Bob Costas our entire audience

I remember when I stopped watching Bob Costas shows.  Costas aired a show on steroids in baseball, an area that has been dominated by ignorance, poor conjecture, and icon driven news, and a topic I want to hear more about.  Unfortunately, Bob Costas regurgitated the same old fluff, and I was left longing.

Since then, Costas has ranted against internet reporters, and hosted a show where a guest ranted about internet reporters.  These rants were nothing new, many corporate media reporters spout similarly.  I heard Dan Rather and other ‘serious’ news reporters say pretty much the same, only without the hate of Costas and his guest.  The same underlying message in each complaint is this:

1. Internet information is not as sophisticated, accurate, nor well thought out as mainstream media
2. People from mainstream media are more versed in their craft and are less hateful and opinionated than internet people
3. It’s frustrating that people are turning to internet for news and info, when ‘we’ are so much better, sophisticated, and intelligent than they are.

That is their basic message, and they are mainly wrong on all 3.  I’ll provide some quotes from them to show they clearly believe this, but they are endless if you want to search for yourself.

Bob Costas:

“But it’s one thing if somebody just sets up a blog from their mother’s basement in Albuquerque and they are who they are, and they’re a pathetic get-a-life loser, but now that pathetic get-a-life loser can piggyback onto someone who actually has some level of professional accountability and they can be comment No. 17 on Dan Le Batard’s column or Bernie Miklasz’ column in St. Louis. That, in most cases, grants a forum to somebody who has no particular insight or responsibility. Most of it is a combination of ignorance or invective.” …

“It’s just a high-tech place for idiots to do what they used to do on bar stools or in school yards, if they were school yard bullies, or on men’s room walls in gas stations. That doesn’t mean that anyone with half a brain should respect it.”

Bob Costas’ guest, Buzz Bissinger:

“I don’t take back a word of what I said. I have a tremendous amount of problems with blogs. It doesn’t mean all blogs are bad. It doesn’t mean I’m against free speech, because I’m not.

The reason for it was is that I really care about this passionately, because, you know, I think blogs are a threat, not a threat to old school, it’s not a threat to M-M-S’es, as they call it, the mainstream media, it’s a threat to writing and reporting, which is what I’ve done for 40 years and what many people have done better than me.

It’s not all just about what flies into your head, and let’s, you know, put it down, and let’s be nasty and mean-spirited and hope we get as many posts and comments as we can so traffic increases and then, bingo-bango, we make some money. That’s not what it’s about.”

(I assume that people know to click on the highlighted words for links supporting the text.  The last is from Sports by Brooks, a very good sports news site)

I will grant mainstream reporters that many of them are very hard working and skilled in formatting messages.  But their accuracy and scope of information is severly lacking.  Internet communication has evolved from simple messages to a complex system of global news gathering and dissemination, and it is still evolving.  Somewhere early in that evolution, people realized that the most important news to their lives is completely being ignored or misrepresented by mainstream news.  Mainstram media is losing their audience rapidly because they refuse to compete with regard to accuracy.  It is their choice.

Want examples?  The illegal invasion of Iraq was fradulently portrayed in mainstream media.  This was reported by the New York Times only recently, but ignored elsewhere.  If you read Glen Greenwald’s excellent articles on this topic, you will find him begging for the mainstream media to cover stories like this.  Instead, they refuse to publish pertinant info, and instead blame others.

The amount of carcinogens and contamination in the air, meat, vegetables, and water – due to large corporations tweaking profits, is not on mainstream news even though they are quite aware of it.  I can find good info on that vastly important topic through the internet and libraries – but not TV.

Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, and other intellectuals have needed points to make about the issues facing America that need to be overcome to retain a healthy society.  But you have to use the internet to find them, mainstream media won’t cover it.

Costas and the rest can argue all they want, but the only audience they will receive is from they heavily marketed corporate structure.   If we ‘bloggers’ had the same national advertising revenue and broadcast TV rights, you would never hear of Costas.  Then maybe, as Costas types from his Mother’s basement – maybe we will hear some real news.

