Card: 'The taxpayers aren't paying us to leak.'
Posted Monday, January 12, 2004 by stranger

...Political guru Karl Rove claims that the job of journalists is "not necessarily to report the news. It's to get a headline or get a story that will make people pay attention to their magazine, newspaper or television more."

And Chief of Staff Andy Card scoffs: "[The media] don't represent the public any more than other people do. In our democracy, the people who represent the public stood for election."

Card argues that it's not the responsibility of top White House policymakers to provide reporters with facts.

"It's not our job to be sources. The taxpayers don't pay us to leak!" Card tells Auletta. "Our job is not to make your job easy."

Predictably, the reporters who cover Bush aren't happy. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank complains: "My biggest frustration is that this White House has chosen an approach ...to engage us as little as possible." And the New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller grouses: "Too often they treat us with contempt." >> More

So, the taxpayers aren't paying you to leak, eh, Andy? We at TBTM wish you would have told the White House source who outed CIA agent Valerie Plame!

And Rove's line about how a journalist's job is 'not necessarily to report the news' speaks volumes of how the White House views the media in this country.

They look at the media as their own personal PR firm - and the media, by and large, is only to happy to work in that capacity.

The press continues to fall down on the job.
Posted Monday, January 12, 2004 by stranger

You dislike us. You really dislike us. Or maybe the harsher truth is, we've begun to dislike ourselves.

Let's admit it: We in the mainstream media deserve some of this rancor and resentment after the year we've had. Jayson Blair's serial falsehoods, the New York Times management crackup, the Washington Post's gung-ho reporting (and later re-reporting) of the Pfc. Jessica Lynch rescue, media mogul Conrad Black's financial faux pas, CBS' leveraging of a Michael Jackson interview and entertainment special — the list of snafus in 2003 goes on and on.

No wonder so many people have been taking us to task: pundits, bloggers, journalism school professors and politicians right up to and including the president of the United States, who told Brit Hume of Fox News that he rarely reads newspapers because "a lot of times there's opinions mixed in with news." Instead, Bush revealed, he relies on "people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." Not only are mainstream media untrustworthy, Bush implied, but also largely irrelevant. >>More

Of course, TBTM thinks the press is falling down for completely different reasons than Bush does - he probably thinks they're not being nice enough to him. We believe the pres - and the rest of the US media - has given him a free ride, and editors should look long and hard at how they parrot White House press releases as the gospel truth.

'The Buying Of The President'
Posted Monday, January 12, 2004 by stranger

The Center for Public Integrity has released its new book The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers – and What They Expect in Return, a thorough chronicling of the big donors who will largely decide the next occupant of the White House.

The book, published by HarperCollins, is the third in a series written by Charles Lewis and the staff of the Center examining big money in presidential politics, and comes at a time when President George Bush is raising a mind-boggling half-million dollars a day for the 2004 campaign.

"The real powers that be in this country are not on any ballot," commented Lewis, whose remarks will be web cast on Thursday, January 8 at 10 a.m. "And they are accountable to no one. The Buying of the President 2004 unmasks the powerful special interests behind our national politics today. The bottom line is that the American people have a right to know who is underwriting their presidential candidates, and their democracy," he said. >> More

Look for an upcoming TBTM Book reiview of this important book, and be sure and visit the site to view the book release press conference.

Dukakis: Political journos are doing "the same damn thing"
Posted Friday, January 9, 2004 by stranger

This week Howard Dean found himself on the covers of Time and Newsweek. Before a single primary vote had been cast, the press had all but dubbed Dean king of the Democrats.

"Poor guy," said Michael Dukakis. "The media anointed him and now everyone else is beating him up. That's the last thing he needed."

Dukakis knows a thing or two about rough campaigns and going through the media meat grinder. He ran for president on the 1988 Democratic ticket and lost to George Bush, father of the current president.

Much has changed since then, but as we enter the presidential primary season Dukakis believes the media is stuck in the same old rut.

