 2004 by mediababe

Steve Rendall, Fair.Org

Reporting on the ratings rivalry between the Fox News Channel (FNC) and CNN is often misleading--and almost always over-hyped.

"Fox Tops CNN as Choice for Cable News," declared one typical headline (Chicago Tribune, 3/24/03). "Fox News Channel Continues to Crush CNN," reported Knight Ridder (Dallas Morning News, 2/3/04) in a column comparing the rivalry to a party primary: "Fox News Channel is winning the Nielsen caucuses." Last summer (8/17/03), the New York Times Magazine declared, looking back at the period of the Iraq invasion, "Fox was--and still is--trouncing CNN in the ratings."

After exposure to countless similar stories published since January 2002, when Fox was reported to have surpassed CNN in the Nielsen ratings, one might naturally conclude that Fox has more viewers than CNN.

But it's not true. On any given day, more people typically tune to CNN than to Fox.

So what are the media reports talking about? With few exceptions, stories about the media business report a single number for ratings (often expressed two different ways--as "points" or "share"). This number is often presented as if it were the result of a popularity contest or a democratic vote. But it is actually the average number of viewers watching a station or a show in a typical minute, based on Nielsen Media Research's monitoring of thousands of households. >>More

Screwing With the Truth... And Getting Away With It
Posted Wednesday, March 31, 2004 by mediababe

Martin Schram, Capitol Hill Blue

Once again, presidential politics has descended to the political version of liar's poker. Once again, a presidential candidate has blatantly bent the truth, distorting his opponent's position.

Once again, a candidate -- in this case, President Bush -- has accomplished his goal. Translation: He got away with it.

He succeeded because the leading journalists failed to do their job by reporting the real news -- in this case, that the president and his advisers knew they were making charges that were unproven by the facts.

The problem is that even America's print-news elites still do not treat candidates' nationally televised campaign ads with the importance they reserve for candidates' major televised speeches. Journalists still treat the ads as campaign curios. If a candidate spreads untruths to millions of people in ads, the news of that deception is buried back where few will read it, in the middle of boxes that newspapers call "Ad Watch" (or something similar), on some inside page next to ads about piano liquidation sales and the heartbreak of psoriasis. Even top reporters and editors seem so myopic that they cannot see they are failing to do their jobs. Which only encourages politicians to run ads that mislead and deceive voters, knowing they'll pay little or no political penalty for their misdeed. >>More

NPR's Howard Stern?
Posted Tuesday, March 30, 2004 by mediababe

Catherine Seipp, FrontPageMag.com

When is a National Public Radio commentator who accidentally uses a four-letter word on the air silenced? When the big, bad FCC begins cracking down on envelope-pushing broadcasters in the wake of Janet Jackson's exposed breast? Or when a sanctimonious public-radio-station manager decides to use that as an excuse for hysteria?

Consider the continuing fallout from the case of my friend Sandra Tsing Loh, the popular author and monologuist fired March 1 from the Los Angeles NPR-affiliate KCRW because an engineer forgot to bleep a four-letter word from a prerecorded segment. Never exactly a beloved figure, general manager Ruth Seymour's overreaction quickly cast her as the Torquemada of public radio.

After just ten days, Seymour made a stab at damage control and offered Sandra her show back, in a much better timeslot. But the gesture came too late. She'll begin her weekly commentaries again in June — but at KCRW's main competitor, Los Angeles public-radio-station KPCC. >>More

How E-Voting Threatens Democracy
Posted Tuesday, March 30, 2004 by mediababe

Kim Zetter, Wired News

In January 2003, voting activist Bev Harris was holed up in the basement of her three-story house in Renton, Washington, searching the Internet for an electronic voting machine manual, when she made a startling discovery.

Clicking on a link for a file transfer protocol site belonging to voting machine maker Diebold Election Systems, Harris found about 40,000 unprotected computer files. They included source code for Diebold's AccuVote touch-screen voting machine, program files for its Global Election Management System tabulation software, a Texas voter-registration list with voters' names and addresses, and what appeared to be live vote data from 57 precincts in a 2002 California primary election.

"There was a lot of stuff that shouldn't have been there," Harris said.

The California file was time-stamped 3:31 p.m. on Election Day, indicating that Diebold might have obtained the data during voting. But polling precincts aren't supposed to release votes until after polls close at 8 p.m. So Harris began to wonder if it were possible for the company to extract votes during an election and change them without anyone knowing. >>More

TBTM Exclusive: NBC fires producer for talking to 9/11 widows
Posted Monday, March 15, 2004 by stranger

TBTM received this email from a freelance producer who, until she tried to talk to the 9/11 widows, was working for NBC News in New York City.

