Leslie Griffith

Anchors and Reporters: Stop going down with the Ship

In the U.K., news “anchors” are called “presenters.” It’s high time we make that distinction here in America, too. Those who read the news and interview others are little more than highly paid middle men. Wall Street taught us that middlemen and women do not always work in our best interest. Without putting real boots on the ground, these celebrity anchors do interviews…push opinions around…and give anyone with an agenda and a tenacious agent, public relations firm, or powerful political consultant…access to their coveted audience.

Consider the erosion in trust this behavior causes.  If you are old enough to recall the movie “Broadcast News” you will remember William Hurt playing a naïve and ethically challenged anchor. In that movie, Mr. Hurt’s character plays a reporter who is reprimanded by a producer played by Holly Hunter after he worked up fake tears following an interview.

In another scene, Holly Hunter reprimands a photographer who tells a “rebel fighter” to put on his boots in hopes of getting a good “action shot.” Hunter’s character screams at the photog and his subject, “Stop! We are not here to stage the news. Sir, do whatever you want to.” The message was the same one taught in my newsroom way back when. Do not fake anything while reporting the news. No re-enactments, no pretense…just record what is happening. Let the viewer decide how to feel about it.

Today, it seems when we begin to trust an “anchor” or “reporter,” we are, sadly, all-too-often reminded we shouldn’t.

Case in point—anchors playing themselves in a movie. This recent trend has notable “presenters” seamlessly crossing-over from reading the news into performing a script. In this case, the movie is the Oscar-nominated “Ides of March.”

Watching some of those I’ve come to trust now reading lines in a movie about political games, the selfishness of celebrity and the benefits of betrayal…was like watching Wag the Dog and the Truman Show at the same time.

So, when are they play-acting and when are they not?

Are they play-acting on TV?

Heck, they already call their broadcasts “shows.”

Reading a phony script about a phony campaign in a phony world with phony reporters, it’s all just too tiring to buy into. When will America get a broadcast with reporters around the world, each living and breathing in countries of conflict? Or covering America’s wars, but giving us news from behind enemy lines? When will they begin showing our common denominators instead of fanning the flames of conflict in order to make money? When will they begin doing reports on their own corporate commercial advertisers, exposing them for polluting our air, our food, our brains, our planet?

It’s sad to watch as more anchors and reporters buy into all of it while telling us not to. I don’t blame the reporters and anchors. Not anymore. I blame their bosses and ultimately the Federal Communication Commission for allowing those who shouldn’t to own our nation’s airwaves.

When NBC is a network and Comcast and GE own NBC—I suppose it was just naïve to believe stock holders wouldn’t push these anchors to be celebrities. But, it brings us all back to asking “Who will ever help this nation find its balance again?”

 

 

“Be Like Him”

SFGate/ReaderSupportedNews

 

The buses finally arrived on October 15^th, 2011.

Mostly chartered or owned by churches, they carried hundreds of devoted people from Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Weary travelers with swollen feet and sleepy eyes gingerly navigated the bus steps. Fifty years of waiting—no need to break a hip now. They’d risked their lives and done their marching. Besides, Dr. King was still dead.

Grandmothers and great-grandmothers blinked into the hot sunlight, many wearing those thick support stockings that clump up around the ankles. They never thought they would see the day when they’d stand on Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Mall to honor their life-long hero.

Slowly craning their arthritic necks…and there it was, big as God.

A thirty foot tall granite statue of Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader who stole their hearts, gave them hope and then, with his sudden assassination, took much of their youthful hope to the grave. But now, stark and fresh against the sky, he seemed almost reborn.

It had been a long journey of fight and flight.

A “wall of inscriptions” surrounded the celebrants in the warm embrace of Dr. King’s words. The first of fourteen quotes came from the “I Have a Dream” speech. Delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, those famous words rang out from America’s national pulpit. That was back when most of these travelers were young and still living in bulwarks of Jim Crow—places like Montgomery, and Selma.

Change is slow. Deadly slow.

“Good spot for Dr. King.”

The elderly lady pointed her cane toward the memorial as she spoke.

“Perfect, symbolic symmetry,” I responded.

And it was. There was Dr. King’s giant likeness not only keeping company with—but standing tall and proud between—Lincoln and Jefferson.

Still pointing her cane in the air…she did a grand sweep around and asked, “Now, honey, which one is Jefferson?”

