Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is our favorite mayor in the country, bar none. He is honorable beyond reproach. Prior to becoming mayor, he was one of the most esteemed criminal defense lawyers in the country. He has defended some very high profile clients--some connected, some not.

Oscar has been maligned in a new book called "Positively Fifth Street"--about a high profile Las Vegas murder trial. In the book, the author says that Oscar attended a meeting at a coffee shop during which the assassination of Texas federal judge John Wood was plotted. Wood was later assassinated.

Tuesday, Farrar, Straus and Giroux formally issued an apology to Oscar for the offensive statement in the book.

The company also agreed to publish a full-page advertisement with the apology in The New York Times Book Review on July 6, and remove the offending passage in any future printings of the book.

James McManus, the book's author, wrote that Goodman, a former mob attorney, was part of a cabal that hired a hit man for $50,000 to kill Texas U.S. District Court judge John Wood ''or so the lore has it.''

Goodman learned about the claims early last month, and said Tuesday that once he got his hands on the book, ''I began to seethe. I stewed and stewed.'' Anthony Michael Glassman, who represented Goodman in the case, said Wood's death had been investigated, and there was never a link to Goodman, who represented Texas drug kingpin Jimmy Chagra. Wood presided over Chagra's trial until he was shot to death.

We don't know if Oscar got any money or not, but we hope he did. We look forward to his second term as Mayor, after which we think he will become Governor Goodman. He's the best.

Anti-war and anti-Bush activist and actress Janeane Garofolo was set to star in ABC's upcoming new show, "Slice 'O Life." Not any more. The show has been dropped from ABC's fall lineup. Was it political? She thinks so.

Reader Chris and Skippy tell us the Alterman-Hitchens debate will be re-broadcast Monday, June 9. Go here for details.

We didn't see the original as we've been out of town at a defense lawyers' retreat --no cable except CNN--No PBS--the ten of us here have dubbed it a federal prison camp---ok, maybe it's more like a halfway house-but no joke, it's a maze of concrete buildings, concrete rooms, color coded floors and ceilings(no town to go to, food is only available at certain hours in a cafeteria and it is not something you'd want to eat more than once in a month.) It does have high speed internet access and good water pressure in the showers, and we've had outside counsel come to visit and consult with us who didn't have to spend the night, but we can tell you we won't be doing this again any time soon. Anyway, we missed Eric sparring with Hitchens and hope to see the rerun after we return home--thankfully that's tomorrow. And on that note, we're going to click our heels three times now and hope we're back in Colorado when we wake up.

The American Film Festival has released its list of the top heroes and villains in movies. "The 100 heroes and villains were chosen from 400 character nominees on ballots sent to 1,500 actors, directors, critics and others in the movie business."

So who's the number one hero? Criminal defense lawyer Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

"I think Atticus Finch just represents the goodness all of us want to see in others and feel in ourselves," said Jean Picker Firstenburg, the institute's director. "This is a hard time in human history, and we look for the bright spots that show us the way."

[link via Kate Jones and Dan Dodson, Indigent Defense Director and Media Affairs Director, respectively, of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL.)

Speaking of NACDL, we'll be at an NACDL Executive Committee retreat starting tomorrow, through the weekend--we will be posting, but probably mostly mornings and nights instead of throughout the day.

Hillary Clinton's memoirs hit the bookshelves Monday. The New York Times details the section about her learning her husband had an affair with Monica Lewinsky:

Mrs. Clinton said that at first she accepted her husband's story that he had befriended Ms. Lewinsky when she asked for job-hunting help, "had talked to her a few times" and that the relationship had been misconstrued. "For me, the Lewinsky imbroglio seemed like just another vicious scandal manufactured by political opponents," she wrote.

More than six months later, with the president preparing to testify before a grand jury, Mrs. Clinton was adamant that he had done nothing wrong and was the victim of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." Then, on Saturday, Aug. 15, 1998, he woke her, paced by the bed and "told me for the first time that the situation was much more serious than he had previously acknowledged."

"He now realized he would have to testify that there had been an inappropriate intimacy," Mrs. Clinton wrote. "He told me that what happened between them had been brief and sporadic."

Update: "The Republican-led Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to allow the broadcast networks to own television stations that reach a combined 45 percent of the national audience, up from 35 percent. "

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The FCC is set to vote today on revamping media ownership rules. The fight isn't over even if the media prevails.

The FCC is expected to vote today to ease long-standing rules governing ownership of newspapers, TV and radio stations. The rules limit the number of TV stations a company can own, prevent big networks from merging and prohibit companies from owning newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market.

Today's vote will likely fall along party lines, with the three Republican commissioners indicating they support lifting some ownership limits, including a ban on one company owning newspapers and broadcast stations in the same city. The two Democratic commissioners are opposed....But deregulation opponents say they have no intention of letting the fight end today. They plan to battle on in the courts, and on Capitol Hill.

