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TechnoratiAuctioning Journalistic Integrity
T. Christian Miller works hard year after year as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He has reported on topics ranging from gross corporate profiteering in Iraq to the production and use here and overseas of older, dangerous pesticides that are either shunned or restricted for use in this country.
Mr. Miller spent months of his life on this latter story. He cares about the well-being of his readers.
Working for the 9 daily newspapers and 23 television stations owned by the Tribune company are hundreds of reporters who sweat the violent streets and neighborhoods, probe the corporate suites, and cover the doings of politicians. They also take some pretty dangerous assignments covering wars, riots and natural disasters in foreign countries.
Together with their editors and support staff, they have a very large stake in their company — both professionally and in terms of their livelihoods.
But they do not have any say about their future. A wealthy real estate speculator, Sam Zell, now has the say. And what he says in the coming months will decide who stays and who has to leave, what will be covered and what will be neglected, what stations and newspapers remain and which are sold off, what is left of any labor contracts, and what powerless new shareholders—namely a corporate tax dodge in which ESOP members have to suffer without any voice.
Finally, Sam Zell has already decreed an arrangement that the Tribune company, still making money, will no longer have to pay federal income taxes to Uncle Sam on its profits.
One man, Sam Zell, has all this massive power, thanks to a legal system rigged in favor of capital — borrowed at that — and against labor that puts these newspapers and television stations in front of you seven days a week.
The taking of the Tribune company private, via an exotically complex transaction, started with a sluggish stock price that the impatient Chandler family, who sold the Los Angeles Times to the Tribune, found intolerable. As the largest shareholders, the Chandler family was pressing for a restructuring of the company or an outright sale.
Sam Zell won the auction in an $8.2 billion deal. Larded with tax avoidance schemes and hefty guarantees for Sam Zell, the new company, if it clears regulatory approvals, will be loaded with huge debts (reaching $13 billion or ten times the Tribunes's annual cash flow).
How else could Sam Zell put only $315 million of his own money into the pot, most of it a loan no less, take control of this media conglomerate as chairman of the board and retain the right later to buy 40 percent of the stock for only $500 million.
As an "S" corporation with a porous and powerless employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, "the company is treated, effectively, like a charity. It'll be a tax-exempt entity," declared Robert Willens of Lehman Brothers. See what a bargain Washington is for corporatists making campaign contributions year after year.
Mr. Willens adds "This is going to be the wave of the future." Unless I might add, workers politically organize and campaigns become publicly funded, instead of being offered to the highest cash bidders.
Under Mr. Zell's plan, the employees will no longer receive 401(k) contributions from the company. They will not be permitted to cash in any of their shares for a decade or more — and then only if they retire or have worked for the Tribune for at least 10 years. They are trapped by Zell who has veto power over all major decisions.
Immediately, there were reports of more staff cuts at the newspapers which already have suffered losses of reporters and editors in recent years. The most experienced reporters and editors are usually the first to go.
Sam Zell says he is in this private buyout to make more money, not for pushing any journalistic ideology. So the questions and the rumors are circulating in the newsrooms.
Will Sam Zell sell off the Los Angeles Times or the Baltimore Sun or the Hartford Courant to local wealthies? What will happen to the workers if that happens, especially if these new spinoffs are loaded further with debt? Will the newsrooms be further stripmined?
Sam Zell will decide. The media has been taken over in the past by larger media, by industrial companies like General Electric, by entertainment companies like Disney.
Now it is being taken over by tax-avoiding speculators whose monetized mind sweeps aside the fiduciary duties of journalism that is supposed to nurture a trust so important that our founding fathers made it the only business protected by the First Amendment.
When Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. recently offered to buy the Dow Jones & Co. (publisher of the Wall Street Journal) for $5 billion, sharply elevating its share prices, recently retired chairman, Peter Kann, wrote to the majority shareholding Bancroft family applauding their initial rejection of the offer and calling their continued ownership "a public trust." "There is a higher calling to what the people of Dow Jones do each day. They are not merely producing and selling products like corn flakes or computer chips."
Mr. Kann went on to say that the reporters and editors of the Journal could have made more money as lawyers or bankers. But they chose to devote their careers "to something more important." So too he urged the Bancrofts to "forego some financial benefits" for other "even higher priorities."
What now with the Tribune's workers and their "higher priorities?" Some are hoping that their newspapers will be sold to local buyers by Sam Zell.
Don't bet on the results if this happens. Ted Venetoulis, speaking for a group of investors in Baltimore, interested in the Baltimore Sun, told the New York Times, in reaction to Zell's deal: "Why didn't I think of that?"
© 2007 Ralph Nader
59 Comments so far
Show AllI saw the beginnings of this corporate takeover of the media when I worked for weekly newspapers bought by Gannett. I saw that each person who retired or quit (often in disgust)were not replaced. I covered 12 to 15 communities, edited and paginated two newspapers each week, and tried, when I could, to write in depth about such important local and regional topics as domestic violence, local communities dealing with governmental demands on education that were not adequately funded (leading to property tax problems) and the problems of dealing with waste disposal. No, I wasn't a national reporter, but so many of the larger issues start on the local level--and these issues, along with the national issues, are being neglected. I left the business burned out and furious, and I still am. We need to demand laws that forbid total corporate control of media outlets, and demand that, as part of its ownership agreement, a corporation cannot gut newsrooms or put other obstacles in the way of total, unbiased coverage of all the stories important to the community it covers.
