Big Brother's Greatest American Hits

Here's the Media Rant column that will appear in the June, 2009 edition of The Scene.

Big Brother’s Greatest American Hits

Media Rants

By Tony Palmeri

June 8th marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of 1984, George Orwell’s classic tale of life under brutal totalitarian rule. During the halcyon years of the old Soviet Union, American and Western European leaders praised the book because of the ease with which it could be interpreted as an indictment of the “Evil Empire.” Yet Orwell’s formulations of a “Ministry of Truth” indoctrinating the masses according to the principles of Big Brother’s “Party Line,” and doing it with “Newspeak” propaganda, were meant to be a warning about where the Western democracies were headed as much as a criticism of the Soviet state. Indeed, Orwell almost titled the book The Last Man in Europe.

Orwell’s fictional society found itself gripped in a permanent war economy that squandered resources in the interest of The Party’s evil elites. Via gentle persuasion or forceful coercion, citizens accepted the truth of three slogans: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. Those not fully brainwashed and dumbed down were pursued and prosecuted by the “Thought Police,” and persecuted in the “Ministry of Love.”

Even given the excesses of the Bush Administration, mind control in the United States never quite reached the totalitarian extremes envisaged by Orwell. But since 1949 we’ve certainly been a permanent war economy, as articulated most astutely by the late Seymour Melman. The squandering of resources in the name of “national security” has contributed to the debasement of our political language. Below are the top ten Orwellisms of the last 60 years. Corporate mass media have been complicit in the promotion of every single one.

10. Changing the name of the War Department to the “Department of Defense”: The name change actually took place two years before the publication of 1984, but that only provides evidence for the view that Orwell was in fact talking about the western democracies. When a government entity says it stands for “defense,” chances are good it intends to engage in aggressive war. Therefore we have “defended” ourselves in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq and other places since 1949. War is Peace.

9. Atoms For Peace: The title of President Eisenhower’s nuclear program. Author Catherine Collins describes it as a "nuclear Marshall Plan which would promote the safe and peaceful uses of atomic energy and at the same time monitor the use of it, so it couldn't be diverted to weapons programs." Collins and others have shown how the Atoms For Peace program was actually a public relations scheme designed to distract the world from hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific. The Atoms For Peace program also increased nuclear proliferation, contributing to the development of weapons stockpiles in India, Pakistan, South Africa and Israel

8. Pacification: A term not invented by US war planners, but used during Vietnam. Pacification is the violent displacement of a defenseless civilian population, by aerial bombardment or other aggressive means.

7. Vietnamization: Also known as the “Nixon Doctrine.” Nixon’s strategy for withdrawal from Vietnam was to equip and train pro-US forces in the country as replacements for US troops. President Bush and now Obama are essentially following an “Iraqization” policy in that country.

6. The Vietnam Syndrome: The Vietnam Syndrome refers to the government’s belief that Americans had become “soft” after Vietnam and would no longer tolerate aggressive wars fought for no reason. The first Gulf War became a key test of whether the Vietnam Syndrome had been overcome.

5. Star Wars: The Reagan Administration’s name for the “Strategic Defense Initiative,” a space-based missile defense system. Clinton changed the name to “Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.” We’ll probably never have a full accounting of the billions spent on such programs.

4. Smart Bombs: Contrasted with “dumb” bombs, “smart” ones are precision guided and presumably end up killing fewer innocent civilians. “Smart bomb” language is used to downplay the human cost of war; we can “shock and awe” a population without killing it in substantial numbers.

3. Collateral Damage: Generally, the accidental killing of civilians during military strikes. Sometimes caused by smart bombs.

2. Humanitarian Intervention: Almost all US military action in other countries is now “humanitarian intervention.” If a civilian population must be pacified in the process, it is for their own good.

1. The USA PATRIOT Act: The classic Orwellism of the Bush era. Stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. When the Congress passed it (without reading it and with only Russ Feingold objecting in the Senate) in 2001, I had a student in class ask the perfect question: “who thinks up this crap?”

Thousands of other terms and phrases could have been listed along with the greatest hits mentioned above. What the ten have in common, however, is their largely uncritical use in the mainstream media. Big media have always been steady accomplices to the military-industrial-complex assault on language.

In his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” Orwell wrote that “in our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” The same hold true today, probably and unfortunately much more so. For assistance in deciphering our Orwellian media, go to the Center for Media and Democracy’s Source Watch: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch

Mayor Ousts Head Of Transit Panel Who Opposed Him

The mayor in question is not Paul Esslinger. Rather, it's Madison's Dave Cieslewicz. Story here. Apparently the Madison Common Council recently created a 12-year limit for service on committees. I have mixed feelings about that: if there are a shortage of applicants, it hardly makes sense to term-limit someone who does want to continue serving.

