Reporting Bad News In Iraq is ALL About Budgeting!

Yep! That is what the big media person said here in this USA TODAY article.

Excerpts -

Reporters in Iraq under fire there, and from critics
By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY

As they begin a fourth year covering the war in Iraq, journalists there face increasing threats to their safety and increasing criticism of their work.

It started as arguably the best-covered war in history: Hundreds of reporters traveled with the military as it invaded Iraq, and then hundreds more moved freely around the country as troops secured Baghdad. Today, it has become for some journalists the least-covered war.

Newspapers and other media have cut the number of reporters in the war zone. The reporters who remain in Iraq find leaving their hotels or rental houses difficult for fear of being killed or kidnapped.
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"Have we undercovered the good news?" asks John Burns, Baghdad bureau chief for The New York Times. "We probably have. But there's nothing willful about it. I would enter a plea of mitigation that we are overstretched."
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So, the reason this MSM card carrying New York Times bureau chief in Baghdad has to offer up is that they are "OVERSTRETCHED".

Okay, so it has absolutely nothing to do with the ease of paying Iraqi stringers and/or gleening digital content from enemy websites for explosive footage and photos, or agenda focus because we (the MSM) hate Bush, love Democrats, and Socialism. Yea, right!

Good Story From Iraq ... Largely Ignored!

Story NOT picked-up by the mainstream media. MAXINE waited nearly 20 hours to post this account just to see if it might catch on anywhere. Few outlets joined in.

This from AP via Yahoo News -

Iraqi Insurgents' Raid on Jail Thwarted
By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer 3-22-2006 8:23 PM, PST

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Emboldened a day after a successful jailbreak, insurgents laid siege to another prison Wednesday. This time, U.S. troops and a special Iraqi unit thwarted the pre-dawn attack south of Baghdad, overwhelming the gunmen and capturing 50 of them, police said.

Although the raid failed, the insurgents' ability to put together such large and well-armed bands of fighters underlined concerns about the ability of Iraqi police and military to take over the fight from U.S. troops. Sixty militants participated in the assault, which attempted to free more jailed Sunni insurgents, police said.

The attack on the prison in Madain, 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, began with insurgents firing 10 mortar rounds. They then stormed the facility, which is run by the Interior Ministry, a predominantly Shiite organization and heavily infiltrated by members of various Shiite militias.

Four police officers — including the commander of the special unit — died in a two-hour gunbattle, which was subdued only after American forces arrived. Among the 50 captured, police said, was one Syrian.

The U.S. military did not respond to a request for comment about its role in the counterattack. The raid came a day after 100 Sunni gunmen freed 33 prisoners and wrecked a jail, police station and courthouse in Muqdadiyah, a town northeast of Baghdad near the Iranian border.
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Iraqi special unit - ALLRIGHT. It seems that some of the problem of the lack of broad based reporting comes from editors based here and not in Iraq. If this story caught my eye, why didn't catch the eye of any other outlet than YAHOO?

UPDATE: Fox News and Washington Post weigh in.

Go Ahead, Go On Strike, Then Go Home - REALLY!

Leonardo Salazar, left, and Eaulojea Martinez, center, join a "A Day Without an Immigrant" rally in Philadelphia. (Photo Credit: By Bradley C. Bower -- Bloomberg News)

Excerpts from the Washington Post -

Immigration Debate Heats Up
Undocumented Workers Rally as Tough Measures Are Considered
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff WriterWednesday, March 22, 2006; Page A03

PHILADELPHIA -- The phones started jumping off their hooks early on that "Scary Tuesday," so named because callers were spreading panic in this city's Spanish-speaking community. They said federal agents were hauling illegal immigrants from their jobs and deporting them.

Osmin Amilca of Guatemala ran home and locked the door. Daniel Tetl of Mexico shut off the lights at work and cleaned in the dark. "It was the craziest day of my life," said activist Peter Bloom, who fielded dozens of calls, including one from a man who said that agents were right outside his front door. "People were literally hallucinating."

