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Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter!
How the Press Gave Madoff Four More Years to Steal His Billions
It’s one of the greatest and most shameful failures in the history of journalism. In the new edition of our newsletter Eamonn Fingleton traces how the Wall Street Journal was handed a precise outline of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme in 2005 and sat on it. The New York Times also passed on chances to nail Madoff. Thousands, poor as well as rich, lost their life savings in consequence. Read Fingleton on how the watchdogs of the Fourth Estate took good care to snooze in their kennels. ALSO in the new edition, Paul Craig Roberts concludes the shortest, sharpest outline of economics ever written with a brilliant essay on the economics of a full, green world. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories February 20 / 22, 2009 Paul Craig Roberts February 19, 2009 Norman Finkelstein Harry Browne Robert Bryce Brian M. Downing Fred Gardner Andy Worthington Wajahat Ali Laura Carlsen Deb Reich Christopher Ketcham Website of the Day February 18, 2009 Paul Craig Roberts Mike Whitney M. Shahid Alam Patrick Cockburn Conn Hallinan Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Gareth Porter Eric Hobsbawm Christopher Brauchli Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day February 17, 2009 Michael Hudson Mike Whitney Ralph Nader Joanne Mariner John Ross Belén Fernández Mats Svensson David Macaray Gregory Vickrey M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Michael Dickinson Website of the Day February 16, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Oscar Guardiola-Rivera Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery P. Sainath Dedrick Muhammad / Michael Brown Carla Blank Patrick Irelan Dan Bacher Fidel Castro Harvey Wasserman Website of the Day February 13 - 15, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Joshua Frank Mike Whitney George Ciccariello-Maher Nikolas Kozloff Brian M. Downing Paul Craig Roberts Christopher Ketcham Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Alan Maass Chuck Spinney Phil Gasper Stephen Lendman Charles Thomson Kathy Sanborn Saul Landau Len Wengraf Harvey Wasserman David Macaray Tom Stephens Seth Sandronsky David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend February 12, 2009 P. Sainath Jean Bricmont Michael Hudson Peter Lee Dave Lindorff February 11, 2009 Neve Gordon Peter Morici Andy Worthington Marjorie Cohn Fred Gardner Niranjan Ramakrishnan Zoe Blunt Belén Fernández Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day Blues of the Day
February 10, 2009 Kathy Kelly Nikolas Kozloff Uri Avnery Michael J. Berg Russell Mokhiber Joe Bageant Gareth Porter Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Harvey Wasserman Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day February 9, 2009 Vicente Navarro Paul Craig Roberts Julio Sanchez / National Lawyers Guild Jonathan Cook Alana Smith Binoy Kampmark Sam Bahour Nicole Colson Ron Jacobs Website of the Day February 6-8, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Ishmael Reed James Abourezk William Blum Patrick Cockburn Henry A. Giroux Manuel Garcia, Jr. Mouin Rabbani David Yearsley Saul Landau Jules Rabin Raymond J. Lawrence Janette Habel Dave Lindorff Missy Beattie Dale Gieringer John Ross Richard Rhames Bob Wing Robert Bryce David Macaray James L. Secor Jason Flom / Norm Kent Kim Nicolini Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend February 5, 2009 Michael Mandel Saul Landau / Ralph Nader Robert Bryce Russell Mokhiber Sameh Habeeb / Dave Lindorff Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero George Ochenski Website of the Day February 4, 2009 Arno J. Mayer Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Jonathan Cook Fred Gardner Stan Cox Margaret Kimberley Lawrence Velvel Dave Lindorff Doug Giebel Serge Quadruppani Website of the Day February 3, 2009 David Price Bill Moyers Kirkpatrick Sale Conn Hallinan Peter Morici George Ciccariello-Maher Muhammad Idrees Ahmad Allan Nairn Norman Solomon David Macaray Website of the Day February 2, 2009 Uri