"There needs to be less stories about polls and more attention to what's really happening," Dukakis said in a telephone interview. "The media needs to bring out the kind of issues people should really be focusing on.

"When was the last time you saw a good story about where the Democratic candidates stand on the subject of health care? They all have plans, but who knows about them?

"Instead we get polls and who's doing what to whom. I'm not saying that isn't news and shouldn't be covered. I'm just saying the media is doing the same damn thing they do over and over again." >> More

Clear Channel gags anti-war conservative
Posted Friday, January 9, 2004 by stranger

“Imagine these startling headlines with the nation at war in the Pacific six months after Dec. 7, 1941: “No Signs of Japanese Involvement in Pearl Harbor Attack! Faulty Intelligence Cited; Wolfowitz: Mistakes Were Made.”

Or how about an equally disconcerting World War II headline from the European theater: “German Army Not Found in France, Poland, Admits President; Rumsfeld: ‘Oops!’, Powell Silent; ‘Bring ’Em On,’ Says Defiant FDR.”

It seems to me that when there is reason to go to war, it should be self-evident. The Secretary of State should not need to convince a skeptical world with satellite photos of a couple of Toyota pickups and a dumpster. And faced with a legitimate casus belli, it should not be hard to muster an actual constitutional declaration of war. Now in the absence of a meaningful Iraqi role in the 9/11 attack and the mysterious disappearance of those fearsome Weapons of Mass Destruction, there might be some psychic satisfaction to be had in saying, “I told you so!” But it sure isn’t doing my career as a talk-show host any good.

The criterion of self-evidence was only one of dozens of objections I raised before the elective war in Iraq on my afternoon drive-time talk show on KFYI in Phoenix. Many of the other arguments are familiar to readers of The American Conservative. >> More

Chicago Trib Ombudsman: 'Criticize Bush and be accused of bias'
Posted Friday, January 9, 2004 by stranger


An archetypal complaint came via e-mail in October, in response to an analysis by senior correspondent Michael Tackett of the Justice Department's decision to investigate the leaking of the name of a CIA operative, possibly by someone in the White House.

"Sirs,

"You've added your paper to the list of those who've lost complete credibility with the public by slandering the President, while pretending to cloak a journalists [sic] political views as `news.'"

From a man who described himself as a longtime news reader, the letter went on to take issue with Tackett's lead sentence ("If President Bush had one ready applause line, one central conceit, in his 2000 campaign, it was his vow to `restore honor and integrity to the White House.'") and to predict ultimate doom for the Tribune:

"The Internet provides many more places for insightful commentary and unbiased news than `old media' ... From now on when I see a lede or byline with `Chicago Tribune,' it goes into the mental `bucket' that includes the NYTimes, BBC, Al Jazeera and National Enquirer, and I simply move on."

This letter was "typical" in several respects. It was from a Bush supporter, and supporters outnumber critics by at least two-to-one among those who complain of a Tribune bias. It suggested that by daring to look critically at the statements of the president and the actions of his administration the Tribune had forfeited its credibility. And it alluded to an abundance of alternate sources of news on the Internet, but without naming them.
>> More

Auletta: Corporate Bias Controls Media
Posted Tuesday, January 6, 2004 by stranger

MediaBistro features Jesse Oxfeld's interview with New yorker magazine's media writer Ken Auletta, in which he discusses reporters who think they're stars, and what Auletta feels is the real bias controlling the media.

Your new book is called Backstory: Inside the Business of News. Why is it important to understand the business of news, and how is that business changing?

There are several themes in the book that relate to the business of news. One is that there's a lot of chatter and talk about political biases seeping into press coverage. Fox News claims the liberal bias dominates, and liberals claim that Fox and Rush Limbaugh and The Wall Street Journal—that a conservative bias dominates. In fact, my argument is that the much more pervasive bias in the media today is an economic bias, which is a business bias—the corporatization of the media. These giant companies that increasingly own journalistic entities are concerned about keeping their profit margins and stock prices up. To do that, they feel they've got to get the circulation up, and the rates up, and that drives them to put pressure on these media to do more sensational news, more conflict news, more gotcha news and more infotainment news—O.J., Michael Jackson, Laci Petersen—and inevitably, that leads to the softening of the news. But it's driven by economic forces.

