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Friday, September 30
2005: The Top 10 Stories the Mainstream Media Missed
by
Caroline Vernon
on Fri 30 Sep 2005 04:00 PM CDT
 2005: The Top 10 Stories the Mainstream Media Missed
by Molly Ivins, Project Censored
A list of important stories the mainstream media overlooked, omitted, or were just too lazy to cover
No. 1: Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government. This administration has drastically changed the rules on Freedom of
Information Act requests; has changed laws that restrict public access
to federal records, mostly by expanding the national security
classification; operates in secret under the Patriot Act; and
consistently refuses to provide information to Congress and the
Government Accountability Office. The cumulative total effect is
horrifying.
No. 2:
Iraq Coverage - faulted for failure to report the results of the two
battles for Fallujah and the civilian death toll. The civilian death
toll story is hard to get - accurate numbers nowhere - but the
humanitarian disaster in Fallujah comes with impeccable sources.
No. 3:
Distorted Election Coverage. Faulting the study that caused most of the
corporate media to dismiss the discrepancy between exit polls and the
vote tally; and the still-contentious question of whether the vote in
Ohio needed closer examination.
No. 4:
Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In. It's another seep 'n' creep
story, where the cumulative effect should send us all shrieking into
the streets - the Patriot Act, the quiet resurrection of the MATRIX
program, the REAL ID Act, which passed without debate as an amendment
to an emergency spending bill funding troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
No. 5: United States Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia. Oops. Ugh.
No. 6: The
Real Oil for Food Scam. The oil-for-food story was rotten with
political motives from the beginning - the right used it to belabor
the United Nations. The part that got little attention here was the
extent to which we, the United States, were part of the scam. Harper's
magazine deserves credit for its December 2004 story, "The UN is Us:
Exposing Saddam Hussein's Silent Partner."
No. 7:
Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers to Life and Livelihood. That a
lot of journalists are getting killed in Iraq is indisputable.
No. 8:
Iraqi Farmers Threatened by Bremer's Mandates. It's part of the untold
story of the disastrous effort to make Iraq into a neo-con's
free-market dream. Order 81 issued by Paul Bremer "made it illegal for
Iraqi farmers to reuse seeds harvested from new varieties registered
under the law." Iraqi farmers were forced away from traditional methods
to a system of patented seeds, where they can't grow crops without
paying a licensing fee to an American corporation.
No. 9: Iran's New Oil Trade System Challenges U.S. Currency. The effects of Iran's switching from dollars to Euros in oil trading.
No. 10:
Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy. A classic case of
a story not unreported but underreported - a practice so
environmentally irresponsible it makes your hair hurt to think about
it.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
Molly Ivins is the former editor of
the liberal monthly The Texas Observer. She is the bestselling author
of several books, including Who Let the Dogs In?
Thursday, September 29
Media Consolidation and Indecency - the Link
by
Trish Nelson
on Thu 29 Sep 2005 04:00 AM CDT
 Media Consolidation and Indecency - the Link
Center for Creative Voices in Media
A
recent study by the Center for Creative Voices in Media suggests that
among other problems, media consolidation has led to a rise in
indecency on our airwaves.
Creative
Voices's study, "Ownership Concentration and Indecency in Broadcasting:
Is There a Link?" finds that from 2000 to 2003, four of the nation's
largest radio companies were responsible for 96% of FCC indecency
fines, while their stations accounted for only about half of the
country's listening audience.
The
study points out that some of the politicians who are now trying to
crack down on indecency by raising fines on broadcasters are the same
ones who voted in 1996 to relax ownership rules that contributed to
concentration. The report concludes that, "One of the unintended
consequences of their support of deregulation is an increase in
indecency."
Rather
than increase fines for indecency, the report suggests that a more
effective and First Amendment-friendly approach to the indecency
problem would be to reintroduce meaningful station ownership caps,
limit vertical integration of program ownership, and promoting localism
and diversity of voices in our nation’s media.
(source)
Click here to read the full report.
Click here to read FCC Commissioner Copps' comments on the study.
Wednesday, September 28
Statement of Commissioner Michael J. Copps on Broadcast Localism
by
Trish Nelson
on Wed 28 Sep 2005 05:59 AM CDT
 Statement of FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps on Broadcast Localism
In
2003, the FCC voted to relax ownership rules, paving the way for
increased media consolidation. In 2004, the courts rejected these
rules. The FCC then announced a Notice of Inquiry to investigate
further. The following is an excerpt of Commissioner Copps'
dissenting opinion arguing that the issues are clear, and it is time
for action.
