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NEWS DISSECTOR: 1968 At 40: A Generation Rose But Was Rebuffed. Time To Do It Again?
NEWS DISSECTOR May 12, 2008
1968 At 40: A Generation Rose But Was Rebuffed. Time To Do It Again?
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
The Wikipedia tells the real non-Hallmark card history: "The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors."
NEW VIDEO
Special thanks to Michael Blomquist of Northern California who has been fighting for housing justice,political change and financial reform. When I told him, I wanted to do more speaking about the issues raised in my film In Debt We Trust and my new soon-come book PLUNDER, he took the initiative and made this video to help get the word out. It is now up on YouTube. Thank you Michael for caring and helping.
Readers with the ability to invite and fund speakers, please get in touch:
1968 AT 40: LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD
HELLO RANGOON: BURMA'S RULES GOVERNING FOREIGN AID
MEET INSURGENT CANDIDATE BYRON DELEAR
Our news agenda is always filled with holidays, and key dates to remember. Today it's Israel at 60. In New Delhi, they are marking India at 60. Anniversaries, particularly when they are rounded numbers are occasions for celebration, "events" to mark in an event-driven culture.
I have to admit that I am over 60, and still have a micro-memory of people in my Bronx neighborhood dancing the hora when the "Jewish State" was proclaimed.
But, in this May of 2008, I am thinking of another anniversary perhaps more central to my generation and experience. Lets call it 1968 at 40. All of us who lived it remembered what a turning point that year was-riots, assassinations, 30,000 Americans gone in Vietnam (We didn't count the Vietnamese dead then just as we don't count the Iraqis now), Hair was on Broadway, and I was living in England through November so I missed the Chicago protests. (I was then protesting the Soviet invasion of Prague.) In this Olympic year, with all the concern about politicizing the games, we might remember what happened then:
ORGANIZATIONS TO DONATE TO (LA TIMES)
RED CROSS P*** LANDS WITH SOME HELP
Geneva / Yangon (ICRC) - A cargo aircraft chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arrived early Sunday in Yangon. It was carrying 35 tonnes of equipment and materials urgently needed for medical care, drinking water and sanitation, and the safe disposal of bodies. The arrival of the supplies and their subsequent transfer to the ICRC and the Myanmar Red Cross Society was facilitated by the Myanmar authorities.
The medical supplies are sufficient to treat some 250 trauma patients and to provide three months of basic health care for 10,000 persons. The water and sanitation items, which include a mobile water-treatment plant, are intended to provide drinking water for 10,000 persons.
The Burmese Junta is having a referendum Sunday to engineer popular support for its existence. The day was chosen by the official astrologer.
GUARDIAN: The military rulers of Burma went ahead with a constitutional referendum on Saturday despite calls from the outside world to postpone it after the devastation of Cyclone Nargis.
The plebiscite was postponed by two weeks in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy Delta and the city of Rangoon, but voting went ahead in other parts of the isolated South-East Asian country of 53-million.
State-run TV news repeated Friday's broadcasts urging people to vote, making no mention of the estimated 1,5-million victims of the cyclone without food and shelter or tens of thousands killed and missing in the vicious storm that struck a week ago.
"Those who value the national well-being should go and vote 'yes'," MRTV said in a scrolling headline on the screen.
Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal Questioned, Meet Byron DeLear
UPDATE: NEW YORK - News Corp., the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has withdrawn its bid to purchase the Long Island paper Newsday, a News Corp. spokeswoman said Saturday.
Pearlstine, speaking to the Argyle Executive Forum in New York, said the new WSJ's focus on the horse race makes sense, because there's a horse race. But "it will be interesting to see if that can be sustained after the election... an awful lot of Journal subscribers made the decision to buy it because they didn't want general news--they wanted specialized coverage they couldn't get elsewhere."
Pearlstine's critique isn't a new one: It's more or less the conventional wisdom about Rupe's plan at this point. We have a hunch that Marcus Brauchi may have had the same argument. And now he's also a former WSJ managing editor.
Token caveat from Pearlstine: "For any of us to sit in this room to bet against Rupert and his vision is brave, but he has made mistakes along the way-TV Guide comes to mind--so he's not infallible."
See my exchange with Murdoch in the video above.
