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NEWS DISSECTOR: WHEN I SAID SUBCRIME, I MEANT IT - AND NOW, SO DOES THE FBI
NEWS DISSECTOR June 20, 2008
WHEN I SAID SUBCRIME, I MEANT IT-AND NOW, SO DOES THE FBI
WE KILL DETAINEES, DON'T WE?
At yesterday's House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights hearing on torture, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody, with up to 27 of these declared homicides.
REPEAT AFTER ME: OIL HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WAR
BAGHDAD - Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power. These are all NO BID Deals.
Blogger Randall Lee Reetz: "It took eight years (twelve, if you count George senior's tenure), but the Bush family has finally accomplished its grand goal, reinstating American (or at least, Texan) control of the oil business (exploration, extraction, refinement and distribution) in the Middle East. This is the Bush legacy's coup de grâce, its final act, its swan song, its reason to be, the fat lady has finally sung, its time to saddle up and ride into the sunset."
HOUSE APPROVES $162 BILLION IN WAR FUNDING FOR IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN; ISRAELI AIR FORCES DOES IRANIAN BOMBING RUN EXERCISE (SEE BELOW); REVERSING HIMSELF: OBAMA REJECTS $85 MILLION IN PUBLIC MONEY FOR THE ELECTION
EXECS INDICTED, 400 CHARGED WITH MORTGAGE FRAUDS
INVESTMENT HOUSE SINKING: LEHMAN BROTHERS MAY BE SOLD
AN APPEAL TO JON STEWART: DUMP PRICELESS ADS
Not that long ago in this very same universe, and, first in this blog, I began using the term SUB CRIME instead of Subprime arguing that there was a white collar crime wave underway on Wall Street. Some took the play on words as a joke, a flip way of making a political point. When I countered that the ponzi schemes that brought down Wall Steeet were based on fraud, misrepresentations, and discriminatory predatory practices, I was largely ignored. My call for investigations, indictments and prosecutions felt like peeing into a wind that wouldn't stop blowing. What did I know?
I am not naive about this. My expectations of our judicial system are realistic and very low. As L Bruce once put it, "in the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls." (Forgive me if you have heard that before.) There are zillions of pricey lawyers on all sides of this issue, and The Supreme Court recently ruled, in its wisdom and in fidelity to its dominant pro-business ideology, that securities firms are immune to all but direct misrepresentations. So all the members of Wall Street's Armani Army have lots of wriggle room when being sued or investigated.
Most of the media had never even heard the word subprime when the crisis hit, even though these loans were being given out since the late 1980's. The whole phenomenon was barely and badly reported when it might have done some good. (In 2007, subprime became the word of the year because it was used so much, and seemed so new.) Initially, many saw the loans as this a mistake, or they blamed the borrowers for scamming the mortgage brokers by misrepresenting their incomes. It was pictured as all so complex and they tended to trust the analysts and executives of the big banks who were not only considered reputable, but, quiet as its kept, were advertising in their own newspapers and on their TV stations. It was a big circle jerk.
The deeper question of who benefited and who lost was rarely addressed. The scale of the money made and lost was rarely addressed. The deliberate and orchestrated nature of the securitization process through which mortgages were turned into securities and then sliced and diced into various financial instruments was rarely examined. The cries from poor neighborhoods that they were being strip mined financially were ignored. Hundeds of billions of dollars were being transferred from poor and working familes to the righest of the rich. Wall Street gave itself billions in bonuses. The average wage was $8,230 a week. There was a trail of tears in every ghetto in America as communities of color were targeted.
It was all considered just the business of business where the only thing that mattered was the bottom line-how much the firms and the bankers were making.The connection between Wall Street's bounty and millions losing homes were rarely made.
To compare our most distinguished bankers with common criminals was beyond the pale- so no wonder critics like me were ignored and scorned. Not any more! Not after what happened yesterday.
Here's the report with lots more to come:
BUSTED AND CUFFED
Two former Bear Stearns managers were arrested Thursday on securities fraud and other charges linked to the collapse of a hedge fund that bet heavily on subprime mortgages before the market collapsed, federal authorities said.
Matthew Tannin was taken into custody outside his New Jersey home on Thursday morning and Ralph Cioffi was arrested at his New York City home, the FBI said. They became the first executives to be charged criminally in the wake of the subprime market debacle.
Yet the fall out is beginning to spread.
The FBI announced Thursday that it had arrested about 400 real estate industry players since March - including dozens over the last two days - in its crackdown on incidents of mortgage fraud that have contributed to the country's housing crisis.
