Media TARGETS FOR MONDAY, JUNE 27--from Downing Street Memo.Com

[Douglas Carpenter]

More than a month after this document was published, the news media in the US had produced barely a trickle of reports on it (mostly coverage about the lack of coverage). Most of the news giants had ignored it entirely; some have belittled its significance while actually rebuffing citizens’ requests for serious news reporting. The last few days have seen some progress, more coverage and good questions being asked. We are confident, however, that a campaign to inundate these journalists with earnest requests will continue to keep their attention focused (just as the Washington Post finally produced some reports after a recent deluge of letters).

Thus our campaign: Every weekday in June, in cooperation with other activists and bloggers, we will publicize contact information for three distinct media outlets. We ask that you:

• Write a brief letter requesting the journalists to report on the Downing Street Memos, stating succinctly why you believe the leaked document is significant for the US.

• Send that letter as an email to each of the day’s three contacts.

• Return the next day and contact the next three targets of our media campaign.

TARGETS FOR MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2005

1. Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star, Managing Editor Steve Thomas
email: [e-mail]

2. Indianapolis Star
EITHER
Managing Editor Pam Fine
email: [e-mail]
phone: [phone]
fax: [phone]
OR
Washington Correspondent Maureen Groppe
email: [e-mail]
phone: [phone]
fax: [phone]

3. Lansing State Journal, Managing Editor Managing Editor Stephanie Angel
email: [e-mail]
phone: [phone]

Neither the Lincoln nor the Lansing papers appear to have published anything yet on DSM. The Journal Star is pretty middle of the road in terms of its politics, and Steve Thomas seems to be a no-nonsense kind of editor with little patience for spit-ball politics. The absence of coverage of DSM is somewhat surprising, given that Thomas seems to look for substance in political reporting. The Lansing and Indianapolis papers are fairly conservative; both belong to the Ganett chain.

The Indianapolis Star has published 3 news stories that mention DSM, but all were brief and unspecific. One article devotes only three sentences to the Bush/Blair denials; one focuses entirely on the briefing paper and the alleged lack of post-war planning; and one quotes a short bit of DSM while describing Conyers’ forum. Readers of the Star would have little idea about the significance of DSM from these stories, and would know nothing about any of the related documents except the July 21 briefing paper.

Editor Pam Fine, recently hired away from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (which has been in the forefront of coverage of DSM) finds herself caught in the middle of murky lawsuit at the Star, so tensions may be high there; be nice to her. DC Correspondent Maureen Groppe seems to do a lot of reporting about pharmaceutical companies, so perhaps not a strong bet to cover DSM.


After over a month of an almost total news blackout, the media are now beginning to report on this issue. It is up to us, their customers, to force this issue into the center of public discourse. Use the banner above to link to Awaken the Mainstream Media! from your website or blog.





Despite the memo’s disturbing and explosive revelations, there has been a virtual media blackout with some newspapers deliberately turning a blind eye to the Downing Street Memos. We hope you are already participating in the Awaken the Mainstreem Media campaign, and if you have time, contact other media outlets and ask them to do their job in reporting and investigating the information in the memo. Write a letter to the editor, call in to radio shows. It's time for the media to address real news.

MediaBlaster (Democratic Underground)—Here is the link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cu/cu.php?az=blaster

MediaGuide (Townhall.com)—Here is the link:

http://capwiz.com/townhall/dbq/media/

_________________________________________

Everyone should write in their own words--but here is my own personal letter:

SUBJ: Coverage of the Downing Street Minutes and questionable use of intelligence

Dear Sir/Madam:

As you know, on May 1 of this year a document now commonly referred to as “The Downing Street Memo” was released into the British Press. These minutes of a British cabinet meeting and several other recently released documents raise serious questions about how the administration was handling intelligence related to Iraq. At the very least, this documentation suggests that the Bush Administration was being disingenuous with the U.S. Congress and the American public on several gravely important issues.

The documentation strongly suggests that the Bush administration was determined to “fix intelligence” around a predetermined policy of war.

It is most disturbing that there has been little mention of any of these minutes of meetings between several senior British officials in much of the American media. Even more disturbing is the minimum coverage or discussion regarding strong, credible and independent evidence that the Bush Administration intentionally misled the U.S. Congress, the media and the American people.

I do hope you will address this issue and provide more in-depth and serious investigative journalism into this matter.

Sincerely,

[Auntie Bush]

1. kick because it's important.

[Douglas Carpenter]

2. thank you we cannot let up on this now..

:bounce:

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. KICK

:kick:

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. kick

:kick: