National Media Coverage is not much better than Local News
We have conducted dozens of studies looking at what local TV stations and the Grand Rapids Press report on and how they cover major issues. One reason why GRIID does not track national media outlets is because there are several credible organization who already do that important work. Groups like Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, Media Matters, News Dissector, Project Censored and the Project for Excellence in Journalism all provide excellent documentation and analysis of national news reporting.
Last month, we completed a 100-day study of the Grand Rapids Press coverage of the US war in Afghanistan/Pakistan. Many of our findings were similar to the analysis that the national media watchdog groups while the US administration gets ready to make decisions on sending more troops in the ninth year of that occupation.
Currently we are working on a 30-day study of the Grand Rapids Press coverage of elections in Kent County. The study began the day that the top 10 finalists in the ArtPrize competition were announced and will conclude the day after there are local elections (November 4). There are 43 candidates running for a variety of local city council seats, as well as 3 ballot proposals for a few communities within Kent County. We want to make a comparison of how the Press reported on the ArtPrize entries/voting and the local political candidates/voting.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) documents what topics were covered on a weekly basis. For the week of October 12 – 18, fund that health care was the lead story, due in part to the Senate Finance Committee vote on Health Care. After Health Care, the ongoing economic crisis received the second most coverage during the week of October 12 – 13, followed by the “Balloon Boy” story.
The “Balloon Boy” story received more coverage last week than US policy in Afghanistan or Pakistan, despite the fact that the US administration has been debating sending 40 – 80,000 more US troops to fight in that war. Another indication of how the media fails to inform the public about the crucial issues of the day, but instead chooses to make a boy in a balloon, ongoing national news.
AT&T Fights back on Internet Neutrality Battle
Two weeks ago we posted a Media Alert asking people to support new federal legislation that would prevent telecom companies from further privatization of the Internet.
Yesterday, FreePress sent out notification that telecom giant AT&T is fighting back on this issue. FreePress staff person Tim Karr wrote:
The company’s top policy officer sent a memo to workers on Monday urging them to hide their company affiliation before posting anti-Net Neutrality comments to the Federal Communication Commission’s Web site.
“We encourage you, your family and friends to join the voices telling the FCC not to regulate the Internet,” AT&T Senior Executive Vice President James Cicconi wrote in an internal communiqué forwarded to Free Press (and posted here). “It can be done through a personal e-mail account by going to www.openinternet.gov and clicking on the ‘Join the Discussion’ link.”
The notice that FreePress sent out yesterday also states, “Last week, several dozen members of Congress put the interests of AT&T ahead of yours and signed a letter to the FCC opposing the agency’s efforts to protect Net Neutrality.” It isn’t known at this point which members of Congress signed a letter, but according to the Center for Responsible Politics, AT&T has given money equally to both Democrats and Republicans. In the 2008 election cycle AT&T gave $4,464,263 to candidates, the most by any of the telephone companies.
If you haven’t signed the online petition in favor of Internet Neutrality, do so today and encourage people you know to do the same.
Media Bites – US Chamber of Commerce Ad
In this week’s Media Bites we take a look at a commercial that is part of a new ad campaign by the US Chamber of Commerce called the American Free Enterprise Campaign. This campaign is designed to promote the idea that the free enterprise system is what will create new jobs in America. We point out that the US Chamber has supported policies that have resulted in a loss of US jobs as well as their lobbying of Congress for anti-worker policies. The Center for Responsive Politics has documented that the US Chamber of Commerce has spent more money lobbying Congress than any other entity since 1998.
Global Climate Justice Day of Action – Saturday, October 24
This Saturday there will be millions of people participating in over 3,700 different actions in 162 countries demanding climate justice. Grand Rapids is among those communities who have joined in to participate in this historic action.
A group of mostly GVSU students have organized an event in conjunction with the International group 350.org. The Grand Rapids event will start at 11:00am at Rosa Parks Circle with information tables, music and a few speakers. At 12:30 there will be a march to Calder Plaza and at 2pm there will be a Critical Mass bike ride to a local energy company. The local 350 group has a facebook page where you can get more details and sign up to participate.
