EDELMAN HANDLES RED CROSS FUND CRISIS

The Red Cross has turned to Edelman PR Worldwide in the wake of the controversy triggered by its decision to withhold $264 million of the $564 million pledged or contributed to its Liberty Fund set up for victims of terror attacks.

Darren Irby, director of disaster PA at the Red Cross, said the group hired Edelman because it was swamped by media inquiries.

Leslie Dach, vice chairman/GM of Edelman's Washington, D.C., office, is leading the account. He is assisted by Jere Sullivan, EVP/deputy GM in D.C., and Loretta Ucelli, head of its crisis group.

The Red Cross maintains that contributions made to the Liberty Fund also were intended to deal with future terror victims.

President Bernadine Healy, who is stepping down at yearend, told Congress on Nov. 6 that it would be fiscally irresponsible to just cut a check for the families of victims of Sept. 11 without putting aside funds for future attacks.

The organization points out that Liberty Fund ads stated that the "American Red Cross has a responsibility to participate in civilian preparedness for future terrorist threats. This is a focus of our fund raising and our programs. The aftermath of Sept. 11 will be with us well into the future."

Congress doesn't buy that pitch. Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, accused the organization of misleading donors who believed they were helping victims of the World Trade Center, and Pentagon attacks and the Pennsylvania hijacked plane crash.

RAMUNDO EXITS GOODRICH

Kevin Ramundo, VP, corporate communications, Goodrich Corp., Charlotte, N.C., is leaving the $4 billion company by the end of the year and is looking at new opportunities on the corporate side.

He said the company is restructuring its communications but this had nothing to do with his departure. No replacement is planned for Ramundo.

Ramundo, 50, said he has been with Goodrich two years and has accomplished what he could.

Cheryl Schneider, principal and group director of Morgen-Walke Assocs., New York, has left the company. She joined several years ago from the American Stock Exchange, where she was managing director responsible for IR programs.

BIN LADEN FAMILY TAPS HULLIN METZ

Saudi Arabia's Bin Laden family is using Hullin Metz & Co. to make sure reporters know that it signed a statement officially disowning Osama bin Laden in 1994, a year following the first terror attack on the World Trade Center.

Media relations comprises the bulk of the work, according to Tim Metz. For instance, Metz responded to a Nov. 12 New Yorker piece in which a former CIA antiterror expert Vincent Cannistraro said there exists an "interconnectedness" between Osama and some in the 50-member family. He said an intelligence agency reported that two of Osama's sisters took cash to an airport in Abu Dhabi, and are suspected of giving the money to Osama's Al Qaeda network.

Metz called the allegation's lack of specificity unfair. He also was contacted 12 hours before the New Yorker's deadline.

Osama's father, Muhammad, founded the company now known as the Saudi Binladin Group, which is a $5 billion corporate giant, and the biggest building company in the Islamic world.

The family, said Metz, realized it needed a PR firm following a 1997 interview conducted by CNN's Peter Arnett in Osama's cave. It turned to Abernathy MacGregor Group, where Metz handled the account.

The Saudi Embassy arranged for two dozen members of the bin Laden family to be flown out of the U.S. shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

C&W CLOSES ATLANTA, ITS BIRTHPLACE

Cohn & Wolfe is closing its Atlanta office effective Nov. 30, CEO Steve Aiello told this NL. The firm was founded there by Bob Cohn and Norman Wolfe in 1970. It will also merge its Washington, D.C., office into sister firm, Burson-Marsteller.

The sour national economy and the inability of Atlanta to service a "sufficient amount of network business" were two reasons for the shutdown mentioned by Aiello. C&W, he added, also took a "hit" when GM Tony Demartino broke off with a number of execs to set up The Titan Network.

Diane Garza currently heads the six-member Atlanta office. That's down from the 37 people reported there at the end of last year. The firm had ranked No. 5 in the city with $6.5 million in 2000 fees.

The C&W chief said the firm will retain its two big Atlanta accounts. Embassy Suites will be serviced out of Los Angeles, while PGA shifts to New York. Merrill Lynch projects will "transition" to B-M.

UBM DROPS BID FOR MEDIALINK

United Business Media has dropped its takeover bid for Medialink Worldwide citing the absence of "any meaningful response" from Medialink's board of directors three months after UBM's offer, and Medialink's "disappointing" third-quarter financial results released last week.

Medialink claims "some of its largest shareholders" considered UBM's offer inadequate in light of the company's long-term prospects.

