Democracy Now Report Card

2008-12-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe, a story WBAI and perhaps also Pacifica won't touch. Is it not racism for blacks and others to keep from condemning Robert Mugabe whose vicious ruthlessness has led to the unprecedented suffering of his people? What are the forces that won't allow Amy and Juan to do their jobs? Can these forces be surmounted? Apparently not yet. --Ronald

Here's one of a series of NYT articles on the latest suffering.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/world/africa/22zimbabwe.html?sq=Zimbabwe&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=print

December 22, 2008
In Zimbabwe, Survival Lies in Scavenging
By CELIA W. DUGGER

NZVERE, Zimbabwe — Along a road in Matabeleland, barefoot children stuff their pockets with corn kernels that have blown off a truck as if the brownish bits, good only for animal feed in normal times, were gold coins.

In the dirt lanes of Chitungwiza, the Mugarwes, a family of firewood hawkers, bake a loaf of bread, their only meal, with 11 slices for the six of them. All devour two slices except the youngest, age 2. He gets just one.

And on the tiny farms here in the region of Mashonaland, once a breadbasket for all of southern Africa, destitute villagers pull the shells off wriggling crickets and beetles, then toss what is left in a hot pan. “If you get that, you have a meal,” said Standford Nhira, a spectrally thin farmer whose rib cage is etched on his chest and whose socks have collapsed around his sticklike ankles.

Read more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/world/africa/22zimbabwe.html?sq=Zimbabwe&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=print

2008-06-06T16:17:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately, the racism at WBAI-FM and who knows, elsewhere in the Pacifica world, makes it impossible for Amy Goodman's Democracy Now to report on Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe as she does on the United States for example.
Meanwhile the tragedy and the enormous suffering goes on and deepens.
Ronald

2007-02-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

Why is Democracy Now (democracynow.org) of all people and places spinning Bush's bellicose language and tone regarding his plans for possible hostilities against Iran? Why are they toning down his aggressive remarks?

In their headlines for February 15, 2007, they lead with "Bush Backs Down on Iran-Bomb Claim." It surely must be a tortured reading of Bush's remarks to see him as backing down. That they had NPR/NYT style contextualization in mind seems clear from their choppy editing, making sure to cut the tape just before Bush's key statement, where he says with characteristic menace: "And I intend to do something about it."

For a comparable take, see Laura Rozen's warandpiece.com for a link to the Washington Post story to the same effect: that Bush is backing down. It's quite the opposite. One reading (mine) of Bush's tortured language below, is that it doesn't matter whether the President of Iran was or wasn't involved. Bush (still) intends to do something about it.

Democracy Now should be spanked.

Ronald

http://bleiersblog.blogspot.com
http://desip.igc.org

Excerpt:from Bush's February 14, 2007 press conference.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/14/568367-text-of-bushs-press-conference

Q: Thank you, Mr. President.

I want to follow up on Iran one more time. Are you saying, today, that you do not know if senior members of the Iranian government are, in fact, behind these explosives?

That contradicts what U.S. officials said in Baghdad on Sunday. They said the highest levels of the Iranian government were behind this.

It also — it seems to square with what General Pace has been saying, but contradicts with what your own press secretary said yesterday. What...

BUSH: Can I — let me — I can't say it more plainly: There are weapons in Iraq that are harming U.S. troops because of the Quds Force.

As you know, I hope, the Quds Force is a part of the Iranian government. Whether Ahmadinejad ordered the Quds Force to do this, I don't think we know. But we do know that they're there.

And I intend to do something about it.

And I've asked our commanders to do something about it. And we're going to protect our troops.

Q: But given some of those contradictions, Mr. President...

BUSH: There's no contradiction that the weapons are there and they were provided by the Quds Force...

Q: What assurances can you give the American people that the intelligence this time will be accurate?

BUSH: We know they're there. We know they're provided by the Quds Force. We know the Quds Force is a part of the Iranian government. I don't think we need who picked up the phone and said to the Quds Force, Go do this, but we know it's a vital part of the Iranian government.

What matters is, is that we're responding. The idea that somehow we're manufacturing the idea that the Iranians are providing IEDs is preposterous. My job is to protect our troops. And when we find devices that are in that country that are hurting our troops, we're going to do something about it, pure and simple.

