Censored in 2013

Censored in 2013

Media Rants 

by Tony Palmeri 

I frequently ask students to reflect on how their thinking or behavior has changed as a result of exposure to corporate media. It’s always a difficult discussion because none of us like to admit publicly that media exert power over our lives. When they do open up, students will typically talk about how things like their language and fashion choices mimic something they saw or heard in film or on television.

Sometimes the responses are quite humorous. Last year for example a young man said, “My behavior changed when I just happened to catch the Dr. Oz show while channel surfing. He talked about how to poop and pee perfectly.” That response was actually a great segue into a discussion of the Project Censored organization.

Since 1976 Sonoma State University’s Project Censored has produced an effective treatment for the mental constipation caused by corporate “junk news” media. Annually the Project compiles a volume of news stories "underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored in the United States.” Walter Cronkite said that “Project Censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcasting outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism.” Ralph Nader agrees: “Project Censored should be affixed to the bulletin boards in every newsroom in America.”

Project Censored defines censorship as “anything that interferes with the free flow of information in a society that purports to have a free press.” They argue further that censorship may include stories that were never published, but also “those that get such restricted distribution that few in the public are likely to know about them.”

Censored2014 (Seven Stories Press) identifies “Bradley Manning and the Failure of Corporate Media” as the top censored story of 2013. Other parts of the book address the Obama Administration’s hardball war on whistleblowers; ugly statist bullying that would have the so called “left” up in arms were it being carried out by any Republican. For me, the war on whistleblowers is far and away the most important, most inaccurately reported, and most underreported story of our time. 

The good news is that there are some independent journalists out there working hard to reveal the true nature, extent, and consequences of the war on whistleblowers for citizens, journalists, and democracy in general. In this rant I only have space for three examples.

First, Glenn Greenwald of the London Guardian writes about civil liberties transgressions with a depth and sense of urgency that calls to mind the best muckraking journalism of the early 20^th century. Greenwald wrote extensively about the government’s persecution of Bradley Manning, but in 2013 his coverage of whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed in dramatic detail the extent of the National Security Administration’s global surveillance program. 

Greenwald’s also detailed the troubling case of Barrett Brown, an alternative journalist and creator of  Project PM, which is "dedicated to investigating private government contractors working in the secretive fields of cybersecurity, intelligence and surveillance." Brown’s case will be the subject of a future Media Rants column, but for now suffice it to say that he is looking at up to 10 years in jail for essentially sharing a hyperlink. 

Second, writer and activist Alexa O’Brien courageously covered the trial of Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning from start to finish, providing an inspiring contrast to the mainstream media’s self-censorship and cowering in the presence of the government and military. O’Brien writes of the mainstream media and the Manning trial: “. . . the traditional press was effectively absent. When they did attend, their coverage was superficial and deficient of the kind of detail that a historic case such as hers required. Hundreds of journalists and talking heads did, however, show up to hear the verdict 20 months into the trial. On that day, Fort Meade was teaming with sightseeing content junkies and rumor militants. When the presiding military judge, Colonel Denise Lind, read her verdict into the record, no one had correctly or completely recorded or understood the entire verdict.” 

Third, the independent website Firedoglake.com in 2013 began publishing John Kiriakou’s letters from prison. Kiriakou is the former CIA agent who revealed the existence of a CIA torture program and that torture was official government policy. For his whistleblowing he was charged with espionage, making false statements, and violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. The irony is that no one who ordered or participated in torture has ever been tried or sent to jail; rather, the person who exposed the illegal policy is in prison. Kiriakou is currently serving 30 months in jail even though numerous CIA agents have asked that his sentence be commuted. 

Kiriakou’s letters from prison are important in showing the ugly consequences for someone choosing to blow the whistle on illegal or unethical government policies. He reports on harassment from prison officials, racking up nearly $1 million in legal bills, permanent loss of travel privileges after his release, having insurance and bank accounts cancelled, and other punishments. Reading Kiriakou’s letters make it clear that Edward Snowden made the right decision to seek exile rather than by subject to the prosecutorial zeal of federal prosecutors whose war on dissenters recalls the worst days of J. Edgar Hoover.

