quillnews

Time It Was

Some have asked, whether after my father's passing, if quillnews would retain its presence on the blogosphere.  Without question, it will.  One of my dad's lasting legacies is his writing, and this gift he left behind is the type that, for the foreseeable future, will keep on giving.

A classmate, and friend, of my father has edited and sent for publication a compilation of stories on the 60's.  The book, Time It Was, will be published by Prentice Hall, and will be available in 2007.

My father wrote one of Time's chapters, titled "Hope House."  This may very well turn out to be my father's final published work.  It is an autobiographical recount of events that took place in Cleveland in the Summer of 1966.  A synopsis taken from Time It Was:

While still in high school in 1964-66, R. Thomas Collins Jr. worked as a tutor for the Great Society's Upward Bound Program.  In the summer of 1966, when he and his fellow tutors visited Hope House, an urban mission in Cleveland, Ohio, they found themselves caught in inner city violence

The co-editor, Tim Koster, commented to me on my dad's contribution to Time It Was:

It's a wonderful story and exceptionally well written.  And we'll always be thankful to Tom for allowing us to use it because we used it as a standard for the rest of the chapters in the book.  Because of it we were able to fill the book with wonderful stories about one of the most dynamic periods in our history.  We think the book will have a big impact on how the sixties are seen and studied and we really have to thank your father for helping us make it happen.

Time It Was will be marketed by Prentice Hall as a textbook that covers one of the most dynamic and formidable periods of American history.  No doubt, the primary source nature of its contents, incorporating 40+ years of context and retrospection, will make it a unique and valuable educational text for anyone seeking to understand our recent history as well as the world in which we live today.

The story has many contributors (one here), including my Aunt who found herself front and center in the midst of Vietnam War protests at the Democratic National Convention chronicled in "Chicago '68." 

Stay tuned.

The Raven has Flown

R. Thomas Collins, Jr. (1947 - 2006)

R. Thomas Collins, Jr. (Thomas Collins or “Tom”), 58, a writer, editor, publisher, and international public affairs executive, died of leukemia on May 24, 2006 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.  Thomas Collins was a current resident of Vienna, Virginia.

Thomas Collins was born at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, CT on December 26, 1947 as the second of three children, and first son of Robert T. Collins and Mary Close (Savage) Collins.  As a child growing up, “Tom” and family called home West Hartford, CT, and Oakwood, OH.  Thomas went to grade school at Renbrook School in West Hartford, and attended Oakwood Junior & Senior High School in Oakwood, OH.  As a young man, Tom was active in service through the Boy Scouts, and he achieved Eagle Scout in Dayton, OH in 1962.  Tom was a 1966 graduate of Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, OH, where among other activities he served as co-captain of his varsity football team.  Tom went on to earn a B.A. in Government from Boston University, where he was graduated in 1970.  From there he pursued a career as a reporter before attending and graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism where he earned his M.S.J. in 1974.

Thomas Collins married Sun Oak Kim on April 24, 1971 at St. George’s Catholic Church on the Green in Guilford, CT.  Tom and Sun Oak had two children, a daughter, Lee Kathleen, and a son, Micah Thomas, both born in New York City while Tom was attending Columbia and forging the early years of his long career in journalism and public affairs. 

Thomas Collins worked as a reporter for newspapers in New England between 1969 and 1973, before moving to New York, where he was a reporter, rewriteman and editor with the New York Daily News between 1974 and 1979.  Tom began reporting about the oil industry in 1973 during the Arab Oil Embargo.  In 1979, in the midst of the Iranian Revolution he joined Mobil Oil, which had an active public affairs program to secure greater access to oil supplies at home and abroad, and to allow free market forces to flourish in global petroleum markets. Tom worked for Mobil Oil from 1979 to 1996 where he held various management posts, both in the upstream and downstream units.  From 1984 to 1990, Tom as manager of public relations for U.S. marketing and refining unit, managed and directed 15 public relations professionals, covering scores of operational facilities for the nation’s second largest petroleum company.  From 1990-96, Tom was the manager of public affairs for Mobil’s worldwide exploration and producing unit, managing and directing 50 professionals serving 17 business units operating in 30 countries, with particular focus on Nigeria, Indonesia, Qatar, and Vietnam. 

