Thursday, July 31, 2014
Inversion Version
Terrific Jon Stewart segment last night on U.S. corporations filing to sort of move abroad to save on taxes--backed by GOPers and business journalists. Fiduciary? "Fi-douchebags."
Thursday's Updates (From the Top) on Gaza-Israel Tragedy
11:25 p.m. Jay Rosen on AP deleting and changing that tweet the other day--you know the one that first claimed members of Congress were "falling over each other" to back Israel (too true), then simply said "many" backed Israel. Analyzes why AP did it.
11:00 p.m. Where to begin with this new NYT video? It seeks to balance the deadly Israeli attack on Gaza school two nights ago with a rocket attack on an Israeli school--"Both Israeli, Hamas rockets hit schools"--
except that it turns out the rocket landed only near, not at, the school and no one was hurt. And the Gaza attack? The copy on the Times page mentions 30 "injured" and the narration of the video also talks only of "injured" (no mention of the many deaths). h/t Patrick Connors
7:00 72-hour "humanitarian ceasefire" announced, as Israel and Hamas agree to UN/US plea. One thing to watch: Israel insists on taking "defensive" actions against tunnels which they could interpret rather broadly. And Hamas always on edge.
BBC: The strikes by Israel's military on UN buildings in Gaza "do not appear to be accidental", the UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has said. Ms. Pillay also called for international law with "appropriate investigation, prosecution and punishment" to be applied to the incidents.
Another day, another pro-Israel resolution letter led by Sen. Barbara Boxer, this one to the UN protesting its alleged one-side inquiry into war crimes in Gaza/Israel, with 35 Senators on board already, including many top Dems: Gillibrand, Wyden, Booker and on and on. Typical excerpt: "Over the past two weeks, Hamas has put Palestinians in danger, refused to adhere to multiple cease-fire agreements, and launched more than 2,000 rockets into Israel. What country could sit idly by without responding? Israel has a right to defend itself against these vicious attacks and has worked assiduously to minimize civilian casualties by warning Gaza residents of impending air strikes."
Israel spokeswoman Jodi Rudoren on CNN just now : Many Israelis "just feel like nobody understands them....nobody outside of Israel really understands what they're going through." Once again: cites tunnels without mentioning not a single Israeli civilian has ever died because of them.
Chris Gunness of UNWRA explains to The Guardian why he broke down on camera in interview: “It was a live interview, and I just about got through it, just about held it together. But what really makes my heart burst is the suffering of children, and I was so moved by the appalling attack on the school in Jabaliya that I couldn’t control myself any longer.”
Greatest soccer midfielder for Palestine ever killed in his bed. Took no part in politics. Currently did sports on TV.
Great piece at AFP by reporter on Gaza's children and what she's witnessed in past two weeks.
Joe Scarborough, longtime major backer of Israel, today: "This continued killing of women and children in a way that appears to be indiscriminate is asinine...The United States of America — we cannot be associated with this if this continues. This is so bad, not only for the Israeli people, but for us." (If you've lost Joe Scarborough...well, you probably still will never lose the U.S. Congress.) In update at bottom of Politico piece he claims he's gotten major feedback, most of it "positive." Doesn't seem to be saying he expressed himself poorly.
Netanyahu calls current actions just "first phase" of invasion, and calls up 16,000 more reserves. Why? Amira Hass at Haaretz: "Based on the scale of the destruction in the evacuated areas, it looks like the army’s goal is not a temporary evacuation, but the creation of a permanent buffer zone devoid of any structure."
Update on death toll in Gaza: 1361 dead, of that over 315 childen, with 2300 kids injured. No need to update Israeli civilian toll: still one Bedouin, one Thai worker, one settler.
U.S. television journalism in a nutshell. Charlie Rose last night had Israeli ambassador to U.S. Ron Derner on for a lengthy rant, including visions of, if need be, "wiping out" Gaza. Derner then cited 3 UN schools where rockets were found and that UN schools in Gaza are "warehouses" for weapons. Charlie awakes from his slumber to interject, "Some are not." There are 245 UN schools in Gaza.
White House "condemns" latest UN massacre but can't bring itself to name or blame Israel. Then makes sure to hit UN because a few missiles found in three schools. It's despicable linkage especially since all of the missiles were found in abandoned schools--not ones where people are taking shelter. State Dept. spokesman said we still don't know who bombed school--contrary to all evidence. Also, U.S. has shipped new mortar rounds to replaces ones used today.
Last paragraphs of NYT columnist and Zionist Roger Cohen's latest quite good, if fellow Zionists will ponder it. Alas, could be deaf ears syndrome.
Amnesty International: Israel's attack on UN school last night "is a possible war crime and should be independently investigated....If the strike on this school was the result of Israeli artillery fire it would constitute an indiscriminate attack and a likely war crime. Artillery should never be used against targets in crowded civilian areas and its use in such a manner would never be considered a ‘surgical’ strike." How this is different from so many other Israeli strikes is a bit beyond me, however.
Feeling Spacey Again
Well, I brought you the first "Call of Duty" trailer with Kevin Spacey so might as well bring you another released today (courtesy of my genius trailer-making son).
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Death of a Photo Journalist (and Many Others)
If you can handle this, video shot in the middle of the shelling at the Gaza market--you'll see the journalist, in blue with camera, near the start. Just horrible, never seen anything quite like it, even in the past two weeks. Also dead and injured kids on the ground. Send it to your president and Congress person. Now wait for the apologists to claim this is fake. I dare NYT, which ran video of visit to an (unfinished, inoperative) Hamas tunnel yesterday to post this on their site today. You know, "balance."
'This Ain't No Disco': New Memoir on Reelin' and Rockin' Through the 1970s
I've been fielding a bunch of inquiries lately about the just-completed ms. for my long-awaited memoir, This Ain't No Disco: Rocking and Reeling Through the '70s, From Politics to Punk, covering my many years at Crawdaddy during that swinging era. More than a memoir, the book also serves as a unique, musical/political/cultural history (and defense) of the entire, unfairly maligned, decade. Now here's the Intro--at least in the current draft, subject to change. Now to seek a publisher. Enjoy.
**
Before Dylan and Springsteen, transistor radios and iPods, Rolling Stone and Crawdaddy, before CDs and mp3s and YouTube, there was…a photo of me, at age three, sitting on the living room floor of my home in Niagara Falls, surrounded by plastic discs, my right arm perched casually on the front edge of a “record player” (as we called them back in the day), while my left hand gripped another platter. My older brother Brian kneels behind me, in a grey suit and tie, beaming directly at the camera, but I am dressed casually, wearing a two-tone, short-sleeved shirt and dark slacks, with white hair pushed to one side, unsmiling but enthralled, looking years older. It was 1951, and I was already seriously into music. In its grip today, that expression on my face probably has not changed at all.
Fats Domino had released a few singles, but they were considered “race records” and not aimed at (nor widely available to) white audiences. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly were still in high school. Rock ‘n roll had not hit yet, but like many of my generation, I was clearly born to rock.
Yet, if you’d told me when I was growing up in Niagara Falls in, say, 1964, that one day I would correspond with John Lennon, write liner notes for Roy Orbison, have a few beers with the leader of my favorite group (The Kinks), help Bob Dylan launch a famous tour, and become friends with the most important rocker of the 1970s and 1980s (it would turn out to be Bruce Springsteen), I would have, no doubt, laughed myself silly, as kids will do. Yet all of these things and more—such as interviewing my favorite ‘60s authors (Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.) and poet (Allen Ginsberg), meeting film stars such as Jane Fonda, and hanging out with some of the most notorious left-wing radicals of the era--would come to pass, all within the following decade.
This book explores how that somehow happened. Beyond that, This Ain't No Disco: Rocking and Reeling Through the '70s, From Politics to Punk, is a chronicle of, and tribute to, the much-maligned 1970s—before Ronald Reagan and MTV took over and ruined everything.
For nearly all of the 1970s, I wrote for and edited magazines consumed with the music and political spirit of the times. After penning my first record review for Rolling Stone in 1970, I joined the short-lived Zygote in New York City, then served as the number two editor at the legendary Crawdaddy—the first serious rock-culture magazine--for nearly the entire period of 1971 to 1979. This book concentrates on those years and offers a fresh overview, from the inside, of that still-ridiculed, by many, decade.
Yes, disco was mainly awful and President Gerald R. Ford fairly lame, but today, with Patti Smith winning a National Book Award, Searching for Sugarman stealing an Oscar, Leonard Cohen becoming a hot arena act, and Led Zeppelin earning an unlikely Kennedy Center honor, perhaps it is now hip to be Seventies. Mad Men is about to immortalize that decade. Shia LeBeouf starred in a film about a Weather Underground fugitive, Ben Affleck won an Oscar for Argo, and David O. Russell's American Hustle explored, to comic effect, the ABSCAM epic (with Jennifer Lawrence and Christian Bale)—and even bad haircuts did not stop any of them. There was even a recent CBGB movie starring Alan Rickman.
