Cursor's Media Patrol - 09/15/06

A Senate committee rejects the president's military tribunal proposal in favor of one of their own, with Democrats "rapt spectators" on the sidelines, as Republicans lead the opposition, and an attempt to strong-arm top military lawyers generates some blowback.

Hezbollah is accused of war crimes during the conflict with Israel for "deliberately targeting Israeli civilians with its rockets," in a report by Amnesty International, but a Hezbollah lawmaker defends the right of reprisal.

Apparently reversing course again, President Bush is reported to have confessed that capturing Osama bin Laden is not "a paramount goal of the war on terror," as he offered his philosophy on how to win the war.

The number of "failed states," identified as "a breeding ground for global terrorism," jumps from 17 to 26 according to a report by the World Bank, as the Bank's president Paul Wolfowitz seeks to downplay a recent controversy over the way conditions are attached to funding poor countries.

John Pilger presents a guide to how "the news value of whole societies was measured by their relationship with 'us' in the West, and Brad DeLong catches CJR Daily practicing what it critiques, by "ignoring genuine expertise" and stubbornly insisting "on splitting the middle and poxing both houses."

PBS puts previews online of three upcoming Bill Moyers investigations that will examine "key issues facing democracy" that Moyers believes should be at the center of debate this fall: political corruption, Christians and the environment, and net neutrality.

Words Without Borders offers a selection of 'literature from the Axis of Evil,' J.G. Ballard explores "the pathology of everyday life" in "Kingdom Come," a new novel set in the "commercial dream space" of a mall, and the Washington Post finds that an extra day at the mall leads the pious into temptation.