For more on Barrett Brown and John Kiriakou, go to freebarrettbrown.org and defendjohnk.com.

Media Fumbles Football CTE Crisis

Media Fumbles Football CTE Crisis

From the January 2014 edition of The SCENE 
  
In December a terrible New York train wreck killed four people and injured 63 others. The National Transportation Safety Board immediately announced an investigation. Governor Cuomo consoled the victims’ families and pledged that the train operator would be held accountable if found negligent. The mainstream media diligently looked into previous incidents at the crash site as well as the accident record of Metro-North railroad. Even Metro-North officials appeared cooperative. The response so far looks to be a good example of civics 101: government, railroad management, media, and the public at-large working together to soothe those in pain, identify the problems that caused the derailment, and hopefully solve them. 
 

Imagine if the press response to the train tragedy was to minimize the responsibility of Metro-North. Suppose instead of investigating they went to the surviving victims and asked something like this: “So, if you had to do it all over again, do you think you would have gotten on that train?” Or what if they queried the public at-large: “Now that you know there’s a dangerous curve on that track with a history of accidents, would you let your children ride that train?”  We would see those questions at best as missing the point. 

What does this have to do with the National Football League? Lots. 

In October PBS broadcast “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis.” The film is based on the reporting of Steve Fainaru (Pulitzer Prize for Iraq Warreporting) and Mark Fainaru-Wada (broke the Barry Bonds/steroids story). They released a book of the same name. That football players suffer long term health problems is not news, though American culture remains in deep “please don’t force me to think about anything that could ruin my Sunday Funday” denial about it.

What’s new in the film is the extent to which the NFL, very much like the tobacco industry undermining the link between smoking and cancer, worked hard to discredit the science proving the connection between concussions and the brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Two scientists featured in the film, Dr. Bennet Omalu and Dr. Ann McKee (originally from Appleton), recount the shock they experienced as NFL execs not only disputed their research findings but even threatened their careers. Dr. Omalu is quoted as saying, “CTE has dragged me into the politics of science, the politics of the NFL. You can’t go against the NFL. They’ll squash you. I really, sincerely wished it didn’t cross my path of life, seriously.”

CTE is the most troubling sign of an NFL train wreck that’s been a long time in the making. Greedy train company operators (i.e. owners), many chugging along rapidly on taxpayer subsidized tracks (i.e. expensive stadiums), refusing to be held accountable meaningfully for derailing the lives of accident victims (i.e. the players).  Not wanting to go too far in upsetting a multibillion dollar industry, the corporate press fails to treat football and CTE as a civic matter that implicates ALL of us, not just players who choose to take the risks on the field and the parents who struggle with the decision of whether or not to let their sons play Pop Warner.

The Gannett Corporation’s local reporting after the PBS special is typical of what we are seeing nationwide.  In an October18th story, the reporter quotes an Appleton pediatrician whose 9 year old son plays football. He’s also identified as an Affinity Health System doctor who runs a sports concussion clinic. He says, “Certainly, I’m concerned about my son getting injured and (other) kids getting injured . . . But every sport has inherent risks with it. It’s up to each family to balance that risk with the potential benefits of the sport such as physical fitness, self-esteem and teamwork.” Given the source’s credentials, a conflicted parent might feel better about saying yes to football. Missing are opinions of scientists like Dr. Robert Cantu, colleague of Dr. McKee, that no youth under 14 should be playing tackle football. Dr. McKee herself, when asked in the PBS special if she would let her hypothetical 8, 10, and 12 year old children play football, said unequivocally, “No. They would not.”

In a lengthy November 23^rd story, “Will head injuries be death knell for football?,” the fate of football is placed in the hands of parents. A featured source is Dr. Jennifer Weibel, a concussion specialist with the Appleton-based Osteopathic Medicine and Physical Therapy Group who leads the ImPact baseline testing program for the Appleton Area School District. She believes that “right now, youth football is a safe sport.”  Her view is never contrasted with other medical professionals, leading readers to believe that youth football is in fact safe or that the danger of it has not been established sufficiently.

