-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Busted & Crimes of The Times - by Greg Palast
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 08:51:14 -0400
From: Greg Palast <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Busted & Crimes of The Times
/By Greg Palast/
August 1, 2007. Cutely buried in the 18th paragraph in a story about
Alberto Gonzales on Sunday was a slyly-worded updated confession by the
New York Times that, in 2004, the Bush Administration leaned on its
editors to spike a story about illegal invasions of citizens' private
records ("data mining"). The Times editors smothered the story. They
finally ran it - a year later - after Bush was safely re-elected.
As a journalist, this makes me want to throw up.
For two reasons: First, while The Times was covering up Bush's KGB-style
data-mining operation, the Palast team was revealing its secrets. We
published confidential FBI memos detailing horrific schemes for illegal
spying using Bush's favored contractor, a company called ChoicePoint Inc.
The second reason The Times 'confession' makes me ill: While the
publishers at the Paper of Record were counting their millions, the
Palast Investigative Fund was slowly going broke.
Well, we've made it: Last Friday, the main-stream US media, through the
venerable PBS program 'NOW', finally broadcast our reportage on the
"caging" of voters, a story we first broke 3 years ago. BEFORE the 2004
election.
We've made it in another way: Friday was also the day I was informed
that the Palast Investigative Fund was dead broke, technically bankrupt,
with way less than zero in the account.
Bluntly: if we don't get some help, and fast, we're sunk. We are
throwing staff overboard and halting some operations while we seek funds
to keep afloat.
I'm pleading with you to do three things:
1. Watch PBS 'NOW' on voter 'caging'
<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=40&e=Mjk4ODM=&l=-http--www.pbs.org/now/shows/330/video.html>.
Then, if you think our work is important . . .
2. Donate at least $100 (tax deductible) to the Palast Investigative
Fund
<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=40&e=Mjk4ODM=&l=-http--www.palastinvestigativefund.org/>.
With heartfelt gratitude, I'll send you a personalized, signed copy of
Armed Madhouse (hardbound or paperback, your choice), or the DVD "Big
Easy to Big Empty," the untold story of the drowning of New Orleans.
(For $250, I'll sign and send a whole BOX of Raw Journalism: 2 books:
Armed Madhouse and Impeach the President, 2 DVDs: Big Easy to Big Empty
and American Blackout, the Audio Book Armed Madhouse and the Spoken Word
CD Live from the Armed Madhouse). Or simply make an open no-gift
donation for a sum of your choice. (All options and many other signed
items can be found at the Palast Investigative Fund Homepage
<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=40&e=Mjk4ODM=&l=-http--www.palastinvestigativefund.org/>.)
3. Pass on this note, post it and make certain your group and friends
sign on to GregPalast.com, read our work, and support it.
I do not take one dime of pay from the Fund. 100% of your donation goes
to our investigators, cameramen and women, operating costs and
equipment. Yes, we get fees from BBC, Vanity Fair and Harper's but that
doesn't cover the bills. Not even close.
If we can get your support, we can follow-up on our investigation of The
Scheme to Swipe 2008. We're finding that 'caging' is the tip of the
fraud-berg. With your help, we can also take on the Vultures, the bond
speculators who are preying on Africa's poorest.
We are lucky to have prestigious outlets for our work, but the research
is funded wholly by citizens like you, not by media moguls. And the
content proves it. Our much-praised investigation in New Orleans was
financed entirely by a score of selfless donors.
It's up to you. Real investigative reporting is a money-burning task.
And a team effort. Please support our team by donating at least $100 to
the not-for-profit Investigative Fund.
Bequests and in-kind donations are also appreciated.
Pick up the New York Times each day and for your $500 a year, you get
all the news they find fit to print. Or donate a fraction of that for
your signed copy of Armed Madhouse or The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
for the real story on the prosecutor firings, caging and all the news
that gives them fits.
Yours,
Greg Palast
The Palast Investigative Fund
<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=40&e=Mjk4ODM=&l=-http--www.palastinvestigativefund.org/>
of the International Humanities Center is a 501c(3) not-for-profit
educational foundation. Donate by sending a check
<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=40&e=Mjk4ODM=&l=-http--www.palastinvestigativefund.org/mail-a-donation/>
for Palast Investigative Fund to International Humanities Center/Palast
Investigative Fund, PO Box 923, Malibu, CA 90265 . For information
regarding bequests or in-kind donations: contact Palast [at]
GregPalast.com. For regular monthly contributions go to: Recurring
Donations
<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=40&e=Mjk4ODM=&l=-http--www.palastinvestigativefund.org/recurring-donations/>.
*A further note on the The Crimes of the The Times*
If I single out The New York Times, it's because they are the BEST
America has to offer, Lord help us. If you haven't lost your lunch yet,
read what the Sunday Times said in paragraph 18 . Only now does The
Times tell us:
"The first known assertion by administration officials that there had
been no serious disagreement within the government about the legality of
the N.S.A. [data mining] program came in talks with New York Times
editors in 2004. IN AN EFFORT TO PERSUADE THE EDITORS NOT TO DISCLOSE
THE EAVESDROPPING PROGRAM, SENIOR OFFICIALS REPEATEDLY CITED THE LACK OF
DISSENT AS EVIDENCE OF THE PROGRAM'S LAWFULNESS."
In other words, the Bush enforcers told The Times (and apparently its
editors accepted without question) that there was no major dissent at
the top levels of government over this Spies-R-Us scheme. That is, The
Times blindly swallowed the very assertion that Senators now term,
'perjury.'
The Times waited until the election had passed and billions of records
were illegally "mined." And they got the Pulitzer for it. Congrats!
In the 2005 Pulitzer article I re-read this tantalizing tidbit:
"Some information that administration officials argued could be useful
to terrorists has been omitted."
Really?? Did they mean "useful to John Conyers"?
I called The Times editor Bill Keller with two questions:
Question 1. What ELSE haven't you told us at Bush's behest?
But the key is Question 2. WHICH "senior officials" successfully spiked
your report?
Whether you call them "senior officials" or "Bush bullies," those who
muscle news reporters are not "sources" whose identities deserve protection.
If you're afraid, Mr. Keller, just tell me their initials. AG? KR?
Maybe I'll get an answer. In a year.
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, Armed
Madhouse (2007) and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2004).
For more information, go to www.GregPalast.com
<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=40&e=Mjk4ODM=&l=-http--www.GregPalast.com>
<http://mailings.gregpalast.com//lt/t_go.php?i=40&e=Mjk4ODM=&l=-http--www.GregPalast.com>
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