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August 1, 2009 - The Priorities of the Press

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:20:47 +0100

The New York Times recently reported that approximately 1,000 news media representatives were in attendance at a press conference held by South Carolina University’s football coach, Steve Spurrier. The burning issue that prompted the gathering was that Spurrier’s was the lone ballot that did not include Florida University’s All-American quarterback, Tim Tebow, on the pre-season Southeast Conference All-Star Team.

You will excuse me if I wait for a more urgent issue. But the media reps – all 1, 000 with cameras and notepads – were there.

The status of the media is at an all time low. Considering the history of America’s press… going back to Hearst’s war mongering that led to the Spanish-American conflict, it takes some doing to reach the nadir. Of course, reports are flourishing that daily newspapers and news magazines are on their last leg, victims of the internet, website, blogs, and all the other gadgets that pass for progress. Electricity has superseded responsibility and the passing on of information.

Twenty-four hour news cable stations, at best, are irrelevant. They have 20 minutes of news and 23 hours plus of speculation, gossip, rumors and vocal but uninformed opinions. Many of the TV shouters have learned from the hateful radio mongrels, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Grant and Michael Savage to name a few. To justify their existence, they have to top their latest shock statement. Cruel attacks on public figures and slashing commentary maintains their ratings but dissolves the meaning of a free and open and responsible press. They are bottom line hucksters.

President’s Obama’s press conference on his health plan is a perfect example of media on the loose. Obama spoke with clarity for about 58 minutes, enlightening us on the complex aspects of his proposed national health plan. In the final two minutes, he responded to a question about Harvard Professor Gates’ recent incident in his own home.

Two things happened. Immediately after the press conference, talking heads became our interpreters of what we just saw. Fox folks droned on about the President’s failure to fill in the blank spaces…and CNN and other cable news shows sounded as if they had prepared their comments before the press conference. But the two minutes devoted to the Gates – Officer Connelly situation dominated the tabloids and the second-guessers. The New York Post even put Michael Jackson to rest for a couple of days. A crybaby reporter on Fox has determined that Obama is anti-white, i.e. a racist. It is interesting because Fox pundits like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly…along with radio babblers like Limbaugh and Savage are consistently oblivious to America’s long history of slavery, segregation, selective imprisonment, and racial profiling…and they have collectively determined that any proud, outspoken person of color is automatically anti-white, rather than angry about a lifetime of injustices. They move the dialogue of race away from our shameful history of discrimination and second class citizenship, sliding it into a barrage of allegations that satisfies the frightened people who perceive the loss of power and entitlement.

More and more, the media has become the story rather than the tellers of the story. The passing of Walter Cronkite reminded us of that… as a few sparks of media civility remain – Bill Moyers being the best example of Cronkite’s and Edward R. Murrow’s legacy.

Obama’s beer summit with Prof. Gates and Officer Conley was another example of responsible leadership defusing a conflict and searching for understanding – if not resolution. Much of the coverage of that was about the preconceived notions of the reporters rather than the result of delving into the implications of such a confab.

What the press seems incapable of covering is the fear of white men and their perception that a Black man in the White House somehow lessens their potential and their access to the corridors of power. It is a curious and complicated aspect of social reality…one that when mentioned brings a response of anger rather than reflection. Alpha males always have such difficulty revealing what they fear. It is difficult to begin a dialogue…attempt to find paths for solutions, as revealed this week by the President of the United States. Obama’s effort is almost unparalleled in this country…he being at the opposite end of the male arc from our recent Vice President who saw fear as a weapon to exploit. Most of the editors and reporters and producers who determine what you will read, see or hear are caught in this same maelstrom.

Frightened people cloud the issues…avoid rather confront them. The headlines, prompted by what some are calling “Gates-gate”, reveal more about the messengers than the participants. It is a story about race in America…but it goes deeper than that. It is about justice and fairness and how things are interpreted and received. It is about the fear of losing an indefinable something… a perceived loss of power rather than a sharing of the responsibility.

The messengers have been nurturing the insecurities because it often finds a bottom line that provides big dollars for them. But in President Obama they are confronting a man who is comfortable enough with what he believes and he is proceeding in spite of their collective shouting. It will be interesting to see where and how and who the American public will follow.

Perhaps Coach Spurrier should call a press conference – pretending to comment on another football player and just tell the flock that he is in favor of the President’s health plan or endorse his meeting with Gates and Connelly.

I wonder how they would cover that.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!

June 27, 2009

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:46:18 +0100

As the world views the turmoil in Iran, which is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, it fascinates me how the talking heads on cable news shows are so self-assured about the solutions. The Fox pundits, of course, in their predictable knee jerk reaction, sit in judgment of President Obama, second-guessing him at every turn. No matter what position he takes, on any issue, they will find fault. We should only be thankful that Dick Cheney is not calling the shots these days because we would probably
have tanks in Tehran with a cry of “Kill for Democracy!”

