Hi we were talking about voice a few weeks ago. Here is a rather difficult part of an article from The New Yorker magazine by by LOUIS MENAND about voice that is worth reading:
One of the most mysterious of writing’s immaterial properties is what people call “voice.” Editors sometimes refer to it, in a phrase that underscores the paradox at the heart of the idea, as “the voice on the page.” Prose can show many virtues, including originality, without having a voice. It may avoid cliché, radiate conviction, be grammatically so clean that your grandmother could eat off it. But none of this has anything to do with this elusive entity the “voice.” There are probably all kinds of literary sins that prevent a piece of writing from having a voice, but there seems to be no guaranteed technique for creating one. Grammatical correctness doesn’t insure it. Calculated incorrectness doesn’t, either. Ingenuity, wit, sarcasm, euphony, frequent outbreaks of the first-person singular—any of these can enliven prose without giving it a voice. You can set the stage as elaborately as you like, but either the phantom appears or it doesn’t.
When it does appear, the subject is often irrelevant. “I do not care for movies very much and I rarely see them,” W. H. Auden wrote to the editors of The Nation in 1944. “Further, I am suspicious of criticism as the literary genre which, more than any other, recruits epigones, pedants without insight, intellectuals without love. I am all the more surprised, therefore, to find myself not only reading Mr. Agee before I read anyone else in The Nation but also consciously looking forward all week to reading him again.” A lot of the movies that James Agee reviewed between 1942 and 1948, when he was The Nation’s film critic, were negligible then and are forgotten now. But you can still read his columns with pleasure. They continue to pass the ultimate test of good writing: it is more painful to stop reading them than it is to keep going. When you get to the end of Agee’s sentences, you wish, like Auden, that there were more sentences.
Writing that has a voice is writing that has something like a personality. But whose personality is it? As with all art, there is no straight road from the product back to the producer. There are writers loved for their humor who are not funny people, and writers admired for their eloquence who swallow their words, never look you in the eye, and can’t seem to finish a sentence. Wisdom on the page correlates with wisdom in the writer about as frequently as a high batting average correlates with a high I.Q.: they just seem to have very little to do with one another. Witty and charming people can produce prose of sneering sententiousness, and fretful neurotics can, to their readers, seem as though they must be delightful to live with. Personal drabness, through some obscure neural kink, can deliver verbal blooms. Readers who meet a writer whose voice they have fallen in love with usually need to make a small adjustment afterward in order to hang on to the infatuation.
The uncertainty about what it means for writing to have a voice arises from the metaphor itself. Writers often claim that they never write something that they would not say. It is hard to know how this could be literally true. Speech is somatic, a bodily function, and it is accompanied by physical inflections—tone of voice, winks, smiles, raised eyebrows, hand gestures—that are not reproducible in writing. Spoken language is repetitive, fragmentary, contradictory, limited in vocabulary, loaded down with space holders (“like,” “um,” “you know”)—all the things writing teachers tell students not to do. And yet people can generally make themselves understood right away. As a medium, writing is a million times weaker than speech. It’s a hieroglyph competing with a symphony.
The other reason that speech is a bad metaphor for writing is that writing, for ninety-nine per cent of people who do it, is the opposite of spontaneous. Some writers write many drafts of a piece; some write one draft, at the pace of a snail after a night on the town. But chattiness, slanginess, in-your-face-ness, and any other features of writing that are conventionally characterized as “like speech” are usually the results of laborious experimentation, revision, calibration, walks around the block, unnecessary phone calls, and recalibration. Writers, by nature, tend to be people in whom l’esprit de l’escalier is a recurrent experience: they are always thinking of the perfect riposte after the moment for saying it has passed. So they take a few years longer and put it in print. Writers are not mere copyists of language; they are polishers, embellishers, perfecters. They spend hours getting the timing right—so that what they write sounds completely unrehearsed.
Does this mean that the written “voice” is never spontaneous and natural but always an artificial construction of language? This is not a proposition that most writers could accept. The act of writing is personal; it feels personal. The unfunny person who is a humorous writer does not think, of her work, “That’s not really me.” Critics speak of “the persona,” a device for compelling, in the interests of licensing the interpretative impulse, a divorce between author and text. But no one, or almost no one, writes “as a persona.” People write as people, and if there were nothing personal about the result few human beings would try to manufacture it for a living. Composition is a troublesome, balky, sometimes sleep-depriving business. What makes it especially so is that the rate of production is beyond the writer’s control. You have to wait, and what you are waiting for is something inside you to come up with the words. That something, for writers, is the voice.
A better basis than speaking for the metaphor of voice in writing is singing. You can’t tell if someone can sing or not from the way she talks, and although “natural phrasing” and “from the heart” are prized attributes of song, singing that way requires rehearsal, preparation, and getting in touch with whatever it is inside singers that, by a neural kink or the grace of God, enables them to turn themselves into vessels of musical sound. Truss is right (despite what she preaches) when she implies, by her own practice, that the rules really don’t have that much to do with it. Before Luciano Pavarotti walked onstage at the opera house, he was in the habit of taking a bite of an apple. That’s how he helped his voice to sound spontaneous and natural.
What writers hear when they are trying to write is something more like singing than like speaking. Inside your head, you’re yakking away to yourself all the time. Getting that voice down on paper is a depressing experience. When you write, you’re trying to transpose what you’re thinking into something that is less like an annoying drone and more like a piece of music. This writing voice is the voice that people are surprised not to encounter when they “meet the writer.” The writer is not so surprised. Writers labor constantly under the anxiety that this voice, though they have found it a hundred times before, has disappeared forever, and that they will never hear it again. Some writers, when they begin a new piece, spend hours rereading their old stuff, trying to remember how they did it, what it’s supposed to sound like. This rarely works; nothing works reliably. Sooner or later, usually later than everyone involved would have preferred, the voice shows up, takes a bite of the apple, and walks onstage.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Where is the Sudan? Read this and guess. Then find out were it is and check it out. Why is this happening there? This is your assignment for this week. What would be the resons for this to happen there and now? Find some outside sources like the U.N. and CIA sites on countries. Good Luck. See you on Thur. Clark
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Another Problem From Hell
By John HeffernanThe American Prospect. Posted July 3, 2004.
A human-rights expert who has witnessed the persecution in Darfur insists that genocide is occuring. A dispatch from Sudan.
Thirty-five-year-old Azine (not her real name) is still in shock at what happened to her in Western Darfur, Sudan, four months ago. One morning, soldiers entered her village, burned her house, and forced her to flee with her four children. She and her family now live in a refugee camp in Farchana, Chad, in a tent provided by the United Nations. On a recent day at the camp, she described what happened to her in the Sudan:
"At around 5 a.m., helicopters and Sudanese military Antonovs circled the village," she said. Later, four men wearing Sudanese military uniforms entered her house and took all her property, then set the house on fire.
"My husband had fled first for fear that he might be killed," she continued, describing what appears to be a common pattern among Darfurian villagers attacked over the last several months. As the men in the village get wind of impending attacks, they flee at once – knowing that they will be killed if they stay – leaving the women and children behind. The male villagers know that the women will be raped, but probably not killed. That is, unless they resist.
Of the 300 families from this village, about 25 people were killed and about 15 wounded. Azine's sister ran away from the attackers and was shot and killed, along with her 3-year-old daughter.
Since early 2003, tens of thousands of Sudanese citizens of African descent who live in the Darfur region have been systematically killed, raped, and displaced as their villages have been destroyed. Through coordinated land and air attacks; the burning of homes and crops; the rounding up of livestock; the destruction of wells, granaries, and irrigation works; the uprooting of trees; and the theft of all possessions, the government of Sudan and the government-supported Arab militia, Janjaweed, have displaced more than 1 million people.
Thousands are now wandering the drought-stricken, barren landscape, while tens of thousands are reportedly being held in prison enclaves in cities and villages throughout Darfur. An additional 200,000 Darfurians have crossed the eastern border of Sudan, seeking refuge in Chad, as Azine did after her village was destroyed.
For several months, experts from humanitarian and human-rights groups and the United Nations have predicted that tens of thousands of internally displaced persons in Sudan will die unless they receive major international humanitarian support. According to some reports, the early stages of those grim predictions have already been realized.
In May 2004, as part of a Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) emergency investigation, in partnership with the Open Society Institute's Justice Initiative, I arrived in this region along the Chadian-Sudanese border to assess human-rights and humanitarian law violations of the Darfur civilians and the risk of morbidity and mortality among the refugees driven from their homes in that region.
Jennifer Leaning, a physician who teaches a course in humanitarian emergencies, and I spent two weeks traveling extensively throughout eastern Chad. We traversed several thousand kilometers in order to assess the situation and to conduct interviews with refugees in camps and in other places along the Chadian-Sudanese border. We wanted to gather testimony from refugees who came from different parts of Darfur about the timing, nature, and targets of the attacks, to collect information on the attacking forces and the way they pursued villagers and local Sudanese to the border of Chad.
We recorded dozens of refugee testimonies that indigenous African civilians – primarily from the Fur, Masilit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups – are being targeted by the Sudanese government and its Arab-Janjaweed militia because of their ethnicity. There is ample evidence to indicate that an organized campaign on the part of the Sudanese government is under way, targeting several million people from this region of the country either by killing them or forcing them to migrate. Without an immediate and concerted international intervention, a substantial part of the targeted group may be eliminated. Current predictions from governmental and nongovernmental sources suggest that the toll could be between 300,000 and 1 million if a robust intervention does not occur.
PHR is calling the forcible removal of black African Darfurians from their land, the total destruction of villages and livelihood, and the deliberate obstruction of aid indicators of genocide that warrant immediate intervention. An intervention, ideally backed by a UN Security Council resolution – which supports the protection of humanitarian supply lines, disarms the militia groups, ensures the cessation of violence and a withdrawal of Sudanese government forces in Darfur, allows for the safe return of internally displaced persons and refugees to their land, and provides human-rights monitors – is necessary. Simultaneously, PHR calls on the United States to ramp up its humanitarian assistance and to impose targeted sanctions on Sudanese government officials (including freezing assets and access to U.S. capital markets). In addition, PHR is discovering signs of genocide that may put international agencies and other countries under an obligation to act to prevent and punish the perpetrators.
The Bush administration has been a leading force on the UN Security Council on matters concerning Darfur, but it has not determined that genocide has taken place. In addition, the Bush administration has been unwilling to push for a UN resolution seeking an intervention.
The administration should take a harder position with the Khartoum government, including support for a UN Security Council resolution that calls for intervention under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Its current approach may be the result of the administration's concern about jeopardizing the long-awaited peace-signing process that would end the decades-long war between the Arab north and the Christian south. Talks between the Sudanese government and rebels from the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) will soon take place in Naivasha, Kenya, focusing on security and a permanent ceasefire – as well as possible autonomy for the South. Moreover, the Iraq conflict may have taken its toll on U.S. diplomatic efforts elsewhere.
Without a more robust response to the crisis in Darfur, thousands will perish inside Sudan and refugees like Azine will continue to languish in refugee camps with little hope of returning home anytime soon. What's at stake here is enormous and clear: a moral obligation by the United States and the international community to prevent another genocide from occurring under their watch.
Copyright © 2004 by The American Prospect, Inc. Preferred Citation: John Heffernan, "Another Problem From Hell", The American Prospect Online, Jun 30, 2004. This article may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the author. Direct questions about permissions to permissions@prospect.org.
John Heffernan, who has worked in Khartoum, Sudan, documenting persecution stories of Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees, is a senior communications associate for Physicians for Human Rights. He lives in Washington, D.C
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Dave Zirin
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Peter Y. Sussman
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Another Problem From Hell
By John HeffernanThe American Prospect. Posted July 3, 2004.
A human-rights expert who has witnessed the persecution in Darfur insists that genocide is occuring. A dispatch from Sudan.
Thirty-five-year-old Azine (not her real name) is still in shock at what happened to her in Western Darfur, Sudan, four months ago. One morning, soldiers entered her village, burned her house, and forced her to flee with her four children. She and her family now live in a refugee camp in Farchana, Chad, in a tent provided by the United Nations. On a recent day at the camp, she described what happened to her in the Sudan:
"At around 5 a.m., helicopters and Sudanese military Antonovs circled the village," she said. Later, four men wearing Sudanese military uniforms entered her house and took all her property, then set the house on fire.
"My husband had fled first for fear that he might be killed," she continued, describing what appears to be a common pattern among Darfurian villagers attacked over the last several months. As the men in the village get wind of impending attacks, they flee at once – knowing that they will be killed if they stay – leaving the women and children behind. The male villagers know that the women will be raped, but probably not killed. That is, unless they resist.
Of the 300 families from this village, about 25 people were killed and about 15 wounded. Azine's sister ran away from the attackers and was shot and killed, along with her 3-year-old daughter.
Since early 2003, tens of thousands of Sudanese citizens of African descent who live in the Darfur region have been systematically killed, raped, and displaced as their villages have been destroyed. Through coordinated land and air attacks; the burning of homes and crops; the rounding up of livestock; the destruction of wells, granaries, and irrigation works; the uprooting of trees; and the theft of all possessions, the government of Sudan and the government-supported Arab militia, Janjaweed, have displaced more than 1 million people.
Thousands are now wandering the drought-stricken, barren landscape, while tens of thousands are reportedly being held in prison enclaves in cities and villages throughout Darfur. An additional 200,000 Darfurians have crossed the eastern border of Sudan, seeking refuge in Chad, as Azine did after her village was destroyed.
For several months, experts from humanitarian and human-rights groups and the United Nations have predicted that tens of thousands of internally displaced persons in Sudan will die unless they receive major international humanitarian support. According to some reports, the early stages of those grim predictions have already been realized.
In May 2004, as part of a Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) emergency investigation, in partnership with the Open Society Institute's Justice Initiative, I arrived in this region along the Chadian-Sudanese border to assess human-rights and humanitarian law violations of the Darfur civilians and the risk of morbidity and mortality among the refugees driven from their homes in that region.
Jennifer Leaning, a physician who teaches a course in humanitarian emergencies, and I spent two weeks traveling extensively throughout eastern Chad. We traversed several thousand kilometers in order to assess the situation and to conduct interviews with refugees in camps and in other places along the Chadian-Sudanese border. We wanted to gather testimony from refugees who came from different parts of Darfur about the timing, nature, and targets of the attacks, to collect information on the attacking forces and the way they pursued villagers and local Sudanese to the border of Chad.
We recorded dozens of refugee testimonies that indigenous African civilians – primarily from the Fur, Masilit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups – are being targeted by the Sudanese government and its Arab-Janjaweed militia because of their ethnicity. There is ample evidence to indicate that an organized campaign on the part of the Sudanese government is under way, targeting several million people from this region of the country either by killing them or forcing them to migrate. Without an immediate and concerted international intervention, a substantial part of the targeted group may be eliminated. Current predictions from governmental and nongovernmental sources suggest that the toll could be between 300,000 and 1 million if a robust intervention does not occur.
PHR is calling the forcible removal of black African Darfurians from their land, the total destruction of villages and livelihood, and the deliberate obstruction of aid indicators of genocide that warrant immediate intervention. An intervention, ideally backed by a UN Security Council resolution – which supports the protection of humanitarian supply lines, disarms the militia groups, ensures the cessation of violence and a withdrawal of Sudanese government forces in Darfur, allows for the safe return of internally displaced persons and refugees to their land, and provides human-rights monitors – is necessary. Simultaneously, PHR calls on the United States to ramp up its humanitarian assistance and to impose targeted sanctions on Sudanese government officials (including freezing assets and access to U.S. capital markets). In addition, PHR is discovering signs of genocide that may put international agencies and other countries under an obligation to act to prevent and punish the perpetrators.
