Belo’s birds of a feather

When it comes to the downward spiral of journalistic ethics and credibility, Fox News may lead the way. It’s still interesting, though, to see who some of its philosophical brethren are in the so-called "mass media," especially when they include the honchos at the Dallas-based Belo Corporation, owners of the Providence Urinal (as well 19 television stations, two regional cable news channels, and several daily newspapers).

Our favorite lefty out of the bullpen, Dick Walton, forwarded to Phillipe & Jorge an article from the spring 20003 issue of Chicago Media Watch, updated by its author, Liane Casten (the details can be found at www.projectcensored. org). In the report, "Court Rules That Media Can Legally Lie," Casten points to a Florida Court of Appeals ruling backing a claim by FOX that, under the First Amendment, there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States. The ruling overturned a verdict for Jane Akre, who with her husband, Steve Wilson, worked for the Fox "Investigators" team on a story about a bovine growth hormone produced by Monsanto. When Fox executives saw the story, which cited health risks posed by milk treated with bovine growth hormone, they told the couple to add comments from Monsanto officials that Akre and Wilson knew to be untrue. Although the couple was fired after refusing to do so, they sued, and a Florida jury — which awarded a $425,000 judgment to Akre — unanimously decided that Fox Television had wrongfully fired her.

Guess which strange bedfellow chimed in with a "friend of the court" brief, along with four other media heavyweights (Cox Television, Gannett, Media General Operations, and Post-Newsweek Stations), supporting Fox’s winning argument on appeal that it has the right to spread distorted news? Yep, our upstanding pals at Belo Corporation. Fox did not dispute that it indeed put heat on Akre to air bad info, saying it nonetheless had the right to run the stuff over the airwaves. In her update, Casten wrote: "The position implies that First Amendment rights belong to the employers — in this case the five power media groups. And when convenient, the First Amendment becomes a broad shield to hide behind. Let’s not forget, however; the airwaves belong to the people. Is there no public interest left — while these media giants make their private fortunes using the public airwaves? Can corporations have the power to influence the media reporting, even at the expense of the truth? Apparently so."

So if you ever wonder who your friends are when it comes to believing that truth is the core of journalistic ethics and integrity, don’t go looking to Belo for help. Sleep tight, Dan Rather, and all our beloved ink-stained wretches of the Fourth Estate on Fountain Street.

DROP THE GLOVES

Be still our hearts! Are John Kerry and John Edwards actually going to stand up like men, kick the Bushies in the balls, drop the gloves, and decide to fight? This may be the case, and it’s long overdue.

Edwards, whose fundraiser here in Our Little Towne was disrupted and then aborted by a firefighters’ picket line, actually had this to say in a New Hampshire address about Dubya and his prevaricating pack: "They will absolutely lie about anything."

No shit, Sherlock. The problem is, the American public indeed represents the Moron Majority. They are allowed to get away with feeling comfortable with their illusions since the national media has effectively gone into the tank for the GOP. Nowhere do you see the talking TV hairdos challenging virtually anything from the White House. The major newspapers twist themselves into pretzels through self-scrutiny and self-examination, but the Bush administration keeps the lies coming.

ON THE BUS, OFF THE BUS

Your superior correspondents were certainly relieved to learn this week that RIPTA’s board of directors has delayed, for now, any cuts to bus service in the Biggest Little. It was also heartening to note that the board chairman, state Senator Daniel P. Connors, is opposing cuts to any routes.

We do believe, however, that Danny Boy could have gone a step farther and proposed expanded nighttime bus service to his town of Cumberland. That way, he could ride RIPTA, rather than run his brother’s SUV into a utility pole, as he did in August, opting to walk more than a mile to political player David Cruise’s crib (he told the Other Paper that he knocked on the door of a nearby house, but no one answered) before calling it in.

WRNI ADDENDUM

P&J are, along with countless other public radio fans, outraged by the stab in the back that ’RNI received from Boston-based parent WBUR (see Ian Donnis’s report in last week’s Phoenix). But here’s something else even more heinous to consider.

The Houston Chronicle recently ran a story about what has happened to a few other NPR stations around the country. Here are a few pertinent quotes:

In Lake Charles (Louisiana) American Family Radio [a group of radio stations run by a right-wing evangelical enthusiast, the Reverend Donald Wildmon], has silenced what its boss detests. It knocked two NPR affiliate stations off the local airwaves last year, transforming this Southwest Louisiana community of about 95,000 people into the most populous place in the United States where All Things Considered can’t be heard.

