P
E R S O N A L
A C C
O U N T
E
A R T H
![]() FIRST
EDITION Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article (excluding Appendices not by this Author), in any electronic media is permitted provided this notice is preserved. Also permitted is quotation of passages for research or critical review purposes in any electronic media, and printing a single copy for personal use. All other Rights Reserved.
|
FIRST
EDITION
DECEMBER
2005
| This article was written as a
companion for the HTML all-in-one file
version of Reporter's Without Borders' Handbook for Bloggers and
Cyber - Dissidents, which I created on my own without explicit
authorisation. This article was neither solicited by, nor
endorsed by
Reporters Without Borders, and is entirely my own undertaking. I
have linked to this file from that HTML version without explicit
authorisation, and bear full responsibility for having done
so. -David C. Manchester
|
| "Ecology of MIND" (full internet map 18 Feb 1999) |
![]() "We
are called to a
great new mission. It is not a mission of arbitrary power...The
mission is to create a new social order, founded on liberty and
justice, in which men are the masters of their fate, in which states
are the servants of their citizens, and in which all men and women can
share a better life for themselves and their children..."
"We must use time as a tool, not as a couch..." "Partnership is not a posture but a process, a continuous process that grows stronger each year as we devote ourselves to common tasks...We seek not the worldwide victory of one nation or system, but a worldwide victory of men. The modern globe is too small, it's weapons too destructive, they multiply too fast, and it's disorders are too contagious to permit any other kind of victory." " We ... in this generation, are - by destiny rather than choice - the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of "peace on earth, good will toward men." That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: 'except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.' " "Let us resolve to be the masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicion and emotion." -John
F. Kennedy,
JFK - Words to Remember,
p.9, 42, 48, 57, 13
|

|
"The
wheel is an extension of the foot... The book is an extension of
the eye... The emerging global electronic mass communication
system is
an extension of mankind's collective central nervous system."
|
|
[Unzip into same dir as Blogger Handbook, or any empty dir]
FRONTISPIECE - "Ecology of MIND" WORD I WHAT I WANT TO SAY II WHAT I'M SAYING III WHAT I HAVE SAID AFTERWORD APPENDICES LINKS IN THIS DOCUMENT RELEASE NOTES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS THIRTY |

| "An error
does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does
truth become error because nobody sees it." - Mohandas
Gandhi
|
P E R S O N A L A C C O U N T

“It's the blogs that will take us to the next level.”
By
David C. Manchester

"Military music bears the same relation to
Music as religion does to
theology, i.e., none to speak of."
- dredeyedick, misquoting Robert A. Heinlein
|



"Dr Winfred Overhulser,
superintendent of Saint Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington,
DC, was appointed chairman of the research committee. Other members
included Dr Edward Strecker (then president of the American Psychiatric
Association) and Harry J Anslinger (head of the Federal Bureau
of Narcotics). The committee surveyed and rejected numerous drugs
-- including alcohol, barbituates, and caffeine. Peyote and scopolamine
were also tested, but the visions produced by these substances
interfered with the interrogation process. Eventually, marijuana
was chosen as the most likely candidate for a speech-inducing agent.
"OSS scientists created a highly-potent extract of cannabis and, through a process known as esterification, a clear and viscous liquid was obtained. The final product had no color, odor, or taste. It would be nearly impossible to detect when administered surreptitiously -- which is exactly what the spies intended to do... "The OSS eventually determined that the best approach involved the use of a hypodermic syringe to inject a diluted TD solution into a cigarette or cigar. After smoking such an item, the subject would get suitably stoned, at which point a skillful interrogator would move in and try to get him to spill the beans." ON MKULTRA TD (TRUTH DRUG) FIELD TESTING"Gottlieb was now ready to undertake the
final and most daring phase of
the MK-ULTRA program: LSD would be given to unwitting targets in
real-life situations. But who would actually do the dirty
work?...[he] discovered that marijuana had been tested on unsuspecting
subjects in an effort to develop a truth serum. These experiments
had been organized by George Hunter White, a tough, old-fashioned
narcotics officer who ran a training school for American spies during
World War II... As a matter of protocol Gottlieb first approached Harry
Anslinger, chief of the Federal Narcotics Bureau. Anslinger was
favorably disposed and agreed to "lend" one of his top men to the CIA
on a part-time basis.
