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Coming Home From War, Salon on Big Media, and Misconceptions About the Middle Class and the Economy TRANSCRIPT ONLY HAS PICTURE
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan generated banner headlines and outpourings of grief about the dead, but the wounded go largely unnoticed as they attempt to rebuild their lives and battle for benefits. This episode examines gaps between the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs that allow America's war wounded to fall between the cracks after sacrificing so much for their country.
In an unprecedented move, CBS pulled the plug on its sweeps miniseries The Reagans amid allegations that the movie was biased. Bill Moyers sits down with Salon senior staff writer Eric Boehlert, who reports extensively on politics and media, covering everything from media consolidation to the declining music industry's fight against file sharing. Boehlert discusses the relationship between Big Media conglomerates and government, and the role it may have played in CBS's decision.
Then, journalist Doug Henwood discusses the American workforce and dispels some myths about productivity, professional mobility and the middle class. He talks about his book, After the Economy, a dissection of the new economy written with his customary irreverence and acuity. You can access the original Web page for this program at the archived NOW with Bill Moyers website.
MOYERS: Welcome to NOW.
For the wounded, war never ends. The scars remain even when the wounds heal. So, in Shakespeare's OTHELLO, Iago asks Cassio, "What? Are you hurt, Lieutenant?" And the soldier answers, "Aye, past all surgery."
Our veterans hospitals and nursing homes overflow with such casualties. World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan. They keep coming back, and even when the surgery's done, things are never the same, never quite right again.
In Iraq, for every soldier killed, seven are wounded — 1,300 since May 1. That's twice as many as were wounded during the war itself.
THE NEW REPUBLIC reports that nearly every night, under the cover of darkness, ambulances meet C-17 and C-141 transport planes flying into Andrews Air Force Base to ferry the wounded to military facilities. The government hasn't wanted us to see them.
But that's beginning to change as the numbers mount, and as journalists keep insisting on knowing who are these wounded and what's happening to them. We have our own report. Here's NOW's David Brancaccio and producer Dan Klein.
BRANCACCIO: Homecoming in Fort Wayne, Indiana last month for the National Guard's 293rd Infantry regiment.
20 miles south, in the town of Bluffton, another young vet from the 101st Airborne came home to a different kind of reception — one that was to leave him and his family nearly destitute.
Jason Stiffler followed a boyhood dream into the army at the age of 18. He was eager to defend his country. In return, he assumed it would take care of him.
JASON STIFFLER: I mean that was part of the agreement that we made on March 23rd, 01 which was when I signed up. I specifically remember that day it was the first thing I asked. If anything happens to me, will I be taken care of?" "Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. Just sign right here."
BRANCACCIO: in January of 2002, Private First Class Stiffler was ordered to Afghanistan, leaving his wife Jacki and a son, Jason Jr. behind.
One night in April, he was manning a watchtower like this one at the Kandahar airport. That's when his memory goes dark.
JASON STIFFLER: I really don't know what happened.
BRANCACCIO: The tower collapsed. It's still unclear whether it was due to an engineering failure, an attack, or friendly fire. What is certain is that Jason Stiffler fell about 25 feet, suffering seizures at the scene. Eventually, he went into a coma.
BRANCACCIO: What kind of injuries did you end up with?
JASON STIFFLER: Spinal cord injury, head injury. Paralysis. I was a quadriplegic. I couldn't move anything from my neck down.
BRANCACCIO: At the Intensive Care Unit of the Army Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, a hopeful sign: Stiffler regained some feeling in his arms.
Next came six hard months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Arduous physical therapy helped him achieve limited use of his legs.
A year ago October, he was released from Walter Reed, and placed on the army's temporary duty list. He was now eligible for medical care and payments from the system the government has set up to help care for wounded vets like him for the rest of their lives, the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Abraham Lincoln supplied its motto: "To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan."
The Stifflers say they waited for a promised phone call from the VA that never came. With his physical and mental condition deteriorating, Jason visited the regional VA hospital in Fort Wayne. The hospital had no record of who he was and was able to offer only limited help.
JACKI STIFFLER: They were supposed to make him appointments for the physical therapy. And they were supposed to have him, you know, set and everything after he got out of the Army, to go to the VA. No, none of that was done.
BRANCACCIO: Jason Stiffler, badly wounded veteran of America's war on terror, was on his own.
JASON STIFFLER: There was a timeframe where I wasn't getting paid nothing.
BRANCACCIO: How did you make ends meet during that time?
JASON STIFFLER: Well, you know what they told us what they told us? Churches.
JACKI STIFFLER: Churches.
JASON STIFFLER: Family, friends, welfare.
BRANCACCIO: With Jack pregnant with their second child, and working nights at a low wage job, the Stifflers went on public assistance. It was seven months since he had returned from Afghanistan.
JASON STIFFLER: My car got taken away several times. 'Cause how am I gonna pay the bill? Pay the rent? Pay for gas? Pay for formula? Pay for food?
BRANCACCIO: And with no physical therapy or medical attention, Stiffler was losing the strength he had gained in his legs at Walter Reed. He also suffered from post-traumatic stress. Jacki Stiffler found him on the kitchen floor one night, a wild look in his eyes, pointing his crutch as if it were a gun — a flashback to his combat experience.
JACKI STIFFLER: I had to quit my job because of him going into a flashback. And he was with one of my kids. And I came home at two o'clock in the morning because I worked thirds. I came home early and he was in a flashback and thank God my son was sleeping. But after that I just— I couldn't work no more.
BRITTON: When we got to Jason and Jacki the first time, Smitty and I walked in, they had an eviction notice on their door.
BRANCACCIO: David Britton lives 20 miles from the Stifflers. He is a Vietnam-era vet who works on a General Motors assembly line in Indiana. When he heard about Jason Stiffler, he knew he had to do something.
BRITTON: We actually talked to their landlord that day. Well, their landlord knew that for them to get help they had to have the paper trail. So they were helping them, even though here's an eviction notice. That's when I started really getting very concerned.
BRANCACCIO: Britton runs his union's veterans committee. The Stifflers had never been union members or worked on the line. "No matter," said Britton and his colleagues. UAW Local 2209 ran swap meets and raffles to raise money for them, and brought food and toys at the holidays.
So here's the question: how can a severely wounded and disabled American serviceman reach such a state that he has to depend on the charity of strangers to survive?
The thing is, the VA has an annual budget of 60 billion dollars. It's the second largest agency in the federal government — only the Department of Defense is bigger. All the more troubling then that the military's neglect of Jason Stiffler is no isolated case.
And it's not always the VA that's at fault. Here at Fort Stewart, Georgia, reservists and national guard units on active duty were the subject a recent press report shedding light on shameful conditions for hundreds of the wounded and injured.
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL reported last month that at Fort Stewart, about 600 "sick or injured members of the Army Reserves and National Guard are warehoused in rows of spare, steamy and dark cement barracks in a sandy field, waiting for doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses."
UPI has also reported that sick and wounded GI's at Fort Knox were waiting weeks, even months, for medical attention. They were housed "— in Spartan, dilapidated World War II-era barracks with leaking roofs, animal infestations, and no air conditioning in the Kentucky heat."
One corporal back from Iraq said, "it doesn't make any sense to go over there and risk your life and come back to this… it ain't fair and it ain't right."
At both bases, the Defense Department rushed in with money and medical personnel after the critical reports appeared.
BISEL: The system's broke flat. The system is there, it's in place, and the system will work for you if you know who to get a hold of. You got to know who to make mad to get the system to work.
BRANCACCIO: Billy Bisel is another Indiana veteran of the Afghanistan war. One day he came under mortar fire and dived for cover, breaking a bone in his neck and cracking a disc. Two surgeries later, he had a steel plate in his neck, and hands so numb he couldn't work his former jobs as a carpenter and welder.
When we met him, he and his wife and two children were living on $450 a month, plus, he says, a one-time after-tax severance from the army of about $7800, money eaten up all too quickly by expenses he incurred moving back to Indiana and just trying to keep up with his rent.
He tried to get a permanent rating from the Veterans Administration that would, he hoped, improve his benefits.
BISEL: I started calling to find out who I needed to talk to when I got home. All right, I was told that I needed to shut up and wait.
BRANCACCIO: They didn't say, "Shut up."
BISEL: Yes, they did.
BRANCACCIO: They said, "Shut up"?
BISEL: Literally. Yes. I needed to quit bitchin', I needed to quit complainin', I needed to just go home and wait until the paperwork comes in.
BRANCACCIO: 19 months after he got back from Afghanistan, Billy Bisel was still waiting.
In Washington, there's a Congressman trying to do something to change the system. New Jersey Republican Chris Smith was never a soldier, but he's fought hard on their behalf, sponsoring legislation to combat homelessness among vets, and to increase funding for the GI bill. Now he's trying to fix the plight of the wounded.
REP. SMITH: It's unacceptable. And the challenge that we have now is to ensure that this kind of mistake of not adequately caring for an individual who has served our country never happens again.
BRANCACCIO: Smith's battle includes pushing for better communication between Defense, the DOD, and Veterans Affairs, the VA.
