WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TERRA INCOGNITA
Travel writer Paul Theroux thinks there's too much "connectedness"
these days:
"'Connected' is the triumphant cry these days. Connection has made
people arrogant, impatient, hasty, and presumptuous. I am old enough to
have witnessed the rise of the telephone, the apotheosis of TV and the
videocassette, the cellular phone, the pager, the fax machine, and e-mail.
I don't doubt that instant communication has been good for business, even
for the publishing business, but it has done nothing for literature, and
might even have harmed it. In many ways connection has been disastrous. We
have confused information (of which there is too much) with ideas (of which
there are too few). I found out much more about the world and myself by
being unconnected.
"And what does connection really mean? What can the archivist --
relishing detail, boasting of the information age -- possibly do about all
those private phone calls, e-mails, and electronic messages. Lost! A
president is impeached, and in spite of all the phone calls and all the
investigations, almost the only evidence that exists of his assignations
are a few cheap gifts, a signed photograph, and obscure stains. So much for
the age of information. My detractors may say, 'You can print e-mails,' but
who commits that yackety-yak to paper?
"The most aberrant aspect of the delusional concept of globalization
is the smug belief that the world is connected and that everyone and every
place is instantly accessible. This is merely a harmful conceit. The
colorful advertisement for cellular phones or computers showing Chinese
speaking to Zulus, and Italians speaking to Tongans, is inaccurate, not to
say mendacious. There are still places on earth that are inaccessible,
because of their geography or their politics or their religion. Parts of
China are off the map, and for that matter parts of Italy are too -- there
are villages in the hinterland of Basilicata, in southern Italy, that are
as isolated as they have ever been.
"For the past ten years, since the disputed and disallowed election
of 1991, the entire Republic of Algeria has been a no-go area where between
eighty and one hundred thousand people have been massacred. Algeria -- a
sunny Mediterranean country, the most dangerous place in the world, with
the worst human rights record on earth -- is right next to jolly Morocco
and colorful Tunisia, the haunts of package tourists and rug collectors.
This bizarre proximity highlights the paradox, which is an old one, that
close by there are areas of the world that are still forbidden, or terra
incognita, where no outsider dares to venture. In spite of all our
connectedness we have little idea of what passes for daily life in Algeria."
***
See
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618126937/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Theroux's "Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings"
Saturday, November 08, 2003
Thursday, November 06, 2003
THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, November 5, 2003
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
1. CBS Caves to Pressure, Dumps Reagan Movie
2. Media Reform Conference Begins Friday in Madison
3. Private Sector Takes On Public Diplomacy
4. Copyright vs. Democracy
5. Sheep's Clothing
6. 'By-Passing the Media Filter' on the Iraq War
7. Media Blackout on Local Issues
8. Raped By the Globe
9. Gay-Bashing Provocateurs
10. Chemical Industry PR to Counter Health Activists
11. Puffery for Puff Daddy
12. Arson Attack on Peace Activists
13. Fox Gets the Memo
14. Bush Seeks Scapegoats for 'Mission Accomplished' Stunt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. CBS CAVES TO PRESSURE, DUMPS REAGAN MOVIE
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/business/media/05TUBE.html?ex=1069002888&ei=1&en=2163c6474be84cfb
TV docu-dramas, such as this Sunday's red, white and blue Iraqi war
mythology Saving Private Lynch, always play fast and loose with the
facts, twisting reality into fiction for entertainment's sake. But
a much hyped CBS miniseries on Ronald Reagan drew the wrath of the
Right, and CBS has dumped the show. The New York Times reports that
"CBS executives ... denied they were capitulating to pressure from
Republicans and conservative groups in moving the 'The Reagans' to
the pay cable channel Showtime, a sister network at Viacom. The
decision, they argued, was instead 'a moral call,' reached after
concluding that the four-hour television movie carried a liberal
political agenda and treated the Reagans unfairly. ... On Oct. 28,
the Media Research Center ... wrote a letter to a list of 100 top
television sponsors urging them to 'refuse to associate your
products with this movie.' At around the same time Michael
Paranzino, a former Republican Congressional staff member from
Betheseda Md., decided to start a Web site called BoycottCBS.com.
... Last Friday, the Republican National Committee entered the
fray."
SOURCE: New York Times, November 5, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068008401
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068008401
2. MEDIA REFORM CONFERENCE BEGINS FRIDAY IN MADISON
http://www.mediareform.net/conference.php
Some 1,500 journalists, political reformers and citizens at large
are convening in our home town of Madison, Wisconsin, November 7th
- 9th for the National Conference on Media Reform. The conference
begins Friday with a 2pm panel featuring professor Nancy Snow,
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and our own John Stauber, co-author
of Weapons of Mass Deception. The dozens of speakers and performing
artists include Bill Moyers, Al Franken, members of the US House
and Senate, FCC Commissioners, John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, Ralph
Nader, Janine Jackson of FAIR, Billy Bragg and many more.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068008400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068008400
3. PRIVATE SECTOR TAKES ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=194146&site=3
As the US slips in international opinion polls, some private sector
imagemakers think its time to bolster Washington's public diplomacy
efforts, PR Week's Douglas Quenqua reports. "Keith Reinhard,
chairman of Omnicom ad firm DDB Worldwide, announced the formation
of the Task Force to Mobilize American Business for Public
Diplomacy, a collection of marketing and PR experts who've come
together to help American corporations improve America's image in
foreign lands." Reinhard's initial research showed that "the world
overwhelmingly shares the same four negative perceptions about US
companies: they exploit workers; they're a corrupting influence,
promoting values that are in conflict with local customs; they're
grossly insensitive and arrogant; and the practice
hyper-consumerism, increasing profits it the only priority." "I
looked at the data and I said, 'They're talking about companies and
brands that mean business to me. ... All these big multinational
companies, these are our clients,'" Reinhard told PR Week. "Our own
company gets 61% of our revenue from outside the US. So I thought
we could organize and address some of these perceptions."