Gail: I agree about $ as god and it's called Mammon, but as there can be no expansion of unsatiable American profit-seeking without a strong military (no Mcdonald's without Macdonnell Douglas) back-up, the old god Mars is also well represented by today's fundamentalist zealots of all religious stripes. We're overdue for another Enlightenment, this one tying us back with nature in a symbiotic relationship that supports the beauty, miracle and inherent integrity of LIFE as expressed through both human beings and the magnificent webs of species, its neighbors.
How one can anyone equate antisemitic expressions with anti-racist statements is beyond me.
Something is totally wrong with values.
As someone who is not so young and immature, and who has all
the qualifications, knowledge and expertise needed to see and
understand the danger of antisemitism, as well to comprehend the larger context of global conflict, I would like to see here a open condemnation of antisemitism.
To tolerate and/or promote open racism and then chastise
the victims is a continuation of traditions of racism.
Peace is not possible without justice. What is petty for not affected, can be life threatening for a target.
Those who preach progressivism and tolerate/promote racism are either ignorant or hypocritical. Most certainly they are
not progressives.
Anti-Zionism is a modern cover for antisemitism (literature can be provided), and for those who stress this simple fact, the issue is not petty.
It's good to acquire knowledge of the discipline, before
writing pompous, ignorant and incompetent paragraphs.
It is also good to have some basic understanding of human condition, facts of immigrations etc. and try to understand
that there is a difference between writing in one's own
native tongue and writing in a foreign language.
Lacking any understanding of this simple fact is a proof how superficial one's progressiveness is.
When I read so much of the whining, petty, elliptical drivel in these posts, offset by the few really coherent, often trenchant comments by those above (you know who they are), I'm forced to question my own allegiance to a moderate-progressive point of view. I'm sick of seeing so-called progressives, obviously young, passionate, often inarticulate, and sometimes transparently immature and ignorant, attack each other in print or in blog posts on issues better suited to toddlers fighting over space in the playground sandbox.
Anti-semitism is historically serious and even grave in its implications. Those Jews here understand that better than anyone. To obsess in pointless arguments about Zionism vs. anti-semitism is intellectual flatulence, practiced by people who either do not comprehend the larger context of global conflict, or are only here as trolls.
The real measurement of progress on any of the monumental issues facing all of us is concerted action, political behavior and the degree to which hard compromise through negotiation can achieve some progressive result that lifts all boats, to paraphrase JFK. In recent years, there's been little if any real negotiation--on the global stage, that's usually called diplomacy--practiced by this administration, since most of its key players either do not believe in diplomacy as a primary method of executing policy, or more likely, they are committed to the exercise of raw power and American "supremacy",the essence of the neocon ideology.
We've all lived through the results of that approach, which are clear to anyone who looks.
Nader's portrait of Sam Zell falls neatly into this paradigm. Zell is simply following the sociopathic continuum of corporatist philosophy, which meshes seamlessly with neocon fantasies of American world dominion and the spreading of "democracy"--which in actuality is liberal/free market capitalism writ large across the world.
"Sociopathic" because it does not embrace the moral/ethical dimension. In this model, what's good for the goose is usually lethal to the gander, the gander being the great majority of us struggling to keep up, while the golden goose continues to acquire more and more treasure at our expense (i.e., tax cuts).
It's no surprise that the corporatist mainstream media are now as prolifically uniform, restricted and foreboding as the tons of goose shit covering most North American golf courses. The geese, through over-multiplication, may be a real pain in the ass, but they're still protected by misguided notions of environmental paternalism. Our media, through over-consolidation, are still raining tons of informational shit down on us 24/7 every day.
Stop allowing yourself to be distracted by petty arguments about insoluable differences, and begin to focus on those issues that are solvable through concerted action. Otherwise, the geese will eventually have US for dinner.
It is a real shame that an important article, one concerning the very bedrock of our democratic process, the free press, should devolve into a rant about antisemitism. Perhaps this was the intent of he who first raised the point about so-called "Zionists" controlling our news media, I do not really know.
What I do know is that the news, radio, TV and print has become just another profit center, another example of how capitalism eats itself and everything around it. For a very long time the news was considered a necesary and losing enterprise, a civic duty. Now it has become another thing entirely and thus opens itself to corruption of news to please advertising dollars. We also see a shrinking of the ownership of news media outlets and the purchasing involves ideology as much as profit, if not even more importantly.
I consider the loss of our free press to be the single largest threat to our democratic process and believe that it is neocons, not zionists, who have bought up so many of our formerly independent news sources with the sole intent of manipulation of both the news and the electorate. Considering that most of our voting public devotes damn little time to consideration of issues, gets many if not most of its opinions from televised news reportage like the abysmally partisan Fox News I would beg this forum to step back from side issues and refocus upon the intent of this fine article by a fine American. The country may very well depend upon discussions like this for its survival.
