In FAIR’s recent study of the PBS NewsHour, we found that discussions of the Afghan War were incredibly narrow–no opponents ofa war that isbroadly unpopular among the American public were allowed to make their case.
Last night’s NewsHour (12/16/10) offered a chance to see that narrow sourcing yet again. The showfeatured areported segment on the administration’s much-anticipatedreview of the progress (or lack thereof) in Afghanistan.The NewsHour quoted Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A wide range of views from inside the administration.
For the debate segment, anchor Jim Lehrer presented “two views of the review.” The first guest was retired Gen. Jack Keane, a well-known proponent of the Iraq surge. The other guest was Andrew Wilder of the U.S. Institute for Peace. He saw “somewhat modest tactical and operational gains” in the war, and commented favorably on U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. He remained concerned that the Afghan and Pakistani governments were not performing well.
Keane said pretty much the same, though he sounded more certain: “It’s unmistakable that the momentum is beginning to switch to our favor.” Both agreed that the key to the war is somehow pressuring Pakistan. These are not conclusions that are all that surprising, and would hardly conflict with what you would hear from U.S. officials.
Can’t public television offer a wider view? Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) wrote a strong piece critical of the administration’s war review, for starters. Independent experts and critics of the war are not exactly hard to come by. They seem to have a hard time being heard on public TV’s flagship newscast.
They haven’t in the past, why should they do so now? What would they gain? The sponsors of PBS are mainly if not exclusively right wing foundations.
As the Bush era neared its climax -the anti war rhetoric grew to a bellow that died with a whimper the moment Obama took over.Everyday before Obama i saw newspaper accounts of every soldier who died that day.Anti war protesters camped outside his house( Cindy S) were on CNN daily.Protests,and such deep hatred generated against the president.Demands for an end game.Since the day Obama was elected he has gotten a bi.And stories telling us what the hell is happening over are confused and far and few between.I would say with Bush they were bad but gaining.Under obama there is a deafening silence.Any sane person could see why we went there.But sanity demands we not be here still demanding our own idea of nation building and security in 20 years.And i am not blaming Obama.This is a tough nut
“Independent experts and critics of the war are not exactly hard to come by.”
You could start with this guy:
Oil or Terrorism: Which Motivates U.S. Policy More?
by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/15-7
One of the very few â┚¬Ã…“alternativeâ┚¬Ã‚ pieces I’ve seen that deals with the underlying motives for â┚¬Ã…“The War on Terrorâ┚¬Ã‚ Ãƒ¢”žÂ¢.
And you have to wonder just why that is, don’t you?
The greatest threat to mainstream media is economic. If the public finds its information to be more reliable in other media, other sources, then they will stop watching and supporting any so called mainstream media, and so, revolution by attrition.
U.S. Institute for Peace, wants to have peace and thinks NATO is the best peacekeeper ever and is home for war criminals and their proteges.
The same can be said for NPR, at least in all the major news shows. Yet they have the gall to claim “independent reporting” that presents “all sides of an issue”at every fundraiser. So just where is the public in “public” broadcasting?
AND it was on the same night as the Vets for Peace luminaries breached the White House Barackades and chained to its fences in protest of the BushCObamanible Wars; with NO PUBLIC BS REPORT, whatever; meanwhile, halfascist “Peace” Institute and Warhawk mirrorspeakers BOTH JAW-JAW WAR-WAR mit der Lehrer!
Obama has been good at derailing anti-war sentiment with the fake withdrawal from Iraq and the escalation in Afghanistan coupled with promises of an eventual draw-down. It is amazing that, with such an unpopular war, we are not seeing more energy in the streets. Even so, the president is promising a timeline. Maybe if we applied more pressure we could get a faster timeline. My guess is that the continuing monopoly on prowar voices on Afghanistan may represent a defensive recognition of the weakness of the pro-war case and of the unpopularity of the position. Even so, shouldn’t public television be public?
I suspect we’re not seeing more “energy in the streets” because the vast majority of Americans have their immediate lives to consider, Tishado. Things are very bad, and the far-off wars (made deliberately far off through God-awful coverage in the press) are simply rumors. When everyday folks stop watching football and show no concern for the travails of washed-up actors–that’s when the rubber will hit the road.