REP. SMITH: When I was first elected 23 years ago, we passed a bill. It wasn't my bill but it was a very good bill. Sonny Montgomery and others worked on it, on DOD/VA sharing. When we went back and looked at it over the course of these years, there was almost no sharing. There was like a wall, a line of demarcation between the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration, that really was counterproductive.
BRANCACCIO: There are more problems and they are extreme. For example, according to a report by the American Legion, the average time a vet has to wait to get a medical appointment at a VA facility is seven months.
REP. SMITH: Right now there are major gaps, computers that don't talk to computers. Missing assessments and medical histories. So that the veteran, unless he or she are really briefed and very effectively briefed, they come out and they go from a situation where they were, you know, part of the military 24/7 to being on their own without a clue, in many cases, as to where do they go if they do need some healthcare or something for treatment.
BRANCACCIO: In August, the WALL STREET JOURNAL ran an article laying bare the problem of wounded and neglected vets — a piece that featured Jason Stiffler.
It prompted a letter to the editor, calling the article "a wake up call." It was signed Anthony J. Principi, Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
PRINCIPI: It's a great cause to take care of them. And it hurts like hell when we fail.
BRANCACCIO: A cabinet-level official, Principi is not shy about admitting his department's shortcomings.
PRINCIPI: We're getting there but we're not—it's not seamless. One of our great challenges, we have information technology systems that are not compatible. I think the VA has world's finest computerized patient record system. But unfortunately the Defense Department has a different computerized system. And they don't really talk to one another.
BRANCACCIO: Can you pick up the phone and talk to Secretary Rumsfeld? Is there a system set up?
PRINCIPI: There is a system, and it's called the President of the United States who is pretty adamant about Secretary Rumsfeld and Secretary Principi breaking down the barriers between the two departments. I mean, on more than one occasion at a cabinet meeting, the President, somewhat off the cuff, will say to Don Rumsfeld, "How are you and Principi working? Are you two making progress?"
BRANCACCIO: Help us understand really this dual system. A soldier comes back and will probably still be in the other system — the Pentagon system, the military system. You have a separate system altogether.
PRINCIPI: Don Rumsfeld and I care for the same people at different points in their lives. While they're on active duty, they are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense. So when they return from combat, those that are wounded may go into a military hospital. I now have full-time coordinators from my department in military hospitals to ensure that when they're discharged — because the nature of their disability precludes them from remaining on active duty — that when they go back home that they're cared for.
BRANCACCIO: It's an important first step toward making the system work, one taken after the negative media attention.
One of the fulltime VA benefits coordinators is former army infantryman Chris Reid. Reid has a prosthetic right arm and right leg, terrible souvenirs of a firefight in Somalia in 1993.
Now he works at Walter Reed helping other wounded soldiers make the transition back to civilian life.
REID: Yesterday I came by. We filled the paperwork out so that is downtown being processed. Concerning his benefit and that should be done soon.
I think everyone would agree with me to make sure all our young men and women are taken care of concerning benefit both dual with VA and DOD and let them be briefed on those benefits that's available to them. Because if they're not told about it, then they end up going home and out in the wilderness lost and not being aware. And hear about it by word of mouth.
BRANCACCIO: 23-year-old Roy Gray was delivering food to his buddies in Iraq when mortar fire hit his truck. Shrapnel pierced his left thigh — he almost bled to death.
GRAY: I look up and I see my leg and I didn't know if it was still attached. Or what was going on. It was like crooked, every which way but right.
BRANCACCIO: The wards of Walter Reed are peopled with vets with life-altering injuries, many of the kind that would have resulted in death in earlier wars. But American fighting men and women are surviving terrible wounds like never before, thanks to faster evacuation procedures, better equipment and medicine. In fact, quality of treatment is not the issue here, either at military or VA hospitals.
WHITE: If you look at the doctors and the nurses and the staff people in a VA hospital, they provide excellent quality care.
BRANCACCIO: Todd White won four medals serving in the Vietnam War. He's now the National Vice Commander of the American Legion, the country's largest veterans' organization. He also volunteers at veterans hospitals where he's seen the care close up.
WHITE: The problem has always been trying to get that veteran in there to finally begin accept— or getting this quality care. And yes, it's a bureaucratic nightmare and it's unfortunate.
BRANCACCIO: Funding is also an issue, according to a coalition of veterans groups. It has calculated that next year, the VA will fall 1.8 billion dollars short of meeting the medical needs of veterans if Congress approves the current plan.
REP. SMITH: There's been chronic underfunding for years. And if you bleed a system long enough, and starve it long enough, you begin to have problems with infrastructure. Buildings begin to crumble. And we have an infrastructure, a bill that we're trying to get passed that would provide, you know, about $500 million each year to fix and repair a crumbling infrastructure that, you know, needs to be repaired. It's worth saving.
BRANCACCIO: After Jason Stiffler's story became front page news, his rating from the VA came through at 100% disability. He and his family, which now includes a baby daughter, Angel, receive $2900 a month from the VA. He credits the media attention.
So does Billy Bisel. After an article in the FORT WAYNE JOURNAL GAZETTE about his case, Bisel heard from the VA and the very day we showed up with our camera, a letter arrived with his permanent disability rating, which increased his payment from $450 to $1400 a month.
For Congressman Chris Smith, doing right by America's veterans is simply a matter of justice.
REP. SMITH: I think the biggest risk is the moral obligation and the sacred duty that we have to care for, as Lincoln said, for him who was born this nation's battle, and for his widow, and for his orphan. That is a sacred obligation that we can't ever lower our guard, or diminish our response, even one iota.
BRANCACCIO: Smith recently held a hearing, the sixth one in less than two years, he says, about trying to improve conditions for the sick and injured leaving military service.
One captain in the army reserve who has served for 10 years spoke up to question whether the military was making good on its promises to new recruits. Her name? Arvilla Stiffler, Jason Stiffler's mother.
ARVILLA STIFFLER [at hearing]: As a captain in the U.S. Army Reserves and after witnessing my son's journey, I feel if recruiters would inform new recruits the consequences if injured included an expectation to become frustrated with a system that leaves you below the poverty line, forces you on food stamps and into a welfare system and lastly will make you wait long periods of time to receive medical care, I ask you would you sign up?
JASON STIFFLER: I was defending our country cause of September 11th. So why should I have to? Why should any soldier, at that matter? If they're gonna send us over there they should take care of us.
ANNOUNCER: There's more to come on NOW.
We're working longer and harder, but are we getting ahead?
HENWOOD: The record of upward mobility in the United States is not anywhere near as happy as a lot of people would like to think.
ANNOUNCER: Life after the new economy.
MOYERS: You know the story by now: CBS picks up a sure thing, a dramatic series about Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Can't lose. Hollywood actor becomes popular President with wife co-starring at his side. A natural.
CBS even teases us with a few clips to create buzz, including hints of shadows in an otherwise sunny story.
One excerpt suggested Reagan was suffering from early Alzheimer's while still the Commander-in-Chief.
Here's how it played on ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT:
ACTOR PORTRAYING REAGAN: What's your name?
ACTOR PORTRAYING MCFARLANE: Robert McFarlane. I'm your National Security Advisor. Perhaps you don't remember me.
ACTOR PORTRAYING REAGAN: No, I don't.
MOYERS: Then the earth shook. The Republican National Committee read CBS the riot act. The right wing talk circuit erupted. Reagan partisans poured into the streets of cyberspace.
Listen to this e-column from a Cornell graduate student:
"The portrayal of Reagan is outrageous and false. The Hollywood Left's consistent perversion of history is a transparent attempt to camouflage its own traitorous judgment over the past 40 years."
The President of CBS, Les Moonves, ordered a scalpel put to the script.
But the howls continued and on Tuesday of this week, CBS dumped the series off on its little sister cable channel, Showtime, where, if it airs at all next year, few viewers are likely even to know how to find it.
"Gippergate sure to take a toll on CBS," reported VARIETY, estimating the network would lose millions of dollars on the move. But will CBS get those millions back another way?
The parent company Viacom, which owns a galaxy of media properties, has billions of dollars resting on whether a White House, Congress, and FCC controlled by Republicans allow it to grow even bigger. Les Moonves says taste, not politics, dictated his decision.
But earlier this year, explaining why CBS intended to air a controversial series about Adolf Hitler, Moonves was singing a different tune. Quote: "If you want to play it safe and put on milquetoast, then you get criticized… There are times as a broadcaster when you take chances.
Clearly this is a case for Eric Boehlert. Eric Boehlert writes extensively about politics and media for SALON, the online magazine. Before that, he wrote for BILLBOARD MAGAZINE and ROLLING STONE. This is his first time on NOW. Welcome.
BOEHLERT: Thank you. Good to be here.
MOYERS: The famous CBS eye blinked.
BOEHLERT: Right.
MOYERS: This was not a time to take chances, right?
