David Guilbault

TELLING THE TRUTH

My deepest respect and regards go to the courageous journalists around the world who work daily to tell the truth and often risk their lives to do it in the face of agression and repression.  There is no justice without truth.

In Egypt, as anti-government protestors gathered in the streets, calling for the immediate departure of President Hosni Mubarak, pro- Mubarak forces have reportedly begun a concerted, organized campaign to intimidate the foreign press and prevent them from doing their jobs.  CNN, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, The New York Times and the Washington Post are among news organizations that have reported attacks on their journalists.

The attackers have threatened some reporters with beheading, have beaten others, wounding some and sending them to the hospital.   And supposed agents of the government have confiscated broadcast equipment and detained journalists.

All this bodes ill.  Is this to clear the country of official witnesses in advance of a more violent crackdown on the people's uprising?

"The Committee to Protect Journalists has received nearly 50 reports Thursday of journalists being detained or beaten, said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, program coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. He said reporters from various countries, including a BBC television correspondent and reporters from Spain, Sweden and Italy, are among those who have been rounded up or assaulted. He said there was a report of "thugs" breaking into a Hilton hotel -- where many journalists were staying -- to round up reporters.

"Things are about as out-of-control as they can get," Abdel Dayem said. The number of reporters who have been detained or beaten is "definitely in the dozens. Egypt TV is accusing a number of people, basically all foreigners on the street, to be Israeli spies. So you can do the math. Dozens have been arrested, beaten on the street, their equiptment confiscated and broken and their credentials burned."

Abdel Dayem said he does not recall a similarly bleak situation for reporters in recent years. According to CPJ's Web site, four journalists have been killed around the world in 2011 and 145 are currently in prison, not counting Egypt. In a report on its Web site Thursday, the CPJ rounded up the incidents in Egypt it has compiled so far.

"We hold President Mubarak personally responsible for this unprecedented action," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said, "and call on the Egyptian government to reverse course immediately."

- Washington Post

 

The Washington Post - Foreign Journalists Arrested

CNN - Journalists Targeted in Cairo

Christian Scienc Monitor - Foreign Journalists Targeted

Aljazeera - Media in Line of Fire

 

 

WORDS KILL

Let us be very clear.  No one is directly responsible for the murderous rampage this weekend of mentally unstable Jared Loughner but Loughner himself.

We have yet to learn what motivated this killer to shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords through the head and then spray rounds of deadly bullets into a crowd of her political supporters, leaving six dead and 14 wounded.  He, and he alone, is responsible and culpable for his actions.

But, that is not the point of the public debate that has risen from this tragic crime.

Bullets kill.  Words kill, too.

And, each of us, alone, is responsible and culpable for the words we use.

Our political debate, of late, has been filled with violent words.  Campaign slogans that tell voters to "reload" are unconscionable.  Political ads that use imagery that literally puts opponents in the "cross-hairs" of a gun are intolerable.   Appeals to the electorate to consider "second-amendment remedies" against politicians they disagree with in Washington are irresponsible.  These incitements, just noted, came from candidates who seek the power to lead this amazing country.

No, these words did not kill a judge, a congressional aide, a little girl, an elderly man and two elderly women in Arizona.  But, they have wounded the heart and soul of America.

We cherish our First Amendment.  And I would defend the right to mouth the most hateful of speech.  (Hate is always best countered with truth and justice, not censorship.)  But, those who espouse violence bear responsibility and culpability for the violent acts committed by those they have aroused.

This past campaign season saw the rise of the Tea Party.  We witnessed public rallies where members came with signs reading "We came unarmed, this time."  Or, "Support the economy, buy ammo.".

Some politicians on the Right and their media mouthpieces, Fox News and Conservative Talk Radio have played to the fears of these people.  They have stoked their anger by falsely and cynically demonizing the very institutions that we rely on to maintain the public good and trust - government and the media.  They have made anyone who disagrees with them "the enemy."  And, in any language or culture, the enemy, of course, is to be hunted and killed.

What has been described, meekly by the press, as "overheated rhetoric" is more heinous than that.  It is deceitful, deliberate and dangerous.  We live in unkind times.  I can tolerate the slimy, dirty language of politics which pollsters seem to believe brings electoral victories.  I can not, and will not, tolerate calls to violent actions, no matter how carefully couched by media manipulators.

The Right is busy today (purposely) missing the point.  They are repeating that the toxic rhetoric of the nation is not connected to the Arizona shooting.  That is absolutely correct.  Not directly.  But, it is a deceit to suggest that intentionally inciteful words have not bred hatred, a deterioration of honest debate and a demonization of "the other."

I will neither accept the tepid response that we just need to bring more civility to our politics.  Those that have used extreme language to rally political action and wrest power have to take responsibility and culpability for their words and the actions they have wrought.  Period.

Every political leader and pundit today should take a look at their own words, examine their own responsibility and culpability and own up to the potential destructive power of their language.

Yes, we have always been a violent nation.  We were born of revolution against a tyrannical king and committed genocide on the Indian Nation.  We fought each other in a bloody civil war over our evil embrace of slavery. We endured the assassinations of Martin, John, Malcolm, Bobby.  Can we never be better than that?  Yes, we can.  And, yes, we will.

The truth is the truth.  Bullets kill.  Words kill, too.

