Specialized Journalism:Doctors Without Behavioral Borders
THE pilot episode of "Medical Investigation," NBC's new medical science series, retells a famous old New York story about a rare type of food poisoning that produces blue patients. (The pilot will be broadcast on Thursday night at 10 Eastern; the following night at the same time, the show will assume its regular slot). Though its source isn't credited, the episode (written by Jason Horwitch) is an homage to "Eleven Blue Men," the great medical journalist Berton Roueché's classic account of a mysterious food poisoning that literally turned 11 New York City alcoholics blue.
Well, perhaps "homage" isn't the right term. Roueché's account, first published in The New Yorker in 1947, is careful and understated. As the narrator, he solicits the facts retrospectively from two seasoned, courteous investigators from the New York City public health department who seem to be competing for a modesty award. They have obviously done a clever, systematic and ultimately revealing investigation, working in collegial fashion with the doctors and nurses caring for the patients. And they succeeded: all but one patient survived, and the two sleuths traced the source of the toxic substance to bowls of oatmeal and a single salt shaker that contained sodium nitrite (rather than regular sodium chloride) from a mislabeled package. But the detectives also admit, with humility, to a few loose ends to their story; the survivors were discharged from the hospital before they could verify that they had eaten at the same table and used the salt shaker vigorously. In Roueché's account, as in real-life medicine, good investigators are left with a few nagging doubts.
The pilot's first departure from its source material is its setting. "Medical Investigation" features doctors from an elite (and fictional) unit of the National Institutes of Health. The producers say that the show is meant to celebrate the agency, and indeed, the opening credits mention that N.I.H. has spent more than 100 years improving the world's health.
However, contrary to the premise of "Medical Investigation," that work does not include flying off in helicopters to investigate outbreaks of bizarre maladies. As the millions who saw the film "Outbreak" could probably tell you, such work traditionally belongs in the domain of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, the agency that local hospitals and city health departments turn to when they are stymied by medical mysteries. (I know this, because aside from having seen "Outbreak," I spent six years as the director of the National Institutes of Health). The N.I.H., through its government labs and grant recipients, does medical research on diseases and basic biological problems in laboratories and hospitals; it does not organize the immediate response to medical emergencies: outbreaks of unexplained illnesses, seasonal epidemics, or evidence of bioterrorism. (Later in the season, the show's producers say, "Medical Investigation" will depict clinical tests of new therapies, which is closer to the institutes' actual work.)
Unlike the quietly competent municipal employees who solved the case on which the pilot is based, the staff in "Medical Investigation" looks and sounds like a terrorism response team from a military unit. The doctors have no charm, no uncertainty, and less modesty. The lead investigator, Stephen Connor (played by Neal McDonough), has admittedly useful qualities: extensive medical knowledge and a determination to cure the sick. With angry energy and unremitting focus, he gets the job done. But the trait that overwhelms the viewer, as Connor barks intimidating orders to associates and insults to local hospital personnel, is the man's insupportable arrogance. He marches into the hospital, commandeers the staff and upbraids the seemingly reasonable physician in charge by suggesting that contesting his authority would place eight million lives at risk. One of the producers, Laurence Andries, says the Connor character satisfies the American public's "aching for heroes." But has our fear of terrorism and outbreaks become so great that viewers will accept such uncooperative behavior as anything other than obnoxious?
he other members of Connor's team are not much more likable than he is — which says something about Hollywood's idea of a competent federal agent. Connor's female co-investigator is also his apologist (Connor "suffers from a bad case of high expectations," she says). An African-American technician portentously places Connor in historical context ("the unreasonable man makes the world adapt.") A public relations staffer teases, harasses and temporarily imprisons a reporter who is on to the mystery, successfully suppressing the story until it is solved. (According to Mr. Horwitch, this is supposed to be "comic relief," but it comes off as mean-spirited, lacking in purpose and even unethical.)
As in the original "Eleven Blue Men," the symptoms lead the investigators to a poisonous salt mistakenly placed in a single shaker at a busy diner. But the victims have changed along with the investigators. Instead of an outcast population of old alcoholic men — from whom viewers might feel disengaged — the patients are varied by age and gender. The only one we get to know is a middle-aged man who develops his symptoms as he walks through Midtown Manhattan talking smugly on his cellphone about Amgen shares and Martha Stewart. He's a good personality match for Connor.
Amid all the hectic helicoptering and hectoring behavior, there are a couple of moments of solid medical detective work. Connor tests the contents of the salt shakers by mixing them with drops of his blood in spoons; in one case the blood dramatically darkens. This is more fun to watch and, according to Dr. Robert Hoffman of the New York City Poison Control Center, more credible than the fancy analytic machine that earlier flashed "nitrate, nitrate" when processing the patients' blood. The show also briefly illuminates how a good epidemiologist might think when it portrays Connor reconstructing events: in a waking dream, he imagines the restaurant full of patrons, only a few of whom become the unlucky patients who sat at the wrong table and shook the contaminated salt onto their food.
Unfortunately, such moments are few, and the dominant impression is that epidemiology is about screaming, not about useful, difficult scientific work. It's hardly surprising: unlike the movies, in which scientists have made decent showings (think of the climatologist in "Day After Tomorrow" or the rocket engineers in "Apollo 13"), scientists have rarely if ever made it to prime time network television intact. In its better days, "E.R." used to create dramatic situations that displayed the scientific issues underlying treatment of H.I.V., drug abuse or organ transplantation. But television's efforts to portray medical scientists at work usually involve geeky sidekicks or connivers trying to boost their reputations or salaries with dishonest scientific practices. With its aggravating characters, distorted picture of the role of federal agencies and limited portrayal of medical investigation, this new show seems destined to be just another failure to present scientific work in a smart and appealing way.
If the producers wanted to convey a more realistic atmosphere of threatened terrorism, while sticking with chemically induced cyanosis, they might have scuttled the ambiguous tribute to Roueché and taken their cue from a case recently reported in the Centers for Disease Control's weekly online journal by Dr. Hoffman and his many co-workers. In 2002, five adults of Middle Eastern descent were poisoned in Yonkers by ingestion of sodium nitrite taken from a bag plainly labeled Table Salt. Was this a mix-up or a criminal act? Were other contaminated bags distributed around the country? You will have to read the article (online at www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5129.pdf) to find out. When you do, you'll notice that the public health experts treated all five patients successfully before knowing the cause of cyanosis; Connor's team waited for his spoon test before treating his blue patients, therefore losing a patient. Which is just one more reason you might not want to entrust your Friday night — let alone your medical care — to a doctor like him.
