The bumper sticker I read on every Volvo I saw during my childhood in Vermont read, “Act Globally, Shop Locally.” A worthy message indeed and more relevant than ever with the growing concern about over-processed food (i.e. peanut butter, spinach, etc.), as well as the various chemicals that can be found in our food containers these days, but unfortunately this message cannot apply to the news we receive. The growing trend seems to be that local is better when it comes to news coverage. Independent sites, as well as those backed by mainstream media, are popping up all over the country. Mark Glaser, of PBS’ MediaShift, just posted the following on Twitter: “Putting together guide to local watchdog news sites for MediaShift, including VoiceOfSanDiego, MinnPost, StL Beacon, others.” I couldn’t help but think of David Simon’s comment on how newspapers must be the counterweight to bullshit and without them, local corruption will run rampant. Simon has often stated how it would be nice to be in local politics over the next decade, as the unchecked opportunities will be numerous while a new model for local news coverage is discovered. Watch a great interview that Bill Moyers conducted with Simon here.

I’m looking forward to the collection Glaser comes up with to see if there are any sources that I’m missing, but I couldn’t help but think about what we’re all missing with this increasing “local centric” mentality of news coverage. I have written before about the growing trend of hyper-local sites, but the void in our collective knowledge of the world is of far greater concern as news organizations continue to whittle away at their foreign news bureaus. This leaves us with a collection of independent journalists filing the void, often valiantly doing great work, but I worry how effective they are all the time and how safe? Start-ups such as Global Post have put together some great, experienced foreign correspondents, but while still in its infancy, there are bound to be gaps in coverage.

On Tuesday, Andrew Stroehlein, journalist and Communications Director for the International Crisis Group, expressed his worries about “a world without foreign correspondents.” He isn’t the first person to express concern about this growing trend to cut costs by bringing the bureaus home, but his post is worth a read for its unique perspective. Stroehlein gives two examples, in Somalia and Sri Lanka, of how news coverage is lacking. His logic is a bit flawed (which he seems to recognize and acknowledge), in that he discusses the cost-cutting measures being taken and that this has had an effect on the diminished coverage. However, in both scenarios the almost complete press blackout is due to security on the ground or government interference with the press.

“The first is Somalia, where the utter inanity of foreign news coverage in the West, particularly in the US, knows no bounds. Amid deafening hero-worship and chest-thumping, the US media machine was so proud that a new president with the world’s largest military at his disposal can kill a couple lightly armed thugs that few seemed even able to grasp the most basic fact of the situation: piracy is symptom, not the disease (NOTE: I wrote about this yesterday in urging people to focus on the solution, rather than just trumpeting the problem), and lawlessness off the coast of Somalia will continue as long as anarchy is allowed to continue on land. If only a tiny fraction of the Western media ruckus of recent weeks could be dedicated to Somalia itself, then international political attention might start focusing on the roots of the problem.”

Stroehlein continues,

“The other example of a crisis unfolding mostly not before our eyes is Sri Lanka, where over the past few months the situation in the north east has become incredibly desperate for some 150,000 civilians trapped in an ever-shrinking “safe zone” between their government that is shelling them and the cult-like LTTE rebels who shoot them if they try to escape. Today, as my colleague writes, “A mass slaughter of civilians will take place Tuesday at noon. And everyone knows it.” Once again, foreign correspondents are unable to cover the story, this time because the government is not allowing them in to the region.”

I would have included the genocide in Darfur along with these two examples as well, but Stroehlein has done a valiant job of describing the press’ failure to properly report as he has written it. The comments are also well worth reading.

Alisa Miller, the head of Public Radio International (PRI), explained in a TED Talk in 2008 why, although we (Americans) want to know more about the world now than ever before, the US media is actually showing us less. She walks us through the graphs and stats in great detail below and I have also included the map she references in her talk about news coverage in February of 2007.

Below are the links to a great interview Bill Moyers conducted with former journalist and current writer and film producer David Simon. Simon, known for his realistic portrayal of the streets, government, schools and cops of Baltimore in The Wire, also made the HBO mini-series, “Generation Kill” with fellow collaborator and former Baltimore cop Ed Burns. Never shy to express his true feelings, I have immense respect for Simon because he has reported more on what life is like in Baltimore than any series the Baltimore Sun, his former employer, has probably ever done. Enjoy.

Bill Moyers\’ Interview with David Simon, Part 1
Bill Moyers\’ Interview with David Simon, Part 2

I am more apt to listen to the conspiracy theorists than I am the mainstream view. Perhaps this is partially due to my father being a journalist or even the fact that both of my parents are baby boomers, but I’ve always had a good, natural dose of reality and skepticism. This holds true with political elections, assassinations and business deals. But it also holds true of such things like a banking system that has collapsed and is now trying to right itself.

