dear democracy now,
at the end of today's broadcast, you asked for feedback.
here's some.
broadcasting barbara ehrenreich's uninformed slam on greenstone media was offensive. since you elected to broadcast a portion of the speech and included the factually incorrect slams on greenstone media, it's incumbent upon democracy now to provide a correction. if you're confused, you can read c.i.'s "Correction to Barbara Ehrenreich on Democracy Now! today."
what did i least enjoy about democracy now in 2006?
there's so much.
1) why do you feel the need to repeatedly book a man arrested for being a sexual predator online of girls under the age of 17? do you support all sexual predators or just that 1? will you issue an apology if and when he gets busted a 3rd time? if he's busted not in a sting but when a young girl is actually hurt, will you apologize to his victim?
what do you feel is your responsibility as a broadcaster since it doesn't seem to include warning your audience, each time you provide the former u.n. inspector as a 'respected' voice, that he was twice arrested for attempting to seek out sexual encounters with underage girls?
2) i've dubbed your war resister coverage 'baby cried the day the circus came to town' in honor of the melissa manchester song 'don't cry out loud.' i've done that because the coverage tends to treat war resisters as a 1 day story.
if you disagree with that 'honor,' could you explain why the program did not cover ehren watada's article 32 hearing in august? why it has not covered darrell anderson's court-martial or ricky clousing's court-martial? ricky clousing served nearly 3 months in a brig and was released on saturday. do you have any intention of telling your audience that fact or is it a better service to provide announcements about james brown's service?
if it is the latter, how do you reconcile that 'information' with the fact that brown was repeatedly arrested for beating his 3rd wife?
3) as part of your intended audience, i would have preferred to hear angela davis' speech this morning (as was planned) but instead i got gerald ford talk non-stop. if democracy now is an alternative to the mainstream media, shouldn't the purpose be to cover topics the mainstream doesn't cover as opposed to covering the same topics but 'with a twist!'
4) short answer question: please tell me everything you know about ivan brobeck because after the full brobeck i'm curious to know how many who ignored ivan knew about him ahead of time.
5) when a guest goes on and on, such as victor this morning, is it not possible to interrupt, walk them through, get them to the point before every 1's walking around from their tv?
6) having decided to cover gerald ford, was it impossible to book an african-american guest? considering ford's war on government assistance (a major topic that wasn't addressed), it seems that such a guest was needed if you were going to address ford's record.
7) i love robert parry, but he was dead wrong about the pardoning of nixon being in any way good. that lie got started with dan rather, as those of us with longer memories well know, who rushed onto the evening news to announce how wonderful the pardon was. would it have not better served the audience to have also booked a michael ratner, marjorie cohn, or other attorney who could have spoken clearly about the actual legal realities involved in the pardon and how unpopular the pardon was with the american people?
8) where was the discussion/debate about ford's actions on the warren commison?
from a 1997 ap article:
Thirty-three years ago, Gerald R. Ford took pen in hand and changed - ever so slightly - the Warren Commission's key sentence on the place where a bullet entered John F. Kennedy's body when he was killed in Dallas.
The effect of Ford's change was to strengthen the commission's conclusion that a single bullet passed through Kennedy and severely wounded Texas Gov. John Connally - a crucial element in its finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole gunman.
A small change, said Ford on Wednesday when it came to light, one intended to clarify meaning, not alter history.
''My changes had nothing to do with a conspiracy theory,'' he said in a telephone interview from Beaver Creek, Colo. ''My changes were only an attempt to be more precise.''
as with lee hamiliton, some of the same people are repeatedly called upon to be the estabishment's cleaners/schills. audiences would have been better informed of ford's character today had they been told of his actions on the warren commission.
this was a glaring oversight. though democracy now is happy to cover the conspiracy that killed malcom x and fred hampton, there seems to be a huge reluctance to cover the obvious questions raised by the jfk assassination. that's true of 2006 and true of every year. joan mellen would make an ideal guest for 2007. i fully grasp that the nation prefers to smear those who ask questions and possibly democracy now is scared of being smeared?
i'd argue that the audience is made up of more than members of the nation's staff. i'd argue that the actual audience that supports the show would be better served if the program didn't so frequently seem to fret over what the nation might think.
sincerely,
rebecca winters
in the real world, Flashpoints covered ethiopa's war of aggression on somolia and how the u.s. state department is siding with ethiopa (and encouraging and supporting the country) and also offered a wonderful poem by alex olson called 'america on sale.' i really am enjoying the 'in the margins' segment that provides poets reading their own work.
here's c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Wednesday, December 27, 2006. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, the US military announces more deaths of US troops while they call up 3,500 more troops, a British general calls for more war money while lowering expectations, England and the United States face strong backlashes in Iraq and the puppet of the occupation proves unpopular.
