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[from The Parallel YOUniversity's UP!]
THE FREE PRESS OR ELSE! MEDIA BOYCOTT
DEMOCRACY CANNOT WORK WITHOUT A FREE PRESS

The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.
--William Colby, former CIA Director

Well, the press is clearly being (forced to be) much more open and honest about the fantastically swelling Peace Movement around the world. Here�s our analysis of how the Brit press covered the hugest protest in global history.

BEST & MOST ACCURATE COVERAGE IN THE MIRROR AND THE INDEPENDENT!

OUR RECOMMENDATION IS TO SWITCH TO THE MIRROR IF U R INTO TABLOIDS, AND THE INDEPENDENT IF YOU�RE INTO BROADSHEETS.
SPREAD THE WORD!!!
SPREAD THE TRUTH!!!
SPREAD THE PRESS CONTENT ANALYIS BELOW!!!
LET THE PRESS THEMSELVES KNOW!!!

we don�t have the time or staff to develop this further. which funded org is going to take on this vital task?!


UK PRESS COVERAGE CONTENT ANALYSIS
The Sunday Mirror 2M SAY NO Are You Deaf Mr Blair? 7 pages total. Inside headlines: LISTEN TO US! / YOU ARE NOT GOD / PROTEST VIRGINS.
EDITORIAL: Two Million People Put Their Case.
VERDICT: 10. Good accurate long shot fotos. Double spread on first time middle class voters. ANTI WAR

The Independent on Sunday MILLIONS MARCH FOR WORLD PEACE. BIGGEST POLITICAL PROTEST IN BRITISH HISTORY ON A DAY WHEN ORDINARY CITIZENS STOOD UP TO BE COUNTED ACROSS THE WORLD
5 pages total. Inside headlines: THE DAY MIDDLE ENGLAND MARCHED WITH THE MILITANTS + NO WAR AGAINST IRAQ + ARE YOU LISTENING PRIME MINISTER?
EDITORAL: Millions Show This Is A War That Mustn�t Happen
VERDICT: 9. Fotos, articles on march VERY ACCURATE. Other articles and commentary accurate and sympathetic. ANTI-WAR

Mail On Sunday 1,500,000 SAY NO TO WAR 3 pages total. Inside headlines: People of Britain Vote for Peace + �If Blair thinks this is it, he�s so wrong�
EDITORIAL: (a different subject)
VERDICT: 7 Excellent crowd shots. But editorial doesn�t cover march, and few pages are given to it. ANTI WAR, but could change

The People SPICE GIRLS BACK TOGETHER 2 pages total., inside & only headline: 1 IN 50 BRITS MARCH
EDITORAL: Blair on brink of disaster if he stands by Bush
VERDICT: 6 Round-up of global demos. ANTI-WAR

The Observer ONE MILLION AND STILL THEY CAME 2 � pages total. Inside headline: PEOPLE POWER TAKES TO THE WORLD�S STREETS
EDITORAL: We Must Not Rule Out War
VERDICT: 5 Fotos, headlines, articles on march REASONABLE. Other articles and editorial PRO-WAR and insulting.

Sunday Telegraph BLAIR WARNS MARCHERS OF BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS AS UP TO ONE MILLION JOIN BIGGEST PUBLIC PROTEST IN BRITISH HISTORY 3 pages total. Other front page headline: Trendies, toffs, .students and men with impressive beards marching for Saddam.
EDITORAL: GIVE WAR A CHANCE
VERDICT: 4 1 excellent long-range foto of crowd, but numbers downplayed and motives sneered at while pretending professionalism.. PRO-WAR.

The Sunday Times - FIVE MILLION MARCH AS BLAIR CALLS FOR TOPPLING OF SADDAM MIDDLE ENGLAND MASSES IN LONDON 4 pages total. Inside headlines: PROTEST BRINGS WORLD OUT ONTO STREETS
EDITORIAL: This Is A Just War
VERDICT: 4 Fotos focus on arty �student� types while crowd shots suggest lesser numbers. Front story turns out to be Blair�s reasons for war, and mentions �at least 750000�. Headline in earlier edition has A DIVIDED NATION, which is shamelessly untrue since, by every poll, the UK is 6:1 against war. PRO WAR..

Sunday Express �BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS� BLAIR�S SHOCK OUTBURST 4 � pages total. Inside headline: One Million Say: Don�t Go To War
EDITORAL: Blair�s First Fight Must Be For Hearts of Protesters
VERDICT: 3 Shots of international protests, numbers often downplayed, marchers� motions respected but expected to change. PRO-WAR.

