Armchair journalists and the lessons of McCarthyism

Armchair journalists and the lessons of McCarthyism

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo 1: Navajos and Hopis protest Peabody Coal's life of mine permit in Denver; Photo 2 Hollywood blacklisted writer Trumbo

Lazy journalists are great friends of the corporations. They are known as "armchair journalists" because they sit in comfort and rewrite press releases from politicians and corporations. To spice it up a bit, they dial a few numbers, get a few comments and call it a news story.
They are the "darlings of the energy companies," as Buffy Sainte Marie says.
AP reporter Felicia Fonseca is a real darling of the energy companies. If you check Google breaking news this morning, you'll see the number of newspapers carrying her article stating that Hopis and Navajos say environmentalists are not welcome.
However, on Google news, there are no articles from Fonseca quoting Alph Secakuku, Sipaulovi council representative, pointing out that Hopi are true environmentalists, regardless of the current political coup in the Hopi Tribal Council. Navajo President Joe Shirley, Jr., showing his true colors once again, joined the refrain by saying environmentalists were not welcome on the Navajo Nation either.
This comes as no surprise, since the modernday Navajo environmentalists have always been fought by the elected Navajo political leaders whose salaries and expense accounts come from energy royalties. While signing leases for coal mines and power plants, Navajo politicians also speak of the Beauty Way and harmony with all created things.
Navajo Leroy Jackson's life was threatened by Navajo politicians before he was found dead in 1993. Jackson was cofounder of Dine' Citizens Against the Ruining the Environment and halted clearcut logging of the old growth pines in the Chuska and Tsaile mountains. (I was a stringer for AP at the time, during the 18 years that I lived on the Navajo Nation. The threat was made to me.)
I wonder now if AP's reporter Fonseca lives on the Navajo Nation, or even stays there long enough to know what she is writing about.
Lazy journalists love the surface scum that floats to the top in life. They just skim it off and call it news.
In small newsrooms across America, armchair journalists like to sit in their easy chairs and rewrite corporate press releases and the articles of other journalists, ones actually on the scene, if it fits into their agenda. I watched the sitting journalists, in the desks next to mine at newspapers over the years. They would go out and buy newspapers, then rewrite the work of others. This thinly disguised plagiarism is easy to spot, because the journalists simply are not there.
On Indian land, it is easy to spot armchair journalists. They are the ones who don't show up. The visiting experts, if they come at all, speed back across the border, from the café or tribal newspaper office, before nightfall. AP is notorious for not being there.
Now, with the crash of the economy, large newspapers in Arizona, such as Arizona Republic and Arizona Daily Star, are usually a "no show" on Indian lands in northern Arizona. Their reporters don't quote the people who live on the land, because in most cases, they don't even know them. They don't ever talk to them.
Editors are pretty happy with armchair journalists, because they don't have to worry about them begging for travel expenses to actually go out and cover a news story. Editors don't have to worry about armchair journalists working overtime. They don't have to worry about anyone threatening to file a lawsuit because the reporter actually reported something groundbreaking. Armchair journalists are usually pretty friendly. They don't have much to complain about. They rewrite something, make a few calls, and pick up their paychecks.
Above all, they are always happy to write what the editor tells them to write, just the way the editor says it happened.
You might be surprised at the sheer volume written by armchair journalists.
While the Internet has made it easy for armchair journalists to churn out fat and empty word globs, fortunately the dollars dried up and discouraged the mass marketing of pathetic rewrites. As dollars for journalists vanish and the numbers of reporters decline, another creepy phenomenon is occurring. Surviving reporters are expected to be experts on everything. They are expected to write about every issue as if they know what they are talking about.
Another interesting phenomenon in the newsroom is the old refrain: "Get the other side of the story."
When a reporter writes an article quoting only politicians or corporations, an editor doesn't say, "Get the other side of the story," or "Get the grassroots side of the story."
Yet, when a reporter writes from the point of view of the people, the grassroots people, editors say, "Get the other side of the story." Too often, this means publishing the lies of politicians and corporations. It is censorship, silencing the voices of the people.
These editors, too, are the darlings of the energy companies, because their papers publish what the corporations or politicians say, with little regard for truth. Corporations and elected politicians are considered credible, while the people on the street, or the people on the land, are not considered credible. It is stale snobbery.
More often than not, being a print or radio journalist who is actually out there on a news story means financial disaster these days. We're not just talking low pay; we're talking complete and total financial disaster.
Nevertheless, there is another way to look at it. It is like during the McCarthy era, when the witch-hunts were on, when hysteria and misinformation reigned. We look back now and cheer those who stood firm, found a way to produce their craft when they lost everything, finances, careers and even loved ones. There were writers who never gave up. They moved to Mexico and changed their names, but they did not give up.
Perhaps that is how the future will judge us, whether we give up when we lose everything, whether we sell out for a paycheck.

Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter covering Indian country and Mexico for 27 years, serving as a staff reporter for Navajo Times, Lakota Journal and Indian Country Today. She served as a stringer for AP for five years and USA Today for seven years, covering the Navajo Nation and federal courts. She was censored and terminated by Indian Country Today in 2006 and created Censored News. She is a contributor to the UN OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague, CounterPunch, Narco News, Americas, Atlantic Free Press and Sri Lanka Guardian.

Statement by Alph Secakuku:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/09/secakuku-hopi-are-stewards-of-land.html

Listen to Hopis and Navajos speaking out against Peabody Coal mining in Denver:

Navajos and Hopis protested a permit on Black Mesa for Peabody Coal, which has desecrated sacred land and led to the relocation of more than 14,000 Navajos. Recording by Mano Cockrum, Hopi-Navajo, of the Hopi and Navajo panel in Denver, Dec. 7, 2008, for Censored News.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell/2008/12/10/Navajo-and-Hopi-protest-Peabody-Coal-in-Denver

Indigenous Environmental Network: Reject REDD, Bangkok

INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK

From the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – Bangkok Climate Change Talks 2009, Bangkok, Thailand

For immediate release: October 1, 2009

Contacts: Tom Goldtooth, + 1 218 760 0442 + 1 218 760 0442 ; Andrew Miller: 087 0460335

Report Calls for the Rejection of REDD in Climate Treaty Indigenous Environmental Network calls for solutions that reduce emissions, protect forests and respect rights
Bangkok – Carbon markets should be eliminated from any future plans to tackle global warming, says a leading group of Indigenous Peoples present in Bangkok at the latest round of UN climate negotiations.
In a report released today, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) predicts dire consequences for Indigenous peoples, biodiversity and the climate alike if the new, post-2012 climate treaty being debated here allows tradable carbon credits to be produced from projects such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM).
IEN says REDD pilot projects, in which carbon in forests would be sold to industrialized societies as greenhouse gas pollution licenses, are already threatening to sever the connections between Indigenous peoples and the forests they protect.
According to the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 60 million Indigenous Peoples depend on forests for their survival and most forests are found in Indigenous Peoples’ territories. “Indigenous Peoples have been the primary guardians of the forests for generations,” Carlos Picanerai, Secretary General of the indigenous organization, Coordination for Indigenous Peoples’ Self- Determination (CAPI), Paraguay. “Forests are not simply resources to be exploited, they are the sources of our lives and lifestyles.”
According to the report, REDD-type pilot projects have already violated Indigenous people’s rights and exacerbated eviction, fraud, conflict, corruption, coercion and militarization in countries such as Peru and Papua New Guinea.
“We already know that offset schemes like REDD won’t protect forests or the rights of Indigenous peoples,” said Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of IEN. “If we are going to save the climate, we need to focus on real solutions that assure that forests will be left standing and people’s rights are respected.”
“This is the first time we have a large global delegation of over 100 Indigenous peoples that includes many from the Asian region participating in these UN climate meetings. We are standing strong, lobbying government delegates to adopt language that recognizes the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)with language promoting the provisions of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). Without this, there will be no safeguards in the climate negotiations that would ensure that the rights of Indigenous Peoples are protected. However, even if this language was adopted, many developing countries where REDD and CDM projects could be implemented, don’t recognize the self-determination and rights of Indigenous peoples. National efforts to legislate and implement the provisions of UNDRIP could take years. In the meantime REDD would continue to be implemented,” Tom added.
The report say that carbon markets such as REDD and REDD-Plus are false solutions to climate change because they do not bring about the changes needed to keep fossil fuels in the ground. According to studies of climate scientist, James Hansen, “Industrializes countries could offset 24-69% of their emissions via the CDM and REDD….thus avoiding the necessary domestic cuts that are required to peak emissions around 2015.”
IEN and many other Indigenous groups are calling instead for fossil fuel emissions to be reduced, with an aggressive goal towards a zero carbon economy. “Global warming is largely due to the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, yet for the indigenous communities within our network, it is a “business-as-usual” scenario with the expansion of oil drilling, building refineries, expansion of tar sands development and coal mining with coal energy generation in North America,” Goldtooth says.
Using the forests of the South as a trading commodity within REDD initiatives, gives a carbon credit, or a permit to the polluters of the North to perpetuate toxic pollution, genocide and violate of treaty rights in the homelands of our communities. These petroleum companies use these carbon offset systems as a greenwash,” Goldtooth added. “As currently formulated, REDD will neither reduce emissions nor save forests,” said Kate Horner, Friends of the Earth. “Indigenous peoples are the most important voices in this process. We need to respect their wisdom and focus on solutions that will make a real difference in reducing forest emissions and saving the climate.”
Indigenous Environmental Network is an Indigenous organization works with Indigenous Peoples worldwide on environmental justice, energy and climate policy issues. To obtain the NO REDD Report and for more information, visit: http://www.ienearth.org/

