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Today's
Stories
February
3 /4, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqis
on the Run
Diane Christian
Dying Well: Why Killing Saddam Backfired on Bush
February
2, 2007
Chris Kutalik
The
Meanest Industry
R. Gibson /
E. W. Ross
Cutting the Schools-to-War Pipeline
Pam Martens
America's "Money Honey" as Corporate Matchmaker: Maria
Bartiromo and the Co-Branding of CNBC and Citigroup
John Feffer
Picturing the President
Daryll E. Ray
Why the Family Farm is Good for Rural America
Ronald Bruce
St. John
Apartheid By Any Other Name
Mitchel Cohen
Listen Gore: Some Inconvenient Truths About the Politics of Environmental
Crisis
Website of
the Day
The Real Issue is Empire
February 1, 2007
Diane Farsetta
An
Army Thousands More: How PR Firms and Major Media Military Recruiters
Marjorie Cohn
Bush
Targets Iran: Cruise Missile Diplomacy
Mark Scaramella
Our
Founding War Profiteers
Ranni Amiri
Senator Prejudice: the Day Joe Biden Threatened to Kick My Ass
Christopher Ketcham
Die, TV!
Winston Warfield
Art Panic Hits Boston!
Corporate Crime Reporter
Jailing the Artists, Not the Executives: the Great Boston Art
Panic, Turner Broadcasting and the AG Who Won't Pursue Corporate
Crime
Thomas P. Healy
Adios Molly Ivins: Populist Journalism and Never Dull
Website of the Dau
The Ordeal of Gary Tyler
January
31, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Waco
of Iraq?: US "Victory" Cult Leader was a "Massacre"
Jean Bricmont
What
is the Decisive "Clash" of Our Time?
Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews: a Conversation with Dr. Susan Block on Sex, Politics
and Liberation
James T. Phillips
Flashbacks de Jour: Photographing War
William Johnson
Worker Reistance at Smithfield Foods
Tim Wilkinson
A Hawk in Drag: Dershowitz and the Iraq War
Evelyn Pringle
The Judge, the Reporter and the Secret Zyprexa Documents
Joshua Frank
What America Really Needs to Hear
Ramzy Baroud
Shameless in Gaza
Mickey Z.
Nader Still in the Crosshairs
Website of the Day
What's Goin' On?
January 30, 2007
Werther
Slapstick
on Jenkins Hill: DC's Botoxed Golems
Kathy Kelly
Engagement with War
Uri Avnery
"If Arafat Were Alive"
Franklin Spinney
Embedded Without Blending: Humvees and Tactical Madness in Iraq
William S. Lind
The Real Game in Iraq
Pariah
An Iron Curtain is Descending--and Most Americans Don't Know
Mike Whitney
The Mother of All Bubbles
Rev. William
E. Alberts
Hiding America's Surging Militarism Behind Children
Fran Shor
Shadow of a Resistance: Can the Anti-War Mvt. Dismantle the War
Machine?
Anthony Arnove
The Logic of Withdrawal: There's Nothing Precipitous About It
Website of the Day
Our Boys in Iraq
January 29, 2007
Nurit Peled-Elhanan
"We
Are All Victims of the Occupation"
Patrick Cockburn
Raid on the Soldiers of Heaven
JoAnn Wypijewski
The Demo in DC: Chirpy Slogans, Empty City
Ron Jacobs
Our Fire, Congress's Feet
Dave Lindorff
The Missing Word at the Anti-War Demo
Kevin Zeese
A Republican Peace Candidate?: Chuck Hagel's Challenge to America
Reza Fiyouzat
Iran, Bush and the Banging of the Ironsmiths
Pat Williams
Turnout and Same-Day Voting: Did It Sink Conrad Burns?
Website of the Day
Galloway's Indictment of Blair
January
27 / 28, 2007
Diana Johnstone
Do
We Really Need an International Criminal Court?
Eliza Ernshire
Exiled from Palestine
Patrick Cockburn
Slaughter in Baghdad's Bird Market
David Rosen
Pay-to-Play: the Double Life of Prostitution in America
Greg Moses
Children Without a Country: Maryam Ibrahim Remains in a Texas
Jail
Bernard Chazelle
Bush the Empire Slayer
Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews: a Video Interview with Jeffrey St. Clair, Part
Two
Hermán
Uribe
Murdering Journalists in Latin America
Ralph Nader
Democracy
in Crisis
Paul Craig
Roberts
Why Can't Americans See What's Coming?
Fred Gardner
The Suppression of Collective Joy: Barbara Ehrenreich at the
Commonwealth Club
Brian Cloughley
Dying for Lies
James Abourezk
The High Cost of Congressional Trips to Israel
John V. Whitbeck
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine: Ilan Pappe and the Nakba Deniers
Seth Sandronsky
Peace-In Politics: Localizing the Anti-War Movement
Alan Cabal
Mayday from the Circus Tent
Pam Martens
America's Money Honey Does Davos
Website of
the Weekend
Gil Scott-Heron: Winter in America
January 26, 2007
Charlotte Laws
Are
You the Terrorist Next Door?: AETA and the New Green Scare
Mike Ely /
Linda Flores
The
Workers at Smithfield
Joe DeRaymond
Paying
for Health Care and Not Getting It
Phil Donahue
Get Sarah Olson!
Zia Mian
The Three US Armies in Iraq: Grunts, Contractors and Laborers
Jeb Sprague
Haiti Struggles to Defend Justice
Evelyn Pringle
Eli Lilly, the Habitual Offender
Missy Beattie
Inside the Criminal Mind of George Bush: He Thinks; Therefore,
It is So
Martha Rosenberg
Cloned Food: From Designer Hens to the Transgenic Omega-3 Pig
Website of
the Day
Save Grand Canyon from Glen Canyon Dam!
January 25, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
What's
Really Going on in Baghdad
John Ross
Mexico
Under Calderon: Fake Left, Rule Right
Jeremy Scahill
Our Mercenaries: Blackwater, Inc and the Privatization of Bush's
War Machine
Frida Berrigan
"Hearts Ruptured with Sadness:" Protesting Gitmo
Paul Craig Roberts
Bush's State of Deception
Jason Yossef
Ben-Meir
Iraq Reconstruction Failure
Christopher Brauchli
Why Bush is Arming Fatah: When in Doubt, Start Another Civil
War
Holger W. Henke
Cuba at the Crossroads?
Dave Lindorff
Falling Dominos and Failing Presidencies
Julia Landau
From Your Young Cousin
Website of the Day
The Mighty Edwards Sisters
January
24, 2007
Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews:
a Filmed Interview with Jeffrey St. Clair
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Empire Turns Its Guns on the Citizenry
Lt. Gen. William Odom
What Can be Done in Iraq?
Sharon Smith
Health Care Reform for the Insurance Industry
Brian M. Downing
Two Americas: the Grunts and the War Profiteers
Heather Gray
Surviving War
Ron Jacobs
SOTUS Quo
James Brooks
Out of Europe, Out of Time
Robert Day
Translating Snow
Website of
the Day
Defend Sarah Olsen
January 23, 2007
Trish Schuh
Lebanon
on the Brink of Civil War, Again
Robert Bryce
The
Politics of Cheap Oil
Stephen Soldz
Aliens in an Alien Land
John Blair
King Coal's Latest Con Job: Clean Coal is Not Clean
Gloria La Riva
Miami: a Place of Refuge for Anti-Castro Terrorists
Joshua Frank
Turning Silence into Gold: Hillary and Israel Lobby
Patrick Cockburn
In Iraq, All Foreigners are Targets
Ralph Nader
Questions for Bush on Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Pelosi and Iraq: Blunder or Treason?