In Oshkosh, one of the duties of the mayor is "to appoint, subject to Council approval, members to the various Boards and Commissions within the city." Individual councilors who disapprove of a mayor's appointments should simply vote no.

I don't have the time to do the research, but it would be interesting to do a historical study of the applicants in Oshkosh who never made it to a Board or Commission while others were continually reappointed. One example is Dr. Michael Burayidi, a nationally recognized urban planning scholar who never made it on to the Plan Commission. Michael is leaving UW Oshkosh at end of this semester, so it's now an academic issue as regards his case.

All of Esslinger's suggested appointments can be found here.

E-Mail To School Board

I just emailed the following to the School Board:

Dear Board of Education:

I read in the paper today about the idea to suspend your salaries during these tough budget times. For what it's worth, I don't think that's a very good idea. All of you obviously work hard and take your responsibilities very seriously; as a voter and taxpayer I do not expect that elected officials work for free (though if someone wants to return their compensation to the District that is certainly fine.).

Last year I voted against raises for the Common Council and Mayor. I thought raising our compensation in a difficult budget year sent out the wrong message. However, I would NOT have supported a proposal to suspend compensation. Such a move would make for good theatre, but would probably deter possible candidates from running for office and would be perceived by some (correctly I think) as a substitute for making more difficult budget cuts.

Thank you for your service to the citizens of the District.

Sincerely,

Tony Palmeri
Oshkosh Common Council

Single Payer Advocates Arrested

With the United States in dire need of a single-payer health care system, and with Democrats controlling both branches of Congress and the White House, you'd think the prospects for change would be great. But the Congress' and Obama Administration's unwillingness to stand up to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries will result in, at best, sham reform. Obama and the Democratic majority need to get behind Rep. Conyers and Rep. Kucinich's HR 676, the only health care bill in Congress that will truly cover all and cut costs.

The video below shows how--as of now--the Democratic majority will not even allow single-payer advocates a seat at the table. Shameful.

Eye on the Bailout

ProPublica has an outstanding archive of federal government bailout expenditures. It's quite shocking. (Though "obscene" might be a more accurate descriptor.).

Meanwhile, Wisconsin's in bad need of a bailout.

A Free Press Infrastructure Project

The May Media Rants column summarizes Bob McChesney and John Nichols' proposal to save American Journalism. Here it is:

A Free Press Infrastructure Project

Media Rants

By

Tony Palmeri

President Obama’s “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” allocates over $80 billion to creating what he calls a “21st century infrastructure.” The money will be used mostly to repair crumbling roads and bridges, invest in rail and other transportation initiatives, increase support for public housing projects, and clean up our environment. With hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money already wasted on Wall St. bailouts, Obama deserves credit for channeling some support down to Main St.

But if the president truly wants a 21st century infrastructure, he’ll have to broaden his scope. The nation’s information infrastructure, especially newspapers, appears ready to go the route of Minneapolis’ late Mississippi River Bridge: Complete Collapse. Democracy’s cracked foundation, a critical footing of which is a free press, desperately needs rebuilding.

Obama and a bipartisan majority in Congress argue that federal government intervention is necessary and appropriate to rescue banks and build roads. Does it then follow that similar assistance ought to go toward saving American journalism?

Bob McChesney and John Nichols (MN) think so. Founders of the media reform outfit Free Press and authors of numerous works on media, MN will in the fall release a new book called Saving Journalism: The Soul of Democracy (New Press). MN summarize the book’s key concerns and proposals in the March 18, 2009 edition of The Nation Magazine (in an essay called “The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers”).

The kind of government assistance for journalism advocated by MN does NOT include bailouts for corporate media giants akin to what Congress did for the banks. Nor do they support loosening regulatory rules to allow for easier consolidation. Indeed, corporate media’s addiction to the Wall St. model, more than any other single factor, created today’s journalism crisis.
MN instead argue for government intervention to save American journalism that would lead the way toward guaranteeing the survival of quality, independent, hard-hitting newspapers in every city, town, village, and hamlet in America. You know, the kind of publication vital for democracy, yet largely dismantled by a corporate press willing to sacrifice civic and citizenship values for the profit values of shock and schlock.

MN outline four major parts of a “journalism economic stimulus, to be revisited after three years,” and which they estimate would cost $60 billion. They are:

1. Eliminate postal rates for periodicals that garner less than 20 percent of their revenues from advertising. High postal rates deter small publications, yet MN argue correctly that “it is these publications that often do investigative, cutting-edge, politically provocative journalism.” In 2007 a coalition of small magazines from the political left to right banded together to fight postal rate increases. With all other costs associated with publishing on the rise, for small publications the elimination of postal rates is needed literally in order to survive. Such a policy might have the added benefit of allowing independent papers like The Scene to expand their reach.

