Global
Rob Russell and Protect Our Earth’s Treasures
7/20/02
After a two-year picket of the OSU veterinary hospital, Rob Russell and animal rights activists successfully drove Associate Professor Michael Podell from the OSU campus. Podell was responsible for the reprehensible “Cats on Speed” experiments that tortured and killed cats in the name of medicine. Podell’s departure from OSU is in the truest sense, POETic justice. Now if only POET and its allies PETA, the Humane Society, the Association of Veterinarians for Animals Rights and the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine could start organizing to get the OSU administration to quit practicing mind control on student guinea pigs (see Freep Enemies of the People).
The Free Press Salutes
Congressman Pat Tiberi
The Free Press Salutes
Congressman Pat Tiberi
The right is whining. Carl Limbacher and his crew complain
on
the popular NewsMax site that in the two weeks since the Harken
story went
critical, "the prestige press" (Limbacher's odd phrase, which
presumably
means he's excluding The National Enquirer) has given the affair 50
times
more coverage than it gave the Whitewater deal after the New York
Times
broke that story on March 8, 1992.
Limbacher moans that Whitewater showed up only 14 times in the wake of the Times story, while from June 28 to July 12 of this year, there have been over 700 stories on the Harken sale.
Limbacher moans that Whitewater showed up only 14 times in the wake of the Times story, while from June 28 to July 12 of this year, there have been over 700 stories on the Harken sale.
Thirty years ago the Free Press ran an ad for the first
Community Festival. We’re two years older than the
Festival, but a product of the same cultural and political rebellion against the war in Vietnam and the “plastic” suburban culture of the post-WW II era. The Freep is proud to be honored in this year’s Community Festival program as a worthwhile community organization. In honor of the Community Festival turning 30 this year, and the fact that we still “trust” the event to show us a real good time, we’ve dedicated our cover to the “Commie” fest.
It’s also the 30th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. The bungled burglary revealed a secret world of shadowy former CIA agents bugging the headquarters of the Democratic Party and working fulltime on dirty tricks to rig the 1972 election. President Nixon’s resignation in 1974 left many progressives with false hope of a better America.
It’s also the 30th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. The bungled burglary revealed a secret world of shadowy former CIA agents bugging the headquarters of the Democratic Party and working fulltime on dirty tricks to rig the 1972 election. President Nixon’s resignation in 1974 left many progressives with false hope of a better America.
Just about every politician and pundit is eager to denounce wrongdoing
in business these days. Sinners have defiled the holy quest for a high rate
of return. Damn those who left devoted investors standing bereft at
corporate altars!
On the surface, media outlets are filled with condemnations of avarice. The July 15 edition of Newsweek features a story headlined "Going After Greed," complete with a full-page picture of George W. Bush's anguished face. But after multibillion-dollar debacles from Enron to WorldCom, the usual media messages are actually quite equivocal -- wailing about greedy CEOs while piping in a kind of hallelujah chorus to affirm the sanctity of the economic system that empowered them.
At a Wall Street pulpit, Bush declared that America needs business leaders "who know the difference between ambition and destructive greed." Presumably, other types of greed are fine and dandy.
On the surface, media outlets are filled with condemnations of avarice. The July 15 edition of Newsweek features a story headlined "Going After Greed," complete with a full-page picture of George W. Bush's anguished face. But after multibillion-dollar debacles from Enron to WorldCom, the usual media messages are actually quite equivocal -- wailing about greedy CEOs while piping in a kind of hallelujah chorus to affirm the sanctity of the economic system that empowered them.
At a Wall Street pulpit, Bush declared that America needs business leaders "who know the difference between ambition and destructive greed." Presumably, other types of greed are fine and dandy.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Well, President Bush made his big speech on
corporate reform Tuesday, and the stock market went down by 178 points.
As predicted, Bush proposed stiffer penalties for bad apples, evildoers and perpetrators of "malfee-ance." Unfortunately, that won't fix the system.
Much as one would like to see many corporate executives doing time alongside hard-working stick-up artists, that leaves the systemic problems in place. Among the leading structural factors causing the cascading scandals are conflict of interest on the part of auditors who also get paid by their clients as consultants, conflict of interest on the part of stock analysts and their investment-banker bosses, abuse of stock options encouraged by not having to count their cost against earnings, and lack of oversight on accountants and insider loans -- of the very kind Bush himself got at Harken. Bush addressed none of it.
Stiffer penalties for what is already illegal are not helpful when the problem is what is legal. Bush's effort to treat this as though it were simply a law 'n' order problem is not going to be effective.
As predicted, Bush proposed stiffer penalties for bad apples, evildoers and perpetrators of "malfee-ance." Unfortunately, that won't fix the system.
