Monday, January 02, 2006
Mitch McConnell: New York Times Endangering U.S. Security
Mitch McConnell: New York Times Endangering U.S. Security
Blogger Thoughts: Newsmax reports lies of corrupt Repubs.
Blogger Thoughts: Newsmax reports lies of corrupt Repubs.
Bothered by the NSA story - The Situation with Tucker Carlson - MSNBC.com
Bothered by the NSA story - The Situation with Tucker Carlson - MSNBC.com
Blogger Thoughts: Tucker's not entirely sold. More BS.
Blogger Thoughts: Tucker's not entirely sold. More BS.
Long-term damage to intelligence - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com
Long-term damage to intelligence - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com
Blogger Thoughts: This column by Roger Cressey, NBC News Terrorism Analyst, has a veneer of well-reasoned earnest analysis. It is BS.
Blogger Thoughts: This column by Roger Cressey, NBC News Terrorism Analyst, has a veneer of well-reasoned earnest analysis. It is BS.
Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda - New York Times
Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda - New York Times
Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda
WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - A Pentagon contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to print positive articles written by American soldiers has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according to current and former employees.
The Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations company, was told early in 2005 by the Pentagon to identify religious leaders who could help produce messages that would persuade Sunnis in violence-ridden Anbar Province to participate in national elections and reject the insurgency, according to a former employee.
Since then, the company has retained three or four Sunni religious scholars to offer advice and write reports for military commanders on the content of propaganda campaigns, the former employee said. But documents and Lincoln executives say the company's ties to religious leaders and dozens of other prominent Iraqis is aimed also at enabling it to exercise influence in Iraqi communities on behalf of clients, including the military.
"We do reach out to clerics," Paige Craig, a Lincoln executive vice president, said in an interview. "We meet with local government officials and with local businessmen. We need to have relationships that are broad enough and deep enough that we can touch all the various aspects of society." He declined to discuss specific projects the company has with the military or commercial clients.
"We have on staff people who are experts in religious and cultural matters," Mr. Craig said. "We meet with a wide variety of people to get their input. Most of the people we meet with overseas don't want or need compensation, they want a dialogue."
Internal company financial records show that Lincoln spent about $144,000 on the program from May to September. It is unclear how much of this money, if any, went to the religious scholars, whose identities could not be learned. The amount is a tiny portion of the contracts, worth tens of millions, that Lincoln has received from the military for "information operations," but the effort is especially sensitive.
Sunni religious scholars are considered highly influential within the country's minority Sunni population. Sunnis form the core of the insurgency.
Each of the religious scholars underwent vetting before being brought into the program to ensure that they were not involved in the insurgency, said a former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Lincoln's Pentagon contract prohibits workers from discussing their activities. The identities of the Sunni scholars have been kept secret to prevent insurgent reprisals, and they were never taken to Camp Victory, the American base outside Baghdad where Lincoln employees work with military personnel.
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the American military in Baghdad, declined to comment.
After the disclosure in November that the military used Lincoln to plant articles written by American troops in Iraqi newspapers, the Pentagon ordered an investigation, led by Navy Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk.
Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top commander in Iraq, said that a preliminary assessment made shortly after the military's information campaign was disclosed concluded that the Army was "operating within our authorities and the appropriate legal procedures."
Admiral Van Buskirk has finished his investigation, several Pentagon officials said, but it has not been made public.
Lincoln recently sought approval from the military to make Sunni religious leaders one of several "target audiences" of the propaganda effort in Iraq. A Lincoln plan titled "Divide and Prosper" presented in October to the Special Operations Command in Tampa, which oversees information operations, suggested that reaching religious leaders was vital for reducing Sunni support for the insurgency.
"Clerics exercise a great deal of influence over the people in their communities and oftentimes it is the religious leaders who incite people to violence and to support the insurgent cause," the company said in the proposal, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times.
In some cases, "insurgent groups may provide Sunni leaders with financial compensation in return for that cleric's loyalty and support," the proposal said, adding that religious leaders are motivated by "a need to retain patronage" and a "desire to maintain religious and moral authority."
Unlike in many other Middle Eastern countries, sermons by Iraqi imams are not subject to government control, enabling them to speak "without fear of repercussions," the document said.
The Special Operations Command said in a statement that it did not adopt the Lincoln plan, choosing another contractor's proposal instead. When the Lincoln Group was incorporated in 2004, using the name Iraqex, its stated purpose was to provide support services for business development, trade and investment in Iraq.
But the company soon shifted to information warfare and psychological operations, two former employees said. The company was awarded three new Pentagon contracts, worth tens of millions of dollars, they said.
Payments to the scholars were originally part of Lincoln's contract to aid the military with information warfare in Anbar Province. Known as the "Western Missions" contract, it also called for producing radio and television advertisements, Web sites, posters, and for placing advertisements and opinion articles in Iraqi publications. In October, Lincoln was awarded a new contract by the Pentagon for work in Iraq, including continued contact with Muslim scholars.
Lincoln has also turned to American scholars and political consultants for advice on the content of the propaganda campaign in Iraq, records indicate. Michael Rubin, a Middle East scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington research organization, said he had reviewed materials produced by the company during two trips to Iraq within the past two years.
"I visited Camp Victory and looked over some of their proposals or products and commented on their ideas," Mr. Rubin said in an e-mailed response to questions about his links to Lincoln. "I am not nor have I been an employee of the Lincoln Group. I do not receive a salary from them."
He added: "Normally, when I travel, I receive reimbursement of expenses including a per diem and/or honorarium." But Mr. Rubin would not comment further on how much in such payments he may have received from Lincoln.
Mr. Rubin was quoted last month in The New York Times about Lincoln's work for the Pentagon placing articles in Iraqi publications: "I'm not surprised this goes on," he said, without disclosing his work for Lincoln. "Especially in an atmosphere where terrorists and insurgents - replete with oil boom cash - do the same. We need an even playing field, but cannot fight with both hands tied behind our backs."
A Chronology of the Death Penalty - The Boston Globe
A Chronology of the Death Penalty - The Boston Globe
A Chronology of the Death Penalty
Boston Globe
1608: In Virginia, George Kendall's execution is the first recorded in the Colonies. 1632: In Virginia, Jane Champion is the first woman executed in the Colonies.
January 1, 2006
-->
A Chronology of the Death Penalty
January 1, 2006
1608: In Virginia, George Kendall's execution is the first recorded in the Colonies.
Article Tools
Boston.com
Sign up for:
Globe Headlines e-mail
1632: In Virginia, Jane Champion is the first woman executed in the Colonies.
Early 1800s: States begin reducing their capital crimes and building state prisons.
1846: Michigan is the first state to ban the death penalty for all crimes but treason.
1890: New York executes William Kemmler, the first prisoner put to death by electrocution.
1907-17: Nine states abolish or strictly limit the death penalty.
1924: Cyanide gas is introduced as a method of execution.
1930s: The highest level of executions in the United States is reached -- an average of 167 per year.
1966: A Gallup Poll shows support for the death penalty at only 42 percent nationally -- an all-time low.
1972: In Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court effectively voids 40 capital punishment statues and suspends the death penalty.
1976: In Gregg v. Georgia, the death penalty is reinstated.
1977: Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah, ending a 10-year moratorium on capital punishment.
1982: Charles Brooks, in Texas, is the first person executed by lethal injection.
1984: Velma Barfield, in North Carolina, is the first woman executed since the death penalty was reinstated.
1986: The execution of insane persons is banned.