SOURCE: PR Week, November 3, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835603
4. COPYRIGHT VS. DEMOCRACY
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1103-04.htm
"Diebold Election Systems, which makes voting machines, is waging
legal war against grass-roots advocates, including dozens of
college students, who are posting on the Internet copies of the
company's internal communications about its electronic voting
machines," reports John Schwartz. The company's attorneys have sent
letters threatening legal action against the students, who are
circulating "thousands of e-mail messages and memorandums dating to
March 2003 from January 1999 that include discussions of bugs in
Diebold's software and warnings that its computer network are
poorly protected against hackers." Questions are also being raised
about whether Diebold's voting machines can be trusted to deliver
an honest result. "Diebold has become a favorite target of
advocates who accuse it of partisanship," Schwartz states. "Company
executives have made large contributions to the Republican Party
and the chief executive, Walden W. O'Dell, said in an invitation to
a fund-raiser that he was 'committed to helping Ohio deliver its
electoral votes to the president next year.'"
SOURCE: New York Times, November 3, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835602
5. SHEEP'S CLOTHING
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9286
A group calling itself Partnership for the West (PFTW) was formally
unveiled in late October and aims to influence environmental
legislation in Washington. "The group plans to work on 'restoring a
common sense balance to economic growth and conservation in the
West,'" notes Bill Berkowitz, adding that this "sounds nice, until
you see who's behind it. Claiming to be a grassroots lobby group,
PFTW actually represents a kinder, gentler and more politically
savvy brand of anti-environmentalism. ... The group's members
number over a hundred, and include large interests in fossil fuel,
logging and mining industries. ... Partnership for the West grew
out of summit in Denver, Colorado, attended by elected officials,
corporate representatives and long-standing anti-environmental
organizations like the American Land Rights Association, the Blue
Ribbon Coalition, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, and People
for the USA. Its president, Jim Sims, is the former communications
director for the National Energy Policy Task Force - also known as
Cheney's secret panel - and helped craft the administration's
energy policy." According to Scott Silver, who heads a real
environmental group called Wild Wilderness, "These people are paid
lobbyists and public relations consultants serving the needs of
every imaginable sort of polluter, developer, resource extractor or
despoiler of the environment."
SOURCE: TomPaine.com, November 3, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1067835601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835601
6. 'BY-PASSING THE MEDIA FILTER' ON THE IRAQ WAR
http://www.truthuncovered.com/index.cfm?ms=alternet
As part of its PR strategy to 'by-pass the media filter' that it
claims is distorting public perception of the Iraq war with too
much negative reporting, the Bush administration has been granting
interviews to smaller, more friendly media. A 'media by-pass'
tactic of a different sort is being used by critics of the war who,
as we've documented in our book Weapons of Mass Deception, have
been locked out of mainstream media coverage. Alternet has
announced that "A provocative new DVD that documents how the Bush
Administration exaggerated the threat of Iraq, debuts today.
Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald,
"Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War" takes you behind
the scenes, as CIA, Pentagon and foreign service experts speak out
and reveal the lies, misstatements and exaggerations that the Bush
administration used to deceive the public." Word of the DVD is
"going to millions of MoveOn members, Nation subscribers, Working
Assets customers, and others as part of an unprecedented,
simultaneous effort to bypass the film and media gatekeepers and
take the information directly to the people."
SOURCE: Alternet, November 3, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1067835600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835600
7. MEDIA BLACKOUT ON LOCAL ISSUES
http://www.bettercampaigns.org/press/release.php?ReleaseID=50
Local public affairs shows account for less than one half of one
percent of all programming on local television stations, according
to a study released by the Alliance for Better Campaigns.
"Broadcasters have relegated local public-affairs programming to
the very bottom of the heap - behind cartoons, kitchenware
specials, reruns, courtroom dramas, dating shows and late-night
talk shows," reports Jennifer Harper. "The analysis found, for
example, that there were three times as many 'Seinfeld' reruns as
local public-affairs shows on TV stations nationwide. There were
four times as many cartoon shows, seven times as many pro football
games, nine times as many dating shows, 19 times as many late-night
talk shows, 20 times as many courtroom dramas and 23 times as many
soap operas."
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067830733
8. RAPED BY THE GLOBE
http://salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/10/31/kobe/index.html
The Globe, a tabloid newspaper, is running a titillating photograph
of alleged rapist Kobe Bryant's accuser at her high school prom.
"In it, the woman is lifting up her prom dress to reveal a garter
belt," notes Rebecca Traister. "The headline reads: 'Kobe Bryant's
Accuser: Did she really say no?' Next to the photo, in half-inch
type, is the 19-year-old woman's name." Traister interviewed
journalism professors and magazine editors who are shocked by the
Globe's decision. "It is misogynistic and truly exploitative to try
to get big sales off of identifying an alleged rape victim," said
Us Weekly's editor in chief Janice Min. "Was a woman dressed
inappropriately? Did she ask for it? Is a sexy woman more likely to
get raped than a non-sexy woman? These are the anachronistic,
horrible ideas that come up because of a cover like that. Morally,
it's wrong."
SOURCE: Salon.com, October 31, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067576400
9. GAY-BASHING PROVOCATEURS
http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=702
A gay-bashing, right wing student newspaper at Roger Williams
University in Rhode Island offers a fresh example of the
conservative media's strategy of "publicizing censorship of their
papers" so they can "cast themselves as the little guy up against
the leftist establishment." The Hawk's Right Eye provoked the
university administration into clamping down by running nasty
attacks on Judy Shepard, whose son was beaten to death in Texas for
being gay. After Shepard spoke on campus, HRE accused her of
"preying on students' emotions and naivety" [sic] so that she could
become "a mascot for the homosexual agenda." Now that the
university has established a "publications and broadcast review
committee" and is considering revoking HRE's funding, national
conservative groups have swarmed to its defense, complaining of
"harassment" and "a heavy-handed approach to silencing ideas that
oppose the leftist orthodoxy so prevalent on college campuses."