“There to the right, that’s Thomas Jefferson’s memorial and, of course, to the left of Dr. King’s statue is Abraham Lincoln’s memorial. If you stand ‘just so,’ you can see the Washington Monument, too.”

“Dr. King is so white,” she said.

I’d not noticed the lightish color of the granite before. But she certainly did. Clearly pain, suffering and betrayal made it impossible for her to ignore it.  But world paradigms have shifted. Case in point:  Dr. King’s “Stone of Hope“ was made in China. That made the next quote we read on the “inscription wall” even more ironic:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Dr. King’s “single garment” quote now spanned the ages and the continents.

“Well, darlin’, see you tomorrow.” The elderly lady smiled.

Her eyes had gone milky. The “tired feel” about her worried me some.

We both knew we’d most likely never meet again, but we’d both be back the next day.

October 16^th—the alarm in my hotel sounded at 4a.m. By 5:30am, hundreds stood in line, waiting patiently for the Martin Luther King Jr. “dedication service” to begin some four hours later. Steady patience was not unfamiliar to this crowd. The line circled around and in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Old Abe would have gotten a kick out of that.

Expecting big colorful church hats on the legions of Southern women, picking a good unobstructed view might get tricky. People came early not only to honor Dr. King, but because the line-up of entertainers and speakers was stunning.

Actress Cicely Tyson, Reverends Joe Lowrey and Jesse Jackson

Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young

Two of Dr. King’s children

Dan Rather—journalism’s firsthand witness

Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, James Taylor, and Hip-Hop violinist,Miri Ben Ari

Each speaker and singer reminded us that at times of upheaval, the good and the bad seem disconcertingly close together. The common denominator among the speeches was that there is even more upheaval to come. Especially now, when much of White America finally felt the same disfranchisement endured for so long by Black America.

After finding a coveted seat, the man to my right got up and moved from his.

To my left sat a woman from Atlanta. She was warm and sturdy as a California redwood forest. She held my hand whenever I needed hers. Soon, another woman took the vacated seat to the right. Like the man before her, she did not respond when I said hello.

Finally, President Obama and his family arrived at the end of what felt like a very long and inspirational prayer meeting. Aretha Franklin had just regaled us with one of Dr. King’s favorite gospel songs, and that’s when we all heard the beginning of the chant. It was predictable.

“Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.”

The chant continued for several minutes. The President, still basking in the glow of Aretha Franklin’s gospel song, appeared to be praying. Perhaps he basked, too, in those three encouraging words. Who would ever want his job following the Bush years? Mr. Obama looked twenty years older since getting elected.

I’m not sure what came over me. I’ve been an observer (reporter) all of my adult life. But, on this day, standing in the shadow of a memorial of one man who changed a nation, my heart took control of my head. Loud enough for our half Irish/half African-American president to hear—I began shouting three different words to the rhythm of “four more years.”

 “Be like him. Be like him. Be like him!”

Now, the woman who’d refused to look at me, and the man who had moved when I sat down, both examined me closely. Then the damndest thing happened. They started chanting, too. Before long, several rows shouted loud as thunder:

“Be like him, Be like him!”

We screamed ourselves hoarse as more people joined us.

There on the inscription wall Dr. King’s words read:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

We screamed louder.

“Be like him. Be like him!”

…In order to form a more perfect union, establish justice… 

“Be Like him. Be like him.”

…Insure domestic Tranquility…

The elderly man, who at first refused to sit by me, now screamed louder.

“Be Like him! Be like him!”

“Do you think the president heard us?” He later asked.

It’s a question Dr. King must have asked himself millions of times. Was anyone listening?

“It’s not called the Stone of Hope for no reason,” I said.

He finally smiled.

 

 

The three “T’s” of Breaking up with Bank of America

ReaderSupportedNews/SFgate

 

Most of us like our breakups clean and fast.

Close eyes, rip Band-Aid. Be Hemmingway—don’t look back, don’t mince words, avoid self-inflicted wounds. Just slap your hands in that “I wash my hands of it all” way and move on.

And keep in mind that differences in values are usually the cause of breakups. Who has the energy to pass the years being shrill and unhappy? Just leave, right?

Despite the fact we all “know” these simple guidelines, it’s rarely easy to break it off clean with people and, I’m learning the hard way, it not so easy with institutions either. To my surprise, breaking up with an institution can be messier than a celebrity divorce. Money and power are at stake.  If nothing else, splitting with Bank of America is tedious, tiring, and certainly telling.