As December has become the second deadliest month in 2006 it's easy to see who covers the fatalities (Washington Post -- usually Nancy Trejos) and who doesn't (New York Times). Today the US military announced: "A 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Soldier died as a result of non-combat related injuries on Logistics Support Area Anaconda Dec 23." And they also announced: "A second Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier died of injuries received when a High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle rolled over along a dirt canal trail during a combat reconnaissance mission south of the Iraqi capital Dec. 26." And they announced: "One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died today from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province." ICCC lists the total for the month of December thus far at 94. October is the month with the highest US fatalities in 2006 (thus far): 106. The total number of US troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the illegal war stands at 2983, 17 away from the 3,000 mark.
Meanwhile the US Defense Department reports that US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates hasapproved John Abizaid's request and 3,500 troops of the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team were informed today that at the start of next month they will deploy to Kuwait to replace the 15h MEU who moved to al-Anbar Province last month.
The call up means that 3,500 troops have had to head to Fort Bragg and cut short the holidays. In Iraq, the holiday reflected the illegal war. Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily (IPS) report that, for little girls, crying dolls were the most popular gift and, for little boys, tanks and guns because, as Ahmed Ghazi told the reporters, "Children try to imitate what they see out of their windows." Jamil and Al-Fadhily write:
Social researcher Nuha Khalil from the Iraqi Institute for Childhood Development in Baghdad told IPS that young girls are now expressingtheir repressed sadness often by playing the role of a mother who takes care of her small daughter.
"Looking around, they only see gatherings of mourning ladies who lost their beloved ones," said Khalil. "Our job of comforting these little girls and remedying the damage within them is next to impossible."
[. . .]
"The only things they have on their minds are guns, bullets, death and a fear of the U.S. occupation," Maruan Abdullah, spokesman for the Association of Psychologists of Iraq told reporters at the launch of a study in February this year.
Meanwhile, Sam Knight (Times of London) reports that Major General Richard Shirreff ("commander of British troops in southern Iraq") is stating that the British Army is underfunded and lowering expectations for 'democracy' and/or 'liberation' in Iraq -- Shirref stated: "When I set up, came up here and initiated the operations we have been conducting, I was looking for a 100% solution. But this is Iraq, this is Arabia and this is reality, so a 60% solution is good enough for me." This as Steve Negus (Financial Times of London) reports that Monday's raid and destruction, by British forces, on a police station in Basra is resulting in a backlash: " Several local leaders, including the head of the city council and a Basra police commander, have condemned Monday's raid. Mohammed al-Ibadi, provincial council chairman, said the council had decided to cut off ties with British forces pending an explanation of why they destroyed an 'Iraq government building flying the Iraqi flag' and removed detainees he described as suspected terrorists'."
This as the US faces their own backlash over a death in Najaf. Earlier today, Reuters reported that, despite earlier denails by the US military, a US soldier was the one who shot an official of Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc. Khaled Farhan (Reuters) reports: "Thousands of supporters of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched through the holy Iraqi city of Najaf in an angry funeral procession after a senior Sadr aide was killed by a U.S. soldier on Wednesday. Chanting 'No to America' and carrying placards decrying U.S. occupation, mourners, including black-robed clerics, carried the coffin of Saheb al-Amiri through the streets." Supporters maintain that Saheb al-Amiri was shot dead "in front of his wife and children" and that he was a charity lawyer, not a 'terrorist.' The attack on the member of al-Sadr's bloc follows last week's (unsuccessful) efforts by the US to isolate Moqtada al-Sadr as outlined by Hannah Allam (McClatchy Newspapers) Friday.
While England and the United States face backlashes, Reuters reports that a bomb has killed two Latvian soldiers and left three more wounded. In other violence today . . .
Bombings?
The BBC reports a car bombing in east Baghdad that has claimed 8 lives and left 10 more wounded. The Press Association reports that seven British troops were wounded by a roadside bomb in Basra. Reuters notes a roadside bomb in Baghdad that left five people wounded and a roadisde bomb in Suwayra that killed three Iraqi soldiers.
Shootings?
Reuters notes an attack on "a bus carrying employees of the Ministry of Higher Education" that left two wounded.
In peace news, Dana Hull (San Jose Mercury News) reports that Nadia McCaffrey, mother of Patrick Ryan McCaffrey who was killed in Iraq by Iraqi security forces he was training, is planning to build a retreat for returning troops -- Nadia McCaffrey: "Patrick isn't dead. His spirit is very much alive, in me and all around us. The rest of my life is going to be dedicated to peace and justice, and to helping the veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.''
Finally, Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily (IPS) report that the support for puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki continues to nose dive among Iraqis (some polls noting 90% of Iraqis are displeased with al-Maliki's 'governing') and notes that Tariq al-Hashimi ("leader of the Islamic Party") feels that many have been shut out in al-Maliki's so-called unity coalition while Dr. Salih al-Mutlaq tells the reporters, "This government will definitely lead the country into a disaster."
