Cut'n'run?

The New York Times reports that the U.S. networks are starting to reconsider their coverage of the Iraq war, especially after this week's casualties in the media ranks.

On Tuesday, some executives argued that the risks are even greater for television personnel because of the equipment they must carry — including cameras that are sometimes mistaken for weapons — and how visible they must be to convey the story.

Ms. Dozier and her crew, while working on a piece about the job American soldiers were doing on Memorial Day, had to get out of their armored vehicle to shoot video in the street, leaving them exposed to the car bomb.

"Camera crews are very much more easy to target," said Steve Capus, the president of NBC News.

Mr. Capus said he was shaken when he first heard of the attack. "Of course your first reaction is to say: is this worth the costs?" Mr. Capus said. "The answer is: nothing is worth losing someone's life.

"But this a very tough call. You can't deny this is a big story."

If the networks pull out -- which at this point still seems unlikely -- then they'll be doing the Bushies a great big favour. The blood and the bombing will be that much easier for Americans to ignore.

What was that thing about Pottery Barn?

Echoing my thoughts, the New York Times Maureen Dowd writes about the latest casualties in the Iraq media troops, CBS cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James Brolan, 42, who were were killed, and correspondent Kimberly Dozier, 39, who was seriously injured:

The administration and some right-wing commentators have blamed the press for not reporting positive news in Iraq. The radio host Laura Ingraham has suggested that the press is "invested in America's defeat" and has mocked TV journalists for "reporting from hotel balconies about the latest I.E.D.'s going off."

Conservative chatterers have parroted President Bush's complaint that "people resuming their normal lives will never be as dramatic as the footage of an I.E.D. explosion."

But now two network personalities — Ms. Dozier and Bob Woodruff — have been severely injured by roadside bombs while embedded with the military, trying to do the sort of stories the administration wants.

"One thing I don't want to hear anymore," Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, told The Times's Bill Carter, "is people like Laura Ingraham spewing about us not leaving our balconies in the Green Zone to cover what's really happening in Iraq."

Even with constricted coverage, the tally of journalists killed in Iraq is now 71, more than the number killed in Vietnam or World War II. (This war is now six months short of the United States involvement in World War II, but at least then we knew we were winning by this point.)

Shaken by the CBS losses, networks were reassessing how to cover a story with such excruciating risks. Journalists in Iraq are hamstrung in Iraq just as the troops are, struggling, with ever greater frustration and higher costs, to do the job they were sent in to do.

As the CBS war correspondent Lara Logan told CNN recently, American officials often reject her requests for optimistic stories, saying: "Oh, sorry, we can't take you to that school project, because if you put that on TV, they're going to be attacked, the teachers are going to be killed, the children might be the victims of attack. Oh, sorry, we can't show this reconstruction project because then that's going to expose it to sabotage."

Operation Iraqui Freedom is really going great, hunh?

BTW: Here's the latest grim tally from Reuters.

Oh and don't forget the latest ''good news'' from Iraq.

Off with the heads

Despite CBC's vice president of real estate, and attempts to generate revenue of its existing buildings, it has yet to find a tenant for some primo space in downtown Toronto, the former Movenpick restaurant at Front and John. Insider Ouimet suggests that CBC should just give up.

The place has been empty for nearly a year now. Maybe if you can't rent out storefront space next to the goddamn CN Tower, you ain't cracked up for the real estate game. Or maybe the tourists aren't as dumb as you think. Maybe they don't want any more crap restaurants. Maybe they want some street-level CBC.

Why don't we reclaim this spot, and open it up to the public? Why don't we do what we do best and broadcast from this corner? Why don't we use this prime street frontage to get in touch with the audience and show them what they are paying for? People come from all over the country - and the world - to this corner. It should be our showcase.

And I realize the trend is to rent out our space, and to fold in on ourselves. The popular, interesting, and financially self-sustaining tours of the (Toronto Broadcast Centre) were inexplicably cancelled. The glassed-in booth where we used to do radio in the Atrium has been replaced with empty desks and an old Easter basket. All of this, ostensibly, to save money.