After retirement from Mobil, Tom served from 1997 to 1999 as Vice President for The Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Ltd. as head of the Washington D.C. representation office for that worldwide resources company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.

Thomas Collins actively participated in the community.  He served on the Fairfax County (VA) Public Library Foundation where he was a member of the board of directors of private sector fund raising and policy support group between 2000 and 2003.  Tom served the Fairfax County Public Schools as member (1984-1995) and co-chairman (1988-1994) of the Superintendent’s Business & Industry Advisory Council.  In addition, Tom was a member and vice president of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Virginia Business Council from 1984-1990.

Through his career in the oil industry, Tom traveled extensively and worked on projects in most of the world's oil exploration and producing regions, particularly Nigeria, Qatar, Indonesia, Vietnam and Australia.  All the while traveling, Tom saw the world through a writer’s eyes, and published his experiences in a series of books he called the Newswalker Series.  In his own words:

“I began writing what evolved into the NewsWalker Series late in the 1960s.  I wrote to sort through my thoughts, record my work and to bring order to life... When I began to realize what I was writing was more than just a diary, I was at the New York Daily News working as a reporter and editor on the city desk.  The thrill of daily reporting had begun to fade.  (But) I hoped my personal journal could evolve into another more permanent form.  Now these years later I see the territory covered in the NewsWalker volumes chronicled not only the journey of me and my family, but also the history of my time, oddly bookmarked by the public evens of November 22, 1963, and September 11, 2001.”

Since retirement from oil industry affairs in 2002, Tom took the lead as a true innovator as he focused his energies on journalism and publishing ventures - participating in emerging media markets by utilizing technological advances in both print and online media platforms.  In 1998, Tom founded and managed RavensYard Publishing, a print-on-demand micropublishing company, that was among the first book publishers to harness digital storage-based, on-demand printing technologies that could fulfill worldwide demand, and thus create new opportunities for emerging talent and niche-interest authors.  Since its inception, RavensYard has delivered 24 titles available through global bookseller channels.  In addition to RavensYard, Tom began publishing a blog, Quillnews, which developed a loyal readership that benefited from Tom’s plain spoken eloquence, and depth of knowledge gained during his career in the oil and media industries.  Through Quillnews, Tom helped his readers make sense of the rapidly changing world in which they lived, and in his own words, he “returned to his original intent – looking for the story behind the news.” 

Perhaps his most lasting written legacy, is a family narrative, One Life at a Time – A New World Family Narrative 1630-1960, which he wrote and published through RavensYard Publishing, which documents his children’s ancestry and origins.  A work of historical journaling and storytelling, it weaves facts with historical context and has proven to be an invaluable text among New England genealogists, as well as his extended family.   

Tom’s most lasting legacy is his loving family, who cared for him deeply and is saddened beyond words by his loss.

He is survived by his wife, Sun Oak (Kim) Collins, his daughter, Lee Kathleen Collins, M.D., his son, Micah Thomas Collins, his mother, Mary Close Savage, his sister, Tara Susanne (Collins) Gordon, and his brother William Savage Collins.

ARRANGEMENTS:

Calling hours for R. Thomas Collins, Jr. will be held on Wednesday May 31, 2006 at Molloy Funeral Home in West Hartford, CT, from 11am to 1pm ,and his body will be laid to rest at 2:00pm in East Berlin, CT.

IN MEMORY:

In lieu of flowers or other contributions, please consider making a donation in Dad's name to CARE.  CARE is involved in numerous humanitarian causes that Dad cared about, wrote about, and often lended his perspective to.  It would please him to know that his memory could help promote education, lessen hunger, and ease illness and suffering that, sadly, is much too widespread.

Give: Donation-in-Memory submission page

Make gift in "memory" of:
First: Thomas
Last: Collins

Give: Donation by mail

About CARE (from their website):

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. We place special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives.

No worries, just taking recoup time

Quillnews readers know I've been taking a hiatus from regular posts during recovery time from medical procedures. No worries; the blog still has all its charms for those interested in destination reading.  The archieves and categories are loaded and available.  Also, PDF files of my travelogues are available at left.  Meanwhile, the two posts immediately below highlight what I had in mind with my books in the NewsWalker Series.