That sounds similar to Eric Alterman's argument in What Liberal Media? — that corporatism is what really biases news.

He's a little more conspiratorial than I would be. A lot of this happened out of panic. It's not that the editor of a newspaper, or the assignment editor at a TV station or a network, is sitting there and saying, "How can I please my ultimate boss?" Every day, they look at the ratings, or they look at the circulation, and they think, "What can we do to increase it?" And part of it is saving their own skin. They know that if numbers continue to decline, they'll be out of a job, and so they worry about job security, they worry about catching a story—that they'll be first with something, which is another motivation that should not be minimized. >> More

Ads attacked by RNC Chairman are not MoveOn.org Voter Fund ads
Posted Monday, January 5, 2004 by stranger

Statement by Wes Boyd, Founder of MoveOn.org Voter Fund:

The Republican National Committee and its chairman have falsely accused MoveOn.org of sponsoring ads on its website which compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. The claim is deliberately and maliciously misleading.

During December the MoveOn.org Voter Fund invited members of the public to submit ads that purported to tell the truth about the President and his policies. More than 1,500 submissions from ordinary Americans came in and were posted on a web site, bushin30seconds.org, for the public to review.

None of these was our ad, nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund. They will not appear on TV. We do not support the sentiment expressed in the two Hitler submissions. They were voted down by our members and the public, who reviewed the ads and submitted nearly 3 million critiques in the process of choosing the 15 finalist entries. >> More

Take Back the Media is one of 15 Finalists in Bush in 30 Seconds Commercial Contest
Posted Monday, January 5, 2004 by symbolman

Take Back the Media is one of 15 Finalists in Bush in 30 Seconds Commercial Contest

The ARMY OF ONE Commercial created by Micheal Stinson (SYMBOLMAN) as a flash animation on the Take Back the Media site has been chosen out of over 1000 submission by nearly 3 million votes online as a contender in the Bush in 30 seconds Commercial Contest sponsored by MoveOn.org and various progressive media stars.

The second round of Judging of the 15 Finalists will be made by such Liberal activists as Janeane Garofalo, Moby, Jonathan Soros, and Michael Moore among others (a complete list can be viewed at the site).

Micheal worked hand in hand with Penny Little and Nik Green of People To People TV and Jimmy Walter of Walden3.org and their team created a 30 second version suitable for entry.

The Team is headed for New York to attend the screening of all the finalists and awarding of the winning commercial, after which they will be headed for New Hampshire to cover the Primaries.

Please take the time to visit the Bush in 30 seconds site and view the many wonderful entries - you won't be sorry.

But George W. Bush will.>> More

Cable News Pundits Will Beat any Subject To Death.
Posted Monday, January 5, 2004 by stranger

One of the most exciting aspects of journalism is the fact that the field is constantly changing and reinventing itself -- pushed and shoved by events and the ever increasing technological advances that make the news more immediate.

Case in point, of course, is 24-hour cable news networks that at their best show what is happening when it happens and at their worst show what seems like hours of high-speed car chases. The development of these programs has brought news into living rooms as it has never come before -- but has also created a gaping maw of airtime that demands constant feeding. This means that stuff of absolutely no consequence often gets put on the air simply to fill time. And it means that "talking heads" will at any time of day beat any subject to death and into the great beyond.

The worst problem these cable networks create for newspapers is TV's penchant for focusing four hours on a police standoff in Los Angeles (which is great TV because you never know when the shooting will start) but ignoring for the most part issues that vex common citizens -- like taxes, education and what's going on in any state legislature.

TV will take a kidnapping over Medicare any day of the week. Medicare is bad TV -- all that tape of sick old people just does not appeal to TV audiences. And the emphasis on "good, compelling tape" makes some newspaper readers wonder why we do not report what TV reports. >> More

Anti-War Columnist Wins Settlement
Posted Monday, January 5, 2004 by stranger

The San Francisco Chronicle has reached a settlement with Henry Norr, a onetime technology reporter and columnist for the paper, over the paper's dismissal of Norr in April of last year.