But if they are really serious about saving money, I offer them my services. Give me an afternoon with a full set of CBC org charts, a sharp pair of scissors, a telephone and a latté, and I'll save them millions. And I won't be calling anyone from the (Canadian Media Guild). I'll clip it all off the top and the middle, and audiences won't know the difference. In fact, I'd bet that programming would improve.

Putting the money into programming instead of management. Now there's a concept.

Mirabile dictu

OMG! Rosie and I are actually singing from the same hymn book!

What is it with this administration and the way it's messed up the communication file? It lacks all media savvy.

While the parliamentary gang thingy is, essentially, an industry story of self-reverence/self-reference and overweaned egos, the Harpies have tripped up badly on an issue that has got everyone's attention: The fascinating, highly damaging tug-of-imperatives between this government and the families of Canadian soldiers killed overseas.

Media are in the thick of it too though, oddly, this feels increasingly like not our fight. Instead, it pits grieving parents against a hardheaded, self-absorbed government that doesn't have the courage of its convictions — no balls — on the Afghan mission; conflicted about the juxtaposition of soldiers sent abroad, to fight an entirely justifiable war, and soldiers coming back home in a box, which makes their knees shake.

Controversy over banning media from repatriation ceremonies at CFB Trenton has exposed a political duplicity in the Harper regime. Even if it's what Harper and his defence minister believe in their hearts — perhaps they do — few are buying that this no-see-em policy introduced by the Tories is about anything other than politics; controlling the message by limiting the images.

To their horror, Harper and his cabinet cabal have been smacked around the head by next-of-kin, several going quote-riveting public with their disapproval. Friday, it was Capt. Nichola Goddard's father, at his daughter's funeral, who so eloquently took issue with the government's hide-and-peek posture.

As somebody who was actually at St. Barnabas Anglican Church for that moving military funeral, I think most Canadian media misplayed the story. In a graceful half-hour eulogy, Mr. Goddard's comments about government policy, keeping the media away from repatriation scenes, while compelling, were more by way of an aside and shouldn't have eclipsed the core-story coverage. I regret that the media couldn't resist making this a story about us — Goddard's dad provided the entrée — because doing so shifted attention from the real subject, which was this brave, tough, wise, female artillery captain.

By nightfall, the nut-graph had become Harper's utterly incomprehensible remarks after being informed of Mr. Goddard's comments.

Said Harper: "I had given fairly clear instruction that when bodies were to come home, that families should be consulted and if all families agreed on making that particular ceremony public, then I thought our government should have no difficulty with that."

Say what?

Is that a comedown, a reversal of policy forced upon the Tories by mourning families who, unlike parliamentary reporters, can't be ignored?

It takes some doing, for a Conservative government to so offend the feelings of military families who overwhelmingly support the Afghan mission.

And that hurts a lot more than browning off a bunch of media troops on The Hill.

Memo to the PMO: When you've lost Rosie, you may as well pack up and go home.

He's here, he's there, he's everywhere

The Globe and Mail today reported that National Post chair David Asper has put his Toronto house, which he bought for $6 million only a couple of months ago, on the market for $6.5 million.

The reason: Mr. Asper says it was a "business reason" -- he received a number of phone calls expressing buyer interest in the house and decided to sell. But others say Mr. Asper's personal life is behind the sudden change-about.

"It's tough enough. It's a private aspect of my life," Mr. Asper said yesterday in an interview.

Mr. Asper made headlines two months ago in Toronto and Winnipeg when he and his younger brother, Leonard, who is CanWest's chief executive officer, confirmed they were moving their principal residences from their family's Prairie hometown to Toronto. He bought in the prestigious Forest Hill area, while his brother bought in the equally upscale Rosedale neighbourhood.

I'm not a gossip columnist so I won't even try to speculate on Asper's private life. But how do you reconcile the Globe story with today's related reported in the Winnipeg Free Press (sub. req'd)? The emphasis is mine.

DAVID Asper has a conditional sale agreement to buy a house on one of Winnipeg's ritziest promenades, but the CanWest Global Communications executive says it doesn't mean he's abandoning his recently purchased Toronto mansion.

"It's unfortunately the nature of my life that I'm on the road all the time," he said in an interview in Winnipeg yesterday. "You try to be as comfortable as you can."

The executive vice-president of CanWest said he will continue to commute between Winnipeg and Toronto, where he also serves as the chairman of the National Post newspaper.