Hey Don,

I just found your business card today and wanted to keep you updated on the story below that I sent to both you and Mike last week about Rush and the 9/11 widows.

In a personal update to this story - I was "let go" from WNBC for trying to video tape the 9/11 widows (with their exclusive permission) in a behind the scenes scenario at the Today show on Friday March 5.
I was planning on getting shots of them arriving to the studio, getting set up etc.

The Today Show said I was a security breach and should have known that I was not allowed
to shoot in that building. Even though I was admitted into the building with my official NBC photo ID
and was told I was allowed up to the makeup room to meet Kristin and Mindy - when I arrived there I was told I was not allowed to shoot and asked to wait for the permission of the producer.

Well, the producer never arrived and I was escorted out by some gruff Today Show employee with too much "authority."

Later when I arrived to where I work at WNBC in the adjacent building, I was dragged into Human Resources and seemingly accused of impersonating a producer to knowingly by pass security in some pretense. Naturally, This is not what happened and I explained the story as it really happened and about my intentions of simply shooting some B roll for my documentary.

Footnote: No where is it written in Union policy of the rule of no shooting in this building.

I worked another entire week of work and this last Friday I was again dragged into Human Resources where I was once again accused of intentional security breach in their sacred space. Legally I had a Union rep. with me who is required to go to bat for me in these situations. NBC persisted to no avail and I was unceremoniously removed from the freelance pool after 6 years of dedicated work. 6 years this media giant has been using my services - Allowing me no vacation pay - no sick pay no retirement benefits and health insurance that I myself paid for! I asked them if it had to do with the 9/11 subject matter. This was quickly dismissed.

I guess we can just chalk this up to another incident of Big Business shutting down the small guy (gal)....

Wish me Luck as I join the ranks of the Bush unemployment line.

This is the state of news gathering in the United States in 2004. Independent news reporters are deemed 'security breeches' and dismissed from their jobs. We'll have more on this on next week's TBTM Radio.

House Votes to Increase Indecency Fine
Posted Thursday, March 11, 2004 by mediababe

Jonathan D. Salant, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The House overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday substantially increasing the maximum fine for radio and TV indecency.

The vote was 391-22. Similar legislation is pending in the Senate.

"I am tired of hearing parents tell me how they have to cover their children's ears," Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., said during debate on the measure. "Today, we're saying enough is enough."

The bill would raise the maximum fine for a broadcast license-holder from $27,500 to $500,000. The fine for a performer would jump from $11,000 to $500,000. >>More

Democrats Defend Oragnizations' Campaign Ads: Repulican Party Tries To Pull Ads Off Air
Posted Thursday, March 11, 2004 by mediababe

WNNE TV

CONCORD, N.H. -- Political television ads criticizing the president that are airing in several states, including New Hampshire, have triggered a legal fight.

A Democratic group called the Media Fund is running an ad attacking President George W. Bush in several states. The Bush administration filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, saying because the ad was paid for by soft money and because it opposes the president, it's illegal.

The Republican National Committee tried a similar argument to pull an ad by MoveOn.org that criticizes Bush's tax cuts. The RNC called the ad illegal, but TV stations found nothing wrong and kept it on the air.

Federal law allows groups like MoveOn.org and Media Fund, known as Section 527 groups, to raise money and buy TV ads, as long as they don't coordinate with other groups or with a candidate.

"The GOP helped create the 527 clause," New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan said. "Now that Democrats are using it, the GOP wants to shut it down, to stop Democrats from getting their message out." >>More

Meanwhile, here is a look at Bush's new TV ads criticizing John Kerry.

Remember When Dennis Miller Was Actually Funny and Didn't Have to Pay People to See His Show?
Posted Thursday, March 11, 2004 by mediababe

Kelly Kramer on Blogspot

In case you haven't heard, the ratings for Dennis Miller's new political show went right down the toilet. It's so bad that after less than two months on the air, Miller shut down to take about 10 days off and his producers at CNBC are totally 'revamping' the show. One of the major changes is the addition of a live studio audience of about 100 people.

Well, well .. Looks like not only is no one watching his show on TV, they cant get anyone to come to watch in the studio either.

I do not know anything about this website, but there is a post [on Craig's List] offering to PAY people to be in the audience of Millers show.

The going rate ... $15 each to suffer through it. No word yet on what rate they are paying to get people to actually laugh at Millers terrible jokes. >>More

Air America Radio Sets Launch Date of March 31.
Posted Wednesday, March 10, 2004 by stranger

New York, March 10, 2004 – Air America Radio, a progressive talk radio network, announced today it will hit the airwaves on March 31st.