1998: Northwestern University holds a conference on wrongful convictions with 30 inmates who were freed from death row after being found innocent.
2003: Illinois's governor grants clemency to 167 death-row inmates.
2005: North Carolina executes Kenneth Lee Boyd, the 1,000th execution in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company
Psychiatry's sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseases - Los Angeles Times
Psychiatry's sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseases - Los Angeles Times
Psychiatry's sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseasesBy Irwin SavodnikIrwin Savodnik is a psychiatrist and philosopher who teaches at UCLA.January 1, 2006IT'S JAN. 1. Past time to get your inoculation against seasonal affective disorder, or SAD — at least according to the American Psychiatric Assn. As Americans rush to return Christmas junk, bumping into each other in Macy's and Best Buy, the psychiatric association ponders its latest iteration of feeling bad for the holidays. And what is the association selling? Mental illness. With its panoply of major depression, dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, the association is waving its Calvinist flag to remind everyone that amid all the celebration, all the festivities, all the exuberance, many people will "come down with" or "contract" or "develop" some variation of depressive illness.The association specializes in turning ordinary human frailty into disease. In the last year, ads have been appearing in psychiatric journals about possible treatments for shyness, a "syndrome" not yet officially recognized as a disease. You can bet it will be in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV, published by the association. As it turns out, the association has been inventing mental illnesses for the last 50 years or so. The original diagnostic manual appeared in 1952 and contained 107 diagnoses and 132 pages, by my count. The second edition burst forth in 1968 with 180 diagnoses and 119 pages. In 1980, the association produced a 494-page tome with 226 conditions. Then, in 1994, the manual exploded to 886 pages and 365 conditions, representing a 340% increase in the number of diseases over 42 years. Nowhere in the rest of medicine has such a proliferation of categories occurred. The reason for this difference between psychiatry and other medical specialties has more to do with ideology than with science. A brief peek at both areas makes this point clear. All medicine rests on the premise that disease is a manifestation of diseased tissue. Hepatitis comes down to an inflamed liver, while lung tissue infiltrated with pneumococcus causes pneumonia. Every medical student learns this principle. Where, though, is the diseased tissue in psychopathological conditions? Unlike the rest of medicine, psychiatry diagnoses behavior that society doesn't like. Yesterday it was homosexuality. Tomorrow it will be homophobia. Someone who declares himself the messiah, who insists that fluorescent lights talk to him or declares that she's the Virgin Mary, is an example of such behavior. Such people are deemed — labeled, really — sick by psychiatrists, and often they are taken off to hospitals against their will. The "diagnosis" of such "pathological behavior" is based on social, political or aesthetic values.This is confusing. Behavior cannot be pathological (or healthy, for that matter). It can simply comport with, or not comport with, our nonmedical expectations of how people should behave. Analogously, brains that produce weird or obnoxious behaviors are not diseased. They are brains that produce atypical behaviors (which could include such eccentricities as dyed hair or multiple piercings or tattoos that nobody in their right mind could find attractive).Lest one think that such a view is the rant of a Scientologist, it is no such thing. Scientology offers polemic to lull the faithful into belief. Doctors and philosophers offer argument to provoke debate. It's a natural step from using social and political standards to create a psychiatric diagnosis to using them to influence public policy. Historically, that influence has appeared most dramatically in the insanity defense. Remember Dan White, the man who murdered San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978? Or John Hinckley, who shot President Reagan in 1981? Or Mark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon? White, whose psychiatrist came up with the "Twinkie defense" — the high sugar content of White's favorite junk food may have fueled his murderous impulses — was convicted and paroled after serving five years, only to commit suicide a year later. The erosion of personal responsibility is, arguably, the most pernicious effect of the expansive role psychiatry has come to play in American life. It has successfully replaced huge chunks of individual accountability with diagnoses, clinical histories and what turn out to be pseudoscientific explanations for deviant behavior. Pathology has replaced morality. Treatment has supplanted punishment. Imprisonment is now hospitalization. From the moral self-castigation we find in the writings of John Adams, we have been drawn to Woody Allen-style neuroses. Were the psychiatric association to scrutinize itself more deeply and reconsider its expansionist diagnostic programs, it would, hopefully, make a positive contribution to our culture by not turning the good and bad into the healthy and the sick. The last thing the United States needs is more self-indulgent, pseudo-insightful, overly self-conscious babble about people who can't help themselves. Better, as Voltaire would put it, to cultivate our gardens and be accountable for who and what we are.
Psychiatry's sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseasesBy Irwin SavodnikIrwin Savodnik is a psychiatrist and philosopher who teaches at UCLA.January 1, 2006IT'S JAN. 1. Past time to get your inoculation against seasonal affective disorder, or SAD — at least according to the American Psychiatric Assn. As Americans rush to return Christmas junk, bumping into each other in Macy's and Best Buy, the psychiatric association ponders its latest iteration of feeling bad for the holidays. And what is the association selling? Mental illness. With its panoply of major depression, dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, the association is waving its Calvinist flag to remind everyone that amid all the celebration, all the festivities, all the exuberance, many people will "come down with" or "contract" or "develop" some variation of depressive illness.The association specializes in turning ordinary human frailty into disease. In the last year, ads have been appearing in psychiatric journals about possible treatments for shyness, a "syndrome" not yet officially recognized as a disease. You can bet it will be in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV, published by the association. As it turns out, the association has been inventing mental illnesses for the last 50 years or so. The original diagnostic manual appeared in 1952 and contained 107 diagnoses and 132 pages, by my count. The second edition burst forth in 1968 with 180 diagnoses and 119 pages. In 1980, the association produced a 494-page tome with 226 conditions. Then, in 1994, the manual exploded to 886 pages and 365 conditions, representing a 340% increase in the number of diseases over 42 years. Nowhere in the rest of medicine has such a proliferation of categories occurred. The reason for this difference between psychiatry and other medical specialties has more to do with ideology than with science. A brief peek at both areas makes this point clear. All medicine rests on the premise that disease is a manifestation of diseased tissue. Hepatitis comes down to an inflamed liver, while lung tissue infiltrated with pneumococcus causes pneumonia. Every medical student learns this principle. Where, though, is the diseased tissue in psychopathological conditions? Unlike the rest of medicine, psychiatry diagnoses behavior that society doesn't like. Yesterday it was homosexuality. Tomorrow it will be homophobia. Someone who declares himself the messiah, who insists that fluorescent lights talk to him or declares that she's the Virgin Mary, is an example of such behavior. Such people are deemed — labeled, really — sick by psychiatrists, and often they are taken off to hospitals against their will. The "diagnosis" of such "pathological behavior" is based on social, political or aesthetic values.This is confusing. Behavior cannot be pathological (or healthy, for that matter). It can simply comport with, or not comport with, our nonmedical expectations of how people should behave. Analogously, brains that produce weird or obnoxious behaviors are not diseased. They are brains that produce atypical behaviors (which could include such eccentricities as dyed hair or multiple piercings or tattoos that nobody in their right mind could find attractive).Lest one think that such a view is the rant of a Scientologist, it is no such thing. Scientology offers polemic to lull the faithful into belief. Doctors and philosophers offer argument to provoke debate. It's a natural step from using social and political standards to create a psychiatric diagnosis to using them to influence public policy. Historically, that influence has appeared most dramatically in the insanity defense. Remember Dan White, the man who murdered San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978? Or John Hinckley, who shot President Reagan in 1981? Or Mark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon? White, whose psychiatrist came up with the "Twinkie defense" — the high sugar content of White's favorite junk food may have fueled his murderous impulses — was convicted and paroled after serving five years, only to commit suicide a year later. The erosion of personal responsibility is, arguably, the most pernicious effect of the expansive role psychiatry has come to play in American life. It has successfully replaced huge chunks of individual accountability with diagnoses, clinical histories and what turn out to be pseudoscientific explanations for deviant behavior. Pathology has replaced morality. Treatment has supplanted punishment. Imprisonment is now hospitalization. From the moral self-castigation we find in the writings of John Adams, we have been drawn to Woody Allen-style neuroses. Were the psychiatric association to scrutinize itself more deeply and reconsider its expansionist diagnostic programs, it would, hopefully, make a positive contribution to our culture by not turning the good and bad into the healthy and the sick. The last thing the United States needs is more self-indulgent, pseudo-insightful, overly self-conscious babble about people who can't help themselves. Better, as Voltaire would put it, to cultivate our gardens and be accountable for who and what we are.