Uri Avnery
Israel and Apartheid
Website of the Day
Down By the River
January
22, 2007
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
China's
New Chip in Space War Poker
Jen Marlowe
Trapped
in Darfur: the Ordeal of Suleiman Jamous
George McGovern
War of the Belligerent Professors: Get Out of Iraq
Paul Craig
Roberts
Only Impeachment Can Save Us from More War
Norman Solomon
The Pentagon vs. Press Freedom
Amira Hass
Life Under Prohibition in Palestine
Mike Whitney
A Fool's Errand in Baghdad
Ramzy Baroud
The Things We Take for Granted
John Walsh
Support Jimmy Carter in Boston!
Website of
the Day
The Hagelian Dialectic
January
20/21 2007
Alexander Cockburn
First
Bomb Carter; Then Nuke Iran!
Gail Dines
I
Was Ambushed by Paula Zahn
Newton Garver
Evo
Morales' First Year
Gilad Atzmon
100
Years of Jewish Solitude
Seth Sandronksy
New
Push For Social Security "Reform"
Raphaelle Bail
Where
Nicaraguans Go to Work
Jim Goodman
Round
Up the Usual Experts: Make Them Live on a Dollar a Day
Larry Portis
Chouraki's
Oh Jerusalem
Website of
the Weekend
Press
Poodles Play it Safe
January
19, 2007
Jonathan Cook
Jimmy
Carter Doesn't Tell the Half of It
Glen Ford
Barack
Obama: The Mania and the Mirage
Dave Lindorff
Bush
Blinks on Illegal Spying--Don't let him off the hook
Larry Portis
Zionism
in the Cinema: Part Two
Website of
the Day
For
Whistleblowers
January
18, 2007
William Peace
Protest
From a Bad Cripple
Virginia Tilley
The
Steady March to War on Iran: What It Would Take to Stop It
Michael Donnelly
The
Real Reason I Can't Stand Obama
B.R. Gowani
Democracy:
Everywhere and Nowhere
Larry Portis
Zionism
in the Cinema: Part One
Jason Hribal
A
Horse is Worth More than Riches
Website of
the Day
Baghdad
Clampdown
January 17, 2007
Franklin Spinney
Why
Time is not on Bush's Side
John Ross
Oaxaca's
Rising: Vibrant as the Paint on the Walls
Susan George
Can
World Trade Ever Be Fair? Back to Keynes!
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attacking
Iran: What's In It For Bush
Joshua Frank
Obama
and the Middle East
David Lindorff
Towards
Oil at $200 a Barrel
January 16, 2007
Col. Sam Gardiner
Escalation
Against Iran
Marjorie Cohn
Stimson's
Outrageous Threat
Saul Landau
Gore
Vidal in Havana: Part 2
Ron Jacobs
Welcome
Back to 1965
Susan Block
From
Snowjob to Blowjob
Ken Couesbouck
Year
of the Pig
Website of
the Day
Amazon's
Hit on Jimmy Carter
January 15, 2007
Roger Morris
Another
War the Voters Hoped to End
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush
Must Go
Kathy Kelly
Umm
Heyder's Story
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report
Ralph Nader
The
Class War's New Map
Saul Landau
Gore
Vidal In Havana
January 12
/ 14, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
"21,500
More Troops": Will America Ever Leave Iraq?
David Rosen
Bush's Domestic Sex Policy: the Teen Abstinence-Only Crusade
William S.
Lind
Less Than Zero
Laith al-Saud
The
Ironies of Bush and Iraq
Paul Craig
Roberts
Surge and Mirrors: What Bush Really Said
John Ross
Celebrating the "Sum of the World" in Chiapas
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Case of Venezuela's RCTV: Not About Free Speech
Christopher Brauchli
How to Avoid an IRS Audit: Become a Millionaire!
Robert Buzzanco
Rogue State, Redux
Evelyn Pringle
The Secrets in Eli Lilly's Cabinet
Peter Rost,
MD.
Promises, Promises: Playing Politics with Drug Reimportation
Mike Whitney
Baghdad Crackdown
Yifat Susskind
Beyond the Surge: Demanding an End to Bush's Wars
Saul Cohen
Latin America's Real Mr. Danger: Negroponte's Latest Gig
Missy Beattie
A Day of Action and Questions
Stephen Lendman
Holiday Hypocrisy
Website of
the Weekend
Bruegel on Bush War Plan
January 11,
2007
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The
Profits of Escalation
Paul Craig
Roberts
Carter's Inconvenient Truths
Kathy Kelly
Refugee Dreams
Dave Lindorff
Blood for Face
Jeff Leys
The War Widens
Richard W.
Behan
Barrels and Bodies
Col. Douglas MacGregor
Surging Right Into Al-Sadr's Hands
Website of
the Day
An Explanation from Google
Speech of the Day
Is There Even One Politician Alive Who Could Give This Speech?
January 10, 2007
Peter Linebaugh
A
Walk in Oaxaca
Robert Fantina
Punishing
Deserters: Prosecution or Persecution?
Patrick Cockburn
Why Troop Escalation Won't Bring Peace to Iraq
Paul Craig Roberts
Distracting Congress: Troop Escalation and Iran
Col. Dan Smith
Why U.S. Policy is Failing
Ben Tripp
The Politics of Bad Karma
Evelyn Pringle
How the FDA Protects Big Pharma
Ron Jacobs
Coalition of the Lunatics: Trying to Create the Next World War
Mike Ferner
If Not Now, When?
Dave Zirin
Judgment of the Juiced: Why McGwire Wasn't Elected to the Hall
of Fame
Website of
the Day
Revolting Students!
Bootleg of the Day
Bob
Dylan: Live at Scotia Bank Place
January 9, 2007
R. T. Naylor
The
Somalian Labyrinth
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Purging of Palestinian Christians
Mike Ely and Linda Flores
The Smithfield Strikers: No Longer
Hidden, No Longer Hiding
Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran: More Bellicose Than Bush
Norman Solomon
The Headless Horseman of the Apocalypse
Sen. Russell
Feingold
An Open Letter to President Bush: So Now You Want to Snoop Through
Our Mail?
Joe Allen
Justice for the Omaha Two: Black Power, Racism and COINTELPRO
in the Heartland
James T. Phillips
"Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'Intrate": The Hell
That is Iraq
Brian Concannon
Resolutions for Haiti
Leonard Peltier
When the Truth Doesn't Matter: 30 Years of FBI Harassment and
Misconduct
Website of the Day
Kick Out the Jams, MFers!: Meet the New RRC
January 8,
2007
Werther
Why
We Fight
Jeff Leys
The Occupation Project: a Campaign of Civil Disobedience to End
Iraq War Funding
Paul Craig Roberts
Nuking Iran
Shulamit Aloni
Israeli Apartheid: Sorry, This Road is For Jews Only
Dave Lindorff
The Party of Invertebrates Reverts to Form
Sunsara Taylor
The Democrats' First Day: Same As It Ever Was
Seth Sandronsky
Syndicated Error: George Will and the Minimum Wage
Dr. Susan Block
Baghdad Cockfight Ends in Snuff Film
Website of the Day
Watch CounterPuncher Sunsara Taylor Take on Bill O'Reilly!
January 6 / 7, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
War and the NYT
Franklin C.
Spinney
Stalingrad
on the Tigris
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Urge to Surge
Ralph Nader
Democrats in the Spotlight
Walden Bello
Globalization in Retreat?
Marleen Martin
The Needle and the Damage Done: Tortured in the Death Chamber
Brian Cloughley
We Do What We Like: Return Our Rapist or Else ...
