Friday, December 15, 2006
Rumsfeld Honored at Pentagon, Bids Farewell
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Thursday, December 14, 2006
Dictatorships & Double Standards, by Jeane Kirkpatrick
Why the New Right Lost February 1977
U.S. Security & Latin America January 1981
How the PLO Was Legitimized July 1989
LAMAR HUNT: 1932-2006
| Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt dies | |||
 Hunt's Chiefs won Super Bowl IV. (AP) | Kansas City owner Lamar Hunt, who came up with the term "Super Bowl," died Wednesday night from prostate cancer. He was 74. Story  Reaction: Remembered as an innovator Snapshot: The man through the years | ||
Stories
• Pioneering Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt dies at 74
• Clayton: Hunt always had common touch
• Luksa: Humble Hunt never afraid to think big
• Dell'Apa: Hunt a quiet pioneer of U.S. soccer
• Thoughts and reactions on Lamar Hunt
Video
• Lamar Hunt passes away at age 74 
Timeline
• Lamar Hunt through the years
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
The Power of the Press
The media is in need of some mending.
BY PETER R. KANN
Wednesday, December 13, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
BY PETER R. KANN
Wednesday, December 13, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
Thomas Jefferson, a better president than we've had in a very long time, penned a line back in 1787: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I would not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." By 1807, in his seventh year as president and after seven years of being subjected to severe press criticism, he wrote: "I deplore the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity and the mendacious spirit of those who write them."
You'll be relieved to know that Jefferson did remain true to his primary principle: "The press," he concluded, "is an evil for which there is no remedy. Liberty depends upon freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost." He was right then, and we are right now, to prefer a free press, however flawed, to any controlled alternative. Still, as we watched CNN flashing its pre-election logos each day--"Broken Borders," "Broken Government," "Broken Politics," Broken Everything--I can't help thinking the media, too, is in need of some mending.
At its best news informs and enlightens the citizens of a free society and thereby safeguards and strengthens our democracy. At its worst--dishonest, unfair, irresponsible--the media has potential to erode the public trust on which its own success depends and to corrode the democratic system of which it is so indispensably a part. So, let me touch on 10 current trends in the mass media that ought to disturb us.
The blurring of the lines between journalism and entertainment. Journalism that puts too high a priority on entertaining is almost destined to distort and mislead. Compounding this confusion is a diffusing definition of "journalist." When political operatives moonlight at moderating news shows, when people alternate between being political editors and political consultants, when celebrity newspeople pocket $20,000 fees speaking at corporate conventions while criticizing congressman for conflicts of interest--we jumble public perceptions of newspeople as well as news.
The blurring of lines between news and opinion. Newspapers have a format that helps maintain the distinction. The Internet, TV and most magazines have neither that format nor that tradition. The result is a blending of news and views. The two are not ingredients to mix together for a tastier meal, they are different courses. Part of the problem here lies in fashionable new philosophies that argue there are no basic values of right and wrong, that news is merely a matter of views. It's a dangerous philosophy for our society and a dagger at the heart of genuine journalism.
The blending of news and advertising, sponsorships or other commercial relationships. The resulting porridges may be called "advertorials" or "infomercials"; they may be special sections masquerading as news, news pages driven by commercial interests, or Web pages where everything somehow is selling something. Without clear distinctions between news and advertising, readers or viewers lose confidence in the veracity of a news medium. And advertisers lose the business benefit of an environment of trust.
The problems and pitfalls inherent in pack journalism. Individually, most reporters are decent, dedicated, fair-minded people. But the press, en masse, tends to lose its common sense and its sense of fairness and independence and what we see all too often is the spectacle of a pack of hounds in pursuit of a quarry. We frequently see this phenomenon in political reporting, where the faintest whiff of scandal, or even of weakness, can send the pack in pursuit. At its worst, the pack, not finding a real problem, proclaims the "perception" of one and this perception becomes self-fulfilling.
The issue of conflict and context. On most issues most Americans are not on polar extremes. On abortion, for example, most seek a sensible center. Where is that center reflected in media coverage that mainly portrays rabid feminists or irate pro-life activists? Balance is not achieved by the talk show format of two extremists yelling at each other. And how many of us recognize our own communities from their depiction on local TV news shows--a nonstop montage of mayhem, murder, rape, arson, child molestation and more?
The exaggerated tendency toward pessimism. Just look back a few years over much of the media coverage of "American competitiveness." All those news magazine covers on the coming "Japanese Century." And along with it, all the pessimism about the ability of U.S. industry to compete globally. It was nonsense. Similarly, it's one thing--and an appropriate one--for the press to probe particular instances of political corruption. It's quite another thing to jump to the cynical conclusion that our political process, and all politicians, are corrupted--that "they all do it." They don't, and they aren't. Skepticism and criticism are essential to the media's role; reflexive pessimism is not.
The growing media fascination with the bizarre, the perverse and the pathological--John Mark Karr journalism. Such so-called journalism helps instantly legitimize crackpot ideas, deviant behavior, or alleged victimization in our society. My point is not to argue for "good news" vs. "bad news," but to ask whether much of this amounts to news at all?