Activists say the debate in Washington over the toughest proposals against illegal immigration in recent times was the reason behind the panic. The fear and paranoia were so strong on that Tuesday, Jan. 31, that the Italian Market at Ninth Street and Washington Avenue virtually shut down because illegal immigrants refused to come to work at meatpacking plants, vegetable stands, fish markets and restaurants.
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Pro-immigrant activists are planning an April 10 protest in 10 cities that could pull tens of thousands of immigrant workers from their jobs.
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Such a day was carried out with mixed results on Feb. 14 in Philadelphia, when about 5,000 immigrants rallied on Independence Mall, according to the activists who organized it. But downtown civic groups said the economic impact was so small that they barely felt it.
--
Opponents of illegal immigration were unsympathetic. Chris Simcox, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said Diaz and others are not "representing the immigrant community" but rather "representing the illegal immigrant community."

"I'm sorry that they're fearful that we're going to enforce the law," Simcox said. "Maybe that's a sign that they should return home and reenter this country by our rules. Then they would have nothing to worry about. They could hold their heads high."
--
On Martes de Miedo -- Tuesday of Fear -- men carried half their family savings with them in case they were picked up, Diaz said. Mothers did not go to work for fear their children would return from school and discover that their parents had been deported.

"It was really, really bad," said Raul Castro, who closed his Mexican restaurant for lack of business that day.
--
On the following Thursday, Romero said, he sold 12 airline tickets to people who have since returned to Mexico, an assertion that could not be confirmed. "I've never sold that many tickets," he said. "They said they would have to go back anyway."
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Please quit whining if you are here illegally. Gaining respect is a two way street.

Is it to much to ask that our laws are to be respected and enforced? Please show up at these rallies and work boycotts, maybe then our laws will be enforced.

Freedom is not free, but it can be relatively easy to obtain. Petition the world to change the country you are born into (the UN?) or move to the United States legally … please have a working knowledge of English; it will help ease the transition.

MSM Giant Has A Big Problem

This from the New York Post -

BOSTON AD SKID CHILLS TIMES
By KEITH J. KELLY

March 23, 2006 -- The New York Times Company yesterday warned of a first-quarter slump, pinning the blame squarely on weak advertising business at the Boston Globe and other Times-owned papers in the region.

The warning came as company chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. planned a trip to Boston next week, creating anxiety in the newsrooms of the Globe and other New England Newspaper Group papers.

Times officials insist, however, that the Sulzberger visit is "routine" and that no more cutbacks are planned.
--
The warning was a "disaster," according to Ed Atorino, an analyst at Benchmark Inc. "The Boston Globe seems to be having some major problems in help wanted, retail, across the board."

Atorino said the group's 12 percent decline in February ad revenue was "probably the worst of any major newspaper group."
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So let us get this straight, ad revenues are down due to weak advertising business – yea - right!

People do not trust the mainstream press to deliver a clean, clear balanced message so they do not buy as many papers.

Advertisers, facing an economy that’s clicking along (yesterday, the DOW closed up 81 to 11,317 and change) have to advertise, so they place their message where it is expected to be delivered to people who believe in capitalism and buy products.

MSM, facing a business model in decline, refuses to look at the obvious for answers. “Nope, it’s the WEAK Advertising business”. It is a little like Hollywood complaining that nobody goes out to see all of their “Award Nominated/Award Winning” movies.

Grinding Meathead - Changing Sausage To Schnitzel

Rob Reiner must be living a blessed life. The minute his head is put into the meat grinder, Governor Arnold decides to step in and make this whole mess his own. That is how one makes schnitzel out of sausage. Californians are goin'a eat this up.

Excerpts from Bill Bradley's New West Notes at LA Weekley -

Arnold Makes The Reiner Mess His Own

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made the Rob Reiner mess his own. After weeks of avoiding questions on the matter, Schwarzenegger told the Fresno Bee editorial board yesterday afternoon he will not replace the controversial chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, who he described as “a friend.”