These actions are all taking place just weeks before the big international climate conference that will be taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark. The heads of state from around the world will gather to decide on what actions to take to reduce carbon emissions, but as Bill McKibben – one of the 350.org organizers says, “the politicians have failed us” on climate justice. Environmental activist Vandana Shiva talked with us last week about climate justice and she affirmed McKibben’s point by saying, “climate justice must be citizen-led.”
Another group, Beyond Talk, is asking people to commit to taking action, even participating in civil disobedience. Beyond Talk is encouraging people to join affinity groups and use a consensus-based process to determine actions. They also have great resources on Direct Action, organizing tools and legal support.
A Small Victory in the Struggle Against Racism
On Friday, it was announced that the group of businessmen who had put in a bid to buy the St. Louis Rams professional football team decided against having radio pundit Rush Limbaugh be an ownership partner.
It was only a few weeks ago that the news media reported that syndicated radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, was being included as a business partner to buy a professional football team. Activists and groups responded quickly to the news.
First, the head of the NFL players union released a statement in opposition to Limbaugh being a part-owner in the league. “Sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it transcends. Our sport does exactly that when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred.”
Next, a petition campaign was begun online that used a new video from Robert Greenwald. The web page included a list of racist comments that Limbaugh has made over the years, such as:
“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
The video posting and the online discussion were so overwhelming in just a few days that the group of businessmen, known for supporting right-wing causes, decided to drop Limbaugh from the ownership team. A small victory.
On Friday, Limbaugh responded to the announcement with this statement: “This is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we’re going to have…..This is the latest assault on people who believe in rugged individualism and liberty and freedom who threaten the whole notion of state control tyranny and central authority which is typified by the Obama administration and the Democrat Party.”
GRIID has been reading the comments on youtube in response to the Greenwald video and it was quite scary. There is a tremendous amount of racist sentiment across the country. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting also issued a media advisory on Friday pointing out how much of the media discourse on this issue doesn’t provide any context to Limbaugh’s history of racist remarks.
For those fighting against racism in the US, this is a small victory, but it also shows there is much work to be done.
Campaign to Get Lou Dobbs Off of CNN
There is a national campaign to get Lou Dobbs off of CNN since Dobbs is viewed by many as anti-Immigrant and anti-Latino. Bastadobbs.com is a new website which is educating people about the racist position that CNN commentator Lou Dobbs has been taking for years on the issue of immigration.
According to the Bastadobbs.com web page:
“Lou Dobbs’ brand of journalism is dangerous to Latinos in America — and it’s time to fight back. This week, the CNN anchor broadcast his radio show from the conference of anti-immigrant hate group FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Founded by a white nationalist, FAIR was linked earlier this year to vigilantes in Arizona who brutally murdered 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father in their home. The appearance at FAIR is just the latest example of Dobbs using his status as a CNN anchor to spread fear about Latinos and immigrants. It’s time we said ¡Basta!”
The campaign has an electronic petition you can sign to pressure CNN to get rid of Lou Dobbs. There is also this short video which highlights Dobbs’ anti-immigrant and racist views.
The Press Reports on Ada-based Global Security Contractor
On Thursday, the Grand Rapids Press reported that the Ada-based company, CSS Alliance, has been awarded a contract by the Somali government to “Provide security consulting services and training for government forces.”
The Press story was on the front page with pictures of the CSS Alliance founders, Somali pirates and a map of the region. This is only the second time we have documented any coverage of the local private military contracting firm. The first time the Press reported on them was in December of 2007 when they were award a contract in Iraq. Now the company has been hired to operate in Somalia.
The Press article says that “CSS Alliance has furnished counterterrorism services in other African nations,” but no details are provided about what these services entail. The Press reporter Ted Roelofs cites one of the co-owners of the company, Chris Frain, early on in the story who makes vague comments about what they will be doing in Somalia.