Certainly, this book joins a crowded field of memoirs that focus on the rock ‘n roll of the 1970s, some written by famous artists, others by music critics and editors. My book is different from all of them, because my interests (and Crawdaddy’s) went far afield from “just” the music. In my account, we also meet some of the leading political figures, novelists, comedians, and film-makers of the decade. The book also serves as an informal history of the ‘70s, with timelines for each year posted at the end of chapters; and in the appendix, excerpts from dozens of key Crawdaddy articles, arranged chronologically.
Partly by accident of birth, I can offer a a full generational perspective in this chronicle of rock ‘n roll and the entire decade. Since I entered this world at the end of 1947, I was, unlike most Baby Boomers, old enough to experience the shock waves set off by Bill Haley & the Comets, Blackboard Jungle and Elvis’s pelvis, not to mention Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. Later, I stood proudly in the prime target audience—that is, barely in my teens--when Phil Spector, the Beach Boys and Motown ruled the charts in the early 1960s. I was fifteen when Beatlemania hit. And I reached concert-going age just in time to witness one of Bob Dylan’s legendary electric concerts in 1965 (yes, a lot of fans booed), attend concerts by Jefferson Airplane, Simon & Garfunkel, and The Band at their peak, and spend my college years enjoying the heights and depths of psychedelia.
Even spanning the entire musical era, my rock ‘n roll experience, up to the age of 22, was not all that different from many others--like nearly everyone, I missed Woodstock--so I do not dwell on it in these pages. Still, this is a memoir written by someone Who Was There, from Elvis (Presley) to Elvis (Costello).
The timing of my birth also meant that I closely followed all of the major political figures of the era—from JFK to Carter, from Martin Luther King Jr. to George Wallace—and the major social movements. The frequent political digressions, in fact, make this a highly unusual “rock ‘n roll memoir.”
In recounting my experiences as a rock insider during the 1970s, I detail intimate interactions with a wild and wooly cast, from Roy Orbison and Ray Davies to Patti Smith, Talking Heads and Tom Waits, before closing, as the decade did, with the Bee Gees on top. I recount, among other events, the birth of Dylan’s 1975 “Rolling Thunder” tour, plus junkets to London (with Cameron Crowe) and Japan (with twenty Latin musicians).
You are there in Memphis for the first and only “rock writers convention,” and debut of Big Star, when two legends peed through the gate at Graceland. Also: my epic probe of the death of Gram Parsons, as I learn why Charles Manson’s record producer stole his body and burned it in the desert. Then there’s the day I attended the most notorious cancelled rock festival ever, where future comedian Lewis Black was working the parking lot. What was it like to have a beer with Hank Williams’ old backup band? Or hear Rodney Crowell threaten to kill me? Or come up to bat against Meat Loaf on the baseball diamond? Fix Richard Price up with Ronnie Spector? Get blasted with Tom Waits? Or helping to convince William Burroughs to interview Jimmy Page—and pose with him on our cover?
The longest section of the book, however, details for the first time the key role I played in jump-starting Bruce Springsteen’s career—after meeting him in Sing Sing Prison in 1972. Then I nearly got him swept over Niagara Falls before he even got a taste of stardom.
Beyond the music world, I scored the first major interview with Tom Robbins, nabbed the first interview with Joseph Heller in years, and chatted with Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (then recounted the episode under the byline of Kilgore Trout). Hired fugitive Abbie Hoffman as our “Travel Editor” and William M. Kunstler as our legal eagle. Got Jeff Goldblum to write a record review—after I appeared in one of his first movies. Got spied on by the FBI. Found a feminist heroine at the Miss USA Pageant. Exposed hundreds of “Love Canals.” And much more.
Besides capturing many revealing, and often humorous, encounters with the once and future famous, this book chronicles, as one of its themes, the survival of rock ‘n roll—and progressive politics--during the 1970s. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.
Rock ‘n roll had blown apart in self-indulgent ways in the late-1960s. “Corporate rock” had arrived. Many top stars were saddled with drug habits and heading for an early and permanent exit (notably Jimi, Janis, Jim and Gram). Altamont had sullied Woodstock. The Beatles broke up and Brian Wilson was out of his mind. Motown was fading as a creative force. Lou Reed left the Velvet Underground. Creedence was torn by dissent. The Byrds were shot.
But in the first year or so of the new decade, things started to look up, with the likes of the Stones’ Sticky Fingers, the first solo lps from John Lennon and George Harrison, Van Morrison’s Moondance, Derek & the Dominoes’ Layla, and Neil Young’s After the Goldrush. David Bowie arrived. So did Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, and Little Feat. Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On was an unquestioned masterpiece. So, in a quite different way, was Carole King’s Tapestry. I was never a fan of “glitter-rock” but, okay: Alice Cooper blew many a young mind. And Exile on Main Street soon followed.
Then, in early 1973, we witnessed the emergence of Springsteen and a few other true rockers. Pub-rock arrived from England, via the likes of Nick Lowe and Graham Parker, and reggae (thanks to Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley) from Jamaica. Al Green and a revived Stevie Wonder seized the top of the charts. So did Labelle and Dr. John. Joni Mitchell, of all people, had a hit single. By mid-decade two albums from the new Fleetwood Mac lineup not only sold millions but were pretty damn good. Then punk and New Wave exploded, out of CBGBs and via the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Patti Smith and the Ramones broke through. Warren Zevon got “Excitable.” Dire Straits released “Sultans of Swing.” Hip-hop was born--no small thing!
No, we’re not forgetting disco, but at least many protested it, loudly. And artists ranging from the Stones to Blondie made good use of it.
And if you still believe the ‘70s weren’t so hot, consider the coming of the 1980s, starting with the election of Ronald Reagan. The Sex Pistols broke up and Sid Vicious ODed. FM radio lost its “free-form.” In 1980, John Lennon was murdered. The following year, Kenny Rogers and Barbara Streisand had #1 albums, REO Speedwagon sold more records than anyone, and MTV was launched, changing everything. Madonna helped sparked the sexualization of the majority of top female singers to this day. Hip-hop gave us Public Enemy—but also incredibly violent and misogynist lyrics. Something called “Asia” produced the top-selling album of 1982.
Yes, there would be great albums from U2, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Public Enemy, Prince, Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, REM, Sonic Youth, Paul Simon and others—but most of them were artists first given an energy surge (and their first recording contracts) in the 1970s.
“Nobody is apt to look back on the 1970s as the good old days,” Time magazine declared at the turn of the decade. New West famously sized up the ‘70s this way: “It was the worst of times, it was...the worst of times.” Yet consider this: Dylan found his muse in the ‘70s. In the ‘80s he found Jesus. The state of New Jersey in the ‘70s gave us Springsteen. In the 1980s: Bon Jovi. John Belushi, a ‘70s mega-star via SNL and The Blues Brothers? Dead in the 1980s.
What about politics? Surely the decade’s reputation as a silly stepchild of the ‘60s, as “The Me Decade” or “From Yippie to Yuppie,” is richly deserved. Not really. Yes, it was often a trivial time—pet rocks and Farrah Fawcett and all the rest—but look at it this way: Why are the 1960s so celebrated, given the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, RFK and MLK, Jr., the countless urban riots, the start of the Vietnam war and revival of Richard Nixon, the Manson murders, the illegal FBI and CIA actions? In the ‘70s we got rid of Nixon and got out of Vietnam (and a new president pardoned draft resisters). Congress enacted strict new curbs on both the FBI and CIA. It was the decade of Gloria Steinem and Harvey Milk. Jerry Brown left such a mark, California brought him back as governor thirty years later!
The Democrats in the ‘70s nominated for president George McGovern and Jimmy Carter, who years later would be claimed as “most admired Americans” by millions. Their counterparts in the 1980s? Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis.
The ‘70s had Muhammad Ali, the ‘80s, Mike Tyson. In the 1970s we escaped Vietnam—in the 1980s we invaded Granada and Panama. Nixon was forced out of office due to Watergate, while Reagan would survive Iran-Contra. Millions worried about herpes in the 1970s but sex wouldn’t kill you; then along came the AIDs epidemic. The near-disaster of Three Mile Island was succeeded in the 1980s by the utter disaster at Chernobyl.
The 1970s also gave us the birth or turning point for the women’s and gay rights movements, for environmentalism (after the first Earth Day) and Native American activism (after Wounded Knee), prison reform (after Attica), and a surge in the antinuclear movement (after Three Mile Island). Boycotts of apartheid South Africa. A much-needed “fitness craze.” Solar energy. The coming of “responsible investing.” Primetime TV shows like All in the Family and Roots sparked national conversations on race that President Obama can only dream about today. Soap gave us the first (out) gay character.
Yet the decade is still often mocked as “the sleepy Seventies” when “nothing happened.”
Turning to film, I will simply list some of the best films of the ‘70s: The
Godfather, Taxi Driver, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest, All the President's Men, Chinatown, Annie Hall, Last
Tango in Paris, Klute, Network. This is now known as the high
point of the “new Hollywood,” with young directors given nearly free
rein and topical social issues often brilliantly probed.
Shall I continue? Godfather II, The French Connection, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, Nashville, Badlands, Coming Home, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Last Waltz, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Bound for Glory, The Parallax View, All That Jazz, Shampoo, Don't Look Now, Julia, Lenny, Norma Rae. The first “summer blockbuster,” Jaws, still managed to boast a strong plot and character development—unlike the modern day equivalents. And there were several other good-for-the-genre flicks such as Rocky, Stars Wars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Saturday Night Fever.