SOURCE: Student Press Law Center, October 30, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067490002
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067490002
10. CHEMICAL INDUSTRY PR TO COUNTER HEALTH ACTIVISTS
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=1
Monique Harden and Nathalie Walker, two public interest lawyers,
report that they attended "the recent conference of the American
Chemistry Council (ACC), called 'Communicating in a Volatile
World.' ACC is the trade association for the 180 largest
manufacturers of chemicals in the U.S. Until recently, ACC was
known as the Chemical Manufacturers Association. The ACC conference
was a real eye-opener. It revealed the ACC's genuine fears about
the accomplishments of environmental health activists. In
particular, ACC communications staff and presenters at the
conference conceded that the work of coalitions like the
Collaborative on Health and the Environment and Health Care Without
Harm has effectively raised public awareness about the health
dangers of toxic chemicals in the environment and in consumer
products. They also concluded that the success of these coalitions
is due to their diversity of members and supporters who include
community groups, environmental justice organizations, health
professionals, and researchers who focus on body burden and
low-dose chemical exposures, shareholder/investment institutions,
and consumers. Here are the salient details of the various
presentations at the conference..."
SOURCE: Rachel's Environment & Health News, October 30, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067490001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067490001
11. PUFFERY FOR PUFF DADDY
http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1030klores.htm
Dan Klores Communications, a PR firm that specializes in "crisis
communications" for clients embroiled in scandals, is representing
Sean ("P. Diddy") Combs, the artist formerly known as "Puff Daddy,"
as he faces criticism for the use of sweatshop labor to manufacture
his clothing line. "The National Labor Committee, the organization
which targeted Kathy Lee Gifford with similar charges eight years
ago, this week released a report detailing forced overtime without
pay, mandatory pregnancy tests and other 'systematic human and
worker rights violations' at a factory which producesarticles for
Combs' 'Sean John' line," reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Combs has
been a long-time client of Klores, which encouraged him to carry a
Bible to court during his 2001 trial for illegal gun possession in
connection with a nightclub shooting. The PR firm has also
represented Combs at other embarrassing moments such as his 2002
legal battle with an ex-girlfriend over child support for their
infant son. Other Klores clients have included Britney Spears, Mike
Tyson and Lizzie Grubman.
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, October 30, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067490000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067490000
12. ARSON ATTACK ON PEACE ACTIVISTS
http://www.progressive.org/mcwatch03/mc102903.html
Cindy Hunter and her husband, Sam Nickels, opposed Bush's war
against Iraq and put a sign on their front porch showing the number
of Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers who have been wounded or
killed thus far in the war. An anonymous arson responded by setting
fire to the sign, endangering their lives and causing an estimated
$50,000 in damages to their home. This incident is only one of
dozens that the Progressive magazine lists on its "McCarthyism
Watch," which monitors "the New McCarthyism that is sweeping the
country."
SOURCE: Progressive, October 29, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067403602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067403602
13. FOX GETS THE MEMO
http://poynter.org/forum/?id=letters#foxnews
Charlie Reina, a former producer for Fox News, has posted a letter
to the Poynter Institute's online journalism forum, explaining how
the network deliberately slants the news. "Editorially, the FNC
newsroom is under the constant control and vigilance of
management," he writes.†"The pressure ranges from subtle to
direct.† First of all, it's a news network run by one of the most
high-profile political operatives of recent times. ... The roots of
FNC's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in
the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each
morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often,
suggesting how they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel
responsible for the channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the
bible. If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem
to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo
is behind it."
SOURCE: Poynter Online Forums, October 29, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067403601
14. BUSH SEEKS SCAPEGOATS FOR 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED' STUNT
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/politics/29BANN.html?ex=1068435851&ei=1&en=a3423473eff9af7f
As the propaganda that led America to attack Iraq continues to fall
apart, President Bush is looking for scapegoats for his own PR
stunts. "The triumphal 'Mission Accomplished' banner was the pride
of the White House advance team, the image makers who set the stage
for the president's close-ups. On May 1, on a golden Pacific
evening aboard the carrier Abraham Lincoln, they made sure that the
banner was perfectly captured in the camera shots of President
Bush's speech declaring major combat in Iraq at an end. But on
Tuesday in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush publicly disavowed the
banner... 'I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious
advance man from my staff. They weren't that ingenious, by the
way.' ... The banner 'was suggested by those on the ship,' [Bush
press secretary Scotty McClellan] said. 'They asked us to do the
production of the banner, and we did. They're the ones who put it
up.' The man responsible for the banner, Scott Sforza, a former ABC
producer now with the White House communications office, was
traveling overseas on Tuesday and declined to answer questions. He
is known for the production of the sophisticated backdrops that
appear behind Mr. Bush with the White House message of the day,
like 'Helping Small Business,' repeated over and over." On May 16th
the New York Times reported that "White House officials say that a
variety of people, including the president" came up with the
carrier landing stunt. We wonder, is that super-sexy flight suit
President Bush wore on its way to the Smithsonian, or the shredder?
SOURCE: New York Times, October 22, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067403600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067403600
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to
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It is emailed free each Wednesday to subscribers.
SHARE US WITH A FRIEND (OR FIFTY FRIENDS)
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
1. CBS Caves to Pressure, Dumps Reagan Movie
2. Media Reform Conference Begins Friday in Madison
3. Private Sector Takes On Public Diplomacy
4. Copyright vs. Democracy
5. Sheep's Clothing
6. 'By-Passing the Media Filter' on the Iraq War
7. Media Blackout on Local Issues
8. Raped By the Globe
9. Gay-Bashing Provocateurs
10. Chemical Industry PR to Counter Health Activists
11. Puffery for Puff Daddy
12. Arson Attack on Peace Activists
13. Fox Gets the Memo
14. Bush Seeks Scapegoats for 'Mission Accomplished' Stunt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. CBS CAVES TO PRESSURE, DUMPS REAGAN MOVIE
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/business/media/05TUBE.html?ex=1069002888&ei=1&en=2163c6474be84cfb
TV docu-dramas, such as this Sunday's red, white and blue Iraqi war
mythology Saving Private Lynch, always play fast and loose with the
facts, twisting reality into fiction for entertainment's sake. But
a much hyped CBS miniseries on Ronald Reagan drew the wrath of the
Right, and CBS has dumped the show. The New York Times reports that
"CBS executives ... denied they were capitulating to pressure from
Republicans and conservative groups in moving the 'The Reagans' to
the pay cable channel Showtime, a sister network at Viacom. The
decision, they argued, was instead 'a moral call,' reached after
concluding that the four-hour television movie carried a liberal
political agenda and treated the Reagans unfairly. ... On Oct. 28,
the Media Research Center ... wrote a letter to a list of 100 top
television sponsors urging them to 'refuse to associate your
products with this movie.' At around the same time Michael
Paranzino, a former Republican Congressional staff member from
Betheseda Md., decided to start a Web site called BoycottCBS.com.