The Bush administration has been a leading force on the UN Security Council on matters concerning Darfur, but it has not determined that genocide has taken place. In addition, the Bush administration has been unwilling to push for a UN resolution seeking an intervention.
The administration should take a harder position with the Khartoum government, including support for a UN Security Council resolution that calls for intervention under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Its current approach may be the result of the administration's concern about jeopardizing the long-awaited peace-signing process that would end the decades-long war between the Arab north and the Christian south. Talks between the Sudanese government and rebels from the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) will soon take place in Naivasha, Kenya, focusing on security and a permanent ceasefire – as well as possible autonomy for the South. Moreover, the Iraq conflict may have taken its toll on U.S. diplomatic efforts elsewhere.
Without a more robust response to the crisis in Darfur, thousands will perish inside Sudan and refugees like Azine will continue to languish in refugee camps with little hope of returning home anytime soon. What's at stake here is enormous and clear: a moral obligation by the United States and the international community to prevent another genocide from occurring under their watch.
Copyright © 2004 by The American Prospect, Inc. Preferred Citation: John Heffernan, "Another Problem From Hell", The American Prospect Online, Jun 30, 2004. This article may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the author. Direct questions about permissions to permissions@prospect.org.
John Heffernan, who has worked in Khartoum, Sudan, documenting persecution stories of Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees, is a senior communications associate for Physicians for Human Rights. He lives in Washington, D.C
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Friday, May 21, 2004
THIS MAY BE ONE OF THE BIG - BIG STORIES IN JAPAN OVER THE NEXT FEW MILLENIUM.
Doubt cast on nuclear recycling policy
Plans to reprocess spent fuel opposed on grounds of danger, cost
AOMORI (Kyodo) Doubt has been cast on Japan's atomic fuel recycling policy, with lawmakers of the ruling parties calling for changes to the nation's long-term plan for nuclear power development.
Central to the debate is the plan to reprocess all spent nuclear fuel in order to obtain plutonium for reuse as a fuel, industry sources said.
Taro Kono, a House of Representatives member of the Liberal Democratic Party, told a meeting of citizens here on May 8, "Let's stop and deepen the nationwide debate."
Kono, the son of House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, advocated the postponement of a uranium test to confirm the ability of a plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
The reprocessing plant, which is being built by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. with investment from electric power companies, is the pillar of Japan's nuclear fuel recycling policy, but the work has been delayed due to construction problems.
The plant was originally scheduled to open in 2005 but is now scheduled to start operating in 2006.
Kono's remark has sparked controversy because the Aomori governor and other officials have repeatedly asked the central government to continue with existing plans.
Japan already has a stockpile of 33 tons of plutonium obtained by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel overseas, as well as 5.4 tons of plutonium extracted at home.
There are numerous problems with using plutonium as a fuel. It is one of the world's most toxic substances and is the raw material used to make atomic bombs.
The largest consumers of plutonium would be high-speed breeder reactors, but these reactors have been plagued with trouble across the globe.
A massive leak of sodium coolant at the the Monju fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, in 1995 forced a suspension of operations. It remains unclear when, if ever, it will restart.
Under the so-called pluthermal (plutonium thermal) project to burn plutonium at conventional nuclear power plants, 16 to 18 plants were to be converted by 2010.
However, there is a long way to go before Kansai, the Kyushu and Shikoku Electric Power companies can reach this goal, industry sources said.
Even if the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho starts operating, its annual reprocessing capacity will be 800 tons, compared with the 1,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that comes from domestic nuclear power stations annually.
An interim storage facility is scheduled to be built in order to hold the spent nuclear fuel until the completion of a second reprocessing plant.
But there is little likelihood the plan will be carried out.
"We have no intention whatsoever to build a second reprocessing plant," said an executive of an electric power company.
According to an estimate by the Federation of Electric Power Companies, the cost of reprocessing at the Rokkasho plant, including the disposal of radioactive waste, would be 18.8 trillion yen.
Industry sources said it is quite natural for electric power companies, facing challenges as a result of deregulation, to rethink the building of a second plant.
There are calls to bury the spent fuel underground instead, as is the case in the United States.
The government's Atomic Power Commission will create a forum next month to review the long-term plan over a period of one year, sources said.
The Japan Times: May 21, 2004
(C) All rights reserved
Doubt cast on nuclear recycling policy
Plans to reprocess spent fuel opposed on grounds of danger, cost
AOMORI (Kyodo) Doubt has been cast on Japan's atomic fuel recycling policy, with lawmakers of the ruling parties calling for changes to the nation's long-term plan for nuclear power development.
Central to the debate is the plan to reprocess all spent nuclear fuel in order to obtain plutonium for reuse as a fuel, industry sources said.
Taro Kono, a House of Representatives member of the Liberal Democratic Party, told a meeting of citizens here on May 8, "Let's stop and deepen the nationwide debate."
Kono, the son of House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, advocated the postponement of a uranium test to confirm the ability of a plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
The reprocessing plant, which is being built by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. with investment from electric power companies, is the pillar of Japan's nuclear fuel recycling policy, but the work has been delayed due to construction problems.
The plant was originally scheduled to open in 2005 but is now scheduled to start operating in 2006.
Kono's remark has sparked controversy because the Aomori governor and other officials have repeatedly asked the central government to continue with existing plans.
Japan already has a stockpile of 33 tons of plutonium obtained by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel overseas, as well as 5.4 tons of plutonium extracted at home.
There are numerous problems with using plutonium as a fuel. It is one of the world's most toxic substances and is the raw material used to make atomic bombs.
The largest consumers of plutonium would be high-speed breeder reactors, but these reactors have been plagued with trouble across the globe.
A massive leak of sodium coolant at the the Monju fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, in 1995 forced a suspension of operations. It remains unclear when, if ever, it will restart.
Under the so-called pluthermal (plutonium thermal) project to burn plutonium at conventional nuclear power plants, 16 to 18 plants were to be converted by 2010.
However, there is a long way to go before Kansai, the Kyushu and Shikoku Electric Power companies can reach this goal, industry sources said.
Even if the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho starts operating, its annual reprocessing capacity will be 800 tons, compared with the 1,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that comes from domestic nuclear power stations annually.
An interim storage facility is scheduled to be built in order to hold the spent nuclear fuel until the completion of a second reprocessing plant.
But there is little likelihood the plan will be carried out.
"We have no intention whatsoever to build a second reprocessing plant," said an executive of an electric power company.
According to an estimate by the Federation of Electric Power Companies, the cost of reprocessing at the Rokkasho plant, including the disposal of radioactive waste, would be 18.8 trillion yen.
Industry sources said it is quite natural for electric power companies, facing challenges as a result of deregulation, to rethink the building of a second plant.
There are calls to bury the spent fuel underground instead, as is the case in the United States.
The government's Atomic Power Commission will create a forum next month to review the long-term plan over a period of one year, sources said.
The Japan Times: May 21, 2004
(C) All rights reserved
Read this one carefully! The reporter uses a lot of maybe's and migh be's. However if the government does work a deal which allows the N. Korean ship to enter Japan on a special case basis the government has joined in a conspiracy to commit a crime which means that you go to jail for doing it. Do you want a criminal for a P.M.?
Harassment of Korean residents may come up in Koizumi-Kim talks
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi might express concern over the harassment of Korean residents in Japan that followed North Korea's admission in 2002 that it had abducted Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, government sources said Thursday.
By expressing such concerns during his Saturday meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Koizumi apparently hopes to show that he takes the matter seriously. The move is an apparent attempt to soften Pyongyang's stance on pending bilateral issues.
He might also tell Kim that if the family members of five repatriated abductees are allowed to leave North Korea for Japan, the government would not invoke an envisioned law that would allow it to ban the port entry of certain ships, particularly those from North Korea, the sources said.
The bill is apparently aimed at the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92, which travels between Japan and North Korea. Police suspect it is involved in espionage and other illegal activities.
A government source said North Korea "suspects Japan does not really intend to normalize bilateral ties" because anti-North Korea sentiment among Japanese heightened after the five abductees were allowed to return to Japan in October 2002.
Koizumi might say he intends to address the harassment problem, while strongly urging Kim to allow the abductees' families go to Japan and provide more information on other missing Japanese.
Some in the government have urged that the harassment problem be treated separately from the abduction issue, and that steps be taken to prevent further harassment.
The pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) said it received about 300 reports of harassment against students of pro-Pyongyang schools in the week after North Korea owned up to the abductions at the 2002 landmark summit between Koizumi and Kim.
Jenkins a problem
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ryozo Kato said Wednesday that Japan must work to find a solution to the case of Charles Robert Jenkins, who faces court-martial for desertion by the U.S. if North Korea allows him to come to Japan.
Jenkins is married to freed Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga.
At the same time, however, Kato told reporters that the United States will also have to take legal action against Jenkins under military law.
"The current situation does not allow me to tell how the issue will develop," he said.
Jenkins, 64, whose 45-year-old wife is one of five Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in 1978 and repatriated to Japan in 2002, remains in North Korea with the couple's two daughters.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Pyongyang on Saturday to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in the hope of securing the passage to Japan of the repatriated abductees' kin.
If Jenkins comes to Japan, the U.S. government is expected to ask Tokyo to hand him over for court-martial. Japan has been asking the United States to give Jenkins "special consideration," including a pardon.
On Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage described Jenkins' case as "very sensitive."
Media muzzle sought
The five Japanese repatriated after being abducted to North Korea asked media organizations Thursday to refrain from reporting on their family members if they come to Japan from North Korea.
They filed the request with the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan, and the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, saying they do not want their eight family members to participate in news conferences "until they understand the circumstances they are placed in."
The Japan Times: May 21, 2004
Harassment of Korean residents may come up in Koizumi-Kim talks
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi might express concern over the harassment of Korean residents in Japan that followed North Korea's admission in 2002 that it had abducted Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, government sources said Thursday.
By expressing such concerns during his Saturday meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Koizumi apparently hopes to show that he takes the matter seriously. The move is an apparent attempt to soften Pyongyang's stance on pending bilateral issues.
He might also tell Kim that if the family members of five repatriated abductees are allowed to leave North Korea for Japan, the government would not invoke an envisioned law that would allow it to ban the port entry of certain ships, particularly those from North Korea, the sources said.
The bill is apparently aimed at the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92, which travels between Japan and North Korea. Police suspect it is involved in espionage and other illegal activities.
A government source said North Korea "suspects Japan does not really intend to normalize bilateral ties" because anti-North Korea sentiment among Japanese heightened after the five abductees were allowed to return to Japan in October 2002.
Koizumi might say he intends to address the harassment problem, while strongly urging Kim to allow the abductees' families go to Japan and provide more information on other missing Japanese.
Some in the government have urged that the harassment problem be treated separately from the abduction issue, and that steps be taken to prevent further harassment.
The pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) said it received about 300 reports of harassment against students of pro-Pyongyang schools in the week after North Korea owned up to the abductions at the 2002 landmark summit between Koizumi and Kim.
Jenkins a problem
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ryozo Kato said Wednesday that Japan must work to find a solution to the case of Charles Robert Jenkins, who faces court-martial for desertion by the U.S. if North Korea allows him to come to Japan.
Jenkins is married to freed Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga.
At the same time, however, Kato told reporters that the United States will also have to take legal action against Jenkins under military law.
"The current situation does not allow me to tell how the issue will develop," he said.
Jenkins, 64, whose 45-year-old wife is one of five Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in 1978 and repatriated to Japan in 2002, remains in North Korea with the couple's two daughters.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Pyongyang on Saturday to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in the hope of securing the passage to Japan of the repatriated abductees' kin.
If Jenkins comes to Japan, the U.S. government is expected to ask Tokyo to hand him over for court-martial. Japan has been asking the United States to give Jenkins "special consideration," including a pardon.
On Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage described Jenkins' case as "very sensitive."
Media muzzle sought
The five Japanese repatriated after being abducted to North Korea asked media organizations Thursday to refrain from reporting on their family members if they come to Japan from North Korea.
They filed the request with the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan, and the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, saying they do not want their eight family members to participate in news conferences "until they understand the circumstances they are placed in."
The Japan Times: May 21, 2004
Thursday, May 20, 2004
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20 May 2004
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD GEEKS: Grist seeks an IT systems specialist and a production coordinator.
1.
JUSTICE OF THE GREENPEACE
Federal Case Against Greenpeace Thrown Out of Court
The U.S. government's unusual criminal suit against Greenpeace USA was rather unceremoniously booted from federal court yesterday by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan. In a rare "directed verdict," the judge found the group not guilty midway through the trial, after the prosecution had presented its case but before the group's lawyers presented any defense. The case revolved around two members of Greenpeace who boarded a ship near the Port of Miami-Dade to protest its load of Amazonian mahogany. In a highly atypical move, government prosecutors sought to indict not just the individual protesters but the group itself under an obscure 1872 law -- not enforced in over a century -- that prohibits "sailor mongering," or boarding ships in an attempt to lure sailors ashore to brothels and bars. Because the decision did not go to jury, the government cannot appeal. The case, said Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando, "showed the extent to which the government will go to criminalize free speech.'"
straight to the source: The Miami Herald, Jay Weaver, 20 May 2004
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 19 May 2004
2.
SURVIVAL OF THE WEAKEST
Humans Affecting Evolution of Other Species
Lay scientists tend to think of evolution as a glacially slow process, with changes measured in hundreds of thousands of years, not decades. However, growing collaboration between ecologists and evolutionary biologists is highlighting a phenomenon called "contemporary evolution" -- and it ain't pretty. Turns out, by culling the largest, healthiest, and most robust specimens from a species, human beings can precipitate a sort of rapid devolution, an evolutionary trend toward smaller, weaker populations that works over generations, not centuries. The phenomenon can be observed across the animal world -- for example, hunters have left mountain sheep in Alberta, Canada, shrinking, along with their horns -- but it is particularly perspicuous in the world's fisheries. Some scientists trace the precipitous decline of the cod population to fishing practices that value the largest fish; the result has been a population of fish that mature earlier and smaller, are unable to produce robust offspring, and lack the genetic diversity to breed their way out of trouble. Researchers recommend a broad rethinking of practices for protecting endangered species and managing wildlife habitats, fisheries, and hunting ranges.
straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Peter N. Spotts, 20 May 2004
3.
SECURITY BLANKET
Environmental Security Starting to Get Attention
On the list of security threats facing the world's nations -- nuclear proliferation, terrorism, neoconservatives -- the environment deserves a place near the top, say a growing number of experts. Climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, and the like can lead to conflict over scarce resources and to massive waves of migration. Geoffrey Dabelko -- director of the Environmental Change and Security Project and an all-around brainy guy -- attended the recent Hague Conference on Environment, Security, and Sustainable Development, where a group of folks mainly from wealthy nations discussed troubled transatlantic relations and possibilities for environmental rapprochement. And for another perspective, he followed it up with a meeting at the U.N. Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, where developing countries stressed that many of their environmental-security problems were the result of deleterious Western industrial and trade policies. Dabelko wrote some thought-provoking reports on the proceedings in Dispatches -- today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: Geoffrey Dabelko journals on environmental security -- in Dispatches
4.
404 ERROR: FAILURE TO RECYCLE
Computer Manufacturers Get Low Grades on Recycling
Computer makers' environmental programs generally stink, though U.S. companies -- particularly Dell and Hewlett-Packard -- are better than most, says an annual report released yesterday by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an enviro group based in San Jose, Calif. No company is recycling more than 2 percent of its products -- products chock-full of lead, polyvinyl chloride, mercury, and other hazardous materials -- a statistic which coalition director Ted Smith called "pathetic." Coalition researchers singled out Dell for particular praise. The company, which received terrible scores on last year's report, has stopped using prison labor to recycle products and launched a new recycling campaign. A number of states are considering bills that would make manufacturers responsible, to some extent at least, for electronics recycling.
straight to the source: MSNBC, Associated Press, 20 May 2004
straight to the source: The New York Times, Laurie J. Flynn, 19 May 2004
see also, in Grist: Control-Alt-Recycle -- tips on greener computing -- in Earthly Possessions
5.
