Stories to Watch: 5/24/12

A NYC public school will teach kids Arabic. It goes without saying that this is the worst thing ever!


Rightwing "historian" David Barton takes a break from getting history all fucked up, allowing him to get the present all fucked up.


The Democratic Governors Association moves another $1 million into the Wisconsin recall race.


Also in recall news: the John Doe investigation into the Walker administration has conservatives terrified.


The military-industrial complex's War on Journalism.


The rightwing blogosphere's Bullshit Freakout of the Day.


Hey, remember how Lehman Brothers melted down after a boneheaded gambling scheme sunk the US economy? Yeah, the SEC is totally cool with that.


Grover Norquist's idea of a walk-back could use a lot of work.


Confirmation of things you already know: it's going to be a close election, with Obama likely to win.


Finally, when fifteen minutes of fame results in fifteen minutes worth of money.

Related articles

• No Comment Necessary: Grover Norquist Plays the Nazi Card

  ---

• Is Grover Norquist Losing His Grip on the GOP?

  ---

• Grover Norquist: Trying To Stop Billionaires From Dodging Taxes Makes You A Nazi

  ---

Feinstein on Wikileaks: It's Only Journalism if I Say it's Journalism

Sen. Diane Feinstein in the Wall Street Journal:

When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released his latest document trove -- more than 250,000 secret State Department cables -- he intentionally harmed the U.S. government. The release of these documents damages our national interests and puts innocent lives at risk. He should be vigorously prosecuted for espionage.

The law Mr. Assange continues to violate is the Espionage Act of 1917. That law makes it a felony for an unauthorized person to possess or transmit "information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation."

The Espionage Act also makes it a felony to fail to return such materials to the U.S. government. Importantly, the courts have held that "information relating to the national defense" applies to both classified and unclassified material. Each violation is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

No doubt aware of this law, and despite firm warnings, Mr. Assange went ahead and released the cables on Nov. 28.

Glenn Greenwald responds:

...Legal experts overwhelmingly believe that any such prosecution under that law would be extremely difficult and "extremely dangerous," but that's of no concern to the Surveillance-State-protecting, Iraq-War-supporting, defense-contractor-plutocrat:  the "liberal" Democratic Senator from California.  To argue this, she invokes the most tired and simple-minded platitude beloved by all those who want to curtail basic press and speech freedoms:  "Just as the First Amendment is not a license to yell 'Fire!' in a crowded theater, it is also not a license to jeopardize national security."

Every line of pro-prosecution rationale cited by Feinstein applies equally to journalists -- including especially the newspapers from around the world which are publishing all of the same diplomatic cables as WikiLeaks is, and which are publishing them before WikiLeaks even does.   How can it possibly be that WikiLeaks should be prosecuted for espionage, but not The New York Times, or The Guardian, or any other newspaper that publishes these cables?

In 2006, Alberto Gonzales threatened to prosecute The New York Times for revealing Bush's illegal NSA program, and The Weekly Standard ran numerous articles calling for the prosecution of NYT journalists and editors under the Espionage Act for having done so.  Bill Bennett demanded the prosecution of The Washington Post's Dana Priest for revealing the CIA black sites.  How can all the Good Democrats who condemned that mentality possibly not condemn Dianne Feinstein and those who think like her?  What's the difference?

For the record, you do get to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater when there's actually a fire in that crowded theater. And you get to do it without being charged with arson. The only distinction that Feinstein makes that would separate Assange from a journalist is her say-so: "Mr. Assange claims to be a journalist and would no doubt rely on the First Amendment to defend his actions. But he is no journalist: He is an agitator intent on damaging our government, whose policies he happens to disagree with, regardless of who gets hurt." First Amendment guarantees of a free press don't apply -- so long as a sitting senator arbitrarily declares you "not a journalist."

Think what you like about Wikileaks and what they do, but this is a dangerous and irresponsible argument.



UPDATE: Joe Lieberman jumps on the "let's ignore the First Amendment" bandwagon and takes Feinstein's argument to the next logical step, suggesting that media outlets like the New York Times could be prosecuted for covering details of the leaks.

More Than 40 Arrested At RNC Were Press

clipped from www.editorandpublisher.com More than 40 journalists were arrested or detained during last week's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, according to a report today by The Minnesota Independent. In her story, Anna Pratt alphabetically lists 40-plus names -- including Associated Press reporters, an AP photographer, a St. Paul Pioneer Press photographer, a New York Post freelance photographer, independent journalists, and college journalists. Some names, such as "Democracy Now!" host/King Features Syndicate columnist Amy Goodman, were previously known. Others were not. (YouTube views of a video showing Goodman's arrest have now topped 805,000.) Pratt's story and list can be seen here.

Seems to me we used to have some sort of First Amendment or something.

"Media representatives in town to cover the events, from both big and small presses, were slapped with citations and pending charges ranging in severity, including unlawful assembly, obstructing the legal process, misdemeanor interference with a peace officer and felony to riot plus other riot pretenses," Pratt writes. "Many others who weren't arrested or detained endured pepper spray and other arms used for crowd control."