Tim the rubber is already hitting the road with a force weary reality.No country can carry on with a war so long engaged and funded, without a more general draft.And that of course would awake the American public and force the hand of the government to move hard toward an end game.The lack of a draft ,and the fact that those who serve now are aware of their lot going in- causes a strange disconnect in the public and the press.The glory of war and proving manhood upon the field of battle has taken hold of a good amount of our young men.And so their loss is somehow become less than if they were taken from their homes and future dreams as would happen in a draft.I shudder to say no one cares.But too little care for sure.And the press is MIA.Obama?He has found out how hard this is.I believe he wants out as much as anyone.That we are going the other way shows how hard this is.At the least i would like more military clarity.But this military is completely politicized.They do not speak out of turn.Although I see the Wickileaks releases as awash in illegalities,i must admit that it it a breath of the ‘real poop” that we get too little of in the modern information stream.And in that sense damn interesting
And this is a surprise why? As someone else commented, despite beliefs by some to the opposite, PBS (and to some extent NPR) have been fully in the pocket of business and conservative concerns. And of course some of those companies have direct ties to the war machne.
Their allegedly liberal news programming almost ALWAYS stops short of telling the real truth. Their allegedly diverse arts programming aims directly at (allegedly) liberal upper Eastsiders (and their equally rich white ilk), and/or the culturally ignorant who think that groups like Celtic Women, Riverdance, and Susan Boyle have any talent to offer. I heard the other day that PBS finally is acknowledging good music from the 70s!
I long ago gave up watching PBS for the most part, and you couldn’t pay me to listen to NPR’s whitebread for white people radio nonsense…
Michael e., “There you go again” on the contrary, only an “insane” person could see why we went there. It was unfortunate that the Iraq war took eyes off the real war, Afghanistan. Iraq was a great distraction.
I was for a number of years a supporter of NPR and PBS, but the more they became entrenched in corporate sponsorship, the less credibility I gave to them. They are a big disapointment while giving the illusion of being more objective, and for a while they were, but since the Koch brothers donated to the science program, NOVA, the global warming debate has become more of a kind of situation where it is a controversy, i.e., all the information is not conclusive; instead of the fact that it is a reality, it is conclusive;Manmade global warming is a reality.
NPR and PBS, both are so afraid of being called a biased liberal outlet and they bend over backwards to appease the right wing conservatives and the corporations while letting news facts become a bargaining chip in the media competitions. I hope FAIR exposes them more and will cause them to change their ways, back to what they once were, credible and reliable.
Actually Raymond I was speaking about the Afghan war when i said that.I still believe the Iraqi war could of been averted with a little less Bush and a lot less Saddam.But the world is a safer place sadly at great loss.
As far as Global manmade warming being a FACT…That is an argument(yes it is an argument)we will not let you frame in that way.Liberals tend to say things like that.As if saying it ends the argument before it begins.Remember AlGore “the science is closed”.So as we slip into the next ice age and the US suffers another brutally cold year,and the hurricanes they predicted don’t happen, and the stats for global cooling mount,and mr Gore spends millions on a beach front house in an area he has declared will be under water soon,and his house is miles behind Bushes in its carbon emissions -please allow some of us appear sceptical in handing over one sixth of our economy for re programming due to your faith based beliefs.
By the way it is a FACT that I am better looking than Matt McConaghey and Brad Pitt put together.(Hey i kind of like framing sentences like this)
RE: “the stats for global cooling mount”
2010 was the year of the heatwave, with record temperatures set in 17 countries. Two leading groups of scientists say it was the warmest since records began in 1850; another suggests it was the second-warmest.
The final ranking of 2010 will not become clear until November and December data are available in early 2011, but November global temperatures are similar to those observed in November 2005, suggesting 2010 is on track for near-record levels.
This decade also proved to be the hottest on record, with temperatures averaging 0.46C above the 1961-90 average, 0.03C above the 2000-09 mean and the highest value yet recorded for a 10-year period.
The Russian heatwave, which saw temperatures in Moscow nearly 15C above normal for a month, led to thousands of deaths as well as forest fires across a wide region. But the heatwave extended across the Middle East, and northern India, devastating harvests and leading to food shortages.
Previous temperature records tumbled in 17 countries including Russia, Ukraine, Finland, Chad, Kuwait, Burma, Sudan, Niger and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan had Asia’s hottest-ever recorded day when the temperature in the abandoned city of Mohenjo-daro in Sindh province reached 53.5C.