"Right from the start White had plenty of leeway in running his operations. He rented an apartment in New York's Greenwich Village, and with funds supplied by the CIA he transformed it into a safehouse complete with two-way mirrors, surveillance equipment, and the like. Posing as an artist and a seaman, White lured people back to his pad and slipped them drugs. A clue as to how his subjects fared can be found in White's personal diary, which contains passing references to surprise LSD experiments: "Gloria gets horrors.... Janet sky high." The frequency of bad reactions prompted White to coin his own code word for the drug: "Stormy", which was how he referred to LSD throughout his 14-year stint as a CIA operative. |
"Such pranks claimed their first victim in November 1953, when a group of CIA and army technicians gathered for a three-day work retreat at a remote hunting lodge in the backwoods of Maryland. On the second day of the meeting Dr Gottlieb spiked the after-dinner cocktails with LSD. As the drug began to take effect, Gottlieb told everyone that they had ingested a mind-altering chemical. By that time the group had become boisterous with laughter and unable to carry on a coherent conversation. "One man was not amused by the unexpected turn of events. Dr Frank Olson, an army scientist who specialized in biological warfare research, had never taken LSD before, and he slid into a deep depression. His mood did not lighten when the conference adjourned. Normally a gregarious family man, Olson returned home quiet and withdrawn. When he went to work after the weekend, he asked his boss to fire him because he had "messed up the experiment" during the retreat. Alarmed by his erratic behavior, Olson's superiors contacted the CIA, which sent him to New York to see Dr Harold Abramson. A respected physician, Abramson taught at Columbia University and was chief of the allergy clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital. He was also one of the CIA's principal LSD researchers and a part-time consultant to the Army Chemical Corps. While these were impressive credentials, Abramson was not a trained psychiatrist, and it was this kind of counseling his patients desperately needed. For the next weeks Olson confided his deepest fears to Abramson. He claimed the CIA was putting something in his coffee to make him stay awake at night. He said people were plotting against him and he heard voices at odd hours commanding him to throw away his wallet -- which he did, even though it contained several uncashed checks. Dr Abramson concluded that Olson was mired in "a psychotic state... with delusions of persecution" that had been "crystallized by the LSD experience". Arrangements were made to move him to Chestnut Lodge, a sanitorium in Rockville, Maryland, staffed by CIA-cleared psychiatrists. (Apparently other CIA personnel who suffered from psychiatric disorders were enrolled in this institution.) On his last evening in New York, Olson checked into a room at the Statler Hilton along with a CIA agent assigned to watch him. And then, in the wee hours of the morning, the troubled scientist plunged headlong through a closed window to his death 10 floors below. The Olson suicide had immediate repercussions within the CIA. An elaborate cover-up erased clues to the actual circumstances leading up to his death. Olson's widow was eventually given a government pension, and the full truth of what happened would not be revealed for another 20 years. |
|
"Despite all the facts of CIA involvement, Woodward and Bernstein made virtually no mention of the CIA in their Watergate reporting. Even during Senate hearings on Watergate, the CIA somehow managed to stay out of the spotlight. In 1974, the House would clear the CIA of any involvement in Watergate. "The CIA was not as lucky in 1974, when the Senate held hearings on James Jesus Angleton’s illegal surveillance of American citizens. These disclosures resulted in his firing. But that was nothing compared to the 1975 Church Committee. This Senate investigation looked into virtually every type of CIA crime, from assassination to secret war to manipulating the domestic media. The "reforms" that resulted from these hearings were mostly cosmetic, but the details that emerged shattered the CIA’s reputation forever. Interestingly enough, the two Senators who held these hearings — Frank Church and Otis Pike — were both defeated for reelection, despite a 98 percent reelection rate for incumbents." |
|
MILES COPELAND ON THE CIA'S "MUSIC"
"As things now stand, in June of 1975, the Agency has seemingly been clobbered into powerlessness...
