Danny Schechter: Democracy Dumbed Down!
Posted Wednesday, July 9, 2003 by vgdesign

With the news media abandoning its duel function of being a watchdog of government and informing the public, while embracing news as entertainment for the highest ratings, citizens are uninformed and democracy is crippled.

Millions of Americans accept what they are told and think they understand what they see. And what they are told and what they see is most often news as a manipulated commodity. But the facts that really count rarely reach a significant number of the public's ears or eyes.

Also, most reporters know governments lie, mislead and deceive.They also know that the press is ostensibly there to keep an eye on governments, to dissect errors and omissions by offering more truthful counter-narratives. That was the role an adversarial media played during Watergate, during the Vietnam War, and even, if distastefully, during the Clinton administration.

Today, our media has abandoned this historic role. That part of the public that remembers the great journalists of the past knows it. Even journalistic greats admit it. Just before his death on June 11, newscaster David Brinkley said of the medium that was his life. "Television news has become so trivial and devoid of content as to be little different from entertainment programming." >>More

Nose Loops: A Media Accessory
Posted Wednesday, July 9, 2003 by vgdesign

By Susan J. Douglas, In These Times

It would hardly be an overstatement to say that the late spring and early summer of 2003 have been one of the lowest points in U.S. media history. And I’m not even including the highly dispiriting spectacle of eight-year-olds on Fox’s talent show American Juniors saying that what they want most out of life is “to be famous” or “to have a really expensive car.”

The Jayson Blair scandal has received the most coverage in recent weeks—not least by the New York Times itself. But very few news outlets (not surprisingly) have stood back to look at the broader trends at work. Certainly the most embarrassing (for the news media) and worrying (for the rest of us) has been their nearly complete abdication to the news-management and disinformation campaigns of Team Bush. (And let’s not ignore the increasingly central role the Pentagon seems to be playing in news production.)

Team Bush’s short-term goal may be to use the press to report the administration’s version of events as if it were truth. But its long-term goal is to discredit, completely, the entire field of journalism.

Saving Private Jessica: oops, not the heroic Hollywood action film we thought it was. End of war in Iraq: oops, not the triumph Bush hoped to call a wrap when he zoomed in à la Tom Cruise onto the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Weapons of mass destruction: oops, not the immediate dire threat Bush insisted they were in a March 6 audience with a supine, cowed press corps. Weapons of mass destruction probably destroyed by Saddam: oops, information may have been deliberately leaked to the Times’ Judith Miller by the Pentagon. >>More

McDonald's begins Wi-Fi trials at 75 locations
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2003 by symbolman

SAN FRANCISCO — About 75 McDonald's restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area today will offer Wi-Fi high-speed wireless access for wireless-enabled notebook computers and handheld devices.

Although the Starbucks coffee chain has had wireless for some time, McDonald's has the claim of being the first quick service restaurant to offer high-speed wireless access in a major market.

Participating McDonald's restaurants are located in both urban and suburban locations from San Rafael to San Jose and from Pleasanton to Half Moon Bay. McDonald's is leveraging its many locations for the growing number of Wi-Fi users in the Bay area, including thousands of mobile professionals, business travelers, and students between home and school who increasingly need to connect to work, family and friends while on-the-go.>> More

It won't be long before we will all be broadcasters and BECOME the media ourselves - they don't get it folks, but we do. It's called being a Progressive. Plus you'll be able to email the guy at the next table to give you the Heimlich or bang on your pacemaker!

Bush on the board not worth much, says Carlyle founder
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2003 by symbolman

Carlyle Group, the powerful investment house with close links to the Bush family, is facing acute embarrassment after the emergence of sardonic remarks the company founder made about the president.

In a talk to investors, David Rubenstein said George W Bush did little but tell dirty jokes while on the board of a company owned by Carlyle, and that he wouldn't have appeared in the top 25m people he would have suggested for president of the US.

Carlyle employs the first President Bush and a host of other luminaries including John Major and former US defence secretary Frank Carlucci. It has been the target of conspiracy theorists for its high-level political connections and its work as a defence contractor.