Military Trials Shrouded in Secrecy

clipped from www.editorandpublisher.com Military trials and criminal hearings are virtual Star Chambers, a report issued Friday by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) says. RCFP found the public and the press has only a "slim chance" of discovering even the existence of criminal hearings and trials conducted by U.S. armed forces here and abroad. Among the findings: 45% (34 bases) refused to provide any information for upcoming Article 32 hearings. 37% (28 bases) declined to disclose courts-martial schedules. Just 27% (20 bases) provided a complete docket for upcoming Article 32 hearings Just 36% (27 bases) provided a complete docket for upcoming courts-martial schedules. Base officials at about 20% of the plants agreed to provide docketing information for Article 32 hearings and courts-martial -- but then withheld such basic details as the defendant's name and the charges being brought.

The piece goes on:

"The right to a fair and public trial is a bedrock principle of democracy," said RCFP Executive Director Lucy A. Dalglish. "Unfortunately, in this regard, members of the armed services have fewer rights than those granted to criminal defendants in civilian courts. We believe that, at a minimum, the armed services should create an easily accessible docket‚ of information listing those charged, details regarding the charges against them and the date and time of their trials and pre-trials."

Griper Blade: To Fix the Media, Kill Phony Objectivity

I've been ripping on the media lately and not without good cause. We've seen what may have been the worst and most uninformative presidential debate of our lifetime. Well, worst and most uninformative to date, anyway. There may not be any lower limit to just how bad television news can make things. We've seen the media give John McCain the kid gloves treatment, meeting terrible campaign decisions and appearances with near-applause. We've seen the media acting as stenographers to power, repeating everything they're told without examining whether or not any of it is true.

Still, the fourth estate is not dead, merely sick. Perhaps dying. But it's not done yet. Print journalism, at least, is still kicking. And sometimes producing great work. We see the difference in coverage of Iraq. Where TV media tends to show us Iraq as a big map, print journalists show us that people live and work within the borders. When watching cable news or the networks, it's often as if you're watching from the moon. Everything you see is shown as a matter of nations, not people. And, since nations are at their most basic entirely conceptual, coverage of Iraq becomes an academic exercise. It's not a war, it's a game, and Iraq is that weird shaped piece in the middle east. Take Iraq and the grand plan to capture Yakutsk and Kamchatka moves apace.

McClatchy Baghdad Correspondent Leila Fadel reprints part of a letter from a mother that reminds us why a more focused and earthly approach to the news is still important. In response to an article and accompanying video about US troops in Sadr City, she wrote:

Lt Adam Bowen is my son. You were with him and his platoon a few days ago in Sadr City. When I read your article, which so accurately depicted him, I could hear him talking and hear his tone of voice in each quote. But then I saw the video. I watched it, with lots of trepidation, hoping for a just quick glimpse of him. When the camera panned around the room, and I found myself face to face with him, it was such an incredible moment. I’ve watched it over and over and have paused it repeatedly just to be able to look at him, to see if he’s okay. (He looks well—I hope you found him so.) I play it again and again, hearing him in the background on the radio.

"Something Lt. Bowen said to me has stuck with me," Fadel writes. "'Nobody cares about what we're doing here, nobody but our families.' I hope that's not true."

At the risk of conjuring memories of Soylent Green, I'd remind TV media outlets that the news is people. Maps are just some crap we made up and arbitrarily imposed on the world.

Griper Blade: The Media Hearts McCain

I brought it up yesterday, but there's a McClatchy headline that reads "McCain picks failing Ohio factory to laud free trade." I return to this story to demonstrate a problem -- you don't see these sort of headlines about McCain very often, but he does stuff like this all the time. McCain has a real bad habit of doing things that not only should he have no business doing, but things that no sane person would even consider doing. What should be massive media and PR gaffes are ignored, for the most part, by the media.

On April 22, John McCain was in Selma, Alabama. There, McCain praised the civil rights movement.

"Forty-three years ago, an army of more than 500 marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, an army that brought with them no weapons, which intended no destruction, that sought to conquer no people or land," McCain said standing a few hundred yards away from bridge, bathed in the warm spring sunlight.

"They were people who believed in America, in the promise of America," he said. "And they believed in a better America. They were patriots, the best kind of patriots."

On March 7, 1965, the protesters, almost all of them black, had gathered to march from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery.

They never made it across the bridge. At its crest, police and state troopers attacked them, unleashing a vicious assault on the demonstrators that was captured on film. When it was shown on television, it shocked the nation. March 7 would come to be known as Bloody Sunday.

Check out the photo to see how well that turned out. Selma's about 70% black, yet you're now snow-blind. Don't worry, it's like looking at a lightbulb, it'll go away eventually.