The NewsWalker "travelogues": Vols. 2, 4

The stories I was hunting for turned out to be answers to questions we all share: where did we come from, where are we going and what does it all mean?  In my case, the quest for page one and tab fame came up wanting early enough so I could switch journalistic gears and begin a more private journey.  My media were letters to friends and colleagues, family, essays on my travels for work and on an amateur genealogical search that turned out to take many rewarding years.  This search also opened up the internet to me and heralded the new potential for publishing in the digital age.  Along the way I would confront my family's origins, and soak up the facts and stories of dozens of people in locations here at home, and some quite exotic places abroad.  Taken together these two volumes tell a story about the reconciliation between a father and son, about the forces of technical and social change to spur immigration and development, and how the constant economic demands of common people for more is the energy that powers our modern world.  The volumes I want to share are:

Wordsmith - Writing a Way Home (ISBN 1-928928-06-4) is a chronicle of journal entries written between 1980 and 1988 after I went to work for Mobil Oil Corporation, which at the time was at the center of one of the biggest stories of the day - the energy crisis. These entries portray a journey of discovery into the realities of modern industrial life, while enabling me to confront some of the causes and consequences of my family's past.  When edited later, I also learned this journal reveals a story of redemption for a father and son. (Volume 2 in the NewsWalker Series published by RavensYard)

White Monkey - A Journey Upstream (ISBN 1-928928-07-2) is a series of essays that describes travels to my ancestral headwaters in Ireland and Britain to investigate the origins of my own beginnings and later to my wife's home in Korea.  Also included in this narrative are travel essays that were about my work in the oil industry, and which allowed me to paint a portrait of today's oil industry and its interconnection with nations and trade.  Featured essays include profiles of events and people in Nigeria, Indonesia, Qatar, Korea, Scotland, England, Ireland and Hawaii, and also background into the causes of the largest corporate merger in history - Exxon's purchase of Mobil Oil. (Volume 4 in the NewsWalker Series published by RavensYard)

On the trail of the “Big One”: NewsWalker Vols. 1, 3, 5

Every young reporter is on the hunt for “the big one” – the story that will guarantee a page one headline, grab the readers’ interest and give the journalist a chance for newsroom fame.  At least that’s what it was like for me, back in the day, when I was starting out and wondering how to make it into the big time.   I didn’t know it at the time, of course, but “the big one” can also be a newsman’s white whale, consuming a life and spirit as completely as any other unattainable desire.   In time, if the reporter is lucky, he or she will grow to appreciate the smaller more balanced stories, the happy endings and the reports that merely herald the news: “all’s well.”  As for me, fate would open up opportunities elsewhere in the world, in my case the hunt for oil.  But my craft of writing never left me nor did my instinct for the scent of "the big one.” In calling attention to these three volumes in this post, I’m reminded that in their way, each book has the aroma of "the big one”.  When I was coming up, there were no bigger stories than President Kennedy’s assassination, the Vietnam War, and the tangled knot of the Middle East wars and the global oil business.  Even after I left the newsroom, it seems I still had the scent of "the big one" in mind as I went about the business of real life, and which I related in a series of diaries, letters and narratives.  Now these decades later, I realize that my big story would be a life lived in harmony with my family and colleagues, and fulfilling experiences in the rough and tumble of the real world. As a writer, though I may not have scored "the big one” as I had hoped as a young reporter, I still crafted a few books I’m happy to share: 

NewsWalker – A Story for Sweeney (ISBN 1-928928-03-X) A narrative of my years in the newspaper business, where my obsession to learn the story behind the news was rewarded over and over, but denied when I tried to unravel JFK’s murder.  Still my reporting did uncover a fuller context of the ethnic and tribal nature of the political world Kennedy came from and that sustained him, and which created a “mob justice” motive for his murder that is still not fully understood by the American mainstream.  (Vol. 1 in the NewsWalker Series published by RavensYard)