Uri Avnery
The Kiss of Death
Saul Landau
Fidel Castro in the Fields
Ron Jacobs
From Cointelpro to the Patriot Act: a Legacy of Torture
Joseph Nevins
Crimes Against Humanity from Ford to Saddam
William S. Lind
A State Restored? Somalia and 4GW
Gary Leupp
Attention John Conyers: Impeach the President!
Elisa Salasin
Bringing Life to Numbers
George Ciccariello-Maher
Beyond
Chavistas and Anti-Chavistas: Deepening the Bolivarian Revolution
Stefan Wray
Confronting Recruiters: the Story of the Bush Street Raiders
Michael Leonardi
Toward an International Moratorium: Italy's Crusade Against the
Death Penalty
Richard Rhames
Reality TV: Triumph of the Thugs
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Barbara LaMorticella
Two Poems
Website of the Weekend
FBI Witch Hunts
Song of the
Weekend
End Times: a Soundtrack
January 5, 2007
Jorge Mariscal
Growing
the Military: Who Will Serve?
John Walsh
Clash of the Elites: Beltway Insiders vs. Neo-Cons!
Christopher Brauchli
The Great Relaxer: Bush and Federal Regulations
Travis Sharpe
No More New Nukes, Please
Tom Barry
Hawk for Hire: Roger Noriega's New Gig
Linda Schade
/ Kevin Zeese
Americans Voted for Peace: Has the New Congress Already Let Them
Down?
Tiffany Ten Eyck
Workers' Centers and Unions: a New Alliance
Mahmoud El-Yousseph
A Challenge to Pelosi
Lucinda Marshall
3003 Funerals: "And They're Still Burying Ford!"
Website of
the Day
Van the Man: Warm Love
January 4, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Martyrdom of Saddam Hussein
Winslow T.
Wheeler
A Guide to Earmarks: Will the Democrats' Reforms Do Anything
to Curb Pork Barrel Spending?
M. Shahid Alam
Has Regime Change Boomeranged?
Raed Jarrar
So This is Plan B? The US Attack on Saleh Al-Mutlaq's Headquarters
Bert Sacks
Can the US Legally Kill Iraqi Children?: a Challenge to the Supreme
Court
Kathy Rentenbach
Report from Oaxaca
Stephen Fleischman
The Rain of Riches: Bonuses, Then and Now
George Bisharat
Carter's Truths
Peter Rost, MD
Hail the Hangman, Jail the Cameraman!
Evelyn Pringle
Can Eli Lilly be Held Criminally Liable for Zyprexa?
Website of the Day
Courage to Resist
January 3,
2007
Kathy Kelly
Wrapped
Around a Bullet
Paul Craig
Roberts
His Last Hurrah: Bush Cuts and Runs from Reason
William Johnson
No Worker is Illegal: SEIU Members Push Their Union to Change
Its Policy on Immigration
Stan Cox
Under a Brown Cloud: Money vs. the Monsoon
Trita Parsi
A Lose-Lose Situation with Iran
Declan McKenna
Ireland's Slavish Hostility Toward Cuba
Joe Bageant
Dispatch from the Chinese Landfill
Nicola Nasser
Somalia: New Hotbed of Anti-Americanism
Missy Beattie
Dead Wrong
Website of
the Day
Pharmed Out
January 2, 2007
Michael Watts
Oil
Inferno
Amina Mire
Return of the Warlords: Death and Destruction for Somalis
James Brooks
Pushing the Wedge in Palestine
Alevtina Rea
The Tyrant is Dead! Long Live ... ?
Al Krebs
Global Food Security: a Call to Action
Peter Rost
Invitation to a Hanging: the Saddam Hussein Execution Video
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
A Deadly December
John Stanton
Appetites for Destruction
Website of the Day
Out Now: Petition
January 1,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Iron
Man, Tin God: the Meaning of Saddam Hussein
Uri Avnery
What
Makes Sammy Run?
Joshua Frank
Eliot Spitzer's Constitutional Hang Up: Architect of New York's
Patriot Act
December 30
/ 31, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
2006,
Hard to Call It Vintage, But 2007 Could Finally Be Bobby Byrd's
Year
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
2006: a Nation Soaked in Blood Tears Itself Apart
Paul Wolf
Dying for Our Sins: A Lawyer for Saddam Describes How His Execution
on the First of Eid May Transform Him Into a Martyr
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Executing
Saddam, Protecting the Rackets
Tariq Ali
Saddam
at the End of a Rope
Paul Craig Roberts
The New Dark Age: Official Lies, Dogma and Unaccountable Power
Douglas Valentine
At the End of My Rope: Hanging With Saddam
Brian M. Downing
The New Iraq Policy: Escalation
Michael Donnelly
Injustice in Black and White: the Duke Non-Rape Case
Stephen Lendman
Did Sharon Order the Assassination of Arafat? The Revelations
of Uri Dan
Fred Gardner
Comes Now the Ghost of "Decrim:" Nixon and Marijuana
Bailly / Caudron / Lambert
Who Owns Ikea?: the Opaque Legacy of Ingvar Kamprad
Ralph Nader
The Prospects for Progressive Politics
Nick Dearden
The War on Terror Hits Africa
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
The Third Degree: an Interview with AC Thompson on the Origins
of the CIA's Secret Rendition Flights
Missy Beattie
In Harm's Way: How Our National Coward Describes War
Ron Jacobs
Sigh of the Oppressed: Religion and Politics
Dan La Botz
Defend Illegal Immigrants: Help Them! Harbor Them!
Andrew Wimmer
An Act of Contrition: the Peace Movement in 2007
Dr. Carol Wolman, MD
Psychiatrist: Impeach Bush for Good of Country
Martha Rosenberg
New Year's Resolutions for Big Pharma
Dick J. Reavis
News Before It Happens: Bush's 2007 MLK Day Speech
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Listening to James Brown and His Followers
Poets' Basement
Grima, Curtis, Davies, Orloski and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Charlie Fowler's Photolog: a Life at Altitude
Music Video of the Weekend
"We're Winning the War on Drugs!"
December 29, 2006
Bill Quigley
A
Tale of Two Sisters: Why is HUD Spending Tens of Millions in
Katrina Money to Bulldoze 4,534 Public Housing Apartments in
New Orleans?
Norman Finkelstein
The Dershowitz Treatment
John Borowski
Curb Your Environmentalism: Laurie David and Me
Abid Mustafa
The Re-Talibanization of Afghanistan
Greg Moses
World Responds to Palestinian Family's Jailing Despite Media
Blackout
Uri Cohen
Stand Up for Herod: a Seasonal Story of Ancient Palestine
Bailly / Caudron
/ Lambert
The
Secrets in Ikea's Closet
Website of
the Day
Justice for New Orleans
December 28,
2006
Norman Finkelstein
The
Ludicrous Attacks on Jimmy Carter's Book
Anthony Cowell
Highway Robbery: Privatizing New Jersey's Toll Roads
John Ross
Gateway to the Next Mexican Revolution?
Hilaria Cruz
I'm Going to Stay Right Here: Story of a Oaxacan Prisoner
Greg Moses
Palestinian Immigrant Jailings in Texas
Brittany Bond
The Blood Trail of Luis Posada Carriles, Washington's Preferred
Terrorist
Website of
the Day
Godfather of Soul and Father of Funk
December 27,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
Farewell
to Our Greatest President: Adieu, Gerald Ford
Faruq Ziada
Is
There a Sunni Majority in Iraq?
Christopher Brauchli
Burning EPA's Books: What They Don't Want You to Read Might Save
Your Life
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Journey to Vietnam: Dare We Not Say Genocide?
