What election fraud? What city under siege?

[Kevin Marousek, RPCV]

According to the websites of CNN, MSNBC and FOX there is no city being
held hostage in Kyrgystan as a result of yet another fixed election in
a former soviet republic. Check their websites... look hard... I did.
No mention of it anywhere. Funny, though, that both the BBC and Radio
Free Europe list it among their top stories.

One of CNN's top stories:
'Ring' scares its way to the top

And one of MSNBC's:
Drew Barrymore hits her stride

And we shouldn't forget FOX News:
MLB Steroids Fines Dropped

Also no mention of it on the homepages of the NY and LA Times or the
Washington Post.

If a republic falls and there's no American news agency to cover it,
does it make a sound?
--
Kevin Marousek, RPCV
maro...@gmail.com
http://groups.msn.com/KevinsPicPalace
http://cindycrawford.blogspot.com
http://thisiswhoweare.blogspot.com/
http://profiles.myspace.com/users/16725117

[Wesley McGee]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52233-2005Mar20?language=printer

I looked at this at 3:23 in the morning eastern time at the Washington
Post website.

I found the story under the world header "below the fold", though
honestly, since the redesign, the Washington Post's website has the
most confusing, unclear, and cluttered layout below the main
headlines.

Anyway, chances are at this time of night, the backup web teams are
the runs running the show, and unless there's a nuclear blast going
off, or Michael Jackson is dancing nude on the 405, they're content to
just leave it to the automatic wire feeds.

And now, the first few paragraphs of the story by the AP as presented
at WashingtonPost.com

Protesters in Kyrgyzstan Denounce Ballot Fraud
Police Station Burned; Offices Overrun

By Kadyr Toktogulov
Associated Press
Monday, March 21, 2005; Page A11

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, March 20 -- Thousands of protesters demanding the
resignation of Kyrgyzstan's president over allegedly fraudulent
elections rampaged through a southern city Sunday, burning down a
police station and occupying government buildings.

The government said it was ready to negotiate, but Kurmanbek Bakiyev,
an opposition leader and former prime minister, said talks would be
possible only if President Askar Akayev was involved.

"All other lower-level negotiations will be just a waste of time,"
said Bakiyev, leader of the opposition People's Movement of
Kyrgyzstan, who lost a bid for a seat in parliament last week.

Some analysts have suggested that Kyrgyzstan is ripe for an outburst
of the kind of mass protests experienced in other former Soviet
republics, such as those that recently brought pro-Western leaders to
power in Ukraine and Georgia.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe issued a
statement Sunday, urging the government and the opposition to refrain
from using force and to begin a dialogue.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman, J. Adam Ereli, said,
"U.S. officials have been in contact with both the government and
opposition to reinforce this message."

As the police station smoldered in Jalal-Abad, 160 miles southwest of
the capital, Bishkek, the regional governor said he lacked enough
police to restore order.

Some injuries were reported, according to government officials in the
south and a member of the opposition, but numbers were not available.

[PGage]

Wes wrote...

And now, the first few paragraphs of the story by the AP as presented
at WashingtonPost.com

Protesters in Kyrgyzstan Denounce Ballot Fraud
Police Station Burned; Offices Overrun

By Kadyr Toktogulov
Associated Press
Monday, March 21, 2005; Page A11

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, March 20 -- Thousands of protesters demanding the
resignation of Kyrgyzstan's president over allegedly fraudulent
elections rampaged through a southern city Sunday, burning down a
police station and occupying government buildings.

PGage writes...
Fox News is reporting that Chief Justice William Rehnquist is being
sent over to settle the issue (00-949).

....or, maybe not, it's late and my vision is blurry...

[Wesley McGee]

Well, now that I'm awake looking at news sites, here's some comments
from some n00b who should have gone to bed hours ago.

I absolutely hate the new redesigned front page of the Washington
Post. Everything below the fold may as well be placed into a bowl of
alphabet soup. It'd probably look worse if Norton wasn't killing
*some* of the ads.

I'm not at all amazed that Fox devotes front page space to blogs of
dubious value, but not to anything that even feeds international wire
stories.