Harold Varmus, president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, shared a Nobel Prize for studies of cancer viruses.
Sunday, September 05, 2004
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Hope your all having a good summer. Heres the lates selected items from Muckracker:
2.
DON'T ASK, DON'T SHELL
Nigeria Hits Shell With $1.5 Billion Pollution Claim
The Nigerian parliament has hit Shell with a $1.5 billion claim after the Ijaw tribe of the Niger Delta demanded compensation for health and economic hardship caused by the company's polluting operations. The oil giant admits to 262 oil spill incidents in Nigeria in 2002, and that same year it identified 548 sites in the country that needed "remedial" action to prevent contamination. And Shell's reputation as a polluter and violator of human rights in the country goes back even further, with the nadir having come in 1995, when the company failed to intervene as Nigeria's military dictatorship executed activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who had led locals in the fight against Shell's destructive drilling practices. It's unclear whether the parliament's resolution carries the force of law. Shell is, as one might imagine, rather desperate to rehabilitate its public image in Nigeria.
straight to the source: The Guardian, Terry Macalister, 26 Aug 2004
3.
DISMISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
New U.S. Government Report Acknowledges Human-Caused Climate Change
President Bush famously dismissed a 2002 U.S. government report that acknowledged the human causes of climate change as something "put out by the bureaucracy." Well, it looks like the bureaucracy's at it again: A new administration report to Congress indicates that human production of heat-trapping greenhouse gases is likely behind the rapid climate change of the past three decades. According to James R. Mahoney, director of government climate research, the report reflects "the best possible scientific information" on climate change. The White House, which has regularly followed the lead of industry groups in emphasizing the uncertainty of climate science, may have difficulty dismissing this report, as it is signed by the secretaries of energy and commerce and Bush's top science adviser, but you never know.
straight to the source: The New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 26 Aug 2004
straight to the report: Our Changing Planet
4.
SUNFLOWER POWER
Scientists Create Hydrogen Fuel from Sunflower Oil
British scientists have discovered a way to power cars with sunflower oil. While biodiesel cars that directly burn cooking oil are fairly common, researcher Valerie Dupont and her colleagues have something else in mind, as they reported this week at an American Chemical Society conference. They've figured out a way to use catalysts to extract pure hydrogen from a combination of air, water vapor, and sunflower oil. Hydrogen is frequently hailed as the clean fuel of the future, but most current methods of creating hydrogen burn the very fossil fuels responsible for pollution and greenhouse gases. Dupont's process could eventually use any vegetable oil and be miniaturized to the point that the converter could transform oil to hydrogen on the fly, in the car itself. Another researcher at the same conference claimed she was working on a process that could convert pure water directly to hydrogen using a catalyst and solar energy. For now, both veggie oil and water catalysts are prohibitively expensive, but still, maybe this whole hydrogen thing will work out after all.
straight to the source: BBC News, Richard Black, 26 Aug 2004
straight to the source: The Guardian, Tim Radford, 26 Aug 2004
2.
DON'T ASK, DON'T SHELL
Nigeria Hits Shell With $1.5 Billion Pollution Claim
The Nigerian parliament has hit Shell with a $1.5 billion claim after the Ijaw tribe of the Niger Delta demanded compensation for health and economic hardship caused by the company's polluting operations. The oil giant admits to 262 oil spill incidents in Nigeria in 2002, and that same year it identified 548 sites in the country that needed "remedial" action to prevent contamination. And Shell's reputation as a polluter and violator of human rights in the country goes back even further, with the nadir having come in 1995, when the company failed to intervene as Nigeria's military dictatorship executed activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who had led locals in the fight against Shell's destructive drilling practices. It's unclear whether the parliament's resolution carries the force of law. Shell is, as one might imagine, rather desperate to rehabilitate its public image in Nigeria.
straight to the source: The Guardian, Terry Macalister, 26 Aug 2004
3.
DISMISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
New U.S. Government Report Acknowledges Human-Caused Climate Change
President Bush famously dismissed a 2002 U.S. government report that acknowledged the human causes of climate change as something "put out by the bureaucracy." Well, it looks like the bureaucracy's at it again: A new administration report to Congress indicates that human production of heat-trapping greenhouse gases is likely behind the rapid climate change of the past three decades. According to James R. Mahoney, director of government climate research, the report reflects "the best possible scientific information" on climate change. The White House, which has regularly followed the lead of industry groups in emphasizing the uncertainty of climate science, may have difficulty dismissing this report, as it is signed by the secretaries of energy and commerce and Bush's top science adviser, but you never know.
straight to the source: The New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 26 Aug 2004
straight to the report: Our Changing Planet
4.
SUNFLOWER POWER
Scientists Create Hydrogen Fuel from Sunflower Oil
British scientists have discovered a way to power cars with sunflower oil. While biodiesel cars that directly burn cooking oil are fairly common, researcher Valerie Dupont and her colleagues have something else in mind, as they reported this week at an American Chemical Society conference. They've figured out a way to use catalysts to extract pure hydrogen from a combination of air, water vapor, and sunflower oil. Hydrogen is frequently hailed as the clean fuel of the future, but most current methods of creating hydrogen burn the very fossil fuels responsible for pollution and greenhouse gases. Dupont's process could eventually use any vegetable oil and be miniaturized to the point that the converter could transform oil to hydrogen on the fly, in the car itself. Another researcher at the same conference claimed she was working on a process that could convert pure water directly to hydrogen using a catalyst and solar energy. For now, both veggie oil and water catalysts are prohibitively expensive, but still, maybe this whole hydrogen thing will work out after all.
