AsianWeek writer Sally Lehrman (3/5/09) tells us the bad times for newspapers are even worse for ethnic media--and by extension, U.S. democracy as a whole:

AsianWeek, San Francisco's English-language weekly for Asian-Americans, and San Francisco Bay View, which has served the black community there for three decades, both have dumped their print editions.

Siglo21, a Spanish-language paper published in Lawrence, is returning to publishing weekly after three months as a daily due to declining advertising. Ming Pao Daily in New York will shut down entirely, while Hoy New York abandoned print at the end of last year. At the venerable Ebony and Jet in Chicago, all employees must reapply for their jobs--that is, the jobs that remain.

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FAIR founder Jeff Cohen's Park Center for Independent Media has decided to give its new Izzy Award (3/4/09) "for special achievement in independent media" to Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman, specifically lauding the "two pillars of independent journalism" for "pathbreaking journalistic courage and persistence in confronting conventional wisdom, official deception and controversial issues":
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Prefacing a Daily Show segment (3/4/09) with his version of current big-media reporting: "Recent opinion polls indicate that six weeks into Barack Obama's administration, the American public thinks they approve of his performance--but it turns out they're wrong," Jon Stewart runs clips of celebrity news figures like Fox's Sean Hannity asking, "How did the market react to this latest liberal spending spree? Well, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped almost 400 points," and of Fox Business Network's Neil Cavuto asking, "The Dow is down more than 1,500 points, nearly 3,000 since Election Day, now is this a vote of no confidence in this administration?" [...] Read more»

The capacity for U.S. editorial writers to twist reality when it comes to "free trade" is astounding. But when "free trade" collides with Colombia policy in the minds of the same editorialists, the potential for illogic becomes truly Orwellian.

Take Wednesday's Los Angeles Times editorial ("Obama Should Press for Colombia free-trade pact") pushing for passage of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The editors denounce U.S. labor activists as "special interests" who "are holding congressional Democrats hostage on the pact." They are upset because U.S. union leaders say Colombia is not sufficiently curbing human rights abuses--a supposed prerequisite for passage of the FTA--and that their views are causing some congressional Democrats to oppose the bill.

Disputing that view, the editors head deep into "War is Peace" territory, fabricating a rosy human rights scenario for Colombia's labor community, and arguing that president Álvaro Uribe's government has solved their problems with the creation of a special agency for their protection:

Colombian officials aren't even sure why the pact is controversial. For a time, human rights advocates and union organizers saw it as a means of pressuring the Colombian government to stop the persecution of labor organizers, who are routinely threatened and killed. The government responded by protecting organizers and prosecuting their attackers. Activists should declare victory and move on.

Note the odd construction: the government is "protecting organizers," but organizers "are routinely threatened and killed"--both in present tense. This would seem to suggest that labor leaders on both continents still have a valid complaint, that the government is not doing a very good job of "protecting" organizers from violence (largely perpetrated by government-linked death squads.)

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Finding new ways to keep his name in the news, far-right radio personality Rush Limbaugh has apparently decided that reporters who are (in his view) too fond of Barack Obama should be called "butt boys." TVNewser reported (3/4/09) that CNN's Ed Henry was one name on Rush's list ("Ed, you're a butt boy"), but that ABC's Jake Tapper "is the one guy that's outside the butt boy bubble." [...] Read more»

From the end of the NBC Nightly News (3/3/09):

CHUCK TODD: And finally, let's close with Michelle Obama. Amazing numbers for a new first lady. Sixty-three percent positive rating. What makes it more remarkable, six months ago you and I were talking about at the Democratic Convention, she might be a liability if he's not careful. She's no liability.

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