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Today's
Stories
May
20, 2005
Paul
de Rooij
"Private": a Film in Search
of a Cliché
Jeffery
R. Webber
Bolivia Erupts
May
19, 2005
Bill
Forman
An Interview with Alexander Cockburn
Stan
Goff
Hey, Democrats, Listen to Galloway and
Learn Something
Neve
Gordon
From Ghettos to Frontiers: What Will Happen After Israel Withdraws
from Gaza
Michael
Dickinson
The Trouble with Menwith: Tagging British Peace Activists
Karyn
Strickler
The Texas Nexus: How Racial and Political Gerrymandering United
Andrew
Freedman
Nazi Science at NIH
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Politics and Economics of Outsourcing
May
18, 2005
Jean
Bricmont
Vive La France?
Laura
Carlsen
Bush's Posada Carriles Quandry: an
Anti-Cuba Terrorist is Still a Terrorist
Mike
Whitney
The Secret Raids of Alberto Gonzales: 10,000 Swept Up
Joshua
Frank
Flushing the Koran: Why Newsweek Got It Right
George
Galloway
Thusly, I Humiliated Norm Coleman (and Christopher Hitchens)
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Writing Tickets for American War Crimes
Dwight
D. Eisenhower
How the GOP will Destroy Itself
Dave
Lindorff
The Plot to Make the PATRIOT Act
Even Worse
May
17, 2005
Mickey
Z.
GIs Behaving Badly
Petuuche
Gilbert
The People of Acoma Still Fight to
be Free
Paul
Craig Roberts
Lies That Kill: Why Isn't Bush in
the Dock?
Ramzy
Baroud
The New Palestinian Uprising
Robert
Jensen / Pat Youngblood
Pinning the Blame on Newsweek
Stan
Cox
Poisoning Patancheru: the Severe Side Effects of India's Drug
Industry
Dave
Zirin
American Anthem: Ozzie Guillen and Fining for Freedom
Diana
Barahona
Reporters Without Borders Unmasked
Website
of the Day
Revolutionary Flower Pot Society
May
16, 2005
Michael
Gillespie
The Family Released a Statement:
Death Notices for the Warrior Theocracy
Jason
Leopold
BP Stains the Arctic
Jesse
Muldoon
How Many Schools Left Behind?
Norman
Solomon
Media and the War: "The Bombs in Iraq Explode at Home"
Robert
Cray
Twenty
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq is a Bloody No Man's Land
Website
of the Day
Bolton's Divorce Papers: She Took It All Away, Including Most
of the Furniture
May
14 / 15, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Join the 14 Per Cent Club!
Saul
Landau
Lessons from Vietnam: Wars Kill Empires as Well as People
Gary
Leupp
Whither Yale? Towards the Imperial University
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Glory that is Lockhart, Texas
Ben
Tripp
The Wayward Airplane: a Cautionary Tale
Brian
J. Foley
Was Jesus Gay?
Tom
Barry
Bolton the Eavesdropper
Mitchell
Verter
Barbarous Oaxaca: Indigenous Rights Groups Meet the "Law
of the Club"
Mike
Ferner
War on COs: Army Files Additional Charges Against Kevin Benderman
Dan
Smith
Perceiving Darfur
Mark
Scaramella
Death with Pitfalls
Don
Fitz
Mommy, Is This a Finger in My Rice Puffs?: Splicing Human DNA
into the Food Chain
Diane
Farsetta
PR Industry Imitates Big Tobacco: the Senate's "Fake News"
Hearings
Michael
Dickinson
Soldier Crawling: Military Conscription in Turkey
Ron
Jacobs
The Jackson State Murders
Fred
Gardner
"Hydroponics? Ridiculous!": A Real Farmer Looks at
Medical Marijuana
Farrah
Hassen
Far From Heaven: a Review of Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of
Heaven"
Douglas
Valentine
50 Cent's Plea
Poets'
Basement
Louise, Ford, Engel, & Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Military Base Closings and the South
May
13, 2005
Tom
Stephens
A Chronology of US War Crimes and Torture, 1975-2005
Patrick
Cockburn
"They Destroyed Everything"
Mike
Whitney
Tom Friedman, Imperial Chronicler
Chris
Floyd
Miami Vice: the Sleazy World of Jeb Bush
Jenna
Orkin
Ground Zero's Toxic Dust
Dave
Lindorff
Googling for Fun
Joshua
Frank
Yale Fires an Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar:
an Interview with David Graeber
Website
of the Day
Botero: Pinta El Horror de Abu Ghraib
May
12, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
America is Losing: More Phony Jobs
Hype
Uri
Avnery
Death of a Myth
Greg
Moses
Neo-Con Logic at the Border
Carolyn
Baker
The Politics of Dominionism: the New Religious Right in America
Pat
Williams
Amateurish High Jinks on Roadless Areas
William
S. Lind
Reality Gap: the Myth of US Invincibilty
Jack
Random
The Dubious Wisdom of George W. Bush
Gary
Leupp
Douglas Feith Bares His Soul to Jeffrey Goldberg
May
11, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
The Rise, Fall and Rise of Ahmed
Chalabi: King of Jordan to Pardon His $300 Million Bank Swindle
Kevin
Zeese
The Occupation Gets More Saddam-like
Every Day
Christopher
Brauchli
Coffee, Tea or Torture?: A One Way Ticket to Uzbekistan
Zalman
Amit
The Collapse of Academic Freedom in
Israel: Tantura, Teddy Katz and Haifa University
Robert
Shull
Carte Blanche for the Terror Cops:
Senate Gives DHS Power to Waive All Laws
Mike
Whitney
God, Gays, and George Bernard Shaw
Dr.