Crucible X: A Reply From Noam Chomsky re: Steven E Jones & 911
Crucible X: A Reply From Noam Chomsky re: Steven E Jones & 911
Blogger Thoughts: Chomsky and Greg ? leave much unsaid here. Will address as time allows.
Blogger Thoughts: Chomsky and Greg ? leave much unsaid here. Will address as time allows.
portland imc - 2005.12.30 - How 911 Strains KBOO's Little Secret
portland imc - 2005.12.30 - How 911 Strains KBOO's Little Secret
09/11/2001
How 911 Strains KBOO's Little Secret
author: George Trinkaus 
e-mail: tesla@teslapress.com
e-mail: tesla@teslapress.com | The 911 issue shows how KBOO raises expectations of openness and candor that it cannot fulfill. While playing the politics of gesture with a full minority deck, KBOO fails to provide a truly open forum for some fundamental issues. |
| HOW 911 STRAINS KBOO's LITTLE SECRET by George Trinkaus (KBOO is the Pacifica-type FM station in Portland, Oregon) If you expect KBOO to behave like an open forum on the 911 issue (and on a cluster of other issues), you are asking more of your "community" radio station than it is, institutionally, capable of delivering. You say that, when you demand an honest airing of 911 on KBOO, you are asking for no more than what the station promises? True. KBOO raises expectations of liberality, openness, and candor. But the station is being hypocritical, because, institutionally, it cannot deliver such openness. Its political bandwidth cannot embrace such candor. It is not that free. This is a limitation that KBOO cannot acknowledge up front, but one that a listener might take note of. If you want candor on 911 or some of the other censored issues, tune in elsewhere. I write as a (nonmember) listener, not as another disillusioned KBOO volunteer. Consider this a consumer advisory. Since September 11, on its few telephone forums, KBOO talk hosts have been persistently urged by callers to do justice to the perception that 911 was an inside job. If Osama did it, we are in one political situation, but if 911 was an inside job, we are in quite another. Our take on 911 carries with it fundamental implications about our true existential political condition and about how the ruling system really works. Perceiving a phenomenon like 911 for what it is can revolutionize one's mind like an LSD trip. Much human energy is being expended in trying to expand KBOO's consciousness on 911. Callers regularly petition the little elite that hosts morning drive-time talk, as if the problem were personal to a Joe Uris, etc. I contend that the problem is not personal but institutional, that it's not just a contemporary matter but perennial, and that this petitioning is a great waste of energy. Such energies might better be directed elsewhere, like creating our own media, instead of waiting for Mother KBOO to come around. Over the years since 911, pressure on KBOO has steadily built up: from the callers, from the fact that locals have organized, that Portland Indymedia has long provided an open forum and a special 911 department on its website, that 911 revelations have been all over the internet, and that a prodigious library of literature has accumulated on the subject. Under these cumulative pressures, there is evidence within KBOO of stress and strain. Appreciate that, within a few weeks of September 11th, there was enough revelation on the WTC controlled demolition itself to close the case. The controlled demolition evidence alone is enough to make the case for 911 being an inside job, hence a coup. However, in the court of KBOO, that evidence has long been inadmissable. Word has leaked out that there is debate now on 911 among KBOO regulars. Presumably this debate is driven by station people embarrassed by the situation. Recently, a prominent volunteer and 911 activist, in an attempt to get an honest airing of the issue, stepped out of line and got himself suspended. Evidently, even some of the station's own people have a problem comprehending the institutional situation, a situation that must, of necessity, go unacknowledged. Most involved with KBOO, however, have the wisdom to keep their mouths shut and to toe the line. KBOO covers its ass KBOO's response to its own little 911 crisis has been to cover its ass. At pledge-drive times, the station has aired, with much self-congratulation, a few token minutes of Michael Rupert and David Ray Griffin (in my opinion the two most compromised spokes for the movement that one could find). In an attempt to hold its hypocritical head up in town, KBOO has also sent emissaries to local 911 discussion-group meetings. The meetings themselves are the outgrowth of a series of academic lectures conducted by a KBOO disk jockey and based entirely on Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbor. (Sometime see my "911 Griffin Reconsidered," a link is below.) Thanks to the syndicated "Coast-to-Coast AM" show, many more hours of 911 candor have aired on Portland's 50-kilowatt AM station KEX (which is owned by Clear Channel and is the home of Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura) than on liberal KBOO. While largely banning the topic from its microphones, KBOO has lately gone pro-active on the issue in the local political scene. The station was even willing to identify itself as sponsor of a couple of 911-truth events organized by the local 911 discussion group (a partnership that I protested). These events featured speakers who made politically incorrect, conspiracy-theory-type utterances that KBOO has never put out on the air. (The KBOO clique seems to want hegemony on all of the issues in town, even the ones they must stay officially silent on.) On December 21, '05, the dam broke, and KBOO, for the first time, on a show called "People Rise Up," allowed a one-hour segment that focused on the WTC controlled demolition. It was an interview with the authors of a belated 911 book, entitled, interestingly, "Waking Up from the Nightmare." The segment aired four and a third years after the fact, as 911 was becoming a matter of academic history, the agenda of the perpetrators well on its way to being a fait accompli. The dam at KBOO having been breached a bit, on 12/23 another of the volunteers at KBOO who has been agitating for 911 exposure (and has not been fired yet) succeeded in squeezing in a half-hour interview with author Eric Huffschmid, one of the earlier and better researchers, whose book is loaded with photos demonstrating a controlled demolition. Were there any particular revelations in late '05 that clinched the case and prompted KBOO to break silence? No. Actually sufficient evidence to make the case for controlled demolition, and hence inside job, was at hand and well organized and published within a few months of the crime. This body of material includes the famous editorial in Fire Engineering Magazine, as well as the HERA (not-a-melt-down) engineering report, which were out within weeks of the event. I had sent a print copy of my own "NBC Spins 911," which contains the Dawson-Perry explosives-in-the-towers report, to various KBOO people in the early spring of '02. A morning host took note of my work on the air. She glibly dismissed it as "conspiracy theory." For more than four years, KBOO has continued to endorse the absurd Arab-terrorist cover story, including the scientifically insupportable WTC melt-down theory. Thus KBOO has done its own little patriotic part in reinforcing the mass-media big lie. On the basis of that lie, a blank check was granted to the same fascist government whose conduct KBOO thrives on criticizing. In the KBOO evening news of 12/21, the day the unprecedented controlled-demolition interview was aired, the well-trained newscaster, as is customary, once again referred to "the terrorist attacks of September 11th." KBOO can be expected to continue to reinforce the old propaganda. KBOO not alone Would that the problem of left-media silence were limited to KBOO alone. But have you noticed that the same taboos on 911 that KBOO honors are also honored by a bunch of other left media? Do you hear any of the 911 candor you're hungering for from Air America or "Democracy Now" or from "Counterspin" or from Norman Soloman? What about the traditionally more risk-taking medium of print? Do you recall reading anything that contradicts the official story in such magazines as The Nation, Z, or Mother Jones? What about The Progressive or In These Times? And what about the local Alliance (whose publisher has unusual access to KBOO's public-affairs microphones)? Evidently, we have a little club functioning here: some exclusive milieu, a gentleman's agreement, an etiquette of silence. In early '02 I also sent my "NBC Spins 911" to Michael Alpert, editor of Z, as a probe, a test of the attitude among these publications that was becoming apparent. I told Alpert that NBC would make an excellent article. Of course, he declined to publish, but he could give no substantive reason, rather he was declining for reasons of "editorial policy." I went patiently back and forth by e-mail with Alpert for a couple of weeks in an attempt to get a clarification, but he became progressively more uptight and finally lost his temper. The very subject makes Alpert, and the other gatekeepers defensive and angry. Solidly in The Club, KBOO's "Well Read Red" reads