Blue Dragon – Reckoning in the South China Sea (ISBN 1-928928-05-6) – A narrative of Mobil Oil’s efforts from 1990-94 to return to oil exploration offshore Vietnam after the end of the embargo, and an insight into how actions are taken in DC for their political effects at home with little understanding of how destructive those actions can be abroad.   (Vol. 3 in the NewsWalker Series published by RavensYard)

Just Business Just War (ISBN 1-928928-11-0) – A behind-the-scenes look at the competitive global oil industry and how the US’s inability to come to grips with its energy appetites in today’s global marketplace reshaped the American oil industry, and created the conditions where war was necessary to protect American peace and security.  (Vol. 5 in the NewsWalker Series published by RavensYard)

"New Battlefield" (Part 18) - Karen (Wrongway) Hughes suited up for battle, then sailed home!!!

It happened that just as Pacesetter Rumsfeld began making his speeches about the need for some new form of pro-active communications reform in dealing with the war on terror, the White House was preparing to name presidential gal pal Karen Hughes to Amb. Rank as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy.  This was done with much fan fare and great expectation, particularly since 2005 was going to be the year that the Bush team could consolidate its election mandate on managing the war in Iraq. Gettting Hughes in harness was genuinely good news.  Quillnews took note.  And the assignment she was taking had been neglected and abused since the end of the Cold War.  Hughes an aggressive go-getter who the president listened to would be pulling the levers of public outreach, engagement, diplomatic receptions, education grants, tours to build understanding and the host of other “soft arts” that comprise public diplomacy lately. (More below on what she did with the assignment!)

Government, like every other institution of society, has strived to adapt to the technology that drove the graphics revolution in the 20th century.  The US government entered the graphics big leagues with World War Two, as radio and motion pictures became essential vehicles to convey information and to build and maintain morale.  Public space and work place posters sending war messages are now icons of pop art. To properly manage these technologies and prevent abuse by the enemy first during the war and later in confronting Soviet aggression, the USG set up the Office of War Information, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and other such agencies which evolved into the USIA, VOA.  The activities of these agencies were largely managed as part of the diplomatic services in the State Department and treated like the country’s de facto communications or public affairs outreach program, which handled scholarships, cultural exchanges, VIP tours, etc.  Rarely were these activities of government used by the executive branch’s ruling coalition as part of the nation’s day-to-day program to implement strategic action. 

Instead, the ruling coalition at the senior levels of government used their own political communication functions to build support for their own particular programs or for their own personal political fortunes.  The game soon changed so that the all elected and appointed political figures strived to keep the government’s official communications activities (VOA, USIA, et al) separate from the interactions of the ruling coalition.  This ensured that the government could not be used to manufacture propaganda for one domestic political program or candidate and ensured that the offshore communications activities of the USIA and VOA could remain separate from partisan politics.  But it also had the effect of keeping the communications and public affairs outreach activities of government away from members of the ruling coalition, who over time never developed the management skills necessary to adequately support these functions of government.  As a result, after the demise of the Soviet Union, whatever champions these functions of government had were unable to justify the continued independence of a government communications and public affairs function.  The result was the a series of government reorganizations that effectively shut down the USIA, and gutted the VOA and distributed control over broadcasting and communications assets over a confusing and cross functional set of bureaucratic sinecures that no one actually controls.  It is a complete mess.

Today something called the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG, BBG2) the independent federal entity responsible for all US government and government-sponsored international broadcasting programming on Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Worldnet and Radio-TV Marti. Their budget now exceeds $500 million, with more for Middle East Radio Network (MERN), broadcasting as Radio Sawa, the Arabic word for "together", and Radio Afghanistan.  This is all coordinated through the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy – somehow. 