Nikolas Kozloff
Saving
Caracas
Mark Schneider
Why Hope? Reasons for Optimism
December 26, 2006
Peter Stone
Brown
James
Brown: Please Don't Go
Tito Tricot
Chile: the Ghosts of Torture
Gary Leupp
Cowboys Differ on Iran Attack: Cheney/Bush vs. the Baker Commission
John V. Walsh
Dershowitz vs. Carter in Beantown: Peace Movement AWOL, Again
Reza Fiyouzat
Red Christmas: Why Santa Was Hot in China This Year
Ron Jacobs
The Golem: a Conversation with Marc Estrin
Website of
the Day
JB:
Prisoner of Love
December 25, 2006
Saul Landau
A
Jeep Trip with Fidel
Lang / McGovern
To
Surge or Not to Surge?
Michael Dickinson
Should Stupid Thoughts Be Crimes?: Deny Santa If You Will, But
...
Website of
the Day
James Brown, RIP
December 23 / 24, 2006
Marjorie Cohn
What's
Going On?
Jeffrey L.
Gould
The Capital of Salvadoran Memory: El Mozote After 25 Years
Diane Christian
The Rape of Iraq
William Loren
Katz
From the Raid on "Fort Negro" to Iraq: Lessons from
the First US Invasion
Greg Moses
This War Can't be Made Right by Winning
M. Shahid Alam
An Islamic Civil War: Chaos by Design?
Fred Gardner
Exposé as Inoculant: HRT, Zyprexa, Lilly and the Press
Dave Lindorff
Crime of the Century
Azmi Bishara
Ways of Denial
Ralph Nader
The BCS: a Monopoly on College Football
Seth Sandronsky
Fiscally Imperiled Social Security?
William Hughes
Cop Assaults Activists at Lockheed Protest
Ron Jacobs
Making Stones Weep
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to on New Year's Eve
December 22,
2006
David Rosen
Bush's
Foreign Sex Policy: Imperialism's Second Front
Christopher
Brauchli
When the Secret is the Question: Secret Prisons, Top Secret Interrogations
John Ross
Flashlights
in the Tunnel of Hate
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Political
Sell-Outs in Black and White
Rahul Mahajan
Dennis Kucinich: Maverick or Stalking Horse?
Arthur Neslen
Provoking Civil War in the Occupied Territories
Peter Rost, MD
The Secrets of His Success: Fired Pfizer CEO Walks Away with
$198 Million
Website of
the Day
10 Ways to Change the World in 2007
December 21, 2006
Rosa Mariam
Elizalde
An
Interview with Gore Vidal: "I am Jealous of Cuba"
Arundhati Roy
Breaking the News
Brian Cloughley
Poppies Rising: Afghanistan's Drug Catastrophe
Daniel White
Jimmy Carter in Austin: Time to Come Clean on the Shoot Down
of That Itavia DC-9
John V. Whitbeck
On Israel's Right to Exist
Sam Smith
Still Smearing Ralph Nader for 2000
Paris Reidhead
GM Ice Cream: Something's Fishy in Your Good Humor Bar
Kevin Wehr
Denying Disaster: Katrina and the Case for Impeachment
Website of the Day
Pesticides and Amphibians: a Vital New Database
December 20, 2006
Gabriel Kolko
Rumsfeld
and the American Way of War
Winslow T.
Wheeler
The Pentagon Measures the Chaos in Iraq
Tariq Ali
The War is Lost
Saree Makdisi
Israel, Apartheid and Jimmy Carter
Bruce Jackson
Saying "Oh!": John Mohawk and the Power to Make Peace
Dave Lindorff
Democrats Walk Into a Bush Trap on Iraq
Leslie Radford
The Winter Harvest of the South Central Farmers
Dave Jansson
Divided We Stand, United We Fall: Secessionists Confront the
Empire
Johnny Barber
Jesus is a Terrorist
Website of
the Day
Is It for Freedom?
December 19, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
Democrats
Prepare to Fund Longer War
Jonathan Cook
End
of the Strongmen
Greg Moses
Globalized Gulag: Palestinian Refugees and Children Held in Hutto,
TX Jail
Sean Penn
Georgie,
There's a Crowd Downstairs
Dave Lindorff
Innocents Abroad: Cracking Down on Gitmo Detainees Despite Overwhelming
Evidence Most Are Not Terrorists
Ralph Nader
Going
Postal
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Pink Tide?
Carlos Villarreal
The
Well is Poisoned: Victory Requires an Immediate Pull-Out
Website of
the Day
Chuck Spinney on the Pentagon
December 18, 2006
Luis J. Rodriguez
En
Lak Ech: Chicanos, Mayans and Mel Gibson
Norman Solomon
Washington Refuses to End the War: Powell, Baker, Hamilton--Thanks
for Nothing!
Uri Avnery
Lebanon: War Without a Plan
Ron Jacobs
More Troops, More Body Bags
Phil Gasper
Afghanistan: Bush's Other War Unravels
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Iran's Elections: The World Isn't Florida and Bush Isn't Its
Supreme Leader
William Blum
The United States of Punishment
Jim Goodman
So What's the Big Deal If Wal-Mart Makes a Mistake?
James Brooks
Talking Surge: Let's Kill Some More Before We Go
Maria C. Khoury
Walking Into the Art World: Designing a Palestinian Academy for
the Arts
Website of the Day
Got Powell
December 16 / 17, 2006
Weekend Edition
Vijay Prashad
A
Perilous Way to Socialism
Saul Landau
Filming Fidel
Anthony Arnove
The US Occupation of Iraq: Act III of a Tragedy of Many Parts
Paul Cantor
The Puppet and the Puppeteer: Pinochet and Kissinger
Annie Nocenti
Baluchistan's Fight: The Khan of Kalat Gathers the Tribes
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Hard Times on the Killing Floor: Smithfield's Rotten Record
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Tehran's Holocaust Conference
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A Catastrophic Failure: Foundations, Nonprofits and the Second
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Dustin Costa Faces 15 to Life
P. Sainath
There's No Such Thing as a Free Cow
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The Democrats and Social Security: Watch What the Party Says
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An AIPAC Shot Across Baker's Bow?
Deb Reich
Dear Santa, (Or Someone): Greetings from the Occupied Holy Lands
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Cops Shoot Another Rich White Man!
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Why Does It Take 50 Bullets?
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Will the Next Leader Stand Up? Please!
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Kicking the Wyeth Habit Saves Women's Lives
Lee Ballinger
The Devil's Highway: Clinton, Border Checkpoints and the Deaths
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Michael Dickinson
Kingdom of Fear
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Live/Evil: Listening to Miles Davis
Poets' Basement
Davies, Buknatski and Ford
Website of
the Weekend
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
December 15,
2006
Eliza Ernshire
Palestinian
"Civil War" and the Israeli Chocolate Ration
Virginia Tilley
What
Are You Going to Do Now, Israel?
Mike Ferner
Roll Call for the Choir: If They Vote for War, Occupy 'Em!
John Ross
Mad Mel's Mayan Apocalypse
Fred Wilhelms
The Flip Side of Ahmet Ertegun: Where Did You Get Those Shoes?
Kevin Zeese
Dennis Kucinich's Strange Mission: Can You Be a Real Anti-War
Candidate in a Pro-War Party?
David Severn
Social Engineering Begins at Home: Jeffrey Skoll, Billionaire
Philantropist
Dave Lindorff
Sen. Tim Johnson Death Watch: Senate Gridlock May Be Best Outcome
Sunsara Taylor
As American as Shopping and Torture
Website of
the Day
June 2, 2004: When Iraq Was There For The Looting
December 14,
2006
Jonathan Cook
The
Recognition Trap
Riz Khan
An Interview with Jimmy Carter
Jason Hribal
Kasatka, the Sea World Orca
Pennick / Gray
The Plight of Black Farmers: Racism in the US Farm Program
Richard Levins
That Embezzled Anti-Castro Money
Pat Williams
The College Crisis: Universal Access, Student Loan Debts and
Pell Grants
Peter Rost, MD
Simply Irresistible: Do Women Prefer Bad Boys?
