There is only ONE religious newsprint to note:
To understand the personal implications, there is a long history between myself and Morning Papers:
http://www.earthrescue911.org/press.htm
Click on "Story of the Rooster" for PDF.
Tonight's installment of Anti-Semitism:
BROWN: Morning papers after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: A lot of good morning papers today, so let's move quickly through them.
"Philadelphia Inquirer"
"Dallas Morning News"
"The Detroit Free Press."
"The Detroit News."
"The Christian Science Monitor"
"Cincinnati Enquirer."
"Chicago Sun-Times" "relapse"
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Thursday, February 10, 2005
The Religious Bigotry of The CNN NewsNight Morning Papers Segment 2.9.05
BROWN: Morning papers after the break. Wow. What was that?
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers.
"The Shanghai Daily"
"Christian Science Monitor"
"The Dallas Morning News,"
"San Antonio Express-News,"
"The Boston Herald"
"The Guardian,"
"The Miami Herald."
"The Detroit News."
Weather in Chicago, "monotonous."
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers.
"The Shanghai Daily"
"Christian Science Monitor"
"The Dallas Morning News,"
"San Antonio Express-News,"
"The Boston Herald"
"The Guardian,"
"The Miami Herald."
"The Detroit News."
Weather in Chicago, "monotonous."
Tuesday, February 8, 2005
The Religious Bigotry of NewsNight's Morning Papers Segment 2.8.05 Would the recording of Nazi Germany Demand Anything Less?
Our own reality program continues with morning papers after the break.
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: That's pretty cool. Tomorrow, I think -- I think it's tomorrow -- begins the year of the rooster.
"The Christian Science Monitor."
"The Dallas Morning News"
"The Washington Times"
"Rocky Mountain News"
"The Fairchild Connection."
"The Des Moines Register."
(The Chicago Sun Times) The weather tomorrow in Chicago is "rush slush."
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: That's pretty cool. Tomorrow, I think -- I think it's tomorrow -- begins the year of the rooster.
"The Christian Science Monitor."
"The Dallas Morning News"
"The Washington Times"
"Rocky Mountain News"
"The Fairchild Connection."
"The Des Moines Register."
(The Chicago Sun Times) The weather tomorrow in Chicago is "rush slush."
Thursday, February 3, 2005
MSNBC seeks potential for a job for Aaron as a candidate
The Vine: CNN toying with new 'NewsNight' (click here)
1 November 2005 | The Hollywood Reporter | See recent The Hollywood Reporter news »
NEW YORK -- Has CNN come to the end of the road in its pairing of Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper on a recently expanded NewsNight? Speculation is rampant that CNN is weighing the possibility of keeping Cooper as anchor of the 10 p.m. EST edition of NewsNight while shifting Brown to anchor a new 7 p.m. edition of the show, which is now the home of Anderson Cooper 360. Brown had been anchoring the 10 p.m. NewsNight newscast as a solo act until early September, when CNN expanded the program to two hours to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast region. Cooper, who has reported for extended periods of time from the road, has been a permanent part of the show after CNN decided to shelve its regular 11 p.m. repeat of Lou Dobbs Tonight. Now, according to sources, CNN is weighing the possibility of splitting up the show and giving Cooper the high-profile 10 p.m. slot. A CNN rep said that no final decisions have been made on the future of NewsNight. No matter what happens, neither Cooper nor Brown will be on the air for CNN this week. Both anchors are on vacation. »
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Top of the 'Morning' for CNN's Bondy
1 March 2005 | The Hollywood Reporter | See recent The Hollywood Reporter news »
NEW YORK -- There's a change at the top of American Morning, CNN's weekday morning show. Monday is the first day on the job for Kim Bondy, whose new job is exec producer for American Morning and CNN's vp morning programming. She replaces Wilson Surratt, who last week was named exec producer of NewsNight with Aaron Brown. Bondy, whose new job is New York-based along with the show, previously was based in Atlanta as CNN's vp franchise development. Her promotion was announced Monday morning during a staff meeting with CNN president Jon Klein. »
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Carlson ties up MSNBC anchor spot
3 February 2005 | The Hollywood Reporter | See recent The Hollywood Reporter news »
NEW YORK -- MSNBC has hired former Crossfire co-host Tucker Carlson to anchor a 9 p.m. program. Carlson left CNN last month after talks to give him his own show on that network failed. He had been a co-host of the debate show Crossfire since the late '90s and also had substituted on other CNN shows, including NewsNight With Aaron Brown in the last week of 2004. MSNBC has been looking for a permanent host for the 9 p.m. time slot since Deborah Norville quit last month
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Bush to Appoint Commission to Investigate Pre-War Intelligence; Bodice-Ripping Super Bowl Halftime Show Causes Uproar
Bush to Appoint Commission to Investigate Pre-War Intelligence; Bodice-Ripping Super Bowl Halftime Show Causes Uproar
Aired February 2, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.First of all I want you to know that we have taken extra care to make sure that whatever else happens tonight there will not be a costume malfunction on this program.If you're just sitting there waiting for me to rip off part of my shirt as some cheap ratings stunt in hopes that you'll watch the entire program, including the commercials, you are out of luck. The shirt stays on. So do the pants.Sometimes I do the program without my shoes but that's as far as I'm willing to go, yet another sign of how hopelessly behind the times we are here at NEWSNIGHT.Further, we have no intention of telling you how to stay in the game, if you know what I mean, and if you don't know what I mean think of throwing a football through a tire. That'll explain it.Also to my knowledge there will not be a moment where we all get a good hearty laugh out of animal flatulence. We will, however, deal with the Super Bowl halftime show but should this program run longer than four hours please call a doctor immediately.We'll begin the whip with more serious stuff though. To the White House and CNN's Dana Bash, Dana a headline please.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, after months of resisting the idea of a commission to look into pre-war intelligence the president has reversed course. He is now embracing the idea. The Democrats say what he's planning isn't truly independent. They're not buying it -- Aaron.
BROWN: Dana, thank you.To the campaign trail, South Carolina, Frank Buckley is there, Frank a headline.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, on the last full day of campaigning before round three of the Democratic primaries and caucuses a new poll suggests that in a head-to-head match up with President George W. Bush two of the Democratic candidates could win -- Aaron.
BROWN: Frank, thank you. Now to Washington and an ominous discovery in the mailroom of the Senate majority leader tonight, Jeanne Meserve with the headline -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, let's call it a potentially ominous discovery. A homeland security official tells us that a substance found in Senator Bill Frist's mailroom this afternoon has tested positive for ricin in preliminary tests. These tests often unreliable further testing being done. However, law enforcement officials telling CNN that the preliminary testing was confusing and inconsistent. We are waiting for a press conference from the Capitol Police shortly, which we hope will clarify the situation -- Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you, Jeanne.And back to the water cooler story of the day, if not all time, the Super Bowl halftime show, Jen Rogers with part of that story from L.A. -- Jen
.JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Aaron. That's right. You know all the people could talk today -- about today wasn't the game winning field goal, that 85-yard record breaking touchdown pass. It was Janet and Justin, that's right. But it turns out besides being good for the water cooler this stunt could have repercussions from Washington.
BROWN: Jen, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.Also on the program tonight we revisit some voters in Arizona we met last October, hear how they have gone from undecided to decided before tomorrow's primary.Segment 7 tonight you will meet Jay Williams (ph), a fantastic young kid who was about to break out as a star in the NBA until a devastating motorcycle accident. He talks about his long road back tonight.And, for the really big finale, why morning papers of course and I wonder what will be on the morning papers as they make their way to your doorstep tomorrow? Hum, all of that and more in the one hour ahead.We begin with the president's decision to do what less than a week ago he said was premature, probably not necessary. The president will appoint a commission to, among other things, look at the intelligence that he used to take the country to war.It was a tacit admission that the intelligence was wrong but the president's decision has not satisfied everyone, rarely does, but this question keeps coming up again and again. If the president makes the appointment how independent will the commission actually be?From the White House tonight here's CNN's Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): Little more than a week after outgoing weapons inspector David Kay declared weapons of mass destruction likely won't be found in Iraq, President Bush under mounting political pressure now says he'll appoint a commission to find out why.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm putting together an independent bipartisan commission to analyze where we stand, what we can do better as we fight this war against terror.
BASH: Mr. Bush invited Dr. Kay to the White House for a private briefing from the man who declared: "We were all wrong." The White House is actively assembling a nine-person panel which they compared to the Warren Commission set up after JFK's assassination. The panel will focus not just on intelligence in Iraq but take a broader look at gaps in other crucial areas like North Korea and Iran.
SCOTT REED, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT:I think the administration recognize that this issue was starting to get a head of steam with the American people, with members of Congress and, you know, every once in a while in politics you just (unintelligible) for what's going to happen.
BASH: The White House officials are informally consulting with some in Congress on the commission's makeup and mandate. It will be appointed only by the president by executive order. Democrats question whether that is truly independent.
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D), MINORITY LEADER: We can't have the president or anybody else dictating how that commission is going to work and the nominees who will be involved.
BASH: While the latest CNN/USA Today Gallup poll still shows most Americans don't think the president deliberately misled them on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, a major rationale for war, nine months before election day there are growing misgivings about the war itself. Just 49 percent of Americans think going to war in Iraq was worth it, down ten points in under three weeks. Bush officials are still careful to say Saddam Hussein was a threat and do not concede, even when pressed, intelligence on Iraq's illicit weapons was flawed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: And another thing that's really (unintelligible) Democrats on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail is the fact that this commission's deadline is likely not going to be until after the election. That makes this whole idea of creating a commission, Democrats say, look a lot like a political ploy -- Aaron.
BROWN: Well, without calling it or characterizing it as a ploy or not someone at the White House must have thought, we would assume, that it does make it less of an issue in the sense they can say look a commission is investigating this.
BASH: That's right and, you know, that is what they have been saying all along. They've been saying that a committee in the Senate, a committee in the House have been looking at this. Other areas, the CIA, other places they've all been investigating Iraq.But what the White House is trying to do is make this into a broader, look, the White House spokesman Scott McClellan must have said the word broad about 20 times today in his press conference. They say that this is about looking at not just Iraq but about North Korea, about the whole war on terrorism, about the entire intelligence community at large.
BROWN: Dana, thank you, Dana Bash at the White House tonight.With his testimony last week in the Senate, former U.S. weapons inspector David Kay pretty much assured that this issue is not going to go away anytime soon. Clearly it's not now. One question tonight how much mileage will the White House get out of today's announcement, if any?Dana Milbank is covering this all for the "Washington Post," pleased to have him with us tonight. It's good to see you. Let's talk for a minute about the evolution of the administration's position on this because it seems to me at least the middle of last week they were arguing that no commission was necessary at all.
DANA MILBANK, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": Yes. The White House says they never really flatly opposed it, although I think we might be able to find them actually flatly opposing it.But more they were saying let's wait until the Iraq survey group has done its job and that was really a way of saying well let's wait until next year because everybody realized that's going to take another year or so to do that.Some people in the White House began to realize though, wait a second, maybe Kay is giving us an opportunity here. He's not blaming us. He's blaming the CIA and the intelligence. If we get onboard, get out in front of this steamroller and start driving it then perhaps we can have this independent commission and that will put it -- they have to wait for the survey group to be done anyway so we're into 2005 and we're reelected so it doesn't really matter what happens then.
BROWN: I guess what I'm trying to figure out is was there a moment where their view of a commission changed. Did something happen in the White House that led them to go from let's let the survey group do its work to we best form a commission or we're going -- we'll be buried by this?
MILBANK: Well, as I understand it, there was something of an argument inside. There are still some people inside who say well the White House should come out, the president should come out and say what everybody else seems to be realizing, what Kay said and what seems patently obvious to everybody and that is the intelligence leading to the allegations, leading to the war in Iraq were wrong.Now, if you listen very carefully the president is not saying it was wrong. Scott McClellan is not saying it was wrong. But by having the commission you can put off saying it was wrong that much longer.So, it's not like suddenly everybody in the White House is won over to the idea that commissions are terrific things. You can rest pretty well assured that they don't have any particular need for a commission. This is a White House that likes to have centralized control, does not like to let things get out of their hands but they realize that tactically this is very useful for them to do so sometime towards the end of last week the people advocating this got the upper hand.
BROWN: Isn't this -- I'll withdraw the sentence I wrote a little earlier if you disagree but isn't this a tacit admission that the intelligence was wrong?
MILBANK: Well, of course it is and if you talk to people in the White House privately, I mean they're not, they're not dumb. Obviously they see what Kay has said. They see what's on the news reports. They know that the intelligence was wrong.But what they've realized, and this happened last summer when they admitted that the allegations about Iraq getting uranium in Africa was put in the State of the Union address, they acknowledged that was wrong and it led to this tidal wave of criticism. Everybody pounced on that and used that admission to hammer away at the White House.What they're realizing is it does them no good to say we were wrong. It projects weakness. It invites attacks from the Democrats, so they're actually -- they realize of course that it was wrong but they cannot acknowledge it. So, the commission implicitly acknowledges what the president and his people cannot say explicitly or at least are not willing to say explicitly right now.
BROWN: Hearing any names?
MILBANK: For the commission?
BROWN: Yes.
MILBANK: Well, if we did we'd report them tomorrow in the "Washington Post."
BROWN: You know somehow I knew you'd say that. Thank you. Good to have you with us telling us what you can before you publish tomorrow. Thank you.
MILBANK: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: Dana Milbank who covers the White House and other matters for the "Washington Post" well and aggressively. On to an inquiry of an all together different sort so tell me did you hear the one about the Super Bowl halftime show? You did? Hum. All that's been said about it, and a lot has and will continue to be, the thing that stands out in all of this to me is I finally came to understand why TIVO has that quick backup button. How did they know?Anyway, the federal government is now on the case, vowing to uncover the truth. Thank goodness.Here's CNN's Jen Rogers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROGERS (voice-over): First there was the kiss. Now there's the rip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was shocked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disgusting, inappropriate for television, very inappropriate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way the game was going I thought that was the best highlight of it all.
ROGERS: The racy conclusion to the Super Bowl's halftime show certainly grabbed fans' attention and it turns out the governments as well. Monday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell launched an investigation saying he is outraged.
MICHAEL POWELL, CHAIRMAN, FCC: I thought it was outrageous and I was deeply disappointed as I sat there with my two children and I knew immediately this would cause great outrage by the American people which it did.
ROGERS: CBS, which aired the Super Bowl, MTV which produced the halftime show and Justin Timberlake, the bodice ripper himself all but characterized the moment as unrehearsed and unplanned.For her part, Janet Jackson issued a statement late Monday saying: "The decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my halftime show performance was made after final rehearsals. MTV was completely unaware of it. It was not my intention that it go as far as it did. I apologize to anyone offended, including the audience, MTV, CBS and the NFL."Apologies aside, many believe the stunt could end up boosting Jackson's bottom line.
JENNY ELISCU, "ROLLING STONE" MAGAZINE: I think probably from a PR standpoint it is a good move for her because controversy generates album sales.
ROGERS: The timing for Janet Jackson, some say, couldn't be better. Her new album hits stores this spring.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROGERS: Now, good timing for Jackson but tough timing for stations that actually aired the Super Bowl and that is because Chairman Powell has really been cracking down and getting much more aggressive on indecency. And, in fact, Congress has a bill making its way through that could increase the fines tenfold of where they are right now.And one more thing, Aaron, I do want to point out that you just were talking about your new appreciation of TIVO, well TIVO actually coming out with a press release saying that the Justin Timberlake/Janet Jackson moment drew the biggest spike ever in terms of audience reaction that the company has ever measured and one can only imagine what is being traded over the Internet tonight.
