City Beat News Editor Arrested During Anti-War Protest
Greg Flannery, news editor of City Beat, was arrested on Friday during the anti-war protests downtown. Mr. Flannery's charge was obstruction of official business by refusing to move from the middle of a downtown street, according to court documents.

In the past I have strongly criticized City Beat's news coverage for being more opinion and less news, basically practicing what has become known as advocacy journalism. Many would not call it journalism at all, but in today's media world where everyone is a journalist, even I might qualify as one, making that charge against Greg or City Beat would not be fair. I do find this kind of participation in a news event to be a big problem. If Greg reports on this issue, I think it will be a huge blow to his credibility. The charge of creating news could be easily and correctly made. I hope Greg assigns another reporter to the story, and that he leaves out coverage of the local protest in his weekly column. A good journalist rarely gets involved with the story. That is why advocacy journalism is something I do not consider to be valuable journalism. It comes across more like propaganda one might read in the Worker's World.

The Enquirer and the Post both reported on the protests, with only the Post reporting the 6 arrests. I guess the Enquirer reporter left the protest early and missed the arrests.

Rick Bird of the Cincinnati Post reports on the local happenings in the Dixie Chicks faux scandal (bottom of article). Based on his report WLW's Bill Cunningham's debasement knows no end. He actually is willing to help gin up hatred for a county music act to entertain his listeners and build his ratings. I know the guy is full of crap, but could he be more fake? What is worse is that there are still a huge portion of his listeners who think that Cunningham is really talking to the wife of Clear Channel's CEO. I don't know who is worse; Darryl Parks for letting the Cunningham crap go on, or the morons who think it is real.

Rick Bird also reports on CNN's Bill Hemmer, a Cincinnati Native and Miami University graduate.

Watching war on live TV wrenching for military families
Yesterday while at work I watched war coverage during lunch with the mother of a US Marine currently stationed in Kuwait, who will likely move forward soon. She was in good spirits, but appeared very tense under the surface. I was amazed mostly that she was keeping a very close eye on all of the news. She knew almost every detail of what was going on minute by minute. The most telling moment was when the television anchor reported that a US Marine was killed in action, she slightly bowed her head for a few seconds in what I can only assume was a moment of thought for the mother of the fallen Marine. That brings home the issue of our troops and their families. I have heard some really horrid comment from the extremists in the anti-war gang and it disgusts me. It does their cause no good to act like thugs in the streets. Breaking the law to protest something that will not change is futile. The war can’t be stopped. What you can demand in your protests is liberation for Iraq. Keep pressure on the Bush Administration to release plans for the post-war Iraq and make sure those plans are just and not politically biased.

Does the Guardian Unlimited report the real reason the Oscars will have no red carpet? The last sentence from the article reads: "More protests are planned to disrupt the Oscars ceremony in Hollywood tomorrow."

TBOGG's line is a classic: "George Bush! You've just started WWIII? What's next?"..."I'm going to Camp David!" It is over the top, but it is an image problem that I really take issue with Bush on. He can at least make people think that at least the first weekend he is burning the midnight oil. Couldn't he have saved a little money and stayed at the White House? Why should the cabinet have to commute? I would bet this costs a lot more than closing an airport for a haircut. I truly hope that he is paying more attention to the war then the press is, but I would not be surprised if he is already in bed.

Firefighter dies in house fire
Horrible news for Cincinnati. My condolences go out to Oscar Armstrong's family and friends.