down to us every Monday morning from the above-named handful of approved magazines, and only from these. If you believe that is being well read, then you will make a happy KBOO volunteer. a common denominator What do all of the above broadcasters and publishers have in common? Fact is that not one of them is running a business that can pay its own way just by selling ad space, air-time, or subscriptions, if they sell these at all. Instead they all get funding from the same network of foundations, which has names like Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Soros. In "The Gatekeepers: Foundations Fund Phony Left Media" www.questionsquestions.net/gatekeepers.html you'll find a flow chart showing how foundation dollars trickle down to the KBOO's. (Note that the CIA is among the players in the game.) Pacifica Radio is shown in the flow-chart with arrows flowing down to it directly from the Ford Foundation and also from the Soros foundation and from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. KBOO has acknowledged in pledge drive chat substantial matching funds from CPB. KBOO's website gives not a clue about either this or foundation funding. Officially, it almost does not exist. Budget data cannot be found on KBOO's website. Is there funding flow-through from Pacifica to KBOO? The relationship is vague. Answers are not easily available to outsiders. (The Pacifica site provides, in unreadable miniscule type, budget data, including foundation income, for true affiliates like KPFA, KPFK, etc., information which might be revealing if you could read it.) Do foundations like Ford and Soros match pledge-drive funds under matching-grant arrangements with KBOO, as CPB does? What are the tacit strings attached to these arrangements? Now you see why in the first paragraph I put "community" in quotes. How can you be a community radio station when you are secretly obligated to large institutions way out of town? KBOO's ultimate community is that of The Nation and the rest, a community ultimately tied to Ford. This somewhat qualifies your "noncorporate listener-sponsored" radio station. An "etiquette of silence?" Let's say it: an organized censorship. Call it the Foundation-funded Left Media Complex. It is a filter, a censor. To conduct a pro-active big-lie propaganda like 911, it is necessary to control all of the media. There can be no leaks, certainly none running 23,000 watts. That the Nation's and the KBOO's could be relied upon to stay silent was a prerequisite for the successful execution of the 911 coup. No wonder all these media steer clear of conspiracy theorists. They are themselves a conspiracy! So the corporate establishment funds the Complex, a phony dissident media that calls itself "progressive." The Complex includes magazines that American intellectuals have been conditioned to look up to as an alternative source, one that is supposed to offset the official truth according to NBC. Thanks to the largesse of their foundation benefactors, these publications have some economic muscle, can meet the challenge of today's postal, printing, and paper costs, can publish slick and punctually, and are able to fulfill the ruthless contract requirements of the magazine-distribution monopoly. They have been around for decades. The very existence of the Complex is a discouragement to truly independent publishing, the publishing that can be conducted by non-corporate presses who know how to do the business of publishing, make some profit, and are self-supporting. The complex occupies many niches in media that more honest entities might occupy, and the Complex sends to would-be independent publishers the discouraging message that out-of-the-mainstream media can only survive under the patronage of Ford. The same discouragement goes for would-be pirate and low-power broadcasters. The KBOO's displace such activity. The Complex shall be the only media to publish the alternative voices, and there shall be no other. It is tempting to court the Complex. One does not want one's cause to be rendered invisible. But the phony left is a political pathogen. Do not let it infect your cause. The Complex defines the American culture of political dissidence, dictating the editorial boundries of what is discussible and what is not. The Complex projects a distorted world view. The political influence of the Complex extends to the profit-making "alternative" urban weeklies, like Willamette Week and The Mercury. The Complex defines the fashion parameters of political correctness, and left-liberal editors everywhere take the cue. playing the politics of gesture with a full minority deck For lack of any passionate direction, and in fear of spontaneity, in fear of intensity, in fear of originality, and above all in fear of saying the wrong thing, KBOO's programming lapses into mediocrity. Segments of unremarkable politically correct music programming consume most of talk-shy KBOO's 24-hour broadcast day: folk, reggae, bluegrass, hip-hop. In its limited talk programming, and even in its music programming, KBOO plays a ho-hum game called "diversity." Maybe you speak Spanish, but why would any radio station (or publication) in its right mind weaken itself by dividing into multiple languages, as KBOO has been doing since the early 1980's? "One language at a time" would be at the very top of any professional's list of the rules for broadcasting. Surely this programming must be induced by foundation grants. Is it a Spanish-language grant that is determining this most idiotic of programming? If it's political correctness only, that would be even more sad. While Spanish is the dominant alternative tongue at diversity-minded KBOO, several other foreign languages also play at odd hours. This self-debilitating division into multiple tongues is just the grossest manifestation of KBOO's diversity game. KBOO plays the politics of gesture with a full minority deck. It ingratiates certain distinct population groups, as a politician cultivates constituencies: a token nod to this minority group and to that one, an hour here, a half-hour there. Are 911 activists now becoming another minority for KBOO to shuffle into its deck and make gestures at? If a station is hot, it will attract a diverse listenership and feedback from them, naturally, without design. Racism could be defined as making the distinction. Ditto ethnicism. It is a racist mindset that chops the population up into groups, be it the intrusive Census Bureau, a profiling police bureau, or a self-righteous radio station. What listeners want is radio that offers some surprises, some spontaneity, some intensity, some edge. We want a coherent integral (monolingual) local radio coming from a human, rather than institutional, center. KBOO has no perspective. Any one issue has equal weight with any other. Excuse me, but I think there are some overriding issues. Focus, please. Diversity-minded KBOO is helping to turn Portland into the dilettante capital of the world. We need radio that is capable of candidly reflecting our true political condition. We need radio that can contribute to the community organization we Portlanders will need to defend ourselves against scenarios like the Katrina number that was just run on New Orleans, a radio that is interested in our civil defense. Instead, we listeners get an unfocused amalgam of multifarious, undistinguished parts that do not make sense as a whole, except as a phenomenon of the Complex. If you want to get a program slot on KBOO, it helps to be Black or Hispanic, some "person of color," or gay or transsexual or disabled or Native American or some minority or other. (Somehow us seniors are excepted.) I would guess that KBOO's audience is white, largely middle class, and educated. The Arbitron demographics on KBOO would make interesting reading. KBOO's mission statement (quoted below in a footnote) commits to diversity, but also to being "a model of programming." Is this a model for the effective programming of any radio station.? where was KBOO on 911? where will it be next time? What was KBOO doing with its 23,000 watts of FM power on September 11, 2001, the big day itself, when 911 was breaking news? Did the station's news department arrange for some stringers to report by cell phone from on the ground in New York? Did it tie in with New York's WBAI coverage (if indeed that Pacifica station had anything on the ground of its own)? Did KBOO offer any dissenting commentary in contradiction to the absurd mainstream Arab-hijacker, box-cutter propaganda initiated that day? No, no, no. KBOO bought the Osama script then and there, just like Fox and NBC. That's still the story, and KBOO along with the rest of the Complex is still sticking to it. (My recollection is that KBOO on 911 was in Spanish playing Mexican music when I tuned in that day. True? Check the archives.) Nor was KBOO even on the ground with the WTO demos in Seattle. KBOO fears on-the-ground unfiltered spontaneous breaking news reporting and cannot afford to do it under the prevailing institutional circumstances. Before it can move, it must wait for the official spin to come down from the Complex. This may be disappointing, but we should not expect from KBOO what it, institutionally, cannot deliver. We need to develop other media. (The redeeming