"In all honesty, Johnny, we are often at the mercy of the White House for the news we report. Frequently, we simply repeat verbatim what the White House tells us." - Connie Chung in reply to Johnny Carson's question: "How much of the national news that you report to the public each night consists of information you've actually gone out and dug up on your own?"
Over the summer, CNN and Time did a controversial report on "Operation Tailwind" and charged that the US military used the deadly nerve gas Sarin against American defectors in Laos during the Vietnam War. Under enormous pressure from the military establishment and prominent figures like Henry Kissinger and General Colin Powell, CNN and Time retracted their stories. The corporate press dutifully followed CNN's complete capitulation to the military establishment. This does bring up the interesting question as to what kind of information gets retracted and what doesn't. Not surprisingly, false information is printed and presented as historical fact so long as it serves certain agendas. FAIR columnist Normon Solomon provided an example of this in a recent column. "For a third of a century, U.S. media outlets have not bothered to retract their false reporting of events in the Gulf of Tonkin," says Solomon. This led him to ask a number of Washington Post staffers whether the newspaper ever issued a retraction for all the blatant lies presented as official truth in its reporting about this incident. "I can assure you that there was never any retraction," said Murrey Marder, a reporter who wrote much of the Washington Post coverage of August 1964 events in the Gulf of Tonkin. He added: "If you were making a retraction, you'd have to make a retraction of virtually everyone's entire coverage of the Vietnam War." Solomon quotes Marder at length in his column. "News coverage of events in the Tonkin Gulf was all driven by the White House," recalled Marder, who was a Post reporter from 1946 to 1985. "It was an operation -- a deliberate manipulation of public opinion . . . None of us knew, of course, that there had been drafted, months before, a resolution to justify American direct entry into the war, which became the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution."
The Cincinnati Enquirer's complete and unequivocal surrender to Chiquita is staggering. Shortly after the paper ran an 18-page special supplement that exposed the pervasive criminal conduct in the Chiquita Banana Company, Chiquita pressured the paper to fire the reporter. Based on the assertions from Chiquita that reporter Mike Gallagher had illegally obtained voice mails, the paper renounced the entire series, published frothing front-page apologies on three separate days, fired Gallagher and place the blame for the entire fiasco on him. The paper then agreed to pay Chiquita more than $10 million to settle potential legal claims against the Enquirer and its owners, Gannett. Virtually absent from corporate media reports was the fact that no one has disputed the authenticity of the voice mail and the damaging internal Chiquita documents exposed in Gallagher's series called "Chiquita Secrets Revealed." However, this didn't stop the paper from claiming in its apology that, "The Enquirer has now become convinced that the above representations, accusations and conclusions are untrue and created a false and misleading impression of Chiquita's business practices." It should also be noted that Chiquita CEO Carl Linder used to own the Cincinnati Enquirer. Lost in this entire debacle was the truth.
The CIA has admitted it deliberately ignored evidence of drug smuggling by Contra allies, according to an internal report by former CIA Inspector-General Frederick Hitz. In the report, CIA cable traffic showed that as early as the summer of 1981, the CIA was aware the Contra leadership "had decided to engage in drug trafficking to the United States to raise funds for its activities." The report also shows the CIA did nothing to stop it, they deliberately impeded other investigations, and the CIA came to the aid of drug-dealers by retrieving their drug money from the police. When Gary Webb made similar accusations in his "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose Mercury News, he was literally vilified by virtually every mainstream news organization. An apology is owed Gary Webb. Given the cowardly behavior of such media outlets who are willing prostitutes for the CIA such as Washington Post and the New York Times, don't expect it.
"It's work that sets you free" claimed the exuberant Jason Turner, the newly hired director of New York City's Human Resources Administration which oversees the city's welfare program. Used in Nazi propaganda and posted over the gates at Auschwitz and Dachau, that phrase captures in stark terms the views of the current administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. A professed enemy of "idleness" which he equates with "spiritual harm", Turner believes such behavior "is responsible for much of the decay in the social and family fabric". Turner preaches about the nobility and necessity of hard work and self-righteously claims money without work is very "harmful". He should know. Turner puts in a very short, three-day work week as the city's workfare ubermensch for which he receives a generous six-figure salary at taxpayer expense--providing plenty of idle time for Mr. Turner to devise ever more creative ways to harm low-income families he believes must be herded into cubicle concentration camps and sacrificed to the corporate slaughterhouse.