"I've been in Saskatoon more than anywhere else the past (while)," he said, referring to his recent testimony at the Milgaard inquiry.

"This is my home, Winnipeg is my home. Period."

Asper said there are a few conditions to be worked out for the Park Boulevard house, which is listed on the Winnipeg Real Estate Board's Multiple Listing Service for $1.79 million.

The only reason I raise this is to muse on the media implications. I am always loathe to speculate on the impending demise of the Post but, given this month's death of Dose, and what I hear are dreadful ad revenues for the Post and now this ...

I am not making predictions. Too many people --  myself included, but not for several years -- have predicted the imminent demise of the Post only to have been proven wrong. I'm just saying because, well, it looks bad. Again.

The gang that can't shoot its mouth off straight

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Two weeks ago, Amir Taheri published an op-ed in Canada's National Post about an Iranian law that forced Jews to wear a yellow stripe. The story, reminiscent of Nazi Germany, quickly provoked outrage, but was just as quickly revealed to be a total fabrication. It also ran in the New York Post.

Apparently this is just the sort of reliable advice that President Bush needs. Yesterday, Taheri had a face-to-face with the President as one of a small group of "experts" on Iraq that visited the White House.

Here's the bit from yesterday's White House press briefing with Tony Snow:

Q Can you give us a readout on the President's meeting this morning with the Iraq experts?

MR. SNOW: Yes. Oh, my goodness, I forgot to bring the list. But actually -- do you have the list, Fred? Yes, it was an interesting meeting. What you ended up having was -- I've got all the names but one written down here. We had Wayne Downing, Barry McCaffrey, Michael Vickers, Amir Taheri, Fouad Ajami and Raad Alkadiri. And you had a combination there of military men and also scholars who are students of Iraq. And it was an interesting discussion that touched upon cultural issues, on political issues, on the state of affairs in Iraq. You had a number of people who've been there recently, General McCaffrey having returned just last month from his latest visit. Fouad Ajami last year had the occasion to sit down and speak with the Ayatollah Sistani, Ali al Sistani.

Recall that Taheri is a lobbyist/pr agent for neocons and neocon causes, whose cultural expertise on Iran is such that he couldn't even accurately name its cultural minister in his op-ed piece and who, judging from the evidence, alerted the Simon Weisenthal Centre in advance of the publication of his misleading op-ed, which then led to the circuitous loop of outrage and false stories.

Now this guy is advising U.S. Preznit George W. Bush?

Incidentally, I ran a few of the other names through Google.

This profile of Fouad Ajami from The Nation, April 10, 2003.

As for the reaction of the Arab street, the Middle East expert Professor Fouad Ajami predicts that after liberation in Basra and Baghdad, the streets are sure to erupt in joy."

Raad Alkadiri is not so easy to pin down. He's ''director for Middle East and Africa in the Country Strategies Group at PFC Energy'' which is in the oil and gas consulting business and claims to be

... one of the pre-eminent strategic advisory firms in global energy. Combining a detailed knowledge and understanding of markets, countries and competition, PFC Energy is recognized in the global energy industry for the depth of its analysis and the integrity of its advice.

Barry McCaffrey:

According to an article written by Seymour Hersh published in 2000 The New Yorker, General McCaffrey committed war crimes during the Gulf War by having troops under his command kill retreating Iraqis after a ceasefire had been declared. Hersh's article "quotes senior officers decrying the lack of discipline and proportionality in the McCaffrey-ordered attack." One colonel told Hersh that it "made no sense for a defeated army to invite their own death. ... It came across as shooting fish in a barrel. Everyone was incredulous."

Wayne Downing:

"'The Iraqis really have got plans prepared,' said retired US Gen. Wayne Downing, a former commander in chief of the US Special Operations Command, at a recent symposium on Iraq. 'They are ready to take the war ... overseas. They would use whatever means they have to attack us.'"

What a team.

Mark my words: This Iranian yellow badges story will be the beast that won't die.

Hat tip to Patrick Kelly.

