Scandalous

And The Winner Is…The Media

Posted by on November 5, 2006 at 12:19 pm. NO Comments :
So long as we have corporate media monopolies married to political powerbrokers in government and on K Street, we will never have truly free elections.

As the American electorate’s chest heaves with exhaustion, gasping for that second wind to propel it across the finish line of this year’s electoral marathon, the handicappers are already setting up shop to declare victories or to justify whatever it is they decide to call non-victories. There will be celebrations and wakes and scores of prognosticators heralding their prescience no matter how far from reality their predictions actually fall.

But there is one contestant in this game that can pump its mighty fist in the air regardless of polling outcomes.

When all is said and done, The Media will have banked over $2 Billion. Of course, the final numbers are not in and this estimate doesn’t even include spot cable buys, not to mention last minute surges that are expected on all sides.

If a campaign can be analogized to a war, then the media are the war profiteers. Fox is the Halliburton of the press corps – GE (owner of NBC/Universal) is the…well, the GE. They benefit no matter who wins or loses. In fact, it is in their interest to incite division and to escalate the conflict.

They have been doing this in some obvious ways. The hype surrounding the Mark Foley and John Kerry events was purposefully orchestrated to fuel controversy and to roil the electoral landscape. Partisans on both sides help to propel these tangents, but despite their varying levels of significance, none of these issues have parity with Iraq, the economy, health care, global warming, etc. Yet they are given prominence due to their tabloid appeal.

As the prospects for each candidate and party fluctuate, the players need to react, and this is generally done by purchasing more ad time. The media doesn’t particularly like a blowout because it results in the failing candidate either abandoning the air war or the candidate’s supporters abandoning the candidate, leaving no budget for the battle. So the press chips in keep the race close.

Meanwhile the public suffers the fate of all civilians in wartime. They are beaten and battered and left in a heap along with the other victims of collateral damage. It is never the people’s interest that is served in war, but the interests of the war mongers and their powerful benefactors. The people suffer through these air wars and become disgusted and demoralized. That is actually part of the media’s wartime stategery. A little known fact about negative ads is that they are not intended to tarnish an opponent (that’s just gravy). Their purpose is to suppress turnout so that campaign strategerists are left with a smaller, more manageable, voter population to influence and get to the polls.

So long as we have corporate media monopolies married to political powerbrokers in government and on K Street, we will never have truly free elections. They just feed off of each other and enrich each other at the expense of democracy. The media needs to be corralled into a role wherein it educates and informs citizens. And public financing of campaigns is imperative if we want to remove the influence of corporations from politics.

This is the paramount battle of our generation and we are presently losing. The media will grow stronger as a result of the massive infusion of campaign spending it is enjoying this year. But it isn’t invincible and the fight is worth fighting. I do not consider it hyperbole to say that the future of our country rests on the outcome and if that isn’t motivation, then I guess I’ll just have to buy some more airtime to convince you.

Media Matters: Top Election Falsehoods

Posted by on November 4, 2006 at 10:22 am. NO Comments :

For anyone interested in a compendium of the media’s failings in this election season, Media Matters has come through for you. Their article, “Top election falsehoods, myths, and talking points,” is a concise and useful compilation that vividly demonstrates the weaknesses in the conventional, corporate run press. Here is the list of shame. Click the Media Matters link above to see the detail.

  • American voters favor Republicans on national security.
  • The public favors Republicans on the issues of taxes and fiscal responsibility.
  • Republicans had the “Contract with America” in 1994 to power their victory, but Democrats in 2006 have no agenda.
  • Terrorists want the Democrats to win.
  • Even if Americans don’t approve of the job Bush is doing, they like him personally.
  • Once a “pro-Bush” state, always a “pro-Bush” state.
  • Democrats will drown the Bush administration in investigations.
  • A Democratic takeover of the House would put extreme liberals in leadership positions.
  • Kuo’s claims regarding White House’s real views of religious conservatives have no precedent.
  • Republicans and Democrats both equally guilty of “dirty tricks”.

In each of the items above, Media Matters has documented the rampant dishonesty by the media in fomenting these easily disprovable themes. This is another example of how an irresponsible and ethically compromised community of psuedo-journalists performs a disservice to the public and to the concept of a free and independent media.

Ann Coulter’s New Address: Folsom?

Posted by on November 1, 2006 at 9:43 pm. NO Comments :

This is sweet…

“Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has refused to cooperate in an investigation into whether she voted in the wrong precinct, so the case will probably be turned over to prosecutors, Palm Beach County’s elections chief said Wednesday.”