straight to the source: BBC News, Richard Black, 26 Aug 2004
straight to the source: The Guardian, Tim Radford, 26 Aug 2004
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Here's some more from the alternate press:
1. DISINFOPEDIA VERSUS SWIFT BOAT VETS AND OTHER FRONT GROUPS
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=swift+boat&btnG=Google+Search
Last year we launched the Disinfopedia, a "wiki" website designed
to mobilize hundreds of volunteers to help us investigate and
expose front groups and propaganda campaigns. The Disinfopedia is
an experiment in participatory investigative journalism, and the
experiment seems to be succeeding. One recent example is the
Disinfopedia listing for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Not only is
the Disinfopeda entry on the group extensive, up to date and well
documented, it's being widely read by thousands daily and it
appears at or near the top in Google. There will always be
propaganda and deception, but Disinfopedia is proving a powerful
tool for getting to the truth. We invite you to help us to
research, edit and write the Disinfopedia; click here to learn how
to get started.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093406400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093406400
2. SECRET JUSTICE
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1183557.htm
After nearly three years of confinement at Guantanamo Bay,
Australian national David Hicks goes on trial for alleged terrorism
before a U.S. military court. "There'll be no pictures allowed of
David Hicks, no audio from the courtroom, no pictures of the
defence, prosecution or presiding officer entering the building,
and military camera operators will choose what images are broadcast
via closed circuit television to most journalists covering the
hearing," reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
According to reporter Leigh Sales, some of the restrictions on
press coverage "are bizarre and have no parallel. For example,
journalists in the courtroom can't use phone lines to file stories
during breaks in the proceedings. If you get up to go to the
toilet, you are then barred from the courtroom for the rest of the
day. ... Another restriction here, is that no sound or pictures
whatsoever will be taken of the military commissions, even though
they're one of the most important legal aspects of the Bush
administration's war on terrorism, and the first proceedings of
this kind since the Second World War."
SOURCE: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 24, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093320001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093320001
3. SLICK - THE NOVEL
http://www.slicknovel.com/
Check out the new book SLICK by first-time novelist Daniel Price.
SLICK's anti-hero protagonist, Scott Singer, works "in the field of
perception management, although the less colorful term is 'media
manipulation.' We're the CIA of PR, the sublime little gremlins who
live just outside your senses, selling you products and concepts
without you even knowing. ... I've conspired with the gun people,
schemed with the liquor people, toiled for tobacco, and moiled for
Monsanto. I've pushed polluters and promoted porn. I've shilled for
Shell and lied for Tide. I've helped a major pharmaceutical company
sell a drug that does nothing by promoting a disease that doesn't
exist. And that's just the old stuff on my resume." Daniel Price is
both a brilliant novelist and a sharp media critic who also
publishes AbusedByTheNews.com, a website "dedicated to analyzing
the tricks, kinks and quirks of America's corporate news media."
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093320000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093320000
4. SECONDHAND SMOKE SCREEN
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=220175&site=3
A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
finds that Philip Morris attempted to influence media coverage of
secondhand smoke. Citing internal industry documents, the study's
author, Dr. Richard Hunt, says the company and its PR firm,
Burson-Marsteller, made "a controversy out of secondhand smoke when
there wasn't any." Hurt also said Philip Morris gave "hundreds of
thousands of dollars" to training programs at the Herndon, VA-based
National Journalism Center. "Hurt said the funds went to support
speakers who would discount research on the dangers of secondhand
smoke," PR Week writes. "They also backed an internship program to
place reporters who supported the tobacco industry's position, Hurt
said."
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req'd), August 23, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093233601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093233601
5. BUSH CAMPAIGN GRABS FOR IRAQI GOLD
http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1288686,00.html
George W. Bush's re-election campaign has been accused of
appropriating the Olympics for political means. A recent
Bush/Cheney advertisement that links Iraq's and Afghanistan's
participation in the Olympic games with the White House's "war on
terror" is drawing criticism. "To the embarrassment of their media
handlers in Athens, members of the Iraqi football team have reacted
furiously to the news that their efforts are being used to aid Mr
Bush's efforts to win a second term in the White House," The
Guardian reports. The team's coach, Adnan Hamd, told Sports
Illustrated magazine, "My problem is not with the American people.
They are with what America has done; destroyed everything. The
American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom
when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?" The
Guardian is also reporting that Bush may be "planning to visit
Athens later this week to watch some sporting events, including a
potential gold-medal winning bid by the Iraqi football team."
SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), August 23, 2004
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093233600
6. FULL COURT PRESS RELEASE
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19616/
"Over the past few weeks of Presidential WrestleMania MMIV, the
Bush campaign has fired off more than a dozen press releases about
John Kerry's policies on energy, nuclear-waste storage, forest and
water protections, and other environmental issues - a hodgepodge of
smears, exaggerations, and obfuscations intended to besmirch
Kerry's pro-environment reputation," Grist Magazine's Amanda
Griscom writes. Polls indicate that swing-state voters are
concerned about things like pollution and wilderness conservation,
prompting the Bush campaign to "neutralize" the environment as an
election issue. "They know they can't persuade voters that Bush is
good on the environment, so they're trying to create enough
confusion about Kerry's record that people decide it can't be the
issue that decides their vote," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club
executive director. "Most of the Bush team's environment-related
releases rely on one of two tired claims - that Kerry is a
flip-flopper, or that creating jobs and protecting the environment
are incompatible goals," Griscom writes.
SOURCE: Alternet, August 20, 2004
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092974403
1. DISINFOPEDIA VERSUS SWIFT BOAT VETS AND OTHER FRONT GROUPS
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=swift+boat&btnG=Google+Search
Last year we launched the Disinfopedia, a "wiki" website designed
to mobilize hundreds of volunteers to help us investigate and
expose front groups and propaganda campaigns. The Disinfopedia is
an experiment in participatory investigative journalism, and the
experiment seems to be succeeding. One recent example is the
Disinfopedia listing for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Not only is
the Disinfopeda entry on the group extensive, up to date and well
documented, it's being widely read by thousands daily and it
appears at or near the top in Google. There will always be
propaganda and deception, but Disinfopedia is proving a powerful
tool for getting to the truth. We invite you to help us to
research, edit and write the Disinfopedia; click here to learn how
to get started.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093406400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093406400
2. SECRET JUSTICE
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1183557.htm
After nearly three years of confinement at Guantanamo Bay,
Australian national David Hicks goes on trial for alleged terrorism
before a U.S. military court. "There'll be no pictures allowed of
David Hicks, no audio from the courtroom, no pictures of the
defence, prosecution or presiding officer entering the building,
and military camera operators will choose what images are broadcast
via closed circuit television to most journalists covering the
hearing," reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
According to reporter Leigh Sales, some of the restrictions on
press coverage "are bizarre and have no parallel. For example,
journalists in the courtroom can't use phone lines to file stories
during breaks in the proceedings. If you get up to go to the
toilet, you are then barred from the courtroom for the rest of the
day. ... Another restriction here, is that no sound or pictures
whatsoever will be taken of the military commissions, even though
they're one of the most important legal aspects of the Bush
administration's war on terrorism, and the first proceedings of
this kind since the Second World War."
