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Documentarian kept quiet after filming U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqis
(permacopy)
Filmmaker Michael Moore said Friday he wasn't sure he did the right thing by saving footage of U.S. American soldiers' cruelty toward Iraqis for his controversial documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11,'' instead of releasing the evidence earlier when it might have helped halt such abuse.
"I had it months before the story broke on '60 Minutes,' and I really struggled with what to do with it,'' Moore said in a telephone interview with The Chronicle. "I wanted to come out with it sooner, but I thought I'd be accused of just putting this out for publicity for my movie. That prevented me from making maybe the right decision.''
The footage, eerily similar to film of the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison, shows GIs laughing as they snap photos of each other putting hoods over Iraqi detainees.
In the same scene from "Fahrenheit 9/11,'' which opens Friday at Bay Area theaters, an American soldier fondles a prisoner's genitals through a blanket.
...
New York Post Online Edition: WEB GAL MAKES D.C. POLS SQUIRM
May 25, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - If the war and the presidential election aren't generating enough headlines, Washington finally has the ultimate attention getter: a good, old-fashioned sex scandal.
Thank Jessica Cutler.
Her Internet diary, which graphically recorded what she claims are steamy sexploits with powerful D.C. lawyers and Bush administration honchos, has exploded like a grenade in the nation's capital.
...
(Warning: This is about a nasty decapitation video, and the links below show parts of it. My text below also discusses parts of it in detail.)
Most of the pieces of these theories don't sway me much (like the much-vaunted difference between the time-stamps on the shots)...but the first link below shows two spots where an additional person appears on the right side of the frame, and that person does seem out of place as compared to his presumed colleagues in the main shot.
The first time I saw the viedo I found the manner of the execution to be very strange -- all of the hooded figures swarm around Berg, obscuring almost all of the killing portion of the decapitation. While you do hear screaming among the "Allahu Akbar"'s being chanted by the captors, you don't actually see Berg screaming or the graphic element of his killing (as you would in a horror or action movie, for example). It's not that I wanted to see that, but it seemed very strange that the terrorists would have arranged their act so that the most horror-filled part was not muddled, blocked, and unclear.
Once the screaming is over, and the decapitator is finishing the job of separating the head, the clustering hooded guys pull back, and that part is shown more clearly.
I just don't see any strategic reason to cluster around him during the killing part, unless there is some sort of ritual custom involved...and it seems as though this video was very carefully planned out. (i.e., everything seems to have been done for a reason in a rehearsed manner).
Aside from that, I also found the fidgeting terrorists to be a little suspicious, and their stances seemed undisciplined. Which again seems strange for such presumably dedicated religious extremists, who are trying to instill fear in the hearts of millions.
So, I'm not ready to buy into the conspiracy theories, but I'm still suspicious of the video (as I was from the first time I saw it, without hearing anyone's theories). I'm skeptical in both directions.
Berg decapitation video was filmed inside the Abu Ghraib prison
Marc Perkel Rantz: Berg Video - SMOKING GUN?
The Nick Berg execution: a working hypothesis and a resolution for the orange jumpsuit mystery
Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Media Outlets Won't Show Beheading Video
What's Next Online Interview: Expertizing -- How to Become Known As An Expert -- On Anything
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | What the US papers don't say
(TruthOut permacopy -- second story on page)
Michael Hann examines the air of secrecy and silence surrounding the US media's treatment of George Bush's 'war on terror'
Friday April 30, 2004
American contractors and soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners in a prison outside Baghdad? A huge story, by anyone's standards, surely, especially when pictures of the abuse were broadcast on the US TV network CBS.
So it was no surprise that newspapers around the world made huge, horrified play of the events at the Abu Ghraib prison. It was more of a surprise, however, that the story did not receive the same level of coverage in the US papers.