This is a potential felony that carries a sentence of up to 5 years. Since people like Coulter are rarely held accountable for their crimes, it is unlikely that she’s going to see hard time. All the same, I can’t help feeling a little giddy. If she did get sent up, she could use the time to write a book to follow her recent “Godless.” It could be an autobiography titled, “Shameless.”

Murdoch’s Poison Pillory

Posted by on October 18, 2006 at 2:23 am. NO Comments :

A couple of years ago, Rupert Murdoch orchestrated the adoption of a “poison pill” that would act as an obstacle to any investor that sought to wrest control of News Corp. from the Murdoch family. John Malone of Liberty Media, who had been buying up shares of News Corp., was the unnamed target of this ploy. Liberty Media is a holding company that investments in media properties like QVC, Encore, and Inter/Active Corp.

Now the measure is up for renewal and there are those who would like to see it expire. The Murdoch family presently controls about 30% of News Corp.’s stock. Liberty has about 19%. If shareholders vote against the pill, it could result in Murdoch losing the iron grip he has on the company.

On a partisan basis, Malone may not be much better than Murdoch. He is a reliable source of contributions for the Republican party. Still, there is little evidence that he is as strident an advocate, or as willing to taint programming with his biases. Plus, it would just be a delicious irony if Murdoch’s megalomaniacal greed resulted in his being toppled from his throne.

There is something you can do. If you own shares of News Corp. vote them against renewing the pill. If you own funds that invest in News Corp. contact the portfolio managers and advise them that you would like for them to vote against it. Institutional investors are already amongst those who are inclined to oppose the measure.

But don’t waste any time because the vote is this Friday. This is an election that you can have a real impact on before that other election coming up in November. And if there were a significant shift in the journalistic philosophy of a media giant like News Corp., it would have a noticeably more far reaching effect than any electoral shift could ever have.

FCC Censors Itself On Local Ownership

Posted by on September 15, 2006 at 9:28 am. 1 Comments :

A report written in 2004 by researchers at the Federal Communications Commission found that local ownership of broadcasters enhanced coverage of community issues. That conclusion directly contradicts prior arguments made by the Commission that claimed consolidation aided localism. The research analyzed over 4,000 hours of news programming and was conducted by veteran media professionals. Michael Powell, Bush crony and corporate media lackey, was the FCC Chairman, at the time the report was produced.

So what happened to this report? According to an FCC attorney, an order was issued that “every last piece” of the report be destroyed. This document, produced at taxpayer expense, was anathema to an agency that has been mightily striving to accommodate the monopolistic interests of Big Media. It could not be allowed to survive.

However, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) obtained a stray copy of the report and questioned current FCC Chair Kevin Martin about it during committee hearings. He claimed never to have seen the report or to have received the letter Boxer had previously sent inquiring as to its status. Either the Powell administration at the FCC effectively erased any evidence of the report from the agency’s files, or Martin is lying. But the stone-walling by the agency is continuing and it remains to be seen if Martin will eventually provide a satisfactory response. If he does not, Boxer has promised to request an investigation by the FCC Inspector General.

Let’s hope this process can conclude before the FCC succeeds in passing new regulations that will allow the expanded consolidation that this report proves will be harmful to the public’s interest.

Update: Former FCC chief, Michael Powell, emerged to plead ignorance, saying through his assistant that…

“he never saw the report, he never heard of the report until yesterday and he certainly never ordered anything destroyed or stopped.”

Also, Sen. Boxer has fulfilled her promise and formally requested an investigation by the FCC Inspector General.

The Hypocritical Patriotism Of George W. Bush

Posted by on September 13, 2006 at 6:54 pm. 1 Comments :

"What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?" [by Dread Scott] is an “installation for audience participation.”…In 1989, while on display at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, [it] became the center of national controversy over its use of the American flag. President Bush Sr. declared [it] “disgraceful” and the entire US Congress denounced this work as they passed legislation to “protect the flag.” U.S. President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush stand on a carpet commemorating the date of the attacks of September 11, 2001 near a mural depicting those attacks outside the Ladder Company 10 firehouse opposite the site of the World Trade Center in New York, September 10, 2006.

REUTERS/Jason Reed


U.S. Paying Reporters For Stories (Again)

Posted by on September 8, 2006 at 2:00 pm. NO Comments :
They will say and do whatever they want to achieve goals they know could not be secured legally.

The criminal and moral recidivism of this administration never ceases to amaze. After having been caught paying pundits like Armstrong Williams to plant puff pieces for the Department of Education, and paying advocacy groups to pimp administration policies in op-eds, and paying Iraqi papers to publish pre-packaged happy-talk, the Miami Herald now reports that…

“At least 10 South Florida journalists, including three from El Nuevo Herald, received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years.”

