Glenn articulates the rules of journalistic "objectivity"

this bob schieffer interview of ron paul on the cbs program face the nation triggers glenn's examination...



the interview prompts these points from glenn...

(1) The overarching rule of “journalistic objectivity” is that a journalist must never resolve any part of a dispute between the Democratic and the Republican Parties, even when one side is blatantly lying. They must instead confine themselves only to mindlessly describing what each side claims and leave it at that.

[...]

(2) When it comes to views not shared by the leadership of the two parties, as in the above excerpt from the Paul interview, everything changes. Views that reside outside of the dogma of the leadership of either party are inherently illegitimate. Such views are generally ignored, but in those rare instances where they find their way into the discourse — such as this Paul interview — it is the duty of “objective” reporters like Schieffer to mock, scorn and attack them.

[...]

(3) There is another standard media bias at play in this Schieffer interview which I’ve written about before: most establishment media figures, by definition, are hard-core nationalists who scorn any ideas that suggest their country is at fault for anything. The very suggestion that the United States of America might have done anything to provoke rational hatred against it and thus helped cause 9/11 is like poison in Schieffer’s soul. Similarly, the very suggestion that the U.S. is the aggressor when it comes to Iran — rather than the other way around — is heresy to him (the idea that the U.S. seeks war with Iran will be slanderous to Schieffer up until the minute the first U.S. fighter jet drops a bomb, at which point the war will instantly become necessary and just).

i'm reminded of a book i read many years ago by morris berman - Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West...

my biggest takeaway from that book was berman's definition of heresy as traced over 2000 years of western history... berman found that what qualifies as heresy during that two-millennium epoch is nothing more or less than a refusal by an individual or group to cede personal power and authority to an external authority, that external authority being, no surprise, the reigning power of the time...

in the era leading up to and through the middle ages, the power to define "heresy" was wielded by the catholic church... in post-renaissance times, it has been wielded most often by the scientific establishment... what i see glenn is saying here - and it's something with which i would agree - is that the power to define modern-day "heresy" rests with our super-rich elites who control our corporations, our government and our media...

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Our stunningly context-free news media

a story from cbs news yesterday out of afghanistan...

ArmorGroup Hires Untrained Nepalese Nationals to Guard Kabul Embassy

A new report from the State Department Inspector General's Office found that a private security firm in Afghanistan hired more than 400 Nepalese nationals who lacked training and English languages skills to protect the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

According to the report, ArmorGroup of North America (AGNA) was awarded a contract from the Department of State in July 2007 to protect the embassy. Through June 2010, AGNA has been allocated $97.5 million by the State Department.

the story did contain a link to but no actual mention of this story from last year...

Were ArmorGroup Allegations Quashed?

CBS News first reported this month on the hazing and humiliating of local employees and other serious breaches of ethics and policy by civilian security guards during wild parties at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Turns out, the State Department was warned that things weren't right at the embassy, but nothing was done. Now there are troubling questions for the man once in charge of investigating those problems, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

As inspector general for the State Department, Howard Krongard was supposed to be an independent watchdog.

It was his job to investigate the very type of misconduct alleged at the U.S. embassy in Kabul: forced sexual hazing of guards, contract fraud and waste of tax dollars.

CBS News has learned that serious allegations about the embassy reached Krongard's office two years ago - where they apparently vanished into thin air.

the above story, in turn, contained a link to the following story but mentioned no details...

Shocking Hazing at U.S. Embassy in Kabul

On August 4, rockets land near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. On August 15, a suicide bomber hits close by killing or wounding 98. The attacks punctuate the dangers faced by hundreds of American diplomats and staff who work there. Yet some of the Embassy's own security guards are alleging shocking work conditions that put American lives at risk.

In numerous e-mails, the guards describe a crisis in discipline and morale, understaffing, sleep deprivation, "threats and intimidation." One guard refers to a group of guards and supervisors from the security contractor ArmorGroup as "sexual predators, deviants running rampant."

Guards provided dozens of graphic photos and videos depicting shocking scenes of hazing and humiliation by superiors, most of them too lewd to show. The guards recount a climate of fear and coercion where those who refuse to participate are retaliated against, even fired.