These kind of financial deals are, to say the least, ill advised from every angle. Approval of flaky tax, labor, oversight, deals with minimal equity will lead to a financial collapse. We have had ample warning with Enron etc. This situation where everybody almost universally outsources key parts of their business will make any business fall very hard and fast when trouble occurs. An example, is a hotel chain that manages but owns no hotels, no real estate, and has few if any employees, because cleaning, advanced registration, restaurant and everything is outsourced. There is almost no investment in the entire enterprise, therefore management has no personal stake in the business. The whole deal is incorporated where fraud is standard operating procedure.
It is a miracle when these businesses manage to postpone collapse at all. When the big crash comes conspiracy theorists will have a thousand theories.
But the truth is, no conspiracy is necessary. The same ideas bad for the nation and the world are extremely profitable for all the individuals in on the profits. The only thing that prevents them is morals, good business sense and regulation. Only regulation can be certain - good business and morals can't be enforced.
ballerina May 14th, 2007 2:01 am
"Media concentration is never a good thing no matter who holds the purse strings. We are watching cannibalization on all fronts and that is never a pretty sight. I think we can all agree that being in the midst of the carnage is not a pleasant experience."
Yes, and Ronald Reagan must be smiling in his grave at yet another takeover. Profit maximization by capitalist cannibals always produces carnage for the majority.
We are living with a government of, by and for the corporations!
"most americans are ignorant, that is why they accept US policy that brutalizes the palestinians, the lebanese"
Eurobelle: "Most Americans accept wage slavery and lack of health care,
and you are
DIVERTING THEIR ATTENTION from real issues"
yes, eurobelle, only american and israeli suffering counts.
worrying about a brutal foreign policy run on our taxes is just a diversion from worrying about ourselves.
i actually agree that health care and wages are important, very important, but don't use them to keep "ignorant" americans from seeing through our nasty foreign policy. and maybe if we weren't spending on these brutalities we would have money for health care, etc.
instead we are making enemies faster than even we are willing to kill them and will finally bankrupt ourselves (well the majority of us, i am sure cheney et al will keep their loot)
Zionism is very close to fascism. Antisemitism is very close to racism. Most of my Jewish and non-Jewish friends seem to know the difference, but certainly there are people, mostly Christians, who can not or will not make a distinction, not because they like Jews but because they want rapture. We need to see the world as it is, not through a preconcieved notion.
If you go to PNACs web site [Rebuilding America] been edited from the original version.
it's preety obvious that the corporate media is under thumb. i have not seen or read even one mention of PNAC anywhere. this document is the blueprint for this whole Iraq fiasco, and mums the word. whoever is controlling the media is firmly up W's backside.
"most americans are ignorant, that is why they accept US policy that brutalizes the palestinians, the lebanese"
Most Americans accept wage slavery and lack of health care,
and you are
DIVERTING THEIR ATTENTION from real issues
Before all other wonderful jump to yell at me,
I am announcing I am not discussing the topic with anyone who hasn't read at least one book on the topic of antisemitism.
In other words, I am not wasting my time on every psycho
of the world.
Moreover, I have a degree in Jewish history, in other words,
I am an expert. If you don't like the result of my ANALYSIS, sui me - be my guest.
A good place to start would be:
CHRISTIAN ANTISEMITISM : A HISTORY OF HATE
by William Nichols.
Actually, I might prepare a list, and publish it here.
I also will try to find some time to prepare a basic description of antisemitism, and each time this or that thug shows his/her ugly face I'll post it here.
eurobelle likes jose's estimate of americans:
"Jose, most Americans are ignorant, can be easily manipulated and at this moment pose a threat to the world."
well actually it's time to agree with eurobelle. most americans are ignorant, that is why they accept US policy that brutalizes the palestinians, the lebanese. they were in favor of brutalizing the iraqis (remember bush openly promised "shock and awe") until the brutalizing included too many american soldiers. if it could have been a one way street of brutality they would have been on board.
and all this comes from our establishment press that makes americans such easy prey to this.
Whether for or anti is in the larger context immaterial.
Western societies have absorbed fairy tales for many a year now. Still one must acknowledge that those who contributed to the writing of the "Old" testament as a foretelling of the "New" after the writings of the "New" have been written are still practicing the same old same old but in this day and age only in America.
The Kabballah rules.....
eurobelle is so smart and americans are so stupid. how quickly she can explain the difference:
"Can you see a difference between the USA (America is a continent, Lew)* and Israel.
A hint (a size, power, distance, etc.)....one is biiiiiig, and one is small. They are different, Lew."
big or little both believe in this incredibly ugly theory of exceptionalism, of "chosen people," that brings them so so close together, it's as if there were no distance at all. and with US military support the size difference is not that big either.
bit strangely eurobelle bites the hand that feeds her:
"There is a difference between a country and a continent.