ECONOMISTS DEBATE JAMES GALBRAITH VERSUS PAUL KRUGMAN
In the final analysis, Krugman's argument is that there is a simple distinction between the "serious" economists-who agree with him-and the "critics," who are, by definition, not serious. It is true, of course, that economic-policy discussions are magnets for cranks. But from this it does not follow, and is not in fact true, that all "serious" economists hold to some single position. It is even more absurd to suppose that one gains access to this wisdom by passing an exam in algebra. In this respect, Krugman's argument is so shallow, so actually illogical (a fallacy of induction, in this case), that it is evidently aimed at rubes. I hope not many will be taken in.
(Many of my articles, including the original target of Krugman's critique, "What Is to Be Done [About Economics?]" are accessible online. Also available, a paper entitled: "Linear Decomposition of Time-Series" [for anyone interested in checking out my linear algebra …]
BYRON DELEAR RUNS IN MO
There is such an army of political reporters covering every burp and twist in the primaries that I have largely stayed away, preferring to weigh in with some media analysis on a race that has been in many ways by, in and if not for the media, I did chance a chance to chat with one candidate running in the democratic primary in Missouri for a Congressional seat Held by a Bush Republican.
He is a candidate in the heartland with fiends in Hollywood. The writer Gore Vidal has embraced him and his political analysis certainly cuts deeper than the ones espoused by most traditional Democratic office seekers. He has some slogans like the "separation of buck and state" and a broad economic program including public financing of elections and measures to deal with our $430 billion debt, He has a srong economic program that he is raising on the campaign trail.
"We are seeing the Enonization of the American economy-corporate behavior and greed running rampant-capitalism getting unstable,: he says pointing to the Wall Strreet crash and what happened with Enron, and the S&L crisis. He is also backer of balanced budgets and stresses financial responsibility as a way to win over Republicans in his district.
Voters go to the polls in August.
What intrigued me is that he has made the media an issue in his race in the second district in the Show Me State. He wants to promote more media literacy in schools and put an end to media concentration. It is one of his issues.
I was also impressed to hear of his previous work on behalf of conflict resolution and peace in Israel.
The candidate is Byron DeLear. If you live in Missouri's Second District, he seems worthy of your consideration..
WHO WOULD OBAMA PICK AS A VP? INTERESTING SPECULATION
Snoop Cameras Everywhere In The UK, But What They See Is Dogs Pooping
U.K. turns CCTV, terrorism laws on pooping dogs (Posted by Chris Soghoian)
The United Kingdom has the most surveillance cameras per capita in the world. With the recent news that CCTV cameras do not actually deter crime, how can the local town councils justify the massive surveillance program? By going after pooping dogs.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, the head of the Metropolitan Police's Visual Images Office explained the failings of CCTV:
"Billions of pounds has been spent on it, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It's been an utter fiasco: only 3 percent of crimes were solved by CCTV. There's no fear of CCTV. Why don't people fear it? (They think) the cameras are not working."
Conjuring up the bogeymen of terrorists, online pedophiles and cybercriminals, the U.K. passed a comprehensive surveillance law, The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, in 2000. The law allows "the interception of communications, carrying out of surveillance, and the use of covert human intelligence sources" to help prevent crime, including terrorism.
Recent reports in the U.K. media indicate that the laws are being used for everything but terrorism investigations:
* Derby City Council, Bolton, Gateshead, and Hartlepool used surveillance to investigate dog fouling.
* Bolton Council also used the act to investigate littering.
* The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea conducted surveillance on the misuse of a disabled parking pass.
* Liverpool City Council used Ripa to identify a false claim for damages.