Of course, the problem is that McCain voted against the MLK jr. holiday -- in fact, he campaigned against it. This was something he had earlier apologized for at the very hotel where King was assassinated. On the anniversary of King's death. To a crowd who were less than enthusiastic. In fact, so unenthusiastic that McCain was booed. Yet, what would've been a media disaster for any other candidate was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: A War of Words

About a year ago, a study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that, despite having 24/7 news and the internet, Americans weren't any more knowledgeable about current events than they were twenty years ago. This study was generally seen as an indictment of cable news networks like CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News. After all, people who can get the news anytime they want should be more informed -- it's supposed to be up-to-the-minute and "breaking now" news, right?

There was one demographic who stood out in the study. "...the survey respondents who seemed to know the most about what’s going on -- who were able to identify major public figures, for example -- were likely to be viewers of fake news programs like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report," The New York Times reported, "Those who knew the least watched network morning news programs, Fox News or local television news."

If you've watched TDS and TCR, this might not seem all that likely to you. Both shows are only one hour, four nights a week. They tend to focus on the big story of the day, but that day is usually yesterday, since the shows aren't broadcast live. "Informative" isn't a word you'd use to describe them.

Except on one issue; media criticism. Both are brilliant and biting in their criticism of the news industry -- and TV news in particular. People who watch these shows would have finely honed BS filters. It's not that these shows inform viewers better than the actual news media, it's that these shows teach viewers to be better news consumers. It's unlikely that a Jon Stewart fan could watch FOX News for more than fifteen minutes without laughing out loud at how wrong it all was...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: "Waterboarding Works"

There's a trick in journalism known as "burying the lead." In this, a journalist, editor, producer, or whatever doesn't like what the story's clearly about, but finds the story impossible to ignore -- they have to report it. Which doesn't mean you can't spin it or sensationalize it. You can produce an absolutely factual piece, but you can change what the story's about.

Take the story of retired CIA officer John Kiriakou. Kiriakou spoke to ABC's Brian Ross about the capture and interrogation of terrorist suspect Abu Zabaydah. He told Ross that Zabaydah was waterboarded by the CIA. The suspect then caved. According to Kiriakou, Zabaydah "was able to withstand the waterboarding for quite some time -- and by that I mean probably 30, 35 seconds." Zabaydah later told interrogators that "Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate because his cooperation would make it easier on the other brothers who had been captured.

"And from that day on, he answered every question..." Kiriakou told Ross.

The story is that the CIA used waterboarding -- newsworthy because the CIA has destroyed tapes of interrogations. Many observers believe that destroying the tapes amounts to the destruction of evidence and the CIA was concerned that agents involved in waterboarding could be prosecuted. The 9/11 commission had requested such tapes and were told they didn't exist.

But back to burying the lead. Most of the headlines about this story are "Waterboarding Works." Take this, from the right wing CNS News Service, titled "Some Senators Wary of Waterboarding, Even to Save Lives."

With a vote pending to restrict the interrogation techniques of the Central Intelligence Agency, many senators were non-committal Tuesday on whether they would agree to outlaw waterboarding after a former CIA officer said the method of simulated drowning helped save American lives.

Former CIA agent John Kiriakou told ABC News and The Washington Post that the waterboarding of terrorist Abu Zubayda "probably saved lives," although Kiriakou did not participate in the waterboarding and does not support its use...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: Voices from the Ground

My son is a coin collector and was quite impressed [with the shop in the al-Rasheed Hotel] and said out loud, "Mum , let's go down to the al-Rasheed tomorrow (my day off) and look up this place, the items are good and the prices are right. Let's Mum!"

"I'm sorry baby, we can't. I will take you to another shop near al-Mutanebbi, you might find similar things."

"Why, Mum? Why can't I go to this shop?"

"Because it's in the green zone baby, and you're Iraqi."

I could see the words forming on his lips; I could hear them ring in my head.

His rebellious look locked with my own sadly understanding eyes - but he just looked away, defeated.
-- "Sahar IIS," McClatchy Newspapers' Inside Baghdad blog.

Iraq is one of the most dangerous places on Earth to be a journalist. According to the international organization Reporters Without Borders, 205 journalists and "media assistants" (i.e., camera operators, sound technicians, photographers, etc.) have been killed since the start of the war, two are MIA, and 14 have been kidnapped. It currently ranks 154th out of 168 in terms of press freedom -- among the lowest scores in the world. Iraq is the most deadly war for journalists since WWII.

If there's good news coming out of Iraq, it's this:

Editor and Publisher:

Six Iraqis who have worked in the McClatchy (formerly Knight Ridder) Baghdad bureau received the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award on Tuesday at a luncheon at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

Some of them have written for the "Inside Iraq" blog that McClatchy publishes online...

In presenting the award to Shatha al Awsy, Zaineb Obeid, Huda Ahmed, Ban Adil Sarhan, Alaa Majeed, and Sahar Issa, ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff (who also knows how dangerous Iraq is for reporters) said, "These six Iraqi women have reported the war in Baghdad from inside their hearts. They have watched as the war touched the lives of their neighbors and friends, and then they bore witness as it reached into the lives of each and every one of them."...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]