One law enforcement official put the losses to homeowners and other borrowers who were victims in the schemes at more than $1 billion.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog was at first dismissive but then read the indictment:
We'll be honest. Upon reading the news stories about the impending criminal case against the Bear hedge fund managers, it seemed, even to us lawyer-turned-journos - not to mention some former prosecutors we talked to and Law Blog readers - that fraud charges on these facts might be tough to prove.
But now we have the indictment, and there's more meat than had been reported….
Here are highlights from the allegations:
Cioffi's redemptions: On April 17, 2007, Cioffi allegedly met with one of the three largest investors in the funds. The investor, named Major Investor #1 in the indictment, allegedly told Cioffi that it was considering redeeming its approximately $57 million investment. In response, Cioffi allegedly told the investor that he and other portfolio managers had $8 million invested in the funds, while failing to inform the investor that he had recently withdrawn $2 million of his approximately $6 million investment in one of the funds.
Tannin's head-fake: On the April 25 investor call, Tannin allegedly said "we're comfortable with exactly where we are," and then, a bit cryptically, "it really is a matter of whether one believes that careful credit analysis makes a difference, or whether you think that this is just one big disaster. And there's no basis for thinking this is one big disaster." However, the government alleges that, three days earlier, Tannin wrote in an e-mail to Cioffi that, "the subprime market looks pretty damn ugly . . . If we believe the [CDO's report is] ANYWHERE CLOSE to accurate I think we should close thefunds now. The reason for this is that if [the CDO report] is correct then the entire subprime market is toast."
Tannin's money v. his mouth Also, in March, Tannin allegedly told investors that he was so confident in the Funds' prospects that he was going to add money to his investments. In an email to an investor, he said "Ralph and I each have about 40% of our non-real estate net worth in the fund. I am adding more this month." According to the indictment, he never did.;;;
Destruction of evidence: During the summer of 2007, when the SEC and others began investigating the funds' collapse, Bear allegedly learned that Tannin's "tablet computer," which, according to the indictment, he'd used to take notes during 2007, and one of Cioffi's notebooks, which he'd used to take handwritten notes for the period of January 1, 2007, to June 17, 2007, were both missing.
Tannin "is innocent," said his attorney, Susan Brune. "He is being made a scapegoat for a widespread market crisis. He looks forward to his acquittal." (IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THESE TWO ARE TAKING THE FALL FOR OTHERS AND BEING MADE EXAMPLES OF?-CERTAINTLY! Lets put it this way, he was not alone!)
Cioffi's attorney declined comment on Thursday.
The fallout from defaults on U.S. mortgages has rattled the global economy and the American housing market.
AARON KROWNE COMMENTS
I asked the very knowledgeable Aaron Krowne of the Ml-implode website about these developments:
I don't know the details of the case (i think it is likely going to hinge on how accurately they represented current conditions of the funds, and whether they lied about near future substantial actions), but I do agree with the sentiment that these guys are largely scapegoats.
I laugh when I see all of the shuffling in the executive suites at the money center banks in response to the waves of damage hitting. It's not like the current execs would have done anything different; this is all just plausible deniability and saving face, so that angry investors (the general public - including aunt millie's pension fund) who are being diluted to oblivion won't be able to say "nothing is being done."
Judging by the strengthen-the-Fed chorus, it looks like the corrupt system itself will be left in place. Remember that after Enron and Worldcom, off-balance-sheet vehicles were left in tact (and probably increased in their use). A minimum of companies and managers in them were selected to deflect attention from the systemic problems. It would have been too glaring not to prosecute these people.
My only consolation will be that the rest of the world has had enough and will be unlikely to fund Wall Street anymore.
"OPERATION MALICIOUS MORTGAGE"
This is the name of the effort which involves 40 task forces, 180 FBI agents, with some 1200 cases, according to the press conference with the Justice Department and FBI Director Robert Mueller that I watched at midnight on CSPAN. They are looking into all aspects of corporate fraud which they estimate involves crimes involving more than TWO BILLION dollars.
Clearly they are doing it for deterrent effect, and are threatening jail sentences. They say that they are lookinng into securities fraud, some 19 companies that did subprime loans but also accounting and due dilligence firms, rating agencies and investment houses.
They wouldn't say if they would be prosecuting companies or individuals. The cases they are pursuing include the defrauding of borrowers, foreclosure rescue schemes and rip-offs of investors. They say the goal is to restore confidence in the housing market which has been shattered.