In August, UBM offered to acquire outstanding shares of Medialink at a $5-per-share cash premium, a 49 percent markup over Medialink's share price of $3.35 at the time.

UBM proposed that Medialink would be merged with its PR Newswire unit to create a multimedia distribution powerhouse for VNRs.

PR Newswire executive director Charles Gregson said UBM's offer was met with "only silence from Medialink."

He said PR Newswire will pursue other options to enhance its VNR services, by building within or combining with another company. New York-based Kekst and Co. advised UBM on the takeover bid.

Medialink reported a $1.5 million loss for the third quarter, along with a 24.6 percent slide in revenue. For the nine-month period, Medialink lost $1.9 million on $37.2 million in revenues. Its share price has slid to $2.35 a share in trading Nov. 12. Medialink CEO Larry Moskowitz promises Medialink will recover when the economy improves. He noted that cutbacks in business travel bode well for his firm's videoconferencing and webcasting services.

The firm also is aggressively marketing its satellite distribution business as the anthrax scare has made some newsrooms wary of opening mail said to contain VNRs.

Medialink has been on somewhat of a roll of late, handling corporate announcements such as GM's selling its Hughes Electronics business to Echostar Comms.; Ford's ouster of CEO Jac Nasser, and Lockheed Martin's $200 billion contract with the Pentagon.

IR FIRMS SQUARE OFF IN H-P/COMPAQ DEAL

The Hewlett family, dealing a blow to Hewlett-Packard's plan to acquire Compaq, has retained New York IR firm Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher to explain why it feels the deal is a flop.

Citigate Sard Verbinnen is pitching the deal's benefits to the financial community.

Wall Street, so far, has given its own thumb's down to the transaction that was valued at $25 billion when announced in early September.

The value of the stock transaction had fallen to $17 billion, but has rallied to $21 billion. (H-P stock rallied last week on news of the Hewlett family's opposition.)

Walter Hewlett, son of H-P co-founder Bill Hewlett, said the merger created too much uncertainty.

As a board member, Hewlett had voted in favor of the merger. His vote reversal is "virtually unheard of," said the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 7. It called the Hewlett family opposition to the Compaq marriage a psychological setback to H-P CEO Carly Fiorina.

H-P issued a statement saying it wasn't surprised by the Hewlett family's "regrettable" decision.

It noted that eight-of-nine H-P board members enthusiastically endorsed the Compaq transaction.
David Packard, son of co-founder David Packard, supports the Hewlett family decision.

His Packard Humanities Institute owns about two percent of H-P. Other Packard family interests control about eight percent of H-P.

H-P's PR line-up includes Applied Comms., Golin/Harris International, Weber Shandwick and The Hoffman Agency. Compaq uses Hill and Knowlton.

AMA SAYS NEW TOBACCO ADS MISLEAD

The American Medical Assn.'s immediate past president Randolph Smoak, MD, has accused Brown & Williamson and Vector Tobacco of making "dangerously misleading" claims about the health benefits of their new cigarette brands.

B&W is test-marketing Advance cigarettes with the slogan "All of the taste, less of the toxins."

A double-page ad for Vector's Omni brand in the current issue of People magazine states "the medical community has identified specific carcinogens that are a major cause of lung cancer in smokers. In a groundbreaking move, we have reduced many of these."

Smoak said no scientific data exists to support Vector's implication that an Omni cigarette smoker is less likely to develop lung cancer than other smokers.

BAXTER ACCEPTS BLAME FOR DEATHS

Companies facing a crisis with customers' lives on the line could learn a thing or two about crisis management from Harry Kraemer, CEO of Baxter International, said David Greising, a business columnist for The Chicago Tribune.

Kraemer took responsibility for several deaths related to its dialysis filter made by the company although it believes a 3M chemical solvent used to manufacture the filters may have played a role in the deaths of as many as 50 people in seven countries.

Baxter's troubles began on Aug. 15 when the first dialysis-related death was reported in Madrid, followed by 21 deaths in Croatia that came to light Oct. 13 and the first U.S. death on Oct. 16. The evidence pointed to dialysis filters made by Baxter.

Greising said most big companies run for cover when in that kind of fix.

"We waited for Baxter to announce there was no proof its dialyzers were responsible," said Greising.

Instead, Baxter set aside $150 million to cover the cost of compensating victims, and it closed the plant in Sweden that produced the filters.