The State Department contracts with a private security firm - ArmorGroup North America, owned by Wackenhut. ArmorGroup employs 450 guards at the Kabul Embassy - two-thirds from Nepal and India, the rest from the U.S. and other English-speaking nations.

it's bad enough that, if you only read yesterday's news, you wouldn't know anything at all about the bigger, sordid story about armorgroup from last september (full details here in the mother jones article)... you also wouldn't know that armorgroup was a subsidiary of wackenhut, a notorious blackwater-style contractor, raking in gazillions of u.s. taxpayer dollars... you also wouldn't know that wackenhut is now owned by the british security conglomerate, g4s... and you ALSO wouldn't know this about howard krongard...

Brothers, Bad Blood and the Blackwater Tangle

They were smart, scrappy brothers who rose from modest circumstances in Baltimore to become lacrosse stars at Princeton, succeed in business and land big government jobs.

Now the Krongard brothers — who have carried childhood nicknames, Buzzy and Cookie, through long careers — are tied up in the tangled story of Blackwater, the security contractor accused in the deaths of at least 17 Iraqis while guarding a State Department convoy in Baghdad.

or this...

Howard J. "Cookie" Krongard (born December 12, 1940), was an appointee in the government of President George W. Bush. Krongard was head of the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of State. His position was known as the State Inspector General or State IG. After being accused of averting probes into contracting fraud in Iraq and a possible conflict of interest regarding investigations into Blackwater Worldwide, Krongard left his post on January 15, 2008, and was not eligible for retirement.

He is the brother of former CIA Executive Director A. B. Krongard.

yes, howard is the brother of the former cia executive director, a brother who also has this item on his resume...

Krongard resigned from the CIA shortly after the arrival of DCI Porter Goss in September 2004. While at the CIA, he was the connection between Erik Prince of Blackwater Security Consulting and the CIA. Through his influence, Blackwater was able to receive its first black contract.

see what happens when you add context...? suddenly, things get a LOT more interesting...

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Norwegian doctor in Gaza insists Israel is deliberately attacking the population

for once, we see a bit of the truth in u.s. media...

from sky news via cbs via juan cole...

Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor in Gaza, tells Sky News that the number of civilians injured and killed in Gaza proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the population.

professor cole suggests that we write cbs to thank them for their journalistic integrity in airing this piece... i agree...

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Using Obama's visit to Afghanistan as a springboard, let's look at what's going on there

it ain't pretty...

civilian casualties in two separate incidents...

At least 13 Afghan police and civilians have died in two incidents involving international forces, officials say.

Four Afghan police and five civilians died in an apparently mistaken air strike by international coalition forces in Farah province.

Separately, the Nato-led Isaf said it had "accidentally" killed at least four civilians in Paktika province.

The incidents are the latest in a series of controversial clashes involving foreign troops.

seven and a half years AFTER the u.s. topples the taliban, no infrastructure...


Haji Baz Mohammad

What puzzles poorer Afghans is why so many basic problems haven't been solved, despite the billions of dollars of international aid.

A short walk from the affluent neighbourhoods of Wazir Akbar Khan and Shari Naw, in the streets of downtown Kabul, Afghanistan's unemployed are gathered in their hundreds.

Most say they have to wait for days, hoping to find one day's work to feed their entire family.

Kabul is considered the safest spot in the country, but basic services such as clean drinking water, electricity, and sewage systems remain unavailable to most people.

Waiting outside one of Kabul's main government hospitals is Haji Baz Mohammad. He has accompanied a patient from his home province in northern Afghanistan. He is busy praying and is visibly sad.

"We are not politicians or people who have the aid money," he says. "Where are the roads, clinics and reconstruction that were promised to us?"

i spent my first two weeks in kabul puzzling over those same questions... where's the infrastructure...? where has the money gone...? it seems that the afghan on the street can answer those questions...

Saqib Baghlani, 43, a high school teacher, sits on his old Chinese bicycle.

He welcomes the demise of the Taleban. "Afghanistan has made remarkable progress compared to its pre-war and Taleban days," declares the tall, confident, blue-eyed teacher.

But he says the failures of his government are unacceptable.

He insists that President Hamed Karzai should fire corrupt officials and provide people with basic services, such as health care and clean drinking water, as this could bring peace.

Afghan children at a refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan 12/06/08
There is growing international pressure to improve living standards

"Go and see who owns these expensive houses in (the suburb of) Wazir Akbar Khan and who is driving land cruisers," he says. "Karzai should ask these officials how they got so rich overnight, instead of making empty promises again and again."

karzai doesn't have to ask... he knows the answer... it is under his leadership and with his administration's tacit consent that those fat cats have gotten ever fatter... and, yes, some of that money left afghanistan in my pocket, but damn little i can assure you in comparison to the billions being raked in by dyncorp, louis berger, and kbr...

so what does our erstwhile presidential candidate, barack obama, propose...?

