The Daily Grasshopper

It doesn't bother me that the Wall Street Journal is pro-war. I sort of expect that from the newspaper that caters to the 10 percent of Americans who collectively own 90 percent of the country's wealth. But do they have to be so gratuitously, unapologetically, in-your-face pro-war? The reason I ask is because their lead editorial today is entitled "War, What Is It Good For?"

Now, right off the bat, the choice of the title is a flagrant slap in the face to the memory of R&B artist Edwin Starr, who died yesterday, and whose biggest hit was a song called "War." I'm sure most of you remember the song, written at the height of the protests against the Vietnam War - and the refrain "Absolutely nothin'." It's OK with me if the editors of the Journal disagree with Starr, but to choose to eulogize him with an editorial that purports to lay out the economic benefits to this country of the invasion of Iraq is beyond the pale. If there's a joke in there somewhere, I don't get it.

Here's part of what they wrote:

"Of course, the largest benefit - a more stable Mideast - is huge but unquantifiable. A second plus, lower oil prices, is somewhat more measurable. (Oil prices fell again yesterday on the prospect of victory.) The premium on 11.5 million barrels imported every day by the U.S. is a transfer from us to producing countries. Postwar, with Iraqi production back in the pipeline and calmer markets, oil prices will fall even further. If they drop to an average in the low $20s, the U.S. economy will get a boost of $55 billion to $60 billion a year...

But perhaps the best way to look at the economics of the war has been suggested by John Cogan. The Hoover Institution economist says the war is an investment. The proper question then becomes what resources are we willing to invest to achieve peace and stability, and a diminished threat from terrorism and terrorist-supporting states. At 1% of GDP, the war looks like a bargain."

I hardly know where to begin with this load of tripe. For one, I'm sure that their perch high above Wall Street affords the editors a view of "the economics of the war" that is quite unlike the view you get from a working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia or Baghdad. The wealthy don't have to worry about sending their sons and daughters off to die for "lower oil prices" or "a more stable Mideast" (which are two ways of saying the same thing). They get to sit back and assure us that "war is an investment." Probably it is, and a good one, too - if you have stock in ExxonMobil, Halliburton, United Technologies, Raytheon, Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas, or any of the other corporations that are cleaning up on this war.

Another problem is that a lot of people, including Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, are telling us that the war in Iraq will actually INCREASE, not "diminish" the "threat from terrorism" in this country. And now that the war is underway, it's becoming pretty clear that anti-American sentiment is off the charts in the Arab world, and that a prolonged battle for the capital of Iraq is going to send Osama Bin Laden and his ilk the legions of martyrs they've been looking for. With all due respect to Edwin Starr, war is good for one thing - creating more wars.

And while we're on the subject of cheerleaders for war, there's a report in today's New York Times "World Business" section that tells us "Murdoch Cleared to Buy Italian TV Venture." Which means that the "FOX-ification" of the world's news continues apace, thanks to Rupert Murdoch's ever-expanding media empire. You wonder why half the people in this country think Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the Sept. 11th attacks? Look no further than your local FOX affiliate.

It's not mentioned in the article, but the three main private TV channels in Italy are owned by none other than Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, meaning that the right-wing is well represented in the Italian media market. And although we're regularly told that "free markets" mean competition, which benefits the consumer, you'll notice that in reality "free markets" have resulted in near-monopolies in several important industries, media being only one of several examples. But a critical one - they decide what we see and hear. Here's part of the Times story:

"The European Commission said today that Rupert Murdoch could go ahead with his first major television venture in Continental Europe, the takeover of Telepił, an Italian satellite broadcaster that is losing money. But the commission imposed what analysts called extremely tough conditions.

The News Corporation, controlled by Mr. Murdoch, agreed last fall to buy Telepił for $970 million from Vivendi Universal, the French conglomerate, and merge it with Stream, a rival Italian channel run as a 50-50 joint venture of News Corporation and Telecom Italia, the dominant phone company in Italy.

Together, Stream and Telepił will have virtually the entire market for satellite pay TV in Italy. The European competition commissioner, Mario Monti, who is responsible for antitrust enforcement, told reporters today that he would have preferred to see competition among several companies, but the weak business environment permitted room for only one player to survive. Analysts said that if the deal had been blocked, Telepił would probably have closed.

'Our dilemma was to choose between the lesser of two evils,' Mr. Monti said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/03/business/worldbusiness/03RUPE.html

The "Daily Grasshopper" is just one of thousands of attempts being made to "democratize" the media in the face of this ongoing conglomeratization of media. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Our liberty depends on freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost." I want to take this opportunity to recognize a fellow Boston-based media activist, who was profiled in a story in today's Boston Globe. You can read the article here:

"WZBC host offers news with alternative views"
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/093/living/WZBC_host_offers_news_with_alternative_views+.shtml

His name is John Grebe, and he works at WZBC, which just happens to be the radio station at my alma mater - Boston College. I've had the good fortune to appear on John's show a couple of times, and I want to recognize the important work he's doing. He recently got Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" on the air in Boston, which was a coup for the local pro-democracy movement. He's one of many unsung heroes in the struggle for a more democratic media, so it was nice to see his name in today's Globe. Here's part of the profile of John:

"Where do you get your news? That's a question increasingly being asked as a skeptical public tries to sift through differing interpretations of events, particularly news of the Middle East. Do we trust Iraqi television reports or believe Pentagon briefings? Embedded -- and empathic [sic]-- journalists or cooler observers miles from the scenes of battle? For many of us, tuning in to several sources -- from public radio to CNN -- has become standard fare. For those who distrust mainstream media on the basis of its corporate ownership, alternative sources are increasingly important.

John Grebe, host of the WZBC-FM (90.3) radio show 'Sounds of Dissent,' has been airing some of those alternative voices for four years. Seeking to provide what he calls 'a variety of perspectives' on his Saturday noon-2 p.m. show, Grebe (an adult volunteer on the Boston College-based community station) presents what amounts to a weekly news summary, drawing on sources from the BBC and (on a recent week) Time magazine to various nongovernmental organizations such as the Center for Political and Economic Rights based in Washington, D.C."

John's goal, as stated in the article, is the same one I've claimed since I first started the "Grasshopper": "To encourage people to do their own critical thinking -- not to believe something just because it's published." You can catch "Democracy Now" on 'ZBC each day at noon. The website is http://www.wzbc.org.

So the warmongers can have their Wall Street Journal and their FOX News Network. As more and more Americans come to agree with the late Edwin Starr, that war is good for absolutely nothing, we will see the movement for media democracy, pioneered here in Boston by people like John Grebe, pick up strength along the way. It couldn't be happening at a more critical time.

PK
http://www.dailygrasshopper.com