USA — We like to call it home

Here’s the beginning of the lead editorial in the Urinal of September 22:

Circling the wagons

What in the world is going on, and do the majority of Americans know, or care?

It’s a given that the function of the news media is to serve as a conduit for information, and a key part of that function is to offer local information.

Maybe the gang on the editorial department on the fourth floor of Fountain Street might want to send a memo to the so-called "news" editors downstairs, in regard to their treatment of distasteful "local" subjects. On the same day when this editorial appeared, the following story on the Iraq war was buried on the bottom of page 10 in the BeloJo’s front section:

Three US soldiers killed in two separate attacks west of Baghdad.

Two American soldiers were killed and 13 others wounded in a mortar attack late Saturday night . . . about 20 miles south of Baghdad, US military authorities said.

Another soldier died Saturday night in a roadside attack in Ramadi, in a town about 60 miles west of Baghdad that has been a center of opposition to the occupation.

The deaths brought to 304 the number of American troops killed since the Iraq war began, including 165 since President Bush declared on May 1 that major American combat operations had ended. In the last three days, six soldiers have been killed in attacks . . .

Why, as patriotic Americans, do P&J believe that this juxtaposition marks a total contradiction in the Urinal’s judgment of what matters to the public? Maybe, if friends of BeloJo executives were coming home in body bags, they might free up a few of the dozens of reporters working on the Station fire aftermath to cover an equally disturbing tragedy. (Or as the septuagenarian war enthusiast Donnie Rumsfeld might say of the daily toll, "Onesies and twosies" — ha-ha, what a card. How about "Eightsies," you prevaricating egomaniac?)

All of these deaths are the result of a poorly planned, incompetently implemented, and deceitful campaign. This fiasco has already claimed the lives of three military personnel from the Biggest Little (with more to come, bet on it). So it might be germane to cover the ongoing slaughter of our fellow Americans thanks to the actions of tough-talking, gutless slouches like the National Guard duty-dodging Dubya Bush, perennial non-combatant Dick Cheney, and the loathsome liar Rummy. The folks braving brutal conditions in Iraq wear the American flag on their uniforms. That’s local enough for P&J.

But we wouldn’t want to bump that Emmy coverage off page one, would we? Did you know Debra Messing of Will & Grace went to East Greenwich High School? Wow! Bow-wow.

A DAY LATE AND $800K SHORT

P&J love our fellow old scribe at the Other Paper, ace political columnist Chuckie Bakst, but we have a bone to pick with him concerning his September 23 column about the local PR giants, Duffy & Shanley. Following the recent Lincoln Park allegations concerning the law firm of McKinnon & Harwood, D&S bowed out of their account with the dog track

Explaining this move, Chuckie wrote, "[Duffy & Shanley] was in the news because of the alleged bribery scandal swirling about the park. I wondered about that from the outset, inasmuch as the firm also works for the state Economic Development Corporation. And, certainly from the time that tie was noted in a Providence Journal story Friday morning, the firm’s days of handling both accounts were probably numbered . . . Did I mention that Dave Duffy, retired from an active role but still chairman of the firm, is one of [Governor Don] Carcieri’s closest kitchen cabinet advisers?"

Well, we guess you mentioned it there, but D&S’s questionable ties to the RI EDC and Lincoln Park — and the fact that Dave Duffy is tight with The Don — were highlighted in this Cool, Cool World last Thursday, September 18, the day before it appeared in the Urinal. A bit myopic to give your rag the kudos for "exposing the story," eh, Chuckie? Credit where credit is due, please, or are you just bucking for a raise?

CRAZY DADS

Media-savvy readers of this column (are there any other kind?) have undoubtedly noticed a slew of articles in the past months about the upcoming Mel Gibson film The Passion and how it relates to the theological musings of his father, Hutton Gibson. Seems that Hutton (and Mel, for that matter) are both movers and shakers in a pseudo-Catholic religious movement that rejects Vatican II, sticks to the Latin Mass, and buys into a literal, though highly selective, reading of Biblical scripture.

The thorniest (sorry about that) part of their beliefs has to do with the complicity of Jews in the crucifixion of Jesus. Older Catholics will recognize that, pre-Vatican II, the Roman church would regularly refer to "the perfidious Jews," and, sadly, had a lot to answer for regarding age-old strains of anti-Semitism throughout the Western world.