The Baltimore Sun, however, was damning in its verdict. "Television footage of the mistreatment of Iraqi war prisoners by their American captors was shockingly disturbing and hauntingly reminiscent of the horror stories from the regime of Saddam Hussein," it said. Punishment of those responsible, it added, would not on its own be sufficient response. "The Pentagon must be held accountable if the military failed to provide the training, staffing, supervision and leadership required to ensure that prisoners of war are treated humanely."
Perhaps the difference between the US coverage and that elsewhere should have been expected. CBS admitted it had come under severe pressure from the Pentagon not to broadcast the images, and the issue of what is and what is not fit for US public consumption has been an ongoing theme, applicable to events both domestic and foreign.
Tonight, for example, the ABC network's Nightline programme is to feature host Ted Koppel reading the names of all members of the American military killed in Iraq, while pictures of them appear on screen. But, as the New York Daily News reported, one local broadcasting group that controls eight ABC-affiliated stations has "angrily pulled" the show, claiming the naming of the dead "is a blatant anti-war ploy".
...
Ghosts of Ted McGinley
Unplugging the stupidity of TV Turnoff Week
by Nick Gillespie
Reason
Boston Globe / Opinion / Op-ed / Hip-hop politics must look beyond 2004
Oliver Stone's Twist - Is the director's latest film soft on Castro? By Ann Louise Bardach
Ruling deals blow to music industry
A much-anticipated court decision released yesterday was supposed to clarify the rights of Internet access providers to protect the privacy of their customers. But in a surprising twist, the Federal Court's decision went far beyond privacy issues, dealing a huge blow to the Canadian music industry and its efforts to stop Internet users from sharing music files.
Mr. Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled yesterday that the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) failed in all respects to make a case for requiring Internet companies to turn over the identities of big music downloaders. CRIA, he said, didn't prove it could identify who had shared the music files, nor whether the specific music files at issue in the current lawsuit infringed copyright rules, nor whether there was any other way the music companies could have found the identities of the Internet users.
But the biggest blow to the music industry came when Judge von Finckenstein addressed the broader question of whether there was evidence of a legal violation that would justify revealing the private identities of Internet users. He concluded that sharing music files doesn't constitute copyright infringement at all.
...
Contra Costa Times | 03/29/2004 | Stern does about-turn, takes on Bush, FCC
CNN.com - RNC tells TV stations not to run anti-Bush ads - Mar 6, 2004
(TruthOut permacopy)
Campaign funding loophole exploited
TACTICS: Groups download photos of candidates and attach them to their issue ads.
Yahoo! News - Oscar bites his fingernails over politically active stars
Wired News: Blogs Pump Bucks Into Campaigns
Not even his own staff would call Democratic congressional candidate Ben Chandler a nethead.
"He uses the Internet almost exclusively for fantasy baseball," said campaign spokesman Jason Sauer, who added that he wasn't sure whether, until recently, Chandler even knew what a blog was.
But that was before Chandler's campaign turned a $2,000 investment in blog advertising into over $80,000 in donations in only two weeks. Chandler -- who won a seat in the House of Representatives Tuesday evening -- definitely knows what a blog is now, Sauer said. "It's that thing that brings in money."
...
HSAN adds worthy layer to the upcoming election
Although it hasn't gotten much attention or exposure other than in music publications, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) has the potential to make an enormous impact on the political front. Since January the three-year-old organization has been spearheading a nationwide voter registration drive called "Hip-Hop Team Vote."
...
t r u t h o u t - Scott Galindez | Shame on You, Ann Coulter
CBS News icon fields questions
Walter Cronkite draws parallels between Iraq, Vietnam for Thomas students
(TruthOut permacopy)
Censor 'Scooby-Doo'? Words fail
By Dan Moffett, Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer
Sunday, February 8, 2004
The Bush administration has decided that people with bad hearing have bad judgment, too, and need special guidance from the federal government.
So the U.S. Department of Education is declaring about 200 television programs inappropriate for closed-captioning and denying federal grant requests to make them accessible to the hearing-impaired.