When U.S. Drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey announced that the United States had 8.22 murders per 100,000 people in 1995 compared to 17.58 in the Netherlands, it once again displayed the General's penchant for scientific stupidity and statistical fraud. When his office was confronted with the fact that the actual Dutch murder rate is 1.8 per 100,000 people, less than a fourth that in the U.S. (the 17.58 figure is the rate for attempted murders), his spokesman James McDonough continued to claim the Dutch are "much more violent" and that the actual Dutch murder rate shows they are simply "more inept" at murder than Americans. There are more examples of McCaffrey's cynical disregard for basic facts and blatant misinformation. For example, his European briefing book claims "30.2 percent of Dutch youths say they have tried marijuana, vs. 9.1 percent in the United States." Stanton Peele, an expert on addiction who believes the current drug war is "badly misguided", points out on his Stanton Peele Addiction Web Site (SPAWS) that the Dutch numbers represent lifetime use for the 16-19 years age group of the Amsterdam population in 1994, but only current (past month) use by the American group - obviously a ridiculous comparison. The comparable lifetime prevalence ("ever used") figure to the 30.2 percent for the Amsterdam population for American youths is 38.2 percent in 1994. In the U.S., this figure for 1997 was 49.6 percent. This has compelled SPAWS (http://www.peele.net/) to periodically present the General McCaffrey Scientific Fool Award to an outstanding perpetrator of scientific tomfoolery or fraud in the drug and alcohol area. The first recipient is - of course - the general himself.
In response to increased union activity, The Borders bookstore chain prepared a confidential manual on "Union Awareness Training for Borders Managers". The document seeks to instruct management with techniques aimed at avoiding unionization at its stores. These include such things as discussing "potential negatives associated with [unions]" and providing "facts about unions" with employees as part of any effort to "vigorously strive to preserve an environment which nurtures the fulfillment of these goals", namely the squashing of any potential organizing efforts. The manual points out the down side of dealing with Borders employees noting "they are a demanding bunch" (read: independent-minded), which requires that management "be assertive in our response to any union activity that we encounter in our stores." What kind of aggressive tactics is Borders contemplating? A telling and wildly comical portion of the manual are the section entitled "Recognizing the Early Signs of Union Activity." The manual instructs management to look for a variety of potentially ominous warning signs such as: "Employees gather in small groups of twos and threes and immediately halt their conversations when managers approach", "Employees who are not normally seen talking to one another begin associating more regularly", and, heaven forbid, "employees start having regular meetings or bar nights without inviting managers." Other menacing developments threatening business as usual include such concerns as managers "getting an inordinate amount of critical and probing questions concerning policies and/or benefits," and "cartoons and notes which take shots at the company or at the managers." Beware of humor in the workplace.
The Ecologist, a radical green magazine which has been publishing for nearly 30 years was set to publish an issue critical of the Monsanto corporation. Their printer, Penwells had been printing the magazine for over 25 years without any conflict. Oddly, after printing 14,000 copies, it destroyed the entire print run without notice. Penwells has refused comment. Although a new printer was found, Britain's leading newsagents, WHSmith and John Menzies have refused to sell the latest controversial issue of The Ecologist for fear of being sued by Monsanto. "Monsanto has been able time and time again to bring about what is in effect a defacto censorship" writes co-editor Zac Goldsmith in the current issue. With respected retailers refusing to stock the magazine, the independent press suffers another blow as cowardly retailers and self-censoring printers bend to intimidation by corporate thugs.