Now, David says: Does this mean you're trying to have a pretext for war? No. It means I'm trying to protect our troops. That's what that's means. And that's what the family members of our soldiers expect the commander in chief and those responsible for — responsible for our troops on the ground.

And we'll continue to do so.

2003-03-17T12:09:00.000-08:00

2003-03-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now Report
by Ronald Bleier
Editor, DESIP, http://desip.igc.org

Archive: http://dnreportcard.blogspot.com

Democracy Now’s website: www.democracynow.org

Subscribe to the Democracy Now Report by sending an email (with no message or subject) to:
dnreportcard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Wednesday 3.12.03
DN has converted to a two hour show but frustratingly the first (extra) hour is not available on its flagship station, WBAI-FM in NYC. It’s apparently available a day late on its website in streaming audio and it may be available on cable at CUNY-TV, after midnight the next day. In any event, these reports, unless otherwise indicated, will cover the original, now second hour.

The program began with a very interesting review of reports that Al-Quaeda official, Khalid Sheik Mohammed was not arrested in Pakistan at the time announced, but that he was arrested earlier and the announcement held in order to balance its upcoming abstention at the U.N. on the question of war against Iraq. But why would the Americans go along with such a delay? It’s hard to imagine the U.S. delaying such an announcement for one minute. Is it possible the Pakistani’s caught Mohammed without the U.S. knowing it?

The next segment dealt with breaking news of the assassination of Serbian president Zoran Gingich. As it happened, DN correspondent Jeremy Scahill was on hand to provide background. Apparently Gingich was deeply unpopular, perhaps tied to local mafia, and had plenty of enemies on all sides. Nevertheless, it’s was hardly reassuring to hear that his death might open the way to the more popular far right.

The program closed with a powrerful segment on Ramzy and Suzanne Baroud, Palestinians who have written Searching Jenin: Eyewitness accounts of the Israel Invasion of 2002.

Tuesday, 3.11.03
The show today consisted of segments on U.S. condoned torture of Al-Quaeda suspects, the dreadful human and political situation in Gaza, etc, and elements of the story of Delma Banks Jr. scheduled to die in 24 hours in Texas featured in Bob Herbert’s column yesterday. According to many accounts, Mr. Banks was 3 hours away from the murder he was convicted of committing.

Confusion reigns about a second hour of DN. Where is it available? It’s not carried on WBAI, the flagship station, but it’s apparently available as streaming video on the DN website a day later. Go to first hour link.

Monday, 3.10.03
Amy arrested!! Amy reported that she was arrested and held for 3 hours in a Washington DC jail over the weekend in connection with reporting on the Ladies in Pink protest in front of the White House.

An update on U.S. bugging of UN diplomats as an arrest was made in Britain of a woman allegedly connected with the Observer report which broke the story.
The program closed with a good segment on the firing of Phil Donahue where it was argued that the network was a party to a campaign to make sure the show wouldn’t succeed.

The Donahue show is currently replaced by host Mike Savage who was termed a “gutter level bigot,” and examples were given to substantiate the charge.

Friday, 3.7.03
The program began strongly with a segment on President Bush’s “scripted” press conference last night with White House correspondent Russell Mokhiber explaining that he was relegated to the back seat along with Helen Thomas who has publicly called President Bush the worst president in U.S. history. It was pointed out that the 17 reporters President Bush called on to ask questions were taken from a prepared list. Even the New York Times (3.7.03) acknowledged the obvious, that the press conference was called to upstage Hans Blix’s expected statement today at the UN on Iraq’s compliance with the weapons inspections regime. The Times reported that administration officials are “furious” with Blix. This might be a topic for DN to explore.

There followed a segment on sexual harassment and worse at the Air Force. Two ex Air Force officers explained that they left the Air Force after they had repeatedly been raped and there was no recourse in American law as the National Security Act, upheld by the Supreme Court, effectively shields offenders.