THE LAWN AND SHORT OF IT
Organic Lawn Care Taking Off
With the U.S. adding some 2 million acres of residential property a year, lawns are becoming a significant environmental issue. In addition to sucking up water -- the average lawn drinks about 10,000 gallons of water over and above rainfall, says the U.S. EPA -- lawns are frequently doused with fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that pollute groundwater, kill worms and other small creatures, and can slowly poison kids and pets. Add in gas-guzzling, pollutant-spewing mowers and those lawns aren't looking so green after all. Thankfully, organic lawn care is growing in popularity. Recently, a group of lawn-care and pesticide-industry groups joined enviros and the EPA to create the "Lawn and Environment Coalition," which in March unveiled the first-ever guidelines for eco-friendly lawn care. Although there are no federally established and enforced standards for what counts as organic -- a situation enviros lament -- many companies are coming out with lines of lawn-care products labeled as such. "Hybrid mowers, water-conserving sprinklers, and organic fertilizers are all potential gold mines for industry players," wrote industry analyst Don Montuori.
straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Mark Clayton, 20 May 2004
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Also in GRIST MAGAZINE:
Fowl play -- factory farms get sweetheart deal on air pollution from EPA -- in Muckraker
All bottled up -- bottled water flies off the shelves, but smart money is on filter systems -- by P.W. McRandle in Earthly Possessions
A tale of two mayors -- the improbable story of how Bogota, Colombia, became somewhere you might actually want to live -- in Main Dish
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DAILY GRIST
20 May 2004
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD GEEKS: Grist seeks an IT systems specialist and a production coordinator.
1.
JUSTICE OF THE GREENPEACE
Federal Case Against Greenpeace Thrown Out of Court
The U.S. government's unusual criminal suit against Greenpeace USA was rather unceremoniously booted from federal court yesterday by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan. In a rare "directed verdict," the judge found the group not guilty midway through the trial, after the prosecution had presented its case but before the group's lawyers presented any defense. The case revolved around two members of Greenpeace who boarded a ship near the Port of Miami-Dade to protest its load of Amazonian mahogany. In a highly atypical move, government prosecutors sought to indict not just the individual protesters but the group itself under an obscure 1872 law -- not enforced in over a century -- that prohibits "sailor mongering," or boarding ships in an attempt to lure sailors ashore to brothels and bars. Because the decision did not go to jury, the government cannot appeal. The case, said Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando, "showed the extent to which the government will go to criminalize free speech.'"
straight to the source: The Miami Herald, Jay Weaver, 20 May 2004
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 19 May 2004
2.
SURVIVAL OF THE WEAKEST
Humans Affecting Evolution of Other Species
Lay scientists tend to think of evolution as a glacially slow process, with changes measured in hundreds of thousands of years, not decades. However, growing collaboration between ecologists and evolutionary biologists is highlighting a phenomenon called "contemporary evolution" -- and it ain't pretty. Turns out, by culling the largest, healthiest, and most robust specimens from a species, human beings can precipitate a sort of rapid devolution, an evolutionary trend toward smaller, weaker populations that works over generations, not centuries. The phenomenon can be observed across the animal world -- for example, hunters have left mountain sheep in Alberta, Canada, shrinking, along with their horns -- but it is particularly perspicuous in the world's fisheries. Some scientists trace the precipitous decline of the cod population to fishing practices that value the largest fish; the result has been a population of fish that mature earlier and smaller, are unable to produce robust offspring, and lack the genetic diversity to breed their way out of trouble. Researchers recommend a broad rethinking of practices for protecting endangered species and managing wildlife habitats, fisheries, and hunting ranges.
straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Peter N. Spotts, 20 May 2004
3.
SECURITY BLANKET
Environmental Security Starting to Get Attention
On the list of security threats facing the world's nations -- nuclear proliferation, terrorism, neoconservatives -- the environment deserves a place near the top, say a growing number of experts. Climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, and the like can lead to conflict over scarce resources and to massive waves of migration. Geoffrey Dabelko -- director of the Environmental Change and Security Project and an all-around brainy guy -- attended the recent Hague Conference on Environment, Security, and Sustainable Development, where a group of folks mainly from wealthy nations discussed troubled transatlantic relations and possibilities for environmental rapprochement. And for another perspective, he followed it up with a meeting at the U.N. Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, where developing countries stressed that many of their environmental-security problems were the result of deleterious Western industrial and trade policies. Dabelko wrote some thought-provoking reports on the proceedings in Dispatches -- today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: Geoffrey Dabelko journals on environmental security -- in Dispatches
4.
404 ERROR: FAILURE TO RECYCLE
Computer Manufacturers Get Low Grades on Recycling
Computer makers' environmental programs generally stink, though U.S. companies -- particularly Dell and Hewlett-Packard -- are better than most, says an annual report released yesterday by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an enviro group based in San Jose, Calif. No company is recycling more than 2 percent of its products -- products chock-full of lead, polyvinyl chloride, mercury, and other hazardous materials -- a statistic which coalition director Ted Smith called "pathetic." Coalition researchers singled out Dell for particular praise. The company, which received terrible scores on last year's report, has stopped using prison labor to recycle products and launched a new recycling campaign. A number of states are considering bills that would make manufacturers responsible, to some extent at least, for electronics recycling.
straight to the source: MSNBC, Associated Press, 20 May 2004
straight to the source: The New York Times, Laurie J. Flynn, 19 May 2004
see also, in Grist: Control-Alt-Recycle -- tips on greener computing -- in Earthly Possessions
5.
THE LAWN AND SHORT OF IT
Organic Lawn Care Taking Off
With the U.S. adding some 2 million acres of residential property a year, lawns are becoming a significant environmental issue. In addition to sucking up water -- the average lawn drinks about 10,000 gallons of water over and above rainfall, says the U.S. EPA -- lawns are frequently doused with fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that pollute groundwater, kill worms and other small creatures, and can slowly poison kids and pets. Add in gas-guzzling, pollutant-spewing mowers and those lawns aren't looking so green after all. Thankfully, organic lawn care is growing in popularity. Recently, a group of lawn-care and pesticide-industry groups joined enviros and the EPA to create the "Lawn and Environment Coalition," which in March unveiled the first-ever guidelines for eco-friendly lawn care. Although there are no federally established and enforced standards for what counts as organic -- a situation enviros lament -- many companies are coming out with lines of lawn-care products labeled as such. "Hybrid mowers, water-conserving sprinklers, and organic fertilizers are all potential gold mines for industry players," wrote industry analyst Don Montuori.
straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Mark Clayton, 20 May 2004
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Also in GRIST MAGAZINE:
Fowl play -- factory farms get sweetheart deal on air pollution from EPA -- in Muckraker
All bottled up -- bottled water flies off the shelves, but smart money is on filter systems -- by P.W. McRandle in Earthly Possessions
A tale of two mayors -- the improbable story of how Bogota, Colombia, became somewhere you might actually want to live -- in Main Dish
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Sunday, May 16, 2004
I suggest you look at this complete article. This is an interesting Japanese case of human rights. See you on Tuesday. Clark
OPINION
=========================
Women, heritage and holy places
Imagine if women were not allowed to set foot on Mount Fuji or Kyoto's Mount Hiei. It's hard to envisage, isn't it? Women are as natural a sight there now as birds or stones -- or men. But little more than a century ago, it would have been hard to imagine them even approaching such places. A scholar at Kansai University's Institute of Human Rights Studies was quoted in this newspaper recently as saying that, before 1872, numerous sacred sites throughout Japan were off-limits to women, not just those two famous peaks. Yet since most such prohibitions were lifted by government fiat, women have done more than approach these venerable sites. They have walked and climbed and prayed there right along with men -- and behold, the sky has not fallen.
[MORE] ->
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ed20040516a1.htm
OPINION
=========================
Women, heritage and holy places
Imagine if women were not allowed to set foot on Mount Fuji or Kyoto's Mount Hiei. It's hard to envisage, isn't it? Women are as natural a sight there now as birds or stones -- or men. But little more than a century ago, it would have been hard to imagine them even approaching such places. A scholar at Kansai University's Institute of Human Rights Studies was quoted in this newspaper recently as saying that, before 1872, numerous sacred sites throughout Japan were off-limits to women, not just those two famous peaks. Yet since most such prohibitions were lifted by government fiat, women have done more than approach these venerable sites. They have walked and climbed and prayed there right along with men -- and behold, the sky has not fallen.
[MORE] ->
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ed20040516a1.htm
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Hi the following Newletter is sent out once a week and covers some of the underside of the news. You might want to subscribe to it to get leads on stories you are going to write. Just click subscribe and enter your e-mail address. See you next Tue. Clark
THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
1. Banana Appeal
2. The Mighty Windbags
3. False Dichotomies
4. Hummer Bummers
5. Counter-Attack of the Killer Clowns
6. Free the Press!
7. The Sound of One Invisible Hand Clapping
8. Torture, Brand America and the Bottom Line
9. Putting the Bold in Diebold
10. The Power of Pictures
11. Identity Crisis at SBC
12. Disinfopedia as Part of the Smart Mobs vs. Amway
13. Real Atrocities and Faked Photos
14. Drink Up
15. Don't Read This Over an American Hamburger
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. BANANA APPEAL
http://www.bananarepublicans.org
PR Watchers Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber have finished writing
their fifth book, Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning
America Into a One-Party State. It won't be in bookstores until
late May, but you can order it now online. You can also find
chapter summaries and an excerpt from the book on our new Banana
Republicans website. Plus, we've created a section on the
Disinfopedia where you can add your own analysis, research and
insights regarding the ideas in the book.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084334400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084334400
2. THE MIGHTY WINDBAGS
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/05/11/noise/
Salon.com has published an excerpt from former right-wing
journalist David Brock's new book, The Republican Noise Machine:
Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy. In an accompanying
interview, Brock talks about how the conservative media's "sets a
climate and helps set parameters and helps form impressions. ...
One significant problem is that people are in denial about the
impact of conservatives in the press. They dismiss something as one
story and don't think it will snowball. Liberals don't think these
people matter; they think they're crackpots. They may well be
crackpots, but they matter. There may be a slow learning curve
about understanding that."
SOURCE: Salon.com, May 11, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084248002
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084248002
3. FALSE DICHOTOMIES
http://thehill.com/news/051104/pows.aspx
U.S. prisoners of war during the first Gulf War "are criticizing
the Bush administration for fighting their compensation claims
while planning to compensate the Iraqi victims of abuse at Abu
Ghraib prison," reports The Hill. They're responding to Defense
Secretary Don Rumsfeld's remarks last week to the Senate Armed
Services Committee that he's "seeking a way to provide appropriate
compensation to those [Iraqi] detainees... one way or another." The
former U.S. POWs won a $1 billion settlement against the former
Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. But the Bush administration has
appealed the ruling, saying it "wants to avoid draining funds from
the new Iraqi government... the money is needed to help rebuild the
country."
SOURCE: The Hill, May 11, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084248001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084248001
4. HUMMER BUMMERS
http://news.findlaw.com/business/s/20040511/autoschryslerrecalldc.html
Chrysler "is recalling more than 326,000 pickup trucks and Durango
sport utility vehicles because of two potential safety problems,"
reports Reuters. Meanwhile, Hummer sales were down 21 percent in
April, possibly due in part to "rising gasoline prices." General
Motors is responding by "offering discounted financing on its
Hummer H2, the icon of the market for supersize sport-utility
vehicles," according to the Wall Street Journal. GM is also
offering dealer incentives "to move out bloated inventories of its
Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade big SUVs." Declaring,
"It's time we started taxing the sins of the 21st century," one
Texas lawmaker proposed taxing major air polluters, including
"power plants, SUV owners and coal-burning industries." The
proposal was made during an emergency legislative session on school
funding.
SOURCE: Reuters, May 11, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084248000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084248000
5. COUNTER-ATTACK OF THE KILLER CLOWNS
http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?site=3&ID=209884&site=3&/news/news_story.cfm&setcookie=1
As the anti-fast food documentary "Super Size Me" hits theaters,
McDonald's is fighting back. "We're responding aggressively because
the film is a gross misrepresentation," said a company
spokesperson. Helping defend McDonald's are "global nutritionist"
Cathy Kapica and the corporate-funded American Council on Science
and Health. According to PR Week, ACSH's "aggressive independent
third-party response" includes editorials on Tech Central Station,
a website published by Republican lobbyists. Also under attack is
Coca-Cola, for alleged "complicity in gross human rights
violations" in Colombia, reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. "We plan to
destroy the image of Coca-Cola, for which it has spent millions to
cultivate," said the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke's director. To
"get the facts to all concerned parties," the soft drink giant
launched www.cokefacts.org and www.killercoke.com -- the latter to
"capture" people seeking the Campaign's website,
www.killercoke.org.
SOURCE: PR Week, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161603
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161603
6. FREE THE PRESS!
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/05/10/ap_miss_newspaper_sue_over_tape_erasure/
The Associated Press and the Mississippi paper Hattiesburg American
filed a lawsuit "against the U.S. Marshals Service over an incident
in April in which a federal marshal erased reporters' recordings of
a speech Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave to high school
students" about the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit alleges the
marshal "violated due process and the constitutional protections
from unreasonable search and seizure." Saying "the government's
power is overwhelming," Associated Press President Tom Curley
announced plans to form a "media advocacy center to lobby in
Washington for open government." Curley said the Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Society of Professional
Journalists and others would be invited to help "seek better
statutory guarantees for more accessible government information."
SOURCE: Associated Press, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161602
7. THE SOUND OF ONE INVISIBLE HAND CLAPPING
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108414149947006210,00.html?mod=politics%5Fprimary%5Fhs
Jackie Calmes writes: "Over the past four years, Mr. Bush has swung
from free-market candidate to sometime-protectionist president and
back again." But lately, on the campaign trail, "he has re-emerged
as a full-throated free trader," even in "the most hotly contested
states... with the biggest job losses." Why? "Advisers have made
optimism a hallmark of the re-election campaign and argue that an
upbeat message trumps pessimism every time, even on trade and even
in hard-hit Midwestern manufacturing states." According to The
Hill, 37 House Republicans urged Commerce Secretary Don Evans "to
continue highlighting the many benefits of foreign-based companies
choosing to 'insource' work here in America." Industry groups
(including the Coalition for Employment through Exports) "are
leading an informal group formed to fend off outsourcing-related
measures" like Independent Bernie Sanders' Defending American Jobs
Act.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161601
8. TORTURE, BRAND AMERICA AND THE BOTTOM LINE
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&e=1&u=/ap/20040510/ap_on_re_eu/red_cross_prisoner_abuse
In its damning report, the Red Cross states that "physical and
psychological coercion were used by [U.S.] military intelligence in
a systematic way to gain confessions and extract information and
other forms of cooperation" from Iraqi detainees. But look on the
bright side: "American companies that sell globally say that they
have so far experienced little if any disruption from discontent
over the war in Iraq," reports The New York Times. "In a display of
the growing sophistication in marketing... many people see products
originating from the United States as firmly rooted in their own
home nations." But "one of the world's largest market research
organizations" found the opposite in their annual 30-country
survey: "Diminishing respect for American culture is having a
detrimental impact on American brands around the world."