BOEHLERT: Oh yeah I mean it was such a strange finale to all this. I mean, 99 times out of 100 if you have a controversial story or miniseries and you're getting some flack, you know, CBS was willing to make some cuts, to make some edits. And then you put it on the air, people watch it. People say, "What was the big fuss?" or "That was sort of dopey." And CBS gets, you know, 20, 30 percent ratings boost because of all the buzz.
And then they move on. But the idea that they would essentially cancel it— I mean it's going to be on Showtime. But the idea that they would punt it after they made it and screened it and sold the advertising. It's just unheard of in this business.
MOYERS: I have to declare a bias. I personally loath these made-for-television movies where Hollywood takes license with recent historical figures to exploit them anyway they want to. I mean what Oliver Stone did to Lyndon Johnson— that was not the Lyndon Johnson I knew. Do you have any sympathy for the Reagan people who say this is unfair and a distortion and not the Ronald Reagan that they knew?
BOEHLERT: Well, there may be minor distortions throughout it. I mean, but the idea that a docudrama, a miniseries on network TV is gonna be some sort of factually perfect rendition is absurd. I mean they've been making movies about the Kennedys and the Roosevelts, as you mentioned, LBJ and Nixon.
And it's not history. It's a screenwriter working off some biographies trying to come up with some interesting dialogue so people won't turn the channel. So the idea that, you know, you're gonna fact check, you know, sort of a cheesy miniseries is absurd. That's not the standard that has ever been used in the past.
MOYERS: So what's going on here? What's your own take on it?
BOEHLERT: Well, politics is clearly in play. I mean, the head of CBS said politics didn't have anything to do with this. It was taste, they weren't happy with the final product. But, you know, they all screened it in October and they were happy with the product. I mean, there was just this barrage of criticism from the Right, it—
MOYERS: 80,000 letters they got. The Republican National Committee, I mean, I have the letter right here… The chairman of the Republican National Committee says, "Those graduating from college this year were only about five years old when President Reagan left office and this broadcast will have a significant impact on their understanding of his legacy."
BOEHLERT: Well, I mean, that's silly. This movie was made — CBS skews very old — this movie was made for people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who are interested in Reagan. The idea that, you know, 18, 19 years olds are gonna be camped around the CBS on Sunday night, on Monday night to watch this is silly. And the idea that if something flashes on a small screen, particularly a young viewer who's so media savvy today, is gonna see something on a TV screen and take it as gospel is absurd. So the argument is sort of silly but of course they're able to rally the troops and they got tens of thousands of phone, you know, e-mails and telegrams and they scared, you know, CBS stiff.
MOYERS: Scared them or what grounds?
BOEHLERT: Scared them that, you know, this is hardball and a) maybe we'll organize a boycott—
MOYERS: Now what this conservative group actually wrote and said that they were going to boycott any advertiser—
MOYERS: —that bought time in this series.
BOEHLERT: And, you know, there's a history of that. I mean, there's tradition of that. If something… you know, a couple of years ago Dr. Laura, a famous talk show host on radio, she was gonna get a TV show and — she's very conservative very, you know, very religious — made some very anti-inflammatory remarks about gays, and gay groups pressured the television company and they were gonna threaten a boycott to the advertisers anyone that was on that show.
But what's different is that she had been on the air. She had said many outrageous things and advertisers could either choose to be a part of it or not. With CBS, the movie never aired. No one knew what was on it and people were gonna threaten, you know, a boycott on something no one had ever seen. Again, it's never played out like this before. These are all new rules.
MOYERS: You go to the Web sites that were created to protest this. You find people saying, "Well this series is showing that Reagan was divorced. It's showing that Nancy Reagan set up his schedule by consulting an astrologist. It's suggesting all kinds of things about Reagan that just don't fit the official view of reality."
BOEHLERT: Right. They're all true. I mean, you know, the idea that he wasn't somewhat detached, the idea that Nancy Reagan wasn't a powerful figure in that White House for eight years. I mean, if you just go back and read real-time reporting during the 80s, all those things are common knowledge.
MOYERS: In fact, Congressman John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, has written CBS, tongue in cheek, to complain that the series does a disservice to the country because it's not negative enough about the Reagan presidency.
BOEHLERT: Yeah and that's the old— The strange part is this is, you know, critics pointed out a couple quotes that they swore Ronald Reagan never said and CBS was more than willing to yank those. But this was about the portrayal — that was the key word in this whole controversy. They didn't like the way he was portrayed.
That's a wonderfully, you know, amorphous word. It gives you all sorts of room to make complaints about how someone is portrayed. Basically, it wasn't nice enough, really, in the bottom line. The movie was not nice enough. It wasn't historically inaccurate. There wasn't any radical take on the Reagan presidency.
It was by most indications, based on the seven or eight minute trailer, a sort of a campy take on the Reagan marriage. But the idea that it was wildly off-base doesn't hold ground. But it wasn't nice enough so people didn't like how Ronald Reagan was portrayed and that… If you're gonna argue about how someone is portrayed, that just opens a whole new realm in terms of not censorship but cultural debate. This is how someone has to be portrayed or else.
MOYERS: You say that this is unprecedented, that there have been protests and boycotts.
MOYERS: But nothing like this has ever happened. CBS says they're shocked that anybody would suggest they did this because they want the White House, the Congress and the FCC to approve their request to get bigger, to buy more stations. You've been covering this field of media ownership and media conglomeration for a long time now. Do you believe CBS when they say this had nothing to do with it?
BOEHLERT: I don't think it was the driving factor. I think the ownership rules are so important. CBS the parent has spent so much money along with ABC and NBC and Clear Channel and all the major media companies. They have spent the last year pouring money into Washington in terms of paying lobbyists and trying to get their way with these media ownership rules.
They've had some pretty serious setbacks in Washington in the last six months. They've been sort of shocked by the grassroots response. So I don't think it was the driving factor, but you don't want to mess with this. I mean, this is ownership. This is billions of dollars. And, you know, I saw the historian Richard Reeves on TV this week saying CBS is scared and they should be scared of Conservatives and Republicans in Washington.
I mean, they control the levers of power in the House and the Senate and the White House and the FCC. If you're running that kind of company, you do not want to step out of line. You don't want to create a fight with these people. And this is serious business. Many documentary movies about President Reagan is really not serious business. What is serious business is ownership rules and be able to buy and sell more and more properties. That is the bottom line. And that had to be in the back of everybody's mind, executives at CBS.
MOYERS: Well even as we speak, Viacom is in violation of the FCC regulations. Viacom reaches more of the country than the law says you're supposed to reach. They're in violation right now. They obviously don't want to jeopardize their lobbying in Washington.
BOEHLERT: They got sort of dispensation and, you know, Murdoch has gotten it too. They're in violation but the FCC is saying, "Well, let's wait and see how everything shakes out and then we'll decide who has to sell what, if anything." So yeah, like I said, you know, they've suffered these setbacks in Washington there's a very powerful sort of grassroots backlash against the media consolidation.
MOYERS: But two million people wrote the FCC and Congress this summer to protest the FCC's taking the lid off.
BOEHLERT: And so Washington is very important for all of these companies and never more so now. So your allies in Washington on the media consolidation issue are the Republicans. The Republican FCC is on your side on this and the Republican White House is on your side. They want to see Viacom and others be able to buy essentially as much as they want. So if that's your best, biggest partner in Washington for this gigantic, you know, ownership battle, why would you want to upset them?
MOYERS: Why don't mainstream journalists who work for these big companies report more on what's happening in Washington on this issue?
BOEHLERT: Well, I think some of them are in a tight spot. I mean, there was a fascinating debate over the summer when the FCC made its ruling and then there was this backlash. And it was invisible on network television as you know and only later did some of the newspapers sort of jump on it. You know, if I wasn't writing for SALON, if I was writing for a company that was playing this game that wanted part of the media ownership, I'd be a lot more careful about what I write about.
I don't think it's openly discussed in the newsroom, "Don't write about this. Don't write about that." It's obvious. You know if you want a job, if you want to advance, let's not upset our boss and do story after story about how the media conglomerates sort of fell on their face in terms of this lobbying effort and were shocked by the consumer backlash.
MOYERS: Are you saying that this is outside the narrative the proper narrative that we journalists set for ourselves? What our owners are doing, what our bosses are doing— media as power, not media as journalism?
BOEHLERT: Well, it shouldn't be out of the— it should not affect what you write and what you cover and the news that you gather, but of course it does. I mean, it's a business, you know, journalists and mostly up and down the east coast, I mean… those are professionals, those are white collar, you know, employees, you know. This is serious business and it pays pretty well for a lot of people. Why would you want to step on toes if, you know… You're not going to go a story meeting and say, "We've got to do this, you know. We've got to do a story about how our, you know, parent company has just botched, you know, this lobbying campaign in Washington" And, "Gee, isn't fascinating that two million people have written the White House?" Yeah, you cover it once, you cover it twice, you don't stay on it for weeks and weeks, I mean.
MOYERS: I take this story of happened with CBS and the Reagans as central to the emerging relationship between big media and the state, between corporations and government. Do you see it that way?