News Of The World Small Front Page Headline: YOU�RE WRONG Blair Tells 750,000 3 � pages total. Inside headline: 3 MILLION PROTEST FOR PEACE ACROSS GLOBE
EDITORAL: Prime Reason To Battle On
VERDICT: 1 1 because they did cover it, even on front page under EASTENDER KAT GOES TOPLESS. Fotos misleading, numbers shamelessly understated, articles and editorial PRO-WAR. Right wing cant & gibberish.

posted by Lorenzo 4:08 PM

 

Take Back The Media! Who Owns The Media?
This link will take you to a page with links to several important stories about the ownership of what was once called the "free press." As you already know, almost everything you see in print and television, along with what you hear on the radio, is controlled by just a few mega-corporations . . . the same ones whose lobbyists control the U.S. government. There once was a time when newspaper reporters were cautioned to "check your sources." Today, that admonishment should be directed to consumers of corporate propaganda. Just as the Spanish-American war was good for the business of the Hearst empire, today's wars are good for weapons makers like General Electric, who first sell us a war and then sell the weapons of war to anyone who can come up with the cash.

posted by Lorenzo 3:36 PM

 

Digital TV Project: Who Controls the Media
The above link is to a table listing all major network and cable news and entertainment outlets. It shows that the vast majority of them are owned by just five mega-corporations: General Electric, Time Warner, The Walt Disney Co., Viacom, and News Corporation. . . . so who is the main source of your news?

posted by Lorenzo 3:25 PM

 

Patriotic Posters from TheWhitehouse.org
Posters, t-shirts, and more . . . some examples:

"Mommy Didn't Abort Me! And now I can DIE in a WAR just like SHE did!"

"Wimp My Ass! Sadddam's in my sights & Junior's at the trigger!"

"You're First Lady now ...and Xanax helped get you threre!"

"Oil men drill it deeper"

"There ought to be limits to freedom. --George W. Bush"

posted by Lorenzo 3:05 PM

 

Millions vs. Thousands of Protesters
(The Memory Hole, 16 February 2003)
BBC News Headline: "Millions join anti-war protests worldwide"
Washington Post Headline: "Thousands Worldwide Protestt War in Iraq"

[Comment: It's time to boycott the very misleading Washington Post.]

posted by Lorenzo 2:19 PM

 

The Free Press or Else Campaign
Well, whether our campaign bit or not, the press was (forced to be) much more open and honest about the fantastic peace marches all aroudn the world. We�re doing an analysins of the Brit press at the moment.

The Observer Front Page Headline: ONE MILLION AND STILL THEY CAME
2 � pages total. Inside headline: PEOPLE POWER TAKES TO THE WORLD�S STREETS
EDITORAL: We Must Not Rule Out War
VERDICT: 5 Fotos, headlines, articles on march REASONABLE. Other artticles and editorial PRO-WAR and insulting.

The Independent on Sunday Front page Headline: MILLIONS MARCH FOR WORLD PEACE. BIGGEST POLITICAL PROTEST IN BRITISH HISTORY ON A DAY WHEN ORDINARY CITIZENS STOOD UP TO BE COUNTED ACROSS THE WORLD
5 ps total. Inside headlines: THE DAY MIDDLE ENGLAND MARCHED WITH THE MILITANTS + NO WAR AGAINST IRAQ. ARE YOU LISTENING PRIME MINISTER?
EDITORAL: Millions Show This Is A War That Mustn�t Happen
VERDICT: 9 Fotos, articles on march VERY ACCURATE. Other articles and coomentary ANTI-WAR

News Of The World Small Front Page Headline: YOU�RE WRONG Blair Tells 750,000 3 � ps.total. Inside headline: 3 MILLION PTROTEST FOR PEACE ACROSS GLOBE
EDITORAL: Prime Reason To Battle On
VERDICT: 1 1 because they did cover it, even on front page under EASTENDER KAT GOES TOPLESS. Fotos misleading, nubers shamelessly understated, articles and editorial PRO-WAR. Right wing cant & gibberish.

Sunday Times A DIVIDED NATION shamelessly untrue since, by every poll, the UK is 6:1 agaisnt war.

