Hard News 71

OUR TOP STORY: MORE PROBLEMS WITH THE MEDIA: On June 7, CNN (Warners if the Corp. Art Overlord) broadcast allegations that Green Berets had nerve-gassed turncoats in Laos in the Vietnam War. It was the Internet that blew the lid off the false story. Air Force Major General Perry Smith, CNN's military consultant (who quit over the airing of the program) said "It (the Internet) allowed me to do in three days what (CNN producer) April Oliver did in 8 months." He and other vets re-checked the info in the article and found it false even to the point of finding some sources that told CNN their facts were wrong and CNN refusing to put those eyewitnesses on the air. CNN then admitted that the story was phony and some underlings were sacked....(Forbes) IN A RELATED STORY: The Boston Globe asked for the resignation of long time columnist Mike Barnicle after they found out that 8 of the jokes from a recent column were lifted from comedian George Carlin's recent book (a book that video tape show Barnicle holding up for the camera and recommending.) The 25-year employee says he has no intention of resigning (USA Today) (Look for an upcoming Musea special report on Newspaper woes in the 90s)

JAPANESE ART BUYERS are selling off the European masterpieces they paid record prices for in the boom '80s. Possibly as much as 1/2 of the big guys have gone on the auction block. The high time was 87-90 when Japan imported $7 billion worth of paintings and drawings, about 1/2 of all artworks sold in international sales. The world's most expensive painting, Van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Gachet", bought for $82.5 million, has now been put back on the market for sale. The paintings were bought for the most part for investments and speculation, not by art lovers. (London Observer's Service)

RADIO: Austria is finally getting private radio stations. Fourteen started on April 1 of this year. 40 more will soon follow. Before this year the only radio choice was state-owned broadcaster Oesterreichischer Rundfunk. Musea salutes the new diversity of voice! (Europe)

CITY PLANNING UPDATE: Musea recently called for neighborhood buses that riders can get on to circle their neighborhood without having to travel downtown first. DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) has obliged with five trolley-style bus routes. Like we said, the cost compared to light rail is minimal. So HOW COULD DART GET IT SO WRONG? Well, this is a perfect case of how the Dallas city government gets everything wrong, natch! Here are where the five new neighborhood bus routes are (or, what do they have in common?) 1. Northpark - the ritziest shopping mall in town and hey, didn't the city just receive a sweet sculpture present from Northpark developer Nasher? What a coinky-dink. 2. Telecom corridor, where all the chip tech companies are. 3. Las Colinas, big biz in Irving near Cowboys' headquarters. 4. Downtown (for the lawyers and government employees - the only ones left downtown) and 5. A token route on the poor side of town. Well, you see the obvious. The lesson here? When will this city government do anything for anybody other than big biz interests?

FOR DISCUSSION: Two choices this month. 1) When the cold war ended we should have saved billions due to the end of the arms race, so WHERE IS THE MONEY? 2) We have movie critics, TV critics, art critics, art, theater, architecture, book etc. critics, so why don't we have EVEN ONE media critic in mainstream journalism?

QUOTE from "Ask Marilyn" (the highest IQ woman in the Sunday Parade mag on monopoly laws: "When the government enforces monopoly laws, consumers benefit. And if Microsoft truly believes it has the very best product, it has nothing to fear from the competition."

"GO TO COURT HAPPY" Remember the sweet deal we told you that Blockbuster Videos (Corporate Art Overlord Viacom - also owns Paramount Pictures) made with all the Movie companies to get more videos cheaper in return for their sharing the profits? Well, its now "Go Home Happy" cause they've got tons of new releases, ad campaign, has worked like a charm, raising their percent of the video biz from 25% to 30%. But the Independent Video Retailers Group has another name for this sweet deal. They call it price fixing and have decided to take the video giant to anti-trust court. (DMN) Musea supports the indies on this one.

SCHOOL DAYS ON THE NET: In the past, Musea suggested college on the Net (and Musea TV). It's now a reality at WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY at www.wgu.edu or call 1-800-899-5615. But this isn't a single university. Instead, it's a broker of courses from some 20 colleges now, with 150 courses available. They tack on (a "tacky" we think) fee of $30 per course with courses going for $60-$600 each. The net school has financial backing from 17 states and Guam and expects to enroll 3-4 thousand this year and up to 100,000 within the next 8 years. (DMN) We hope it'll do what we envisioned, letting everyone go to college for a very small sum of money or in the future, free to all. Musea thinks info is for everyone!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: "THE FUND FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM gives grants starting at $500 to reporters working outside the protection and backing of major news organizations. These grants are limited to journalists seeking help for investigative pieces involving corruption, malfeasance, incompetence and societal ills in general as well as for media criticism." So says their printout. For more info, contact Musea and INVESTIGATE!

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