BROWN: One does not even want to imagine what is being traded over the Internet tonight. Jen, thank you very much, nice job today.Ahead on the program we'll spend a little bit more time on this Super Bowl mess. We'll get the perspective of a couple of folks, Jeff Greenfield among them, Dave Ross from CBS radio joins us to weigh in as well. It is the water cooler story of the day.But up next the last hours of campaigning as Democratic presidential candidates try and win over the undecided votes who head to the polls tomorrow and they have to do it with their shirts on.And in Segment 7 tonight the story of Jay Williams, an up-and- coming pro basketball star on the road back after a devastating motorcycle accident. You'll appreciate athletes a little more tonight on NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Just hours ago now until the voting begins in seven states holding Democratic primaries or caucuses tomorrow, the stage bigger, the voters more diverse, the dynamic different from two weeks ago.Frontrunner John Kerry now hoping to cement a growing lead, his opponents bent on breaking the winning streak. The conventional wisdom is the seven states tomorrow may well serve to at least winnow the field, though none of the candidates is willing to concede that much, not yet.Here's CNN's Frank Buckley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUCKLEY (voice-over): John Edwards came home to Seneca, South Carolina.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a great honor for me to be back in my birthplace.
BUCKLEY: His candidacy getting a huge boost by a new CNN/USA Today Gallup poll indicating that he is one of only two Democratic candidates who could beat President George Bush is the election were held today.Frontrunner John Kerry wins the hypothetical content by seven points, Edwards a virtual unknown on the national political stage before his second place finish in Iowa beats Mr. Bush 49 to 48 percent.
EDWARDS: On the way here about 45 minutes ago I saw a national poll showing that I am already beating George Bush.
BUCKLEY: Edwards' homecoming celebration came on a day that saw sniping among the Democrats. Former frontrunner Howard Dean going after Kerry on Kerry's familiar line about going after special interests. Over the weekend records revealed that Kerry has accepted more money from lobbyists than any other U.S. Senator.
HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have got to change this country fundamentally, change what's going on in Washington, stand up for ordinary Americans so that we control the government and not special interests and corporations. And, John, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
BUCKLEY: Kerry responded.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know whatever happened to Governor Dean's positive campaign but it's the shortest lived positive campaign I've ever seen.
BUCKLEY: Polls show Kerry leading in five of the seven February 3 states. Wesley Clark is ahead in some polls in Oklahoma in a very tight race. It's Edwards who is winning in South Carolina. And after a series of satellite interviews with South Carolina TV stations, Senator Kerry whispered to an aide, overheard by a pool reporter, "Edwards says he's the only one who can win states in the south. He can't win his own state," which prompted an immediate response from Edwards.
EDWARDS: Here's what happened. I took on the Helms political machine, beat the incumbent Republican Senator and now I am your Senator from North Carolina, not Jesse Helms.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BUCKLEY: Now, despite the fact that the CNN poll suggests that either Edwards or Kerry would beat George Bush in a head-to-head match-up today, no one is suggesting that that's the outcome of an election in November. It's way too early for that. The Democrats have been in the news a lot lately and voters have been listening to that but there's been very little negative information about the candidates out there so far. But I talked to a couple of political analysts tonight, Aaron, who said that this poll result is huge for John Edwards. John Edwards is a guy that very few people knew about just a few weeks ago. Now he's seen as a legitimate contender against George W. Bush in a general election. It's big news for John Edwards -- Aaron.
BROWN: That's a great caveat and a P.S. to it all. I think it puts the poll in better context. The overall poll itself may not tell us something but it does say something about Senator Edwards and his quest. We appreciate your reporting today, Frank. Thank you very much, Frank Buckley in South Carolina. We'll see him tomorrow.Of the seven states in play tomorrow, Arizona offers the biggest, second biggest prize, 55 delegates. Only Missouri with 74 has more. In Iowa and New Hampshire many voters were undecided until the very end and what they decided may well shape some of tomorrow's votes. A few days ago we went back to Arizona to see how things have changed, how minds have changed since the fall.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): We met them first back last fall, a debate in October in Arizona. Like half the Democrats in the state at the time they were undecided then. They came to the debate to ask.
PAULETTE POHLMANN, ARIZONA DEMOCRAT: There is so much hate for the United States right now and how would you use your position as president to uplift the world to a place that would take us out of that darkness?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: America is a country from the heart.
BROWN: And sometimes they answered.
EDWARDS: Karen, how long have you been without any kind of coverage for your prescription drugs?
POHLMANN: It's been over a year.
EDWARDS: Over a year.BROWN: And they thought the debate would help them decide which turned out to be wishful thinking.
KAREN DICKINSON, ARIZONA DEMOCRAT: I came away from the debate with the same feeling of this is just rhetoric.
POHLMANN: I had a lot of information coming at me about, particularly from the media and from print journalists but I -- I had to do a lot of research on my own.
BROWN: Now a lot has happened since last October, most notably one state's caucuses.
KERRY: I love New Hampshire.
BROWN: And another state's primary.
PAT CANTELME, ARIZONA DEMOCRAT: Between Iowa and just prior to New Hampshire I made up my mind.
BROWN: Some stars have dimmed. Others, like John Edwards, brighten.
POHLMANN: And he came in second in Iowa and he came in third in New Hampshire. That was when my own faith in my first impressions were reinstated.
BROWN: It isn't a position on health care or the economy that's driving decisions. It's not Iraq or gay marriage. It is something else, something more basic, perhaps the most basic reason of all.
CANTELME: I was looking to see what candidate I thought would resonate with the public and have the best chance to beat President Bush.
POHLMANN: I think there's a lot of agreement that in the collective of people who would like to see a different direction in the presidential administration.
BROWN: Strip away everything else. Strip away the debates and the ads, the speeches and the pundits and what has moved the undecideds is simple. They pick the guy they think can win come November.
POHLMANN: I've made the decision that I'm going to vote for John Edwards.
CANTELME: Senator Kerry for president.
DICKINSON: My husband and I, it's been a great debate between us and a lot of soul searching but it's going to be John Kerry.
BROWN: They all agree on the reason they've made their choice if not on the choice itself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Arizona and six others tomorrow.Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the $500 billion problem. That's how the president's new budget is in the red, how deep. Some details on that and more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Tonight we have a much better idea of how our tax dollars will be spent in the next fiscal year. President Bush delivered his budget for 2005 to the Congress today.Some of the details have been dribbling out for several days, the (unintelligible) a third price tag for the Medicare overhaul for one but the extent of the new spending and the scope of the resulting cuts is now official in black and white and red.Here's CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hand delivered to lawmakers, President Bush's biggest budget yet, a whopping $2.4 trillion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now I got to get busy reading it.KOCH: There is more money for defense, for homeland security, for NASA's mission to Mars and for some education and job training programs but 63 government programs will be trimmed and 65 eliminated all together.BUSH: We're calling upon Congress to be wise with the taxpayers' money and we look forward to working with them to bring a fiscal discipline to the appropriations process.
KOCH: But Democrats charge President Bush's budget is anything but disciplined.
SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), NORTH DAKOTA: This elephant won't fly. This president's plan won't lift off the ground. It is so burdened by deficit and debt that it fundamentally threatens our economic security.
KOCH: One point of contention, the budget estimates the cost of the Medicare overhaul and prescription drug plan will be one third higher than lawmakers were told it would be when they voted for it.Also, President Bush left out of the budget money needed next year to keep U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The omission could add $50 billion or more to the record $521 billion deficit created by the president's budget. Even some Republicans worry it is gushing red ink.
SEN. DON NICKLES, CHAIRMAN, BUDGET COMMITTEE: I believe that the deficits are too high, $500 billion deficits are not acceptable.
KOCH: Political analysts say economic conservatives, the base of the Republican Party are nearing revolt.
REED: They don't like the fact that spending has grown and it feels like it's out of control. The Medicare news last week was bad.KOCH (on camera): And then there was that vow in the State of the Union that the president will cut the budget deficit in half within five years. Mr. Bush insists his new budget is on track to keep that promise.Kathleen Koch, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Now, we'll look at some of the other stories in the business world. This is our Moneyline Roundup of course. Blimpie, International, I love that name, plans to open a sandwich shop or many of them actually in Wal-Marts across the country. In all, Blimpie intends to open more than 100 of its express restaurants this year. The first will debut in Florida in April. Get ready.Turning to the economy and a pair of seemingly positive reports on growth, looked that way to us, starting with the closely-watched purchasing managers' report which said manufacturing activity rose for the eighth straight month and jumped to a 20-year high in January. Also the Commerce Department said the nation's construction spending rose in December.Some good news on the economy today; however, both reports fell below estimates which results in a mixed day on Wall Street. Can't make those people can you? The Dow and the S&P were up a little bit, NASDAQ fell again.Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: the Super Bowl and questions of whether there were more personal fouls committed during the commercials and halftime than during the game itself, this important question after the break. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The FCC is on the case. Back to the Super Bowl. Times change; 28 years old, Carol Channing was the big-name entertainer at halftime. Super Bowl XIV was a salute to the big band era. How quaint does that sound tonight? Chubby Checker appeared during Super Bowl XXII, along with those symbols of Americans sex, the Rockettes. Tony Bennett, fully clothed, as I remember it, appeared on Super Bowl XXIX. Admit it. You don't remember any of them, not a one. The bar has now been raised -- or perhaps lowered -- to meet the culture or imitate it. Here's our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST (voice-over): Oh, where to begin? Well, it's hard to beat Justin Timberlake's explanation. Wardrobe malfunction, he called it. Wardrobe malfunction? Houston, we have a problem. Or maybe we should check out MTV's heartfelt apology -- quote -- "The tearing of Janet Jackson's costume was unrehearsed, unplanned, completely unintentional and was inconsistent with assurances we had about the content of the performance. MTV regrets this incident occurred and we apologize to anyone who was offended by it" -- unquote. Well, apology accepted, except there was this comment on MTV's Web site after Justin got something off her chest. -- quote -- "Jaws across the country hit the carpet at exactly the same time. You know what we're talking about, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake and a kinky finale that rocked the Super Bowl to its core." Yes, baby. CBS said -- quote -- "We attended all rehearsals throughout the week, and there was no indication that any such thing would happen." Really? So they were OK with this? The National Football League -- remember they staged a game of some sort yesterday -- said -- quote -- "It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime." Yes, because, given MTV's track record during the past decade or so, why would anyone even imagine they might throw in a shock or two? (on camera): The fact is, when it comes to the sleaze factor in mass media, there's more than enough hypocrisy to go around. All of our biggest media giants, including the one that owns CNN, have made gobs of money appealing to the public's endless taste for the naughty, the bawdy and the tawdry. (voice-over): In fact, in the middle of the Super Bowl, CBS, you know, the network so offended by Janet Jackson's mammary, ran this promo showing a child ogling a nearly naked backside. And the commercials, all of which CBS approved for air and which cost some $2.3 million per 30 seconds, featured, among many other things, a flatulent horse and a monkey making sexual advances to a girl. And, by the way, remember this Pepsi ad starring a presidential nominee, a hot young woman and a highly enthusiastic dog? Yes, good taste is timeless. (on camera): In every survey, the public says it is appalled by media sleaze. It says it wants to see more documentaries and high- minded dramas. It never says it wants to see nearly-naked women wrestling with each other or kinky threesomes confessing all to a leering talk show host or secret celebrity sex tapes. Nope, never says it, and never stops watching. Jeff Greenfield, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: So, what to make of all of this? We certainly have been talking about it all day here at NEWSNIGHT.Dave Ross is host of the aptly named "Dave Ross Show" in Seattle and a national syndicated CBS radio commentator. He joins us from Seattle. So does Alan Light join us from here in New York. He's editor in chief of a new music magazine called "Tracks." He's also been the editor of "Spin" and "Vibe" and a senior writer at "Rolling Stone." And we're glad to have them both.David, are we actually shocked or are we just pretending to be shocked because we know we're supposed to be?
DAVE ROSS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I think it's the latter, Aaron. I certainly -- as a matter of fact, to be totally honest, I didn't know even it had happened. I saw a crawl, I think on CNN, saying, "Janet Jackson Apologizes." I immediately went back to the TiVo and am probably single-handedly responsible for about 500,000 of those TiVo hits. But, no, I think -- I have a feeling that al Qaeda must have sabotaged the costume in some way, because there's no way that Justin really wanted to rip all of it off.
BROWN: No, I'm sure not.
ROSS: Just some of it off.
BROWN: Just some of it.
ROSS: Just some of it.
BROWN: Did your listeners talk about it today? And were they -- I mean, Seattle is a pretty calm group, when they're not overcaffeinated. Were they appalled or did they find some amusement in it all?
ROSS: They feigned appropriate shock, Aaron. And we discussed whether the FCC should investigate it. And they felt kind of like Howard Dean does, that they would prefer an investigation of whatever happened to those weapons, rather than whether this was intentional or not.
BROWN: Alan, is this -- should we be shocked? In a sense, isn't this what MTV and sort of kid culture is right now?
ALAN LIGHT, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "TRACKS": Well, I think, by and large, that's very true.And I think the Super Bowl halftime show was Up With People or Gloria Estefan.
BROWN: Yes.
LIGHT: The notion was, we'll bring in MTV. We'll give it edge and energy and rock 'n' roll. And, you know, this is everything, in theory, that the NFL was going for, making this shift to having MTV produce the halftime show. It's 28 hours later and it's what we're all still talking about it. I doubt that they think that that ultimately is a failure.
BROWN: So, you have a kind of cynical suspicion that maybe they're feigning outrage themselves, because they're getting a ton and a half of attention.
LIGHT: As was pointed out in Jeff's piece, there's not a whole lot of room for improvisation and accident in the halftime show of the most watched television event of the year.
BROWN: Yes.
LIGHT: I don't really believe that it went completely -- everybody went nuts and the cameras didn't know where to go and, all of sudden, this happened.
BROWN: Yes, that is a stretch, isn't it?
LIGHT: Whether it was supposed to be, he would tear some off or all off, OK, maybe there's degrees to talk about. But in terms of the direction of what this was going to be, I have a hard time believing that this was a complete surprise to everybody at CBS and the NFL.
BROWN: Dave, setting aside for a minute whether seeing a bare breast on television for a nanosecond is going to corrupt the nation's youth, let me suggest there's actually something serious and troubling in all of this, which was the whole scene. The whole scene was inappropriately sexual.
ROSS: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: The end game was basically, if you can't get the girl to take her clothes off, just rip them off.
ROSS: Yes, exactly. Well, that was what surprising to me, although I'll tell you, the thing, Aaron, that first caught my attention not so much the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake dance. I thought he was going to get her pregnant right on that stage. But, actually, before that, Kid Rock's lyrics.
BROWN: Yes.
ROSS: I starting hearing him talking about the IRS and meth labs and stuff like this. And I said, oh, so we hear all this and now we're going to go and play some good old American football.
BROWN: Yes.
ROSS: But I think that, you know, the point's been made that the executives who booked this booked it intentionally because they wanted it to be edgy. Clearly, they wanted to appeal to a younger demographic. And so to profess shock at this point is kind of disingenuous. And it happens in radio, too. They will book the edgiest deejay they can find. And then they egg on a couple of people to make love in the cathedral, and they say, oh, we had no idea this would happen.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Actually, had the Janet Jackson moment not happened, I actually assumed the problem was going to be the guy wearing the American flag and ripping it off. ROSS: Yes. BROWN: That, actually, in the moment we're in, is pretty tasteless. Are kids, Alan, looking at us right now, these old people that we are -- or I am -- and just laughing at us making a big fuss over this?
