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March 22, 2003 - Saturday
A brief item in the Star-Bulletin yesterday reported that the three unions representing employees at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald have unanimously voted to authorize a strike. Bargaining has been grim, with Stephens Media Group taking a union-busting stance for over a year with support from attorney L. Michael Zinser. The last round of bargaining was also extended and very bitter, so this strike situation isn't a surprise.
Speaking of the Tribune-Herald, they reported Friday that demonstrations against the war in Iraq are "gaining momentum" in Hilo. They're everywhere, although, as a friend points out, the Pentagon's public relations campaign has effectively crowded much of the peace message into the margins.
...the craftiest thing the Bush admin. did in this war was to co-opt the media. That cut down on coverage of anti-war protests.
All the media people traveling in military vehicles with the advancing troops gives us a more intimate view of war than we've ever had before.
The captivating birdseye view of a war and the time consumed switching from correspondent to correspondent reporting constantly developing situations in the fields of operation just about squeezes out any other kind of coverage.
This Bush admin. is so perfectly scripted that it could get an Oscar for best original screenplay.
| All our cats were inside during the wet weather last weekend. I put down towels as cat beds in a few places, hoping to cut down on competition for the existing favorite spots. Of course, this led to competition for the new locations.
Lindsey, left, claimed this towel right away, but hadn't been there long when Ms. Wally, Queen of the household, decided to exert her "rights". The two of them ended up sleeping in tandem for quite a while, despite the camera's intrusion.
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Mr. Lindsey & Ms. Wally |
March 21, 2003 - Friday
There's a stark difference in the way the two Honolulu dailies are handling war news in their online editions. They couldn't be more different.
The Advertiser has pretty much joined the "all war, all the time" camp. Their web site is has been essentially turned over to war news, with both local and national spins. You've got to go quite a ways for a bit of non-war reporting.
The Star-Bulletin is taking the opposite approach with no special nod to the war, just their standard array of stories from the print edition.
I got back home late last night after a meeting was flipping through unknown cable channels and ran into a translated Iraqi newscast. It was fascinating. It was giving thorough coverage of international demonstrations against the war which was more thorough than what I've seen elsewhere. What a world where you can see news coverage from all sides at once.
One of the items I found most interesting is BBC's "War Diaries", a web log of brief comments by reporters in the field.
Ryan Ozawa's assessment of Tim Ryan's interview with Samantha Geimer appearing in yesterday's Star-Bulletin is very interesting and worth a read.
March 20, 2003 - Thursday
The war has started. Doug Matsuoka captured the malaise of the moment in a letter sent around over the weekend and printed in the issue of Honolulu Weekly that hit the streets yesterday.
George Steele would have known about war. War, West Virginia, that is. It's tucked out there somewhere near Canebreak, Bearwallow, and Peapatch.
I'm not sure whether the Spring Equinox is actually today or tomorrow. Here's the concise definition of the event:
On the Spring Equinox the Sun rises exactly in the east travels through the sky for 12 hours and sets exactly in the west. On the Equinox this is the motion of the Sun through the sky for everyone on earth. Every place on earth experiences a 12 hours day twice a year on the Spring and Fall Equinox.
Two readers sent in praise for Dennis Oda's photo in the Star-Bulletin of friends of those killed in a North Shore crash gathered at the scene and downing a brew for their lost friends (here's the link to the story and photos--scroll down in the story for Oda's photo).
One added this observation:
Question: Did I misread the Star-Bulletin's coverage of the Waialua crash that killed five? Like with any story involving multiple family members and elements, I admit I might have lost track of what name was which and which car was where. But it seems to say that the "third car" that Waiwaiole took off to race was the third car in the family caravan -- in other words, it was racing between family members that led to the crash.
This detail is notably absent from the story the Honolulu Advertiser ran, and had been constantly revising. I was wondering when I read it (on my PDA) why no one was looking for the mysterious "third car" -- perhaps because it wasn't a mystery.
March 19, 2003 - Wednesday
A house divided? MidWeek's issue for this past week featured two pages of photographs of the big party thrown by the company to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the "new" Star-Bulletin & its weekly sibling.
Conspicuously absent from the guest list were any of the Star-Bulletin's own management and staff. The newsroom reportedly celebrated at their own expense.
| Sign of the times: An employee at the 7-11 in Kaaawa was out before dawn yesterday to post higher gasoline prices at the pumps.