Civics 101 and plain common decency holds that if we see a train wreck taking place, we’re responsible for doing something even if we don’t know anyone on the train.  As regards the NFL, part of the solution must be for all of us who enjoy the game to stop being willfully blind about the consequences of what we see on the field.  Public awareness prevents the NFL from sweeping the problem under the rug, which an enabling corporate media seems all too ready to let them do.

The 2013 Tony Awards

The 2013 Tony Awards 

from the December, 2013 edition of The SCENE

  
The 12^th (!) annual Tony Awards column for excellence in local media is dedicated to the late Anita Simm. Anita passed away in June at the age of 91. She and her late sister Marcile lived for many years on Parkway Ave. in Oshkosh; we were neighbors and great friends. Part of the friendship was a mutual interest in being well informed about local, state, national, and international issues. If “news junkie” ever enters the dictionary, Anita’s picture should accompany it to illustrate what such a person looks like.

Some years ago I asked Anita what she thought of the quality of mainstream, corporate news media. “Why is it so awful?” she asked with a quizzical look. Then as now, I wish I had a good answer. 

So in honor of Anita, here are the 2013 Tonys. Drum roll please: 

Best Feature News Story: “Finding a Dentist When on Medicaid Like Pulling Teeth,” in the May 2013 Oshkosh SCENE. A great news feature should give voice to an issue too long neglected, marginalized, or misunderstood. Kudos to story writer Cheryl Hentz and Oshkosh SCENE editor Justin Mitchell for helping readers understand the shameful state of dental care for Wisconsin’s poor. As stated in Mitchell’s Editor’s Note: “I hope you can see with me, or at least question – what kind of system reduces its people to requiring overnight ‘camping’ . . . to stand in line for many hours in hopes of receiving one visit from a dentist? Stated differently: How dysfunctional is our state dental care system that so many Wisconsinites have no access to dental care, except to hope for care from a volunteer dentist or to join a growing number of Wisconsinites who make up an estimated 32,000 hospital emergency room visits for dental related issues.” 

Best Use Of Social Media: Lorenzo Annis’ “Take Back Your City Oshkosh” Facebook page. Concerned with what many perceive as a disturbing increase in drug activity and crime in Oshkosh, Mr. Annis created the Facebook page as a forum to air out the issues. In a short period of time, the page generated over 2,000 likes, which is no small accomplishment for social media with political overtones. Some people (myself included) heard the name “Take Back Your City Oshkosh” and immediately had visions of racist wingnuts urging Oshkosh police to institute “stop and frisk” policies or some other repressive madness. But Mr. Annis has been clear that neither the Facebook page nor he personally will be used as a vehicle for hatred or intolerance. His vision of a strong Oshkosh includes healthy, welcoming neighborhoods that celebrate diversity and inclusion. That sentiment deserves thousands more “likes.” 

Best Social Consciousness Raising: Ellis Paul Consulting’s “Diversity Movie and Discussion” nights. Ellis Paul Consulting is two activists: Janine Wright and Tracey Robertson. They believe that “one of the obstacles to diversity is the lack of experience in discussing racial/class/gender ideas in mixed social groups. Our plan is to have regular movie-discussion nights in order to foster deeper and more meaningful relationships and communication in the Oshkosh community.” Creating such relationships might lead to more open communication in our neighborhoods, less bullying by adults and children, a more equitable distribution of community resources, and increased diversity in government agencies. Movie and discussion nights are held at houses of faith across Oshkosh. For a complete schedule, go to www.blackvoicesofoshkosh.com 

Best Blues Revival: Cave Productions and the Oshkosh Native Son Blues Society (ONSBS). Speaking of Janine Wright, she and her husband Artemas are passionate about Blues music. Cave Productions and the Oshkosh Native Son Blues Society are two vehicles they’ve created to bring this historic art form to Oshkosh. In 2012 ONSBS received a grant to help support bringing Blues education into the local schools. In 2013 Cave Productions and ONSBS brought some spectacular acts to the Electric Lounge in Oshkosh including Maurice John Vaughn, Michael Murphy, Mike Wheeler, Nellie Travis, Reverend Raven and the Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys and others. These concerts helped support the three very worthwhile goals of the ONSBS: (1) support local blues musicians and venues hosting blues events; (2) educate the community on the diverse Blues genre; (3) enhance Oshkosh culture in order to attract more Blues entertainers.

