First Bomb the Media, Then Watch Cartoons

Thanks to Truthout.org for pointing me to a Jeremy Scahill article in antiwar.com I missed. Col. Ralph Peters, a military analyst who has whored for virtually every cable network in existence, has written a puff piece for the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs (an organization that makes AIPAC look respectable), in which he says that military attacks on partisan media may be necessary when conducting an unpopular war. To be precise, the U.S. military did conduct a few deliberate attacks on media representatives in Iraq in the first year of the war, but Peters is calling for pre-emptive physical military strikes on the media, in the home nation. He accuses journalists of considering themselves "superior beings."

Excuse me? The few journalists I know are scared kittens, assaulted on every side because their very form of employment is going away. First we have to put up with corporate machinations, an indifferent public, a disappearing media format in which to decribe the world that exists, and now some military-consultant-loon wants to take potshots with live grape and gravity bombs. Who will rid me of this meddlesome Peters?

Secret "Cells"

Who could be opposed to a tutorial multimedia demonstration on the dangers of terrorism, right? Well, unless the sponsors of "The CELL" are closely tied to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, and are funded by the likes of the Dershowitz Group and the US Department of Homeland Security. The Colorado ACLU learned that this particular organization is closely tied to the Denver Performing Arts Center and the Mizel Museum. I'm not paranoid about AIPAC, but I'm worried that the presentation CELL will provide will be far from objective - and must a publicly-funded museum tout presentations from government security agencies? Thankfully, the online Colorado Independent paid attention to these disturbing aspects, because the rest of the Colorado media seemed to give it a free pass.