It's a scene that is being repeated around the islands, and around the nation, as the start of Bush's war looms.
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A lot of people have been finding their way to this quote from Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Jackson, who served as the top US Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal.
"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy."
And now our appointed president has swept aside this cornerstone of the modern international order.
This is a heartbreaking but illuminating read--the email messages sent home by Rachel Corrie, the Evergreen College student who was crush by an Israeli bulldozer last week while trying to block the destruction of a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip.
Here's the comment received from a friend yesterday: "This is the thing that I regret most: my children will not have a country that they can ultimately be proud of."
March 18, 2003 - Tuesday
I haven't looked at the news yet this morning. It is just so depressing. Tyrant vs. tyrant. And aided and abetted by far too much uncritical reporting.
Sandy Vanocur referred to a USA Today story during his talk at the East-West Center last week, and I finally got around to tracking it down. It describes the set for Pentagon press briefings to be held in Qatar after this war starts. It is a rather extraordinary reminder of how far propaganda has progressed.
And whilel looking for that story I ran into PR Watch, a wonderful site which tracks PR and media spin, both corporate and government.
If you're looking for a little irreverent political humor, this rather large file puts a funny spin on US-British relations.
March 17, 2003 - Monday
George Steele's friend of 30 years, Rick Steelhammer, devoted his column in the Sunday Gazette-Mail (Charleston, WV) to George.
He hated non-Appalachian corn bread, particularly the type available in restaurants in Honolulu.
"They make it sweet, like yellow cake," he wrote. "But what can you expect in a place where Spam cookbooks are best-sellers?"
Ironically, the Sunday Gazette-Mail is the joint product of two newspapers still tied in a Joint Operating Agreement, the Charleston Gazette and the Charleston Daily Mail.
I missed George this morning, after realizing that he was he only person I know who would immediately respond to middle-of-the-night emails I might send his way while feeding the cats at one ungodly hour or another. He was almost always there, or would be soon.
Here's a note from a reader:
This French backlash is an alltime low for us as a nation.
The idea that if you disagree with the president of the U.S. you are "scum," as someone painted on the home of that French woman in Texas, boils my blood.
I'm half French and very proud of it.
Who are these people who demand total compliance with our political leader?
And aren't they advocating Bush enjoy the same kind of unquestioning allegiance the leaders of Iraq and North Korea have?
How American is that attitude?
This is scary.
It looks like an American attack on Iraq is imminent, despite the Constitution, despite united world opposition, despite the economic impact on an already fragile economy. I suppose we'll all be coping with this reality as best we can.
| I posted a few recent photos of the canine friends we meet on our daily early morning walks, including this new gal, Roo. Click on her photo for more. |
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March 16, 2003 - Sunday
| Sunday morning, 5 a.m. The cats are restless.
Toby and Duke have been galloping back and forth across the living room, over and around furniture, with a drumbeat of cat paws on wood floor. I think they might have just slipped out the door when I let Leo into the house.
Lindsey scratched the screen at the front door to be let in, and immediately trotted into my bathroom and onto the counter, where he waited for petting and food, in that order. He also needed to be dried off, so I pulled out a towel and rubbed him down, a process he thoroughly enjoys.
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Saturday dawn
in Kaaawa
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Ms. Kili popped in briefly, sliding past when I let Lindsey back out and heading directly to her favorite food dish. Ms. Wally is spread out on the kitchen counter, pretending to be above it all.
In between I've managed to check the morning email and take a quick peek at the Advertiser online. World news will have to wait. I'm not sure I'm ready to read the terribly depressing foreign policy news.
On the other hand, I continue to be humbled by news from a small organization called Christian Peacemaker Teams, which sends groups of volunteers from churches across the U.S. and Canada into the world's hotspots as observers and participants in civil life. A good friend of mine, a Mennonite, was one of the founders of the group and drew my attention to it. They have now established a presence in Iraq and their news gives a measure of the reality behind our daily headlines.
Meanwhile, with our country and the world facing the biggest crisis in decades, Gannett's Honolulu Advertiser has launched its major project, the Hawaii's Bachelor contest. I'm sorry, but this is a terrible waste of newsprint and other precious resources. But if we're going to get on the pop culture bandwagon, wouldn't it be more fun to have launch Newsroom Survivor and let Advertiser staffers vote on who should be thrown out of the building?
Today's spellchecker suggested replacing the word "Hawaii's" with "Hee-haws." Perhaps it's more insightful than I realized.
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