... Last Friday, the Republican National Committee entered the
fray."
SOURCE: New York Times, November 5, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068008401
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068008401
2. MEDIA REFORM CONFERENCE BEGINS FRIDAY IN MADISON
http://www.mediareform.net/conference.php
Some 1,500 journalists, political reformers and citizens at large
are convening in our home town of Madison, Wisconsin, November 7th
- 9th for the National Conference on Media Reform. The conference
begins Friday with a 2pm panel featuring professor Nancy Snow,
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and our own John Stauber, co-author
of Weapons of Mass Deception. The dozens of speakers and performing
artists include Bill Moyers, Al Franken, members of the US House
and Senate, FCC Commissioners, John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, Ralph
Nader, Janine Jackson of FAIR, Billy Bragg and many more.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1068008400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1068008400
3. PRIVATE SECTOR TAKES ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=194146&site=3
As the US slips in international opinion polls, some private sector
imagemakers think its time to bolster Washington's public diplomacy
efforts, PR Week's Douglas Quenqua reports. "Keith Reinhard,
chairman of Omnicom ad firm DDB Worldwide, announced the formation
of the Task Force to Mobilize American Business for Public
Diplomacy, a collection of marketing and PR experts who've come
together to help American corporations improve America's image in
foreign lands." Reinhard's initial research showed that "the world
overwhelmingly shares the same four negative perceptions about US
companies: they exploit workers; they're a corrupting influence,
promoting values that are in conflict with local customs; they're
grossly insensitive and arrogant; and the practice
hyper-consumerism, increasing profits it the only priority." "I
looked at the data and I said, 'They're talking about companies and
brands that mean business to me. ... All these big multinational
companies, these are our clients,'" Reinhard told PR Week. "Our own
company gets 61% of our revenue from outside the US. So I thought
we could organize and address some of these perceptions."
SOURCE: PR Week, November 3, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835603
4. COPYRIGHT VS. DEMOCRACY
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1103-04.htm
"Diebold Election Systems, which makes voting machines, is waging
legal war against grass-roots advocates, including dozens of
college students, who are posting on the Internet copies of the
company's internal communications about its electronic voting
machines," reports John Schwartz. The company's attorneys have sent
letters threatening legal action against the students, who are
circulating "thousands of e-mail messages and memorandums dating to
March 2003 from January 1999 that include discussions of bugs in
Diebold's software and warnings that its computer network are
poorly protected against hackers." Questions are also being raised
about whether Diebold's voting machines can be trusted to deliver
an honest result. "Diebold has become a favorite target of
advocates who accuse it of partisanship," Schwartz states. "Company
executives have made large contributions to the Republican Party
and the chief executive, Walden W. O'Dell, said in an invitation to
a fund-raiser that he was 'committed to helping Ohio deliver its
electoral votes to the president next year.'"
SOURCE: New York Times, November 3, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835602
5. SHEEP'S CLOTHING
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9286
A group calling itself Partnership for the West (PFTW) was formally
unveiled in late October and aims to influence environmental
legislation in Washington. "The group plans to work on 'restoring a
common sense balance to economic growth and conservation in the
West,'" notes Bill Berkowitz, adding that this "sounds nice, until
you see who's behind it. Claiming to be a grassroots lobby group,
PFTW actually represents a kinder, gentler and more politically
savvy brand of anti-environmentalism. ... The group's members
number over a hundred, and include large interests in fossil fuel,
logging and mining industries. ... Partnership for the West grew
out of summit in Denver, Colorado, attended by elected officials,
corporate representatives and long-standing anti-environmental
organizations like the American Land Rights Association, the Blue
Ribbon Coalition, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, and People
for the USA. Its president, Jim Sims, is the former communications
director for the National Energy Policy Task Force - also known as
Cheney's secret panel - and helped craft the administration's
energy policy." According to Scott Silver, who heads a real
environmental group called Wild Wilderness, "These people are paid
lobbyists and public relations consultants serving the needs of
every imaginable sort of polluter, developer, resource extractor or
despoiler of the environment."
SOURCE: TomPaine.com, November 3, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1067835601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835601
6. 'BY-PASSING THE MEDIA FILTER' ON THE IRAQ WAR
http://www.truthuncovered.com/index.cfm?ms=alternet
As part of its PR strategy to 'by-pass the media filter' that it
claims is distorting public perception of the Iraq war with too
much negative reporting, the Bush administration has been granting
interviews to smaller, more friendly media. A 'media by-pass'
tactic of a different sort is being used by critics of the war who,
as we've documented in our book Weapons of Mass Deception, have
been locked out of mainstream media coverage. Alternet has
announced that "A provocative new DVD that documents how the Bush
Administration exaggerated the threat of Iraq, debuts today.
Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald,
"Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War" takes you behind
the scenes, as CIA, Pentagon and foreign service experts speak out
and reveal the lies, misstatements and exaggerations that the Bush
administration used to deceive the public." Word of the DVD is
"going to millions of MoveOn members, Nation subscribers, Working
Assets customers, and others as part of an unprecedented,
simultaneous effort to bypass the film and media gatekeepers and
take the information directly to the people."
SOURCE: Alternet, November 3, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html#1067835600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067835600
7. MEDIA BLACKOUT ON LOCAL ISSUES
http://www.bettercampaigns.org/press/release.php?ReleaseID=50
Local public affairs shows account for less than one half of one
percent of all programming on local television stations, according
to a study released by the Alliance for Better Campaigns.