Secakuku: Hopi are stewards of the land, despite the coup

by Alph H. Secakuku,
Sipaulovi Council Representative, Village of Sipaulovi, Second Mesa, AZ, Hopiland

Comments by Alph H. Secakuku, Sipaulovi Council Representative, Village of Sipaulovi, Second Mesa, AZ, Hopiland

It is a sad day for Hopi/Tewa people, and I am disappointed in the illegal Hopi council’s action telling the “Environmental Groups to Stay off Their Land”. The Hopi/Tewa people have always considered themselves to be the best environmentalists in the world. Our Hopi Religion teaches that we made a sacred covenant with Maasaw, our Supreme Being, to be good stewards of the Fourth World we live in today.
We, as people, all have the responsibility of being Caretakers of Mother Earth. “You care for it and take from it only what you need, and it will provide for you”.
I never thought I would see the day when being “Hopi” meant being anti-environment, pro-big corporate energy, and actually promoting pollution and global warming in favor of dollars/money.
This is the new world image of Hopi, thanks to Scott Canty, Nada Talayumptewa, Phillip Quotshytewa, Mary Felter, Ivan Sidney, Sr., and the rest of the illegally constituted Hopi Tribal Council…in essence, a coup.
We, the Hopi/Tewa people, have worked closely for many years with our allies from the environmental community to protect sacred lands from development and to stop uranium mining from poisoning our water. Water is life, therefore, it is sacred.
We will continue to work together—tribal communities and other clean energy jobs advocates—to bring green economic development to our lands that respects our air and water.
Together with our partners in the environmental community, we are working to secure long term solution to energy, health and water issues in northern Arizona by cleaning up dirty coal plants and promoting solar and wind projects on the reservations. The time to transition from dirty old coal plants to clean energy from the wind and the sun is now.
We see a positive future ahead with results like the Navajo Nation’s recent unanimous green jobs resolution and will continue to support clean energy projects with Navajo and Hopi communities. We all know that climate change is predicted to bring hotter and drier conditions to the Colorado Plateau, an area which may see even greater temperature increases than the rest of the country. This threatens our water supplies and livelihoods.
Working together to stop global warming pollution from coal-fired power plants is vital to future generations. Now is the time to look forward and plan to transition existing coal plants to cleaner power.
What is H.O.P.I.? Hopi Organizational Political Initiative (H.O.P.I.) is a united, strong, clear, organized and non-partisan voice made up of members of the Hopi/Tewa community both on and off the reservation. It is there to serve as conduit for the Hopi/Tewa people to effectively raise concerns and resolve issues that affect the Hopi/Tewa people. It promotes issues and emerging concerns primarily within the Hopi tribal government, but also with the local state and federal governments. As such, we support all political candidates who seek public office who will address the concerns of the communities. H.O.P.I.’s mission is to insure that we impact policy regarding the issue of concern and quality of life to our community and future generations. It is a “grassroots” organization composed of concerned Hopi/Tewa people.
Why do we regard the “interim Hopi government” as an illegal council? The Resolution H-007-09, enacted on December 28, 2008, established an illegal interim Hopi Tribal Government. It is an illegal council because it is not Hopi Constitutionally authorized. In effect, the illegal council enactment amended the Hopi Constitution without holding a referendum vote of the Hopi/Tewa people. Only the majority vote of the qualified voters of the Hopi Tribe can amend the Constitution of the Hopi Tribe. They must cast their ballots in accordance with Section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act of June13, 1934, as amended. The Superintendent, Hopi Agency, BIA, has the responsibility to call the election, and must serve as a Chairman of the Election Board. After the approval of the amendments, all officers and employees of the Interior Department are ordered to abide by the provisions of the said Constitution and By-laws. The Hopi Tribal Council, even when they are legally constituted, has no authority to amend the tribal constitution. The constitution cannot be amended by a tribal resolution or an ordinance.
Therefore, based on the foregoing, all of the enactments of the illegal council are of no force and effect. As of January 1, 2009, there was no legitimate tribal council in existence. At the close-of-business on December 31, 2008, the council became defunct and could no longer operate or conduct legitimate tribal council meetings or tribal business. In reality, the council and the council appointed officers of Tribal Secretary, Sergeant-At-Arms, and Tribal Treasurer became nonfunctional.
