March 2008

Rhetoric: High; Anxiety: Low

RHETORIC: HIGH; ANXIETY: LOW
[SOURCE: New York Times 3/1, AUTHOR: Eric Lichtblau]
The warnings from President Bush and his senior aides have grown more urgent over the last few weeks, now that Congress has let a temporary wiretapping law expire. But there is little sign of anxiety among many intelligence and phone industry officials. Indeed, for all the heated rhetoric in Washington about the government’s wiretapping powers, the debate over what a new surveillance law should look like has little to do with the present or the future and almost everything to do with the past. At its crux, the debate is about whether Mr. Bush can give retroactive legal protection to telephone carriers that cooperated in the program of wiretapping without warrants he authorized weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a program that critics charge was illegal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/us/01fisa.html?ref=todayspaper
(requires registration)

White House E-Mail Gone Missing

WHITE HOUSE E-MAIL GONE MISSING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Historians eager to search through the daily minutiae of the Bush administration can expect scandalously little help from the White House’s shoddy and suspiciously gap-ridden e-mail archives. Estimates of the number of missing e-mail messages range into the millions. The gaps coincide with critical periods like the run-up to the Iraq war — and the rollout of specious intelligence — as well as the period when the White House was leaking the identity of the former C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame Wilson. Also missing are communications from Karl Rove, the president’s former political guru, and 50 other White House staffers who used e-mail accounts at the Republican National Committee. The threat to the nation’s historical record is severe. The administration’s latest archive expert has promised to get “to the bottom of this.” Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House committee investigating the matter, may have spoken for history when he described the administration running out the clock on itself and “sandbagging” the public interest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01sat3.html?ref=todayspaper
(requires registration)

Judge Reverses His Order Disabling Web Site

JUDGE REVERSES HIS ORDER DISABLING WEB SITE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jonathan Glater]
On Friday Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco withdrew his earlier order disabling a Web site that allows the anonymous posting of documents to discourage unethical behavior in governments and corporations. On Feb 15, Judge White ordered the American address of the site, Wikileaks.org, to be disabled at the request of Bank Julius Baer & Company, a Swiss banking company, and its Cayman Islands subsidiary. They charged that Wikileaks had posted confidential, personally identifiable account information on some of the bank’s customers. The judge’s action drew criticism -- and court filings -- from numerous organizations concerned that the order violated the First Amendment protection of free speech. Because Wikileaks operates sites, like Wikileaks.cx, in other countries, the documents were and are still widely available, both in the United States and elsewhere. In reversing himself at a hearing here on Friday, Judge White acknowledged that the bank’s request posed serious First Amendment questions and might constitute unjustified prior restraint. He also appeared visibly frustrated that technology might have outrun the law and that, as a result, the court might not be able to rein in information once it had been disclosed online.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/us/01wiki.html?ref=todayspaper
(requires registration)

Bush Aide Resigns After Admitting Plagiarism

BUSH AIDE RESIGNS AFTER ADMITTING PLAGIARISM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sheryl Gay Stolberg]
Tim Goeglein, a longtime aide to President Bush who wrote occasional guest columns for his hometown newspaper, resigned on Friday evening after admitting that he had repeatedly plagiarized from other writers. The White House called his actions unacceptable. Goeglein had worked for Mr. Bush since 2001, as a liaison to social and religious conservatives, an important component of the president’s political base. Mr. Goeglein was influential in decisions on a range of questions important to that constituency, including stem cell research, abortion and faith-based initiatives. A blogger in Mr. Goeglein’s hometown, Fort Wayne (IN), found the plagiarism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/us/01aide.html?ref=todayspaper
(requires registration)

* Fort Wayne Paper Finds White House Aide Plagiarized 20 Columns
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...
* White House aide admits to plagiarism, resigns
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2942736320080301

Time for a Shield Law

TIME FOR A SHIELD LAW
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] There are laws or court decisions in 49 states and the District of Columbia that protect the relationship between reporters and their sources. Yet no such safeguard exists on the federal level. The House passed such a bill, but the Senate measure that cleared the Judiciary Committee last October still awaits a vote on the floor. More than 40 reporters have been questioned by federal prosecutors about their sources, notes and reports in civil and criminal cases in recent years. Without protection on the federal level, the public's right to know will surely be diminished. The Senate must act to ensure that doesn't happen.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/02/AR200803...
(requires registration)