SOURCE: Associated Press, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161600
9. PUTTING THE BOLD IN DIEBOLD
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/business/8625251.htm?1c
California's secretary of state said "they broke the law," called
their conduct "absolutely reprehensible," and banned their machines
in four counties, but maybe the news isn't all bad for e-voting
company Diebold Election Systems. "It could affect the stock for a
week or two," said corporate branding executive Clayton Tolley, but
"generally, it's a passing fad that will fade within six months."
Diebold spokesperson Mike Jacobsen pointed out "we're a
business-to-business firm... not a consumer company," so negative
public opinion doesn't hurt as much. To make sure, Diebold Election
Systems just hired a second national PR firm, Edward Howard & Co,
to work with Public Strategies Inc to boost the company's
reputation. Tolley also suggests the Diebold parent company
distance itself from Diebold Election Systems: "I'd try to insulate
the business units."
SOURCE: Akron Beacon Journal, May 9, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084075200
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084075200
10. THE POWER OF PICTURES
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/010346.shtml
"By many accounts, the horrible treatment of Iraqi prisoners by
U.S. soldiers and mercenaries has been going on ever since the end
of the invasion," notes Dan Gillmore. "The Red Cross warned U.S.
officials a year ago. Yet it took those appalling photographs to
turn this into the huge story that it's become. Which raises some
questions: Suppose the Americans hadn't bothered to take pictures
of each other in that infamous prison? Suppose they'd just gone on
abusing the prisoners without cameras? Does a story exist without
pictures?" And Tim Porter makes an interesting observation about
the vanishing role of the mass media in unearthing the story. "The
two biggest recent stories to emerge from the Iraq - the
administration's don't-show-don't-know policy toward the
photographing of military caskets and the puerile abuses by Army
reservists inside Abu Ghraib prison - were based on digital
photographs not made by journalists but by participants in both
stories." According to the Associated Press, this reflects "a
defining fact of 21st century life," as "the pervasiveness of
digital photography and the speed of the Internet make it easier to
see into dark corners previously out of reach for the mass media."
SOURCE: Dan Gillmor Journal, May 7, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083902400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083902400
11. IDENTITY CRISIS AT SBC
http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0506fleishman_sbc.htm
San Francisco Chronicle reporter David Lazarus is questioning
whether Marc Bien, who he interviewed as telecommunications giant
SBC's vice-president of corporate communications (as Bien's
business cards indicate) broke ethical guidelines when he neglected
to tell Lazarus that he's actually an employee of major PR firm
Fleishman-Hillard. Lazarus, who's covering a potential
Communication Workers of America strike at SBC, notes the irony
that the "SBC spokesman" he quoted "defending the company's use of
hundreds of outside contractors" is a "nonemployee" himself.
Fleishman-Hillard senior vice-president Ed Presberg said the firm
"acted ethically and appropriately.... It is no secret that some
F-H employees represent SBC. Many of the reporters who cover the
company are aware of it. We thought David was aware of it."
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, May 6, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083816001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083816001
12. DISINFOPEDIA AS PART OF THE SMART MOBS VS. AMWAY
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18605
"As Howard Rheingold, who literally wrote the book, Smart Mobs,
says: 'Civilizations jump in complexity whenever a threshold for
collective action is lowered. It's not just street protestors. It's
science, democracy, markets, the way people meet and mate, the way
people use cities and the way motor vehicles use roadways that are
affected ... when mobile communication and pervasive computing
enable new forms of collective action,'" Brad deGraf writes for
AlterNet. "'Wikis' have become the participatory writing tool of
choice, and have revolutionized online collaboration. The
Disinfopedia, from the folks at PR Watch, is an encyclopedia of
disinformation that anyone can add their two-cents to, using the
'Edit this Page' button on every page."
SOURCE: Alternet, May 6, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083816000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083816000
13. REAL ATROCITIES AND FAKED PHOTOS
http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/000762.php
The photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib are bad enough,
considering that possibly 25 prisoners have died while in American
custody. However, some faked photos are also circulating, including
pictures of an alleged rape by soldiers that were actually taken
from a porno site. Independent journalist Chris Albritton debunks
the fakes and criticizes a cavalier attitude toward the truth that
"seems to have taken hold in anti-war journalism as well. I have no
doubt there are horrible things going on, and that U.S. soldiers
are doing some of them," he writes. "But I'm unwilling to report on
them unless I can get some confirmation. ... Everyone involved in
this mess, including Arab journalists, needs to write as accurately
as possible because 'a lie gets halfway around the world before the
truth ever gets its boots on.' That's what's happened with the
alleged rape photos and people will die because of them. ...
[Websites] printing them when they admit they are not confirmed
should be ashamed of themselves."
SOURCE: Back to Iraq, May 5, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083729603
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083729603
14. DRINK UP
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/050504/Local/ST001.shtml
A grand jury report on groundwater contamination in Escambia
County, Florida, has been released charging that local, state and
federal agencies responsible for protecting the environment and
public health all failed to inform the public about industrial
contamination of the county's water supply, with the Conoco oil
company among the area's leading polluters. "The combined failure
meant thousands of residents were unaware that more than half of
the county's public water wells were laced with harmful
contaminants for an untold number of years," reports Steve Mraz,
noting that authorities were "more concerned about public relations
and financial impacts" of their decisions than "than the health,
safety and welfare consequences." As is often the case, the impetus
for cleanup came, not from government regulatory agencies, but from
Margaret Williams, a local grandmother turned activist, Margaret
Williams, and her organization, Citizens Against Toxic Exposure.
SOURCE: Pensacola New Journal, May 5, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083729602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083729602
15. DON'T READ THIS OVER AN AMERICAN HAMBURGER
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/05/DDGFL6EUPN1.DTL
Recently the Center's John Stauber had lunch with journalist Laurel
Wellman to discuss the Center's prescient 1997 book by Stauber and
Sheldon Rampton, Mad Cow USA. The resulting column in today's San
Francisco Chronicle notes that in the month after December's
discovery of a mad cow in Washington state, 80,000 people
downloaded Mad Cow USA for free off of our website. Meanwhile, the
US government continues to cover-up the threat of mad cow in
America. For instance, on the meat-industry website
meatingplace.com, reporter Dan Yovich today breaks the outrageous,
shocking news that a United States Department of Agriculture
official ordered that a suspected Texas mad cow NOT be tested for
the disease. Instead, it was sent to a rendering plant and
destroyed, probably to become food for other animals, which is how
the disease is spread.
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, May 5, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083729601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083729601
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at PR Watch.
To subscribe or unsubcribe, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html
Daily updates and news from past weeks can be found at the
Spin of the Day" section of the PR Watch website:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html
Archives of our quarterly publication, PR Watch, are at:
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues
PR Watch, Spin of the Day and the Weekly Spin are projects
of the Center for Media & Democracy, a nonprofit organization
that offers investigative reporting on the public relations
industry. We help the public recognize manipulative and
misleading PR practices by exposing the activities of
secretive, little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that
work to control political debates and public opinion.
Please send any questions or suggestions about our
publications to:
editor@prwatch.org
Contributions to the Center for Media & Democracy
are tax-deductible. Send checks to:
CMD
520 University Ave. #310
Madison, WI 53703
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_______________________________________________
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THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
1. Banana Appeal
2. The Mighty Windbags
3. False Dichotomies
4. Hummer Bummers
5. Counter-Attack of the Killer Clowns
6. Free the Press!
7. The Sound of One Invisible Hand Clapping
8. Torture, Brand America and the Bottom Line
9. Putting the Bold in Diebold
10. The Power of Pictures
11. Identity Crisis at SBC
12. Disinfopedia as Part of the Smart Mobs vs. Amway
13. Real Atrocities and Faked Photos
14. Drink Up
15. Don't Read This Over an American Hamburger
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. BANANA APPEAL
http://www.bananarepublicans.org
PR Watchers Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber have finished writing
their fifth book, Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning
America Into a One-Party State. It won't be in bookstores until
late May, but you can order it now online. You can also find
chapter summaries and an excerpt from the book on our new Banana
Republicans website. Plus, we've created a section on the
Disinfopedia where you can add your own analysis, research and
insights regarding the ideas in the book.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084334400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084334400
2. THE MIGHTY WINDBAGS
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/05/11/noise/
Salon.com has published an excerpt from former right-wing
journalist David Brock's new book, The Republican Noise Machine:
Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy. In an accompanying
interview, Brock talks about how the conservative media's "sets a
climate and helps set parameters and helps form impressions. ...
One significant problem is that people are in denial about the
impact of conservatives in the press. They dismiss something as one
story and don't think it will snowball. Liberals don't think these
people matter; they think they're crackpots. They may well be
crackpots, but they matter. There may be a slow learning curve
about understanding that."
SOURCE: Salon.com, May 11, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084248002
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084248002
3. FALSE DICHOTOMIES
http://thehill.com/news/051104/pows.aspx
U.S. prisoners of war during the first Gulf War "are criticizing
the Bush administration for fighting their compensation claims
while planning to compensate the Iraqi victims of abuse at Abu
Ghraib prison," reports The Hill. They're responding to Defense
Secretary Don Rumsfeld's remarks last week to the Senate Armed
Services Committee that he's "seeking a way to provide appropriate
compensation to those [Iraqi] detainees... one way or another." The
former U.S. POWs won a $1 billion settlement against the former
Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. But the Bush administration has
appealed the ruling, saying it "wants to avoid draining funds from
the new Iraqi government... the money is needed to help rebuild the
country."
SOURCE: The Hill, May 11, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084248001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084248001
4. HUMMER BUMMERS
http://news.findlaw.com/business/s/20040511/autoschryslerrecalldc.html
Chrysler "is recalling more than 326,000 pickup trucks and Durango
sport utility vehicles because of two potential safety problems,"
reports Reuters. Meanwhile, Hummer sales were down 21 percent in
April, possibly due in part to "rising gasoline prices." General
Motors is responding by "offering discounted financing on its
Hummer H2, the icon of the market for supersize sport-utility
vehicles," according to the Wall Street Journal. GM is also
offering dealer incentives "to move out bloated inventories of its
Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade big SUVs." Declaring,
"It's time we started taxing the sins of the 21st century," one
Texas lawmaker proposed taxing major air polluters, including
"power plants, SUV owners and coal-burning industries." The
proposal was made during an emergency legislative session on school
funding.
SOURCE: Reuters, May 11, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084248000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084248000
5. COUNTER-ATTACK OF THE KILLER CLOWNS
http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?site=3&ID=209884&site=3&/news/news_story.cfm&setcookie=1
As the anti-fast food documentary "Super Size Me" hits theaters,
McDonald's is fighting back. "We're responding aggressively because
the film is a gross misrepresentation," said a company
spokesperson. Helping defend McDonald's are "global nutritionist"
Cathy Kapica and the corporate-funded American Council on Science
and Health. According to PR Week, ACSH's "aggressive independent
third-party response" includes editorials on Tech Central Station,
a website published by Republican lobbyists. Also under attack is
Coca-Cola, for alleged "complicity in gross human rights
violations" in Colombia, reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. "We plan to
destroy the image of Coca-Cola, for which it has spent millions to
cultivate," said the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke's director. To
"get the facts to all concerned parties," the soft drink giant
launched www.cokefacts.org and www.killercoke.com -- the latter to
"capture" people seeking the Campaign's website,
www.killercoke.org.
SOURCE: PR Week, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161603
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161603
6. FREE THE PRESS!
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/05/10/ap_miss_newspaper_sue_over_tape_erasure/
The Associated Press and the Mississippi paper Hattiesburg American
filed a lawsuit "against the U.S. Marshals Service over an incident
in April in which a federal marshal erased reporters' recordings of
a speech Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave to high school
students" about the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit alleges the
marshal "violated due process and the constitutional protections
from unreasonable search and seizure." Saying "the government's
power is overwhelming," Associated Press President Tom Curley
announced plans to form a "media advocacy center to lobby in
Washington for open government." Curley said the Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Society of Professional
Journalists and others would be invited to help "seek better
statutory guarantees for more accessible government information."
SOURCE: Associated Press, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161602
7. THE SOUND OF ONE INVISIBLE HAND CLAPPING
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108414149947006210,00.html?mod=politics%5Fprimary%5Fhs
Jackie Calmes writes: "Over the past four years, Mr. Bush has swung
from free-market candidate to sometime-protectionist president and
back again." But lately, on the campaign trail, "he has re-emerged
as a full-throated free trader," even in "the most hotly contested
states... with the biggest job losses." Why? "Advisers have made
optimism a hallmark of the re-election campaign and argue that an
upbeat message trumps pessimism every time, even on trade and even
in hard-hit Midwestern manufacturing states." According to The
Hill, 37 House Republicans urged Commerce Secretary Don Evans "to
continue highlighting the many benefits of foreign-based companies
choosing to 'insource' work here in America." Industry groups
(including the Coalition for Employment through Exports) "are
leading an informal group formed to fend off outsourcing-related
measures" like Independent Bernie Sanders' Defending American Jobs
Act.
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161601
8. TORTURE, BRAND AMERICA AND THE BOTTOM LINE
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&e=1&u=/ap/20040510/ap_on_re_eu/red_cross_prisoner_abuse
In its damning report, the Red Cross states that "physical and
psychological coercion were used by [U.S.] military intelligence in
a systematic way to gain confessions and extract information and
other forms of cooperation" from Iraqi detainees. But look on the
bright side: "American companies that sell globally say that they
have so far experienced little if any disruption from discontent
over the war in Iraq," reports The New York Times. "In a display of
the growing sophistication in marketing... many people see products
originating from the United States as firmly rooted in their own
home nations." But "one of the world's largest market research
organizations" found the opposite in their annual 30-country
survey: "Diminishing respect for American culture is having a
detrimental impact on American brands around the world."
SOURCE: Associated Press, May 10, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084161600
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084161600
9. PUTTING THE BOLD IN DIEBOLD
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/business/8625251.htm?1c
California's secretary of state said "they broke the law," called
their conduct "absolutely reprehensible," and banned their machines
in four counties, but maybe the news isn't all bad for e-voting
company Diebold Election Systems. "It could affect the stock for a
week or two," said corporate branding executive Clayton Tolley, but
"generally, it's a passing fad that will fade within six months."
Diebold spokesperson Mike Jacobsen pointed out "we're a
business-to-business firm... not a consumer company," so negative
public opinion doesn't hurt as much. To make sure, Diebold Election
Systems just hired a second national PR firm, Edward Howard & Co,
to work with Public Strategies Inc to boost the company's
reputation. Tolley also suggests the Diebold parent company
distance itself from Diebold Election Systems: "I'd try to insulate
the business units."
SOURCE: Akron Beacon Journal, May 9, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1084075200
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1084075200
10. THE POWER OF PICTURES
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/010346.shtml
"By many accounts, the horrible treatment of Iraqi prisoners by
U.S. soldiers and mercenaries has been going on ever since the end
of the invasion," notes Dan Gillmore. "The Red Cross warned U.S.
officials a year ago. Yet it took those appalling photographs to
turn this into the huge story that it's become. Which raises some
questions: Suppose the Americans hadn't bothered to take pictures
of each other in that infamous prison? Suppose they'd just gone on
abusing the prisoners without cameras? Does a story exist without
pictures?" And Tim Porter makes an interesting observation about
the vanishing role of the mass media in unearthing the story. "The
two biggest recent stories to emerge from the Iraq - the
administration's don't-show-don't-know policy toward the
photographing of military caskets and the puerile abuses by Army
reservists inside Abu Ghraib prison - were based on digital
photographs not made by journalists but by participants in both
stories." According to the Associated Press, this reflects "a
defining fact of 21st century life," as "the pervasiveness of
digital photography and the speed of the Internet make it easier to
see into dark corners previously out of reach for the mass media."