2. Give all Americans an annual tax credit for the first $200 they spend on daily newspapers. This would help halt the trend of daily newspapers going to online only formats or ceasing publication altogether. In return for the tax credit policy, “The newspapers would have to publish at least five times per week and maintain a substantial ‘news hole,’ say at least twenty-four broad pages each day, with less than 50 percent advertising.” Legitimate concerns could be raised about the potential for such a policy to induce self-censorship if, for example, newsroom personnel felt that a tough editorial stance on a particular issue might jeopardize the continuation of the tax credit. On the other hand, after Rod Blagojevich it’s hard to imagine an elected official being stupid enough to threaten to take away a paper’s subsidy because of editorial criticism.

3. Have the government allocate funds so every middle school, high school and college has a well-funded student newspaper and a low-power FM radio station, all of them with substantial websites. Probably the most important of all the proposals. According to MN, “We need to get young people accustomed to producing journalism and to appreciating what differentiates good journalism from the other stuff.” It’s no exaggeration to say that producing critical young journalists is essential not only to media survival, but to the survival of democratic processes.

4. Expansion of funding for public and community broadcasting, with the requirement that most of the funds be used for journalism, especially at the local level, and that all programming be available for free online. Compared to other industrialized nations, the United States spends a pittance on public and community broadcasting. Consequently, those nations produce “dramatically more detailed and incisive international reporting, as well as programming to serve young people, women, linguistic and ethnic minorities and regions that might otherwise be neglected by for-profit media.” Continuing to ignore and underfund community broadcasting in an age of mainstream media sensationalism is misguided and irresponsible.

McChesney and Nichols argue that their plan should be thought of as a “free press ‘infrastructure project’ that is necessary to maintain an informed citizenry, and democracy itself.” What’s appealing about their plan is that it seeks to rescue journalism, not media corporations. For more information, visit http://www.freepress.net/.

Eau Claire Process For Filling Council Vacancy

A vacancy exists on the city of Eau Claire Common Council due to a situation very similar to Oshkosh. In April, at-large council member Kerry Kincaid was elected Council President (the equivalent of our Mayor). That left a vacancy in the at-large seat held by Kincaid. The election runner-up, Scott Gunem, will not be automatically appointed to the seat (see his response to a previous post on this blog). Instead, the city council will accept applications to fill the vacancy. Below is a copy of the resolution/process approved by the Eau Claire common council on April 28th. Ms. Kincaid told me that a similar process was used 4 years ago when a seat became vacant. The process is also similar to what Appleton, LaCrosse, and other cities in the state have used.

RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PROCESS TO FILL AN EXISTING VACANCY ON THE CITY COUNCIL.

WHEREAS, a vacancy currently exists in one of the at-large positions of the Eau Claire City Council; and

WHEREAS, the City Council wishes to appoint someone to fill this position in a timely manner.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Eau Claire, that the City Council does hereby approve the process as outlined on the attached page to be followed to fill the position of at-large representative on the City Council.

Adopted
April 28, 2009

Suggested Process to Fill At-large vacancy on City Council

Term:
*From date of appointment to April 2010.

Requirements:
*18 years of age
*U.S. Citizen
*Resident of the City
*Qualified to register to vote

Process:
*Council approves process.
*Advertisement placed on city website.
*Advertisement placed in Leader Telegram on Saturday, May 2 & Sunday, May 3.
*Advertisement will be forwarded to Community Television to run on the government channel.
*A news release will be sent to the local media.
*Interested citizens submit letter of interest / application to City Clerk by 10:00 am on Friday, May 8.

Letters should include
*applicant’s name and address
*telephone number or method of contact
*brief statement, not exceeding one page, explaining why they wish to be appointed.
*Letters may be sent via the U. S. Postal Service OR e-mail:
USPS address:
Eau Claire City Clerk
203 S. Farwell St
Eau Claire WI 54701
E-mail address:
donna.austad@eauclairewi.gov

*Letters must be received by 10:00 am on Friday, May 8.
*Applicant information forwarded to City Council members with packets the afternoon of Friday, May 8

Consideration of appointment
*Applicants make brief presentation to Council on Monday, May 11.
*Selection procedure for Tuesday, May 12.
*Selection made by open – public ballot – show of hands. OR
*Council members will be given prepared ballot with applicants’ names. Council members will vote and sign their names to the ballots. Ballots will be collected and the votes read aloud and tallied.
*Successful applicant must receive a majority vote of ‘all members’ – six votes required.
*If there are more than two applicants, a first ballot will be taken. If no one receives a majority (six votes), all but the top two leading candidates are dropped and a second vote will be taken on the two remaining candidates.