exceptions on KBOO, in this listener's opinion, are "Labor Radio," "Prison Pipeline," "Veteran's Voices," and "Circle A Radio," four shows that dare to get down on the ground and to air some spontaneous voices, instead of the usual phone-interviewing of well-behaved college professors from out of town.) KBOO insiders must know in their bones the rules and the tacit etiquette of the Complex, and how certain utterances could threaten the money flow and lead to default on the power bill or rent, and they regulate their own behavior (and consciousness) accordingly. Listeners need to adjust their expectations to this reality, or to move on. When regarded from the perspective of issues like 911, KBOO has only a little more freedom than its foundation-corporate-funded next-door neighbor, NPR. sheep to the slaughter Would that 911 was the only blind spot for the Complex. Actually any conspiratorial view of current events is taboo, and anyone advocating such perceptions is not honored as a researcher, whatever the substance of his work, but rather is dismissed as a conspiracy theorist, a big put-down in the lexicon of the Complex. Almost daily we see chemtrailing aircraft conspicuously spraying stuff into our airshed from 50,000 feet. But, according to KBOO and the Complex, no such phenomenon exists. They are committed to engendering a false comfort. Many innocents believe that if such a phenomenon as chemtrails existed, Mother Jones or Mother KBOO would surely tell us. Lately KBOO and the complex are joining in again with the mainstream media in the propagandizing of Bird Flu, a phony scare, one that could lead to forced injections, quarantines, martial law, and something like the ugly New-Orleans-Katrina scenario. Oh, it could never happen here, right? The possibility cannot be acknowledged in the world of KBOO. Interesting that, while the WTO is totally suspect, propaganda from the far more menacing WHO, the World Health Organization, gets complete respect and cooperation from the Complex. KBOO news people regularly read, verbatim, stories off the wire based uncritically on WHO-generated press releases. The same blind respect goes to any story from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) or from the other so-called Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and UNAIDS. That entire alphabet is sacred and untouchable, according to the rules of the Complex. The same is true across the board for any and all official consensus science, however mythical and hidden-agenda-driven, medical and otherwise. Like 911, no questions are allowed about this most scandalous scientific thought-control dimension of both national and global government. No wonder KBOO bought into and advertised the WTC melt-down theory according to authorities like "Nova." As a member of the Complex, of course, it had no choice, and, like 911, all dissident voices get screened out. KBOO was right on board when the SARS scare rolled through, and KBOO is a big promoter of the campaign called AIDS, faithfully reading on its news shows the latest gay or African scare statistics contrived by bureaucrats in Geneva at WHO. The AIDS-as-fraud activist movement, like 911's, is well developed, and it has been cooking world-wide since the mid-1980's in spite of the handicap of being rendered invisible by the mass media and the Complex alike. This genuine brand of AIDS activism does have some visibility and strength in SF, in LA, and in New York. But the critique is totally shut out here in politically correct KBOO-dominated Portland, all of the station's hours of gay-minority programming notwithstanding. Thus KBOO, by again reinforcing the standard propaganda, has helped to conduct many an innocent into HIV testing and into the debilitating and fatal chemo programs contrived by NCI and CDC. Given its history, when the Bird Flu campaign gets rolling, KBOO can be relied upon again to honor its true masters, be true to the propaganda, and to lead its community of sheep to the slaughter. _________________ Trinkaus wrote "NBC Spins 911" and also "911: Griffin Reconsidered," posted on the web at Portland Indymedia, Serendipity, and elsewhere. Trinkaus supports himself as an independent publisher. See www.teslapress.com for links to all his work. He is also is the author of "How the Chronicle Invented AIDS," posted at www.whatisaids.com. His e-mail is  tesla@teslapress.com._ ______________________________________________ More on 911 Denial: "Left Denial on 911, Why They Believe the Government," by August West  http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/03/117429.php"Left Denial on 911 Turns Irrational," by Jack Straw http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/05/316766.shtml"The Left Gatekeepers Phenomena," by Mark Robinowitz http://911review.com/denial/gatekeepers.html______________________________________________________________ KBOO's Mission Statement "These are the guiding principles behind KBOO Community Radio: KBOO shall be a model of programming, filling needs that other media do not, providing programming to diverse communities and unserved or underserved groups. KBOO shall provide access and training to those communities. KBOO's news and public affairs programming shall place an emphasis on providing a forum for unpopular, controversial, or neglected perspectives on important local, national, and international issues, reflecting KBOO's values of peace, justice, democracy, and human rights, multiculturalism, environmentalism, freedom of expression, and social change. KBOO's arts, cultural, and music programming shall cover a wide spectrum of expression from traditional to experimental, and reflect the diverse cultures KBOO serves. KBOO shall strive for spontaneity and programming excellence, both in content and technique." - from kboo.org |
homepage: http://teslapress.com
| 'Left' media is a corporate Toy | 30.Dec.2005 19:02 |
| uncle rAT | link |
The Democratic Party is a corporate organization, as much tied into global consumerism as the GOP in the long run. Look at Senator Dianne Feinstein's billionaire husband and their joint ties to Red China and the financial rewards those connections have brought her. 'Air America' is devoted the Party of Kerry. Al Franken is a Demo operative from waaay back. He supposedly turned Arianna Huffington into a liberal when they were doing the John & Yoko 'Bed-In' schtick during the last Democratic Convention. Huffington! Hit-Girl for Newt Gingrich! I'm not buying any of it. All you hear on AA is how shitty the REPUBLICANS are, 24/7. Not much about how crappy the SYSTEM is, much less any serious coverage of 911. No, it's always all about Republicans, as if the Dems too aren't aren't a bunch of Patriot-Act voting, Homeland Security loving, Osama fairytale believing nincanpoops. Even the shows on Radio Power pull their punches on 911, but at least they and the hosts on Radical Radio aren't afraid to suggest that, yes, there's good evidence that all is not what they told us. But deep reporting? Forget about it. These soft-spoken knights of free speech are paranoid enough already, what with the NSA tapping their phones and email. You expect them to turn into Alex Jones or Jeff Rense? Then there's the unspoken Israeli factor. Think Franken's going to accuse the rulers of Israel of complicity in the most evil instant mass-murder of recent years? Think NPR is going there? Just look at AA's sponsors. Nokia. XM Satellite Radio. Answer Financial. Lloyds of London (I'm not kidding). Travel Guard Insurance. Amazon.com. Patagonia. You can also order AA thongs, with the logo you know where. Plus there's all sorts of Al Franken gear. Dept. of 'Homeland Hilarity' mugs. Ha ha ha. Did I mention that longtime TV sleaze-king Jery Springer has an AA show now too? Yes! That famous humanist and leftist Jerry ("You screwed your Mother?") Springer. I know he's not going talk about that 737 engine photo from the Pentagon. Another crappy deal with Air America is that most of what you hear is a rebroadcast from an earlier show. The hosts just do a show or two a week at some odd hour and repeat the thing constantly. They're always telling you to phone in and talk, giving out the number but never telling the listener not to bother because it's a rebroadcast. On tape. From three days ago. Lame lame lame. I notice that the Winamp Media Player now refuses to stream most of the 'alternative' talk stations. They're listed on the player as accessible, but just try getting them in anymore. Winamp has either been hacked to death, or bribed to play only certain stations. I used to get WNYU among others. Not anymore. I have to go to Windows Radio, and half the time their stream is full or inoperable. There's no doubt in my mind that web talk shows are being systematically corporatized, if not infiltrated and even made inaccessible ON PURPOSE. The 911 truth movement may itself be the main cause of these disturbing changes in free media. Don't forget that the Pentagon invented the internet, and they have the know-how and desire to sabotage any potent sources of true information about that day. Soon all 911 researchers and enthusiasts will be labeled terrorists themselves, and these radio hosts want to keep their positions. It's VERY lucrative. I'm out of breath...later....