Two things must be taken into account. The first is our checkered history in Iran, but a 30-year resident of the United States returned to his native land for a family funeral. Bush was still President and there was none of the optimism that has been created by the Obama presidency. Upon his return from Iran, my friend told me that young people there are very attuned to western ways and democracy. Recent interviews on the Daily Show revealed this also. My friend told me that young men far outnumber men of his age as so many of his generation were killed or fled during the war between Iran and Iraq. He told me that they were ripe for dramatic change, particularly if they saw encouragement from the West, which is exactly what Obama’s Cairo speech offered.

But power is not surrendered easily. The current leaders in Iran are determined to continue nuclear testing. Their logic is clear. The U.S. and Russia are both well-equipped with nuclear power and both countries have invaded Middle East nations in recent years – Russia in Afghanistan and the United States in Iraq. The position themselves as possible victims and want the strongest armaments possible, particularly since the United States has demonstrated that it would drop an atomic bomb on a civilian city.

So Iran is in recognizable turmoil. It is about them, not about us, and so the cries from the right about our interfering are misguided. We sound quizzical about the resistance of those in power as the students, in the tens of thousands are calling for not only a new election, but for dramatic political and cultural reform.

If you have little idea of how complicated a political divide can be, and you don’t understand the complexities of a Muslim nation in the Middle East, transfer your thoughts closer to home… to Albany, for instance, and try to decipher that haze.
Republicans and Democrats are holding simultaneous sessions, passing bills that might have no constitutional validity. The press is calling it farcical and the Post had a front page cartoon of clowns; but, in fact, it is people clinging to power and going to extremes to be in control of their small fiefdom. They are not burdened with complicated Muslim traditions that we don’t understand. They are American men – and a few women – behaving as people in power and those seeking power, always seem to behave. How can we expect a clarity of the pull for power in Iran when our friends 200 miles north of New York City, our elected representatives, can’t find a path of compromise that the enhances the lives of the people they were elected to represent?

Decades of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis seem no more complex to me than Pedro Espada’s maneuvering in Albany. We send trained diplomats and mediators to the Middle East in attempts to figure out ways of resolving that deeply entrenched battle, pitting Muslims, Jews and Christians against each other…with religion once again being at the root of evil, rather than leading the cry for solutions.

Are we capable of addressing Middle East mayhem when Albany reveals the human failings and weaknesses that interfere with real problem solving? Everywhere we look there are piles of misunderstanding with men unable to settle their differences. Too often they resort to aggression. Perhaps politicians’ adulterous affairs are preferable to the wars that frustrated, inadequate men conjure up. War resolves nothing, as Bush’s march into Iraq has proven, though it seems to satisfy some peculiar and deeply confused inner need that the male animal seems to possess. A punch is quicker than a thoughtful discussion though it cures nothing and creates new problems. It is part of the Cheney / Rumsfeld mantra that sank our country for 8 years.

But if you’re reading the newspapers hoping for an understanding of the problems in Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Rwanda, the Congo, Afghanistan, or the United States you will find little that explains the labyrinth created by aggressive, illogical men.

Look to Albany. Watch them and the irrational battleground and you might sadly realize what we are facing on a global scale: A grasp for power against the resistance of losing power with the goals obscured by the flexing of muscles.

We might need more Freud and less Machiavelli in figuring out Iran and Albany.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!

July 11, 2009

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:57:11 +0100

I don’t despise Sarah Palin.

It has been mentioned, more than once, that critics of the former vice presidential candidate and present Alaskan governor despise her, loathe, hate, abhor her. The right wing radio loves to make her a victim. In fact, I think that she just suffers from delusions of adequacy.

When she is not making headlines, I give her little thought. I am more concerned that someone of such limited capabilities could be given serious consideration to be President of the United States.

We still haven’t recuperated from eight years of George W. Bush, another political figure that I don’t despise. But, as a lover of my country, I shudder when such incompetence is in the White House, and we have had more than our share of that in the last three decades.

George Bush is a man with whom many Americans said that they would enjoy having a beer. For the future, my suggestion is that with men like Bush and women like Palin, have the beer, but vote for someone else.

The notion that our leaders be regular folks, just like you and me, is absurd. I want leadership much smarter, more capable, more temperate than me.

I certainly would not enjoy the responsibility of determining which button should be pressed, nor would I look forward to high-level meetings with the heads of state from Russia, Iran, Palestine, Israel and Pakistan to name a few nations. I am delighted that Barack Obama is assuming that role, a man with finesse in the art of diplomacy, a feat that seemed to elude his predecessor. Bush not only lacked the skill or intellectual skills to perform those tasks, he had Dick Cheney lurking in the background. Just as some would enjoy a beer with Bush, I would run in horror if in the proximity of Dick Cheney, a man who more closely resembles those stereotype Nazis in old WWII movies. And anyone who would name Cheney as their vice Presidential choice has already compromised his role as President, just as a candidate selecting Sarah Palin reveals that political catering trumps competence.

All this talk about Sarah Palin withdrawing as Governor of Alaska to place herself for a Presidential run is rather terrifying. Her rambling incoherent speech last week made her interview with Katie Couric seen almost Byronic. As she rambled on about her curious resignation, she engaged me and frightened me, at once. At one point she boasted that she didn’t want Alaska left with a lame duck governor. But Civics 101 would have instructed her that being a first term Governor does not make you a lame duck, just a woman determined not to run for re-election and not giving us a clue of her real motivation.