[July 1, 2004]
From the earliest days of broadcasting,
we have obligated licensees to serve the needs and interests of their
local communities. The principle of localism is at the heart of
the public interest. I support the Commission’s renewed interest
in promoting localism, although we should have examined these issues
prior to loosening our media concentration protections, not after those
rules were gutted.
During
the hearings and forums on media ownership that Commissioner Adelstein
and I attended across the country, we heard time and again from
citizens about the detrimental impact that consolidation has already
had on localism and diversity and we heard their fears about where
still more concentration will lead. Localism is one of the
fundamental goals of our ownership rules and of the public
interest. I believe that it is impossible to divorce localism
from ownership. With the consolidation genie out of the bottle,
it will be too late then to stem the tide.
Enhancing political and civic discourse: From 1996 to 2000,
coverage of the Presidential race on the network evening news
dropped by one-third. The average Presidential candidate sound
bite in 2000 was 8 to 9 seconds. Local newscasts fared no
better. In the 2002 election, over half of the evening local
newscasts contained no campaign coverage at all. What coverage
there is tends to focus inordinately on the latest tracking polls and
handicapping the horse race rather than on the serious issues the
nation needs to be discussing. And when you get down to the
Congressional and local races, the situation is even more dismal.
We also see less public affairs programming. One survey found less than one half of one percent of programming is devoted to local public affairs. We have studies. We have comments. We don’t have action.
Community-responsive programming and License Renewals:
Broadcast stations have an obligation to air programming responsive to
the needs and interests of their communities of license…As one part of
the effort to ensure that licensees are serving their local
communities, we desperately need to establish an effective license
renewal process under which the Commission would once again actually
consider the manner in which a station has served the public interest
when it comes time to renew its license. One thing is certain:
the current system of postcard renewal for licenses is not serving the
public interest.
Communication with Communities:
As local stations come under the control of far-away media
conglomerates, it is time to move forward and act. ..When the issue is
how to hold Big Media accountable to the local communities they serve,
we are stuck at the starting gate. The better part of good
government here is to move ahead and act on those matters where we
already have compiled a record or where the statute has long since told
us to be about our job of protecting the public interest.
(click here to read the entire opinion)
(click here to learn more about localism)
Sunday, September 25
Party's Over For The Party Boy
by
Trish Nelson
on Sun 25 Sep 2005 04:00 AM CDT
 Party's Over For The Party Boy
ABC News: The Note
by Mark Halperin, David Chalian, Teddy Davis, and Sarah Baker
As Howard Fineman, Adam Nagourney, Rick Berke, Jeff
Greenfield, Elizabeth Wilner, Ron Brownstein, Matt Cooper, Mike Abramowitz, and
Ken Mehlman would say, "How is the situation [George W.] Bush [faced
before his speech] different than on all other nights since 9/11?"
He has never seen his poll numbers take this kind of hit
among Republicans before.
He has never seen his poll numbers on "strong
leader" and "can handle a crisis" take such a hit before.
He has never seen his efforts to build the Republican Party
among African-Americans be so thoroughly undermined before.
He has never been rolled by Nancy Pelosi before.
He has never been without Dr. Rice or Ambassador Hughes down
the hall during a crisis before.
He has never had to take "responsibility" for such
death-infused tragedy before.
He has never had so many well-meaning Republican strategists
and Administration aides whole-heartedly agreeing that the White House was too
slow off the mark in dealing with a crisis before.
He has never been perceived as such a potential liability by
others in his party looking to hold their seats before.
He has never lacked The Other — an enemy to demonize and to
contrast with himself and his policies in the eyes of the media and the public
before.
(click here to read the entire article)
You
can
help fight Big Media right here in the Hawkeye
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Click here to find out
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Saturday, September 24
Advice To Mr. Bush From a Member of the 'Reality-Based' Community
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 24 Sep 2005 11:01 AM CDT
 Advice To Mr. Bush From a Member of the 'Reality-Based' Community
HBO: Real Time with Bill Maher
contributed by Boris Botero
Bill Maher's closing words from a recent Real Time With Bill
Maher show.
"Mr. [Bush],
this job can't be fun for you any more.