Website of
the Day
The Sound of Rummy
December 13,
2006
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
is Beyond Repair
Greg Moses
The Dixie Chicks Come Home to Roost
Elizabeth Schulte
Hungry for the Holidays
Joshua Frank
Death By Coke
Debra Eschmeyer
Corporations Control Your Dinner
Leon Hadar
Baker's Rescue Mission: Too Little, Too Late
Peter Rost, MD
I've Been a Very Bad Boy
Margaret Knapke
Mow bé and Malachi, Presenté!
Reza Fiyouzat
Are Cows Free?
Fred Wilhelms
A Last Minute Appeal: If You Know One of These Musicians Let
Them Know They Are Owed Money--By Friday!
Website of
the Day
The Crimes of Augusto Pinochet
December 12, 2006
Fernando A.
Torres
The
Last Man of the Junta: an Open Letter to Kissinger from One of
Pinochet's Political Prisoners
Paul Craig
Roberts
America's
Injustice System is Criminal
Stephen Soldz
Abusive Interrogations
Uri Avnery
Baker's Cake
William S. Lind
Knocking Opportunity: From Vulcans to Vultures in Iraq
Missy Beattie
Convicted for Our Convictions: Trespassing for Truth at the UN
Dave Lindorff
The 35-Year Long Scream: Torture, Impeachment and a Vietnam Vet's
Tears
George Pyle
Our Perverse Farm Plan: Where Christmas Comes Every Five Years
Norman Solomon
Is the USA the Center of the World?
Website of
the Day
Citizens' War Tribunal
December 11,
2006
Virginia Tilley
Banning
Mandela
Roger Burbach
The Condor Model: the Atrocities of Pinochet and the US
Col. Douglas MacGregor
There's Only One Option Left: Leave!
Fawwas Traboulsi
Lebanon on the Brink
Ron Jacobs
Death of a Pig: Poetic Justice for Pinochet
Gideon Levy
The Cruel Line into Gaza: Elbow to Elbow, Like Cattle
Mary McGrane
Burning Books at Harvard Law
Bernardo Ruiz
The Disappeared of Oaxaca: a Message from One of the Actors in
Apocalypto
Website of the Day
La Cancion de la Unidad
Video of the
Day
Killing
Castro: Congresswoman as Contract Killer?
December 9
/ 10, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Liberal
Consensus for More Troops in Iraq
Sen. Gordon Smith
Out of Iraq: Cut and Run or Cut and Walk
Greg Grandin
Jeane
Kirkpatrick, Mid-Wife of the Neo-Cons
Paul Craig Roberts
How Many More Will Die for Bush's Ego?
Col. Dan Smith
The Vietnamization of Iraq: Inside the Military Training Program
Ralph Nader
The Man from NAM: John Engler's Trail of Destruction
Behrooz Ghamari
The Donkey and the Date: Iran's Upcoming Municipal Elections
Rev. Willliam Alberts
Doing Unto Others: Pastor Haggard and President Bush
James T. Phillips
The James Gang: "Did You Kill Her?"
Bennis / Leaver
A Bi-Partisan Occupation
Dave Lindorff
A Congress of Hucksters and Pipsqueaks
Nikolas Kozloff
Robert Gates and Venezuela: Another Saber Rattler in Latin America
Seth Sandronsky
Activating White Racism
Lucinda Marshall
McKinney and Karpinsky: Silenced for Telling the Truth
Mike Whitney
Something's Gotta Give: James Baker vs. the Lobby
John V. Whitbeck
Recommendation No. 80
Faisal Kutty
Is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Merely a Western
Construct?
Hugh Sansom
Smearing Jimmy Carter: an Open Letter to the New York Times
Robert Gold
My South American Journey: Impunity in Colombia
Boots Riley
Crash and Burn: an Urgent Message from The Coup
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Engel & Buknatski
Website of
the Weekend
Alive in Mexico
December 8, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
The
Iraq Study Group's Cautious Appraisal
Leutisha Stills
Just
How Progressive is the Congressional Black Caucus?
Norman Finkelstein
The Media Lynching of Jimmy Carter
Will Youmans
Mr. Lieberman Comes to Washington: Brookings Hosts an Ethnic
Cleanser
Peter Rost, MD
What Went Wrong at Pfizer?
Jonathan Demme
My Friend Bruce Langhorne: a Great Musician Needs Your Help!
Ray McGovern
Senate Democrats Give Gates a Free Pass
Lucinda Marshall
What She Wore
Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn
The Lost John Lennon Interview
Website of
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John Lennon's FBI Files
December 7,
2006
Alex Friedman
Rev.
Phelps' Hate-Fueled Fanatics Find a Home in the Kansas Prison
Industry
Maureen Webb
Risk Scoring and the National Insecurity State
Paul Craig Roberts
Catastrophe Still Awaits
Dave Lindorff
Prosecutor Admits: Mumia Abu-Jamal Had "No True Defense"
Matt Vidal
Drug Pushers, Inc.: Power and Profit in the Legal Drug Trade
Yifat Susskind
Looking for a Few Good Principles: What Should be Done in Iraq
Rodriguez / Jones
NYPD's Death Squads: From Diallo to Sean Bell
Website of
the Day
2006, Remixed
December 6, 2006
Robert Bryce
Omitting
the Obvious with James Baker: From the S&L Crisis to the
Iraq Study Group
William S. Lind
The Boomerang Effect: When Will the First IED Strike Cincy?
Zoe Blunt
The Clearcut Truth About the Great Bear Rainforest
Corporate Crime Reporter
The New Conventional Wisdom: Prosecute Individuals, Not Corporations
Amira Hass
A Regrettable Indifference: Israel's Treatment of Palestinian
Prisoners
Richard W. Behan
The Surreal Politics of Premeditated War
Sophie McNeill
Why Hezbollah is Broadcasting Sunday Mass
December 5, 2006
Virginia Tilley
Apartheid
Israel: a Beacon of Hope?
Sharon Smith
The New Washington Consensus: Blame the Victims in Iraq
Joe Bageant
Somewhere a Banker Smiles
Ron Jacobs
A War Washington Can't Win
Norman Solomon
Media Consensus, Stay in Iraq!
Mike Whitney
Rumsfeld's Final Snowflake: "I Was Just About to Change
Everything ... "
Derrick O'Keefe
Regimes Unchanged: Chavez's Victory Strengthen's Cuba
Julian Assange
The Road to Hanoi
Missy Beattie
Bush, the Unhappy Helmsman
Website of
the Day
Lessons of Suez and Iraq
December 4,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
Gaza
and Darfur
George Ciccariello-Maher
Tears of the Escualidos: Election Diary, Venezuela
Ray McGovern
Lame Ducks, Hold That Nomination!: a CIA Insider's Take on Gates
John Ross
Repression on the Menu in Mexico
Walden Bello
Hurricane Milton: Friedman, Bayonets and Markets
Peter Rost,
MD
Pfizer's Clueless Executives
Stephen Lendman
The Withering of the Bush Dynasty
Gideon Levy
This Ceasefire will Go Up in Flames
Website of the Day
The "Babes" of Hizbullah?
