Salon.com > Peter J. Ognibene

Not fit to air

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 12:40:00 +0000

The charges in "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," which the Sinclair Broadcast Group has ordered its 62 TV stations to air in prime time before the Nov. 2 presidential election, should not be considered news, especially since the documentary's primary aim, according to producer Carlton Sherwood, is "exposing John Kerry's record of betrayal."

If one browses Sherwood's Web site and views excerpts of his 42-minute film, it becomes clear that he has produced nothing more than an attack ad that suffers from elephantiasis. The film's charges are not new -- they've been floating around for more than three decades.

Yet Sinclair's corporate relations V.P., Mark Hyman, who also provides conservative commentary for the company's TV outlets, recently told CNN: "I can't change the fact that these people [Vietnam POWs] decided to come forward today. The networks had this opportunity over a month ago to speak to these people. They chose to suppress them. They chose to ignore them. They are acting like Holocaust deniers and pretending these men don't exist."

Memo to airports: Hire Big Brother

Tue, 27 Nov 2001 20:30:00 +0000

The aviation security legislation signed Nov. 19 by the president is a sham. It ignores the most critical issue: positive identification of each passenger who makes a reservation.

We learned on Sept. 11 that the United States has no system to protect air travel, just fragments of a system: outdated hijacker profiles, lax security inspectors, hit-or-miss baggage checks, limited X-ray inspections, the random sky marshal. But turning each airport into a mini-Maginot Line is not the answer. We need to identify all passengers on every flight. Who they are. Where they live. The depth and breadth of their records provided by our information-intensive society.

The debate in Congress focused almost exclusively on physical security: airport inspections and undercover sky marshals. Because there are not enough marshals for every flight, the airport must become a final, formidable line of defense. Though the new law appears to strengthen airport security, it fails to make use of government and commercial databases that would allow a federal agency to identify everyone who makes a reservation.

The anatomy of a virtual conspiracy

Mon, 18 May 1998 19:00:00 +0000

The first lady is right, as Salon and others have suggested: There is a conspiracy to bring down President Clinton. But this is no ordinary conspiracy. Not a tiny cabal like the one that met in Mary Surratt's boardinghouse to plot the assassination of Abraham Lincoln nor the scenario of a wigged-out novelist or film director. It is something quite different -- indeed, unprecedented in our history -- a "virtual conspiracy."

In a traditional conspiracy, individuals come together one at a time, each carefully testing the others, until all are in accord on tactics and target. Secrecy is essential. When they finally move, they do so swiftly. All is won or lost in a single act. In feudal societies, if the group deposed the king and his barons, his realm and their lands passed to the chief conspirator and his vassals. Conspirators who failed paid with their heads.

A virtual conspiracy has the same objective -- to depose a leader -- but the means are different. A virtual conspiracy starts in the open and requires publicity to flourish and gain adherents. Virtual conspirators test-fly stratagems, tactics and rumors. They do not meet in secret until they have discerned what will advance their undertaking and what will not. Moreover, by making their initial moves in the open, they attract others to their cause and to one another.