The program ended with a lackluster round table with several women in a tribute to International Women’s Day. Some daylight entered into the discussion when it was acknowledged that women leaders might themselves be militaristic a la Margaret Thachter and Indira Ghandi (I thought of Golda Meir). The discussion reminded me of an important essay on the subject, “The Savage Male,” by the late anthropologist Marvin Harris in his book, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches,” (1974, 1989) who explained that women in effect join men when it comes to security issues.

Thursday, 3.6.03
The program today was devoted to Iraq. Highlight: interviews with two of the human shields who seem to understand that Bush’s bombs have their names on them. Very sad. Also the issue of where the Iraqis wanted them to position themselves, not in hospitals, schools, etc, but rather at power stations, oil refineries, was brought up. It was acknowledged that these Iraqi demands led to some of the volunteers leaving.

Wednesday, 3.5.03
Good program on U.S. dirty tricks at the UN, monitoring communications in connections with upcoming Security Council vote; national protests today by high school and college students, and artists. An interview with Paul Marsden, former Labor MP, who switched to the Liberal Party in protest of Blair’s post 9/11 policies.

2003-03-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now Report
by Ronald Bleier
Editor, DESIP, http://desip.igc.org

Archive: http://dnreportcard.blogspot.com

Democracy Now’s website: www.democracynow.org

Subscribe to the Democracy Now Report by sending an email (with no message or subject) to:
dnreportcard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Monday 3.3.03
Very good program starting with an interview of the London Observer reporter who broke the story of U.S. spying on fellow security council members in order to pressure them on the important vote for war on Iraq.

The program continued with an interesting but confusing segment on whether or not Iraq has eliminated its biological and chemical weapons production capacity with Scott Ritter on one side and UNSCOM leader Rolf Ekeus on the other.

Good final segment with Mother Jones editor/writer Robert Dreyfuss who incidentally pointed out that none of the oil executives that he interviewed are in favor of a war with Iraq. This should help to shoot down the war for oil theory (But of course it won’t. Our side has true believers as well.). War for oil has as its basis a rational, logical (although immoral, shall we say) outcome. But this war is not about reason, common sense or security: it’s about ideology, the attempt to maintain an agenda of perpetual war. It’s not even about extending American Empire since we already dominate the world. It’s about enforcing American Empire through the use of military force. For example, President Bush has already hinted that he will not accept exile for Saddam. At the end of January, he was quoted as being skeptical of such a plan and he publicly demanded that if Saddam were to chose exile, he would have to take with him “a lot of other henchmen.” (See "Bush Warns Iraq It Has Only Weeks to Yield Weapons," (NYT, 1.31.03)The implication is that Saddam needn’t bother to try to open discussions on such an issue. As author Anthony Arnove said on the Morning Program today, President Bush is determined to go to war come what may.

The part that the War for oil folks miss is that it may be more dangerous and destructive to have a government fixed on the ideology of permanent war than one determined on the more rational idea of commandeering oil resources. Iraq’s oil has been a fixture for more than 50 years: the difference now is the cabal in power at the head of the U.S. government.

Friday 2.28.03
The program began with a good short segment on juvenile offenders on Louisiana’s death row where 16 of 17 youngsters slated for the death penalty are black and the same ratio of white victims to black. The rest of the program was devoted to an old speech by ace investigative journalist Greg Palast whom Amy has done yeoman’s work introducing to the American public. Amy might have let us know the date of Palast’s speech but perhaps she was embarrassed to underline how old it was. Once again I gather that there were virtually no produced segments because of BAI’s fundraising drive.

Thursday 2.27.03
Today’s program was the first fully produced program since the WBAI fundraiser began. A welcome change. And an excellent program it was, basically focusing on the disinformation and propaganda in Bush’s speech about the war. First Jeremy Scahill explained that aid groups are wary of providing the government with information because of fears that this information will be used in targeting. It was pointed out that the Red Cross was highly critical of the U.S. in the past and that the U.S. “accidentally” bombed a Red Cross warehouse in Kabul twice even though it was clearly marked. The “accidental” bombing of the Kabul offices of Al Jazeera was also mentioned.

Times reporter Chris Hedges and Robert Fisk also spoke of military restrictions on reporters in war, and gave the lie to suggestions that this coming war will be reported more freely. Hedges reported how he was severely beaten by the Saudis in the 1991 Gulf War when was reporting on how the Saudis made no effort to fight when they were attacked.