LIGHT: Mostly I think yes. I do think -- look, for all of this said, I do think it's a surprise and a line that we didn't expect to go past, to end up with a breast bared at halftime at the Super Bowl. But...
BROWN: Because, if it happened at the Grammys, we would talk about it, but -- I'm not sure we would do it.
(CROSSTALK)
LIGHT: But this is the biggest mass, mainstream event of the entire year. That said, you know, especially, as you said, surrounded by ads joking about passing gas and wearing nothing under your kilt and all the other ways to cut through the clutter that you saw through the entire game, I think kids are thinking, why is this one second, as we have seen on other award shows, other MTV shows, other reality shows, Howard Stern's show, is this a big deal?
BROWN: Yes.
LIGHT: I don't think, if it got this kind of coverage, that kids would still be talking about it that much.
BROWN: Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming in.
LIGHT: Thanks so much, Aaron.
BROWN: David, it's good to see you. It's been a while. We always enjoy you, though. Thank you very much.
ROSS: Thanks, Aaron.
BROWN: Dave Ross in Seattle, Alan Light here in New York.We'll see if this story lasts another day or not. You know cable. It probably will. Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a different sort of sports story, this one about a young man you will want to root for, I believe it, Jay Williams and his long road back, a story of courage and more, as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, we can say one good thing about the Super Bowl dust-up. This time, it wasn't the athletes who acted like jerks. We tend to think of modern athletes that way, too rich, too spoiled, too drugged, too selfish, too a lot of things none of us like very much. And the danger of that thinking is not that it's sometimes right. It's that it is sometimes wrong. And Jay Williams proves it, though you may never see this good kid perform ever again, not a perfect good, a good kid, a hardworking kid, a role model sort of kid who, in one moment of being a kid, learned a good deal about being a man.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAY WILLIAMS, CHICAGO BULLS: I remember the colors of the car that I saw when I was going towards it in the air. And I remember the pole that I was going towards. And, you know, I was going fast, at a fast speed. I remember a lot of pain. BROWN: Twenty-two-year-old Jay Williams is talking about the night he almost died.
WILLIAMS: The first thing I thought about wasn't that, I feel pain. It was that, I threw it all away.
BROWN: Until that accident, Jay Williams was a basketball star, A star at Duke, where he went to college, the second player chosen in the NBA draft 18 months ago, a three-year, $13.5 million contract under his belt from the Chicago Bulls. And that was just the start of a career. Jay Williams was also just a kid who acted like a kid and thought like a kid.
WILLIAMS: You kind of think that you're invincible, not that you can't get hurt, but, no, I don't think that can happen to me. So it kind of broke -- it really broke my heart.
BROWN: A broken pelvis, a severed nerve, three of his four knee ligaments torn in the left leg, his left leg, all of that caused him to grow up. A hospital bed will do that to a young man.
WILLIAMS: I was in the bed for a long time on my back. And I couldn't move, couldn't really do anything. My leg hurt every time somebody touched it. It's been a difficult adjustment, but it's getting better and better each day.
BROWN: For all intents and purposes, this is his new home, the sports medicine complex at Duke University, where his rehabilitation is both relentless and painful, but hardly guarantees he will play again. So to the weights and the exercise bike, he's added a religious medal given to him by a special friend.
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI, DUKE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL COACH: I gave him a holy medal. I'm Catholic and it's something that I've had for years. And I just gave it to him. I said, this is yours, but I'm only lending it to you. And I said, I want you to use it and it's very special to me. And -- I'm going to cry here -- I said, the night you -- the night you come back and play your first NBA game, you give it back to me and I'll be there.
WILLIAMS: Being weak at the time, when I saw his face, it just -- it inspired me. It inspired me to say, OK, I can get through this. It's going to be a long journey.
BROWN: Riding a motorcycle is against a standard NBA player's contract. And the Chicago Bulls would have been within their rights not to pay him a dime. But they did. They gave him more than $3 million this year and another $3 million to forego the remainder of his lucrative contract. They may have given up on him. Most people in the sport have. But Jay Williams still believes.
WILLIAMS: It's a trying experience. But I think that the great part about it is, you know, throughout my life, a lot of people have always looked at me, playing basketball, oh, he's a man. Look at his body type. He's a man. He plays like a man. And it is not until now that I'm finding out what it is to be a man, how it is to go through pain every day, but, at the same time, to try to persevere and to have the big picture down the road and keep fighting for my dream. I am really fighting for my dream.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A kid worth rooting for. Morning papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. I'm sure there's none of that Super Bowl nonsense in any of the papers. That's just a cable TV thing. And the papers wouldn't stoop to that, would they?
Well, "The International Herald Tribune" didn't, at least, published in France, but not, as a viewer said the other day, a French newspaper, published by "The New York Times." "Bush Budget Focus: Anti-Terror Fight, Military and Security Programs Benefit, While '05 Domestic Spending Is Limited." Anything else on the front page? Well, yes, but nothing that cool.
Now, "The Times, a London paper, kind of center-right paper. "Spies Must Tell How They Got Iraq Wrong." Doesn't that sound familiar? That could have happened in the United States. We had to go to a foreign paper for that? My goodness. Oh, wait, down at the bottom. "How Super Bowl Was Shocked From Top to Bottom." It's news everywhere. I'm sure they're laughing trying to figure out what football is. Here's the right lead.
"The Boston Herald" got it right. It led with the football player. "Superstar." It was a great football game, wasn't it? Yes. And that halftime show, who will remember, though? Anyway, that's Tom Brady. He was the MVP, I guess, right? But that other kid did pretty good, didn't he? That was cool.
"The Philadelphia Inquirer." Up at the top here, it's not really a front-page story. It's a teaser, but it's close enough for my taste. "Janet Jackson Offers Apology. She Didn't Mean for It to Go That Far, She Said Last Night. A Red Lace Garment Was Supposed to Remain During Her Super Bowl Duet, But it Didn't." Don't you hate when that happens? I know I do. "Kerry's Momentum Faces Seven-State Test today." That would be tomorrow, unless you're watching the replay, in which case, it would be today. And "Bush Sets His Course on Budget." That's how they lead.
"The Chattanooga Times Free Press" leads the budget story a little bit differently. "Bush '05 Budget Proposal Faces Record Deficits," not the kind of lead that will make the White House all that happy, will it?
"The Richmond Times-Dispatch." We haven't had this one for a while. What I found interesting about this, this is a Virginia newspaper. That's tobacco country. "Survey: Many Back Higher Tobacco Taxes; 71 Percent Would Support an Increase of 75 Cents a Pack to Address the State's Shortfall." And let's just go to -- I have to find it. I know when you do morning papers at home, you sometimes have this problem as well.
"The Chicago Sun-Times." "Janet's Wardrobe Malfunction." Who was the P.R. person who came up with that phrase, by the way, wardrobe malfunction? The weather in Chicago tomorrow -- oh, I hate when they do that -- "The groundhog says..." -- so we don't know what the weather will be tomorrow. Well, actually, I can tell you, it's going to be 30 degrees, a heat wave. That's morning papers. We'll update -- literally update -- the day's top story in just a moment. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, as we reported at the top of program tonight, a white powdery substance was found today in the mailroom of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. A government official says that initial tests -- and initial tests are aren't necessarily definitive -- were positive for the highly toxic poison, the compound ricin. CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been tracking this down, trying to get more information, as they produce more tests or more test results. Jeanne, where are we on this?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, we've been told to expect a press conference in about 15 minutes by the head of the U.S. Capitol Police and also by Senator Bill Frist. We hope that will further illuminate the situation. But here's what we know right now. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police says, a substance found in Senator Bill Frist's mailroom this afternoon tested positive for a hazardous substance. And a Homeland Security official tells CNN, the substance was ricin, a poison made from castor beans. These tests are preliminary. Let me emphasize that, preliminary. And they are not considered reliable. Further analysis is being done at the Army lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland. And, according to the Homeland Security official, some results from that testing may be back Tuesday. The substance described as resembling paper dust by the Capitol Police was found in Senator Frist's mailroom in the Dirksen Senate Office Building at 3:00 this afternoon. It was coming out of an envelope. The Capitol Police spokesperson says there is nothing in the content of that letter that constitutes a threat. Ricin is an extremely dangerous poison, which, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, can cause death 36 to 48 hours after it's inhaled. If ingested or injected, it can also cause death, but ricin poisoning is not contagious.Let me emphasize once again, Aaron, these are preliminary test results. Many times, more thorough testing will turn up a completely contradictory result -- back to you.
BROWN: And, at 11:15 Eastern time, or about 16 minutes from now, we expect to learn more, but how much more, we don't know, right?
MESERVE: Exactly right.
BROWN: All right, so, what we'll do is, we'll hang around here until they say what they're going to say. And we'll put that on the air, so all of you can hear it. And we'll what they know when they know it. But, for now, I guess, for most of you, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next. And we'll see you in a little bit.
Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.comIntelligence; Bodice-Ripping Super Bowl Halftime Show Causes Uproar>
Aired February 2, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.First of all I want you to know that we have taken extra care to make sure that whatever else happens tonight there will not be a costume malfunction on this program.If you're just sitting there waiting for me to rip off part of my shirt as some cheap ratings stunt in hopes that you'll watch the entire program, including the commercials, you are out of luck. The shirt stays on. So do the pants.Sometimes I do the program without my shoes but that's as far as I'm willing to go, yet another sign of how hopelessly behind the times we are here at NEWSNIGHT.Further, we have no intention of telling you how to stay in the game, if you know what I mean, and if you don't know what I mean think of throwing a football through a tire. That'll explain it.Also to my knowledge there will not be a moment where we all get a good hearty laugh out of animal flatulence. We will, however, deal with the Super Bowl halftime show but should this program run longer than four hours please call a doctor immediately.We'll begin the whip with more serious stuff though. To the White House and CNN's Dana Bash, Dana a headline please.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, after months of resisting the idea of a commission to look into pre-war intelligence the president has reversed course. He is now embracing the idea. The Democrats say what he's planning isn't truly independent. They're not buying it -- Aaron.
BROWN: Dana, thank you.To the campaign trail, South Carolina, Frank Buckley is there, Frank a headline.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, on the last full day of campaigning before round three of the Democratic primaries and caucuses a new poll suggests that in a head-to-head match up with President George W. Bush two of the Democratic candidates could win -- Aaron.
BROWN: Frank, thank you. Now to Washington and an ominous discovery in the mailroom of the Senate majority leader tonight, Jeanne Meserve with the headline -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, let's call it a potentially ominous discovery. A homeland security official tells us that a substance found in Senator Bill Frist's mailroom this afternoon has tested positive for ricin in preliminary tests. These tests often unreliable further testing being done. However, law enforcement officials telling CNN that the preliminary testing was confusing and inconsistent. We are waiting for a press conference from the Capitol Police shortly, which we hope will clarify the situation -- Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you, Jeanne.And back to the water cooler story of the day, if not all time, the Super Bowl halftime show, Jen Rogers with part of that story from L.A. -- Jen
.JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Aaron. That's right. You know all the people could talk today -- about today wasn't the game winning field goal, that 85-yard record breaking touchdown pass. It was Janet and Justin, that's right. But it turns out besides being good for the water cooler this stunt could have repercussions from Washington.
BROWN: Jen, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.Also on the program tonight we revisit some voters in Arizona we met last October, hear how they have gone from undecided to decided before tomorrow's primary.Segment 7 tonight you will meet Jay Williams (ph), a fantastic young kid who was about to break out as a star in the NBA until a devastating motorcycle accident. He talks about his long road back tonight.And, for the really big finale, why morning papers of course and I wonder what will be on the morning papers as they make their way to your doorstep tomorrow? Hum, all of that and more in the one hour ahead.We begin with the president's decision to do what less than a week ago he said was premature, probably not necessary. The president will appoint a commission to, among other things, look at the intelligence that he used to take the country to war.It was a tacit admission that the intelligence was wrong but the president's decision has not satisfied everyone, rarely does, but this question keeps coming up again and again. If the president makes the appointment how independent will the commission actually be?From the White House tonight here's CNN's Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): Little more than a week after outgoing weapons inspector David Kay declared weapons of mass destruction likely won't be found in Iraq, President Bush under mounting political pressure now says he'll appoint a commission to find out why.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm putting together an independent bipartisan commission to analyze where we stand, what we can do better as we fight this war against terror.
BASH: Mr. Bush invited Dr. Kay to the White House for a private briefing from the man who declared: "We were all wrong." The White House is actively assembling a nine-person panel which they compared to the Warren Commission set up after JFK's assassination. The panel will focus not just on intelligence in Iraq but take a broader look at gaps in other crucial areas like North Korea and Iran.
SCOTT REED, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT:I think the administration recognize that this issue was starting to get a head of steam with the American people, with members of Congress and, you know, every once in a while in politics you just (unintelligible) for what's going to happen.
BASH: The White House officials are informally consulting with some in Congress on the commission's makeup and mandate. It will be appointed only by the president by executive order. Democrats question whether that is truly independent.
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D), MINORITY LEADER: We can't have the president or anybody else dictating how that commission is going to work and the nominees who will be involved.
BASH: While the latest CNN/USA Today Gallup poll still shows most Americans don't think the president deliberately misled them on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, a major rationale for war, nine months before election day there are growing misgivings about the war itself. Just 49 percent of Americans think going to war in Iraq was worth it, down ten points in under three weeks. Bush officials are still careful to say Saddam Hussein was a threat and do not concede, even when pressed, intelligence on Iraq's illicit weapons was flawed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: And another thing that's really (unintelligible) Democrats on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail is the fact that this commission's deadline is likely not going to be until after the election. That makes this whole idea of creating a commission, Democrats say, look a lot like a political ploy -- Aaron.
BROWN: Well, without calling it or characterizing it as a ploy or not someone at the White House must have thought, we would assume, that it does make it less of an issue in the sense they can say look a commission is investigating this.
BASH: That's right and, you know, that is what they have been saying all along. They've been saying that a committee in the Senate, a committee in the House have been looking at this. Other areas, the CIA, other places they've all been investigating Iraq.But what the White House is trying to do is make this into a broader, look, the White House spokesman Scott McClellan must have said the word broad about 20 times today in his press conference. They say that this is about looking at not just Iraq but about North Korea, about the whole war on terrorism, about the entire intelligence community at large.
BROWN: Dana, thank you, Dana Bash at the White House tonight.With his testimony last week in the Senate, former U.S. weapons inspector David Kay pretty much assured that this issue is not going to go away anytime soon. Clearly it's not now. One question tonight how much mileage will the White House get out of today's announcement, if any?Dana Milbank is covering this all for the "Washington Post," pleased to have him with us tonight. It's good to see you. Let's talk for a minute about the evolution of the administration's position on this because it seems to me at least the middle of last week they were arguing that no commission was necessary at all.
DANA MILBANK, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": Yes. The White House says they never really flatly opposed it, although I think we might be able to find them actually flatly opposing it.But more they were saying let's wait until the Iraq survey group has done its job and that was really a way of saying well let's wait until next year because everybody realized that's going to take another year or so to do that.Some people in the White House began to realize though, wait a second, maybe Kay is giving us an opportunity here. He's not blaming us. He's blaming the CIA and the intelligence. If we get onboard, get out in front of this steamroller and start driving it then perhaps we can have this independent commission and that will put it -- they have to wait for the survey group to be done anyway so we're into 2005 and we're reelected so it doesn't really matter what happens then.
