SPJ national update II: Media study suppressed?; database of government contracts approved; and false reports on Iran may be replay of run-up to Iraq war. FCC chairman Kevin Martin on Sept. 18 ordered an investigation into why two agency reports on media ownership were never made public. The draft of a recent FCC study shows that locally owned stations air more news than stations controlled by outside owners. A lawyer with the FCC told the AP that FCC managers ordered the report destroyed; the lawyer is no longer with the agency. More here and here. ... Following the Senate's lead, the House of Representatives passed a bill to establish a publicly searchable database of federally funded grants and contracts. The bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to create a free, easily accessible web site listing all grant awards and contracts, said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. ... A report by veteran McClatchy reporters John Walcott and Warren P. Strobel warns that the same shaky intelligence that proved false prior to the Iraq war may be surfacing in regard to Iran. "U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials say Bush political appointees and hard-liners on Capitol Hill have tried recently to portray Iran's nuclear program as more advanced than it is and to exaggerate Tehran's role in Hezbollah's attack on Israel in mid-July," Walcott and Strobel write. They quote one U.S. counterterrorism official: "It seems like Iran is becoming the new Iraq." More here.
SPJ national update III: Ellsberg urges insiders to leak alleged war plans; down a twisted "Path"; and two more journalists are killed in Iraq, bringing the total to 79 journalists and 28 media support workers killed since the war began March 20, 2003. The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 is asking government officials to leak "the Pentagon Paper of the Middle East," to short-circuit another possible war. Based on reporting by Seymour Hersh and others, Daniel Ellsberg believes that insiders are aware of "serious plans for war with Iran" while "Congress and the public remain largely in the dark." His remedy: "Conscientious insiders" need to leak hard evidence to the public, even if it risks their current and future employment, as he, then a defense analyst, did in the early 1970s. More here. ... Two retired FBI agents say they rejected advisory roles on the disputed ABC mini-series "The Path to 9/11" over concerns about the program's accuracy. Thomas E. Nicoletti, hired by the producers in July 2005 to oversee technical accuracy, left after less than a month. "There were some of the scenes that were total fiction," he said, including placing people at places where they had not been present and depicting events out of chronological order. "I'm well aware of what's dramatic license and what's historical inaccuracy. And this had a lot of historical inaccuracy." Before retiring in 2003, Nicoletti was a supervisory special agent and a member of the joint terrorism task force. Dan Coleman, who retired from the FBI in 2004, saw the script last summer after being approached about being a technical adviser. "I read it and told them they had to be kidding," he said. "I wanted my friends at the FBI to still speak to me." (Then-CEO Michael Eisner on Disney's decision not to let its subsidiary Miramax Films distribute the film "Fahrenheit 9-11": "We just didn't want to be in the middle of a politically oriented film during an election year.") More here and here and here and here.
SPJ national update IV: Oregon warrantless wiretapping lawsuit stands; from a Marine intelligence expert, an unusually bleak assessment; and U.S. paid 10 journalists for anti-Castro reports. A federal judge has rejected a Bush administration plea to dismiss a lawsuit over the government's warrantless-surveillance program, saying he was not convinced that going ahead with the case would harm national security. More here. ... The intelligence chief for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed a classified report concluding that the prospects for securing the western Anbar province are dim and that there is little the U.S. military can do to improve the situation. Military officers and intelligence officials said Col. Pete Devlin's assessment represents the first time that a senior U.S. officer has filed so negative a report from Iraq. One Army officer summarized it as arguing that in Anbar province, "We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically -- and that's where wars are won and lost." More here. ... The administration's Office of Cuba Broadcasting paid 10 reporters in Miami to provide commentary critical of Fidel Castro on Radio and TV Martí, which transmits to Cuba. The group included three writers at El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister newspaper of The Miami Herald, which fired them after learning of the relationship. The Castro regime has long alleged that some Cuban-American reporters in Miami were paid by the government. Other pseudo-journalists have been found to accept money from the administration, including Armstrong Williams, a commentator and talk-show host who took $240,000 to promote its education initiatives. More here.
SPJ national update V: But they're still dead; Supreme Court to post transcripts of proceedings online; and government secrecy expanding. U.S. officials aren't counting scores of dead killed in car bombings and mortar attacks as victims of the country's sectarian violence. In a distinction previously undisclosed, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said Sept. 8 that the United States includes in its tabulations of sectarian violence only deaths of individuals killed in drive-by shootings or by torture and execution. Johnson declined to provide an actual number for the U.S. tally of August deaths or for July, when the Baghdad city morgue counted a record 1,855 violent deaths. More here. ... The Supreme Court will post transcripts of oral arguments on its web site the same day they occur, beginning this month. The change has long been sought by court watchers. There is no indication that the justices are prepared to relent on another matter of media interest. Television cameras still are barred from the court. More here. ... OpenTheGovernment.org's third annual report of measurable indicators that evaluate openness in government shows a continued expansion of government secrecy across a broad array of agencies and actions.
