| Media movers, shakers and newsmakers TM |
| Home Business Entertainment News Politics Religion Sports |
|
|
Smart Stars   Sexy Stars   Honest Stars   | Cast your vote in our current poll below:
Results of Recent PollsThis poll ran from April 28 to May 4, 2008.
From the op-ed article "Indiana, go with Obama" published in the May 4, 2008 edition of the Chicago Tribune. In endorsing Senator Barack Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton for the Indiana Democratic Party presidential primary to be held on May 6, the Tribune editorial staff wrote: "Look what we've seen from Hillary Clinton's campaign in recent weeks. Her embellishments about the purported danger of a 1996 trip to Bosnia. Bill Clinton's statement that the Obama campaign "played the race card on me"—and Clinton's later, laughable denial that he had used those words. We've seen a campaign that has sought to tear down its opponent and pander to voters. The Clinton campaign is playing just the kind of politics that Americans say they detest. "We need a president who can forge consensus and compromise among ideological foes. Barack Obama is that kind of Democrat; Hillary Clinton is not." This poll ran from April 28 to May 4, 2008.
Ahmad Ghoreishi, professor emeritus in the department of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. As reported by Ryan Morgan in the article "World watches presidential contest," published in the April 11, 2008 issue of the Boulder Daily Camera, Ghoreishi said of Senator Barack Obama: "The world is fascinated by him -- by a first-generation black man running for president. When it comes down to it, the vast majority of people don't think Americans will do it -- once they're in the voting booth, they won't vote for a black man." This poll ran from April 21 to 27, 2008.
At a U.S. Senate hearing in 2004, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that "there are probably very few people in this room or in America who would say that torture should never be used." And in an interview on BBC Radio Four in February 2008, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said "How close does the threat have to be? How severe can the infliction of pain be? I don\'t think these are easy questions at all... But I certainly know you can\'t come in smugly and with great self-satisfaction and say, "Oh, it\'s torture and therefore it\'s no good." This poll ran from April 14 to 20, 2008.
On May 6, 2005, Matthew Felling spoke with Kai Ryssdal on the NPR News program "Marketplace" about the continuing decline in newspaper circulation. Felling is the media director at The Center for Media and Public Affairs. "I don't mean to sound Panglossian, but I'm surprised that circulation figures didn't fall more steeply," said Felling about the continuing decline in newspaper readership. "By giving away their product free online to anyone with an Internet connection, newspapers are, in effect, bootlegging themselves into a corner." This poll ran from April 7 to 13, 2008.
Clay Evans, from the "Insight" section of the Boulder Daily Camera on April 6, 2008. In an op-ed titled "No news will be bad news," he writes: "We're now wading into a future where the only information we receive is from people who agree with us, or some guy outside a grocery store handing us a petition. Or not at all. "But here's a little secret: Chances are good that when you do a Google search on current events, most of the "content" you pull up will have come from newspapers. And as newspapers gradually collapse and readers and advertisers flee, there's simply going to be less reliable news out there." This poll ran from March 31 to April 6, 2008.
We have asked this question about President George W. Bush many times before. The last time was July 23 to 29, 2007. This poll ran from March 24 to 30, 2008.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the former top commander of American troops in Iraq, as quoted by David S. Cloud in the article "Ex-Commander Says Iraq Effort Is \'a Nightmare\'" from the October 13, 2007 edition of The New York Times. Cloud writes: "In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top commander of American forces there called the George W. Bush administration's handling of the war "incompetent" and said the result was "a nightmare with no end in sight." "Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who retired in 2006 after being replaced in Iraq after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, blamed the Bush administration for a "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan" and denounced the current addition of American forces as a "desperate" move that would not achieve long-term stability. "After more than four years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism," General Sanchez said at a gathering of military reporters and editors in Arlington, Va. "He is the most senior war commander of a string of retired officers who have harshly criticized the administration's conduct of the war. While much of the previous condemnation has been focused on the role of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, General Sanchez's was an unusually broad attack on the overall course of the war." This poll ran from March 17 to 23, 2008.
Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson, from the new book "Where Does the Money Go? Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis." in the Sunday New York Times on March 16, 2008, Harry Hurt III wrote that "Here is the very pressing issue the book addresses: "The United States is seemingly addicted to spending more than it takes in," the authors assert. With a staggering national debt, and expenses that will only grow as more baby boomers retire, they warn, "today's problems will seem like a fender bender compared to the economic train wreck the country will face if we don't get the nation's finances under control." Scott Bittle is the executive editor of the web site Public Agenda Online, and Jean Johnson is the executive vice president and founder of the site. Bittle and Johnson note that the United States government has amassed a debt that now exceeds $9 trillion, with over $2 trillion owed to foreign banks and other international investors. China alone holds $420 billion, based on figures from the 2006 budget. This poll ran from March 10 to 16, 2008.
Zhang Qingli, the Tibet region Chinese Communist Party secretary. Zhang did not say how the Dalai Lama was trying to sabotage the Games. Repoting from Beijing on Saturday, March 8 2008, Anita Chang of the Associated Press wrote that "Chinese officials accused the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, of trying to sabotage this summer's Beijing Olympics, suggesting Friday they are prepared to take harsh measures against any group causing instability in the Himalayan region. "The ruling Communist Party routinely accuses the Dalai Lama of trying to undermine Chinese authority by pushing for independence for Tibet, although he says he wants meaninful autonomy for the region, not independence." This poll ran from March 3 to 9, 2008.
Paul Krugman, from the op-ed article "Socialist Plot," published in the August 28, 2007 edition of The New York Times. Krugman wrote: "The truth is that there's no difference in principle between saying that every American child is entitled to an education and saying that every American child is entitled to adequate health care. It’s just a matter of historical accident that we think of access to free K-12 education as a basic right, but consider having the government pay children's medical bills "welfare," with all the negative connotations that go with that term. "We offer free education, and don't worry about middle-class families getting benefits they don’t need, because that’s the only way to ensure that every child gets an education — and giving every child a fair chance is the American way. And we should guarantee health care to every child, for the same reason." This poll ran from February 25 to March 2, 2008.
As of February 24, 2008, Senator Hillary Clinton trails Illinois Senator Barack Obama in delegates to the national convention that will pick the Democratic candidate for the November 2008 U.S. presidential election. A number of observers, including Reuters, have said that Clinton needs to win both of the March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio to stay in the race. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has conceded that this is true. The Democratic party national convention will be held in Denver, Colorado on August 25 to 28, 2008. This poll ran from February 18 to 24, 2008.
David Plouffe, campaign manager of the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama. Plouffe was quoted by Hope Yen of the Associated Press in the article "Clinton advisor changes stance on delegates," published on February 17, 2008. Referring to the attempt by the campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton to win Democratic party delegates in the state of Florida, Plouffe said "The Clinton campaign should focus on winning pledged delegates as a result of elections, not these say-or-do-anything-to-win tactics that could undermine Democrats' ability to win the general election." This poll ran from February 11 to 17, 2008.
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) speaking on December 16, 2007. In the article "President lacks tech awareness," published in the February 4, 2008 issue of eWeek magazine, Roy Mark wrote that "Dodd vowed to filibuster any bill granting immunity to the carriers. "For the last six years, the telecom companies have been spying on their customers without warrants," Dodd said. Writing about the renewal of FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), Mark added that "The carriers contend they relied on existing federal, state and local laws, as well as assurances from the highest level of government, to provide customer telephone and e-mail records -- often without a warrant or subpoena -- to the government." "The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the co-lead counsel in the nearly 40 pending lawsuits against the major telephone carriers, contends the carriers broke the law by providing the National Security Agency with the full content of billions of e-mail messages, text messages and VOIP (voice over IP) calls." This poll ran from February 4 to 10, 2008.