BROWN: I guess what I'm trying to figure out is was there a moment where their view of a commission changed. Did something happen in the White House that led them to go from let's let the survey group do its work to we best form a commission or we're going -- we'll be buried by this?
MILBANK: Well, as I understand it, there was something of an argument inside. There are still some people inside who say well the White House should come out, the president should come out and say what everybody else seems to be realizing, what Kay said and what seems patently obvious to everybody and that is the intelligence leading to the allegations, leading to the war in Iraq were wrong.Now, if you listen very carefully the president is not saying it was wrong. Scott McClellan is not saying it was wrong. But by having the commission you can put off saying it was wrong that much longer.So, it's not like suddenly everybody in the White House is won over to the idea that commissions are terrific things. You can rest pretty well assured that they don't have any particular need for a commission. This is a White House that likes to have centralized control, does not like to let things get out of their hands but they realize that tactically this is very useful for them to do so sometime towards the end of last week the people advocating this got the upper hand.
BROWN: Isn't this -- I'll withdraw the sentence I wrote a little earlier if you disagree but isn't this a tacit admission that the intelligence was wrong?
MILBANK: Well, of course it is and if you talk to people in the White House privately, I mean they're not, they're not dumb. Obviously they see what Kay has said. They see what's on the news reports. They know that the intelligence was wrong.But what they've realized, and this happened last summer when they admitted that the allegations about Iraq getting uranium in Africa was put in the State of the Union address, they acknowledged that was wrong and it led to this tidal wave of criticism. Everybody pounced on that and used that admission to hammer away at the White House.What they're realizing is it does them no good to say we were wrong. It projects weakness. It invites attacks from the Democrats, so they're actually -- they realize of course that it was wrong but they cannot acknowledge it. So, the commission implicitly acknowledges what the president and his people cannot say explicitly or at least are not willing to say explicitly right now.
BROWN: Hearing any names?
MILBANK: For the commission?
BROWN: Yes.
MILBANK: Well, if we did we'd report them tomorrow in the "Washington Post."
BROWN: You know somehow I knew you'd say that. Thank you. Good to have you with us telling us what you can before you publish tomorrow. Thank you.
MILBANK: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: Dana Milbank who covers the White House and other matters for the "Washington Post" well and aggressively. On to an inquiry of an all together different sort so tell me did you hear the one about the Super Bowl halftime show? You did? Hum. All that's been said about it, and a lot has and will continue to be, the thing that stands out in all of this to me is I finally came to understand why TIVO has that quick backup button. How did they know?Anyway, the federal government is now on the case, vowing to uncover the truth. Thank goodness.Here's CNN's Jen Rogers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROGERS (voice-over): First there was the kiss. Now there's the rip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was shocked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disgusting, inappropriate for television, very inappropriate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way the game was going I thought that was the best highlight of it all.
ROGERS: The racy conclusion to the Super Bowl's halftime show certainly grabbed fans' attention and it turns out the governments as well. Monday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell launched an investigation saying he is outraged.
MICHAEL POWELL, CHAIRMAN, FCC: I thought it was outrageous and I was deeply disappointed as I sat there with my two children and I knew immediately this would cause great outrage by the American people which it did.
ROGERS: CBS, which aired the Super Bowl, MTV which produced the halftime show and Justin Timberlake, the bodice ripper himself all but characterized the moment as unrehearsed and unplanned.For her part, Janet Jackson issued a statement late Monday saying: "The decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my halftime show performance was made after final rehearsals. MTV was completely unaware of it. It was not my intention that it go as far as it did. I apologize to anyone offended, including the audience, MTV, CBS and the NFL."Apologies aside, many believe the stunt could end up boosting Jackson's bottom line.
JENNY ELISCU, "ROLLING STONE" MAGAZINE: I think probably from a PR standpoint it is a good move for her because controversy generates album sales.
ROGERS: The timing for Janet Jackson, some say, couldn't be better. Her new album hits stores this spring.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROGERS: Now, good timing for Jackson but tough timing for stations that actually aired the Super Bowl and that is because Chairman Powell has really been cracking down and getting much more aggressive on indecency. And, in fact, Congress has a bill making its way through that could increase the fines tenfold of where they are right now.And one more thing, Aaron, I do want to point out that you just were talking about your new appreciation of TIVO, well TIVO actually coming out with a press release saying that the Justin Timberlake/Janet Jackson moment drew the biggest spike ever in terms of audience reaction that the company has ever measured and one can only imagine what is being traded over the Internet tonight.
BROWN: One does not even want to imagine what is being traded over the Internet tonight. Jen, thank you very much, nice job today.Ahead on the program we'll spend a little bit more time on this Super Bowl mess. We'll get the perspective of a couple of folks, Jeff Greenfield among them, Dave Ross from CBS radio joins us to weigh in as well. It is the water cooler story of the day.But up next the last hours of campaigning as Democratic presidential candidates try and win over the undecided votes who head to the polls tomorrow and they have to do it with their shirts on.And in Segment 7 tonight the story of Jay Williams, an up-and- coming pro basketball star on the road back after a devastating motorcycle accident. You'll appreciate athletes a little more tonight on NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Just hours ago now until the voting begins in seven states holding Democratic primaries or caucuses tomorrow, the stage bigger, the voters more diverse, the dynamic different from two weeks ago.Frontrunner John Kerry now hoping to cement a growing lead, his opponents bent on breaking the winning streak. The conventional wisdom is the seven states tomorrow may well serve to at least winnow the field, though none of the candidates is willing to concede that much, not yet.Here's CNN's Frank Buckley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUCKLEY (voice-over): John Edwards came home to Seneca, South Carolina.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a great honor for me to be back in my birthplace.
BUCKLEY: His candidacy getting a huge boost by a new CNN/USA Today Gallup poll indicating that he is one of only two Democratic candidates who could beat President George Bush is the election were held today.Frontrunner John Kerry wins the hypothetical content by seven points, Edwards a virtual unknown on the national political stage before his second place finish in Iowa beats Mr. Bush 49 to 48 percent.
EDWARDS: On the way here about 45 minutes ago I saw a national poll showing that I am already beating George Bush.
BUCKLEY: Edwards' homecoming celebration came on a day that saw sniping among the Democrats. Former frontrunner Howard Dean going after Kerry on Kerry's familiar line about going after special interests. Over the weekend records revealed that Kerry has accepted more money from lobbyists than any other U.S. Senator.
HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have got to change this country fundamentally, change what's going on in Washington, stand up for ordinary Americans so that we control the government and not special interests and corporations. And, John, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
BUCKLEY: Kerry responded.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know whatever happened to Governor Dean's positive campaign but it's the shortest lived positive campaign I've ever seen.
BUCKLEY: Polls show Kerry leading in five of the seven February 3 states. Wesley Clark is ahead in some polls in Oklahoma in a very tight race. It's Edwards who is winning in South Carolina. And after a series of satellite interviews with South Carolina TV stations, Senator Kerry whispered to an aide, overheard by a pool reporter, "Edwards says he's the only one who can win states in the south. He can't win his own state," which prompted an immediate response from Edwards.
EDWARDS: Here's what happened. I took on the Helms political machine, beat the incumbent Republican Senator and now I am your Senator from North Carolina, not Jesse Helms.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BUCKLEY: Now, despite the fact that the CNN poll suggests that either Edwards or Kerry would beat George Bush in a head-to-head match-up today, no one is suggesting that that's the outcome of an election in November. It's way too early for that. The Democrats have been in the news a lot lately and voters have been listening to that but there's been very little negative information about the candidates out there so far. But I talked to a couple of political analysts tonight, Aaron, who said that this poll result is huge for John Edwards. John Edwards is a guy that very few people knew about just a few weeks ago. Now he's seen as a legitimate contender against George W. Bush in a general election. It's big news for John Edwards -- Aaron.
BROWN: That's a great caveat and a P.S. to it all. I think it puts the poll in better context. The overall poll itself may not tell us something but it does say something about Senator Edwards and his quest. We appreciate your reporting today, Frank. Thank you very much, Frank Buckley in South Carolina. We'll see him tomorrow.Of the seven states in play tomorrow, Arizona offers the biggest, second biggest prize, 55 delegates. Only Missouri with 74 has more. In Iowa and New Hampshire many voters were undecided until the very end and what they decided may well shape some of tomorrow's votes. A few days ago we went back to Arizona to see how things have changed, how minds have changed since the fall.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): We met them first back last fall, a debate in October in Arizona. Like half the Democrats in the state at the time they were undecided then. They came to the debate to ask.
PAULETTE POHLMANN, ARIZONA DEMOCRAT: There is so much hate for the United States right now and how would you use your position as president to uplift the world to a place that would take us out of that darkness?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: America is a country from the heart.
BROWN: And sometimes they answered.
EDWARDS: Karen, how long have you been without any kind of coverage for your prescription drugs?
POHLMANN: It's been over a year.
EDWARDS: Over a year.BROWN: And they thought the debate would help them decide which turned out to be wishful thinking.
KAREN DICKINSON, ARIZONA DEMOCRAT: I came away from the debate with the same feeling of this is just rhetoric.
POHLMANN: I had a lot of information coming at me about, particularly from the media and from print journalists but I -- I had to do a lot of research on my own.
BROWN: Now a lot has happened since last October, most notably one state's caucuses.
KERRY: I love New Hampshire.
BROWN: And another state's primary.
PAT CANTELME, ARIZONA DEMOCRAT: Between Iowa and just prior to New Hampshire I made up my mind.
BROWN: Some stars have dimmed. Others, like John Edwards, brighten.
POHLMANN: And he came in second in Iowa and he came in third in New Hampshire. That was when my own faith in my first impressions were reinstated.
BROWN: It isn't a position on health care or the economy that's driving decisions. It's not Iraq or gay marriage. It is something else, something more basic, perhaps the most basic reason of all.
CANTELME: I was looking to see what candidate I thought would resonate with the public and have the best chance to beat President Bush.
POHLMANN: I think there's a lot of agreement that in the collective of people who would like to see a different direction in the presidential administration.
BROWN: Strip away everything else. Strip away the debates and the ads, the speeches and the pundits and what has moved the undecideds is simple. They pick the guy they think can win come November.
POHLMANN: I've made the decision that I'm going to vote for John Edwards.
CANTELME: Senator Kerry for president.
DICKINSON: My husband and I, it's been a great debate between us and a lot of soul searching but it's going to be John Kerry.
BROWN: They all agree on the reason they've made their choice if not on the choice itself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Arizona and six others tomorrow.Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the $500 billion problem. That's how the president's new budget is in the red, how deep. Some details on that and more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Tonight we have a much better idea of how our tax dollars will be spent in the next fiscal year. President Bush delivered his budget for 2005 to the Congress today.Some of the details have been dribbling out for several days, the (unintelligible) a third price tag for the Medicare overhaul for one but the extent of the new spending and the scope of the resulting cuts is now official in black and white and red.Here's CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hand delivered to lawmakers, President Bush's biggest budget yet, a whopping $2.4 trillion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now I got to get busy reading it.KOCH: There is more money for defense, for homeland security, for NASA's mission to Mars and for some education and job training programs but 63 government programs will be trimmed and 65 eliminated all together.BUSH: We're calling upon Congress to be wise with the taxpayers' money and we look forward to working with them to bring a fiscal discipline to the appropriations process.
KOCH: But Democrats charge President Bush's budget is anything but disciplined.
SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), NORTH DAKOTA: This elephant won't fly. This president's plan won't lift off the ground. It is so burdened by deficit and debt that it fundamentally threatens our economic security.
KOCH: One point of contention, the budget estimates the cost of the Medicare overhaul and prescription drug plan will be one third higher than lawmakers were told it would be when they voted for it.Also, President Bush left out of the budget money needed next year to keep U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The omission could add $50 billion or more to the record $521 billion deficit created by the president's budget. Even some Republicans worry it is gushing red ink.
SEN. DON NICKLES, CHAIRMAN, BUDGET COMMITTEE: I believe that the deficits are too high, $500 billion deficits are not acceptable.
KOCH: Political analysts say economic conservatives, the base of the Republican Party are nearing revolt.
REED: They don't like the fact that spending has grown and it feels like it's out of control. The Medicare news last week was bad.KOCH (on camera): And then there was that vow in the State of the Union that the president will cut the budget deficit in half within five years. Mr. Bush insists his new budget is on track to keep that promise.Kathleen Koch, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Now, we'll look at some of the other stories in the business world. This is our Moneyline Roundup of course. Blimpie, International, I love that name, plans to open a sandwich shop or many of them actually in Wal-Marts across the country. In all, Blimpie intends to open more than 100 of its express restaurants this year. The first will debut in Florida in April. Get ready.Turning to the economy and a pair of seemingly positive reports on growth, looked that way to us, starting with the closely-watched purchasing managers' report which said manufacturing activity rose for the eighth straight month and jumped to a 20-year high in January. Also the Commerce Department said the nation's construction spending rose in December.Some good news on the economy today; however, both reports fell below estimates which results in a mixed day on Wall Street. Can't make those people can you? The Dow and the S&P were up a little bit, NASDAQ fell again.Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: the Super Bowl and questions of whether there were more personal fouls committed during the commercials and halftime than during the game itself, this important question after the break. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The FCC is on the case. Back to the Super Bowl. Times change; 28 years old, Carol Channing was the big-name entertainer at halftime. Super Bowl XIV was a salute to the big band era. How quaint does that sound tonight? Chubby Checker appeared during Super Bowl XXII, along with those symbols of Americans sex, the Rockettes. Tony Bennett, fully clothed, as I remember it, appeared on Super Bowl XXIX. Admit it. You don't remember any of them, not a one. The bar has now been raised -- or perhaps lowered -- to meet the culture or imitate it. Here's our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST (voice-over): Oh, where to begin? Well, it's hard to beat Justin Timberlake's explanation. Wardrobe malfunction, he called it. Wardrobe malfunction? Houston, we have a problem. Or maybe we should check out MTV's heartfelt apology -- quote -- "The tearing of Janet Jackson's costume was unrehearsed, unplanned, completely unintentional and was inconsistent with assurances we had about the content of the performance. MTV regrets this incident occurred and we apologize to anyone who was offended by it" -- unquote. Well, apology accepted, except there was this comment on MTV's Web site after Justin got something off her chest. -- quote -- "Jaws across the country hit the carpet at exactly the same time. You know what we're talking about, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake and a kinky finale that rocked the Super Bowl to its core." Yes, baby. CBS said -- quote -- "We attended all rehearsals throughout the week, and there was no indication that any such thing would happen." Really? So they were OK with this? The National Football League -- remember they staged a game of some sort yesterday -- said -- quote -- "It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime." Yes, because, given MTV's track record during the past decade or so, why would anyone even imagine they might throw in a shock or two? (on camera): The fact is, when it comes to the sleaze factor in mass media, there's more than enough hypocrisy to go around. All of our biggest media giants, including the one that owns CNN, have made gobs of money appealing to the public's endless taste for the naughty, the bawdy and the tawdry. (voice-over): In fact, in the middle of the Super Bowl, CBS, you know, the network so offended by Janet Jackson's mammary, ran this promo showing a child ogling a nearly naked backside. And the commercials, all of which CBS approved for air and which cost some $2.3 million per 30 seconds, featured, among many other things, a flatulent horse and a monkey making sexual advances to a girl. And, by the way, remember this Pepsi ad starring a presidential nominee, a hot young woman and a highly enthusiastic dog? Yes, good taste is timeless. (on camera): In every survey, the public says it is appalled by media sleaze. It says it wants to see more documentaries and high- minded dramas. It never says it wants to see nearly-naked women wrestling with each other or kinky threesomes confessing all to a leering talk show host or secret celebrity sex tapes. Nope, never says it, and never stops watching. Jeff Greenfield, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: So, what to make of all of this? We certainly have been talking about it all day here at NEWSNIGHT.Dave Ross is host of the aptly named "Dave Ross Show" in Seattle and a national syndicated CBS radio commentator. He joins us from Seattle. So does Alan Light join us from here in New York. He's editor in chief of a new music magazine called "Tracks." He's also been the editor of "Spin" and "Vibe" and a senior writer at "Rolling Stone." And we're glad to have them both.David, are we actually shocked or are we just pretending to be shocked because we know we're supposed to be?