SOURCE: Dan Gillmor Journal, May 7, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083902400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083902400
11. IDENTITY CRISIS AT SBC
http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0506fleishman_sbc.htm
San Francisco Chronicle reporter David Lazarus is questioning
whether Marc Bien, who he interviewed as telecommunications giant
SBC's vice-president of corporate communications (as Bien's
business cards indicate) broke ethical guidelines when he neglected
to tell Lazarus that he's actually an employee of major PR firm
Fleishman-Hillard. Lazarus, who's covering a potential
Communication Workers of America strike at SBC, notes the irony
that the "SBC spokesman" he quoted "defending the company's use of
hundreds of outside contractors" is a "nonemployee" himself.
Fleishman-Hillard senior vice-president Ed Presberg said the firm
"acted ethically and appropriately.... It is no secret that some
F-H employees represent SBC. Many of the reporters who cover the
company are aware of it. We thought David was aware of it."
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, May 6, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083816001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083816001
12. DISINFOPEDIA AS PART OF THE SMART MOBS VS. AMWAY
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18605
"As Howard Rheingold, who literally wrote the book, Smart Mobs,
says: 'Civilizations jump in complexity whenever a threshold for
collective action is lowered. It's not just street protestors. It's
science, democracy, markets, the way people meet and mate, the way
people use cities and the way motor vehicles use roadways that are
affected ... when mobile communication and pervasive computing
enable new forms of collective action,'" Brad deGraf writes for
AlterNet. "'Wikis' have become the participatory writing tool of
choice, and have revolutionized online collaboration. The
Disinfopedia, from the folks at PR Watch, is an encyclopedia of
disinformation that anyone can add their two-cents to, using the
'Edit this Page' button on every page."
SOURCE: Alternet, May 6, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083816000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083816000
13. REAL ATROCITIES AND FAKED PHOTOS
http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/000762.php
The photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib are bad enough,
considering that possibly 25 prisoners have died while in American
custody. However, some faked photos are also circulating, including
pictures of an alleged rape by soldiers that were actually taken
from a porno site. Independent journalist Chris Albritton debunks
the fakes and criticizes a cavalier attitude toward the truth that
"seems to have taken hold in anti-war journalism as well. I have no
doubt there are horrible things going on, and that U.S. soldiers
are doing some of them," he writes. "But I'm unwilling to report on
them unless I can get some confirmation. ... Everyone involved in
this mess, including Arab journalists, needs to write as accurately
as possible because 'a lie gets halfway around the world before the
truth ever gets its boots on.' That's what's happened with the
alleged rape photos and people will die because of them. ...
[Websites] printing them when they admit they are not confirmed
should be ashamed of themselves."
SOURCE: Back to Iraq, May 5, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083729603
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083729603
14. DRINK UP
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/050504/Local/ST001.shtml
A grand jury report on groundwater contamination in Escambia
County, Florida, has been released charging that local, state and
federal agencies responsible for protecting the environment and
public health all failed to inform the public about industrial
contamination of the county's water supply, with the Conoco oil
company among the area's leading polluters. "The combined failure
meant thousands of residents were unaware that more than half of
the county's public water wells were laced with harmful
contaminants for an untold number of years," reports Steve Mraz,
noting that authorities were "more concerned about public relations
and financial impacts" of their decisions than "than the health,
safety and welfare consequences." As is often the case, the impetus
for cleanup came, not from government regulatory agencies, but from
Margaret Williams, a local grandmother turned activist, Margaret
Williams, and her organization, Citizens Against Toxic Exposure.
SOURCE: Pensacola New Journal, May 5, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083729602
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083729602
15. DON'T READ THIS OVER AN AMERICAN HAMBURGER
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/05/DDGFL6EUPN1.DTL
Recently the Center's John Stauber had lunch with journalist Laurel
Wellman to discuss the Center's prescient 1997 book by Stauber and
Sheldon Rampton, Mad Cow USA. The resulting column in today's San
Francisco Chronicle notes that in the month after December's
discovery of a mad cow in Washington state, 80,000 people
downloaded Mad Cow USA for free off of our website. Meanwhile, the
US government continues to cover-up the threat of mad cow in
America. For instance, on the meat-industry website
meatingplace.com, reporter Dan Yovich today breaks the outrageous,
shocking news that a United States Department of Agriculture
official ordered that a suspected Texas mad cow NOT be tested for
the disease. Instead, it was sent to a rendering plant and
destroyed, probably to become food for other animals, which is how
the disease is spread.
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, May 5, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/May_2004.html#1083729601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1083729601
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Weekly Spin is compiled by staff and volunteers at PR Watch.
To subscribe or unsubcribe, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html
Daily updates and news from past weeks can be found at the
Spin of the Day" section of the PR Watch website:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html
Archives of our quarterly publication, PR Watch, are at:
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues
PR Watch, Spin of the Day and the Weekly Spin are projects
of the Center for Media & Democracy, a nonprofit organization
that offers investigative reporting on the public relations
industry. We help the public recognize manipulative and
misleading PR practices by exposing the activities of
secretive, little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that
work to control political debates and public opinion.
Please send any questions or suggestions about our
publications to:
editor@prwatch.org
Contributions to the Center for Media & Democracy
are tax-deductible. Send checks to:
CMD
520 University Ave. #310
Madison, WI 53703
To donate now online, visit:
https://www.egrants.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2344-0|1118-0
_______________________________________________
Weekly-Spin mailing list
Weekly-Spin@prwatch.org
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/weekly-spin
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
THE NEW JOURNALISM
Here's a comment on the co-called "New Journalism" by editor, writer
and publisher Michael Korda:
"After the New York Herald Tribune closed its doors in 1966, Clay
Felker, then the editor of the newspaper's Sunday magazine, reconstituted
New York as an independent enterprise and eventually made it a home for the
practitioners of what was then called 'the new journalism,' including Jimmy
Breslin, Tom Wolfe, Gail Sheehy, Nick Pileggi, and 'Adam Smith.' The new
journalism was hard to define, but in practice it meant writing nonfiction
as narrative, with a clear-cut story line, strong characters, and as much
pizzazz as possible. In the 'old' journalism, typified by the newspages of
The New York Times, the writer was ideally invisible -- he or she reported
the facts as objectively as possible. In the 'new' journalism, the writer
bullied his way into the story, sometimes overwhelming the people he was
writing about, inevitably blurred what had once been the fairly rigid
distinction between nonfiction and fiction -- a distinction that had in any
event been eroding under the influence of books such as Meyer Levin's
Compulsion (which presented fact as fiction) and the nonfiction of Norman
Mailer (in which fact and fiction were indistinguishable). In keeping with
the zeitgeist, the new journalism was almost by definition overheated, full
of sound effects, and occasionally shrill. The people who were good at it,
such as Wolfe and Breslin, were journalistic exhibitionists, media stars
whose specialty was making even the humdrum and the insignificant seem
important and, above all, exciting. Even the restaurant reviews had to be
written like narrative stories, with a beginning, a middle, and an end,
which probably explains why the celebrity chef appeared as a culture figure
then, since a writer could hang a story on him, as opposed to simply
reporting whether the food was edible and the service good or bad."
Here's a comment on the co-called "New Journalism" by editor, writer
and publisher Michael Korda:
"After the New York Herald Tribune closed its doors in 1966, Clay
Felker, then the editor of the newspaper's Sunday magazine, reconstituted
New York as an independent enterprise and eventually made it a home for the
practitioners of what was then called 'the new journalism,' including Jimmy
Breslin, Tom Wolfe, Gail Sheehy, Nick Pileggi, and 'Adam Smith.' The new
journalism was hard to define, but in practice it meant writing nonfiction
as narrative, with a clear-cut story line, strong characters, and as much
pizzazz as possible. In the 'old' journalism, typified by the newspages of
The New York Times, the writer was ideally invisible -- he or she reported
the facts as objectively as possible. In the 'new' journalism, the writer
bullied his way into the story, sometimes overwhelming the people he was
writing about, inevitably blurred what had once been the fairly rigid
distinction between nonfiction and fiction -- a distinction that had in any
event been eroding under the influence of books such as Meyer Levin's
Compulsion (which presented fact as fiction) and the nonfiction of Norman
Mailer (in which fact and fiction were indistinguishable). In keeping with
the zeitgeist, the new journalism was almost by definition overheated, full
of sound effects, and occasionally shrill. The people who were good at it,
such as Wolfe and Breslin, were journalistic exhibitionists, media stars
whose specialty was making even the humdrum and the insignificant seem
important and, above all, exciting. Even the restaurant reviews had to be
written like narrative stories, with a beginning, a middle, and an end,
which probably explains why the celebrity chef appeared as a culture figure
then, since a writer could hang a story on him, as opposed to simply
reporting whether the food was edible and the service good or bad."
Friday, May 07, 2004
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Hello all, I apologize for having told you to put Write3 on your e-mails. It should be ThurWrite. My mistake. Hope you all have a great Golden Week. Please send your stories again with the Subject Line "ThurWrite". Also take a look at this:NON-SNARKY BLOGGERS GIVE MAINSTREAM MEDIA NEWS THEY CAN USE
In his Internet Newsletter Frank Barnako notes that "the nation's
broadcasters and newspaper editors this week drew extensive online coverage
of their annual meetings from three independent reporters using Web logs
and cell phones." He cites coverage by buzzmachine.com and lostremote.com
and describes their work as "straight journalism, with none of the snarky
comments so common in blogs. It appears all three were motivated by nothing
more than the desire to prove they could do what they set out to do using a
cell phone and a network connection. No financial backing, no overhead, and
no wires." (CBS Market Watch 23 Mar 2004)
http://www.capitalvenue.com/FrankBarnako.htm
In his Internet Newsletter Frank Barnako notes that "the nation's
broadcasters and newspaper editors this week drew extensive online coverage
of their annual meetings from three independent reporters using Web logs
and cell phones." He cites coverage by buzzmachine.com and lostremote.com
and describes their work as "straight journalism, with none of the snarky
comments so common in blogs. It appears all three were motivated by nothing
more than the desire to prove they could do what they set out to do using a
cell phone and a network connection. No financial backing, no overhead, and
no wires." (CBS Market Watch 23 Mar 2004)
http://www.capitalvenue.com/FrankBarnako.htm
Hi hope you all have a good Golden Week holiday. I have recieved some of the reports from the last assignment- writing about some problem you seen in Japan. Get them in. See you in two weeks. Clark
NON-SNARKY BLOGGERS GIVE MAINSTREAM MEDIA NEWS THEY CAN USE
In his Internet Newsletter Frank Barnako notes that "the nation's
broadcasters and newspaper editors this week drew extensive online coverage
of their annual meetings from three independent reporters using Web logs
and cell phones." He cites coverage by buzzmachine.com and lostremote.com
and describes their work as "straight journalism, with none of the snarky
comments so common in blogs. It appears all three were motivated by nothing
more than the desire to prove they could do what they set out to do using a
cell phone and a network connection. No financial backing, no overhead, and
no wires." (CBS Market Watch 23 Mar 2004)
http://www.capitalvenue.com/FrankBarnako.htm
NON-SNARKY BLOGGERS GIVE MAINSTREAM MEDIA NEWS THEY CAN USE
In his Internet Newsletter Frank Barnako notes that "the nation's
broadcasters and newspaper editors this week drew extensive online coverage
of their annual meetings from three independent reporters using Web logs
and cell phones." He cites coverage by buzzmachine.com and lostremote.com
and describes their work as "straight journalism, with none of the snarky
comments so common in blogs. It appears all three were motivated by nothing
more than the desire to prove they could do what they set out to do using a
cell phone and a network connection. No financial backing, no overhead, and
no wires." (CBS Market Watch 23 Mar 2004)
http://www.capitalvenue.com/FrankBarnako.htm
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Hi gals and guys here is another long one I'd like you to read. It is from AlterNet which is a Journalism newsletter and very good you should check it out at AlterNet.com
The Gendered Newsroom
By Michele Weldon, Women's eNews
April 21, 2004
Ambition defies the boundaries of gender. Opportunity is less democratic.
For women working in daily newspapers across the country, the crawl toward the goal post of equity continues. The numbers of women on the staffs of daily newspapers in 2003 increased minutely to 37.23 percent of newsroom employees, according to the annual ASNE Newsroom Employment Census released Tuesday by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
The meager improvement from 37.05 percent after a two-year decline in numbers of women in newsrooms forces us to decode the writing on the wall and choose the appropriate cliche: Is it "slow and steady wins the race?" Or "quit while you still can?"
Cassandra West, editor of WomanNews, a Wednesday section at the Chicago Tribune, said the study shows the profession is a long way from fair representation of 51 percent women in newsrooms.
"I'm not hopeful that we'll ever have those kinds of numbers, but the need to have more women analyzing, reporting and shaping news coverage is as important as the need to have more women in government, medicine, law and all other professions," West said.
Guys Still Corner Upper Management
According to the latest ASNE survey of 927 U.S. daily newspapers, men continue to dominate corner offices of upper management. Only 34.2 percent of supervisors are women, the study showed. With 65.8 percent male supervisors, men outnumber women supervisors almost 2 to 1. How can that not affect decisions made about what stories to cover and how?
The position of copy/layout editor is more gender-balanced with 41.4 percent of those jobs held by women, a minuscule gain from 41 percent female copy editors the year before. Twenty-two percent of women working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, which has been true for the past three years. Eighteen percent of men working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, unchanged for the past five years.
Though more women work as reporters than at any other position (with 49 percent of female newsroom employees working as reporters), there are still fewer female than male reporters. Only 39.6 percent of reporters are women, a blip of an increase from 39.5 percent female reporters in newsrooms, according to the report on 2003.
The photo department appears to be the least accommodating to women. Photos appearing in newspapers are almost three times more likely to be shot by a male photographer. Only 26.1 percent of the photographers in newsrooms in 2003 were women, another marginal increase from 25.9 percent the previous year. Only 7 percent of women working in newspapers are employed as photographers.
Considering this paucity, it is particularly sweet that two female photographers won Pulitzer Prizes this year; Cheryl Diaz Meyer at The Dallas Morning News for breaking news photography and Carolyn Cole at the Los Angeles Times for feature photography.
The annual ASNE newsroom census, established in 1978, has marked the climb in minority employment of African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans over the past 25 years. The census only began to include the breakdown of women working in newsrooms in 1999. In the industry's admirable and necessary aim to achieve diversity, the inclusion of women is seen as an afterthought, 21 years late.
"Women have a world view, a personal view and what I believe is a much-needed human view of how we live and how everything is connected. So having as many women at the table in all areas of journalism is essential," West said.
But for women in journalism something goes awry between studying for journalism and working in it. Women represent more than 70 percent of students in journalism schools or at universities with journalism or communication programs. In the newsroom, however, that percentage has been cut in half.
"There's something broken with the system if almost two-thirds of the people who are studying journalism are female and less than half of the journalists working in newsrooms are women" said David Nelson, associate professor and chair of the newspaper department at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
I grew up with the fictional role models of newspaper reporters Brenda Starr and Lois Lane. But when I noticed that most bylines belonged to men, I saw journalism as male-dominated. Even the designation of "soft" and "hard" news appeared to divide coverage into female and male camps.
Beyond this most recent report, several studies have pointed to the woeful representation of women in newsrooms in positions from entry level to management. A 2002 survey conducted for the American Press Institute and The Pew Center For Civic Journalism showed that 64 percent of all women said they saw their opportunities for advancement blocked by sexism. It also found that only 31 percent of the women surveyed said they will likely be promoted to the next logical position of their newspaper, compared to 42 percent of the men.