Mr Rubenstein said Mr Bush was hired to be a non-executive director of Caterair, the world's largest airline food business that Wall Street dubbed Craterair, in the early 1990s.

"Somebody came to me and said: 'Look there is a guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on his luck a bit. Needs a job… could you put him on the board? Pay him a salary and he'll be a good board member and be a loyal vote for the management and so forth,'" he said in a speech to a Los Angeles pension fund.

Of Mr Bush's performance, he added: "He … came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I said to him, after about three years: 'You know, I'm not sure this is really for you… because I don't think you're adding that much value. You don't know that much about the company.'">> More

Nuclear Evidence on Iraq
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2003 by symbolman

IAEA Letter Raises New Questions about Administration Use of Forged Iraqi Evidence

July 8, 2003
New information from the International Atomic Energy Agency reveals that for over six crucial weeks in December and January the Administration withheld from the international agency important information about Iraq’s purported attempts to obtain nuclear materials.
- Letter to President Bush
- IAEA Letter to Rep. Waxman
- State Dept. Letter to Rep. Waxman

June 12, 2003
New Questions on President's Use of Forged Nuclear Evidence
The Administration's new account of why the President cited forged evidence about Iraq's nuclear capabilities in his State of the Union conflicts with known facts and is clearly incomplete.
- Rep. Waxman's Statement

June 10, 2003
Administration Statements on Iraq Nuclear Evidence Contradict Known Facts, Raise New Questions
In a letter to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Rep. Waxman details contradictions in recent Administration statements about the President's use of forged nuclear evidence in the State of the Union address and urges full disclosure of the relevant facts.>> More

Sure would be nice if the American Media showed some interest in this. Nothin but excuses for the MisLeader on the air. There's a Pulizer Prize for some enterprising journalist out there, and it won't take all that much work - just contact Take Back the Media and we'll put you in touch with the right people.

Bush 'warned over uranium claim' - BBC & WITNESS
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2003 by symbolman

The CIA warned the US Government that claims about Iraq's nuclear ambitions were not true months before President Bush used them to make his case for war, the BBC has learned.

Doubts about a claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from the African state of Niger were aired 10 months before Mr Bush included the allegation in his key State of the Union address this year, the CIA has told the BBC.

But the CIA has said that a former US diplomat had already established the claim was false in March 2002 - and that the information had been passed on to government departments, including the White House, well before Mr Bush mentioned it in the speech.

And in the US, increasing doubts are being raised about the American use of intelligence.

In his keynote speech to Congress in January, the President said: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

But the documents alleging a transaction were found to have been forged.

But a former diplomat, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, went on the record at the weekend to say that he had travelled to Africa to investigate the uranium claims and found no evidence to support them.

Now the CIA has told the BBC that Mr Wilson's findings had been passed onto the White House as early as March 2002.

That means that the administration would have known before the State of the Union address that the information was likely false - not just subsequently.

But in Congress, Democrats are demanding a full investigation into the intelligence that underpinned the case for war.

They have demanded to know if President Bush used evidence that he knew to be weak or wrong.>> More

BUSH LIED - TROOPS DIED - VETERANS DENIED. Remember what they said about President Clinton, "It's not about the Sex - it's about the LYING." Well, no one DIED when Clinton lied. But Bush has LIED us into Never ending war. Troops are still dying daily for his Lies. Impeach BUSH & Cheney. Cheney Knew all about this as well - let's not stop with BUSH.

Anti War Morning radio co-host sues Clear Channel
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2003 by symbolman

A former Upstate radio personality says she was fired for opposing the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

Roxanne Cordonier, who went by the name Roxanne Walker on the air at WMYI-FM/MY 102.5 in Greenville, alleges she was belittled, reprimanded and ultimately fired on April 17 for disagreeing with her co-hosts on the "Love and Hudson" show.

WMYI, its parent company Clear Channel Communications, Bill McMartin, the company's regional vice president and general manager and Greg McKinney, station program director, are all named as defendants in the suit.