Social orthodoxy, or political correctness. These are reflected in a media whose job is not to parrot prevailing fashions, but to question, probe and thereby challenge them. Businessmen are not, by definition, greedy, and environmentalists, by definition, saintly. Third World poverty is not, by definition, a result of overpopulation as opposed to inane economic policies. And so on.
The media's short attention span. As the press hops from Baghdad to Beirut, Natalee Holloway to Valerie Plame, Super Bowls to Super Tuesdays, it justifiably can blame some combination of the nature of the news and the short attention span of the public. The public, meanwhile, bombarded and bewildered can blame a fickle and shallow press. There are too many instant celebrities. Too many two-day crises. Too many "defining moments" from people in search of instant history. In a world where everything is considered critical, nothing needs to be taken very seriously.
The matter of power. The press is at least partially responsible for greater public skepticism toward traditional institutions in America. But the truth, not lost on our public, is that the press is a large and powerful institution, too: "60 Minutes" is more powerful than almost all of the subjects it exposes. This newspaper, arguably, has more influence on national economic policy than do most corporations. Networks are owned by giant industrial corporations, magazines by entertainment conglomerates, and most newspapers by national chains. Given these realties, we cannot plausibly pretend to be a David out there smiting Goliaths and expect the public to believe it.
Mr. Kann, a Pulitzer-winning journalist, is chairman of Dow Jones.Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Monday, December 11, 2006
Here's why Davey belongs in Cooperstown
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 | FRANK KIMMEL/Post file photo |
| Dave Concepcion's defense made up for shortcomings of the Big Red Machine. | |
It's past time to put Concepción in Hall, by Marty Brennanman
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 | ENQUIRER FILE |
| Reds icon Dave Concepción tips his hat after being introduced during end-of-game ceremonies after the final Reds game at Cinergy Field on Sept 22, 2002. | |
The US counter-terror nerve centre
| By Frank Gardner Security correspondent, BBC News |
In a Washington suburb, I am on a journey. No address, no postcode.
Just the phone number of a US government official known only as "T".
After months of requests, he has granted us permission to visit one of America's newest and most secret establishments: the National Counterterrorism Center, the NCTC.
It is a nondescript building, but inside is the beating heart of America's counter-terrorism nerve centre.
"This is where we maintain a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week operational watch in the counter-terrorism intelligence community and monitor situational awareness in the world of CT [counter-terrorism]," says Vice Admiral Don Loren, one of the watch officers in the Operations Room.
The Operations Room is a large open-plan chamber filled with desks and computer terminals.
But today it is almost empty. Because we are media, all the undercover agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency who would normally sit here have been moved out of sight.
But up on the wall is a giant plasma screen showing every plane approaching the United States.
"Right now, you're looking at the Eastern Seaboard air corridor, and we use that to monitor events of special interest and to keep an eye should there be any reports of what we call no-fly activity," Vice Adm Loren says.
A "no-fly" means a plane with a passenger suspicious enough that the flight can even get turned back over the mid-Atlantic.
In everyone's minds is the thought: "9/11, never again."
Enormous data flow
The NCTC is also intended to remedy the sort of information blockages that led to 9/11.
When it was set up two years ago, they brought in the "imagineers" from Hollywood - experts on sharing information.
The movements of every plane approaching the US are monitored
The data flow here is enormous: more than 6,000 reports come through every day from satellite, electronic and human intelligence sources.
When an incident happens, a "terror line" is created to pass the information to everyone who needs it.
Central to all this is the Briefing Room, where screens rise up like something out of a James Bond film.
This is the nerve centre of the US-led global "war on terror".
It is here in this room, three times a day, every day, that America's specialists in counter-terrorism gather to share information.
Vice Admiral Scott Redd
It brings in 16 agencies like the FBI, the CIA, Homeland Security as well as the White House, and has been described as a "stock exchange" for counter-terrorism intelligence.
The man in charge is almost unknown, yet he has one of the most sensitive jobs in the world.
Vice Admiral Scott Redd gives the president America's war plan on fighting terrorism.
"Before 9/11, agencies didn't talk to each other, now all counter terrorism information comes into NCTC," Vice Adm Redd says.
"We take that, we've created an electronic library, we have over six million pieces of CT info that can be accessed by over 6,000 counter-terrorism analysts around the world.
"So bringing that together has been very significant." 
Vice Adm Redd gives the president the war plan on fighting terrorism
But I put it to Vice Adm Redd that although America itself had not been attacked since 9/11, al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism appears to be as active as ever.
Did America's strategy go any deeper than tackling the symptoms?
"Obviously you want to stop an attack, but you don't want to stop an attack just in the nick of time," the NCTC director replied.
"You want to go after, you sort of work your way back, ultimately all the way back to the radicalisation/recruitment phase, proselytisation, with things like travel, the finances which underpin it, training, leadership, planning, typically more travel and then everything up to and including stopping the attacks."
The NCTC has 400,000 names in its database here.
It has five watch teams working 12-hour shifts and a vast electronic library.
But of course, despite all the technology and resources, none of this is guaranteed to stop terrorism.
Senior officials here admitted that this war could last another 40 years or more, and there will be defeats along the way.
Five watch teams work 12-hour shifts from this room
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