Norr's termination occurred as a result of events arising out of his role in anti-war protests against the current war in Iraq.

Commenting on the settlement, Norr said, "Because I didn't violate the ethics policy The Chronicle had in place at the time, it is clear I was fired because of my political views -- my opposition to the war in Iraq and Israel's occupation of Palestine. That is unfair, and it is a clear violation of California and San Francisco law, not to mention basic democratic principles. I think I'm entitled to my job back, and my politics wouldn't prevent me from covering technology effectively in the future, any more than they did in the past. But since The Chronicle has said it may never give me a byline again, I've decided to accept financial compensation and my pension and move on to other things." >> More

Musicians Protesting Monopoly in Media
Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 by symbolman

Musicians rocked for peace in the 1960's. They rocked for Africa in the 1980's. Now they're rocking for stricter corporate media regulation.

And all they are saying is, Give radio station ownership caps a chance.

In front of an audience of 1,100 on a recent rainy Monday night at the cavernous 930 Club here, Tom Morello, former guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, took the stage with musicians like Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Lester Chambers and Boots Riley. Here the raging was mainly against the star of media consolidation, Clear Channel Communications, which since 1996 has grown from fewer than 40 radio stations to more than 1,200 nationwide.

"What's happening is that Clear Channel is a great hulking Frankenstein monster gobbling things up," Mr. Bragg told the crowd, a mix of young and not-so-young, many of them urban professionals, briefcases and children in hand.

But the real favorites of the night were two balding, middle-aged Federal Communications Commission members, who joined the musicians and the M.C., Janeane Garofalo, for the last performance of a three-week, 13-city tour called Tell Us the Truth, aimed at educating the nation on the perils of media consolidation.>> More

Iraq news feed draws criticism - Local broadcasters slam Pentagon plan
Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2003 by symbolman

News executives of most Boston television stations are decidedly unenthusiastic about a Bush administration plan to transmit news footage from Iraq for local TV outlets in an attempt to supplement media coverage from that war-torn country.

The satellite link, dubbed "C-SPAN Baghdad," is designed to put a more positive spin on events and circumvent the major networks by making it possible for press conferences, interviews with troops and dignitaries, and even footage from the field to be transmitted from Iraq for use by regional and local media outlets, according to news accounts.

"I'm kind of appalled by it. I think it's very troubling," said Charles Kravetz, vice president of news at the regional cable news outlet NECN. "I think the government has no business being in the news business."

WCVB-TV news director Coleen Marren said the station is well served by the reporting resources of CNN and ABC and expressed concern at what she called "a government-sponsored television station.">> More

This is what we used to call the PNN station during the first Gulf War fiasco - PENTAGON NEWS NETWORK. We've already seen the LIES by BUSH to kill our troops, the fake letters FORCED on some troops for signature, etc, etc. There is no HONESTY in this administration and it Trickles all the way down.

Dear Generals, tell the troops to drop their weapons and leave that country at once. We have no business being there in the first place - it's called a SOVEREIGN NATION, just like ours. We don't like OUR leader either but we don't attack him, we just VOTE BUSH OUT - or IMPEACH him. He's more of a danger than Hussein ever was to the whole world, and his daddy sold HUSSEIN the WMD that JUNIOR can't find.

The Bubble of American Supremacy - by George Soros
Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2003 by symbolman

A prominent financier argues that the heedless assertion of American power in the world resembles a financial bubble—and the moment of truth may be here.

It is generally agreed that September 11, 2001, changed the course of history. But we must ask ourselves why that should be so. How could a single event, even one involving 3,000 civilian casualties, have such a far-reaching effect? The answer lies not so much in the event itself as in the way the United States, under the leadership of President George W. Bush, responded to it.