She has criticized the media for commenting on her family. Off limits, she has said, and under ordinary circumstances she would be right. But it was Palin who paraded her clan, including her pregnant teenage daughter and the stud boyfriend, at the Republican convention, before a national audience. She opened the door – exploiting her dysfunctional family, and then cried foul when the press went in the same door.

I have continually stated that the Republicans should offer responsible opposition. No one should have a free ride and Obama knows that. But to date, we have had Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin. Where is John McCain, the man garnered nearly 60,000,000 votes in the last election? I didn’t vote for McCain and can’t imagine under what circumstances that I would, but he is a responsible opponent.

The GOP has been hunting for candidates…and they have become an endangered species – most going down with an open fly. But Palin’s rambling resignation as Governor is hardly the tone to inspire a run for the prize, but with things so desperate for the Grand Old Party they really are making lemons out of lemonade.

I’m sure Fox won’t let Ms. Palin slip into obscurity. Look for a book deal and choreographed appearances on conservative radio and TV...but nothing would serve her as well as a Civics class in an Alaska community college.

You see Sarah…I don’t despise you. Your popularity baffles me and I hope that my country will never have to live thru another term like we were given with George W. Bush…TWICE. We deserve better than you, Sarah.

Margaret Chase Smith, for many years the only woman in the United States Senate, was once asked by a reporter what she would do if she woke up in the White House. Senator Smith replied, “I would apologize to the President’s wife and then go home.” Good advice someone might give to the Governor of Alaska.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!

July 4, 2009

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:46:44 +0100

In recent months, increasingly more people are saying that they no longer read the daily newspapers, including the New York Times. They are gaining their news or information from the internet and television. The rationalization is that they “don’t have time” to sit down and read a newspaper.

This is of great concern because this is not an isolated sentiment and is in evidence in the apparent thinness of several editions of the New York Times. Because advertisers have dramatically shifted from print to various recent and trendy technological outlets, the daily print media is evaporating.

The once bulky classified ad section of the Times, just a decade ago, has nearly vanished. Job and apartment ads, to say nothing of car sales, are winding its way elsewhere. The economic reality is that newspapers across the country are folding or looking like Jenny Craig graduates. The death knoll of daily papers is increasing and those remaining are in serious difficulty, the pages fewer and smaller.

What is the fallout from this?

Let’s start with the New York Times, my major source of news and enlightened opinion for half a century. There is a substantial difference between the thoughtful columns of the Times and the glib talking heads inflicted on us while viewing CNN and Fox News. The columns of Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, and Gail Collins at the Times, along with the daily editorials and the provocative and often informative letters to the editor, provide political nourishment that is not matched elsewhere.

Television news slant seems calculated to shock and to hold our attention. They’ll do almost anything to avert your finger from going towards the television remote. Advertising dollars are based on ratings and the remote control is television’s continual challenge.

During the last week, any casual viewing of television news saw relentless, often tasteless coverage of Michael Jackson’s life and death. The reports were excessive, intrusive and often self-serving for the reporters who seemed to be in an endless contest to locate people who were measuring their closeness to the late performer. Or they wanted to convey how he influenced their lives. These pointless features had less to do with Michael Jackson and more to do with using his celebrity to position themselves. Then, of course, came the speculation about his death with implications of sinister or criminal aspects. Anything to keep you focused on the station…

The New York Times certainly gave appropriate space to the life and death of Michael Jackson but not at the expense of everything else happening in the world. Stories about a proposed national health plan, congressional debates on the energy bill, and stories of Iraq and Iran held their place in the paper of record. Television news seems to have captured and cemented the worst of tabloid journalism and made it the means to inform and misguide the American public.

Twenty-first century technology has brought an avalanche of gadgets for providing news, but as the woman in the New Yorker cartoon noted, “If this is the information age, why doesn’t anyone know anything?”

When “BREAKING NEWS” flashes before us it usually means that a crime took place somewhere, anywhere, with the implicit “If it bleeds, it leads” that is yellow journalism’s mantra.

I recall a time not so long ago, when sitting in a subway car you could watch New Yorkers reading – mostly newspapers, sometimes a book. That sight hardly exists today. The earphones are plugged in and the toes are tapping. Information is not relevant and I suspect that there are power brokers who prefer it that way.

An uninformed vox populi is easier to manipulate than a well-informed public. There are pockets of enlightenment on TV: Jon Stewart provides it with humor on “The Daily Show” and Charlie Rose, Sixty Minutes, and Bill Moyers offer an alternative to the daily nonsense from cable news and the locals at 6 o’clock.

What happens to a nation with an uninformed population? Ask friends, relatives and yourself about who represents you locally and nationally. Do you know where your elected officials stand on various bread-and-butter issues and deeply complex matters such as campaign reform that can determine the outcome of all issues before the legislatures? CNN charts rarely go there and Fox pundits are so determined to protect the world of Reagan, Bush and Cheney that they are irrelevant…dangerous, but irrelevant.