The article continues with some concerns over the stability of Somalia and references the 1993 US Marine battle in Mogadishu and its Hollywood depiction in Black Hawk Down. The story does cite what the Press calls an “expert in African security issue,” who is with the International Crisis Group. The Press refers to ICG as “an independent nonprofit conflict resolution advocacy group.” According to SourceWatch, ICG is loaded with former diplomats, many of which are from the US. One analysis of the group believes that ICG is not independent and operates with serious conflicts of interest.
The article goes on to discuss “the various Islamic factions that continue to vie for power” in Somalia and mentions the US special forces operation in September. The Press reporter echoes the US State Department position on this action, even though the US has been active for much longer than the recent raid in Somalia and there is no commentary about how Somalia has been a major target of the US war on terror since 9/11.
The rest of the article provides CSS Alliance co-founder Chris Frain with a forum to talk up what good the company has done in New Orleans after Katrina and in Iraq. One would think that with all the new information about human rights abuses and a lack of contractor accountability with private security forces, that the Press might investigate further companies like CSS Alliance before publishing such favorable stories.
Channel 8 posts “story” on Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Branding Scheme
WOOD TV 8 posted on its web page today a story by a reporter that is listed as a “special contributor.” The story is about plans by the Kellogg Company to use laser etching and put a K on their corn flakes.
According to the story, Kellogg’s wants “shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg’s does not make cereal for anyone else.” The company is claiming that there are imposter corn flakes and this is a way to guarantee that customers will not be misled.
The channel 8 story also has a hyperlink to a Kellogg’s Twitter message that has this image of the laser branded flakes. The rest of the posting deals with in part some online media questioning the authenticity of the story, but none of that discussion challenges the idea that this might be a viral marketing ploy by the company. The story also includes a short fact about how many bowls a year the company sells worldwide.
In many ways this story on channel 8’s web page is nothing more than a promotional piece for Kellogg’s Citizens need to ask themselves how this is considered news? Does it address health concerns or economic issues for the public?
Had the story focused on marketing practices that unfairly target children that would be news that the public, consumers and parents would benefit from. Kellogg’s markets products that target children and even uses popular characters like Sponge Bob. Some groups have challenged that practice, like the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. These efforts are what constitute news, not PR campaigns by corporations that are primarily about promoting their products.
Bloom Collective Potluck and Anti-Capitalism Discussion
This Saturday, October 17 from 3 – 5pm, the Bloom Collective is hosting a potluck and discussion on the topic of capitalism. Anyone is welcome to attend and Bloom Collective members will provide vegan dishes for the potluck. The Bloom Collective is located at 1134 Wealthy.
Author/Activist challenges people to be part of the Food Revolution
[Despite the fact that Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned author and activist, there was no media coverage of her talk in Grand Rapids last night. This is in contrast to last week’s visit by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman who also addressed environmental issues.]
Internationally known activist and author Vandana Shiva spoke at Fountain Street Church last night to a crowd of over 500 people. The title of her talk was Food Security in Women’s Hands. Shiva is the author of numerous books on environmentalism and feminism. Her most recent books are Earth Democracy and Soil, Not Oil.
Shiva began her talk by stating, “Freedom begins with freedom for nature…….for all beings. And that freedom means living free of fear and free of hunger.” “The issue of human hunger,” Shiva said, “is at a critical point in human history, where 1 billion people are in permanent state of hunger and another 2 billion people suffering from poor diets.” Her analysis of why the food global food system is unjust is informed by her feminist critique of power. Shiva feels that as long as “womanly hand of Gaia or your mother” has been caring for food, it has never ruined our bodies. Once food became a commodity and came under the control of systems of power, hunger and poor diet expanded.