It was previously revealed here that Reiner, although a very liberal Democrat who considered running for governor this year, was a special guest at private parties during the Arnold Inaugural festivities in November 2003. He was on the “Friends and Family” list for inaugural gala activities.
--
** Under Reiner’s leadership during the Schwarzenegger Administration, the commission undertook highly questionable activities, using taxpayer money to promote Reiner’s political agenda of stimulating demand for more state spending on preschool. This includes a state contract for $67.5 million in advertising signed on June 28, 2004. Which Reiner told me last week during his disastrous appearance at the Sacramento Press Club that he didn’t know about. That was only one of a number of telling points he said he didn't know about.

** Top officials in the Schwarzenegger Cabinet were involved with the Reiner Commission but raised no alarms about practices that even the governor has said, long after the fact, look bad.

** The governor rejected the recommendation of his highly touted California Performance Review that the commission -- which currently exists as an independent agency sorely in need of oversight -- be brought under the department of health and human services.
--
2 PM UPDATE: Sac Bee columnist Dan Weintraub speculates that Schwarzenegger and Reiner cut a deal.
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Remember, the results of the audit that is underway are not known. The handle still turns and it is beginning to look like "schnitsage" or "sautzel"!

MSNBC Question Of The Day ...

MSNBC QUESTION OF THE DAY

Is the media providing an accurate picture of the situation in Iraq?

Yes

No - X

Comment:

Richard Engle, in his package this morning on MSNBC, said it best when asked how Iraqi's view their future ... (paraphrase) ... "Iraqi's have a hopeful, positive view of their future in the long term."

And that is just the point; the MSM is focusing on the immediate sucesses of the terrorist war of the insurgents and not the long term political war FOR the balance of representation of all Iraqi's.

The MSM has no interest in the success of the long term goal - a FREE Iraq.

Last year, it was all about the strife in Kurdish Mosul. There, the insurgents have LOST their war. Why not do a follow up in-depth report on that success??

Or is it is just easier and cheaper to "show the BOOM".

Ed Jenks
Toluca Lake
maxine-log@blogspot.com

Mainstream Cable News Outlet Ship Sinks A Little Lower

When a business model begins to degrade from within ... it is time to change the model.

Excerpts from a posting at Captain's Quarters -

March 22, 2006
Gallup Dumps CNN

In a move that shows the decline of a once-dominant media empire, CNN has lost Gallup as a partner as the pollster notes the sharp drop in viewership for the cable news service. In a memo to staff, Gallup's CEO explains that they intend on launching their own "e-broadcasts" and will operate independent of any news network:

"We have had a great partnership with CNN but it is not the right alignment for our future. The longtime partnership has been very helpful to The Gallup Poll as it put us "back big" fifteen years ago when our famous Gallup Poll had lost most of its national coverage. Our CNN partnership helped us make a great comeback. We had a great run as we just cut our 4000th segment this week. ...

WHY.

1) CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted combined with the CNN brand. We have only about 200 thousand viewers during our CNN segments.

2) We are creating our own e-broadcasting programs and we don't want to be married to one broadcast network. We don't want to move to another network like CBS or Fox but rather become our own network. We cannot do this while married to CNN.

3) By dissolving our partnership with CNN we believe that Frank and other Gallup analysts will be seen as more independent so they will be more likely to be invited on a wide variety of television shows rather than primarily linked to CNN. We believe with this new found independence, we will get covered by more broadcast media because we are not the poll of their competitor."

CNN's Reaction?
(Media Bistro)

"We want to make it clear that the decision to not renew our polling arrangement had to do with Gallup's desire to produce their own broadcasts and not about CNN viewership figures. In fact, Gallup had negotiated with us for four months in an effort to extend the partnership. "

CNN then went on to describe their "monthly reach" as the largest in cable news -- but they combine the viewership of all their ancillary channels to reach that conclusion. Gallup has little interest in CNN Headline News or CNNi or CNN-SI, their sports channel. They want news viewers at the flagship channel, and those numbers have dropped precipitously in the years since Fox News launched its service.

Captain's Quarters concludes,

This argument is self-defeating. CNN has partnered with Gallup for fourteen years -- and now they want us to believe that Gallup can't count?
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Again, when a business model begins to degrade from within ... it is time to change the business model. Gallup has recognized this and has made changes for a new course. Maybe it is due time for CNN to see the handwriting on the wall.