I'm somewhat amazed that MSNBC devotes front page space to blogs of
dubious value, but not to anything that feeds international wire
stories. I probably shouldn't have been. Although, they do have a link
from their fold-out news menu (if you use IE -- I don't, however) to
the world news section.

I can expect tomorrow morning to see non-stop coverage of Terri
Schiavo, starting roughly 2 minutes ago. I seriously hate this city
(I'm in Washington, for those who are new to the list).

Perhaps it's good that I've gotten no sleep.I can skip through
marathon coverage today.

--
http://www.wesleymcgee.com
Exciting Changes coming soon -- or not.

[Land of Awes]

        Must I keep repeating this:  When it comes to television news, if it didn't happen on camera, it never happened at all.

                 Wrecks                                       

[Jeffries, Mark]

> According to the websites of CNN, MSNBC and FOX there is no
> city being held hostage in Kyrgystan as a result of yet
> another fixed election in a former soviet republic. Check
> their websites... look hard... I did.
> No mention of it anywhere. Funny, though, that both the BBC
> and Radio Free Europe list it among their top stories.

Wasn't on "Morning Edition," either, unless it was an item in one of
Carl Kassul or Jean Cochrane's newscasts. In fact, considering NPR's
vaunted interest in foreign news, there was only one story slugged
"World" on today's lineup--restarting the North Korea talks--and Terri
Schiavo was the lead both hours.

Mark Jeffries

[brad...@dwx.com]

Kasell...Carl Kasell. And Cochran...Jean Cochran.

[Jeffries, Mark]

> Kasell...Carl Kasell. And Cochran...Jean Cochran.

Hey, they're on the radio--they don't spell their names. :)

Mark Jeffries

[Thomas Allen Heald]

>> Kasell...Carl Kasell. And Cochran...Jean Cochran.

>Hey, they're on the radio--they don't spell their names. :)

Wait, wait.... don't tell us!

[Kevin Marousek, RPCV]

I'm not sure why I do this to myself but while eating my late lunch
(or early dinner, depending on your point of view) I flipped back and
forth between LA newscasts. No, I wasn't expecting anything about
Kyrgystan on the O&Os (since I doubt anyone who works for them could
spell it), but it's worth noting both KNBC and KABC led with the
capsizing of a boat in Oxnard (because they had helicopters overhead,
of course, and it made for a stunning visual) while KCBS did the
Schiavo shuffle. Eight minutes into their newscast, KNBC finally
mentioned the Minnesota shooting. Of course, if the shooting had taken
place somewhere like suburban Littleton, CO (for example) instead of
an Indian reservation, KNBC might have broken into the 4pm airing of
Dr. Phil. But even Honest Injun Kevin know only deaths of pale face
give network heap wompum.
--
Kevin Marousek, RPCV (who might not have spelled "wompum" correctly)

[Bob in Jersey]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:23:29 cst, "Jeffries, Mark" replied to
bradfordw:

>
>
> > Kasell...Carl Kasell. And Cochran...Jean Cochran.
>
> Hey, they're on the radio--they don't spell their names. :)

Spamproofing...



--
BOB

[Paul Lin]

Well, there also was a story on Persian music during the show, which
might count for something.

Surprisingly, ATC didn't appear to cover it either.

Here's a useful link for NPR fans: you can find rundowns, promo copy,
and other stuff at http://www.apmstations.org/apmstations/news/News.do
It's a web version of the DACS that gets transmitted with the
satellite feed to all the NPR affiliates across the country. So you
can find out what your station is cutting out during the pledge drive.

- Paul

[Kevin Marousek, RPCV]

To appease our pal Wrecks, here's a link to a BBC report from the
scene... video included:

http://tinyurl.com/675e7

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/nb_rm_fs.stm?nbram=1&news=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&nol_storyid=4370547

Oh yeah, almost forgot... they've seized two major cities now. They've
occupied all the government buildings including police and military
headquarters. They've also closed the airports, thus cutting off
access for potential military reinforcements.

Still, there's a pretty boat in Oxnard.

[Mark Roberts]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 18:19:37 -0800, Paul Lin <calw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Well, there also was a story on Persian music during the show, which
> might count for something.
>
> Surprisingly, ATC didn't appear to cover it either.