Shiva also asserted that in nature everything is food or is someone else’s food. There is no imbalance and nothing is wasted. But now, new studies are showing that the current food system leads to tremendous waste. She looks at the example of how animals are raised for meat to underscore this system of waste. “Animals were meant to eat grass, not grains,” Shiva said. “Now humans are competing with animals for grains.” So much energy and resources are used to feed livestock instead of feeding people. Feeding cows grains for example makes us all less healthy and the structure of animal feed operations means that concentrated amounts of animal waste is now a major source of water pollution. This contrasts drastically with traditional Indian culture, which sees cow dung as sacred. Shiva even said that there is a festival for cow dung on October 17th in India.
“In a womanly world there has never been a scarcity of a permanent kind. Nature provides abundance. If you live within nature’s abundance, there would never be anyone in need. In fact, it is a sacred duty to save seeds.” Seed saving was a major theme of Shiva’s presentation. She stressed that seed saving is an ancient practice and was/is a way of preserving both diversity and the future. However, there is a war against seed diversity and Shiva called out Monsanto as a major culprit, since Monsanto has been genetically modifying seeds an attempting to patent seeds around the world.
Shiva said the patenting of seeds is just another form of colonization. She pointed out that the word patent has a long history within colonization. “The letter that Columbus brought when he arrived in the Americas was called a Patent, it was an open letter for colonization, because it said that the King of Spain could now claim the land because Columbus carried this letter.” Today the word patents continue this same type of colonization, where now the products of the land are commodities and have been given legal ownership to corporations.
Continuing on this theme of colonialism Shiva then cites then several European thinkers who supported colonization. She mentioned a phrase they used repeatedly, terra nullius, Latin for “an empty land” or “land devoid of anything.” Many European thinkers believed that the Americas were not really populated, since Native people where not seen as fully human. However, the larger problem was that the land was not being used to make money and therefore devoid of value.
She calls the economy of what indigenous people of the Americas and all around the world practiced an “economy of abundance” where you only use what you need. This contrasted radically with the European notions of capital and wealth.
Shiva stressed that the shifts in food that are taking place today are radical and are affecting all of us. She believes that food should stay in the hands of women in order to avoid catastrophe. “The monoculture of the mind will not tolerate food diversity, but women have always practiced biodiversity.”
One example of monoculture is where plants that have not been made into commodities are now called weeds. “There was nothing like a weed in traditional societies. Everything had a purpose, a use.” Most greens are uncultivated foods, but when monoculture controls the food, you must have a war on biodiversity. One example of this warfare is the Monsanto created herbicide RoundUp. Shiva also pointed out that pesticides were originally designed to kill people during warfare, but the chemical companies figured out a way to convince governments that this chemical weapon could now be used to kill “weed.”
Dr. Shiva said that the “Green Revolution” was supposed to help bring more food to the world, but what happened was that multinational corporations became wealthier and the only foods that increased in production were rice and wheat, which are not sufficient for a healthy diet.
Shiva says that our current food system is unsustainable. She said that since a large percentage of the unsustainability is the fact that most foods travel long distances before they are consumed. Our dependence on fossil fuels in this current food system is a major source of globalized greenhouse gases. What the activist/author said we need to do is to reclaim localized food systems.
Localism is a big part of the current struggle in India, where farmers are battling companies like Monsanto and Coca-Cola. When Monsanto was recently brought to court in India over their attempts to control seed stock they made it clear that they had every right to charge people what they want since they owned the intellectual property rights of seeds. Some communities in India have fought this and won.
“With these monocultures of the mind,” Shiva said, “We end up having a war against food, the land, climate, water and our bodies. It is time to take back the seeds, which will be our bodies. We have to take back the seed for diversity and because the type of seeds they are now creating have no life. Feminists have marched to take back the night, but we need to take back more than the night, we need to take back the world. Women are at the forefront of this movement and need to be acknowledged as the leaders in our future. As long as we have a masculinized approach to food production we will have no future. When we have just a few companies controlling most of the food production, we have a totalitarian food system, a food dictatorship. What we need is a food revolution, which begins with the seed and in the kitchens of the world.”
