It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 

"Free Press" Follies

Remember how in your high school civics class you learned about the wonders of our "free press?" That journalism represented a "fourth estate" that could check the abuses and fallacies of the government?

Well, it's time for the textbooks to be rewritten. Read Jim Spencer, the only member of the media invited to Fort Carson so far who has been willing to spill the beans on Bush's "Ground Rules". Excerpted from his article in the Denver Post:

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Ground Rule 9 for the media covering President Bush's presidential visit Monday sounded more like an edict from Beijing or a banana republic.

"Write positive stories about Ft. Carson and the U.S. Army," Ground Rule 9 commanded.

That would have been easier if Ground Rule 3 of the presidential visit had not also forbidden reporters to talk to any soldiers or their families before, during or after the president's appearance.

"Are we authorized to take their papers?" one soldier working with the press corps asked a colleague after catching reporters interviewing folks after the ceremony.

....

Members of the military who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan and on other battlefields in the war on terrorism deserve support. The president was right to come to Colorado to praise them. His handlers were dead wrong to try to keep them from talking.

The Army and the White House collaborated on the gag order, a formal written list of 10 "Ground Rules" passed out to all reporters.

....

To censor the people called on to make sacrifices is not. They are as disciplined and courageous as the president told them they were in Monday's speech. They are also smart enough to speak for themselves.

Monday's rules of engagement were not the norm at presidential appearances I've attended. When then-President Clinton honored the crew of the USS Cole after it was targeted by a terrorist bombing in Yemen, reporters roamed the crowd getting quotes. When Bush spoke to sailors at the Norfolk Naval Base earlier in his administration, reporters were equally free to seek the thoughts of those who heard him.

Monday's Ground Rule 6 - "no roaming" - amounted to a heavy-handed smack at the First Amendment. But it was an insult to the intelligence of military men and women and their families as much as it was an indictment of the media.

Bush and his lieutenants believe newspapers, television and radio focus on the negative events of Iraq. The president, vice president and the secretary of defense have all accused the media of filtering out good news.

Well, Monday was a chance to get some good press for people who deserve it. Instead, White House and Army officials went to great lengths to make sure it wouldn't happen.

....

The White House needs to have more faith in the people on whom it depends.

If there are problems with the war in Iraq, they don't come from the folks doing the fighting. Those men and women are doing a heck of a job. If there are problems, they stem from spin doctoring.

We must invade Iraq without U.N. support. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam Hussein was behind the attack on the World Trade Center.

All Iraqis will welcome us as conquering heroes as soon as we depose Hussein.

Iraqi oil will pay to rebuild the country.

Major combat has ended.

Mission accomplished.

The White House sent these messages, not the troops.

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Posted by James Cook at 4:40 PM. # (permalink)




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