Stations like WBAI have an increasing responsibility – as do the few outlets of civility and commitment that remain. But most are not up to the task as they are either financially strapped or caught up in their own internal maze.

I am deeply concerned about the media trend in our country and see the most sinister aspects of corporate American delighted that less and less information is forthcoming. Albany’s recent senatorial antics have been painted as a circus in the media, but as Tom Robbins points out in the Voice this week, it is a well-choreographed smokescreen that allows landlords a means of blocking progressive legislation that benefits hundreds of thousands New Yorkers…just one example of how misreported information intrudes on the democratic process.

Unplug your earphones America or suffer the consequences.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!

June 13, 2009

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:53:41 +0100

If you look northward towards Albany, I’m not sure if we should laugh or cry. What is happening with the state government is difficult to define…part Greek tragedy, part Marx Brothers movie.

Whatever it is, let me alert you to one thing…follow the money.

The Democrats, in total power for the first time in nearly four decades, were positioned to make dramatic and progressive changes in the state. Then Governor Spitzer with an impressive prosecutorial history was exposed by a sexual dalliance. I suspect that his relentless investigations of Wall Street players prompted a careful scrutiny of his every move which led to revealing his extramarital sexual activities. Spitzer, I can assure you, is not the lone incumbent participating in nefarious sexual escapades…but he became a target for the abused Wall Street charlatans. In hindsight the irony is that Spitzer’s probing of bankers, hedge-funders and other Wall Street elite, proved to be painfully accurate. As the nation’s economy collapsed, Spitzer’s adventures seemed to be prophetic and more profound than his entry onto Emily’s list.

Now, today, or last week, the governor’s position, the Senate and the Assembly belonged to the Democrats and big changes were being promised. The Rockefeller Drug laws were at least amended and there were other progressive legislation in the works, affecting tenants’ rights, gay marriage, and an increased taxing of the wealthiest to provide solutions for 99% of New Yorkers. That’s the money you might want to follow.

It all collapsed with the news that two Democratic senators have left the fold – and though it is difficult to figure out who is in charge, the Democrats aren’t.

We hear that Thomas Golisano, self-serving billionaire and a frequent candidate for Governor, is behind the dilution of the Democratic majority. Golisano grabbed some headlines last month when he announced that he might move to Florida to avoid New York State taxes, a protest against the threat to levy our richest citizens. Apparently, Golisano, with enough money to live in unbridled luxury for the rest of his life…and for his children and his children’s children lives…resented giving back to the government. His tax increases won’t affect his living style one iota. His splendid and charmed life would remain in place; but apparently he feels that the country that afforded him all of these opportunities shouldn’t continue to provide schools, libraries, roads and medical care for the rest of us. Taxpayers enriched Golisano by supporting his economic ventures and now he wants to change the process.

Who knows what Mr. Golisano has offered or promised the new renegades, Democratic senators Hiram Monseratte and Pedro Espada, prompting them to seek a revised Senate chamber? Queens Senator Monseratte, on a recent TV interview, sounded like a mix of Joan of Arc and Humpty Dumpty, stating that he is motivated only to serve New Yorkers in the best way he knows now. The Senator, a former New York City cop, you might recall, was indicted for stabbing his female companion with a piece of shattered glass. That case, with all of its costs, is pending.

The other Senator, the Bronx’s Pedro Espada who lives in Mamaroneck, is more camera-shy, since his appearance would always prompt questions about his fiscal machinations including a recent $60,000 fine for ignoring state laws on disclosing campaign contributions. The New York Times reports that Mr. Espada had clashed with Democrats over housing legislation that was promised to tenant advocates.

Mr. Espada, chairman of the Housing Committee, has delayed introducing the pro-tenant legislation. Landlords view him as their best Democratic friend in the Senate.

One can only wonder what Mr. Golisano, irate about the prospect of added taxes for the wealthiest of our citizens, has promised the dollar-strapped incumbent, Mr. Monseratte and Mr. Espada, one with criminal law costs, the other with campaign fines in his path.

The TV pundits and the tabloids will focus on the madcap absurdity in Albany calling it a circus or madhouse. What might be overlooked is that old political axiom: FOLLOW THE MONEY. Golisano and the landlords have the bucks to compromise the marginal members of the legislative body, and when they are morally corrupt and financially needy ignore the jokes and the jabs…and insist that your local reporters dig into the real story and FOLLOW THE MONEY.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!

May 30, 2009

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:40:13 +0100

A few weeks ago a listener called me – off-air – and railed about my views on criminal justice. “What about the victim?" he shouted, sounding as though he’d made an original accusation. “Don’t you care about the victims?” he repeated.

In the more than 40 years since the Fortune Society began, that cry has been bellowed at me…usually sanctimoniously…as if the accuser had made an original allegation, and was blessed with saintliness.

I often want to respond “What have you done about victims and victimization lately?” But tempting as that is, it would be avoiding the issue and just making it personal. I have found that the accusers when probed are usually advocates of stiff punishment and a throw-away-the-key philosophy, with little thought of the implications and our failed prison system.