Much as one would like to see many corporate executives doing time alongside hard-working stick-up artists, that leaves the systemic problems in place. Among the leading structural factors causing the cascading scandals are conflict of interest on the part of auditors who also get paid by their clients as consultants, conflict of interest on the part of stock analysts and their investment-banker bosses, abuse of stock options encouraged by not having to count their cost against earnings, and lack of oversight on accountants and insider loans -- of the very kind Bush himself got at Harken. Bush addressed none of it.
Stiffer penalties for what is already illegal are not helpful when the problem is what is legal. Bush's effort to treat this as though it were simply a law 'n' order problem is not going to be effective.
It's an all-too-rare pleasure to see the nuclear industry sweat,
but in the run-down to the wire, there were clear signs of panic in the
campaign to push through the U.S. senate a plan to ship the nation's
commercial nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain outside Las Vegas.
When Bush came to power, the nuke lobby thought they had it made. The days of competition between the oil industry and the nuclear lobby are long gone. Now they all belong to the same conglomerate. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, perhaps the only member of the cabinet who requires a more simplified briefing book than Bush, was an old industry pal, long since bought and paid for.
When Bush came to power, the nuke lobby thought they had it made. The days of competition between the oil industry and the nuclear lobby are long gone. Now they all belong to the same conglomerate. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, perhaps the only member of the cabinet who requires a more simplified briefing book than Bush, was an old industry pal, long since bought and paid for.
It's a rare day that you see these guys sweat, but the nuclear
industry is getting frantic. You can tell by the desperate nature of their
recent campaign to push through the U.S. senate the plan to ship the
nation's commercial nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, outside Las Vegas.
When Bush came to power, the nuke lobby thought they had it made. The days of competition between the oil industry and the nuclear lobby are long gone. Now, they all belong to the same conglomerate. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, perhaps the only member of the cabinet who requires a more simplified briefing book than Bush, was an old pal, long bought and sold. Bush himself called for more subsidies to nuclear power and reversed his election-eve opposition to the nuke industries most fervent aspiration: the Yucca Mountain dump.
When Bush came to power, the nuke lobby thought they had it made. The days of competition between the oil industry and the nuclear lobby are long gone. Now, they all belong to the same conglomerate. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, perhaps the only member of the cabinet who requires a more simplified briefing book than Bush, was an old pal, long bought and sold. Bush himself called for more subsidies to nuclear power and reversed his election-eve opposition to the nuke industries most fervent aspiration: the Yucca Mountain dump.
With the recent spat of executions it becomes clear that the politicians responsible for these horrendous acts are desperate to fabricate myths, half truths and downright lies to support their poisonous position. Here are some current myths about the death penalty presently being foisted upon the citizenry by self-serving merchants of death.
Speaking with grace and ease, a pensive network anchor compared
the America of today with the one of a year ago. His script had the
ring of media truth at the start of a new season. "How different the
summer is going to be for all of us," CNN's Aaron Brown told viewers.
A minute later, he added: "Summer life is going on. It's just
different. Everything is."
Such assertions have repeated endlessly in media circles. They make sense if dictionaries are now obsolete and words don't really need to mean anything in particular. "Everything" is "different" for "all of us" only when the preposterous can be rendered plausible.
As a practical matter, virtually closed loops often dominate major news outlets. The result is what we could call "monomedia." When similar noises keep filling echo chambers, they tend to drown out other sounds.
July Fourth gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect. This holiday commemorates a revolution that made possible the extraordinarily important First Amendment. These days, in theory, just about everyone in the country has freedom to speak. But freedom to be heard is another matter.
Such assertions have repeated endlessly in media circles. They make sense if dictionaries are now obsolete and words don't really need to mean anything in particular. "Everything" is "different" for "all of us" only when the preposterous can be rendered plausible.
As a practical matter, virtually closed loops often dominate major news outlets. The result is what we could call "monomedia." When similar noises keep filling echo chambers, they tend to drown out other sounds.
July Fourth gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect. This holiday commemorates a revolution that made possible the extraordinarily important First Amendment. These days, in theory, just about everyone in the country has freedom to speak. But freedom to be heard is another matter.
Many Americans feel under siege from advertising that insults
intelligence and helps to degrade the nation's cultural environment.
While serving the interests of advertisers, the daily ad-mania makes
us sick -- sometimes quite literally. What can we do about it?
No easy solution is in sight. The ad craziness has gotten extreme in a context of greatly centralized economic power afflicting nearly the entire media landscape. "The bottom line is that fewer and fewer huge conglomerates are controlling virtually everything that the ordinary American sees, hears and reads," independent Rep. Bernie Sanders wrote recently in The Hill newspaper. With probably undue optimism, he added: "This is an issue that Congress can no longer ignore."
No easy solution is in sight. The ad craziness has gotten extreme in a context of greatly centralized economic power afflicting nearly the entire media landscape. "The bottom line is that fewer and fewer huge conglomerates are controlling virtually everything that the ordinary American sees, hears and reads," independent Rep. Bernie Sanders wrote recently in The Hill newspaper. With probably undue optimism, he added: "This is an issue that Congress can no longer ignore."