Does this imbalance of gender affect what shows up in the newspaper and who gets quoted on what kinds of stories? We can only draw that conclusion. The Readership Institute at Northwestern University's Media Management Center showed that in 3,500 front-page stories, male sources outnumbered female sources 3 to 1. Women are more likely to be quoted on stories about health, home, food, fashion, travel and education. Men, however, are most likely to be quoted on stories about politics, business, religion and science.
The goal is not to add more women to the cubicles because it is fair.
Today we can look to major newspapers across the country and see strong, talented women at the helm: Ann Marie Lipinski at the Chicago Tribune; Sandra Mims Rowe at The Oregonian, Julia Wallace at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deborah Howell at Newhouse News Service, Amanda Bennett at the Philadelphia Enquirer, to name some. In hundreds of newspapers, we see female bylines from datelines across the globe in all sections of the paper.
Their courageous and hard-earned ascent is not just politically correct, it is critical to achieve balanced, fair and inclusive coverage of a complex, changing society. As reporters, photographers, layout designers, editors and managers of news outlets, women add a different tempo to the chorus of voices, a different vision. It took Gail Collins to bring mammograms to the editorial page of The New York Times.
Women have needs for information on issues from public policy to private healthcare that differ from those of male readers. To respond, we need to race toward parity in employing and promoting women at our country's newspapers so ambition can meet opportunity half way.
Michele Weldon is an assistant Professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and is second vice president of Journalism and Women Symposium. She is the author of the memoir, "I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman," and "Writing to Save Your Life: How to Honor Your Story Through Journaling," both from Hazelden Publishing.
The Gendered Newsroom
By Michele Weldon, Women's eNews
April 21, 2004
Ambition defies the boundaries of gender. Opportunity is less democratic.
For women working in daily newspapers across the country, the crawl toward the goal post of equity continues. The numbers of women on the staffs of daily newspapers in 2003 increased minutely to 37.23 percent of newsroom employees, according to the annual ASNE Newsroom Employment Census released Tuesday by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
The meager improvement from 37.05 percent after a two-year decline in numbers of women in newsrooms forces us to decode the writing on the wall and choose the appropriate cliche: Is it "slow and steady wins the race?" Or "quit while you still can?"
Cassandra West, editor of WomanNews, a Wednesday section at the Chicago Tribune, said the study shows the profession is a long way from fair representation of 51 percent women in newsrooms.
"I'm not hopeful that we'll ever have those kinds of numbers, but the need to have more women analyzing, reporting and shaping news coverage is as important as the need to have more women in government, medicine, law and all other professions," West said.
Guys Still Corner Upper Management
According to the latest ASNE survey of 927 U.S. daily newspapers, men continue to dominate corner offices of upper management. Only 34.2 percent of supervisors are women, the study showed. With 65.8 percent male supervisors, men outnumber women supervisors almost 2 to 1. How can that not affect decisions made about what stories to cover and how?
The position of copy/layout editor is more gender-balanced with 41.4 percent of those jobs held by women, a minuscule gain from 41 percent female copy editors the year before. Twenty-two percent of women working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, which has been true for the past three years. Eighteen percent of men working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, unchanged for the past five years.
Though more women work as reporters than at any other position (with 49 percent of female newsroom employees working as reporters), there are still fewer female than male reporters. Only 39.6 percent of reporters are women, a blip of an increase from 39.5 percent female reporters in newsrooms, according to the report on 2003.
The photo department appears to be the least accommodating to women. Photos appearing in newspapers are almost three times more likely to be shot by a male photographer. Only 26.1 percent of the photographers in newsrooms in 2003 were women, another marginal increase from 25.9 percent the previous year. Only 7 percent of women working in newspapers are employed as photographers.
Considering this paucity, it is particularly sweet that two female photographers won Pulitzer Prizes this year; Cheryl Diaz Meyer at The Dallas Morning News for breaking news photography and Carolyn Cole at the Los Angeles Times for feature photography.
The annual ASNE newsroom census, established in 1978, has marked the climb in minority employment of African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans over the past 25 years. The census only began to include the breakdown of women working in newsrooms in 1999. In the industry's admirable and necessary aim to achieve diversity, the inclusion of women is seen as an afterthought, 21 years late.
"Women have a world view, a personal view and what I believe is a much-needed human view of how we live and how everything is connected. So having as many women at the table in all areas of journalism is essential," West said.
But for women in journalism something goes awry between studying for journalism and working in it. Women represent more than 70 percent of students in journalism schools or at universities with journalism or communication programs. In the newsroom, however, that percentage has been cut in half.
"There's something broken with the system if almost two-thirds of the people who are studying journalism are female and less than half of the journalists working in newsrooms are women" said David Nelson, associate professor and chair of the newspaper department at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
I grew up with the fictional role models of newspaper reporters Brenda Starr and Lois Lane. But when I noticed that most bylines belonged to men, I saw journalism as male-dominated. Even the designation of "soft" and "hard" news appeared to divide coverage into female and male camps.
Beyond this most recent report, several studies have pointed to the woeful representation of women in newsrooms in positions from entry level to management. A 2002 survey conducted for the American Press Institute and The Pew Center For Civic Journalism showed that 64 percent of all women said they saw their opportunities for advancement blocked by sexism. It also found that only 31 percent of the women surveyed said they will likely be promoted to the next logical position of their newspaper, compared to 42 percent of the men.
Does this imbalance of gender affect what shows up in the newspaper and who gets quoted on what kinds of stories? We can only draw that conclusion. The Readership Institute at Northwestern University's Media Management Center showed that in 3,500 front-page stories, male sources outnumbered female sources 3 to 1. Women are more likely to be quoted on stories about health, home, food, fashion, travel and education. Men, however, are most likely to be quoted on stories about politics, business, religion and science.
The goal is not to add more women to the cubicles because it is fair.
Today we can look to major newspapers across the country and see strong, talented women at the helm: Ann Marie Lipinski at the Chicago Tribune; Sandra Mims Rowe at The Oregonian, Julia Wallace at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deborah Howell at Newhouse News Service, Amanda Bennett at the Philadelphia Enquirer, to name some. In hundreds of newspapers, we see female bylines from datelines across the globe in all sections of the paper.
Their courageous and hard-earned ascent is not just politically correct, it is critical to achieve balanced, fair and inclusive coverage of a complex, changing society. As reporters, photographers, layout designers, editors and managers of news outlets, women add a different tempo to the chorus of voices, a different vision. It took Gail Collins to bring mammograms to the editorial page of The New York Times.
Women have needs for information on issues from public policy to private healthcare that differ from those of male readers. To respond, we need to race toward parity in employing and promoting women at our country's newspapers so ambition can meet opportunity half way.
Michele Weldon is an assistant Professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and is second vice president of Journalism and Women Symposium. She is the author of the memoir, "I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman," and "Writing to Save Your Life: How to Honor Your Story Through Journaling," both from Hazelden Publishing.
Content Files
Election 2004
The most important election of your life.
Rights & Liberties
Human rights and civil liberties.
MediaCulture
Critical perspectives on our media-driven world
Movie Mix
Home of The Alternative Movie Awards.
War on Iraq
Coverage of America's war with Iraq.
DrugReporter
News from the front lines of the drug war.
EnviroHealth
From climate change to medical news.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
ÊDiscussion
Visit AlterNet's forums for lively discussions on today's news.
Guests È
Members È
Home È ÊMediaCulture È
The Gendered Newsroom
By Michele Weldon, Women's eNews
April 21, 2004
Ambition defies the boundaries of gender. Opportunity is less democratic.
For women working in daily newspapers across the country, the crawl toward the goal post of equity continues. The numbers of women on the staffs of daily newspapers in 2003 increased minutely to 37.23 percent of newsroom employees, according to the annual ASNE Newsroom Employment Census released Tuesday by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
The meager improvement from 37.05 percent after a two-year decline in numbers of women in newsrooms forces us to decode the writing on the wall and choose the appropriate cliche: Is it "slow and steady wins the race?" Or "quit while you still can?"
Cassandra West, editor of WomanNews, a Wednesday section at the Chicago Tribune, said the study shows the profession is a long way from fair representation of 51 percent women in newsrooms.
"I'm not hopeful that we'll ever have those kinds of numbers, but the need to have more women analyzing, reporting and shaping news coverage is as important as the need to have more women in government, medicine, law and all other professions," West said.
Guys Still Corner Upper Management
According to the latest ASNE survey of 927 U.S. daily newspapers, men continue to dominate corner offices of upper management. Only 34.2 percent of supervisors are women, the study showed. With 65.8 percent male supervisors, men outnumber women supervisors almost 2 to 1. How can that not affect decisions made about what stories to cover and how?
The position of copy/layout editor is more gender-balanced with 41.4 percent of those jobs held by women, a minuscule gain from 41 percent female copy editors the year before. Twenty-two percent of women working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, which has been true for the past three years. Eighteen percent of men working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, unchanged for the past five years.
Though more women work as reporters than at any other position (with 49 percent of female newsroom employees working as reporters), there are still fewer female than male reporters. Only 39.6 percent of reporters are women, a blip of an increase from 39.5 percent female reporters in newsrooms, according to the report on 2003.
The photo department appears to be the least accommodating to women. Photos appearing in newspapers are almost three times more likely to be shot by a male photographer. Only 26.1 percent of the photographers in newsrooms in 2003 were women, another marginal increase from 25.9 percent the previous year. Only 7 percent of women working in newspapers are employed as photographers.
Considering this paucity, it is particularly sweet that two female photographers won Pulitzer Prizes this year; Cheryl Diaz Meyer at The Dallas Morning News for breaking news photography and Carolyn Cole at the Los Angeles Times for feature photography.
The annual ASNE newsroom census, established in 1978, has marked the climb in minority employment of African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans over the past 25 years. The census only began to include the breakdown of women working in newsrooms in 1999. In the industry's admirable and necessary aim to achieve diversity, the inclusion of women is seen as an afterthought, 21 years late.
"Women have a world view, a personal view and what I believe is a much-needed human view of how we live and how everything is connected. So having as many women at the table in all areas of journalism is essential," West said.
But for women in journalism something goes awry between studying for journalism and working in it. Women represent more than 70 percent of students in journalism schools or at universities with journalism or communication programs. In the newsroom, however, that percentage has been cut in half.
"There's something broken with the system if almost two-thirds of the people who are studying journalism are female and less than half of the journalists working in newsrooms are women" said David Nelson, associate professor and chair of the newspaper department at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
I grew up with the fictional role models of newspaper reporters Brenda Starr and Lois Lane. But when I noticed that most bylines belonged to men, I saw journalism as male-dominated. Even the designation of "soft" and "hard" news appeared to divide coverage into female and male camps.
Beyond this most recent report, several studies have pointed to the woeful representation of women in newsrooms in positions from entry level to management. A 2002 survey conducted for the American Press Institute and The Pew Center For Civic Journalism showed that 64 percent of all women said they saw their opportunities for advancement blocked by sexism. It also found that only 31 percent of the women surveyed said they will likely be promoted to the next logical position of their newspaper, compared to 42 percent of the men.
Does this imbalance of gender affect what shows up in the newspaper and who gets quoted on what kinds of stories? We can only draw that conclusion. The Readership Institute at Northwestern University's Media Management Center showed that in 3,500 front-page stories, male sources outnumbered female sources 3 to 1. Women are more likely to be quoted on stories about health, home, food, fashion, travel and education. Men, however, are most likely to be quoted on stories about politics, business, religion and science.
The goal is not to add more women to the cubicles because it is fair.
Today we can look to major newspapers across the country and see strong, talented women at the helm: Ann Marie Lipinski at the Chicago Tribune; Sandra Mims Rowe at The Oregonian, Julia Wallace at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deborah Howell at Newhouse News Service, Amanda Bennett at the Philadelphia Enquirer, to name some. In hundreds of newspapers, we see female bylines from datelines across the globe in all sections of the paper.
Their courageous and hard-earned ascent is not just politically correct, it is critical to achieve balanced, fair and inclusive coverage of a complex, changing society. As reporters, photographers, layout designers, editors and managers of news outlets, women add a different tempo to the chorus of voices, a different vision. It took Gail Collins to bring mammograms to the editorial page of The New York Times.
Women have needs for information on issues from public policy to private healthcare that differ from those of male readers. To respond, we need to race toward parity in employing and promoting women at our country's newspapers so ambition can meet opportunity half way.
Michele Weldon is an assistant Professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and is second vice president of Journalism and Women Symposium. She is the author of the memoir, "I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman," and "Writing to Save Your Life: How to Honor Your Story Through Journaling," both from Hazelden Publishing.
Election 2004
The most important election of your life.
Rights & Liberties
Human rights and civil liberties.
MediaCulture
Critical perspectives on our media-driven world
Movie Mix
Home of The Alternative Movie Awards.
War on Iraq
Coverage of America's war with Iraq.
DrugReporter
News from the front lines of the drug war.
EnviroHealth
From climate change to medical news.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
ÊDiscussion
Visit AlterNet's forums for lively discussions on today's news.
Guests È
Members È
Home È ÊMediaCulture È
The Gendered Newsroom
By Michele Weldon, Women's eNews
April 21, 2004
Ambition defies the boundaries of gender. Opportunity is less democratic.
For women working in daily newspapers across the country, the crawl toward the goal post of equity continues. The numbers of women on the staffs of daily newspapers in 2003 increased minutely to 37.23 percent of newsroom employees, according to the annual ASNE Newsroom Employment Census released Tuesday by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
The meager improvement from 37.05 percent after a two-year decline in numbers of women in newsrooms forces us to decode the writing on the wall and choose the appropriate cliche: Is it "slow and steady wins the race?" Or "quit while you still can?"
Cassandra West, editor of WomanNews, a Wednesday section at the Chicago Tribune, said the study shows the profession is a long way from fair representation of 51 percent women in newsrooms.
"I'm not hopeful that we'll ever have those kinds of numbers, but the need to have more women analyzing, reporting and shaping news coverage is as important as the need to have more women in government, medicine, law and all other professions," West said.
Guys Still Corner Upper Management
According to the latest ASNE survey of 927 U.S. daily newspapers, men continue to dominate corner offices of upper management. Only 34.2 percent of supervisors are women, the study showed. With 65.8 percent male supervisors, men outnumber women supervisors almost 2 to 1. How can that not affect decisions made about what stories to cover and how?
The position of copy/layout editor is more gender-balanced with 41.4 percent of those jobs held by women, a minuscule gain from 41 percent female copy editors the year before. Twenty-two percent of women working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, which has been true for the past three years. Eighteen percent of men working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, unchanged for the past five years.
Though more women work as reporters than at any other position (with 49 percent of female newsroom employees working as reporters), there are still fewer female than male reporters. Only 39.6 percent of reporters are women, a blip of an increase from 39.5 percent female reporters in newsrooms, according to the report on 2003.
The photo department appears to be the least accommodating to women. Photos appearing in newspapers are almost three times more likely to be shot by a male photographer. Only 26.1 percent of the photographers in newsrooms in 2003 were women, another marginal increase from 25.9 percent the previous year. Only 7 percent of women working in newspapers are employed as photographers.
Considering this paucity, it is particularly sweet that two female photographers won Pulitzer Prizes this year; Cheryl Diaz Meyer at The Dallas Morning News for breaking news photography and Carolyn Cole at the Los Angeles Times for feature photography.
The annual ASNE newsroom census, established in 1978, has marked the climb in minority employment of African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans over the past 25 years. The census only began to include the breakdown of women working in newsrooms in 1999. In the industry's admirable and necessary aim to achieve diversity, the inclusion of women is seen as an afterthought, 21 years late.
"Women have a world view, a personal view and what I believe is a much-needed human view of how we live and how everything is connected. So having as many women at the table in all areas of journalism is essential," West said.
But for women in journalism something goes awry between studying for journalism and working in it. Women represent more than 70 percent of students in journalism schools or at universities with journalism or communication programs. In the newsroom, however, that percentage has been cut in half.
"There's something broken with the system if almost two-thirds of the people who are studying journalism are female and less than half of the journalists working in newsrooms are women" said David Nelson, associate professor and chair of the newspaper department at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
I grew up with the fictional role models of newspaper reporters Brenda Starr and Lois Lane. But when I noticed that most bylines belonged to men, I saw journalism as male-dominated. Even the designation of "soft" and "hard" news appeared to divide coverage into female and male camps.
Beyond this most recent report, several studies have pointed to the woeful representation of women in newsrooms in positions from entry level to management. A 2002 survey conducted for the American Press Institute and The Pew Center For Civic Journalism showed that 64 percent of all women said they saw their opportunities for advancement blocked by sexism. It also found that only 31 percent of the women surveyed said they will likely be promoted to the next logical position of their newspaper, compared to 42 percent of the men.
Does this imbalance of gender affect what shows up in the newspaper and who gets quoted on what kinds of stories? We can only draw that conclusion. The Readership Institute at Northwestern University's Media Management Center showed that in 3,500 front-page stories, male sources outnumbered female sources 3 to 1. Women are more likely to be quoted on stories about health, home, food, fashion, travel and education. Men, however, are most likely to be quoted on stories about politics, business, religion and science.
The goal is not to add more women to the cubicles because it is fair.
Today we can look to major newspapers across the country and see strong, talented women at the helm: Ann Marie Lipinski at the Chicago Tribune; Sandra Mims Rowe at The Oregonian, Julia Wallace at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deborah Howell at Newhouse News Service, Amanda Bennett at the Philadelphia Enquirer, to name some. In hundreds of newspapers, we see female bylines from datelines across the globe in all sections of the paper.
Their courageous and hard-earned ascent is not just politically correct, it is critical to achieve balanced, fair and inclusive coverage of a complex, changing society. As reporters, photographers, layout designers, editors and managers of news outlets, women add a different tempo to the chorus of voices, a different vision. It took Gail Collins to bring mammograms to the editorial page of The New York Times.
Women have needs for information on issues from public policy to private healthcare that differ from those of male readers. To respond, we need to race toward parity in employing and promoting women at our country's newspapers so ambition can meet opportunity half way.
Michele Weldon is an assistant Professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and is second vice president of Journalism and Women Symposium. She is the author of the memoir, "I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman," and "Writing to Save Your Life: How to Honor Your Story Through Journaling," both from Hazelden Publishing.
Content Files
Election 2004
The most important election of your life.
Rights & Liberties
Human rights and civil liberties.
MediaCulture
Critical perspectives on our media-driven world
Movie Mix
Home of The Alternative Movie Awards.
War on Iraq
Coverage of America's war with Iraq.
DrugReporter
News from the front lines of the drug war.
EnviroHealth
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The Gendered Newsroom
By Michele Weldon, Women's eNews
April 21, 2004
Ambition defies the boundaries of gender. Opportunity is less democratic.
For women working in daily newspapers across the country, the crawl toward the goal post of equity continues. The numbers of women on the staffs of daily newspapers in 2003 increased minutely to 37.23 percent of newsroom employees, according to the annual ASNE Newsroom Employment Census released Tuesday by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
The meager improvement from 37.05 percent after a two-year decline in numbers of women in newsrooms forces us to decode the writing on the wall and choose the appropriate cliche: Is it "slow and steady wins the race?" Or "quit while you still can?"
Cassandra West, editor of WomanNews, a Wednesday section at the Chicago Tribune, said the study shows the profession is a long way from fair representation of 51 percent women in newsrooms.
"I'm not hopeful that we'll ever have those kinds of numbers, but the need to have more women analyzing, reporting and shaping news coverage is as important as the need to have more women in government, medicine, law and all other professions," West said.
Guys Still Corner Upper Management
According to the latest ASNE survey of 927 U.S. daily newspapers, men continue to dominate corner offices of upper management. Only 34.2 percent of supervisors are women, the study showed. With 65.8 percent male supervisors, men outnumber women supervisors almost 2 to 1. How can that not affect decisions made about what stories to cover and how?
The position of copy/layout editor is more gender-balanced with 41.4 percent of those jobs held by women, a minuscule gain from 41 percent female copy editors the year before. Twenty-two percent of women working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, which has been true for the past three years. Eighteen percent of men working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, unchanged for the past five years.
Though more women work as reporters than at any other position (with 49 percent of female newsroom employees working as reporters), there are still fewer female than male reporters. Only 39.6 percent of reporters are women, a blip of an increase from 39.5 percent female reporters in newsrooms, according to the report on 2003.
The photo department appears to be the least accommodating to women. Photos appearing in newspapers are almost three times more likely to be shot by a male photographer. Only 26.1 percent of the photographers in newsrooms in 2003 were women, another marginal increase from 25.9 percent the previous year. Only 7 percent of women working in newspapers are employed as photographers.
Considering this paucity, it is particularly sweet that two female photographers won Pulitzer Prizes this year; Cheryl Diaz Meyer at The Dallas Morning News for breaking news photography and Carolyn Cole at the Los Angeles Times for feature photography.
The annual ASNE newsroom census, established in 1978, has marked the climb in minority employment of African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans over the past 25 years. The census only began to include the breakdown of women working in newsrooms in 1999. In the industry's admirable and necessary aim to achieve diversity, the inclusion of women is seen as an afterthought, 21 years late.
"Women have a world view, a personal view and what I believe is a much-needed human view of how we live and how everything is connected. So having as many women at the table in all areas of journalism is essential," West said.
But for women in journalism something goes awry between studying for journalism and working in it. Women represent more than 70 percent of students in journalism schools or at universities with journalism or communication programs. In the newsroom, however, that percentage has been cut in half.
"There's something broken with the system if almost two-thirds of the people who are studying journalism are female and less than half of the journalists working in newsrooms are women" said David Nelson, associate professor and chair of the newspaper department at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
I grew up with the fictional role models of newspaper reporters Brenda Starr and Lois Lane. But when I noticed that most bylines belonged to men, I saw journalism as male-dominated. Even the designation of "soft" and "hard" news appeared to divide coverage into female and male camps.
Beyond this most recent report, several studies have pointed to the woeful representation of women in newsrooms in positions from entry level to management. A 2002 survey conducted for the American Press Institute and The Pew Center For Civic Journalism showed that 64 percent of all women said they saw their opportunities for advancement blocked by sexism. It also found that only 31 percent of the women surveyed said they will likely be promoted to the next logical position of their newspaper, compared to 42 percent of the men.
Does this imbalance of gender affect what shows up in the newspaper and who gets quoted on what kinds of stories? We can only draw that conclusion. The Readership Institute at Northwestern University's Media Management Center showed that in 3,500 front-page stories, male sources outnumbered female sources 3 to 1. Women are more likely to be quoted on stories about health, home, food, fashion, travel and education. Men, however, are most likely to be quoted on stories about politics, business, religion and science.
The goal is not to add more women to the cubicles because it is fair.
Today we can look to major newspapers across the country and see strong, talented women at the helm: Ann Marie Lipinski at the Chicago Tribune; Sandra Mims Rowe at The Oregonian, Julia Wallace at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deborah Howell at Newhouse News Service, Amanda Bennett at the Philadelphia Enquirer, to name some. In hundreds of newspapers, we see female bylines from datelines across the globe in all sections of the paper.
Their courageous and hard-earned ascent is not just politically correct, it is critical to achieve balanced, fair and inclusive coverage of a complex, changing society. As reporters, photographers, layout designers, editors and managers of news outlets, women add a different tempo to the chorus of voices, a different vision. It took Gail Collins to bring mammograms to the editorial page of The New York Times.
Women have needs for information on issues from public policy to private healthcare that differ from those of male readers. To respond, we need to race toward parity in employing and promoting women at our country's newspapers so ambition can meet opportunity half way.
Michele Weldon is an assistant Professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and is second vice president of Journalism and Women Symposium. She is the author of the memoir, "I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman," and "Writing to Save Your Life: How to Honor Your Story Through Journaling," both from Hazelden Publishing.
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Home » MediaCulture »
The Gendered Newsroom
By Michele Weldon, Women's eNews
April 21, 2004
Ambition defies the boundaries of gender. Opportunity is less democratic.
For women working in daily newspapers across the country, the crawl toward the goal post of equity continues. The numbers of women on the staffs of daily newspapers in 2003 increased minutely to 37.23 percent of newsroom employees, according to the annual ASNE Newsroom Employment Census released Tuesday by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
The meager improvement from 37.05 percent after a two-year decline in numbers of women in newsrooms forces us to decode the writing on the wall and choose the appropriate cliche: Is it "slow and steady wins the race?" Or "quit while you still can?"
Cassandra West, editor of WomanNews, a Wednesday section at the Chicago Tribune, said the study shows the profession is a long way from fair representation of 51 percent women in newsrooms.
"I'm not hopeful that we'll ever have those kinds of numbers, but the need to have more women analyzing, reporting and shaping news coverage is as important as the need to have more women in government, medicine, law and all other professions," West said.
Guys Still Corner Upper Management
According to the latest ASNE survey of 927 U.S. daily newspapers, men continue to dominate corner offices of upper management. Only 34.2 percent of supervisors are women, the study showed. With 65.8 percent male supervisors, men outnumber women supervisors almost 2 to 1. How can that not affect decisions made about what stories to cover and how?
The position of copy/layout editor is more gender-balanced with 41.4 percent of those jobs held by women, a minuscule gain from 41 percent female copy editors the year before. Twenty-two percent of women working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, which has been true for the past three years. Eighteen percent of men working in newsrooms are on the copy desk, unchanged for the past five years.
Though more women work as reporters than at any other position (with 49 percent of female newsroom employees working as reporters), there are still fewer female than male reporters. Only 39.6 percent of reporters are women, a blip of an increase from 39.5 percent female reporters in newsrooms, according to the report on 2003.
The photo department appears to be the least accommodating to women. Photos appearing in newspapers are almost three times more likely to be shot by a male photographer. Only 26.1 percent of the photographers in newsrooms in 2003 were women, another marginal increase from 25.9 percent the previous year. Only 7 percent of women working in newspapers are employed as photographers.
Considering this paucity, it is particularly sweet that two female photographers won Pulitzer Prizes this year; Cheryl Diaz Meyer at The Dallas Morning News for breaking news photography and Carolyn Cole at the Los Angeles Times for feature photography.
The annual ASNE newsroom census, established in 1978, has marked the climb in minority employment of African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans over the past 25 years. The census only began to include the breakdown of women working in newsrooms in 1999. In the industry's admirable and necessary aim to achieve diversity, the inclusion of women is seen as an afterthought, 21 years late.
"Women have a world view, a personal view and what I believe is a much-needed human view of how we live and how everything is connected. So having as many women at the table in all areas of journalism is essential," West said.
But for women in journalism something goes awry between studying for journalism and working in it. Women represent more than 70 percent of students in journalism schools or at universities with journalism or communication programs. In the newsroom, however, that percentage has been cut in half.
"There's something broken with the system if almost two-thirds of the people who are studying journalism are female and less than half of the journalists working in newsrooms are women" said David Nelson, associate professor and chair of the newspaper department at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
I grew up with the fictional role models of newspaper reporters Brenda Starr and Lois Lane. But when I noticed that most bylines belonged to men, I saw journalism as male-dominated. Even the designation of "soft" and "hard" news appeared to divide coverage into female and male camps.
Beyond this most recent report, several studies have pointed to the woeful representation of women in newsrooms in positions from entry level to management. A 2002 survey conducted for the American Press Institute and The Pew Center For Civic Journalism showed that 64 percent of all women said they saw their opportunities for advancement blocked by sexism. It also found that only 31 percent of the women surveyed said they will likely be promoted to the next logical position of their newspaper, compared to 42 percent of the men.
Does this imbalance of gender affect what shows up in the newspaper and who gets quoted on what kinds of stories? We can only draw that conclusion. The Readership Institute at Northwestern University's Media Management Center showed that in 3,500 front-page stories, male sources outnumbered female sources 3 to 1. Women are more likely to be quoted on stories about health, home, food, fashion, travel and education. Men, however, are most likely to be quoted on stories about politics, business, religion and science.
The goal is not to add more women to the cubicles because it is fair.
Today we can look to major newspapers across the country and see strong, talented women at the helm: Ann Marie Lipinski at the Chicago Tribune; Sandra Mims Rowe at The Oregonian, Julia Wallace at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deborah Howell at Newhouse News Service, Amanda Bennett at the Philadelphia Enquirer, to name some. In hundreds of newspapers, we see female bylines from datelines across the globe in all sections of the paper.
Their courageous and hard-earned ascent is not just politically correct, it is critical to achieve balanced, fair and inclusive coverage of a complex, changing society. As reporters, photographers, layout designers, editors and managers of news outlets, women add a different tempo to the chorus of voices, a different vision. It took Gail Collins to bring mammograms to the editorial page of The New York Times.
Women have needs for information on issues from public policy to private healthcare that differ from those of male readers. To respond, we need to race toward parity in employing and promoting women at our country's newspapers so ambition can meet opportunity half way.
Michele Weldon is an assistant Professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and is second vice president of Journalism and Women Symposium. She is the author of the memoir, "I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman," and "Writing to Save Your Life: How to Honor Your Story Through Journaling," both from Hazelden Publishing.
Monday, April 19, 2004
Who is a reporter and what does a reporter do?
If the Whole World Was Watching
By Dana Hughes, YES! Magazine
April 15, 2004
As the midmorning sun beats down and the humidity traps the fumes and exhaust from buses and cars, a group of young Salvadorans set up cameras among the people and pigeons in a public park. As they work, they attract a lot of attention from bystanders, including the police, who don't stop them, but continue to watch with suspicious eyes.
Learning how to film that suspicion is the reason the group is there. They are setting up their cameras under the leadership of Sam Gregory, the program coordinator for a group called Witness that is providing film training for Entre Amigos ("Between Friends"), an organization of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people in El Salvador. The group plans to document the discrimination and abuse its members suffer from authorities as part of a campaign for reforms. But before any of that can happen, they have to learn how to make videos, which is where Gregory and Witness come in. Gregory knows that effective training requires practice in public where circumstances aren't as easily controlled as they are in the backyard where the training sessions began.
Witness is a nonprofit organization that uses video and other communications technology to promote and defend human rights. Over the course of 10 years it has trained 150 partner organizations in more than 50 countries. The groups vary by cause as well as location, ranging from a South America-based group of scientists who solve human rights crimes to a U.S.-based group focusing on juvenile incarceration.
The scope of Witness's work hasn't always been so broad. It was founded in 1992 by the British musician Peter Gabriel, after an amateur photographer videotaped the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers and drew international attention to human rights abuses in the United States. If a video recorded by chance could have so powerful an effect, Gabriel thought, why not record international abuses more purposefully? He joined with the Lawyers Committee on Human Rights and theReebok Human Rights Foundation to start Witness. It began with two staff members, a budget of $150,000, and a primary concentration on providing cameras. Today Witness is an independent organization with 11 full-time staff members and eight on-site volunteers who work from a large loft in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood, and camera training is only part of their work.
In 1996 Witness helped its partners at the Global Survival Network produce "Bought and Sold," a documentary based on an undercover investigation of the Russian mafia's involvement in trafficking of women from the former Soviet Union. Footage from the film was picked up by ABC News, BBC and CNN and was the subject of a front-page story in The New York Times.