Best Letter to the Editor: Robin Lutz on the “Sequester Surcharge.” Tea Party endorsed politicians like Senator Ron Johnson tell us repeatedly that government spending is reckless and out of control. Johnson says he does not like forced spending cuts, i.e. the sequester, but that “some mechanism needs to be in place to force action.” So you’d think that Johnson would have applauded the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision, in light of sequester cuts, to charge the Experimental Aircraft Association over $400,000 for air traffic control services during AirVenture, right? Nope. Turns out that we only need sequestration to make cuts in programs Johnson doesn’t like. 

In a letter to the Oshkosh Northwestern, citizen Robin Lutz had the best take on the FAA’s decision to charge EAA for services. She said the fee should be called the “sequester surcharge,” a direct result of policy decisions made by so-called fiscal conservatives like Senator Johnson. I sincerely hope that “Sequester Surcharge” becomes a permanent part of American political discourse. 

Congratulations to all 2013 Tony Award winners! 

Media Rants: Fresh Political Portmanteaus

Media Rants

Fresh Political Portmanteaus

By Tony Palmeri

from the November 2013 issue of The SCENE

If you’re a word geek like me, then you must be a fan of the portmanteau. That’s the trick of developing a new word from the blending of two older ones. Simple examples include brunch (breakfast + lunch), Wikipedia (wiki + encyclopedia), and Anthony Weiner’s favorite, sexting (sex + texting).

In politics, Barack Obama in 2008 lauded RonaldReagan’s presidency as “transformational.” Yet Obama’s signature policy achievement, the portmanteau Obamacare (Obama + healthcare) seems so far to have transformed the Republican Party more than the nation. Reaganomics (Reagan + economics) did the same for the Democrats a generation ago.

The most consequential political portmanteau, in terms of its reference to something destructive to our democracy, is “gerrymander” (Elbridge Gerry + salamander). In 1812 Massachusetts Governor Gerry signed a redistricting bill designed to guarantee legislative victories for his party. Thanks to gerrymandering, today the nation’s worst elected officials behave badly with little fear of being booted out of office; the only thing they have to fear is redistricting reform itself.

The last few months witnessed some wacky political events including: a technically not a filibuster filibuster, a former and current US president waxing delusional about their progressive credentials,  a president elected on a change platform formally endorsing the neoconservative approach to American foreign policy, a governor with presidential ambitions promoting a pointless property tax cut, and a government shutdown featuring the “fiscally conservative” Republicans voting to pay retroactively hundreds of thousands of federal workers they forced into furlough. Mainstream media had trouble finding a language to articulate these absurdities. The following portmanteaus should shed some light.

Panderfit (pandering + hissy fit): In September Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spoke for more than 20 hours on the Senate floor in an attempt to obstruct Obamacare. Since Cruz’s theatrics did not delay action on a bill, his gabfest technically wasn’t a filibuster, leading some to employ the portmanteau “fauxbuster” to describe it. After listening painfully to much of the remarks, I concluded that “fauxbuster” wasn’t strong enough to capture the true nature of Cruz’s crusade. The blather struck me as extreme pandering to red state Republicans and Tea Party aficionados, using the kind of extended hissy fit style typically found on the Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly programs. From now on, I recommend that all similar acts of pandering hissy fits be referred to as “panderfits.”  Marco Rubio and Rand Paul are first rate panderfitters, though as we get closer to the 2016 presidential primaries we can expect many more to pop up.

