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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (26425)	1/26/2004 5:48:27 PM
From: Rascal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793840

FAIR Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 112 W. 27th Street New York, NY 10001 ACTION ALERT: Conflict at CNBC's New Dennis Miller Show Producer works for California governor January 22, 2004 Dennis Miller’s new CNBC political talk show hasn’t even debuted yet, but it’s already mixed up in a serious conflict of interest. The conflict-- brought to our attention by weblogger Roger Ailes (no relation, apparently, to the Fox News chief)-- began with the show’s hiring of Mike Murphy as a consulting producer. The problem isn’t that Murphy is a well-known Republican campaign consultant whose past clients have included John McCain, Jeb Bush and the 1992 Bush/Quayle campaign; the problem is that Mike Murphy already has a job. Murphy, who was a key political advisor in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 campaign for governor of California, still works for Schwarzenegger. Currently Murphy is a leader of Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Recovery Team and Californians for Schwarzenegger, two groups created by the governor to maintain his political image, raise money and promote his policies (AP, 1/2/04). Indeed, Murphy has become so identified with Schwarzenegger that a January 21 Los Angeles Times article referred to him as “Schwarzenegger's chief strategist.” The website of Murphy’s political consulting firm, DC Navigators, lists the California Recovery Team (which has been in operation for less than a month) as a client. CNBC has dismissed the idea that Murphy's political work poses a conflict for the show. In an article in Television Week (1/12/04) that described his ongoing work with Schwarzenegger as Murphy's "most recent gig," reporter Michele Greppi noted that NBC is grappling with the conflict-of-interest questions posed by Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver, working for the news program Dateline. But, Greppi reported, "At CNBC no such questions are being considered, because Mr. Miller has made clear that his show, however political, will not be partisan." But having a producer for a political talkshow working as a political operative is a clear conflict of interest. As if to demonstrate what's wrong with this arrangement, the first edition of the Dennis Miller show (1/26/04) is scheduled to include, along with Republican Sen. John McCain and former Republican New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, California’s new Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz (1/19/04), “The bagging of the California governor and Arizona senator is the handiwork of former Schwarzenegger and McCain strategist Mike Murphy, who now has a place in the Hollywood hills and is Miller's consulting producer.” Kurtz was apparently unaware that Murphy still works for the California governor. While one has to be impressed by the professional zeal of a political consultant who gets himself hired by a talkshow in order to book his boss on that show, it's clear that if you're in the business of news rather than political PR, the situation is completely unethical. CNBC needs to address the fact that Mike Murphy has at least one job too many. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION: Please write to CNBC and ask them what they intend to do about the conflict of interest posed by Dennis Miller's producer working for a politician who happens to be a guest on Miller's first show. CONTACT: CNBC 2200 Fletcher Avenue Fort Lee, NJ 07024 Phone: 201-585-2622 info@CNBC.com Rascal @FairAndBalanced.com

To: LindyBill who wrote (26425)	1/26/2004 5:52:13 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 793840

Where Are the 'Stans'? By Andrew Apostolou, Andrew Apostolou is director of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. nypost.com New York Post January 26, 2004 The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia by Lutz Kleveman, Atlantic Monthly Press, 288 pages, $24 Central Asia is now one of the most important, yet most obscure parts of the world. What is happening in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan matters to the security of the United States as much as events across the border in Mexico. The five former Soviet Republics, popularly known as the "stans," are next door to Afghanistan and wedged between China, Russia and Iran. U.S. military bases there provide vital support for the war against al Qaeda. Central Asia is also a vital back-up in case the tenuous U.S. position in Pakistan founders. If al Qaeda were to get lucky and assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, America could still fight al Qaeda and the Taliban from bases in Central Asia. Americans wanting to know more about their new allies in Central Asia have little to guide them. The academic literature is dull, outdated and overpriced. Cleverly filling this gap is German-journalist Lutz Kleveman's "The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia." The book is an easy-to-read guide to countries where the food is atrocious and the plumbing worse. The book is clever. Kleveman has traveled thousands of miles and spoken to scores of important and interesting people. Unfortunately, all the entertaining reportage is a cover for an insidious attack on the United States. We meet hard-drinking oilmen in Azerbaijan, an Iranian who held U.S. diplomats hostage and who says he loves America even while blaming the U.S. government for the 9/11 attacks. Yet consistently Kleveman leaves the reader feeling that the United States is in Central Asia to grab the oil, not to fight the terrorists. Kleveman links everything to inflated figures for the amount of oil in the Caspian Sea, numbers that nobody in the oil industry has ever taken seriously. Perhaps the most insidious piece of writing is Kleveman's discussion of Bush adviser Zalmay Khalilzad, who was born in Kabul. Khalilzad was a consultant to Unocal, which was planning to build oil and gas pipelines across Afghanistan - plans that never left the drawing board. Kleveman portrays Khalilzad as an almost sinister figure, rather than a policy wonk who initially misjudged the Taliban: Like many others in 1996, he saw them as a potential force for stability and as anti-Iranian. The world has changed, and Khalilzad, after working with both the Iraqi and Afghan oppositions, has contributed to the liberation of 50 million Muslims from terrorism-supporting dictatorships. If Kleveman were right and the war in Afghanistan was about oil, then the American airbase in Kyrgyzstan would be named after Exxon. Instead, it is named after the fallen FDNY chief, Peter J. Ganci Jr. - it doesn't take a New York minute to work out that this war is about justice, not oil. Andrew Apostolou is director of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.