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Kerry Sweeps Virginia & Tennessee; Clark Quits Race
Fight to Block FCC Media Ownership Rules Goes to Court
Critics Say Newly Released Military Pay Records Don't Prove
Bush Fulfilled Guard Duty
Should the Media Investigate Errors In Its Coverage Leading
Up to the Invasion of Iraq?
Nicholas Yarris Speaks After Being Released From 22 Years
on Death Row
Kerry Sweeps Virginia & Tennessee; Clark Quits
Race
INTRO: Sen. John Kerry easily won primaries yesterday in
Virginia and Tennessee giving him his first victories in the
south. Sen. John Edwards vowed to continue his campaign after
scoring second in both states. Wesley Clark's aides said he
will drop out of the race.
Sen. John Kerry strengthened his position as Democratic front-runner
yesterday winning the Virginia and Tennessee primaries. Kerry
has now won 12 out of 14 state Democratic contests and last
night added the first southern states to his growing string
of victories. He spoke to supporters last night in Fairfax,
Virginia.
Kerry easily won Virginia with 52 percent of the vote. Sen.
John Edwards of North Carolina came a distant second with
27 percent. The rest of the candidates were well back with
Wesley Clark winning 9 percent, Howard Dean seven, Al Sharpton
3 and Rep. Dennis Kucinich 1 percent.
In Tennessee, the race was only marginally closer. Kerry
led with 41 percent of the vote, with Edwards second at 26
percent and Clark close behind with 23. Howard Dean won 4
percent, Sharpton 2 and Kucinich 1.
Wesley Clark decided early on Wednesday to withdraw from
the race, according to his aides. Speaking to a crowd in Tennessee
he said "We may have lost this battle but we are not
going to lose the battle for America's future." He is
expected to make a formal announcement later today.
Before the polls closed yesterday, Sen. John Edwards vowed
to continue his candidacy regardless of the outcome. The Washington
Post reports pressure is mounting within the party to shift
the focus to President Bush and begin to unify Democrats to
prepare for the general election.
Dean did not compete in either Virginia or Tennessee, instead
choosing to concentrate on Wisconsin. He originally called
Wisconsin a do-or-die primary but later said he will stay
in the race regardless of what happens there. Civil rights
activist Al Sharpton and Rep. Dennis Kucinich are also continuing
to fight.
Kerry's victories padded his delegate lead, with the Associated
Press reporting after midnight that the front-runner had won
85 delegates to give him a total of 414 pledged delegates.
Edwards is second, with a total of 139, followed by Dean with
86, and Clark with 68.
Fight to Block FCC Media Ownership Rules Goes to
Court
INTRO: The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia
will hear oral arguments today in the case of the Prometheus
Radio Project vs. the Federal Communications Commission, a
key lawsuit concerning media ownership laws. We speak with
the program director of Prometheus standing outside of the
courthouse in Philadelphia.
Today in Philadelphia, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals
will hear oral arguments in a key lawsuit concerning media
ownership laws in this country. The case is the Prometheus
Radio Project vs. the Federal Communications Commission.
Promethues Radio Project is a Philadelphia-based advocacy
group for low power radio stations.
Prometheus and a number of other groups including Media Alliance,
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States,
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Center For Digital Democracy,
Consumers Union, and the Consumer Federation of America, filed
suit against the Federal Communications Commission in opposition
to the broadcast media ownership rules passed by the FCC in
June 2003.
On September 3 last year, the Third Circuit imposed a stay
of the implementation of the new rules, and today oral arguments
will be heard on the substantive aspects of the case.
Critics Say Newly Released Military Pay Records
Don't Prove Bush Fulfilled Guard Duty
INTRO: The White House released summaries of President Bush's
Texas Air National Guard service records and pay documents
but questions remain over whether it proves Bush served his
full term in the National Guard.
The White House released summaries of President Bush's Texas
Air National Guard service records and pay documents amid
growing controversy over an alleged one-year gap in his military
service between May 1972 and May 1973.
Bush joined the National Guard in 1968, and spent most of
his service time based near Houston. But in May 1972 he requested
and received a temporary assignment with the Alabama National
Guard. Bush says he recalls showing up for drills in Alabama,
but critics are demanding proof.