December 2
/ 3, 2006
Weekend Edition
Barucha Calamity
Peller
The
Dirty War of Oaxaca
Paul Craig
Roberts
Is Bush Sane?: When Denial Goes Pathological
Ralph Nader
The Big Boys of Financial Crime
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Committee of Enablers: Is Gates Fit to Serve? Are the Senators?
Amira Hass
The Checkpoint Generation
Maymanah Farhat
Depoliticizing Arab Art: Christie's and the Rush to "Discover"
the Arab World
Dave Lindorff
Fighting the Iraq War--At Home
Fred Gardner
Dr. Jimenez Defends His Practice Methods
Col. Dan Smith
The Semantics of Civil War
Raed Jarrar
Maliki's Monopoly of Power
Seth Sandronsky
US Prison Nation: Locking Up Surplus Labor
K.-Y. Taylor
The Bride Wore Black: the Shooting of Sean Bell and the Resurgence
of American Racism
Yifat Susskind
Greed, Dogma and AIDS
David Rosen
Made in China: the Global Trade in Sex Toys
Ron Jacobs
All Hands on Deck!: the New Pirates of the Caribbean
Nikolas Kozloff
Venezuela Prepares to Vote
Talli Nauman
Fighting La Choya: the Secret Toxic Dump on the Border
Alan Gregory
Shadow Trout: Why Hatchery Fish Aren't Real
Joe Allen
RFK and Hollywood Mythmaking: Emilio Estevez's Beatification
of Bobby Kennedy
St. Clair /
D'Antoni
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Davies, Engel, Ford and Orloski
Website of
the Day
Demo for Oaxaca
December 1,
2006
Greg Grandin
Midnight
in Mexico: Calderón's Inauguration Behind Closed Doors
Linn Washington,
Jr.
The
Mumia Case After 25 Years: Still More Keystone Kops Antics
George Ciccariello-Maher
Sleeping with the Enemy: At Home with the Anti-Chavistas
Brian J. Foley
Taking Responsibility for Iraq
Dave Zirin
Rebel Athletes: Organizing the Jocks for Justice
Joshua Frank
The Montana Formula: Jon Tester's Neopopulism
Chris Floyd
Hideous Kinky: Thomas Friedman Comes Undone
Ingmar Lee
Atomic Porker Strikes Indian Point Nuke Plant
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Dark Fire: the Fall of WTC 7
Website of the Day
No Gun Ri Revisited
Video of the
Day
Drunken Hack Goes Ape at Aussie "Pulitzers"
|
Weekend
Edition
February 3 / 4, 2007
U.S. Reporting on the Coup Haiti
How
to Turn a Priest into a Cannibal
By DIANA BARAHONA
When Haiti's wealthy elites removed
President Jean Bertrand Aristide from office in a February 2004
coup, they had the help of the Bush administration, as well as
that of the French and Canadian governments. But they also had
help from the U.S. press, which helped publicize a carefully
planned narrative to justify the overthrow.
I have always been interested
in how a supposedly independent press so often manages to report
on foreign affairs from the point of view of the State Department.
What are the mechanisms by which the government's narrative ends
up being the frame for stories about U.S. military interventions
and CIA-backed coups in the Americas? Who are the foreign correspondents
and how do they learn the "correct" way to report on
a given crisis? Journalist Michael Deibert reported as a special
correspondent in Haiti during the crisis, contributing to or
authoring 16 stories, which were first published in the South
Florida Sun-Sentinel and then in Newsday. I chose to look at
the stories of just one foreign correspondent because together
they provide a perfect example of framing techniques used by
the press to create acquiescence towards the coup, or at least
to confuse the public.
The narrative
Every overthrow of a government
begins with a narrative. Its purpose is to justify the military
removal of a president by telling the world that he is bad and
unpopular among the majority of the people. Another way of presenting
it is that the leader is the cause of a problem-a crisis-and
that the only solution is a change of government. Formulated
by Stanley Lucas, a Haitian-American employee of the International
Republican Institute, and Otto Reich, at the time a special envoy
to the Western Hemisphere for the NSA, the narrative was repeated
by spokesmen for the official foreign-financed political opposition
as well as by NGOs funded by the United States, France and Canada.
All that was needed was for the press to adopt the narrative
as its own frame. Here is one version of the narrative (March
4, Newsday): "Haiti's poor majority initially saw Aristide
as something of a savior, first electing him president in 1990.
In recent years, his popularity fell amid allegations that he
tolerated corruption and used armed gangs to suppress dissent."
Another variation on the theme
of lost support was given while reporting on Aristide's forced
exile (March 1, Newsday): "Haiti's first democratically
elected president, who in recent years had been accused of corruption,
human rights abuses and ineptitude, apparently flew out of the
capital undetected about 6:45 a.m. in a U.S.-provided jet after
losing the support not only of many Haitians, but of his chief
international backers."
And finally, "Aristide,
who was elected for a second time as Haiti's president in December
2000, fled into exile Feb. 29 after months of large street protests
against what critics charged was his increasingly violent and
corrupt rule" (Mar. 8, Newsday).
The authors' repeated assertion
that Aristide had lost popularity and support is patently false.
He won the 2000 election with 90 percent of votes cast, and a
2002 USAID-commissioned Gallup poll showed that over 60% of the
populace still supported the president. Even going by the action
in the streets, witnesses to the demonstrations say that for
every anti-Aristide protest there was a much larger pro-Aristide
demonstration.
Questionable
legitimacy
Part of the process of undermining
Aristide was to question the legitimacy of his tenure as president.
Implicit in the narratives cited above is the idea that Aristide
only wanted power; the idea that he felt obligated to defend
the country's fledgling constitutional democracy is never mentioned.
To the contrary, the authors of the articles use the word "constitutional"
to describe the manner in which Aristide was replaced:
McClellan said Washington remains
"committed to working with our international partners toward
a peaceful, constitutional and democratic solution." That
was an apparent reference to news reports that the administration
wants Aristide to resign in favor of his constitutionally designated
successor, Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre (Ken
Fireman, Newsday, Feb. 28).
After McClellan's quote, the
authors go on to use the word constitutional in every subsequent
reference to Alexandre. In this way, Aristide is made to be illegitimate,
and his refusal to cede to the unconstitutional demand that he
resign is portrayed as the stubbornness of a dictator. The authors
reinforce this idea of illegitimate rule by twice referring to
Aristide's government as a "regime" (Jan. 1, Mar. 1),
and by repeatedly calling him "dictatorial." They use
the expression, "corrupt and dictatorial" four times
and "despotic" once. Even people who fought against
the coup are delegitimized by calling them "Aristide's die-hard
supporters" (Feb. 28), as if their resistance were irrational.
According to Deibert, after the coup, supporters hoped he would
"return to power," not "complete his term as president,"
as Haiti's 1987 constitution required.
Armed gangs
The slur that the press used
most often against Aristide was that he used "armed street
gangs" to attack opponents in order to hold onto power,
implying that he had created the gangs and gave them orders.
The authors use variations on the expression, "pro-Aristide
gangs" 14 times and "pro-Aristide thugs" twice.
Here is one way Deibert describes them: "Behind the National
Palace, pro-Aristide gang members known as chimeres lounged with
assault rifles and beer bottles."
Aristide supporters don't call
themselves "chimeres;" the term is used by lighter
skinned and wealthy Haitians to dehumanize poor, dark and insubordinate
Haitians. Contrast the above description with this description
of the Group of 184, organized with help from the International
Republican Institute to force Aristide out of office: "a
coalition of private sector, civic, peasant and labor organizations
and university students." And here is the description of
the Democratic Platform: "a coalition representing a broad
base of political, civic, education and peasant organizations."