You, like George Bush, don't know that.
Should I repeat again?"
george bush is the most reliable friend of "little bitty" israel that she could hope for, so why is she insulting him?
Finally, some voices of reason.
"With the subject changing in an instant to anti-semitism"
It would be nice if in the future people stop the diversion the moment fd and the like "do their job,"
in other words, if people don't tolerate .... but the Jews.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1106
An old link about Canada and media monopoly that frames the issue well.
Media concentration is never a good thing no matter who holds the purse strings. Competition goes out of an area of commerce and you end up with a narrowing of choices. The same thing happens in the area of the exchange of ideas/information. This is the danger, but for all intents and purposes as far as main stream media is concerned, it's all over but the shouting. Slaves don't need ideas or information. That's why the Soviet Union had state control over the news. The implosion of soviet style socialism was a foregone conclusion. The seeds of destruction have been sown into the foundation of unfettered capitalism as well. We are watching cannibalization on all fronts and that is never a pretty sight. I think we can all agree that being in the midst of the carnage is not a pleasant experience.
Any chance you mob sticking to the point of the Nader article? Ralph is telling us about the danger to news reporting that has integrity and honesty and in which way to go maintain same.With the subject changing in an instant to anti-semitism it seems like a loss of concentration so easily manipulated by todays media.
I should have resisted the urge to get into this whole Zionism thing but I didn't. At any rate, we all know that media conglomeration is killing media's ability to report objectively and fairly. The more concentration there is of the media, the worse off we all are in getting objective, balanced reporting. Stories like that of Sam Zell's unique takeover ploy are hardly rare these days and reporters and the public at large suffers the consequence. The best we can do is seek out alternative media, read the news critically and keep a weather eye on these sorts of insane, newspaper destroying maneuvers. I would say we should be out there speaking truth to power but to borrow and paraphrase a quote from Noam Chomsky, "Power already knows the truth." These guys are only concerned about padding their pockets and as long as they are the ones with the money, we're hooped. We can all get out there and protest (and probably should) but at the end of the day, they don't give a rat's ass that we're mad about it. We can lobby politicians but as long as they are sharing the spoils with big corporations, they aren't going to get off their asses and change anything either.
Re: Zionists v Jews.
Zionists believe that where a Jew settles, there is Israel. They believe this justifies their subjugation of the Palestinian people and their terrible wars against Lebanon.
Jews are people like all the rest of us. Some abhor Zionism; some do not. Many belong to peace movements from which they hope to change Israel's current Zionistic policies.
We Americans seem to have a hard time making a distinction between an unreasoning hatred of Jews (anti-Semitism) and a reasoned hatred of Israeli ACTIONS toward its neighbors. (Not to mention U.S. financing of those actions for decade after decade.)
I'd like someone to find a way to transfer ownership of each local newspaper to the local unions of journalists and printing tradespeople. And such ownership should be closed to outside investment so no Zells and Murdochs could buy control of their content.
This seems to me to be the only way to guarantee a truly free press in which journalists are free to do their jobs without influence from capital.
Newspapers ain't widgets. Profits are not the sole measure of success. Market fundamentalism is a ruinous philosophy that in modern-day America reaches all the way to the Supreme Court. Milton Friedman has a lot to answer for.
If I wanted to see people discuss Zionism, anti-semitism and AIPAC, I would probably read the commentary on a story about....Zionism, anti-semitism or AIPAC.
My hope was that the posters to this thread would be discussing the tyranny of the corporate media, and what can be done to counteract it. And what, if anything, we can do to help protect the jobs and livelihoods of the investigative reporters who DO have integrity, and the grit to pursue stories that matter.
I am still hopeful.
You Americans are so pathetic. Here's a person that is buying the media, to exert control on how you guys think, act and behave, toi spin the news so that you hear only what the big corporations want you to hear, to do their bidding and to think like Robots.
And, the discussion on this topic is wheter one is anti semiti, anti jewish etc. No wonder, the average American's IQ is going down south....faster than the money the big corporations are sucking out of the American taxpayer. Such a pity, and only in the US you say ?
"Zionists believe that where a Jew settles, there is Israel"
I didn't know that IQ can be in the negative territory.
"You Americans are so pathetic."
Jose, you're absolutely right.
I guess you also understand why every important topic is sabotaged by FD32 & CO. (look who usually redirects), Bernices etc. in the most traditional way - it's the Jews.
Jose, most Americans are ignorant, can be easily manipulated and at this moment pose a threat to the world.
Eurobelle you poison the dialogue. I see many instances of projection in your posts. Because YOU don't like a statement you get to call the originator of the statement any name you choose. This is Rovian at it's best. You state "The progressive don't (sic) particularly like constructive/positive etc. talks. Are you sure you are in the right place?
I asked where you got the information fd32 is PAID (you imply by Larouche.) You are using an argument form which precludes discussion. fd32 MIGHT be an Anti Semite (in your usage). I don't know. Because fd32 disagrees with you does not make him/her an Anti Semite. My Observent sister and her Holocaust survivor husband are not Zionists. I didn't ask where fd32 got the information because it is available with a simple search. Do one yourself and see.