A Specter Is Haunting The Democratic Party

One of the themes dominating media coverage of Senator Arlen Specter's decision to leave the Republican Party is that the GOP has become hostile to so-called "moderates." Apparently there's no room in the Republican Party for someone who is pro-choice on abortion, supports the Obama stimulus bill, and wants to see embryonic stem-cell research expanded.

More troubling than what there isn't room for in the Republican Party, from where I sit, is what there IS room for in the Democratic Party. Specter's relatively liberal voting record on social issues and Amtrak funding are all well and good, but this is a guy who recently referred to calls for an independent commission of inquiry to look into Bush-era abuses of civil liberties as "something they do in Latin America in banana republics." He was a strong supporter of Bush's Supreme Court nominees, along with the Iraq War authorization. He has not flat-out rejected the Employee Free Choice Act (legislation that will make it easier to unionize), but like other "independent" Democrats will probably only support a watered down version.

And while President Obama is supposedly all about ethics and transparency in government, he's not too concerned about the fact that Specter failed to recuse himself in the vote on the bank bailout even though his wife directs a company that benefited to the tune of over $45 million from the bill. (In addition, as reported by Politico, Specter secured $65 million in federal funding for an organization that hired his wife shortly after the funding came through.).

The late Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who belonged to the "Democratic Wing" of the Democratic Party, once told other Dems that "If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them." If you're a PA Democrat, in 2010 the choice of a Conservative Republican vs. the Democrat Specter reprents a kind of lesser-evilism gone wild. Not only is Specter not a Wellstone, but he may not even be a Herb Kohl.

Specter wanted out of the Republican Party because polls showed that he couldn't win the PA Republican primary and he was concerned with the Party's shift to the Right. He should have added something else: he could feel comfortable caucusing with the Dems because they too have shifted to the Right.

"Planned Shrinkage" in Flint

No, not that kind of shrinkage, but this story in yesterday's NYT does seem to have a Seinfeldian element. Seems like a domestic variation on the old "we had to destroy the village in order to save it" theme from the Vietnam era.

Palmeri on Week in Review Tomorrow

I will be the Left Guy opposite former Lt. Gov. Margaret Farrow on the Right during tomorrow's WPR Week in Review with Joy Cardin. Farrow is now Chair of the Wisconsin Eye Broadcast Network. The program airs from 8-9 a.m. You can call in at 1-800-642-1234 or email talk@wpr.org.

I'm not sure if it will come up during the discussion, but President Obama this week announced some slight changes in US policy toward Cuba. I think he ought to listen to Republican Senator Dick Lugar, who make a hell of a lot of sense on the topic.

Filling Vacant Council Seats and Precedent

UW Oshkosh Professor of Economics and former two-term Oshkosh Common Councilor Kevin McGee today writes that the Common Council should appoint Steve Cummings to fill the seat vacated by Paul Esslinger. Says Dr. McGee: "It's the right thing to set this precedent – that when an opening appears, you appoint the voters' next top choice to fill it."

As I see it, the strongest reason for appointing an election runner-up is that it's easy and quick. Even though Mr. Cummings finished almost 600 votes behind third place winner Bob Poeschl (and only 24 ahead of fifth-place finisher John Hinz), appointing him to the Council would mean much less work for the Council, and even allow us to avoid what will be an avalanche of condemnation from Steve's endorsers on the Oshkosh Northwestern editorial board.

But would it be right, as McGee says, to set this precedent? I'm not sure. Would we really want to establish the principle that when a vacancy exists it should be filled by the next runner-up? Runners-up are runners-up for a reason: the voters said "we do not want this person in this office at this time." Yes, Steve Cummings is a competent person. He raised more money than any other council candidate, and received the endorsements of the realtors association and the Oshkosh Northwestern. His 4,136 votes represents 36.7 percent of the 11,267 total votes cast (compared to 36.5 percent for John Hinz--who raised less than $1,000 and did not receive the same endorsements.).

But one can easily imagine a scenario in which a runner-up seems not at all competent. Every Oshkosh voter can imagine some of those candidates. Yet by the McGee principle, a council would have to appoint him or her anyway. I'm not sure that's a wise path to follow. The city council would easily open itself up to charges of discrimination and double standards if it did not automatically appoint the runner-up. Can you imagine the editorial gymnastics the Northwestern would have to engage in to justify why a runner-up they don't like shouldn't automatically fill a vacancy? It would be embarrassing.