| Forging the Media Weapon | 30.Dec.2005 21:56 |
| Marik | marik@aracnet.com | link |
An excellent article on just how everything which is tied to the ruling class is compromised, whether community radio or liberal politicians.
The auther suggested we develop alternative sources of media, and I agree absolutely. We cannot depend on the reformist organizations and mouthpieces to direct the revolution. I don't think however, this means more IMC channels. It needs to be something altogether different.
We realize fully how the monopoly and centralization of media (along with every other branch of industry) has squelched any voice that stands in opposition. And that is exactly what we need to create. Media outlets that are revolutionary in design and aim. Created to destroy the media monopoly and at the same time, the political monopoly. One that will help destroy the parasite that feeds on the earth; the bourgeoisie.
The media weapon community, a loose association of 'anti-imperialists' strives to create this revolutionary medium. We strive to bring the important questions to the light of day, to activists, and the working people.
As of now, the media weapon community conists of 100 subscribes, 2 dozen or so of them that correspond on a weekly basis, some more or less. We correspond over 2 e-mail lists, pof-200 and pof-300 and an IRC channel. The pof-200 list is limited to one post per week (or two if you go to demonstrations or protests), so there is no worry about being spammed out. The pof-300 list, open to subscribers of pof-200 does not have a message limit.
Unfortunately the community is not as of yet, fully developed - we need more activists who want to 'do something.' If nothing else, there is usually some interesting topics floating around. If your interested, check out the link. If your annoyed that I'm basically being an advertisement, then I apologize, but I'm not really sorry. Fuck bourgeois media and their mouthpieces.
The auther suggested we develop alternative sources of media, and I agree absolutely. We cannot depend on the reformist organizations and mouthpieces to direct the revolution. I don't think however, this means more IMC channels. It needs to be something altogether different.
We realize fully how the monopoly and centralization of media (along with every other branch of industry) has squelched any voice that stands in opposition. And that is exactly what we need to create. Media outlets that are revolutionary in design and aim. Created to destroy the media monopoly and at the same time, the political monopoly. One that will help destroy the parasite that feeds on the earth; the bourgeoisie.
The media weapon community, a loose association of 'anti-imperialists' strives to create this revolutionary medium. We strive to bring the important questions to the light of day, to activists, and the working people.
As of now, the media weapon community conists of 100 subscribes, 2 dozen or so of them that correspond on a weekly basis, some more or less. We correspond over 2 e-mail lists, pof-200 and pof-300 and an IRC channel. The pof-200 list is limited to one post per week (or two if you go to demonstrations or protests), so there is no worry about being spammed out. The pof-300 list, open to subscribers of pof-200 does not have a message limit.
Unfortunately the community is not as of yet, fully developed - we need more activists who want to 'do something.' If nothing else, there is usually some interesting topics floating around. If your interested, check out the link. If your annoyed that I'm basically being an advertisement, then I apologize, but I'm not really sorry. Fuck bourgeois media and their mouthpieces.
| Very accurate | 30.Dec.2005 23:33 |
| Alex Ansary/outside the box | link |
Ive helped out at KBOO in the past. George is right about what he is saying.
Also......there is someone i know who was pushing for a WTC7 program. He has been a central volunteer there for years. He has been asked to leave for reasons unknown. If you want to know more, I believe that this person is writing articles as well on indymedia about this protective organization.
Also......there is someone i know who was pushing for a WTC7 program. He has been a central volunteer there for years. He has been asked to leave for reasons unknown. If you want to know more, I believe that this person is writing articles as well on indymedia about this protective organization.
| 911 is not entirely taboo on KBOO | 31.Dec.2005 01:03 |
| Fred Bauer | link |
I've heard some things about 911 on KBOO, but they certainly should have more. If it were me, I'd be raising hell on there 24 hours a day. 911 should be a much bigger issue. 911 is taboo. There's never anything about 911 on PBS except for the offical story.
It seems strange to me that we can speak openly about Iraq, but not 911. I think the thing is that the people we're killing over there are dark skinned and talk funny. They aren't even American. If you kill people like that it's OK, but if you kill Americans it's different because then you can't argue that you're protecting them at the same time.
It's like good gangster, bad gangster. A good gangster is loyal to the gang and only kills the public. A good gangster will protect other gangsters. But if a gangster kills a fellow gangster to take his share of the loot, now that's a bad gangster.
It's like Saddam gassing his own people. HIS OWN PEOPLE! MY GOD! I guess if he gassed somebody else's people it wouldn't so much of a problem.
The thing that people don't get, is that the powers that be don't care who they kill. Americans, Iraqui, good, bad, innocent or guilty, as long as they get what they want they could care less.
It seems strange to me that we can speak openly about Iraq, but not 911. I think the thing is that the people we're killing over there are dark skinned and talk funny. They aren't even American. If you kill people like that it's OK, but if you kill Americans it's different because then you can't argue that you're protecting them at the same time.
It's like good gangster, bad gangster. A good gangster is loyal to the gang and only kills the public. A good gangster will protect other gangsters. But if a gangster kills a fellow gangster to take his share of the loot, now that's a bad gangster.
It's like Saddam gassing his own people. HIS OWN PEOPLE! MY GOD! I guess if he gassed somebody else's people it wouldn't so much of a problem.
The thing that people don't get, is that the powers that be don't care who they kill. Americans, Iraqui, good, bad, innocent or guilty, as long as they get what they want they could care less.
| . | 31.Dec.2005 03:11 |
| 911 truther | link |
Great article, but I disagree with the characterization of David Ray Griffin being "compromised". If anything, he's the lightning rod of the movement. Ruppert, on the other hand, I'm a bit more leary about.
| Mighty Whitey of You | 31.Dec.2005 14:29 |
| solidarity NOW | link |
You write about KBOO's diversity with such derision that I wonder how much time you have spent working with people cross culturally. Access to a community radio station should not require mono-lingualism. "English Only" attitudes don't belong in a multiethnic community, which this area certainly is.