Avnery Ralph Nader Gareth Porter Paul Craig Roberts Harvey Wasserman Rannie Amiri Cal Winslow Steve Early Alan Farago Diane Farsetta January 30 / February 1, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Michael Hudson Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Dave Lindorff Saul Landau Andy Worthington Subcomandante Marcos Robert Jensen Ron Jacobs Gareth Porter Allan Nairn Laura Carlsen Rev. William E. Alberts Christopher Brauchli Jules Rabin Col. Dan Smith Missy Beattie Tom Barry J. Michael Cole Manuel Garcia, Jr. Dan Bacher David Rosen Don Monkerud Binoy Kampmark Lorenzo Wolff David Yearsley Poets' Basement January 29, 2009 Peter Linebaugh Paul Craig Roberts Riz Khan M. Reza Pirbhai Wajahat Ali Gregory Vickrey Dina Jadallah-Taschler Alison Weir Alan Farago Walter Brasch Website of the Day
January 28, 2009 Norman Finkelstein Noam Chomsky Patrick Cockburn Rob Larson George Wuerthner Allan Nairn M. Junaid Stefan Simanowitz Charles R. Larson Website of the Day January 27, 2009 Winslow T. Wheeler Yigal Bronner / Joshua Frank Jordan Flaherty Ralph Nader Rev. José M. Tirado Benjamin Dangl Russell Mokhiber Martha Rosenberg C. G. Estabrook Website of the Day January 26, 2009 Paul Craig Roberts Deepak Tripathi Vijay Prashad Peter Lee Allan Nairn Uri Avnery John Sayen Dave Lindorff Lawrence R. Velvel David Macaray Roger Burbach Norman Solomon Website of the Day January 23 / 25, 2009 Alexander Cockburn P. Sainath Patrick Cockburn Saul Landau Sasan Fayazmanesh Alan Farago Christopher Brauchli Andy Worthington Ron Jacobs Lawrence Velvel Henry A. Giroux David Yearsley Raymond F. Gustavson Dave Lindorff Roberto Rodriguez Dina Jadallah-Taschler Fidel Castro J. Michael Cole Bob Fitrakis / Ramzy Baroud Mohammad Ali Shabani Richard Rhames Stephen Martin Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend January 22, 2009 Paul Craig Roberts Kathy Kelly Allan Nairn Lawrence Velvel Andy Worthington Peter Morici Joseph G. Davis Adriana Kojeve Benjamin Dangl Website of the Day January 21, 2009 Gabriel Kolko Harry Browne Michael Colby Lawrence R. Velvel Audrey Stewart Wajahat Ali Binoy Kampmark David Kεr Thomson John Ross Allan Nairn Sheldon Richman Website of the Day January 20, 2009 Chuck Spinney Kathy Kelly Raymond Deane Ralph Nader Audrey Stewart Jonathan Cook Harvey Wasserman Christopher Ketcham Robert Jensen Dave Lindorff David Macaray |
Weekend Edition The Controversy of Lessons Not Learned!The NY Post's Chimpanzee CartoonBy LINN WASHINGTON, Jr. Stop the presses! The New York Post – renowned for its unrepentant when wrong stridency – issued a public apology…well sort of…for its now infamous Chimpanzee Cartoon. This cartoon presented two policemen near a dead chimpanzee with the monkey slayer saying: “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” Some at the Post saw this cartoon as time-honored public commentary on both the police shooting of a woman-mauling chimp in Connecticut and Capitol Hill passage of a stimulus package. However, this editorial panel sparked ire across the country that crossed color-lines. Outraged reaction included a noisy demonstration outside the Post’s New York City office with calls for a boycott against the tabloid newspaper. Critics felt the cartoon insulted President Obama specifically and African-Americans in general by evoking historically racist imagery of blacks and monkeys. “This idea of blacks being subhuman has a long history in the media with horrible caricatures and racist depictions,” said Dr. Todd Burroughs, who researches news media racism. A day after the New York Post’s Editor Col Allen rebuffed charges of racism in a brief statement asserting the cartoon was a “clear parody” the paper posted an attenuated apology on its Web site stating there was “no intent” at any racial insult. However, this statement specifically limited its scope only to some of “those who were offended by the images…” – persons who mistook the paper’s mocking of an “ineptly” written stimulus bill as a malicious slight. This attenuated apology told the Post’s long-term critics to go pound sand, lashing those “opportunists [in the] media and public life” holding grudges against the Post for