- Miles Copeland, BEYOND CLOAK AND DAGGER:
INSIDE THE CIA, ©1974, 1975 by Miles Copeland (ISBN:
0-523-00697-7) A Pinnacle Books edition, originally titled
WITHOUT
CLOAK OR DAGGER: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NEW ESPIONAGE, published by
special arrangement with Simon & Schuster, Inc.
|
|
Headline: Death
sparks conspiracy theory
Sunday, March 14, 1999 By Dennis B. Roddy, Post-Gazette Staff Writer |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Headline: Suicide leaves
more questions than answers
Sunday, March 14, 1999 By Dennis B. Roddy, Post-Gazette Staff Writer |
Salon: http://archive.salon.com/21st/feature/1999/03/19feature.html
http://archive.salon.com/21st/feature/1999/03/19feature2.html A
Vincent Foster for Usenet liberals?
THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF AN ONLINE DEBATER SPARKS A FLURRY OF SUSPICIONS AND THEORIES. BY ANDREW LEONARD |
psnw.com: Evidence
of Kangas' murder.
Who killed Steve Kangas? Case overview Notes: Links here to media coverage of Kangas' death |
spiritone.com: The
Strange Death of Steve Kangas
Notes: Good summary, if you can get past the javascript rollover menu that covers the top 1/3 of the page in 800x600, and does not work properly. Interesting mention of Don Adams and another Scaife employee, one "Adam Music" who tried to spread disinformation in the newsgroups following Kangas' death, while claiming to be there to answer any questions to "clear things up." Adam Music claimed to work for Scaife's right-wing tabloid newspaper, the Tribune-Review. |
suite101.com Headline: Eulogy
for Steve Kangas
Full Suite101 discussion: |
The
saga of the education of Steve Kangas, from a member of the uniformed
services of the United States, to college student, to liberal online
journalist would be interesting and informative if it ended there.
Tragically, it did not. He died. |
AND YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH,
AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE. John, VIII:32
(inscribed on the marble wall of the main lobby at CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia) |
|
THE SECRET LIFETIME CODE OF MILITARY
INTELLIGENCE JUSTICE
AND YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE. John, VIII:32
(inscribed on the marble wall of the main lobby at CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia) THOU
SHALT USE MONEY
THOU SHALT OBEY THOU SHALT BUY THOU SHALT ENJOY NO PRIVACY THOU SHALT NOT ASK QUESTIONS THOU SHALT COMPETE THOU SHALT HOARD THOU SHALT NOT SHARE THOU SHALT SELL THOU SHALT NOT BORROW, SAVE
THROUGH OUR BROKERS
THOU SHALT NOT COOPERATETHOU SHALT KEEP THY SSN SECRET THOU SHALT REPOSE THY IDENTITY TO US THOU SHALT NOT QUESTION OUR FINANCES THOU SHALT NOT EXPOSE OUR BUSINESS TIES, UPON
PAIN OF DEATH.
