Just from the standpoint of providing the public with information needed to protect its health, Moyers' story should have been of vital interest to the media. Joe Thornton, a biologist at Columbia University and the author of Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy, commented: "Scientific evidence is mounting that hundreds of long-lived industrial chemicals can have profound effects at low doses and may be impairing the health of the general public. The great tragedy is that this situation is entirely unnecessary because safer substitutes exist now for virtually all the uses of persistent toxic substances. But the chemical industry has used its extraordinary influence to deny the hazards of its products and to establish a regulatory system that protects the industry more than it does public health and the environment."
Sounds like a newsworthy story to us.
The timing of Moyers' report was propitious. Citizens no longer are buying the scam that what's good for corporate America is good for them. The night before Moyers' broadcast, Julia Roberts had won an Oscar for her portrayal of an unlikely environmental heroine in Erin Brockovich. Americans applauded the message in the film. Moreover, in a poll published in September in Business Week, 72 percent responded that they felt "business has gained too much power over too many aspects of American life."
There were any number of possible angles responsible media could have explored stemming from "Trade Secrets." Around the nation, newspapers and wire services reported and commented extensively on the program. Many reports — especially those in the alternative media — were substantive, expanding on Moyers' disclosures. Other reports focused on the dispute between Moyers and the companies.
Some commentaries were bizarre. The New York Times argued (March 26, "Rendering a Guilty Verdict on Corporate America," by Neil Genzlinger) that to stand up to the chemical leviathans means we'd return to "cloth diapers and spotted apples," and that you can't have "democracy or more durable house paint ... without a price." Whether the Times realized it or not, the price it urges us to accept is homicide to boost corporate profits. Still, at least the Times noticed Moyers.
There were compelling local, or, at least, regional arguments for following Moyers. Ground zero for his report was the South. As national media critic Norman Solomon told Weekly Planet, "Some of the documentary focused on horrific conditions at chemical production facilities near the Gulf of Mexico. So why would a paper anywhere near the Gulf choose to ignore this particular documentary?"
Why indeed? And what did we learn from the St. Petersburg Times and The Tampa Tribune? Absolutely nothing. Not a story, not even a mention by a TV critic of Moyers' expose. Silence. Vacuum. Black hole.
There's probably a good reason. Maybe it was a big day for sports news.
"For half a century the corporations manufacturing and using toxic chemicals have been waging a massive propaganda campaign of deceptive PR and lobbying to prevent effective regulation of their dangerous products," commented Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, editors of the quarterly journal PR Watch.
That implies the flaks and lobbyists have to bludgeon, cajole or corrupt the media. Around Tampa Bay, the work for the chemical death merchants is much easier. The mainstream press just doesn't care.
For more on Bill Moyers' Trade Secrets, as well as links to get involved in fighting deadly chemical contamination of America, see the Weekly Planet's online archives at http://www.weeklyplanet.com/2001-04-12/news.html.
—John F. Sugg
4. What really goes on at MacDill Air Force Base
A crowd of military personnel and well-dressed civilian dignitaries queued up to pass a security checkpoint at the Tampa Convention Center last October. They were on hand to witness a Change of Command ceremony for MacDill Air Force Base's Special Operations Command. Secretary of State William Cohen and Army Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presided as the baton was passed from retiring Army Gen. Peter Schoomaker to Air Force Gen. Charles Holland.
One soldier, dressed in crisp military fatigues, casually pulled a saw-toothed commando knife from an ankle holster and dropped it on a table. He apparently had forgotten to remove it before the event.
It was a stark reminder that what goes on at MacDill is some pretty hot, high-level stuff. The base is the command post for Special Operations, which includes Navy SEALs, the Army's Green Berets and Rangers, and Air Force combat controllers and special operations pilots. Also headquartered at MacDill is Central Command, which oversees most of the Middle East. When the U.S. fires a few missiles at Iraq to enforce our embargo of the nation, the missions are run out of MacDill. When a downed U.S. pilot was rescued in Bosnia, the operation was coordinated at the Tampa base.