In fact, over the years, many colleagues and I have been involved with victims’ organizations and at joint meetings of people who have been imprisoned and people who have been victimized. The truth and reconciliation progress in South Africa, after the legal end of apartheid, has had pockets of emulators on these shores. Some of those gatherings have been startling, revealing, and often tear-filled. Cleansing and healing sessions have never been popular with people who claim to be law and order advocates…who voice concern for victims.

Any careful assessment of our prison system reveals that it is a major factor in the continuation of violence and crime. It barely breaks cycles.

At the Fortune Society, where we are witness to people dramatically reshaping their lives, you can often hear men and women express the sentiment that they know they cannot undo the damage that has been part of their past but they can live their lives each day with new-found values and work with others who have been released from prison after them. They recognize that the real fight against crime and for decreasing the number of future victims begins when you create an atmosphere – a space – where people can explore the possibility of something different and positive in their lives. Change is not easy, and it comes slowly…but it can come.

Recently, on this program, my colleague Angel Ramos spoke eloquently on the subject of remorse – a word tossed glibly about in the tabloids and shock TV shows. Angel has said that he privately lives each day with the enormity of what brought him into prison – but that remorse can’t be merely a word expressed to convince others of a changed attitude. He stated that remorse is what he does with each of his remaining days – not by words, but by how he lives his life. Angel can speak for himself, but I have seen him as a concerned counselor at the Fortune Society working with men and women released after he was, and giving them guidance and support so that they can reinvent their lives.

In the play The Castle, as part of an ensemble he reaches out to offer strangers a glimpse of what can be overcome. Last week, I joined Angel and others at a national anti-violence conference – a group with which he had become involved while still incarcerated. Caring about victims and victimization, Angel has taught me is not showing remorse by a tear, a grimace or a well-phrased statement. It is what you do, how you live your life, each day, every day…not of interest to those who want pat solutions and a sound-bite.

The great failure of our prison system in America is that it takes men and women accused and convicted of antisocial acts, conduct often nurtured by drug and alcohol abuse, and place them in an environment which rarely confronts what they did, why they did it and what avenues should be taken to avoid repetition. In fact, jails and prisons are designed to nurture the very behavior that leads anyone into the life of an exile. To survive in most prisons, you have to practice the behavior that brought you there. And the drugs and alcohol to numb the sensibilities are easily obtainable.

We then expect an individual to return to society with a new awareness. We are not ready to forgive but we expect a changed attitude and behavior as we enforce job and housing restrictions, reinforcing the alienation. Little is done in prison to prepare anyone to function upon their return to the streets. All decision-making has been removed, and the outside world has become a puzzle. That, teamed with suppressed rage, brings the anticipated result, which we describe with statistics about recidivism. It takes time and commitment to examine and explore the institutional failings, prisons and jails…to see how alienation is created and nurtured in the home, on the streets, in the schools, and eventually, the prison system.

As bleak as it sounds, it is not a hopeless situation. In the four decades that the Fortune Society has existed, I have been witness to hundreds, or rather thousands, of men and women who have reclaimed their lives. Learning how to care about and for one's self is the first step before sympathy for others can be achieved. Institutional life often means a suppression of feelings and those layers must be peeled away. It is essential to create a space that challenges and supports people who want something different. To meet each week with the 60 residents at the Castle, the Fortune Academy, is to see all that is possible. It happens in slow motion. There is no single dramatic transition.

In the play The Castle, Caz Torres says when he first came to the Fortune Society he was motivated by the promise of a free metrocard.; he wasn’t ready for change and he spent some more time in Riker’s Island. But, he tells the audience, when he returned the second time, he no longer just wanted a metrocard, he wanted his life.

It is that simple and that complex…all at once.

There are victims and there are victims. We have to do a better job with our social problems than anonymous shout outs. It takes work, time, and caring. But it is possible. We just have to want it.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!

May 23, 2009

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:39:18 +0100

Last Sunday afternoon, I was propped before my TV set – hand on the remote – prepared to alternate between the Lakers - Houston NBA playoff game and the Yankee - Minnesota baseball encounter.

Tip-off was moments away and a phone call alerted me that Obama’s Notre Dame speech was going live. I surfed and found the talking heads at CNN and Fox. I stayed with CNN. Sports would have to wait for the evening wrap-ups. CNN was offering a predictable debate of the camera focused on the incoming graduates in the commencement hall, South Bend. Various professorial types were talking and there was a glimpse of the valedictorian.

But CNN – before the President was to speak – was more interested in the polarizing opinions about abortion. Cable TV is convinced that the only way to hold their audience is for heads screaming at us, assuming opinions that are diametrically opposed. The cameras also went outside the hall, locating protestors, mostly non-students who had invaded the college town…a roundup of the usual suspects, media whores who knew the tricks to gain 15 seconds of national viewing. Not folks you would like to hang with. And the TV news stations always accommodate the most extreme, if often inarticulate, advocates on either side of an issue.

I briefly switched to Fox News and the pro-egg voices were combat ready. The two major cable news networks were setting the stage for an acrimonious graduation ceremony.