Here’s the tedious part.

Checks are still out there that need to be cashed. So, there’s calling and “talking to” one recorded voice after another.

Then comes the online “death watch” as you wait for each outstanding check to be checked off the list.

My credit union account, located far afield in Atlanta, was unprepared for all the transfers and electronic “paperwork.” New to this brave new world of anti-banking, finding a another, closer credit union will come next.

My automatic mortgage payments are a problem. Me, B of A, the credit union and Citibank a multi-menagerie-a-trois! Now we need untangling…and it’s like moving cement through mud. There’s no telling what Citibank, my mortgage company, might do if a mortgage payment is missed. Hell hath no fury like a bank scorned.

So, timing is important.

Lately, Citibank’s been known to slap a lien on a house or two—pronto.  They, like Bank of America, helped create this economic meltdown and still have their greedy hands out. Nary a thimble full of sympathy in sight.

We need to divorce them, too. That’s next.

So, you see, breaking up is not easy.

As for B of A, it believes in socialism…for the rich. So, I refuse to co-sign their behavior. Time to leave those who held my money and my trust…and then squandered both.

In the words of our esteemed former President  George W. Bush:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

Yeah, baby.

And if you are nodding and thinking “those dumb Republicans,” consider this:

Bill Clinton signed the bill to repeal the safety net of Glass-Steagall. Without regulations keeping Wall Street speculators out of our banks, there went our money and the sacred checks and balances that made it possible for us to save and then invest. We are wiser now. We know who our friends are NOT.

Bill Clinton was happier than a pig in slop to sign the bill that eventually took our retirement and made our homes worth less than we owed on ‘em. Republican Senators carried the repeal right to the president’s office as if carrying the baby Jesus swaddled in green-backs.

No penitence, no regret, no refunds.  It’s all gotten so predictable and tiring.

‘Nuff said. Today is break up day and it’s really bad manners to talk trash about those we break up with…right?

Instead, let us remember the way it used to be. Let’s remember the Bank of America we once trusted. Because the change from then to now is telling.

My personal relationship with Bank of America goes back 25 years.  My loyalty was fierce.

Tellers used to meet us at the door with a smile and unsurpassed courtesy. The banks were shiny and well kempt. They were monuments to security. No need to bury hard earned money in the backyard. Bank of America had our backs.

What a bunch of schmucks.

But we know now what we didn’t know then. B of A is not our friend. But, before leaving, I’d like to thank Dara Arruda who put the “premier” in premier banking. For years she fixed whatever problem arose as if it were her own. She works for Merrill Lynch now.

Thank you, Gwen at the Cypress branch. You could make me laugh when my spirits were lower than a snake’s belly.

And then there is Jerry. His story is the third “T”—the most telling one.  But first some impressions that brought Jerry to the forefront of my observations.

About ten years ago, it started looking like Bank of America was not as loyal to its employees as its employees had been to them. Those employees started disappearing. Soon, walking into my Oakland B of A was like walking into an involuntary assembly line. And the building itself didn’t look so safe anymore. It looked old and sad…much like the unappreciated government post office across the street.

Today, the reassuring, experienced, family-oriented tellers are almost gone.

Now, fresh out of high school faces–sometimes from families one or two generations removed from communism—keep their heads down and their noses out of your business. Odd behavior for bank employees since getting in your business is their job.

Most avoid eye contact. They are the 99 percent and they don’t mind. Do not expect them to speak up.

Here we come back to values. To lines that get crossed. Transgressions that one side or the other cannot abide. It was clear B of A helped squander our economic futures. Knowing how broke we all are…they tried putting another five dollar charge on transactions. It would take too long to list the ways in which they betrayed us all.

But when Jerry went missing…that was the final nail.

He was a security guard who stood outside my B of A and not only welcomed customers into the assembly line…he also handed out dog treats to our pooches and knew our names.

He remained a very warm blanket in what had become a very wet-blanket, wham-bam-thank-you ma’am environment.

I asked the no-eye-contact, stay-out-of-everyone’s business tellers “what happened to Jerry?”  Without so much as raising her head, one teller said, “He’s gone.”

“Is he okay?” I was not sure why I whispered this question.

A collective quiet fell over the tellers. It was the quiet of discomfort. The quiet of prisoners who dare not speak.