This summer, an all-out war broke out over genetically engineered foods across Europe. In August, Monsanto launched a major public relations campaign aimed at overcoming the European public's opposition to genetic engineering of foods. Within months, Monsanto was facing a major crisis when they found public acceptance of its genetically modified foods falling dramatically. According to recently leaked internal documents from the company, "At each point in this project, we keep thinking that we have reached the low point and that public thinking will stabilise, but, apparently, that has not happened yet." writes the author, Stan Greenberg, a U.S. poll adviser whose clients have included President Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and the new German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder. The documents suggest Monsanto should move into "crisis management" mode. Given their track record of subtle intimidation, one wonders what kind of tactics Monsanto has on the drawing board for its "crisis management" efforts.
Those staunch advocates of the working class at The Nation have a special treat for you, provided you can afford it. They invite you to join them in December on a fun-filled fundraising Caribbean cruise where you can wine and dine with the magazine's famed contributors aboard the luxury liner M.S. Veendam. Although most working class folks cannot afford the expensive price tag, rest assured the cruise-goers will be looking after your working class interests in magnificent style! Taking great care of the important vacation needs and every whim of our financially well-endowed guests will be the underpaid and overworked, mostly Indonesian and Filipino crew, and likely the only "real" workers the guests will have any contact with. Nothing like a luxury vacation for our tourists to get a chance to see real authentic exploited Third World workers in action, up close and personal. Now that's an adventure!
The rapidly-expanding Whole Foods Market, which sells overpriced organic produce and natural products, is the biggest corporate natural food store chain in the United States and an aggressive marketer of the new wave of "natural consumerism." Whole Foods CEO John MacKay frequently oozes New Age concern for the "well-being of everyone on the planet", claims he is an advocate for "love, trust, and cooperation," and describes himself as a staunch "libertarian". "Libertarian" is defined in the dictionary as "the ideal that a person should uphold the principles of absolute and unrestricted liberty of thought and action." Of course, when it comes to allowing his own employees the liberty to exercise those very same principles, MacKay has decidedly different ideas. Despite all the rhetoric about "empowering" employees in the decision-making process, the employee handbook stipulates shaving policy in regards to women's legs. While advocating "natural" foods and "natural" living, "natural" legs for women have officially been declared an unacceptable liberty. Long pants are required for any woman who does not properly shave according to the dictates of the commissars at Whole Foods. However, this policy does not apply to men who are granted the right to display their "natural" legs by the freedom loving overlords at Whole Foods. Libertarianism as practiced by John Mackay certainly isn't a very sexy ideology, but it is certainly sexist.
If you are a university professor that specializes in business, math or computer science and you're looking to make a few extra bucks, Microsoft has a program just for you. All you need to do is mention how Microsoft programs help you in your work the next time you present a research paper at a conference and the generous folks at Microsoft will slip you a $200 check. Mention Microsoft at several presentations and watch those $200 checks pile up. While some scholars have objected to this tactic, there are some professors who have had no problem taking the money. However, they do have a problem publicizing this fact, choosing to be very discreet about the payoffs and never mentioning it in their presentations.
The words "the final word on the zine revolution" is written on the cover of Issue #64 of Factsheet 5. Inside the covers, both R. Seth Friedman and Christopher Becker reflect on their zine years and announce they are calling it quits. Becker claims he is "burned out" and Friedman, after devoting five years of his life to this endeavor, has "run out of steam." Although Friedman was initially optimistic that the magazine would continue, several months have passed and no one has stepped up to take over the reins. There may be a couple of reasons for this. Doug Holland writes in the Autumn issue of Zine World that, "It takes a monumental amount of work to organize, publish, and keep a project like F5 alive." Not many folks want to subject themselves to such a difficult and daunting task. Another reason may be the price tag: the rumored asking price to take over the publication is $70,000.
In another example of the US media and professional propagandists working together, National Public Radio (NPR) has named propaganda czar Kevin Klose as its new CEO. Klose previously served as the director of the US International Broadcasting Bureau, which runs a variety of US government overseas propaganda programs. That includes running and coordinating CIA-connected outfits such as Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe, as well as the Voice of America and Radio Marti. CIA influence in mainstream media outlets is certainly nothing new (see, "Journalism and the CIA" by Daniel Brandt in the Spring/Summer 1998 issue of APR). John Chancellor worked with Voice of America and NBC, and Ben Bradlee at the Washington Post previously served as a propagandist in Paris, taking orders from the CIA station chief. Katharine Graham, owner of the Washington Post, said at a 1988 speech at CIA headquarters, "There are some things the general public does not need to know and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets, and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows."
