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Networks don’t follow the money in
Medicare story
Dec. 2— The nightly network newscasts devoted significant
broadcast time to the debate over the restructuring of Medicare. But
while some reports described the corporate interests that stood to gain
under the plan to offer a prescription drug benefit, few addressed the
question of why Congress would pass a law so beneficial to the pharmaceutical
and health insurance industries. In short, network news failed to heed
the old advice: follow the money.
A CBS Evening News report — aired on November 25, after the bill
had passed — mentioned that the “biggest corporate winner
by far is the drug industry itself, mostly because under the new law
Medicare is barred from negotiating drug discounts.” Such admissions
were not uncommon. But left unmentioned was the fact that pharmaceutical
companies, as well as health insurers and HMOs, are big contributors
to the same politicians who cast the votes on this legislation.
The pharmaceutical industry gave $21.7 million to Republicans and $7.6
million to Democrats in the last election cycle alone, according to
the Center for Responsive Politics. The insurance sector gave $11.7
million to Democrats and $25.9 million to Republicans during the same
time frame. In fact, those contributions, the CRP has found, were a
fairly reliable indicator of how a given member of Congress voted on
the bill: House Republicans who supported the bill got more than three
times as much pharmaceutical money as the minority of Republican opponents;
the handful of Democratic supporters in the House received more than
twice the health insurance contributions taken in by Democrats who voted
no (Capital Eye, 11/24/03).
The simple fact that the “winners” in the Medicare debate
were also big political contributors was mentioned in only one report
in the weeks before the bill passed, according to a search of the Nexis
database. This was a November 23 segment on ABC’s World News Tonight.
Correspondent Jake Tapper noted that “buried in the energy and
Medicare bills are goodies for many corporations,” and he referred
to a report by the group Common Cause describing “Bush policies
that directly benefit contributors’ companies. The Medicare bill
should boost earnings for Pfizer, the Federation of American Hospitals
and Johnson & Johnson.” Tapper also raised another important
point: “Campaign contributors not only sometimes benefit from laws
their favored politicians support, they also often help write them as
they did with these two bills.”
In another ABC World News Tonight report (10/19/03), on the health insurance
industry, ABC medical correspondent Tim Johnson noted, “With tremendous
clout in Washington — the industry spent more than $37 million
on political donations last year — reform has been slow in coming.”
Unfortunately, reporting that tied the Medicare bill’s benefits
for the healthcare industries with those industries’ generosity
to politicians was extremely rare. Back in July, CBS Evening News aired
a report on the Medicare issue by Joie Chen (7/25/03) that made the
connection:
Chen: “Lawmakers were blunt about the influence drug companies
have on the debate.”
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D.-Ill.): “There’s a pharmaceutical lobbyist
and a half for every member of Congress. They have spent over $100 million
in contributions, entertainment and lobbying expenses all focused on
us. Chen: And expect that influence to increase this fall as the House
and Senate try to work out their differences over how to fix Medicare
and make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors.”
But whether that influence increased or not, CBS never again mentioned
pharmaceutical or other healthcare industry contributions in its coverage
of the Medicare debate.
NBC Nightly News, meanwhile, seems to have never mentioned the Medicare
bill and healthcare industry campaign contributions in the same story
all year. When NBC analyzed the politics of the Medicare debate (11/24/03),
reporter David Gregory claimed that “the president knew keeping
a campaign promise on prescription drugs could be a key to his re-election,”
explaining that “it’s older Americans who will make up crucial
voting block next year, an estimated one out of every four votes.”
Bush, according to Gregory, pushed the Medicare bill because he calculated
that “this campaign promise could result in political gold.”
The actual political gold that Bush and the legislators who voted for
the bill will receive — in the form of millions of dollars worth
of campaign contributions — was apparently not worth reporting.
Source:Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Bangladesh journalist accused of being
Israeli spy
By Sharier Khan
Dhaka, Bangladesh, Dec. 3 — The Bangladesh immigration
authorities have arrested the newly-appointed head of an Israeli peace
organization in the capital, Dhaka.
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of an obscure weekly news magazine,
Blitz, is accused of spying for Mossad, Israel’s crack intelligence
unit., and has been placed under seven-day police remand.
Israeli nongovernmental organization, IFLAC (International Forum for
the Literature and Culture of Peace) recently appointed Choudhury Country
Director of its new Bangladesh office — the first Israeli organization
to be set up here.
IFLAC had invited him to Tel Aviv on December 2, to participate in a
ceremony for the office’s inauguration, but he was arrested on
his departure.
An IFLAC press release which lauds Choudhury’s magazine for its
pro-Israel stance, mentions that, “One of the branch’s main
objectives will be to work in establishing bridges of culture and people-to-people
relations between Bangladesh and Israel, and to promote the global culture
of peace.”