Amy played an excerpt from Bush’s speech last night in which he said in connection with the Israeli Palestinian conflict: “Other regimes will be given a clear warning that support for terrorism will not be tolerated.” Is this not a warning to Iran and Syria and to the American people about the war that is planned after the Iraq war. This is a reminder that after the Iraq war begins, the political atmosphere will be changed and those who temporize with this war, like The New York Times, and Albert R. Hunt of the WSJ, (see his disappointing Op-ed today) will not be able to stand back and say, enough is enough, but they will perforce be drawn into the Bush agenda of perpetual war in the same way that they are now its prisoners.

The issue of comparing Saddam Hussein to Hitler and Bush to Churchill was brought up in the discussion with Robert Fisk, but it was not emphasized that in the threat he poses to world peace, Bush can be compared to Hitler. Polls in England and elsewhere have shown that majorities believe that Bush is a greater threat to world peace than Saddam Hussein.

Wednesday 2.26.03
Opening segment featured author Dilip Hiro who spoke about Prime Minister Tony Blair’s difficulties, but didn’t mention that in the case of a successful war, Blair might come out a winner as will Bush, at least for the short term. Hiro’s concluding remarks focused on threats of increased terrorism as a result of war. It’s time that someone made the point that increased terrorism is most likely to redound to the benefit of the right wing Bush agenda, at home for sure, and possibly abroad as well. An unforeseeable factor is increased instability in the Middle East and South Asia in particular and the effects of a Turkish takeover of parts of northern Iraq.

Tuesday 2.25.03
Today’s show devoted to a taped speech by Howard Zinn and other taped material about him. While WBAI is fundraising, Amy must use taped pieces like this which she can interrupt in NYC. I suppose one answer would be to do taped segments, but I guess that is beyond their current capabilities.

2003-02-24T09:40:00.000-08:00

2003-02-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now Report
by Ronald Bleier
Editor, DESIP, http://desip.igc.org

Archive: http://dnreportcard.blogspot.com

Democracy Now’s website: www.democracynow.org

Subscribe to the Democracy Now Report by sending an email (with no message or subject) to:
dnreportcard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Wednesday 2.19.03
The whole show was devoted to a recent anti-war speech by Dr. Helen Caldicott. Ho hum. I gather that instead of producing timely segments, Amy and her staff have concluded that these set pieces bring in more revenue for WBAI’s current fundraising effort. Let’s hope they know best.

Topic suggestion: NYT article today on critics of new Shuttle investigative board. Apparently the powers that be are intent on whitewashing a good part of the truth behind the latest shuttle tragedy. What are they hiding? DN could be in the forefront of those trying to get solid answers.

Tuesday 2.18.03
Most of the program was devoted to a very good speech by Noam Chomsky at the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre, Brazil, in February 2003. Professor Chomsky focused on the threat that the Bush administration is posing to world peace even to the point of hinting a comparison to Hitler.

"The most powerful state in world history has proclaimed that it intends to rule the world by force: that is the dimension in which it reigns supreme. The war in Iraq will teach some lessons about what lies ahead when the Empire decides to strike a blow. That is surely one of the main reasons for the war.

The Empire has also declared explicitly and precisely that it will tolerate no competitors, now or in the future. Its leaders believe that the means of violence in their hands are so extraordinary that they can dismiss with contempt anyone who stands in their way.

That doctrine is by no means new but it has never before been proclaimed which such brazen arrogance at least not by anyone who we would care to remember"

He quoted from a paper from the Carnegie Endowment for Peace asserting that the Bush administration is a “menace to itself and mankind under its present leadership.” Chomsky made the important point that the lesson to be drawn from the current Iraq/North Korea triangle is that it is important for non nuclear nations to procure nuclear weapons so as to deter the U.S. from attack. Chomsky might have continued that in contrast to past administrations where nuclear proliferation was an more or less unintended consequence of U.S. arms sales and U.S. foreign policy, the Bush administration actively encourages such proliferation because it advances their ideological goal of destabilizing the international system, greasing the way for military action.

Chomsky also said that the way to confront the Empire is to create a different world, one not based on violence and subjugation, or on hate and fear.