They refused to compare to compare with this operation with their ENRON investigation, and justified the Attorney General's decision not to mount a new nationwide probe.
So clearly they wanted to show they are doing something and no longer standing on the sidelines. This investigation is still late, since trillions may have been lost in this scandal, and even as they acknowledged that the problem is growing, they said they will not seek additional funds for more agents to expand their probe.
SMALLER FISH CAUGHT DOWN SOUTH
In Atlanta, arrests were reported which suggest the kind of cases the local task forces are pursuing.
Atlanta federal prosecutors have indicted seven metro Atlanta residents in alleged straw-buyer mortgage fraud scam, centered around an East Lake condominium complex.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the North District of Georgia has charged Dossey Richard, 36, of Atlanta, Lovie Hobbs, 47, of Lithonia, Montra McKenzie, 29, of Atlanta, Cyrus Davis, 42, of Atlanta, Marcus Vickers, 35, of Ellenwood, Rayshaun Harmon, 27, of East Point and Michelle Davila, 35, of Atlanta, of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud based on a mortgage scheme.
The complaint, filed June 18, alleges the group fraudulently sold condos in the Blue Sky condo project at 3106 Memorial Drive, in East Lake.
The sales, between March and May 2008, artificially inflated the value of the condos to between $135,000 and $155,000, and received mortgages on the properties through a straw buyer, even though units at the complex are now selling between $2,000 and $28,750.
The group includes: A closing attorney, Vickers; two mortgage brokers, McKenzie and Davis; Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) employee Davila; and appraiser Harmon. Hobbs served as the straw buyer in the transactions.
Other inflated loans in the complex have already entered foreclosure, federal prosecutors said.
These indictments are just the tip of a very deep iceberg, an iceberg of growing debt.This is the problem I examined in my film IN DEBT WE TRUST. And one of the people I quoted was the Mr. David Walker who is still warning of the greatest risk our country faces.
INDIAN INVESTORS SAY NO SUBPRIME BONDS
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF "QUADRILLIONS?"
.5 Quadrillion in Derivatives
Global Derivatives Market Expands to $516 Trillion (Update1)
Credit-default swaps, contracts designed to protect investors against default and used to speculate on credit quality, led the increase, expanding 49 percent to cover a notional $43 trillion of debt in the six months ended June 30, the BIS said in a report published late yesterday.
DEBT WILL SINK US
Growing government expenditures and increasing debt have put the U.S. on the brink of an economic crisis, said David Walker, former comptroller general of the United States and president of the newly established Peter G. Peterson Foundation in New York.
"I am very worried about the future of this country," said Mr. Walker, speaking at the UJA Federation of New York's Wall Street and Financial Services Division's Banking and Finance Dinner last night.
The federal government makes up 20% of the economy, he said, a figure that he expects to climb to 30% over the next 25 years.
Americans also have become "addicted to debt," and the accumulating IOUs "may sink our ship," Mr. Walker warned.
Walker left government because his many warnings were IGNORED.
LEHMAN BROTHERS MAY BE UP FOR SALE, IS BEING SUED
1. Investment News: Rumors fly on possible Lehman sale
The CEO of Lehman Brothers may be considering selling the securities business of the company, according to CNBC
2. Shareholder Suit Filed Vs Lehman Brothers Over Subprime Hit
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A shareholder sued Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) and its top management Thursday over the investment bank's disclosures regarding its exposure to the subprime mortgage market.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleges the New York investment bank failed to properly disclose to investors its exposure to a meltdown in the subprime mortgage market and the losses it would incur as a result.
"Despite this tumultuous financial climate, Lehman Brothers made repeated false and misleading statements touting the company's sophisticated and conservative risk management policies and assuring investors that it was highly unlikely that the company would suffer significantly as a result of the mortgage and
credit market meltdown," the lawsuit said.
The individual defendants include Lehman Chief Executive Richard S. Fuld Jr.; Lehman Chief Financial Officer Christopher M. O'Meara; and Joseph M. Gregory, Lehman's president and chief operating officer.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association Local 262 Annuity Fund, a Lehman shareholder, by Curtis V. Trinko, a New York lawyer.
BANKS LOBBYING TO STOP CURBS ON OIL SPECULATION
Wall Street banks and other large financial institutions have begun putting intense pressure on Congress to hold off on legislation that would curtail their highly profitable trading in oil contracts - an activity increasingly blamedby lawmakers for driving up prices to record levels.