How have other cities dealt with vacancies? I have not had enough time to do enough research on this, but here are some examples I've come across:

*In Appleton, councilor Walter Kalata's death in late 2007 created a vacacy. Jason Schmitz had run against Kalata twice (in 2005 and 2007), yet that by itself did not entitle him to fill the vacancy. Instead, 5 persons interested in filling the position (including Schmitz) submitted letters of interest. Here's the process that was used:

Mayor Hanna advised this meeting was called to appoint a successor to fill the vacancy in District 1.
Discussion was held on the candidate presentation and the voting process to be held:
1) Each candidate will be allowed a 3 minute presentation
2) Candidates picked numbers to determine the order of the presentations.
3) After the presentation, ballots will be passed out. Eight votes will be needed to confirm the appointment. If no candidate receives 8 votes, the candidate with the lowest votes will be eliminated and another ballot will be cast.

Using that process, Rebecca Baron (not runner-up Schmitz) filled the seat.

*In Wauwatosa, alderman Craig Maher recently resigned his seat. Acquanitta Harris-Patterson, the runner-up against Maher in the election, said she should be appointed to fill his seat for that reason. The Council told her she should submit an application. (Wauwatosa apparently fills vacancies by asking interested persons to apply to a selection committee, which then makes a recommendation to the Council. I believe they have talked about changing the process, but automatically appointing runners-up is not one of the options on the table.).

*In LaCrosse, a vacancy was created when Council President Joe Ledvina resigned. According to the city of LaCrosse website: "City Council will vote by majority to appoint a representative to fill the now vacant seat until the 2009 spring election. To arrive at this end, the Council President will direct the City Clerk to advertise the available position, take applications for it, and then submit to the current 16 members of the City Council."

*Green Bay has a written policy on filling council vacancies. Here's what it says:
1.06 VACANCIES. (1) ALDERMEN. (Amd. GO 40-03) Pursuant to the terms and conditions of Sec. 17.23, Wis. Stats., in the event of an aldermanic vacancy, the City Clerk shall, within 14 days of a vacancy, advertise for and solicit applications from individuals to fill the vacant position. In addition to the application, an applicant must submit the signatures of 20 qualified electors from within the vacant district supporting the candidacy of the applicant. Applicants must submit applications and signatures to the City Clerk within 30 days of the initial advertisement of vacancy. Thereafter, at the next regular meeting of the Common Council, all qualified applicants shall be allowed time to make a presentation regarding their qualifications to the Council. The Common Council shall then, by majority vote, decide who will fill the vacancy. (2) APPOINTED OFFICIALS. Vacancies in appointed offices shall be filled as provided in Sec. 17.23, Wis. Stats.

I suspect the process used in Appleton and Green Bay is probably typical around the state and nation. If the Oshkosh Common Council were to solicit letters of interest to fill Mr. Esslinger's vacant seat, it would hardly be unusual.

Thank You

A sincere thank you to Oshkosh voters for reelecting me to the city council. With a struggling economy, growing unemployment, an aging infrastructure, and a tight budget, the new council certainly has its work cut out.

Thanks again!

You can find all local election results here.

First Amendment Victory

Remember Ward Churchill? He's the former University of Colorado Ethnic Studies professor fired in 2007 for alleged faulty scholarship. Churchill's work became the subject of investigation after an essay he'd written shortly after the 9/11 attacks came into the focus of right wing media and opportunistic politicians. In 2005 even the courageous (yeah, right) Wisconsin Assembly passed a resolution condemning Churchill.

A University of Colorado committee did find some errors in the thousands of pages of Churchill's writings, but the entire process was so clearly in retaliation for his 9/11 essay that in 2007 I referred to that process as "academia at its worst." Yesterday a Denver jury ruled unanimously that Churchill's termination from UC was in retaliation for the essay. Though the jury refused to award damages, the judge in a separate hearing will determine whether Churchill should be reinstated or paid a lump sum. UC will also have to pay his legal fees.

There is no disagreement that universities should have policies in place that assess scholarship rigorously and hold accountable those professors who fabricate, distort, or engage in other unethical practices. But attorneys for UC were not able to show to the satisfaction of the jury that the investigation of Churchill was fair or would have taken place at all were it not for his controversial 9/11 essay. If the errors in Churchill's scholarly writings were as egregious as the UC's attorney claimed, then he should never have received tenure in the first place.

Churchill's 9/11 essay, especially its analogy of World Trade Center employees with Adolph Eichmann, offended many. But offensive political speech is exactly the kind of speech the First Amendment is designed to protect. If the First Amendment only protects speech that bothers no one, then we really don't need a First Amendment.

Candidates' Responses To Chamber Questions

All candidates for Common Council were asked to respond to questions posed by the Chamber of Commerce. Responses from the candidates can be found here. Mayoral candidate responses are here. School Board here, and County Executive over here.