The department made its decisions based on the recommendations of a five-member panel. Who the five members are, only the government seems to know, and it isn't saying. But the shows they censored suggest a perspective that is Talibanesque.
The Government Doesn't Belong in Television
by Scott McPherson, February 6, 2003
"Any material element or resource which, in order to become of use or value to men, requires the application of human knowledge and effort, should be private property — by the right of those who apply the knowledge and effort. "
— Ayn Rand, “The Property Status of Airwaves” (1964)
Outrage over Janet Jackson’s racy half-time performance during Super Bowl XXXVIII did not go unnoticed by television’s government overseers. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is actually considering fining CBS for the broadcast.
According to the February 3 Washington Times, “Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell ... ordered an investigation of the Super Bowl halftime show.... ‘I am outraged at what I saw ... ,’ Mr. Powell said.” So-called pro-family groups and a number of talk-radio hosts are likewise disgusted with the Super Bowl show.
Okay, so people found the show revolting. But what does that have to do with the government?
...
An Open Letter from Michael Moore to George "I'm a War President!" Bush
t r u t h o u t - After Flash of Flesh, CBS Again Is in Denial
WorldNetDaily: Dude, where's my country?
Excerpts:
It's surprising, and gratifying, to see something that makes a strong anti-war, pro personal-freedom case sit atop the best-seller list. And not just in the U.S. – I bought my copy last week in London. So I really liked the first half of the book. Then Mike has a psychotic break of sorts in the second half, starting with a chapter called "Horatio Alger Must Die," where he debunks, as myth, the notion anybody in America can get rich.
...
The first half of the book is very worthwhile, and will reaffirm your faith in the fact America is going to hell in a handbasket under the Republicans. The second half will reaffirm your faith in the fact America will go to hell in an even larger-sized container, maybe a stolen shopping cart, should the Democrats get in.
There's one thing I haven't heard in all the reporting of this story:
IT'S JUST A BREAST. EVERYONE HAS THEM.
Sometimes I'm embarrassed at how immature our culture is when it comes to certain things...like, say, the human body.
It's 2004, folks -- don't forget to be ashamed of your bodies! Dirty dirty dirty!
SI.com - CBS apologizes for halftime breast-baring - Monday February 2, 2004 12:20PM
Incomplete! (washingtonpost.com)
Viewers who tuned in expecting a big-time football game saw the Super Bowl of Sleaze instead. Sexy and violent commercials that included jokes about flatulence and bestiality mercilessly interrupted the CBS telecast of Super Bowl XXXVIII from Houston last night, making it a dubious choice for family viewing.
...
The Miami Herald | 02/01/2004 | Nonprotesting filmmaker wonders why he was shot
Narrating your way into—and out of—the White House
by Charles Paul Freund
Reason
Are this year's Democratic primary competitions shaping up as more examples of the nation's developing style of "cultural campaigning"? In the midst of the 2000 presidential race, reason magazine argued that, due largely to the growth of ever more intimate media, as well as the decline of a foreign military threat, presidential candidates were under pressure to expose more and more of their private, "backstage" lives, and to offer voters an ever more compelling story about themselves.
This process is not merely a matter of establishing the gravity of a candidate's character, which has always been a political necessity. Nor is it a question of shaping a politically advantageous candidate biography, a fundamental aspect of national campaigns since 1840. Rather, it is an issue of recognizing that candidates and voters must now find a way to deal with a revolutionary level of candidate exposure, and of intimacy that candidates and voters did not previously share. These developments have altered the political process.
...
FOXNews.com - You Decide 2004 - 'Bloggers' Chronicle Presidential Campaign
FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Eminem's Mother Carjacked on Eight Mile Road
FOXNews.com - Foxlife - NBC Pulls 'Friends' 'Best Comedy Ever' Ad
How to Lose Your Job in Talk Radio
Clear Channel gags an antiwar conservative.