Now consider the 1980s. Check out any Best 100 list on the web and you’’ll find mainly popcorn films (e.g. The Empire Strikes Back, Field of Dreams, Die Hard, Raising Arizona, Back to the Future) and comedies (such as Ghostbusters and When Harry Met Sally). Michael Cimino gave us The Deer Hunter in one decade, Heaven’s Gate in the next. Francis Ford Coppola plunged from Apocalypse Now to Peggy Sue Got Married. As for the present day: Do you really want to go there?
So this memoir speaks for a generation which, in the 1970s, would stop a war, kick out a president, change Hollywood and TV, and do it all to a soundtrack of rock ‘n roll. At Crawdaddy we figured we’d pick the cuts. That might have been too idealistic, not to mention bottom-line foolish. But at least we were still asking, along with Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello,”What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding?”
And, yes, the quick-beating heart of this book remains the music, from American Bandstand to “An American Girl.” So sit back, slip in some ear buds, put on some Marley or Springsteen or Talking Heads, and take a little walk on my wild side. Too late for me to die before I get old, but I’ll take it.
-- Greg Mitchell, July, 2014
**
INTRODUCTION
Fats Domino had released a few singles, but they were considered “race records” and not aimed at (nor widely available to) white audiences. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly were still in high school. Rock ‘n roll had not hit yet, but like many of my generation, I was clearly born to rock.
Yet, if you’d told me when I was growing up in Niagara Falls in, say, 1964, that one day I would correspond with John Lennon, write liner notes for Roy Orbison, have a few beers with the leader of my favorite group (The Kinks), help Bob Dylan launch a famous tour, and become friends with the most important rocker of the 1970s and 1980s (it would turn out to be Bruce Springsteen), I would have, no doubt, laughed myself silly, as kids will do. Yet all of these things and more—such as interviewing my favorite ‘60s authors (Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.) and poet (Allen Ginsberg), meeting film stars such as Jane Fonda, and hanging out with some of the most notorious left-wing radicals of the era--would come to pass, all within the following decade.
This book explores how that somehow happened. Beyond that, This Ain't No Disco: Rocking and Reeling Through the '70s, From Politics to Punk, is a chronicle of, and tribute to, the much-maligned 1970s—before Ronald Reagan and MTV took over and ruined everything.
For nearly all of the 1970s, I wrote for and edited magazines consumed with the music and political spirit of the times. After penning my first record review for Rolling Stone in 1970, I joined the short-lived Zygote in New York City, then served as the number two editor at the legendary Crawdaddy—the first serious rock-culture magazine--for nearly the entire period of 1971 to 1979. This book concentrates on those years and offers a fresh overview, from the inside, of that still-ridiculed, by many, decade.
Yes, disco was mainly awful and President Gerald R. Ford fairly lame, but today, with Patti Smith winning a National Book Award, Searching for Sugarman stealing an Oscar, Leonard Cohen becoming a hot arena act, and Led Zeppelin earning an unlikely Kennedy Center honor, perhaps it is now hip to be Seventies. Mad Men is about to immortalize that decade. Shia LeBeouf starred in a film about a Weather Underground fugitive, Ben Affleck won an Oscar for Argo, and David O. Russell's American Hustle explored, to comic effect, the ABSCAM epic (with Jennifer Lawrence and Christian Bale)—and even bad haircuts did not stop any of them. There was even a recent CBGB movie starring Alan Rickman.
Certainly, this book joins a crowded field of memoirs that focus on the rock ‘n roll of the 1970s, some written by famous artists, others by music critics and editors. My book is different from all of them, because my interests (and Crawdaddy’s) went far afield from “just” the music. In my account, we also meet some of the leading political figures, novelists, comedians, and film-makers of the decade. The book also serves as an informal history of the ‘70s, with timelines for each year posted at the end of chapters; and in the appendix, excerpts from dozens of key Crawdaddy articles, arranged chronologically.
Partly by accident of birth, I can offer a a full generational perspective in this chronicle of rock ‘n roll and the entire decade. Since I entered this world at the end of 1947, I was, unlike most Baby Boomers, old enough to experience the shock waves set off by Bill Haley & the Comets, Blackboard Jungle and Elvis’s pelvis, not to mention Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. Later, I stood proudly in the prime target audience—that is, barely in my teens--when Phil Spector, the Beach Boys and Motown ruled the charts in the early 1960s. I was fifteen when Beatlemania hit. And I reached concert-going age just in time to witness one of Bob Dylan’s legendary electric concerts in 1965 (yes, a lot of fans booed), attend concerts by Jefferson Airplane, Simon & Garfunkel, and The Band at their peak, and spend my college years enjoying the heights and depths of psychedelia. Even spanning the entire musical era, my rock ‘n roll experience, up to the age of 22, was not all that different from many others--like nearly everyone, I missed Woodstock--so I do not dwell on it in these pages. Still, this is a memoir written by someone Who Was There, from Elvis (Presley) to Elvis (Costello).
The timing of my birth also meant that I closely followed all of the major political figures of the era—from JFK to Carter, from Martin Luther King Jr. to George Wallace—and the major social movements. The frequent political digressions, in fact, make this a highly unusual “rock ‘n roll memoir.”
In recounting my experiences as a rock insider during the 1970s, I detail intimate interactions with a wild and wooly cast, from Roy Orbison and Ray Davies to Patti Smith, Talking Heads and Tom Waits, before closing, as the decade did, with the Bee Gees on top. I recount, among other events, the birth of Dylan’s 1975 “Rolling Thunder” tour, plus junkets to London (with Cameron Crowe) and Japan (with twenty Latin musicians).
You are there in Memphis for the first and only “rock writers convention,” and debut of Big Star, when two legends peed through the gate at Graceland. Also: my epic probe of the death of Gram Parsons, as I learn why Charles Manson’s record producer stole his body and burned it in the desert. Then there’s the day I attended the most notorious cancelled rock festival ever, where future comedian Lewis Black was working the parking lot. What was it like to have a beer with Hank Williams’ old backup band? Or hear Rodney Crowell threaten to kill me? Or come up to bat against Meat Loaf on the baseball diamond? Fix Richard Price up with Ronnie Spector? Get blasted with Tom Waits? Or helping to convince William Burroughs to interview Jimmy Page—and pose with him on our cover?
The longest section of the book, however, details for the first time the key role I played in jump-starting Bruce Springsteen’s career—after meeting him in Sing Sing Prison in 1972. Then I nearly got him swept over Niagara Falls before he even got a taste of stardom.
Beyond the music world, I scored the first major interview with Tom Robbins, nabbed the first interview with Joseph Heller in years, and chatted with Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (then recounted the episode under the byline of Kilgore Trout). Hired fugitive Abbie Hoffman as our “Travel Editor” and William M. Kunstler as our legal eagle. Got Jeff Goldblum to write a record review—after I appeared in one of his first movies. Got spied on by the FBI. Found a feminist heroine at the Miss USA Pageant. Exposed hundreds of “Love Canals.” And much more.
Besides capturing many revealing, and often humorous, encounters with the once and future famous, this book chronicles, as one of its themes, the survival of rock ‘n roll—and progressive politics--during the 1970s. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.
Rock ‘n roll had blown apart in self-indulgent ways in the late-1960s. “Corporate rock” had arrived. Many top stars were saddled with drug habits and heading for an early and permanent exit (notably Jimi, Janis, Jim and Gram). Altamont had sullied Woodstock. The Beatles broke up and Brian Wilson was out of his mind. Motown was fading as a creative force. Lou Reed left the Velvet Underground. Creedence was torn by dissent. The Byrds were shot.
But in the first year or so of the new decade, things started to look up, with the likes of the Stones’ Sticky Fingers, the first solo lps from John Lennon and George Harrison, Van Morrison’s Moondance, Derek & the Dominoes’ Layla, and Neil Young’s After the Goldrush. David Bowie arrived. So did Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, and Little Feat. Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On was an unquestioned masterpiece. So, in a quite different way, was Carole King’s Tapestry. I was never a fan of “glitter-rock” but, okay: Alice Cooper blew many a young mind. And Exile on Main Street soon followed.
Then, in early 1973, we witnessed the emergence of Springsteen and a few other true rockers. Pub-rock arrived from England, via the likes of Nick Lowe and Graham Parker, and reggae (thanks to Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley) from Jamaica. Al Green and a revived Stevie Wonder seized the top of the charts. So did Labelle and Dr. John. Joni Mitchell, of all people, had a hit single. By mid-decade two albums from the new Fleetwood Mac lineup not only sold millions but were pretty damn good. Then punk and New Wave exploded, out of CBGBs and via the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Patti Smith and the Ramones broke through. Warren Zevon got “Excitable.” Dire Straits released “Sultans of Swing.” Hip-hop was born--no small thing!
No, we’re not forgetting disco, but at least many protested it, loudly. And artists ranging from the Stones to Blondie made good use of it.