Note: The graph at the top is from the ‘state of the news media’ 2008 edition, and shows the number of evening news viewers from 1980 to 2007.

Texas Prisoner Keith Russell Judd Gets His Name Listed On Idaho Democratic Primary Ballot With Obama, Clinton

CBS reported that a prisoner in Texas, Keith Russell Judd, “conned” his way into the Idaho Democratic Primary Ballot by following the applicable law and legally applying for the ballot.  Judd used the same method as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama but I can find no citation of their filings being a ‘con’.  Apparently CBS and the other news organizations consider this legal filing a con based on who did the filing, and not the action itself.

This article was repeated almost verbatim in other newspapers like the New York Times, providing a hint of the way current mainstream news is created.

Idaho state Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said, “We did some checking,” Ysursa said. “There was nothing legally to keep him off.”  Ysursa does not say if they then tried illegal means to try and keep him off.  Ysursa continued, “We may rethink how we get on our presidential ballot next time,” Ysursa said. “We’ll take a look at it. We’ve got four years to think about it.”  I am glad they are working hard to get those pesky non-corporate backed candidates off the ballot.  Why they consider Judd an issue when he has no chance to win, and they do not fix the well known problems in the voting system that got Bush to President, is a mystery.

The article states, as if mocking Orwell, “No matter how many votes he gets this time, he won’t get any national convention delegates. Idaho’s delegates are chosen at party caucuses.   “The good thing is the Democratic presidential primary has absolutely no legal significance,” Ysursa said.  Oh thank God for the reassurance that we don’t have to worry that any of our votes for a legally qualified candidate will be counted.

Summarizing the article: a person desiring to enter the presidential primary ballot in multiple states, conforms to all legal requirements, and is rejected by most states.   A state that does accidentally accept his ballot now regrets it and will do more in the future to find ways to keep ordinary citizens off the ballot.  But do not worry, your vote won’t count anyway, so no cause for alarm.  I commend CBS and other news organizations, and representatives for the Democratic Party and Idaho government for being so honest about how they are trying to subvert the Amercian democratic voting system.  Meanwhile, the public is more concerned with how Geore Bush stole the last 2 elections.

Who is Keith Russell Judd?  The articles’ only background is “Keith Russell Judd is serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. He’s scheduled for release in 2013″  Fourteen years in federal prison for making a threat?  I started digging (news reporter word that means typing into Google and calling friends).

Most court records involving Judd have been sealed or unpublished, other than rejected appeals that do not mention details of the original case or cause of imprisonment.  The courts specifically reject Judd’s lawsuits due to multiple defective filings.  Could Judd be imprisoned for making multiple court filings against the University and other large organizations?   Through Google I found the earliest reference to Judd and University of New Mexico is from 1995, “Judd v. University of N.M., No. 94-2236, 1995 WL 228234″.  This rejection of appeal mentions “the United States Secret Service was voluntarily dismissed from this case on May 16, 1994″.

I did find, in the text of a book ‘The American Dictionary of Criminal Justice’ that Judd was barred by judicial order in Texas to not file any non-criminal complaints, due to his many ‘frivolous’ filings.  Probably, it appears, his imprisonment deals with a threat of lawsuit, also based on this text from a court proceeding:

“On September 27, 1999, the petitioner was convicted by a jury of two
counts of mailing a threatening communication with intent to extort money or
something of value in violation of 18 U.S.C.§ 876. See United States v. Judd,
252 F.3d 435 (5th Cir. 2001) (per curiam) (not published) (affirming conviction
and sentence). Because of various aggravating factors that increased the
offense level by a total of eighteen and the criminal history category from one
to four, the petitioner was sentenced to 210 months’ imprisonment. “

Multiple frivilous court filings is the status quo for large corporate entities like the RIAA and the Democratic party (when trying to keep third party candidates off the ballot).  The surprising success of Judd in getting his name on the Idaho ballot could provide us with insight on how the United States surpresses political speech in individual non-corporate sponsors and treats the mentally ill.  If enough people in Idaho that vote for Judd it will do more to shine light on the issues in our voting system that need to be addressed for American democracy.