One young man was kind enough to pull me aside—outside, of course—and explain that Jerry had been “transferred.” Like money from one account to another.

“But why? We cared about Jerry?” I said.

He whispered, “We did too, but the bank thought he was getting too close to the customers.”

I’ll miss Gwen, Dara and, most of all, Jerry.

But, no longer having them watching over me helps make this messy break-up less tedious, less tiresome and it certainly tells me it’s worth it.

 

 

 

 

Run your Race

Readersupportednews/sfgate

 

Dateline:4 am--Oakland:

He paws fiercely, rejoicing in his strength, and charges into the fray. He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; he does not shy away from the sword. The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance. In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground; he cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.” – God as quoted in the Book of Job, Chapter 39, Verses 19-24

This stirring quote may only sound familiar because of the beautiful movie about the great champion—history’s beloved ”come from behind” horse—Secretariat.

Is there a champion in this Ogawa Plaza crowd?

Is there one or perhaps a handful both strong of body and of mind like Secretariat?

Ready to fight fear.

Ready to run when the trumpet sounds.

We will find out today.

The general strike is about to begin.

Watching, we notice a few organizers tapping their feet at the ground and snorting. They are mostly unemployed. Will they be able to convince those who are not…to close their businesses today and join the march?

The clock ticks.

Will those under a warm blanket of jobs and money and health care and benefits be willing to help those without?

Will they stand still “when the trumpet sounds?”

We in the Bay Area have seen many a rally or movement harmed by opportunists who care only for anarchy or self-promotion. Pot stirrers, too, hear a clarion call.

In years past, we have seen professional agitators drawn in from outside the Bay Area…simply begging for confrontation. And they usually got it.

If there is a champion among Occupy Oakland’s leaders—someone with the good sense to be afraid—can that person or group find the words to unite and to calm?

“He cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.”—Secretariat’s gleeful owner.

The crowd at Ogawa Plaza is a rough and tumble hodgepodge, much like America in these turbulent days.

They see socialism for the rich, but free enterprise for the poor. Without capital, one cannot enter into free enterprise. The banks are closed to this crowd.

America’s strongest capitalists are not sharing. At least, that is how the organizers of Occupy Oakland see it.

Social ills created by a lack of compassion remain obvious to this crowd and in this crowd.

Here the homeless are gathered together…drawn by three squares and a tent. Mentally ill are screaming at one another—one has a stick, swinging it wildly at those who get too close. There is no health care available to him. He is a Vietnam vet. Maybe he wouldn’t take help if it was offered. Is he too far gone?

In another corner of Ogawa Plaza, A strong voice reads passages from Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience.” His knees give him away. They are knocking together. But, like Secretariat, he fidgets. He is ready at the starting gate. Could he be a champion?

A woman desperate for a trick asks, “Are you lonely?”

Another Vietnam vet, his dog tags tucked inside his shirt, mumbles about losing his family.

A former Black Panther approaches the microphone. His words seem the most profound of the day. Few are listening. He tells the crowd they must lift one another up. He tells them drug use will destroy their movement. We all smell marijuana in the air.

They are gathering in committees. They are suspicious of my collared shirt and clean hair.

Later I ask my daughter if I had hair under my armpits and a strategically-placed tattoo if they would let me into their heart of hearts.

“They are writing their own stories mom,” she says.

Okay then.

Secretariat’s owner says, “Let him run his race.”

Today they will.

 

.

 

 

 

 

Journalists Abandon the Fourth Estate--- People take to the Streets

ReaderSupportednews/SFgate

 

Dateline: October 25^th. 8:00 pm. Oakland

“Occupy Oakland” participants are taking a few rubber bullets to the butt at this very moment. One thing is clear, the people are mad and they are not going to take it anymore. This is not satire, this is real. And, when all is said and done…we are in this mini- revolution in no small part because there are precious few reporters allowed to do their jobs.

The forces of accountability have failed.

So what exactly do the people want? What are they mad about?

Well, ain’t that just the beauty of it? No one is selling one-liners based on malarkey. These occupiers have been subject to propaganda for so long, swallowing phrases like “war on terror” they  began to feel that, alongside the reporters mouthing war slogans, they too were recruiting for a way of life they do not want.

The Occupier’s remember the Main Stream press they counted on as recently as ten years ago.  That press warned and protected them. Today much of the Main Stream media corporations are owned by the entertainment industry or those who make weapons of war. In fact, making war, movies, and gossip is how these new media corporations came to be so rich. Firing the investigative reporters helped too…they were so expensive.