From the article "Microsoft Makes Grab for Yahoo" by Kevin J. Delaney, Robert A. Guth and Matthew Karnitschnig in the February 2, 2008 edition of The Wall Street Journal. On Thursday, January 31, 2008, Microsoft offered $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo Inc. The writers noted that "Microsoft believes that buying Yahoo is essential for gaining ground on Google. In his letter to Yahoo's board, (Microsoft President) Mr. Ballmer said the online-advertising market is "incrasingly dominated by one player" -- a clear reference to Google. The combination with Yahoo will "accelerate our path forward," Ballmer said in an interview Friday." They added that "For Microsoft, the move is an acknowledgement that its expensive foray into online services is failing, or at least not moving fast enough." This poll ran from January 28 to February 3, 2008.
Senator John McCain, from an interview with Beliefnet.com on October 5, 2007. McCain said "the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation." Writing in the New York Times on October 7, Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek magazine, commented on the question of the Constitution: "The only acknowledgment of God in the original Constitution is a utilitarian one: the document is dated "in the year of our Lord 1787." Even the religion clause of the First Amendment is framed dryly and without reference to any particular faith. The Connecticut ratifying convention debated rewriting the preamble to take note of God’s authority, but the effort failed." This poll ran from January 21 to 27, 2008.
National Public Radio reported that "on January 15, 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that meat and milk from cloned animals are safe to eat. Critics immediately denounced the FDA's conclusions, saying the agency ignored the ethical problems with cloning. "Cloning creates a genetic copy of an animal, so making clones of a cow that produces an amazing amount of milk, for example, could be quite lucrative. Several companies are trying to make a business out of cloning; those animals could then be used for breeding. "FDA scientists studied the chemical composition of meat and milk from clones and decided that it's identical to what's on the market already. The European Food Safety Authority, in a draft report last week, came to a similar conclusion. "But opponents of cloning pointed to other data in the report, showing that the cloning process creates many animals that cannot survive. Also, many clones are unnaturally large when they're born, which can harm their surrogate mothers. But FDA officials say their job is just to look at food safety, not ethics." This poll ran from January 14 to 20, 2008.
From a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, released on October 29, 2007. Titled "The Invisible Primary - Invisible No Longer," the study portrays the political press as a hidebound institution out of touch with the desires of citizens. Among the findings: -- Stories focused more on fundraising and polls than on where candidates stood on the issues, despite a public demand for more attention to the policies, views and records of the candidates. -- The public's attention to campaign news is higher now than it was at similar points in the past two elections, but that interest is only shared by less than one in four people. -- Five candidates — Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Republicans Rudolph Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain — received more than half the coverage. Elizabeth Edwards, the cancer-stricken wife of Democrat John Edwards, received almost as much media attention as her husband. -- Democrats, overall, got more coverage — and more positive ink and airtime — than Republicans. The report analyzed 1,742 articles about the presidential contest that appeared from January through May 2007 in 48 news outlets including print, online, network TV, cable and radio news and talk shows. This poll ran from January 7 to 13, 2008.
Marc Bekoff, Professor of Ecology and and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, from a letter to the editor published in the Boulder Daily Camera on December 31, 2007. Bekoff was commenting on the events of December 27, 2007 at the San Francisco Zoo, when a 300-pound Siberian tiger named Tatiana escaped from its enclosure, which is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat and 20-foot-high walls. The tiger killed a 17-year-old and mauled two others before being shot and killed by police officers.
Bekoff wrote: "These innocent victims suffered because large carnivores simply do not belong in zoos, and neither should these sentient and emotional beings be shipped here and there as if they were couches. Tigers and other animals have a point of view on what happens to them, and they don't like being treated as if they are inanimate objects. So it's not all surprising that at some point when they regain their freedom they do what's natural to them. The aren't bad or evil; they're highly evolved natural-born killers who don't like being imprisoned. When will zoos learn this lesson?" This poll ran from December 27, 2007 to January 6, 2008.