DAVE ROSS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I think it's the latter, Aaron. I certainly -- as a matter of fact, to be totally honest, I didn't know even it had happened. I saw a crawl, I think on CNN, saying, "Janet Jackson Apologizes." I immediately went back to the TiVo and am probably single-handedly responsible for about 500,000 of those TiVo hits. But, no, I think -- I have a feeling that al Qaeda must have sabotaged the costume in some way, because there's no way that Justin really wanted to rip all of it off.
BROWN: No, I'm sure not.
ROSS: Just some of it off.
BROWN: Just some of it.
ROSS: Just some of it.
BROWN: Did your listeners talk about it today? And were they -- I mean, Seattle is a pretty calm group, when they're not overcaffeinated. Were they appalled or did they find some amusement in it all?
ROSS: They feigned appropriate shock, Aaron. And we discussed whether the FCC should investigate it. And they felt kind of like Howard Dean does, that they would prefer an investigation of whatever happened to those weapons, rather than whether this was intentional or not.
BROWN: Alan, is this -- should we be shocked? In a sense, isn't this what MTV and sort of kid culture is right now?
ALAN LIGHT, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "TRACKS": Well, I think, by and large, that's very true.And I think the Super Bowl halftime show was Up With People or Gloria Estefan.
BROWN: Yes.
LIGHT: The notion was, we'll bring in MTV. We'll give it edge and energy and rock 'n' roll. And, you know, this is everything, in theory, that the NFL was going for, making this shift to having MTV produce the halftime show. It's 28 hours later and it's what we're all still talking about it. I doubt that they think that that ultimately is a failure.
BROWN: So, you have a kind of cynical suspicion that maybe they're feigning outrage themselves, because they're getting a ton and a half of attention.
LIGHT: As was pointed out in Jeff's piece, there's not a whole lot of room for improvisation and accident in the halftime show of the most watched television event of the year.
BROWN: Yes.
LIGHT: I don't really believe that it went completely -- everybody went nuts and the cameras didn't know where to go and, all of sudden, this happened.
BROWN: Yes, that is a stretch, isn't it?
LIGHT: Whether it was supposed to be, he would tear some off or all off, OK, maybe there's degrees to talk about. But in terms of the direction of what this was going to be, I have a hard time believing that this was a complete surprise to everybody at CBS and the NFL.
BROWN: Dave, setting aside for a minute whether seeing a bare breast on television for a nanosecond is going to corrupt the nation's youth, let me suggest there's actually something serious and troubling in all of this, which was the whole scene. The whole scene was inappropriately sexual.
ROSS: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: The end game was basically, if you can't get the girl to take her clothes off, just rip them off.
ROSS: Yes, exactly. Well, that was what surprising to me, although I'll tell you, the thing, Aaron, that first caught my attention not so much the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake dance. I thought he was going to get her pregnant right on that stage. But, actually, before that, Kid Rock's lyrics.
BROWN: Yes.
ROSS: I starting hearing him talking about the IRS and meth labs and stuff like this. And I said, oh, so we hear all this and now we're going to go and play some good old American football.
BROWN: Yes.
ROSS: But I think that, you know, the point's been made that the executives who booked this booked it intentionally because they wanted it to be edgy. Clearly, they wanted to appeal to a younger demographic. And so to profess shock at this point is kind of disingenuous. And it happens in radio, too. They will book the edgiest deejay they can find. And then they egg on a couple of people to make love in the cathedral, and they say, oh, we had no idea this would happen.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Actually, had the Janet Jackson moment not happened, I actually assumed the problem was going to be the guy wearing the American flag and ripping it off. ROSS: Yes. BROWN: That, actually, in the moment we're in, is pretty tasteless. Are kids, Alan, looking at us right now, these old people that we are -- or I am -- and just laughing at us making a big fuss over this?
LIGHT: Mostly I think yes. I do think -- look, for all of this said, I do think it's a surprise and a line that we didn't expect to go past, to end up with a breast bared at halftime at the Super Bowl. But...
BROWN: Because, if it happened at the Grammys, we would talk about it, but -- I'm not sure we would do it.
(CROSSTALK)
LIGHT: But this is the biggest mass, mainstream event of the entire year. That said, you know, especially, as you said, surrounded by ads joking about passing gas and wearing nothing under your kilt and all the other ways to cut through the clutter that you saw through the entire game, I think kids are thinking, why is this one second, as we have seen on other award shows, other MTV shows, other reality shows, Howard Stern's show, is this a big deal?
BROWN: Yes.
LIGHT: I don't think, if it got this kind of coverage, that kids would still be talking about it that much.
BROWN: Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming in.
LIGHT: Thanks so much, Aaron.
BROWN: David, it's good to see you. It's been a while. We always enjoy you, though. Thank you very much.
ROSS: Thanks, Aaron.
BROWN: Dave Ross in Seattle, Alan Light here in New York.We'll see if this story lasts another day or not. You know cable. It probably will. Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a different sort of sports story, this one about a young man you will want to root for, I believe it, Jay Williams and his long road back, a story of courage and more, as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, we can say one good thing about the Super Bowl dust-up. This time, it wasn't the athletes who acted like jerks. We tend to think of modern athletes that way, too rich, too spoiled, too drugged, too selfish, too a lot of things none of us like very much. And the danger of that thinking is not that it's sometimes right. It's that it is sometimes wrong. And Jay Williams proves it, though you may never see this good kid perform ever again, not a perfect good, a good kid, a hardworking kid, a role model sort of kid who, in one moment of being a kid, learned a good deal about being a man.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAY WILLIAMS, CHICAGO BULLS: I remember the colors of the car that I saw when I was going towards it in the air. And I remember the pole that I was going towards. And, you know, I was going fast, at a fast speed. I remember a lot of pain. BROWN: Twenty-two-year-old Jay Williams is talking about the night he almost died.
WILLIAMS: The first thing I thought about wasn't that, I feel pain. It was that, I threw it all away.
BROWN: Until that accident, Jay Williams was a basketball star, A star at Duke, where he went to college, the second player chosen in the NBA draft 18 months ago, a three-year, $13.5 million contract under his belt from the Chicago Bulls. And that was just the start of a career. Jay Williams was also just a kid who acted like a kid and thought like a kid.
WILLIAMS: You kind of think that you're invincible, not that you can't get hurt, but, no, I don't think that can happen to me. So it kind of broke -- it really broke my heart.
BROWN: A broken pelvis, a severed nerve, three of his four knee ligaments torn in the left leg, his left leg, all of that caused him to grow up. A hospital bed will do that to a young man.
WILLIAMS: I was in the bed for a long time on my back. And I couldn't move, couldn't really do anything. My leg hurt every time somebody touched it. It's been a difficult adjustment, but it's getting better and better each day.
BROWN: For all intents and purposes, this is his new home, the sports medicine complex at Duke University, where his rehabilitation is both relentless and painful, but hardly guarantees he will play again. So to the weights and the exercise bike, he's added a religious medal given to him by a special friend.
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI, DUKE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL COACH: I gave him a holy medal. I'm Catholic and it's something that I've had for years. And I just gave it to him. I said, this is yours, but I'm only lending it to you. And I said, I want you to use it and it's very special to me. And -- I'm going to cry here -- I said, the night you -- the night you come back and play your first NBA game, you give it back to me and I'll be there.
WILLIAMS: Being weak at the time, when I saw his face, it just -- it inspired me. It inspired me to say, OK, I can get through this. It's going to be a long journey.
BROWN: Riding a motorcycle is against a standard NBA player's contract. And the Chicago Bulls would have been within their rights not to pay him a dime. But they did. They gave him more than $3 million this year and another $3 million to forego the remainder of his lucrative contract. They may have given up on him. Most people in the sport have. But Jay Williams still believes.
WILLIAMS: It's a trying experience. But I think that the great part about it is, you know, throughout my life, a lot of people have always looked at me, playing basketball, oh, he's a man. Look at his body type. He's a man. He plays like a man. And it is not until now that I'm finding out what it is to be a man, how it is to go through pain every day, but, at the same time, to try to persevere and to have the big picture down the road and keep fighting for my dream. I am really fighting for my dream.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A kid worth rooting for. Morning papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. I'm sure there's none of that Super Bowl nonsense in any of the papers. That's just a cable TV thing. And the papers wouldn't stoop to that, would they?
Well, "The International Herald Tribune" didn't, at least, published in France, but not, as a viewer said the other day, a French newspaper, published by "The New York Times." "Bush Budget Focus: Anti-Terror Fight, Military and Security Programs Benefit, While '05 Domestic Spending Is Limited." Anything else on the front page? Well, yes, but nothing that cool.
Now, "The Times, a London paper, kind of center-right paper. "Spies Must Tell How They Got Iraq Wrong." Doesn't that sound familiar? That could have happened in the United States. We had to go to a foreign paper for that? My goodness. Oh, wait, down at the bottom. "How Super Bowl Was Shocked From Top to Bottom." It's news everywhere. I'm sure they're laughing trying to figure out what football is. Here's the right lead.
"The Boston Herald" got it right. It led with the football player. "Superstar." It was a great football game, wasn't it? Yes. And that halftime show, who will remember, though? Anyway, that's Tom Brady. He was the MVP, I guess, right? But that other kid did pretty good, didn't he? That was cool.
"The Philadelphia Inquirer." Up at the top here, it's not really a front-page story. It's a teaser, but it's close enough for my taste. "Janet Jackson Offers Apology. She Didn't Mean for It to Go That Far, She Said Last Night. A Red Lace Garment Was Supposed to Remain During Her Super Bowl Duet, But it Didn't." Don't you hate when that happens? I know I do. "Kerry's Momentum Faces Seven-State Test today." That would be tomorrow, unless you're watching the replay, in which case, it would be today. And "Bush Sets His Course on Budget." That's how they lead.
"The Chattanooga Times Free Press" leads the budget story a little bit differently. "Bush '05 Budget Proposal Faces Record Deficits," not the kind of lead that will make the White House all that happy, will it?
"The Richmond Times-Dispatch." We haven't had this one for a while. What I found interesting about this, this is a Virginia newspaper. That's tobacco country. "Survey: Many Back Higher Tobacco Taxes; 71 Percent Would Support an Increase of 75 Cents a Pack to Address the State's Shortfall." And let's just go to -- I have to find it. I know when you do morning papers at home, you sometimes have this problem as well.
"The Chicago Sun-Times." "Janet's Wardrobe Malfunction." Who was the P.R. person who came up with that phrase, by the way, wardrobe malfunction? The weather in Chicago tomorrow -- oh, I hate when they do that -- "The groundhog says..." -- so we don't know what the weather will be tomorrow. Well, actually, I can tell you, it's going to be 30 degrees, a heat wave. That's morning papers. We'll update -- literally update -- the day's top story in just a moment. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, as we reported at the top of program tonight, a white powdery substance was found today in the mailroom of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. A government official says that initial tests -- and initial tests are aren't necessarily definitive -- were positive for the highly toxic poison, the compound ricin. CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been tracking this down, trying to get more information, as they produce more tests or more test results. Jeanne, where are we on this?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, we've been told to expect a press conference in about 15 minutes by the head of the U.S. Capitol Police and also by Senator Bill Frist. We hope that will further illuminate the situation. But here's what we know right now. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police says, a substance found in Senator Bill Frist's mailroom this afternoon tested positive for a hazardous substance. And a Homeland Security official tells CNN, the substance was ricin, a poison made from castor beans. These tests are preliminary. Let me emphasize that, preliminary. And they are not considered reliable. Further analysis is being done at the Army lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland. And, according to the Homeland Security official, some results from that testing may be back Tuesday. The substance described as resembling paper dust by the Capitol Police was found in Senator Frist's mailroom in the Dirksen Senate Office Building at 3:00 this afternoon. It was coming out of an envelope. The Capitol Police spokesperson says there is nothing in the content of that letter that constitutes a threat. Ricin is an extremely dangerous poison, which, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, can cause death 36 to 48 hours after it's inhaled. If ingested or injected, it can also cause death, but ricin poisoning is not contagious.Let me emphasize once again, Aaron, these are preliminary test results. Many times, more thorough testing will turn up a completely contradictory result -- back to you.
BROWN: And, at 11:15 Eastern time, or about 16 minutes from now, we expect to learn more, but how much more, we don't know, right?
MESERVE: Exactly right.
BROWN: All right, so, what we'll do is, we'll hang around here until they say what they're going to say. And we'll put that on the air, so all of you can hear it. And we'll what they know when they know it. But, for now, I guess, for most of you, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next. And we'll see you in a little bit.
Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.comIntelligence; Bodice-Ripping Super Bowl Halftime Show Causes Uproar>
The Religious Bigotry of NewsNight's Morning Papers Segment 2.
Morning papers are a good thing, too.
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world.
"Christian Science Monitor"
"The Cincinnati Enquirer"
"San Antonio Express-News"
"The Washington Examiner"
"The Richmond Times-Dispatch"
"The Des Moines Register."
"The Times,"
"The Plaindealer"
(The Chicago Sun Times) That's a good way to end it.No, the weather in Chicago is a good way to end it: "shadowy.
"We'll update our top story on the pope's health after the break.
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world.
"Christian Science Monitor"
"The Cincinnati Enquirer"
"San Antonio Express-News"
"The Washington Examiner"
"The Richmond Times-Dispatch"
"The Des Moines Register."
"The Times,"
"The Plaindealer"
(The Chicago Sun Times) That's a good way to end it.No, the weather in Chicago is a good way to end it: "shadowy.
"We'll update our top story on the pope's health after the break.
Tuesday, February 1, 2005
The Religious Bigotry of NewsNight's Morning Papers Segment
BROWN: I feel like it's time for morning papers, coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK. Watch this, real quick.
Pretend there's a rooster.
"The Christian Science Monitor"
"Dallas Morning News."
"The Miami Herald,"
"Washington Times."
"The Rocky Mountain News."
(The Chicago Sun Times)
The weather tomorrow in Chicago.
(CHIMES)
BROWN: Thank you -- is "grubby." Beats me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK. Watch this, real quick.
Pretend there's a rooster.
"The Christian Science Monitor"
"Dallas Morning News."
"The Miami Herald,"
"Washington Times."
"The Rocky Mountain News."
(The Chicago Sun Times)
The weather tomorrow in Chicago.
(CHIMES)
BROWN: Thank you -- is "grubby." Beats me.
The travesty of images continues even post election
Now that Georgie is in office and CNN has used images of soldiers to win they need to live upto the campaign promises of No Draft. In order to do that NewsNight needs to minimize it's "Honor Roll of Military Dead" to stop scaring away likely inductess.
conti2005 - 10:24 PM ET January 31, 2005
(#25753 of 40846)
The Revolt and the Revolting - http://stopwarsaveearth.blogspot.com/ - In God I Trust, Everyone Else I Monitor CNN has no respect. No reverence.