Kraemer said he acted without seeing definitive proof the 3M solvent had caused the deaths. "I didn't need to study a lot of cases on this. I needed to do what was common sense," he said.

N.Y. TIMES WANTS ONLY E-MAIL OR FAXES

Reporters at The New York Times have stopped opening their mail. In the wake of two anthrax scares at the paper, staffers have been told to ask all their sources to send e-mail or faxes whenever possible.

"I apologize to any of you who have written to me recently. I threw all your letters away, unopened," Lisa Belkin wrote in her Nov. 7 "Life's Work" column.

Belkin said the backed-up contents of her mailbox at the Times would fill three postal bins and dated from the days before the paper started special procedures for handling incoming mail.

Belkin, whose e-mail address is Belkin@nytimes .com, said: "Many of the envelopes in my overflowing bins were hand-printed, with return addresses I did not recognize. I used to love letters like those - 'real' mail among the news releases."

The Times is now requiring all employees to wear identification cards, and meet visitors and guests in the lobby and escort them upstairs, Belkin said.

NEW EDITORS TAKE OVER FIVE MAGS

New editors-in-chief are putting their imprint on Redbook, Self, Glamour, Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar.

Their retooling efforts were summed up in a report by Sara Fiefelholtz for The Chicago Sun-Times.

Here are some excerpts:

--Harper's Bazaar: Glenda Bailey is taking the magazine back to its fashion roots.

Bailey believes that a modern contemporary fashion magazine is still relevant for women who want more than ever to experience beauty in their lives.

She said her job is to produce a party where everyone is invited.

She also has reintroduced the column "Why Don't You...?" created by Diana Vreeland, Bazaar's editor in the `40s and `50s.

--Redbook: Ellen Kunes will continue to keep the magazine's focus on working women and their lifestyles. She sees no need to redo Redbook, which was transformed by its previous editor Jane Seymour to a sexier, younger, more fun and energetic magazine from one filled with recipes and remedies.

--Marie Claire: Jane Seymour, who replaced Glenda Bailey, said her challenge is to keep on offering women smart, service-oriented content that has kept the magazine hot for a long time.

She also believes the magazine is well-positioned to deal with issues women face today.

--Glamour: Cyndi Leive will rely less on celebrities because her readers don't worship them.

Instead, she will focus on providing information of reliable substance that is relevant to reader's lives, a magazine that is strong and recognizes that readers want information about their personal lives and perspective of the world beyond their own four walls.

--Self: Lucy Danzinger plans to keep the magazine going in the same direction.

Danzinger said Self is a magazine for women who feel they should be the best version of themselves.

MAGAZINE FOR YOUNG WOMEN DEBUTS

The first issue of Damez has been published.

The publication, which is described as being both magazine and catalog, was started by Kristi Kaylor, a TV sitcom producer, who started Voxxy.com in 1999, with Jennifer Aniston as the spokeswoman for the website.

The first issue was mailed free to more than 250,000 women ages 18-35, with additional distribution on college campuses and at retail outlets.

The magazine's publicity firm, MediaRiot Strategy & PR, said Damez will provide a forum for celebrities to express their views about topics such as social issues, politics, the environment, family, and health-related matters.

Damez will also show merchandise handpicked by celebrities and top stylists that readers can buy via a toll free number or mail order process.

In its first year, Damez will be published six times. The next issue will be published in February.

Kaylor, who is editor, can be reached at 310/372-1692. The magazine's offices are located at 510 8th st., Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Peter Grant, who covers the real estate beat for The Wall Street Journal, has signed on to write "Bricks & Mortar," an exclusive column for The RealEstateJournal.com, The Wall Street Journal Guide to Property.

His column on the free website will cover major commercial real estate deals, trends and newsmakers of the day. It will include interviews with dealmakers in real estate and analysis of the biggest deals on the market.

Cygnus Business Media has acquired Solid Surface Magazine.

The Fort Atkinson, Wisc.-based publisher also owns Wood Digest, Laminating Design & Technology, Design/Build Business, Kitchen & Bath Design News and Qualified Remodeler.

SSM regularly includes updates on industry events, new fabrication techniques, better business practices and profiles of solid surface companies.

Executive Summary: Southeast is the title of a new quarterly magazine published by Birmingham, Ala.-based Thomas Andrew Publishing, that will feature profiles of technology and bioscience companies that are located in the Southeast.

All of the profiles in the magazine are paid for and written by the companies who submitted them.

Rhonda Jung is handling profile inquiries at 205/444-0930.