By Charles Goyette
“Imagine these startling headlines with the nation at war in the Pacific six months after Dec. 7, 1941: “No Signs of Japanese Involvement in Pearl Harbor Attack! Faulty Intelligence Cited; Wolfowitz: Mistakes Were Made.”
Or how about an equally disconcerting World War II headline from the European theater: “German Army Not Found in France, Poland, Admits President; Rumsfeld: ‘Oops!’, Powell Silent; ‘Bring ’Em On,’ Says Defiant FDR.”
It seems to me that when there is reason to go to war, it should be self-evident. The Secretary of State should not need to convince a skeptical world with satellite photos of a couple of Toyota pickups and a dumpster. And faced with a legitimate casus belli, it should not be hard to muster an actual constitutional declaration of war. Now in the absence of a meaningful Iraqi role in the 9/11 attack and the mysterious disappearance of those fearsome Weapons of Mass Destruction, there might be some psychic satisfaction to be had in saying, “I told you so!” But it sure isn’t doing my career as a talk-show host any good.
...
DodgeGlobe.com:Anderson: Internet must extend its influence in election process 12/12/03
Latest path around soft-money ban: Buy a TV station | csmonitor.com
Everybody Wants to Rule the Web
There's mounting evidence that the Internet's good old days as a global cyber-zone of freedom -- where governments generally take a "hands off" approach -- may be numbered. In fact, last week, delegates from 192 countries met in Geneva to discuss how the Internet should be governed and what steps should be taken to solve the global "digital divide" and "harness the potential of information" on behalf of the world's poor. Also on the table at the session -- the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society -- was the question of domain name management and how much protection free speech and expression should receive on the Net.
The real issue, however, is whether a "U.N. for the Internet" is on the way. Last week's summit and another in 2005 will discuss whether Internet decisionmaking should be shifted from largely private management to the United Nations.
In one sense, none of this is surprising. Regulators across the globe have long been clamoring for greater control over content and commerce on the Internet. Ironically, in the guise of protecting the world's citizens, Statists around the world want to get their hands on one of the world's most liberating communications technologies.
...
Where Political Influence Is Only a Keyboard Away
More than ever, the Internet gives people a connection -- and a voice -- in campaigns.
By Matea Gold, LA Times Staff Writer
(TruthOut permacopy)
This was really interesting for me. Thanks to Tim at Libertarian Rant for pointing it out.
'Punkvoter' founder aims to unify youth vote
Nov. 4, 2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Would a plea from the lead singer of "Anti-Flag," "Bouncing Souls," "Frenzal Rhomb" or "Sick Of It All" get you to turn out and vote in the 2004 presidential election?
Probably not if you're a mainstream music fan downloading the latest tune from Britney Spears. But, if you're an avid young punk music lover, it just might do the trick.
At least that's what "NOFX" lead singer and founder of "Punkvoter" Mike Burkett is hoping. Burkett or "Fat Mike" as he's known to his legion of fans, is teaming up with roughly 50 punk bands and a dozen record labels to form Punkvoter, a group designed to register, educate and push 500,000 18-24 year-olds to the polls next year.
"So many millions of people don't feel like their vote has any meaning," says Burkett. "There is no reason why younger people can't be a unified force."
...
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .3
Learning Percentage: 20%
Doug Hoekstra is one of my favorite musical artists, and probably deserves to be considered one of America's greatest living singer-songwriters. All in due time, hopefully.
This is a short review of his album followed by an interview with Doug, from PennyBlackMusic.com:
Review & Interview: "Waiting" by Doug Hoekstra
‘Waiting’ is the sixth solo album of the much acclaimed Nashville-based musician and songwriter, Doug Hoekstra. Perhaps predictably for a singer-songwriter coming from the Tennessee capital, Hoekstra has strong roots in country. Hoekstra's other influences, however, include blues, avant-garde, jazz, folk, gospel and pop, and his albums are fluent, eclectic affairs, which flit effortlessly, sometimes several times in the same song, from one genre to another.