The USIA, VOA, Radio Free Europe and all the other legacy units for communicating US policy, identity and values grew out of the lessons of World War II, when the Office of War Information, and OSS and other embedded units within State and military services practiced the “communications arts and sciences” according to the fashions and habits of the time.  The CIA of course would adopt the covert programs, while the VOA and USIA would serve more as the front office channels of communication and engagement programs.  Over the period in the 50’s and early 60’s, these institutions grew with very little controversy. The FSOs who staffed these agencies were careerists, who only ocassionaly were led led by real stars, Edward R. Murrow under JFK and John Chancellor briefly under LBJ.  During the Vietnam War everything changed; the VOA, USIA and other institutions of government communication capacity began an endless and inevitably downward slide as it no longer seemed fashionable for Americans to trust their government to tell the truth.  USIA, VOA and the other legacy institutions began to sink into the State Department bureaucracy as other more assertive and more fashionable communicators – campaign consultants, press secretaries, TV anchor men, celebrity journalists employed in the private sector – became favored conveyors of public information – which usually benefited a particular political figure or policy agenda.  Certainly government flaks within VOA or USIA had no standing in this new game of media gotcha!

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US capacity to communicate its programs and policies and values was gutted.  Understaffed, budgets cut, mauled in bureaucratic infighting, eventually the dawdlers, do-gooders, puff artists and con men won the day.  The USIA was officially ended October 1, 1999.  Here is the legislation that changed everything. (L, L2, L3, L4, L5)  Here is a fact sheet about the USIA, and an affectionate commemorative essay. 

The net result of this reform hodge podge has been ego stroking, feather bedding, consultant driven flim flamery, budget puffery and slashing has been a public embarrassment in DC ever since. Then came Sept 11. It became clear that the US has gutted precisely the kinds of communications tools it would need in this new war of ideas.  Initiatives in both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and at the White House were launched to develop immediate action plans and see what could be done.  One effort by the Rep. Frank Wolfe, of the House Committee on Appropriations, led to the thoughtful study: (report here).  But after a flurry of action in 2002 and 2003, it was clear that a White House centered effort would fail. (One can only assume that Sec of State Powell and Sec of Defense Rumsfeld didn’t appreciate all this “help” from junior political Bush operatives on the war’s “message of the day”!)  After some chair reshuffling at the White House the effort was quietly abandoned in 2004.  Congress authorized the GAO to do a full blown study about the issue.  (Excellent report here)

Quillnews observation: Despite all the fan fare of Hughes appointment in the spring, she promptly went on leave for 9 months!  (Like Bullwinkle & Rocky's pal, Capt. Wrongway Peachfuzz, Hughes, having been given the communications assignment of the age, went home; leaving behind the job she and Rice and Bush 43 all touted was so important!)  Talk about delivering a message!  Hard to believe.  But in the middle of a war where “hearts and minds” are part of the target audience of the war itself, Hughes takes a leave for personal reasons. The bloom came off the rose with Quillnews after that.  It is obvious the Bush 43 senior executives are of the type who view public diplomacy as so much hot air, puffery, unmanly perhaps, and certaintly not worthy of consideration at the executive decision making table.  It is action that speak louder than words.  Okay, fair enough.  (QN) If that management strategy works.  The problem for the rest of 2005 and early 2006 was the actions the people would see in Iraq (combined with the absence of “words” explaining and engaging issues at hand) weren’t telling the story in any way balanced or fair minded.  So now what…?  Stay tuned. 

Rumsfeld gets credit for calling attention to the challenge on freedom’s “new battlefield.”

This is not a war where set piece battles were waged by kings and mercenaries. And it not the industrial warfare of the Civil War, World War One, World War Two where the entire organizing power of industrial nation states were focused on battle.  It is not even the limited one-arm-tied-behind-my-back type wars in Korea and Vietnam, where US was obliged by its morality, civil codes, law, world opinions not to destroy the enemy, just make him stop what he was doing.  Today, the new enemy we face is the jihadist who owes no formal allegiance to a state and his goal is your death so he can allow a religious dictatorship to emerge.  His viciousness, his secretive nature, his cultural affinities have enabled him to hide. His tactics have made him deadly, and his ability to use our freedom as a weapon would facilitate the creation of a religious dictatorship unheard of in centuries.

Our Problem: The new 24-7 global media world is one of the central fronts in the “New Battlefield.”  Yet, our forces of freedom are not organized properly to adequately defend freedom in this new 24-7 global media world.  Our formerly trusted communications channels – our free press and aggressive media housed in the corporate sector – have been manipulated by the enemy for psy-ops purposes.  Our traditional protectors of freedom – our military – have been caught flat footed as negative and questionable images have dominated world media, perversely manipulated so that our defenders are made to look as the villains in media-ville’s bizarro world.  Civilian populations become caught up in political side show battles over the impact of these misleading and distorted images, not over the content of the battle itself nor its causes and consequences.   