When you say:
"In its limited talk programming, and even in its music programming, KBOO plays a ho-hum game called 'diversity.'
Maybe you speak Spanish, but why would any radio station (or publication) in its right mind weaken itself by dividing into multiple languages, as KBOO has been doing since the early 1980's? "One language at a time" would be at the very top of any professional's list of the rules for broadcasting. Surely this programming must be induced by foundation grants. Is it a Spanish-language grant that is determining this most idiotic of programming? If it's political correctness only, that would be even more sad."
You show a profound lack of understanding: of the strength in working cross culturally; in KBOO's mission; in organizing.
I am sad for you.
When you say:
"In its limited talk programming, and even in its music programming, KBOO plays a ho-hum game called 'diversity.'
Maybe you speak Spanish, but why would any radio station (or publication) in its right mind weaken itself by dividing into multiple languages, as KBOO has been doing since the early 1980's? "One language at a time" would be at the very top of any professional's list of the rules for broadcasting. Surely this programming must be induced by foundation grants. Is it a Spanish-language grant that is determining this most idiotic of programming? If it's political correctness only, that would be even more sad."
You show a profound lack of understanding: of the strength in working cross culturally; in KBOO's mission; in organizing.
I am sad for you.
| Trinkaus is off base | 31.Dec.2005 16:35 |
| Theresa Mitchell | link |
Trinkaus obviously hasn't done the work in investigating KBOO's programming. The fact is, Andrew Geller has brought up the Reichstag-nature of 9/11 on numerous occasions over years, as I have, as Ani Haines and others have. Hell, we started questioning the official story on our special emergency programming on 9/11/01!
There are certainly long-standing KBOO commentators who reject the alternative 9/11 explanations, and we of course do not censor them. We're community radio, not ideologically pure radio.
If Trinkaus' work on 9/11 is as sloppy as his analysis of KBOO programming, it must be an embarrassment to the rest of us attempting to bring out the fact that 9/11 was staged to bring about the current fascist paradigm.
There are certainly long-standing KBOO commentators who reject the alternative 9/11 explanations, and we of course do not censor them. We're community radio, not ideologically pure radio.
If Trinkaus' work on 9/11 is as sloppy as his analysis of KBOO programming, it must be an embarrassment to the rest of us attempting to bring out the fact that 9/11 was staged to bring about the current fascist paradigm.
| George, please clarify + a few comments | 31.Dec.2005 18:01 |
| redforestfox | link |
"In an attempt to hold its hypocritical head up in town, KBOO has also sent emissaries to local 911 discussion-group meetings.
-Really? Who? Are you talking about Gl*n and Al*x?
"The meetings themselves are the outgrowth of a series of academic lectures conducted by a KBOO disk jockey and based entirely on Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbor. (Sometime see my "911 Griffin Reconsidered," a link is below.)"
-Kurt started the group whose original name is/was TNPH but you make it sound like our meetings themselves are "based entirely" on this book which is not the case.
-Spanish speaking people are a part of this community.
-I listened to the broadcast of Cecil & Celeste's "Open Forum" show on 12-19-05 when they read some great material on 9/11 but on the heels of that, equated 9/11 with Gun Control as an issue that needed to be layed to rest since there were more pressing issues. I would counter that a myriad of those pressing issues stem from the fact that 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB. How in the hell can this subject not be germaine to the larger issues of the day? We're in this fucking war because of it, et al. This is absolutely unacceptable. Listen for yourself:
link to www.radio4all.net/1848-2-20051219-Recording-2005-12-19--LONG-EDIT.mp3
You can thank a dedicated KBOO volunteer for posting it.
-Really? Who? Are you talking about Gl*n and Al*x?
"The meetings themselves are the outgrowth of a series of academic lectures conducted by a KBOO disk jockey and based entirely on Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbor. (Sometime see my "911 Griffin Reconsidered," a link is below.)"
-Kurt started the group whose original name is/was TNPH but you make it sound like our meetings themselves are "based entirely" on this book which is not the case.
-Spanish speaking people are a part of this community.
-I listened to the broadcast of Cecil & Celeste's "Open Forum" show on 12-19-05 when they read some great material on 9/11 but on the heels of that, equated 9/11 with Gun Control as an issue that needed to be layed to rest since there were more pressing issues. I would counter that a myriad of those pressing issues stem from the fact that 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB. How in the hell can this subject not be germaine to the larger issues of the day? We're in this fucking war because of it, et al. This is absolutely unacceptable. Listen for yourself:
link to www.radio4all.net/1848-2-20051219-Recording-2005-12-19--LONG-EDIT.mp3You can thank a dedicated KBOO volunteer for posting it.
| KBOO playing a NYC-WTC speech by David Ray Griffin | 01.Jan.2006 00:29 |
| KBOO Insider | link |
That's a plus for Indymedia where George T. can air his views and speak his
truth.
Latest program guide of KBOO has David Ray Griffin on Thurs. Jan 26 NYC talk on WTC (more below)
KBOO's funding
KBOO does receive the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funds. It's been
decreasing for years, once accounting for approx. 20% of funds, it's been much
lower of late. There is no program requirements, it is money for nonprofit
broadcasters with at least five staff members.
Something not mentioned but I'll raise here is KBOO's increasing use of
underwriting, commercials in other words. These are contracts with a Must Play
provision. At the moment they are local businesses getting a plug, but it's
advertising nonetheless. KBOO's Underwriting/Advertising Coordinator has been
on staff longer than all but two of the staff members. NPR started with light
underwriting and now engages in all-out commercials. Once you start, it's hard
to revert back to being non-commercial.
KBOO severed ties as a Pacifica affiliate when the Pacifica (National) takeover
was in effect around '97-'98. On occasion, KBOO airs some Pacifica derived news
reports or programs but is not under Pacifica's direction. Oddly, Pacifica to
their credit does not allow commercials or paid underwriting. Maybe because of
the secret funding?
KBOO on 9/11 issues
KBOO has been light (time-wise) on the subject of 9/11, but they have not
censored programmers or programs. One of the drawbacks is having enough
programs of broadcast quality ready for airplay. Not just 9/11 material, but
many subjects.
Occasionally, or perhaps more often, news reports, programs and comments
supporting or backing the govt's story of 9/11 airs on KBOO, but this is not
the only subject KBOO carries assumed truths. This is part of the territory of
censorship-free media, other reporters and producers get their stuff aired
without an editorial filter.
A.I.D.S. (acquired immune-deficiency syndrome) Indymedia Portland is about
the only outlet in town that carries alternative articles on this topic and
exposes the fallacy promoted by the U.S. health dept. for over 20 years.
KBOO reporting often mentions HIV, the virus that causes A.I.D.S.----- that
"fact"
has never been proven, but continues on because that was in the AP-written
newswire or some volunteer reporter failed to do some extensive checking.
Health issues are also missed on KBOO. Yes, they have the "Health
show" on Mondays, often led by a naturopath but never addressing crucial health
topics such as
the causes of heart disease and cancer - the killer of most Oregonians. Nearly
two-thirds, check the facts. (No, it's not terrorism, 9/11 or war). Two major
diseases with the main cause being diet. Instead, KBOO's health show has a
segment on cheese, the fat remnants from a cow's udder!
Back to the issue of 9/11. Outside of Indymedia, KBOO has been the only
outlet to carry alternatives to the government story. Newcomer Air America has
played some 9/11 stuff but much of it anti-Republican blaming, Mike Malloy
being the big exception.