The 'Soldier' Segment to honor 'The Fallen' listed five USA soldiers with names like Castro, Poulin, Sr and Johnson.
They ranged in ages from 21 to 47. To honor 'the fallen' is a wonderful thing.
However.
To exploit the moment for promotion of Bush's agenda is nothing but pure exploitation and a ruthlessness for an agenda that doesn't even allow journalists into Dover.
The moment of disrespect came when Aaron Brown noted "... did you notice one of the soldiers was from Freedom, Maine."
That soldier was chosen to be aired today for THAT specific moment.
It's a darn shame.
Kindly Honor them without exploiting them. If we notice the analogy then it is ours to know and feel without being 'pulled into' a 'commercial for Bush.'
conti2005 - 10:24 PM ET January 31, 2005
(#25753 of 40846)
The Revolt and the Revolting - http://stopwarsaveearth.blogspot.com/ - In God I Trust, Everyone Else I Monitor CNN has no respect. No reverence.
The 'Soldier' Segment to honor 'The Fallen' listed five USA soldiers with names like Castro, Poulin, Sr and Johnson.
They ranged in ages from 21 to 47. To honor 'the fallen' is a wonderful thing.
However.
To exploit the moment for promotion of Bush's agenda is nothing but pure exploitation and a ruthlessness for an agenda that doesn't even allow journalists into Dover.
The moment of disrespect came when Aaron Brown noted "... did you notice one of the soldiers was from Freedom, Maine."
That soldier was chosen to be aired today for THAT specific moment.
It's a darn shame.
Kindly Honor them without exploiting them. If we notice the analogy then it is ours to know and feel without being 'pulled into' a 'commercial for Bush.'
Monday, January 31, 2005
The Religious Bigotry of NewsNight's Morning Papers Segment
BROWN: Well, we hope he's right and we hope it lasts. Morning papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK, morning papers from around the country and around the world and we'll do both today.
"Rocky Mountain Daily News"
"Arab American News"
"Iran Daily,"
"Cincinnati Enquirer"
"Christian Science Monitor"
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK, morning papers from around the country and around the world and we'll do both today.
"Rocky Mountain Daily News"
"Arab American News"
"Iran Daily,"
"Cincinnati Enquirer"
"Christian Science Monitor"
Thursday, January 27, 2005
The Religious Bigotry of NewsNight's Morning Papers Segment
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: Quick morning papers tonight, dominated by Iraq. Excuse me.
"Christian Science Monitor."
"San Antonio Express-News."
"Stars and Stripes" led. "
"The Detroit Free Press"
"The Chicago Sun-Times" tomorrow is "standoffish."
BROWN: Quick morning papers tonight, dominated by Iraq. Excuse me.
"Christian Science Monitor."
"San Antonio Express-News."
"Stars and Stripes" led. "
"The Detroit Free Press"
"The Chicago Sun-Times" tomorrow is "standoffish."
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
The Religious Bigotry of Sharon von Zwieten, but, feeling justified.
This is an interesting set of papers. The Christian Science Monitor isn't included. But that is because the Christian theme is played throughout the programming. Title of this evenings program: "Was 'Passion of the Christ' Snubbed by Academy?; Rice Expected to Be Approved for Secretary of State Tomorrow."
The program went on to discuss the exclusion of The Passion of the Christ from nominations. For that reason, Sharon von Zwieten felt is would be 'bottom heavy' and 'indeed bigotry' to include the newsprint as well. An expression of compassion on her part I suppose. Ms. von Zwieten never makes the 'reach' to understand there can be discussion without 'Christ' ANYWHERE in the program AND the exclusion of the War Mongering Christian Science Monitor as well.
I can understand that Cable News Networks can be specialized but CNN was never specialized and still withholds advertising to this day regarding that 'leaning' and 'speciality' focus as they are 'Evangelical' and attempting subversion at any cost. It has since been proven in other venues of the programming that subversion of the public is what the agenda is for CNN to include recruitment of young minds and bodies to military service.
Morning papers after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)(ROOSTER CROWING) BROWN: Okeydoke, time to check morning papers from around the country, around the world. I just want to say, I'm not being paid by any government agency to do this segment. Come on, people. "International Herald Tribune"
"Washington Times."
"The Time"
(NOT TO EXCLUDE A MENTION SOMEWHERE WITHIN THIS SEGMENT ANYWAY)
"Passion Earns Three Nominations." We did it differently, didn't we? I guess we did.
"Stars and Stripes"
"Cincinnati Enquirer"
(The Chicago Sun Times) Let's quickly do the weather in Chicago then. "Extra, extra."
The program went on to discuss the exclusion of The Passion of the Christ from nominations. For that reason, Sharon von Zwieten felt is would be 'bottom heavy' and 'indeed bigotry' to include the newsprint as well. An expression of compassion on her part I suppose. Ms. von Zwieten never makes the 'reach' to understand there can be discussion without 'Christ' ANYWHERE in the program AND the exclusion of the War Mongering Christian Science Monitor as well.
I can understand that Cable News Networks can be specialized but CNN was never specialized and still withholds advertising to this day regarding that 'leaning' and 'speciality' focus as they are 'Evangelical' and attempting subversion at any cost. It has since been proven in other venues of the programming that subversion of the public is what the agenda is for CNN to include recruitment of young minds and bodies to military service.
Morning papers after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)(ROOSTER CROWING) BROWN: Okeydoke, time to check morning papers from around the country, around the world. I just want to say, I'm not being paid by any government agency to do this segment. Come on, people. "International Herald Tribune"
"Washington Times."
"The Time"
(NOT TO EXCLUDE A MENTION SOMEWHERE WITHIN THIS SEGMENT ANYWAY)
"Passion Earns Three Nominations." We did it differently, didn't we? I guess we did.
"Stars and Stripes"
"Cincinnati Enquirer"
(The Chicago Sun Times) Let's quickly do the weather in Chicago then. "Extra, extra."
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Halliburton's Best Deal
Halliburton Contracts in Iraq: The Struggle to Manage Costs
The Pentagon’s Iraqi Oil Infrastructure contract with Halliburton was intended to last for a few months, but it has now been in effect for nearly a year and grown to a more than $2 billion.
Nov. 11, 2002
The Bush Administrations asks Halliburton (then operating under an Army logistical contract) to develop a contingency plan for Iraq’s oil infrastructure.
March 6, 2003
A classified oil infrastructure contract is awarded to Halliburton’s Kellogg, Brown and Root unit without competitive bidding. (IN MY OPINION – this was done secretively with a company already under contract to the USA’s military because the TRUE motive to the invasion would be known and exposed to the UN Security Council.)
MARCH 20, 2003
At 2200 hours or 10:00 PM Bush begins his ‘Shock and Awe’ campaign.
March 24, 2003
The contract for extinguishing oil fires and assessing oil facility damage, is publicly announced.
April 8, 2003
The Bush Administration says the Halliburton contract is worth up to $7 billion, but that the bulk of the work will be open to contractor bids.
April 14, 2003
The Army Corp of Engineers states the contracts will be worth less than $850 million. They expect to open the bidding process by the end of April, and to award a new contract in June.
May 2, 2003
The Army also discloses that the contract also includes operation of oil facilites, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF OIL. The contract award is delayed until August.
May 6, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $77 million.
June 11, 2003
The Army delays the contract award until October.
July 17, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $461 million.
August 21, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $704 million.
October 17, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $1,590,000.
October 29, 2003
The Army delays the contract award until December.
November 18, 2003
Halliburtons’ Oil Contract now at $1,715,000.
December 1, 2003
The Army delays the contract award until January 2004.
December 11, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $2,261,000.
Prediction:
ARMY DELAYS AWARD OF CONTRACT AS THE NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT IS SOON TO TAKE OVER AND HALLIBURTON IS THEIR CHOICE.
I should update this.
The Pentagon’s Iraqi Oil Infrastructure contract with Halliburton was intended to last for a few months, but it has now been in effect for nearly a year and grown to a more than $2 billion.
Nov. 11, 2002
The Bush Administrations asks Halliburton (then operating under an Army logistical contract) to develop a contingency plan for Iraq’s oil infrastructure.
March 6, 2003
A classified oil infrastructure contract is awarded to Halliburton’s Kellogg, Brown and Root unit without competitive bidding. (IN MY OPINION – this was done secretively with a company already under contract to the USA’s military because the TRUE motive to the invasion would be known and exposed to the UN Security Council.)
MARCH 20, 2003
At 2200 hours or 10:00 PM Bush begins his ‘Shock and Awe’ campaign.
March 24, 2003
The contract for extinguishing oil fires and assessing oil facility damage, is publicly announced.
April 8, 2003
The Bush Administration says the Halliburton contract is worth up to $7 billion, but that the bulk of the work will be open to contractor bids.
April 14, 2003
The Army Corp of Engineers states the contracts will be worth less than $850 million. They expect to open the bidding process by the end of April, and to award a new contract in June.
May 2, 2003
The Army also discloses that the contract also includes operation of oil facilites, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF OIL. The contract award is delayed until August.
May 6, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $77 million.
June 11, 2003
The Army delays the contract award until October.
July 17, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $461 million.
August 21, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $704 million.
October 17, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $1,590,000.
October 29, 2003
The Army delays the contract award until December.
November 18, 2003
Halliburtons’ Oil Contract now at $1,715,000.
December 1, 2003
The Army delays the contract award until January 2004.
December 11, 2003
Halliburton’s Oil Contract now at $2,261,000.
Prediction:
ARMY DELAYS AWARD OF CONTRACT AS THE NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT IS SOON TO TAKE OVER AND HALLIBURTON IS THEIR CHOICE.
I should update this.
Friday, December 24, 2004
The Religious Bigotry of NewsNight's Morning Papers Segment
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers around the country and around the world. More potpourri than theme tonight, OK? We're sort of do for a potpourri, aren't we?
"The Christian Science Monitor"
"The Ottawa Sun"
"Santa Rosa News."
"The Miami Herald."
"The Chicago Sun-Times"
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers around the country and around the world. More potpourri than theme tonight, OK? We're sort of do for a potpourri, aren't we?
"The Christian Science Monitor"
"The Ottawa Sun"
"Santa Rosa News."
"The Miami Herald."
"The Chicago Sun-Times"
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Notes Unedited
I have been increasingly troubled over an instance of a burgeoning philosophy that supports Bush's view of the world. It is most evident by some productions at CNN. I 'think' (and I realize this is kind of over the top, but, not exactly) there is a movement toward a philosophy base that can safely be called Bushism. Analogy - Marxism. In other words, Bush is creating a 'perfect world' allowed by his position as president enabled by a congress of debtors.
It is not exactly the Religious Right, it is not exactly Republican but it is the Republicans that are likely the basis of their power within the vision provided by Bush.
It is very troubling. I believe some of the reverberations I have seen in the N Y Times lately is due to the fact they have identified issues but don't see the bigger picture. I think this IS the bigger picture.
------------------
Criticism of The Unilateral religious views of CNN's NewsNight Morning Papers segment: NewsNight with Aaron Brown even after their new Senior Executive Producer took charge, Sharon van Zwieten, continues to practice Anti-Equity in regard to religious issues during the Segment “Morning Papers.”
For twelve nights now the segment has been openly promoting The Christian Science Monitor. To stop at the definition of Anti-Semitic would be an error, because to promote ONLY Christian Newsprint is to be anti-any other religion including Muslim leading to ONLY a pro-Bush Christian agenda as dictated by Karl Rove.
I can’t help but wonder if NewsNight’s investment in promoting Christian Newsprint as it is promoted by a political figure isn’t a violation of McCain-Feingold.
To prove how ludicrous this is, not long ago the Roman Catholic Church was put to ridicule without mercy for their sex scandal. And yet on Saturday CNN was anxious to further show a clash between US Government authority and the clout the Pope carries, or should I say he believes he carries regarding Senator Kerry’s communicant status. Their reporting on that subject was biased again in favor of the view that Kerry is a waffler even as viewed by his faith on issues like abortion. That of course is a communist view of the world in that personal choice is not an option. Senator Kerry has no choice in his office but to carry out the will of the electorate under the US Constitution and if anything clearly demonstrated that will clearly was The Million Woman March on Washington, DC favoring abortion rights.
----------------------------------
This is just one example of the affiliation between Christian Coalition newsprint and NewsNight’s parent company Time Warner:
April 19, 2004
Time Warner continues plagiarism with The Christian Science Monitor
Headline on AOL Website reads,
"Mideast Ally Snubs Bush" - Jordan's King Postpones Visit. After US Shift Toward Israel."
Christian Science Monitor
"Jordan's king snubs Bush, cancels meeting - Key Mideast ally "irked" over US support for Sharon's territorial claims."
PROOF POSITIVE THAT CNN/TIME WARNER/ AOL IS NOW A Christian Based Organization.
It no longer practices reliable journalism.
In an attempt to improve the quality of its reporting the Christian Science Monitor is quoting the New York Times.
'King Abdullah of Jordan abruptly postponed a visit with US President George Bush scheduled for Wednesday. Jordanian officials said the meeting had become impossible because of Mr. Bush's recent support for "Israel's territorial claims in the West Bank," reports The New York Times."
Why read the CS Monitor if all one needs to do is read The N Y Times.
Dah!
-------------------------------------
It is simply astounding to me NewsNight has taken on a discriminatory tone without extending the segment to other religious newsprint to balance the display of The Christian Science Monitor. In the past an invitation has been extended while ‘on the air’ to papers interested in submitting to this segment.
The Christian Science Monitor is biased in its views and a trouble maker with rather bizarre articles such as “What is Russia doing to prevent Osama bin Laden from hacking into the main frame of the Nukes? “ That is just bizarre, inflammatory and hostile toward a long standing friend the USA has enjoyed in Russia. The entire articles is just to make the reader want to run right out there to invade Russia for control over their missile system.
This was a Letter to the Editor is proof positive of International Harassment for an agenda that is ONLY christian.
US aid to Egypt has tangible results
The assertion that US development aid is given to the Egyptian government "to do with as it pleases," advanced in the April 12 story, "$50 billion later, taking stock of US aid to Egypt," is just plain wrong. The US and Egypt decide the uses of resources. There are regular and comprehensive audits.
Also false was the claim that US aid is enabling Egypt to avoid reform. In fact, reforms are manifest everywhere. Egypt has adopted legislation protecting intellectual property, a prerequisite for boosting foreign direct investment. Significant reforms in customs administration are under way. Both of these reforms were conditions for US assistance.
Last January, Egypt abandoned its longstanding, economically crippling link of the pound to the dollar. As a result, exports are up, imports are steady, and the surplus following the first half of fiscal year 2003-'04 rose about eightfold to $2.2 billion. In education, Egypt has devolved decision-making to local government and schools. The government recently founded a watchdog Human Rights Committee.
The principles guiding US foreign aid under President Bush are clear: assistance must encourage governments to "rule justly, invest in their people, and encourage economic freedom." USAID in Egypt is governed by these values. Kenneth Ellis USAID
Mission Director, Cairo
Yet still another example of Trouble Making is the article today, the same article was pointed out by the Trouble Makers at CNN’s NewsNight during Morning Papers.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0427/p01s03-woiq.html
Sadr the agitator: like father, like son
By Dan Murphy Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
KUFA, IRAQ – Sadr enters the mosque at Kufa where he's led Friday prayers for nearly a year denouncing the authorities and warning of an "imperialist" conspiracy against Iraq's majority Shiites.