To The MSM: Get Out Of The Hotel And See Iraq

This morning I watched NBC's TODAY Show. There was an interview segment hosted by David Gregory featuring James Carville and Laura Ingraham that focused on events being reported out of Iraq. The greatest point in the interview was made by Laura when she challanged NBC to do a week of remotes from different cities in Iraq.

This account from News Busters website -

Like a top point guard, Laura Ingraham tenaciously fought through the Gregory-Carville double-team to make her case. She pointed out that NBC and the Today show expended huge resources to cover the Olympics and even to answer the question "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" She suggested that they devote some of the same resources to broadcast the Today show directly from Iraq, that they accompany troops, speak with US and Iraqi military personnel and with villagers and see the reality on the ground.

Instead, pointed out Ingraham, the MSM's approach is to stand on a balcony in the Green Zone, reporting on the latest IEDs, killings and reprisals. A timorous Gregory replied: "And you think Iraq is safe enough [to do what Laura proposed]?" Ingraham: "Yes. I was not on the hotel balcony. I was out with the U.S. military. It can be done in any part of the country." Laura attempted to continue, but Gregory cut her off: "I get the anti-network point."
Read It All>>

However, it was this article posted at Real Clear Politics by Jack Kelly (Jack Kelly is national security writer for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio) which drove the point home with greater authority. (ht: Hugh Hewitt)

March 21, 2006
Ignorance Pervasive in Reporting From Iraq
By Jack Kelly

My friend Bill Roggio, an Army veteran and Web logger who was embedded with U.S. Marines in Iraq last fall, was a guest Saturday on a segment of the CNN show "On the Story." The topic was news coverage from Iraq.

"On the Story," which airs at 7:00 p.m. EST, gets even lower ratings than the average CNN show, so there's a question of how representative of American public opinion audience reaction is. But before the segment with Bill began, host Ali Velshi conducted a little poll.

"Give me a show of hands if you have confidence in the news coming out of Iraq," Mr. Velshi asked the studio audience. "It looks like about 30 percent of you.

"Let's see a show of hands of those of you who don't have confidence like (Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld says," he asked. "That looks like 90 percent of you."

Mr. Roggio gave the media a D+. Reporting often is inaccurate, usually lacks context, and often aids al Qaida, he said.
--
It's also significant that Operation Swarmer was conceived by, and largely planned and executed by, the Iraqi army. An air assault is the second most difficult tactical maneuver for ground forces (only crossing a river under fire is more difficult), one which requires meticulous planning. That this one was pulled off essentially without a hitch indicates how far the Iraqi army (which, for all practical purposes, didn't exist a little more than a year ago) has come in a very short time.

"The reporting on Operation Swarmer is a microcosm of the sub-par reporting on the Iraq war," Mr. Roggio said.
--
CNN correspondent Abbi Tatton implied that because Bill is a former soldier, his view is biased. "Are you not too close to this to be objective yourself?" she asked.

Consider the implications of this attitude. Would a reporter who is a lawyer (such as Fox News' Megyn Kendall) be considered biased in covering the courts simply because she actually knows something about the law? Would a reporter who is a doctor (such as CNN's Sanjay Gupta) be considered biased simply because he actually knows something about medicine? Yet news organizations consider it proper to have our wars covered by people who are unclear about from which end of the rifle the round comes.
--
Actor and antiwar activist Richard Belzer said he knows more about the war in Iraq than do U.S. servicemen in Iraq because he "reads 20 newspapers a day." But 20 biased, shallow and incomplete accounts don't add up to the truth.

Note: Other web based reporting sources - new media voices, like Michael Totten, Michael Yon, Victor Davis Hanson, and Robert Kaplan, have reported directly from Iraq and most have judged the MSM coverage to be inadequate.

Trends & Shifts In Supermarket Niche Marketing

This From Progressive Grocer via FMI -

Supermarkets Move to Specialty Services: FMI Study
MARCH 21, 2006

-- WASHINGTON -- Faced with stiff competition, food retailers are making an effort to stand out from the crowd by rolling out target market-focused stores, and offering more specialty services, according to "Facts About Store Development 2005," the Food Marketing Institute study released yesterday."