SOURCE: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 24, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093320001
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093320001
3. SLICK - THE NOVEL
http://www.slicknovel.com/
Check out the new book SLICK by first-time novelist Daniel Price.
SLICK's anti-hero protagonist, Scott Singer, works "in the field of
perception management, although the less colorful term is 'media
manipulation.' We're the CIA of PR, the sublime little gremlins who
live just outside your senses, selling you products and concepts
without you even knowing. ... I've conspired with the gun people,
schemed with the liquor people, toiled for tobacco, and moiled for
Monsanto. I've pushed polluters and promoted porn. I've shilled for
Shell and lied for Tide. I've helped a major pharmaceutical company
sell a drug that does nothing by promoting a disease that doesn't
exist. And that's just the old stuff on my resume." Daniel Price is
both a brilliant novelist and a sharp media critic who also
publishes AbusedByTheNews.com, a website "dedicated to analyzing
the tricks, kinks and quirks of America's corporate news media."
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093320000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093320000
4. SECONDHAND SMOKE SCREEN
http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=220175&site=3
A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
finds that Philip Morris attempted to influence media coverage of
secondhand smoke. Citing internal industry documents, the study's
author, Dr. Richard Hunt, says the company and its PR firm,
Burson-Marsteller, made "a controversy out of secondhand smoke when
there wasn't any." Hurt also said Philip Morris gave "hundreds of
thousands of dollars" to training programs at the Herndon, VA-based
National Journalism Center. "Hurt said the funds went to support
speakers who would discount research on the dangers of secondhand
smoke," PR Week writes. "They also backed an internship program to
place reporters who supported the tobacco industry's position, Hurt
said."
SOURCE: PR Week (sub req'd), August 23, 2004
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2004.html#1093233601
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093233601
5. BUSH CAMPAIGN GRABS FOR IRAQI GOLD
http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1288686,00.html
George W. Bush's re-election campaign has been accused of
appropriating the Olympics for political means. A recent
Bush/Cheney advertisement that links Iraq's and Afghanistan's
participation in the Olympic games with the White House's "war on
terror" is drawing criticism. "To the embarrassment of their media
handlers in Athens, members of the Iraqi football team have reacted
furiously to the news that their efforts are being used to aid Mr
Bush's efforts to win a second term in the White House," The
Guardian reports. The team's coach, Adnan Hamd, told Sports
Illustrated magazine, "My problem is not with the American people.
They are with what America has done; destroyed everything. The
American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom
when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?" The
Guardian is also reporting that Bush may be "planning to visit
Athens later this week to watch some sporting events, including a
potential gold-medal winning bid by the Iraqi football team."
SOURCE: The Guardian (UK), August 23, 2004
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1093233600
6. FULL COURT PRESS RELEASE
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19616/
"Over the past few weeks of Presidential WrestleMania MMIV, the
Bush campaign has fired off more than a dozen press releases about
John Kerry's policies on energy, nuclear-waste storage, forest and
water protections, and other environmental issues - a hodgepodge of
smears, exaggerations, and obfuscations intended to besmirch
Kerry's pro-environment reputation," Grist Magazine's Amanda
Griscom writes. Polls indicate that swing-state voters are
concerned about things like pollution and wilderness conservation,
prompting the Bush campaign to "neutralize" the environment as an
election issue. "They know they can't persuade voters that Bush is
good on the environment, so they're trying to create enough
confusion about Kerry's record that people decide it can't be the
issue that decides their vote," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club
executive director. "Most of the Bush team's environment-related
releases rely on one of two tired claims - that Kerry is a
flip-flopper, or that creating jobs and protecting the environment
are incompatible goals," Griscom writes.
SOURCE: Alternet, August 20, 2004
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1092974403
Monday, July 19, 2004
Big Brother Comes to Canada
By Paul Weinberg, Inter Press Service. Posted July 16, 2004.
U.S. security priorities are driving policy decisions in Ottawa.
Earlier this month, CNN reported that police officers across the United States are carrying handheld wireless computers on which they can access private details from large commercial databases about anyone they encounter on their beat.
Emboldened by a new post-Cold War role in the U.S.-led "war on terrorism,' security and intelligence agencies are exploring new electronic technologies that will enhance the collection and dissemination of the private records of citizens across international borders.
"It's all about data gathering and integration of databases, information sharing and risk assessment by computer-generated profiling,' says Roch Tasse, coordinator of the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), a coalition made up of NGOs, churches, unions, environmental and civil rights advocates and groups representing immigrant and refugee communities in Canada.
But the questionable accuracy of the information stored in files collected on citizens, the lack of clear protocols governing their use by police and security officials and the reliance on racial profiling to detain citizens with Third World backgrounds at airports concerns civil libertarians like Tasse.
The role that information-sharing between the RCMP and its U.S. counterparts played in the detention of Canadian citizen Maher Arar is now being probed by a government appointed inquiry in Ottawa.
Arar was seized by U.S. authorities in a New York airport in 2002 on suspicion of being a terrorist and subsequently deported to Syria, his country of birth, where he says he was tortured for nearly a year.
Lloyd Axworthy, former Liberal foreign affairs minister, says he wonders if Arar's treatment can be connected to the cross-border agreements Canada and the United States entered into starting in December 2001 (just months after the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon), which he says give police and immigration agencies all kind of leeway on cooperation, including information-sharing.
"My position has always been that we are in fact in danger of actually limiting established rights in Canada, without knowing whether we are or not,' Axworthy told IPS.
Arar, a 34-year-old telecommunications engineer, claims Syrian authorities used torture to force him to make a false confession. Details allegedly from that interrogation that were leaked to the Canadian media by anonymous intelligence sources helped spark the public outcry that pushed Ottawa to call the inquiry.
But Canadian government lawyers are balking at full disclosure of the RCMP's communications with their U.S. counterparts while Arar was detained because, they say, revealing details might jeopardize existing international agreements involving the two countries.
A York University professor is suggesting that Ottawa seriously examine the relationship between Canadian and U.S. police and intelligence authorities, particularly when officials north of the border are kept "out of the loop 90 per cent of the time' on security matters involving the United States.
Daniel Drache, author of Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America, wants the Canadian government to conduct an "audit' of the impact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – the powerful agency set up to protect the United States following 9/11 – has had on Canada, including on immigration matters and on the rights guaranteed in the constitution.
