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Recent
Stories
June
2, 2003
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
May
31, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
A Whiner Called Horowitz
Gary Leupp
The Frauds of War
Dave
Lindorff
Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment
Tom Stephens
Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Who Is Next?
Joanne
Mariner
Trivializing Terrorism
Wayne
Madsen
Ayatollah Rumseld's Busy Week
Larry Magnuson
Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard?
Elaine
Cassel
Wake Up, America!
Gila Svirsky
Waiting for the Lament to End
Susan
Davis
Kitchen Dreams
Chris Clarke
Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite
Chris
Floyd
Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God
Adam Engel
Gravity's End Zone
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert
May
30, 2003
Ben
Tripp
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda
Neve
Gordon
The Bad Fence
Todd
Steiner
Endangered Ocean
Robert
Freeman
Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity
Sean
Carter
Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions
Daniel
Bacher
How Bush's War Violated International Laws
Tariq
Ali
Re-Colonizing Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush Wars
Web Log
May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Jason
Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports,
US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime
Ron
Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.
Michelle
Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in
America: Pay More to Die Sooner
Kimberly
Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus
Harry
Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at
the Top of the IRA
Stew
Albert
Cops of the World
Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?
May
28, 2003
David
Vest
DubyaCo.: It's Not So Funny Any More
Dave
Lindorff
My Grandfather's Medal
John
Stanton
America's Dying: Arts and Philosophy Hold the Key
Bernard
Weiner
A PNAC Primer
Robert
Jensen
Texas Dems Set a Standard for the Rest of the Party
Ahmad Faruqui
The Oil Business of Regime Change:
the CIA and Iran
Hammond
Guthrie
Disarming Conundrums
Steve Perry
What If There's No Such Thing as Al-Qaeda?
May
27, 2003
Kurt
Nimmo
Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli
Myths
Anthony
Gancarski
Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love?
Patrick
Cockburn
Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad
John Chuckman
an Interpretation of Bush's Character
Kathleen
Christison
What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets
Jeffrey
Blankfort
AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap
Steve
Perry
Trouble in the Hinterlands
May
26, 2003
Franklin
C. Spinney
Test Anxiety: Star Wars, Punctuated
Epistimology and the Triumph of Medievalism
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Sacrifice
Sam
Hamod
When Trained Killers Return Home
Stew Albert
The Final Conflict
May
24 / 25, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss
and the Neo-Cons
Uri Avnery
The Hannibal Procedure
Diane
Christian
Who's the Real Enemy?
"Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards"
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life
William
S. Lind
Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?
William
Cook
Road to Nowhere
David Krieger
Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice
Ilan
Pappe
Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel
Wayne Madsen
American Idle
Noah
Leavitt
Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields
Walt Brasch
Americans are Liars
Lenni
Brenner
John Brown and Dutch Bill
Mickey
Z.
Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Grievous Harm Here and Abroad
Adam Engel
Towers of Babel
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski
May
23, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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for More Stories.
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June
3, 2003
We Interrupt Your
Normal Show to Bring You an Important Message from Michael Powell
and the FCC:
"Go to
Hell, Americans!"
By ELAINE CASSEL
Driving long distances in the Washington, D.C.
area has one advantage--C-Span radio is good company. I am unsure
as to how its signal will be affected by the FCC handover of
the airwaves to media wolves today, but C-Span served me well
yesterday. For I was able to listen to all the FCC commissioners
speak in defense of their votes to loosen media ownership rules.
Many others far more knowledgeable than
I about media and FCC law will cover the technicalities of the
Commission's decision. I am more concerned with the rhetoric
of the majority and their gleeful pronouncement that they didn't
give a damn what the American people thought or wanted. So much
for the FCC representing the public interest. Their public, obviously,
is Rupert Murdoch and friends.
The schism between Americans was obvious
in the Commissioners' comments and votes. Though it had 3 votes
needed to change the rules, the majority ignored 750,000 public
comments, 150 congressional representatives, and groups like
the NRA, NOW, and Common Cause, which were opposed to the decision.
The arrogance of the majority mirrors the arrogance of the majority
in the U.S. Congress.
The Republicans are incapable of civil
discourse. They are loath to entertain opposing viewpoints. They
engage in ad hominem attacks when confronted with alternative
perspectives. Carrying out this tradition of intolerance were
Commissioners Powell and Abernathy--particularly Abernathy, who
sounded like one mean witch of a woman, snarling, with bared
teeth and sharpened claws (the statement of Commissioner Kevin
Martin was rather benign--he was more intent on praising Powell
than defending his position).
The majority decision was based on facts
and logic; the dissenters, they said, were well meaning but misguided
by the same emotions and fear of Americans who were against the
hijacking of the airwaves. Fools they, and fools we, Abernathy
said. History will prove Americans wrong, and the three who know
better than we what is in our public interest chose the right
path for us. Monopolistic control of the media will benefit diversity
of views (there is that Bush regime Alice-in-Wonderland logic
again).
It was not so much the decision, for none of us can truly predict
the end result. Though unlikely, the Supreme Court may reject
or remand the new rules (still unpublished, for we--you and I--don't
need to know what they are just yet, you see). No, it was the
way the big three spoke about you and me. It was the way they
dismissed the comments of three-quarter million Americans. It
was the way they put us down, that chauvinistic accusation of
emotionality for our challenge of their decision. It was the
defiant attitude, the belligerent tone.
It was George Bush telling the rest of
the world that he would do what is best for Iraq and the world,
world leaders' insight and expertise be damned.
It was the Supreme Court awarding the
Presidency to George Bush. Voters and elections be damned.
It was the government telling the governed
that their opinions did not count.
It was a democracy handing over the avenues
of First Amendment expression to a powerful few that support
the Bush regime.
It was the FCC telling Americans to go
to hell.
It was a sad day for democracy, as Commissioner
Adelstein explained in his somber dissent:
"This is a sad day for me, and I
think for the country. I'm afraid a dark storm cloud is now looming
over the future of the American media. This is the most sweeping
and destructive rollback of consumer protection rules in the
history of American broadcasting. The public stands little to
gain and everything to lose by slashing the protections that
have served them for decades. This plan is likely to damage the
media landscape for generations to come. It threatens to degrade
civil discourse and the quality of our society's intellectual,
cultural and political life.
"I dissent, finding today's Order
poor public policy, indefensible under the law, and inimical
to the public interest and the health of our democracy. . . .
It violates every tenet of a free democratic society to let a
handful of powerful companies control our media. The public has
a right to be informed by a diversity of viewpoints so they can
make up their own minds. Without a diverse, independent media,
citizen access to information crumbles, along with political
and social participation."
Elaine Cassel
practices law in Virginia and the District of Columbia, teaches
law and psychology, and writes Civil
Liberties Watch under the auspices of The City Pages.
She can be reached at: ecassel1@cox.net
Today's
Features
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
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