Jennifer Kwan, from the Reuters story "Entertaining TV programs make you eat, study finds," published on June 3, 2007. Kwan wrote that "People eat more when they are glued to the television, and the more entertaining the program, the more they eat." Dr. Alan Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, aid that "It seems that distracted brains do not notice what the mouth is doing." Hirsch explored the impact of smell, taste and eating behaviors while watching TV by measuring potato chip consumption. Forty-five volunteers ate as many chips as they wanted during five-minute intervals over three-week periods while they watched monologues by late-night talk show hosts David Letterman and Jay Leno. Hirsch found people ate an average of 44 percent more chips while watching Letterman and 42 percent more while viewing Leno, than when they did not watch TV. According to Hirsch, "If you can concentrate on how the food tastes you'll eat less because you'll feel full faster." He said that "many studies have linked obesity to watching television and that link is likely due to inactivity." But he also believes that entertaining TV shows contribute to the problem. "If you want to lose weight, turn off the television or watch something boring," he added. This poll ran from December 17 to 26, 2007.
On Monday December 2, 2007, radio personality Don Imus returned to the radio airwaves. In April of 2007, CBS Radio fired Imus from his radio program following a week of uproar over his derogatory comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. "There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," CBS Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision. Imus' new show on WABC in New York includes two black comedians, Tony Powell and Karith Foster, and he promised to open up a dialogue on race relations on the program. He began his initial broadcast on the Citadel Broadcasting station by confronting the issue that got him booted from CBS Radio last spring, when he referred to the NCAA runner-up squad as “nappy-headed hos.” He apologized again and said, “no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn't deserve a second chance.” Imus also said, “the program is not going to change. Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still Satan and I'm back on the radio.” This poll ran from December 10 to 16, 2007.
Ben Stein, in the article "Lessons From the Pits of Travel and Investment" in the December 9, 2007 edition of The New York Times, wrote: "A famous Chinese philosopher famously said, "There is no calamity greater that lavish desires." My own life is a sort of parable of national life. I spend way too much money, although it's pennies by Wall Street standards. I think like a big baby: if I want it, it's mine." This poll ran from December 3 to 9, 2007.
President George W. Bush, speaking on November 11, 2007 at a Veterans Day ceremony at American Legion Post 121 in Waco, Texas, honoring American soldiers who have died in Iraq. Bush said "your loved ones served a cause that is good and just and noble. And as their commander in chief, I make you this promise: Their sacrifice will not be in vain." He added that "The enemies who attacked us six years ago want to strike our country again, and next time they hope to kill Americans on a scale that will make 9/11 pale in comparison." This poll ran from November 26 to December 2, 2007.
Peter McGraw, an associate professor of business at the University of Colorado. He was quoted in the article "Gift cards take a swipe at holiday shopping dollars" by Ryan Morgan in the November 25, 2007 edition of the Boulder Daily Camera. McGraw said "From an economic standpoint, the best gift is money because you know best how to maximize your utility. But there's a problem with that because giving money suggests that it isn't a thoughtful gift. Giving a gift card solves some of that problem." Morgan wrote that "Archstone Consulting, a Connecticut company, estimated that spending on gift cards could hit $35 billion this holiday season." This poll ran from November 19 to 25, 2007.