The most extreme temperature anomalies in 2010 occurred across most of Canada and Greenland, where annual temperatures were 3C or more above normal, and across much of Africa and south Asia, where annual temperatures were 1-3C above normal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/14/hottest-year-environment-review-vidal
We have been curving downward since really 1990.Russia had its worst winter last year since 1945.Winters here in the east have been worse year after year.This year the east again cooled noticeably early.California and Florida have record cold weather.Europe right now is damn cold across the board.Generally generally we had been warming for 290 years before the ninetees(though no-where near the dark ages).But we are now probably slipping into a cooling period as has been expected by scientists who forsaw the coming ice age in the 1970s.But even that is no way near a given.Point is is the onus is on you.It has to get warmer everywhere,and you have to prove it is due to man before anyone is going to think of handing you our economy.Getting colder is not going to help.Listen to the hated Lord Monckton trash the whole notion..Face it- this whole sham is pretty well dead in the water.We have a duty to control pollution.as we have been doing very well for many years.But it seems to be panning out to be a hoax.The science just is not there
Here is the average global temperature since 1880 as calculated by NASA. The top of the chart is warmer and the bottom of the chart is colder.
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.lrg.gif
Jim look at the graph under” Christopher Monckton (Global warming has stopped) “article.Totally different base figures than your graph.Basically the last ten years..Then read the plethora of articles in the seventies proving (through graphs)global cooling ..Then read the predictions of global warming theorists early on and chart their success rate.Pretty damn low by any judgement.Then realize not only are their different facts…their are differing interpretations of those facts as far as cause(man).Nothing to warrant handing over 1 sixth of the economy to our government.
One other thing on all this.I read last year the farmers almanac was better at predicting the years weather than the countries bow tie wearing weather Hurricane Swartzzzers.Does that mean those old farmers are really better.Hell no.It means their blind guessing beat the computer models AGAIN!Just tell me what weather is gonna be in 2 days.Cause if you predict dry weather and i get hit with 16 inches of snow like last year Im gonna kick some bow tie ass on the lawn of CBS.I know i know…….They cant really predict weather short term(with all the changing factors) very accurately as they can over the long term.Say the next hundred years.Of course if they are wrong who will know among us today?That may well be so.Now tell me again why Gore bought a 9 million dollar home 15 yards from high tide in an area he has stated would be under water within ten years due to global warming.It is called putting your money next to where your bullshit lies.
reality michael e version “We have been curving downward since really 1990”
reality “This decade also proved to be the hottest on record.”
reality michael e version “California and Florida have record cold weather”
September 28, 2010
Downtown Los Angeles was hit with a staggering high of 113 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, the hottest temperature ever recorded for the area.
December 13, 2010
Los Angeles International Airport recorded a high of 83 degrees, breaking the 1952 record of 82.
Westwood sizzled under 87 degree heat, breaking a record also set in 1952 of 83 degrees.
Long Beach hit a high of 87 degrees, the old record of 80 degrees was set in 1998.
San Gabriel recorded a high of 89 degrees, edging out the 88 degree record set in 1988.
Burbank also hit a new record of 85 degrees. The old mark of 83 degrees was set in 1953.
Camarillo posted 88 degrees while Oxnard hit 84. The old records for both cities of 81 degrees was set in 1980.
Miami, Florida endured its hottest summer ever in 2010. The average temperature from June – August was 85.17 F. The temperature reached or exceeded 90 F degrees on 80 out of a possible 92 days. The low temperature did not drop below 80F on 40 days, breaking the previous record of 33 days.
The summer of 2010 was a scorcher in many parts of the world, including the eastern U.S., where Washington, D.C. and New York, N.Y. broke records for their warmest summer since recordkeeping began. This year marked the first time that city has experienced an average summer high temperature that was greater than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures in D.C. reached or exceeded the 90 degree threshold on 52 days during June, July, and August, which together comprise the meteorological summer months. The average low temperature this summer was also far above average in D.C., with 71 days having had a low temperature of 70 degrees or higher, the Post reported.
Meanwhile, in New York, the National Weather Service (NWS) said the summer of 2010, with an average temperature of 77.8 degrees, had beaten the previous record of 77.3 degrees, which dates back to 1966. Records have been kept at Central Park since 1869. The high temperature on August 31, for example, was 96 degrees, which was 17 degrees above average, and September 1st was projected to reach the upper 90s once again.
Classic! “Just tell me what weather is gonna be in 2 days.”
He doesn’t know the difference between weather and climate.