"Air America Radio is launching in the top U.S. markets with leading talent that will provide compelling and entertaining programming on the radio, on satellite feeds, and on the web," said Mark Walsh, Chief Executive Officer of Air America Radio. “We aim to build an important new media franchise that delivers results.”

The network’s on-air personalities represent today’s top political and popular satirists, commentators and activists. Comedian, and best selling author Al Franken, who was recently taken to court when Bill O’Reilly and Fox News were seeking an injunction to halt distribution of "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," and is known for fact-based, drug-free satire, will host a weekday show on the network called “The O’Franken Factor.”

“I’m so happy that Air America Radio will be on in three battleground states, New York, Illinois and California….no wait…those aren’t the battleground states. What the hell are we doing?” said Franken.

Air America Radio has signed actress and comedienne Janeane Garofalo, hip hop icon Chuck D, radio personality Randi Rhodes, and political humorist Sam Seder to join Franken at the network. Environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “The Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, and business-of-the-media analyst on the public radio program “Marketplace” Martin Kaplan will also join the network. >>More

MITCH COHEN: Bring on truth and consequences
Posted Tuesday, March 9, 2004 by mediababe

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

For the better part of 40 years, the American right has practiced the politics of division with bare-knuckled ferocity. In the process, they've evolved into the greatest marketing firm this nation has ever seen; masters of the Big Lie, which, told often enough, becomes truth. The current administration is the ultimate product of this long tradition, preaching Orwellian Up-is-Down-ism on every front imaginable.

By diverting public attention from vital concerns of the day, and focusing instead on small, inflammatory and divisive issues, political debate is defined, and therefore, controlled. For example, while conservatives were screaming of liberal media bias, the liberal media gave "conservative" voices twice the airtime as "liberals" debating the subject.

And all the while, corporate Republican backers were well on their way to swallowing up 90 percent of the media outlets in this country, shifting the perspective and reportage of most markedly to the right as they did. >>More

Editorial: 'On a Mission From God': The Religious Right and the Emerging American Theology
Posted Tuesday, March 9, 2004 by mediababe

Maureen Farrell, Buzzflash

The warning signs have been in place for quite some time, but went largely unnoticed until the walls started closing in on shock jock Howard Stern. When Project Censored listed "FCC Moves to Privatize Airwaves" as its top censored news story for 2001-2002 and shed its suspicious spotlight on FCC chairman Michael Powell, for example, few noticed. "[T]he mainstream press has raised few warnings about the FCC's squashing of the public interest," Project Censored's Brendan Koerner wrote, while co-author Dorothy Kidd explained that "things have just gotten worse for the US public with regards to media democracy. Mergers are up and the number of dominant players controlling media production and distribution has shrunk to a handful." [ProjectCensored.org] Or, as Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) put it, "The bottom line is that fewer and fewer huge conglomerates are controlling virtually everything that the ordinary American sees, hears and reads." >>More

MSNBC Scrubs Bush ad Story.
Posted Monday, March 8, 2004 by stranger

In a Newsweek article posted on MSNBC's web site, Michael Isikoff includes this paragraph:

Another, less publicized aspect of the ad flap: Everyone but the firefighters were paid actors. The firefighters posing in a firehouse was "stock" film footage of volunteer firefighters -- shot and available for purchase to the general public.

When the article was originally published over the weekend, the article instead contained this paragraph:

Another less-publicized aspect of the ad flap: the use of paid actors—including two playing firefighters with fire hats and uniforms in what looks like a fire station. "Where the hell did they get those guys?" cracked Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which has endorsed John Kerry, when he first saw the ads. (A union spokesman said the shots prompted jokes that the fire hats looked like the plastic hats "from a birthday party.") "There's many reasons not to use real firemen," retorted one Bush media adviser. "Mainly, its cheaper and quicker."

View the archived version of the original article Here.

Why is Newsweek and MSNBC re-writing history regarding these ads?

John Kerry and War Crimes in Vietnam: What the National Media Isn't Reporting
Posted Friday, March 5, 2004 by mediababe

Jan Barry, Veterans Against the Iraq War

An outraged buzz is circulating in political circles that John Kerry is unfit to run for president because as an antiwar activist he accused Vietnam veterans of committing war crimes. In a long-simmering reaction to Kerry’s 1971 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on behalf of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, “many critics see Mr. Kerry's words as impugning the honor of all who served in Vietnam,” as the New York Times put it. This, to put it mildly, is a gross distortion of what Kerry actually said and what the war crimes hearings were about.

What the national news media has not reported in the current controversy—just as was not widely reported in 1971—are the crimes of war that Kerry summarized in his antiwar speech to Congress. When it comes to war crimes, the news world seems to prefer quoting opinions rather than presenting facts. >>More