Paul McLeary from the story "VNR Redux" published at the Columbia Journalism Review web site on October 12, 2007. The subtitle of the story is "Anyone surprised that local TV keeps airing fake news?" MCLeary writes: "Seems our old friend, the Video News Release, is back—or more likely, never left us in the first place. The Center for Media and Democracy dug up three recent cases where a single television station passed VNRs as legit news reports. "In case you've forgotten, VNRs are television news spots prepared by corporations or public agencies, that are then presented as straight news by TV news outlets who conveniently fail to disclose the fact that these things are blatant PR. "VNRs were first dragged into public consciousness back in 2004, when CJR helped expose Karen Ryan — a PR flack paid by the government to anchor fake news stories promoting the Medicare law and its supposed benefits. The VNRs were sent out to local affiliates across the county on CNN’s video wire and played as “news” on stations that didn't inform viewers that they were watching government propaganda from the Department of Health and Human Services. The issue has popped up intermittently since then, but things have been quiet on the VNR front. Until now. "The Center for Media and Democracy reported yesterday that WGTU-TV 29 in Traverse City, Michigan has recently aired three of these corporate commercials. They include: "An entire, pre-packaged VNR funded by the financial company Capital One, without disclosure; an entire, pre-packaged VNR funded by the communications company Harris Corporation, without disclosure; and an entire, pre-packaged VNR funded by the farm equipment company John Deere. In this case, the original VNR contained brief, on-screen and verbal notifications of the sponsor. By playing the entire VNR, WGTU provided "passive disclosure" to its viewers." This poll ran from November 11 to 18, 2007.
Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, from his book "The Price of Liberty," a history of how America has paid for its wars since 1776. The book was published on May 1, 2007. Hormats writes: "In every major war we have fought in the 19th and 20th centuries, Americans have been asked to pay higher taxes — and nonessential programs have been cut — to support the military effort. Yet during this Iraq war, taxes have been lowered and domestic spending has climbed. In contrast to World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam, for most Americans this conflict has entailed no economic sacrifice. The only people really sacrificing for this war are the troops and their families." Hormats also quotes George Washington from his celebrated Farewell Address, in which he warned against "ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burdens we ourselves ought to bear." This poll ran from November 5 to 11, 2007.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking on October 30, 2007 at the Democratic presidential candidates debate in Philadelphia. Clinton was asked about a plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants in New York State. She at first defended the idea, then suggested she was against it, and when pressed for a direct answer by moderator Tim Russert, accused him of playing "gotcha."
When asked if she supports the plan of Governor Eliot Spitzer in New York State, Clinton said "You know, Tim, this is where everybody plays gotcha. It makes a lot of sense. What is the governor supposed to do? He is dealing with a serious problem. We have failed, and George W. Bush has failed." This poll ran from October 29 to November 4, 2007.
From a report by the National Petroleum Council (NPC) released on July 18, 2007. The Council was charged by President George W. Bush and US Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman with studying the energy sector of the United States. The report urged that fuel economy be improved "at the maximum rate possible." According to the NPC web site, the purpose of the NPC is "solely to represent the views of the oil and natural gas industries in advising, informing, and making recommendations to the Secretary of Energy with respect to any matter relating to oil and natural gas." This poll ran from October 22 to 28, 2007.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, from his new book "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World." The book was published on September 17, 2007. "I'm saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows," Greenspan, 81, writes in the book, arguing that the attention given by developed nations to the political situation in the Middle East is directly tied to oil security. "Whatever their publicized angst over Saddam Hussein's 'weapons of mass destruction,' American and British authorities were also concerned about violence in an area that harbors a resource indispensable for the functioning of the world economy," he writes. Greenspan clarified his remarks in an interview with Bob Woodward of the Washington Post in September 2007, telling the newspaper "I was not saying that that's the administration\'s motive. I'm just saying that if somebody asked me, 'Are we fortunate in taking out Saddam?,' I would say it was essential." He said that in his discussions with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, "I have never heard them basically say, 'We've got to protect the oil supplies of the world,' but that would have been my motive." This poll ran from October 15 to 21, 2007.