That being said, Eurobelle. I am not defending fd32 (I don't know the truth of his/her feelings about anyone) I am attacking you for your Rovian/AIPAC response. You attacked me without cause because I wrote about yoour Rovian/AIPAC attack style. You use your attack mode to question anybody who questions Israel and it's strategies and tactics or you. Personally I despise anyone who dislikes, discriminates, harbors hostility, or is predjudiced in any way against anyone else because of the accident of their birth. This includes: race, nationality, sexual orientation, age, sex, or any interpersonal hostility that is directed against individuals based on their membership in a minority group. I can dislike the actions or works of someone without basing it on their membership in said group. When you group all who disagree with you as evil or worthless you are again projecting your own self loathing.
As for the secondary branch of this argument:
Only when the offenses are so egregious they can't be ignored do the MSM give any credence to the perception that Israel MIGHT be doing anything wrong. The reporting in this country is more one sided than the reporting in Israel.
As for fd32's statement:
At the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National Dinner in2006 the recipient of the Louis D. Brandeis Award, the ZOA's highest honor, was Mortimer B. Zuckerman, co-founder and chairman of Boston Properties and chairman of U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News.
As for Sam Zell: Michael Siegel, the rabbi at Zell's synagogue, said that Zell is a "committed Zionist"...
Sumner Redstone? Same thing
Michael Eisner? Same thing.
Arthur Schulberger?
The list goes on.
The truth is: There is a bias in the corporate U.S. reporting against any potential legitimacy of Palestinian complaints.
To go to the original trunk of this discussion: Corporate journalism is not functioning as journalism. It is not because of Jews or even Zionists. It is because of corporate economic interests. A side effect of this is the complete surrender of the MSM to Zionist interests.
Alison Weir, Joy Ellison, and Peter Weir of the organization If Americans Knew recently conducted research on the AP's reporting of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The study was a statistical analysis of the AP newswire in the year 2004, looking at the number of Israeli and Palestinian deaths reported. Specifically they looked at headlines and the lead paragraph coverage to determine what an average person would actually read.
The study found that there is a strong correlation between the likelihood of a person's death receiving coverage by AP and that person's nationality. In 2004 there were 141 reports of Israeli deaths in AP headlines and lead paragraphs, while in reality there were only 108 Israeli deaths, this difference comes from reporting a death more than once. During this same period, Palestinian deaths were reported as 543 by the AP, but at the time 821 Palestinians had been killed. The ratio of actual number of Israeli conflict deaths to Palestinian deaths in 2004 was 1:7, yet AP reported deaths of Israelis to Palestinians at a 2:1 ratio. In other words, the AP reported 131 percent of Israeli deaths, whereas they only reported 66 percent of Palestinian deaths.
The same could be said of AP's reporting of children's deaths. Nine reports of Israeli children's deaths were reported by the AP in headlines and leading paragraphs in 2004, while eight actually occurred. Only 27 Palestinian children deaths were reported by AP when actually 179 children died. While there were 22 times more Palestinian children's deaths than Israeli children's deaths, the AP reported 113 percent of Israeli children's deaths and 15 percent of Palestinian children's deaths. Israeli children's deaths were reported at a rate 7.5 times grater than that of Palestinian children.
The report also looked into how often the AP used the words "clash" and "clashes" in AP reports pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They found that of all the conflicts the AP reported in 2004, 47 deaths occurred during a clash, and all of these 47 deaths were Palestinian. AP covered over 700 news stories on deaths in Israel and Palestine in 2004, showing that while there is plenty of coverage of the conflict, the information given was significantly biased.
"Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed at Jews[1] as a religious, racial, or ethnic group.[2] Antisemitism has been called "the longest hatred."[3]"
Well, this is from Wiki, and this is correct.
I know what's wrong with you, even though I am not a psychiatrist.
Some are sick, some are paid, some are paid and and sick.
Enjoy your worthless life
Thank You- Helps me a bunch!
What is the matter with you, the erudite viewers of the Common Dreams? Maybe the following dictionary definition will end the argument here between anti-Semites and pro-Semites:
Semite
1. A person regarded as descended from
Shem
2. A member of the peoples speaking a
Semite languaage, including Hebrews,
Arabs, Assyrians, Phoenicians, etc
3. JEW: A loose usage
As you can see, even though Jews are Semites, they are at the same time the most anti-Semitic people in the world when we all witness what they are doing to the Palestinians, who are also Semite by definition.
Now, to come back to the issue at hand, it doesn't matter if all those media are concentrated in the hands of Arabs, Jews, or Zionist. The fact remains that since such a media is now owned by Zionists/Jews, it is pro-Israel and biased against Palestinians. This is obvious, so why jump on the anti-Semitic BS?
Also, I can't see why some people are so upset when they are called by what they are. A Zionist is a Zionist, and a Jew is a Jew, as a Christian is a Christian. So, what's the big deal? As for me, I despise Zionists and those Jews who support them because they are guilty of stealing the land of the other Semites, aka, Palestinians. I guess that makes me both anti-Smite (anti-Israel) and pro-Semite (pro-Palestinians)—all by dictionary definition.