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged steadfast aid to Afghanistan in talks with its Western-backed leader Sunday and vowed to pursue the war on terror "with vigor" if he is elected, an Afghan official said.

[...]

Obama has made Afghanistan a centerpiece of his proposed strategy for dealing with terrorism threats.

The Illinois senator has said the war in Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants are resurgent, deserves more troops and more attention as opposed to the conflict in Iraq.

and just what exactly do the AFGHANS think of more troops...?

from juan cole...

The USG Open Source Center translates a report in Dari Persian on a parliamentarian and two close observers from Afghanistan who entertain the severest doubts about Barack Obama's plan to send more US troops to Afghanistan.

Afghan Observers Sceptical of Senator Obama's Plan To Send More Troops
Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran External Service
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Document Type: OSC Translated Text

An Afghan parliamentarian has criticized one of the US presidential candidates for his plan to deploy more troops in Afghanistan. Elaborating on his foreign policy this week, Barack Obama said that as president, he would send two more US combat brigades to the Afghan theatre.

According to a report (source indistinct) from Kabul, Afghan MP Kabir Ranjbar asserted on Friday that increasing the number of US and other foreign servicemen would not help Afghanistan at all.

Wahid Mozhda, another Afghan political observer, has also warned that the Obama's plan to deploy up to 10,000 additional troops will worsen the situation in Afghanistan. This Afghan observer states according to this plan, the US is trying to resolve the problem through military measures, which is obviously not an effective strategy.

In addition, Mr Fahim Dashti, a journalist and observer, has said that the US government officials have decided to increase troops in Afghanistan, at a time when they have failed to defeat remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qa'ida in this country. Fahim Dashti says sending additional US and other foreign troops to Afghanistan will cause more problems in the long term, because it may antagonize the people's anti-American feelings. The Afghan analyst accentuated that countries like the USA should organize and equip the Afghan native forces, including the national army and police, as soon as possible if they really want to put an end to insecurity in Afghanistan.

i agree... more troops is not the answer...

this from cbs on obama's visit...



at least obama had the guts to go where no high-level u.s. official has gone - jalalabad...

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CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq

as a reprise to yesterday's post, this is the reality our media are choosing to ignore...





from the nyt...

Getting a story on the evening news isn’t easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard, according to Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. So she has devised a solution when she is talking to the network.

“Generally what I say is, ‘I’m holding the armor-piercing R.P.G.,’ ” she said last week in an appearance on “The Daily Show,” referring to the initials for rocket-propelled grenade. “ ‘It’s aimed at the bureau chief, and if you don’t put my story on the air, I’m going to pull the trigger.’ ”

Ms. Logan let a sly just-kidding smile sneak through as she spoke, but her point was serious. Five years into the war in Iraq and nearly seven years into the war in Afghanistan, getting news of the conflicts onto television is harder than ever.

“If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts,” Ms. Logan said.

According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been “massively scaled back this year.” Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The “CBS Evening News” has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC’s “World News” and 74 minutes on “NBC Nightly News.” (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.)

CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, where some 150,000 United States troops are deployed.

what the f%*& is WRONG with my country...?

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Propaganda

from postmodern times...

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More on election-rigging in PK

in a post the other day, i wondered if this story would grow legs... grew 'em pretty fast, looks like...

At the time she was assassinated, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was just hours away from meeting with two US lawmakers to hand them a dossier alleging that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) was plotting with its Election Commission to rig the upcoming elections.

According to CBS News, which has obtained a copy of the report, it "alleges widespread plans to stuff ballot boxes, rig voting lists, and intimidate, even kill, opposition voters."

CNN quotes the document more specifically as saying, "Where an opposing candidate is strong in an area, they have planned to create a conflict at the polling station, even killing people if necessary, to stop polls at least three to four hours."

The report, titled "Another Stain on the Face of Democracy," was compiled from Bhutto's own sources within the police and intelligence services. It was to be given to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), because Bhutto did not trust the Bush administration, which is seen in Pakistan as strongly backing Musharraf.

