Subject: James D. Guckert — Reprinting Government Press Releases as His Own Work You remember when Guckert (a k a Jeff Gannon) published White House press releases, verbatim, as his own reporting? Well, he did not break the law prohibiting the “use of appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda,” the Government Accounting Office ruled Thursday. […]
NOTHING STABLE, NOTHING ENDURING, NOTHING INSIDE
I recommend this book review by my favorite aphorist, the British philosopher John Gray, although he is not aphorizing, as he does in his own books (such as “Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals” or Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern.” Gray points to a key question of Peter Watson’s […]
STORE WARS
Obi Wan Canoli says, “The true ways of the farm are almost forgotten.” Click the link, watch and listen. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. You’ll wonder why George Lucas hasn’t sued.
BILL ‘EM: DEAD OR ALIVE
A reader writes: “This is so priceless, and so easy to see happening, customer service being what it is today. Be sure to cancel your credit cards before you die — just in case.” A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her […]
BATTLE OF THE NPR CORRECTIONS
The original “correction” about David D’Arcy’s MoMAGATE story that NPR ran on its corrections page reads: Jan. 27, 2005:MoMA Embroiled in Battle over Painting Seized by NazisMorning Edition, Dec. 27, 2004 In a story on All Things Considered on Dec. 27, we reported on the controversy over ownership of a painting on loan to the […]
CITY OF GHOSTS
The Guardian of London reported: “Fresh evidence has emerged of the extent of destruction and appalling conditions” in still-deserted Falluja, a “city of ghosts where dogs feed on uncollected corpses.” That was in January. I guess the corpses have been collected by now.
NAMING THE MADNESS
When you put a face on death, the madness of war becomes clear.
WHOSE KLOSE CALL GOT NPR REPORTER FIRED?
National Public Radio made a huge mistake ousting its veteran arts reporter David D’Arcy and is still trying to cover it up. The latest attempt came during an investigation by the National Labor Relations Board when the network refused to produce documents that would allegedly clarify why he was fired and Tom Cole, a unionized […]
NOSTALGIA BUG: ‘UNCLE BILL’ BURROUGHS
When I was looking at my old Bob Woodward interview, some of which I posted because it seemed, uh, timely, I saw another old interview I did — this one with Bill Burroughs. I thought you’d find it interesting. Here’s part of it: Your books are filled with gun lore. What spurred your interest in […]
FIRST THE BLOG, THEN THE REBLOG
Staight Up posts are being reblogged — curated, if you like — in Germany. The reblogger is Fareed Armaly, an Arab-American expatriate (born in Iowa City, Iowa, now living in Stuttgart). I don’t know him and never heard of him before. All I know is, his work has been shown at Documenta11, among other prestigious art exhibitions. The […]
MEMORY LANE: WOODWARD SORT OF OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY
Now that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are together again, taking a victory lap after all these years, like the Simon & Garfunkel of journalism, I’m reminded by my staff of thousands that once upon a time, long ago and far away, I interviewed Woodward about his only non-political book — the one out of […]
I FIND IT STRANGE . . .
… that Chuck Colson is offended — “I am really shocked,” he says — that Mark Felt (a k a Deep Throat) went “sneaking around dark alleys and talking to reporters.” It wasn’t “the right way” for a “very upright” FBI agent to uncover Watergate crimes. Uh, wait a minute, Chuck. Weren’t you one of the worst of Nixon’s real dark-alley sneaks? […]
RORSCHACH THESE UNITED STATES
See the pretty picture and find out … … what it means.
WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING IN IRAQ?
Carl Conetta lays it out in “Vicious Circle,” his research monograph on “The Dynamics of Occupation and Resistance in Iraq, Part One, Patterns of Popular Discontent” for the Project on Defense Alternatives. In clear language, the academic sound of the title notwithstanding, Conetta offers the strongest, most detailed and comprehrensive, fully documented understanding of the […]
DEEP AND DEEPER
The Washington Post confirms that former FBI agent Mark Felt was the source for leaked secrets about Nixon’s Watergate coverup. Waving the Flog Now that Deep Throat’s blown his cover,Eliminating every maybe,The only question still remainingIs what to make of Barbara’s Baby. His devil daddy showed him howTo steal the White House like a thief,So […]
IMPERIAL MOURNING
“Preventive Warriors,” a documentary about the National Security Strategy of the United States issued by the White House in September of 2002, is the perfect antidote to Dear Leader’s Memorial Day ravings (a pious official proclamation for “a day of prayer for permanent peace” and an imperial radio address to the nation that the U.S. […]
THE FREE PRESS IN FULL SQUEAK
By Jan Herman Chicago, America’s most underrated metropolis, is the capital of flyover country. So unless you grab one or both of its major dailies while changing planes at O’Hare (or you’re a news junkie Web surfer), you’re missing out on some entertaining columns. Here’s one by Debra Pickett, of the Chicago Sun-Times, headlined “Freedom’s […]