With NPR now cozying up to Republicans, I'd think that "election
fraud" would be one of the verboten subjects, unless it involves
countries that are Officially Evil. Otherwise it would hit too close
to home, or at least to Texas were it not for Tom DeLay's use of the
Terri Schiavo situation as a diversionary tactic to divert attention
from the fundraising practices that he has been alleged to engage in.

And the media fall for that hook, line, and sinker. I guess the
repeated use of the same grainy videotape of a woman in a horrible
situation with a blank look being exploited by "right to life"
politicians trumps an election in a former Soviet republic any time.

##

[Jeffries, Mark]

> On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 18:19:37 -0800, Paul Lin
> <calw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Well, there also was a story on Persian music during the
> show, which
> > might count for something.
> >
> > Surprisingly, ATC didn't appear to cover it either.
>
> With NPR now cozying up to Republicans, I'd think that
> "election fraud" would be one of the verboten subjects,
> unless it involves countries that are Officially Evil.
> Otherwise it would hit too close to home, or at least to
> Texas were it not for Tom DeLay's use of the Terri Schiavo
> situation as a diversionary tactic to divert attention from
> the fundraising practices that he has been alleged to engage in.

If NPR's cozying up to Republicans, why do the wingnuts always include
NPR in their list of biased liberal MSM? Or is it just ref-working?

Mark Jeffries

[Mark Roberts]

The wingnuts want to remove any and all traces of independence and
critical thinking from the MSM. If it's not the right-wing equivalent
of Granma, they won't be satisfied.

By the way, why have some of these posts not appeared through the
Google Groups interface?

##

[Kevin Marousek, RPCV]

http://tinyurl.com/3m6x8

What the US media deemed a non-story turned into a full scale
revolution today as Krygyz President Askar Akayev fled the country
with his family. Opposition leaders have restored the country's
previous parliament... the one most believe came to power legally...
and the new, less- legal parliament members have head for the hills.

It's called the voice of the people, kids. Democracy is great, but
when the democratic process is corrupted a little civil uprising can
work wonders.

I'll check out the network news broadcasts tonight, but I don't think
US news outlets even know how to cover a revolution in any sensible,
thoughtful way.

Were it me (and this is why I'm a crappy journalist who can't keep his
opinions to himself), I'd use Kyrgystan as a parable... an analogy for
US citizens. A lot of us questioned the legality of the 2000 election
but, prissy little bitches that we are, we kept on doing whatever it
was we do assuming there was no way to right the wrong. We let the
democratic process crumble. These people a hemisphere away remind us
that a corrupt election is worse than a dictatorship, and that
sometimes freedom means we have to take a stand. These people also
remind us that sometimes it takes a rebellion... a revolution... to
keep the voice of the people alive. Thomas Jefferson believed it. And
now, president-in-exile Akayev believes it as well.

[Kevin Marousek, RPCV]

I won't even bother reviewing what the local LA newscasts covered this
evening because it was all meaningless and stupid. All I'll say is the
top story of both KNBC and KABC (CBS' basketball coverage preempted
their newscasts) was that it wasn't raining. Yep... the top story in
Southern California: no rain.

We'll begin with the most substantive of the nightly newscasts which
is naturally not from the US media. BBC's World News aired on PBS
tonight. The top story was the revolution in Kyrgystan. They spent
more than 10 minutes on it at the top of the newscast, and a
subsequent five minutes about halfway into the newscast. For those of
you who have trouble with complex math, that's a total of 15 minutes.

NBC Nightly News opened with the latest in the Schiavo situation. They
spent a few minutes on that before moving onto the BP refinery
explosion in Texas, wherein they showed a crying infant who no longer
has a grandpa. Then it was the internet cartoon made by the most
recent school shooter (which appeared at first glance to have been
drawn by Shel Silverstein, but that's neither here nor there).
Finally, as the music announcing a commercial break cued up, NBC spent
roughly 20 seconds on Kyrgystan, then previewed something about killer
petting zoos.