The Biotic Baking Brigade has been quite busy lately. Over a period of six weeks a half-dozen victims have been nailed in the face with an assortment of tasty desserts by pie-throwing demonstrators. Among the recipients were Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope, San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, Nobel-Prize winning economist Milton Friedman, Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro and World Trade Organization director Renato Ruggiero. The Biotic Baking Brigade pledged to continue to chuck more pastries in the name of social justice. Spokesman Jeff Taylor won't reveal any specific targets but did say the targets "will be the upper crust, the cream of society."
As if being fired by U.S. News & World Report wasn't enough (Bits & Pieces, Summer 1998 issue), Tom Tomorrow's full-page cartoon commissioned by Steven Brill's newly launched Content was rejected because Brill didn't like it and simply refused to run it. Content calls itself "the Independent Voice of the Information Age" which promises fiercely critical analysis of the media without fear or favor. Tom Tomorrow's cartoon just happened to address the very issue of how the media shapes the "content" of the news in the interests of the owners. Hmmm. Smells like yet another establishment lapdog masquerading as a media "watchdog."
The pathetic blabber that passes for serious discussion on the Sunday morning talk shows reached new heights of silliness during an exchange between Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts on the ABC program This Week. During a discussion about security on Capitol Hill, Donaldson pointed out that "we just need to be more vigilant because one of these nice-looking people may be nuts." Cokie Roberts responded by saying "They're not terribly nice looking, actually. I have to tell you, there is a mirror shortage in the country if you look at the tourists in the Capitol these days." Due to a clerical error, the transcript of the exchange which was posted at the ABC website on the Internet printed the word "terrorists" instead of "tourists". Given the Cokester's obvious contempt and disgust for ordinary people, one can only hope the next one takes proper aim at the chattering class.
Ronnie Hawkins, a three-strikes defendant who was acting as his own attorney, became the first defendant in Los Angeles County to be zapped with a stun belt. The battery-powered devices have been used by deputies for several years and are designed to restrain violent defendants and those who are escape risks. So what egregious action from the defendant merited this excruciating 50,000-volt jolt of electricity? Hawkins was simply talking too much. Several public defendants were horrified by the judge's action given the fact that Hawkins had stayed seated, never used profanity or made any threats. Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani ordered the bailiff to stun Hawkins after repeated interruptions and several outbursts. Hawkins was on trial for stealing $200 worth of aspirin. He faced 25 years to life because he had two prior felony convictions. Hawkins has since filed a $50 million dollar lawsuit and also wants an injunction barring the Sheriff's Department from using electronic stun belts on defendants who don't present a physical danger.
Murray Bookchin seems to delight in bashing and belittling "lifestyle anarchists" (apparently, a term Bookchin reserves exclusively for his critics), calling them "demagogues" and describing aspects of lifestyle anarchism as "infantile" and "fascistic." And Saint Murray seems to be finding the decadent scourge of "lifestyle anarchism" threatening anarchist movements around the world. In a recent letter to the 5th May Group, representing Turkish and Kurdish anarchists in exile in the U.K., regarding the recent Turkish translation of his book Social Anarchism vs. Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm, Bookchin writes that he was "greatly alarmed" that a Turkish periodical contained an article from John Clark. And what is so alarming about Clark? According to Bookchin, Clark is (gasp!) a Taoist anarchist. A lifestyle anarchist! Oh, horror of horrors! Bookchin continues to claim that anarchists like Clark threaten to "derail anarchism" and his ilk advances a "negative rather than a substantive concept of liberty", thus, it is BAD anarchism to be avoided at all costs, while social anarchism is a positive concept, thus, the only worthy path for anarchism. Bookchin direly warns us that Clark has aligned himself with anarchists in the United States who are influenced by Taoism, Buddhism, and Native American spirituality. While Saint Murray is busy demagoging other cultural traditions and desperately conjuring up an "infantile" culture war of sorts, the 5th May Group wrote to say they didn't understand the relevance of Bookchin's fear of the spreading plague of "lifestyle anarchism" in Turkey because "it simply does not exist!". Saint Murray was heartened to hear these words and wrote "I am certainly glad to learn from you that any attempts to import Taoism into Turkey will likely not be successful." Pat Buchanan would be proud.