There's no more money to spend - you used up all of that. You can't start another war because you used
up the army. And now, darn the luck, the
rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.
Listen to your Mom.
The cupboard's bare, the credit cards maxed out. No one's speaking to you. Mission
accomplished.
"Now
it's time
to do what you've always done best: lose
interest and walk away. Like you did
with your military service and the oil company and the baseball
team. It's time.
Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or
space man? Now I know what you're saying: there's so many
other things that you...could involve yourself in.
Please don't. I know, I
know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the
church. And Social Security to Fannie
Mae. Giving embryos the vote.
"But, Sir, none
of that is going to happen now.
Why? Because you govern like
Billy Joel drives. You've performed so
poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a
man. Herbert Hoover was a [lousy] president, but even he never conceded
an entire city to rising water and snakes.
"On your watch,
we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade
centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New
Orleans. Maybe
you're just not lucky. I'm not saying
you don't love this country. I'm just
wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.
"So, yes, God
does speak to you. What he is saying is:
'Take a hint.' "
(source)
 Last Chance to Vote!
You have until
4:00 today (Saturday, September 24th) to vote for two great Iowa
candidates for the Democracy for America endorsement. Click here to vote for Dave Loebsack (2nd District) and Bruce Braley (1st
District). You do not have to live in either district to
vote.
Friday, September 23
Rising Gasoline Prices Aren't Wholly Caused by Hurricane Katrina
by
Caroline Vernon
on Fri 23 Sep 2005 04:00 PM CDT
 Rising Gasoline Prices Aren’t Wholly Caused by Hurricane Katrina
by Public Citizen
www.citizen.org
What
is it going to take before the American people start demanding
accountability? Why should the people be the only ones to sacrifice in
tough times? While gas prices continue to soar, Exxon-Mobil is raking
in record profits! It stands to reason that these guys should also be
required to make the necessary sacrifices. If that means sacrificing
some of the billions of dollars in profits they make each quarter in
order to lesson the impact on the rest of the country - so be it!
Instead of doing that, our elected representatives are giving them
additional subsidies to pad their pockets at our expense!
The
word is, as soon as Rita makes landfall, the price at the pump will
double so make it a point to fill your tanks now while you can still
afford it! In the meantime, please, please, take a few minutes out of
your busy days to contact your elected representatives and demand an
end to this rampant price-gouging by the petrochemical industry. We may
live in a capitalist country, but what they are doing to us is immoral!
This is all the more reason to pursue renewable and environmentally
friendly energy sources.
Consumer Group Says Corporate Mergers Are Partly to Blame for Price-Gouging of Consumers at the Pump
WASHINGTON,
D.C. – High gasoline prices cannot be blamed entirely on natural
disasters, but rather on unchecked corporate behavior, Public Citizen
will tell a Senate committee today. At a hearing before the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Tyson Slocum,
research director, Public Citizen’s energy program, said that recent
oil company mergers are partly responsible for gasoline price spikes.
He listed steps the government should take to alleviate high gasoline
prices. Slocum’s testimony is available at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/SenateOilTestimony.
The
government should restore competitive markets by enforcing antitrust
laws that make it illegal for companies to intentionally withhold an
energy commodity from the market for the sole purpose of creating a
shortage and driving up prices, Slocum said. The government also should
re-regulate energy trading exchanges, boost fuel economy standards and
force the divestiture of assets to remedy the problem of too few
companies controlling too much of the market.
Despite
Hurricane Katrina’s reported impact on gasoline prices, gasoline and
oil prices have been creeping up for two years, in large part because
of a wave of mergers in the oil industry. Last year, the top five U.S.
oil refining companies controlled 56.3 percent of domestic oil refinery
capacity. A decade ago, the 10 largest U.S. oil refining companies
controlled 55.6 percent of refining capacity — which means that, due to
mergers, the five largest oil refiners today control more capacity than
the 10 largest did a decade ago. This consolidation makes it easier for
oil companies to gouge consumers at the pumps. The five largest oil
refiners — ConocoPhillips, Valero, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP — have seen
profits of $228 billion since President Bush took office in 2001.
