Cursor's Media Patrol - 12/28/05

Defense lawyers in terrorism cases are reportedly "preparing letters and legal briefs to challenge the NSA program on behalf of their clients," as a Bush administration spokesman claims that monitorees "have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings, and churches."

"With Bush's defense of his wiretapping," writes Jonathan Schell, "the hidden state has stepped into the open."

As 'The Times and the Post go silent on us,' journalists tell Editor & Publisher that the papers should have disclosed meetings that their editors reportedly had with President Bush.

"[T]he Times' decision-making is not the central story here," says the Village Voice's Sydney Schanberg. "The president's secret directive is... We've been lied to before. But this presidency has lifted these arts to new and scary heights." Earlier: 'Paranoia on the left and the right.'

A "regular guest on CNN" denounces "a lavishly funded and monolithic media effort to misreport the Iraq war for the purpose of bringing down the Bush administration."

The Wall Street Journal reports on TV commercials being run by Move America Forward, which claim: "Newly found Iraqi documents show that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, including anthrax and mustard gas, and had 'extensive ties' to al Qaeda." Earlier: 'At Russo Marsh & Rogers the "truth" is always on tour.'

Left I on the News parses an AP report that the CIA's inspector general is "investigating fewer than 10 cases where terror suspects may have been mistakenly swept away to foreign countries."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "has the left in her back pocket," and "doesn't have to worry about catering to them," a political analyst tells the New York Times, while Ted Koppel and Tom Brokaw agree that "the only difference between the Clinton administration and the Bush administration was 9/11."

A U.N. official declares Iraq's parliamentary election "credible and transparent," while Knight Ridder finds that 'Many Iraqi soldiers see a civil war on the horizon,' as insurgents get 'back to business' and Chalabi takes over the oil ministry.

A WSWS report details the recruiting practices that result in Latin American mercenaries being paid as little as $5.75 an hour to guard Baghdad's Green Zone. Earlier: 'Asia's poor build U.S. bases in Iraq.'

Could the use of Latin Americans and Asians in Iraq explain the Pentagon's foot-dragging on human trafficking, as reported here?--Dictynna

'Telling it like it isn't' Robert Fisk offers examples of "the semantic iceberg that has crashed into American journalism in the Middle East," while"the mutilated bodies of the victims of aerial bombing, torn apart in the desert by wild dogs -- are kept off the screen." Plus: 'Terrorist attack in Louisiana?'

The editor of Lebanon's Daily Star "would like to bet Donald Rumsfeld ... and Karen Hughes ... that the overall coverage of Iraq on the mainstream Arab satellite services has been more comprehensive, balanced and accurate than the coverage of any mainstream American cable or broadcast television service."

A key Enron figure cops a plea, three weeks before the scheduled trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, and finds himself portrayed in the Washington Post as "a likable family man who remained humble despite his corporate rank and salary."

A former federal prosecutor sees the plea agreement as "a tacit acknowledgement by the government that their case is far from overwhelming."

The Los Angeles Times reports that home mortgage lenders, seeking to undo consumer protections in state laws, are rallying behind a bill sponsored in the House by "Representative No. 1."

A Bloomberg columnist describes the recent scene on the Senate floor, in which a self-described "mean, miserable SOB," stymied on ANWR on the worst day of his life, sounded like "The Godfather" pleading, "When have I ever refused an accommodation?"

As the Chronicles of Narnia rap gets "the Paper of Record treatment," Carpetbagger asks: "when was the last time Saturday Night Live was this successful in creating a cultural sensation."