And if you still believe the ‘70s weren’t so hot, consider the coming of the 1980s, starting with the election of Ronald Reagan. The Sex Pistols broke up and Sid Vicious ODed. FM radio lost its “free-form.” In 1980, John Lennon was murdered. The following year, Kenny Rogers and Barbara Streisand had #1 albums, REO Speedwagon sold more records than anyone, and MTV was launched, changing everything. Madonna helped sparked the sexualization of the majority of top female singers to this day. Hip-hop gave us Public Enemy—but also incredibly violent and misogynist lyrics. Something called “Asia” produced the top-selling album of 1982.
Yes, there would be great albums from U2, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Public Enemy, Prince, Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, REM, Sonic Youth, Paul Simon and others—but most of them were artists first given an energy surge (and their first recording contracts) in the 1970s.
“Nobody is apt to look back on the 1970s as the good old days,” Time magazine declared at the turn of the decade. New West famously sized up the ‘70s this way: “It was the worst of times, it was...the worst of times.” Yet consider this: Dylan found his muse in the ‘70s. In the ‘80s he found Jesus. The state of New Jersey in the ‘70s gave us Springsteen. In the 1980s: Bon Jovi. John Belushi, a ‘70s mega-star via SNL and The Blues Brothers? Dead in the 1980s.
What about politics? Surely the decade’s reputation as a silly stepchild of the ‘60s, as “The Me Decade” or “From Yippie to Yuppie,” is richly deserved. Not really. Yes, it was often a trivial time—pet rocks and Farrah Fawcett and all the rest—but look at it this way: Why are the 1960s so celebrated, given the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, RFK and MLK, Jr., the countless urban riots, the start of the Vietnam war and revival of Richard Nixon, the Manson murders, the illegal FBI and CIA actions? In the ‘70s we got rid of Nixon and got out of Vietnam (and a new president pardoned draft resisters). Congress enacted strict new curbs on both the FBI and CIA. It was the decade of Gloria Steinem and Harvey Milk. Jerry Brown left such a mark, California brought him back as governor thirty years later!
The Democrats in the ‘70s nominated for president George McGovern and Jimmy Carter, who years later would be claimed as “most admired Americans” by millions. Their counterparts in the 1980s? Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. The ‘70s had Muhammad Ali, the ‘80s, Mike Tyson. In the 1970s we escaped Vietnam—in the 1980s we invaded Granada and Panama. Nixon was forced out of office due to Watergate, while Reagan would survive Iran-Contra. Millions worried about herpes in the 1970s but sex wouldn’t kill you; then along came the AIDs epidemic. The near-disaster of Three Mile Island was succeeded in the 1980s by the utter disaster at Chernobyl.
The 1970s also gave us the birth or turning point for the women’s and gay rights movements, for environmentalism (after the first Earth Day) and Native American activism (after Wounded Knee), prison reform (after Attica), and a surge in the antinuclear movement (after Three Mile Island). Boycotts of apartheid South Africa. A much-needed “fitness craze.” Solar energy. The coming of “responsible investing.” Primetime TV shows like All in the Family and Roots sparked national conversations on race that President Obama can only dream about today. Soap gave us the first (out) gay character.
Yet the decade is still often mocked as “the sleepy Seventies” when “nothing happened.”
Shall I continue? Godfather II, The French Connection, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, Nashville, Badlands, Coming Home, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Last Waltz, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Bound for Glory, The Parallax View, All That Jazz, Shampoo, Don't Look Now, Julia, Lenny, Norma Rae. The first “summer blockbuster,” Jaws, still managed to boast a strong plot and character development—unlike the modern day equivalents. And there were several other good-for-the-genre flicks such as Rocky, Stars Wars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Saturday Night Fever.
Now consider the 1980s. Check out any Best 100 list on the web and you’’ll find mainly popcorn films (e.g. The Empire Strikes Back, Field of Dreams, Die Hard, Raising Arizona, Back to the Future) and comedies (such as Ghostbusters and When Harry Met Sally). Michael Cimino gave us The Deer Hunter in one decade, Heaven’s Gate in the next. Francis Ford Coppola plunged from Apocalypse Now to Peggy Sue Got Married. As for the present day: Do you really want to go there?
So this memoir speaks for a generation which, in the 1970s, would stop a war, kick out a president, change Hollywood and TV, and do it all to a soundtrack of rock ‘n roll. At Crawdaddy we figured we’d pick the cuts. That might have been too idealistic, not to mention bottom-line foolish. But at least we were still asking, along with Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello,”What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding?”
And, yes, the quick-beating heart of this book remains the music, from American Bandstand to “An American Girl.” So sit back, slip in some ear buds, put on some Marley or Springsteen or Talking Heads, and take a little walk on my wild side. Too late for me to die before I get old, but I’ll take it.
-- Greg Mitchell, July, 2014
Wednesday Updates (From the Top) on Gaza-Israel Tragedy
11:20 U.S. television journalism in a nutshell. Charlie Rose just had Israeli ambassador to U.S. Ron Derner on for a lengthy rant, including visions of, if need be, "wiping out" Gaza. Derner then does his song and dance about 3 UN schools where rockets were found and that UN schools in Gaza are "warehouses" for weapons. And good old Charlie awakes from his slumber to interject, "Some are not." There are 245 UN schools in Gaza. 9:30 White House "condemns" latest UN massacre but can't bring itself to name or blame Israel. Then makes sure to hit UN because a few missiles found in three schools. It's despicable linkage especially since all of the missiles were found in abandoned schools--not ones where people are taking shelter. State Dept. spokesman today said still don't know who bombed school--contrary to all evidence. Also, U.S. has shipped new mortar rounds to replaces ones used today (see below).
Last paragraphs of NYT columnist and Zionist Roger Cohen's latest quite good, if fellow Zionists will ponder it. Alas, could be deaf ears syndrome.
7:00 p.m. ET Update on death toll in Gaza: 1361 dead, of that over 315 childen, with 2300 kids injured.
No need to update Israeli civilian toll: still one Bedouin, one Thai worker, one settler.
Amnesty International: Israel's attack on UN school last night "is a possible war crime and should be independently investigated....If the strike on this school was the result of Israeli artillery fire it would constitute an indiscriminate attack and a likely war crime. Artillery should never be used against targets in crowded civilian areas and its use in such a manner would never be considered a ‘surgical’ strike." How this is different from so many other Israeli strikes is a bit beyond me, however.
Bernie Sanders on carnage in Gaza:"That's not where my mind is right now."
4:40 p.m. ET NYT's Jodi Rudoren has posted her new Facebook cover page photo--she's in that tunnel on her IDF tour. Actually this is more perfect that she imagines. See some of the comments on it there. Someone wants her in an IDF jeep, and so on. h/t Patrick Connors.
4:00 p.m. ET If you can handle it: death of journalist in Gaza captured today in incredible, horrific, video.
Silence of Arab states on carnage, like the U.S., "is deafening."
3:00 p.m. ET Jim Sciutto of CNN tweets: "WH takes aim at Israel on
12:45 a.m. ET Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almovodor among artists in Spain signing letter hitting Israel's "genocide" and calling on EU to halt it.
Richard Engel of NBC just tweeted: "Gaza city was poor & barely functioning even before war. Now struggling to stay out of humanitarian crisis." Stay out of?
Friends and colleagues ID dead journo as Rami Rayan (above), a young photographer.
UNWRA spokesman on earlier school attack: "Children killed in their sleep. This is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame."
8 days since fine NYT public ed posted on Gaza and Israel--and back then it was mainly on criticism of paper being too anti-Israel.
11:25 a.m. ET: AP Breaking: "Palestinian official: 15 dead, more than 150 wounded in strike on busy Gaza market." NBC's @AymanM: "Ashraf Al Qedra, Palestinian Health Ministry Spokesman says 15 people killed till now and 160 injured in shelling of
Sunjeev Bery of Amnesty International in series of tweets raises something I haven't: NYT in its daily summary graphic has always listed number of Hamas rockets fired--but does not include number, or tons, of Israeli munitions fired. Just targets hit. Or, as far as we've seen, any accounting in a story of gross amount fired or dropped. (h/t Patrick Connors)
NYT's reporter in Gaza, Ben Hubbard, manages to state clearly today that it was Israel that bombed the power station--sharing a byline with Jodi Rudoren he did, or could, not.
9:30 a.m. ET The usual laughable claims by IDF spokesman on latest massacre (below): "Lt. Col. Peter Lerner of the Israeli military said no United Nations facility had been targeted during the operation. A military spokeswoman said Palestinian militants had 'opened fire at Israeli soldiers from the vicinity' of the school in the Jabaliya refugee camp Wednesday morning, and that the Israeli troops 'responded by firing toward the origins of the fire.'”
Note NYT headline: "Israeli Shells Said to Hit School." As if any doubt. Israel not even claiming--so far--that they were misfired Hamas rockets. Fox News headline has "Palestinians Claim." But on the brighter side:
8:00 a.m. ET Well, here we go again. Another massacre from the air at Gaza school and shelter, at least 15 dead (some say 23 or more), and again Israel "looking into it" etc. Photo of one victim at left. Richard Engel just tweeted, "Witnesses tell
Amazing interview with David Frum's clownish source for his debunked claim of NYT and Reuters faking photos from Gaza.
If you missed my new lengthy piece on the Hamas "terror tunnels" as main pretext for continuing slaughter, and promotion of this by U.S. media. How often have they been used for "terror" in the past? Note: Not a single Israeli civilian ever killed by a militant from a tunnel.