(I wrote the song below, "Better Look Both Ways", during the 2010 election season when I was worried and frightened by the angry mob mentality of the Tea Party.  The performance at Egan's Ballard Jam House is from Saturday, January 8th, the night of the assassination attempt on Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  I always start my shows with this song.  This night it rang too true.)

 

 

A WORLD LEADER

A humble, bold, thoughtful world leader addresses the U.N. General Assembly.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

LOWERING FEAR

Today, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano gave an honest assessment of the current threat of terrorism in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.  It is worth a read.

Homeland Chief Offers Shift in Tone

"Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano on Wednesday called for closer collaboration with foreign partners, more intensive cooperation with local law-enforcement officials, and greater involvement by citizens in watching for and responding to terrorist threats.

For too long, we’ve treated the public as a liability to be protected rather than as an asset in our nation’s collective security,” Ms. Napolitano said during a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “This approach, unfortunately, has allowed confusion, anxiety and fear to linger.”

“The consequences of living in a state of fear rather than a state of preparedness are enormous,” she said. ...

“The terror threat is even more decentralized, networked and adaptive than on 9/11,” she said. “The United States needed an approach that was “more layered, networked and resilient.”

In her speech, Ms. Napolitano seemed intent on a shift of tone, a recasting of the way Americans view the terror threat. Implicitly, she seemed to rebuke the approach taken by the Bush administration, which critics said too often seemed to exaggerate threats and sow a sense of fear.

- Brain Knowlton, The New York Times

PHOTO: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

NO GAY KISSING

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 1969, which gave birth to the Gay Rights Movement.  In 1994, I produced a report on the 25th anniversary for "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour."  It would be the only time in my career when I would experience censorship.

Manhattan was filled with homosexuals remembering and celebrating an historic moment.  They put on a Gay Olympics, concerts and rallies around New York City and a celebration of love in Central Park.

I was working for Time Inc. New Media, which had a contract with the NewsHour to produce reports for the program.  The video report I submitted looked at all the events of the weekend and was a comprehensive story on the state of gay rights in America at that time. 

In one scene a winning athlete got a congratulatory kiss from his partner.  Another sequence showed gay couples in the park doing what loving couples do all around the world - hugging, holding hands, resting their heads on their loved one's shoulder, brushing back their hair and kissing.  It was a montage of expressions of affection.

The Executive Producer of the NewHour called me to his office across town to tell me to remove the kissing scenes, as they might offend the sensibilities of the older PBS news audience.  I explained that both scenes were "normal" and central to the narrative.  He disagreed.  So, I compromised and said I would remove the congratulatory kiss, as not being completely germane to the athletic event, but that I would leave in the tender kiss at the love rally, as being completely appropriate.  He agreed.

So, I re-cut and resubmitted the finished video report to the NewsHour.

But, when it aired, the NewsHour editors had, without my knowledge or consent, removed the kissing scene in the park.  That meant that they had to extend the video to cover the narration that was under that part of the report.  So, they slow-motioned all the park scenes to fill the gap in the video.  What the audience saw was slowed-down video of all the tender moments, which made them look unnatural and unseemly, like they slow-mo criminals in their orange prison suits for the "perp walk."

Needless to say, I was outraged.  I worked as a news producer for 20 years at ABC News and was one of the founding Senior Producers of Cable News Network.  No one at either of those news organizations ever asked me to edit my report to satisfy the sensibilities of their audience.  I found it disturbing that the so-called liberal powers-that-be at the NewsHour at the time would censor their own reports to satisfy the perceived prejudices of their audience.

To this day, it still bothers me.

Anyway, Frank Rich has a fine op-ed piece in today's New York Times remembering an event that most straight people never heard of to begin with.  It's long past time to embrace human rights for all, all over the world.  A kiss to everyone from me.  Let your freak flags fly.

 

MISTRUSTED SOURCES

As the volatile situation in Iran develops, we should all be wary of reports circulating around the Internet, on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.  Nevertheless, we should also be grateful that there are means to get the word out on what is happening in that press-restricted country.  But beware imposters spreading false information.

The New York Times, in its news blog, The Lede, is doing the best it can to filter through a multitude of sources to try and piece together what is actually happening.  It's worth monitoring.

LUCKY THIRTEEN

O. J. Simpson Found Guilty in Robbery Trial

LAS VEGAS — A jury here Friday night found O. J. Simpson guilty on all counts in his robbery and kidnapping trial, a verdict that came 13 years to the day after Mr. Simpson was acquitted in the highly publicized murders of his ex-wife and her friend.

Photo Credit:  Steve Marcus/The New York Times

HOME GUNS KILL FAMILIES

Gun ownership advocates keep talking about having guns in the home to defend against intruders.  The sad truth is that most home gun owners turn the weapons on their family members or themselves.

More Than Half Firearm Deaths Are Suicides

'The Supreme Court's landmark ruling on gun ownership last week focused on citizens' ability to defend themselves from intruders in their homes. But research shows that surprisingly often, gun owners use the weapons on themselves.  Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.'

CNN, June 30, 2008

Guns in the Home - A Greater Risk to Family and Friends

• For every time a gun is used in a home in a legally-justifiable shooting there are 22 criminal, unintentional, and suicide-related shootings.

• The presence of a gun in the home triples the risk of homicide in the home.

• The presence of a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide fivefold.

Firearms Facts, Bradycampaign.org, April, 2007