[Peace] TELLING TIME on WEFT, Wed. 6-8pm

[Carl Estabrook]

This Wednesday, January 11, from 6 to 8pm, WEFT (90.1 FM) will broadcast
an occasional program entitled "TELLING TIME: Additions to the the
Corporate Media."  Our program takes its inspiration from a line in the
Depression-era play, THE FRONT PAGE:

	"Trying to determine what is going on in the world
	by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time
	by watching the second hand of a clock."

Electronic media -- and the one real American innovation of the 20th
century, Public Relations -- have made the matter much worse than it was
when Ben Hecht wrote that line, more than 70 years ago.  Corporate news
controls much of what we know -- not so much by suppressing stories
(although they sometimes do that, too) -- but by providing emphasis,
directing our attention, telling us what's important, and indicating how
we should think about the stories that are reported.

Against that, on TELLING TIME (accent on the first syllable) we want to
take the time to tell you stories from the foreign press, blogs, and other
alternative media.  For example, did you hear how "the Debaathification
Committee in Iraq has begun pulling all works that praise the Baath regime
in Iraq, which ruled 1968-2003, from the shelves of university libraries?
The newly banned works include theses, research papers, books and other
publications. They will be sequestered in a high-security special library
and kept away from university students.  The Debaathification Committee is
controlled by the Iraqi National Congress of corrupt financier and current
vice premier, Ahmad Chalabi. Although apparently only Chalabi's relatives
voted for him in the December 15 elections, he continues to have an
outsized impact on Iraq, and not for the better, either." [Juan Cole]

The brilliant blogger Riverbend writes from Baghdad, "There is talk of
major mismanagement and theft in the Oil Ministry. Chalabi took over
several days ago and a friend who works in the ministry says the takeover
is a joke. 'You know how they used to check our handbags when we first
walked into the ministry?' She asked the day after Chalabi crowned himself
Oil Emperor, 'Now WE check our handbags after we leave the ministry -- you
know -- to see if Chalabi stole anything.'"

More stories like that -- and a debate between Alan Dershowitz and Noam
Chomsky on the future of Israel -- on TELLING TIME, this Wednesday at 6pm
on WEFT.

--C. G. Estabrook