There Used To Be a Playground Here
Haunting art/photo via Leem Lubany, co-star of great Oscar-nominated film last year, Omar.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Tuesday Updates (From the Top) on Israel-Gaza Tragedy
My Wednesday live-blog here. Great piece by Rashid Khalidi at The New Yorker, includes: "It is about an unswerving, decades-long Israeli policy of denying Palestine self-determination, freedom, and sovereignty. What Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. It is punishment for Gaza’s refusal to be a docile ghetto. It is punishment for the gall of Palestinians in unifying, and of Hamas and other factions in responding to Israel’s siege and its provocations with resistance, armed or otherwise, after Israel repeatedly reacted to unarmed protest with crushing force. Despite years of ceasefires and truces, the siege of Gaza has never been lifted. As Netanyahu’s own words show, however, Israel will accept nothing short of the acquiescence of Palestinians to their own subordination...
"If the U.S. government wants to fund and arm Israel and parrot its talking points that fly in the face of reason and international law, so be it. But it should not claim the moral high ground and intone solemnly about peace. And it should certainly not insult Palestinians by saying that it cares about them or their children, who are dying in Gaza today."
Huff Post piece by good guy Mike Calderone is better than most on the tunnels, and links to my piece at this blog, but like others he fails to mention the key fact--not a single Israeli civilians has been killed because of someone using a tunnel. And only about 10 soldiers until the past week.
In fresh revision, typical NYT headline just now: "Israel Broadens Targets in Gaza Barrage; Power Is Out." You see, it's out--maybe a lightning strike? Someone threw the wrong switch? But this reflects the story (see below) which is virtually the only one at a major site that does not clearly attribute the attack to the Israelis.
Jodi Rudoren in gentle radio interview today with understatement of the year: "I've been criticized for just taking what the IDF hands out." Now, why in the world would anyone think that? (h/t Patrick Connors)
Please see my new lengthy piece on the Hamas "terror tunnels" as main pretext for continuing slaughter, and promotion of this by U.S. media. How often have they been used for "terror" in the past?
So revealing: AP feels need to correct tweet that accurately stated the U.S. lawmakers are "falling over" each to support Israel. Classic.
Jodi Rudoren of NYT, who has emphasized IDF denials in hitting schools and hospitals in past week, now quotes with a straight face spokesman asked about Gaza's only power station blasted and on fire, who replied "he was still looking into the circumstances of the fire, including 'whether we had anything to do with it.'” Note how she accepts this, refusing to describe the attack on the power station as coming from Israel. You know, Palestinians claim, IDF won't confirm, so...who knows? Even though Israel has bombed it before. Later she declares that this "threatened to turn the deprivations in Gaza into a humanitarian crisis." Only now!
Worth recalling Wash Post on private talk by Netanyahu exposed in 2010. "I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction." (Note: An Ariel Sharon quote that appeared here has been deleted due to strong questions that it is real.)
Glad to see Michael Shaw's always excellent and respected BagNewsNotes destroy David Frum's claim--he made it eight times--that the NYT and Reuters had fallen for "faked" atrocity photos. Frum's source was the same clown who claimed, also widely covered, that the young man shot by a sniper in a viral video from two weeks ago had also faked the whole thing. Then the young man's father claimed the body. I guess that was faked, also.
Susan Rice with strong defense of Israel, hits UN, claims Gazan kids merely "caught in crossfire" and it's Hamas' fault.
The Guardian says at least 110 killed in Gaza in past 24 hours. Media center, TV, radio stations, power plant, hit which somehow count as "strategic targets." Power plant may take a year to repair--if Israel allows full entry. Reuters on the harshest, perhaps deadliest, night yet in Gaza. Death toll there at over 1156 with 6700 injured. Over 180,000 now in UN shelters in humanitarian disaster. Ten Israeli soldiers killed yesterday, perhaps inspiring latest spasm of response. Civilian death toll in Israel remains: one Bedouin, one Thai worker, one settler.
Over 140 international law experts sign petition hitting Hamas launching rockets--but stressing that Israel is illegally enacting "collective punishment" with "disproportionate attacks" on entire Gaza population.
Well, I've had an interesting back and forth late last night with 1) a well-known Hollywood director and 2) CNN's Jake Tapper. Jake did a segment on the tunnels today that, as I complained, did not reveal how many Israelis have been killed due to them over many years; did not explain why Israel is using them as main pretext for slaughter now when he mentioned himself "they've known about them for years"; and why he closed the spot with reference to claims that Gaza kids may have died in building them--to help bring in fuel and goods during a blockade--when hundreds are perishing now due to Israeli bombing.
CBS legend Bob Schiefer weighs in on the side of Hamas wanting to get as many civilians killed as possible.
ViceNews visit scenes of attacks in Gaza and hospitals.
The 'Terror Tunnels'
No doubt Israel is right to be concerned about these tunnels. Several of its soldiers were killed just this week by militants emerging from one of them. No one would object to them destroying them along their border. Egypt has somehow destroyed as many as 1000 of them at its border used for smuggling goods (but without killing many Gazans). The reason I raise this is: The tunnels are being used as a pretext for mass slaughter--and accepted or promoted as much by U.S. media. So the threat from them to a civilian population, especially before Israel escalated the war, must be proven and very clear.
The use of "terror" or "terrorism" connotes attacks on civilians. But have these tunnels only been used for military operations?
Yet the IDF and the media never seem to get around to listing what (you'd think) must be a large number of "terror" incidents and Israelis killed or kidnapped in recent years. A good example was yesterday's report by Jodi Rudoren in the New York Times--quite lengthy but without a single reference to a deadly "terror" attack via the tunnels until the past two weeks of armed conflict. Like others, she explains that Israel has known about the tunnels for many years yet did not attempt to destroy many of them until this month. Why? Because they actually posed less of a threat to civilians than now claimed? Israelis in the south are always quoted about their fears of militants rising out of the ground in their backyards (one tells Rudoren, "It takes us a little bit to our childhood fairy tales of demons"), but--how many times has this happened?
In that regard, an article this week in the Times of Israel quotes a senior Israeli intelligence officer asserting that the tunnels did not really threaten civilians--Hamas aims for another spectacular soldier kidnapping or killing. (The Shalit snatching led to freedom for 1000 Palestinians in the prisoner exchange.) This intel source points out that in the major tunnel incursion last week the militants could have easily invaded a nearby kibbutz but set off to kill soldiers instead. They did it again this week. But using tunnels for military attacks in war has long been an accepted battlefield tactic. It's not "terrorism."
Israelis now seek a broad inquiry into why their officials and military did not take broad action against the tunnels until now. Was it because they didn't think they were such a huge threat? And now they describe finding dozens of tunnels and a wider network--but is anyone in U.S. media questioning what exactly these newly-found tunnels represent? They take guided tours of a couple carefully selected--including one unfinished, another uncovered two years ago--but they have to take the word (and do) of the IDF in describing the other tunnels and any weapons/explosives found in them. Were most of them abandoned years ago? Flooded and not really useable, as Hamas claims?
All this caused me to ask, via Twitter, for anyone to send me a link to a credible history with this information. I got no replies beyond, "Good luck with that." I raised this with Jake Tapper of CNN, who had just done his "terror tunnel" report on Twitter, since he had tweeted about Hamas "exporting death." Well, how many deaths, before this month's Israel invasion of Gaza, in the past ten years since the tunnels were expanded? Tapper tells me today that he knows of only six deaths from the tunnels, all IDF. I've seen an Israeli source claim 10 soldiers. If that's all, then more Israelis have been killed in the past week because of the tunnels, and the Israeli offensive, than in the previous decade combined.
Always cited is the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Shalit, which became a cause celebre until a prisoner swap not long ago. Since it got such massive and long-lasting attention I presume it was the one and only such case. Then there was some sort of militants' plan to blow up explosives along the border in the south. Another thwarted attack on a village years ago. But that's about all I can find easily. This fairly detailed history from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no less, is typical in failing to offer more than three or four examples. Ditto for a lengthy recent Wash Post piece. Mike Calderone at Huff Post links to my assessment in a wrap-up there but like virtually every other U.S. journo fails to mention the key fact: Not a single Israeli civilian ever killed because of one of the tunnels.
So why have U.S. media gone along with promoting this as a justification for killing 1000 civilians, including 200 kids, far from the border?
P.S. I have been live-blogging this crisis for the past week, and here's today's.
Greg Mitchell, the longtime editor of Editor & Publisher, has written dozens of books relating to the war in Iraq, the atomic bombings of Japan, famous U.S. political campaigns, the death penalty and WikiLeaks, among other subjects.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Monday Updates (From the Top) on Gaza-Israel Tragedy
(Frequent postings all day, as I've been doing for nearly the past week.)
Well, I've had an interesting back and forth tonight with 1) a well-known Hollywood director and 2) CNN's Jake Tapper. Jake did a segment on the tunnels today that, as I complained, did not reveal how many Israelis have been killed due to them over many years; did not explain why Israel is using them as main pretext for slaughter now when he mentioned himself "they've known about them for years"; and why he closed the spot with reference to claims that Gaza kids may have died in building them when hundreds are perishing now due to Israeli bombing.