"Broadcasters have relegated local public-affairs programming to
the very bottom of the heap - behind cartoons, kitchenware
specials, reruns, courtroom dramas, dating shows and late-night
talk shows," reports Jennifer Harper. "The analysis found, for
example, that there were three times as many 'Seinfeld' reruns as
local public-affairs shows on TV stations nationwide. There were
four times as many cartoon shows, seven times as many pro football
games, nine times as many dating shows, 19 times as many late-night
talk shows, 20 times as many courtroom dramas and 23 times as many
soap operas."
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067830733
8. RAPED BY THE GLOBE
http://salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/10/31/kobe/index.html
The Globe, a tabloid newspaper, is running a titillating photograph
of alleged rapist Kobe Bryant's accuser at her high school prom.
"In it, the woman is lifting up her prom dress to reveal a garter
belt," notes Rebecca Traister. "The headline reads: 'Kobe Bryant's
Accuser: Did she really say no?' Next to the photo, in half-inch
type, is the 19-year-old woman's name." Traister interviewed
journalism professors and magazine editors who are shocked by the
Globe's decision. "It is misogynistic and truly exploitative to try
to get big sales off of identifying an alleged rape victim," said
Us Weekly's editor in chief Janice Min. "Was a woman dressed
inappropriately? Did she ask for it? Is a sexy woman more likely to
get raped than a non-sexy woman? These are the anachronistic,
horrible ideas that come up because of a cover like that. Morally,
it's wrong."
SOURCE: Salon.com, October 31, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067576400
9. GAY-BASHING PROVOCATEURS
http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=702
A gay-bashing, right wing student newspaper at Roger Williams
University in Rhode Island offers a fresh example of the
conservative media's strategy of "publicizing censorship of their
papers" so they can "cast themselves as the little guy up against
the leftist establishment." The Hawk's Right Eye provoked the
university administration into clamping down by running nasty
attacks on Judy Shepard, whose son was beaten to death in Texas for
being gay. After Shepard spoke on campus, HRE accused her of
"preying on students' emotions and naivety" [sic] so that she could
become "a mascot for the homosexual agenda." Now that the
university has established a "publications and broadcast review
committee" and is considering revoking HRE's funding, national
conservative groups have swarmed to its defense, complaining of
"harassment" and "a heavy-handed approach to silencing ideas that
oppose the leftist orthodoxy so prevalent on college campuses."
SOURCE: Student Press Law Center, October 30, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067490002
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067490002
10. CHEMICAL INDUSTRY PR TO COUNTER HEALTH ACTIVISTS
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=1
Monique Harden and Nathalie Walker, two public interest lawyers,
report that they attended "the recent conference of the American
Chemistry Council (ACC), called 'Communicating in a Volatile
World.' ACC is the trade association for the 180 largest
manufacturers of chemicals in the U.S. Until recently, ACC was
known as the Chemical Manufacturers Association. The ACC conference
was a real eye-opener. It revealed the ACC's genuine fears about
the accomplishments of environmental health activists. In
particular, ACC communications staff and presenters at the
conference conceded that the work of coalitions like the
Collaborative on Health and the Environment and Health Care Without
Harm has effectively raised public awareness about the health
dangers of toxic chemicals in the environment and in consumer
products. They also concluded that the success of these coalitions
is due to their diversity of members and supporters who include
community groups, environmental justice organizations, health
professionals, and researchers who focus on body burden and
low-dose chemical exposures, shareholder/investment institutions,
and consumers. Here are the salient details of the various
presentations at the conference..."
SOURCE: Rachel's Environment & Health News, October 30, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067490001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067490001
11. PUFFERY FOR PUFF DADDY
http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1030klores.htm
Dan Klores Communications, a PR firm that specializes in "crisis
communications" for clients embroiled in scandals, is representing
Sean ("P. Diddy") Combs, the artist formerly known as "Puff Daddy,"
as he faces criticism for the use of sweatshop labor to manufacture
his clothing line. "The National Labor Committee, the organization
which targeted Kathy Lee Gifford with similar charges eight years
ago, this week released a report detailing forced overtime without
pay, mandatory pregnancy tests and other 'systematic human and
worker rights violations' at a factory which producesarticles for
Combs' 'Sean John' line," reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Combs has
been a long-time client of Klores, which encouraged him to carry a
Bible to court during his 2001 trial for illegal gun possession in
connection with a nightclub shooting. The PR firm has also
represented Combs at other embarrassing moments such as his 2002
legal battle with an ex-girlfriend over child support for their
infant son. Other Klores clients have included Britney Spears, Mike
Tyson and Lizzie Grubman.
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, October 30, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067490000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067490000
12. ARSON ATTACK ON PEACE ACTIVISTS
http://www.progressive.org/mcwatch03/mc102903.html
Cindy Hunter and her husband, Sam Nickels, opposed Bush's war
against Iraq and put a sign on their front porch showing the number
of Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers who have been wounded or
killed thus far in the war. An anonymous arson responded by setting
fire to the sign, endangering their lives and causing an estimated
$50,000 in damages to their home. This incident is only one of
dozens that the Progressive magazine lists on its "McCarthyism
Watch," which monitors "the New McCarthyism that is sweeping the
country."
SOURCE: Progressive, October 29, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067403602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067403602
13. FOX GETS THE MEMO
http://poynter.org/forum/?id=letters#foxnews
Charlie Reina, a former producer for Fox News, has posted a letter
to the Poynter Institute's online journalism forum, explaining how
the network deliberately slants the news. "Editorially, the FNC
newsroom is under the constant control and vigilance of
management," he writes.†"The pressure ranges from subtle to
direct.† First of all, it's a news network run by one of the most
high-profile political operatives of recent times. ... The roots of
FNC's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in
the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each
morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often,
suggesting how they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel
responsible for the channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the
bible. If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem
to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo
is behind it."