IN
THIS GOD SHALT THOU TRUST
THIS
IS THY TRUTH
THOU
SHALT BE FREE
THIS IS THY FREEDOM |
"Don't let'em see You shaking hands" -Bandleader, to
two "pick-up" local musicians, hired for just this performance, just
before curtain opens
|
EPILOGUE In a speech before the CIA celebrating its 50th anniversary, President Clinton said: "By necessity, the American people will never know the full story of your courage." Clinton’s is a common defense of the CIA: namely, the American people should stop criticizing the CIA because they don’t know what it really does. This, of course, is the heart of the problem in the first place. An agency that is above criticism is also above moral behavior and reform. Its secrecy and lack of accountability allows its corruption to grow unchecked. Furthermore, Clinton’s statement is simply untrue. The history of the agency is growing painfully clear, especially with the declassification of historical CIA documents. We may not know the details of specific operations, but we do know, quite well, the general behavior of the CIA. These facts began emerging nearly two decades ago at an ever-quickening pace. Today we have a remarkably accurate and consistent picture, repeated in country after country, and verified from countless different directions. The CIA’s response to this growing knowledge and criticism follows a typical historical pattern. (Indeed, there are remarkable parallels to the Medieval Church’s fight against the Scientific Revolution.) The first journalists and writers to reveal the CIA’s criminal behavior were harassed and censored if they were American writers, and tortured and murdered if they were foreigners. (See Philip Agee’s On the Run for an example of early harassment.) However, over the last two decades the tide of evidence has become overwhelming, and the CIA has found that it does not have enough fingers to plug every hole in the dike. This is especially true in the age of the Internet, where information flows freely among millions of people. Since censorship is impossible, the Agency must now defend itself with apologetics. Clinton’s "Americans will never know" defense is a prime example. Another common apologetic is that "the world is filled with unsavory characters, and we must deal with them if we are to protect American interests at all." There are two things wrong with this. First, it ignores the fact that the CIA has regularly spurned alliances with defenders of democracy, free speech and human rights, preferring the company of military dictators and tyrants. The CIA had moral options available to them, but did not take them. Second, this argument begs several questions. The first is: "Which American interests?" The CIA has courted right-wing dictators because they allow wealthy Americans to exploit the country’s cheap labor and resources. But poor and middle-class Americans pay the price whenever they fight the wars that stem from CIA actions, from Vietnam to the Gulf War to Panama. The second begged question is: "Why should American interests come at the expense of other peoples’ human rights?" The CIA should
be abolished, its leadership dismissed and its
relevant members tried for crimes against humanity. Our intelligence
community should be rebuilt from the ground up, with the goal of
collecting and analyzing information. As for covert action, there are
two moral options. The first one is to eliminate covert action
completely. But this gives jitters to people worried about the Adolf
Hitlers of the world. So a second option is that we can place covert
action under extensive and true democratic oversight. For example, a
bipartisan Congressional Committee of 40 members could review and veto
all aspects of CIA operations upon a majority or super-majority vote.
Which of these two options is best may be the subject of debate, but
one thing is clear: like dictatorship, like monarchy, unaccountable
covert operations should die like the dinosaurs they are. |
"Understanding
is needed as much for the immediate task of effectiveness today as it
is for work on the future, many years hence. It is a necessary
tool for any ... who takes seriously his ... responsibility. And
it is a tool which can neither be fashioned for him nor wielded for
him. He must take part in making it and using it. The
ability to design and develop this tool and the competence to use it
should be standard equipment..."
- Peter F. Drucker, Managing for Results, Harper & Row, ISBN: 0-06-091139-8 (pbk.) |
"...secrecy
is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy . . .
censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter,
undertakes to say to its subjects, 'This you may not read, this you
must not see, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is
tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty
little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been
hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free
man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission
bombs, not anything - you can't conquer a free man; the most you
can do is kill him."
-
Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt In 2100