BOEHLERT: Well, it is sort of disconcerting in terms of how close they've become. I mean, we've seen that ever since 9/11. And we saw it with the coverage of Afghanistan and certainly with the coverage of Iraq. During the war, I mean, there was a certain feeling of "us," you know, "NBC, ABC, us, you know, we and the government. We're all in this together, this is our war. Here's our coverage. Here's what happened today on the battlefield."
It's very unusual, you know, the flag flying and the decals and the things like that. And now, I think it's more troubling now in terms of what's happening with it in Iraq. I, you know, I turn on the cable TV and, you know, there's very little coverage. I mean, the White House complains that there's this drumbeat of negative coverage about Iraq. You know there was a blackhawk helicopter that was shot down today, you know. I turn on CBS, CNN, I had to wait 40 or 50 minutes to see anything about that and that's an all-news cable channel. I think they're sort of taking their page from the White House which is, "This is a long war. There will be bumps but when the bumps come up, it's not that big a deal. It's not that big a deal if, you know, 26 or 27 soldiers died this week. This is a, you know, we'll give it three or four minutes an hour and then we're on to the Laci Peterson trial."
MOYERS: I was intrigued that a couple of weeks ago CNN — you mentioned CNN — ran a very favorable documentary to the first George Bush. Took him back to the World War II scenes where he was in fact a brave man. Nobody, particularly Republicans, complained that CNN ran a flattering documentary and recently Showtime ran a docudrama about this George W. Bush and portrayed him as the hero of 9/11. Nobody complained then. What does that say to you?
BOEHLERT: Well, it says if you're, you know, if the portrayal is heroic, all bets are off and particularly the portrayals of a heroic Republican. I mean, that Showtime movie was really, I mean, that was a piece of work. I mean, it was written by, you know, an avowed, you know, Republican Bush backer gave Bush money. He was having trouble with the screenwriting, the screenplay, so Karl Rove invited him to the White House. He had a 60-minute sitdown with the President who basically said, "Here's how it happened on that day."
And people who watched it who pay attention who have studied what happened on that day and the days after sort of laughed. I mean, this is not what happened, I mean, they did not show President Bush reading to elementary students for 30 minutes after the second plane hit. They did show the Bush White House, you know, obsessed with Al Qaeda and terrorism from the day they came into office which is not true. There's no basis on that, in fact, to the opposite.
So this was a wonderfully rosy portrayal and, you know, made up dialogue. I mean, some of it was based on fact. And everyone, not a peep, you know, people liked it and it was a rosy portrayal.
MOYERS: But does it concern you that this fusion between entertainment and politics between journalism and real— I mean, you can turn on television tonight and see journalists playing themselves on cable channel dramas.
You can see movies about the con men of journalism Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass at THE NEW REPUBLIC. I mean, I don't know where fiction starts today and journalism begins.
BOEHLERT: Right, and of course next week we'll see the Jessica Lynch docudrama.
They hear about the Jessica Lynch story as it was originally portrayed. And then they hear well maybe that's not true. And then they see this movie on NBC.
But then they see she's coming out herself saying, "No, it wasn't true." So what are people to make of all this? I mean, do you believe her or do you believe NBC or do you believe the Pentagon?
So it is hard to tell this sort of entertainment, news, and politics, they've all sort of been mixed together. And in some sense, you can come up with a fascinating product sometimes. But what the danger is — particularly when politics and news, or politics and entertainment are sort of hand in hand and you have what we had last week — is essentially running CBS out of town for daring to portray, you know, Ronald and Nancy Reagan as not being nice people 24 hours a day.
MOYERS: What do you think, finally, are the stakes in this fight over ownership over whether a handful of media companies can get bigger and bigger?
BOEHLERT: Well, I think we've seen the downside this week with the whole Reagan fiasco and that, I mean, Viacom wants to own even more. They want to own even more local stations that they can, you know, program and say this is what we're gonna put on the air.
And if they're gonna sort of turn and run at the slightest hint of controversy and they want to own even more. And so we're gonna have two or three companies essentially owning the programming and yet, as they get bigger and bigger they sort of have less and less guts to stand up to people. I mean, it could just be a disaster.
MOYERS: Eric Boehlert, SALON.com. Thank you for joining us on NOW.
BOEHLERT: Thanks.
ANNOUNCER: Next week on NOW WITH BILL MOYERS: war profiteering. Who's getting those big fat contracts to rebuild Iraq?
BAKER: It's who you know. It's what you know. It's how much information you have about what services are required.
ANNOUNCER: Will businesses with cozy ties to the White House make out like bandits? Next week on NOW.
And connect to NOW WITH BILL MOYERS Online at pbs.org.
Are we keeping our promises to soldiers? Find out more.
Add your war memories to our Veterans Day scrapbook.
Tell us what you think about the cancellation of the Reagan miniseries.
Connect to NOW at pbs.org.
BRANCACCIO: It's been a week of the kind of headlines that economists and politicians in power dream about.
First, word that the economy grew from mid-summer to fall at the highest rate since 1984. Then today, news that unemployment fell a tad in October, with the number of new names on employer payroll, double what economists were expecting.
The stock market has had a good 2003; the S&P 500 Index is up 20% this year.
But let's look under the hood at another key economic stat that attracted headlines this week: productivity. It was way up last quarter, part of a two-year spurt not seen in half a century.
Yesterday, Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan described the increases as, quote, "startlingly large." Productivity increases are nice because they can represent the kind of growth that leads to higher wages without inflation.
But there's another side to productivity. It can mean the same amount of work done by fewer people often working longer hours for less money.
Doug Henwood joins us to help us understand what's going on. He is editor of LEFT BUSINESS OBSERVER, and his new book, AFTER THE NEW ECONOMY, looks at the truth behind some of our myths. Doug Henwood, thanks for joining us here on NOW.
HENWOOD: Thanks for having me.
BRANCACCIO: Give us a sense of where we are, with our working lives. Here, now, in the 21st Century. There are challenges of the low-wage work. But what about, you know, with some new skills, some education, maybe those workers can lift themselves up into the middle class? Or maybe their children could.
HENWOOD: Well, if they're lucky. But the record of upward mobility in the United States is not anywhere near as happy as a lot of people would like to think. Most people stay roughly in the income category they were born into, that their parents occupied.
And the United States isn't particularly mobile compared to other countries. We think of this as the great land of upward mobility, but it's really not that much more mobile in either direction than western Europe. And we also have a very, very large low-wage workforce. About the largest in the northern hemisphere.
And also people don't exit from that very quickly. They just sort of stay there for much of their working lives. It's not really a point of entry into the labor market. But for most people, where they're going to have a long-term residence.
BRANCACCIO: I mean, surely we all know people who grew up in poverty and moved on to middle class and beyond. But you're saying that actually this isn't representative? Or it's just not as true as we think it is?
HENWOOD: It's not as true as we think it is. And if people move, they move a notch. They don't move four or five notches up the ladder.
And this has been true for many, many decades. But, you know, we have the widest distribution of rich and poor in the developed world. And surprisingly the smallest middle income category in the developed world. Which is, of course, exactly the opposite of what most Americans would think.
BRANCACCIO: What would account for this?
HENWOOD: Well the best predictor of your own education is your parents' level of education. The best predictor of your income is your parents' income. And there are reasons for this. If you're born into a lower middle class family, say, you're going to probably go to schools that aren't as good as people who are further up the income ladder.
You're going to grow up in a household that doesn't have books. You're not going to develop the connections that people need to get to move up in the world. Certainly people do it. There's no doubt about it.
But it the odds are really, really against you.
BRANCACCIO: You're full of surprises here, Mr. Henwood. You also just mentioned that the middle class is small? I mean, I've seen those statistics. The ones that show that if you ask Americans most of them say they're middle class.
HENWOOD: Yes, you're right. Many Americans, a very large majority of them, probably think of themselves as middle class. But if you look at— if you define this strictly in income terms, incomes you know, around the average, we have the smallest percentage of our population in that middle income category of any of the developed countries from which the numbers exist.
BRANCACCIO: So we may not be as upwardly mobile as we think. Our middle class is smaller than we think. But surely we're a productive bunch. I mean, we get a lot of work in a short amount of time, we Americans.
HENWOOD: Well, we work a lot. There's no question about that. But the absolute level of productivity, what an American worker produces in a year is sort of in the middle of the pack of the rich countries. Places like Sweden and the Netherlands actually produce as much or more in a year.
BRANCACCIO: Well, I was looking in your book and I saw a graph there about work hours necessary to make average yearly family income.
HENWOOD: It's almost a straight shot upwards, about 45-degree angle. We know that our average incomes have been rising. But what we don't know is that we're working a lot harder to get that.
You talk to almost anyone who works at an office or a factory these days and there are fewer hands on deck. But people are almost expected to do more work. Somebody leaves or somebody gets laid off, you know, somebody else will take up that job in addition to his or her own job.
And I think that is throughout the whole economy. We've had, I think the productivity numbers really underestimate the length of time people are working to provide this miracle of productivity. Because what they measure is what people are paid for. Not the actual hours that they put in.
