While the O.J. Simpson trial gobbled up endless TV hours and countless news pages, a concurrent criminal trial in Miami went almost unnoticed by the national media, even though it called into question the judgment of three U.S. presidents. President Clinton's Justice Department had put on trial Teledyne Industries, a major military contractor, and two of its mid-level employees, on charges of selling cluster-bomb parts to a Chilean arms manufacturer, Carlos Cardoen. Cardoen, in turn, allegedly shipped finished bombs to Iraq. Defense attorneys for the Teledyne employees argued that the CIA, as part of a secret operation that has come [...]
May
01
1995
The Right Has a Dream
Martin Luther King as an Opponent of Affirmative Action
In the last years of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life, many mainstream journalists and conservative politicians treated him with fear and derision. In 1967, Life magazine (4/21/67) dubbed King's prophetic anti-war address "demagogic slander" and "a script for Radio Hanoi." Even years later, Ronald Reagan described King as a near-Communist. Today, however, a miracle is taking place: Suddenly, King is a conservative. By virtue of a snippit from one 1963 address--a single phrase about "the content of our character"--King is the most oft-quoted opponent of affirmative action in America today. "Martin Luther King, in my view, was a conservative," right-wing [...]
May
01
1995
The Mexican 'Miracle'
What U.S. media missed
On May 22, 1993, soldiers from the Mexican army accidentally ran across a guerrilla training camp in the jungles of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. One army officer and one civilian were killed in the clashes that followed, according to the military. The incident was given prominent coverage in La Jornada, a popular, moderately leftist Mexico City daily. The reports of a skirmish were greeted with some skepticism in Mexico, but Gen. Rigoberto Castillejos Adriano, a sub-commander in the National Defense Secretariat, indignantly defended the army's account in a letter featured on the front page of the July 11 [...]
May
01
1995
Your Life Is Brought to You By...
It's been estimated that a typical American TV viewer sees 100 commercials a day. That's 36,500 a year, or perhaps 2.5 million over the course of the viewer's lifetime. Just about every one of those commercials is carefully crafted to convey the message: If you buy our product, you will be complete. Part reviewer, part consumer reporter, Village Voicecolumnist Leslie Savan examines commercial role in shaping our lives and selves. Extra! May/June 1995
May
01
1995
Readers for Sale!
What Newspapers Tell Advertisers About Their Audience
Examines how newspapers sell their readership to advertisers. Reveals how bottom-line demands of corporate owners have resulted in papers putting the selling of "quality" audiences above quantities of papers to readers. How the Wall Street Journal views its readers. Extra! May/June 1995
May
01
1995
Crying Over Spilled Coffee
Media Deform the Legal Reform Debate
By Paul Ruiz
The Republicans' "Contract With America" proposed to drastically alter the U.S. legal system to curtail a flood of "frivolous lawsuits and outlandish damage rewards [that] make a mockery of our civil justice system." What "frivolous lawsuit" problem is the Contract talking about? Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, provided a clue (KPFK, 2/22/95): "Whenever the public reads about a woman who spills coffee in her lap and gets $3 million, most people say this doesn't make a whole lot of sense." You've probably heard about this case. From Jay Leno to your local radio [...]