The thousands fill the vast open courtyard, chanting the name of their hero when he strides through the gate, and they take up his call during the sermon. "No, no to America! No, no to Israel! No, no to imperialism!" In Baghdad, the authorities worry about how to handle this militant cleric, his rising profile and his willingness to flex the street muscle he's built up in Iraq's slums. But the Sadr in question is not Moqtada, the young cleric whose gunmen now occupy Kufa and the neighboring shrine city of Najaf. Instead, the year is 1998 and the man leading the prayers is Ayatollah Mohammed Sadek Al-Sadr, Moqtada's father.
While Moqtada's religious credentials are weak, his family's political standing is as deep as the modern history of Iraq. His grandfather was the prime minister in 1932. And this young, militant cleric didn't spontaneously emerge after the fall of Saddam Hussein. US forces now entering the city of Najaf, are up against a man who has donned the well-cultivated mantle of his father, the leading Shiite thorn in the side of the Hussein regime in the 1990s.
The unfortunate tone of the article is grossly inappropriate in that it advocates the killing of clerics. The oddity is when one considers Walker Bush wants Sadr prisoned for murder supposedly and eventually killed he is taking on the same directive as Saddam Hussein.
There is another thing very strange here. There was a contrasting radio presentation by NPR which was contributed to by the same author as the above article. I guess the radio has to be credited it more to the lead author Anne Garrels of NPR because the radio article wasn’t nearly as biased as or cruel in concept as Mr. Murphy’s lead article.
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1847235
Iraq Lock Down
April 22, 2004
Car bombings in Basra, attacks on contractors, the kidnapping of foreigners. Almost every day a new trouble spot emerges in Iraq. From Baghdad, to the Sunni Triangle to the south, a survey of the situation in Iraq, and what it means for the future.
Guests:Anne Garrels
*NPR correspondent
Dan Murphy
*Reporter with The Christian Science Monitor, working on a profile of Sadr
Bob Fiddes
*Country director for Relief International in Iraq, based in Ammarah
Maggy Zanger
*Country director, Iraq, Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Considering the issue of Depleted Uranium is it any wonder the people of Iraq don’t want the USA lead coalition around.
-----------------------------------------------------
To realize the extent to which NewsNight programming for has included the priorities of The Religious Right it has featured people like:
“Randall Terry who made a name for himself protesting abortion and honosexuality.” NewsNight characterized Terry “…as a new revolutionist as the co-founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue and the man who led the fight against same-sex marriage in Hawaii and Vermont.”
Randall Terry is also known for the abandonment of his family. He is on his second marriage and he ridicules his children. Randall Terry denies his own children identities accusing a gay son of using his name for profit when in fact it is Mr. Terry that exploits those young people for his ‘entrenched against the devil’ fatherhood mantra of which he derives his livelihood through CASH contributions. One can only feel sorry for Mr. Terry’s desperate profession as he cannot grasp the concept of becoming a grandfather to a child of his unwed daughter. I personally believe she is probably better off considering his ability to be ‘cruel’ to his own family.
I hope both children within this family find peace outside their relationship with their father. He is a cruel man. A social agency needs to get involved and try to resolve these issues, especially considering the arrival of an innocent infant. It’s ridiculous. Terry has compassion for everyone putting money in the collection plate, but, none for his own children.
More Evidence to the Fact:
Two Friday nights ago it was the movie Alamo as presented by Beth Nissan. It was strongly plagiarized from the ‘article’ on the same subject of the Christian Science Monitor right down to the analogy of John Wayne. NewsNight never reviews movies unless; there is a huge controversy, such as The Passion of the Christ.
-----------------------------------------------
CNN has become a sell-out to the Religious Right, as Paula Zahn NOW rarely addresses feminist issues. Not one appearance that I am aware, has a member of N.O.W. appeared in a positive light on any subject. As a matter of fact, the issues most of concern by N.O.W. is circumvented which is just as damaging as negative promotion of the issues. In other words, let’s all just avoid the recognition of the issues and they will go away. Bush has the same strategy. Paula Zahn has gone into the baby business so much so, that ONLY the nurturing of children and having babies and a woman’s place within that realm rises as a focus all too often. Again in the year 2004 women, according to the tilt of the Zahn NOW shoe, need to get used to being a baby machine.
This past weekend there were one million women who marched in Washington, DC. Did Paula Zahn NOW embrace the issue and bring in an enthusiastic viewership. NO. Here is the ‘proof of the allegations of the circumvention of the issues belonging to N.O.W.’
In addition and in not such great taste I have to review the ‘context’ as which CNN’s Jeff Greenfield uses women’s images in discussing a subject. In an attempt to bring criticism to a reference made to communism of mandated military service regardless the ‘war’ status of the country; Jeff Greenfield took the subject masculinized it and set a woman’s image in subserviencey and wonderment at the grand display of male fairness.
“But for pure political theater, no one had ever seen anything like the confrontation between a powerful senator and the United States Army that played out 50 years ago this spring in a Senate committee hearing. (Referring to the McCarthy Hearings.)
Brandeis, Professor Tom Doherty, author of "Cold War, Cool Medium," a book on McCarthy and the media stated: "People who had never tuned into TV with quite that avidness before found themselves being almost hypnotized by these hearings as they went on. There are stories of housewives neglecting their work so they could catch the afternoon show. For an entire generation, it was the first time they confronted the full force of TV as a special medium. “
In Contrast at the very same time was a woman journalist making her claim to fame. Her obituary, of all things, was listed in the N.Y. Times for the wonderfully insightful and intelligent person she was.
A Singular Voice From Washington
By FRANCIS X. CLINESPublished: April 23, 2004
It was always a treat to watch Mary McGrory buttonhole a lawmaker or cabinet secretary in a Washington corridor and present a punishing question or two in her disarmingly sweet way. Across five decades as a singular journalist, Mary tracked and hounded the political class — "Capitol strivers and pretenders," she called them — with a crackling mix of insight and affection. She died on Wednesday at the age of 85, a year after a stroke put a stop to her lyrical prose…
Over time, there seemed a Southern tinge to her Boston Irish lilt, and greater mercy in her proudly liberal outlook. The mischief, the grandeur, the evil in public life stand as the narrative core of her work. Even at her breakthrough assignment, a beguiling account of Senator Joseph McCarthy's downfall before a Congressional inquiry a half-century ago, Mary found time to sneak fresh helpings of words from her beloved Jane Austen. Right then, Mary discovered what she described as Austen's "deadly accuracy" and her "informing principle, that politeness serves a purpose, that civility and kindness are moral imperatives." And such was true of Mary.
The obvious indignant to the status of women is dramatic and I admit I apologize for using this article of appreciation by Francis X. Cline but the contrast and comparison was too dramatic and well illustrated. I am confident Mary McGrory would not mind her image relaying a demonstratively positive image of a woman in commander of her life as well as the attentions of the American public.
So. What did the hour of news of Paula Zahn NOW address? The issue of 33 years ago regarding Kerry’s ribbons/metals/ and the metals of other Vietnam Veterans that were unable to attend the protest.
To that programming I have to say only that as NOW and as then, John Kerry stood up to be counted by the people of an issue desperately in need of Excellent and Excelling leadership. John Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations committee not because he was a man of violence but because he was a man of peace seeking to end a war that was illegal and grossly unjust to the people of this country and that of Vietnam. John Kerry came forward to lead and carry an issue to completion 33 years ago with passion, insight and commitment. The Vietnam Veterans that oppose him today were on the wrong side of the argument then as they are now. Senator Kerry was right then and he is right today. I trust John Kerry.
CNN has become a regressive cable station that promotes segregation as well. I have yet to see a broad spectrum of cultural issues addressed on Larry King Live and like the Bush White House CNN as their political pundit has become segregated in their viewership. The last Black American appearing on Larry King Live was Mr. Jason Blair, the New York Times Reporter that plagiarized and lost his job. Jason’s life was riddled with substance issues, undiagnosed Manic-Depression that took him down a path of self defeat and destruction. It could have happened to anyone but to show case him as a ‘success story’ for a Black American that overcame hurdles is a bit unkind to the an image of race that at least bothers me. It bothered someone else that evening as well when a call came in. I recall thinking the same way the caller did and though King brushed it off all too quickly. That interview since been succeeded with other Black Americans with success in their futures for at least one evening. Let’s hope the trend continues beyond April 21, 2004. CAUCASIAN COUNTDOWN: 6 days since last African American appeared in a positive profile.
-----------------------------------------
In Celebration of Earth Day, The Science Christian Monitor features these earth friendly features: THEY LATER REMOVED THESE ARTICLES.
REVIVAL: Ore is loaded into 240, 0000-pound trucks from giant shovels, then hauled to a loading site. With the once-struggling mines reopening, and the local economy swiftly improving, businesses in downtown Eveleth, Minn. are expected to become more profitable.BOB HARBISON – STAFF
Surprise revival for iron mines of Minnesota
By Amanda Paulson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
EVELETH, MINN. – Spring comes slowly to Minnesota's Iron Range. Its home to the world's largest hockey stick, a place where the lakes are still frozen in late April and vowels roll slowly off people's tongues. For the past couple of decades, the region's economy has seemed frozen as well, its bedrock mining industry slowly dying.
In the past year, however, a new life has been blowing into these ochre hills from an unlikely place. You see it in the noise and dust that spews, 24 hours a day, from the recently dormant iron mine just above town, and in the guarded optimism of residents, used to bad news and silent cranes that claw at some of the world's largest open-pit mines.
--------------------------------------
The results or the Christian Science Monitor poll regarding the release of documents of The Energy Committee.
Should Cheney release documents related to his 2001 national energy task force?
Yes. Every advisory committee's documents should be available to the public.
242 votes (93%)
No. The president must be able to obtain unvarnished advice from his officials.
18 votes (7%)
260 people have voted so far
Your vote was Yes. Every advisory committee's documents should be available to the public. on 4/27/2004 7:17 am
I guess it’s a little early in the day and folks are still at their prayer rituals or more like serving mass and haven’t checked in yet.
-------------------------------------------------
I ALWAYS THOUGHT CHRISTIANS WERE PEACE LOVING PEOPLE. WHERE IN ANY OF THIS DOES ANYONE CALL FOR PEACE? ON ANY GIVEN DAY THERE IS NO ADVOCATING FOR PEACE BY THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR or CNN.
What needs to happen here is for the ACLU to take a stand about equity of all kinds. Including those accessible to the public, where there is religious stations regardless the denomination, in order to promote understanding among others who practice differently. There needs to be exposure through that same media to their viewership of beliefs that are different to promote understanding and acceptance of difference. Any public broadcast is open to ‘equal time’ on issues and I believe it is reasonable to state that includes religious stations including extremist such as Jerry Falwell. There should be no EXCLUSIVITY to any public airway to deliver a message that is biased and segregationist.
More and more families are finding turning off paid television allows them to open small saving accounts to reap the benefits of a vacation rather than the sedentary lifestyle of ‘couch potatoes.’ More health, more time as a family and more parenting focus for the children. Sounds right.
BOYCOTT BEEF – OPPOSE THE DRAFT
THE DISCRIMINATION AND DISTAIN OF WOMEN AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF JEFF GREENFIELD IN CONTRAST TO THE NYTIMES!
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST (voice-over): Even in the first days, TV had proven its political punch. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eisenhower.BROWN: The tumultuous 1952 conventions attracted millions and Richard Nixon saved his political career that year. RICHARD NIXON: People have got to have confidence. GREENFIELD: With his famous Checkers speech. But for pure political theater, no one had ever seen anything like the confrontation between a powerful senator and the United States Army that played out 50 years ago this spring in a Senate committee hearing. Brandeis, Professor Tom Doherty, author of "Cold War, Cool Medium," a book on McCarthy and the media:THOMAS DOHERTY, AUTHOR, "COLD WAR, COOL MEDIUM": People who had never tuned into TV with quite that avidness before found themselves being almost hypnotized by these hearings as they went on. There are stories of housewives neglecting their work so they could catch the afternoon show. For an entire generation, it was the first time they confronted the full force of TV as a special medium.
APPRECIATIONS
A Singular Voice From Washington
By FRANCIS X. CLINESPublished: April 23, 2004
It was always a treat to watch Mary McGrory buttonhole a lawmaker or cabinet secretary in a Washington corridor and present a punishing question or two in her disarmingly sweet way. Across five decades as a singular journalist, Mary tracked and hounded the political class — "Capitol strivers and pretenders," she called them — with a crackling mix of insight and affection. She died on Wednesday at the age of 85, a year after a stroke put a stop to her lyrical prose…
Over time, there seemed a Southern tinge to her Boston Irish lilt, and greater mercy in her proudly liberal outlook. The mischief, the grandeur, the evil in public life stand as the narrative core of her work. Even at her breakthrough assignment, a beguiling account of Senator Joseph McCarthy's downfall before a Congressional inquiry a half-century ago, Mary found time to sneak fresh helpings of words from her beloved Jane Austen. Right then, Mary discovered what she described as Austen's "deadly accuracy" and her "informing principle, that politeness serves a purpose, that civility and kindness are moral imperatives." And such was true of Mary.
It is not exactly the Religious Right, it is not exactly Republican but it is the Republicans that are likely the basis of their power within the vision provided by Bush.
It is very troubling. I believe some of the reverberations I have seen in the N Y Times lately is due to the fact they have identified issues but don't see the bigger picture. I think this IS the bigger picture.
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Criticism of The Unilateral religious views of CNN's NewsNight Morning Papers segment: NewsNight with Aaron Brown even after their new Senior Executive Producer took charge, Sharon van Zwieten, continues to practice Anti-Equity in regard to religious issues during the Segment “Morning Papers.”
For twelve nights now the segment has been openly promoting The Christian Science Monitor. To stop at the definition of Anti-Semitic would be an error, because to promote ONLY Christian Newsprint is to be anti-any other religion including Muslim leading to ONLY a pro-Bush Christian agenda as dictated by Karl Rove.
I can’t help but wonder if NewsNight’s investment in promoting Christian Newsprint as it is promoted by a political figure isn’t a violation of McCain-Feingold.
To prove how ludicrous this is, not long ago the Roman Catholic Church was put to ridicule without mercy for their sex scandal. And yet on Saturday CNN was anxious to further show a clash between US Government authority and the clout the Pope carries, or should I say he believes he carries regarding Senator Kerry’s communicant status. Their reporting on that subject was biased again in favor of the view that Kerry is a waffler even as viewed by his faith on issues like abortion. That of course is a communist view of the world in that personal choice is not an option. Senator Kerry has no choice in his office but to carry out the will of the electorate under the US Constitution and if anything clearly demonstrated that will clearly was The Million Woman March on Washington, DC favoring abortion rights.
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This is just one example of the affiliation between Christian Coalition newsprint and NewsNight’s parent company Time Warner:
April 19, 2004
Time Warner continues plagiarism with The Christian Science Monitor
Headline on AOL Website reads,
"Mideast Ally Snubs Bush" - Jordan's King Postpones Visit. After US Shift Toward Israel."
Christian Science Monitor
"Jordan's king snubs Bush, cancels meeting - Key Mideast ally "irked" over US support for Sharon's territorial claims."
PROOF POSITIVE THAT CNN/TIME WARNER/ AOL IS NOW A Christian Based Organization.
It no longer practices reliable journalism.
In an attempt to improve the quality of its reporting the Christian Science Monitor is quoting the New York Times.