Chairman Benjamin H. Nuvamsa and Vice-Chairman Todd Honyaoma, Sr., both resigned on December 31, 2008. Hopi Tribal Constitution, ARTICLE IV, Section 1—mandates the “Hopi Tribal Council shall consist of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Representatives from various villages.” Without a chairman and vice-chairman, there can be no constitutionally authorized council to conduct meetings.
The Hopi Bylaws, Article 1—states “The Chairman shall preside over all meetings of the Tribal Council…” Clearly the delegated authorities do not include designating a member of the council to be the “Presiding Officer”. In fact, it expressly forbids it. This was a form of check and balance to prevent council from taking complete control of the government as is happening now. However, the illegal council selected Phillip Quotshytewa, Sr., as a “pro tem” presiding officer to chair the illegal meetings. He is only a council representative, like me, and not an elected tribal chairman.
Furthermore, it does not take a legal expert to interpret what Article IV, Section 1 means. It simply means that no legislative sessions can be conducted in the absence of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman under the current Hopi Constitution and By-laws. The council cannot legally conduct business, appoint people to run the so-called “interim government,” expend tribal and federal funds, or accept federal grants and contracts.
ARTICLE V, Section 2—mandates that filling vacancies in the office of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman that may occur for any reason “shall be filled for the rest of the term in the same manner as those officers are ordinarily chosen.” This mandate does not allow for any discretion on the part of the council. Council has no authority to decide that it simply is not convenient to hold an election to fill the vacancies. Yet, this is precisely what they have done.
Had the illegal “interim council” not interfered in the activities of the Election Board by refusing to allow them to conduct a special election, the objective of this Article would have been fulfilled and the current vacancies of our top officials would have been filled and the people would have had new duly elected leadership in office by the first week of April 2009. This would have met the Constitutional requirement and we would already have a legitimate fully functional government. The illegal council violated the provisions of the Election Ordinance #34 by refusing to allow the Election Board to hold an election, thereby, purposely destroying the independence of the Hopi Election Board.
We have appealed to the Superintendent, Hopi Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) numerous times to intervene on behalf of the grassroots people. Mr. Wendell Honanie declined to do so by citing a BIA policy not to intervene in internal tribal affairs. We believe the Bureau officials are hiding behind the veil of “sovereignty” and “self-determination.” Yet the BIA is deeply involved in the current controversy by ignoring the illegal actions of the council and has taken a position on the side of council who are orchestrating the illegal activities.
By siding with the conspirators who have illegally taken the reigns of Hopi government, the BIA has become complicit in the overthrow of our government. By recognizing the “interim government” and the illegally appointed heads of state, the BIA, in essence, intervened in an internal tribal dispute and has, therefore, become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. This defies the federal government’s trust responsibility to the Tribe.
The rhetoric of the Resolution H-007-09 was carefully crafted to create the illusion of a legitimate justification for illegal acts. The resolution also identified Tribal Secretary, an appointed position held by Mary A. Felter, and Tribal Treasurer, an appointed position held by Russell Mockta, to jointly hold the authorities of the Chief Executive Officer of the Tribe. The illegal council used the resolution as a deliberate and illegal way of reviving outdated practices which has been formally amended or eliminated. The official organization chart of the Hopi Tribe identifies the Chairman as the Chief Executive Officer.
Not only has our government been taken away from the Hopi/Tewa people, but our court system has been corrupted. Paving the way for the overthrow of our government and occupation of the Tribal Council by those who do not respect our Constitution and laws, our own Hopi Appellate Court was systematically dismembered by the same conspirators responsible for the current broken condition of our tribal government.
These are extreme circumstances that only can be mended and fixed by the Hopi/Tewa people themselves. Let us hope and pray that the upcoming election will have positive results.