Sunday Telegraph Front page Headline: BLAIR WARNS MARCHERS OF BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS AS UP TO ONE MILLION JOIN BIGGEST PUBLIC PROTEST IN BRITISH HISTORY 3 pages total. Other front page headline: Trendies, toffs, .students and men with impressive beards marching for Saddam.
EDITORAL: GIVE WAR A CHANCE
VERDICT: 4 1 excellent long-range foto of crowd, but numbers downplayed and motives sneered at while pretending professionalism.. PRO-WAR.

Sunday Express �BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS� BLAIR�S SHOCK OUTBURST 4 � pages total. Inside headline: One Million Say: Don�t Go To War
EDITORAL: Blairs First Fight Must Be For Hearts of Protesoers
VERDICT: 3 Shots of internataional protests, numbers often downplayed, marchers� motions respected but expected to change. PRO-WAR.

The People SPICE GIRLS BACK TOGETHER 2 pages total., inside & only headline: 1 IN 50 BRITS MARCH
EDITORAL: Blair on brink of disaster if he stands by Bush
VERDICT: 3 Round-up of global demos. ANTI-WAR

posted by Lorenzo 1:53 PM

 

The Bush Family and the Nazis
[Interesting flash piece]

posted by Lorenzo 1:42 PM

 

Arthur Miller to lead anti-war poetry reading
The Nando Times - The Associated Press
NEW YORK (February 13, 2003 7:31 a.m. EST) - Playwright Arthur Miller, rapper Mos Def and at least four former U.S. poets laureate will be among the artists and performers appearing at "Poems Not Fit for the White House," an anti-war gathering to be held Monday at Lincoln Center. The event was inspired by the White House's postponement of a poetry symposium to be hosted by first lady Laura Bush. A spokeswoman for the first lady has said there was concern that the forum would be politicized by opponents of war against Iraq. Former poets laureate Rita Dove and Stanley Kunitz, both of whom turned down invitations to the symposium, will read at Lincoln Center. Others expected are former poets laureate Robert Pinsky and Mark Strand and actor-writer Wallace Shawn. The symposium was to have been held Wednesday.

***Hey Laura, honey, don't you feel really stupid, just a little? ...a Librarian against free speech!!?? ...and they said he was the hypocrite****

posted by An Old Curmudgeon 6:15 AM

 

House, Senate agree to prohibit citizens' e-mail surveillance
startribune.com - House and Senate negotiators have agreed that a Pentagon project intended to detect terrorists by monitoring e-mail and commercial databases for health, financial and travel information cannot be used against Americans.

The conferees also agreed to restrict further research on the program without extensive consultation with Congress.

House leaders agreed with Senate fears about the threat to personal privacy posed by the Pentagon program, known as Total Information Awareness (TIA). So they accepted a Senate provision in the omnibus spending bill passed last month, said Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., who heads the defense appropriations subcommittee.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., senior Democrat on the subcommittee, said of the program, "Jerry's against it, and I'm against it, so we kept the Senate amendment." Of the Pentagon, he said, "They've got some crazy people over there."

The only obstacles to the provision becoming law would be the failure of the conferees to reach agreement on the overall spending bill in which it is included, or a successful veto of the bill by President Bush.

Lt. Cmdr. Donald Sewell, a Pentagon spokesman, defended the program, saying, "The Department of Defense still feels that it's a tool that can be used to alert us to terrorist acts before they occur." He added, "It's not a program that snoops into American citizens' privacy."

One important factor in the breadth of the opposition is the fact that the project is headed by retired Adm. John Poindexter. Several members of Congress have said he is an unwelcome symbol because he was convicted of lying to Congress when he was President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser. That his conviction was reversed on the grounds that he had been given immunity for the testimony in which he lied did not mitigate congressional opinion, they said.

The conferees' decision spells almost complete failure for a last-minute Pentagon effort, begun Friday, to protect TIA by establishing advisory committees to oversee it.

TIA would enable a team of intelligence analysts to gather and view information from databases, pursue links between individuals and groups, respond to automatic alerts, and share information, all from their individual computers.

It could link such different electronic sources as video feeds from airport surveillance cameras, credit card transactions, airline reservations and records of telephone calls. The data would be filtered through software that would constantly seek suspicious patterns.

The program could be employed in support of lawful military operations outside the United States and lawful foreign intelligence operations conducted against non-U.S. citizens.