And in a lot of cases, for example, in the computer industry, the government statistics assume that white-collar worker work 35 hours a week. Now, no one in the computer industry would find that anything but hilarious.
BRANCACCIO: In fact, for anybody who ever wanted a little bit more vacation, it looks like the United States may not be the place to be.
Do you see these statistics? On average, the Swedes get 25 to 35 days off. The Italians about 30, a lot of countries 30. What about the United States?
HENWOOD: Well, we have very short vacations, maybe an average of two weeks and there's no legal mandate to offer vacation. A lot of Western European countries, even southern— Latin American countries, they mandate four weeks of vacation, paid vacation, a year.
There's no such mandate in the United States. And even people who are entitled to vacations, according to surveys, a lot of people don't take them, because it is perceived as a lack of dedication to the work effort. And they're reluctant to appear lazy.
We have the longest— among the longest work years in the world. If you look at the number of hours a worker puts in in a year.
The only comparable country would be South Korea, where they probably work slightly longer. Japan used to be ahead of us. But they had their recession, and they've fallen down.
BRANCACCIO: But what is it? The Protestant work ethic? Or are we just diligent people?
HENWOOD: Well, I think it's the Protestant work ethic. A lot of Americans, yeah, really are driven by work. To the point I think where it really damages their own lives. But it's also that we have a very large low-wage sector. But we don't have a lot of benefits.
A lot of the things that we— Americans complain about high taxes. But we have relatively high taxes and don't get that much for it. You know. In other countries people will have good benefit systems — healthcare taken care of, reasonable income security if they lose their jobs. We don't have any of that here to speak of. We have to work very, very hard, very long hours just to make ends meet in a lot of cases. We have low wages, low benefits. And that inspires people— forces people to work very hard.
BRANCACCIO: Even with all these fancy computers, computer networks, robots and so forth, we're still working these long hours.
HENWOOD: Yeah, well, that's one of the paradoxes of this productivity revolution. The statistics say productivity is rising. But I think a more colloquial definition of productivity — one ordinary people would think of — would be being able to produce more stuff.
BRANCACCIO: How much I get done in a given day.
HENWOOD: Right. And we're not taking the dividends of that productivity in the form of relaxing. You know, you'd think that productivity means that machines are doing more of our work for us. But in fact we're working longer hours and productivity is an abstraction.
BRANCACCIO: Well, your book is called AFTER THE NEW ECONOMY. Is that what is after the new economy? These longer hours and technology not helping as much as advertised?
HENWOOD: Well, it's kind of hard to say what's after the economy. I think we're in this phase of longer term economic trouble. I think we're still thinking of it as kind of a conventional business cycle. And the recovery is just not coming, or it's coming very slowly.
And certainly some of numbers are looking up. There's no question about that. Although the job market is the last place these numbers are looking up. I don't want to be one of those people who are complaining about foreigners taking our jobs. I think in many cases they're getting better jobs than they would have otherwise. And a lot of the people who are getting jobs in India, actually are doing very well compared to what they would have had if it weren't for these outsourced jobs.
It's too bad that Americans are losing their jobs. But I don't want to like set this sort of "they're stealing our lunch" kind of rhetoric. But if you actually look at the kinds of jobs that have been created here and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will be created over the next decade, it's nothing like these high-tech fantasies.
Sure we've got things like systems analysts and senior managers. But those are really in the minority — maybe a third of the top new jobs in the next decade. What are far more prevalent are things like cashiers, home-help aids, truck drivers. Really low-wage, in many cases.
And certainly not high skill jobs of the future that most people think are compensating for it. There are what, like three times as many truck drivers as there are people— computer programmers. And that's not going to change any time significantly.
BRANCACCIO: Now, you do paint a pretty grim picture of what's really going on in the American economy as you see it. Do we leave it there? Is there anything that you would like to see done to sort of move the debate forward, move conditions forward, if that's indeed how we live in this country?
HENWOOD: Well, I think the first step to progress is just seeing the way things— the way they are, and stripping away the myth-making. So, that's, I think, the most urgent task. But I would, you know, I have I guess a fairly conventional socially democratic— social democratic political agenda, you know. I'd like to see higher minimum wages, more unions, better social benefits, national health care. You know, those sorts of things that are almost ruled out now of polite political discussion. And they work very well.
And we have a almost $11 trillion economy. We can certainly afford it. But they're just considered impossible. And that's the kind of thing that respectable people don't bring up in public.
BRANCACCIO: But how? I mean, it's sort of like I've asked you, how do you play the flute, and you said, "Well, you run your fingers up and down the keys in the right order." How, if that is, indeed the goal—
HENWOOD: Takes a lot of practice, too.
BRANCACCIO: Lots of practice, lots of practice. But indeed, if that is a goal, strengthening unions' rights and more universal health care, how do we get there, do you suppose?
HENWOOD: Well, it's certainly not easy. We have a very demobilized population politically. People have very low expectations of what politics can achieve. And now, you know, I think after California, I think the "throw the bums out" mentality is in the ascendancy.
But that's all a very negative agenda. And California, I think, is a perfect example of this box that American politics is in. You have a state with severe constraints raising revenues. People still expect relatively high levels of public services.
And there's no money to pay for it. And people have a very hard time, you know, connecting the dots in there. And California, I think, is an extreme version of the thing that goes on nationally. People like to hear about tax cuts and tax relief.
And the government is a big burden. The government's the problem, you know. That Reagan quote still, I think, infects a lot of our political thinking. But it's really the, you know, without that, we're all condemned to continue this life of stress and overwork and having trouble making ends meet.
BRANCACCIO: The book is called AFTER THE NEW ECONOMY. Doug Henwood, thanks for stopping by NOW.
MOYERS: From our in-box to yours, stories David and I have been filing away in case you missed them. Including stories about the state of working America.
This one: the Department of Agriculture reports that in almost four million families last year, someone went hungry because the family couldn't afford to buy food—That's a 22 percent increase from 1999.
BRANCACCIO: Here's another one: THE GUARDIAN of London sent a reporter to Ohio to check up on middle America. He reports that Ohio's 11 million households made over two million visits to food charities last year. That's up 18 percent from the year before. Ohio has lost one out of every six factory jobs.
MOYERS: Kentucky changed governors this week and that's not all. The Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL reports that Kentucky is starting to charge twenty to thirty dollars a month for kids enrolled in state health care plans for families of the working poor. A spokesman for the state calls it, quote, "a way to educate families about the value of health care and the cost of health care."
BRANCACCIO: Curling up with a General Accounting Office report may not be your idea of romance on a cozy November night, but here it is: The GAO says overly clever corporate tax shelters SAVED businesses 85 billion dollars last year. Let me rewind and say that again: Abusive corporate tax shelters are COSTING the government 85 billion. But what could the government possibly do with an extra 85 billion?
MOYERS: If you have some time on your hands, Uncle Sam is looking for a few good men and women to sit on draft boards. You may be surprised to realize that draft boards still exist because the draft was abolished in 1973. But the government is trying to fill the vacant seats on existing boards through a Web site urging people to "Serve Your Community and the Nation." What's going on, you may ask? Well, according to the online magazine SALON, some experts are suggesting that the number of military personnel needed for an extended occupation of Iraq might outstrip the supply of volunteers.
BRANCACCIO: Promotions in the news: the man who stage-managed the Bush administration's media campaign against Saddam last spring will be doing the same thing against the Democrats next year.
Jim Wilkinson was responsible for the impressive communications center the U.S. military built for its media briefings in Qatar. Now the Texan is embedded in midtown Manhattan, where he'll be running communications for next summer's Republican National Convention over here at Madison Square Garden.
MOYERS: There's a new twist in the outsourcing story we reported on last summer.
The accelerating trend in American business to send computer and clerical jobs overseas just hit a speed bump. The SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE has a story that The University of California Medical Center was held hostage last month by a data entry worker in Pakistan. It seems she hadn't been paid by a Texas subcontractor who was working for the Florida outfit brought in by the California company originally hired to handle the medical center's records.
She threatened to post patients' confidential files on the Internet unless she got her money. She finally did. But, says a hospital spokesman, "We'll have to live with this risk on a daily basis." Outsourcing, you might say, to the fourth power.
BRANCACCIO: And remember the other day when the Justice Department went around raiding Wal-Marts, looking for illegal immigrants? You might have thought that would be a black eye for the biggest employer in the country. Well, don't presume. Wal-Mart's stock went up three-quarters of a percent that day. The mystery of why that happened has now been solved by the TEXARKANA GAZETTE. The Texas paper quoted business observers suggesting that the FBI raids gave Wal-Mart a bounce by reminding the public that the Christmas shopping season is about to get into full swing.
MOYERS: Words escape us. But not the links to the original stories. Connect to NOW's revamped website for the full bibliography. That's it for NOW. David and I will be back next week. I'm Bill Moyers.
This transcript was entered on August 13, 2015.
