Inside the NYC Beltway Mentality

It's not every day I blog from NYC. It occurs to me that there's an "inside the beltway" analogy for New York City. You see it in the devolution of the quality of information in the New York Times. You also see it at CBS (See "Update").

Example. Does Jeffrey Gettleman and his editors at the Times recognize the irony of the front page piece from April 25, 2007 entitled "People Who Feed Off Anarchy in Somalia Are Quick to Fuel It"? The US has fueled it and feeds off of it. The US has opened another front in the Mid-east War, See the Map. The US is now operating under the cover of Chaos; they couldn't do that with the Islamic Courts maintaining order in Somalia.

The coalition Islamic Courts, who were not all fundamentalists, had begun to bring a sense of order to Somalia before the US covert operations, supported by Ethiopia, created the current chaos. Prior to that, the US CIA had backed the Somali war lords who fostered the kinds of things Gettleman describes in his article. Note the "Oil Factor In Somalia," a 1993 article.

The US-installed Somali Prime Minister, Ali Mohammed Ghedi, recently told the Dow Jones News Network that Somalia is welcoming back multi-national oil compaines with similar oil production sharing agreements that the Bush Administration is pushing for in Iraq. Companies seeking new or renewed contracts include Conoco-Phillips and Royal Dutch Shell. Ghedi said,

The [Somali] parliament will approve the new oil laws in two months.

I recall arriving in Washington DC in the mid-1980s to discover that stacks of resumes from Ivy League schools were a common feature of congressional offices. Few of these people were hired, but those that were spent much of their time angling for career advancement, and had little interest in the issues of the day (Star Wars and the US covert war in Central America). Very few of these people had any honest understanding of the atrocities being committed in Central America at the time by US backed death squads. Naive, superficial and as a result, dangerous, because they effectively run Congress.

The same holds in New York City. Of course, I didn't have to come up here to recognize this. It's just that being here heightens my awareness to it.

This phenomenon can be generalized: The political and economic elite are, for the most part, uniformed. True, there are insiders who are fully informed, who call the shots on the use of force to advance and maintain power, but they are the minority.

But, even some of those closest to the execution of that power fail to realize what they are doing. They are the pawns and those in denial. It's not hard to fall into that trap, particularly when you're isolated as people become when wrapped up in the fast pace of NYC upper rank activities, like reporting for the Times.

I could go on with examples, but will use just one. Richard Khanlian of Santa Fe, NM questions whether the US "success" in Iraq can be any different than the Iraq of Saddam Hussein in light of US military complicity, and participation in similar behavior. Khanlian was prompted by the NY Times April 22 front page article, "3 Suspects Talk After Iraqi Soldiers Do Dirty Work."

In general, those "inside the beltway," "inside the Manhattan buzz zone," what I call the inside crowd, are swept up in a dangerous current. They need to step back and ask themselves some sobering questions and act on their basic values.

Update:

High Tech Parent, Jadegreen, provides another example. Remember the Katie Couric plagiarism espose'? Jadegreen followed up the follow-up. In doing so, Jadegreen refelects on the following comment by Katie Couric:

this was a very unfortunate incident because the person who did this is a lovely person, but clearly inexperienced about the tenets of basic journalism.

Jadegreen points out the obvious, if one stops to think about it; how is it that a person who attains the privilage of writing for the CBS anchorperson is "inexperienced about the tenets of basic journalism"? The answer lies in the thesis that America is in decline, which was my initial reaction to the Couric scandal and the general point of this essay, with superficial NYC insiders providing more evidence.

Sources:

DemocracyNow, April 27, 2007, "The Most Lawless War of Our Generation" - Former UN Spokesperson on Somalia.


DemocracyNow, Tuesday, April 3, 2007, 400 Die in Mogadishu's Worst Fighting in 15 years.

DemocracyNow, Tuesday, January 9, 2007,
U.S. Launches Targeted Assassination Air Strikes in Somalia, Many Reported Killed.

DemocracyNow, hursday, December 28, 2006,
Conflict in Somalia: Islamic Courts Abandon Mogadishu as UN Warns of Humanitarian Crisis.

Flashpoints Radio, Knight Report, April 26, 2007: Somalia oil information.
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Swimming with the Inside Crowd

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I've gotta get off this Katie Couric kick....

This post was inspired by an exchange I had in the comment section of a post on High Tech Parent blog regarding Katie Couric's Plagiarism problem.

greebs said:

My version was simply "this is pathetic."

