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Recent
Stories
April
15, 2003
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
April
14, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush's War Without End
Uri Avnery
Gunboat Democracy: This is Only the Beginning
Wayne
Madsen
Americans: The New Mongols of the Mideast?
Shahid
Alam
Iqra: Iraq is Free
Hani
Shukrallah
Day of the Chicken Hawks
Terry
Jones
The Iraq Gravy Train
John
Chuckman
The Iraq War's Trashiest Piece of Propaganda
Patrick
Cockburn
US has a Lot to Answer For: Violence,
Misery and Poverty in Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/14
April
12 / 13, 2003
Carol
Lipton
Wag the Kennel: the Kenneth Joseph
Story
Wayne
Madsen
Meet the New Butcher of Baghdad: Maj.
Gen. Buford Blount III
John
Brown
"They Got It Down": the Toppling
of the Saddam Statue
Kathy and
Bill Christison
Final Thoughts from Palestine
William
Blum
Our Vulnerable Warmongers' Rush to Justify Devastation
Wallace
Gagne
Let the Stealing Begin
Ann
Harrison
Rosenthal Update: Judge Delays Ruling in Medical Pot Mistrial
Case
Henry Miller
What is the Greatest Treason?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Render Unto Cesar
Zeljko
Cipris
Mocking Militarism: On Ishikawa Jun's Song of Mars
Ishikawa
Jun
The Song of Mars
Jamey Hecht
Chairman of the Sandwich Board
Adam
Engel
Hell of a Town: Mayor Bloomberg and
the News
Poets'
Basement
Chang Yang-Hao, Adam Engel and Hammond Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/12
April
11, 2003
Omar
Barghouti
From Saddam to Uncle Sam
Ron
Jacobs
Greed is Rewarded
David
Vest
The Corporate War on Iraq
Paul
de Rooij
Propaganda Stinkers: Fresh Samples from the Field
Anthony
Gancarski
Foreign Aid: Embezzlement as Public Policy
Mas'ood
Cajee
Franklin Graham: Spiritual Carpetbagger
Michael
Neumann
Now What?
Michael
Berry
The Neo-Cons Have a Dream
Stew Albert
Oh Freedom
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/11
Website
of the Day
About Those Dancing Crowds
April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
April
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
Hot Stories
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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April 17,
2003
Another Sign
of the "End Times" for American Journalism
Lap Dogs to Power in a Climate
of Fear
by
WAYNE MADSEN
It is a sad state of affairs when a movie actor
must tell a group of assembled journalists that they missed the
mark on covering a huge voting scandal in Florida's 2000 presidential
election. Speaking at the National Press Club on April 15, actor Tim Robbins exhorted the media
to investigate why 50,000 mostly African-American voters were
scrubbed from the electoral rolls before Election Day. Robbins
added that there is a Pulitzer Prize out there for the journalist
willing to step up and fully investigate the scandal.
The voter registration scandal involved
a contract awarded by then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine
Harris to Data Base Technologies Online, later a subsidiary of
ChoicePoint, a firm that has given generously to Republican coffers
over the years. Afer examining the registration files, DBT identified
173,000 ineligible voters. However, at least 50,000 voters were
groundlessly dropped from the voters' rolls. So on Election Day,
thousands of African-Americans, who would have voted for Al Gore,
were told by Florida election officials they could not vote.
It was as if Jim Crow returned to Florida after a long hiatus.
After Robbins challenged the press to
investigate the election scam in Florida, National Press Club
President Tammy Lytle, Washington Bureau Chief of the Orlando
Sentinel, interrupted the actor, "As someone who represents
a major Florida  newspaper, I can tell you we looked into
that." Robbins, knowing he was being fed a plethora of equine
excrement, responded, "Really, I'd like to read that."
Robbins, of course, knows better. Robbins
referred to the miserable status of American journalism when
he cited the "Aussie rags" in the United States, a
reference to Rupert Murdoch's growing and more menacing media
empire. The Orlando Sentinel would never investigate Bush family
malfeasance anywhere or anytime. Its editorial staff could be
shown glossy 8 x 10 photos of George W. or Jeb in bed with a
dead woman or a live boy and the paper, a longtime shill for
the Republican Party, would simply pass on the story. A newspaper
that owes its very existence to the capital of American artificiality,
Disney World, along its gaudy central Florida clones, is hardly
capable of launching a major investigation of the mass and systematic
disenfranchisement of African-American voters. In fact, the Sentinel's
readership, locked behind their splendid little gated communities
or holed up in their sterile condominiums, would not stand for
the paper rocking the boat by suggesting that Jeb Bush and his
purported girlfriend, Katherine Harris, criminally conspired
to throw Florida's 25 electoral votes into George W. Bush's column.
The Sentinel has shown what kind of editorial "independence"
it maintains by repeatedly endorsing -- election after election
-- George H.W., George W., and Jeb Bush.
A prime example of the pitiful reporting
of the Sentinel is its lead story in its April 16 issue--a puff
piece on retired General Jay Garner, the Bush administration's
pro-consul of Iraq and a resident of one of central Florida's
paranoia-obsessed gated communities in Windermere. Nowhere in
the article is there a mention of Garner's conflict of interest
with his current employer, L-3 Communications, Inc., a major
defense contractor and provider of mercenaries through its MPRI
subsidiary. Instead, the Sentinel refers to Garner as "a
'country boy' with a purpose." And if that's not sycophantic
enough, the following is but one passage about Garner that would
have made the Soviet-era editors of Pravda and Izvestia quite
proud: "Harlan McCall, vice president of the senior class
when Garner was president, played football with Garner. 'Jay
was competitive; he would go after what he wanted,' McCall said.
'But there was not a mean bone in his body.'" That's really
hard-hitting stuff.
The Sentinel failed to mention Garner's
close ties to the Israeli right-wing lobby through his past association
with the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)
and with key figures in William Kristol's Project for a New American
Century, which advocates taking America's next wars to the gates
of Damascus, the center of Tehran, and beyond.
Tim Robbins also had some other cogent
advice for journalists. He said journalists must be at the forefront
of protecting America's democracy. He also suggested that the
next time Ari Fleischer calls on one of the favored journalists
at a White House press briefing, he or she should pass the opportunity
to ask a question to the banished "journalist du jour"
in the back of the room. Excellent idea Mr. Robbins. Again, it
is sad state of affairs when an actor has to tell the Fourth
Estate what it must do to remain a vital part of America's democratic
equilibrium.
Tim Robbins spoke about the climate of
fear that has swept the nation, a climate in which people are
afraid to speak out against the President, his war, and his divisive
policies. The American people are obviously taking their cue
from a sheepish press that is best exemplified by glorified public
relations circulars like the Orlando Sentinel.
But it not only the print media that
Robbins was excoriating. He spoke of "19th Century Fox"
and one of its stars, a former entertainment reporter, parading
around as a no-spinning political sage. Robbins understands that
what is billed as news on the three major cable news outlets
is nothing more than propaganda churned out by Washington policy-laundering
think tanks, retired military brass fronting for defense contractors,
and scurrilous Republican Party operatives. Robbins said he didn't
know what candidate he would support in the next presidential
election. Well, Tim, although we have had one actor as President,
it would be entirely suitable to have another and one with independent
thought and the ability to reason. If you decide to run, you've
got my vote.
Wayne Madsen
is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist.
He wrote the introduction to Forbidden
Truth.
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
Yesterday's
Features
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
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