Monday, August 6, 2007
If you think I’m gonna stop writing about Barry Bonds you’re so wrong. Considering the cards stacked against him (e.g., the fact that virtually every sportswriter in every newspaper in America is trashing him virtually daily), I feel I have to advocate.
* * *
Ah, but first: The New York Times prints Corrections every day on page two, and it’s such a joke. One’s critique of one’s self is usually inadequate, sometimes grossly inadequate. But ya gotta laugh when the Times chides itself for misspelling the middle name of the Deputy Commissioner of Wildlife in Dutchess County. Then again, do I really expect the Ochses and the Sulzbergers and their spawn to look at themselves in the mirror and apologize for all the unethical, craven and insensitive shit they’ve foisted on the public, and to decide, like in a Frank Capra movie, that they really are part of the problem and from then on do good things? Instead of evil things? And so I was startled to find an article by Norman Solomon in Common Dreams on July 24 called Media Corrections We'd Like to See, referring to a mythical Daily Bugle. Permit me to say in public (on the intersection of Obscurity Street and Marginal Boulevard) that the man nails all newspapers, all media and, in some ways, all of us for not correcting our major sins.
Here are some corrections Solomon would like to see:
“Yesterday's paper included a business section but failed to also include a labor section. Yet the vast majority of Americans work without investing for a living. They are employees rather than entrepreneurs. The failure to recognize such realities when using newsroom resources is not journalistically defensible. The Daily Bugle regrets the error."
“On Thursday, in a lengthy story about the economy, this newspaper quoted three corporate executives, two Wall Street business analysts and someone from a corporate-funded think tank. But the article did not quote a single low-income person or a single advocate for those mired in poverty. The Daily Bugle regrets the error."
“Last week, The Daily Bugle reported on the history of human rights violations in Latin America without noting the pivotal roles played by the U.S. government in supporting despotic regimes during the 20th century. Such selective reporting had the effect of airbrushing significant aspects of the historical record. The Daily Bugle regrets the error."
“For nearly five years, The Daily Bugle has frequently printed the headline 'Deaths in Iraq' over the latest listing of confirmed American deaths in Iraq. This headline has been insidiously misleading because it propagates the attitude that the only 'deaths in Iraq' worth reporting by name are the deaths of Americans. Such tacit jingoism and nationalistic narcissism have no place in quality news reporting. The Daily Bugle regrets its participation in this repetition compulsion disorder of American journalism."
“The Daily Bugle's reporting has often referred to Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) as 'a respected senator on foreign affairs.' In fact, while some observers greatly respect Senator Lugar, others view him as a chronic hand-wringer whose pathetic deference to presidential militarism has aided and abetted the latest war crimes ordered from the Oval Office.”
For more than five years, readers of this newspaper have encountered — without attribution — frequent references to 'the war on terrorism' and 'the war on terror.' While avidly used by architects and supporters of the U.S. government's military actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere, such phrases are based on assumptions that could be substantively and effectively refuted. The Daily Bugle regrets that its news pages have relentlessly promoted such official buzzwords as though they were objective realities instead of terms devised to manipulate the public for endless war."
* * *
Solomon’s article put me so on guard to bullshit that I started noticing it in every newspaper article and news broadcast. And in such a frame of mind I came upon, in the July 24th edition of The New Mexican, an AP article by one Anne Gearan about the U.S. selling serious arms to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, what-have-you, about $50 billion worth, Israel getting about $30 million. (Which oh by the way is just a horribly evil thing to do. Would Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, go half-way around the world to sell huge amounts of weaponry? So how can Bush get away with it? Come on, evangelicals: I thought you guys were into Christ. Call Bush on his unChrist, anti-Christ shit. Otherwise, shut up about my shit. Stay out of my bedroom, my stash and my wife’s body, you pathetic hypocrites.) Iran is the problem, right? Not the U.S., from the other side of the planet. The U.S. government is like the mafia, carving out its turf and dealing with gangsters like themselves. Anyway, Anne Gearan writes, in the second paragraph, about the arms sales “to Saudi Arabia and other nations that have until recently committed little other than rhetoric to the U.S.-backed democratic experiment in Iraq.” Norman Solomon lives! The Saudis “and other nations” are bad because they didn’t jump into the evil war in Iraq. Then the topper: Referring to the Iraq war and occupation as a “democratic experiment,” a view that might make the average human guffaw, or vomit, perpetuates that lie in the minds of millions who are not necessarily stupid, no, but good people who have too many other problems for them to focus on what really is happening on the desert sands 12,000 miles away from home. Anne Gearan, calling the evil that Bush/Cheney has unleashed in Iraq (and continues to unleash in the region via huge arms sales) a “democratic experiment” is unconscionable. Just empty out your desk and go. You officially suck.
[On that same page is a sidebar listing yesterday’s “U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq:”
--Pfc. Cody C. Grater, Spring Hill, Florida, age 20.
--Spc. Daniel A. Leckel, Medford, Oregon, age 19.
--Pvt. Michael A. Baloga, Everett, Washington, age 21.
--Spec. Charles E. Bilbray, Oswego, New York, age 21.
--Spc. Jaime Rodriguez, Oxnard, California, age 19.
--Sgt. William R. Howdeshell, Norfolk, Virginia, age 37.]
In the As Above, So Below department, three days after reading Anne Gearan, I came across the following sentence in an AP dispatch by John Kekis in the New Mexican sports section: “Barry Bonds failed to tie the home run record, a chase tainted by his surly nature and a steroids investigation.” It’s like the “democratic experiment.” Bonds is “surly.” That’s a given.
When push came to shove, Bud Selig showed up on the first day that Bonds could have tied Aaron’s record and made the statement that he’s in attendance because every man is innocent until proven guilty. That’s funny, no one mentioned that before. Bonds’ presumption of innocence just dawned on you? Where have you and your innocent-until-proven-guilty idea been during the last year? Bud Selig, if Bonds is innocent until proven guilty, why don’t you and the rest of the haters just shut up? Major League Baseball, Inc. begrudgingly dragged in the innocent-until-proven-guilty angle (a concept they obviously don’t believe in) because the only option was to say that, yes, we are saying he’s guilty, forget about due process. That stance was too hard to sell. Thus: Bud Selig, The Reluctant Civil Libertarian. Starring Chris Cooper.
When Bonds hit his 755th homer to tie Aaron, the camera cut to an expressionless, catatonic Bud Selig. Some people were applauding, some cheering, some booing, some giving the thumbs-down. Selig had no reaction, which of course is the most dramatic reaction of all. Bud, if Bonds is innocent until proven guilty, you should have applauded.
* * *
In today’s news (August 6th), Defense Secretary Gates chastises the Iraqi Parliament for taking a month-long vacation. The Iraqi Parliament is a cobbled together piece of poop orchestrated by the U.S., so taking off for a month is inconsequential. The U.S. Congress (which, as a single body, has the lowest approval rating ever) is also taking a month-long vacation. Gates is cool with that. The Democrats are saying, Well, we tried to stop the war but the Republicans wouldn’t let us, so it’s on to health care. Where are the legislators willing to chain themselves to the White House fence and fast until something is done?
Today’s New Mexican headline: “190,000 firearms [AK-47 assault rifles] missing in Iraq” Oops! The article goes on to say that this development “raises fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents.” Gee, ya think? The U.S. is arming the insurgents just as they armed the Viet Cong during the entire Vietnam War.
--Eugene Lesser
