In today's New York Times, James Glanz' "Rebuilding Teams Would Swell Under Bush's New Iraq Plan" covers the 'playbook' for the diplomatic (ha-ha) strategy of Bully Boy's way backward. He really is, Bully Boy, like a lost driver who keeps doubling back looking for that 'turned corner' when the reality is there is no corner (and more and more the road he's on is revealed to be a dead end). So the State Department can't fill civilian positions in Iraq (in echo of the US military's own recruitment failures) but, as Glanz reveals, they have budgeted $225,000 "for new office furnishings for a team in the southern city of Basra."
The headline is a mystery because the 'swell' would require people and, as the article notes, people are in short supply.
As noted in all three community newsletters, we'd be starting late today. That ended up being later due to electrical issues. (This post, recreated, an earlier one that I was smart enough to save to draft were done hours ago.) I'd noted in all three newsletters that an Iraq snapshot would depend on the amount of news from Iraq. I haven't checked that. (We've only had electricity back on for about 15 minutes and I had previously been working on the morning's entries.) But the lengthy entry (lost) will be created (partially in part only) and it builds on Cindy's highlight, Trevor Aaronson's "Fonda Wraps up Media Conference: Advocate for women in newsrooms says journalism forgets divide not just right and left" (Memphis Commerical Appeal via Common Dreams):
The media's collapse, said actor and activist Jane Fonda in an earlier speech, shielded the government's own failures.
Telling the story of Abeer Qasim Hamza, a 15-year-old Iraqi who was raped and murdered by U.S. soldiers, Fonda criticized the news media's impotence in covering the war.
"The cold-blooded murder of Abeer and her family is a tragedy," Fonda said. "But it's almost as great a tragedy when her story and all the other stories that are difficult to hear and difficult to accept are buried in the back of news pages and quickly shuffled off the nightly news."
She added: "A truly powerful media is one that can stop a war, not start one."
A founder of the Women's Media Center, which advocates for greater representation of women in media and in newsrooms, Fonda said American journalism takes pride in balance but "forgets that the world is not divided only by right and left."
"During the coverage of the 2004 elections," she added, "journalists were more than twice as likely to turn to a male source than a woman."
Actually, I'm not going to recreate it. Dona came in to see if anything could be saved via "recover post" (a function in Blogger/Blogspot) and it can't. She's proposing that since the topic is one that many have opinions on, we see who else wants to participate. So it looks like it will be a joint post. (Note: We are now workin on the joint post. Since this was written, Blogger/Blogspot has gone in and out.)
the new york times
james glanz
trevor aaronson
jane fonda
media reform