The dossier also accuses Musharraf's regime of diverting US aid into political dirty tricks, charging that "ninety percent of the equipment that the USA gave the government of Pakistan to fight terrorism ... is being used to monitor and to keep a check on political opponents."

c'mon, c'mon... this is the kind of stuff that ought to be kneecapping the criminals in the white house, and sending 'em packing to never-never land... let's get on with it, shall we...?

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Chris Dodd to be on Meet the Press tomorrow

a little big-time media exposure... now, THIS is more like it...

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Iranian nuclear weapons are today's Iraq WMD's

from think progress...

In her first interview since Bush administration officials outed her as a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson reveals to Minutes that she was involved in preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. In the interview to be aired this Sunday, CBS reports that she was “involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran.”

and anyone would be in the least bit surprised by this because...? the threat of iran obtaining or manufacturing a nuclear weapon is in precisely the same category as saddam's wmd... our country's movers and shakers are totally committed to a state of endless war, regardless of the country or the area of the world, as long as it provides the opportunity to keep the rivers of cash flowing into the "right" pockets (apologies for the bad pun), to extend their power and global hegemony, and to monopolize the world's resources... iranian nuclear weapons are today's convenient smokescreen, cleverly designed to distract from their real motivations, and to keep the peasantry quivering in our boots, at least when we're not buying lottery tickets and hoping to strike it rich... we are one pathetic bunch of citizens...

[UPDATE]

i would be guilty of a glaring omission if i didn't mention that valerie plame's role with iran was first reported by larisa alexandrovna at raw story on february 13, 2006... larisa has been on top of a number of things, often WAY before the rest of the so-called responsible and serious traditional media... click on over to larisa's weblog, at largely, and show her some love...

congrats, larisa...

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Gonzo wants to avoid "an historical black mark"

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha... < cough, snort, sputter > hahahahahahahahaha...

think progress offers this from today's face the nation program on cbs...

SCHIEFFER: Do you, in fact, think Republicans, a sizable number, will join with Democrats on that? And what do you think the impact is going to be on the Attorney General?

SPECTER: Well, I think so. You already have six Republicans calling for his resignation. I have a sense, Bob, that before the vote is taken that Attorney General Gonzales may step down.

SCHIEFFER: Really?

SPECTER: Well, it is a very forceful, historical statement. Votes of no confidence are very rare. More than a century ago one was leveled against a sitting president. I think historically that is something which Attorney General Gonzales would like to avoid. The most important thing, though, is the inability of the department now to function. I was about to say that U.S. Attorneys met in San Antonio this past week and there was a lot of criticism and a lot of dissension. That department is very, very important, functioning for the welfare of our country. […]

SCHIEFFER: What leads you, senator, to the conclusion that he will probably step down before such a vote is taken?

SPECTER: Because of the likelihood, a very substantial vote of no confidence. I think that if and when he sees that coming, that he would prefer to avoid that kind of an historical black mark.

if gonzo was so friggin' concerned about avoiding "an historical black mark," he would not have been such a willing toady to the white house... no matter what happens, he is going to have to live with the permanent stains of leading his country down an unconstitutional and illegal path in clear violation of his oath of office... he screwed himself a very long time ago, probably starting with his first meeting with george bush which was no doubt immediately followed by selling his soul to the devil karl rove...

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Tell CBS to re-hire John Batiste

you can sign the petition here... what i sent is below...

C'mon, CBS, get a clue. John Batiste is about as partisan as pound cake and was certainly not pushing a political viewpoint in his VoteVets ad. He obviously cares a great deal about the horrible mess in Iraq and for the soldiers and former colleagues who are having their lives ruined and sometimes ended by fighting in a war that is already lost for a president who is too stubborn to face the truth. That has nothing to do with being Republican or Democrat, nothing to do with who wins or loses an election, and nothing to do with attempting to gain political advantage. It DOES have a great deal to do with being a concerned American. Make this right, CBS, and give him his job back. Show us you can admit to a mistake, unlike our President.

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This is wrong, very, very wrong

i posted yesterday on the new votevets ad...

Iraq veteran Gen. John Batiste “has been asked to leave his position as a consultant to CBS News” over a new VoteVets ad criticizing the Iraq war.

swell, just fucking swell... it isn't the batistes of the world that need the ax, it's the kristols and the kondrackes that need to go... what the hell is the matter with cbs...? here's olbermann interviewing batiste...



you can contact cbs news here...

(thanks to think progress...)

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