Leslie Griffith

Bring on the Lobotomy

It certainly was a slap-your-head, what-was-he-thinking-moment. FEMA decided to call a press conference and then held it without the press.

FEMA. Perhaps the acronym should stand for fabricated emergency manipulated amateurs. I thought I had seen it all, but a fake press conference with agency staff posing as reporters... Five, four, three, two, one -- you're on! Hurray for Hollywood.

When the Oakland Hills caught fire in 1991 I remember a photographer wanted to move a piece of smoking wood so he could light the background more dramatically. That is certainly not a cardinal sin, but it's better not to stage anything when it comes to reporting the news. Little compromises lead to big ones as we saw yesterday. And good God, how much drama does one country need? Thousands of homes lost, lives in ruins, palpable anguish. Remembering the Oakland Hills firestorm, my stomach ached for the victims of this one.

And call me old fashioned, but I want the FEMA fellow on the scene with a little schmutz on his face not perfectly coiffed like an air-brushed television anchor behind a podium. If he's on the scene, chances are he's more likely to have the empathy that should be a prerequisite for that job.

Now, having said that, let's cut the guy some slack. It's not as if it was George Bush telling us Iraq had nuclear weapons. It was the FEMA guy trying to avoid another shit storm.

I have seen many a capable person publicly lobotomized as they turn to Jell-o and their I.Q. drops to the ground during live interviews. It's not as easy as it looks. I imagine it was fear of the unknown that led to the deputy director's bad decision. Avoiding the "deer in the headlights" look is always good and the unknown is what usually causes that. Wouldn't we all want to know what the questions are going to be before we get them? Not knowing them and answering with sincerity, empathy and facts is what separates the girls from the women. My guess is the poor FEMA fellow just wanted to get home without having to wipe humiliation off his shoes. Remember, on live television saying one thing wrong can get your fired. A fake press conference was stupid all right, but we've certainly seen worse lately, so let's lower the bar for this guy. But first let's explain the rules.

News is not supposed to be staged. FEMA staff members had not been out covering the fires and they are not reporters. This is how it is supposed to work.

Inform the audience. Tell them everything you know. Public officials should always tell the truth without slant or spin. (I know that sounds terribly naïve these days.) If you don't want to get grilled by an angry mob of journalists, tell them what you know, and if you don't know the answer to the question, promise to get it. There's nothing wrong with saying you don't know. There is something wrong with not finding out. Be available all the time with updates. Give the press your phone numbers. Tell them to call you day or night. This was a national emergency. Sleep is out of the question anyway. Remember, good reporters are public servants. They have to get information to those who need it. And after 25 years reporting, I can tell you journalists love anyone who works hard and tells them the truth. You don't have to be an actor with perfect delivery -- just a caring conduit of information.

Idiocracy: Why the Media Is Not Protecting the People

If you have not seen the movie Idiocracy, you should. The dumbing down of the masses is a problem in this country and it's the only real way to keep Americans etherized. We all know who benefits from that -- monarchs and dictators. But why isn't the press helping to wake us up? Here's a story that might help you understand.

I was in my kitchen listening to the radio when the headline made me drop both my mouth and the pre-packaged meal in my hand: "The World Health Organization said today there is concern that a new form of drug resistant tuberculosis is spreading across the country and the world."

As a journalist who worked for a large media corporation, I had tried to warn people of this possibility for the previous two years. I knew TB positive and TB infected elephants were one reason there was a drug resistant strain of TB. I also knew why the story was kept a secret, and the reporter (me) had been silenced. The corporation potentially spreading the tuberculosis is considered "an American Institution." That corporation, Feld Inc., owns Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and at least 25 other corporations, including part ownership of Disney on Ice.

As far back as 1993, an endangered Asian elephant owned by Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same kind of tuberculosis humans contract. Since tuberculosis is unheard of in the wild, humans had to give the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M-TB) to the elephant. Five years later, Ringling's own documents indicate the herd was devastated by M-tuberculosis. All had been exposed, so all had to be treated. Ringling did not act swiftly according to USDA documents. I know of at least 30 of these exotic creatures who were diagnosed with tuberculosis after their deaths -- even after years of treatment. Here stands the elephant in the room. It's impossible to tell if Asian elephants have TB until they die and the necropsy is done. There is no definitive test and of course X-raying the lungs is not possible. These are animals weighing up to ten thousand pounds!