And the President of the United States was introduced to the graduating seniors. He was calm, self-assured and clear. He offered sound counsel to the young men and women at Notre Dame who were entering a post-collegiate life amidst economic uncertainty. Then he approached the subject of life and a woman’s right to choose.

It was a healing speech…vintage Obama…suggesting that people with different perspectives on a subject could find common ground. He called for creating a society in which fewer women would opt for an abortion, for widening the adoption pool and providing health care for expectant mothers. It was not a view that would satisfy most pro-egg people…but he was creating room for the less volatile to participate in the dialogue. He cautioned the students about gaining their information exclusively from cable news.

The audience – and there were thousands filling the hall in addition to the graduating body – were warmly, even enthusiastically receptive and cheered the President continuously during his oration. There were two single cases of shouting out by protestors whose words could not be understood and who were peacefully escorted away by security guards. It was like a pimple on an elephant and hardly a factor in this historic speech. If you only watched Obama talk on TV, you would have witnessed a beautiful and profound presentation with humor and wisdom, greeted with continued applause from the appreciative throng.

The moment President Obama concluded his speech we were thrust back into the dark world of cable news. It’s a Dick Cheney world...suspicious and grim. The CNN anchor concentrated on the two men exiled and the cameras swirled to hysterical placard holders off campus.

I wanted to leave the world of CNN and in my desperation found myself in the world of Fox TV whose team of talking heads, including GOP chair Michael Steele, were all ignoring the efforts of the President to find common ground. They were combative and revealing a predictable and theatrical anger.

The afternoon was a textbook example of media creating their own event…as though the President of the United States accepting honors from a prestigious university and not sidestepping the thorny issue of a woman’s right to choose wasn’t sufficient.

The commentaries on Fox and CNN had little to do with the news of the day: the President speech or his effort to calmly lead the nation by involving us and informing us about a provocative and prickly issue.

Cable news is determined to divide us; sell fear, keep us tuned and they can sell more drugs like Viagra or that male enhancement pill that keeps the comics alert.

I have found a solution for me. I will watch the hard news and then silence the lineup of heads. I don’t understand CNN charts or fascination with electronic wizardry; nor do I learn anything from the constantly discontented array of Fox kvetches.

Last Sunday crystallized it for me. To convince myself, later that evening I checked the channels again. Learned a great deal about Miss California and a missing child in a Midwestern mall; heard of several ghoulish crimes and saw endless shots and interviews with screaming protestors in and around Notre Dame. The President’s speech, which moved, inspired and informed me, was a sound bit – not worth the attention of Fox’s Roger Ailes and his CNN counterpart.

At a time when we are being told that newspapers are dinosaurs and that their days are numbered, I am chilled by what we are getting in their place. There was a cartoon in the New Yorker…a woman in front of a roomful of TV monitors and computers laments “If this is the information age, why doesn’t anyone know anything?”

I don’t assume that the old ways are always the best, but I also recognize that change is not necessarily progress. How we receive our information is vital in sustaining our democracy. In that arena, it is as perilous as the economy…with no bailout in sight!

We deserve better.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!

May 9, 2009

Sat, 16 May 2009 18:56:23 +0100

You don’t have to be an economist to recognize GREED or a social scientist to realize that people who have prospered most from America’s opportunities are the most resistant to provide financial resources to restore the nation’s strength and health.

That is the sum and substance of our current economic situation, inherited by President Obama…a condition nurtured by Ronal Reagan and both Bushes – Daddy and particularly, Baby Bush.

As reported earlier this week President Obama called for a halt to offshore tax havens and corporate tax breaks. It is estimated that billions of dollars would be gained from the wealthiest Americans and multinational corporations.

But why are the people who have profited billions the most recalcitrant in giving back…to keep the nation strong, with tax dollars for schools, hospitals, libraries, police and fire departments…the crux of our thriving democracy. The top 2% in the economic hierarchy have enough dollars to provide them every luxury for the rest of their lives and their children’s lives. How much is being hoarded in the Cayman Islands and Swiss banks…and WHY?

Generous gifts are made to elected officials who protect their tax breaks but few are challenged about why they want their money amassed offshore…when it could be part of sustaining America. These are the folks who define patriotism with lapel flags and maneuver to shortchange the government.

If you read the business pages of the Times or the Wall Street Journal, you discover daily that another financial manipulator has been indicted…men with millions, if not billions, risking their freedom with the lust for more. It exposes two things. One is a sense of entitlement that they can get away with whatever they want because they always have…from frat house antics to business manipulations with political protection, and because they want more… massive accumulations…just to have it. All part of the game…

Let’s turn to Yankee Stadium because it is easier to identify greed when it is at home plate. They have built a new edifice which now has a shocking display of empty seats around first and third bases…the choice locations going for some $1,500 a seat, per game…some are more expensive.