In the absence of a "made in Canada security policy' under the current Liberal government, U.S. security priorities are driving policy decisions in Ottawa, argues Drache. Canadian authorities "are taking an ad hoc approach. They have no framework and they haven't made any assessment of Homeland Security,' he adds.
Tasse suggests the Canadian government will be forced to adopt a version of the database system being developed by Bermuda-based Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting) in a multi-billion contract for DHS. The system will be designed to collect and track foreign nationals entering the United States, using digital photographs, fingerprints and other biometric information.
Accenture is a controversial name in Ontario, where the previous Conservative government contracted the firm to design a computerized system to administer its social welfare programmes. It has since proven to be so inflexible that it will cost the current administration a reported $7.6 million (U.S.) to fix.
Nevertheless, Tasse expects that the Accenture project and more advanced databases in the European Union will set the stage for development of compatible information systems that will be used by police and intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. "Basically, all of the developed countries will use the same technology; so all of the systems will be compatible everywhere.'
Toronto-based information technology consultant Jesse Hirsh says that citizens in democratic nations do have a say, through their elected representatives, on the accuracy of the information stored on them in databanks.
But shared global databases out of reach of the average citizen, argues Hirsh, "transcend whatever democratic institutions we have for checks and balances. We have lost control of that data representation of ourselves. We can no longer influence its accuracy; we can no longer determine its level of privacy, in terms of who else gets to see our data representation.'
Paul Weinberg is a freelance writer based in Toronto.
By Paul Weinberg, Inter Press Service. Posted July 16, 2004.
U.S. security priorities are driving policy decisions in Ottawa.
Earlier this month, CNN reported that police officers across the United States are carrying handheld wireless computers on which they can access private details from large commercial databases about anyone they encounter on their beat.
Emboldened by a new post-Cold War role in the U.S.-led "war on terrorism,' security and intelligence agencies are exploring new electronic technologies that will enhance the collection and dissemination of the private records of citizens across international borders.
"It's all about data gathering and integration of databases, information sharing and risk assessment by computer-generated profiling,' says Roch Tasse, coordinator of the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), a coalition made up of NGOs, churches, unions, environmental and civil rights advocates and groups representing immigrant and refugee communities in Canada.
But the questionable accuracy of the information stored in files collected on citizens, the lack of clear protocols governing their use by police and security officials and the reliance on racial profiling to detain citizens with Third World backgrounds at airports concerns civil libertarians like Tasse.
The role that information-sharing between the RCMP and its U.S. counterparts played in the detention of Canadian citizen Maher Arar is now being probed by a government appointed inquiry in Ottawa.
Arar was seized by U.S. authorities in a New York airport in 2002 on suspicion of being a terrorist and subsequently deported to Syria, his country of birth, where he says he was tortured for nearly a year.
Lloyd Axworthy, former Liberal foreign affairs minister, says he wonders if Arar's treatment can be connected to the cross-border agreements Canada and the United States entered into starting in December 2001 (just months after the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon), which he says give police and immigration agencies all kind of leeway on cooperation, including information-sharing.
"My position has always been that we are in fact in danger of actually limiting established rights in Canada, without knowing whether we are or not,' Axworthy told IPS.
Arar, a 34-year-old telecommunications engineer, claims Syrian authorities used torture to force him to make a false confession. Details allegedly from that interrogation that were leaked to the Canadian media by anonymous intelligence sources helped spark the public outcry that pushed Ottawa to call the inquiry.
But Canadian government lawyers are balking at full disclosure of the RCMP's communications with their U.S. counterparts while Arar was detained because, they say, revealing details might jeopardize existing international agreements involving the two countries.
A York University professor is suggesting that Ottawa seriously examine the relationship between Canadian and U.S. police and intelligence authorities, particularly when officials north of the border are kept "out of the loop 90 per cent of the time' on security matters involving the United States.
Daniel Drache, author of Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America, wants the Canadian government to conduct an "audit' of the impact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – the powerful agency set up to protect the United States following 9/11 – has had on Canada, including on immigration matters and on the rights guaranteed in the constitution.
In the absence of a "made in Canada security policy' under the current Liberal government, U.S. security priorities are driving policy decisions in Ottawa, argues Drache. Canadian authorities "are taking an ad hoc approach. They have no framework and they haven't made any assessment of Homeland Security,' he adds.
Tasse suggests the Canadian government will be forced to adopt a version of the database system being developed by Bermuda-based Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting) in a multi-billion contract for DHS. The system will be designed to collect and track foreign nationals entering the United States, using digital photographs, fingerprints and other biometric information.
Accenture is a controversial name in Ontario, where the previous Conservative government contracted the firm to design a computerized system to administer its social welfare programmes. It has since proven to be so inflexible that it will cost the current administration a reported $7.6 million (U.S.) to fix.
Nevertheless, Tasse expects that the Accenture project and more advanced databases in the European Union will set the stage for development of compatible information systems that will be used by police and intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. "Basically, all of the developed countries will use the same technology; so all of the systems will be compatible everywhere.'
Toronto-based information technology consultant Jesse Hirsh says that citizens in democratic nations do have a say, through their elected representatives, on the accuracy of the information stored on them in databanks.
But shared global databases out of reach of the average citizen, argues Hirsh, "transcend whatever democratic institutions we have for checks and balances. We have lost control of that data representation of ourselves. We can no longer influence its accuracy; we can no longer determine its level of privacy, in terms of who else gets to see our data representation.'
Paul Weinberg is a freelance writer based in Toronto.
Friday, July 16, 2004
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
One of the best sources for well thought out essays on current news is the following: You should look through and check out some of the stories.
From: update@butterfliesandwheels.com
Date: Mon Jul 12, 2004 10:03:01 PM Asia/Tokyo
To: carsurf@dragon.email.ne.jp
Subject: Butterflies and Wheels weekly update
Hello
This email provides details of the content that has been added to ButterfliesandWheels.com over the last week.
NEW ARTICLES
Machiavellian Monkeys
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=64
Lesson Plans
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=65
NOTES AND COMMENT
There are new notes and comments to view:
--The Moore Files
--Judy, Judy, Judy
--There Are Limits, After All
--Blunkett on Today
--How About Religious Mild Dislike?
--Borrowing From Chomsky
--A Quick Twirl
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/notes.php
LATEST NEWS
The Hubble's Last Years?
