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WISHFUL THINKING ABOUT OBAMA
I simply had to laugh out loud at the lack of journalistic
integrity in the article decrying how the shift to big media will bring us
the lack of journalistic integrity. In “Who’ll unplug Big
Media?” [Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols, June 5], the authors
whine that “big media” throw journalistic values out the window
while reaping big profits.
The blame is to be placed, of course, right at the
feet of the fanatical Bushies and the Republican-controlled FCC who run
Washington and, oh yes, buried at the end of the article is the mention
that the Clinton administration was involved in the same activity. Praise
the thinking man, the Democrats have rejected the Clintons and of course
the populist Obama is the solution — we know that because he wants
change and the savvy enlightened people working for him have the moral
policies, whoops, I mean enlightened ethical policies to make that change.
Of course McChesney and Nichols have the facts because they represent
traditional journalism.
What McChesney and Nichols conveniently overlook is,
these “savvy” Obama advisors seeking political change are
former FCC staffers acting with the support of Democrats Reed Hundt
and William Kennard, both former FCC chairmen appointed by the
Clintons. All are now heavily involved in private equity investment in
new telecom companies and all are seeking to shut down the traditional
telecom providers. Hundt’s insider access to Kennard, the first
minority FCC chairman, gained him the wireless spectrum for his failed
wireless company Frontline. Currently a new deal, named M2Z, is being
pushed by two Democratic congressmen. M2Z is headed by former
Clinton/Bush-era FCC Wireless Bureau chief and minority John Muleta, who
wants the feds to turn over the new spectrum to create a free
family-friendly nationwide Internet service supported by advertising
dollars. Funny how this lines up perfectly with Obama’s telecom
policy. One of Obama’s chief policy advisors, Karen
Kornbluh (former FCC staffer and advisor to U.S. Sen. John Kerry), was a
member of the Hundt/Kennard staffers and is a likely choice for FCC
chairman, but Julius Genachowski, an old Obama college chum is at the
center of his telecom policy. Genachowski was legal advisor to both Hundt
and Kennard and is tied to Barry Diller’s media company. And who ran
telecom policy for the Clintons? Al Gore, who is now tied to private-equity
“green” investments with this group of Obama advisors.
Now the not-so-surprising news is that the
Clinton-era telecom staffers have abandoned Hillary, raised tons of money
for Obama and are now positioning themselves to reap gigantic profits by
undercutting the traditional telecom and media companies with
wireless-Internet companies. And yes, none of them are registered
Washington lobbyists. McChesney and Nichols ought to concentrate on facts
and less on wishful thinking. The only change coming in Washington is the
money trail.
Mike Duvall
Professor of
communication University of Illinois at Springfield Springfield
WE MUST HOLD BUSH
ACCOUNTABLE
If the opportunity to impeach
President George W. Bush has passed, so has the chance to repudiate
hijacking the country’s civil, military, and economic resources by
our highest elected officials through deliberate deception. Phase II of the prewar Iraq intelligence report
provides the most definitive statement to date that the
administration’s public statements and policy actions contradicted
available intelligence or relied on unsubstantiated claims. All the U.S. soldiers’ and Iraqi
civilians’ lives lost, billions of dollars spent, slipping status of
the U.S. in the world, a failing economy — is the president going to
escape a formal trial for deceiving the public and Congress, misdirecting
the military, and subsequently contributing to all these problems?
Mismanagement is not criminal, but co-opting national services and risking
lives through deliberate misrepresentation qualifies heartily. U.S. Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond,
R-Missouri, a member of the Intelligence Committee, gave examples in his
dissent of other public figures making faulty claims similar to those of
the administration. Good company doesn’t substantiate innocence,
especially when the architects of the deceptions relied upon are clearly
identifiable.
The new political season is already here, and most
seem content to ignore these revelations for promises of honest and just
governance by the next administration. But if this president skips out of
the White House unshackled by his crimes, we have no assurance against
future hijackings by singular visionaries willing to sacrifice the
country’s resources, values, and well-being.
Daymon Kiliman
Springfield
DON’T FORGET LANPHIER HIGH I agree with Fletcher Farrar’s column about
replacing Springfield High School on the west side of Springfield
[“Reporter at Large,” May 29]. Shouldn’t we try to keep
the Beaux Arts façade? As a north-ender, I’d like some money
spent to put air conditioning in Lanphier and also give them a stage.
Evelyn White Springfield
OPEN ANWR TO DRILLING We need to increase our domestic oil production and
lessen our reliance on dangerous foreign sources. Energy conservation alone
doesn’t solve our energy needs; it just postpones it for a short
while. Drilling in ANWR would help because it would be one of the largest
oil fields discovered in the world in the past 40 years. What’s being proposed is to open only a small
fraction, only 8 percent of ANWR, for exploration. And all exploration
areas are not drilled in. Technologies like horizontal drilling, 3-D
seismic mapping, and ice roads minimizing the drilling footprint to only
2,000 acres out of the 19 million acres of ANWR, or one-ten-thousandth of 1
percent! This region is a treeless arctic desert with almost no wildlife
during its nine-month winters. Oil development will not endanger any
species. America needs to drill for oil in ANWR.
Kim Rogalin Naperville
FACTOR IN TRANSPORTATION COSTS Fletcher Farrar’s editorial on “Building
the new Springfield High School” [May 29] was a refreshing look at
Springfield’s development. Many of the reasons given in the article
and by other readers in later issues of Illinois
Times on utilizing the existing
Springfield High campus are quite valid. I would add another —
transportation in the coming decade will make suburban-style campuses too
expensive to get to. Today, SHS students have alternative transportation
to school. Many can actually walk through neighborhoods with real sidewalks
and traffic signals. Most of the SMTD bus routes make a special effort to
make the Springfield High campus a regular stop. With rising gas prices,
rising automobile prices, and stagnant wages putting automobiles farther
and farther out of the reach of most high-school aged kids, one has to ask:
how would students get to the new campus out west? The costs of operating
the school bus fleet in this city is already have a crushing impact on
school budgets. Will parents have to make special drop-off arrangements
with their own hectic schedules and increased driving costs to get students
to school? We should be looking for ways to consolidate and unify city
services, not spread them out to the edges of the city where only a
minority of upper-income families can easily access those services.
The development of the old SHS campus should be part
of a complete revitalization of the downtown area, not simply as a way to
beautify but also as a part of our overall effort to rethink our energy and
transportation networks as we face this new world of rising costs. Chet Brandt Springfield
TIME TO PARK YOUR SUV For the last couple of decades, global warming has
been a growing problem, yet it seems as if a lot of people, especially
Americans, are ignoring the issues and are doing little to help. As
Americans, we make up roughly 5 percent of the world’s population,
yet we contribute 25 percent of the world’s emissions. We complain
about gas prices and we still buy SUVs and Hummers, knowing full well that
they cost a lot of money to fill and use up a lot of gas. It’s time
for people to start waking up and realizing that some of the choices we are
making are not helping, and, in some cases, only making things worse.
There is a Native American proverb that states,
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from
our children.” Not only are people not conscious of the fact that
they do not own the world and its resources, but we “children”
of America need to start making some changes on how things are done. Pia Laipert Algonquin
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2008.
