Posts filed under ‘Print Media’
Yo, Kansas City Star — Why Didn’t You Publish These Letters?
My friend ChrisH sent these two letters (below) to the Kansas City Star newspaper.
Insofar as the Star didn’t see fit to publish them, I’m publishing them here.
October 22, 2010:
In his letter Friday 10/22/10, Derrick Sontag of Americans for Prosperity defends his organization as a “non-partisan, grassroots-driven organization that advocates for limited government and free market principles” and denies it is a “a front group for large corporations.” Methinks he doth protest too much.
According to Sourcewatch.com the group is
“…an astroturf front group started by oil billioniare David Koch and Richard Fink (a member of the board of directors of Koch Industries ). AFP works together with the Koch family’s other conservative foundations and think tanks .”
There is much more information that puts the lie to Mr. Sontag’s assertions of people-powered rebellion. There may be 4.5 million members/supporters, as he says, but they did not grow this organization. They are merely the very useful face of it.I urge all interested voters to utilize Sourcewatch to find out straightforward and documented facts about the fascinating web of money and corporate interests that operates behind American politics.
Chris H
March 13, 2011:
In October 2010, before the critical elections that turned the House of Representatives over to Republicans, I wrote a letter to The Star rebutting Derrick Sontag’s (10/22/10) contention that his Americans for Prosperity was “not a front group for large corporations,” and provided links to the website Sourcewatch.com that detailed the so-called grassroots organizations’ umbilical cord to the Koch brothers. Unfortunately, that letter of mine was never printed and voters were not made aware of a valuable resource that would have shed some light on exactly who they were voting into power.
Now we see, in Wisconsin and seeping across the nation, who Americans for Prosperity were really representing – it’s not you, not me, not the working class, and not the middle class. I denounce The Kansas City Star for only printing one side of a crucial issue and not doing a better job of informing its readers, which is, presumably, its mission.
Of course, this will never see print either.
Chris H
It’s no wonder corporate hacks manage to slither into office. Our media doesn’t educate and inform us about them, their background and their backers so all we know is what their glitzy, sanitized campaign ads and fliers tell us.
Employee Pension Plans Simplified
Forbes magazine — yeah, the one owned by billionaire trust fund kid Steve Forbes — says Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing to Public Employee Pensions:
Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston, has written a brilliant piece for Tax.com exposing the truth about who really pays for the pension and benefits for public employees in Wisconsin.
Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans. Accepting Gov. Walker’ s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.
How can this be possible?
Simple. The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation- money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future.
Shorter? Employees contribute to their pension plan and they get those contributions back when they retire. End of story.
Why is this so hard?
The Washington Post Gives Up
In a time when the United States is involved in two long wars, dictatorships are being overthrown by fed-up citizens, global warming goes unchecked, the world faces food and water shortages and millions of people are unemployed, it is sad, just plain sad – filed under NotEvenTryingAnymore – to see one of the nation’s (formerly) premiere newspapers — the Washington Post — run an article about potty training and football players’ hair on the front page of its Sunday edition:
It is Morally Imperative That Democrats Start Making Noise
I think Democrats have a moral obligation to the country — past and future — to grow a pair and start standing up for core Democratic values. Given the plethora of conservative media outlets pushing corporatist legislation, they must — MUST — start making noise and standing up for working people, the environment, etc.
We need (at least) a two-party system people!
How about storming out of the House and/or Senate chamber and standing as a group on the steps of the Capitol and holding a press conference? Make the news. Get on the news. Get the people’s attention.
But no (tweet of the day):
NYT: Hate Radio Hosts Say Hate Radio Not Bad for America
Apparenty the New York Times thinks hate radio hosts are credible courses as to whether hate radio hurts America: Talk Show Hosts Reject Blame in Shooting.
Daniel Ellsberg: Good Luck With Thursday’s Protest
Per Dan Froomkin at the HuffingtonPost:
Even as President Obama on Thursday attempts to put a good face on the war in Afghanistan, Vietnam-era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and several dozen other anti-war protesters will be chaining themselves to the White House fence, inviting arrest in the name of peace.
“We are dedicated to exposing the true costs of war and militarism,” explained Mike Ferner, the president of Veterans for Peacethe group organizing Thursday’s Lafayette Square rally and civil disobedience.
“We’ve killed well over a million people. We’ve orphaned and displaced five times that number at least. And here in our own country, we’ve managed to throw millions of people of out work and out of their homes,” Ferner told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. “There is a connection there. That connection is the true cost of war.”
[...]
A brief rally is scheduled for 10 a.m. across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House with remarks from Ellsberg, McGovern, Ferner, “Peace Mom” Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, and others.
Protesters will then head for the White House, where organizers hope 100 or more people with chain themselves to the fence and get arrested.
