UNDERNEWS October 13, 1999 The Progressive Review 1312 18th St NW (Fifth Floor) Washington DC 20036 202-835-0770 Fax: 835-0779 Web Site: http://www.prorev.com/ Editor: Sam Smith ---------------------------------------------------------- WORD "There have been three totalitarian forces in our lifetime. The totalitarianism of fascism, of communism, and now of capitalism." - French farmer-activist José Bové INFO WARS Mary Berry & Pacifica JUDITH COBURN, SALON: Maybe the most bizarre episode yet is Berry's appearance at Pacifica station WBAI in New York in late August, where she dropped by unannounced and asked to meet with staff. She lectured the staffers about "diversity," apparently not noticing that most people in the room were black, Latino or Asian. "We were amazed how little she knows about radio or what programming we do," reported Mimi Rosenberg .... Berry then flabbergasted her listeners by suggesting the network sell WBAI and/or KPFA and buy a string of small, black radio stations in the South. "A kind of black NPR," one staffer described it. "Laudable, but to cannibalize Pacifica with its own 50-year history and listeners? She should go out and build that network on her own and see how hard it is!" But Berry has always seemed determined to use Pacifica for her own ends. Her detractors point to a statement she made when she took over as chair, in which she said nothing about her vision for the future of the progressive network. Instead, she vowed not to let anything that happens at KPFA destroy her reputation. [Coburn's article is the best we've seen so far on the bizarre and dangerous Berry -- TPR] SALON MAGAZINE http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/12/berry/index.html INFO WARS The stories PBS doesn't want told SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN: During the Persian Gulf War, NBC News' then-president Michael Gartner ordered his news director not to run footage of civilian carnage in Iraq that disproved U.S. military claims of "surgical strikes." Then he promptly fired the reporter who shot it, six-time Emmy winner Jon Alpert. Later that year, the New York Times spiked award-winning reporter Frances Cerra's exposé of billion-dollar cost overruns at a nuclear-power plant and took her off the story under industry pressure. In 1995 respected Atlanta Journal-Constitution executive editor Bill Kovach resigned when the paper's parent company, media conglomerate Cox Enterprises, told him to stop reporting on alleged bribery schemes and racist lending practices involving Atlanta-based Coca-Cola. These are only a few of the stories told in the landmark documentary "Fear and Favor in the Newsroom," which will air on local public television stations in coming weeks. But the film that exposes how corporations have gained a controlling influence over many of America's newsrooms almost never got made, because, critics say, public TV broadcasters -- including San Francisco's KQED, the most-watched public station in the country -- refused to support it for fear of offending corporate sponsors. "Our public TV executives' response has been appalling, and you can't help but think that the message of the film was the reason why," Randy Baker, co-producer and writer of the 90-minute doc, told the Bay Guardian. (KQED will finally air the film Oct. 28 at 10 p.m.] SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN: http://www.sfbg.com/News GREAT MOMENTS IN LITERARY CRITICISM Best presidential autobiography ever written. "All the Best" by George Bush is a collection of letters the former president wrote over more than 50 years. -- Political Insider USDA STILL PUSHING TERMINATOR SEED AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER: Curiously with Monsanto's decision to abandon the commercialization of the Terminator technology the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now in the shameful position of supporting and defending a genetic technology that the world's second largest seed corporation has clearly rejected due to public opposition. At a meeting with civil society organizations in June, Under-Secretary of Agriculture Richard Rominger told [the Rural Advancement Development Fund] that USDA refuses to abandon the patent it co-owns with Delta & Pine Land (a Mississippi-based seed company in the process of being acquired by Monsanto) because it wants to see the technology widely licensed. [Asks Hope Shand of RAFI]: "Why does USDA insist on defending a technology that is bad for farmers, food security, and the environment? USDA is increasingly marginalized in its support of Terminator, it should immediately cease negotiations with Delta & Pine Land, abandon the patent, and develop a strict policy prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds for the development of genetic seed sterilization." RAFI http://www.rafi.org JUST POLITICS A nifty web site asks you 16 questions and then comes up with a presidential candidate just for you. Here, for example, are the results it produced for your editor, clearly countering accusations in some quarters of his political apostasy: 79 David McReynolds 58 Albert Gore Jr. 48 Bill Bradley 35 John Hagelin 31 Harry Browne 27 John S. McCain 26 Patrick