(collected later in "The Past Through Tomorrow") Berkley Books, New York, ISBN: 0-425-06458-1 |
on the job and in
the service. But never had I anticipated the liberation I felt
when 3 of my fellow IT-geek Friends put me online as a gift.| "When
individuals stand up to power, they bring to the encounter the lessons
that power has taught them, and the harm it has done them. Merely
to stand up does not free us from these things. Behind every gesture of
hope and courage lies a life, a society, a history." - "The Gate of
Heavenly Peace,"
Directed by Carma Hinton, Richard Gordon Video Production of The Long Bow Group, email: NAATA National Asian American Telecommunications Association http://www.naatanet.org |
|
GLOBAL
PETITION CAMPAIGN
for the 10th Anniversary of
June 4th Tiananmen
To: President Jiang Zemin,
People's Republic of China
Cc: His Excellency Kofi A. Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations Cc: Her Excellency Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights We, the signatories of this petition, call on the Chinese Government to 1) re-evaluate the official verdict on the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests and bring to justice those responsible for the human rights violations committed; 2) release all prisoners of conscience including those still in prison for their 1989 pro-democracy activities and review the cases of all political prisoners; 3) put an immediate end to harassment, detention and imprisonment of Chinese citizens exercising their legitimate rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of religion; 4) demonstrate a willingness to respect the rights of all Chinese citizens by proceeding quickly to ratification and implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). |

| "...years
ago. if I had told ordinary people that I was
working towards the democratic future of China surely there would have
been hardly a sympathetic ear. But today, after the baptism of the 1989
movement in Tiananmen Square, I believe that many people understand the
struggle for China's democratic future." - Lau San Ching,
in APPENDIX
XII
Loneliness is the Scalpel, from the book "Eighteen Layers of Hell", by Kate Saunders |

I also
shared what seemed prudent regarding the hows and whys of journalism,
as june4.org started aggregating headlines from other sites, offering
links to relevant items. I pressed them to start rewriting the
headline links slightly to place the proper perspective on the stories
they were linking, but they were reluctant to do this. I think
part of this reluctance was due to concerns about copyright, that's the
objection I heard raised anyway.| Applied Truth-Telling 101; agitprop, spin, slant, and shaping the News Rule # 1----"They" (news organs) "slant" (bad) the news. Rule #1 Corollary: "We" (the good guys) "spin" (perfectly acceptable and to be expected) the news. The effect the telling of a Truth will have on People often is in the manner of the Telling. This is the fundamental principle upon which agitprop is based. Here's an example of what i mean by agitprop. it's easy, and it's fun! (read the headlines and compare effect) Guardian story on mainland dissident in trouble with CCP: "http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/Breaking_News/International/0,3561,244100,00.html" The official "right out of the box" uk slant is: China
Tells Citizens Not To Protest
Now, that sure sounds reasonable, doesn't it? I mean, really now, tut-tut (shaming clicking sounds with mouth), doesn't a Government have the responsibility of taking care that the trains run on time, that no unseemliness take place, and that unscheduled disruptions NOT interfere with the orderly state of affairs of the average man on the street? This is the set of UNSPOKEN ASSUMPTIONS inherent in such a slant to the story. On the other hand; june4.org spin should be: "CCP bans Demonstrations, Again; Declares
Meditation Unlawful"
This is simply an anchor tag to the story on june4.org/news page. This is the new headline WE supply, highlighted because it is a link, of course. But what does it mean, what has been accomplished, in terms of "spin" and agitprop? Well, let's take it a piece at a time. "CCP bans Demonstrations, Again;"
This part plants the assumption in the mind of the Reader that "Gee.
Wow. Here's this Huge, heavily armed and fortified bureaucracy,
bloated and seemingly collapsing under it's own inertia, struggling IN VAIN to keep
demonstrations from happening AGAIN, and they
are SCARED because
they couldn't stop them before and they FAILED."
UNSPOKEN ASSUMPTIONS: CCP is ineffective and can't get
shit together to run their own goddamn government. Simply by
changing a few words, we have convinced the Reader WITHOUT
ARGUMENT that the current regime is just a bunch of losers with
guns (reality check for us:...guns
and NUCLEAR
BOMBS).
To continue... "...Again; Declares Meditation Unlawful"
This closes the deal. UNSPOKEN ASSUMPTION, SUCCESSFULLY PLANTED IN THE MIND OF THE READER: This bunch of clowns (conclusive
assumption from front half of headline) who call themselves the chinese
communist party is SO neurotic, SO insecure, SO out-of-touch with the
real world, that THEY
WANT TO OUTLAW GOOD THOUGHTS!