CNN Ordered Out of Baghdad
Still in Baghdad (as reported)
NPR: Anne Garrels - Plans to stay throughout
Peter Arnett - freelance for MSNBC and National Geographic. - Plans to stay throughout
ITN
BBC: Total of 7 including 3 reporters - Rageh Omar -Plans to stay throughout
Washington Post -Anthony Shadid
AP - Hamza Hendawi
Reuters - Staff of 19
Sky News
Independent - Robert Fisk (what an ass)
Christian Science Monitor -Scott Peterson
ZDF (Germany)
Al Jazeera
Sydney Morning Herald/The Age - Paul McGeough
San Franscisco Chronical - Robert Collier
Los Angeles Times - John Daniszewski
Irish Times - Lara Marlowe
New York Times - John Burns and Photographer Tyler Hicks
Al-Arabiya (Dubai)
Abu Dhabi TV
Lebanese Broadcasting Company
Richard Engel - Free lance for ABC (and BBC?)
Guardian - Suzanne Goldenberg
and other various French, German, Japanese and Dutch media outlets.


Not in Baghdad are NBC, ABC*(has free lancer in Baghdad), CBC Radio, FOX News (kicked out), China's official Xinhua news agency, Boston Globe (kicked out), USA Today, Daily Telegraph, London Times, Newsweek (at least ordered to leave by Bosses), US News & World Report, Time, Wall Street Journal, CBS, CNN (kicked out).

Mother of all bad deals
Wow, I agree with Bronson! I have to wonder about his "franchise" comment, when I read what I wrote a while back about Lynch and a boycott franchise.

1 killed, 2 injured in Over-the-Rhine shooting
Number 19 of the year so far. I wonder if more people will be murdered this year in Cincinnati, than will die in battle in Iraq.

Protests held downtown, at UC
Good coverage of this protest and of other responses to the war. The morons in the street should be ashamed of themselves. They claim to be protesting an "illegal" war, but they break the law by blocking taffic to do it. Irony, thine name is true.

War on Iraq - smh.com.au
Here is another article on the media coverage of the war. The most relevant passage:

On the right, the Fox News Channel is the leading propagandist for the US war effort. Soon after the shooting began on Thursday, Fox anchor Shephard Smith announced, "The liberation of Iraq has begun." The first missile strike on Baghdad was, he said, designed to "cut the head off the snake".

I heard him say this several times, once just as a Fox embedded reporter crossed the Iraqi border with a unit of the American Army. If you think that this is somehow "fair and balanced" then I think your perceptions are tainted by several assumptions about what journalism is supposed to be. I heard talk radio yesterday, on WLW, whine about Peter Jennings and Dan Rather. I think they expect journalists to be like Shephard Smith. I don't mind if a journalist shows a little emotion when something bad happens to American soldiers, but to illustrate glee like a skirt wearing cheerleader turns my stomach. If people are fooled to think Fox News is not biased towards conservatives, they must be smoking crack.

War Coverage in the Blogosphere
If you are here looking for expansive blogging on the War you can do no better than Sean Paul Kelley at www.agonist.org. John at www.blogsofwar.com also is putting out great coverage.

'I'll see you all when it's over,'
A nice story from Howard Wilkinson. This is old-fashioned local reporting. Howard has taken an international story and made it relevant to Cincinnati, while providing something unique. I hope the local television news teams take a lesson from Howard. We don't need them repeating wire reports or what their network news teams say. Go out and get local news. Parroting what the Wires or Networks report will not get you a better job, or any awards.

AP Wire: Ohio Anti-War Protests
Not much significant actions from the protestors today. NYC seemed to have more of an impact, but is still seems to be a super minority now. I think the only ones left protesting now are your professional protestors, Marxists, and anti-everything gadabouts.

Showdown in Iraq: A Special Section from The Enquirer, The Post and WCPO
This is actually a good site for general information on the Iraq War. There is a good mix of reference websites, news, and links to locally related information, including a place to post messages of support to the troops.

CincyNation.com: WCPO needs to let Networks cover the war
CincyNation provides the following commentary:

We're told that WCPO has taken it upon itself to "cover" the war. Very interesting development from a station known for sensationalized local reporting. Fact is, WCPO is reading Associated Press reports and running tapes from ABC News and CNN. So why not let the networks do what they are trained to do? Extra annoying is a blue scroll Channel 9 is using at the bottom of the screen for 'breaking news.' The color is distracting and the scroll information, we're told, tends to be older news rather than breaking.