The government – both legislative and executive branches – are organized around the industrial model.   There hierarchies of departments with budgets and supervised by committees and staff all of whom behave normally to enhance, protect or adjust their operations to suit conditions.  They were not organized with the thought that they needed to respond to internet images that at virtually no cost can be acquired and distributed world wide.   They were not organized when a well-compensated core of society’s cultural elites, who were among the country’s most articulate, well-educated and highly-celebrated individuals believed it was their professional duty to question, criticize, analyze and otherwise second-guess every act or decision made by civil government for its basest or hidden motive. They were organized around news and information cycles that were months, weeks and days and not when information had to be recycled and produced for 24-7 cable outlets and internet access. 
So, Rumsfeld, the “pacesetter” boss of the Defense Department asks: what are we to do?  With Charlie Rose on PBS Feb 17, Rumsfeld was careful not to be judgmental of the media today, merely to be asking the question.

Rumsfeld: I thought it would be useful for people to think about that. For example, after World War II, there were new institutions established. We know about the World Bank and the IMF and NATO and the United Nations. For governmental activity. There are some new institutions established during period there where, for example, the U.S. Information Agency. U.S.I.A.  [Radio Free Europe.]  … Some of these other things and they obviously had an impact during that period. They wouldn't be appropriate today, but the question is, since there is no road map, there's no guide book that when you get up in the morning it says here's what you should do about this, world. And this is not a problem for the Pentagon alone. It is a problem for the society. The question is what are those institutions that might be of value today in the 21st century, given these new realities that exist? And how might we be best arranged so that we can if it be effective?  I mean, Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda have media committees. They meet, they figure out how to manipulate the news in New York City and the United States of America and London and Paris.

Rose:  Are you saying that the United States' government should create as part of its responsibility broadcast and use all the technology to get its message across rather than simply thinking more clearly about the structure of technology today, and using it? In other words, should the U.S. government have more responsibility?

Rumsfeld:  We clearly have a responsibility for carrying the message of what it is we're doing 24 hours a day --

Rose:  Are you saying it ought to be something more than this?

Rumsfeld: It has to be. Just like it had to be after World War II…  I don't know the answers to (which agency should do it). I just know the questions and I’m concerned about it because it's pretty clear that when our society is not doing the job that needs to be done. I mean, here's this country, this wonderful country, the United States of America, that does so much in the world. Through government. Assistance to various people. The tsunami assistance. The Pakistan assistance. The private charities that people do. And, a country that doesn't seek anyone else's real estate, isn't trying to grab anyone else's oil.  Isn't trying to do anything like that and yet the message out there is filled with in the air waves are filled with lies. The al Qaeda are constantly, systematically putting out lies about the United States of America and one was Mark Twain said a lie travels two and a half times around the world before truth get it is boots on.

Rose:  Are you saying American media is not doing its job in your judgment to report what you think is the truth? We have talked about this before, a criticism of the consequences of what is reported.

Rumsfeld:  I am in a mode of being inquiring, not judgmental. I think the media ought to ask itself how it's doing, and they can do that, on their own time. My problem is, I’m in government. And my task is to try to help figure out what government might do to do a better job for our country in this new -- this era of the new realities of the 21st century, and it is a fundamentally different environment than when I was secretary of defense 30 years ago.

Quillnews question:  So just how should we organize and change ourselves to meet this front in today’s “new battlefield”?   Like I said, give Rumsfeld credit for asking.  Stay tuned...

"New Battlefield" (Part 17) – Okay, Don “Mr. Pacesetter” Rumsfeld, now what?