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues04/jul04/hubble.html
NASA has canceled missions to service telescope.
High Art v Low is a False Dichotomy
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articles/0704artinamerica04.html
'In America, even the intellectuals are anti-intellectual.'
Tupac Shakur not Some Sort of Byron
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4960930-110760,00.html
John McWhorter says rap teaches 'recreational outrage.'
The 'No Ectoplasm Clause'
http://www.newhumanist.org.uk/rationallyspeaking_more.php?id=820_0_7_0_M
Massimo Pigliucci on the neurobiology of regret.
Arab News Media and the 'Blood of Martyrs'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24987-2004Jul3
'al Qaeda has become mainstream and being part of the movement is "cool" in the eyes of young people.'
Moore Could be Better and Still Be Moore
http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-3-1988.jsp#
'He could show us that war kills and Bush is appalling, and yet be more scrupulous.'
Sucking Up to Judith Butler
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/07/06/butler/print.html
Superstar, classic, defining work, platinum album, seminal work, provocative, immense success, etc.
Open Democracy on Multiculturalism
http://www.opendemocracy.net/articles/ViewPopUpArticle.jsp?id=1&articleId=1991
Does multiculturalism lead to cultural relativism? What about the universal standards of human rights?
The Nuances of That Word
http://fray.slate.msn.com/id/2103467/
You? Yourself? Or off? Hitchens suggests off is best.
In Biology Everyone Stands in Mayr's Shadow
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/07/05/MNGFV7GBAS1.DTL&type=printable
'Mayr's life defies the myth that elderly scientists are incapable of changing their minds.'
Interview with Ernst Mayr
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0004D8E1-178C-10EB-978C83414B7F012C
'Biology is an autonomous science and should not be mixed up with physics.'
On Alexis de Tocqueville
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/this_week/story.aspx?story_id=2107722
The physics of democracy.
Is There a Shortage of Scientists in the US?
http://chronicle.com/cgi2-bin/printable.cgi?article=http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i44/44a01001.htm
The inaccuracy of past pronouncements creates a woof-woof problem.
BHL Has Views That Annoy
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-levy6jul06,1,5078897,print.story?coll=la-headlines-world
'The Palestinian "victimocracy" has a tendency to hide wars that are infinitely longer and more murderous.'
A Theosophical Heir to the Throne
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/ArticleView.asp?P_Article=12672
'Much of this assault on contemporary rationalism flows from the prince's rather eclectic spiritualism.'
What Price 'Life of Brian'?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3871867.stm
David Blunkett wants to outlaw 'inciting religious hatred'.
Blunkett Renews Bid to Outlaw Religious Hatred
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/07/nrace07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/07/ixhome.html
Inappropriate to punish those who merely offend people's religious sensibilities?
That's a Relief
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA5D8.htm
We can criticise religion, as long as we do it sensibly.
Blunkett's Well-meaning Waffle
http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/07/08/dl0801.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/07/08/ixopinion.html
Beyond the remit and power of home secretaries to compel people to be kind.
Hormonal Birth Control as 'Silent' Abortionist
http://www.prevention.com/cda/feature2002/0,2479,s1-7342-P,00.html
Pharmacists and doctors are denying patients access to birth control pills.
Hear Blunkett on Today
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_blunkett_20040707.ram
No worry, we can say what we like about religion, as long as it's sensible.
Campaigns Against Vaccinations Can Do Harm
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n13/penn01_.html
How can doctors be persuaded to comport themselves as scientists?
Surely Ethical Tobacco is an Oxymoron?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1256877,00.html
Well but they grow it with ever such nice organic fertilizer.
Study of Environmental Causes of Autism
http://society.guardian.co.uk/publichealth/story/0,11098,1256741,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704
Colin Blakemore says MRC's 2001 review of autism research highlighted gaps in knowledge.
Meghnad Desai on Religious Hatred Laws
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=539082&host=3&dir=70
Secular democracy should get away from privileging religion, not give it special status.
Polly Toynbee Named 'Islamophobe of Year'
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6AAA43FD-D8BE-4188-BE72-B2D5D64799BA.htm
Perhaps it's time to start naming 'Secularophobe of the Year'.
Union of Concerned Scientists
http://www.chriscmooney.com/blog.asp?Id=921
Chris Mooney reports on their press conference.
Surgeon Rebukes Prince over Alternative Therapy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=SORGB0XM0PYR5QFIQMGSM54AVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/07/09/nsurg09.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/09/ixportal.html
Authority via study and research v. authority via accident of birth.
Surprise! Americans Don't Read Much
http://chronicle.com/free/2004/07/2004070901n.htm
From On Native Grounds to Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi Will Not Face Charges
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1258170,00.html
Insufficient evidence, cautious speech, interest in the truth.
Doubts About Religious Hatred Law
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1256001,00.html
'...where people feel free to be able to express sensible views and have sensible arguments.'
How to End 'Honour' Killings
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1254995,00.html
Create communities where people believe there is no honour in honour killing.
Swami Agnivesh Opposes Hindutva
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373602732&p=1012571727132
'If the BJP comes back, it will come back with a vengeance. I fear it will.'
Some Arguments Against a Religious-Hatred Law
http://www.civitas.org.uk/pubs/religiousHatred.php
From Civitas, the Institute for the Study of Civil Society.
A Cultural Change
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=5625949
Bush administration still packing science advisory panels with ideologues.
Washington Post on MMR and Wakefield
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41450-2004Jul10?language=printer
Media panics create a debate where there isn't one.
See Gwyneth Paltrow's Cupping Bruises!
http://www.blacktriangle.org/blog/2004/07/allsorted_quack.html
Hey, it's an ancient Chinese practice, so it must be healthy, right?
With Respect, YH, You've Got it Wrong
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7457/118
Michael Baum tells Charles Windsor what's wrong with anecdotal 'evidence'.
Nick Cohen on Blunkett's Cunning Plan
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1258540,00.html
'a religion is a system of ideas like any other.'
*********************************
To remove yourself from the Butterflies and Wheels update service, click on the link below (or copy it into your web browser):
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/mailing_del.php?id=527&email=carsurf@dragon.email.ne.jp
Please address any questions about this update service to: jerry@butterfliesandwheels.com
Hosting services for Butterflies and Wheels are provided by The Philosophers' Magazine:
http://www.philosophers.co.uk
From: update@butterfliesandwheels.com
Date: Mon Jul 12, 2004 10:03:01 PM Asia/Tokyo
To: carsurf@dragon.email.ne.jp
Subject: Butterflies and Wheels weekly update
Hello
This email provides details of the content that has been added to ButterfliesandWheels.com over the last week.