Selfusional (self serving + delusional): Not long after Ted Cruz’s panderfit, C-Span viewers had the opportunity to watch former President Bill Clinton interview current President Barack Obama about the Republicans’ effort to derail health insurance reform. To listen to these two, you’d think that the Affordable Care Act, which has its roots in Republican ideas about health care delivery, is somehow in the progressive tradition of Social Security and Medicare. Yes Obamacare is better than the Republican alternative, which no one takes seriously. But for Clinton and Obama to present themselves as courageous progressives extending the New Deal and Great Society is self serving and delusional. Selfusional pays though; after the interview Obama spoke at a DNC fundraiser at which attendees paid anywhere from $5,000 to $32,400 to attend. Suffice it to say those folks aren’t shopping for health care on the exchanges, though it would not be surprising to find out that some of them are insurance industry executives benefitting from the new law.

Chumsfeld (Cheney + Rumsfeld): On the same day as the selfusional with Bill Clinton, President Obama addressed the United Nations. He insisted on repeating the tired neoconservative meme that the United States is the world’s “exceptional” nation, while his criteria for when the US might intervene militarily around the world only mildly tweaked the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war. Far from repudiating the narrow nationalist neoconservatism of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, today’s foreign policy establishment has in many ways internalized it. Establishment foreign policy speeches should no longer be called foreign policy speeches; instead let’s call them “Chumsfelds.”

Exploitition (exploit+ ambition). Does anyone have any doubt by now that Scott Walker is giving serious thought to entering the 2016 Republican presidential primaries? Frequent trips to primary states, nonstop fundraising, and a soon to be released book all point clearly in that direction. He’s got one problem: if he doesn’t get reelected in 2014, his presidential hopes will be toast. His solution? Make sure all public policy proposals promote his personal ambitions. Thus we get a pointless property tax cut plan, announced almost immediately after Mary Burke threw her hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination for governor. Exploiting the public for sheer personal ambition. Let’s call that “exploitition.”

Congastrophe (Congress + catastrophe). Public Policy Polling found that the Republican Congress is less popular than “lice, colonoscopies, and Nickelback.”  That poll was taken before the Congress, led by panderfitting, selfusional politicians pursuing the exploitition policy of defunding Obamacare, shut the government down for sixteen days and came this close to throwing the country into default. Impressive work, huh? The sixteen days in October of 2013 should always be remembered as the kind of Congastrophe future Congresses should work hard to avoid.

Media Rants: Bradlees For Bezos

February 6, 2026 Update: Well, so much the "brilliant" billionaire Bezos finding a business model to save newspapers. Not only has Bezos failed in the business sense, but he also ended up doing explicitly what media owners always deny doing: dictate the editorial content of the paper. Last year he refused to allow the Washington Post to make an endorsement in the presidential race, and then early last year he announced that there would not longer be any criticism of capitalism allowed in the paper. Now he's laying off more than 300 journalists. The Jeff Bezos era at the Washington Post will go down as one of the most shameful periods in the history of mass media.--Tony Palmeri

Feb. 8, 2019 Update: Thanks to the ineptitude and inanity of Donald Trump and the in-your-face dumbassery of bored oligarchs like Howard Schultz, it's hard for a billionaire to get a break in the court of public opinion these days. Leave it to Donald Trump's BFF, the National Enquirer's David Pecker (anyone else remember that Republican debate in 2016 when Ted Cruz literally said "Trump loves Pecker?"), to find a way to turn a billionaire into a sympathetic figure. Apparently Pecker threatened to release salacious pictures of Jeff Bezos (aka richest man in the world) unless Bezos ordered his Washington Post to go easy on Pecker-interests. That little act of extortion allowed Bezos to write a blog post in which he rebrands himself as a kind of protector of journalistic ethics. One could say that while Bezos may have been caught sending a d*ck pic, he certainly won't be bullied by a Pecker. Below is a piece I wrote about Bezos in 2013 shortly after he assumed control of the Washington Post. --Tony Palmeri

Bradlees For Bezos

Media Rants

By Tony Palmeri 

From the October 2013 edition of The SCENE

Billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of the wildly successful Amazon.com, stunned the media world recently when he purchased the Washington Post from the legendary Graham family for $250 million in cash. A 44 percent decline in operating revenue over the past six years put the family in the selling mood. Bezos’ reputation for innovation and experimentation convinced the Grahams that he’s capable of constructing a digital age business model that might rescue the Post and maybe even the entire newspaper industry. 