All the evidence indicates that for the last 14 years TB positive and TB infected elephants have been traveling the country and performing in closed arenas full of little kids holding cotton candy and squealing with delight. People with compromised immune systems and the elderly are circus patrons. It's a family tradition in some homes to go to the circus when it's in town.

For epidemiologists, here's the most frightening fact, and the reason I nearly dropped my pre-packaged meal that night. Many of the elephants became drug resistant. Resistant to the same drugs humans take to try and cure tuberculosis. The World Health Organization and other partners launched are spending billions to tackle drug-resistant TB.

I called the CDC to inform them of this. I never got a call back, but on one occasion I did manage to talk to a researcher there who told me that the CDC had never considered a connection between circus attendance and people who contract TB.

I know of five Ringling Bros. elephant trainers who have tested positive for TB, and the head of the Health Department in Los Angeles County Dr. Patrick Ryan says "any elephant ever tested positive for TB should never, ever be around crowds."

So, I called every "agenda setting" media in this country and told them. They were amazed. They could not believe I had the documents to back this story up. So I showed them. The media -- charged with protecting the public -- ultimately refused to publish this public health story that could potentially save lives.

Ringling Brothers is owned by Kenneth Feld, who by all accounts is a nefarious guy. For example, when one reporter tried to tell his family's story, he hired the former head of covert operations for the CIA to stop her, and he did. After nine years of legal wrangling, her case has still not come to trial. (See "The Greatest Vendetta on Earth" by Jeff Stein, Salon.com, 2001)

Americans wonder why these stories aren't told. In my case, Feld's attorneys flew in, made threats and my story was killed. The story about tuberculosis in his elephants is potentially devastating to his multi-million dollar profit making enterprise. That commercial money paves the way for silence. Kenneth Feld spends millions of dollars to hide a public health story that the press has a responsibility to tell. So, if you wonder why your local news is no good anymore, this is why. Enough money appears to be able to stop any story, even one regarding public health. I still laugh when people refer to the Liberal press!

I was threatened; my corporation was threatened and I was referred to in court documents by Ringling attorneys as incompetent. He and his attorneys try to ruin the careers of reporters who attempt to speak truth to power and do their jobs.

When no one is looking, bad things happen. In the end, Truthout.org published the story. Bravo for them. They don't take corporate money, so they can actually report the news.

Such is Life

Writing the balls to the wall Blog on Dan Rather was my first. It's true, I was a virgin blogger! My parents must be proud of my prolonged chastity and every teenager in America must consider me an imbecile. Such is life.

Getting pissed leads to pontification, depression has a lot of energy as well. The resulting geyser of emotion was labeled a blog, and I'm now a convert since I got more mail from one blog in one day than in 25 years of reporting for the corporate media. Famous people wrote me. I will not drop names, but suffice it to say they too believe Dan Rather deserves his chance to explain his latest brawl with the Bushes who apparently use the big stick and the big lie, and they do take prisoners. But, according to Jimmy Carter don't treat them too well.

Motivated by an understanding of the stink of corporate cronyism and corporate media dirty tricks, I read so many op-ed pieces about Dan Rather I was stunned by how quickly and judgmentally Americans now discard their heroes. Kurt Vonnegut wrote about the human traumas that distort emotions and can make us all feel disengaged, and dehumanized. When people are made to feel helpless, they lash out--sometimes at the wrong source.

9/11 traumatized us, and now as if written from a manual for dictators and bullies, we divide instead of unite and the bad guys never have to worry about a powerful and unified movement. Buckshot hatred scattered and unfocused. In Dan Rather's case, he risked his life more times than I can count in war zones from Vietnam to Afghanistan to help us gain knowledge that can only be gathered by reporters on the ground at the scene. How many Anchors do that today?

As for me, I took some hits from bloggers who said I was guilty for not leaving the corporate media sooner. What did the angry voices think I was doing since President Bush decided to illegally invade Iraq? If I wasn't being a pain in the ass at work fighting for discussion and analysis, I was directly questioning why, for instance, we dropped the Israeli Hezbollah war story---which was only 30 seconds long anyway -- for a story on a new Wal-Mart coming to the Bay Area.