Consumer groups claim the issue is gaining traction with growing numbers of Americans of all political persuasions. Those groups have been sounding the alarm about the threat of concentration of media power in fewer corporate hands....Unlikely bedfellows on both sides of the political fence are rallying against the changes - from the National Rifle Association and the Family Research Council to the CodePink women's peace movement and the National Organization for Women.

``We're immediately going to mobilize and focus on Congress,'' said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. ``It says an awful lot when groups both on the left and right think the media is too tightly controlled and are fearful that their voices aren't being heard.''

Lisa English of Ruminate This has been covering this issue from top to bottom. Go over and read how you can join the fight and be heard. She provides all the tools. As Lisa says, "These are our airwaves, let them know we've only begun to fight."

Bob Herbert on Jayson Blair in Truth, Lies and Subtext:

The idea that blacks can get away with the journalistic equivalent of murder at The Times because they are black is preposterous. There's a real shortage of black reporters, editors and columnists at The Times. But the few who are here are doing fine and serious work day in and day out and don't deserve to be stigmatized by people who can see them only through the prism of a stereotype.

The problem with American newsrooms is too little diversity, not too much. Blacks have always faced discrimination and maddening double standards in the newsroom, and they continue to do so. So do women, Latinos and many other groups that are not part of the traditional newsroom in-crowd.

So let's be real. Discrimination in the newsroom --in hiring, in the quality of assignments and in promotions -- is a much more pervasive problem than Jayson Blair's aberrant behavior. A black reporter told me angrily last week, "After hundreds of years in America, we are still on probation."

We're watching Lou Dobbs on CNN presenting a report on the New York Times meeting today about Jayson Blair. The theme Dobbs keeps repeating is that no top editors are accepting responsibility.

According to the Times, Howell Raines accepted full responsibility and turned the meeting into a grievance session against himself and his management style. So what gives with CNN? Raines said,

"I was guilty of a failure of vigilance that, since I sit in this chair where the buck stops, I should have prevented."

If that isn't accepting responsibility, what is?

Raines said he would resign if Sultzburger asked him to.

Mr. Sulzberger, who was sitting next to Mr. Raines, quickly interjected that he would not accept Mr. Raines's resignation even if offered.

When asked whether race played a role in keeping Jayson Blair, Raines said,

"Our paper has a commitment to diversity and by all accounts he appeared to be a promising young minority reporter," Mr. Raines said. "I believe in aggressively providing hiring and career opportunities for minorities."

"Does that mean I personally favored Jayson?" he added, a moment later. "Not consciously. But you have a right to ask if I, as a white man from Alabama, with those convictions, gave him one chance too many by not stopping his appointment to the sniper team. When I look into my heart for the truth of that, the answer is yes."

What are we missing?

"On June 2, if the FCC, the Corporate Media and the Bush Cabal have their way, American newspapers, tv, broadband, cable and radio will begin consolidating onto the balance sheets of a handful of major corporations like FOX, ABC, NBC and CBS. Whatever is left of media democracy and diversity of voice will be lost to those who promote commercialized interests and corporate think."

"Congress and the FCC should stop media deregulation and work to make the media diverse, competitive, balanced, and fair."

Stop them by supporting Moveon.org’s STOP THE FCC campaign by clicking here." [Link via Lisa English at Ruminate This.] Skippy also is on top of the issue and has these action links.

On June 2, the FCC is planning to relax rules designed to keep the nation's media from being controlled by just a few owners. This is bad. The bottom line will be a media that is owned by very few -- and the likelihood of their corporate agenda reflecting the liberal ideology is nil. There is still time to register your protests.

At the Wednesday, May 7, 2003 City Council meeting, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution 50-0 calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to "protect the public's right to diversity in media content, ownership and employment" by prohibiting further media consolidation. The resolution cautions that media consolidation results in lost jobs, reduced diversity in programming and ownership, and less commitment to the local community.

From Sunday's Chicago Tribune, here are the rules as they now exist (although many have already been avoided by grandfathering or waivers):

Court TV Anchor and former criminal defense attorney Rikki Klieman's memoir was released yesterday--today it is ranked #586 on Amazon.

Buy the Book Today!

We describe the book on CrimeLynx:

"a riveting, brutally honest memoir by celebrated criminal trial attorney and Court TV Anchor Rikki Klieman, in which she details not only her triumphs as a pioneer in the male-dominated arena of criminal defense, but the price she paid for success-- and the toll it took on her personal life and physical health. The book becomes filled with spirit and joy, however, as Rikki describes falling in love in middle age and learning that she can have it all."

The Dixie Chicks are soaring on their new tour. They are back in favor with the crowds.