ALTERNET INTERVIEW WITH EDITOR AND PUBLISHER'S GREG MITCHELL ON MEDIA AND WAR
TOTAL COST OF THE IRAQ WAR HIGHER THAN WE THINK: TEHRAN TIMES
SF LETTER CARRIERS DEMAND MORATORIUM ON FORECLOSURES
Resolution of Letter Carriers Union,
Golden Gate Branch 214
May 78, 2008[Represent the following cities in the greater San
Francisco Bay Area: Belvedere/Tiburon, Corte Madera,
Daly City, Mill Valley, Novato, Redwood City, San
Anselmo, San Francisco, San Leandro, San Rafael &
Sausalito]Whereas, a large number of Americans are losing their
homes to foreclosure, many as a result of being
victimized by the predatory practices of banks and
mortgage companies. One in every four subprime mortgage
victims are either in or near foreclosure. Soon, almost
10% of the homes of working families across the country
could be in foreclosure; andWhereas, the growing economic crisis has caused a big
increase in the number of evictions of renters from
their homes and apartments, and utility shutoffs facing
those unable to pay their gas and electric bills; andWhereas, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, 25
states adopted a moratorium (freeze) on foreclosures,
and such moratoriums were upheld by the US Supreme
Court; andWhereas, Governors, State Legislatures, the President
and Congress, as well as the Department of Housing &
Urban Development, have the statutory authority to
declare a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions
during a time of either natural or economic emergency
disaster. In early 2007 the governor of Massachusetts
decreed a 2-month moratorium on foreclosures;Whereas, Michigan State Senator Hansen Clarke has
introduced a bill calling for a 2-year moratorium on
foreclosures, in a state that is suffering the worst
housing crisis since the 1930s, with tens of thousands
also facing eviction and entire communities being
decimated by abandoned and often vandalized homes which
drive down property values - a situation also facing
communities in other states as well; therefore be itResolved, that Golden Gate Branch 214 of the National
Association of Letter Carriers call on the President
and elected representatives to implement a moratorium
(freeze) on home foreclosures, utility shut-offs and
evictions.Adopted May 7, 2008 by unanimous vote. NALC Branch 214
represents 2,500 Postal Service letter carriers in 11
cities of the San Francisco Bay Area.
LETTERS
Malina Ammons writes:
When Obama visited the House of Representatives this week, he made it clear his business was about reconciliation. He visited with all the weight of a presumptive nominee, but there was no gloating, no snide remarks, no hints to the Clinton camp that they should pack it in. He was careful to engage, not alienate. There was, nonetheless, no doubt that he was the nominee, and people treated him as such.
This style bodes well for a nation whose former nemesis - the USSR - imploded under its own bloated weight, whose former "satellite" nations now flock to our side. We don't have to gloat. We don't have to jump up and down and scream "Yay America." The world expects us to lead, and we can actually do this with a bit of temperance. We don't need to bash ideological opponents, or shoot our way through every negotiation with a foreign state. You can be strong without having to prove it every five minutes.
Note from Media Historian Robet McChesney
Monthly Review Press has just published my new book: The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas. This volume culminates the research in my career to date, and includes my latest thinking on journalism, the Internet, global political economy, and the burgeoning media reform movement and our broader changing political climate.
The editors at Monthly Review Press have done a brilliant job with this book. The Political Economy of Media includes the best writing I have done and provides a comprehensive overview of my work.
Please go to this link to learn more about the book, see the table of contents, and read the preface and introduction. You will also see how you can order the book by telephone or online .
Monthly Review Press is a nonprofit organization, and all my royalties are being donated to charity. Monthly Review Press has little or no money for promotion, so we are depending upon word-of-mouth for publicity. If you know of any e-lists or have friends who might be interested, please pass this email along to them. The Political Economy of Media is nearly 600 pages long, has 23 essays, and costs $19.95.
DISSECTOR ARTICLE IN THE NATION
I have an article in THE NATION this week and was on the air with Laura Flanders talking about it last week.
It starts like this:
If the National Weather Service issued a warning about a tsunami nearing our shores, here's what you'd see on your TV screen: news centers turned into "storm centers," with fancy graphics and Doppler radars tracking the likely "strike zone," and brave reporters in rain gear hugging the coastline, heightening alarm about the disaster to come.
Yet when a calamity struck last summer-a financial tsunami, tied to the implosion of the subprime mortgage market-most media were asleep at the switch. True, there were reports about the market meltdown, but the crisis sparked little breaking-news excitement, and the presidential candidates didn't touch the subject of a financial crisis for months.
You will have to buy the magazine to read the whole piece
WITH LOVE
Condolences to my colleague Paul Solman of the Jim Lehrer News Hour on the loss of his father Joe, a well known and widely admired modern artist, after a long life at age 99. Years ago, Paul worked with me on my first TV audition tape that got me a job on the 10 O'Clock News on WGBH in Boston. I remember stumbling through it -"take 39?-but it did the job and opened the door to my working in TV. He is one of the best business/economic reporters in the business. I went to the memorial for his dad at the Music Barge under the Brooklyn Bridge. It was packed and very moving. Ran into one of the great comic satirists of all time, Professor Irwin Corey, "The world's foremost authority."
I am now off to Berlin. Will write when and if I can.
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