Being a billionaire allows Bezos to take the Post private. He won’t have to report quarterly earnings or obsess over how to maximize short term profit for investors. In other words, he will have a freedom to experiment not enjoyed by many of his corporate press competitors. 

Those hoping that Bezos will shift the Post firmly to the political Left or Right will probably be disappointed.  Unlike his billionaire brethren George Soros and Warren Buffett, Bezos doesn’t posture as the “I’m filthy rich but I feel your pain” friend of the downtrodden global masses. Similarly, he’s shown little sign of being a right wing kooky crackpot like Trump or the Koch Brothers. 

Bezos strikes me as the “hipster” billionaire, the cool digitarian who paved the way for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and other new wave “job creators.” These peppy plutocrats see themselves as new millennium revolutionaries, with revolution defined as the ability of every person to purchase consumer goods inexpensively with one click and share that experience with their virtual friends. 

True to the hipster form, Bezos assures Post employees and readers that change can only happen collectively. He told the Post: “In my experience, the way invention, innovation and change happen is through team effort. There’s no lone genius who figures it all out and sends down the magic formula. You study, you debate, you brainstorm and the answers start to emerge.” 

He’s yet to announce how this team effort will be accomplished, but I’m expecting that in the near future Post employees will get a memo saying something like this: “Dear valued Post employee. If we are to change the culture of this company, I need to hear your opinion as to what direction we should take. I believe the greatest ideas are always stated in 150 words or less. Please write up your idea and put them in the suggestion box outside your office. You’ll notice that we are calling it the “Bradlee Box” in honor of BenBradlee, the former great editor of the Post and one of my heroes growing up. In fact, here at the Post ideas will now be called Bradlees. So please put your Bradlees in the Bradlee Box! The best Bradlees will receive $200 Amazon gift cards.”  

Shortly after sending the memo, Bezos opens the first floor Bradlee Box and notices that it already has three Bradlees in it. 

Bradlee #1 is from a Post employee identified as a “senior editor:” Thanks for the opportunity Jeff. It’s about time we had someone running this company who really understands the business side of news. The Post has to find ways to prevent readers from getting our fine product for free. Let’s create a digital paywall with teeth.  Let’s take on the leeching aggregator sites like Huffington Post, in court if we have to. And why have we rolled over and played dead in response to Craigslist? Craig Newmark went to war with newspapers, and much to his benefit found the corporate press armies in retreat. Let’s fight to get back those advertisers! 

Bradlee #2 comes from someone identified as “senior reporter on the White House beat:” Websites like politico.com have figured out how to generate an audience for political reporting in a digital age. Politico privileges the views of powerful insiders more than we do, and they even find a way to get readers interested in pointless tripe. For example, I saw a headline over there that said, “Robert Gibbs,Maureen Dowd trade barbs.” At the Post our journalism quality has fallen, but we still aim for the Woodward/Bernstein/Bradlee Watergate standard. Maybe we can only continue to do that if we balance it with more pointless tripe? 

Bradlee #3 comes from someone identified as a “20 year old summer intern majoring in Journalism at a Midwestern university:” Hey Mr. Bezos. I don’t have too much to say, but I thought you might be interested in this quote I found in the textbook for my Intro to Journalism class. It’s from the legendary newsman William Allen White: “The owners of newspaper investments, whether they be bankers, stockholders of a corporation, or individuals, feel a rather keen sense of financial responsibility, and they pass their anxiety along to . . . managing editors . . . . copy desk men, reporters or what not. The sense of property goes thrilling down the line. It produces a slant and a bias that becomes . . . a prejudice against any man or any thing or any cause that seriously affects the right, title, or interest of all other capital, however invested.” 

Bezos reads the three Bradlees and immediately launches an inquiry into the Post’s intern hiring practices. “Criticisms of capital won’t help save the newspaper industry,” reasons Bezos. And thus continued the hipster billionaire digital revolution.