CBS legend Bob Schiefer weighs in on the side of Hamas wanting to get as many civilians killed as possible.
Amira Hass column in Haaretz: Israel's "moral defeat" will haunt them for years. "If victory means causing the enemy to pile up a number of slaughtered children on one stretcher, since there are not enough stretchers, then you have won, Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon – you and the nation that admires you."
Update on Israeli civilian casualties: well, no update needed. Still one Bedouin, one Thai worker, one settler.
A Twitter commenter: "CNN covering this for Israel like it's an American war. In essence, it is."
Beloved Gaza children's TV performer killed in home.
Pulitzer-winning editorial write for Wall St. Journal, Bret Stephens writes tonight that he questions number of Gaza casualties, and says to oppose the slaughter is to defend "barbarism." Ironic choice of words, given tonight's carnage (see below).
What appears, from tweets and reports, to be shock and awe--and slaughter--all over Gaza tonight, including another UN school filled with kids hit. U.S. and U.S. media have willingly accepted carnage so tonight--Israelis are topping everything previous, it seems, according to Gazans who have seen the worst in the past.
All Israel has to do is "accidentally" hit one hotel filled with Western journos and then media outlook may change. And only then. Although they may claim that the hotel housed rockets or that they had a right to defend themselves from truthful reports by the media.
New video from Jewish Voice for Peace features dozens, including a few celebs, holding up names of dead Gazans.
Apparently Israel today hit a refugee camp and Shifa hospital nearby killing several more kids, photos have been posted (see left). Israel once again claims not targeting or operating in area and says must have been Hamas rockets--in both cases! NBC says at least 30 dead, mainly at the camp, and blames Israel: "The Israel Defense Forces told Haaretz that a 'preliminary investigation has found the Israeli army did not fire at the Shifa Hospital, and the fire is believed to have been Hamas.' However, a NBC News journalist witnessed the attack on the hospital and said it had been fired by an Israeli drone--this attribution, oddly, removed from a revised NBC story, which now highlights Israel's denials. ("Early reports from the ground said an Israeli drone was responsible for the attack.")
The NYT, as expected, gives equal weight to Israel's denial--and includes this right in the home page headline despite lies about not hitting the UN school last week.
Shifa is the most sophisticated hospital in Gaza. Israel has hit several other hospitals in recent days.
@DrBasselAbuwarda there tweets: "The dead children r from attacking a park in Alshate camp & it was Simultaneous with attack on Alshifa hospital 10 dead majority r children...the children were wearing new cloths for Al Eid , they were just playing in the par." His Twitter response to Israel's claims that hit by Hamas rocket: "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"
We reported days ago on two reporters quoting Israeli police spokesman seeming to admit that Israel is not (and never was) certain that the kidnapping and killing of those three teens back in June which set the current crisis in motion had actually been ordered by Hamas (as Israel). He said it's believed it was actually a small local "cell," perhaps not ordered by Hamas to do this. Great controversy has erupted since. Here's a lengthy piece at Vox today by Max Fisher that probes the matter, noting that questions about Israel exploiting the kidnapping have been there since the start.
Don't miss my piece today on shameful David Gregory and NYT "journalism" related to Israel denying it killed anyone at that UN school last week.
Israel says a mortar attack in southern Israel has killed at least three.
David Grossman, famed Israeli writer, op-ed at NYT today includes:
CBS legend Bob Schiefer weighs in on the side of Hamas wanting to get as many civilians killed as possible.
Amira Hass column in Haaretz: Israel's "moral defeat" will haunt them for years. "If victory means causing the enemy to pile up a number of slaughtered children on one stretcher, since there are not enough stretchers, then you have won, Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon – you and the nation that admires you."
Update on Israeli civilian casualties: well, no update needed. Still one Bedouin, one Thai worker, one settler.
A Twitter commenter: "CNN covering this for Israel like it's an American war. In essence, it is."
Beloved Gaza children's TV performer killed in home.
Pulitzer-winning editorial write for Wall St. Journal, Bret Stephens writes tonight that he questions number of Gaza casualties, and says to oppose the slaughter is to defend "barbarism." Ironic choice of words, given tonight's carnage (see below).
What appears, from tweets and reports, to be shock and awe--and slaughter--all over Gaza tonight, including another UN school filled with kids hit. U.S. and U.S. media have willingly accepted carnage so tonight--Israelis are topping everything previous, it seems, according to Gazans who have seen the worst in the past.
All Israel has to do is "accidentally" hit one hotel filled with Western journos and then media outlook may change. And only then. Although they may claim that the hotel housed rockets or that they had a right to defend themselves from truthful reports by the media.
New video from Jewish Voice for Peace features dozens, including a few celebs, holding up names of dead Gazans.
Apparently Israel today hit a refugee camp and Shifa hospital nearby killing several more kids, photos have been posted (see left). Israel once again claims not targeting or operating in area and says must have been Hamas rockets--in both cases! NBC says at least 30 dead, mainly at the camp, and blames Israel: "The Israel Defense Forces told Haaretz that a 'preliminary investigation has found the Israeli army did not fire at the Shifa Hospital, and the fire is believed to have been Hamas.' However, a NBC News journalist witnessed the attack on the hospital and said it had been fired by an Israeli drone--this attribution, oddly, removed from a revised NBC story, which now highlights Israel's denials. ("Early reports from the ground said an Israeli drone was responsible for the attack.")
The NYT, as expected, gives equal weight to Israel's denial--and includes this right in the home page headline despite lies about not hitting the UN school last week.
Shifa is the most sophisticated hospital in Gaza. Israel has hit several other hospitals in recent days.
@DrBasselAbuwarda there tweets: "The dead children r from attacking a park in Alshate camp & it was Simultaneous with attack on Alshifa hospital 10 dead majority r children...the children were wearing new cloths for Al Eid , they were just playing in the par." His Twitter response to Israel's claims that hit by Hamas rocket: "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"
We reported days ago on two reporters quoting Israeli police spokesman seeming to admit that Israel is not (and never was) certain that the kidnapping and killing of those three teens back in June which set the current crisis in motion had actually been ordered by Hamas (as Israel). He said it's believed it was actually a small local "cell," perhaps not ordered by Hamas to do this. Great controversy has erupted since. Here's a lengthy piece at Vox today by Max Fisher that probes the matter, noting that questions about Israel exploiting the kidnapping have been there since the start.
Don't miss my piece today on shameful David Gregory and NYT "journalism" related to Israel denying it killed anyone at that UN school last week.
Israel says a mortar attack in southern Israel has killed at least three.
David Grossman, famed Israeli writer, op-ed at NYT today includes:
Since I cannot ask Hamas, nor do I purport to understand its way of thinking, I ask the leaders of my own country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his predecessors: How could you have wasted the years since the last conflict without initiating dialogue, without even making the slightest gesture toward dialogue with Hamas, without attempting to change our explosive reality? Why, for these past few years, has Israel avoided judicious negotiations with the moderate and more conversable sectors of the Palestinian people — an act that could also have served to pressure Hamas?
Name It and You Own It
Jewish Voices for Peace with new video, narrated (I believe) by Wallace Shawn, with a little background on history but mainly scores of people, including a few celebs (such as Jonathan Demme, ChuckD and Gloria Steinem), holding up names of dead in Gaza.
Zen and Now
The Shame of David Gregory--and 'NYT'
First were reports that his "Meet the Press" was sinking under even weaker ratings and that he would soon be replaced. Then as we noted here yesterday: Gregory, after a weak interview with Prime Minister Netanyahu, committed one of the worst journalistic ethical lapses of recent vintage. After letting Netanyahu claim, again, that Israel may be blameless in the school massacre, despite all the evidence and logic to the contrary, he brought on UNWRA spokesman Chris Gunness--and blindsided him by showing a 10-second, hazy, tape just released within the hour by Israel allegedly showing a Hamas rocket being fired from the grounds of a UN school. Yet Gregory said NBC had not "verified" that it's accurate--and admitted that Gunness could not view it and had never seen it before. Yet then asked Gunness to respond! Gunness naturally protested the unfairness--and then the segment quickly ended.
Gregory has now issued this statement: “An end note in a discussion about Gaza we asked a spokesman about this video which Israel claims showed rockets being fired by Hamas from a U.N. school in Gaza,” Gregory said. “This is shot by the Israeli government, and that’s their claim. The U.N. has reviewed it, tells us they have confirmed, in their view, the video does not show rockets being fired from U.N. administrative school in Gaza. So this is a back and forth we are not able to settle at this point.” No apology or recognition of his severe ethical lapse. Shameful. And leaves it at the usual "he said/she said"--rather than NBC attempting to verify tape or prove Israeli propaganda. Which it should have done before airing it.
Meanwhile, the NYT has not updated its report last night that focused on a different Israeli video to add the UN statement debunking the one alleged to show rockets fired from the school grounds. Surely it's worth noting that Israel's videos may be nothing but propaganda. And today @ChrisGunness has tweeted, "According 2 information UNRWA has gathered about Beit Hanoun incident,
there were hundreds of people @ the installation when it was hit...We had
staff @ the school when the incident occurred reporting in as the
shelling, which caused multiple fatalities & casualties took place...In addition we have spoken to numerous eye witnesses at the Beit Hanoun school #Gaza when it was hit."