'King Abdullah of Jordan abruptly postponed a visit with US President George Bush scheduled for Wednesday. Jordanian officials said the meeting had become impossible because of Mr. Bush's recent support for "Israel's territorial claims in the West Bank," reports The New York Times."
Why read the CS Monitor if all one needs to do is read The N Y Times.
Dah!
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It is simply astounding to me NewsNight has taken on a discriminatory tone without extending the segment to other religious newsprint to balance the display of The Christian Science Monitor. In the past an invitation has been extended while ‘on the air’ to papers interested in submitting to this segment.
The Christian Science Monitor is biased in its views and a trouble maker with rather bizarre articles such as “What is Russia doing to prevent Osama bin Laden from hacking into the main frame of the Nukes? “ That is just bizarre, inflammatory and hostile toward a long standing friend the USA has enjoyed in Russia. The entire articles is just to make the reader want to run right out there to invade Russia for control over their missile system.
This was a Letter to the Editor is proof positive of International Harassment for an agenda that is ONLY christian.
US aid to Egypt has tangible results
The assertion that US development aid is given to the Egyptian government "to do with as it pleases," advanced in the April 12 story, "$50 billion later, taking stock of US aid to Egypt," is just plain wrong. The US and Egypt decide the uses of resources. There are regular and comprehensive audits.
Also false was the claim that US aid is enabling Egypt to avoid reform. In fact, reforms are manifest everywhere. Egypt has adopted legislation protecting intellectual property, a prerequisite for boosting foreign direct investment. Significant reforms in customs administration are under way. Both of these reforms were conditions for US assistance.
Last January, Egypt abandoned its longstanding, economically crippling link of the pound to the dollar. As a result, exports are up, imports are steady, and the surplus following the first half of fiscal year 2003-'04 rose about eightfold to $2.2 billion. In education, Egypt has devolved decision-making to local government and schools. The government recently founded a watchdog Human Rights Committee.
The principles guiding US foreign aid under President Bush are clear: assistance must encourage governments to "rule justly, invest in their people, and encourage economic freedom." USAID in Egypt is governed by these values. Kenneth Ellis USAID
Mission Director, Cairo
Yet still another example of Trouble Making is the article today, the same article was pointed out by the Trouble Makers at CNN’s NewsNight during Morning Papers.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0427/p01s03-woiq.html
Sadr the agitator: like father, like son
By Dan Murphy Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
KUFA, IRAQ – Sadr enters the mosque at Kufa where he's led Friday prayers for nearly a year denouncing the authorities and warning of an "imperialist" conspiracy against Iraq's majority Shiites.
The thousands fill the vast open courtyard, chanting the name of their hero when he strides through the gate, and they take up his call during the sermon. "No, no to America! No, no to Israel! No, no to imperialism!" In Baghdad, the authorities worry about how to handle this militant cleric, his rising profile and his willingness to flex the street muscle he's built up in Iraq's slums. But the Sadr in question is not Moqtada, the young cleric whose gunmen now occupy Kufa and the neighboring shrine city of Najaf. Instead, the year is 1998 and the man leading the prayers is Ayatollah Mohammed Sadek Al-Sadr, Moqtada's father.
While Moqtada's religious credentials are weak, his family's political standing is as deep as the modern history of Iraq. His grandfather was the prime minister in 1932. And this young, militant cleric didn't spontaneously emerge after the fall of Saddam Hussein. US forces now entering the city of Najaf, are up against a man who has donned the well-cultivated mantle of his father, the leading Shiite thorn in the side of the Hussein regime in the 1990s.
The unfortunate tone of the article is grossly inappropriate in that it advocates the killing of clerics. The oddity is when one considers Walker Bush wants Sadr prisoned for murder supposedly and eventually killed he is taking on the same directive as Saddam Hussein.
There is another thing very strange here. There was a contrasting radio presentation by NPR which was contributed to by the same author as the above article. I guess the radio has to be credited it more to the lead author Anne Garrels of NPR because the radio article wasn’t nearly as biased as or cruel in concept as Mr. Murphy’s lead article.
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1847235
Iraq Lock Down
April 22, 2004
Car bombings in Basra, attacks on contractors, the kidnapping of foreigners. Almost every day a new trouble spot emerges in Iraq. From Baghdad, to the Sunni Triangle to the south, a survey of the situation in Iraq, and what it means for the future.
Guests:Anne Garrels
*NPR correspondent
Dan Murphy
*Reporter with The Christian Science Monitor, working on a profile of Sadr
Bob Fiddes
*Country director for Relief International in Iraq, based in Ammarah
Maggy Zanger
*Country director, Iraq, Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Considering the issue of Depleted Uranium is it any wonder the people of Iraq don’t want the USA lead coalition around.
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To realize the extent to which NewsNight programming for has included the priorities of The Religious Right it has featured people like:
“Randall Terry who made a name for himself protesting abortion and honosexuality.” NewsNight characterized Terry “…as a new revolutionist as the co-founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue and the man who led the fight against same-sex marriage in Hawaii and Vermont.”
Randall Terry is also known for the abandonment of his family. He is on his second marriage and he ridicules his children. Randall Terry denies his own children identities accusing a gay son of using his name for profit when in fact it is Mr. Terry that exploits those young people for his ‘entrenched against the devil’ fatherhood mantra of which he derives his livelihood through CASH contributions. One can only feel sorry for Mr. Terry’s desperate profession as he cannot grasp the concept of becoming a grandfather to a child of his unwed daughter. I personally believe she is probably better off considering his ability to be ‘cruel’ to his own family.
I hope both children within this family find peace outside their relationship with their father. He is a cruel man. A social agency needs to get involved and try to resolve these issues, especially considering the arrival of an innocent infant. It’s ridiculous. Terry has compassion for everyone putting money in the collection plate, but, none for his own children.
More Evidence to the Fact:
Two Friday nights ago it was the movie Alamo as presented by Beth Nissan. It was strongly plagiarized from the ‘article’ on the same subject of the Christian Science Monitor right down to the analogy of John Wayne. NewsNight never reviews movies unless; there is a huge controversy, such as The Passion of the Christ.
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CNN has become a sell-out to the Religious Right, as Paula Zahn NOW rarely addresses feminist issues. Not one appearance that I am aware, has a member of N.O.W. appeared in a positive light on any subject. As a matter of fact, the issues most of concern by N.O.W. is circumvented which is just as damaging as negative promotion of the issues. In other words, let’s all just avoid the recognition of the issues and they will go away. Bush has the same strategy. Paula Zahn has gone into the baby business so much so, that ONLY the nurturing of children and having babies and a woman’s place within that realm rises as a focus all too often. Again in the year 2004 women, according to the tilt of the Zahn NOW shoe, need to get used to being a baby machine.
This past weekend there were one million women who marched in Washington, DC. Did Paula Zahn NOW embrace the issue and bring in an enthusiastic viewership. NO. Here is the ‘proof of the allegations of the circumvention of the issues belonging to N.O.W.’
In addition and in not such great taste I have to review the ‘context’ as which CNN’s Jeff Greenfield uses women’s images in discussing a subject. In an attempt to bring criticism to a reference made to communism of mandated military service regardless the ‘war’ status of the country; Jeff Greenfield took the subject masculinized it and set a woman’s image in subserviencey and wonderment at the grand display of male fairness.
“But for pure political theater, no one had ever seen anything like the confrontation between a powerful senator and the United States Army that played out 50 years ago this spring in a Senate committee hearing. (Referring to the McCarthy Hearings.)
Brandeis, Professor Tom Doherty, author of "Cold War, Cool Medium," a book on McCarthy and the media stated: "People who had never tuned into TV with quite that avidness before found themselves being almost hypnotized by these hearings as they went on. There are stories of housewives neglecting their work so they could catch the afternoon show. For an entire generation, it was the first time they confronted the full force of TV as a special medium. “
In Contrast at the very same time was a woman journalist making her claim to fame. Her obituary, of all things, was listed in the N.Y. Times for the wonderfully insightful and intelligent person she was.
A Singular Voice From Washington
By FRANCIS X. CLINESPublished: April 23, 2004
It was always a treat to watch Mary McGrory buttonhole a lawmaker or cabinet secretary in a Washington corridor and present a punishing question or two in her disarmingly sweet way. Across five decades as a singular journalist, Mary tracked and hounded the political class — "Capitol strivers and pretenders," she called them — with a crackling mix of insight and affection. She died on Wednesday at the age of 85, a year after a stroke put a stop to her lyrical prose…
Over time, there seemed a Southern tinge to her Boston Irish lilt, and greater mercy in her proudly liberal outlook. The mischief, the grandeur, the evil in public life stand as the narrative core of her work. Even at her breakthrough assignment, a beguiling account of Senator Joseph McCarthy's downfall before a Congressional inquiry a half-century ago, Mary found time to sneak fresh helpings of words from her beloved Jane Austen. Right then, Mary discovered what she described as Austen's "deadly accuracy" and her "informing principle, that politeness serves a purpose, that civility and kindness are moral imperatives." And such was true of Mary.
The obvious indignant to the status of women is dramatic and I admit I apologize for using this article of appreciation by Francis X. Cline but the contrast and comparison was too dramatic and well illustrated. I am confident Mary McGrory would not mind her image relaying a demonstratively positive image of a woman in commander of her life as well as the attentions of the American public.
So. What did the hour of news of Paula Zahn NOW address? The issue of 33 years ago regarding Kerry’s ribbons/metals/ and the metals of other Vietnam Veterans that were unable to attend the protest.
To that programming I have to say only that as NOW and as then, John Kerry stood up to be counted by the people of an issue desperately in need of Excellent and Excelling leadership. John Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations committee not because he was a man of violence but because he was a man of peace seeking to end a war that was illegal and grossly unjust to the people of this country and that of Vietnam. John Kerry came forward to lead and carry an issue to completion 33 years ago with passion, insight and commitment. The Vietnam Veterans that oppose him today were on the wrong side of the argument then as they are now. Senator Kerry was right then and he is right today. I trust John Kerry.
CNN has become a regressive cable station that promotes segregation as well. I have yet to see a broad spectrum of cultural issues addressed on Larry King Live and like the Bush White House CNN as their political pundit has become segregated in their viewership. The last Black American appearing on Larry King Live was Mr. Jason Blair, the New York Times Reporter that plagiarized and lost his job. Jason’s life was riddled with substance issues, undiagnosed Manic-Depression that took him down a path of self defeat and destruction. It could have happened to anyone but to show case him as a ‘success story’ for a Black American that overcame hurdles is a bit unkind to the an image of race that at least bothers me. It bothered someone else that evening as well when a call came in. I recall thinking the same way the caller did and though King brushed it off all too quickly. That interview since been succeeded with other Black Americans with success in their futures for at least one evening. Let’s hope the trend continues beyond April 21, 2004. CAUCASIAN COUNTDOWN: 6 days since last African American appeared in a positive profile.
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In Celebration of Earth Day, The Science Christian Monitor features these earth friendly features: THEY LATER REMOVED THESE ARTICLES.
REVIVAL: Ore is loaded into 240, 0000-pound trucks from giant shovels, then hauled to a loading site. With the once-struggling mines reopening, and the local economy swiftly improving, businesses in downtown Eveleth, Minn. are expected to become more profitable.BOB HARBISON – STAFF
Surprise revival for iron mines of Minnesota
By Amanda Paulson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
EVELETH, MINN. – Spring comes slowly to Minnesota's Iron Range. Its home to the world's largest hockey stick, a place where the lakes are still frozen in late April and vowels roll slowly off people's tongues. For the past couple of decades, the region's economy has seemed frozen as well, its bedrock mining industry slowly dying.
In the past year, however, a new life has been blowing into these ochre hills from an unlikely place. You see it in the noise and dust that spews, 24 hours a day, from the recently dormant iron mine just above town, and in the guarded optimism of residents, used to bad news and silent cranes that claw at some of the world's largest open-pit mines.
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The results or the Christian Science Monitor poll regarding the release of documents of The Energy Committee.
Should Cheney release documents related to his 2001 national energy task force?
Yes. Every advisory committee's documents should be available to the public.
242 votes (93%)
No. The president must be able to obtain unvarnished advice from his officials.
18 votes (7%)
260 people have voted so far
Your vote was Yes. Every advisory committee's documents should be available to the public. on 4/27/2004 7:17 am
I guess it’s a little early in the day and folks are still at their prayer rituals or more like serving mass and haven’t checked in yet.
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I ALWAYS THOUGHT CHRISTIANS WERE PEACE LOVING PEOPLE. WHERE IN ANY OF THIS DOES ANYONE CALL FOR PEACE? ON ANY GIVEN DAY THERE IS NO ADVOCATING FOR PEACE BY THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR or CNN.
What needs to happen here is for the ACLU to take a stand about equity of all kinds. Including those accessible to the public, where there is religious stations regardless the denomination, in order to promote understanding among others who practice differently. There needs to be exposure through that same media to their viewership of beliefs that are different to promote understanding and acceptance of difference. Any public broadcast is open to ‘equal time’ on issues and I believe it is reasonable to state that includes religious stations including extremist such as Jerry Falwell. There should be no EXCLUSIVITY to any public airway to deliver a message that is biased and segregationist.
More and more families are finding turning off paid television allows them to open small saving accounts to reap the benefits of a vacation rather than the sedentary lifestyle of ‘couch potatoes.’ More health, more time as a family and more parenting focus for the children. Sounds right.
BOYCOTT BEEF – OPPOSE THE DRAFT
THE DISCRIMINATION AND DISTAIN OF WOMEN AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF JEFF GREENFIELD IN CONTRAST TO THE NYTIMES!
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST (voice-over): Even in the first days, TV had proven its political punch. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eisenhower.BROWN: The tumultuous 1952 conventions attracted millions and Richard Nixon saved his political career that year. RICHARD NIXON: People have got to have confidence. GREENFIELD: With his famous Checkers speech. But for pure political theater, no one had ever seen anything like the confrontation between a powerful senator and the United States Army that played out 50 years ago this spring in a Senate committee hearing. Brandeis, Professor Tom Doherty, author of "Cold War, Cool Medium," a book on McCarthy and the media:THOMAS DOHERTY, AUTHOR, "COLD WAR, COOL MEDIUM": People who had never tuned into TV with quite that avidness before found themselves being almost hypnotized by these hearings as they went on. There are stories of housewives neglecting their work so they could catch the afternoon show. For an entire generation, it was the first time they confronted the full force of TV as a special medium.
APPRECIATIONS
A Singular Voice From Washington
By FRANCIS X. CLINESPublished: April 23, 2004
It was always a treat to watch Mary McGrory buttonhole a lawmaker or cabinet secretary in a Washington corridor and present a punishing question or two in her disarmingly sweet way. Across five decades as a singular journalist, Mary tracked and hounded the political class — "Capitol strivers and pretenders," she called them — with a crackling mix of insight and affection. She died on Wednesday at the age of 85, a year after a stroke put a stop to her lyrical prose…
Over time, there seemed a Southern tinge to her Boston Irish lilt, and greater mercy in her proudly liberal outlook. The mischief, the grandeur, the evil in public life stand as the narrative core of her work. Even at her breakthrough assignment, a beguiling account of Senator Joseph McCarthy's downfall before a Congressional inquiry a half-century ago, Mary found time to sneak fresh helpings of words from her beloved Jane Austen. Right then, Mary discovered what she described as Austen's "deadly accuracy" and her "informing principle, that politeness serves a purpose, that civility and kindness are moral imperatives." And such was true of Mary.
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