I think I agree with this assessment of WCPO. I would prefer they refrain from the crawler and from the local updates on the international story. If they have relevant local news, fine, but let the national journalists do their job. I do not mind WCPO switching to CNN if ABC is lacking in coverage, which last night (03/19) was the case when ABC delayed interrupting regular programming longer than the rest of the networks. ABC does provide good coverage and has had good front line report thus far.

Updated News Outlets still in Baghdad
Still in Baghdad (as reported)
CNN: Nic Robertson & Rym Brahimi - total of 4 people
NPR: Anne Garrels - Plans to stay throughout
Peter Arnett - freelance for MSNBC and National Geographic. - Plans to stay throughout
ITN
BBC: Total of 7 including 3 reporters - Rageh Omar -Plans to stay throughout
Washington Post -Anthony Shadid
AP - Hamza Hendawi
Reuters - Staff of 19
Sky News
Independent - Robert Fisk (what an ass)
Christian Science Monitor -Scott Peterson
ZDF (Germany)
Al Jazeera
Sydney Morning Herald/The Age - Paul McGeough
San Franscisco Chronical - Robert Collier
Los Angeles Times - John Daniszewski
Irish Times - Lara Marlowe
New York Times - John Burns and Photographer Tyler Hicks
Al-Arabiya (Dubai)
Abu Dhabi TV
Lebanese Broadcasting Company
Richard Engel - Free lance for ABC (and BBC?)
and other various French, German, Japanese and Dutch media outlets.
Guardian - Suzanne Goldenberg

Not in Baghdad are NBC, ABC*(has free lancer in Baghdad), CBC Radio, FOX News (kicked out), China's official Xinhua news agency, Boston Globe (kicked out), USA Today, Daily Telegraph, London Times, Newsweek (at least ordered to leave by Bosses), US News & World Report, Time, Wall Street Journal, CBS .

Boston Globe, LA Times, and USA Today stories.

AP Story from Baghad on problems of reporting from Baghdad.

Anticlimactic to the Max
I am taken aback that the President of the USA would announce war, shut down the White House and then go to bed.

WAR!!!

Group intends to expand its boycott
Here is the bottom line motivation of the CBUF's action:

Frierson said the group plans to expand its boycott by enlisting people outside of Cincinnati to boycott businesses that are based here.

The word that comes to mind is extortion. I can only speculate what business will be targeted. Do they want to target Kroger? or P&G? or 5/3 Bank? Who is their mark? I seriously wonder if that the CBUF organizes people in other cities to picket, boycott, or otherwise defame, damage, or defile innocent third party companies located in Cincinnati, will they be investigated for potential civil/criminal RICO statute violations? I will not hold my breathe while I wait to find out.

What is their new and ever changing set of demands? Would it be enough if they get a million dollars each and then every white person agrees to move out of the city? Are we seeing the beginnings of the Balkanization of Cincinnati and racial politics? I see no purpose but a movement to segregate from the whole community, while tearing it down and instilling revenge. From my viewpoint this revenge seems to stem from the anger of not being accepted for being segregationists. It is astonishing that the self anointed inner city black community leaders actually think people would understand the attitude they put forth where they refuse to be part of a society where blacks are not the dominating force.

This episode is yet another step back in race relations. The CBUF appears to not want good relations; they just want to help "their own." Greed and selfishness sometimes get you ahead and sometimes is all you can do to survive, but when others want to help, it only drives that help away when you demand help only under your own direction. I am close to knocking down the brick wall my head has been beating against for the last 2 years. I wonder if they will postpone any more protests until after the war. I somehow doubt that. The real question is how they will deal with extreme racist wing of their “movement.” Will their new tact for relevance be sidetracked battling it out with the clown posse? If you live by the bigoted comment, you will die by the bigoted comment.