The media managers changed after the war. Many came from sales. And most were middle-- aged white men who played golf together and made sure Sunday was spent at church. Have you noticed the more out of control people feel, the more churches are built? A big mouthed girl who loved Linda Ellerbee, Molly Ivans, Ann Richards, and Barbara Jordan is not exactly their dream date.

Here's just one story illustration that made me begin to believe I may have been up against the same type situations locally, as Dan Rather was nationally.

I remember coming into an editorial meeting with pictures of a car bombing in Baghdad in 2004 on a day the afternoon white house press release said, "All was quiet in Baghdad that day." I had received an e-mail an hour earlier from a friend fighting in Iraq who took pictures of a car bombing proving the white house press release to be bird cage liner. There were bodies on the road, blood was everywhere and a person clearly burned alive inside the car. Either the Bush administrator hadn't gotten word yet, or journalists were given lies to tell the public.

No one had actually told me I wasn't a journalist anymore, so naturally I thought this was a story. I walked into the meeting put my computer down, clicked on the picture and asked every producer, editor, and reporter to come and look. Before 9/11 and the Great Bait and Switch, State-of-the-Union speech of 2003, journalists in the room would have fought over who would do the story. They would have run out the door looking for those who could explain the contradiction. Instead, I found myself smack dab in the red zone.

"We can run these pictures, show the white house press release and compare what a soldier says with the misinformation the white house is putting out," I said. A newsroom and editorial meeting are never quiet, but at that moment there was silence. Then an interrogation began. "Where did you get those?" A recently hired news manager asked angrily. "From my friend in Iraq." "How do you know it's today?" Someone barked across the room with sarcasm? "Well the date, see it's in the right hand corner of the video showing it was taken just hours ago Iraqi time." I pointed like a third grader to the numbers on the top of the screen. I felt as vulnerable as a soldier in a humvee without bullet proof glass.

I waited. Then in an "Alice in Wonderland" kind of way, the conversation moved on without mentioning the e-mail and the car bombing. I vaguely heard someone suggesting a story on a 100 year old woman's birthday party! Now that's journalism. I interrupted with a smart ass remark. "So, I suppose we need to change our promos. Instead of In-depth news all the time, how about See, no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil, as our new promos." A friend shot me a look. I shut up. I trusted him to know I had gone too far. I was trying to land in a hotspot in a new 119 million dollar military aircraft, the V - 22 Osprey. My ass was grass.

Thank You Dan Rather

Thank you Dan Rather

It's balls to the wall time, and as a fellow Texan, you sure came through.

 
As an investigative journalist who worked as both a reporter and anchor for the San Francisco Bay Area's highest rated newscast for 22 years, I can only say what happened to you nationally was also happening locally. You were told to conform to a Republican agenda or shut up. When you refused to march in step, you got Bush-whacked.

I read your brief and I know the drill. The erosion was slow and many of us barely noticed the small chiseling away of who and what we once were. Anchors and reporters depend on high ratings. If ratings fall in television, people get fired. In the months following 9/11, the President's approval rating was still hovering around 70 percent, and that's when many in commercial journalism lost their way. To disagree or even ask a disagreeable question regarding the President and his decisions was interpreted as disloyal by many media corporations.

But now we have learned. Get the trashcan ready to catch the chips, because the chisel is swinging back the other way and we as journalists are about to regain our voices and America's trust. Dan - the Man - as we call him in Texas is reminding the media conglomerates how it is supposed to work. News and those who report it are not supposed to be for sale. Dan remembers, and he's about to explain it to us on a national scale, but first some explanations from my field of vision as to how we got here.

On January 2003, President Bush delivered his State of the Union address. Osama bin Laden turned into Saddam Hussein, and Afghanistan turned into Iraq. The press knew this was a bait and switch, but fearing reporters and anchors might appear unpatriotic, the corporate media made it clear that even if George W. Bush played twister in the nude while a few sheets to the wind instead of going to constitutional law classes at Yale, we were not allowed to talk about it.