The subject matter of ‘Waiting’ , like its five predecessors, ‘When the Tubes Begin to Glow (1994)’, ‘Rickety Stairs’ (1996), ‘Make Me Believe’ (1999), ‘Around the Margins’ and “The Past is Never Past’ (both 2001), is typically broad in theme and scope. ’Theresa’ examines the plight of a Brazilian street child, while ‘Dark Side of a Pearl’, which is written from the slant of a baffled close friend, tells of the rapidly dissolving, violent relationship of a once perfect couple. ‘Screwball Comedy’, in contrast, however, is richly comical.
In all other senses though, even by the ever-eclectic Hoekstra’s standards, ‘Waiting’ , however, represents a change in direction. While previously Hoekstra, who has experimented with strings, horn sections and gospel choirs, has teamed up in the studio often with scores of other musicians to make his albums, ‘Waiting’, in contrast , is stripped down and bare. Recorded last winter at home while Hoekstra and his wife, Molly, awaited the birth of their first child, Jude Aaron, its tracks, while again diverse in tone,return to basics, and usually feature Hoekstra on his own, accompanied by just an electric and acoustic guitar.
...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Learning Percentage: 15%
Arrested Development's Name Claim
by Lia Haberman
Nov 6, 2003, 9:30 PM PT
Arrested Development is:
A. What makes Ashton Kutcher tick.
B. An Atlanta-based hip-hop group.
C. The title of a new Fox sitcom.
And the answer is…to be determined in court.
Pioneering hip-hop ensemble Arrested Development has filed a trademark-infringement suit against Fox claiming ownership of the moniker, which the network is using for one of its new series.
...
Read It Rating: 2
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.05
Learning Percentage: 40%
Cancer survivor: Rosie O'Donnell told her liars 'get cancer'
Thursday, November 6, 2003 Posted: 4:36 PM EST (2136 GMT)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rosie O'Donnell taunted a cancer survivor working at her now-defunct magazine by saying people who lie "get sick and they get cancer," the woman testified. O'Donnell said she later apologized.
Cindy Spengler, who was head of marketing at "Rosie" magazine, said Wednesday that O'Donnell made the remark after a meeting to discuss the magazine's problems. Spengler said O'Donnell told her that her silence in the meeting was tantamount to lying.
"You know what happens to people who lie," the witness tearfully quoted O'Donnell as saying. "They get sick and they get cancer. If they keep lying, they get it again."
Spengler testified in Manhattan's State Supreme Court, where O'Donnell and "Rosie" publisher Gruner Jahr USA are suing each other for breach of contract.
President Should Get His News From Newspapers
by Helen Thomas
The Boston Channel
Friday 10 October 2003
Bush Tells Fox Interviewer He Gets News From White House Staff
WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush recently gave an hour-long exclusive interview to Fox TV anchor Brit Hume, who tossed him a series of softball questions. Among them, Bush was asked how he gets his news.
Answer: He relies on briefings by chief of staff Andrew Card and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
He walks into the Oval Office in the morning, Bush said, and asks Card: "what's in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what's moving," Bush said. "I rarely read the stories," he said.
Instead, the president continued, he gets "briefed by people who have probably read the news themselves."
...
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L2
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 10%
Fox News threatened to sue, claims Simpsons creator
Simpsons parody upset Fox News, says Groening
Ciar Byrne
Wednesday October 29, 2003
Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel threatened to sue the makers of the Simpsons over a spoof news ticker, the show's creator Matt Groening has claimed.
Mr Groening said Fox News raised the unlikely prospect of suing a show broadcast by its sister channel, Fox Entertainment, because it wanted to stop the Simpsons parodying its famously anti-Democratic party agenda.
The alleged row centred on a parody of Fox News' rolling news ticker, which included headlines such as "Do Democrats cause cancer?"
...