Al Gore, from a speech at the National Sierra Club Convention on September 9, 2005. On October 12, 2007, Gore was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). On October 13, 2007, William Neikirk wrote in the Chicago Tribune that "the former vice president said he would donate his half of the $1.5 million prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection, an advocacy group he helped found." The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the prize was awarded to Gore and the IPCC for "their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." The IPCC, which shares the prize with Gore, is a United Nations-sponsored group of about 2,500 scientists from around the world. The IPCC gathers the peer-reviewed work of thousands of scientists into a coherent picture of climate change. In 2007 the group issued its fourth assessment of the state of knowledge on climate change. It stated that the evidence supporting climate change is "unequivocal" and that the change is "very likely" caused by human activity. This poll ran from October 8 to 14, 2007.
We have asked this poll question about President George W. Bush twice before -- in May 2006 and summer 2002. This poll ran from October 1 to 7, 2007.
Jim Rapoza, chief technology analyst at eWEEK magazine, from the story "More Web 2.0 fun?" in the June 11, 2007 issue of eWEEK. Rapoza suggested that you should be suspicious of anyone who tells you that privacy is dead. He wrote: "I care deeply about my privacy. Just because I'm free with certain details about my life doesn't mean that I want there to be giant databases out there that can combine all my data into a disturbingly detailed picture of my life that any company (or identity thief) could then use against me. "It also doesn't mean that I want to make it possible for governments or corporate identities to be able to track me through RFID, cell phones or identity cards no matter where I go." This poll ran from September 20 to 30, 2007.
From the article "Did McDonald's Give In to Temptation?" by Andrew Martin in the July 22, 2007 edition of The New York Times. Martin writes that "the number of people who are overweight or obese has increased sharply since the early 1980s, and during that period, portion sizes have increased greatly." Marion Nestle and Lisa R. Young, who are nutritionists at New York University, reported that portion sizes offered by fast-food chains are two to five times larger than when first introduced. While McDonald's dropped its Supersize menu in 2004, it has recently introduced a 42-ounce soft drink called the Hugo, which contains about 410 calories. The drink competes with the Big Gulp at 7-Eleven, and with giant sandwiches like the BK Stacker from Burger King, which contains 4 hamburger patties. Martin concludes that "the problem with bigger portions has been well documented. They are undoubtedly good deals. But put simply, if people are offered more food, they eat it." This poll ran from September 10 to 19, 2007.
Caroline Fredrickson, from the op-ed article "Congress should leave TV decisions with parents," published in the August 20, 2007 edition of the Buffalo News. Fredrickson is director of the American Civil Liberties Union\'s Washington legislative office. She wrote: "ACLU members strongly believe that the government should not replace parents as decision-makers in America's living rooms. There are some things the government does well, but deciding what is aired, and when, on television is not one of them. Parents already have many tools to protect their children, including blocking programs and channels, changing the channel, or (my personal favorite) turning off the television. "The ACLU is not blind to the issue at hand. We can see why some parents are upset about what they see on television. We believe that a compelling case has been made for media literacy education. Congress may choose to play a role in educating parents on the dangers of overexposure to media. But government focus should then be on providing those educational opportunities, not encouraging government to replace America's parents as the primary decisionmakers in their own homes. Government should not parent the parents. "Our concern is that imposing standards for television programming would be unconstitutional and damage important values that define America: the right to a free and open media, the right to free speech and the right of parents to control the upbringing of their children." This poll ran from September 3 to 9, 2007.
