Sep. 8, 2004

“If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we’ll get hit again,” Dick Cheney said on September 7th, threatening the American public that if we elect Kerry and Edwards rather than Bush and Cheney, we’ll be attacked by “terrorists.”

But that statement was unambiguously intended to influence our votes by terrifying us. Cheney wants us to vote for him for fear that otherwise we and our loved ones will be subjected to random attacks. By the read more

Sep. 13, 2004

“Casualties are always sad, but I don’t think they should be shocking.”

Any doubt that the U.S. media has not yet recognized the disgraceful role it has played in promoting and covering Bush’s war ought to be put to rest by a forum held in New York City on September 9th. The forum was part of the annual convention of the Society of Professional Journalists, a series of events that showcased the media at its best and worst.

Gathered, appropriately enough, in read more

Sep. 20, 2004

If you live in the majority of the states in the United States, you’re being handed two candidates to choose from for president without much say in the matter from you. You have very little control over what Bush promises, and probably little capacity left to believe him anyway. And you, therefore, have little control over what Kerry promises, since he tends to shape his positions around Bush’s, either by agreeing with Bush entirely, by staking out a position slightly read more

Universal health care is favored by most Americans, but proposing to create it is deemed politically foolish. Restoring value to the minimum wage would meet with approval from the vast majority of us, but politicians who make it a priority are considered a little flakey. Investing in public schools is one of our top priorities, but we’re told the money’s just not there and that we should focus on offering children other choices — we have to be practical. Most of the money that read more

If you fail to ask substantive questions about what it will mean to people for each candidate to win, the slightest criticism of you by the candidates can result in thunderous applause, and you can end up looking shame-faced and horribly uncomfortable.

Don’t believe me?

Watch this clip from last December of Ted Koppel and Dennis Kucinich:

Or read this transcript:

KOPPEL: When you hear some of your colleagues here-you know, I get a little bit of a sense of sour grapes here, that if anyone else read more

October 2, 2004
A tight spotlight focused on Bruce Springsteen after he’d entered the stage in Philadelphia on Friday night and bent over his guitar without a word. And without a word he gave new meaning to the Star Spangled Banner. And on came the E-Street Band, and the stage lit up, and they gave new meaning to “Born in the USA.” They picked the tempo and the volume up a notch as they jumped into “Badlands” and gave a new meaning to every lyric. The sold-out read more

October 3, 2004
As Senator John Edwards trains for Tuesday’s debate, the best advice anyone could give him would be to bring his own questions. He should bring a list of topics he intends to talk about and a list of questions he intends to put to Dick Cheney, because if anything can be predicted safely it is that Gwen Ifill will slant her script in favor of the fat man.

Yesterday evening on PBS Ifill could be seen defending Bush’s debate performance. Which way she leans is never hard read more

Oct. 3, 2004
Inside the new National Museum of the American Indian, nextdoor to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is an exhibit about an exhibit in which an American Indian lay on a display case surprising visitors by being alive and observing them. Visitors to the new NMAI may be surprised to find an entire museum alive. There is very little of the past here, much of current culture.

The American Indian Movement (AIM) has complained, in fact, that this museum does not tell the story of a read more

By David Swanson, ILCA Media Coordinator
Part of the Media Blackout series on underreported labor stories

You wouldn’t know it from reading, watching, or listening to the “mainstream” media, but many of the largest labor organizations in the United States have passed resolutions demanding that U.S. troops be brought home from Iraq and the war be ended. On July 19, the ILCA published an article on the media’s failure to cover this turn of events.

Back then the story was already read more

October 19, 2004

The Economic Policy Institute today released a report finding that investment in early childhood development can bring annual rates of return of 12 percent to the non-participating tax payers. The real rate of return that prevailed on the stock market between 1871 and 1998 was 6.3 percent. Are those eager to invest our Social Security dollars in a money-making venture paying attention?

How does investing in expensive educational, health, and nutritional programs for poor three- read more