Admittedly, the terrorist attack was historic in its own right. Hijacking fully fueled airliners and using them as suicide bombs was an audacious idea, and its execution could not have been more spectacular. The destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center made a symbolic statement that reverberated around the world, and the fact that people could watch the event on their television sets endowed it with an emotional impact that no terrorist act had ever achieved before. The aim of terrorism is to terrorize, and the attack of September 11 fully accomplished this objective.

Even so, September 11 could not have changed the course of history to the extent that it has if President Bush had not responded to it the way he did. He declared war on terrorism, and under that guise implemented a radical foreign-policy agenda whose underlying principles predated the tragedy. Those principles can be summed up as follows: International relations are relations of power, not law; power prevails and law legitimizes what prevails.>> More

Message to Republican College Kids: Vote for Bush and You'll Get the Draft!
Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2003 by symbolman

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

According to a poll released this fall by Harvard's Kennedy School, 61 percent of college students -- about 10 percent more than the general public -- approve of President Bush's job performance.[Harvard.edu] The percentage hadn't budged since April, 2003, when a similar poll was conducted.

These numbers show that despite stereotypes of young, liberal Democrats running college campuses, more college students are, in fact, Bush's supporters.

But that support is likely to drop faster than a "smart" bomb if Bush brings back the draft -- and bring back the draft he will.Of course, he will lie and deny it through the 2004 campaign. But lying is what he does best....

....Only a fool in college would believe that a Bush election in 2004 won't be followed by a draft in 2005.

Maybe we have a lot of foolish Republican kids in college.

They'll wise up when they face bullets, car bombs, and rocket-propelled grenades -- and when they find themselves trading in
their "Beamers" for tanks with inadequate armor.

But by then, it will be too late for them. It may be the last time they have a chance to vote.

Because the dead can't cast a ballot.>> More

Bush Urges People to Go on with Holiday Plans
Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2003 by symbolman

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Monday urged Americans to be alert but go on with holiday travel and shopping and let security officials deal with an al Qaeda attack threat described as the biggest since Sept. 11, 2001.

"American citizens need to go about their lives but as they do so, they need to know that governments at all levels are working as hard as we possibly can to protect the American citizens," said George W. Bush.

A day after increasing the national threat alert status, Bush convened his Homeland Security Council to review steps taken to increase security at airports, ports, bridges, nuclear plants and other possible targets of attacks.

The federal government has been criticized in the past for raising the
national threat alert status on four previous occasions, in part because it alarmed people unnecessarily, and because of the strain on state and local law enforcement and on budgets.

Ridge urged people to "be vigilant and be aware, and let the security
professionals ... worry about your security."

He appealed to Americans not to succumb to terrorism fears during the busy holiday season, when travelers and shoppers provide a major boost to economic activity.

"If we alter our plans to go visit the family, go visit grandma, if we alter our plans to get on the airplane..., then they have won because they have dislocated activity, they've caused economic loss," Ridge said.>> More

Where to begin refuting this SHEER BS? How about YOU HAVE NEVER MADE US SAFE - neither You, Ridge, Nor Bush. Also, ARE YOU MENTAL? How can you tell people to go out there and act like there's no problem - spend, spend, spend - but you MAY BE KILLED. This gives new meaning to the term "shop til you drop", eh? Double speak lives.

Love the Ridge quote, "If we alter our plans.." Hey, clown - have you heard of PATRIOT ACT ONE AND TWO? ALTER OUR PLANS? How about living in a Corporate Prison with No Bars, unless you count NO MONEY or PAY as a form of DETAINING people - while you guys spend every cent we have NOT PROTECTING US and creating FAKE WARS to LINE YOUR OWN POCKETS?

Put down the Crack Pipe BOYS and join our IMPEACHMENT PARTY - YOU are the Guests of HONOR.

Citizen Conrad's Friends
Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2003 by symbolman

Citizen Conrad's Friends - By PAUL KRUGMAN

Yesterday's eye-opening New York Times story about the inner circle of
Conrad Black, the troubled chairman of Hollinger International, described him as a "throwback press baron." Indeed, his style recalls that of William Randolph Hearst. But it's a mistake to think of Lord Black, whatever his personal fate, as a throwback to a bygone era. He probably represents the wave of the future.