J. (Pat) Buchanan 23 Malcolm (Steve) Forbes Jr. 22 Gary L. Bauer 22 Elizabeth Dole 22 Orrin Hatch 20 Warren Beatty 17 Alan Keyes 17 George W. Bush 15 Robert C. (Bob) Smith 14 Donald Trump 7 Ralph Nader 2 Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. The surprising Ralph Nader score is apparently the result of Nader not having a public position on so many issues. For what it's worth, I have never considered myself a socialist, primarily because of a parallel distrust of big business and big government. Besides, as Oscar Wilde said, I refuse to become a socialist because I like to keep my evenings free. Nonetheless, I am a longtime admirer of David McReynolds so am quite pleased with the results. Here, by the way, are McReynolds' positions: -- Abortion issues: Pro-choice -- Affirmative action: Supports affirmative action. -- Campaign finance: Strongly prefer -- Crime: Preventative approach e.g.: job skills for prisoners -- Defense spending: Massive decrease -- Drug policy: Decriminalization, strongly prefers. -- Drug use: Candidates should admit past drug use -- Education money: Tax dollars support public schools only. -- Environment: Protecting the environment for today and the future is essential. Evolution: Teach the basic science of the matter, not ideology. -- Foreign policy: Not for military intervention but for a strong United Nations. -- Gun control: Support gun control (or maybe just outlaw the production and sale of ammunition) -- Health care: Health care is primarily the responsibility of the government. -- Moral issues: Oppose federal involvement in moral issues. -- Social security: Protect Social Security. -- Tax policy: Overhaul the federal income tax codes with radical change -- Trade issues: Too complex to answer with yes or no - NAFTA should be opposed but that, by itself, is too simplistic an answer. Of David McReynolds, Paul Buhle writes, "A quiet tradition exists (and persists) within the larger and louder traditions of pacifist and socialist movements, crossing boundaries and creating a unique space between them. Call it socialist-pacifism or pacifist-socialism, if you like. Whatever you call it, David McReynolds has been the torchbearer on these shores for forty years (and counting.)" SELECT SMART: http://www.selectsmart.com SOCIALIST PARTY http://www.votesocialist.org WE ARE NOT MAKING THIS UP ASSOCIATED PRESS: The [Maine] state government got its first Y2K surprise months early when owners of 2000 model cars and trucks received titles identifying their new vehicles as "horseless carriages" .... Because the computer read the model year as 1900, the titles were printed with the "horseless carriage" designation used for vintage vehicles produced before 1916, said Secretary of State Dan A. Gwadosky. GUARDIAN, LONDON: A Scottish hospital was yesterday given the go-ahead for a groundbreaking arrangement to import sperm from Denmark in an attempt to tackle the severe donor shortage north of the border .... The sperm will be imported from the specialist Cryos sperm bank in Copenhagen .... The breakthrough could pave the way for imported sperm to be made available in areas such as London and Bristol that are also experiencing a donor shortage. .... It is in Scotland in general and Glasgow in particular that the crisis has hit hardest. In March, it was reported that the royal's sperm bank had only one active donor .... The decline is widely blamed on a change in the law in 1991 that required donors to give their names and other identifying information, raising fears among donors that they will be able to be identified by any children conceived with their sperm. GUARDIAN http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,91615,00.html LORD ACTION, YOU HAVE A CALL FROM OAKLAND Audie Bock, the first Green member elected to the California legislature and scheduled as one of the featured speakers at the next Green Parties national convention, has sudden defected, changing her registration from Green to "decline to State." Bock told the Bay Guardian that her reasons for leaving the party were "tactical .... It was an opportunity to be out of the primary race, which means not having to get there in the down and dirty and spend a lot of money and time and energy to slug it out in the mud .... I really want to have the energy to serve my district." Officially the Alameda County Green Party limited its reaction to one of sadness and blaming the campaign finance system, but longtime Green activist Hank Chapot said her excuse was flimsy: "I think the Democrats had a lot to do with influencing her, with making her believe she needed all this money," Chapot told the Guardian. "She thinks she's bigger than the people who put her there. We gave her a platform, and she thinks she invented it herself." FOOD NEWS AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER: The Texas-based chain Whole Foods Market, which bills itself as the nation's largest natural and organic foods supermarket is rapidly expanding. With the announcement recently of its opening of a 50,000 square feet store in Seattle, Washington Whole Foods Market will be a direct challenge to Seattle's Puget Consumers Co-operative, the largest retail grocery co-op in the