Bravo for the organization and the effort but, sadly, this is what I think will happen: (1) The “liberal media” will ignore you. (2) It will laugh at your group because Medea Benjamin will have some sort of “silly” T-shirt on and they’ll concentrate on that. (3) They’ll superimpose video of Benjamin on the screen and say she’s “that girl” (who disrupted congress or whatever). (3) Cindy Sheehan will look frumpy and sound whiny so they’ll mock her for that. (4) They’ll show pics of you in the early ’70′s with all that curly hair and imply you were (and still are) an out-of-control hippy. (5) They’ll air video of Nixon or Kissinger talking about how you were (and still are) a threat to our “national security.” (What have I left out?)
Good luck though. I’m with you all the way.
Time’s Person of the Year Poll is a Total Farce
Well, now we know. Time Magazine‘s person of the year poll is a total farce. Why? Julian Assange got the most votes at 382,026. The “winner,” Mark Zuckerberg, was tenth. He got 18,353 votes. What is that? Roughly 20 times less than Assange?
Not only is the poll a farce, Time has no guts. They were too scared and timid to officially pick Assange (or maybe the government told them not to and as fierce defenders of free speech and an independent media (not), they complied).
Really pitiful.
Since When Are Republicans “Deficit Hawks?”
Apparently the folks over at the “paper of record” — the New York Times — have already forgotten that George W. Bush entered office in 2001 with a balanced budget and by the time he left, had run up a huge deficit: The New York Times: Republicans are “Deficit Hawks:“
There’s simply no justification for a neutral-voiced article calling the incoming Republican majority “deficit hawks.” Republicans do claim to be for a balanced budget. So do Democrats (and dissenters are, as far as I can see, more or less equally distributed between the parties). Republicans did not run on a budget-balancing, or even deficit-reducing, program. To the contrary; the two major and significant budget-related planks of their platform, tax cuts and repealing ACA, would both enlarge the deficit significantly. (And do note that Republican campaign rhetoric targeted Medicare cuts — or, as Dems would put it, savings — not new government costs in the ACA).
The Times should also perhaps be reminded that there was a recent deficit-reduction commission. It failed to produce a recommendation, in no small part because the three House Republicans on the commission voted against the final product. Nor did they produce an alternative proposal that closed the deficit in a different way, at least not according to neutral scorers.
When, oh when, are we going to have a better media?
Front Page News
Here is a really cool page at the Newseum’s website: “Today’s Front Pages,” featuring a screenshot of the front pages of 819 newspapers from 77 counties. Wow!
Sheesh. If only I didn’t have anything to do, I could spend a lot — A LOT — of time there.
The Washington Post Provides Cover for Republicans
Ah yes, the Washington Post is at it again. Check out this headline: Senate Blocks Legislation to Extend Bush-Era Tax Cuts. If you read the headline and nothing more, you’d think the vote was pretty heavily on the side of blocking the legislation, with Democrats and Republicans alike taking part in it. But that isn’t the case. The vote to proceed was 58-36, two Republican votes shy of what was needed to move forward. So “the Senate” didn’t block the legislation, Republicans did.
Remember this the next time you hear the righties whine about how “liberal” the Washington Post is.
“Anonymous Officials”
This is what is referred to as journalism or “real reporting” in the U.S. (we’re talking about the Washington Post after all):
An “anonymous official” who has everything to gain if the public thinks the war in Afghanistan is going great, tells a reporter that the war in Afghanistan is going great, and the reporter reports it. That ain’t real reporting or journalism. That’s stenography.
And the result is called propaganda.
Old Media Still Crawling Into the Internet Age
Here we are, in 2010, and the Los Angeles Times publishes an article about, “a publication’s list of the world’s 100 finest young [soccer] players” but it doesn’t include a link to the list.
Amazing.
That’s been the protocol since forever. I’ve been blogging since 2004 and that’s just what you do.
Hello L.A. Times — anybody home?
Michael Moore Annihilates Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity & Andrew Breitbart on Twitter
I don’t have access to the secret world of television ratings info and focus group this-and-that about whether or not this-or-that “media personality” is raking in the viewers or listeners or readers on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. I have to rely on other means of figuring out what’s going on out there — despite what “they” say.
If being followed on Twitter is any indication, I think flaming liberals are doing just fine, thank you very much:
Sean Hannity has 87,640 Twitter followers as of a few minutes ago:
Andrew Breitbart has 27,586 followers:
Glenn Beck has 305,583:
And as for the guy the wingers and the “liberal media” want you to think is the most hated, un-American man in the US — Michael Moore? He has 700,000+ followers:
He annihilates the other guys.
What does that tell ya?
George Soros, Thank You!
Bravo to George Soros for donating $1 million to Media Matters.