These days, everything old is new again. Income is once again concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, and money rules politics to an extent not seen since the Gilded Age. The Iraq war bears an eerie resemblance to the Spanish-American war. (There was never any evidence linking Spain to the Maine's demise.) And Citizen Kane is back, in the form of an incestuous media-political complex.>> More

Anti-Iraq war veterans pulled from parade
Posted Thursday, November 13, 2003 by symbolman

TALLAHASSEE -- A group of 30 military veterans critical of the war in Iraq hoped to use Tuesday's Veterans Day parade to call attention to the increasingly deadly conflict but instead found themselves fighting for something much more fundamental.

Members of Veterans For Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War were yanked off a downtown Tallahassee street, directly in front of the Old Capitol, while marching in the holiday parade they had legitimately registered in.

As organizers allowed the parade to roll on -- including veterans from various wars, several high school marching bands and even a group of young women from the local Hooters restaurant -- the anti-war veterans were ordered onto sidewalks where they passed out leaflets and displayed a banner reading, "Honor the Warrior, Not the War."

"There's a war going on that's based on lies, just like Vietnam," said veteran Tom Baxter, an Army equipment maintenance officer in Vietnam for 16 months in 1967-69. "They were lying then, and they're lying now."

Parade chairman Ken Conroy, a Korean War veteran, said he ejected the anti-war veterans because they were offensive and because Tallahassee police also wanted them removed. He offered to refund their $10 registration fee and said he was not suppressing the group's free speech rights.>> More

HOW DARE THEY DO THIS TO VETERANS?! We invite everyone reading this to CALL or EMAIL or WRITE to this organization - SPECIFICALLY KEN CONROY who's phone number was PUBLISHED IN THIS ARTICLE and let HIM and the VFW how you Feel about his CENSORSHIP - especially when our troops are DYING every day for LIES.

Here's the Contact information:

From http://www.vfwpost3308.org/ -
Ken Conroy is "2Year Trustee" here:

Leon County VFW Post 3308
2765 1/2 W. Tennessee Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32315
Phone # 850-575-3308
vfwpost3308@hscmail.com

Or at this phone number, publicly available via this news item:

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7024273.htm

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3308 will again sponsor the annual Veterans Day parade, to be held Nov. 11. The VFW invites all individuals, groups and businesses who wish to participate to sign up now. Anyone wishing to enter the parade or looking for more information can call Ken Conroy (591-0233) or Marjorie Brayfield (591-0740)... (We're guessing the area code is 850)

'Punkvoter' founder aims to unify youth vote
Posted Tuesday, November 4, 2003 by stranger

Would a plea from the lead singer of "Anti-Flag," "Bouncing Souls," "Frenzal Rhomb" or "Sick Of It All" get you to turn out and vote in the 2004 presidential election?

Probably not if you're a mainstream music fan downloading the latest tune from Britney Spears. But, if you're an avid young punk music lover, it just might do the trick.

At least that's what "NOFX" lead singer and founder of "Punkvoter" Mike Burkett is hoping. Burkett or "Fat Mike" as he's known to his legion of fans, is teaming up with roughly 50 punk bands and a dozen record labels to form Punkvoter, a group designed to register, educate and push 500,000 18-24 year-olds to the polls next year.

"So many millions of people don't feel like their vote has any meaning," says Burkett. "There is no reason why younger people can't be a unified force..."

Burkett claims his group is different in that he is not simply sending young adults to the polls. His focus and the purpose of Punkvoter is to get these voters to cast their ballots against President George W. Bush.

The 36-year-old California native said he is trying to harness his residual anger over the outcome of the 2000 election and his current dissatisfaction with the direction of the country by mobilizing punk fans around the activist principles of the "loud, fast, aggressive" and "real" music.

"Bush getting elected was good for punk music," says Burkett. "Now people have something to get pissed off about." >> More

We covered PunkVoter.com on the very first TBTM Radio. Well worth checking out.