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Violence Continues in Iraq as Jan. 30 Vote Looms
Protesters Disrupt Bush's Inaugural Address
Media Concentration Proponent Michael Powell Resigns From
FCC
Truthout's William Rivers Pitt on the "Perfect Propaganda"
in the Corporate Media
Damu Smith: "Bush Doesn't Know Anything About Freedom"
John Hess 1917-2005: Veteran Journalist and Radio Commentator
Dies at 87
Violence Continues in Iraq as Jan. 30 Vote Looms
A large explosion rocks Baghdad just six days before the
scheduled Jan. 30 election. As violence continues to rage
across the country, the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government
has announced sweeping security measures intended to protect
voters. We go to Baghdad to speak with journalist Patrick
Cockburn of the London Independent.
A large explosion rocked the center of Baghdad today injuring
at least 10 people. The suicide car bomb - which comes just
six days before the scheduled Jan. 30 elections - went off
at a checkpoint near the offices of the US-backed Iraqi Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi.
Supporters of the militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have
claimed responsibility for the attack. On Sunday, Zarqawi
apparently declared war on the election. In an audio tape
on the Internet, allegedly by Zarqawi - he called on Sunni
Muslims to fight against the vote.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, acknowledged
serious problems ahead of next weekend's elections. In appearances
on the Sunday talk shows, he set a low bar for judging the
success of the poll and dismissed suggestions that victorious
Iraqi candidates might force an early withdrawal of U.S. troops.
As violence continues to rage across the country, the US-backed
interim Iraqi government has announced sweeping security measures
intended to protect voters.
The Iraqi government will declare a national holiday from
Jan. 29 to Jan. 31, at which point an 8 p.m. curfew will be
imposed, few cars will be allowed in the streets, citizens
will not be permitted to carry weapons, and the Baghdad airport
will be closed. Iraqi troops will be in charge of securing
polling sites, while U.S. forces will remain in the background
to prevent the image of American soldiers watching over Iraqis
while they vote.
The BBC reports the whereabouts of polling stations will
only be made public at the very last minute and the massive
logistical operation of getting ballot boxes and papers in
place will be carried out in secrecy.
Protesters Disrupt Bush's Inaugural Address
We continue our coverage of inauguration 2005, looking at
the protests in Washington DC that were ignored by the corporate
media. We speak with two people who disrupted President Bush's
inaugural address, Medea Benjamin of CodePink and Jeremiah
Jenkins of Harvard Divinity School. [includes rush
transcript]
As reported on Democracy Now!, the second of inauguration
of George W Bush Thursday was met by thousands of protesters
who took to the streets of Washington DC amid unprecedented
levels of security to oppose the policies of the Bush administration
- but you wouldn't have known it by watching the corporate
media.
The major cable news networks showed footage of the presidential
inauguration on the Capitol, the motorcade through Pennsylvania
Avenue and President Bush and the first lady getting out of
their heavily-armored Cadillac to walk the last block to the
White House. In the evening, news anchors reported from glamorous
events as they followed the president and his wife to nine
inaugural balls.
This past weekend, the organization MediaMatters
issued a report criticizing the major cable news networks
for ridiculing the protesters at the inauguration and for
downplaying their numbers. It is estimated over 10,000 protesters
took to the streets of Washington.
At one point Fox News reported only a few dozen people showed
up at a large rally organized by the ANSWER coalition. On
the next day the New York Times reported thousands of protesters
had shown up in the area where ANSWER receive a protest permit
CNN host Wolf Blitzer described the protesters as "angry,
angry people" and he also explicitly tried to downplay
the protesters significance.
On air he said, "We don't want to make too much of the
protesters, because we don't know how many there were. Certainly,
the nature of this business, the nature of television, we
could over-exaggerate based on the images, and they might
just be a tiny, tiny overall number."
And Fox News host Brit Hume said the fact that protests were
occurring "isn't very important." In addition, MediaMatters
also tracked the degree that Republican and conservative guests
and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives. On
Fox, the ratio was 17 to 6 on FOX. It was 13 to 2 on MSNBC
and 10 to 1 on CNN.