For more information on this candidate, see the informative site Project Vote Smart.  Among their information on Judd is his coloful nicknames (Mr. President, Dark Priest, W.D., Rusty), religion (Rastafarian-Christian), and his general background helping homeless people vote or producing music.

“Don’t hate the media, become the media” -Jello Biafra-

California District Court attacks Freedom of the Press, shuts down Wikileaks website

A California District Judge ordered the domain name for Wikileaks disabled and all access removed. Wikileaks is a website that attempts to create an online database of leaked information from whisteblowers, about illegal and/or inhumane and immoral actions by governments and corporations around the world. They claim to do all they can to protect whistleblowers’ anonymity. Wikileaks’ past work has been instrumental in allowing individuals to present information to the public regarding repressive regimes and dangerous corporate actions.

This recent court decision was based on a filing brought by a large Swiss bank, Julius Baer, who brought the complaint based on released documents covering aspects of the bank’s alleged asset hiding and money laundering techniques. Both the bank and Wikileaks are based outside of the United States. The webhost for the website, Dynadot, was the defendant in the preliminary hearing. Wikileaks’ attorneys appear to have not been invited to the hearing.

The website information remains available through servers outside the United States, using other website addresses.

Partial list of links to Wikileaks websites that remain active.

This court ruling in reminiscent, although more extensive, of the ruling against The New York Times in 1971 to not publish information provided by noted whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.  In that case, the court ruling only applied to the information in question and allowed the New York Times to continue publishing other information.  This ruling prevents all publishing by the Wikileaks United States domain.  The 1971 New York Times court decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court for being unconstitutional.

The Judge who issued the prior restraint ruling against the Wikileaks website, Judge Jeffrey S. White, is known for previously rejecting a plea deal as too lenient against Troy Ellerman, a lawyer who was accused of leaking information regarding the Barry Bonds steroid issue.

The one that got away, with nothing

“What is that group down south that is trying to recreate the Civil War? Anyone know what I mean? Oh yeah, Georgia State Troopers”

Emo Phillips

The United States has a peculiar fetish for locking up Black people, in chains or prisons. As I have noted in prior posts, the United States has the highest per capita prison population in the world, with a rate over 19% higher than the 2^nd highest country.

The Department of Justice estimates that 4.8% of Black males were in prison on the midpoint day, 2006. One in 20! So the next time a Black man tells you he is being oppressed by the White man, walk away before you are arrested as an accessory.

 

Oh, as an aside, I am using the terms ‘Black’ and ‘White’ to communicate that I am writing about race. I could use ‘Caucasian’ and ‘Negro’, but that upsets more people. The term ‘African American’ is a BS term that is 1) inaccurate (there are White Americans from Africa and Blacks who are neither African nor American), and 2) a distraction from the real problem. If you study or experience racism in this country, and determine that the problem is simply that the wrong label is being used, you are part of the problem, get out of the way. That would be like being raped anally and worrying about getting your hair mussed. If you want to be called any name, as an individual, I will be happy to oblige, be it African American or Snappy Sweet Cheeks, but don’t make me sacrifice accuracy and communication because you are afraid of some commonly used words. Oh sorry, where was I?

 

Oh yeah, 1 in 20 Black males in prison. As many of you probably know, about 13 years ago, a Black man got away, by the name of O.J. Simpson. Well, he didn’t really get away, even though he was found ‘not guilty’. He lost: most of his money, which was significant; his livelihood; his reputation; considerable time to prison; and a second trial. Most of us are in bad shape in this country, if we are simply accused of a crime.

Some people didn’t like that he got away, mainly those with TV broadcast stations, so I and many others had to sit through years of whining how he was guilty, and the system doesn’t convict enough guilty Black people. TV ‘news’ tends to repeat itself, a usual trait of propaganda. In the meantime, the same people basically ignore a more disturbing travesty of justice, when Scooter Libby is convicted of a major felony, but is set free. Yep, in Scooter’s case, unlike O.J.’s – the jury found him Guilty. Scooter may have made money in the deal too – because his defense fund collected over $5 million, perhaps more than his fine ($250,400) and attorney costs. His livelihood is fine.