ABC World News spent the first eight minutes on Schiavo. They spent
considerably more time on the refinery explosion than NBC and actually
covered the impact on the environment and the economy. Then it was a
brief review of Canada's rejection of a desserting US solider's
request for asylum. Then anchor Peter Jennings spent 20 seconds
explaining to viewers where Kyrgystan was on a map and how it was once
a Soviet republic. He then spent 10 seconds on the actual events of
the day before moving onto the tease about killer petting zoos.

Look... dismiss this if you must, but as the BBC tried to convey, this
is the third revolt against one of these crooked governments in recent
history (Georgia and the Ukraine being the other two) and the first
where violence, al-be-it minor compared to what could have happened,
occurred. There are several upcoming elections in that corner of the
world... including Russia (and if you don't think Putin's corrupt I
know a lake named after you).

The US government was convinced that by installing a democracy in Iraq
we would trigger a domino effect in the area... other countries in the
Middle East would follow suit with democracies of their own. Well, by
the same logic, these revolutions could as easily trigger a domino
effect leading to massive power shifts in Asia and Eastern Europe. And
if you don't think what happens in Moscow affects you, reread a
history book.

I don't know how the CBS Evening News covered the story for east coast
viewers, but if they spent an entire minute on Kyrgystan I'd be
surprised. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, the combined coverage
by the networks still amounts to less than two minutes. Two minutes to
cover an event which will come back to bite us all in the ass sooner
rather than later.

Still, it didn't rain in Southern California, and petting zoos can
kill you. And that's the news. Good night, and have a pleasant
tomorrow.

[Kevin Marousek, RPCV]

Forgive me, I left out one crucial detail. Peter Jennings
mispronounced the first name of the Kyrgyz President-in-exile. You're
sure to see it in articles on the internet. "Askar" is a common name
in those parts. In fact it's common here, too, only we spell it
"Oscar." For all intent, the pronunciation is the same (in Central
Asia, the accent is on the second syllable, but the effect is minor).

News anchors of America... please make a note of it.

[Mark Roberts]

To NPR's credit, ATC tonight spent several minutes in an interview
with a Financial Times correspondent, who vividly described the scene
at Bishkek, including the storming of the presidential palace. It was
a compelling interview.

As for American television news, especially most of the local
varieties, its feeding tube needed to be yanked a long time ago.

##

[Wesley McGee]

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:54:57 -0800, Kevin Marousek, RPCV
<maro...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Were it me (and this is why I'm a crappy journalist who can't keep his
> opinions to himself), I'd use Kyrgystan as a parable... an analogy for
> US citizens. A lot of us questioned the legality of the 2000 election
> but, prissy little bitches that we are, we kept on doing whatever it
> was we do assuming there was no way to right the wrong. We let the
> democratic process crumble. These people a hemisphere away remind us
> that a corrupt election is worse than a dictatorship, and that
> sometimes freedom means we have to take a stand. These people also
> remind us that sometimes it takes a rebellion... a revolution... to
> keep the voice of the people alive. Thomas Jefferson believed it. And
> now, president-in-exile Akayev believes it as well.

Now, now... there you go again with your liberal bias. You're supposed
to show balance. You're supposed to provide time for the side that is
for dictatorships and corruption!

[Jeffries, Mark]

> To NPR's credit, ATC tonight spent several minutes in an
> interview with a Financial Times correspondent, who vividly
> described the scene at Bishkek, including the storming of the
> presidential palace. It was a compelling interview.

And this afternoon "ATC" led its first hour with 8 minutes on the story,
including an on-the-scene from Bishkek. By comparison, they did 12
minutes at the top of the second hour on Red Lake with Melissa Block on
the scene.

Also, Minnesota Public Radio is offering stations for free a one-hour
program on Red Lake (well, 55 minutes, since there's 5 minutes of blank
space for the NPR hourly newscast). It was fed this afternoon and
hopefully will be on a lot of stations this weekend.

Mark Jeffries

[Ed Dravecky]

Wesley McGee <wesley...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Now, now... there you go again with your liberal bias. You're supposed
> to show balance. You're supposed to provide time for the side that is
> for dictatorships and corruption!

Hey, is it our fault if Rupert Murdoch, Michael Eisner, and Michael
Powell aren't here to discuss their side?

--
Ed Dravecky III
Allen, Texas USA