NEW ARTICLES
Machiavellian Monkeys
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=64
Lesson Plans
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=65
NOTES AND COMMENT
There are new notes and comments to view:
--The Moore Files
--Judy, Judy, Judy
--There Are Limits, After All
--Blunkett on Today
--How About Religious Mild Dislike?
--Borrowing From Chomsky
--A Quick Twirl
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/notes.php
LATEST NEWS
The Hubble's Last Years?
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues04/jul04/hubble.html
NASA has canceled missions to service telescope.
High Art v Low is a False Dichotomy
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articles/0704artinamerica04.html
'In America, even the intellectuals are anti-intellectual.'
Tupac Shakur not Some Sort of Byron
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4960930-110760,00.html
John McWhorter says rap teaches 'recreational outrage.'
The 'No Ectoplasm Clause'
http://www.newhumanist.org.uk/rationallyspeaking_more.php?id=820_0_7_0_M
Massimo Pigliucci on the neurobiology of regret.
Arab News Media and the 'Blood of Martyrs'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24987-2004Jul3
'al Qaeda has become mainstream and being part of the movement is "cool" in the eyes of young people.'
Moore Could be Better and Still Be Moore
http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-3-1988.jsp#
'He could show us that war kills and Bush is appalling, and yet be more scrupulous.'
Sucking Up to Judith Butler
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/07/06/butler/print.html
Superstar, classic, defining work, platinum album, seminal work, provocative, immense success, etc.
Open Democracy on Multiculturalism
http://www.opendemocracy.net/articles/ViewPopUpArticle.jsp?id=1&articleId=1991
Does multiculturalism lead to cultural relativism? What about the universal standards of human rights?
The Nuances of That Word
http://fray.slate.msn.com/id/2103467/
You? Yourself? Or off? Hitchens suggests off is best.
In Biology Everyone Stands in Mayr's Shadow
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/07/05/MNGFV7GBAS1.DTL&type=printable
'Mayr's life defies the myth that elderly scientists are incapable of changing their minds.'
Interview with Ernst Mayr
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0004D8E1-178C-10EB-978C83414B7F012C
'Biology is an autonomous science and should not be mixed up with physics.'
On Alexis de Tocqueville
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/this_week/story.aspx?story_id=2107722
The physics of democracy.
Is There a Shortage of Scientists in the US?
http://chronicle.com/cgi2-bin/printable.cgi?article=http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i44/44a01001.htm
The inaccuracy of past pronouncements creates a woof-woof problem.
BHL Has Views That Annoy
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-levy6jul06,1,5078897,print.story?coll=la-headlines-world
'The Palestinian "victimocracy" has a tendency to hide wars that are infinitely longer and more murderous.'
A Theosophical Heir to the Throne
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/ArticleView.asp?P_Article=12672
'Much of this assault on contemporary rationalism flows from the prince's rather eclectic spiritualism.'
What Price 'Life of Brian'?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3871867.stm
David Blunkett wants to outlaw 'inciting religious hatred'.
Blunkett Renews Bid to Outlaw Religious Hatred
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/07/nrace07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/07/ixhome.html
Inappropriate to punish those who merely offend people's religious sensibilities?
That's a Relief
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA5D8.htm
We can criticise religion, as long as we do it sensibly.
Blunkett's Well-meaning Waffle
http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/07/08/dl0801.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/07/08/ixopinion.html
Beyond the remit and power of home secretaries to compel people to be kind.
Hormonal Birth Control as 'Silent' Abortionist
http://www.prevention.com/cda/feature2002/0,2479,s1-7342-P,00.html
Pharmacists and doctors are denying patients access to birth control pills.
Hear Blunkett on Today
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_blunkett_20040707.ram
No worry, we can say what we like about religion, as long as it's sensible.
Campaigns Against Vaccinations Can Do Harm
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n13/penn01_.html
How can doctors be persuaded to comport themselves as scientists?
Surely Ethical Tobacco is an Oxymoron?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1256877,00.html
Well but they grow it with ever such nice organic fertilizer.
Study of Environmental Causes of Autism
http://society.guardian.co.uk/publichealth/story/0,11098,1256741,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704
Colin Blakemore says MRC's 2001 review of autism research highlighted gaps in knowledge.
Meghnad Desai on Religious Hatred Laws
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=539082&host=3&dir=70
Secular democracy should get away from privileging religion, not give it special status.
Polly Toynbee Named 'Islamophobe of Year'
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6AAA43FD-D8BE-4188-BE72-B2D5D64799BA.htm
Perhaps it's time to start naming 'Secularophobe of the Year'.
Union of Concerned Scientists
http://www.chriscmooney.com/blog.asp?Id=921
Chris Mooney reports on their press conference.
Surgeon Rebukes Prince over Alternative Therapy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=SORGB0XM0PYR5QFIQMGSM54AVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/07/09/nsurg09.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/09/ixportal.html
Authority via study and research v. authority via accident of birth.
Surprise! Americans Don't Read Much
http://chronicle.com/free/2004/07/2004070901n.htm
From On Native Grounds to Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi Will Not Face Charges
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1258170,00.html
Insufficient evidence, cautious speech, interest in the truth.
Doubts About Religious Hatred Law
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1256001,00.html
'...where people feel free to be able to express sensible views and have sensible arguments.'
How to End 'Honour' Killings
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1254995,00.html
Create communities where people believe there is no honour in honour killing.
Swami Agnivesh Opposes Hindutva
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373602732&p=1012571727132
'If the BJP comes back, it will come back with a vengeance. I fear it will.'
Some Arguments Against a Religious-Hatred Law
http://www.civitas.org.uk/pubs/religiousHatred.php
From Civitas, the Institute for the Study of Civil Society.
A Cultural Change
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=5625949
Bush administration still packing science advisory panels with ideologues.
Washington Post on MMR and Wakefield
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41450-2004Jul10?language=printer
Media panics create a debate where there isn't one.
See Gwyneth Paltrow's Cupping Bruises!
http://www.blacktriangle.org/blog/2004/07/allsorted_quack.html
Hey, it's an ancient Chinese practice, so it must be healthy, right?