But the issue has become controversial as Bangladesh steadfastly refuses
to give recognition to Israel, blaming it for disrupting peace in the
Middle East.
Currently, Bangladesh has no links with Israel.
Additional Superintendent of the police’s Special Branch, Jasim
Uddin, says Choudhury will soon be interrogated by a joint army and
police cell, alleging that, “We have recovered overwhelming evidence
proving his connection with Israel and his efforts in publicizing pro-Israeli
and anti-Arab messages.”
Intelligence officials claim they possess evidence that Mossad has a
fund to appoint agents in certain Muslim nations including Bangladesh.
They allege that Choudhury was armed with a project proposal seeking
US $2 million to float a pro-Israel vernacular newspaper in Bangladesh.
Detective sources allege he was working as an undercover agent for various
intelligence agencies.
Given his past background, Choudhury’s new role as a pro-peace
and pro-Israeli journalist has left the media stunned. For up until
last year, he was working as a special correspondent for an Islamic
fundamentalist daily called Inquilab, owned by pro-Iraq lobbyist Maolana
Mannan.
His writings were reportedly replete with fundamentalism.
Later appointed managing director of its television wing — Inquilab
Television (ITV) — Choudhury was dismissed on charges of graft
and involvement in sex scandals.
While the journalist’s arrest has not evoked any protest from the
local media, which long suspected his dubious credentials, the international
media organization, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF), has registered
a protest in a letter to Bangladesh foreign minister M. Morshed Khan.
The letter states that, “While the international community is debating
a new peace plan for the Middle East, the government of Bangladesh decides
to arrest a journalist who advocates a peaceful solution to the conflict.”
IFLAC president Ada Aharoni told RSF her organization had no links with
the Israeli authorities, and that she deeply deplored Choudhury’s
arrest, which she described as an unwarranted attack on an advocate
of dialogue between Muslims and Jews.
For his part, though, Choudhury protested his innocence in court Sunday,
alleging that, “Inquilab editor AMM Bahauddin has framed me because
of a financial dispute.”
He elaborates, “I am a 30 percent share-holder of the ITV. Earlier,
Bahauddin sold out my share for $1 million without my consent. When
I demanded my share back, he influenced the police to arrest me.”
But few are prepared to buy his argument.
Ironically, the Inquilab has also dissociated itself from him, labeling
him an Israeli agent who took them for a ride.
More than anything else, Choudhury’s arrest has fueled questions
about Bangladesh’s position on Israel vis-a-vis a US proposal under
the Middle East Trade and Engagement Act 2003.
Under the Act, Bangladesh can avail a special zero tariff trade benefit
if it agrees to open trade links with Israel. According to Foreign Ministry
sources, the Act is yet to be approved.
While Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury says the
government may agree to the proposed Act because of its trade benefits,
he stresses that, “Recognition of Israel does not figure on our
agenda. The government is not considering diplomatic ties with Israel.”
This remains a bone of contention, with Bangladesh under pressure from
the Organization of Islamic Conference to desist from recognizing Israel
until it recognizes Palestine as a sovereign nation.
But the official position on this is clear and unambiguous.
As Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan, emphasizes, “The
continued illegal occupation of Palestinian land, trampling of human
rights, and atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinians by Israel
must end immediately. There should be a comprehensive solution to the
problem that addresses the legitimate concerns of the Palestinian people.”
Source: OneWorld.net
Paul Harvey: Islam ‘encourages killing’
Washington, DC, Dec. 5— The Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) is calling for an on-air apology from syndicated radio
commentator Paul Harvey who said on his Dec. 4 program that Islam “encourages
killing.”
Harvey, who has 24 million weekly listeners on some 1,600 radio stations
in the United States and around the world, described the bloody nature
of cock fight gambling in Iraq and said: “Add to the thirst for
blood a religion which encourages killing, and it is entirely understandable
if Americans came to this bloody party unprepared.”
“We had hoped that a respected broadcast professional like Mr.
Harvey would not join the growing number of Islamophobic hate-mongers
in our society,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.
“He falsely attributes to Islam two things that are specifically
prohibited by our faith, murder and cruelty to animals.” (Islam
also prohibits gambling.)
In 1999, Harvey issued an on-air apology to Muslims for remarks suggesting
that Islam was a “fraudulent religion.” The apology came after
hundreds of concerned Muslims called, faxed and e-mailed both Harvey’s
office and that of ABC Radio Networks, his program’s syndicator.
CAIR, America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered
in Washington, DC, and has 25 regional offices and chapters nationwide
and in Canada.
Source: Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR)
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