A spokeswoman for San Antonio-based Clear Channel said the company does not comment on pending lawsuits. McMartin and McKinney could not be reached for comment.

The suit alleges that co-hosts Herriott Clarkson Mungo III, also known as Bill Love, and Hayden Hudson, also known as Howard Hudson, encouraged Cordonier to join their pro-war discussions regarding the invasion of Iraq.

"I went through hell," Cordonier told The Greenville News Monday. "I was forced out because I would not comply with their orders to be silent."

Cordonier alleges in the suit that some of the Clear Channel officers and directors have financial ties and are loyal to President Bush and his policies. It alleges that Cordonier was forced to participate in a pro-war rally.

The suit cites a state law that declares a person cannot be fired because of political opinions.>> More

White House: Uranium claim incorrect
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2003 by symbolman

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amid questions about prewar intelligence, the White House is acknowledging that President Bush was incorrect when he said in his State of the Union address that Iraq recently had sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa.


The White House acknowledgment comes as a British parliamentary commission questions the reliability of British intelligence about Saddam Hussein's efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

Democrats in Congress also have questioned how the Bush administration used U.S. intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs.

Bush said in his address to Congress in January that the British government had learned that Saddam recently sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa.

The president's statement in the State of the Union was incorrect because it was based on forged documents from the African nation of Niger, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday.>> More

Nice Try CNN - but, BUSH LIED IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE THAT HE WAS USING FORGED PAPERS. Many Died and are dying daily as a result of this LIE. BUSH SHOULD BE IMPEACHED NOW. This is not about a stain on a dress - this is about hundreds of American Troops being shot or blown up daily. TREASON for Money and contracts.

On Goree Island, Bush Visit Sparks Anger
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2003 by symbolman

GOREE ISLAND, Senegal (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) made an eloquent speech but did not win many friends during his brief visit to Goree Island off Senegal on Tuesday.

N'diaye and other residents of Goree, site of a famous slave trading station, said they had been taken to a football ground on the other side of the quaint island at 6 a.m. and told to wait there until Bush had departed, around midday.

The cooped-up residents were not impressed.

"It's slavery all over again," fumed one father-of-four, who did not want to give his name. "It's humiliating. The island was deserted."

"We understand that you have to have security measures, since September 11, but to dump us in another place...? We had to leave at 6 a.m. I didn't have time to bathe, and the bread did not arrive," the father-of-four said.

"We were shut up like sheep," said 15-year-old Mamadou.

"When Clinton came, he shook hands, people danced," said former Mayor Urbain Alexandre Diagne.>> More

Gee, First Amendment Zones in Africa? Bush cannot go ANYWHERE unless Shills are bussed in, or the audience is ORDERED to not hoot at him (Military Bases), or REMOVED. Makes sense since he's ENSLAVING everyone in the US with his Economic policies, or lack thereof. Doesn't matter about the color of your skin - it's whether you are on the Inside - or the OUTSIDE - looking IN.

Savage Lives Up to His Name -- and That's All for Him at MSNBC
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2003 by symbolman

MSNBC was shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- to learn that its well-known homophobe host Michael Savage is actually -- gasp! -- homophobic, and the network has sacked him, effective immediately.

The firing came two days after Savage's most recent MSNBC telecast, during which he suggested to a gay caller that he should "get AIDS and die" or, alternatively, "go eat a sausage and choke on it -- get trichinosis."

This afternoon, MSNBC Vice President Jeremy Gaines was telling reporters that "in reaction to a hostile caller, Savage made an extremely inappropriate comment and the decision to cancel the program was not difficult."

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was dancing the Happy Dance, taking credit for having brought Savage's comments to the attention of MSNBC suits, who, the group concludes, must not have been among the 350,000 or so who actually watched "The Savage Nation." GLAAD had been aggressively campaigning to get Savage booted off MSNBC since the network announced his hire in February.