Lew, are new here?
Welcome, we need more "Hate is Love" people. Old Soviet school?
Continue spreading antisemitism, just call it love.
Ok, guys, enjoy each other company.
Bye.
"As an "S" corporation with a porous and powerless employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, "the company is treated, effectively, like a charity. It'll be a tax-exempt entity," declared Robert Willens of Lehman Brothers. See what a bargain Washington is for corporatists making campaign contributions year after year."
Yes, we not only see it, we're feeling it. That's why the people in this country need to wake up and demand that limits on corporations be re-instated by our lawmakers.
Corporations have no "inherent" right to exist, especially as "natural persons", though an 1886 Supreme Court decision held that, "a private corporation was a natural person, entitled to all the rights and privileges of a human being." But as we can see, they are enjoying the privileges of a human being, but dodging the tax liabilities of human beings. Human privilege without human liability! "Life is beautiful"!
Is there any question that the rule of money has replaced the rule of law?
There is a vast gulf of difference between saying that there is a lobby in America that has the interests of the Israeli state at heart and discriminating against the Jewish members of that group. There is a difference between criticizing the actions of the state of Israel and drawing inferences about its peoples. We can quibble about what Zionism is or is not but its hard to quibble about the realities on the ground. Palestinians have been treated with violent contempt by some elements within Israel, just as Jews have been treated with violent contempt by elements within Palestine. Neither reality should be ignored. Israel has indeed perpetrated violence against the Palestinians far in excess of what Palestinians have done. That isn't to say I support the anti-Semitic hatred spewed by Hamas or Fatah either. On the other side, there is a deep undercurrent of hatred for Arabs by certain groups within Israel. I hope, eurobelle, that you can at least acknowledge the deeply complex and fractured issues around Israel and try to admit that it isn't simple to analyze these issues.
considering that most news media are basically a capitalist intsrument. look around for those that are not. for a jewish/israeli view, that i'm comfortable with, i look to "forward.com" one of my other resources for national and international news is "democracynow.org" with Amy Goodman. her show, Democracy Now, can be seen on Link tv. then on the radio there is always the Pacifica radio stations, democracynow can be heard on the pacifica stations, and many others. molly ivins is dead. glad there are other resources that offer real information on how our world works. i wouldn't mind checking out someone elses list of news resources. i don't like going to places that just push a ideology/dogma.
Terran
Well, one doesn't have to be the world famous Jew to be
right, just a bright and knowledgeable one.
I am not American born, so arguments "he is a celebrity, you know" don't work on me.
Oh, eternal "friendly" abuses of the differences between the Jews. Your argument is, how to put it "nicely" funny.
It so good that there aren't any differences between Christians, Muslims etc.
Welcome, it's so good that your first post here was ... how to put it .. anti-Zionist. The "anti-Zionist" contingent is quite impressive here, but one can't have enough of anti-Zionists.
""Old Zionism didn't advocate the modern state of Israel"
Wrong again."
Actually this was the first time I posted here so how can I be wrong "again"? That's absurd.
The most famous Jew in the world, Noam Chomsky, disagrees with you on Old Zionism -- and he was one of the first in that modern movement.
QED.
I is impossible to comprehend how any criticism of the actions of the nation of Israel get labeled anti-Semitic. Or could it be that those who respond in that manner harbor some justifiable guilt for the oppressive actions of Israel in recent years? 50 years of occupation isn't enough to give you pause? The breaking of bones of youngsters because they may have thrown stones? Having Palestinians do most of the difficult jobs in the country for decades and now you can wall them off in little ghettos? Doesn't any of this resonate? I know-terrorist bombings have been carried out many times-but maybe Israel could have prevented most of thes over the years had they worked-with help from the US to mitigate poverty in their neighbors. I see several parallels regarding US-Mexico relations. For 70 years or more Mexican workers have been exploited while doing many of the hardest jobs in the US.Now ther is enough surplus labor here to keep wages down-so let"s build a wall. And just as in the Mideast racism is involved.Or-eurobelle-as you often say-is that just another ignorant statement? I truly have never understood the divisions there-is it only religious-tribal-what?
So it is your contention that the Israel occupation of that land is a good thing and should be allowed to continue and those who disagree are anti-Semitic.
Thanks for sharing your opinion. And yet there are a lot of Jewish folks in Israel and American and around the world who agree with me.
The Germans and French and English and Italians are now friends just a few decades after the horrors and hate of WW2. Egypt and Israel and Jordan and Syria and Palestine could be friends in a few decades. I never thought I would see the USSR and the Berlin Wall fall in my lifetime.
Have hope eurobelle instead of seeing only todays hate.
It's a known fact that antisemites usually are not very bright and not very literate, but still how many times one has to repeat that JEWS RETURNED TO THEIR LAND, and that they were attacked.