Hutton has gone so far as to state on numerous occasions that the Holocaust was "exaggerated," and journalist Peter J. Boyer recently quoted Mel himself as saying, "Modern secular Judaism wants to blame the Holocaust on the Catholic Church. And it’s a lie. And it’s revisionism. And they’ve been working on that one for a while." Sounds to P&J like Mel has proven his anti-Semitic bona fides with that one, just as another famous filmmaker, D.W. Griffith proved his racist credentials with The Birth of a Nation. Be that as it may, you’re bound to hear more about Hutton, Mel, and The Passion in the months to come, as Gibson attempts to find distribution for his biblical epic.

More interesting to us (perhaps because it has, so far, gone almost unreported) is the crazy dad of new White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who recently replaced Ari Fleischer. Scott’s mom (divorced from dad, by the way) is Texas’s state comptroller, while his brother, Mark, is the commissioner of the FDA in Washington. Undoubtedly, this was the pedigree that helped him, at 35, to snare the White House press secretary gig.

But the old man is another story altogether. Barr McClellan is the author of the soon-to be-released (by Hanover House) "nonfiction" book, Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK. Guess you pretty much get the picture from the title, huh?

In a "Talk of the Town" item in last week’s issue of the New Yorker, Jane Mayer lays out the particulars of Barr’s theory. You could look it up or wait for the other shoe to drop, because, undoubtedly, once the book comes out, Scotty-boy will be besieged by the press for comments. We anxiously wait to see how he manages to distance himself from dad.

ENTER WES CLARK

Speaking of "distancing oneself," we wonder if the latest candidate in the race, General Wesley Clark, will embrace or remove himself from an almost endorsement by lefty film producer and author Michael Moore. In an e-mail from Moore to Clark, widely disseminated among progressive groups, Moore lauded General Clark for being one of the few people to publicly come to his defense (in an interview with Aaron Brown on CNN) after he said at this year’s Oscars that the US was being led into war for "fictitious reasons."

Moore goes on to praise Clark for opposing the Patriot Act, being firmly pro-choice and pro-affirmative action, and opposing the Bush tax cut and the war in Iraq (although some of his subsequent statements have left the latter stance open to debate). Moore’s take is that Howard Dean, the Democratic candidate heretofore most highly touted by progressives, is trying to run away from the "liberal" label. Undoubtedly, Moore and other progressives are miffed by Dean’s lack of support for gun control and his (as some see it) ambiguous take on the Bush tax cuts.

So, is Wes Clark the real deal, a stalking horse for Hillary (as Republicans would have you believe), or a mere flash in the pan? It all remains to be seen, but let’s face it — the guy’s got impressive credentials and has already shown surprising strength. One poll had him leading the Democratic pack mere days after his announcement.

We’ll give Wes three months. We suspect that if he doesn’t self-destruct, he’s got a real shot at this thing, and, so far, we’re impressed.

THE GREEN CANDIDATE

Jeff Toste and Greg Gerritt, the two ramrods of the Rhode Island Green Party, want you to know that David Cobb, the presumptive Green candidate for president in 2004 (and a former Green candidate for Texas attorney general), is slated to appear in the Biggest Little on Saturday, September 27 at 10 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick. Those with a progressive and dissident bent are urged to attend. Check out what this political unknown (well, unknown in Vo Dilan, anyway . . . which is probably a good thing) has to say.

DUBYA'S FOOT SOLDIERS

Hats off to URI graduate Christiane Amanpour, CNN war correspondent, who was quoted in USA Today on September 15, saying our courageous press stifled itself during the Iraqi War, that CNN "was intimidated" by the Bushies, and, get this, crusading young journalists, that the reporting of CNN’s rival, Fox News, instilled "a climate of fear and self-censorship."

Said Amanpour: "I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I’m sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."

While CNN wouldn’t give USA Today a comment on Christiane’s remarks, a Fox News spokesperson had this absolutely chilling reply, which indicates the frightening state that American "journalism" (pardon us for even applying that term to Fox News) is in: "Given the choice, it’s better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for Al Qaeda."

The check from Karl Rove is in the mail, Mr. Ailes. Sleep tight, Edward R. Murrow.

GRAY MATTER

As we’ve all watched, dumbfounded, the California recall fiasco (is it really just a front to increase ratings for Leno, Letterman, and Saturday Night Live?), Mr. Tedium, Governor Gray Davis, has, surprisingly, come up with the definitive statement on the matter. In a recent edition of USA Today, Davis was quoted as saying, at an anti-recall rally, that California’s greatness lies in the fact that it has "Citizens from every planet in the universe . . . " He then caught himself and said, ". . . every nation in the world." No, Gray, you were right the first time, and a number of those citizens of the universe are out for your job (see Gary Coleman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arianna Huffington).

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