The media attention produced results: President Clinton issued an executive order allocating $10 million to fight violence against women, with special emphasis on trafficking. The issue received more attention after Madeleine Albright put it on the agenda in her meetings with heads of state, and in 2000 the United Nations passed a transnational protocol to prevent trafficking. That year, the U.S. Congress also passed the Trafficking Victims Protections Act.
Following the success of the "Bought and Sold" campaign, Witness hired Gillian Caldwell, who had participated in the trafficking investigation as co-director of Global Survival Network, to be its first executive director. Under Caldwell's watch, Witness installed a full-time production and editing facility on site and the number of its in-house productions increased from three to 30 in two years.
She also led the group to make greater use of the Internet. Besides explaining the work of the organization and its partners, the Witness website (www.Witness.org) features "Rights Alert," webcasts that highlight footage from partner organizations with accompanying narratives and suggestions for action.
"We were one of the first nonprofit organizations with sophisticated Web broadcasting on the Net," Caldwell says. "It was getting about a hundred hits a month in 1998. We get over 1.5 million hits a month now."
As it has grown, Witness has won the attention of media celebrities and government officials. Actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins serve on the board of directors, and films are narrated by performers such as Q-Tip, a rap artist. As the group's visibility has increased, the number of Witness partners has increased by more than 40 in the past four years, and the applications continue to come in. The group has expanded its focus from civil rights to include social, economic, and cultural rights as well.
Witness is also beginning to train some of its long-term partners to do video and editing training themselves. Joey Lozano, a freelance journalist from the Philippines, first became interested in the role of the media when he noticed the lack of reporting on human rights abuses during the Marcos dictatorship. Working with Witness, Lozano began training groups in rural areas in basic journalism and broadcasting. One group was Nakamata, a coalition of 10 indigenous peoples organizations working to secure land rights on the island of Mindanao. After three indigenous leaders were murdered in 2001, Lozano and Nakamata documented the crime in a video that Witness broadcast on its website. A Philippines investigative news program also aired the footage. Because of the local and international attention, the National Bureau of Investigation conducted an inquiry that led to the indictment of three people for murder. A film featuring Lozano and Nakamata recently won the Abraham Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Sandrine Isambert, a former video editor for Witness, also helped train partners. "Once partners see the process of editing, they understand shooting and scripting better," she says. Isambert worked closely with the Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forense (Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team), one of the world's premier groups of scientists involved in human rights work. The team combines clues from interviews, exhumation of human remains, and laboratory analyses to solve crimes, identify victims, and return their remains to their families. Testifying before courts and international tribunals, E.A.A.F. has been instrumental in bringing to justice government officials from places like Argentina and Haiti for abuses committed during the 1980s and 90s. Witness helped the group produce and distribute a video, "When Bones Talk," explaining its work in layman's terms for representatives of governments and nongovernmental organizations.
Gregory, who has a background in both commercial film production and human rights activism and is fluent in Spanish, is the primary contact and instructor for Witness's Latin American partners.
In 2002, Gregory conducted a monthlong training program in Central America. He spent two weeks in villages on the northern coast of Honduras working with the Comite de Emergencia Garifuna de Honduras (Garifuna Emergency Committee of Honduras). An indigenous group working on sustainable development, the Comite has faced arson and death threats from wealthy developers in local communities. Gregory helped the group film and edit footage of abuses committed recently in various Garifuna villages. He also spent time in Guatemala, working with Jesus Tecu Osorio, a survivor of Guatemala's civil war, who has been documenting the effects of the war on its victims and survivors. And Gregory conducted the training in El Salvador for Entre Amigos, a new Witness partner.
Because the clientele of Entre Amigos is primarily working class and poorly educated, the first challenge the group faces with new members is to help them understand their rights. Another challenge facing Entre Amigos is getting the government to enforce these rights. In El Salvador 75,000 people disappeared or were killed during a 12-year civil war that ended only 10 years ago. Although a democratic system has been in place since 1994, effects of the war linger – there is an extremely high poverty and crime rate and such a proliferation of guns that supermarkets post signs asking customers to check their weapons before shopping. Since El Salvador is still in the process of establishing basic rule of law and civil rights, addressing discrimination based on sexual orientation is not a priority.
At the initial training session last July, even before the cameras were brought in, Gregory encouraged the group to clarify its goals for the use of video.
In El Salvador, ordinances originally designed to fine lewd behavior in public are turning into excuses for illegal detainment and harassment of gays and transsexuals openly displaying affection. Abuses are common in the prison system, with guards harassing homosexual and transgender inmates and placing them with others who are openly homophobic. So Gregory discussed different ways to record and document such abuses.
The second day focused on technical camera training. Gregory explained that Entre Amigos would be using digital hand-held cameras and passed two of them around the group. Then he showed a video on how to use the cameras, stopping the tape to demonstrate each time it introduced a new topic. He made sure everyone in the room handled a camera and tried the techniques.
The group then moved outside to practice in the backyard, where they immediately faced lighting and sound challenges. Next they practiced filming in public, staging an interview with one of the Entre Amigos members, who pointed out where last year's gay pride parade took place.
The last day of the training focused on editing. Like a television cook who prepares different parts of a meal in advance, Gregory worked at night on his computer, logging and editing footage shot that day so that the group could see the various stages of the process. Almost all of the Entre Amigos participants see the process of editing as the link to everything they learned. With an understanding of editing, members of the group say, they see how future footage can be tailored to fit their goals and advance their cause.
William Hernandez, the director of Entre Amigos, remarks that what the group has learned during the week will permanently change the nature of its work. Joaquin Caceres, Entre Amigos' director of educational programming, agrees, emphasizing that Gregory has provided more than just camera training; he has given the group a strategy. "It's a tool we will utilize as much as possible to help spur people into action."
This article originally appeared in the Ford Foundation Report, Winter 2003. Dana Hughes is a staff writer for FFR.
If the Whole World Was Watching
By Dana Hughes, YES! Magazine
April 15, 2004
As the midmorning sun beats down and the humidity traps the fumes and exhaust from buses and cars, a group of young Salvadorans set up cameras among the people and pigeons in a public park. As they work, they attract a lot of attention from bystanders, including the police, who don't stop them, but continue to watch with suspicious eyes.
Learning how to film that suspicion is the reason the group is there. They are setting up their cameras under the leadership of Sam Gregory, the program coordinator for a group called Witness that is providing film training for Entre Amigos ("Between Friends"), an organization of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people in El Salvador. The group plans to document the discrimination and abuse its members suffer from authorities as part of a campaign for reforms. But before any of that can happen, they have to learn how to make videos, which is where Gregory and Witness come in. Gregory knows that effective training requires practice in public where circumstances aren't as easily controlled as they are in the backyard where the training sessions began.
Witness is a nonprofit organization that uses video and other communications technology to promote and defend human rights. Over the course of 10 years it has trained 150 partner organizations in more than 50 countries. The groups vary by cause as well as location, ranging from a South America-based group of scientists who solve human rights crimes to a U.S.-based group focusing on juvenile incarceration.
The scope of Witness's work hasn't always been so broad. It was founded in 1992 by the British musician Peter Gabriel, after an amateur photographer videotaped the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers and drew international attention to human rights abuses in the United States. If a video recorded by chance could have so powerful an effect, Gabriel thought, why not record international abuses more purposefully? He joined with the Lawyers Committee on Human Rights and theReebok Human Rights Foundation to start Witness. It began with two staff members, a budget of $150,000, and a primary concentration on providing cameras. Today Witness is an independent organization with 11 full-time staff members and eight on-site volunteers who work from a large loft in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood, and camera training is only part of their work.
In 1996 Witness helped its partners at the Global Survival Network produce "Bought and Sold," a documentary based on an undercover investigation of the Russian mafia's involvement in trafficking of women from the former Soviet Union. Footage from the film was picked up by ABC News, BBC and CNN and was the subject of a front-page story in The New York Times.
The media attention produced results: President Clinton issued an executive order allocating $10 million to fight violence against women, with special emphasis on trafficking. The issue received more attention after Madeleine Albright put it on the agenda in her meetings with heads of state, and in 2000 the United Nations passed a transnational protocol to prevent trafficking. That year, the U.S. Congress also passed the Trafficking Victims Protections Act.
Following the success of the "Bought and Sold" campaign, Witness hired Gillian Caldwell, who had participated in the trafficking investigation as co-director of Global Survival Network, to be its first executive director. Under Caldwell's watch, Witness installed a full-time production and editing facility on site and the number of its in-house productions increased from three to 30 in two years.
She also led the group to make greater use of the Internet. Besides explaining the work of the organization and its partners, the Witness website (www.Witness.org) features "Rights Alert," webcasts that highlight footage from partner organizations with accompanying narratives and suggestions for action.
"We were one of the first nonprofit organizations with sophisticated Web broadcasting on the Net," Caldwell says. "It was getting about a hundred hits a month in 1998. We get over 1.5 million hits a month now."
As it has grown, Witness has won the attention of media celebrities and government officials. Actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins serve on the board of directors, and films are narrated by performers such as Q-Tip, a rap artist. As the group's visibility has increased, the number of Witness partners has increased by more than 40 in the past four years, and the applications continue to come in. The group has expanded its focus from civil rights to include social, economic, and cultural rights as well.
Witness is also beginning to train some of its long-term partners to do video and editing training themselves. Joey Lozano, a freelance journalist from the Philippines, first became interested in the role of the media when he noticed the lack of reporting on human rights abuses during the Marcos dictatorship. Working with Witness, Lozano began training groups in rural areas in basic journalism and broadcasting. One group was Nakamata, a coalition of 10 indigenous peoples organizations working to secure land rights on the island of Mindanao. After three indigenous leaders were murdered in 2001, Lozano and Nakamata documented the crime in a video that Witness broadcast on its website. A Philippines investigative news program also aired the footage. Because of the local and international attention, the National Bureau of Investigation conducted an inquiry that led to the indictment of three people for murder. A film featuring Lozano and Nakamata recently won the Abraham Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Sandrine Isambert, a former video editor for Witness, also helped train partners. "Once partners see the process of editing, they understand shooting and scripting better," she says. Isambert worked closely with the Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forense (Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team), one of the world's premier groups of scientists involved in human rights work. The team combines clues from interviews, exhumation of human remains, and laboratory analyses to solve crimes, identify victims, and return their remains to their families. Testifying before courts and international tribunals, E.A.A.F. has been instrumental in bringing to justice government officials from places like Argentina and Haiti for abuses committed during the 1980s and 90s. Witness helped the group produce and distribute a video, "When Bones Talk," explaining its work in layman's terms for representatives of governments and nongovernmental organizations.
Gregory, who has a background in both commercial film production and human rights activism and is fluent in Spanish, is the primary contact and instructor for Witness's Latin American partners.
In 2002, Gregory conducted a monthlong training program in Central America. He spent two weeks in villages on the northern coast of Honduras working with the Comite de Emergencia Garifuna de Honduras (Garifuna Emergency Committee of Honduras). An indigenous group working on sustainable development, the Comite has faced arson and death threats from wealthy developers in local communities. Gregory helped the group film and edit footage of abuses committed recently in various Garifuna villages. He also spent time in Guatemala, working with Jesus Tecu Osorio, a survivor of Guatemala's civil war, who has been documenting the effects of the war on its victims and survivors. And Gregory conducted the training in El Salvador for Entre Amigos, a new Witness partner.
Because the clientele of Entre Amigos is primarily working class and poorly educated, the first challenge the group faces with new members is to help them understand their rights. Another challenge facing Entre Amigos is getting the government to enforce these rights. In El Salvador 75,000 people disappeared or were killed during a 12-year civil war that ended only 10 years ago. Although a democratic system has been in place since 1994, effects of the war linger – there is an extremely high poverty and crime rate and such a proliferation of guns that supermarkets post signs asking customers to check their weapons before shopping. Since El Salvador is still in the process of establishing basic rule of law and civil rights, addressing discrimination based on sexual orientation is not a priority.
At the initial training session last July, even before the cameras were brought in, Gregory encouraged the group to clarify its goals for the use of video.
In El Salvador, ordinances originally designed to fine lewd behavior in public are turning into excuses for illegal detainment and harassment of gays and transsexuals openly displaying affection. Abuses are common in the prison system, with guards harassing homosexual and transgender inmates and placing them with others who are openly homophobic. So Gregory discussed different ways to record and document such abuses.
The second day focused on technical camera training. Gregory explained that Entre Amigos would be using digital hand-held cameras and passed two of them around the group. Then he showed a video on how to use the cameras, stopping the tape to demonstrate each time it introduced a new topic. He made sure everyone in the room handled a camera and tried the techniques.
The group then moved outside to practice in the backyard, where they immediately faced lighting and sound challenges. Next they practiced filming in public, staging an interview with one of the Entre Amigos members, who pointed out where last year's gay pride parade took place.
The last day of the training focused on editing. Like a television cook who prepares different parts of a meal in advance, Gregory worked at night on his computer, logging and editing footage shot that day so that the group could see the various stages of the process. Almost all of the Entre Amigos participants see the process of editing as the link to everything they learned. With an understanding of editing, members of the group say, they see how future footage can be tailored to fit their goals and advance their cause.
William Hernandez, the director of Entre Amigos, remarks that what the group has learned during the week will permanently change the nature of its work. Joaquin Caceres, Entre Amigos' director of educational programming, agrees, emphasizing that Gregory has provided more than just camera training; he has given the group a strategy. "It's a tool we will utilize as much as possible to help spur people into action."
This article originally appeared in the Ford Foundation Report, Winter 2003. Dana Hughes is a staff writer for FFR.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Advanced Writing Notes
OVERVIEW
This course aims to familiarize you with the nature and content of critical approaches to mass communication inquiry, and help you better understand the mass media and mass communication from a variety of perspectives. The course also is intended to encourage critical inquiry into communication theories, journalistic practices, news and entertainment content, and to assist all students in becoming more informed, thoughtful and discerning media consumers.
OBJECTIVES
Each student will be capable of defining mass communication, will be familiar with the various media of mass communication currently in use in society, and will understand the essential characteristics of each medium.
Each student will be familiar with the dominant theories of mass communication processes and effects and will understand the primary advantages and limitations of several approaches to mass communication research.
Each student will begin to demonstrate analytical and critical thinking skills required to link mass communication theory with cultural understandings and personal reading/viewing habits.
Each student will develop fundamental skills in writing for the various media (including print, broadcast (radio & T.V.), web, and public relations) and in writing genre articles in each area. A report on our tour of Asahi Shimbun will be required as well as an interview in English which will be written as a news paper article.
Good Luck and let's have an interesting and enjoyable time writting.
Clark
OVERVIEW
This course aims to familiarize you with the nature and content of critical approaches to mass communication inquiry, and help you better understand the mass media and mass communication from a variety of perspectives. The course also is intended to encourage critical inquiry into communication theories, journalistic practices, news and entertainment content, and to assist all students in becoming more informed, thoughtful and discerning media consumers.
OBJECTIVES
Each student will be capable of defining mass communication, will be familiar with the various media of mass communication currently in use in society, and will understand the essential characteristics of each medium.
Each student will be familiar with the dominant theories of mass communication processes and effects and will understand the primary advantages and limitations of several approaches to mass communication research.
Each student will begin to demonstrate analytical and critical thinking skills required to link mass communication theory with cultural understandings and personal reading/viewing habits.
Each student will develop fundamental skills in writing for the various media (including print, broadcast (radio & T.V.), web, and public relations) and in writing genre articles in each area. A report on our tour of Asahi Shimbun will be required as well as an interview in English which will be written as a news paper article.
Good Luck and let's have an interesting and enjoyable time writting.
Clark
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