Teresa Whitehurst
Anti-Arabic Week at a Southern High School
Norman
Solomon
Political Bluster and the Filibuster
May
10, 2005
Richard
Drayton
The Imperial Mythology of WW II:
an Ethical Blank Check
Dave
Zirin
Steve Nash's Brilliant Year: Anti-War
Hoopster Wins NBA's MVP
Jackie
Corr
The Medicare Catch: Mrs. O'Hara's Windfall
Dave
Lindorff
Silence of the Scams: Economists
on China
Michael
Donnelly
From Roadless to Clueless: the Great
Stillborn Eco Victory
Reza
Fiyouzat
Nomadic Abstracts
Scott
Parkin
Taking Direct Action Against Halliburton
Stephen
Babcock
The Burden of Knowing Better
Alan
Farago
Florida, Water and Lobbyists
Michael
Neumann
Naomi's Courage
Website
of the Day
One Nation Under Plagiarism
May
9, 2005
Louis
Proyect
Shilling for Chevron: Jared Diamond,
Greenwasher
Robert
Fisk
"Mission Accomplished": the Occupation, Year Two
Kevin
Zeese
Concientious Objection on Trial: the Court Martial of Keith Benderman
Joshua
Frank
Kerry Bashes Gay Marriage
Sasha
Kramer
A Mother's Day Call for Justice in Haiti's Prisons
Andrew
Wimmer
Create and Resist
Jeffrey
Webber
Back to the Streets in Bolivia?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Straight to Bechtel
May
7 / 8, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Who Beat Hitler?
Gary
Leupp
Biblical Prophecy and Christian Zionism
Saul
Landau
Pope Torquemada: Purges, Pedophiles and Cover-Ups
Joe
DeRaymond
Autumn of the Revolutionary: Another Look at Daniel Ortega
Daniela
Ponce
Seeing Chile in Nepal
Heather
Williams
Hollywood Does Enron
Gregory
Elich
Zimbabwe's Fight for Justice
Anis
Memon
To Cuba and Back
John
Chuckman
The Peculiar State: "Criticism of Israel is a Form of Anti-Semitism"
Mike
Whitney
Hard Right Rage Against the Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Re-Reading "Born on the Fourth of July" as the Iraq
War Grinds On
Colin
Kalmbacher
Whither Disorder? Ann Coulter and the Texas Police State, Cont.
Lance
Selfa
Uprising in Mexico City
Fred
Gardner
"Getting High is a Little Like Cuba"
Ben
Tripp
Letters on Wittgenstein
Mickey
Z.
The Mother of All Days
Richard
Joseph
Those Patriotic Magnets
Dr.
Susan Block
Come As You Are: Masturbation 101
Poets'
Basement
Smith-Ferri, Louise, Nettnin, Engel and Albert
May
6, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
Baghdad Diary: a Week of Bombs and
Blood
Erin
Yoshioka
Another "3 Strikes" Travesty:
Why is Santo Reyes Facing Life in Prison?
Sam
Husseini
Talking with Syrians
Dave
Lindorff
Ernie Pyle Where Are You? When Reporters were Reporters
Kevin
Zeese
Circus Trials of Abu Ghraib: When Even the Fall Girl Can't Plead
Guilty
Joshua
Frank
An Overextended US Military? It Won't Stop Another War
Dan
Bacher
Tribes and Salmon Win One: Bush Backs Off Trinity River Water
Raid
P.
Sainath
India's Bloody Water Wars
May
5, 2005
Carles
Mutaner
Is Chavez's Venezuela "Socialist"
or "Populist?"
Carl
G. Estabrook
Is There Any Hope for the Pope?
