Rick Tompkins
NEW YORK TIMES RACISM LAID BARE
Fri May 16 15:44:03 2003
204.189.23.19

[ This is yet another example of the "Vin stuff" that is only available at http://www.privacyalert.us  ]

NEW YORK TIMES RACISM LAID BARE

Media outlets nationwide are jumping on the story of recently fired 27-year-old New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, asking how the nation's supposedly "most esteemed" newspaper could not only hire, but tolerate for five years and repeatedly promote -- all the way to the prestigious national desk -- a reporter whose well-known "sloppiness" and factual errors are now revealed not to have been caused by mere carelessness and incompetence, but by fraud: Blair plagiarized current accounts from other newspapers, made stuff up, and lied outright about locales he supposedly "covered" for the Times ... but never even visited.

But where previously only one staffer was lying, the real crisis -- the still unreported crisis -- at the Times actually originated on May 11. Since that date, the entire Times senior editorial staff has engaged in prevarication, as they repeatedly deny the reason Blair's flaws were ignored is nothing less than racism: He was hired because he was black, and the Times editors cast a blind eye to his errors and prevarications because he was black, clearly implying, "What more can you expect from one of HIS kind?"

Now, award-winning 30-year newsman Vin Suprynowicz, author of books "The Ballad of Carl Drega" and "Send in the Waco Killers" (with its legendary chapter of acid media criticism, "The Courtesan Press: Eager Lapdogs to Tyranny") -- and editor of the monthly newsletter "Privacy Alert" -- not only blows the lid off the ongoing Times' double standard, but also asks whether the real reason Jayson Blair was fired is simply because he proved to be less sophisticated than his bosses in the Times' ongoing campaign to manufacture and manipulate the news.

You won't read it anywhere else, because no one else dares write it ... and, of course, because since Aug. 1, 2002, more than 80 percent of what Vin writes has appeared EXCLUSIVELY at Web site privacyalert.us (see http://www.privacyalert.us/20percent.htm  .)

Read "Making it up as they go along: The New York Times fires a young reporter for lack of sophistication in manipulating the news," RIGHT NOW, exclusively at ...
http://www.privacyalert.us/Features/Jayson-Blair-1300.htm


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WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT TAXES?
MoveOn Bulletin Editorial
by Peter Schurman, Executive Director, MoveOn.org

Taxes are part of the price we pay to live in America. If we are the greatest country on Earth, as politicians enjoy describing us, then surely that's worth something.

Nobody loves paying taxes, but we all rely on our fire departments and public safety officers.

We all benefit from good schools, not just those of us who are students, or who have kids. Schools are how we invest in our community, at both local and national levels. Schools open the door to career options for our neighbors, and provide skilled employees for our local businesses and our national workforce. And perhaps most importantly, they help develop an informed citizenry.

Everything we count on the government for -- keeping the air clean enough to breathe, making sure our water is safe to drink, sparing senior citizens a life-threatening choice between food and medicine, responding to public health emergencies like SARS -- depends on tax dollars.

Taxes are inevitable as long as we have a government. The only real question is who pays. This week, that question has been the subject of a raging debate on Capitol Hill. With the right wing in control of the House and Senate, the trend, sadly, has been toward tax cuts designed to help the very wealthy shirk their fair share of the burden. That means the rest of us, who are less able to pay, will nonetheless be stuck with a bigger chunk of the bill.

The articles in this week's bulletin explore the tradeoffs in the tax debate, and highlight some key facts. For example, the tax and budget cuts being considered would do almost nothing to stimulate the economy, and could even weaken it further. And the cutbacks facing our schools and other vital programs are not a byproduct of restraint, but are in fact the ideological goal of many conservative lawmakers.

We hope you find this week's bulletin informative. Thanks for reading.