The offending agency this time is the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB). The Herald discloses that the papers, and some of the journalists, were connected to the Herald itself. To their credit, Jesús Díaz Jr., president of the Miami Herald Media Co., unambiguously denounces the activities:

“Even the appearance that your objectivity or integrity might have been impaired is something we can’t condone, not in our business. I personally don’t believe that integrity and objectivity can be assured if any of our reporters receive monetary compensation from any entity that he or she may cover or have covered, but particularly if it’s a government agency.”

The Herald fired two of the reporters propagandists, but as yet, I have seen no indication that anyone at the OCB, or any oversight office, has taken any action to address this assault on a free press. The fact that the government continues to engage in behavior that it has already been told is illegal, further demonstrates that they simply don’t care about the law. They will say and do whatever they want to achieve goals they know could not be secured legally. And they will do this until they are stopped.

This is an administration that has reigned over an era of misleadership and lies. And for the most part, they have had a compliant media to advance their nefarious agenda. Who will stop the reign? The media is the real problem, and if we don’t impose a comprehensive resolution we will only have more bought and paid for journalists in our future.

Update: It appears that even more reporters have been whoring for the feds.

Path To 9/11 Propaganda

Posted by on September 7, 2006 at 9:57 am. NO Comments :

The Disney-ABC croc-udrama, Path to 9/11, is starting to get the treatment it deserves in the blogosphere and even some of the cable news nets. But I wanted to tie this hit piece more securely to the description of what it really is. So I thought that I would initiate a Google bomb effort to associate the program’s title to the word propaganda. First, I checked the obvious – is there a Propaganda.com?

Guess what? The URL redirects to Open Letter to ABC, a clearinghouse of info and links related to the show and how to respond. It appears to be the work of Matt Stoller of MyDD. Thanks Matt, you’ve saved me a lot of work.

Update: Here is a link to some more info on the folks behind the scenes of Path to 9/11 – A motley crew of villians that include David Horowitz, Richard Mellon Scaife, and the Liberty Film Festival.

Also, the president will be making a speech on the evening of Monday, 9/11, for which ABC will likely have to interrupt their program. Does anybody else get the feeling that this is an intentional move to insert the President’s comments into the program so that it will almost appear as if he is a sponsor and/or is associating the White House with the movie?

Once A Corrupt Crony, Always…

Posted by on September 3, 2006 at 11:44 am. NO Comments :

The disgraced former head of the Corporation for Public Propaganda Broadcasting was caught again with his hand in the till.

The Washington Post reporting on the incorrigible Kenneth Tomlinson:

“A year-long State Department investigation has found that the chairman of the agency that oversees Voice of America and other government broadcasting operations [the Broadcast Board of Governors] improperly used his office, putting a friend on the payroll and running a “horse-racing operation” with government resources.”

In addition to being an embezzler, and a reprobate, he is also an incompetent manager. Last May, the Voice of America closed its Baghdad bureau because they could not retain journalists to staff it. Tomlinson and the agency he leads was unable to maintain a presence in a part of the world where that presence may be most needed.

Yet the Bush administration is not only defending him, but is re-nominating him as chair of the BBG. How many crimes does it take for this president to cut the cord on his cronies? It appears that there is actually an inverse relationship toward service and criminal behavior at BushCo. The more crime you commit, the more reward you receive.

The $20 Million Dollar TV Guide

Posted by on September 2, 2006 at 8:41 am. NO Comments :

America must be sleeping better tonight knowing that their government is ever vigilant of threats from unflattering news reports. An administration obsessed with perceptions is soliciting bids for a contract to monitor media reports about the war in Iraq. This $20 million dollar initiative will:

“provide continuous monitoring and near-real-time reporting of Iraqi, pan-Arabic, international and U.S. media…including, but not limited to tone (positive, neutral, negative) and scope of media coverage.”

That the Pentagon considers this a project worthy of millions of taxpayer dollars should not surprise anyone. This is the same Pentagon that paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive stories written by an American PR firm. So the Pentagon, not content with planting propaganda in the world’s press, now wants to see how good they’ve been at it. They justify the expense by claiming that:

“…the Bush administration was countering extremism with hope and democracy.”

I wish someone to could explain how monitoring the media for content analysis furthers those goals. While countering extremism is a laudable objective, hope and democracy is not advanced with lies and manipulation. If the Pentagon wants to know what the press is saying about them and the war, all they have to do is pick up a newspaper, turn on the TV, or tune in Voice of America. Oh wait – they closed the Baghdad bureau last year. I guess they weren’t getting enough happy stories.