Yes, we might add, it would certainly be a different world. It would be a dream world where population pressures don’t lead to environmental degradation and scarcity, where there are no requirements for hierarchy, for order and stability, and no struggles for power and dominance.

Monday, 2.17.03
Today’s program was devoted to the Feb 15 protests in NYC and to the UN debate at the Security Council. Highlight the French speech: France is an old county. In the headlines Amy said worldwide tens of millions protested. That seems a bit high. She also said that estimates of the crowd in NYC were half a million or even a million people in the streets. For my part, I interviewed two cops, one on Lexington where I got off the train, and the other on Third Ave. I asked them what they thought of Mayor Bloomberg’s decision not to allow a march. The first cop was very defensive, arguing that due to the huge numbers, it was better not to have a march. The second cop readily agreed that from a crowd management point of view, it would have been much better to have a march to Central Park.

Friday, 2.14.03
Another fundraising program where aside from the good headlines, there was no produced material. The program started with an excerpt from Mandela’s recent speech properly castigating Bush for his war plans. However, the part where Mandela speculated that Bush was ignoring the UN because Kofi Annan is Black was an embarrassment and unworthy of Mandela, and is one reason that the speech can be dismissed by the opposition.

Much of the program –before the cutoff for fundraising—was given over to an excellent speech by Arundhati Roy who spoke feelingly about the perpetrators of the Gujarat massacres freely holding high office, with no repercussions for their actions. Referring to Bush’s threats to Iraq, Roy said: “It’s not the lies we’ve been told, but the quality of the lies which is truly insulting.” Roy is one of those rare wonderful people who are a treasure to humanity. Nevertheless, there was no hint in her talk of the constantly growing pressure of population on limited resources, a topic that is taboo on Pacifica, Earth First! the Sierra Club and Republican and Democrat circles. In other words, there is an effective wall to wall consensus that we must ignore the elephant in the living room. In 1950 the population of India was 380 million and Pakistan, 36 million. Today India= almost1.1 billion and Pakistan 156 million, almost triple the total population of about 50 years ago. Clearly this kind of growth is unsustainable and the ethnic violence now underway can be seen as the political consequences of the struggle over limited resources.

2003-02-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

2003-01-30T10:52:00.000-08:00

Thursday, 1.30.03
Very important interview with William Arkin, LA Times defense analyst, who broke the story that the Bush clique has lowered the bar for the use of nuclear weapons in Iraq and elsewhere. If you haven’t yet read his article, read and be terrified.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/la-op-arkin26jan26.story

In his discussion with Amy, Arkin emphasized the point that current Administration moves are an insult and deeply disturbing to U.S. military professionals. The decision to scrap the firewall between conventional and nuclear weapons was made by Rumsfeld and an inner circle of decision makers circumventing conventional military planners. The result is that nuclear weapons may be employed with little or no debate by top military planners.

Comment: This discussion helps to throw into question Amy’s idée fixe that the war against Iraq is a war about oil. You don’t contemplate using nuclear weapons in a situation where you want to take control of oil fields. The war against Iraq is a war in the service of the far right ideology of perpetual war and nuclear warfighting by the Bush clique. (It’s a clique because Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, et. al don’t represent much of the military, state department and other government agencies.) If Syria is next on the list, that might help dispel the war for oil idea.

The rest of today’s program was devoted to a very good examination of the effects of U.S. use of depleted uranium especially in 1raq in 1991.
***

Wednesday, 1.29.03
Review of last night’s State of the Union. Thank goodness for DN. I can’t imagine anywhere else where we can get this kind of perspective and analysis. Francis Fox Piven spoke feelingly on her dismay and astonishment at the reckless irresponsibility of the Bush clique’s warmaking. And throughout the program, it was emphasized again and again how the Bush policies are bringing about our insecurity.

Highlight: Sound bite from Bush’s address:

Throughout the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great nations, built armies and arsenals, and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world. In each case, their ambitions of cruelty and murder had no limit.

Amy followed up with commentary by Howard Zinn who properly pointed out how the U.S. began the century with its brutal takeover of the Philippines and mentioned Grenada, Chile, and others.