""The Fed is attempting to thwart a deflating credit bubble with inflation, which to date has only lit a fuse under food and fuel prices. The best the Fed can do is to allow the inevitable deleveraging process to proceed without the meddling." -Kevin Duffy , Bearing
Not Backing the Buck "Bernanke's hands may be tied by the Fed's "dual mandate:" its twin, and often conflicting, directives to achieve low inflation AND low unemployment. With economy on the brink, raising rates to fight off inflation and protect the dollar will likely deepen the economy's funk by driving house prices down more." (06/18/2008 09:12 AM )
NY STATE PASSES FORECLOSURE BILL
INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY:
Housing Panic blog says Democrats took money from Countrywide, demands probe:
ETHICS PANEL IS INVESTIGATING
"A number of top Democrats have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, suggesting corruption in the party linked to the recent home-mortgage meltdown.
These sweetheart deals cry out for an investigation. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, does too. On Wednesday, he called for hearings to find out who in Congress got "preferential treatment" on mortgages with Countrywide, the nation's largest home lender.
The Democrats' initial response has been to stall. They hope the problem will disappear until after the election. Given the media's lack of curiosity so far - a small handful of news organizations, including our competitor, the Wall Street Journal, have pushed this story ahead - it looks like the Democrats might get their wish.
But the problem won't go away, and neither will we.
These revelations suggest that, at the very least, the Democratic Party is afflicted with a kind of corruption that taints all recent decisions on the subprime crisis. They need to investigate it fully, immediately and without prejudice - or risk having it blow up in their faces."
GAS STATIONS SAYING NO MORE CREDIT CARDS
Why Do So Many Usually Smart Journalists Give John McCain A Pass?
LOVING JOHN MCCAIN
The Nation's media critic Eric Alterman looks systematically at the ways Senator John McCain is given a free pass by the mainstream media. Two topics came up this week - McCain as "environmentalist" and McCain as a national security leader. "Even though we might be taken with McCain personally," writes Alterman, "we would like to think that we would resist the urge to offer the sort of spontaneous testimonials to his character that have gushed from the pens of so many journalists."
In the story, Alterman takes to task journalists he feels have given unjustifiably favorable coverage to Mccain, ranging from Jake Tapper and Jacob Weisberg to Fareed Zakaria, Chris Matthews, Michael Hirsch, David Broder and Richard Cohen.
An Interview with Lara Marlowe, Foreign Correspondent for the Irish Times
In Part 1 of this interview Lara Marlowe described life in an Iraq 5 years into foreign occupation, based on experiences during her last visit reporting for the Irish Times.
In Part 2 of this interview, she puts the current escalation towards Iran in historical context and laments the failures of the mainstream news media in the run up to the Iraq war
ISRAEL REPORTED TO HAVE REHEARSED ATTACKS ON IRAN
SAM GARDINER REPORTS ON A PANEL TOMOROW IN WASHINGTON
The Middle East Institute is hosting a press event tomorrow. HOW TO THINK ABOUT PREVENTIVE MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN - With Patrick Clawson and Michael Eisenstadt - Friday, June 20, 2008?12:00 to 2:00 p.m.
Gardiner checked Clawson's clips. They were full of optimistic forecasts about how successful the Iraq war would be.
Bad Heir Day
Fidel's Heir - The influence of Hugo Chávez.
by Jon Lee Anderson
BUSH VISITS IOWA TO SHOW HE CARES ABOUT FLOOD VICTIMS. HE UNDERSTANDS. YES HE DOES.
OBAMA OPTS OUT OF FEDERAL ELECTION FINANCING; MAY NAME NUNN OR EDWARDS RUNNING MATE
MCCAIN RAISED $2i MILLION IN MAY; ATTACKS OBAMA ON CAMPAIGN FINANCING
PRESS TO PRESS: NBC ANCHOR BRIAN WILLIAMS TO REPLACE TIM RUSSERT ON MEET THE PRESS
FAIR ON RUSSERT
EU TO END EMBARGO OF CUBA
FORBES: WHERE IS RAUL CASTRO TAKING CUBA
UNITED NATIONS REPORT ON SREBRENICA GENOCIDE
BY MO SACIRBEY | June 19, 2008
Srebrenica was betrayed. There is little doubt and much evidence to now support this conclusion. Much had not yet surfaced back then in 1998-2000, or it was more effectively suppressed, for obvious reasons. The resolution of Srebrenica is part of the future on a regional level, but also to restoring credibility to multilateralism and its institutions. The United Nations must consider reviewing its original report, evidence and methodology. (Currently, Srebrenica victims are pursuing legal cause of action versus United Nations before Court in Netherlands).