From the show
Full Transcript: Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Our Crisis of Racial Justice
Now White People Are Dying From Our Terrible Economic Policies, Too
What Candidates Talk About When They Talk About Inequality
Hard Work With Jeb
Why North Carolina Is the New Selma
Black Students Feeling Especially Crushed By Student Debt
Why So Many Americans Feel So Powerless
A Tale of Two Bank Tellers: Rebuilding the Middle Class Through Better Banks
The Shame of US Journalism Is the Destruction of Iraq, Not Fake Helicopter Stories
TOPICS: Arts & Culture, Economy & Work, Health & Science, Media, Poets & Writers, Society, War & Peace
TAGS: american economy, cbs, doug henwood, economic mobility, eric boehlert, federal workforce, media consolidation, middle class, now with bill moyers, productivity, ronald reagan, salon, the nation, transcript, veterans, veterans affairs


Fashion Show & Tea Fundraiser.
The Fashion Show and Tea is a Memphis tradition operated by the volunteers for the sole purpose of raising money to support the Memphis community.
Enjoy a lovely lunch while enjoying clothing designs from merchants in our Memphis community.
Ticket sales will start soon. Contact Patti via email for more information about our Ladies of Charity Fashion Show and Tea fundraiser.
Fashion Show & Tea Invitation pdf.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BECOME A SPONSOR?


text:
newspapers tagged posts
Hindi Newspapers
October 28, 2021, newspapers
A place the place you can find all Bangla Newspaper printed from all over the world. Section is simplified by most visited, printed Bangla Newspaper,Online news agency and portal from Bangladesh, International Bangla Newspaper, Television, Business,Technology, Regional Newspaper, Regional Newspaper and News Agency. But if tv represented a body blow to the newspaper trade, the web could show to be the ultimate nail within the coffin. With the emergence of the internet in the Nineties, vast quantities of knowledge had been all of a sudden free for the taking.
However, none of these publications totally met the classical criteria for correct newspapers, as they were typically not supposed for most of the people and restricted to a certain vary of matters...
List Of Newspapers In Taiwan
September 25, 2021, newspapers
TEETH REX Prehistoric 43ft crocodile with chunk 20 occasions more powerful than a Great White NEW research revealed a prehistoric sloth unearthed within the Amazonian rainforest was killed by the largest crocodile that ever lived. The Purussaurus may develop to 43ft long and weigh 8.5 tons – and its bite was twenty instances the power of a Great White Shark.
Since the late-1990s, the variety of newspapers slated for closure, chapter, or extreme cutbacks has risen—especially in the United States, where the trade has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001...
September 4, 2021, newspapers
The German-language Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, printed from 1605 onwards by Johann Carolus in Strasbourg, is usually acknowledged as the primary newspaper. At the time, Strasbourg was a free imperial metropolis within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation; the primary newspaper of recent Germany was the Avisa, published in 1609 in Wolfenbüttel. They distinguished themselves from different printed materials by being published frequently. They reported on a wide range of current occasions to a broad public viewers.
Weekly newspapers are published as soon as every week, and are typically smaller than daily papers...
Newspapers Com
August 14, 2021, newspapers
One is extra more likely to see a statue of Dick Cheney on the Yale campus than an op-ed opposing abortion rights. But right now's reporters are emerging from cocoons the place leftism rules each word of each part. They informed tales of their instances through adverts, photographs, and even their design—stories we want to save for all Australians. The colonel put down his newspaper and looked at his spouse, much surprised. Still, it isn't valued in an American newspaper office as much as may be.
Amazon's extra packaging for on a regular basis objects – from washing gel to nutritional vitamins SHOPPERS have been calling out Amazon for its use of excess packaging – together with one customer who acquired enough cardboard to make a complete mattress after ordering a single pillow...
Indian Newspapers
July 27, 2021, newspapers
Sunday newspapers are revealed on Saturday December 24, Christmas Eve when Christmas Day is falling on Sunday. In the United Kingdom and another Commonwealth international locations, not like most other international locations, "every day" newspapers do not publish on Sundays. As of 2017, newspapers can also present information about new films and TV reveals obtainable on streaming video companies like Netflix.
But these cases of frequent sense are especially notable as a result of they're exceedingly uncommon. In school newspapers, residents are getting a glimpse of what they can anticipate sooner or later — in attempting to not "spread hate," they are as a substitute spreading disinformation...
Thousands Of Online Newspapers On The Web
June 22, 2021, newspapers
In western Europe many papers grew to become primarily organs of political and literary opinion. Search historical newspapers from throughout the United States and past. Explore newspaper articles and clippings for help with genealogy, history and other analysis. The debate has become extra pressing recently, because the 2008–2009 recession shaved newspapers' profits and as once-explosive progress in web revenue has leveled off, forestalling what the industry hoped would turn into an essential income. At issue is whether the newspaper trade faces a cyclical trough , or whether new technology has rendered print newspapers out of date.
For example, the Financial Times is printed on a particular salmon pink paper, and Sheffield's weekly sports publication derives its name, the Green 'Un, f...
Revenue in 2016 fell to only $53 billion, hurting every main publisher as their efforts to gain on-line income fell far in need of the goal. Besides transforming promoting, the web has additionally challenged the business fashions of the print-solely period by crowdsourcing both publishing normally and, more specifically, journalism . In addition, the rise of reports aggregators, which bundle linked articles from many on-line newspapers and different sources, influences the move of web traffic. Increasing paywalling of on-line newspapers may be counteracting these effects.
For instance, the Financial Times is printed on a distinctive salmon pink paper, and Sheffield's weekly sports activities publication derives its name, the Green 'Un, from the normal color of its paper...
United States Newspapers
March 21, 2021, newspapers
As of 2017, an increasing share of millennials get their news from social media websites. In the 2010s, many conventional newspapers have begun offering "digital editions," accessible by way of computer systems and mobile devices. Online promoting permits news web sites to indicate catered advertisements, based mostly on a visitor's interests.
Since the late-Nineties, the number of newspapers slated for closure, chapter, or extreme cutbacks has risen—particularly within the United States, the place the industry has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001...
The National Archives has government gazettes – the official newspapers of former British colonies and British dominions. Dandakaranya SamacharDaily newspaper published from Jagdalpur and Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Uttam HinduNational Hindi-language newspaper of Northern India, which is being published simultaneously from Jalandhar & New Delhi.
Amsterdam, a middle of world commerce, quickly grew to become home to newspapers in many languages, often before they were published in their own country. A yr and a half later, Corante, or weekely newes from Italy, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, France and the Low Countreys. The first newspaper in France was revealed in 1631, La Gazette ...
March 6, 2021, newspapers
Newspapers have, within the trendy world, played an necessary function within the train of freedom of expression. However, there have been many circumstances of the political autonomy of newspapers being curtailed.
As of 2017, an growing percentage of millennials get their news from social media websites. In the 2010s, many traditional newspapers have begun offering "digital editions," accessible through computer systems and cell devices. Online advertising allows news websites to indicate catered advertisements, primarily based on a customer's pursuits.
Full web page reproductions of national and regional newspapers specifically selected to finest characterize nineteenth century Britain, together with newspapers that helped lead political or social actions and penny papers aimed at the w...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


born imaginative.: He's Five and a HALF!
Well, today is a big day for Adrian. He's five and a HALF. He's been waiting for this!
Here he was at 2.
Here he was at 18 months.
(And before that, I wasn't a blogger).
Now you are 5 and a HALF. You've been waiting for this day. 5 and a HALF. That's mighty big.
You are turning out to be the most living, caring, considerate boy. You think of others, you are thoughtful and generous.
You are the most responsible kid ever. You keep things tidy and you always clear your plate at the table without even being asked.
You love staying home and you say you'll be homeschooled forever. You spend a lot of your day doing art. You love to create things and cut tractors out of magazines. While you were nervous to start, you really have enjoyed your friends at homeschool co-op. In fact, you claim you've found your bride. You have a yellow bat ring in a plastic box with pink lace in your room, awaiting the right time to ask.
You remember everything. As in the truck you got in the hospital when you were 21 months old when your sister was born (there's not even any pictures of that to remind you!). You have an amazing memory and you are always truthful. If you say it happened, it did.
You love to eat pancakes any dessert with fruit and cold raw milk. You also love honey roasted peanuts and corn. Such a random variety. But no beef. You tell people you don't eat cow.
Speaking of cows, you love love love cows. Talk about them daily. And tractors. You are going to work in a John Deere dealership someday. You are a very, very hard worker in the barn and care for your animals regularly. Never do you go a day or night without John Deere apparel. Most days you wear John Deere Overalls, a John Deere undershirt, a John Deere long sleeved shirt, a John Deere hat and John Deere socks. You sleep in John Deere pajamas. Intense, I tell you. I actually took all your other clothes away because you never wear them. You're growing your hair long for winter, but will have it short for summer, so you say. How practical.
Every single day, I count my blessings that I have you in my life. You are very serious and oh so loving and such a great kid to have around.
Adrian, happy 5 and a HALF. Have a good day, buddy.
Oh my...he is one amazing kid. I didn't realize he didn't eat beef. He must be so introspective to make that decision so young. Happy 1/2 birthday Adrian. I know you'll make all of your dreams come true.