The forces of accountability have been replaced by media monopolies not that different from the financial monopolies of Wall Street.

If the “free press” was doing its job freely, it would have been nice to know which politicians were bought by whom, and how much more of the public’s money the big wigs planned to take. Nice thought, but unlikely. The Fourth Estate is asleep and doesn’t seem to be waking up…not until the corporations that own the reporters stop pushing their own agendas and start doing what is constitutionally directed of them. The media was part of the envisioned checks and balances. Its job was protecting the people and the planet from tyrants and thieves.

Clearly, we are witnessing that democracy does not work without a free press. The voiceless masses paid attention in elementary school when they were told they were the government…the people were the democracy. The occupiers know they haven’t had much to do with anything, lately. Now, they are stepping back into their constitutional role as “the people.”

Frankly, there has been so much dereliction of duty on the part of most Main Stream media---so much neglect---that there are more prisons than universities in this country.  And few corporate owned reporters seem to be able to find their way to a school board meeting much less stumble upon a story of any value.

This speaks volumes. Does it not?

After years of neglect…the work now seems formidable. There is so much corruption collusion and pandering to one side or another…the public is finally taking to the streets. The “Occupy Wall Street” movement is fed up with the bait and switch that began in full force ten years ago. That’s when it became unpatriotic to ask why. That’s when it became “patriotic” to give up civil liberties. Unlike many in the Main Stream media, The People began to notice the more they gave up in the name of “national security”, the less free they became. Just as Thomas Jefferson warned.

After ten long years of nodding and smiling under their belts, The People are not going along to get along anymore. Now, if only the press would follow.

The current corporate media is working for the least patriotic, most self-interested, callow, mean spirited, polluting, plundering corporations imaginable. These are the “corporate people” who parceled out the republic. The reporters cannot report on them…they are them.

Now, “Occupy Wall Street” has become “Occupy America.” Protestors are saying one thing loudly and clearly. Not so fast Bubba. Get your greedy hands out of our pockets.

It’s about time too. Even so, there are very few reporters out covering this “Occupy” movement with any respect.

As a consequence, those on the street are not being heard and likely to make their voices louder.

For old time reporters, used to putting boots on the ground and trying to tell all sides, the most dangerous places were the communities where people were used, treated like peasants, and thrown away.

What happens when the majority of a country in a so called democracy feels unrepresented? We should remember, America’s revolutionaries of 1776 desired not much more than a monarch off their backs, and if they paid their taxes, a seat at the table of discussion.  Certainly sounds familiar does it not?

America is waking up.

Many in these rallies have no jobs, little hope for the future, and see a government, political system and mass media in bed together.

It’s a very unholy trifecta. People with nothing to lose are the most dangerous people on Earth.

 

 

Conversations with Revolutionaries

Thomas Jefferson wrote, “My wish was, to see both Houses of Congress cleaned of all persons interested in the bank or public stocks—cleansed, that is—of all corruption.”

If only Jefferson could see what is happening today. Not only do stockholders own the banks and the rotten, stinkin’ derivatives they sold us, they have the nerve to scream about socialism now…after they have been the recipients of it.

The public stock owners of 1776, those Jefferson wanted cleansed of corruption, now own almost everything of influence in America.

Big Pharma:  It’s easier to make money off the sick than pay scientists to invent vaccines.

Big Oil: Fossil fuels are killing our earth while stock holders keep smiling and looking for Americans to subsidize the next oil bubble.  Where do they think they will live with all their money? A dead planet is home to no one.

Big Media is not a free press: Stock holders of “Main Stream” media minimize the protestors…some have even ignored the protests all together. But, the 24/7 cable news has to fill all those hours. Either way---stock holders smile.

Stock holders own Monsanto and, therefore, profit from manipulating our food while threatening those who refuse to buy their seeds.

Lockheed Martin makes weapons of war, so stock holders benefit when another war erupts. Sometimes they even supply both sides of a conflict with weapons. GE makes nuclear weapons.  Are you beginning to see--- we are entangled in greed in every aspect of our lives? But, the protestors are right; ground zero is Wall Street.

My favorite Wall Street sign (so far) says, “Where are the reparations?”  My family could certainly use our money back.

