This media campaign is gaining steam. ukiyo appeared on MSNBC yesterday, so traffic at downingstreetmemo.com should increase again. The site has added new features. There's now a page debunking some of the standard wingnut attempts to obscure the significance and credibility of DSM. Also, the News page now fact-checks the lies and half-truths being disassembled. DSM has gained such prominence that the hacks have emerged bearing their talking points. A battle to bury DSM has begun in earnest, and it is fueled largely by outright lies at the moment. Please monitor your blood pressure carefully.
Here is the new list of three media outlets we would ask you to contact. Please write, call, or fax all three today (EVEN IF you've done so before), and check back tomorrow for the next installment:
(A) Washington Post Ombudsman, Michael Getler. email: ombudsman@washpost.com phone: 202-334-7582 fax: 202-334-5269
(B) USA Today Managing Editor of News, Carol Stevens. phone: 800-872-0001 or 703-854-3400 fax: 703-854-2165 email: editor@usatoday.com
Third news outlet below the fold.
(C) Toledo Blade Ombudsman, Jack Lessenberry. email: omblade@aol.com phone: 419-724-6200
Note: The Washington Post published an important article on DSM by Walter Pincus on May 13, but nothing since then specifically on the document. In as much as a good deal has come out since that time (such as information about John Bolton and the firing of Jose Bustani--see my diary yesterday), it makes sense to urge the Post to encourage Pincus to do more work on the story now. The Toledo Blade has just won a Pulitzer Prize for its investigative series `Tiger Force' (on war crimes in Vietnam); the Blade often does outstanding investigative reporting. For USA Today, the email address is a very general one, so make sure you put `Attn: Carol Stevens' in the subject line.
Update [2005-6-7 17:19:2 by smintheus]: I wrote this yesterday evening. Today I see that the WaPo finally has published a second story on DSM! It's a good but brief overview of how the story is picking up steam in the US media, and refers to the AP story over the weekend about Bolton and Bustani (on which see my Monday diary). Here's the link to the article by Jefferson Morley: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060700474.html Tip o' the hat to MH in PA for pointing this out: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/7/161618/3676 If you write to the Post, please congratulate them on returning to the DSM story and urge them to do more. Mention that their own report says that interest has picked up considerably since Pincus wrote, and that further revelations (such as the RAF bombing documents) have added new dimensions.
For those who are new participants, at the end of this diary you'll find a lengthy section with introductory materials and advice about how to help in this media campaign.
New tasks need attention, so today I'll be asking for assistance in fact-checking MSM, and for volunteers to help track the `Awaken' campaign. Also, I'll say a few words about recent discussions of DSM on MTP and MSNBC.
Volunteers needed
We're seeking volunteers for (a) debunking and fact-checking, and (b) tracking the impact of the `Awaken the MSM' campaign.
(a) The website downingstreetmemo.com is growing as I said above, along with the workload. We're seeking to discredit the more absurd claims that have been made about DSM, and with them, those who make such claims. We also want to provide a Media Matters style expose of any nonsense about DSM that the MSM has promulgated or permitted itself to be used to promote. If you come across examples of either, would you please post them on one of these diaries with the subject line `Debunked' (for ridiculous claims made by Bush cheerleaders) or `Exposed' (for ridiculous claims printed or broadcast without correction by MSM). We'll collect the info you post and store it up; some of it will get posted on the website.
(b) I'm also looking for any help I can get keeping an eye on the various media outlets we've already targeted. We need to know whether they have published or broadcast any stories on DSM after we contacted them. I'd like each volunteer to track one of the outlets on this list on a fairly regular basis: Associated Press; C-Span; CBS Evening News; CBS 60 Minutes; ABC World News; ABC Nightline; NBC Nightly News; PBS NewsHour; Newsweek; Baltimore Sun; Chicago Tribune; Wall Street Journal. Any takers?
DSM in the media
ukiyo (aka Bob) appeared on Monday afternoon's Connected Coast to Coast on MSNBC. He did a great job at presenting a reasoned and coherent view of why DSM is significant in the exceedingly short time he was permitted to speak. He also swatted away Monica Crowley's attempt to inoculate Bush against criticism by dragging out HR 4655, the "Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998". She ensured that the twin Bush cheerleaders hogged nearly all the time, though, and MC was right in there with them trying to herd DSM to its death through the fog off a tall cliff. She appeared to be unduly agitated. Bob got in the last word though thanks to Ron Reagan, and restored some sanity to the proceedings.
So far it looks like the GOP is putting forward some pretty poor spokesmen to convince the nation that it should avert its eyes from DSM. Aylward on C-Span Saturday was incompetent. The two on yesterday, Con Coughlin of the Sunday Telegraph and Jed Babbin, a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, were both smug and laughable. In fact Reagan began laughing out loud at Babbin while he babbled nonsense. Babbin seemed determined to convince the world that WMDs are yet to be found in Syria. In his view, the man who took the minutes was an ill-informed twerp. Coughlin, a notorious shill for MI6, declared vociferously that everybody in Britain trusted Blair's explanation that he'd been misled by bad intelligence (Coughlin's field, that), and that nobody in the UK cared in the least about DSM. Coughlin also made this astounding claim (in one of the few times the cheerleaders referred to the actual contents of DSM): According to him, the fact that DSM refers to the NSC's unwillingness to go the UN route is a sign it cannot be trusted. For as everyone knows, in Sept. 2002 Rice did in fact appeal to the UN. Omitted was any mention that DSM reveals the British were determined to use the UN and planned to convince the US to work with them on that route.