Viacom and CBS, according to Dan, wanted to curry favor with the White House. There are very few media conglomerates that didn't. Cox Broadcasting banned the Dixie Chicks from radio stations because their lead singer made a remark under her breath criticizing the president! Not wanting to appear unpatriotic, the town criers did not cry out. Many corporate media reporters became stenographers, not reporters on that State of the Union day. Those in television journalism, particularly those working for a Fox affiliate, were not allowed to ask questions that could be perceived as unpatriotic, and every question was seen as unpatriotic. Monarchs and dictators don't allow questions. They also destroy those who speak ill of them. "Scooter - Valerie." "Rove - Anyone." Blackwater was running around in the name of the United States shooting first and asking questions later like third world rebels, and back at home, Fox became the fastest growing network with fearless leaders who believed in not only reporting the news but spinning it as well.

Just seven years ago, I looked up from my desk and saw my image on the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour as our staff of independent journalists was described as the best local news in the country. But war broke out and the Internet took off and all over the country local news ratings dropped as viewers turned to the national networks for news from the war fronts. Contrary to all logical thinking, local reporters looked at their retirement plans and their kids in college and promptly puckered their lips on the behinds of corporate media and smooched. If my kids were still in college I would not have the courage to write this now. In response to fewer viewers, local television panicked into a downward spiral and many a trusting viewer decided to go elsewhere. Corporate media was demanding reporters adapt to the point of our own extinction.

Morphed into propaganda machines - cheerleaders with pompoms - it was heartbreaking to watch the demise and media corporations always bass-akwards responses. With two wars on two fronts they decided to go "Local." Only local news. The war and the profound implications of it were relegated to 30 second stories buried deep into the newscast. (they don't need to know about that.--but there's a grass fire up the road!) If that's not manipulation, I don't know what is.

Here are some other sad results of this corporate bullying toward some of the best journalist in the country:

Anchors and reporters stopped asking why. The corporate media demanded nationalism without skepticism, believing ratings would fall further if reporters did their jobs.

Anchors and reporters starting taking their stories from satellite feeds coming directly to their desks and then standing in front of a chroma key delivering a story they did not collect and sometimes did not write. If viewers think every newscast looks the same that's why. It is.

Anchors and reporters allowed chroma key pictures of conflict areas to appear behind them giving viewers the false impression they were on the scene of the conflict instead of demanding to be sent there. Some could not even point out on the map behind them where the conflict was.

Anchors and reporters allowed management to hire entertainment reporters and producers. It's cheaper to entertain than to inform because an informed public makes wakes from slumber and makes noise.

Anchors and reporters began allowing precious hours meant for journalism to be filled with helicopter shots of the latest grassfire, traffic jam, or car chase, ala O.J.

Anchors and reporters allowed news directors and sales people to dictate their "look." Good journalism does not have a "look."

Anchors and reporters did not fight back when their investigative pieces were dropped. Managers feared losing advertising dollars and reporters acquiesced.

Anchors and reporters and producers agreed to story counts. Tell the story no matter how complicated in thirty seconds - throwing random and massive amounts of information at viewers without context.

Anchors and reporters started wearing American flags on their lapels. Some of whom never voted in any election.

Anchors and reporters began using genetically altered language: "War on Terrorism," without explaining that many people in the world think Americans are the terrorists.

Anchors and reporters started referring to the United States government as "We."

Anchors and reporters were handed press releases regarding corporate "mishaps" and began reading them verbatim. Like so: "Blank Oil Company had an explosion today; shelter in place, close the doors and windows, and don't go outside. However, the 'You've Got To Be Kidding Me Oil Company' says everything is fine."

Anchors and reporters agreed to report news that was already reported in newspapers and radio. Doing their own stories or advancing others creates controversy and potential lawsuits, betraying the sacred oath of corporate cronyism.

Anchors and reporters agreed to be physically altered in photographs, and airbrushed with make-up like playboy bunnies, as the media corporations ignored the news and invested in High Definition - hoping a grassfire on HD might look like news.

Anchors and reporters started advertising. "If you liked that story there will be more at six." "If you want to get more information go to www. you're_an_idiot.com. Makes you just want to scream: I'm here now; tell me now!

Anchors and reporters allowed producers to lead with Annie Nicole Smith instead of the "Scooter" Libby trial - making it clear that all sense of proportion and good judgment had been lost.

Corporations in this country are always a reflection of those in the White House. This White House is the Wild West, and corporations, even those who are charged with helping the public gain knowledge, are mining for gold. But today, when we had almost given up, Dan put his holster on.

Published in Truthout.org and The Huffington Post