Thursday News Bucket

12 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on May 3, 2007 at 7:23 am

   That come out of Bill O’Reilly’s mouth: Link to study results, via Think Progress

   A new study by Indiana University media researchers finds that Fox News host Bill O’Reilly calls “a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open his program each night.”

   The study documented six months worth, or 115 episodes, of O’Reilly’s “Talking Points Memo” editorials “using propaganda analysis techniques made popular after World War I.” Researchers found that O’Reilly “was prone to inject fear into his commentaries and quick to resort to name-calling. He also frequently assigned roles or attributes — such as `villians’ or downright `evil’ — to people and groups.

   The techniques used by Indiana University researchers to study O’Reilly were also “used during the late 1930s to study another prominent voice in a war-era, Father Charles Coughlin. His sermons evolved into a darker message of anti-Semitism and fascism, and he became a defender of Hitler and Mussolini.” The researchers note, “O’Reilly is a heavier and less-nuanced user of the propaganda devices than Coughlin.”

   Click the study results link to see how egregious O’Reilly is compared to Coughlin…it’s, uh, stunning.

   • 

     Kahli on May 3, 2007 at 9:01 am

     Someone watched 6 months worth of O’Reilly episodes. That is heroism. (Or masochism.)

2. 

   CabinGirl on May 3, 2007 at 7:30 am

   so says the US Army to the soldiers: WiredNews

   The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops’ online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

   And that’s not their only effort to ‘control the message’…now they want to use YouTube for their pro-war propaganda efforts (apparently being yes-men for Bush’s staged phot-ops isn’t enough): LATimes

   In one video, a U.S. soldier blasts insurgent gunmen with a heavy sniper rifle as the room fills with smoke. In another, members of an Iraqi family throw their arms around soldiers, weeping and rejoicing, after learning that their kidnapped relative has been freed.

   The U.S. military has opened a new front in the Iraq war: cyberspace.

   Moving into a realm long dominated by Islamic militants, the military has launched its own YouTube channel offering what it calls a boots-on-the-ground perspective of the conflict. The move recognizes that the Internet is becoming a key battleground for public opinion at a time when domestic support for the war is dwindling.

   • 

     Kahli on May 3, 2007 at 9:03 am

     My Mom still has the letters that my Dad sent when he was a POW in Germany during WWII.  Many of them are at least 90% blocked out by the German censors. Sad to hear that “our” side is treating our military personnel that way.

   • 

     hens teeth on May 3, 2007 at 12:44 pm

     From their YouTube page,

     These are the stories of men and women of the United States Army.

     But don’t let the soldiers speak for themselves on their own blog.

     • 

       CabinGirl on May 3, 2007 at 3:29 pm

       The blatancy of the whole thing is staggering, isn’t it?  Shut up the real soldiers, and post the Army’s fantasy vision for recruitment on YouTube instead.

3. 

   CabinGirl on May 3, 2007 at 7:42 am

   on the nighttime activities of, you guessed it, frogs.

4. 

   ask on May 3, 2007 at 8:38 am

   Gladiators’ graveyard discovered

   Scientists believe they have for the first time identified an ancient graveyard for gladiators.

   Analysis of their bones and injuries has given new insight into how they lived, fought and died.

   The remains were found at Ephesus in Turkey, a major city of the Roman world, BBC Timewatch reports.

   Gladiators were the sporting heroes of the ancient world. Archaeological records show them celebrated in everything from mosaics to graffiti.

5. 

   ask on May 3, 2007 at 8:39 am

   Olmert faces fresh round in battle for survival

   JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced on Thursday a major challenge to his pledge to stay in power, a protest rally that organisers hope will draw at least 100,000 people demanding he resign over the Lebanon war.

   Ahead of the demonstration in Tel Aviv’s Yitzhak Rabin Square, calls for Olmert to quit echoed in a parliamentary debate on an inquiry’s scathing criticism of his decision to launch last year’s 34-day campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas.

   “We have to go back to the people and let them have their say,” opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, urging an early general election — a ballot that opinion polls show his right-wing Likud party would win.

   Despite a number of cracks since the Winograd Commission issued its interim report on Monday, Olmert’s governing coalition has held together, with little apparent appetite among its members for an election that could go Netanyahu’s way.

   On Wednesday, Olmert fended off a public call to resign from Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and won critical support from loyalists in their centrist Kadima party.

6. 

   Kahli on May 3, 2007 at 8:58 am

   I received an email from Code Pink this morning saying that Speaker Pelosi’s office is taking calls today on the issue of impeaching Bush and Cheney.
   202 225 0100.

   This was news to me, so I put it here.

7. 

   ask on May 3, 2007 at 9:16 am

   Dangers grow for journalists

   UN World Press Freedom Day, to be marked on Thursday, has an alarming message – that too many journalists are being killed for what they do. If truth is killed, the whole world will suffer, writes William Horsley, head of the Association of European Journalists in the UK.

   “People sometimes pay with their lives for saying out loud what they think.”

   Those were the words of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist shot dead by an unknown assassin in the lift of her Moscow apartment block on 7 October last year.

   Please read the whole article.  
   (also see separate diary entry)

8. 

   cruz del sur on May 3, 2007 at 9:41 am

   Two good news from Argentina.

   The courts have decriminalized the the use of marihuana for personal use, and it has allowed for marihuana as medicinal purposes, even if a user has more than that what’s considered for personal use, whether it has been prescribed by a doctor or not.

   And, the Congress will be introducing a bill that will consider gay marriage.