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 50%
L.A. Times Bans 'Resistance Fighters' in Iraq News
Reuters
Wednesday 05 November 2003
LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Times has ordered its reporters to stop describing anti-American forces in Iraq as ``resistance fighters,'' saying the term romanticizes them and evokes World War II-era heroism.
The ban was issued by Melissa McCoy, a Times assistant managing editor, who told the staff in an e-mail circulated on Monday night that the phrase conveyed unintended meaning and asked them to instead use the terms ``insurgents'' or ``guerrillas.''
McCoy told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that the memo followed a discussion among top editors at the paper and was not sparked by reader complaints. The memo first surfaced on the Web site L.A. Observed``(Times Managing Editor) Dean Baquet and I both individually had the same reaction when we saw the term used in the newspaper,'' McCoy said. ``Both of us felt the phrase evoked a certain feeling, that there was a certain romanticism or heroism to the resistance.''
McCoy said she considered ``resistance fighters'' an accurate description of Iraqis battling American troops, but it also evoked World War II -- specifically the French Resistance or Jews who fought against Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto.
"Really, it was something that just stopped us when we saw it, and it was really about the way most Americans have come to view the words,'' McCoy said.
...
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 85%
I recommend checking out the actual questionnaire as background material for this article. The report itself is right here. I didn't read that.
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath, according to a major new study released in Washington on Thursday.
And the more you watch the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News channel, in particular, the more likely it is that your perceptions about the war are wrong, adds the report by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).
....
Thanks to Post911TimeLine for the link.
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L1
Freedom Rating:0
Learning Percentage: 35%
Blog has become former actor's portal into new career
Posted on Sun, Oct. 05, 2003
By Dan Gillmor
Mercury News Technology Columnist
Wil Wheaton is not, repeat not, Wesley Crusher.
Wheaton, 31, isn't sorry he played the role of the brainy but somewhat annoying teenager on ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' back in the 1980s and early 1990s. He's proud of it.
But some fans of the show utterly loathed the Crusher character. A once-notorious Internet discussion group was called ``alt.ensign.wesley.die.die.die'' -- and the tone of the postings fit the newsgroup's title.
In 2001, the Pasadena resident launched a Weblog (www.wilwheaton.net), in part to ``undo a lot of the misconceptions directed toward me because of the character I played on Star Trek,'' he says.
His online journal mixes intensely personal observations with commentary on modern life, politics, technology and entertainment. It tells you a lot about who he really is: a thoughtful and intelligent family man, with a bent toward geekiness and political activism.
The blog has become Wheaton's portal into a new career as a writer. And Wheaton has established a new kind of connection with his audience.
...
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 15%
Limbaugh Quits TV Job Under Fire (washingtonpost.com)
Remarks on NFL's Donovan McNabb Spark Racial Controversy
By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 2, 2003; Page A01
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 1 -- Radio-talk show host Rush Limbaugh resigned late tonight from the ESPN National Football League pregame show on which he appeared after racially charged comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb drew widespread media attention today.
...
Report: Limbaugh Faces Probe Over Prescription Drugs
Thu October 2, 2003 03:25 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - One day after he resigned as a football commentator for making comments many saw as racist, radio host Rush Limbaugh was embroiled in a new controversy, this time over a report that he regularly used painkillers bought illegally.
New York's Daily News newspaper reported on Thursday that Limbaugh was under investigation by the state attorney's office in Palm Beach County, Fla., where he lives....
TruthOut permacopy of both stories
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2.5
Learning Percentage: 50%
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;"
WASHINGTON -- The government on Thursday proposed the second-biggest fine ever for indecency: $357,000 against Infinity Broadcasting for a radio segment in which a couple was said to be having sex in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The Federal Communications Commission responded to an outpouring of complaints following an August 2002 broadcast of the "Opie and Anthony" show over New York's WNEW-FM and 12 other Infinity radio stations. The nationally syndicated show was canceled a week later and DJs Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia were fired.
Four commissioners voted for the fine. The fifth said the agency should have gone after Infinity's licenses instead.