The Reader concludes, as he/she is reading the story, that these guys really are Stupid and Pathetic, but not worthy of sympathy or pity, because of the evil things they do. The trick to effective 'spin' is to alternate the portrayal in these vital unspoken assumptions we good guys embed in the rewritten headlines. We go from "Stupid and Ineffectual" to "Ruthless and Hideous" to "laughable, limp and impotent" to "The CCP is the Devil Incarnate". Varying the pitch and stress to match the desired effect to be achieved in the pace/tempo that meets OUR needs .... Such variation keeps them "off-balance and out-of-step", and helps to portray ccp as some sort of "evil empire", while we, the good guys at June4.org, ARE the future, building that "shiny city on the hill" (apologies to Ronald Reagan...) In applying such 'spin' be ever mindful that You must change hats when You sit down to rewrite headlines in this way. To many target audiences, we are David to their Goliath (We are. Don't ever forget that), a small, underfunded, idealistic, right-thinking group of fierce individualists whose "heads are bloody, but unbowed" (william ernest henley, INVICTUS). But when rewriting headlines into anchor tags, the UNSPOKEN ASSUMPTIONS to embed in the words are somewhat the opposite: we DEMOCRACY advocates WILL WIN; the CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY will lose, because (remember, dear reader? we already know) THEY ARE LOSERS, and everybody knows that LOSING is WHAT LOSERS DO. Copyright © 1999 By David C. Manchester, CT, USA |
|
"A small body of
determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can
alter the course of history."
- Mohandas Gandhi
|
| Subject::[Fwd:
Dreambook Created] From: "D.Manchester" Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 19:54:57 -0400 To: San Ching Lau Dear San-Ching, I noted the discussion this morning from ... and others re: filtering. It seems we need to separate issues of Free Speech from issues of just legitimate "Yes" signatures on the petition. I have taken the liberty of trying a temporary and limited "Virtual Democracy Wall" to permit dissenting views to be expressed. You know my Guestbook? Well, it is free. And customisable. I have created one for the june4.org site. I will write to them (dreambook) about increasing the number of allowed entries. Up to 125 entries are currently allowed. #126 will bump #1 off the list, and so on. Please comment. ... Regards, DaveM |
I'm sorry to have to say, I do
not share some of the views I have seen expressed there, being an
American. Notwar.org sometimes appears to have an explicitly
anti-American bent, and a very pro-Palestinian bias. It is
difficult for me to feel as they do, because I clearly recall the
televised spectacle of Palestinians dancing in the streets, passing out
candies in their joyous celebration of the slaughter that took
place in
Manhattan, and Arlington Virginia, and in the skies over a Pennsylvania
field on September 11, 2001.

After a couple of
weeks, I thought to myself that I had wanted to start some sort of
online magazine for a while, and this might the right opportunity to do
it. Thus was born Stoned Out Loud.
I wanted to create a
site devoted to First Amendment Rights in Cyberspace, and publish
articles by real musicians about how they felt about file sharing, and
whether or not they found it helped, or hurt their sales. I would
also publish reviews of useful software, tips on online privacy, and
articles relating to the music and entertainment industry's efforts to
resist the structural changes in their business model needed to remain
relevant in the fast-changing internetworked environment of
peer-to-peer (P2P)
software.
"A couple of hours later, this came in. Stoned out Loud is proud to present You with this article.
| Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. - Constitution of the
United
States
Amendment I |

BLOGS AND PRESS FREEDOM -CASE 2
BLOGS AND PRESS FREEDOM - CASE 3"Weblogs are not, as some people say, a new kind of journalism. Rather, they supplement traditional journalism by evaluating, augmenting, and above all filtering the information churned out by journalists and the rest of the media machine every day. Mass media seeks to appeal to a wide audience; weblogs excel at creating targeted serendipity for their individual constituencies....weblogs should not aspire to carve a place within the ranks of traditional journalism... "The weblog's strength is fundamentally tied to its position outside of the mainstream media: observing, commenting, and honestly reacting to both current events and the media coverage they generate...The excel at exposing and explaining flaws in media coverage." |
