12/25/02
Christmas Day program – Free day, no grade (unlistenable)

12/24/02
Excellent program with a large section to deconstructing the new Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist; and a section on what many Palestinians have to undergo in this holiday season and beyond.

12/23/02
Comments: No Grade
DN picked up the issue of hundreds of immigrants detained in California and included several very good segments. However it failed to mention the 12/20 NYT story cited in the last Democracy Now Report Card which reported that in response to the massive protests, the U.S. has begun freeing many of those incarcerated, especially those with bail set at less than $5,000, whether or not they have paid their bail.

Is Amy Goodman not aware of the NYT report or is she simply covering it up in order to advance her agenda? One would have thought that a good report would not only have cited the Times but also done some reporting to go beyond the Times article, especially since she traveled to California expressly to report on this story.

12/20/02
Friday, December 20, 2002
Grade A
Excellent show featuring incisive highlights relating to the Central Park Jogger case with an interview with one of the wrongly convicted members. The program included other worthy features as well.

Quibble:
One short feature included interviews relating to the hundreds of foreigners especially Iranians recently incarcerated in Los Angeles as part of the U.S. Antiterror sweep. The Democracy Now segment didn’t mention a NYT story (12.20.02) which reported that in response to the massive protests, the U.S. has begun freeing many of those incarcerated, especially those with bail set at less than $5,000, whether or not they have paid their bail.

12/19/02
Thursday, December 19, 2002
Grade A
Comments Excellent program
Began with an update from Andreas Zumach from Die Tageszeitung on their newly published list of countries supplying Iraq which contributed to Iraq’s nuclear and biological/chemical weapons program before the first Gulf War .
Rest of program devoted to a look at Attorney General John Ashcroft’s civil rights record in the light of the controversy surrounding Trent Lott.


12/18/02
Wednesday, December 18, 2002 -- Grade: A
Comments: --terrific program

1) At the top of the show, an interview with Andreas Zumach of the German newspaper Die Zietung which is publishing the parts of the Iraqi report on nuclear weapons, confiscated by the U.S. that may be embarrassing to the permanent member nations. The newspaper reports coming out of Germany published reports from Germany will include names and details of businesses especially from the U.S. and Germany which contributed to Iraq’s nuclear and biological/chemical weapons program before the first Gulf War.

This is an especially critical report because unless this gets media traction, Pacifica may be one of the rare outlets for this information in the United States.

2) Taking its cue from a NYT story (12.17.02) on registration of foreign nationals from selected Middle Eastern and African countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Sudan, etc, DN conducted an informative discussion with immigration advocates and notably including a justice department spokesperson which helped expose how shoddily this this program is being conducted, especially in two areas: a) no sufficient outreach to the affected communities, b) incarceration of nationals for minor visa violations.

3) Time was reserved time at the end for Cheri Hunkala from the Kensington Welfare Rights Union who made good points on how U.S. money is going for war but not for social welfare.