When it comes down to it, anyone making $15 million as a journalist should really be doing his or her own writing. That's a hard argument to work around.

greebs post.

My satirical response attempts to arugue around it:

greebs, didn't you get the memo? Oh, I guess you're not part of the inside crowd.

Well, it SAYS if you're really rich, you get other people to do things FOR you. You can even get other people to pay your taxes to fund the war.

That's how it works now. It's really cool. I sold some stock recently, that I picked up on a good tip, using a loan from a good friend, and then flipped it now I'm IN. Now we have a new maid named Lolita who's really awsome with the kids. Njuen does the garden, even when we're at our place in Paris, don't need to ask, he just takes care of it. Bjork has been maintaining my blog... I just send him e-mails with the theme, and he does the rest.

I have a friend who can get YOU in too. All you have to do is... well, we better talk about this off-line, if you know what I mean ;-)
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Imus vs Couric by Technorati Graphs

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CBS has been in the spotlight lately due to the gaffes of Don Imus and Katie Couric. Clearly, the Imus "Nappy-Headed Hoe" issue has been bigger than the Katie Couric Video Notebook plagiarism issue, but how much bigger?

Technorati's records of blog site postings that mention "Imus" vs "Katie Couric" give some indication from the perspective of the blogosphere.

The upper graph to the right shows blog postings that include "Katie Couric." It shows a small baseline of activity surrounding a couple of spikes in the range of 300-400 hits per day. The second spike is a result of the library card story taken from a piece by Jeffrey Zaslow that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

The lower graph shows blog postings that include "Imus." It shows little or no baseline of activity, but a huge surge reaching nearly 14,000 at its peak.

So, "how much bigger?" The Imus story was about four to five times bigger than the Couric story at the peak.... assuming the Couric story has played out.
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Couric Debacle Prompts CBS to Increase Web Quality Control

According to the New York Times, CBS news will be taking a closer look at its web content. This is a result of the Katie Couric library card plagiarism Video Notebook fiasco, which has spawned intense scrutiny by bloggers and others.

This site recently highlighted other video notebook entries that are questionable, including a background on Barack Obama, and Couric's undercount of Iraqi civilian deaths.

The CBS action was brought to my attention by The New York State of Mind blog site.

My original response to the Couric plagiarism incident was to view it as just one more example of the slow devolution of American culture. I've probably spent too much time on this issue. However, it is worth people voicing their opinions to CBS News on this general state of affairs. To that end, here's a link to contact CBS News.

Contact CBS News:

Web E-Mail Form for All CBS News Programs

Evening News E-Mail: evening@cbsnews.com

CBS News
524 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-975-4321
Fax: 212-975-1893

LINK to Media Contacts in General

Sources:

After Couric Incident, CBS News to Scrutinize Its Web Content

By BILL CARTER
Published: April 12, 2007

CBS News said yesterday it planned to install a new level of editorial oversight to its Web site since revelations that the CBS anchor Katie Couric read a plagiarized commentary on the site last week.

CBS has fired the producer who wrote the piece for Ms. Couric, and said yesterday it was investigating to see if the producer, whose name CBS has not disclosed, had written any previous commentaries for Ms. Couric that had been plagiarized.

The commentary, about how children use libraries in a world increasingly dominated by the Internet, was clearly inspired by a piece written the previous month in The Wall Street Journal. A Journal editor called the similarities to the attention of CBS News on Monday, and executives there, reading the two pieces, immediately concluded that they were basically identical.

CBS News executives said they were stunned that anyone would so blatantly copy someone else’s work. The incident is an embarrassment for the news division, and comes at a time of continuing struggle for Ms. Couric’s newscast to be competitive with NBC and ABC in the evening-news ratings.

The videotaped commentary, which was used in a section of the CBS News Web site called “Katie Couric’s Notebook,” but which also was sent out for use by CBS television and radio stations, was removed from the CBS site, and the network issued what it called a correction, saying it should have noted that “much of the material” had come from the newspaper.

As described by Sandy Genelius, the spokeswoman for CBS News, the process of creating the 55-second essays that were included in the “Notebook” feature involved a meeting between Ms. Couric and a group of producers from the Web site and her going over dozens of suggested topics for the daily commentary.

Asked whether Ms. Couric had read the article in The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Genelius said, “I believe she did not.” Ms. Couric was not available for comment.

All television news anchors read scripts for their newscasts that are prepared by staff members, but the anchors almost always rewrite these themselves.

A spokesman for ABC News, Jeffrey W. Schneider, said that on ABC’s Web site commentaries were written only by the contributor whose name was on that commentary.