SOURCE: Poynter Online Forums, October 29, 2003
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067403601
14. BUSH SEEKS SCAPEGOATS FOR 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED' STUNT
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/politics/29BANN.html?ex=1068435851&ei=1&en=a3423473eff9af7f
As the propaganda that led America to attack Iraq continues to fall
apart, President Bush is looking for scapegoats for his own PR
stunts. "The triumphal 'Mission Accomplished' banner was the pride
of the White House advance team, the image makers who set the stage
for the president's close-ups. On May 1, on a golden Pacific
evening aboard the carrier Abraham Lincoln, they made sure that the
banner was perfectly captured in the camera shots of President
Bush's speech declaring major combat in Iraq at an end. But on
Tuesday in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush publicly disavowed the
banner... 'I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious
advance man from my staff. They weren't that ingenious, by the
way.' ... The banner 'was suggested by those on the ship,' [Bush
press secretary Scotty McClellan] said. 'They asked us to do the
production of the banner, and we did. They're the ones who put it
up.' The man responsible for the banner, Scott Sforza, a former ABC
producer now with the White House communications office, was
traveling overseas on Tuesday and declined to answer questions. He
is known for the production of the sophisticated backdrops that
appear behind Mr. Bush with the White House message of the day,
like 'Helping Small Business,' repeated over and over." On May 16th
the New York Times reported that "White House officials say that a
variety of people, including the president" came up with the
carrier landing stunt. We wonder, is that super-sexy flight suit
President Bush wore on its way to the Smithsonian, or the shredder?
SOURCE: New York Times, October 22, 2003
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/October_2003.html#1067403600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1067403600
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Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Sunday, November 02, 2003
FRANK RICH
So Much for 'The Front Page'
Published: November 2, 2003
PITY, though not too deeply, the American press. Once the wisecracking truth seekers of "The Front Page" and the brave gumshoes of "All the President's Men," the fourth estate has fallen into such cultural disfavor that it risks being renamed the fifth estate, if not the sixth. Hollywood no longer depicts reporters in ruthless pursuit of criminals, high and low. Now they are the criminals.
In the past month alone, television's reigning dramatic franchise, "Law and Order," has resourcefully squeezed two shows out of the Jayson Blair scandal. In one, an African-American reporter on "The New York Sentinel" (not to be confused with The New York Times because it's on East 43rd Street, not West) literally commits murder. In last Sunday's "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," it's another Sentinel reporter who gets caught up in murder, only this time it's his father who is the killer. The motive? To try to prevent the unmasking of his son as a plagiarist and fabricator who wrote a story about oyster fishermen in Louisiana without leaving Brooklyn. How did this reporter get hired by The Sentinel in the first place? He was the darling of a white, diversity-minded editor best known for his memoir about the black housekeeper of his childhood.
"You guys are rising to the top of America's most despised list," says Detective Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) to a Sentinel hack. Hey, Lennie — we're already there! For further confirmation, there is "Shattered Glass," this weekend's new movie about The New Republic's own Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, who wrote dozens of fictionalized stories before being exposed. Anyone searching for an altruistic reporter on a movie screen had better run instead to "Veronica Guerin," a Hollywood project that had to go to Ireland to find a journalist to root for, and posthumously at that. But run fast. Though the movie's producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, has a shrewd eye for mass taste, this one proved dead on arrival at the box office. These days a film about a truth-seeking newshound strikes audiences as more ridiculous than "Gigli."
"Shattered Glass," a study in smarminess in which even the honest journalists come across as pretentious brats, is unlikely to draw crowds either. It's handsomely made and decently acted, especially by Hayden Christensen, who plays the creepy title character as if he were the smarter kid brother of Anthony Perkins's obsequiously androgynous Norman Bates in "Psycho." But the movie as a whole seems an irrelevancy. While the press deserves some of the rancor coming its way, there's a gaping disconnect between a Hollywood critique like "Shattered Glass" and the news media's more distressing ailments.
In a production note for the movie, its writer-director, Billy Ray, observes: "When people can no longer believe what they read, their only choices will be to either turn to television for their daily news or to stop seeking out news entirely. Either path, I think, is a very dangerous one for this country." Where has Mr. Ray been since "Network"? Most people have long ago turned to TV for their daily news, and many no longer believe what they read. One of the most disturbing revelations of the Blair scandal was that few subjects of his bogus stories, Jessica Lynch's family included, called The Times to complain about his fictions. They just assumed that reporters make stuff up.
The likes of a Glass and a Blair are true embarrassments to their peers. But the larger culture in which they thrived has done more longterm damage to the press than these individual transgressors, however notorious. "The standard for journalism used to be, `What's the best obtainable version of the truth?' " Carl Bernstein said when I asked him how the profession has changed since the Watergate era. "Now we're living in a celebrity culture that no longer values truth more than hype. You have to go back to what was great about the movie of `All the President's Men.' It was not about the characters of Bob and me. There's not a woman in our lives in it; it's not about us at all. It's about the process of good journalism: methodical, empirical, not very glamorous, hard-slogging reporting. Now journalism is as infected by the celebrity culture as every other institution."
"Shattered Glass" does show that its ambitious villain was less turned on by being a reporter than by being a Somebody worthy of a Pulitzer (though apparently no one told him that Pulitzers are not awarded to magazine writers). But more often the movie doesn't puncture so much as perpetuate the star-worshipping celebrity culture that attracts a Glass. "Shattered Glass" is as pompous about The New Republic as its fictionalized New Republic staffers are, portraying the publication as the biggest thing to be handed down from on high since the Ten Commandments. As one oft-repeated line of dialogue has it, The New Republic is "the in-flight magazine of Air Force One," an inflated claim to glamour that the magazine has never made for itself. The movie even opportunistically wraps itself in the tragic celebrity of the former New Republic editor Michael Kelly, by invoking his death in the war in Iraq in the final credits. Mr. Kelly was covering the war for The Atlantic; in the movie proper, his actual role in the Glass saga, while still at The New Republic in the 1990's, is substantially fictionalized and downsized.
The atmosphere that pervades high-end journalism now can be better seen in an incident that occurred while the movie was being completed than in the movie itself. When the real Stephen Glass went on "60 Minutes" this year to push his own autobiographical novel about the scandal, Charles Lane, the New Republic editor who published a number of his fictions before finally nailing him, criticized him for cashing in. "I guess that's the way America works these days," he said. He knew whereof he spoke. Days later Variety reported that Mr. Lane was working as a paid consultant to "Shattered Glass."