Will the Times now add this to their report which emphasized that casualties "reportedly" happened at the site? Don't bet on it.
Will the Times now add this to their report which emphasized that casualties "reportedly" happened at the site? Don't bet on it.
This is what I wrote about it last night:
Will surprise no one that when NYT tonight reports on Israel's claim it killed no one the school--it's the same old refusal to take on the absurd IDF claims head-on. You'd never know that Israel lied to them for three days that none of their bombs even hit the school. It's as if the reporters say, "More propaganda, please." As from the beginning, they ultimately rely on "different versions can't be reconciled now"--even though all evidence and testimony point to Israel being guilty of this slaughter. It's a false "balance."
They give their point of view away by not even referring to Israel completely changing its story after three days. That's more revealing than the totally unverified 10-second video. Most of those who have gone to the site, such as Peter Beaumont of The Guardian, have all pointed their finger at Israel as no doubt the guilty party. Another one here. Not the Times.
And see the IDF spokesman's "scenario" (below) that maybe the hundreds of wounded and dead were not hit there but brought to the site from elsewhere. The Times now dutifully uses the phrase that 16 were "reportedly killed" at the site. This is the same Israeli official the NYT reporters give the benefit of the doubt to re: the grainy video with no time stamp. See my earlier report on the shameful NYT coverage on this (as with much else on the conflict).
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Sunday Updates (Added at Top) on Israel-Gaza Tragedy
10:35 David Grossman, famed Israeli writer, op-ed at NYT just up. "Since I cannot ask Hamas, nor do I purport to understand its way of thinking, I ask the leaders of my own country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his predecessors: How could you have wasted the years since the last conflict without initiating dialogue, without even making the slightest gesture toward dialogue with Hamas, without attempting to change our explosive reality? Why, for these past few years, has Israel avoided judicious negotiations with the moderate and more conversable sectors of the Palestinian people — an act that could also have served to pressure Hamas?"
9:00 Will surprise no one that when NYT tonight reports on Israel's claim it killed no one the school--it's the same old refusal to take on the absurd IDF claims head-on. You'd never know that Israel lied to them for three days that none of their bombs even hit the school. It's as if the reporters say, "More propaganda, please." As from the beginning, they ultimately rely on "different versions can't be reconciled now"--even though all evidence and testimony point to Israel being guilty of this slaughter. It's a false "balance."
They give their point of view away by not even referring to Israel completely changing its story after three days. That's more revealing than the totally unverified 10-second video. Most of those who have gone to the site, such as Peter Beaumont of The Guardian, have all pointed their finger at Israel as no doubt the guilty party. Another one here. Not the Times.
And see the IDF spokesman's "scenario" (below) that maybe the hundreds of wounded and dead were not hit there but brought to the site from elsewhere. Note the Times now dutifully adding 16 "reportedly killed" at the school. This is the same Israeli official the NYT reporters give the benefit of the doubt to re: the grainy video with no time stamp. See my earlier report on the shameful NYT coverage on this (as with much else on the conflict).
6:15 AP now reports on Israel claiming it fired at UN school and hit courtyard--but miraculously no one killed. Like CNN, below, it reports the laughable claims at too great length but does hint at end the absurdity of the claim. How evil is the Israel spokesman? He suggests that the only dead and injured there were brought from other sites, perhaps for a photo op? "He also offered other scenarios — that the wounded were 'brought to the compound after injury' or were caught in a crossfire between Israeli troops and Gaza militants. Saed al-Saoudi, the commander of the Civil Defense in Gaza, said Sunday that 'all the testimonies of the wounded, witnesses, paramedics and doctors confirm that the Israeli shells are the cause of this massacre.'"
CNN questions--eventually--Israel's claim today (see full analysis below) that it only fired one round at the UN school and did not cause any of the 16 deaths. But it focuses on whether people might have died in the courtyard from that round--instead of also noting that up to half a dozen rounds hit the school away from the courtyard which Israel wants you to believe must have come from Hamas.
1 p.m. ET Transcript of predictably weak "Meet the Press" David Gregory interview with Netanyahu today. The Israeli leader still claims maybe Hamas rockets wrecking that UN school (see below). He avows Israel not targeted "a single civilian" and anyway there are "plenty of places" they can flee to. This is standard stuff.
But Gregory then commits one of the worst journalistic ethical lapses of recent weeks. After letting Netanyahu claim, again, that Israel may be blameless in the school massacre, he brings on UNWRA spokesman Chris Gunness--and blindsides him by showing a tape just released within the hour by Israel allegedly showing a Hamas rocket being fired from the grounds of a UN school. Yet Gregory says NBC has not "verified" that it's accurate--and admits that Gunness cannot view it and has never seen it. Yet asks Gunness to respond! Gunness naturally protests the unfairness--and then the segment quickly ends.
UPDATE Gregory has now issued this statement: “An end note in a discussion about Gaza we asked a spokesman about this video which Israel claims showed rockets being fired by Hamas from a U.N. school in Gaza,” Gregory said. “This is shot by the Israeli government, and that’s their claim. The U.N. has reviewed it, tells us they have confirmed, in their view, the video does not show rockets being fired from U.N. administrative school in Gaza. So this is a back and forth we are not able to settle at this point.” No apology or recognition of his severe ethical lapse.
In perhaps the most revolting official Israel statement of the war, the IDF announced today that after a probe it admitted it had fired deliberately mortars at the UN school in Beit Hanoun where 15 were killed Thursday and over 100 injured. This after claiming (which the NYT and other media in U.S. swallowed eagerly) that quite possibly it was a misfired Hamas rocket. But the IDF adds: When they hit the school yard there was no one there! And so Hamas and average citizens must have lied about the casualties from that, I guess.
Or more likely: Israel knows that any media, UN or independent probe--once it's safe to visit the school site if shelling ever stops in area--will find evidence of Israeli missile or bombs. In fact, some of the journos who have gotten to the site have already suggested that. So they can no longer lie and say they did not hit the school at all. But, hey presto: They can claim one single round did hit the playground--when it was empty! Even though there were 1000 there at the time awaiting evacuation. Meaning that it was also shelled, I guess, at the same time, by Hamas, which somehow misfired about five rockets that made direct hits killing everyone. And if you believe that--and the NYT and others probably will, wait for it--I have a bridge to nowhere I'd like to sell you.
So will NYT and other U.S. media now admit they erred in publishing Israel propaganda denying it targeted school? My earlier report.
10:00 a.m. ET Israel's main talking point for continuing its brutal assault on Gaza involves "the tunnels"--but have any U.S. media done an indie probe of actual threat from them? We've seen NYT guided IDF tours and repeated claims of how many are found and destroyed but what is the real danger from them? All that is cited are a handful of incidents, some from years ago, of "militants" sneaking in and killing or capturing a few Israelis. I don't doubt that butyou'd think if they were that extensive and well-used that there would have been weekly, and bigger, Hamas entries. Maybe I'm wrong about that but the point is--no one in the media is explaining this adequately. More than any other aspect of the war, the IDF is the sole source.
Finally, what is the connection between "destroying tunnels" and targeting hundreds of buildings many miles from the border? Israel claims tunnels run beneath buildings--but as far away as Gaza City and further south? Yet media reports rarely raise this. We know there are tunnels that stretch for a long way in the other direction, towards Egypt, but how far do the Israel-bound tunnels stretch? And why haven't they caused more deadly mischief in the past?
New Gallup poll finds women, people under 50, Democrats and non-whites all firmly against Israel's actions in this war. Yet few if any members of Congress, that I've seen, and few in U.S. media reflect this.
Over a million around the world--including Tel Aviv--took to streets yesterday to protest Israel's actions.
Wast Post reveals in passing this factoid: One of the 3 Israeli civilians so far was a Thai worker. Another was a Bedouin, who are not even recognized by Israelis with full rights. That means exactly one actual full Israeli civilian (a settler) has been killed.
Hamas this morning backtracks and announces ceasefire, saying it did so at urging of U.N. No response from Israel so far.
Haaretz: 2 young Palestinian badly beaten by Israeli mob, then police don't call ambulance.
Wash Post, with straight face, in reviewing current state of war and compares to past conflict, states, "In Lebanon, too, casualties on both sides were high." Yes puts on equal plain the 45 Israeli dead (military and civilian) and a few dozen injured and the 1045 Palestinian dead and 5700 injured. The story does reveal this factoid: one of the 3 Israeli civilians was a Thai worker. Another was a Bedouin, who are not even recognized as Israelis with full rights. That means exactly one actual full Israeli civilian (a settler) has been killed.
I reported earlier on the soon-to-be-famous tweets by Jon Donnison of the BBC reporting that Israel police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld had just told him that contrary to the claims that helped provoke this war Israel did not believe that Hamas had the three Israeli teens killed back in June. Instead they now believed that it was a local "cell" that Hamas did not direct. Well. This was such a blockbuster that many held a wait and see attitude, since Donnison did not quickly produce a segment on it. But Donnison last night tweeted, "For those asking, I stick by 100% tweets regarding comments made to me by Israeli police spokes Mickey Rosenfeld. He said it. Period....And what's more I suspect what he said is common knowledge in Israeli intelligence circles."