(Media news continued on next page)

DEOGUN IS NEW MEDIA EDITOR AT WSJ

Nikhil Deogun has replaced Laura Landro as marketing and media editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Deogun had been covering mergers and acquisitions for the Journal.

Landro was promoted to assistant managing editor, where she will help lead an effort to infuse a more global perspective into the marketing, media and entertainment coverage. Landro will also have an expanded role in coverage of healthcare news. She will continue to write the "Finicky Traveler" column in the Weekend Journal.

STAFFERS SOUGHT FOR PROPOSED NY PAPER

Ira Stoll, founder and editor of Smartertimes.com, is hiring staffers to work for his proposed daily newspaper that will cover New York.

Stoll, who is based in Brooklyn, said searches are underway for editors, reporters, page designers and photojournalists.

He said jobs are available in New York, Albany, and Washington, D.C., in features and culture as well as news.

"Successful applicants will be sagacious scoop-getters, who can write smooth and fast, who don't mind working hard and who are excited about covering New York," said Stoll, who regularly reports on errors of fact and of logic in The New York Times, which he believes has grown complacent, slow and inaccurate.

Interested candidates are asked to send a letter and resume to Smartertimes.com.

PEOPLE

Walker Lundy has replaced Robert Rosenthal as executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Lundy was editor of The St. Paul Pioneer Press since 1990.

Katherine Anderson, a former school teacher. was elected chair of the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, succeeding Frank Cruz, an award-winning broadcaster.

Perkins Miller, 34, was named editor-in-chief of Skiing Magazine, published by Time4Media, replacing Rick Kahl.

Miller has been director and general manager, Internet, for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games since 1999.

He was a former editor-in-chief for Mountain Sports & Living (formerly Snow Country), and resides in Park City, Utah.

Bobbie Battista, host of CNN's "TalkBack Live," has left the daily talk show. She said she will work with her husband, John Brimelow, as a media consultant for politicians, corporate executives and broadcasters.

Dr. Donald Reider will succeed Dr. Robert Leach as editor of the bimonthly American Journal of Sports Medicine, based in Rosemont, Ill.

Carol Venezia, who is editor-in-chief of Ziff Davis Custom Media, New York, will oversee State Tech, a new custom magazine for state government workers.

NEGATIVE NEWS IS 'MURDERING' TRAVEL

The president of the American Society of Travel Agents said negative news is "murdering travel."

"The government is scaring the hell out of the American public with vague warnings," Richard Cop-land told The New York Times.

"You think about taking a trip, all you hear is negative news," said Copland in an interview with Joe Sharkey at the start of the four-day ASTA convention, which began Nov. 2 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.

In a recent survey, travel agents reported business had barely reached 50% of normal levels for this time of year, said Copland. Just as leisure travel began showing a little growth as airlines introduced fare sales, those gains sputtered out overnight after federal officials issued new warnings that major terrorist attacks could be imminent, said Copland.

"Look what they're doing on TV now," said Cop-land. "They can't give you enough visual bad news, so on the bottom of the screen they print words to give you a double dose of bad news. This is murdering travel."

MEDIA BRIEFS

Feature Photo Service, a distributor of publicity photos, will link a photo to a press release at no additional charge.

Bob Goldberg, who runs FPS, said the press releases can be linked to either the provider's site or to a commercial newswire service.

Rodale Press is shutting down MH-18, a magazine targeted at teen boys. It was started as a quarterly in the fall of 2000.

The Nov. 12 issue is the last one.

Ziff Davis is folding Interactive Week into eWeek (formerly called PC Week), and closing Smart Partner magazine.

eWeek will include an interactive section, managed by Rob Fixmer, who was editor-in-chief of IW. Fixmer also will manage the content of a newsletter and website.

All other editorial staffers of both publications were laid off.

Business Week is closing its six-year-old "Small Biz" supplement. Fred Strasser, the supplement's managing editor, said the last issue is Nov. 21.

Strasser told the six-person staff that the section was killed by a "really rotten market."

PR PROS COMMITTED IN WAKE OF 9/11

The Sept. 11 attacks have had little effect on a PR pro's commitment to the field of PR, according to a Council of PR Firm's survey developed by GCI Boxenbaum Grates and Ketchum. The Council queried 1,116 PR pros across the U.S. for the survey.

Three-quarters of respondents said their commitment to careers in PR has not changed, while three percent reported an increased commitment.

Two-thirds of the PR pros surveyed describe the industry favorably. Half said PR is vital to American commerce.