Funnier than "Shattered Glass," though just as indicative of how embedded the news media have become in the celebrity whirl, is "K Street," the Steven Soderbergh fiction-meets-reality series that really must be seen before HBO puts it out of its misery. It should be seen not because it succeeds in its stated purpose, which is to dramatize the Washington "process," but because with Andy Warhol-like candor it shows you a bit more than you want to know in its snapshots of the capital's players.
Though the program's most substantive story line seems to be the charting of Mary Matalin's escalating display of fashion-victim couture, Washington reporters cannot resist going on camera to play "themselves." In one installment, a character dismisses Time as a magazine that "nobody reads beyond the cover" not long before an actual Time columnist, Joe Klein, shows up in a cameo. He embraces Ms. Matalin on the street and offers her private p.r. advice — a vignette that mainly lends credence to the show's insulting characterization of Time while simultaneously reinforcing the public's impression that reporters have been co-opted by rubbing too many shoulders at the Palm.
Almost as weird was the "K Street" appearance by Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post media critic, who then invited the show's executive producer, George Clooney, to be a guest last Sunday on his own CNN show, "Reliable Sources." (Both HBO and CNN are owned by Time Warner.) In their conversation, Mr. Clooney complimented Mr. Kurtz's acting; then both men expressed their bemusement that Matt Drudge had had the audacity to refuse to appear on "K Street." I never thought I'd say this, but could Drudge be the last guy covering Washington who has any sense of dignity?
The antics on "K Street" are innocuous, heaven knows, but the show's recruitment of reputable, even distinguished journalists as actors tells us more about the news media than the case studies of the rookie malefactors in "Law and Order" and "Shattered Glass." Young con men like Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass are not the primary cause of the public's disenchantment with the news media. Their fictionalized stories, largely features, did not cause any lasting damage to the world beyond that inflicted on the credibility of the publications for which they worked.
If anything, history may judge that a far bigger blot on The Times's reputation than Mr. Blair is Walter Duranty, who won a 1932 Pulitzer Prize as a foreign correspondent in the Soviet Union. His willful shilling for Stalin went uncorrected for years. (He is also a blot on the history of the Pulitzer Board itself, which, in keeping with journalism's new haste to rectify even its old sins, is now weighing a belated revocation of Duranty's prize.) By all accounts, Duranty, like Mr. Glass and Mr. Blair, was an ambitious self-promoter infatuated with the limelight. But his capital journalistic crime, hiding the truth about a Ukraine famine that killed millions, offers a much darker picture of where this corruption can lead than the relative misdemeanors of his successors.
The public, like Lennie Briscoe on "Law and Order," gets the drift. It sees too many reporters showboating Geraldo-style on camera, whether on "K Street" or in the middle of hurricanes, catastrophic fires and wars. They see a famous columnist reveal the name of a C.I.A. agent and never say he's sorry. They see news media less preoccupied with the news than with boosting their own status in the entertainment firmament that now literally owns most of them.
In this vein, CNN's Christiane Amanpour recently criticized the wartime press, her own network included, for muzzling itself during the war in Iraq and not asking "enough questions, for instance, about weapons of mass destruction." She attributes this lapse in part to the need to compete with the ostentatiously gung-ho Fox in a more important war — for ratings. In the book "Embedded," a new oral history of journalists in Iraq, the Times correspondent John Burns talks about the "corruption in our business" when describing how fellow reporters cozied up to Saddam Hussein, minimizing his regime's atrocities before the war much as Duranty did Stalin's. Next to these real-life scenarios, an exposé of journalistic sins like "Shattered Glass" seems like a valentine. No wonder The New Republic itself co-sponsored a celebrity screening last week to promote it in Washington.
So Much for 'The Front Page'
Published: November 2, 2003
PITY, though not too deeply, the American press. Once the wisecracking truth seekers of "The Front Page" and the brave gumshoes of "All the President's Men," the fourth estate has fallen into such cultural disfavor that it risks being renamed the fifth estate, if not the sixth. Hollywood no longer depicts reporters in ruthless pursuit of criminals, high and low. Now they are the criminals.
In the past month alone, television's reigning dramatic franchise, "Law and Order," has resourcefully squeezed two shows out of the Jayson Blair scandal. In one, an African-American reporter on "The New York Sentinel" (not to be confused with The New York Times because it's on East 43rd Street, not West) literally commits murder. In last Sunday's "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," it's another Sentinel reporter who gets caught up in murder, only this time it's his father who is the killer. The motive? To try to prevent the unmasking of his son as a plagiarist and fabricator who wrote a story about oyster fishermen in Louisiana without leaving Brooklyn. How did this reporter get hired by The Sentinel in the first place? He was the darling of a white, diversity-minded editor best known for his memoir about the black housekeeper of his childhood.
"You guys are rising to the top of America's most despised list," says Detective Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) to a Sentinel hack. Hey, Lennie — we're already there! For further confirmation, there is "Shattered Glass," this weekend's new movie about The New Republic's own Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, who wrote dozens of fictionalized stories before being exposed. Anyone searching for an altruistic reporter on a movie screen had better run instead to "Veronica Guerin," a Hollywood project that had to go to Ireland to find a journalist to root for, and posthumously at that. But run fast. Though the movie's producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, has a shrewd eye for mass taste, this one proved dead on arrival at the box office. These days a film about a truth-seeking newshound strikes audiences as more ridiculous than "Gigli."
"Shattered Glass," a study in smarminess in which even the honest journalists come across as pretentious brats, is unlikely to draw crowds either. It's handsomely made and decently acted, especially by Hayden Christensen, who plays the creepy title character as if he were the smarter kid brother of Anthony Perkins's obsequiously androgynous Norman Bates in "Psycho." But the movie as a whole seems an irrelevancy. While the press deserves some of the rancor coming its way, there's a gaping disconnect between a Hollywood critique like "Shattered Glass" and the news media's more distressing ailments.