Julian Friedland, from the op-ed article "Opinion: Journalism's new economics" published in the August 15, 2007 edition of the Denver Post. Friedland teaches philosophy and business ethics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He wrote: "What passes for news in this brave new media world is less cold hard facts and more opinion and soothsaying. Television "news" programs reveal precious few facts on the actual issues. Instead, discussants provide titillating predictions on which politicians and parties are likely to win. It's cheap and thrilling content, which has the advantage of alienating few advertisers while viewers are soothed by a veneer of fairness (however fake) representing two sides of a debate. This pattern hurts us all. The media's primary mission is to inform, not entertain. Their rights are granted so they may elevate and educate by informing us of what are often difficult, nuanced and unwelcome truths. As it stands, this public mission is being forsaken in the name of private profit. It thus stands starkly before us as a modern market failure. But there is a solution. Media represent an essential service like education and infrastructure. As such, media need to be protected from the corrupting influence of private interest, which has finally grown so massive as to exert a crushing grip on journalistic independence. If we look to Europe we can see media independence there is protected by public funds. Take the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is mostly funded by taxes, permitting it to hold every corporation and government's feet to the fire. In France, two out of the three major networks receive no more than 40 percent of their operational funds from ads. The rest come from taxes. On our end, we have the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), but its budget pales in comparison to the BBC, which has bureaus all over the world. The CPB, which funds both PBS and NPR, has a yearly budget of only $480 million compared to $3.2 billion for the BBC. Still, PBS is widely considered our most trusted news service. Again, this is no coincidence." This poll ran from August 26 to September 2, 2007.
From the op-ed article "The War as We Saw It," published in the August 19, 2007 edition of the New York Times. The article was written by 7 American soldiers at the end of a 15-month deployment in Iraq. They are Army Specialist Buddhika Jayamaha, Sergeant Wesley D. Smith, Sergeant Jeremy Roebuck, Sergeant Omar Mora, Sergeant Edward Sandmeier, Staff Sergeant Yance T. Gray and Staff Sergeant Jeremy A. Murphy. They wrote: "In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, "We need security, not free food." "In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal. "Until that happens, it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take center stage in all matters, to come up with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit. This suggestion is not meant to be defeatist, but rather to highlight our pursuit of incompatible policies to absurd ends without recognizing the incongruities. "We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through." This poll ran from August 20 to 26, 2007.
From "Terrorism, Part II," posted on August 9, 2007 by Steven D. Levitt at the Freakonomics blog hosted by the New York Times. Levitt is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and the author (with Stephen J. Dubner) of the best-selling book Freakonomics. Levitt wrote: "There are two possible interpretations of our current situation vis-à-vis terrorism. One view is the following: the main reason we aren't currently being decimated by terrorists is that the government's anti-terror efforts have been successful. The alternative interpretation is that the terror risk just isn't that high and we are greatly overspending on fighting it, or at least appearing to fight it. "My guess is that the second scenario — the terrorism threat just isn't that great — is the more likely one. Which, if you think about it, is the optimistic view of the world. But that probably still makes me a moron, a traitor, or both." Levitt's closing comment about being a moron or a traitor (or both) was prompted by a slew of negative email he received after a related post in which he suggested some ideas terrorists might use to attack the United States. That post was titled "If You Were a Terrorist, How Would You Attack?" This poll ran from August 13 to 19, 2007.
In the article "Sending Back The Doctor's Bill," published in the July 29, 2007 issue of The New York Times, Alex Berenson writes that "Prescription drugs cost, on average, 30 percent to 50 percent more in the United States that in Europe. But the difference in doctors' salaries is far larger. "Doctors in the United States earn two to three times as much as they do in other industrialized countries. Surveys by medical-pratice management groups show that American doctors make an average of $200,000 to $300,000 a year. Primary care doctors and pediatricians make less, between $125,000 and $200,000, but in specialties like radiology, physicians can take home $400,000 or more. "In Europe, however, doctors made $60,000 to $120,000 in 2002, according to a survey sponsored by the British government in 2004." This poll ran from August 6 to 12, 2007.