Listeners now find Home School Heartbeat, the Phyllis Schlafly Report and conservative evangelical musings of Wildmon, whose network broadcasts from Tupelo, Miss. . . . The Christian stations routed NPR in Lake Charles under a federal law that allows noncommercial broadcasters with licenses for full-power stations to push out those with weaker signals.

This is happening all over the country. The losers are so-called translator stations, low-budget operations that retransmit the signals of bigger, distant stations. The Federal Communications Commission considers them squatters on the far left side of the FM dial, and anyone granted a full-power license can legally run them out of town.

Religious broadcasters have done this to public radio stations in Oregon and Indiana, too, and many large-market public radio stations, such as WBEZ in Chicago, complain that new noncommercial stations, most of them religious, are stepping on the signal at the edge of their transmission areas.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if the Reverend Don became the high bidder for WRNI?

A GREAT NIGHT

A huge crowd turned out last Sunday evening, September 26, for the Paul Murphy Memorial Concert held at the Hi-Hat. Hundreds of old friends were there, a virtual class reunion for all those musicians, artists, and live music fans who were constantly out and about in the ’70s and ’80s. People were smiling, hugging, and remembering Paul, who brought so many people so much joy with his music and living. Money was raised for the Music School, and the Murphy family wants to thank everybody for the support. While the whole event was basically coordinated by Paul’s sister, Susan, she wants to especially thank bassist extraordinaire Marty Ballou, Rick Couto, and Klem, who put a lot of work into making the evening the wonderful time that it was. It was a very special night.

YOU DON'T SAY!

Two somewhat different accounts from page D3 of the September 23 Urinal, with two notable scribes describing the Red Sox setup for David Ortiz’s home run to put them ahead, 6-5, in a game versus pesky Baltimore:

Steve Krasner: "Ortiz’s dramatic shot followed Manny Ramirez’s lead-off bloop single to center in the inning."

Kevin McNamara: "Ramirez led off the inning with a sharp single to center off Baltimore starter Sidney Ponson."

OK, boys, who was in the gents’ room, pointing Percy at the porcelain, and who was actually watching the game? Let’s lay off those big brewskies.

(Also a bit less than confidence-building in the Urinal’s recent toy department reportage was a day-late display last week of the article about Curt Schilling’s call into WEEI to rebut claims that he and Pedro Martinez don’t get along. The New York Times had the story a day earlier. Much as we admire the work of sports editor Art Martone and his talented stable of writers, many of whom are friends of P&J, we read enough Times articles elsewhere in the "We make it fresh a day late" BeloJo to not want this trend to extend to the sports page. Yes, we do expect our boys on Fountain Street to get the local stories first.)

JOHNNY AND RUSS

We have just a few words about two people who passed away in California last week. Johnny Ramone was a tough guy, but a good guy. In many ways, he was the primary force behind that great band. Jorge did a few gigs with the Ramones back in the ’70s when they were at their peak and, contrary to his reputation, Johnny was the most approachable member of the band while backstage. A primary influence for virtually all bands that followed, the Ramones were the real thing. Bye-bye Johnny — you did good.

Russ Meyer, the man who invented soft-core porn, and who passed away at 82, was another sort of genius. Jorge once did an hour-long radio interview with Russ, who, shall we say, was just as outrageous as you would imagine. He told your superior correspondent that he "really missed World War II" and was actually sorry when it ended. Apparently, this was because it was the ultimate Mr. Man Fantasy, something that Russ spent the rest of his life promoting.

As for the ridiculously large breasted women in his films, Meyer claimed, "I fucked them. I fucked them all." Whew, he was truly a piece of work. But despite the limitations of the genre he almost single-handedly created, Russ was a real artist. In his heyday in the mid-’60s, his shooting (he was chief cinematographer on all his movies) and editing were amazing. Your superior correspondents are both of the opinion that Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls are one-of-a-kind masterpieces. The over-the-top dialogue in Pussycat is worth the price of admission.

If you haven’t seen these two films, you’ve missed some of the funniest, craziest visions every put to film. The plot of Faster Pussycat! (three large breasted go-go dancers race around the desert in vintage Porsches, and beat up a bunch of men) is about as outre as it gets. As John Waters has pointed out, not only is Pussycat "the best movie ever made," but also "possibly better than any film that will be made in the future."

And Beyond the Valley (screenplay by Roger Ebert) is so cool that even the first Austin Powers movie quotes from it ("This is my happening and it turns me on."). Sad to say, Russ’s final screenplay, Bra of God, was never produced. No one will ever make ’em like Russ.

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