The question the sound bite left unanswered was whether it was intentionally or unintentionally ironic. Is it possible that Bush and his speechwriters didn’t understand that the quote describes them?

2003-01-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, 1.28.03
Excellent show on Iraq war with Phyllis Bennis and Andreas Zumach, etc. Good closing segment with Seymour Hersh in regard to regarding his latest New Yorker article on what the Bush administration knew about the North Korean nuclear program and when it knew it.
Too bad that there was no time to explore Hersh’s last paragraph where he quotes an American intelligence official on the Bush administration’s future plans for North Korea: “’Bush and Cheney want that guy's head"—Kim Jong Il's—"on a platter. Don't be distracted by all this talk about negotiations. There will be negotiations, but they have a plan, and they are going to get this guy after Iraq. He's their version of Hitler."

Monday 1/27/03
Very good show with Phyllis Bennis and Andreas Zumach from Die Tageszeitung discussing the Iraq war situation. More of these round table discussions on this vital topic would be welcome. However at the end, an opportunity was lost to mention that a war on Iraq matches Ariel Sharon’s and Likud’s hard line agenda to redraw the Middle East map, and to further repress and perhaps expel the Palestinians.

2003-01-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

Friday, 1/24/03
Excellent show, don’t miss. First Russell Mokhiber, on Ari Fleisher’s press briefings and how Mokhiber is a thorn in their side and how they try to neutralize him.
Susan McDougal was on to tell about her prison experiences and how Ken Starr demanded that she lie about Clinton as the price for her freedom. Don’t miss. Very powerful.

Thursday 1/23/03
A lot of heat, less light on the subject of arresting foreign students for dropping a class at college. Fortunately the show included sufficient interviews with college administrators to show that this was not a widespread practice.
Timely report from Venezuela although there was little new in the segment.

Wednesday, 1/22/03
Anniversary show on Roe v Wade, featuring an able spokesperson from the anti-abortion side in a mini debate. It made for infuriating but riveting radio. Too bad Amy cut it short even as the anti-abortion spokesperson filibustered. Somehow there seemed no political space to put to her the question: Do you oppose a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion and if so, why?

Tuesday, 1/21/03
More on Sat demos; some good interviews with Western activists.
Monday, 1/20/03
MLK Holiday show, highlight, interview with Dexter King, MLK’s articulate son.
Friday, 1/17/03
Excellent show, more on the FCC. very good excerpts from yesterday’s NYC hearing . Some fluff at the end, but that’s ok. Good opening segment on Chavez’s news conference.

Thursday, 1/16/03
Excellent show on the FCC hearings which BAI played a small but significant role

2003-01-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

2003-01-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 1/15/03

Very good show despite the fact that it was mainly given over to one person. In this case a talented and charming actor, director, playwright, Sara Jones, who focused on the immigration issue which was all well and good. However, the show brought out the lack of an opposing voice on this issue. For example, should the U.S. have open borders? Should there be any restrictions on immigration at all?

The US now admits about 1 million legal immigrants yearly, mostly from developing countries, especially Mexico and Central America. Should we remain at this number? Should we multiply such a number by 10? If 10 million of legal immigrants a year is a good round number, what are the implications for the 10 million or more who would still be denied?

Is the U.S. free from the laws of resource scarcity? Do the million plus every year who come make no impact on our politics and our environment, taxes and government services?

DN is free speech radio but on this issue there tends to be only one voice.

2003-01-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

Friday, 1/10/03
Very good show on attorney Lynn Samuels charged as an accomplice to a terrorist by John Ashcroft, plus extraordinary case of an immigrant where aCongresswoman and others made tremendous efforts saved the husband of an American citizen from deportation as he was about to board the plane.
Suggested topics for future programs:
*NYT: U.S. threatens to Act Against Europeans Over [Genetically]Modified Foods, by Elizabeth Becker (1/10/03)
*NYT: Six Months Later, New Audit Board Holds First Talk,” by Stephen Lebaton, 1/10/03
Article notes that they have awarded themselves pay of 452,000, 50,000 more than the President gets and that Harvey L. Pitt is still serving at the head of the SEC and plans to do so for the foreseeable future until a new chairman is approved by Congress.
*NYT; Deaths on the Job, Slaps on the Wrist, 1/10/03, by David Barstow and Lowell Bergman, NYT entry for next year’s Pulitzer. Incredible story on job safety, OSHA