Can you understand it, Lew? Are familiar with the concept of false analogy? of manipulation? Can you see a difference between the USA (America is a continent, Lew)* and Israel.
A hint (a size, power, distance, etc.). I'll spell for you one thing. You see Lew, the size/power matter. Go to a map
and check the size of the USA and Israel. You'll probably see that one is biiiiiig, and one is small. They are different, Lew.
Can you stop listening to antisemitic propaganda, because might doesn't make it right? Can you stop spreading antisemitic nonsense?
*There is a difference between a country and a continent.
You, like George Bush, don't know that.
Should I repeat again?
America is occupying Iraq in the name of national security and Israel occupies some foreign land in the name of national security.
The old USSR occupied a lot of countries and land in the name of national security and we told them to stop that.
Saddam tried to take some land from Kuwait in the name of national security and we went to war to stop him.
Could we agree that the media should not support the notion that might makes right? Regardless of the particular nations or ideologies or ethnicities or Religions or genders involved?
Because might does not make right, it only allows those who control the media to present what they think is right.
Paul,
I am surprised that you never heard about ancient Israel,
Jerusalem and the Jews, the fact that return to Jerusalem has been the main theme of the Jewish tradition. Strange.
Israel was and is Jewish.
Australia never was European. Quite a difference. Faulse analogy.
I wonder why you don't see a difference. Why, why, why?
By the way, how many Nazis found home in Australia, the land of the Gibsons?
" Zionism only denotes belief that Jews have the right to live in their land Israel (Zion)."
Oh, so it's their land, is it, and not the land of the people that have actually lived there for the past thousand years or so? This little activity is called "begging the question", and you'll find more info on it if you google the phrase "logical fallacies list".
You know, I see Isaeli settlers on TV occasionally, and they are not semitic in the least. They are white europeans, engaged in killing the semitic inhabitants of the land just like europeans have always done. The palestinians are the samaritans of the 20th century.
Not that a white Australian like me has got any business pointing the finger on these kinds of issues.
Knoblauch,
-You didn't asked FD how he knows who is or isn't a Zionist.
May I ask why?
-I am glad you have Jewish friends. Asked your dear Jewish friends why I am beginning to laugh.
-For, your information, I don't know of any antisemite (or racist in general) would admit that he or she is an racist.
-I suggest you take your Orwellian/Rovian talk about constructive dialog somewhere else. The progressive don't particularly like constructive/positive etc. talks. Are you sure you are in the right place?
OK, don't anti-semite bait. True, the word Zionist doesn't necessarily imply the extremist Jews, but extremist jews have taken over the ideology (just like "Islamist").
Old Zionism didn't advocate the modern state of Israel and the expansionist policies, but New Zionism does. It's completely appropriate to say that many in the US Government and Media are New Zionists.
We can talk all day about black votes, or media, or influence, or latino, or white -- but we can't say Jewish? That's not defense against racism, that's escalating one race of people above all the rest -- that's racism itself.
Wait a moment, eurobelle,
My bar mitzvah was in June of 1968, and I think there IS a Zionist problem in this country. Is it THE problem? No, I don't think so, but it is a big problem and one that needs to be adressed.
When I hear or read the word Zionist, I think extremist. This world has a problem with extremists, Zionists being one stripe. Call me anti semitic if you will, but you will be making my point that those who strike out first are the ones to watch out for.
As far as Nader's point - so, what else is new? The "news" media is gone. WE are the media and we have to tell each other the truth!
I don't know who fd32 is and I don't know who eurobelle is.
I ask eurobelle where she/he gets his/her information that fd32 is a PAID antisemite? Indeed where does she get her information fd32 IS an antisemite at all? This is a typical response from AIPAC types (devout Zionists) when Zionism is questioned in any manner. Make Rovian Faux News type allegations to discredit the writer. The tactic is number 1 in the playbook. You do not further your argument with insults and unsupported allegations. Eurobelles sarcasm poisons the well for any future dialogue in this stream. I ask eurobelle to support the allegation of Anti Semitism.
fd32 reports correctly that Zionists control the listed corporations. Do we believe the journalistic arms of these corporations will chip away at the Zionist's interests when Zionists control the paychecks? I do believe that the publications listed by fd32 do not accurately nor objectively report on conditions in Israel/Palestine. A real and constructive dialogue is closed because of this demonstrated lack of objectivity.
Anti Zionism doesn't equate to Anti Semitism. I have many dear friends Reform, Conservative and Observent (Orthodox) who are Anti Zionist. I am Anti Zionist and I am certainly NOT an antisemite. I know fundamentalist Christians who are Anti Semitic and are Zionists. It brings the end of the world closer you know?
"Auctioning Journalistic Integrity"
Journalistic integrity is a fairy tale told to sell advertisements.
Remember the good old days? I don't.
Wait a moment, a Jewish grandfather doesn't make one a Jew.
It is a known fact that most of the so called critics of Zionism are just antisemites and the fashionable cover up for antisemitism is now anti-Zionism.
Fd is classic antisemite. I have a couple of his juicy pieces. which prove that FD is classic antisemite.