Happy half birthday, Farmer Adrian! Hope you enjoy your day!
What fun! His hair is really getting darker like Mama's!


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Steve McQueen - Life is Racing
For most Porsche enthusiast of vintage 60's and 70's Porsches know of the Steve McQueen Motorsport film masterpiece, "Le Mans". McQueen was a major Porsche enthusiast himself, so much so he found his way in the the drivers seat of a few Porsches, most noteworthy was the 908 he raced in the early 70's. For some people, they don't know Steve's connection with Porsche and his passion for the sport of motor racing. He is just a cool movie actor to others.
Looks like a new feature is being created to highlight his passion. "Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans since its beginning. This classic documentary is the story of obsession and betrayal. It is the story of how one of the most charismatic stars of his generation, who seemingly loses so much his pursuit of a dream, and preserve to the end.
We look forward to seeing the full documentary. Watch the official trailer below.
SortMike Butler August 1, 2015 ZedComment
A Turbo Option For The Cayman and Boxster
SortMike Butler August 1, 2015 Zed
The Merak Curiosity
SortMike Butler July 26, 2015 Zed


That stinks! I hope you find something you love soon.
I hope you'll find a good book soon. Maybe you'll find something on someone's Mailbox Monday post. Good luck!
.-= Mary´s last blog ..Sunday Summary – March 28 =-.
Awww! I feel sad for you. Nothing worse than a string of bad books.
.-= debnance at readerbuzz´s last blog ..Sunday Salon: A Book-ish Day in Alvin, My First Two French Books, and A Give-Away! =-.


text:
Living in the Midwest
Fun Home Projects
Home Maintenance Concepts
What are the Best Home Security Systems for 2022?
By Chris Kane
We have aggregated some excellent website links comparing the best home security systems for 2022. If you're ready to step up your home security this year, you have a lot of choices. It's never been more affordable for the average homeowner to find an easy-to-install security system than it is today.
It's time to keep your family and property safe from porch pirates, prowlers, burglars, and other dangerous home invaders. We've prepared a list of the best home security systems for 2022.
At the top are home security systems designed to monitor your home from wherever you are on earth using smart technology. Remember, insurance companies often offer discounts on homeowners' insurance policies.
You should know that a few firms are at the top of these lists. For one, Simply Safe security options are mentioned multiple times. Others frequently mentioned are Google Nest Cam, Wyze, and ADT.
However, it's up to you to decide! See what you think by visiting these websites:
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Home Security Systems
DIY (do-it-yourself) alarm systems are an excellent fit for people who are good with technology and want to build their security system. And DIY home security is the way to go for people who don't want a hard-wired system in their homes. It's almost always simple to remove and take to your next home when you move.
Top 6 DIY Home Security Systems of 2022. – This article by ThisOldHouse.com provides a list of six DIY security systems that meet the needs of most homeowners, including medical alerts and no-contact.
Best DIY Home Security Systems in 2022. – TomsGuide.com presents nine DIY security systems that are easy to install, including motion and entry sensors and other features, each with a monthly fee.
Best DIY Home Security Systems of 2022. – Safewise.com compares ten DIY home security systems, including their Top 4 picks for 'best overall, best upgrades, smart homes, and customer satisfaction.
Best DIY Home Security Systems for 2022. – CNET.com tested and recommended three home security systems that are 'most affordable' and avoid 'hidden fees.'
Hardwired Home Security Systems
Some people are better off with a hardwired security system. Hardwired security systems are considered more reliable and will work even if you lose your internet connection. These systems are less likely to be hacked, jammed, or have other security problems.
Top 5 Wired Camera Systems in 2022. – SafeHome.org recommends five wired home security systems that they claim are "… a stable, reliable connection that's not susceptible to interference."
5 Best Wired Security Camera Systems of 2022. – Anthony Bahn, a US Navy veteran and technology expert, provides his list of the top-of-the-line wired security camera systems on the market today.
Top 5 Wired Security Systems. – Jonas Muthoni, author, and creative strategist, offers his list of the best wired security CCTV systems in the US. His 'best pick' is Google Nest for indoor use.
Best Hardwired Security Systems. – Security.org believes that 'hardwired' may be a better option over wireless systems because they can't be 'jammed' and 'work even if the internet goes down.' Their best pick is ADT!
Outdoor All-Weather Security Cameras
If you live in an area with occasional severe weather, you need an outdoor security camera that can take extreme cold, heat, rain, or even sandstorms. Cameras have changed a lot in the last ten or twelve years. You can get great outdoor cameras that don't get wet. Check out our top picks for outdoor weatherproof cameras that will keep working in the summer heat or the winter cold.
The Best Outdoor Security Cameras. – Wired.com recommends six systems that are weatherproof deterrence against burglaries, home invasions, and porch pirates. They also tell you which systems to avoid.
Best Outdoor Security Cameras in 2022. – TomsGuide.com tested more than a dozen outdoor security cameras, and their pick is the Nest Cam (Battery) as the best overall.
The Best Outdoor Home Security Cameras for 2022. – PC Magazine tested 39 products and recommended 12 camera systems for outdoor security designed to withstand rain, snow, and extreme temperatures.
Best Outdoor Security Cameras of 2022. – Consumer Reports lists five outdoor security cameras, primarily wireless and powered by rechargeable batteries.
Common Home Security Mistakes
Thieves will take advantage whenever possible to grab your valuables from your home. We see these unfortunate crimes in the news all the time. It's up to us to ensure our homes are safe and secure. Yet people keep making mistakes with the home security that practically begs thieves to enter.
Do You Have One of the Worst Security Codes? – Ackerman tells us that one analysis of almost 3.5 million home security system codes is '1234.' In fact, repeated number codes like '4567' or '0987' are also terrible security risks.
11 Common Home Security Mistakes That Put You at Risk. – Family Handyman points out that people who design their property to provide 'privacy' may place their homes at excessive risk.
10 Home Security Mistakes You Really Need to Avoid Making. – MUO explains that many homeowners commonly expose their homes to avoidable security risks. Do you make any of these mistakes?
The Worst Home Security According to Consumer Reports. – Reader's Digest shares Consumer Reports' opinion on the three home security systems that rated poorly. Two of these systems are deadbolts that may fail to prevent break-ins. They also provide better-rated alternatives.
Best Colors to Help a House Sell in 2022
How to Prepare Your Home for a Natural Disaster
The Best First-Time Home Buying Guide
Ultimate Guide to Complete Home Maintenance
Awesome Home Improvement Advice
Copyright © 2023 Obligona. All rights reserved.


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You are welcome to attend any of these activities. For dates and times please check Upcoming Events.
Note: Three Wheels applies Child Protection Policy to all our activities.
Morning service and Evening service are held every day and starts at different timing. (Please see the time table below.) Services are based on the traditional Shin Buddhist liturgy and include chanting the Shoshinge (Hymn of True Faith by Shinran Shonin), Wasan (Japanese Hymns by Shinran) and the reading of an Ofumi (Letters by Rennyo Shonin).
August London Eza, incorporating the Annual Ceremony to pray for World Peace and Reconciliation.
These bi-monthly Meetings are the main events in Three Wheels calendar. After a formal Buddhist service a talk is given by a priest of Three Wheels or a guest speaker. Each Eza is a time when many people, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, gather at Three Wheels with the main purpose of encouraging harmony within diversity and spiritual exchange and encounter. For the date of the next London Eza please see the Upcoming Events Calendar.
The first Shokai Retreat was held in May 2008 and have subsequently been held every Spring and Autumn at Three Wheels. Each retreat comprises of services to the Buddha, Dharma talks, meditation sessions and a lesson in sutra-chanting as well as group meetings and work periods in and around the grounds of the temple. The two characters in the term 'Shokai' mean respectively 'letting flow' (sho) and 'opening' (kai) and thus describe a period of spiritual practice designed to allow the waters of faith to flow freely both in the individual and inter-personal dimensions.
The Director of Three Wheels continues a series of meetings to read and discuss his translation of The Great Rajagriha by Venerable Reion Takehara, Restorer of Shogyoji Temple. This Buddhist text helps you understand the religious meaning of the two important aspects in Shin Buddhist faith, 1) awareness of Ki (the self), or the sad reality of one's Karmic existence, 2) awareness of Ho (Dharma), or the unconditional love of Amida Buddha that saves us all with no discrimination.
This series of meetings is held at both Three Wheels and the Buddhist Society.
Students from Shogyoji Temple in Japan have been coming to Three Wheels every Spring, normally around the Easter period, since 1997. During their visit to Britain, they experience a wide range of activities from visits to local attractions and the countryside to English lessons and talks by various individuals. Most importantly their stay gives them an opportunity to truly encounter one another and realise, through living away from home, deep gratitude towards their parents, family and teachers.
Meetings especially designed for students, including services, meditation and so on. This meeting for teenagers began in 2011 and has made it possible for secondly students to join religious activities and think about their daily lives. Many activities of this meeting are based on one of the most important aspects of becoming aware of interdependent relationships.