Next FCC Must Grasp Change — and Truly Understand History

NEXT FCC MUST GRASP CHANGE -- AND TRULY UNDERSTAND HISTORY
[SOURCE: Common Dreams, AUTHOR: Ryan Blethen, Seattle Times]
[Commentary] The press is missing a chance to examine where the remaining presidential candidates stand on media policy, especially issues before the Federal Communications Commission. So far, the press corps has whiffed on a media-policy softball served up by The New York Times last week. The article gave readers a glimpse of how the FCC might look and work in a John McCain presidency. What emerges from the piece is disturbing. Sen McCain (R-AZ) used his considerable power as chairman of the Commerce Committee to force the FCC into approving the sale of a Pittsburgh television station to a major contributor in his 2000 presidential campaign. Lobbyists and donors snuggling up to politicians is not new, rare or shocking. Sen McCain has further to fall, though. He has branded himself as a fighter against the influence of special interests in politics. Sen McCain’s close relations with the corporations that had business before the regulatory agency he oversaw is troublesome. It raises questions as to who will head the agency in a Sen McCain administration, and what will be tolerated. The next president has a chance to reshape the FCC. For too long the agency has chipped away - or gutted - rules essential to democracy. The FCC is a partisan body pegged to the White House. Three seats for the party that holds the presidency, two for second place. Many of the issues dealt with by the commission are nonpartisan, or should be. This is an important election for the FCC. The public deserves a commission filled with people who can grasp the rapidly-changing media, yet understand the historical and structural importance of the press and media to our democratic system. It is time the press divert its attention from speculation over an affair and focus on the candidates’ vision for one of America’s most important regulatory agencies.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/29/7372/

* McCain's FCC Dealings Draw Renewed Scrutiny
FCC lawyers said Sen McCain had broken rules in intervening.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87783425&ft=1&f=3

Anchor uses own newscast to unveil run for office, stirs criticism

ANCHOR USES OWN NEWSCAST TO UNVEIL RUN FOR OFFICE, STIRS CRITICISM
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
Rick Dancer, a longtime anchorman on an Oregon television station, led off a newscast with news that he would be running to be the Oregon Secretary of State. After ABC's Academy Awards coverage ended Sunday, its Eugene, Oregon, affiliate spent the first three minutes of its newscast on Dancer's candidacy, including a question-and-answer session with an on-air colleague. Quite a bit of high-profile coverage for a second-tier state race. Which brings up a question: What about Dancer's four Democratic rivals? "I was stunned that this man who was in my living room every night announced his candidacy on the evening news," said one of those candidates, state Sen. Vicki Walker. "It just didn't seem like something you could do." The station's CEO, Carolyn Chambers, is a staunch Republican who has given nearly $90,000 to Republican causes and candidates over the last 13 years.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/28/anchor.candidate.ap/index.html

Latino Stations Win Big in Texas

LATINO STATIONS WIN BIG IN TEXAS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: David Goetzl]
The Democratic nomination may well hinge on the Latino vote in the March 4 Texas primary. So it's no wonder Spanish-language broadcasters statewide have been drinking in a gush of Texas tea. For the past three weeks, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been buying up time in the Lone Star State from Amarillo in the Panhandle to Brownsville on the Mexican border, yielding an unexpected and most welcome windfall for station groups that thought primary dollars would dry up with a swift Clinton victory. The airwaves on Univision, Telemundo and Azteca stations have been filled with spots featuring former San Antonio mayor (and Univision board member) Henry Cisneros urging Latinos to participate in pro-Clinton early voting, and Obama reading the mandated candidate-approval message in Spanish: “Yo soy Barack Obama y apruebo esta mensaje.” Univision and Telemundo both have owned-and-operated stations in Houston and San Antonio that are benefiting from political ads, while affiliate groups such as Azteca's Una Vez Mas have collected their share. Spending across Texas could reach $2 million, a real boon for the Spanish outlets.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6537171.html

The '60s Fetish

THE '60s FETISH
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: William Powers]
[Commentary] Some say that the media have fallen hard for Barack Obama. Others note that journalists once carried a torch for John McCain and may well do so again. Watch the coverage closely, however, and it turns out that the most powerful media bias in this campaign is not for a person but for a decade. The 1960s are alive all over again in the Baby Boomer-run media, as reporters and pundits try to make sense of this political moment by returning repeatedly to a moment four decades old. The'60s fetish has been with us for a long time and was a motif of the 2004 presidential campaign. But it's back now in a new and more powerful way, thanks in part to the rise of Obama. If the news outlets of the early '60s had been this backward-looking, JFK's candidacy would have been all about the 1920s. "Gosh, doesn't that young Kennedy fellow remind you of flappers, the Lost Generation, and Warren Harding?" But then, that would have been silly.
http://nationaljournal.com/powers.htm

'Soft' Press Sharpens Its Focus on Obama

'SOFT' PRESS SHARPENS ITS FOCUS ON OBAMA
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
[Commentary] Has the time of the media going easy on Sen Barack Obama ended? The Illinois senator still hasn't faced the sort of negative onslaught that generally envelops presidential front-runners. But after a year of defying the laws of journalistic gravity, he is being brought back to earth. Some of this involves recycled reporting that didn't get much traction the first time around. Obama spokesman Bill Burton maintains the media have "consistently examined both his public and personal record." Burton calls suggestions of soft treatment "a false premise that is advocated by a couple of members of the media and the Clinton campaign. The investigative teams at the networks, major national news organizations and the Chicago papers would take great issue with the notion they haven't examined Barack Obama's record." The Chicago newspapers have been the most aggressive by far.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/02/AR200803...
(requires registration)

* Obama's Web marketing triumph
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Devin Leonard]
Why does Barack Obama appear to be outmaneuvering Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary? Part of the reason is his campaign's mastery of the Internet, says Rishad Tobaccowala of Publicis. He uses Obama's come-from-behind primary and caucus victories against a brand name like Clinton as a cautionary case study for his market-leading clients.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/29/technology/leonard_politics.fortune/inde...

Benton

Search