Earthcycles Live: 7th Indigenous Uranium Forum

Join us LIVE: 7th Indigenous Uranium Forum
Govinda, producer at Earthcycles, http://www.earthcycles.net/, and Brenda Norrell, publisher of Censored News, http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/will team up once again to bring you live on the web, the 7th Indigenous Uranium Forum. Winona LaDuke will join Indigenous fighting uranium mining and nuclear dumping on their lands at the gathering at Acoma Pueblo's Sky City.
Indigie Femme performs on Oct. 22, Thursday, and "The Return of Navajo Boy," will be screened on Oct. 23, Friday.
For workshop and speakers see: http://www.siuf.net/index.html
If you would like to be an Earthcycles' sponsor, and help provide for travel expenses for Earthcycles, please contact Govinda at govinda@earthcycles.net or visit his PayPal at: http://www.earthcycles.net/
Earthcycles and Censored News provided five-month live coverage of the Longest Walk northern route, Indigenous Border Summits of the Americas, Havasupai Gathering to Halt Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon, AIM-West Reunion and more. Listen at http://www.earthcycles.net/
Radio stations around the world are urged to rebroadcast, or simultaneously broadcast, at no charge.
Indigenous Uranium Forum speakers include Lenny Foster, Dine; Honorable Chandler Sanchez, Governor, Acoma Pueblo; Honorable Ron Charlie, 2nd Lieutenant Governor, Acoma Pueblo; 30 Years of Resistance by John Redhouse and Manny Pino; 'Honoring Diana Ortiz' Woman of Acoma: Great Role Model; Charmaine White Face, Defenders of the Black Hills; Margene Bullcreek, Shoshone Paiute; Solidarity Statement: Katsumi Furitsu, Japan; Black Mesa Water Coalition; Navajos Phil Harrison and Gilbert Bedonie; Chris Peters: International Connections; Nuclear Regulatory Commission-GEIS Panelist Eric Jantz; Shonto Preparatory School 'Uranium Research,' Norman Brown; John Fogarty; Louise Bennally, Food Sovereignty; James Zion, Esq.; Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity; Laura Watchempino, Acoma Multi-Cultural Alliance for a Safe Environment; Nadine Padilla; Larry King; Petuuche Gilbert; Teddy Nez; Carletta Garcia; Al Waconda; Elsie Peshlakai; Robert Tohe; Winona LaDuke, Anishanabe, White Earth Homelands and more ...