The many references to armed
gangs leaves the impression that they are Aristide's only supporters,
especially when similar language is used to describe pro-government
demonstrators. For example, both gangs and demonstrators are
described as young males: "On Monday, several thousand young,
mostly male Aristide partisans staged a raucous protest in support
of the president throughout the capital" (Dec. 31, 2003,
Sun-Sentinel). The articles do not try to correct this confusion
of supporters and gangsters; for that matter, how does Deibert
define a gang? The coup may have been a surprise to the outside
world, but the Haitian people knew from bitter experience what
the end game was, and had every legal and moral right to defend
their government and themselves from the bloodbath they knew
was coming. A quote from the Jan. 1 Sun-Sentinel article makes
this plain: "Groups of young men from shantytowns formed
a noisy barrier in front of the nation's National Palace to prevent
what they said was an imminent coup d'etat."
Here is a paragraph that reinforces
the claim that Aristide "used armed gangs" against
his opponents, showing them as menacing:
On Sunday, pickup trucks were seen leaving the capital's Canape
Vert police station with their plates removed and full of armed
men, and other pickups with identification removed circled on
the outskirts of the march route carrying young male Aristide
supporters (Jan. 12, Sun-Sentinel).
Deibert's vivid descriptions of Aristide supporters-"roam[ing]
through Haiti's capital," "bands of Aristide loyalists
armed with clubs," "stopp[ing] motorists at blockades
of flaming tires, robbing some, hijacking cars and shooting suspected
opponents"-seem calculated to play on white fear, especially
in the absence of reports on the attacks against Lavalas that
were occurring during that period. In fact, when rebels took
the city of Cap-Haitien, it was described not as a blow against
Haiti's democracy but a "rapid victory" (Feb. 24, Newsday).
No casualties are reported, implying that Haiti's second-largest
city fell without violence.
Deibert had nothing to do with
the following black propaganda story, but it fits into the theme
of Aristide and his supporters as savages. On May 10, 2004, singer
and political activist Annette Auguste "So Anne"
was violently arrested by U.S. marines, and in the following
month was publicly accused by a woman of having invited her to
President Aristide's house in 2000, where the woman said she
witnessed the sacrifice of a baby. According to the woman's story,
this sacrifice was to ensure that Aristide stayed in office for
his full five year term (Aristide wasn't even president at the
time). This unusual charge brought out into the open what until
then had only been implied: that government supporters were naked
savages dancing around a boiling kettle, preparing to eat the
white men-with Aristide as their chief.
Use of sources
The easiest way for any journalist
to express his own bias is through the use of sources. By using
some sources and not others, selecting quotes that support a
bias and presenting those quotes first, the journalist speaks
through his sources. In the articles examined, Aristide's opponents
are always quoted first, allowing them to make outrageous charges
such as this one: "He burns children in their homes; he
destroys human rights; he must go!" Through the uncritical
repetition of charges, the authors accuse Aristide of corruption
no less than 14 times, and political assassination twice. They
quote unnamed "critics" accusing Aristide of drug trafficking
a total of four times: "Human rights groups accused him
of ordering killings of political opponents and of involvement
in drug trafficking, charges that Aristide denied" (Mar.
1, Newsday). Deibert's preferred source is millionaire sweatshop
owner Andy Apaid, followed by sweatshop owner Charles Baker,
never identified as such in the press. Deibert uncritically quotes
U.S.-trained paramilitary leader Guy
Philippe, who claimed that "Aristide supporters were
conducting alleged massacres in towns they hold." (Notice
Philippe's use of transference-Aristide supporters and the Haitian
police "hold" towns, as if they are the invaders and
not Philippe's men.)
Most of these allegations are
libelous, and they would never have been published if they had
been about a U.S. citizen. A journalist who quotes a person making
an unsubstantiated charge is just as responsible for the libel
as the person quoted, and you don't get out of it by saying that
the object of the allegation denies it, or by using the word,
"alleged." Only in foreign reporting do reporters get
away with these journalistic crimes.
In the same way a journalist
can present a source sympathetically, thus making him more credible,
he can also discredit a source by presenting the person as uneducated
or belonging to a radical group. In two instances the stories
follow up on anti-Aristide statements by quoting supporters from
radical organizations, providing a contrast to the respectable-sounding
names of the opposition groups:
At a gate of the palace, hundreds
of people noisily demonstrated their support for Aristide. "We
chose Aristide for five years!" shouted Freline Zephirin,
an activist with a group called Radical Women in Action. "We
will defend him to the death!" (Feb. 25, Newsday)
"All were not pleased,
[about the coup] however. Watching from a street corner as marchers
filtered downtown, David Oxygene, an electrician and spokesman
for the Young Revolutionaries of Haiti, a left-wing pro-Aristide
group, said he was disturbed to see foreign troops in his country"
(Mar. 8, Newsday).
Transference
On Jan. 1, in an article about
Haiti's bicentennial celebrations, Deibert employs the technique
of transference to impute the opposition's methods and motives
to the president. Even though it was the opposition that was
engaged in a campaign to the finish to take power, by naming
him first in the following sentence, Deibert implies that Aristide
was the aggressor: "Jean Bertrand Aristide is locked in
a take-no-prisoners struggle with his domestic political opposition."
The opposition wasn't above launching an armed assault to seize
power, but the articles convey the impression that the only attacks
are carried out by "pro-Aristide gangs." As mentioned
above, paramilitaries who were taking towns and who had committed
atrocities in the past accused Aristide supporters of the same.
Civil
society
The government attempted to
mark the bicentennial of Haiti's independence in the midst of
protests and rebel attacks. In the article about the celebrations
(Jan. 1, Sun-Sentinel), Deibert expands on the theme of Aristide's
alleged loss of support. He makes the patently false claim that
Aristide has lost support of his poor base as well as introducing
outrageous allegations to explain why the poor have turned against
him:
Combined with a deepening poverty among the poor majority, as
well as a political class increasingly bloated on drug money,
segments that had formed Aristide's base during his first tenure
in office, peasants, women's organizations, the urban poor and
students, have found themselves increasingly at odds with what
they see is the government's corruption and thuggery.
In the listing of groups that
have turned against Aristide, we see a classic formula, perfected
from decades of CIA-backed interventions going back to post-WWII
Italy: the civic opposition. Composed of business groups, the
clergy, student groups, labor unions and "human rights"
groups, the civic opposition is a theater show put on for the
international audience through the medium of the foreign press.
Look at these diverse organizations, says the press: everybody
wants the president to step down. But look behind all of the
civic-sounding names and you have organizations, such as the
labor group Batay Ouvriye, which received generous funding from
the U.S. government, and the National Coalition for Haitian Rights,
generously funded by the Canadians.
The
numbers game
Deibert makes use of the quantifier,
"thousands," as well as metaphors and adjectives to
convey the idea that the Aristide opposition is large. Opposition
protests are "huge." The opposition is a "swelling
tide of protests around the country" and a "groundswell
of popular discontent." The invasion of a few hundred mercenaries
is transformed into an "uprising" and a "popular
rebellion," as if the population itself had joined in the
campaign. Supporters of the president, although they make up
the vast majority of the population, are reduced through minimizing
language to isolated groups or individuals: "Despite those
accusations, Aristide still had the support of many." This
last statement is backed up by quoting a barber. After the coup
the only supporters visible to the press were "die-hard
supporters," "gunmen" and "chimeres."
Blame
the victim
The authors report the economic
crisis caused by a U.S.-led aid embargo in the passive voice,
as if it were an unfortunate weather event: "Following the
disputed May 2000 elections, $500 million in international aid
was suspended." The suffering of Haiti's people, intentionally
brought on by the aid embargo, must therefore be Aristide's fault
because of his "ineptitude," or because he squandered
what little money the government did receive: "Aristide's
critics counter that any resources he did receive - and they
accuse him of getting some money from drug trafficking - were
squandered and used to pay high-priced lobbyists to sell his
image as a man of the people" (Feb. 29, Newsday). The president
is also held responsible for political killings, as well as the
general climate of violence that was in fact created by the opposition.