"Infinity's actions here were unquestionably willful and egregious," Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said. "These callous actions show a high degree of culpability and a deliberate attempt to heighten the shock to listeners. They clearly offended community standards."
...
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 70%
All presidents face confrontation. The media attacks. The opposing party attacks. And 20 years ago, as Jimmy Carter found, a bunny rabbit can also attack.
The so-called “killer bunny” that came after Carter as he was fishing near his home in Plains, Ga., in mid-1979 marks an interesting moment in the history of White House controversy. Certainly, his staffers will never forget.
“I think a lot of people in politics have gone to school on this bizarre little event,” recalls former press secretary Jody Powell.
“More than anything else, it shows the extent to which an insignificant incident can snowball and end up in newspapers and news shows across the country.”
...
“After writing my Carter biography I can tell you,” Brinkley says, “more people ask about the bunny than about the Camp David Accord or the Panama Canal Treaty. Strange.”
More on the rabbit attack story:
Today in Odd History: Jimmy Carter Attacked by Killer Rabbit (April 20, 1979)
The Straight Dope: What was the deal with Jimmy Carter and the killer rabbit?
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1.5
Freedom Rating: -.8
Learning Percentage: 80%
USATODAY.com - Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."
As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Wired News: Bloggers Gain Libel Protection
By Xeni Jardin
02:00 AM Jun. 30, 2003 PT
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can't be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers.
Online free speech advocates praised the decision as a victory. The ruling effectively differentiates conventional news media, which can be sued relatively easily for libel, from certain forms of online communication such as moderated e-mail lists. One implication is that DIY publishers like bloggers cannot be sued as easily.
"One-way news publications have editors and fact-checkers, and they're not just selling information -- they're selling reliability," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "But on blogs or e-mail lists, people aren't necessarily selling anything, they're just engaging in speech. That freedom of speech wouldn't exist if you were held liable for every piece of information you cut, paste and forward."
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 70%
BBC NEWS | UK | Easyjet breast ad 'not offensive'
An airline ad featuring a woman's breasts with the phrase "discover weapons of mass distraction" was not offensive, the advertising watchdog has ruled.
A total of 186 people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about the easyJet ad, making it the ad to gain the second highest number of complaints so far this year.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: L1
Freedom Rating: 2.7
Learning Percentage: 90%
Hunter S. Thompson - Welcome to the Big Darkness
Excerpt:
Richard Nixon could tell us a lot about peaking too early. He was a master of it, because it beat him every time. He never learned and neither did Bush the Elder.
But wow! This goofy child president we have on our hands now. He is demonstrably a fool and a failure, and this is only the summer of '03. By the summer of 2004, he might not even be living in the White House. Gone, gone, like the snows of yesteryear.
The Rumsfield-Cheney axis has self-destructed right in front of our eyes, along with the once-proud Perle-Wolfowitz bund that is turning to wax. They somehow managed to blow it all, like a gang of kids on a looting spree, between January and July, or even less. It is genuinely incredible. The U.S. Treasury is empty, we are losing that stupid, fraudulent chickencrap War in Iraq, and every country in the world except a handful of Corrupt Brits despises us. We are losers, and that is the one unforgiveable sin in America.
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: L2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 42%
t r u t h o u t - Billionaire's Ads Challenge U.S. Case For Iraq War
Reuters
Friday 25 July 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire philanthropist George Soros is running full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers on Sunday challenging the honesty of the Bush administration's case for waging war in Iraq.
The ads in The New York Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Houston Chronicle, are titled, "When the nation goes to war, the people deserve the truth."
A dozen statements made by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld making the case for war are reprinted and described as either exaggerated or false.
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 70%
Talk show host Springer files for Senate race
MALIA RULON, Associated Press Writer Monday, July 14, 2003
(07-14) 13:19 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
Jerry Springer, the talk show host whose nationally syndicated program often spotlighted strippers and skinheads, officially filed papers on Monday to run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio.