So, altogether, the strategy so far from the other side is to make things up.
Tim Russert, interviewing RNC Chair Ken Mehlman on Meet The Press on Sunday, brought up DSM at some length. It's been diaried at least twice, both times with pretty harsh judgments of TR, perhaps rightly. TR pressed KM repeatedly, though not hard enough. KM kept claiming that DSM has been discredited, but he never specified by whom or how (we've seen that many times now). Like so many wingers, he pretended that DSM says the intel was fixed, an idea he naturally rejected. I've said many times that we need to keep bringing the debate back to the text, especially the phrase "fixed around" which does not necessarily or even primarily mean `fabricated'. We cannot let the goopers convince the public that DSM accuses Bush of fabricating evidence. What the phrase means is that the Bush administration was manipulating or cherry-picking evidence. Anyhow, one fine thing TR did was read large chunks of the text at Mehlman. The text read was almost completely at odds with the bland dismissals from KM. No doubt Russert thought so too.
A Gerald Ford moment for Mehlman: "I would also, though, disagree, as I said a moment ago, with the notion that Iraq was somehow less of a threat. Iran and North Korea hadn't invaded their neighbors." I guess we'll be bringing those forces home from South Korea then.
Yesterday many interesting comments were made on the Awaken diary, but I was not able to respond to more than a few of the posts I wanted to respond to or thank everybody whom I wanted to thank. I noted everything posted however. The system was so slow and I was so pressed for time that I gave up at a certain stage--even rating comments was painfully slow. I also have quite a few emails to get caught up on...maybe by this evening. Those who've written and haven't heard back, I hope you will be patient with me.
Everything hereafter is repeated from previous diaries for the benefit of first-time participants.
ORIENTATION FOR NEW PARTICIPANTS
This series of diaries aims to lift the virtual news blackout in the US on the Downing Street Minutes. We're trying to unite the strength of DSM coalitions for a targeted campaign. For a full month many of us here at dKos as well as other web-based activists (such as FAIR, MoveOn, and the Big Brass Alliance of bloggers) have been appealing for greater coverage of DSM by the news media, but with only limited success. We will need to focus, coordinate, and sustain our efforts if we wish to get their attention.
Therefore every weekday this month I will post a diary listing three news outlets. Please email or call all three on that day requesting politely that they report on DSM. The first diary in this series gives a lengthier discussion of this media campaign and its background. I also talked there about how we should treat allegations that this is stale news that the public has no interest in. Such allegations are misguided if not tendentious.
My main point was that too often our attempts to compel the news media to report on DSM have been scatter-shot. Generally we've been contacting virtually every media outlet, rather than focusing our effort. When we have focused on an individual news outlet, such as the Washington Post, results have been impressive. So it's high time that we begin an organized, focused, and sustained campaign on the media. I'm confident that we can still force news outlets to pay attention if we inundate them, one by one, with letters and calls requesting that they report on this important story.
This media campaign
This campaign will try to wake up various news outlets to the realization that very many people want and expect them to report on the Downing Street Memo. Every day it will concentrate on just three targets, and if any targeted news outlets don't respond with serious coverage, it will revisit them several days later. There will be a new trio of media contacts posted every weekday. The list will be diaried here around 8 AM EST, and will be crossposted at other sites. The surest place to find it will be at www.downingstreetmemo.com/takeaction.html.
I welcome other activist groups and blogs that wish to collaborate on this campaign, and I urge all who are in a position to do so to publicize it as best they can--especially by posting the daily lists at their own sites or by linking to the updated list. These diaries will be a useful place to share information about coordinating our efforts. Several bloggers have already given me considerable help to get this off the ground, so I'd like to know how I can help others now with their efforts.
Advice on writing a letter to the media
Please write your own letter, rather than sending a form letter. Individualized letters have much more impact. You can easily re-use that letter again and again once you've composed it, and it need not be long or detailed since each target will be receiving dozens or hundreds of such letters that day (they'll soon figure out what the DSM is all about). The most important thing will be to maximize numbers, and to ensure that every target receives an equally large number of letters. Phone calls typically make a bigger impression than an email.
Angry, condescending, hyperbolic, or overblown letters are likely to carry much less weight than polite, precise, succinct ones. Try to appeal to the better nature of the journalist you contact (put yourself in his/her shoes). You might want to state briefly why you believe the leaked document is significant for democracy in the US, or mention Rep. Conyers' letter to President Bush seeking clarification regarding DSM. If you are at a loss about what to say about the significance of DSM, you're welcome to plunder bits of this old diary on what we learn from the Downing Street Minutes.
You might also think of including links to one or two of the following articles concerning the leaked minutes. But do not simply paste these articles into your letter:
Text of the Downing Street Memo:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html
London Time article on "spikes of activity" against Iraq in summer of 2002:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1632566,00.html
Knight Ridder article by Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott (5/5):
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11574296.html
Chicago Tribune article by Stephen J. Hedges and Mark Silva (5/17):
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0505170052may17,1,5984426.story
NY Times article by Douglas Jehl (5/20):
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/politics/20weapons.html?ex=1117684800&en=c7e3b449bae71b66&
ei=5070&oref=login
Please email the letter separately to each of the day's three contacts. Do not CC all addressees in one email--that's the kind of thing you'd expect from right-wing swarms. And most importantly, come back the next day to send out three more letters. If you miss a diary at DailyKos, the same list will be up all day at www.downingstreetmemo.com/takeaction.html.