Vicious Republican haters have accused Soros of funding Media Matters for years, ignoring (of course) the billionaires who fund conservative organizations and acting like poor, pitiful victims as is their wont. But he’s done it now and those accusations are true, after lo so many years.
Soros spurned lackluster Democratic politicians this year and went to the heart of the matter — the propagandistic right-wing “news” media and its massive manipulation of our society.
This is incredibly good news, a bright spot during an otherwise glum time.
Six years ago when I worked on Outfoxed and the NewsHounds there was talk and hope that someone with money would notice what was going on with the right-wing media machine — hope someone would give money to help fight the right-wing propaganda machine that so dominates and controls our culture. But, alas, that didn’t happen and most of us hobbled along on our own, volunteering or making four or five cents per hour via donations.
Now, yay!, as of today, the work Media Matters is doing is being recognized. “News” is not propaganda. News means relaying facts and George Soros has just signaled that he thinks facts are important.
Thank you George. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Time Magazine — Dumbing Down America
Look at the cover of the U.S. edition of the September 20, 2010 issue of Time Magazine (on the right) and compare it to the European, Asian, and South Pacific edition:
The cover story in the U.S. edition is summarized thusly:
A Call to Action for Public Schools (Cover)
Decades into America’s fight over how to improve education, a new documentary makes a compelling case for urgent reform on behalf of kids. Why Waiting for “Superman” is not just a movie but a dispatch from a revolution.
Through Hell and High Water (World)By OMAR WARAICH / NOWSHERADevastating floods have pushed Pakistan to the brink. As the waters subside, a stunned and fearful nation confronts itself, its future and the tough choices that must be made.
Pakistan’s Despair: Through Hell and High Water (World)By OMAR WARAICH / NOWSHERADevastating floods have pushed Pakistan to the brink. As the waters subside, a stunned and fearful nation confronts itself, its future and the tough choices that must be made.
The Economist Photoshops Picture of Obama For its Cover
Check out how The Economist photoshopped a picture of Obama for the cover of its magazine to make him look depressed and alone:
Can’t trust them anymore.
Waterboarding Isn’t Waterboarding When We Do It
This study, released in April and conducted by four Harvard University students, is stunning and incredibly revealing as to how the “liberal media” sold its soul (and the soul of the country) while covered for George W. Bush:
The current debate over waterboarding has spawned hundreds of newspaper articles in the last two years alone. However, waterboarding has been the subject of press attention for over a century. Examining the four newspapers with the highest daily circulation in the country, we found a significant and sudden shift in how newspapers characterized waterboarding. From the early 1930s until the modern story broke in 2004, the newspapers that covered waterboarding almost uniformly called the practice torture or implied it was torture: The New York Times characterized it thus in 81.5% (44 of 54) of articles on the subject and The Los Angeles Times did so in 96.3% of articles (26 of 27). By contrast, from 2002‐2008, the studied newspapers almost never referred to waterboarding as torture. The New York Times called waterboarding torture or implied it was torture in just 2 of 143 articles (1.4%). The Los Angeles Times did so in 4.8% of articles (3 of 63). The Wall Street Journal characterized the practice as torture in just 1 of 63 articles (1.6%). USA Today never called waterboarding torture or implied it was torture. In addition, the newspapers are much more likely to call waterboarding torture if a country other than the United States is the perpetrator. In The New York Times, 85.8% of articles (28 of 33) that dealt with a country other than the United States using waterboarding called it torture or implied it was torture while only 7.69% (16 of 208) did so when the United States was responsible. The Los Angeles Times characterized the practice as torture in 91.3% of articles (21 of 23) when another country was the violator, but in only 11.4% of articles (9 of 79) when the United States was the perpetrator.
Read the whole thing — Torture at Times: Waterboarding in the Media — (it’s a pdf file) here.
Can’t Trust Five Thirty Eight –Partnering With the New York Times
Five Thirty Eight used to be my go-to place for poll results — specifically — poll results in the run-up to the 2008 election. Nate Silver got it right every time. But now that he’s partnered with the New York Times (think Judith Miller, for starters), Five Thirty Eight is off my list.
Fox Fave Angela McGlowan Loses in Mississippi
Fox fave Angela McClowan has lost her race in Mississippi (despite being endorsed by biker/hunter chick Sarah Palin).
So much for the GOP landslide “some say” is coming.
George Soros — Buy Newsweek
Newsweek is for sale. George Soros, please buy it. Oprah, please buy it. Turn it into a liberal rag!
Don’t let Rupert Murdoch buy it. God help us.
The left desperately needs more media voices to counter the blanket conservative coverage here in the U.S.
“Liberal media?” Don’t get me started (long, but spot-on article about what a bunch of BS that is).