"It is unrealistic to expect every weblogger to present an even-handed picture of the world, but it is very reasonable to expect them to be forthcoming about their sources, biases, and behavior. "Webloggers who, despite my best efforts, persist in their quest to be regarded as journalists will have a special interest in adhering to these principles...Any weblogger who expects to be accorded the privileges and protections of a professional journalist will need to go further than these principles. Rights have associated responsibilities; in the end it an individual's professionalism and meticulous observance of recognized ethical standards that determines her status in the eyes of society and the law. For the rest of us, I believe the following standards are sufficient: 1. Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true. If your statement is speculation, say so. If you have reason to believe that something is not true, either don't post it, or note your reservations.... 2. If material exists online, link to it when you reference it. ...Referencing material but selectively linking only that with which you agree is manipulative. Online readers deserve, as much as possible, access to all of the facts - the Web, used this way, empowers readers to become active, not passive, consumers of information. Further, linking to source material is the very means by which we are creating a vast, new, collective network of information and knowledge... 3. Publicly Correct any misinformation. If you find that you have linked to a story that was untrue, make a note of it and link to a more accurate report. If one of your statements proves to be inaccurate, note your mis-statement and the truth...(Remember that search engines will pull up entries without regard to when they were posted; once an entry exists in your archives, it may continue to spread an untruth even if you corrected the information a few days later.) If you aren't willing to add a correction to previous entries, at least note it in a later post... 4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry. Post deliberately. If you invest each entry with intent, you will ensure your personal and professional integrity...Changing or deleting entries destroys the integrity of the network. The web is designed to be connected; indeed the weblog permalink is an invitation for others to link. Anyone who comments on or cites a document on the Web relies on that document (or entry) to remain unchanged. A prominent addendum is the preferred way to correct any information anywhere on the Web... ...If you discover that you have posted erroneous information, you must note this publicly on your weblog. Deleting the offending entry will do nothing to correct the misinformation your readers have already absorbed. Taking the additional step of adding a correction to the original entry will ensure that Google broadcasts accurate information into the future... 5. Disclose any conflict of interest. ...Quickly note any potential conflict of interest and then say your piece; your readers will have all the information they need to assess your commentary. 6. Note questionable and biased sources. When a serious article comes from a highly biased or questionable source, the weblogger has a responsibility to clearly note the nature of the site on which it was found....A thoughtful summation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be worth reading whether it is written by a member of the PLO or a Zionist - but readers have the right to be alerted to the source... It is reasonable to expect that expert foragers have the knowledge and motivation to assess the nature of these sources; it is not reasonable to assume that all readers do. Readers depend on weblogs...for guidance in navigating the Web. To present an article from a source that is a little nutty or has a strong agenda is fine; not to acknowledge the nature of that source is unethical, since readers don't have the information to fully evaluate the article's merits... ...Your readers may cease to trust you if they discover even once that you disguised - or didn't make clear - the source of an article they might have evaluated differently had they been given all the facts." |
| "...Instead of inflating the
term 'journalism' to include everyone who
writes anything about current events, I prefer the term 'participatory
media' for the blogger's practice of actively highlighting and framing
the news that is reported by journalists, a practice potentially as
important as--but different from--journalism..." - Rebecca
Blood, September 2003
Weblogs and Journalism in The Age of Participatory Media http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblogs_journalism.html |
| "...that word "verifiable",
it seems to me, is crucial to the
practice of journalism, whether it be in a newspaper or in a blog. A
blogger or columnist may assert something--or may be told something by
a source--but until it can be verified (as fact by evidence or a second
source, or as an accurate representation by a second reporter), it may
not qualify as "journalism". In that way, perhaps journalism is similar
to the scientific method with its reliance on reproducible results... "...But defining journalism less rigorously than we have done can only benefit those who desire to gain the privileges extended to professional journalists while evading their professional standards... If anything, we need to establish higher standards for journalism, not a second, lesser standard for people who lack the resources to do the job well. This will especially ring true for those who believe that weblogs are the future of journalism. We must not create a situation in which top-quality journalism produced by conscientious amateurs can be cavalierly dismissed as 'weblog journalism.' " - Rebecca
Blood, April 2004 and January 2005
A Few Thoughts on Journalism and What Can Weblogs Do About It http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/what_is_journalism.html |
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PRESS FAILURE TO FOLLOW UP