Your Letters To Me, My Letter to Jon Stewart, Black Hawks Up Over Denver
LETTERS
AE STUTOR send us a letter she sent to House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi:
I have been wanting to do so for sometime but the new FISA vote in front of the House of representatives inspired me to at least write…it's too bad someone, that is a lot of someone's don't have the balls to go after these guys,…oh yeah …that includes Condi!
Mrs. Pelosi,
I, like a lot of Americans, are confused by your position on the issue of entraining the possibility of impeachment for President Bush and Vice President Cheney.? Bill Clinton was impeached by congress for lying about a highly personal issue and yet President Bush and VP Cheney will escape censure for lying about issues of national security. How can these two men be above the law and flagrantly commit numerous crimes and misdemeanors against the constitution much less crimes against the American public and allowed to leave office without the prospect of being held accountable for their actions.
This precedent being set by the Democratic majority will not improve how the rest of the world now regards America and Americans, nor will this benign acceptance of their wrong-doing impress the average American that politicians deserve our trust. It is time to take away the bad taste that the current administration has left in the throats of the world at large. It is time for your and your peers to act to being some type of honor to what remains of our way of government
BLOGGER MICHAEL HORAN LIKES RALPH
A long-time daily reader of the News Dissector, I'm usually entertained, always enlightened, occasionally REALLY impressed; I'm writing today because your recent "The Economic Debate Has Yet top Target Real Issues" falls into the latter-most category, and stands at the most succinct summary of the "crisis-NOT-condition" and most pointedly damning indictment of the two-party platers I've seen yet-I'd suggest including a link to in each Dissector from now through November, and getting it cross-posted to a many sites as possible.
This line was especially good: "So far this sounds like just about every presidential race of the last 30 years, featuring the classic Democrat-Republican debate with the former posturing as populists and the latter claiming to stand for individual freedom." Exactly. The problems we face are genuinely radical, a quantum leap from the quandaries of the post war world; the solutions, I'm afraid, need be equally radical. On the international financial front as well as in so many other areas. O brave new world….
The debates and speechmaking and advocacy of policy band-aids to date has left me in tears. "The Nation" recently asked, "who is talking about…" and listed a few key items wholly missing from the campaign speechifying. Well … I went to see Ralph Nader speak a week ago herein Boston, and whaddya know-he has a habit of addressing all of those unpleasant issues the others avoid, and head-on. I'm hoping the DIssector will treat him in a more than offhand manner during the campaign season-one doesn't have to endorse his candidacy in any way in linking to his level-headed critiques of the duopoly and HIS insistence of confronting "the real issues" (his Boston talk is covered, with some video, at my own site at
http://www.nosuppertonight.com; he just did a great interview with Amy Goodman at Democracy now; I see him picked up on Counterpunch regularly…).A third-party run is quite obviously no antidote, but Nader remains, willy nilly, one of the most powerful tribunes for those of us disgusted with the politico-media-corporate power structure, and his (always sound, always pragmatic) broadsides during campaign season need as much attention as we can provide (hope I'm not starting to sound like one of the Ron Paul spammers-this is a one-off).
In the meantime, will do what I can to get that article of yours to into as many hands as I can. Excellent work on a most dismal topic. Keep it up, Danny-
http://www.nosuppertonight.com
BARACK, DO I HAVE A VISION FOR YOU
Janet Lawson writes:
In reading your article in the Smirking Chimp re: the Economy, why don't YOU head Obama's Economic policy wonks? You could wake up lots of folks AND I think he'd be open to you and your vast visions.
Michael Berger of Detroit says "Great Work"
You are so right, my brother. The problem is indeed capitalism a.k.a. the economy. Keep it up.
Doug Welch writes:
I read your think piece about holding Scotty McLellan, as well as the Bush Junta, to account for Crimes Against the Peace this morning. Coincidentally, I saw WMD, courtesy of a suggestion from Netflix, just last night.
The movie was astonishingly good, especially considering that I must have already seen a dozen documentaries about the war already.
A couple of salient points your film made that haven't been discussed outside the realm of say, Amy Goodman's audience; make the film especially valuable.