The Yankees have made fools of us and local politicians have been a part of it. They made demands and threatened to leave the Bronx. For where? Tulsa? Salt Lake City? Yankee big money is made from their television deals in the nation’s most lucrative market, the metropolitan New York area. If they never sold a ticket the Yankees would show a profit from their TV deals. But they convinced the power brokers that a new ballpark was needed…as schools and hospitals much older than the stadium went unattended. Various tax abatements were awarded so Steinbrenner could build a new home and emulate the stadiums being created in Texas, Arizona and California with ostentatious bars and restaurants, waterfalls and, most vital of all, luxury boxes for corporate CEOs who entertain their guests and pay big dollars for their ugly displays of wealth…having little or nothing to do with the love of baseball, the American pastime, or so we thought.

Stadiums are now named for banks and sodas, and stores that sell paperclips and rubber bands. The corporations contribute to the political incumbents who reward them with tax breaks and their stadiums become the icing on the cake. Sports have become a national rip-off. Players take steroids so they can compete in the dollar chase…big muscles mean more homeruns and larger contracts. The TV reporters covering the game never tell the truth about the stadiums but demonize the players, replaceable fall guys in the merry-go-round. It’s all of a piece.

So Yankee Stadium opened this season, celebrated in the press and on TV, with a smaller seating capacity than the old ballpark. But it opened during a recession and the rush for luxury boxes and expensive seats was curtailed. The Yankees have been left with an embarrassment of empty, expensive seats. The YES TV cameras are doing gymnastics to avoid showing the wide open empty spaces.

The entire Yankee Stadium construction plan is a disgrace. Subway fares will go up while Mr. Steinbrenner gets a tax break. To build the new stadium they decimated parks used by neighborhood kids which have yet to be replaced because of the “fiscal crunch.” The man on the street who traditionally found relaxation and fun at the ballpark has been priced out.

During the upcoming mayoral election all candidates will talk with pride about rooting for and supporting the home teams…another form of “patriotism” used on the public to hide the lies and deceit.

This is particularly hard for those of us who cling to our childhood memories of ballgames when we cheered our favorites and felt part of something grand and healthy. Mr. Steinbrenner and the political aristocracy of this city have it taken away.

Call it ostentation or elitism or just conspicuous consumption. But if you want to define sports in NYC today, one word will do it. It’s GREED.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!

May 2, 2009

Sat, 16 May 2009 18:52:22 +0100

As long as there are individuals or groups perceived as disposable, our democracy is compromised.

That was certainly the heart and soul of the Civil Rights struggle in the 1960’s…the fact that an entire segment of our population was segregated by law was a contradiction to every concept of human decency, to say nothing of a nation that boasts of its democratic principles. It is difficult for young people today to imagine that – by law – we had segregated movie theatres and public toilets…and schools, and voting restrictions. I mention the last two – schools and voting rights – because the laws have changed but de facto segregation and restrictions still exist. It attempts to marginalize people of color.

A series of events took place this past week which has prompted me to focus on the outrageous reality that there are people viewed as disposable, by law or by policy.

I listened to the near hysteria on all the news programs about swine flu, hearing words like pandemic and carnage…the Vice President sounding foolish…and the TV pundits vying to see who could paint the gloomiest forecast. I recalled the early days of AIDS…when there were no reports on air…just rumors of deaths. It was called GRID – Gay Related Immune Deficiency. We were at least four years into the epidemic and activists had convinced the CDC in Atlanta to rename it as AIDS. The New York Times had one inside page story in four years. The president of the United States had never mentioned the disease until Elizabeth Taylor implored him to focus on it after Rock Hudson’s death. The mayor of the city of New York distanced himself in those early days, fearful of being an advocate for a disease striking the gay population. Thousands were infected and hundreds had died and there was no media babble or political warnings. The people identified with AIDS were viewed as a disposable population, without political power. In addition to gay men, drug users were being cited as the target population – another disposable group. What took place, though, was that AIDS prompted people in the gay community to organize and reveal political muscle. Candidates were invited to forums attended by hundreds of people and thousands marched and demonstrated. Gay men and lesbians began running for office and today there are openly homosexual officials at every level in almost every state this side of Idaho.

This week, I also attended a forum after the showing of a movie at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film Making of the Boys is a documentary about the ground-breaking 1968 play, The Boys in the Band. The panel following the film included the playwright Mart Crowley and actor Larry Luckinbill. But it also included Village Voice columnist Michael Musto and Carson Kressley, a ubiquitous television personality first seen on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Though they talked about oppression and discrimination against gay people, the latter two, Messrs. Musto and Kressley have successful careers as openly gay men. In fact, “being gay” is their careers.

They made me think about another group, perceived as disposable…still disposable even in Obama Time. The men and women who have been in prison are still identified in the press, and politically, by the crime that sent them to prison, no matter how long ago and no matter what they have achieved since then. I have worked with formerly incarcerated people for over four decades, and I have also worked in the business world. I still get angry at the judgments and exclusions imposed on the formerly incarcerated…exclusions by law or by policy that limit full participation in our society. It affects employment, housing and voting rights.