MSNBC, however, insists it was fully aware of the comments Savage made on Saturday, and that's why the news division acted so promptly today. Apparently, Sunday is not a workday at NBC News.>> More

But Savage WEENER is a HEALER! It says so on his site where he attempts to APOLOGISE to his many - get this - Gay LISTENERS!! Go there and see for yourself - how could MSNBC and gays get so upset over this little hatful of sunshine? And what's all this about his MILLSTONE? Is that the coffee brand he uses for the coffee enemas he prescribes? Maybe it's safe to drink the coffee again in the Green Room at MSNBC studios again.

We predicted the fall of Savage in June - A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW
Posted Monday, July 7, 2003 by symbolman

TakeBacktheMedia.com Gets the Savage Treatment: Wife of Web site Co-Founder Slapped with Lawsuit - June 3rd, 2003 - A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW:

TAKE BACK THE MEDIA:

"The truth is, we really don't even talk about the guy, there are plenty of sites that do that, and very well. My personal take on it is that most of America doesn't listen to Hate Radio or Hate TV, and that this guy was going to sink into obscurity anyway -- so why waste bandwidth over him. GLAAD cleaned his clock in record time by shaming his major advertisers.

We need better content than the garbage being thrown at us now, and maybe we need to create our own progressive station.

BUZZFLASH/BARTCOP: Aren't Savage's ratings sinking?

TAKE BACK THE MEDIA: From what I understand nobody is watching him -- relatively speaking, of course, it IS TV. According to some ratings systems out there I think he may not even be registering on the scale. I don't know anyone who watches him. Do you?

Newsflash for MSNBC: There already IS a FOX TV station. Hiring these right wing parrots ain't going to win you a Peabody. I think that these guys are clocking in at 200K viewers, per episode -- that's about as many people as are trimming their toenails in the USA at any given time.">> More

We are in the process of dealing with a Lawsuit spawned by Savage comments and may have the potential to SUE BACK, or ask for damages. We should know in a matter of days if this will be possible - please help us in this effort. We are unearthing information that may prove invaluable in going after this guy, and need your help to finish the job that MSNBC started. Send him on permanent vacation.

NEW YORK - MSNBC on Monday fired Michael Savage
Posted Monday, July 7, 2003 by symbolman

BBC: Blair fury at dossier story
Posted Saturday, July 5, 2003 by vgdesign

Tony Blair has warned that the BBC report claiming the government "sexed up" the Iraq weapons dossier was "as serious an attack on my integrity as there could possibly be".

Dismissing the allegation as "absurd", the prime minister told a Sunday paper: "Everyone now accepts that that charge is wrong."

"You could not make a more serious charge against a prime minister," he told the Observer.

BBC governors will hold a meeting with management on Sunday ahead of Monday's report by the Commons foreign affairs select committee into whether the government exaggerated the case for war against Iraq. >>More

Iraq: the human toll
Posted Saturday, July 5, 2003 by vgdesign

As news reporters tracked troops on the road to Baghdad, much of the suffering and loss of ordinary Iraqi civilians was left untold. Until now. Ed Vulliamy goes in search of their stories
The Observer

It was Rahad's turn to hide. The nine-year-old girl found a good place to conceal herself from her playmates, the game of hide and seek having lasted some two hours along a quiet residential street in the town of Fallujah, on the banks of the Euphrates.

But while Rahad crouched behind the wall of a neighbour's house, someone else - not playing the game - had spotted her, and her friends; someone above. The pilot of an American A-10 'tank-buster' aircraft, hovering in a figure of eight. He was flying an airborne weapon equipped with some of the most advanced and accurate equipment for 'precision target recognition' in the Pentagon's arsenal. And at 5.30pm on 29 March, he launched his weapon at the street scene below. >>More

The Times‘ William Safire: an old Nixon hand covers for Bush’s WMD lies
Posted Saturday, July 5, 2003 by vgdesign

By Alex Lefebvre, World Socialist Web Site

William Safire’s June 2 New York Times  column, ironically entitled “‘You Lied to Us,’” is one of many pieces in the US press seeking to dismiss the fact that the Bush administration lied about Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD). Safire, however, is among the more vicious and shameless of Bush’s defenders.