Omission:
Reporting one side of the story
While the authors dutifully
report every accusation the opposition makes against Aristide,
the government is seldom given the opportunity to respond to
them. Except for this quote from a Lavalas spokesman at the end
of an article, there is no other direct quote from a government
source:
'Where do these rebels come from? Who is the principal architect
of this situation? That is the principal question everyone in
Haiti is asking,' said Jonas Petit, spokesman for Aristide's
Lavalas party. 'We are observing hundreds of people coming from
the Dominican Republic with arms. This question is an international
question.'
For balance, Deibert quotes
human rights lawyer Brian Concannon (Jan. 1, Sun-Sentinel), but
this is in the context of the cutoff of international aid, not
the crisis at hand. Concannon is talking about Haiti's long-term
needs when it would have been more relevant for Deibert to ask
him whether demands for Arisitide's resignation were legal or
justified by any crimes committed by the president. Nowhere in
the 16 articles does Deibert quote a government official regarding
the serious charges against Aristide that the authors repeat
in the articles-that he is "corrupt and dictatorial,"
attacks political opponents and deals in drugs.
Another omission is the scant
coverage of the paramilitary invasion force that drove Aristide
out of the country. Led by Guy Philippe, Louis Jodel Chamblain,
and Jean Tatoune, the well-armed group included former members
of the disbanded Haitian army. To their credit, the authors
twice mention Chamblain's participation in a 1994 massacre, but
we don't read a lot about Philippe, an admirer of Augusto Pinochet
who had carried out multiple deadly attacks over the past two
years. Deibert doesn't mention the fact that the mercenaries
have U.S.-made weapons even though he was present at a press
conference by Philippe, nor does he seem to be asking the obvious
question: Who is behind the invasion?
An interesting side story was
a January 1, 2004 report about a "formerly pro-Aristide"
gang based in Gonaives called the Cannibal Army, which joined
up with Philippe's forces and changed its name to the Artibonite
Resistance Front. This information is true, but the way it is
presented may have given the impression that Aristide was connected
to the Cannibal Army, of which there is no more evidence than
there is for the other allegations made about him.
In spite of relatively mild
treatment of the rebels in the press (reporter Jane Regan eulogized
them) it was impossible to completely sanitize these groups led
by gross human rights violators, and the civic opposition denied
any links to them. Andy Apaid disingenuously claimed, "We
feel trapped between two [groups], an armed movement coming from
the north, and an armed movement coming from the terrorizing
and criminal government in the National Palace." Pulitzer
Prize-winning reporter Walt Bogdanich actually investigated how
the invasion had been planned and executed, and to nobody's surprise,
both the U.S. government and the Democratic Convergence/Group
of 184 were behind it.
The rebels quickly disappeared
from the news, but they didn't disappear from Haiti. Their murder
of thousands of Lavalas supporters (estimated in a study at 4,000)
was the most thoroughly censored story of 2004.
Regarding support for the civic
opposition and the rebels, who reportedly were welcomed with
"euphoria" by thousands of Haitians filling the streets,
here are the results of the February 2006 elections, according
to AP: "The businessman Charles Henri Baker was third with
7.8 percent. Guy Philippe, who helped lead the armed uprising
against Aristide, won only 1.7 percent." Did anybody call
for a recount?
It is impossible to say whether
any establishment reporter intentionally promotes the State Department
line, or whether he has internalized the world view of the ruling
class. But it doesn't matter in the end because a reporter is
not independent of his publication. According to filmmaker Kevin
Pina, working in Haiti for seven years, a prominent journalist
who was reporting in Haiti at the time said about his editors,
"Hey, I am sorry but they are not interested in positive
stories about Lavalas. I wrote it, submitted it and they told
me they were not interested." So it appears that the editors,
who answer to their publishers, know in advance what kind of
story the publisher wants. Even if they don't have a Michael
Deibert to file that story, they will find someone else to do
it.
Diana Barahona is a freelance journalist with an
interest in Latin America. She can be contacted through www.freehaiti.net
or www.haitianalysis.com
Unnamed experts on Haiti provided invaluable help with this article.
References
Michael Deibert Special Correspondent.
Demonstrations Against Aristide Gaining Momentum in Haiti. South
Florida Sun - Sentinel, December 31, 2003.
Michael Deibert Special Correspondent.
Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement
this report. Haitians Mark 2 Centuries as Nation Bicentennial
Finds World's First Black Republic Mired in Poverty, Torn by
Political Violence. South Florida Sun - Sentinel, January 1,
2004.
Michael Deibert Special Correspondent
. Violence Disrupts Revelry in Haiti
Anit-Aristide Marches Overwhelm Parties on Nations's Bicentennial
President Calls for Patience, Unity as Dignitaries Visit. South
Florida Sun - Sentinel, January 2, 2004.
Michael Deibert. Two Killed,
23 Injured as Haitian Protesters Press Aristide to Quit. South
Florida Sun - Sentinel, January 8, 2004.
Michael Deibert Special Correspondent.
Information from EFE News was used to
supplement this report. Masses March Against Aristide Tens of
Thousands Demand Resignation of Haitian President Leader Scheduled
to Attend Special Summit in Mexico. South Florida Sun - Sentinel,
January 12, 2004.
Michael Deibert, Aristide Loyalists Flee. Newsday, February 23,
2004.
Michael Deibert. Insurgency
in Haiti / Girding for siege / Aristide loyalists prepare to
defend the capital as rebels close in and diplomats seek a peaceful
solution. Newsday, February 24, 2004.
Michael Deibert. No Peace in
Haiti / Aristide braces for rebel assault. Newsday, February
25, 2004.
Tina Susman. Staff Correspondent,
Special correspondent Michael Deibert contributed to this story.
Haiti peace deal rejected: As foreigners flee, the capital braces
for rebel attacks amid fears of anarchy and vows Aristide will
stay. Newsday, February 26, 2004.
Ken Fireman. Washington Bureau,
Special correspondent Michael Deibert in Port-au-Prince contributed
to this story. Pushing Aristide to go / Bush administration goes
public in urging him to step down, and prepares plans to send
peacekeepers. Newsday, February 28, 2004.
Tina Susman. Staff Correspondent, Special correspondent Michael
Deibert contributed to this story from Port-au-Prince. Behind
Aristide's long slide / As chaos continues to reign in impoverished
island nation, Haitians debate how much blame their president
must shoulder for the mess. Newsday, February 29, 2004.
Tina Susman and Michael Deibert,
Aristide departs, Marines move in / UN approves U.S. - led mission
to restore peace as fragmented opposition groups in Haiti battle
for political influence. Newsday, March 1, 2004.
Tina Susman. Staff Correspondent,
Special correspondent Michael Deibert contributed to this story.
Thousands gleefully greet rebel army. Newsday, March 2, 2004.
Michael Deibert and Tina Susman.
Rebel vows to disarm: Leader meets with U.S. ambassador and then
announces his forces will lay down their weapons. Newsday, March
4, 2004.
Michael Deibert. Gunmen fire
upon rally / As thousands of people gather to cheer Aristide's
exile, shots, allegedly from his backers, leave 5 dead. Newsday,
March 8, 2004.
Michael Deibert Special Correspondent.
This story was supplemented with wire service reports. Aristide's
Jamaica visit prompts Haiti protest. Newsday, March 16, 2004.
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