Farrah
Hassen
The US's Syrian Obsession
Kevin
Zeese
"Sent Into Combat Unequipped and Unprepared": an Interview
with Patrick Resta
Michael
Leonardi
May Day with an American Soldier in Rome
Bennett
Ramberg
The Future of Nuclear Terror: Coming to a Reactor Near You
Ray
McGovern
The Smoking Gun on White House Deceit
Norman
Solomon
Nuclear Fundamentalism, the New York Times and Iran
Nicole
Colson
The Back Alley Attack on Abortion Rights
Brian
Concannon, Jr.
Clearing the Fences in Haiti
May
4, 2005
Colin
Kalmbacher
Ann Coulter and the Police State:
Heckle a Racist, Get Arrested
John
Walsh
Al Franken is a Big Fat Phony: Lying
on Air America to Support the War
Greg
Moses
Vigilante Wedge: Schwarzenegger Reprises
"Birth of a Nation"
Ali
Khan
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Poised to Fall Apart
Chris
Floyd
Ring Them Bells
Linda
S. Heard
D-Day for Tony Blair: Bogeymen and Scare Tactics
Dave
Zirin
The NFL, Congress and the Male Cheerleader Principle
William
S. Lind
Fool's Paradise
Gary
Leupp
Bolton's Proudest Moment: Breaking
the UN's Anti-Zionist Resolution
Website
of the Day
Kent State, May 4, 1970
May
3, 2005
Dave
Lindorff
Bush has Grasped the Third Rail,
Now Turn on the Juice
Brian
Cloughley
Halliburton's War Loot
Ira
Kurzban
Death Squad Diplomacy: How Bolton Armed Haiti's Thugs and Killers
Seth
Sandronsky
Towards Debtors' Prisons?
Gilad
Atzmon
The Labour Party Isn't an Option Any More
Michael
Donnelly
Branding Eco Collapse
Alex
Sanchez
Chile's Man at the OAS: a Blow to Bush?
Peter
Linebaugh
Magna Carta and May Day
May
2, 2005
Ron
Jacobs
Toward an Anti-Imperialist Movement
Stan
Goff
The Case of Hasan Akbar
Karyn
Strickler
Achieving Gender Balance in US Politics
Joshua
Frank
Leaked UK Memo Indict's Blair's Iraq Folly
Kevin
Zeese
Getting Out of Iraq will Prove Tougher Than Getting Out of Vietnam
Vicente
Navarro
Pope Benedict: a Rightwing Politician
April
30 / May 1, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Marla Ruzicka, Rachel Corrie and
"Credibility"
Gabriel
Kolko
Lessons from a Total Defeat: the End
of the Vietnam War, 30 Years Later
Jennifer
Loewenstein
The Disengaged: Gaza and the Fragmentation of Palestinian Nationhood
Lee
Sustar
City for Sale: Richard Daley's Chicago
Saul
Landau
The Bush-DeLay Axis of Naked Power
T.W.
Croft
The Undiscovered Country: the High Tide of the Neo-Con Confederacy
Nikolas
Kozloff
Fox News v. Hugo Chavez
William
Blum
Never-Ending Double Standards
Dave
Lindorff
Judicial Jury Tampering in Philly
Joshua
Frank
The Bi-Partisan Assault on Teenage Girls
Doug
Giebel
Saving Jane Fonda
Steven
Erlanger
A Response to Kathy Christison, from the NYT Jerusalem Bureau
Chief
Fred
Gardner
Washington State Doctor Harassed
Mike
Whitney
Another Mad Bush Press Conference
Kurt
Nimmo
Putin Pussyfoots in Palestine
Joe
DeRaymond
A Short History of the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Michael
Dickinson
Flags
Mickey
Z.
May Day at Yankee Stadium
Justin
Taylor
The Crawling Chaos: HP Lovecraft's Polymorphous Legacy
Poets
Basement
Krieger, Engel, Albert, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
Save Barbados's Cowpastor
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
May 19, 2005
No Evidence Required
Talk
TV
By
ROBERT JENSEN
Joe Scarborough welcomes viewers to
his MSNBC talk show with the promise of "no passport required
and only common sense allowed."
Unfortunately, it seems evidence is not always allowed in "Scarborough
Country" -- at least evidence that might contradict the
conservative "common sense" or make for "boring"
television.
My experience as a guest on Scarborough's show two nights this
past week is a reminder of how little space there is on U.S.
television for serious discussion of public policy. I tell this
story not because I feel personally aggrieved but because it's
an indication of how degraded our political and media cultures
are these days.
I've been a guest on the former Republican congressman's show
a dozen times since 9/11, providing a left analysis of war, media
and a variety of social issues. Although the format is highly
constraining (not much time, up against a conservative host and
one or more conservative guests, issues presented with a right-wing
framing that would take more time than is available to challenge),
I've always found "Scarborough Country" to be the conservative
TV talk show in which I get the fairest treatment (certain FOX
News shows, for example, can be much worse). It's far from an
ideal format, but when they call, I don't hesitate to go on.
