Showing posts tagged news

Hubris documentary, critical of Bush’s case for war, finds ironic home at MSNBC

At Mother Jones, David Corn writes about a new documentary film called Hubris — it’s hosted by Rachel Maddow and based on a book by Corn and Michael Isikoff that offers “a behind-the-scenes account of how Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and their lieutenants deployed false claims, iffy intelligence, and unsupported hyperbole to win popular backing for the invasion (of Iraq).”

The film airs tonight on MSNBC, a network with leadership that has traditionally been all too eager to bow to the demands of American conservatives near and far.

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The slaying outside the McDonald’s would remain one of the open cases. What led to the gunfire—and how it was connected to a string of other violent acts around the city—wouldn’t become evident for another two years, after an investigation led deep into a highly profitable heroin ring on the west side that employed dozens of residents, served thousands of customers from around the midwest, and had ties to Mexican drug cartels.
“Anatomy of a Heroin Ring.” Mick Dumke, Chicago Reader
Journalist Peter Maass in The Atlantic on Zero Dark Thirty: I agree that the movie’s depiction of the CIA is regrettably uncritical; let’s remember, the CIA provided false evidence for going to war against Iraq, it tortured prisoners in secret jails and sent others to third countries where they would be tortured (and covered up as much of this as possible), and it is now engaged in a covert program using aerial drones to kill people who have not been convicted of any crime—and in these attacks women and children are often killed. The film fails to consider the notion that the CIA and the intelligence industry as a whole, rather than being solutions to what threatens us, might be part of the problem. Jane Mayer writing about the film for The New Yorker: “Zero Dark Thirty,” which opens across the country next month, is a pulse-quickening film that spends its first half hour or so depicting a fictionalized version of the Bush Administration’s secret U.S. interrogation program. In reality, the C.I.A.’s program of calibrated cruelty was deemed so illegal, and so immoral, that the director of the F.B.I. withdrew his personnel rather than have them collaborate with it, and the top lawyer at the Pentagon laid his career on the line in an effort to stop a version of the program from spreading to the armed forces.

Journalist Peter Maass in The Atlantic on Zero Dark Thirty:

I agree that the movie’s depiction of the CIA is regrettably uncritical; let’s remember, the CIA provided false evidence for going to war against Iraq, it tortured prisoners in secret jails and sent others to third countries where they would be tortured (and covered up as much of this as possible), and it is now engaged in a covert program using aerial drones to kill people who have not been convicted of any crime—and in these attacks women and children are often killed. The film fails to consider the notion that the CIA and the intelligence industry as a whole, rather than being solutions to what threatens us, might be part of the problem.

Jane Mayer writing about the film for The New Yorker:

“Zero Dark Thirty,” which opens across the country next month, is a pulse-quickening film that spends its first half hour or so depicting a fictionalized version of the Bush Administration’s secret U.S. interrogation program. In reality, the C.I.A.’s program of calibrated cruelty was deemed so illegal, and so immoral, that the director of the F.B.I. withdrew his personnel rather than have them collaborate with it, and the top lawyer at the Pentagon laid his career on the line in an effort to stop a version of the program from spreading to the armed forces.

Politico’s “highly toxic, incestuous variant of access journalism”

Alex Pareene discusses Politico’s disdain for substance or investigative journalism in The Baffler:

Nevertheless, there is a specific Politico ethos, a worldview, and a style of writing and reporting that sets the Harris-VandeHei collaboration apart from the institutions the paper grew out of. It’s a product of the worst of Washington in a particularly awful era for Washington. In this abject little tip sheet, a moment of profound elite self-regard and complete disconnect from the rest of the nation has found its outlet.

Fox “News” campaigning nationally for GOP

“According to a Media Matters review, at least 32 Fox News figures have backed Republican efforts in more than 300 instances during the 2011-2012 election cycle. The Fox News personalities have campaigned for Republicans nationally and in more than 40 states.” 

“30+ Fox News Hosts and Contributors Who Are Campaigning for Republicans,” Eric Hananoki, Media Matters

See also Eric Alterman’s column, “Just What Exactly is Fox News?” (CAP, October, 2010) — An excerpt:

This is a mistake. Fox is something new—something for which we do not yet have a word. It provides almost no actual journalism. Instead it gives ideological guidance to the Republican Party and millions of its supporters, attacking its opponents and keeping its supporters in line. And it does so at a hefty profit, thereby turning itself into the political equivalent of a perpetual motion machine.

Short news roundup: Hurricane Sandy (NYC, NJ)

New Yorkers: Governor Cuomo waives fees for today’s commutes (The New York Times)

The East River Ferry returns with limited service (Transportation Nation, WNYC)

Sea Gate, Brooklyn hit hard during Sandy (NY1)

Owner of Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn tells of narrow escape from flooded basement (The Brooklyn Paper)

Round-up of Staten Island death toll, damage (SI Live)

Storm aftermath presents new dangers to public housing residents on the Lower East Side (WNYC)

Red Hook housing projects residents regret resisting evacuation orders (The New York World)

Aerial photographs of storm damage to New Jersey (The New York Times)

Borough president Jim Molinaro calls on Mayor Bloomberg to cancel marathon, cites looting on South Shore area of Staten Island (SI Live)

The moon made Hurricane Sandy worse (National Geographic)

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Shamiur Rahman, a 19-year-old American of Bengali descent who has now denounced his work as an informant, said police told him to embrace a strategy called “create and capture.” He said it involved creating a conversation about jihad or terrorism, then capturing the response to send to the NYPD. For his work, he earned as much as $1,000 a month and goodwill from the police after a string of minor marijuana arrests.

“Informant: NYPD Paid Me to ‘Bait’ Muslims,” Adam Goldman & Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press (See also my earlier post on the NYPD’s worthless surveillance program)

(H/T Samuel Rubenfeld)

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It’s an upside-down version of life, and it is not innocuous. When desperation leads political critics of the president to discredit important nonpolitical institutions — including the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve and the Congressional Budget Office — the damage can be long-lasting. If voters come to mistrust the most basic functions of government, the resulting cynicism can destroy the basic compact of citizenship.
“Conspiracy World,” Editors, The New York Times

“In a secure, undisclosed location”

After a nearly eleven-year imprisonment, Guantanamo Bay detainee Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, who “was never alleged to be a high-level terror suspect” and was “recommended for transfer out of Guantanamo several times,” has died and his body is being held in an undisclosed location. More at ProPublica.

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But the underlying point is sound: There is cause for concern when people who control public funds make policy decisions that benefit themselves rather than the greater good. But the people in question are our elected representatives, and they’re making policy decisions that benefit rich people like themselves.
Jamison Foser on why Mitt Romney’s taxes matter.