With Respect, YH, You've Got it Wrong
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7457/118
Michael Baum tells Charles Windsor what's wrong with anecdotal 'evidence'.
Nick Cohen on Blunkett's Cunning Plan
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1258540,00.html
'a religion is a system of ideas like any other.'
*********************************
To remove yourself from the Butterflies and Wheels update service, click on the link below (or copy it into your web browser):
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/mailing_del.php?id=527&email=carsurf@dragon.email.ne.jp
Please address any questions about this update service to: jerry@butterfliesandwheels.com
Hosting services for Butterflies and Wheels are provided by The Philosophers' Magazine:
http://www.philosophers.co.uk
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
THE BLOG IS THE MESSAGE
http://www.globalprblogweek.com/archives/jay_rosen_pr_needs_t.php
"Public relations should first understand that to the extent that
its art is a form of 'spin' - whether it's reasonable spin,
accepted spin, good spin, bad spin, terrible spin - it is selling a
service for which there is less and less value, and less mind is
paid to it. Spin was possible in the era of few-to-many media, and
a small number of gatekeepers who could be spun," media critic and
Press Think blogger Jay Rosen tells Micro Presuasion blogger Steve
Rubel, who also takes part in Global PR Blog Week 1.0, an online
forum on PR and blogs. With the rise of participatory journalism,
which has been facilitated by the Internet and weblogs, Rosen says
journalistic bloggers create a "second wave" effect that has an
impact on the traditional press. "A little orchestra of
interpreters instantly comes along and does something to
journalism, plays back its significance, but first editing out all
the noise. It's like a reply. Smart journalists are tuning into
that because its an intelligent use of their work - and a departure
point, a place where criticism flashes," Rosen says.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1089673543
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1089673543
http://www.globalprblogweek.com/archives/jay_rosen_pr_needs_t.php
"Public relations should first understand that to the extent that
its art is a form of 'spin' - whether it's reasonable spin,
accepted spin, good spin, bad spin, terrible spin - it is selling a
service for which there is less and less value, and less mind is
paid to it. Spin was possible in the era of few-to-many media, and
a small number of gatekeepers who could be spun," media critic and
Press Think blogger Jay Rosen tells Micro Presuasion blogger Steve
Rubel, who also takes part in Global PR Blog Week 1.0, an online
forum on PR and blogs. With the rise of participatory journalism,
which has been facilitated by the Internet and weblogs, Rosen says
journalistic bloggers create a "second wave" effect that has an
impact on the traditional press. "A little orchestra of
interpreters instantly comes along and does something to
journalism, plays back its significance, but first editing out all
the noise. It's like a reply. Smart journalists are tuning into
that because its an intelligent use of their work - and a departure
point, a place where criticism flashes," Rosen says.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1089673543
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1089673543
Monday, July 12, 2004
Social Lives of a Cell Phone
Say you’re young and single, and you’re out on the town one Saturday night. With a hot new service called Dodgeball, you take out your mobile phone and tap in the name of the restaurant where you are hanging out. You get a list of friends, and friends of friends, within 10 blocks. You can message each other about getting together, and maybe send a photo of yourself. Social connection services like this, based on mobile wireless devices, are about to radically changes how we communicate with friends, family, and colleagues.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_bender071204.asp?trk=nl
Say you’re young and single, and you’re out on the town one Saturday night. With a hot new service called Dodgeball, you take out your mobile phone and tap in the name of the restaurant where you are hanging out. You get a list of friends, and friends of friends, within 10 blocks. You can message each other about getting together, and maybe send a photo of yourself. Social connection services like this, based on mobile wireless devices, are about to radically changes how we communicate with friends, family, and colleagues.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_bender071204.asp?trk=nl
Social Lives of a Cell Phone
Say you’re young and single, and you’re out on the town one Saturday night. With a hot new service called Dodgeball, you take out your mobile phone and tap in the name of the restaurant where you are hanging out. You get a list of friends, and friends of friends, within 10 blocks. You can message each other about getting together, and maybe send a photo of yourself. Social connection services like this, based on mobile wireless devices, are about to radically changes how we communicate with friends, family, and colleagues.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_bender071204.asp?trk=nl
Say you’re young and single, and you’re out on the town one Saturday night. With a hot new service called Dodgeball, you take out your mobile phone and tap in the name of the restaurant where you are hanging out. You get a list of friends, and friends of friends, within 10 blocks. You can message each other about getting together, and maybe send a photo of yourself. Social connection services like this, based on mobile wireless devices, are about to radically changes how we communicate with friends, family, and colleagues.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_bender071204.asp?trk=nl
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
FUTURE PAPERS WILL BE E-PAPERS;
ONLINE NEWSPAPER READERSHIP UP 350% OVER 5 YEARS
The audience for online versions of newspapers has grown 350% over
the past five years, according to the World Association of Newspapers,
which notes that while print circulation figures have declined in mature
markets like Europe and the U.S., they are sharply up in emerging markets
like China and India. In Russia, the number of published dailies has nearly
doubled in two years. WAN attributed the increase in online newspaper
popularity to the growth of broadband in many countries, noting that in
those countries where broadband Internet access is more readily available,
people are watching TV less and surfing the Web more, both for news and for
entertainment. (BBC News 1 Jun 2004)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3767267.stm
ONLINE NEWSPAPER READERSHIP UP 350% OVER 5 YEARS
The audience for online versions of newspapers has grown 350% over
the past five years, according to the World Association of Newspapers,
which notes that while print circulation figures have declined in mature
markets like Europe and the U.S., they are sharply up in emerging markets
like China and India. In Russia, the number of published dailies has nearly
doubled in two years. WAN attributed the increase in online newspaper
popularity to the growth of broadband in many countries, noting that in
those countries where broadband Internet access is more readily available,
people are watching TV less and surfing the Web more, both for news and for
entertainment. (BBC News 1 Jun 2004)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3767267.stm
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.
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.
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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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
Search AlterNet:
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IN SPECIAL COVERAGE
Election 2004:
Californians Head East to Make a Difference
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Kari Lydersen
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A Eulogy for Marlon Brando
Dave Zirin
MediaCulture:
Fahrenheit 9/11: Firing Up the Choir
Peter Y. Sussman
Rights and Liberties:
A Patriotic Celebration of Civil Liberties
Mona Lisa Yuchengo
DrugReporter:
From Abu Ghraib to Your Local Prison
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The 'Prop-agenda' War
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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
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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
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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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."
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