Allison Gollust of NBC News said she was not aware of any NBC Web contributions that were written by anyone other than the person whose name was attached to it. “We certainly do not have anyone on the staff whose job it is to write something like that for one of our anchors or correspondents,” she said.
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Katie Couric and CBS Perpetuate Undercount of Iraqi Civilian Deaths

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So, how many inaccuracies can be found Katie Couric's Video Notebook? Here's another.

On March 19, 2007, Katie Couric reported 50,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, despite the well-known Lancet study citing an estimated 654,965 additional deaths in Iraq between March 2003 and July 2006 (the low end of the estimated range was about 400,000).

A Johns Hopkins School of Public Health web site states:

The mortality survey used well-established and scientifically proven methods for measuring mortality and disease in populations. These same survey methods were used to measure mortality during conflicts in the Congo, Kosovo, Sudan and other regions.

The Guardian reports:

Scientists at the UK's Department for International Development ... concluded that the study's methods were "tried and tested". Indeed, the Johns Hopkins approach would likely lead to an "underestimation of mortality".

The Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the research was "robust", close to "best practice", and "balanced". He recommended "caution in publicly criticising the study".

We know that people are buried quickly in the Islamic tradition, leading to lower reporting of deaths to officials. We know that the mass media is unable to report on vast areas of Iraq due to increasing violence, again leading to under reporting.

So, why does Katie Couric and CBS continue to report a number that is an order of magnitude lower than the best available estimate? Partly because of the human capacity for denial. Partly because corporate media insiders live in a celebrity bubble; they and their wannabe helpers are isolated from realities that would allow them to believe the numbers of additional civilian deaths could be so high. Perhaps to avoid accepting responsibility as a democracy for such a gross crime against humanity.
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Another Couric Video Notebook Error?

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Noted as "A sign of the declining modern media," among other things, d-day blog finds another Katie Couric Video Notebook misrepresentation (no video on this one). How many more are there?

On April 13, 2007, d-day blog reports, in Zombie Lies that Katie Couric's video notebook repeated the rumor that Barack Obama had been educated in an Islamic madrassa. Compare the original and revised versions. This was reported on by media matters. In particular, they expose CNN's Glenn Beck for perpetuating the rumor.

Sources:

Katie Couric Notebook Entry Obama's Background, April 11, 2007: Note it has been Corrected.

Huffington Post, Eat the Press for the before and after comparison.
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Couric: Faux Journalist Reflects Twilight of America

It is one more sign of the decline of America.

CBS News said this week the April 4 installment of "Katie Couric's Notebook" consisted mostly of passages lifted verbatim from a Wall Street Journal column by Jeffrey Zaslow that was published in March.

Rigor and professionalism has given way to false appearance and the bottom line. For a highly-paid news anchor to blunder into plagiarism is unacceptable in a first-rate nation, which is the point. The U.S. is fading in the same way Rome, Spain and Britain faded from preeminence.

Morris Berman, and others, are writing books on the decline of the American Empire. A review of Berman's "The Twilight of American Culture," sums it up:

Morris Berman discusses the decline in American life, evidenced by growing class inequities, the deterioration of literacy, and the pervasiveness of anti-intellectualism.

The deterioration of literacy is exemplified in this case by a failure to recognize plagiarism. Couric didn't even write the video essay, despite the impression given that she does.

Here's another example of the decline, a failure of accountability:

The producer responsible for Couric's piece was fired on Monday night, hours after the Journal contacted CBS News to complain.

"Couric's" piece? First, it was phony theater, foisted on the American public; Couric wasn't mouthing a memory about her library card. She was mouthing someone Else's memory about their library card, written by an as-yet nameless producer (UPDATE: Now named as Melissa McNamara).

Second, if it's truly "Couric's piece," isn't she also responsible? Apparently not in the twilight of America, where it's OK for CBS to give the impression that it is "Couric's piece." It was faked, like most of what passes for journalism on corporate media as the American Dark Ages approach.

Sources:

Reuters, April 12, 2007, CBS says Couric unaware video essay plagiarized.

Melanie Ho, Review of Berman's "The Twilight of America."

See Also:

Regret The Error, a blog that was cited in the Reuters article.

The Daily Background, a blog that was cited in the Reuters article. Raises the question of double-plagiarism. What The Daily Background calls "double-plagiarism" I call "phony theater."

High Tech Parent on Couric

On the ligher side, gotta take a look at the visual on Milk Was a Bad Choice

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