Thursday, 1/9/03
Excellent show on SUVs, oil and Iraq, etc.
The ads shown on DN attacking SUVs, while well meaning seemed too clever by half and much too in your face. Much more effective would have been an information campaign: a child under five is killed or maimed every week by a parent or relative backing up an SUV out of the driveway; SUVs legally emit 5x more pollutants than smaller cars; SUV’s are allowed faster writeoffs than regular cars, SUVs are far more dangerous to occupants because of roll overs than other cars with a high likelihood of injury and paralysis..

Earlier on the Morning Show, in the discussion of the Bush renomination of Judge Pickering with Ron Walters, it might have been opined that in addition to payback to Trent Lott for remaining in the Senate, it might be a shrewd political move to allow the Democrats a high profile pyhrric victory on one or two judges while the rest of the 28 right wing judges blocked by the Democrats in the last session of congress slide through with a minimum of publicity.

In the headlines, the item on Yasser Essam Hamdi, and the Fourth Circuit court of appeal’s ruling supporting the Bush administration’s decision to deny Yasser Hamdi legal representation, branding him an illegal combatant, it might have been mentioned that two of the judges were Reagan appointees, and one was appointed to a lower court by Bush 1, and elevated by Clinton to the Appeals court.
On the issue of war for oil, some questionable statements were made such as this is a war to maintain hydrocarbons as the basis of our economy, as if there were any practical alternatives. Even with the best will in the world, we can reduce but not eliminate our need for oil, and certainly not before the oil pumped worldwide begins to plateau or decline in the next ten years, or possibly sooner, assuming that current world economic conditions remain the same, i.e, that there is no crash.

Wednesday,1/8/03
Excellent show starting off with a concise analysis of the Bush tax cut; Bhopal, Dow Chemical, etc, ending with a debate about reinstituting the draft with a good spokesperson for the negative.
Tuesday, 1/7/03
Excellent show. Ralph Nader as usual spoke succinctly on the current situation.
On new FCC rules permitting unlimited media ownership. Could have used FCC spokesperson better to ask why it’s good to have media restrictions lifted rather than evade the question through narrow technical issues.

Monday, 1/6/03
Very good show mostly on Iraq, with good behind the scenes info on NYT John Burns from Jeremy Schehill, Interesting speaker from Venezuela who charged that the Caracas police murdered two pro-government protesters. Would be good to get a follow up somewhere. Good citation of antiwar.com for U.S. attacks on Iraq.
Friday, 1/3/03
Excellent show although more light than heat on Halliburton and Venezuela, good segment on Christian missionary stories with Mother Jones correspondent

1/2/03
Complete show to devoted to a tape of Dr. Helen Caldicott: how many times have we heard this plus there was some unpleasantness as she scolded the students who were leaving as she was speaking. Nobody’s allowed to leave, that’s rude, she said. That segment should have been edited out or skipped. Once again, let’s give Amy and her producers a holiday break and be thankful for the few headlines at the top of the show.

Australian doctor; this one was listenable, but still these one person shows
1/1/03
Excellent show on Mexico, Chiapas, etc. Several voices.
Tuesday, 12/31/02
Started off good on North Korea crisis but then went to a yearly tradition of a compendium of sound bites from the preceding year.

2002-12-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now Report Card
by Ronald Bleier

12/30/02
Monday: Unlistenable or nearly. A long speech by a civil rights worker which took most of the show. Apparently Amy is taking this holiday off, or she’s giving her staff time off. Once again, she’s earned it.

12/27/02
Friday; Grade = A
Excellent program on elections and political situation in Kenya. Two excellent speakers.

12/26/02
Joan Baez ) Joan Baez hour. She looked great for those who could catch the show on cable, but I had to turn it off after a few moments. Unlistenable.
No headlines. Gives a sense of how Amy and her staff were taking the time off for the holiday

2002-12-25T10:49:00.000-08:00

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.

2002-12-17T17:47:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now Report Card
by Ronald Bleier

Coming Soon:
The Reason for this blog
Whats wrong with PC

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.