Three out of ten respondents had a negative view of PR, with most saying that the field is "too/inappropriately opportunistic."

Priorities Have Changed

Respondents were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, a series of questions about the effects of Sept. 11.

Eighty-five percent responding said their personal priorities have changed. Asked how much of an impact the Sept. 11 attacks had on them personally, the mean score was 7.8 out of 10, with 33 percent saying there was a "significant impact." Less than one percent said there was no impact.

The most prevalent change noted was that they are spending more time with families and friends. Twenty-eight percent said they are working fewer hours, and 28 percent said they are less willing to travel on behalf of clients.

PR pros in consumer and brand marketing said they were spending more time with family and friends (80 percent) while those in the Midwest were spending more time with religious organizations (32 percent).

Twenty-seven percent said their personal priorities have changed "a lot."

Thirteen percent said the events of the past few weeks have affected the way they see PR, while 17 percent said it has not had an effect.

PR pros in consumer and brand marketing said they most likely expect a significant effect from the attacks, while those working in financial and IR said they were least likely to feel a significant impact.

MWW TRIES TO REVIVE BETHLEHEM STEEL

MWW Group is helping $4.2 billion Bethlehem Steel in its effort to restructure under bankruptcy laws.

CEO Michael Kempner and Carreen Winters, senior VP/crisis management, handle the account of the nation's No. 3 steelmaker that filed Chapter 11 on Oct. 15.

Bethlehem CEO Bob Miller wants the United Steel Workers union to agree to 2,000 job cuts in an effort to help Bethlehem rebound. The company employs 13,000 people.

The steelmaker, according to the USW, is also looking for cuts in health benefits. The union, so far, is opposed to big job cuts. It suggests work rule changes to reduce Bethlehem's cost structure.

Bethlehem lost $152 million during its third-quarter. For nine months, Bethlehem totaled losses of $1.4 billion on $2.6 billion in revenues, which were down 19 percent from the year earlier period.

Bethlehem claims its market has been battered by "dumped" imported steel.

LOVALLO GONE FROM WSW

John Lovallo, who joined Weber Shandwick Worldwide as EVP-corporate & investor relations in May, is no longer with the firm. His responsibilities have been divvied up among various executives.

Lovallo joined WSW from Ogilvy PR Worldwide, where he was responsible for IR/financial communications. He also put in stints at Morgen-Walke, Banker's Trust and European American Bank.

TOM GABLE RECASTS SHOP AS GCS-PR

Tom Gable has shut down The Gable Group, a San Diego high-tech/financial PR firm, after a 25-year run. The firm had claimed fees of $3 million in February when it celebrated its 25th anniversary.

The dot-com bust, however, hit TGG hard. The firm, said Gable, was hurt by bankruptcies of three Internet companies that did not pay their PR bills.

The acquisition of Vista Info by Fidelity National Financial Information was another blow. VI was TGG's biggest client. FNFI took its PR in-house.
Gable has resurfaced as GCS-PR, an entity formed with former Gable executives Rick Cook and John Schmid.

The firm springs to life with a mix of transportation, medical, real estate development and venture capital firm clients.

EL SALVADOR ISSUES TRADE PR RFP

El Salvador's National Investment Promotion Commission has an RFP out for trade PR. Responses are due at the end of the month.

Fleishman-Hillard has just completed a project worth $150,000 for the Commission, and is pitching the new work. Rissig Licha, F-H's managing director/Latin America, heads the account from the PR firm's Coral Gables, Fla., office. She is assisted by Juan Carlos Bamboa, VP. They report to Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt, the Commission's president.

Hurricane Mitch, two devastating earthquakes and drought have battered the economy of El Salvador.

Boeing has awarded its $70 million ad account to Foote, Cone & Belding/Chicago, which is a huge relief for its parent company Interpublic. Omnicom's BBDO and WPP's J. Walter Thompson also pitched.

Judith Muhlberg, VP-communications at Boeing, said the company selected FCB because it was "best positioned to take us to the next level-strengthening and leveraging our brand worldwide."

FCB, she added, presented a campaign with a "powerful, simple message that captured the spirit of Boeing."

The aerospace giant put its account in review in July when it decided to shift its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago.

U.S. reporters and media that are seen as not being fully "on board" in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan are catching a lot of flack.