April Media Rant: My Favorite Media Criticism Books

The column below will appear in the April issue of The Scene. --TP

My Favorite Media Criticism Books

Media Rants

By Tony Palmeri

In celebration of the Second Annual Fox Cities Book Festival (April 14 – 19), I pay tribute to my five favorite media criticism books. My picks were all penned by middle-aged or older white guys, a fact that media critics of the Media Rants column might peg as Palmeri’s patriarchal tendencies. To such critics, I say that while I do find the work(s) of Barbara Ehrenreich, Naomi Klein, Adolph Reed, Jr., Amy Goodman, Cornel West, Kathleen Hall-Jamieson and many others insightful and thought provoking, I refer back to the five listed below so frequently that it’s only fair that they make the top 5.

In no particular order:

*Witness to a Century by George Seldes (1987). When Gorge Seldes passed away in 1995 at the age of 104, he left behind a rich legacy of work representing the ultimate role model of media criticism as an anti-fascist and pro small-d democracy activity. The Media Rants column owes more to Seldes than any other author. Seldes newsletter In Fact, reviled by the press chains, remains the prototype of that all too rare form of journalism dedicated to telling the truth, exposing lies, and calling out the mainstream press for its shameful capitulation to power. Seldes’ autobiography Witness to a Century is a gem for conscientious media critics looking for encouragement in what often feels like a lonely and thankless task of taking on the goliath that is the mainstream press.

*The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore (1967). The late Dr. McLuhan gained notoriety in the 1960s as one of the first television-era public intellectuals. Whereas most television critics viewed the medium as a mere channel through which content travels, McLuhan introduced popular audiences to the provocative idea that media technology radically transform human modes of thinking and acting. To this day he is misquoted as saying “the medium is the message,” but he actually meant something much more powerful: “All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the massage. Any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without knowledge of the way media work as environments.” The Medium is the Massage, featuring brief bites of wisdom interspersed with photos and defying all linear rules of print literature presentation, was a kind of twittering blog decades before anyone knew anything about blogs or Twitter.

*Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman (1985). In 1985, students of communication studies (me included) were mystified and even angry that President Reagan, who rarely displayed a firm grasp of his own administration’s policies, could somehow become known as the “Great Communicator.” Turns out that understanding Reagan required understanding television. Following in McLuhan’s footsteps, Postman argued that the technology of television had radically transformed our information universe: “Television is altering the meaning of ‘being informed’ by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information - misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information - information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing.” Reagan in his time was the most televisual president in history, on our screens daily, yet we paradoxically “knew” little about him other than that he made some people feel good about America. Perhaps the same is true for Obama. In 1985 it was easy to think that Postman may have exaggerated his case, but by the time of the early 1990s and the reduction of war to a video game (i.e. the First Iraq War), it became clear that he probably had not gone far enough.

*The Media Monopoly by Ben Bagdikian (1983). I agree completely with The Nation’s Eric Alterman’s observation that “No book on the media has proved as influential to our understanding of the dangers of corporate consolidation to democracy and the marketplace of ideas as The Media Monopoly.” Like George Seldes, Bagdikian writes from the perspective of a working journalist fully aware of the difficulties of telling the truth in a media universe governed by the value of private profit. In a later edition of The Media Monopoly, Bagdikian wrote prophetically that, “As the world prepares to deal with the twenty-first century, United States society as a whole and the country's mass media find themselves in the same conflict-between what is good for business and what is good for the quality of life in society.”

*Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman (1988). This book presents the most compelling analysis ever written of the social, political, and economic forces constraining corporate news media. The five-step “propaganda model” provides consumers of media with a rigorous tool for understanding how the news we receive is filtered through ownership values (i.e. profit motive), advertising pressures, reliance on establishment sources, the threat of “flak” against truth-telling agents in media, and a rigid anti-communist (or uncritically pro-market) ideology. A must read for media ranters everywhere.

See you at the book fair!

Oshkosh Issued Citation For Deer Overfeeding

I just got off the phone with a reporter from WBAY-TV, who asked me to comment on the DNR's issuing a citation to the city of Oshkosh for deer overfeeding. I had no comment, because I had not heard of this until his phone call. Apparently the city will be fined a minimum of $530. I'm sure the Northwestern will have more information soon.

Were it not for the efforts of citizen Amy Haberkorn, the overfeeding probably would not have been discovered. She went and dug up the DNR permit that allowed the culling, contacted the city's Parks Department to see if they were feeding in accordance with that document, and raised hay when it was discovered that the overfeeding was taking place. A good lesson for anyone who doubts the power of the individual to make a difference.