First is Robert Young Pelton talking about how the war was presented as an easily digested narrative, in fact, he seems to openly call it a PsyOp. It is a crucial point to explore: that the US government has been waging psychological warfare against its own citizens going as far back as Reagan's Office of Policy Coordination in the Contra wars and as the years have progressed, the media has become more and more of a willing participant in disseminating the State Dept and DoD's line.
I really can't gauge Pelton's political grounding, having read his books, which seem to add to the mystique of covert ops, special operations and various kinds of spook-trade. I would imagine that he was pretty reactionary and protective of friends and sources in the SpecOps community. I mean, how did he get to be holding the camera when Johnny Walker Lindh was captured? So, I was baffled that he was so forthright in pointing out the odd narrative threads that the government crafted which were invariably swallowed by the reporters.
Secondly, WMD is the first doc I've seen that lays out the case that the Pentagon may have intentionally targeted journalists who were not in bed with them. I am assuming that the film was in the can before the Giuliana Sgrena incident occurred.
Even stranger are allegations that even US combat veterans returning from Iraq may be subject to the same types of "clean up operation." Are you aware of any more documentaries or investigations into these chilling allegations?
I hope you can maybe make a follow up to WMD to further investigate many points brought up in the film, including further investigation into the deaths of journalists and the role of psychological warfare in creating an atmosphere for unlimited warfare.
In tying this subject in with the article about McLellan, I think you are right on the money regarding the complicity of media in making war crimes possible in a democracy, and also the culpability of the media in creating the mental environment where "media consumers" are made to believe that war is the only option. A good barometer of this was NATO's targeting of Serbian television facilities in 1999 and legal treatment of other vanquished "aggressor nations" in the postwar trials in Nuremburg. It has been really sad that McLellan is currently the biggest critic of the media's total credulousness and cooperation in rolling out this shoddiest of "products."
I THOUGHT I WOULD WRITE A LETTER TOO
To Jon Stwart. You are Great. Everyone tells you that. But please reconsider having all those Master Card ads sponsor your online rebroadcasts. Its not priceless, Jon, its getting more and more of your viewers deeper in debt. Also, you are usually sarcastic, critical even occasionally contemptuous of some of your guests. That was not the case yesterday when you had CBS's Lara Logan, the "chief correspondent" of CBS NEWS on to discuss her approach to war reporting.
I know she's a beauty and her advocacy of the soldiers is touching but so much of her coverage has been supportive of the war, again and again as I have documented. Puh-leeze. Yes she's in danger-although she admitted that CBS has its own guards-but her coverage has as I have documented been downright Pentagonesque. This is the network that fired Dan Rather for bogus reasons after he embarrassed the President.
Broadcasting and Cable, the trade magazine that is hardly known for media criticisms skewers CBS and other networks for not fully reporting Obama's winning the Democratic nomination. (See the editorial "Sleeping through History."
"CBS interruoted a 48 Hours Mystery about a murder that happened two years ago but only reported Obama's apparent lock on the nomination for a few minutes. Why? CBS still needs to promote Katie Couric. Isn't this the place and time to do it,particularly with those younger viewers she was supposed to attract." Another article notes, "After airing a bloody mixed martial arts card and a show about wife-swapping within one week inprime time, its probably safe to say the Tiffany Network (what they use to call CBS in the Murrow and Cronkite Days) is dead."
Another trade mag, Multichannel News, features a piece on what the networks really workship: ELECTION COVERAGE BRINGS ADS."
OFF AND RUNNING
And so it goes. Have a great weekend. On Tuesday, I am off to South Africa to work on a film honoring Nelson Mandela who turns 90 in July. And from there its on to Dubai for their first documentary festival. I was honored to be asked to screen WMD (see above) a film on media complicity in the war (Http://www.wmdthefilm.com) that was partially shot at the Arab Media Summit there in 2003.
Be back on July 10. It feels odd to be wanted more in other countries, but then again it feels good to be wanted at all. Meanwhile, there have been reports of exercises and drills in cities and towns nationwide
Here are blackhawks over Denver. Whats going on????
A CELEBRATION OF INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER BOB GREENE
ANNOUNCEMENT: Please join us on Sunday afternoon, June 22 from 1p.m. to 4p.m. to celebrate the life and career of Bob Greene. We extend this invitation to all of Bob's colleagues, friends and students at Newsday, IRE, Hofstra University and Stony Brook University and to any others who would like to join us. This will be both a memorial and a reunion for the many of us who worked with and learned from Bob. The tribute will be held at the chapel of the Wang Center at Stony Brook University. Lunch will be served (Would Bob want it any other way?)
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