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IT'S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Don Hazen, AlterNet
Bush is in similar straits as his dad was in 1992 -- soaring in polls after a victorious war against Iraq but unable to effectively manage or spark a recession-battered economy stuck in a "jobless recovery." But where his "read my lips" father was famously forced to raise taxes, the son is stubbornly sticking to an extreme conservative mantra: Spend more money on the military while cutting taxes for the wealthy and running a huge budget deficit. As this overview article shows, the only accomplishment of President Bush's tax cut will be to stimulate more economic inequality.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15917

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ACTUALLY, IT'S THE IDEOLOGY
Bob Burnett, AlterNet
Even Alan Greenspan and Bush's own appointees think this is the wrong time for tax cuts. In fact, no reputable economist supports the Administration's latest round of massive cuts. So why does the President continue to push the plan? Because he believes social programs should not exist. These cuts are a stealth initiative to diminish government at all levels: education, healthcare, public safety, aid to elderly and veterans, transportation and protection of the environment.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15902

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QUICK FACTS ON THE TAX CUTS
Fair Taxes For All
Got questions about President Bush's tax cut proposal? This fact sheet shows how the president's plan reflects the wrong priorities and could devastate the nation's ability to meet major challenges. For instance, the Administration itself projects that, under its budget, the national debt will climb to more than $5 trillion within five years -- at the very same time the baby boomers begin retiring.
http://www.fairtaxes4all.org/facts/quickfacts.shtml

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HOMECARE HURTING FOR FUNDS
Kari Lydersen, AlterNet
Workers and recipients of Illinois' home healthcare system deal with constant uncertainty and substandard living conditions because of state and federal budget cuts. The system's constant battle for funds is worsened by the Bush administration's economic policies, including cuts in Medicaid and tax cuts for the wealthy that exacerbate state budget crunches.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15901

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WHAT IS THE WAR GOING TO COST US?
Bob Burnett, AlterNet
The Bush Administration would have us believe that $100 billion in the first year, and $286 billion over five years, is a small price to pay for the liberation of Iraq, and an indeterminate modicum of safety from terrorism. But, even for those of us jaded by annual budget deficits in the $300 billion range, these are big numbers. Here the author shows that invading and occupying Iraq could be a fiscally Pyrrhic victory for Americans.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15807

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MORE BUCKS FOR THE BANG: CEO PAY AT DEFENSE CONTRACTORS
Chris Hartman and David Martin, United for a Fair Economy
According to this striking new study, median CEO pay at the 37 largest defense contractors rose 79 percent from 2001 to 2002, while overall CEO pay climbed only six percent. Compared with an army private's pay of $19,585, the average CEO at a major defense contractor made 577 times as much in 2002, or $11,297,548.
http://www.unitedforafaireconomy.org/press/2003/MoreBucksForBang_pr.html .

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LIVE SICKER, DIE YOUNGER
Julie Winokur, AlterNet
The United States prides itself on medical excellence, so why do we also have one of the most dysfunctional healthcare systems in the world? While politicians tiptoe around the problem, thousands of Americans live sicker and die younger because they don't have access to even basic care. According to the Institute of Medicine, some 18,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of being uninsured. If that isn't an epidemic, then what is?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15913

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WITHERING ECONOMY? TRY MIRACLE-GROWTH!
Stan Cox, AlterNet
Our economic system is grounded in the fantasy that consumption can grow forever and without limit, both in America and throughout the planet. The author points out that we have already carried this fantasy too far; and the result will be a much more troubling deficit than the merely fiscal shortfalls that now plague our federal and state governments.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15912

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WHY THE ECONOMY WILL GO FROM BAD TO WORSE
Dean Baker, In These Times
During the '90s boom, Dean Baker was one of the few economists who clearly identified the stock market bubble. But no one in a position of power was willing to listen, even though the main thrust of the argument rested on basic arithmetic. Remarkably, the same "experts" who led the nation into the bubble are still dominating public debate on the economy. Baker explains how related bubbles in the property and currency markets have yet to burst, and how that prospect could severely hamper our quality of life for years to come.
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=185_0_1_0_C 

• Privacy: R.I.P.

  — Paul Hein, Fri May 16 15:51