It thrills me to believe that among those protestors there might be a young John Adams or Thomas Jefferson. Both had their faults. But they did the heavy lifting when called upon. I wonder if today’s protestors are having conversations similar to those revolutionaries of 1776?

John Adams pleads with Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence.

“Why will you not write it?” Adams asks.

President number two and three were playfully and pugnaciously passing the buck.

Jefferson wants Adams to do it: “What can be your reasons?”

Adams replies:  “Reason 1^st. You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. “Reason 2^nd. I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason 3^rd. You can write ten times better than I can.”

If the document fell short of explaining why breaking with the monarchy, the church and corrupt politicians were the linchpins for creating democracy, Adams and Jefferson along with all the other signers of the document, would likely get hanged for treason. 

Benjamin Harrison joked that he would have an advantage over the other revolutionary when they were hanged. Harrison was a massive fellow, and he understood how gravity might work in his favor---allowing his neck to break faster than the others.

It is all there…all the direction the protestors of today need.

On matters of Monarchy...Our obscenely rich corporate owners of America today…Jefferson wrote, “…take any animal, confine them in idleness and inaction whether in a stye, a stable or a state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let everything bend before them and banish whatever might lead them to think, and in a few generations they become all body and no mind…Such is the regimen of raising Kings.”

In 1776 a young Pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, wrote down his thoughts as he prepared to fight the British. Paine wrote:

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again. ..’Tis not the concern of a day, a year or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed-time...”

 

 

“Main Stream” Misnomer

 

What we call something has everything to do with how we treat it.

So, why do we as citizens continue to allow corporately-owned and government-sponsored media to be called “Main Stream”?

Those two words alone keep our country watching.

Why? Because we have been sold words that lack any real meaning.  The “Main-Stream” no longer speaks for Main Street, it speaks for Wall Street. But we buy into the lie when we buy into those words.

We must be more critical of what we see. For example, how many times did we see “reporters” like Brian Williams standing next to our Gulf Coast as the British Petroleum disaster unfolded? What did he tell us in the first days of that ecological disaster?  “These are the smartest and most responsible oil workers on the planet.”  He gushed, just like poison that spilled into the Gulf.  He is so deep into the Corporate-Government news business…he doesn’t seem to realize just  how damaging his words can be and so often are.

And then there’s Andrea Mitchell. She sleeps with and is married to Alan Greenspan, the man who helped get us in this economic debacle. Mitchell has her own “Main Stream” broadcast.  She, and her broadcasts are sold as “middle of the road.” But, of course, she delivers “Corporate-Government” controlled news.

The “Main Stream” now works for the same power-brokers who seem to ignore the fact that we all breathe the same air, eat the same food, drink from the same water faucets and swim in the same sea.

When I was growing up in the extreme dysfunction-palooza of Texas it somehow occurred to me that the only ground worth standing on was the middle ground.  If, as a reporter, it was possible to show all the angles, then citizen-viewers would have the tools to come back to the middle. But…when is the last time you saw a newscast show all sides of a story, unless it was two sides just yelling at each other?  When was the last time you saw all the facts, rather than only the opinions? Where is the middle ground?

Once upon a time, “the middle ground” was news from Main Street. But the middle has been abandoned. Now, we get affirmation news, whether it comes from FOX or MSNBC. Affirmation of hardened opinions is the status quo in Corporate-Government news.

If you do not believe this…ask yourself: When is the last time the “Main Stream” news actually uncovered a story about a corporation—any corporation—ignoring the law and harming you? Or exposed just one of the lies our own government expects us to swallow?

Just look at the world we are living in today. Next to San Francisco Bay there are warning signs telling us not to eat the fish. Why? Unsafe levels of mercury. “Main Stream” reporters might show you pictures of the sign, but never question where that mercury is coming from in the first place. That is Corporate-Government news. That is not benign neglect…that neglect is malicious.

Look up at the cell phone tower receivers allowed on church steeples and even elementary schools. The “Main Stream” might write about parental or parishioner complaints, but it will never question how it is that the cell phone receivers are multiplying like gerbils or why there are so few regulations governing their intrusion. We might ask why Corporate-Government media, the “Main Stream” media, just allows us to live in this neurologically destructive-Petri dish of a nation. You know the answer to that—it’s not benign neglect…it’s malicious. “Main Stream” does not question those who buy hours of mobile phone commercial time and, therefore, pay their “reporters” salaries.