On Democracy Now we continue our coverage of inauguration
2005 by bringing you the voices of dissent not aired in the
corporate media. During the official inauguration proceedings
Thursday, a number of protesters managed to disrupt President
Bush during his address. We caught up with two of them after
they were removed from the Capitol by security officials.
Media Concentration Proponent Michael Powell Resigns
From FCC
As Michael Powell announces his resignation as chairman
of the Federal Communication Commission, we take a look at
his four years in office and his push to loosen media ownership
rules with Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy
and Pete Tridish of the Prometheus Radio Project.
Michael Powell is stepping down as chairman of the federal
Communication Commission ending a contentious four year-term.
His resignation was announced in a Wall Street Journal editorial
on Friday. Powell wrote: "Having completed a bold and
aggressive agenda, it is time for me to pursue other opportunities
and let someone else take the reins of the agency. The seeds
of our policies are taking firm root in the marketplace and
are starting to blossom."
Powell - who is the son of outgoing Secretary of State Colin
Powell - was appointed to the commission in 1997 by President
Bill Clinton and promoted to chairman by President Bush in
2001.
In June 2003, Michael Powell and the two other Republicans
on the FCC pushed through new media ownership rules that would
have allowed the television networks to own a few more stations,
tightened national radio ownership rules, and let one company
own the biggest newspaper and television station in almost
every city. During the run-up to the FCC vote, more than two
million letters, emails and faxes were sent to the FCC. Almost
all of them opposed the weakening of the nation's media ownership
regulations. The rules were later overturned by a court that
said the commission had failed to justify the ruling.
The replacements being considered for Mr. Powell are said
to include another Republican member of the commission, Kevin
Martin; Becky Klein, a former head of the public utility commission
in Texas; Patrick Wood III, the head of the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission; and Michael Gallagher, head of the
National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
- Pete Tridish, organizer with the Prometheus
Radio Project, a Philadelphia not-for-profit dedicated
to the democratization of the airwaves through the proliferation
of non-commercial, community based, micropower radio stations.
Truthout's William Rivers Pitt on the "Perfect
Propaganda" in the Corporate Media
We hear an address by William Rivers Pitt of Turthout.org
on the role of the media in the election and the coming four
years. He spoke at the University of the District of Columbia
soon after President Bush's second inauguration.
- William Rivers Pitt, Managing Editor and Senior Writer
for Truthout.org.
Damu Smith: "Bush Doesn't Know Anything About
Freedom"
We hear a speech by Damu Smith of Black Voices for Peace
speaking at the Plymouth Congregational Church in Washington
DC. Smith says, "Bush knows nothing about freedom. We
know everything about freedom. We are the moral authority
of our nation."
- Damu Smith, of Black Voices for Peace.
John Hess 1917-2005: Veteran Journalist and Radio
Commentator Dies at 87
Longtime journalist and radio commentator John Hess also
died at the age of 87. For 24 years he worked at the New York
Times. He was best known for his 1968 coverage of the Paris
Peace talks, a major expose on nursing home corruption and
for his writings as a food critic. We hear one of his radio
commentaries on Pacifica station WBAI.
Longtime journalist and radio commentator John Hess also
died at the age of 87. For 24 years he worked at the New York
Times. He was best known for his 1968 coverage of the Paris
Peace talks, a major expose on nursing home corruption and
for his writings as a food critic.
In 1977, he co-wrote a book with his wife Karen Hess titled
"The Taste of America." In it they wrote "How
shall we tell our fellow Americans that our palates have been
ravaged, that our food is awful, and that our most respected
authorities on cookery are poseurs?"
Last year Seven Stories published his autobiography titled
My Times: a Memoir of Dissent. In it he criticized his former
employer, the New York Times. He wrote "muckraking...tended
to make the Times brass nervous...Truly investigating, questioning,
skeptical reporting was practically unTimesian."
After retiring from the Times, John Hess became a regular
on Pacifica station WBAI providing daily commentaries to end
the WBAI evening news. He continued writing and recording
commentaries up until his death.
On the website Counterpunch
Alexander Cockburn wrote "John Hess grew old the way
journalists are meant to, but almost never do. He never stopped
stamping on the toes of the powers-that-be, never lost his
edge, never got out of harness."
We go now to a commentary John Hess recorded for WBAI on
June 4th of last year upon the resignation of CIA Director
George Tenet.
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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