This week Bill Moyers interviewed a former senior regulator during the Savings and Loan scandal who is now a professor at the University of Missouri, William K. Black. Black had a lot to say and although Moyers seemed to be surprised by some of it, I doubt much of what Black said was news to Moyers. How do I know? Why should we believe Black when he says the financial collapse was caused by the same people who are still in power at these banks along with the people in government pretending to regulate the aftermath? He describes this massive cover-up in detail, alleging favoritsm for banks while kicking the auto industry to the side. (On a side note, I don’t think for a moment some of the same crap isn’t happening with the auto industry, but not on the grand level it is with the finance sector.) First, a look at some of his charges:

BILL MOYERS: What did AIG contribute? What did they do wrong?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: They made bad loans. Their type of loan was to sell a guarantee, right? And they charged a lot of fees up front. So, they booked a lot of income. Paid enormous bonuses. The bonuses we’re thinking about now, they’re much smaller than these bonuses that were also the product of accounting fraud. And they got very, very rich. But, of course, then they had guaranteed this toxic waste. These liars’ loans. Well, we’ve just gone through why those toxic waste, those liars’ loans, are going to have enormous losses. And so, you have to pay the guarantee on those enormous losses. And you go bankrupt. Except that you don’t in the modern world, because you’ve come to the United States, and the taxpayers play the fool. Under Secretary Geithner and under Secretary Paulson before him… we took $5 billion dollars, for example, in U.S. taxpayer money. And sent it to a huge Swiss Bank called UBS. At the same time that that bank was defrauding the taxpayers of America. And we were bringing a criminal case against them. We eventually get them to pay a $780 million fine, but wait, we gave them $5 billion. So, the taxpayers of America paid the fine of a Swiss Bank. And why are we bailing out somebody who that is defrauding us?

BILL MOYERS: And why…

WILLIAM K. BLACK: How mad is this?

BILL MOYERS: What is your explanation for why the bankers who created this mess are still calling the shots?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, that, especially after what’s just happened at G.M., that’s… it’s scandalous.

BILL MOYERS: Why are they firing the president of G.M. and not firing the head of all these banks that are involved?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: There are two reasons. One, they’re much closer to the bankers. These are people from the banking industry. And they have a lot more sympathy. In fact, they’re outright hostile to autoworkers, as you can see. They want to bash all of their contracts. But when they get to banking, they say, ‘contracts, sacred.’ But the other element of your question is we don’t want to change the bankers, because if we do, if we put honest people in, who didn’t cause the problem, their first job would be to find the scope of the problem. And that would destroy the cover up.

BILL MOYERS: The cover up?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Sure. The cover up.

BILL MOYERS: That’s a serious charge.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Of course.

BILL MOYERS: Who’s covering up?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Geithner is charging, is covering up. Just like Paulson did before him. Geithner is publicly saying that it’s going to take $2 trillion — a trillion is a thousand billion — $2 trillion taxpayer dollars to deal with this problem. But they’re allowing all the banks to report that they’re not only solvent, but fully capitalized. Both statements can’t be true. It can’t be that they need $2 trillion, because they have masses losses, and that they’re fine.

These are all people who have failed. Paulson failed, Geithner failed. They were all promoted because they failed, not because…

Black goes on to make many more accusations about corruption, fraud and massive deception at the highest levels of government and industry. But why should we believe him? What is the smell test for conspiracy theories? When it comes to political assassinations, how much proof do we need before we start to believe the conspiracy theorists? What about financial and political fraud and corruption? If these accusations aren’t true, why would a distinguished professor risk his career and more just to say these things?

According to Wikipedia:

Slander per se

The four (4) categories of slander which are actionable per se are (i) accusing someone of a crime; (ii) alleging that someone has a foul or loathsome disease; (iii) adversely reflecting on a person’s fitness to conduct her business or trade; and (iv) imputing serious sexual misconduct (especially the chastity of a woman). Once again, all you would have to prove is that someone had published the statement to a third party. No proof of special damages is required.

Fraud is a crime. Black has made public statements that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, the heads of Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and many others have committed serious crimes. If this ISN’T true, wouldn’t you expect to see the slander lawsuits flying? Or at least some statements out of the halls of Washington and Wall Street condemning these accusations? Wanna bet they are silent in the coming days? Black hasn’t said that any of them have engaged in any serious sexual conduct (especially, the chastity of a woman), just fraudulent misconduct fucking with the chastity of America and the heart of capitalism. I, for one, believe every word he said.

Update: Glenn Greenwald has posted his own bit on the Moyers/Black interview as a part of a wide-ranging discussion about senior Obama officials’ involvement in this debacle. Well worth the read, here.

“… Pay no attention to those Washington pundits cheering the fighting in Gaza as they did the bloodletting in Iraq. Killing is cheap and war is a sport in a city where life and death become abstractions of policy.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

This week PBS and Bill Moyers aired a piece through its partnership with Expose, the fine example of investigative journalism, originally reported by a Texas TV news crew. Already recognized with some well-deserved rewards, hopefully this story will gain more traction through the national airing on PBS. It is a story of failing public infrastructure, continued government deregulation and the corruption of public officials which drives this line in the wrong direction. Here is a link to the entire program as well as a video preview. I would love to see more public discussion on this one, as it is something not just affecting Texans, but people worldwide; how do we take back our public institutions which were designed to keep us safe and instead do the opposite. The trust was broken a long time ago and thanks to reporters like Brett Shipp and his Dallas-based crew of editors and producers, the public is informed of these promises to protect and serve.