The Oregonian, the Columbian, Register-Guard, Salem's Daily Rag, the Mercury,
Willamette Week have been a news wasteland on 9/11.
The better papers such as the Portland Alliance has done scant little on 9/11,
fortunately they haven't been spreading much of the propaganda either. The Pdx
Alliance has done a commendable job on labor, environment, and local police
abuse issues to name a few. The recent depleted uranium cover story was worth
its weight in gold, but that's another topic.
George, you're gonna eat your words or perpetually be in denial.
You say David Ray Griffin has been a compromised spokesperson for the 9/11
movement and his style may have been too slow for you but he hasn't rested and
is making waves in the alt. 9/11 movement. In KBOO's Jan. program guide, Dr.
Griffin's New York City speech is scheduled on Thursday the 26th. If this is
the talk the New York 9/11 truth group has written about, it should be quite
revealing as Dr. Griffin is becoming one of the harder hitting 9/11 writers and
may be more credible to the public since he doesn't speculate but relies on
documented evidence.
But you're right about ex-LAPD officer Mike Ruppert who has gone softer on 9/11
after his landmark Crossing the Rubicon book and focusing on Peak Oil.
KBOO has not suspended or blocked anyone for reporting on 9/11. One person was
denied access but not due to 9/11 coverage. To the best of my knowledge, other
volunteers doing 9/11 reporting, Per Fagereng (continuously) and lately on WTC
Chris Andreae and Andrew Geller have not been censored on their programs.
KBOO is 70% music.
Non-local CDs for the most part. The DJ may be local but not the music
production. Do the math, out of over 160 hours a week, KBOO is playing music on over
100 hours of them (closer to 120 hrs.) Instead of just knocking the talk and
news shows on KBOO about 9/11, how about less CD music and play some 9/11 and
other news material?
truth.
Latest program guide of KBOO has David Ray Griffin on Thurs. Jan 26 NYC talk on WTC (more below)
KBOO's funding
KBOO does receive the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funds. It's been
decreasing for years, once accounting for approx. 20% of funds, it's been much
lower of late. There is no program requirements, it is money for nonprofit
broadcasters with at least five staff members.
Something not mentioned but I'll raise here is KBOO's increasing use of
underwriting, commercials in other words. These are contracts with a Must Play
provision. At the moment they are local businesses getting a plug, but it's
advertising nonetheless. KBOO's Underwriting/Advertising Coordinator has been
on staff longer than all but two of the staff members. NPR started with light
underwriting and now engages in all-out commercials. Once you start, it's hard
to revert back to being non-commercial.
KBOO severed ties as a Pacifica affiliate when the Pacifica (National) takeover
was in effect around '97-'98. On occasion, KBOO airs some Pacifica derived news
reports or programs but is not under Pacifica's direction. Oddly, Pacifica to
their credit does not allow commercials or paid underwriting. Maybe because of
the secret funding?
KBOO on 9/11 issues
KBOO has been light (time-wise) on the subject of 9/11, but they have not
censored programmers or programs. One of the drawbacks is having enough
programs of broadcast quality ready for airplay. Not just 9/11 material, but
many subjects.
Occasionally, or perhaps more often, news reports, programs and comments
supporting or backing the govt's story of 9/11 airs on KBOO, but this is not
the only subject KBOO carries assumed truths. This is part of the territory of
censorship-free media, other reporters and producers get their stuff aired
without an editorial filter.
A.I.D.S. (acquired immune-deficiency syndrome) Indymedia Portland is about
the only outlet in town that carries alternative articles on this topic and
exposes the fallacy promoted by the U.S. health dept. for over 20 years.
KBOO reporting often mentions HIV, the virus that causes A.I.D.S.----- that
"fact"
has never been proven, but continues on because that was in the AP-written
newswire or some volunteer reporter failed to do some extensive checking.
Health issues are also missed on KBOO. Yes, they have the "Health
show" on Mondays, often led by a naturopath but never addressing crucial health
topics such as
the causes of heart disease and cancer - the killer of most Oregonians. Nearly
two-thirds, check the facts. (No, it's not terrorism, 9/11 or war). Two major
diseases with the main cause being diet. Instead, KBOO's health show has a
segment on cheese, the fat remnants from a cow's udder!
Back to the issue of 9/11. Outside of Indymedia, KBOO has been the only
outlet to carry alternatives to the government story. Newcomer Air America has
played some 9/11 stuff but much of it anti-Republican blaming, Mike Malloy
being the big exception.
The Oregonian, the Columbian, Register-Guard, Salem's Daily Rag, the Mercury,
Willamette Week have been a news wasteland on 9/11.
The better papers such as the Portland Alliance has done scant little on 9/11,
fortunately they haven't been spreading much of the propaganda either. The Pdx
Alliance has done a commendable job on labor, environment, and local police
abuse issues to name a few. The recent depleted uranium cover story was worth
its weight in gold, but that's another topic.
George, you're gonna eat your words or perpetually be in denial.
You say David Ray Griffin has been a compromised spokesperson for the 9/11
movement and his style may have been too slow for you but he hasn't rested and
is making waves in the alt. 9/11 movement. In KBOO's Jan. program guide, Dr.
Griffin's New York City speech is scheduled on Thursday the 26th. If this is
the talk the New York 9/11 truth group has written about, it should be quite
revealing as Dr. Griffin is becoming one of the harder hitting 9/11 writers and
may be more credible to the public since he doesn't speculate but relies on
documented evidence.
But you're right about ex-LAPD officer Mike Ruppert who has gone softer on 9/11
after his landmark Crossing the Rubicon book and focusing on Peak Oil.
KBOO has not suspended or blocked anyone for reporting on 9/11. One person was
denied access but not due to 9/11 coverage. To the best of my knowledge, other
volunteers doing 9/11 reporting, Per Fagereng (continuously) and lately on WTC
Chris Andreae and Andrew Geller have not been censored on their programs.
KBOO is 70% music.
Non-local CDs for the most part. The DJ may be local but not the music
production. Do the math, out of over 160 hours a week, KBOO is playing music on over
100 hours of them (closer to 120 hrs.) Instead of just knocking the talk and
news shows on KBOO about 9/11, how about less CD music and play some 9/11 and
other news material?
| gratuitously punching | 01.Jan.2006 03:46 |
| the diversity card | link |
there should be a spanish-language community radio station
people don't schedule their lives around when some show is coming on the radio a few hours a week
spanish speakers will listen to stations that are spanish all the time
people don't schedule their lives around when some show is coming on the radio a few hours a week
spanish speakers will listen to stations that are spanish all the time
09/11/2001
Cool Tools for Catholics: Movie: The Chronicles of Narnia
Cool Tools for Catholics: Movie: The Chronicles of Narnia
Blogger Thoughts: Coming out of this movie, I felt horrified to imagine that anyone thought that Christianity could be strengthened by anything portrayed in this movie.
Blogger Thoughts: Coming out of this movie, I felt horrified to imagine that anyone thought that Christianity could be strengthened by anything portrayed in this movie.
Bonfire of the Vanities: God at his mother's breast (homily for 'e Theotokos)
Bonfire of the Vanities: God at his mother's breast (homily for 'e Theotokos): "all-man, all the time!"
Blogger Thoughts: I know I'm treading on ground that may be sacred to some of you. With the play on words (mine, not the original) this is just too unhinged.
Blogger Thoughts: I know I'm treading on ground that may be sacred to some of you. With the play on words (mine, not the original) this is just too unhinged.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)