Tell Hintz To Co-Sponsor LRB 1256

My latest Media Rant column said that "In Wisconsin, State Representative Spencer Black (D-Madison) will soon sponsor legislation mandating that in all future Guard deployments the Governor, as Commander in Chief of the Wisconsin National Guard, would be required to review the federal order calling them into duty."

Well, that legislation has finally arrived. According to the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, LRB 1256 is sponsored by Black and Senator Jon Erpenbach. The legislation won't end the Iraq War, but:

The legislation directs the governor to review every federal call-up order of the Wisconsin Guard for its legality, and where there is no lawful basis for Guard federalization, to take action to keep the Wisconsin Guard at home.

This matter is urgent and we need to act by Friday March 27, each of us asking our State Representatives and State Senator to co-sponsor LRB 1256. Time is of the essence. Please call your state legislators TODAY!

Find contact information for your state legislators at http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx

There are currently only 5 co-sponsors in both houses combined – all of them from Dane County.

I just contacted local representative Gordon Hintz's office to urge him to co-sponsor the legislation. Please do the same. Gordon can be reached at (608) 266-2254 or emailed at Rep.Hintz@legis.wisconsin.gov.

League of Women Voters Forum Tonight

There will be a Common Council candidate forum tonight, sponsored by the League of Women Voters. The event will be held from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. on the 4th floor of City Hall. It will be broadcast live on CitiCable10 and WOCT 101.9 radio. You can also come watch it live.

Response to Chamber Questions

The Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce recently asked Common Council candidates to respond in writing to 7 questions. Below are the questions and my responses.

Question #1: What is your hightest priority for economic development? What would you suggest the city do to achieve your priority?

My highest priority of economic development is attracting living wage jobs to the city. To achieve this priority, the city should (a.) compose a new request for proposals for the Marion Road/Pearl Ave. redevelopment area, explicitly to recruit living wage employers not already in Oshkosh; (b.) develop a point system for the use of Tax Incremental Financing so that projects for developments that pay living wages will be given highest TIF priority; (c.) develop a “NO BRAIN DRAIN” partnership with UW Oshkosh designed to come up with incentives for keeping young entrepreneurs in Oshkosh after they graduate from the university.

Questions #2: Issue has been raised with the manner in which the City's Inspection Department interprets the State Building Code. Many times, this interpretation results in increased construction costs. If elected, how would you propose to address this situation?

The City Council should hire an outside auditor to determine if the City’s Inspection Department is in fact interpreting the State Building Code in a manner that is arbitrary, overly harsh, and/or out of line with the manner in which the Code is interpreted in other Fox Valley or comparable cities. If the audit finds that our Inspection Department is out of line, then City Manager Rohloff must intervene to fix the situation. If at that point Mr. Rohloff failed or refused to make changes in the Department, then the Council should fire him and hire someone who will make the necessary changes.

Question #3: Recently, the City adopted a 29% Storm Water Utility rate increase that was needed to address storm water management issues, both quantity and quality. Many commercial and industrial property owners have addressed runoff issues to reduce storm water runoff to pre-development levels. In cases such as this, what is the appropriate storm water credit these property owners should receive?

According to current city policy, the current maximum peak flow control credit available for commercial and industrial properties is 40%. That strikes me as appropriate, though I am open to hearing arguments as to why the credit should be higher. I will not support additional credits for non-residential properties unless residential property owners are offered similar credits.

Question #4: Define the role of the City Council within the current City Council/City Manager form of government. Do you support the current separation of duties and accountability under the current form of government?

Under the current City Council/City Manager form of government, the Council’s role is similar to the Board of Directors of a corporation. As such, the Council should provide direction to the CEO (i.e. the City Manager) and provide the stockholders (i.e. taxpayers) with a suitable return on their investment. In a municipal context, suitable return on investment means wise and responsible use of tax dollars to protect core services like police and fire, rebuild and maintain infrastructure, stimulate economic development, and support quality of life items like parks and the public library.

The Council/Manager form of government works best in cities where there is a high degree of consensus on key issues related to how we should best use tax dollars. In Oshkosh we do not have such consensus, resulting in a frequently divided Council and a City Manager who is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. The form of government in Oshkosh clearly is not working, but that can only be changed by a citizen led referendum movement. I am not interested in changing the form of government on the basis of a vote of 7 Council members.

Question #5: Do you support the City's use of Tax Incremental Financing to assist in development and/or redevelopment of areas within Oshkosh? Why or why not?