Adele the Czech, I suggest you concentrate on the suffering of
the Gypsies in the Czech Republic - it's close to your home and you actually can do something.
Adele, can I suggest that if are interested you actually read something about this part of your heritage.
Sorry, guys, this country is not normal.
"Life is like a Hollywood movie; if you don't like it you can shoot it again." From a Dick Gaugin song written during the Reagan years. The problem is attitude. We don't need just a new government, we need a new social conscience. That's something you won't find on TV.
Hoa binh
Well,
Our paid resident antisemite is on duty.
Yes fd,
It isn't a systemic problem, it's the Jews.
And how generous Larouche is?
The masses of people need to recognize BS in their face entertainment, designed to intimidate you into buying BS for no reason other than flashing your wealth at your neighbor.
I turn off this crap entertainment, do you?
Back to auctioning off journalism......a similar thing is happening to the largest paper in Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Bought up a few months ago by a private group called Avista, the owners of which are unknown. Avista laid off 50 editorial workers out of 350 on staff, took buy-outs from a bunch of others, cancelled or reassigned the beats of another 100 writers, cut the op-ed department in half. It's nuts. The paper is being destroyed in a matter of weeks.
It's no secret that the state's billionaire right-wingers have long hated the Star-Tribune for its supposed liberal slant. (They call it Red Star.) (Frankly, I didn't think the news coverage was liberal in its slant. It was just slanted towards the status quo and had way too much caution and he said/she said, fake objectivity, present both sides equally crap of modern journalism. The op-ed page was definitely liberal and fearless. One of the few op-ed pages to be against the Iraq war from the very beginning.)
Anyhow, I wouldn't be too suprised if I found out that the mysterious partners in Avista are simply our local billionaire right-wing Republicans. Who were able to buy the Strib at bargain-basement rates (long story behind that involving the McClatchy company selling it to claim a loss to offset its new assests having bought Knight-Ridder) and plan to simply destroy the largest news gathering operation in the state.
Less news. Less transparency. More opportunity to continue to loot the state and federal treasury for their cronies. Another way to control the news.
The fact that this is also happening at the L.A. Times....well,maybe it's just a coincidence. But as we used to say in the news biz----two coincidences equals a major Trend Alert.
Wait a minute, Eurobelle. fd talked about Zionists, not Jews (is Rupert Murdoch Jewish?) To me, the most dangerous Zionists around today are the fundamentalist Christians who just can't wait for The Rapture. Their support of AIPAC gives that lobby even more clout with the Bushites, whose policy on the Palestinian issue is tragically unbalanced in favor of Israel.
I don't know if fd is an anti-semite; I'm certainly not (I have a Jewish grandfather). But even anti-semitism doesn't alter the truth about the suffering of the Palestinians and the fact that it's almost never reported on in the corporate media.
Let's see, we've got Zionists founding and controlling the New York Times, Zionists founding and controlling the Washington Post, a Zionist buying all the assets of the Tribune Company, a Zionist publishing the U.S. News and World Report, a Zionist, now forcibly retired, running Disney's media conglomerate for decades, a Zionist as majority owner of Viacom and CBS Corp., a Zionist founding and controlling Fox News, and this list merely scratches the surface.
Does anyone really believe that America's Middle East policy could survive in it's current criminal state if we had actual journalists reporting freely and truthfully to their fellow countrymen from this god-forsaken area? Would the world be in the mess it's in today were it not for the distortion and deliberate curtailment of American news, 90% of which is doctored by an army of mini-me's employed by these festering tycoons?
"Old Zionism didn't advocate the modern state of Israel"
Wrong again.
You see the words have a meaning and a relation to reality.
Zionism always meant the return of all Jews to their land
(i.e. joining those who always lived there) and a restoration of Israel.
"the expansionist policies"
I wonder why you didn't notice the attacks on Jewish state by the Arab neighbors on the Jewish holiest day? I would call that expansionist policies.
iammyself,
Wait a moment,
I don't know whether you're a Jew, or not, but you are ignorant. Zionism only denotes belief that Jews have the right to live in their land Israel (Zion).
Knoblauch,
Fd, is an antisemite.
I took this information from this website (analysis) which is a host to him and couple of other blatant, sick antisemites, and a number of many other not so blatant.
Antisemitism is one of my areas of expertise.
Do you more questions, Knoblauch?
stonecutter May 14th, 2007 12:31 pm
"To obsess in pointless arguments about Zionism vs. anti-semitism is intellectual flatulence, practiced by people who either do not comprehend the larger context of global conflict, or are only here as trolls.
Zell is simply following the sociopathic continuum of corporatist philosophy, which meshes seamlessly with neocon fantasies of American world dominion and the spreading of "democracy"–which in actuality is liberal/free market capitalism writ large across the world."
Thank you, stonecutter. Let me add a quote from Gore Vidal on this issue of superpower status:
"The same people own the media that own the White House that own the Congress that own the oil fields. They all work together to give a false view of the world to the American people."
Corporate cannibals eat their own - it doesn't matter what religion they belong to. Money is their first God.