Typical is the column in the Nov. 7 New York Post by Jack Kelly in which he excoriates the press on numerous counts. The press corps is "one of the largest groups providing aid and comfort to the Taliban," he wrote. His biggest gripe is that "many reporters consider themselves to be neutrals in America's struggle for survival."

The role of the press in war should be to report facts that don't endanger troops and to make sure the government is leveling with the public. Propaganda is likely to be unmasked, sooner or later.

The U.S. was motivated to support the war against Iraq in January 1991 partly because of an $11.8M PR campaign via Hill and Knowlton under the banner, "Citizens for a Free Kuwait." It had the open approval of the first George Bush Admin.

"Citizens," as it was discovered in 1992, long after the war was over, was 99% funded by the Government of Kuwait. The U.S. Justice Dept. filing that would have shown the source of the funds had been unavailable to the press. Justice later said it "misplaced" the filing.

One particular story in the campaign captivated the public and helped sway Congress-the report that Iraqi soldiers were killing babies. Wire service reports in September 1990 said 315 Kuwaiti babies died as a result of being separated from incubators.

"Nayirah" tearfully told the story of Iraqi soldiers taking babies out of incubators and putting them on the floor to die. She spoke Oct. 10, 1990 to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus following coaching by H&K.

John MacArthur, publisher of Harper's, much later found out her identity-she was the 15-year-old daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S. He revealed this in the Jan. 6, 1992 New York Times. A media storm followed. TV Guide on Feb.22 accused H&K of spreading "outright misinformation" and of "systematic manipulation" of news from Kuwait. The Times, "60 Minutes," "20/20," "Crossfire," and others jumped on the story. The slaughter of the babies turned out to be mostly fiction. Kroll Int'l interviewed 250 people and found that Nayirah had only seen one infant on the floor of a hospital during a brief visit. Kroll said at least seven babies died because of the removal of life support systems and others died because parents took them from the hospital too early or didn't bring them to hospitals.

MacArthur has another "tiger by the tail" in the Chris Hedges article on Gaza that Harper's ran in October. The article (10/31 NL) is now featured on Palestine Media Watch (pmwatch.org). Whether Hedges told the truth is being hotly debated. He can be heard retelling his tale (and adding new details) on the Oct. 30 National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" show (npr.org). Hedges, a top Times reporter, had a page one piece Nov. 8 on Iraqi terror training camps.

Americans are escaping the prejudices, omissions and other failings of the U.S. press by going to the web to obtain news and opinions worldwide. Good sources are the Israeli dailies haaretzdaily.com and jerusalempost.com. They are free and open, demanding neither payment nor the identity of the visitor, and are a day ahead of the U.S. press. Palestinian and Arab websites include arabnews.com, pmwatch.org and pna.net. They are not as current as the Jewish dailies but have much that is not on those sites ...zmag.org has a piece by Columbia Univ. Prof. Edward Said in which he says no U.S. media will dare print a map of Israel showing the network of Israeli garrisons, roads, settlements, and barricades that have chopped up Gaza and the West Bank into small pieces, because such a map makes mention of a "Palestinian state" laughable..Haaretz editorialized Nov. 10 that there can be no peace until the settlements are abandoned and that, under Sharon, "the murder of Israelis has become a daily occurrence." It said, "The mood in this country has never been gloomier"...jpost.com reported 11/11 that three local and one int'l human rights groups charged that Israel has resumed the systematic torture of Palestinian detainees in violation of a court order...PM Watch accuses the U.S. press of ignoring the finding of the Int'l Committee of the Red Cross Nov. 5 that Israeli settlements in the West Bank violate the Geneva Convention. Israel said the Convention does not apply because the West Bank never belonged to another country...PMW says National Public Radio and affiliate WBUR, Boston, are being accused of anti-Israeli bias and have lost sponsors...Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, unveiling his latest response to attacks by Palestinians, told guardian.co.uk Nov. 7 that he would bring one million more Jews to Palestine. A Palestinian spokesperson called Sharon "a pyromaniac on a powder keg." This story did not make the U.S. press, which has been avoiding Mid-East news to concentrate on anthrax stories and the threat of militant Islam. The New York Post, which runs a negative piece on Muslims almost daily, on Nov. 5 called for the overthrow of the Gov't of Saudi Arabia by religious militants, saying the U.S. might be better off dealing "directly" with the militants "rather than through their princely puppets"..tompaine.com has a piece on the press in wartime...wbur.org, Boston, summarizes in English what is on Al Jazeera, Arabic TV network with an audience of 50 million+.
--Jack O'Dwyer