NYT late Saturday finally changed headline on story it posted this morning-- which declared, "Gazans and Israelis Tally Damage." I pointed out here (see below) and via Twitter that the story did not, or could not, point to a single example of Israel damage (beyond it reputation and moral standing, perhaps). Instead, it had Israelis going to the beach ("It's fun"), holding bar-b-qs and visiting soldiers. Perhaps feeling shame, the paper has finally changed the headline. It also added reference to 21 Gazans in one family killed by Israeli shelling last night--but as always reporter allows Israel flack to claim it must have been because of Hamas fire from nearby.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Saturday Updates (From the Top) on Gaza-Israel Tragedy
Wash Post tonight, with straight face, in reviewing current state of war and compares to past conflict, states, "In Lebanon, too, casualties on both sides were high." Yes puts on equal plain the 45 Israeli dead (military and civilian) and a few dozen injured and the 1045 Palestinian dead and 5700 injured.
The story does reveal this factoid: one of the 3 Israeli civilians was a Thai worker. Another was a Bedouin, who are not even recognized as Israelis with full rights. That means exactly one actual full Israeli civilian (a settler) has been killed.
I reported yesterday on the soon-to-be-famous tweets by Jon Donnison of the BBC reporting that Israel police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld had just told him that contrary to the claims that helped provoke this war Israel did not believe that Hamas had the three Israeli teens killed back in June. Instead they now believed that it was a local "cell" that Hamas did not direct. Well. This was such a blockbuster that many held a wait and see attitude, since Donnison did not quickly produce a segment on it. But Donnison tonight tweets, "For those asking, I stick by 100% tweets regarding comments made to me by Israeli police spokes Mickey Rosenfeld. He said it. Period....And what's more I suspect what he said is common knowledge in Israeli intelligence circles."
NYT tonight finally changes headline on story it posted this morning-- which declared, "Gazans and Israelis Tally Damage." I pointed out here (see below) and via Twitter that the story did not, or could not, point to a single example of Israel damage (beyond it reputation and moral standing, perhaps). Instead, it had Israelis going to the beach ("It's fun"), holding bar-b-qs and visiting soldiers. Perhaps feeling shame, the paper has finally changed the headline. It also added reference to 21 Gazans in one family killed by Israeli shelling last night--but as always reporter allows Israel flack to claim it must have been because of Hamas fire from nearby.
Haaretz: 2 young Palestinian badly beaten by Israeli mob, then police don't call ambulance.
Jodi Rudoren at NYT naturally includes in her fawning profile of Netanyahu tonight a reference to the "anti-Semitic tinge" of protests against Israel's bombing of Gaza. Yes, there have been small examples of that--amid hundreds of thousands of protesters expressing none of that. Except the usual anti-Israel policy = anti-Semitism.
Typical top NYT headline today As Cease-Fire Holds, Gazans and Israelis Tally Damage. Except, there's been so little damage in Israel--and the story, amazingly, can't even cite on example. One side is pulling bodies out of rubble, those on other side go out to "beaches," host "barbeques," visit soldiers and "pick peppers." One Israeli there says, "It's fun." And civilian death toll 1020-3 so far. And story makes clear near the top that we know Israel's only out to hit tunnels and Hamas hides weapons all over the place. And closes with false hint that most of dead were armed militants.
Israel's ultra-hawkish ambassador to U.S. got his start working with GOP's Frank Luntz, then wrote book that influenced Bush foreign policy, helped Romney. Believes Israel today deserves Nobel Peace Prize.
Must-read New Yorker piece by a leading Israeli author on mood there now: "It’s become clear during this operation that the right wing has lost its patience in all matters regarding that elusive term, 'freedom of speech.' In the past two weeks, we’ve seen right wingers beating left wingers with clubs, Facebook messages promising to send left-wing activists to the gas chambers, and denunciations of anyone whose opinion delays the military on its way to victory. It turns out that this bloody road we walk from operation to operation is not as cyclical as we may have once thought. This road is not a circle, it’s a downward spiral, leading to new lows, which, I’m sad to say, we’ll be unlucky enough to experience." (h/t @BBedway)
Those who survived mass killings accuse Israel of using "human shields."
Chris Guinness of UNWRA tweets: "UN reports a rise child mortalities, miscarriages and premature births among pregnant women. Pity the women & children of Gaza...45,000 women pregnant women in
Major piece at The Guardian on Gazans able to venture out finally amid 12-hour ceasefire--and shocked at the full extent of the damage (left). Also: death toll there has shot up again and topped 1,000 as 85 bodies are pulled from rubble.
At the nearby hospital, six patients and 33 medical staff had spent the night huddled in the X-ray department as the neighbourhood was shelled, said the director, Bassam Abu Warda. A tank shell had hit the second floor of the building, leaving a gaping hole, and the facade was peppered with holes from large-calibre bullets.
Two Red Crescent ambulances were hit in Beit Hanoun overnight, killing a medic and wounding three, one critically, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. On Saturday, rescue workers pulled the scorched body of the medic from the wrecked vehicle, which had been hit about 200 metres from the hospital.
"Targeting ambulances, hospitals and medical workers is a serious violation of the law of war," said Jacques de Maio, head of the ICRC delegation for Israel and the occupied territories.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Friday Updates (From Top) on Gaza-Israel Tragedy
You'll recall this whole round of ultra-violence kicked off by savage crackdown in search for "Hamas" killers of the teens. Some pointed out long ago that unlikely Hamas did this, knowing how Israel would respond, leading to claims that Israel wanted to pick fight with Hamas now. This revelation may be coming to light as Israeli police need to explain why they have not caught the killers of the teens yet--so they are claiming very hard because an unknown "cell." More to come.
From Israeli daily Haaretz just now (8:00 p.m. ET): "IDF forces stationed in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip continued bombing a hospital in the area before midnight Friday. There are approximately 60 medical staff members in the hospital, in addition to three patients and two international solidarity activists.
"Several people were injured in the fire including one swede. Most of the patients were already evacuated from the premises. It's now chaos, the military is shelling directly at us. There are two patients on the second floor and we think they're okay, but we can't move them easily as they're bed-bound. I'm bleeding from a head wound and there's another person injured. People are very frightened," Fred Ekblad, a Swedish activist said. (Amira Hass)."
Latest official numbers from Gaza Health Ministry: Out of the 848 dead, 40 were elderly (20 males, 20 females), 600 were adults (518 males, 82 females) and 208 were children (138 males, 70 females).
Out
of the 5,694 injured: 230 elderly (108 males, 122 females), 3685 adults
(2573 males, 1112 females) and 1779 children (1126 males, 653 females).
Chris Guinness, UNWRA spokesman, in statement. No proof on who fired but--now, why wouldn't Israel want a probe? "At 1400 today an UNRWA team which included an international weapons expert went to the school at Beit Hanoun which came under attack yesterday causing multiple deaths and injury. The aim of the visit to the site was to survey the scene in the aftermath of the incident. The Israeli army had been notified in advance about the composition of the team, the time and purpose of the visit. The mission had to be cut short and the team was forced to leave the area after gunfire around the school. UNRWA regrets not being able complete even this initial assessment. We will attempt to visit the site when the situation allows. We again underline our call for an immediate and comprehensive investigation."
Five Palestinians now dead in West Bank protests. One shot by a settler. From The Guardian:
In the first incident, 46-year-old Hashem Abu Marieh and 30-year-old Sultan Yusef were killed in the Palestinian village of Beit Ummar near the flashpoint southern city of Hebron by Israeli soldiers.
In the second incident, a group of settlers opened fire on protesting Palestinians after they threw stones at their car near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The settler fire killed an 18-year-old Palestinian named as Khaled Oudeh. Shortly afterwards, Israeli troops arrived at the scene and clashed with the Palestinians, firing live bullets and tear gas.
The Israeli army fire killed a second Palestinian, 22-year-old Tayyib Oudeh, the security sources said, adding that three other Palestinians were injured by live fire.Hashem Abu Maria, 46, killed today in Beit Ummar near Hebron by Israeli soldiers worked with Defence for Children, an NGO for Palestinian kids.
You can rest easily now that Michael Gordon, veteran war hawk and Judy Miller's co-author on some of her most notorious Iraq WMD pieces, joins Gaza-Israel coverage at the NYT. Reports that Hamas has chemical weapons may soon follow....
On the other hand, Anne Barnard of the Times tweets "RE "human shields"--Israeli troops' use of them in WB & Gaza is well-documented; IDF says punishable aberation; HR gps say in past systemic." And she links to several cases, e.g. here. Another incident took place near site of yesterday's school massacre. Gaza residents this week have charges that IDF soldiers have entered their homes and fired weapons from there.
Richard Engel of NBC yesterday tweeted that he was in Gaza in ambulance under attack by Israel. Here's his report on this common occurrence:
Massive demos in West Bank last night left one or more Palestinians dead and hundreds injured (235 admitted to one hospital). John Kerry pressing "ceasefire" talks--or "humanitarian pause"--but it would leave Israel within Gaza to clean out more tunnels, which doesn't seem likely to fly with Hamas.
My full report on disgrace at NYT as it trumpets Israel claim on not hitting UN school yesterday in both its news and editorial sections.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)