Once a month children and their parents gather for a short Buddha Service, followed by a talk given by one of the priests or parents. Through discussing the story the children are encouraged to reflect upon and ask questions about their life and their surroundings. After the story the children happily play and take part in an activity based on the theme of the meeting. Parents are welcome to stay and supervise their children throughout the meeting.
This monthly meeting is designed especially for mothers with infants and began in Oct 2015. The participants share their own joy, difficulties and sufferings in daily lives in order to make their lives happy. They find joy and solutions of difficulties through their mutual conversation. Enjoyable activities are organised by themselves.
Meditation Classes are held every Monday evening from 19:30 to 20:30. Instruction is given on finding the correct posture and developing an inner peace and stillness in which to develop the core Shin Buddhist teaching of awakening gratitude towards Amida Buddha and deep listening to the Buddha Dharma. The sessions are based on the Zen practice of sitting mediation (zazen) but individuals are welcome to sit in ways that are comfortable and familiar to them. Please put on loose trousers as tight ones and skirts are not appropriate.
Note: Meditation class does not appear in Upcoming Event page because it is a weekly event but does in Calendar page.
Monthly Japanese language Meetings held at Three Wheels to listen to Dharma Talks given by Reverend Kemmyo T. Sato or Reverend Kenshin H. Ishii.
This meetings are organised by ladies who weekly gather at Three Wheels. The participants discuss about their daily life, read Buddhist texts and help preparation work of Three Wheels' activities.


text:
RenewAmerica.com July 16, 2019 Click here to receive our twice-weekly Newsletter
Wes Vernon
Health bill passes House
Also: border crossings to Canada and Mexico? And small businesses & health care providers concerned (Socialized Medicine--Part 13)
By Wes Vernon
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives thumbed their noses at their constituents as they voted to provide a glidepath to federal takeover of a very personal part of your life — the relationship between you and your doctor.
The momentum already was with the Democrats when the White House as able to strike a deal with Congressman Bart Stupak, a leader of a band of anti-abortion Democrats. That agreement accelerated the momentum to a wind just strong enough to put socialized medicine over the finish line.
President Obama satisfied Stupak when he promised to sign an executive order saying there will be no funding for abortions under the new legislation.
Former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey said he was "stunned" that Stupak would fall for a "stunt like that. An executive order does not trump the law of the land." And the Senate bill which the House was poised to pass Sunday night is widely interpreted as allowing taxpayer funded abortions. Moreover, an executive order can be reversed by the current president — not to mention by some successor who is not bound by any such promise to Stupak and Co.
This doesn't end the drama — though it certainly marks the most significant turning point. Waiting in the wings are the so-called "fixes" that congressional leaders were hoping would satisfy wavering Democrats in the House who had problems — of one kind or another — with the Senate-passed bill.
Beyond that, there are lawsuits lining up to take the fight to the courts. They will drag on for years unless the opposition can persuade judges to put the measure on a fast track or order that the bill's implementation be put on hold while the legal process quickly runs its course. Neither is seen as likely. So the process of government control of one-sixth of the nation's economy started Sunday night. The train has left the station.
Saving lives: America's so-called "defective" health care
Still it will take some time — years — to get the system fully in place. It is questionable whether the Republicans can repeal the measure even if they win big-time in the November midterm elections.
Perhaps we should encourage — only halfway facetiously — a program to facilitate trips to Canada or Mexico by the liberals who have agitated for governmentcare for lo these many years. There are reasons why many Canadians have chosen to use our medical facilities, just as there are reasons why many of the aliens who illegally crash our borders with Mexico do so for the specific purpose of getting "free" service in our emergency rooms — causing many of them to shut down in California and elsewhere.
Left-wing ideologues in this country have repeatedly said (if not in this exact language), "Well, we're the only industrialized country that does not guarantee "free" health care for all. Therefore we must follow in lockstep with the socialist societies of the world and show how mature and 'with it' we are."
Why not buy a train, plane, or bus ticket and hand it to anyone who claims our health care system is inferior to Canada's and Mexico's?
Or China's?
While millions of liberals are falling all over each other to make this mass exodus (Not!), the rest of us can contemplate what top-down government control of health care can mean, and what we will be throwing away by tossing out the best health care system in the world (for all its shortcomings). Take China, for example:
This is the story of an American woman living in Chungking, China, who was told by a Chinese doctor there was "something wrong" with her unborn baby and that she would need to undergo an abortion.
No way was she going to allow that. So the American woman went to Hong Kong (now part of Red China) and was told by another specialist that there was indeed something wrong with the baby and the child would probably die.
The American woman went back to the doctor in Chungking every week, and he would tell her to "get rid of this inconvenience."
Her husband was able to arrange for the expectant mother to return to the U.S., where her family lined her up with nine specialists, and she was told that there had been an improvement and that the baby would live. The specialists were available at birth to perform necessary surgery.
Today, that baby is a beautiful four-year-old girl whose family loves her as "adorable." She does have problems. She has something called Turner syndrome, which is "very easily and well treated in this country," according to a medical professional in an interview with this column. In China, the medical professionals can't do that.
Thus an example of the great superiority of a "progressive" health care system over America's "antiquated" health care machinery. It is more than reasonable to raise the question of whether any such personal attention will be accorded similar scenarios once the system voted through on Sunday is embedded in this country. Good-bye to the America that respects the "human" factor in health care, as opposed to the systems that see less than perfect babies and senior citizens as "inconveniences."
Health "care" providers
The idea of "free" health care is already causing egregious waste and abuse. As a health care professional who has been a nurse for 42 years says, the current Medicaid program — aimed at helping the poor — is rife with abuses leading to situations where only one child is sick, for instance, but the families will "trot in all their children and expect them all to be seen."
This health care provider adds, "Our hospitals probably waste" millions of dollars each year. "People are showing up and using the emergency room like a clinic," she told this column. "I think a totally public system is going to cause more abuse. I don't see that as the kind of 'reform' we need to make. We need to work on reforming the fraud and abuse rather than putting more layers of bureaucracy on top of it which would lead to more fraud and abuse."
And small business
That sentiment was echoed by a small businessman we interviewed.
Said he: "If somebody had said a long time ago 'Are you for health care reform?' I would have said yes, and I think a lot of people would have said yes on the basis that when you go to the doctor's — and you have insurance like we have — all of a sudden you start getting all these bills. And they're from five different people — for five different amounts. They don't make any sense. But implementing reform of situations such as that — I don't think that's what they're doing. I think we're going to see more of that anyway."
This particular businessman's shop provides health insurance to employees there. But his shop has so few employees that he hopes to escape the worst impact through exemptions. However, there is a tiny minority of his staff not covered — part-timers, secondary jobs, etc. If any of those people must answer questions from the hundreds of new IRS agents unleashed to enforce the new law (that everyone must purchase health insurance), such an investigation could lead back to this particular tiny business and adversely affect it.
"Larger" small interests
The people more likely to be hurt are the "larger" small businesses — the well over 20,000 successful enterprises in retail, manufacturing, and service industries — virtually all of which provide health insurance and retirement plans.
Those interests are represented by the Small Business Council of America (SBCA) which had pleaded with Congress not to pass the Senate bill, whose details, they argued, "will not only harm small businesses and their ability to provide health care for their employees, but . . . lead to the ultimate demise of this country's private health care system."
SBCA CEO Peter Shanley predicted that "If health care is not funded properly by Medicare [as is widely feared under the bill], then the end result will be greater rationing of our health care system and fewer more costly options for Medicare recipients," resulting in a deterioration in "the quality and availability in health care."
No tort reform
Of course, the monstrous 2700-page Senate bill approved Sunday night in the House does not do one thing to rein in the trial lawyers. As the veteran nurse referenced above said to me, "If doctors were not so afraid that they have to have every patient have every test [for fear of incurring malpractice suits], it would take a great burden off the health care system."
Right. And where is Ralph Nader, the man who — in the name of "protecting consumers" — led this nation to its current sue-happy environment? As usual, not examining the abuse inflicted on consumers by some out-of-control elements of the tort bar, and certainly not calling for tort reform as an avenue to true health reform.
So what happens now?
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a veteran Republican lawmaker from Michigan, can foresee a time when — if the GOP were to gain a stronger hand in the next Congress — a Republican Congress and Democrat president can work together to undo some of the damage inflicted by this new bill before it gets too far along — with the result of sensible health reform. We can only hope. Obama's left ideology would get in the way.
Process schmocess?
Republicans hoping for a comeback in 2010 could do worse than to promote a video of a comment by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) — the third-ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee that reported the health "care" bill to the House floor. This gem "says it all":
"When the deal goes down, all this talk about rules — we make them up as we go along."
Given that Mr. Hastings is an impeached judge — only the sixth in the nation's history — removed from the bench on charges of corruption and perjury, we bow to the congressman on the issue of making up the rules "as we go along." Just a glimpse of the kind of sleaze that pushed this horrible bill through Capitol Hill.
© Wes Vernon
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
Wes Vernon is a Washington-based writer and veteran broadcast journalist.
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