Look we can argue all day that the dust bowl days were hotter than today.That the hottest and coldest days were in 1910 or 2010.That it is really a wonderful balmy day where I am(it is unusually cold at 20 degrees).Dick every fact you checked has a counter fact.Just was in florida and california.Damn unseasonable cold both of them.Lord Charles Monkton can trash your figures as he testifies before Congress and gives speeches all over the world that last well over two hours.When even your staunchest believers have changed the term “Global warming” to Man made weather change you should pause.They have narrowed it down to all change …whether cold or warm is due to man.Listen to Lord monkton(i know bloggers here try to find fault with him before they even listen)He has testified before Congress.He is not a light weight.My feeling is seperate.Hand over our economy for a total re do at great cost to the true believers?Nope not happening.Global warming was on the fast track.Was being the key word.As a certain green zcar admitted.”We used this as a political means to gain power”
And Dick remember the old song it don’t take a weather man to know which way the wind blows?(Im sure Bill air head and BAM does)Well weather and climate are both hard to predict.The prognosticators get better as the time shortens and worse as it lengthens.In fact they have been amazingly wrong outside of very short term predictions.Im just saying -lets not hand over our economy to those who are absolutely positively sure it will be a warm day in march 50 tears hence.AND ITS YOUR FAULT!
Lord Mockton? You must mean climate fraud Lord Monckton….Whose most impressive skill to you is that he can talk for more than two hours….Awesome!
For those not into winger behavior, the Lord , who is not actually a Lord, is the gop’s/fauxnews’/squawkradio’s go to guy for baffling the rubes with bullsh*t…
————-
“For those without some familiarity with climate science, [Monckton’s] testimony may appear to have scientific validity,” said the response to Monckton’s claims before Congress . “In all cases, Monckton’s assertions are shown to be without merit â┚¬“ they are based on a thorough misunderstanding of the science of climate change.”
A coalition of leading climate scientists filed a 48-page document to the US Congress refuting an attack on climate science made earlier this year by the Ukip deputy leader, Lord Christopher Monckton.
The detailed rebuttal addresses nine key scientific claims made by Monckton, a prominent climate sceptic, to a house select committee hearing in May. It includes the responses of 21 climate scientists who variously conclude that Monckton’s assertions are “very misleading”, “profoundly wrong”, “simply false”, “chemical nonsense”, and “cannot be supported by climate physics”.
———————–
And actually we can’t argue all day about whether the globe was hotter during the dust bowl era….it wasn’t.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/science/monitoring/CR_data/Monthly/Hadplot_globe.gif
———
As for this “those who are absolutely positively sure it will be a warm day in march 50 tears hence.” That’s not what they’re saying…they’re saying that the year round global average temperature 50 years from now will be higher.
You’re confusing weather and climate again…
@ Jim Naureckas
Michael e schooled you. Everyone know you should trust Christopher Monckton over a bunch of pointy headed NASA scientists. Those guys can’t be trusted. What have they ever done right?
led
Well DA LORD is scheduled to talk to Congress AGAIN,and then again after the changeover….He will also be talking at a massive quorum of scientists(including Nasa)on global climate change.His shhhhhedule is packed.He is obviously a qualified witness.Is he right?Who knows.But that is the problem.He pounds enough holes in the theory to disallow the massive empowerment of the Fed, and the handing over of our economy for their discretion and direction.So this is not an argument of Nasa vs scientists who believe in a coming ice age.Or some who even believe Global warming will be good for food production on earth if it happens.Or those who believe if it is happening it is not due to man …it is due to sunspots.Or any other theories.It is all about gov manipulation for control by the left.Trust in the left enough to hand them such massive control….for our own good?I have nothing against people living green.Bush does and Gore does not(look at their houses).Hell i have nothing against libs paying more than their fair share of taxes.Be free…do as you believe.
And dick you hit the nail on the head.50 years from now they say it will be warmer you say?And what if it is not.Who will be hear to say “damn it is cold”.?And when they say “we cant really predict weather in four weeks” but we can predict its parent(climate)in 50 years, now can you please pass the government endowments…….allow me to be sceptical.Or at least sceptical enough not to hand them the keys to the economy or allow any massive taxation on that basis.
Someone here said the hottest day ever in LA was this year.GORE WAS RIGHT>>>GLOBAL WARMING!True But google Arizona.1909.Pa 1936.On and on.No front loading I can see.So the left is more than willing to forget weather and climate to forward the argument.
Just reading the univ of edinburgh (Crouly)and Russian scientists papers predicting the coming ice age.Im not handing them the keys either -don’t worry.
you’re talking about thomas crowley ….who did a study suggesting the possibility of an ice age somewhere from 10,000 to 100,000 years from now, but also said “”I think the present [carbon dioxide] levels are probably sufficient to prevent that from ever happening.”
“And when they say “we cant really predict weather in four weeks” but we can predict its parent(climate)in 50 years, now can you please pass the government endowmentsâ┚¬Ã‚¦Ãƒ¢Ã¢”š¬Ã‚¦.”
You’re confusing weather and climate againâ┚¬Ã‚¦..