Opening the lens wider would only cause problems for Corporate-Government news.

When is the last time you or your family drank tap water? When did it become acceptable to live in a country with three-dollar bottled water…instead of citizens insisting upon the basic right to have clean water?

Again, silence from the Corporate-Government news.

Allergies, cancer, autism and asthma are off the charts. Why don’t we ask ourselves “why?” In today’s Main Stream news the reporters who ask “why” get fired for doing it.

Just take a moment and look who owns the Corporate-Government mega-media conglomerates. It could be a corporation that make nuclear bombs, military hardware and drone bombers. Can they be anything other than Pentagon propagandists? Don’t they need to sell their products with mind molesting slogans such as “We bring good things to life.” Give me a break.

It is time to call the Main Stream by its proper name, because what we call things determines how we treat them. The Main Stream is now Corporate-Government news… controlled, contrived and delivered to the unwitting consumer. It’s the kind of news American leaders used to criticize in communist countries.

 

 

9/11 Seeking a Road Map in a Jackson Pollock Painting

                            Quote from Joe Sottile

                                                                 ###

The view was myopic from the anchor chair following 9/11

 

Press releases from the powerful often read, un-checked---verbatim

 

The “sexiest” of sweater girl distractions now war recruiters

 

Mainlining fear to already traumatized vascular systems

 

Breathless, repeated mantras, “Red Alert!” “War on Terror!”

 

But at some point... pain must pass

And, scrutiny begin

 

It is time to ask some “Why questions.”

 

It is time to believe what we have witnessed with our own eyes

 

A stolen election

 

Building 7

 

A plane into the Pentagon?

 

Ad infinitum

 

Oil always a political tool

 

Abraham had two sons

 

Their hatred, one for the other, is tearing this world apart.

                                           *************************************************

 

 

 

Tarred and Feathered. Exxon/Murdoch/Cheney... at it again.

Tar Sand                        

 

 

Tarred and Feathered. Exxon/Murdoch/Cheney...at it again.

It is said those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And, in my experience, to report on it…again and again…as if the failures of the past offer no instruction at all.

That thought slapped me sober while thinking about tar sands and, moments later, when running across this story on Rupert Murdoch and Dick Cheney and their forays into the sticky boondoggle of tar sands’ predecessor—oil shale.

Three decades ago, when just a cub reporter—my first day on the job—I landed smack dab in the middle of a multi-billion dollar story with global consequences—politically, environmentally and economically. If nothing else, both tar sands and oil shale have that much in common.

Unfortunately, the oil shale story was much too complex for an inexperienced reporter fresh off the turnip truck from Tomball, Texas. Had I recognized what was happening at the time, and had I known the history of the situation, perhaps I could have saved taxpayers billions. This story still haunts me. To this day, it is the main reason I stuck with it…and became a reporter. Here is the “doomed to repeat it” part—Americans are walking headlong into a disaster just like the one I walked into thirty years ago.

The tar sands story is just the current, disastrous and all-too familiar sequel…the elusive pot of black gold at the end of a make-believe rainbow.

It’s important to explain that two U.S. Presidents had the insight and foresight to want more than to simply kiss the rings of tyrants in order to get enough oil to keep America moving. Still, they did not know enough to spot the imposters among an array of alternatives.

Jimmy Carter was one, Harry Truman the other.

Back in the 1970s, then-President Carter tried to tackle the energy crisis—a crisis that remains with us today. Toward that end, he formed the Synthetic Fuels Organization. Both Mr. Truman and Mr. Carter understood that if the world was to ever live in peace, we had to turn off the spigot on foreign oil…too much carrot for oil companies to take advantage of…too much stick (subsidies, wars) for the people.

f In Mr. Carter’s case, he was forced into a corner. Americans needed gasoline to fuel their cars and the country. In the days and months following the Arab Oil Embargo, Americans sat fuming for hours in long lines waiting for the privilege of buying a few gallons of gasoline.

Mr. Carter, and the oil-dependent nation he led, was being punished...just as we are today.

During Carter’s presidency, the world economy had been wrecked twice in less than ten years by OPEC’s political retaliation. Once it happened after America supplied massive amounts of arms to Israel, making it possible for Israel to win the 1973 Arab/Israeli war. OPEC’s “ministers,” pissed off by America’s assistance, cut oil supplies to zero. That was the first “oil crisis” of the 70’s. Another crisis occurred six years later, in 1979, a direct result of the fall of America’s longstanding buddy, the Shah of Iran.