Now O.J. is back in the news, arrested again, and we will have to hear more crap about how the system is tilted towards celebrities. Well it is tilted, against the majority of the American population. Sometimes the system allows a guilty person to go free, but – more than any other country, the system puts average citizens behind bars. When I hear about O.J., I think about the many innocent people the system has put in prison, and how to give strength to their weak voices.

 

 

Jack & Yoo, Off the record

The Bush administration has pushed the envelope of right-wing extremism in this country. Up to now, we have only seen small parts of this deranged asylum, due to the unprecedented secrecy in which this dangerously wacko administration has run. We do, however, get samples of how far out their actions are, when former members of this right-wing cult themselves feel that enough is enough. I mean, I thought John Ashcroft was as nutsy as any member of a kooky religious cult. (As a small example, one of his first actions after taking office was to cover up semi-nude statues in government buildings that signified justice. How metaphorical.) But even Ashcroft, while lying weak on a hospital bed, was willing to resign his position rather than support decisions by the administration, because they were too extreme.

Another member of this right-wing psychiatric sect is Jack Goldsmith, who was an attorney in the Department of Justice and good friend of John Yoo (who wrote many legal opinions for the president, including those providing legal exception to the administration’s torture and wiretapping activities), until he resigned because he could not support the Administration’s extreme actions concerning torture.

Jack Goldsmith has written a book that partially describes the criminal inner-workings of the Bush gang. A preview of that book is provided in an interview Goldsmith conducted with the New York Times, released in the Sept 9 New York Times Magazine. I recommend reading the full article here.

As a taste, here is how the DOJ is described in the article:

“… the office has two important powers: the power to put a brake on aggressive presidential action by saying no and, conversely, the power to dispense what Goldsmith calls “free get-out-of jail cards” by saying yes. Its opinions, he writes in his book, are the equivalent of “an advance pardon” for actions taken at the fuzzy edges of criminal laws. “

When the DOJ did not go far enough in supporting illegal activities, they were threatened and pushed until they had no choice but resign or go further than their already corrupt brain would take them It really is a fascinating tale.

Hello world!

Hello readers. Welcome to MediaVero, the true Press. My journalistic name is SkeptiSys, and I am a member of the News Media of the United States of America.  This first post is some background about why I started this news organization.

One thing about me you should know is that I have tremendous love for my country, the United States of America. My love for the U.S. has nothing to do with symbols like the national flag, however, as that has become more symbolic of hatred, cowardice, and separatism. When I see someone waving the red white and blue flag, I think: ‘there is someone who hates immigration and paying taxes – someone who would enthusiastically give away fundamental U.S. rights, based on a suggestion of a government or corporate official, or someone wants something from me.’ Do you want my children to die so oil company and war profiteers can increase profits? Well, I would need something truly emotional, like a symbol of patriotism, to get me to do something so drastic. Yeah, only something emotional like patriotism and fear could elicit that response. So no, my patriotism doesn’t come from these false symbols. Then why do I love my country?

I love the U.S. mainly because of the types of rights afforded to all citizens by the founding fathers. The founding fathers recognized that countries naturally tended towards suppression of its citizens, so they attempted to create boundaries that would keep the government from controlling the public, preserving it as the government of the people. Every right and freedom was created for this one goal, even going as far as to concede that the rights are so vast that they exceed that which can be written. These rights and freedoms define this country, and it is only when we fight for these rights that we are fighting for our country and its people. I truly believe these rights and freedoms are worth fighting for with all we have.

Among these freedoms is the Freedom of Press, which is protection from governing bodies for those members of the public, the citizens, who report the news. In the context of this freedom, we live in very interesting times. True media of the people, on one hand, has been eroding rapidly, its place taken over by a few large corporations that resemble, and share the values of, big government. Certainly this was not what the founding fathers envisioned, as they wanted the press to be of the people. Fortunately, a rare occasion of wise investment of the citizen’s money resulted in what is now called the internet, and with it the rebirth of the freedom of the press. I am proud to now be a part of this country’s long and storied tradition of the press.

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” – Thomas Jefferson -