Comments

Some comments I wanted to share about recent stories

FAIR Media Watch Counterspin http://fair.org/     

http://fair.org/counterspin-radio/


A Domestic terrorism case in upstate NY gets little national attention when the victims are Muslims.

The Jan 17th show discussed Ariel Sharon's REAL legacy, and NPR's dissappointing move to accept ad money from the Natural Gas industry, but not from groups opposed to gas fracking.  NPR's factual errors in reporting about gas drilling hazards, and highlighting the "economic benefits" of fracking while not covering the downsides including EPA killing a report about environmental effects in Pennsylvania drinking water. 

From the Jan 31st  show

The host, Steve Rendall in discussing "Mitt"--the documentary about Mitt Romney, tells us what the role of news media should be versus what most Mainstream Media is today

Journalism is meant to be an effort to interrogate politicians' constructed images, not celebrate them.  The public needs reporters to explain what candidates propose to do in office, whether their record suggests that they are likely to do those things, and what will happen if they did.

In examining Obama's State of The Union speech, Steve lists a few instances where Obama has paid lip service to a cause, while also asking for adverse policies, and I add a few as well.

Steve mentions that Obama:

• warns about climate change but calls for more drilling
• wants to end "cycle of wars" but was just stopped from starting a new war in Syria
• calls for equality, raise minimum wage but calls for more free trade pacts 

I would add 

• calls for ending war in Afghanistan, but not really since he wants to keep drone bases in the country for 10 more years in order to attack Pakistan NY Times
• said he ended the Iraq War, when he tried to keep troops there but couldnt get legal immunity for them, and the AUMF is still active 2 years later Senator Wyden
• calls on Congress to pass immigration reform, while deporting nearly 2 million people, ignoring his own administration's Morgan Memos calling for an end to deporting those whose only crime was coming here illegally. This American Life American Prospect Mother Jones Think Progress
• and of course there are whistleblowers and dissenters who he praises as keeping government honest, but prosecutes them as spies and jails them, while "welcoming debates" they bring to the public. Change.gov

http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/

Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process. 

John Schmitt, the guest on the show, said that

we have to make sure that he does what we want him to do, and to bring political pressure to make that happen

instead of waiting for what Obama wants to do and not pushing him further to the left or keeping him to his own words or what policies actually work.