Shifting consumer behaviors and attitudes, shorter product lifecycles, new store concepts and competitive pressures from a broad range of retail formats are driving a fundamental change in the way food retail companies do business," noted FMI s.v.p. Michael Sansolo in a statement. "There is no longer a 'one format fits all' supermarket. Understanding the specific needs of your targeted consumers and delivering what they need are essential for success."
--
Notable trends outlined in the report include the following:
--Space for cooking demonstrations is offered by 72 percent of new stores, as consumers with less cooking experience who seek to enlarge their range of skills increasingly view cooking as a special event.
--Over half (53.7 percent) of the companies surveyed have a coffee bar in at least one store, and slightly fewer (52.2 percent) have introduced dollar aisles, addressing consumers' dual desires for convenience and value.
--The addition of low-carb food sections appears to be declining, with fewer than half (49.4 percent) of all retailers now offering them.
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Need Abandonment Nets Market Niche Filled

This from AP via the New York Post -

LUXE HOTELS TAKE DINING SKY HIGH

March 20, 2006 -- BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Pistachio-crusted blue fin tuna topped with shaved fennel and blood oranges. Prosciutto and burratta mozzarella on bone bread, garnished with arugula. Grilled chicken with avocado and chipotle aioli.
--
The trend toward gourmet travel offerings by hotels began to take off when high fuel prices and competition from no-frills carriers forced many domestic airlines to trim costs by closing kitchens, industry observers said.

"You saw them starting to deal with the void of what domestic airlines have been offering," said Albert Herrera, vice president for hotels and resorts at Virtuoso, a network of travel agents that specializes in luxury trips.
Eat It All>>

We will know we have fully evolved when the airlines begin to serve fresh, medium rare, In-N-Out Double-Double's hot off of the grill at 30,000 feet (... with fries)! Now that would be a gourmet travel offering!!

Risky Business At Viacom

Actually, this follow up on the 'South Park' dust up is being posted just because it is great to see Tom Cruise as a 'South Park' character - love it!

Excerpts from E! Online via Yahoo News -

"The Closet," the Controversy--and Cruise
By Joal Ryan Fri Mar 17, 8:49 PM ET

"Trapped in the Closet," a South Park episode featuring a literally closeted Top of Form
Bottom of Form Tom Cruise and a primer on Scientology, was abruptly pulled from Comedy Central's schedule, and replaced with a nearly eight-year-old chestnut spoofing the Bottom of Form Sundance Film Festival.
--
Cruise, a Scientologist who has staunchly defended his religion and an avowed heterosexual who has successfully sued people and publications that have suggested he is in the metaphorical closet, was pegged as the culprit in the South Park switcheroo in a report Thursday on HollywoodInterrupted.com.

The blog reported that the star "threatened" to sit out the publicity cycle for Mission: Impossible 3--presumably meaning no interviews, no photo-ops, no Oprah couch--if "Trapped in a Closet" aired again on Comedy Central.
--
This is not the first time Cruise has been linked to the closing of "Closet." In January, Britain's Sun reported the episode would "never" air in the United Kingdom because TV executives there were "scared [Cruise] will sue." (The episode apparently aired without incident in Canada a few days later.)

This also isn't the first time Comedy Central has been accused of caving. Last December, a Catholic rights' group took credit for the network pulling reruns of South Park's Virgin Mary-skewering ninth season finale, "Bloody Mary."
--
Comedy Central would not say if "Trapped in the Closet" will reair at a later date, or if it will be included in South Park's syndication package.

Video clips from the episode, including the bits with Cruise and the closet, and Stan and the Scientologists, can be found on the Comedy Central Website.

In a bit of timing that is said to be coincidental and not at all related to the "Closet" controversy, South Park begins its 10th season next Wednesday.

NOTE: Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures are owned by Viacom which is set to release the new Tom Cruise movie - "Mission: Impossible 3"

- Censorship Is A Risky Business -