The Senate clerk received the statement of candidacy and organization for the "Jerry Springer for U.S. Senate" committee on Monday afternoon, according to a spokesman at the clerk's office. The documents were sent by certified mail last week.
Springer, the former mayor of Cincinnati, will make a final decision on whether to run for the Democratic nomination by the end of the month....
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 60%
I'm surprised he managed to behave himself this long. Four whole months!
MSNBC Fires Michael Savage After Anti-Gay Remarks
The Associated Press
Monday 07 July 2003
NEW YORK - MSNBC on Monday fired Michael Savage for anti-gay comments.
The popular radio talk show host who did a weekend TV show for the cable channel referred to an unidentified caller to his show Saturday as a "sodomite" and said he should "get AIDS and die."
"His comments were extremely inappropriate and the decision was an easy one," MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines said.
There was no immediate comment from Savage, according to a spokesman at his office in California.
Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: R5
Freedom Rating: 2.5
Learning Percentage: 70%
CNN.com - Iran blocking access to sex sites on Web - Jul. 1, 2003
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran is blocking access to Web sites containing pornographic material and opposition-driven dissent against the country's Islamic establishment, an official said Tuesday.
More than 140 Web sites promoting dissent, dancing and sex have been blocked since the crackdown began last month, said Farhad Sepahram, an official at the Telecommunications Ministry.
Religious hard-liners are increasingly concerned about Iranians' access to information from the outside world, a sign of worry such communications are playing a role in stirring pro-reform sentiment, such as the recent anti-government protests by young people.
Sepahram said most of the blocked Web sites belong to opposition groups. ...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
An interesting story about a disturbing trend in Russia.
Russian press freedom hits static
Last week, the Kremlin replaced a popular TV station in what critics say is part of a media crackdown.
By Fred Weir | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
MOSCOW – Viewers of Russia's popular TVS station got a shock last week when the picture suddenly froze during a late-night movie. Adjusting their TV sets didn't help. It turned out that the "pause" button had been pressed - permanently - in the headquarters of Russia's Press Ministry.
The next day the privately owned, politically combative but heavily indebted TVS network was replaced by a state-run sports channel, a decision the ministry said was taken "in the interests of television viewers."
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -5
Learning Percentage: 95%
The Globalist | Global Technology -- The Internet and Political Campaigns
This article makes some worthwhile points, but I find their core conclusion questionable. They take the three leaders mentioned below, all of whom were assisted by the Internet in their rise to office, and then try to conclude that there is a connection between that quality, and the qualities which led them to do be unsuccessful in office.
It boils down like this (excerpts):
...the most interesting indictment of the early thesis of information technology's coming political beneficence comes from the few places where it has indeed had an impact.
There, it has tended simply to speed up the political process rather than improve it. And when it comes to selecting effective global leaders — faster often equals worse.
Philippines, Indonesia, Minnesota
Consider the three political leaders aided the most while rising to power by the Internet and information technology: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the Philippines, Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia and Jesse Ventura in Minnesota.
...
Simple, easy, wrong
So perhaps they would have risen and fallen on their own — but probably not. And the qualities that have led to their failures are the same ones promoted by IT-driven politics.
All three mainly suffer from having excess style and short substance. All three showed an inability to work with and manage the lower-tier legislators necessary for success. None was able to push through substantial reforms or really govern at all.
As the old adage goes: For every political problem, there's a solution that's simple, easy and wrong. And that's what quick IT-based political movements currently excel at finding.
They might be onto something with the points they make in this article, but I don't buy the dour overall conclusions they are trying to draw. Maybe I'll just have to be the one to prove them wrong. ;-)
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 55%
Here's an article about an extraordinarily ambitious and driven young woman journalist. By all accounts, she personifies the term "rising star". I found out about her from Neal Boortz's links page.
http://www.emilygimmel.com - Blonde ambition
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 100%