nation, which also specializes in natural and organic foods. Whole Foods Market, founded 19 years ago, has its headquarters in Austin, Texas, employs more than 15,000 workers with nearly 100 neighborhood-based stores in 20 states and the District of Columbia, and is considered the largest retailer of natural and organic foods in the nation. AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER [EMAIL PROTECTED] PAYING FOR THE MINIMUM WAGE PUBLIC CAMPAIGN: Back in 1996, when Congress voted to lift the minimum wage 90 cents an hour, to $5.15, business interests extracted $21 billion in custom-designed tax benefits. While the politicians harped on what they were doing for working people, the fine print actually did a lot more for pharmaceutical companies, big manufacturers, soft-drink makers, restaurant chains and convenience store owners. According to The Washington Post, these interests gave more than $36 million in campaign contributions in the previous election cycle to the members of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee who wrote that fine print. Now the same dynamic is at work, except that business interests and their congressional allies have gotten bolder--having seen how easy it is to tack their pet proposal onto the highly popular minimum wage issue. A bipartisan group of House members is about to propose a bill that ladles out $35 billion in business tax breaks, while spreading out the dollar increase in the minimum wage over three years, rather than two as urged by proponents. PUBLIC CAMPAIGN: http://www.publicampaign.org SEATTLE: THE FUN BEGINS SEATTLE TIMES: Citing security reasons, the Paramount Theatre has denied a months-old reservation request from groups critical of the World Trade Organization because the trade organization has reservations at the theater the following two days. Global Trade Watch, the Humane Society and the Animal Welfare Institute said that in June they requested the theater for Nov. 28 to hold an educational and cultural event opposing WTO policies .... Yesterday, the groups were informed by Paramount management that the WTO had reservations for Nov. 29-30 and that the downtown Seattle theater would be unable to accommodate both reservation requests. "It was done strictly for security reasons," said Patrick Harrison, a spokesman for the theater's owners. Paramount officials did not specify the nature of those security concerns. TRADE WATCH http://www.tradewatch.org/ ELECTION REFORM Dan Johnson-Weinberger of the Mid-West Democracy Center came across an interesting view from the highest bench on third parties from several decades ago. Justice Harlan is grappling with the State of Ohio's defense of its extremely restrictive ballot access regime. Ohio claims that it has a valid state interest in keeping third parties off the ballot, because with three candidates the winning candidate often receives less than a majority of votes. Harlan writes: "My Brother Stewart is, of course, quite right in pointing out that the presence of third parties may on occasion result in the election of the major candidate who is in reality less preferred by the majority of voters. It seems clear to me, however, that many constitutional electoral structures could be designed which would accommodate this valid state interest, without depriving other political organizations of the right to participate effectively in the political process. A runoff election may be mandated if no party gains a majority, or the decision could be left to the State Legislature in such a case. Alternatively, the voter could be given the right, at the general election, to indicate both his first and his second choice for the Presidency -- if no candidate received a majority of first-choice votes, the second-choice votes could then be considered." -- Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23, 47 FN. 8 (1968) (J. HARLAN, concurring) Writes Johnson-Weinberger: "Thirty years ago, no less a body than the United States Supreme Court suggested using the instant runoff to encourage effective political participation while ensuring majority rule." MIDWEST DEMOCRACY CENTER http://www.midwestdemocracy.org ---------------------------------------------------------- THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW Sam Smith, Editor E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] INDEX: http://prorev.com LATEST UNDERNEWS: http://prorev.com/indexa.htm OTHER HEADLINE NEWS: http://prorev.com/altnews.htm THE REVIEW UNCLASSIFIEDS: http://www.prorev.com/jobs.htm DONATIONS AND ORDER FORM: http://prorev.com/order3.htm UNSUBSCRIBE: Reply with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. REVIEW FORUM: http://www.prorev.com/letters.htm Purveyor of organic news and information for over 35 years. We use no growth hormones, commercial fertilizers or genetically modified truth kernels. Not affiliated with any major corporation. For a free subscription to our e-mail updates send your postal address with zip code. Copyright 1999, The Progressive Review. Matter not independently copyrighted may be reprinted provided TPR is paid your normal reprint fees, if any, and is given proper credit. 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