I mention that I have worked in the business world…and that is significant, because I have witnessed and been victim of people who rob, cheat and steal as part of the business world reality. It is not resolved by threats of prison…but lawyers and lawsuits dominate. There are the occasional Bernie Madoffs – an extreme but not atypical example of business values. In this time of recession, it is being defined as GREED but it is often based on illegal and unlawful acts. I have worked with men and women who have done time for drug use and drug sales…and I have been at homes in East Hampton and on Park Avenue, where cocaine is sold and used, and described as a recreation drug…far different from the crack cocaine which sends Black youth to prison: Different standards, by political definition, and different sentencing.

The formerly incarcerated are marginalized, stereotyped and discriminated against. These men and women are mostly, but not always, from backgrounds of poverty and deprivation and view prison as an inevitable part of the life experience… because being poor and from a minority group has been traditionally viewed as disposable in our courtrooms.

Today, we have a bright young President, who toiled in the field as a community organizer. So now is the time for a national dialogue and action program to identify people and groups who are systematically tossed aside…viewed as disposable…and bring them back into our land of the free and home of the brave.

This is a plan that cannot be privatized. There are no profits at the end of the day in bringing as many people to the table as possible. That would make democracy more than a slogan or symbolized by a lapel pin. We might then realize that the word profit has multiple meanings.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!

April 25, 2009

Sat, 16 May 2009 18:41:58 +0100

I have a few impertinent questions I would like to pose…and like jesting Pilate, I’ll wait not for an answer and provide them myself.

For example, as I listen to reports about would-be Texas secessionists protesting against the Obama stimulus package or anything else he does, I want to ask them if they have any idea what their tax burden would be if they assumed independence. Let me answer that for the Texans…but first couldn’t you have suggested secession before Bush and Cheney, two Lone Star favorite sons took office? You would have had much support…but, back to the question.

There would be no federal money available to you so you’d have to tax Texans for your military, police forces, fire departments, schools, hospitals, libraries, and prisons. Then there is the expensive cost for executions and you are currently leading the nation in that department. And you’d have to pay for the fence all by yourself, protecting yourself from “invading” South and Central Americans. And when a hurricane or tornado wipes out a town, you won’t be able to look to Washington for immediate help. Also, because you might have been so effective in blocking immigration to the states you might have difficulty visiting mishbuka in Oklahoma.

After all, we don’t want all those foreigners filling up our roads and bridges. My two concerns are that the Dallas Cowboys remain in the NFL and the San Antonio Spurs stay with the NBA. You all would need visas to see your teams at away games. Other than that, a part of me would like to get rid of the state that gave us Bush, Cheney, Tom DeLay, Dick Armey and a few other scoundrels. So, all in all, adios amigos.

Question two surfaced when I heard that a collection of Notre Dame alumni were protesting President Obama being selected to receive an honorary degree from Football Tech…because of his stance on abortion. My question is when did the university become a one-issue institution? It is curious because Notre Dame did honor Obama’s predecessor, a man who created a war based on lies. Does the killing of civilians not offend the religious dogma of their principled alumni? I would also like to ask the Notre Dame purists if they do a litmus test on abortion for Saturday afternoon quarterbacks, linebackers, and running backs, or if that is only a restriction placed on Democrats and African-Americans? Lots of questions for the South Bend Philistines.

And then there are questions for Dick Cheney who, after 8 years as a key strategist in the atrocious administration which has nearly destroyed my country, has the unmitigated gall to become a TV critic of the Obama administration…just three months after the current President began the arduous assignment of unraveling the incompetence and immorality that preceded him. My question to Darth Vader, in response to his statement that the use of torture saved American lives, is this: Cheney, have you examined the hundreds of cases in which prison inmates were found innocent based on DNA testing? Many of them confessed to crimes they did not commit…because people will say anything to end their torture and get out of that room. Would Mr. Former Vice President agree to coming into a closed room with agents and discussing the shooting of a colleague while on a hunting trip? Dick, I bet we could get you to confess to attempted murder with just a few hours in a room with some experts on torture. Wanna try it? And that is a question.

And from the ridiculous Dick Cheney to the sublime New York Yankees and their spiffy new stadium. Michael Kay and his collection of old time players on the Yes Network have practically been orgasmic in praising the new playing grounds…and told us of the sumptuous players’ lounge, making it sound like the Taj Mahal, with virtually everything you needed right there! On our tax dollars. But the Sunday Times ran a story, unreported by the Yes cheerleaders and that was about the high school kids whose playing field was removed for the building of the new stadium.

What happened to all those athletic fields and parks that were promised for the Bronx kids? The Yankees were to get the tax breaks and the kids were to get improved fields of play. It hasn’t worked out that way. The Times finally reported on something we all saw and that was the rows of empty seats around first and third base. Along with the palatial internal appointment and the unaffordable prices, the Yankees have made baseball a treat for the privileged. The stadium was built with an eye on those corporations which buy luxury boxes but that crashed head-on with the economic downspin. One of my questions is: Why don’t the Yankees fill those empty seats with neighborhood kids who lost their playing fields and can’t afford the price of a ticket. I think I know the answer to that one but I would love to hear the official word…if someone would only ask.

I have a great many more questions…but this will satisfy my curiosity for now…as I await responses from Texas Governor Perry, the Notre Dame alumni, Dick Cheney, and George Steinbrenner or Michael Kay.

In the meantime, I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!