EXAMPLE ONE IRAN-CONTRA, SECORD/NORTH/KASHOGI AUDITS In the aftermath of the Iran-Contra scandal, where were the follow up stories on the activities of General Secord and Oliver North, and their "for profit" business? Where were the reports of any public audit of the arms trading business of Secord, North, and Adnan Kashogi? Where is the detailed follow up of the roles played by Admiral "Buck Stops Here" Pointdexter? My guess at this late date is that such stories did not appear because the government triumphed in it's effort to stop such reporting. North got a Presidential Pardon from Reagan, and the whole matter was swept under the rug. Such stories did not appear because any such audit of Secord's arms trading business didn't happen. If it did, it remains classified. This is as much a failure of the press to keep the issue front and center in the headlines as it is a failure of the executive and legislative branches of the US government, because both the President and Congress wound up colluding to keep the facts of these matters from the People. Why is this still classified? Are we still arming Contras? So Ollie North can work at Fox? Why? So George Herbert Walker Bush can be an effective fund raiser for tsunami and hurricane victims? Why is Iran-Contra still classified? Where is the press? (Is there a press?) |
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PRESS FAILURE TO FOLLOW UP
EXAMPLE TWO CIA-CONTRA-CRACK, "SHOOT THE MESSENGER" When Pulitzer Prize winning San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb wrote a series called "Dark Alliance" in 1996, documenting the connection between the arming of the Contras and the mass importation and manufacture of crack cocaine into the US, the media went after Gary Webb, rather than dig deeper into the story. Webb was attacked, his reputation ruined. SJMerc pulled the story off the web, and refused to run his followup stories, which they had sent him back to Central America twice to get. Then they fired him. Webb spoke about the episode, and the CIA and Justice admitting to the facts before the oversight committee, in some comments You can find at http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/webb.html, and in Appendix XIII. Gary was found dead in his home 10 December 2004, the victim of what the coroner said was suicide - with two bullets in his head. I am not necessarily contending that Webb was assassinated, though it would not surprise me. My preliminary review of the documents available online about his death seems to indicate that the smear campaign against him in the major mainstream press following his CIA - Contra - Crack series may have ultimately driven him to suicide. People kill themselves when they feel that others are indifferent on important subjects where they should not be indifferent. People kill themselves when they feel others don't care when they should. Gary Webb sure had reason to feel that way. Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" series as originally appeared (without later updates) can be found on the NarcoNews site, at http://narconews.com/darkalliance/drugs/start.htm
Before he died, Gary did put the series, with lots of follow up, into book form. ![]() Dark Alliance Seven Stories Press, 1st Edition ISBN: 1888363681 LCCN: 97052612 DYNIX: 2215387 DEWEY: 366.4509 Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion Turnaround, 1999 (Paperback) ISBN: 1888363932 DEWEY: 363.45 |
| "You see,
the purpose of science and technology is to develop useful
information for humanity to help people live their lives better. If we
promise to withhold that information - if we keep it secret - then we
are betraying the mission of our field. And this, I decided, I
shouldn't do." -Richard M. Stallman, Chapter 20: Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation "Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman," 2002, GNU Press (http://www.gnupress.org) ISBN 1-882114-98-1. |
| Government |
Representative
Democracy Constitutional Republicanism |
Participatory
Democracy |
Direct
Democracy |
| Economic
System |
"Capitalism" |
"Socialism" |
DotCommunism |
| Organisation
of Work / Lifestyle |
Industrial |
Post
Industrial |
Digital |
| Organisational
Form |
Corporation,
Sole
Proprietorship, Consortium, Cartel |
Cooperative,
Copyleft |
Virtual,
ad-hoc |
| Monetary
System |
Private
Issuers, Government
Issuers, Corporate, Consortiate, Central Banks,
exchange-standards-based currencies, stocks, bonds, debentures |
Government
Issuers, Corporate,
Consortiate, Central Banks, Fiat-based, Floating currencies, stocks,
bonds, debentures, Mutual Funds, Index Funds, Futures markets |
Gift/Contribution
based,
noncorporeal |
In that case it's
real easy to find an employer who will give You as many as 35 whole
hours every week at a variety of wage rates between $6 and $10 per
hour. (Waiters and Waitresses can get less, but must declare tips
to pay taxes on them). | "Some men look
at constitutions with
sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant,
too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age
a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond
amendment… laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress
of the human mind… as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as
new discoveries are made, institutions must advance also, to keep pace
with the times… We might as well require a man to wear still the coat
which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain forever
under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors." -- Thomas Jefferson
|