From the article "Made (badly) in China" by Oliver August, published in the July 29. 2007 issue of The Los Angeles Times. August is a former Beijing bureau chief for the Times of London. August writes that "the reason so many Chinese products sold in American malls are faulty is not a lack of regulation, but corruption." "Only now that (Beijing) has been embarrassed by the export of the problem is it taking note. Last week, Zheng Xiaoyu, a former food and drug safety watchdog, was executed after being found guilty of corruption and dereliction of duty." Zheng had confessed to accepting gifts and bribes from eight drug companies that sought special favors. He received a car, a villa, furniture, cash and corporate stock. In all, he and his family accepted gifts valued at more than $850,000. In China, the average worker earns less than $2,000 a year. August concludes that "the system of governance that has allowed people like Zheng to break the rules until they become a nuisance will stay in place. It has worked well for Beijing. And it has worked well for American consumers who have enjoyed low-cost Chinese products. Until now." This poll ran from July 30 to August 5, 2007.
On July 24, 2007, The Associated Press reported that Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig will attempt to attend the game when Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's career home run record, saying the star was "innocent until proven guilty. "Throughout this season, I have watched Barry Bonds' pursuit of the home run record. Now that he is on the verge of tying the record, the time has come to announce that I will make every attempt to attend the record-setting moment," Selig said in a statement. "Out of respect for the tradition of this game, the magnitude of the record, and the fact that all citizens in this country are innocent until proven guilty, I will attend Barry Bonds' next games to observe his potential tying and breaking of the home run record, subject to my commitments to the Hall of Fame this weekend." Bonds, who has been dogged for years by suspicions that he used performance-enhancing drugs, began Tuesday with 753 homers, two shy of the record. The former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, Selig has been friends for years with Aaron, who began his career with the Milwaukee Braves and ended it with the Brewers. This poll ran from July 23 to 29, 2007.
This poll ran from July 16 to 22, 2007.
Bruce Fein, the deputy attorney general of the United States under President Ronald Reagan, from his post "Impeach Cheney," posted at Slate.com on June 27, 2007. Fein wrote: "President George W. Bush outsourced the lion's share of his presidency to Vice President Cheney, and Mr. Cheney has made the most of it. Since 9/11, he has proclaimed that all checks and balances and individual liberties are subservient to the president's commander in chief powers in confronting international terrorism." Fein concluded that "In the end, President Bush regularly is unable to explain or defend the policies of his own administration, and that is because the heavy intellectual labor has been performed in the office of the vice president. Cheney is impeachable for his overweening power and his sneering contempt of the Constitution and the rule of law." This poll ran from July 9 to 15, 2007.
Leslie Dach, Wal-Mart's executive vice president of corporate affairs, as quoted by Jeffrey Goldberg in the article "Selling Wal-Mart: Can the company co-opt liberals?" in the April 2, 2007 issue of The New Yorker magazine. Before joining Wal-Mart, Dach was an executive at Edelman Public Relations, and has been a senior advisor to the presidential campaigns of Democrats Michael Dukakis and Al Gore. He also worked for the National Audubon Society and the Environmental Defense Fund. According to the company, full-time hourly workers make an average of $10.51 an hour at Wal-Mart. However, the group Wake Up Wal-Mart believes that after part-time workers are factored in, the true average is less than $9.00 an hour. In contrast, Costco pays an average wage of $17.46 an hour. In 2006, Wal-Mart had revenues of over $315 billion, and profits of about $11 billion. This poll ran from July 2 to 8, 2007.
Pope Benedict XVI, speaking on June 9, 2007 during a visit to the Vatican by President George W. Bush. This was the president's first meeting with the pope, who has lamented the "continual slaughter" in Iraq. The two talked for 35 minutes. Terence Hunt of the Associated Press wrote that "President Bush, denounced by tens of thousands of anti-American protestors on the streets of Rome, defended his humanitarian record Saturday to Pope Benedict XVI." After the meeting, Bush said "I was talking to a very smart, very loving man. I was in awe and it was a moving experience." |
|
1136/67%
| More Mondo Sites: Mondo Times | Easy Media List | Mondo Newspapers | Media Owners | Letters To Editors | FindaCity.net |
|
Copyright © 2006-2008 Mondo Code LLC. All rights reserved.
By using this site you agree to the Terms of Service. |