That cutting-edge, insolent hipster and former Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins once said, "I consider myself a true rebel." Like many rule-breaking rebels in the 90s, Rollins has capitalized on his underground cred by engaging in such "daring" and "subversive" activities as shilling for corporate America. Years ago, this punk rock icon became a spokesman for the sweatshop-friendly folks at the Gap. Now Rollins has inked a deal with General Motors to hawk its line of autos in some upcoming commercials. Media outlets breaking this news suggested that "some eyebrows might be raised" and one media report even claimed that "Sectors of the American Music Industry are aghast...." Yawn. In truth, the crushing conformity of these so-called dissident voices from the cultural underground blaring from our radios and TV sets screaming "Consume!" has been the official advertising philosophy emanating from corporate boardrooms for years. During his recent spoken-word tour, Rollins often lectured attentive crowds of wannabe hipsters that they had to "rebel by filling their minds with knowledge". Look for Rollins to fill youthful minds with exciting new ways to properly accessorize their rebel image courtesy of GM.
When Forbes magazine came out with their rankings of the world's richest billionaires for 1998, they also announced they had tightened their criteria for its rankings by including only the "working rich" and excluding dictators and royalty. According to Forbes, only billionaires who have built their own fortunes or are working with their inheritance rather than the silver-spoon set that is living off its wealth are listed. The new criteria meant that former Indonesian President Suharto became a new member of the list as part of the "working rich". The former dictator amassed a family fortune worth approximately $4 billion. Suharto became part of the "working rich" after he resigned in May of 1998, thus becoming eligible to qualify for Forbes' stricter standards.
After an arson attack on a Vail, CO, ski resort, the media often labeled the Vail fires as a "terrorist" act whereas abortion clinic bombings were rarely labeled as such. Those same media outlets also brought in so-called "experts" such as Ron Arnold, executive director of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise and a chief organizer of the Wise Use movement, to comment on this latest act of "eco-terrorism." What the media often failed to mention is Arnold used to serve as a spokesperson for Dow and Union Carbide and his movement is heavily financed by corporate contributions. Then again, maybe Arnold is uniquely qualified to talk about terrorism. Arnold once told an interviewer regarding environmental activists: "We're out to kill the fuckers. We're simply trying to eliminate them. Our goal is to eliminate environmentalism once and for all."
From the entertainment world comes the news that Oscar-winning screenwriters Matt Damon and Ben Affleck will co-produce a 10-hour miniseries for Fox, "A People's History of the United States," which is based on Howard's Zinn's book of the same name. No airdate has been announced.
On August 25, 1998, a three judge federal appeals panel ruled unanimously that Mumia Abu-Jamal's rights as a prison journalist was violated. They ordered prison officials to stop reading mail between the condemned journalist and his lawyer and allow him to write professionally while he is on death row. While this was an important win for Mumia, it may be short-lived. Just two months later, Mumia's appeal was denied by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, upholding his death sentence. Governor Thomas Ridge has pledged to sign Mumia's death warrant.
Two organizations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International has taken the United States to task for its poor record on human rights. "One of the most serious challenges to democracy comes not from developing nations, but from the United States," declared Joanna Weschler of Human Rights Watch. She cited the U.S. as one of only two countries -- the other being Somalia -- that has not ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Weschler broadened her criticism accusing Western nations of "circumventing human rights concerns in their pursuit of globalisation and free markets." The Amnesty International report lists several international human rights treaties signed by the U.S. that U.S. agencies routinely violate such as the Covention against Torture as well as extensively documenting the pervasiveness of police brutality. Amnesty also points out U.S. hypocrisy on its selective support for human rights in other nations.
"Gang people are perfect Army members--they understand a chain of command and are not afraid of anything." -- Chuck Clapper of the US Army in the July 30th article "Gang members make great GIs, Army expert says" from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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