War on women

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED:

Whenever I get uppity about the so-called ''war on terror'' -- it doesn't deserve capital letters -- I get a verbal spanking from some right wingding. This, which arrived today, is typical, and actually quite civil:

If you like the Terror states so much then go there to help them with their propaganda - but I guess it is easier to do so from Canada because we are free and they would put you in jail or not allow a woman a say in political matters - now there's a topic for one of your blogs - how happy women are in Muslim terror states! 

Now, I ask you: When have I ever celebrated the plight of women in any totalitarian country? In fact, I'm the one who asks about Saudi Arabia, where women can't even have their pictures published in the paper. But since the Saudi royals are in bed with the Bushies, the neocons never bring them up.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is this 49-minute Channel 4 documentary, Iraq: The Women's Story. By Zeena Ahmed, who is not a journalist, it depicts how women have fared since the American invasion of their country.

Let me tell you: Life is not any easier since Saddam. In fact, in many ways, it's worse. Much worse.

But they never tell you that on CNN, do they?

Hat tip to Immad Khadduri.

UPPITY DATE (Sept. 13/06): A reader who does not wish to be named in Saudi Arabia has sent me a clipping from the English-language Arab News alleging that news reports claiming that King Abdullah never asked that women's images be kept out of newspapers, that the claim was made by western media to make Muslims look bad.

In fact, the enemies of the Kingdom try to cause hysteria not only by raising the nonissue women’s photographs in newspapers but also unleashing a worldwide propaganda barrage portraying women in the Islamic world, particularly in Saudi Arabia, as oppressed.

The intolerant Western attitude toward the Muslim and Arab countries could be attributed largely to cultural differences on the one hand and the falling moral and social values in Western societies on the other.

Moreover the Western press takes its cue from political leaders who encourage attacks on Islam. The anti-Muslim bias is more noticeable among inexperienced journalists without academic backgrounds. These journalists seem to be devoid of sufficient training in professional ethics and under the spell of globalization look for sensationalism and sex. They tend to exaggerate ordinary events and misrepresent statements to promote vested political interests.

Well, perhaps the phto thing is untrue. But hey, I'd rather be a woman in Canada than in Saudi Arabia anyday.

Bloggin' in the free world

And now is the time at Zerb's place where we get up and dance: Here's a video that celebrates the growing power of alternative media.

Hill Pill

Why are Prime Minister's statements about the media so hard to swallow?

Days after Stephen Harper said he would only talk to local journalists, he now gives an exclusive ''one on one'' interview to CTV's Robert Fife and the Globe and Mail to talk about his election and Senate bills. Mike Duffy had an excerpt (video on the right) on his CTV Newsnet show this evening and the interview will also air in full on tonight's CTV News with Lloyd Robertson.

So here's the question: Can Harper not stick to his media plan, the way he flip-flopped on coverage of repatriation ceremonies -- or is he already playing favourites, as members of the Parliamentary press gallery have been warning?

In other news from the Battle for Bunkum Hill, I point you to this blog entry by my colleagues at the Star's Political Notebook. Go. Read. Scratch your head in puzzlement at this PMO.

And I don't even like Hillary

Wow: It's tough to top this lede:

The defining issue of our time is not the Iraq war. It is not the "global war on terror." It is not our inability (or unwillingness) to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health care. Nor is it immigration, outsourcing, or growing income inequity. It is not education, it is not global warming, and it is not Social Security.

The defining issue of our time is the media.

The dominant political force of our time is not Karl Rove or the Christian Right or Bill Clinton. It is not the ruthlessness or the tactical and strategic superiority of the Republicans, and it is not your favorite theory about what is wrong with the Democrats.

The dominant political force of our time is the media.

Author Jamison Foser takes the wheels off the free ride the media give neocon politicians and right-wing causes. For example:

Every prominent progressive leader who comes along is openly derided in the media as fake, dishonest, conniving, out-of-the-mainstream, and weak. We simply can't continue to chalk this up to shortcomings on the part of Democratic candidates or their staff and consultants. It's all too clear that this will happen regardless of who the candidate or leader is; regardless of who works for him or her. The smearing of Jack Murtha should prove that to anyone who still doubts it.

Meanwhile, any conservative who comes along is going to be praised for being strong and authentic and likable. Ask yourself: What prominent Republican is routinely portrayed in the media as a phony the way Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton are?

It's a long but really strong read.

H/t to Russ Skinner.