I support Tax Incremental Financing for projects that clearly meet the purpose of TIF as identified in state statutes, that have public support, and that would not be done “but for” the existence of the TIF. I supported the TIF for Brian Burns’ apartment development on Main St. because I was persuaded that the project met those criteria. What we need is for the City Manager to develop a point system to help in determining which projects are worthy of TIF support. So for example, a project that comes with the promise of living wage jobs would get more points than a retail project that doesn’t.

Question #6: How do you propose to bring City employees' benefit packages in line with that of the private sector?

City of Oshkosh employees’ benefit packages should be comparable with our peer cities. If our bargaining position as regards bringing employee benefits packages more in-line with the private sector is significantly out of line with the position of our peer cities, we will end up in a costly arbitration process and lose. It would be irresponsible to get us to that position in the first place. What we need to do is end the city’s current practice of paying an outside negotiator tens of thousands of dollars to handle our collective bargaining negotiations. Hiring the outside negotiator is costly, usually prolongs negotiations without getting a better deal for the city, and creates long-term resentment among the represented workers. Ending that outside negotiator practice would “clear the air” and allow for more open, collegial discussions of how to reform benefit packages in tight budget years.

Question #7: Oshkosh has traditionally relied on a strong public-private partnership for economic development programming. What would you do to enhance this partnership?

Public-private partnerships can be enhanced via greater transparency. Most citizens currently are not aware of the various ways in which the public sector assists the private and vice-versa. The public also suspects—rightly or wrongly—that much partnering takes place in secret. Lack of awareness and suspicion of secrecy breeds cynicism, and cynicism makes it more difficult to develop support even for worthwhile partnership projects like the Convention Center renovation. Consequently, the best thing I or any Councilor can do to enhance public-private partnerships is to demand that government is as open and transparent as possible according to both the letter and spirit of the law.

The Lengthy Meetings Myth

Yes, it is true that some meetings of the Oshkosh Common Council have gone on too long. Yes, it is also true that each member of the Council (myself included) could do a better job of making their questions and remarks more concise. As I said at an Oshkosh Northwestern forum a few weeks ago, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing our Tuesday night meetings end early because I am a full-time teacher who teaches on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. (I teach from 9:10 - 10:10, 11:30 - 12:30, 1:50 - 2:50 and 5:00 - 8:00 on Wednesdays. On that day I also hold an office hour from 10:20 - 11:20 and usually have a faculty meeting from 12:40 - 1:40). So believe me, when the Council meetings go on a long time on Tuesdays, I'm not always the happiest of campers.

(For those who may not know, the Common Council meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month. Meetings begin at 6 p.m.).

Listening to those for whom the length of meetings is a big issue, you'd think that the Council always or even a majority of the time goes on for 4 or more hours. It ain't so folks. I just looked up the minutes of all of the regular meetings from the time I joined the Council (April of 2007) until now. Here's what I found:

45 Regular Meetings From April 24, 2007 - March 10, 2009

• Number of Meetings Less Than 2 hours: 13 (29%)
• Number of Meetings 2-3 Hours: 8 (18%)
• Number of Meetings 3-4 Hours: 11 (24%)
• Number of Meetings 4-5 Hours: 8 (18%)
• Number of Meetings Over 5 Hours: 5 (11%)
  

That means that just under half of the meetings over the last 2 years (47%) have ended before 9 p.m., and almost three-quarters (71%) have ended before 10 p.m.

Are the 13 meetings (29%) that have gone on after 10 p.m. bothersome? Yes, but even those need to be placed in context. The majority of members on this Council have openly encouraged citizen participation at the meetings (not just in citizen statements but also on agenda items), and that does tend to lengthen meetings. I think citizen participation is a good thing so I would not support any effort to shorten the meetings that would limit it.

But I think the major reason we have had somewhat longer meetings than in the past is because, given the fact that we are often divided 4-3 without advance knowledge of which way that vote will go, for the first time in many years argument actually seems to matter on the Common Council. In the "old days" (let's say from about 1957 - 2007), the council so frequently featured 5-2 and 6-1 votes that it almost did not matter what anyone said.

Take, for example, the Council's discussion on whether or not to purchase the Chamber of Commerce building. Everyone had a sense that that was going to be a 4-3 vote, but since it was not a "done deal," lots of citizens came to speak and Councilors made substantive arguments for their positions. The same happened on votes related to compensating residents for water main damage, single-stream recycling and, yes, sidewalks on River Mill. Numerous other examples could be found.

Do I think we can do a better job of making the meetings shorter? Yes. Can I do a better job of keeping my own questions and comments more concise? Yes. But do I think our lengthier meetings are the result of excess babbling or time-wasting on the part of the majority of councilors? No. I think the reality is that we've had more small-d democracy in the last two years (not nearly enough it's true), and that takes time. But even with that, the fact is that majority of our meetings still end before 10 p.m.