Howard Kurtz is a Snarky Ass
Howard Kurtz is the Washington Post‘s “media critic” and of course, the host of “Reliable Sources” on CNN. Look at this unprofessional, nasty tweet he sent out this afternoon. Gosh. Wonder if he ever criticized W. for meeting with a sports team.
Guess we know who’s side he’s on huh? So much for being a supposedly unbiased media critic.
“Congress Failed to Pass Extension of Unemployment Benefits?” (UPDATED)
The headline today on the cable “news” shows, including the “liberal” ones, is that unemployment benefits run out today for thousands of Americans because congress failed to pass an extension before it left for Easter recess.
Technically that’s true but there is a more accurate and informative way of reporting the story: Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma Blocks Unemployment Bill.
UPDATE: And don’t forget — unemployment “benefits” are better referred to as unemployment “insurance” (my bad on that). Money is deducted from our paychecks for unemployment “insurance,” so Coburn’s concern about how the “benefits” will be paid for is BS. The money’s already in the bank. And it’s our money.
UPDATE #2 (4-7-10): Now Republicans are boasting about screwing people. Check it out.
The “Liberal Media?”
Only in Washington, where “reporters” have been marinating in conservative spin for years, and the notion of “fair and balanced” means you’ve got to include a mention of both sides, no matter what, could someone write that John Boehner Boner and Mitch McConnell are winners in the health care vote.
Hilarious New York Times’ Flub
Per Howard Kurtz. Look at the caption under the photo. (I know it’s hard to read but I can’t make it any bigger. It says, “Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.” Here’s a larger version.)
Oops!
Out-of-Touch Elites
While millions of Americans struggle with unemployment, or under-employment, the New York Times frets about whether it’s time “to think private jet again.“
Disgusting.
Howard Kurtz, “Media Critic”? Not Exactly
The next time you read a column by Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post’s “media critic,” or you see him on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” remember this: Howard Kurtz Faithfully Jots Down Misleading Fox Attack on [Rachel] Maddow.
“Media critic?” “Reliable Source?” Misnomers both.
The U.S. Media Wants Americans To Hate and Fear Iran
The U.S. media wants Americans to hate and fear Iran because after all, we just might need to go to war with them. What other explanation can there be for not reporting this:
The American public has not been informed by the US news media about highly newsworthy statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday February 12.
He said the era of nuclear weapons is over, suggesting Iran has no plans to build “inhumane” A-bombs. Ahmadinejad called for a world free of nuclear arms in an interview with Russia’s NTV channel.
“We believe that not only the Middle East but also the whole world should be free of nuclear weapons because we see such weapons as inhumane,” he said.
Why “Objectivity” in the News is a Very Bad Thing
Chris Hedges posted a new article over at Truthdig the other day: The Creed of Objectivity Killed the News.
A taste:
“The very notion that on any given story all you have to do is report what both sides say and you’ve done a fine job of objective journalism debilitates the press,” the late columnist Molly Ivins once wrote. “There is no such thing as objectivity, and the truth, that slippery little bugger, has the oddest habit of being way to hell off on one side or the other: it seldom nestles neatly halfway between any two opposing points of view. The smug complacency of much of the press—I have heard many an editor say, ‘Well, we’re being attacked by both sides so we must be right’—stems from the curious notion that if you get a quote from both sides, preferably in an official position, you’ve done the job. In the first place, most stories aren’t two-sided, they’re 17-sided at least. In the second place, it’s of no help to either the readers or the truth to quote one side saying, ‘Cat,’ and the other side saying ‘Dog,’ while the truth is there’s an elephant crashing around out there in the bushes.”
[...]
This abject moral failing has left the growing numbers of Americans shunted aside by our corporate state without a voice. It has also, with the rise of a ruthless American oligarchy, left the traditional press on the wrong side of our growing class divide. The elitism, distrust and lack of credibility of the press—and here I speak of the dwindling institutions that attempt to report news—come directly from this steady and willful disintegration of the media’s moral core.
[...]
Objectivity creates the formula of quoting Establishment specialists or experts within the narrow confines of the power elite who debate policy nuance like medieval theologians. As long as one viewpoint is balanced by another, usually no more than what Sigmund Freud would term “the narcissism of minor difference,” the job of a reporter is deemed complete. But this is more often a way to obscure rather than expose truth.
[...]
Real reporting, grounded in a commitment to justice and empathy, could have informed and empowered the public as we underwent a corporate coup d’etat in slow motion. It could have stimulated a radical debate about structures, laws, privilege, power and justice. But the traditional press, by clinging to an outdated etiquette designed to serve corrupt power structures, lost its social function. Corporations, which once made many of these news outlets very rich, have turned to more effective forms of advertising. Profits have plummeted. And yet these press courtiers, lost in the fantasy of their own righteousness and moral probity, cling to the hollow morality of “objectivity” with comic ferocity.
So, so true and so, so sad.