On May 16, I appeared with Brent Bozell from the Media Research
Center, a right-wing media watchdog group, to discuss the controversy
over Newsweek's Quran-flushed-down-a-toilet story (transcript
at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/).
In the course of that discussion, I made what I thought were
some obvious points: That there were other sources for Quran-desecration
stories beyond the Newsweek article, and that such stories are
not difficult to believe given a documented pattern of abuse
in U.S. military prisons that includes sexual humiliation, beatings
and murder.
At that point, Bozell demanded that I provide evidence of the
assertion that U.S. soldiers had murdered prisoners. I mentioned
that the military's own reports acknowledged this, but Bozell
found that inadequate and demanded, "No, don't give me reports
-- you give me the evidence."
Although I pride myself on keeping a level head on these shows,
I must confess I was a bit confused at this point. No reports,
just evidence? Aren't investigative reports a kind of evidence?
Did he want me to produce a dead body for the camera?
Because I had not expected to discuss these details on the show,
I hadn't prepped on those reports and couldn't cite specific
documents on the spot. But I promised I would send them along
once I got back to my office. Scarborough closed the segment
with an invitation to me to come back the next night to bring
the evidence that Bozell had harangued me about. I agreed and
rearranged my schedule to make room for a follow-up appearance.
The next morning I assembled a variety of documents, including
the unclassified portion of the report that Vice Adm. Albert
T. Church had presented to Congress in March 2005, at which time
Church cited six prisoner deaths caused by abuse. I assumed that
material -- combined with stories about the military's own trials
of soldiers on criminal homicide charges, New York Times stories
about prison homicides that were based on military investigations,
and an Associated Press report that compiled the most extensive
list of prisoner deaths publicly available -- made my point adequately.
I sent those files to Scarborough's producer, who thanked me
for my effort, and Bozell, who didn't return my call (although
his assistant did confirm receiving the material). That evening
I dutifully trudged over to the studio in Austin to present the
evidence that I had been badgered about the previous evening.
But instead of revisiting the question, as Scarborough had promised,
I found myself electronically sandwiched between Pat Buchanan
and U.S. News & World Report publisher Morton Zuckerman for
another gabfest on the Quran story (transcript at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7896068/).
The producer talking into my earpiece told me to remember that
the show would concentrate on that day's developments in the
Newsweek story and that I shouldn't spend too much time on the
previous night's questions.
Not to worry -- it turns out I didn't get to spend any time on
the evidence I had been requested to produce; Scarborough never
asked me about it and gave me no opening to bring it up. His
first question to me concerned the White House's criticisms of
Newsweek earlier that day, leaving me the option of either ignoring
him in order to talk about the abuse of prisoners (and appear
to the audience to be avoiding his question) or going with the
flow. So, with the flow I went, and the question of whether or
not I could support the claims I had made the previous evening
evaporated.
Why did Scarborough ignore the issue? I've sent a query asking
him that question and hope I hear back, but in the meantime two
possible reasons come to mind. The cynical interpretation is
that because the material I had sent to the show's producer undermined
Scarborough's case against Newsweek, he decided to ignore it.
But my experience is that Scarborough is willing to let folks
like me have our say, albeit under constraining conditions.
Perhaps a more likely explanation is that on this kind of shout-TV,
serious consideration of evidence slows down a show, which means
some viewers might drift away, which would lower ratings, which
drives down the ad rates that the network can charge, which eventually
means no more show. And when a serious consideration of such
evidence supports a radical critique, well, it's an easy call:
Time to move on.
Whatever the reason, it's important that people recognize that
even when there is some "balance" on these shows, they
typically do little or nothing to inform people or deepen the
political debate. That's part of the reason I'm often challenged
by fellow leftists about my decision to do these shows. If nothing
is accomplished -- precisely because the format doesn't give
people with views counter to the conventional wisdom adequate
time to develop an argument -- why even play the game?
I continue to go on talk TV because we leftists get so few opportunities
to speak to such a large audience that I hesitate to turn down
any chance to reach people. Even shows with a right-wing host
attract an audience that includes centrists, liberals and leftists.
That means -- however limited the scope of the program -- there
are people with conventional political views watching who may,
after hearing even a fragment of a left argument, be spurred
to do more investigation on their own. And for the leftists watching,
there is some value in seeing their views represented in mainstream
discourse. After a TV appearance, I routinely get positive email
from people in both categories. And, every now and then, I have
a meaningful exchange with someone on the right, the value of
which should not be ignored.
So, even with all the structural and ideological limitations,
on balance I have decided it's worth the effort, and I'll keep
going back to the studio.
And, even if there's not always room for it on the air, I'll
keep bringing evidence.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University
of Texas at Austin, board member of the Third
Coast Activist Resource Center, and the author of "Citizens
of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity."
He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
|