Despite
government reports issued in 2001 and 2004 that directly link corporate
mergers to high gasoline prices, no action has been taken to aid
consumers who are suffering from a volatile market where prices spike
day by day. Meanwhile, oil industry profits are at record highs,
largely due to record refinery profit margins. While in 1999, U.S. oil
refiners earned 22.8 cents for every gallon of gasoline they refined,
that profit margin increased 80 percent by 2004, to 40.8 cents per
gallon.
"We have
every meteorologist in the country monitoring hurricanes, letting us
know exactly when the next one is going to hit and where. But who is
monitoring the companies that are jacking up gasoline prices for
consumers under the guise of natural disasters?" Slocum said. "We need
the government to protect us from dangerous weather, but we also need
to be protected from price-gouging every day when we heat our homes,
drive our cars or fly somewhere."
(Source)
Monday, September 19
Bush Numbers Take Another Dive - Speech Didn't Help
by
Trish Nelson
on Mon 19 Sep 2005 11:00 AM CDT
 Bush Numbers Take Another Dive - Speech Didn't Help
Thirty-five
percent (35%) of Americans now say that [George W.] Bush has done a good
or excellent job responding to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
That's down from 39% before his speech from New Orleans.
The
latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows that 41% give [Bush] poor
marks for handling the crisis, that's up from 37% before the speech.
The
spending plan has not been well received by conservative voters - just
43% favor the huge federal commitment while 37% are opposed. This is
especially striking given how supportive [Bush]'s base has
remained throughout his [pseudo-]administration.
Following
the speech, [Bush]'s rating for handling the Katrina crisis fell
eight points among Republicans (from 71% good or excellent to 63%). Bush also draws good or excellent marks from 11% of Democrats and
[only] 31% of those not affiliated with either major political party.
Fifty-seven
percent (57%) of black voters support the federal reconstruction
spending while just 17% are opposed. Among white voters, 49% favor the
spending and 29% are opposed. This is the first Bush Administration
proposal that has attracted more support from black Americans than from
white Americans.
Rasmussen
Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the
collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling
information.
(click here to read the entire article)
Sunday, September 18
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Speaks to Sierra Club on Non-Environmental Issues
by
Trish Nelson
on Sun 18 Sep 2005 08:15 AM CDT
 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Speaks to Sierra Club on Non-Environmental Issues
DailyKos
Contributed by Ellen Ballas
by muddy paw
Robert Kennedy, Jr., in a speech before the Sierra Club, as reported in a diary on DailyKos -
"And I say that this is an administration that
represents itself as the 'White House of values' but every value that they
claim to represent is just a hollow façade, [that masks] the one value that
they really consider worth fighting for which is corporate profit taking.
"They say that they like free markets but they despise
free market capitalism. What they like - if you look at their feet rather than
their clever, clever mouths - what they really like is corporate welfare and
capitalism for the poor but socialism for the rich.
"They say that they like private property but they
don't like private property except when it's the right of a polluter to use his
private property to destroy his neighbors property and to destroy the public
property.
"And they say that they like law and order but they are
the first ones to let the corporate law breakers off the hook. And they say
that they like local control and states rights but they only like those things
when it means sweeping away the barriers to corporate profit taking at the
local level. And you and the Sierra Club know, and I can give you hundreds of
examples.
It was a wide-ranging speech, touching on many structural
defects of our current politics besides environmental-related issues.
"... we have negligent and indolent media and press
in this country which have absolutely let down American democracy [applause].
All this right-wing propaganda which is planned and organized and [has]
dominated this country [and] the political debate for so many years, talking
about a liberal media. Well, you know and I know there is no such thing as a
liberal media in the United States of America.
"There is a right-wing media and if you look where most
Americans are now getting their news, that's where they're getting it.
According to Pew, 30 percent of Americans now say that their primary news
source is talk radio which is 90 percent dominated by the right.
"Twenty-two percent said their primary news source is
Fox News, MSNBC or CNBC, all dominated by the right and another 10 percent,
Sinclair Network, which is the most right wing of all.
"[Sinclair] is the largest television network in our
country. It's run by a former pornographer who requires all 75 of his affiliate
television stations - and this is where Mid-Westerners get their news, red
state people get their news - all of them have to take a pledge to not report
critically about [Bush] or about the war in Iraq....
RFK Jr. is chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson
Riverkeeper, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and
president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a clinical professor and
supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University
School of Law in New York.
(click here to read the entire article)
You
can
help fight Sinclair Broadcasting right here in the Hawkeye state!
Click here to find out
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