The documents released yesterday include payroll sheets never
before made public. Summaries prepared by the Defense Financing
Accounting Service indicate that Bush was paid for two days
in October and four days in November and none in December
1972. He was not paid for February or March 1973.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan repeatedly held up
the 13-page packet his office had released, and declared "I
think these documents show that he fulfilled his duties."
But White House officials were careful to stop short of claiming
that the records proved definitively that Bush had shown up
for all the Guard duties he was expected to.
The newly released records do not indicate what duty Bush
performed or where he was. Military experts -- including one
cited by the White House -- said such records should exist.
This according to the Washington Post.
Also according to the records, Bush was performing service
or unit drills at a time when his commanding officers in Houston
said they could not evaluate him because "he has not
been observed" at the base.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who
helped reignite the story earlier this month when he charged
Bush had gone "AWOL" said, "The handful of
documents released today by the White House creates more questions
than answers."
McClellan came under fire from reporters for nearly the entire
duration of yesterday's White House press briefing. Let’s
take a listen.
Should the Media Investigate Errors In Its Coverage
Leading Up to the Invasion of Iraq?
INTRO: As President Bush appoints a panel to investigate
how the government misread Iraq’s weapons capacity,
media critic Michael Massing argues the media, especially
The New York Times, should examine its role in the lead-up
to the invasion of Iraq.
Last week President Bush appointed a panel to investigate
how the government misread Iraq’s weapons capacity.
A provocative new piece in the New York Review of Books argues
the media should consider examining its role in the lead-up
to the invasion of Iraq.
The author of piece media critic is Michael Massing. He writes
“In the period before the war, US journalists were far
too reliant on sources sympathetic to the administration.
Those with dissenting views—and there were more than
a few—were shut out. Reflecting this, the coverage was
highly deferential to the White House. This was especially
apparent on the issue of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction—
the heart of the President's case for war. Despite abundant
evidence of the administration's brazen misuse of intelligence
in this matter, the press repeatedly let officials get away
with it. As journalists rush to chronicle the administration's
failings on Iraq, they should pay some attention to their
own.”
- Michael Massing, contributing editor of the Columbia Journalism
Review. His article "Now They Tell Us" appears
in the new issue of the New York Review of Books.
Link: www.nybooks.com/articles/16922
Nicholas Yarris Speaks After Being Released From
22 Years on Death Row
INTRO: On Jan. 16 Nicholas Yarris walked from a state prison
in Pennsylvania after spending two decades on death row. DNA
had proven his innocence. He joins us in our studio today
and we hear Mumia Abu Jamal discuss the Yarris case.
On January 16 death row prisoner Nicholas Yarris walked out
of the State Correctional Institution at Greene County, Pennsylvania
after spending 22 years on death row in a solitary 12-by-7-foot
jail cell. He was 42 years old.
Yarris was wrongly convicted of rape and murder in Pennsylvania
in 1982. The conviction was overturned in September when DNA
tests unavailable in the 1980s proved that genetic material
found under the victim's fingernails, on her undergarments,
and in a pair of gloves possibly worn by the killer was not
his.
Yarris is the first death-row inmate in Pennsylvania cleared
by DNA testing.
Despite his exoneration, Yarris remained jailed for weeks
while authorities recalculated prison sentences he received
in Florida for crimes he committed after escaping from sheriff's
deputies in 1985, while the murder case was on appeal. A Florida
judge credited him for the time he had served and ordered
him set free.
The federal appeal was effectively his last option, and the
latest DNA test required the destruction of the last physical
evidence in the case.
After spending half his life in prison, Nicholas Yarris is
a free man.
Another Pennsylvania prisoner - Mumia Abu Jamal has been
on death row for 20 years after being convicted in 1982 of
killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
A journalist, Black Panther, MOVE member, and outspoken critic
of police brutality, racism and the death penalty, Mumia Abu
Jamal has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.
Over the last two decades, Abu Jamal has written regular
commentaries on local, national and world affairs. In July
2003, the Prison Radio Project recorded this about Nicholas
Yarris' case.
- Mumia Abu Jamal, radio commentator and Pennsylvania death
row inmate recorded by Prison Radio.
Link: www.prisonradio.org
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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