My Life

Debuts June 22. Get it now. And thanks to the anonymous TL reader who bought it for us off our wish list.

Update: Clinton says he slept on the couch for two months after telling Hillary the truth about Monical.

Tonight on PBS, Frontline will report on the plea bargaining system in America.

....it may surprise many to learn that nearly 95 percent of all cases resulting in felony convictions never reach a jury, but instead are settled through plea bargains, in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence.

"The real American justice system is unlike anything depicted on Law & Order and Court TV," says Ofra Bikel, producer of the 90-minute FRONTLINE® documentary, "The Plea," which premieres Thursday, June 17, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings). "I know I was stunned when I realized that only about 5 percent of all felony convictions result from jury trials. The rest are settled by plea bargains. And these deals aren't always to the defendant's advantage."

Frontline always produces great shows, be sure to watch if you can.

This a fascinating proposal. A promoter has reserved Giants Stadium on September 1 and is running a petition to ask Bruce Springsteen to lead the music industry in a politically oriented concert timed around the time of the Republican Convention. Please, go over and sign the petition to draft Bruce. [hat tip Matt Stoller]

Country Joe McDonald, of Country Joe and the Fish, has turned down a music award that would require him to go to Vietnam to receive it.

"As a hippie protest songwriter, I could not exist in Vietnam today," said Mr. McDonald, lead singer of the psychedelic band Country Joe and the Fish. "Communism tends to be totalitarian, and I am not supportive of that," Mr. McDonald said while performing in Britain recently.

He also "warned that Washington cannot win the guerrilla wars in Afghanistan or Iraq."

A little Country Joe history here. More Country Joe news here

Eric Alterman has retained a lawyer to go after Fox News' Bill O'Reilly for a retraction of a lie O'Reilly said about Eric on his show--threatening a defamation lawsuit unless O'Reilly complies:

On his show the other day, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly apologized to Texas columnist Molly Ivins for calling her a socialist. Now liberal author Eric Alterman wants a retraction from O'Reilly, who recently labeled him a fellow traveler of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Alterman's Miami-based attorney, Sarah Clasby Engel, sent a demand letter to O'Reilly last week, saying, "We would like to take this opportunity to identify a lie you recently broadcast." On his show in early May, the conservative yakker called Alterman "another Fidel Castro confidant."

Threatening a defamation suit unless O'Reilly makes a retraction, Engel states: "We are certain that you will be unable to point us to any proof whatever of a personal relationship between Alterman, a proud anti-Communist liberal, and Fidel Castro." The letter notes that in mid-May, Alterman signed a public rebuke of Castro, assailing the "brute repression" of his dictatorship. The lawyer gave O'Reilly five business days to respond. A Fox News spokesman told us the missive arrived only yesterday and "our legal department is reviewing it."

[link via Cursor]

So much for family values. Rush and wife number 3 are getting a divorce. [link via Atrios}

Sad news, music legend Ray Charles has died at 73.

by TChris

Conservatives who were obsessed with the Superbowl appearance of Janet Jackson's nipple are losing steam in their effort to stiffen indecency rules for broadcasters.

A Senate bill to increase fines for broadcasting indecency includes a provision that would "roll back, at least temporarily, rules passed by the [FCC] last year that would permit media conglomerates to own newspapers in markets where they already own radio and television stations." The administration and some of its Republican supporters want to help media conglomerates get bigger, and are looking for a way to uncouple the bill's indecency and ownership provisions.

Senators also face "the peril of investing too much political capital in a divisive issue, which has pitted some social conservatives and child-advocacy groups against big broadcasters and civil rights advocates."

Moreover, in recent weeks, the issue of the war in Iraq - particularly the prisoner abuse scandal - has moved to the forefront of the national political agenda in a way that was not the case on Super Bowl Sunday, when the exposing of Janet Jackson's right breast during the halftime show caused such a stir. Politicians who push too hard on the decency issue may risk appearing to have their priorities out of whack.

Having out-of-whack priorities has never bothered the right wing, but Janet's nipple does seem trifling when compared to the 800-plus American soldiers who have died in Iraq.

We are anxiously awaiting tonight's season finale of "The Sopranos." Here's the clues, as offered by HBO:

• Tony's crew circles the wagons as Johnny Sack turns up the heat.
• Carmela counts her blessings;
• Christopher is freaked out by an unexpected visitor;
• Benny's connection to the plumbers' union comes in handy;
• AJ demonstrates his business acumen;
• and Tony ponders whether to execute a "sacrifice bunt."

Here's some possibilities:

• Someone will get whacked. Will it be Tony's cousin Tony B. or Christopher or mob boss Johnny? This reviewer thinks it's Christopher.
• Will Tony's burned mistress or the black bear make a return appearance to cause some final trouble?
• Will Christopher's visitor be the FBI or Adrianna who turns out not to be dead?

We'll go with this reviewer who predicts much of the action will revolve around an engagement party at home for Meadow. We think this will be cousin Tony's (Steve Buschemi's) last appearance, but we don't know if he gets whacked or set up like a guy in a previous episode to go back to prison.

Predictions, anyone?

Are you a budding filmmaker? Are you against the war on drugs? Then check this out. The 3rd Annual Drug War Vigil Film Festival will be held in Vancouver, B.C. in September. There's prize money, and your film can be submitted on plain old VHS, or in high 8 or digital 8. It should be 30 minutes or less on any topic related to cannabis, drugs and the drug war, and/or Harm Reduction.

The festival is the project of the Drug War Vigil Memorial Group:

The Drug War Vigil Memorial Group is a social justice think tank that was founded in the fall of 2000, dedicated to ending the War on Drugs. We recognize that the militarization of this medical issue and the criminalization of the chronically sick, terminally ill and chemically dependent have resulted in the needless loss of human life, and that this is the true crime.

by TChris

The Columbia Journalism Review features a debate between The Washington Post's ombudsman and the foreign editor of London's The Independent. The topic: is objectivity and balance, the supposed hallmark of U.S. journalism, preferable to the more adversarial style of journalism practiced in the British press?

The argument starts from a flawed premise: that American journalism is indeed objective. The New York Times recently admitted (albeit not in these words) that it became the President's propoganda machine during the run-up to, and the early days of, the war in Iraq, passing along whatever the administration said without reporting on its probable veracity. Sidney Blumenthal's The Clinton Wars makes a strong argument that the mainstream media relentlessly advanced anti-Clinton rumors and accusations without first deciding whether they were supported by facts. Uncritical reporting of partisan accusations isn't objective journalism.

The Independent's Leonard Doyle provides additional examples to debunk the myth that American reporting is objective, including CNN's failure to report on civilian deaths in Afghanistan because CNN's chairman just didn't want to hear it. According to Doyle:

by TChris

If the NY Times can say "We were wrong," why can't the President?

[W]e have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. ... The problematic articles ... depended at least in part on information from a circle of Iraqi informants, defectors and exiles bent on "regime change" in Iraq, people whose credibility has come under increasing public debate in recent weeks. ...

Editors at several levels who should have been challenging reporters and pressing for more skepticism were perhaps too intent on rushing scoops into the paper. Accounts of Iraqi defectors were not always weighed against their strong desire to have Saddam Hussein ousted. Articles based on dire claims about Iraq tended to get prominent display, while follow-up articles that called the original ones into question were sometimes buried. In some cases, there was no follow-up at all.

The Times catalogs some of the instances in which the paper was duped by misinformation and provides a link to more comprehensive coverage of its errant reporting. The paper deserves praise for setting the record straight.

Now if only the Bush administration would do the same.