seeking to exploit the cartoon controversy as an “opportunity for payback.” Apologizing for an error – inadvertent or deliberate – comports with good practices provisions of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. In the Code’s “Be Accountable” section it states journalists should: Admit mistakes and correct them promptly. This Code calls on journalists to “avoid stereotyping by race…” Additionally the Code states journalists should: “Encourage the public to voice grievances against the news media” – and this provision provides a rub for both that attenuated apology posted on the Post’s Web site and editor Col Allen’s statement. Although that cartoon sparked broad-based outcry, flooding the Post with phone calls from the public and fomenting criticism from staffers, the paper blamed the problem more on ‘opportunists’ than its offense cartoon. Editor Allen’s curt statement specifically singled out the Rev. Al Sharpton, lashing this NYC based civil rights activist and frequent Post critic as “nothing more than a publicity opportunist.” Using the olive branch of apology as a weapon to assail critics’ knee-caps that encouragement of voicing grievances against the media urged in the SPJ Code of Ethics. Sadly, a side aspect of this cartoon controversy is a lesson not learned. Forty-one years ago next month, the Kerner Commission Report on race relations in America observed that “Slights and insults are part of [blacks] daily life, and many of them come from what [blacks call] the “white press” – a press that repeatedly, if unconsciously, reflects the biases, the paternalism, the indifference of white America.” Overlooked in this cartoon controversy is a reality that those demonstrating outside the Post’s office cannot forget – the cartoon is just the latest race-based slight from that newspaper…and too many other newspapers. For example, many in NYC still simmer at the Post’s part in fanning public hysteria in the wake of the vicious April 1989 Central Park rape-beating of a white female jogger. Sensational and often inaccurate news media coverage contributed to the convictions of five non-white teens during trials marked by a lack of forensic evidence linking those teens to the jogger crime. When a serial rapist confessed in 2002 to assaulting that jogger -- an admission confirmed by DNA ignored in 1989 – coverage in the New York Post (and other papers) continued casting doubts on the teen’s innocence. Respected NYC journalist Herb Boyd wrote a January 2003 article blasting the Post’s coverage of the death of popular NYC community activist Sonny Carson, coverage Boyd saw as a slight. Boyd’s article in that city’s black owned Amsterdam News faulted the Post for speciously smearing Carson as a racist and anti-Semitic “rather than noting (Carson’s) relentless fight against the spread of drugs and police brutality…Time and time again over the last score of years, the Post has issued it own brand of racist bile…” Interestingly, racist coverage of blacks by NYC newspapers in the early 1800s spurred the March 1827 founding in that city of America’s first black owned newspaper – Freedom’s Journal. CNN commentator Roland Martin is among those finding the Post’s cartoon careless and racist. “While everyone seems to be caught up in the delusion of a post-racial America, we cannot forget the reality of the racial America where African-Americans were treated and portrayed as inferior and less than others,” wrote Martin, a former editor of the legendary black owned Chicago Defender. Many in the news media could benefit from reviewing the observations and recommendations contained in Chapter 15 of the Kerner Report (“The News Media and the Disorders”). The Report insightfully reminded that a “society that values and relies on a free press as intensely as ours is entitled to demand in return responsibility from the press and conscientious attention by the press to its own deficiencies.” Linn Washington Jr. is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia and a weekly columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune – America’s oldest black owned newspaper.
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