In a production note for the movie, its writer-director, Billy Ray, observes: "When people can no longer believe what they read, their only choices will be to either turn to television for their daily news or to stop seeking out news entirely. Either path, I think, is a very dangerous one for this country." Where has Mr. Ray been since "Network"? Most people have long ago turned to TV for their daily news, and many no longer believe what they read. One of the most disturbing revelations of the Blair scandal was that few subjects of his bogus stories, Jessica Lynch's family included, called The Times to complain about his fictions. They just assumed that reporters make stuff up.
The likes of a Glass and a Blair are true embarrassments to their peers. But the larger culture in which they thrived has done more longterm damage to the press than these individual transgressors, however notorious. "The standard for journalism used to be, `What's the best obtainable version of the truth?' " Carl Bernstein said when I asked him how the profession has changed since the Watergate era. "Now we're living in a celebrity culture that no longer values truth more than hype. You have to go back to what was great about the movie of `All the President's Men.' It was not about the characters of Bob and me. There's not a woman in our lives in it; it's not about us at all. It's about the process of good journalism: methodical, empirical, not very glamorous, hard-slogging reporting. Now journalism is as infected by the celebrity culture as every other institution."
"Shattered Glass" does show that its ambitious villain was less turned on by being a reporter than by being a Somebody worthy of a Pulitzer (though apparently no one told him that Pulitzers are not awarded to magazine writers). But more often the movie doesn't puncture so much as perpetuate the star-worshipping celebrity culture that attracts a Glass. "Shattered Glass" is as pompous about The New Republic as its fictionalized New Republic staffers are, portraying the publication as the biggest thing to be handed down from on high since the Ten Commandments. As one oft-repeated line of dialogue has it, The New Republic is "the in-flight magazine of Air Force One," an inflated claim to glamour that the magazine has never made for itself. The movie even opportunistically wraps itself in the tragic celebrity of the former New Republic editor Michael Kelly, by invoking his death in the war in Iraq in the final credits. Mr. Kelly was covering the war for The Atlantic; in the movie proper, his actual role in the Glass saga, while still at The New Republic in the 1990's, is substantially fictionalized and downsized.
The atmosphere that pervades high-end journalism now can be better seen in an incident that occurred while the movie was being completed than in the movie itself. When the real Stephen Glass went on "60 Minutes" this year to push his own autobiographical novel about the scandal, Charles Lane, the New Republic editor who published a number of his fictions before finally nailing him, criticized him for cashing in. "I guess that's the way America works these days," he said. He knew whereof he spoke. Days later Variety reported that Mr. Lane was working as a paid consultant to "Shattered Glass."
Funnier than "Shattered Glass," though just as indicative of how embedded the news media have become in the celebrity whirl, is "K Street," the Steven Soderbergh fiction-meets-reality series that really must be seen before HBO puts it out of its misery. It should be seen not because it succeeds in its stated purpose, which is to dramatize the Washington "process," but because with Andy Warhol-like candor it shows you a bit more than you want to know in its snapshots of the capital's players.
Though the program's most substantive story line seems to be the charting of Mary Matalin's escalating display of fashion-victim couture, Washington reporters cannot resist going on camera to play "themselves." In one installment, a character dismisses Time as a magazine that "nobody reads beyond the cover" not long before an actual Time columnist, Joe Klein, shows up in a cameo. He embraces Ms. Matalin on the street and offers her private p.r. advice — a vignette that mainly lends credence to the show's insulting characterization of Time while simultaneously reinforcing the public's impression that reporters have been co-opted by rubbing too many shoulders at the Palm.
Almost as weird was the "K Street" appearance by Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post media critic, who then invited the show's executive producer, George Clooney, to be a guest last Sunday on his own CNN show, "Reliable Sources." (Both HBO and CNN are owned by Time Warner.) In their conversation, Mr. Clooney complimented Mr. Kurtz's acting; then both men expressed their bemusement that Matt Drudge had had the audacity to refuse to appear on "K Street." I never thought I'd say this, but could Drudge be the last guy covering Washington who has any sense of dignity?
The antics on "K Street" are innocuous, heaven knows, but the show's recruitment of reputable, even distinguished journalists as actors tells us more about the news media than the case studies of the rookie malefactors in "Law and Order" and "Shattered Glass." Young con men like Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass are not the primary cause of the public's disenchantment with the news media. Their fictionalized stories, largely features, did not cause any lasting damage to the world beyond that inflicted on the credibility of the publications for which they worked.
If anything, history may judge that a far bigger blot on The Times's reputation than Mr. Blair is Walter Duranty, who won a 1932 Pulitzer Prize as a foreign correspondent in the Soviet Union. His willful shilling for Stalin went uncorrected for years. (He is also a blot on the history of the Pulitzer Board itself, which, in keeping with journalism's new haste to rectify even its old sins, is now weighing a belated revocation of Duranty's prize.) By all accounts, Duranty, like Mr. Glass and Mr. Blair, was an ambitious self-promoter infatuated with the limelight. But his capital journalistic crime, hiding the truth about a Ukraine famine that killed millions, offers a much darker picture of where this corruption can lead than the relative misdemeanors of his successors.
The public, like Lennie Briscoe on "Law and Order," gets the drift. It sees too many reporters showboating Geraldo-style on camera, whether on "K Street" or in the middle of hurricanes, catastrophic fires and wars. They see a famous columnist reveal the name of a C.I.A. agent and never say he's sorry. They see news media less preoccupied with the news than with boosting their own status in the entertainment firmament that now literally owns most of them.
In this vein, CNN's Christiane Amanpour recently criticized the wartime press, her own network included, for muzzling itself during the war in Iraq and not asking "enough questions, for instance, about weapons of mass destruction." She attributes this lapse in part to the need to compete with the ostentatiously gung-ho Fox in a more important war — for ratings. In the book "Embedded," a new oral history of journalists in Iraq, the Times correspondent John Burns talks about the "corruption in our business" when describing how fellow reporters cozied up to Saddam Hussein, minimizing his regime's atrocities before the war much as Duranty did Stalin's. Next to these real-life scenarios, an exposé of journalistic sins like "Shattered Glass" seems like a valentine. No wonder The New Republic itself co-sponsored a celebrity screening last week to promote it in Washington.
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