The action was praised by Democrats and Republicans and by outside groups on both the political right and left.

posted by West 7:43 AM

 

�Madness of George Dubya� a hit: British farce mocks President Bush, Tony Blair
msnbc.com - British theatre-goers are flocking to a new farce which mocks U.S. President George W. Bush as a pajama-wearing buffoon cuddling a teddy-bear while his crazed military chiefs order nuclear strikes on Iraq. �The Madness of George W. Dubya� � which mercilessly satirizes British Prime Minister Tony Blair as well as Bush �has proved such a success at a fringe theatre in London that it is moving to a larger venue next week for an extended run.

posted by West 8:46 PM

 

Fox News� Bill O�Reilly Threatens Physical Assault On and Ejects a 9/11 Family Member From His Show
O�Reilly has referred to the signers of the [Not In Our Name anti-war] Statement as �anti-American� and has said they should be �held accountable� for the expression of their dissenting opinion. After cutting short the interview Bill O�Reilly threatened Mr. Glick, a professor at Rutgers University and teacher in the state prisons system, with physical violence. . . . What Mr. Glick said was �Why would I want to further brutalize and punish the people of Afghanistan�� �The people of Afghanistan � didn�t kill my father,� and the CIA ��that trained a hundred thousand Mujahedeen� bore some responsibility. Mr. Glick remained calm, focused and dignified throughout the entire show. The video shows it was Bill O�Reilly that lost his composure. After the interview he told Mr. Glick to �Get out, get out of my studio before I tear you to fucking pieces!�

IMHO, O'Reilly is a certifiable lunatic and a verbal terrorist as well. But then everyone already suspects that Fox News is merely Ariel Sharon's propaganda arm, and so we should expect to see insane outbursts like O'Reilly's. . . . why do people watch such trash?

posted by Lorenzo 11:32 AM

 

Liberty for Citizens -- or only for Incumbent Politicians and the Media?
Judging Campaign Finance Legislation and its Effect on Free Speech....

The "mainstream media" has carefully concealed the fact that most Americans no longer enjoy the same "First Amendment Rights" that every generation of Americans prior to 1975 had. Prior to 1975 every U.S. citizen, political party, and political organization enjoyed the same "Free Press Rights" as CNN.com or the New York Times. Prior to 1975, U.S. citizens were not required to register with the Federal Election Commission before publishing their political opinions and the Republican and Democratic parties were allowed to endorse their candidates in newspapers owned and operated by their political parties.

Election laws passed during the 1970s violate the Constitutional principle of equal protection, because they no longer provide individual citizens, political organizations, or political parties the same "Free Press Right" to communicate ideas as the corporate mainstream media. Limiting the amount of money that can be spent on political campaigns, in effect, stifles the ability of candidates to get their message out. It costs money to make a candidate visible -- and the media is free to spend as much money as it chooses to publish their opinions and commentary regarding political candidates. Citizens and candidates should have the same right as the media to spend money to publish their opinions.

In the landmark campaign finance case, Buckley v. Valeo, the Court acknowledged that it's necessary for money to be spent if speech is to be heard. Printing flyers, running ads, hiring consultants, and taking trips are all ways by which a candidate or concerned citizen attempts to make his message heard. All these things cost money. The Court understood that dollar limits gave the government the ability to ration and control the political speech that supposedly is protected by the First Amendment.

Reluctantly, the Justices allowed Congress to impose hard money limits on the amount of dollars raised, in order to guard against the appearance of impropriety with elected officials. And with even greater reluctance, they broke from all previous precedent and permitted government-compelled disclosure, because they saw no other way to enforce the limits.

But John McCain has demonstrated that he is his own parody. On his Straight Talk Express website, McCain urged supporters to sign a petition for campaign finance reform. From there he wrote, "Along with your petition, I hope you will send a contribution of $75, $50, $25, or whatever you can afford at this time. Your contribution will send a clear message that we have the strength and resources to get our reform agenda passed." The Director of the Center for Public Integrity said, "It looks peculiar for a senator to be raising money so he can reform. The problem for McCain is that it costs money to get your message out."

Perhaps Senator McCain would like to correct himself. He could say, "Money isn't speech, unless I need to be heard."

MORE INFO ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE "REFORM"
- What did the Founding Fathers think about campaign regulation?
- Who benefits most from campaign finance "reform"?
- Why is compulsory disclosure considered a good thing?
- Does "reform" change anything or give us more of what we have already?
- Is money a form of speech?
- What is a "special interest"?
- What would help to solve the apparent campaign finance problems?

posted by Hal 8:34 AM