Faced with the discrediting of the official justification for the invasion, the Times  columnist responds with a slander—that those who are demanding an accounting for the administration’s lies are defenders, if not accomplices, of Saddam Hussein. They are, in Safire’s words, “opponents of this genocidal maniac’s removal.”

Safire, on the other hand, poses as a man whose every moral fiber is repelled by the repression carried out by the deposed Iraqi strongman. For him, the discovery of mass graves in Iraq renders irrelevant the issue of government lies in support of a war that has cost thousands of lives.

Here contempt for democratic principles merges with the purest cynicism. For those who are familiar with the political history of this eminent scoundrel, however, such dishonest methods come as no surprise. After all, he came to prominence in Republican circles as a leading Nixon administration speechwriter, staying with the administration until 1973. >>More

Bush: "Bloodsucking vampire"
Posted Saturday, July 5, 2003 by vgdesign

Johannesburg SA - About 150 people gathered at the Library Gardens in Johannesburg on Saturday to protest against United States President George W Bush's visit next week.

Protesting under the banner of the Anti-War Coalition, the demonstrators waved posters and sang struggle songs.

Some of the posters read "Bush, the mass murderer", "Bloodsucking vampire", "Jou ma se bush", "Behind every bush is a terrorist", and "Bush you won't rape our minds". >>More

>>The Observer: Bush plans bases to gird Africa

Thousands protest near dedication of center
Posted Saturday, July 5, 2003 by vgdesign

By Martha Woodall, Philadelphia Inquirer

While dignitaries marked the opening of the new National Constitution Center yesterday, several thousand of the hoi polloi marked the Fourth with a noisy, upbeat antiwar rally a block away at Franklin Square.

Afterward, in a march that snaked through the hot Center City streets, 3,000 to 5,000 demonstrators shook placards to a steady drumbeat and chanted: "Stop the crazy son of a Bush! Stop the war now!" >>More
...
PhillyIMC: Before yesterday's march began, KWRU leaders Cheri Honkala and Galen Tyler were both arrested, and have now been charged with a number of felony charges. Eyewitnesses have attested to the fact that the charges are false. The KWRU has sent out a letter detailing the events, and calling for support and help raising bail. >>KWRU Letter

British Journalist Shot Dead in Baghdad
Posted Saturday, July 5, 2003 by vgdesign

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A British journalist was shot and killed outside the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad on Saturday, witnesses said.

The identity of the journalist, a freelance television producer, was not immediately known. Fellow journalists, asking that their names not be used, said the male journalist was outside the museum when he was shot.

Ambushes, shootings and other attacks, blamed on loyalists of Saddam Hussein, have plagued American soldiers in Iraq in recent weeks - but so far there has been no sign of journalists being explicitly targeted. An American soldier guarding the museum was shot and killed by a sniper on Thursday.

The British Foreign Office contacted in London confirmed that a man had been shot but said details were still sketchy. ``We are urgently investigating reports of a British freelance journalist being shot today in Baghdad,'' a spokesman said. >>More

There was an old journalist who swallowed a line...
Posted Saturday, July 5, 2003 by vgdesign

Readers are being swamped by propaganda and half-truths, writes Patrick Weever, who has decided to do something about it - The Observer

'The primary office of a newspaper is the gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see that the supply is not tainted. Neither in what it gives nor in what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation, must the unclouded face of truth suffer wrong.'

So wrote CP Scott, the legendary Guardian editor, in 1921. In the middle of the awesome duel between the Government and the BBC over the Iraq dossier, Scott's values are worth pondering.

The next sentences in that famous essay, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Guardian, resonate down the years. 'Comment is free, but facts are sacred... The voice of opponents no less than that of friends has a right to be heard... It is well to be frank, it is even better to be fair.'

The swelling ranks of the great anti-spin movement in this country may sigh that we have travelled a great distance since Scott's time - and perhaps in the wrong direction.

Next month I will launch a website called Anti-Spin.com. >>More