Mr. Carter’s far-reaching goal was to pry OPEC ministers’ retaliatory hands away from America’s increasingly exposed neck. Desperate, and willing to give anyone with a new idea billions, the Western Colorado oil shale boom began full-stop.

Tar sand and oil shale are both boondoggles. Both extract little oil clean enough to use, both take huge amounts of energy to get to it, and both tar sands and oil shale tear up the landscape and ham the water supply. Most importantly of all, both tar sands and oil shale offered bogus hope of avoiding political entanglement with foreign oil.

Into this complex, persistent mess—with nothing more than a fresh reporter’s pad and a pencil behind my ear—some hard lessons were learned.

Chapter two of my book called “ The Unsanitary Napkin,” is about the oil shale boom and miserable bust that followed. Yes, you have a different decade, but just substitute the words “oil shale” for “tar sands”….it’s the same people trying to pull the same boondoggle on the same oil hungry people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CNN: Don’t fence Sara in:

 
Dear Time Warner,

Enough already. You have proven you are not Ted Turner. His CNN helped put events into context and the world in perspective. Turner loved the “Why” questions. He selected reporters who put their boots on the ground and their lives on the line. He dispatched reporters around the world. They were well informed because they actually lived in the countries from which they reported. They did not have to do “hit and run” stories after flying into hot spots after the fact.

Enter Time Warner. Exit Ted Turner.

When Turner sold CNN to Time Warner, the once legendary news coverage became, slowly but surely, more like infotainment. And, sadly, it became more like the movies. After all, that’s what Time Warner does.

As a result of the sale, most of their overseas news bureaus were closed. Many of the old fashioned, pavement-pounding reporters were either let go or recalled to one of the few remaining bureaus—primarily to New York, Los Angeles, D.C. or Atlanta. 

Big American cities, for sure. But the world it ain’t.

It’s no surprise, really, since most corporations stick with what they know. Time Warner knows how to make movies and celebrities, and then cross promote it all. Desperately seeking celebrity is the carrot Time Warner holds out. And the shtick is to sell, sell, sell the news as a personality-driven product.

Time Warner may not understand this yet, but they have a tiger by the tail with what CNN/Time Warner considers their Libyan war’s leading lady—Sara Sidner. Why is she a tiger? Because she never wanted to be a Hollywood star or a celebrity! I know, almost impossible to fathom. From the first moment I met her years ago, I knew she was born to report. In fact, she is capable of real, honest-to-goodness investigative reporting, no matter how disconcerting the details. But, it seems, CNN and Time Warner are determined to keep Sidner in the middle of cross-fire. It’s frightening for those of us who have known and worked with her for years, but for those who want to feel close to the action…it is titillating television. It’s also Time Warner and CNN making the story about Sara. It is not, and she knows it. She’s capable of digging much deeper. She’s razor-sharp and nobody’s fool.

In a world where television reporters are taught to scratch the surface—or simply read an unquestioned press release—will CNN let Sidner’s natural curiosity and unflinchingly bravery go beyond the crackling gunfire? Will she be allowed to go into the really dangerous terrain of answering not only “who” and “where,” but also “why”?

Where are the weapons coming from? What Americans are on the ground? Who stands to gain the most with Gaddafi’s overthrow? Why are “rebels” risking their lives? Are they paid? Do any of them speak English? Are they sincerely seeking freedom from a dictator?  Who is motivated by what?

Note to Time Warner:  nothing is more dramatic than “rebels” risking their lives for something other than money. Put that together with a reporter who never wanted to be a beauty queen, never hiked up her skirt to show her legs or lowered her blouse to expose her cleavage and you’ve got something desperately needed….the potential for real reporting.  That’s if Time Warner-- CNN’s true editorial directors, are smart enough to get out of her way.

Sidner went to CNN when it still basked in its “Golden Age” reputation. She was hoping to grow as a journalist. She’s lived in India the last several years, covered Middle East bombings and sat at the feet of the Dalai Lama. And she’s wiser and smarter for it.

Sidner has always raised the bar wherever she’s been. Now the question is: Will Time Warner and CNN let Sara be Sara?  If they let her go behind the scenes and below the surface, and if CNN stops making the story about Sara, as if to push a product, we might actually learn something from television news that will broaden our understanding of what’s happening around the world. Be still my heart.