I learned early on in a corporation that the wisest thing to do with a “pacesetter” executive – you know the demanding guys who insist you do it his way or else – is to listen up when he’s making an overarching strategic or philosophical point.  Because you can guarantee with a guy like that, if he's your boss he’ll come back at you later and demand to know what you’ve done to implement his “vision.”  So it was with the Bush 43 administration’s premier “pacesetter” SecDef Rumseld, who last year began to wonder aloud about the problems free people faced fighting the war on terror in the 24-7 global media world. Rumsfeld’s breakthrough speech on this new phenomenon was delivered May 25 to the Philadelphia World Affairs Council, followed up by a interview with ABC News, and then a press conference.  Rumsfeld was quite naturally already blistered from the instant prison abuse photos on the internet, the web-based murder and recruiting videos from the terrorist enemy, and unending babble of voices spreading lies, half-truths, violent images, and propaganda.  And that’s before you even get to the regular political hatchet men, the anti-American aggitators and MSM and its profit-driven, ratings-hungry, amoral, agenda-setting efforts at what now passes for journalism from a “free press.”  Said Rumsfeld: “The problem is that, to a large extent, we are in unexplored territory with this unconventional and complex struggle against extremism."  Rumsfeld followed up these themes of the unexplored territory in a WJS article July 18 (Roggio), and later in a speech to Johns Hopkins SAIS Dec 5, when he linked the crucial element of American public opinion to the performance of the news media in its coverage of the war. Said Rumsfeld:

Our country is waging a battle unlike any other in history. We are waging it in a media age that's unlike any war that war fighters have ever known. Think of it. This is the first war of the 21st Century. It's the first war to be conducted with talk radio, and 24-hour news, and bloggers, and emails, and digital cameras, and Sony video cams, and all of these things that bring so much information near instantaneously to people. And in this new century, we all need to make adjustments -- government and the media alike. And change is hard -- let there be no doubt.  We are all Americans. We are all in this together. And what we do today will not only impact us, but it will surely impact our children and our grandchildren, and the kind of world they will live in.

What are we to do?   Last month, on Feb 2, Rumsfeld spoke at the National Press Club. Again, on Feb 17, Rumsfeld spoke about this at the Council on Foreign Relations and later that day in the PBS interview with Charlie Rose:

E-mails and 24-hour talk radio and 24-hour news programs, and the internet and bloggers and all of these things that move information into – near instantaneously all across the globe, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And the fact that the United States government is simply not organized and arranged and structured to cope with that. We're still in the 20th century, in terms of how we deal with it. You have newspapers sitting beside you. … They used to be a dominant means of communication for people, and where they got their information. Today, people have so many different channels where they can get information. And, and we need in government to recognize that if you're engaged in a major battle with major armies and navies competing and air forces competing, that's one thing. The center of gravity of that war is where those battles occur. Today, we're not competing with our major armies, navies or air forces. It's an unconventional conflict. It is irregular warfare. It is asymmetric and the battleground is not so much out there, it is here (he points to his and Rose’s head). It is a matter of will. It is a matter of the public's attitudes about these things. Instead of the center of gravity where the naval war is being fought, the center of gravity is in the capitals of cities all across a nations all across the world and therefore we are going to simply have to figure out ways to get arranged to cope with that. Because it's a totally new environment and a very difficult one. I thought it would be useful for people to think about that.

Indeed.  What are we to do?  Rumsfeld may have his haters and detractors over his leadership on the War in Iraq, but when a pacesetting executive talks like this, it’s smart to pay attention. The Pacesetter has a point!  The MSM is collapsing and its World War 2 and Post War mission of balance and fair play has been corrupted.  It has even given up on being balanced in its political reporting.  The form and content of even straight news are loaded with the bias of the editors.  Under technological and economic assault and changes in markets, many old news outlets are going bankrupt; they are abused by their current management. They have lost their way.  The new global media is exploding with new channels of information, yet most are untested and untrusted.  How are free people to keep ourselves informed?  Who do we trust to find and tell the truth?  Stay tuned.

Among St. Patrick's legacies

As March 17 approaches, it is time for Quillnews to take note of aspects Celtic that matter to me, which in the case of this post is a book entitled Ghosts of Kilrush, by Joe Riley, published by RavensYard and available wherever books are sold (ISBN 1-928928-13-7), and which is as charming an Irish reminisce as you are likely to find anywhere.  Author Joe Riley was, well, abandoned by his Yorkshire father in Kilrush, Co. Clare, as a very young boy, and luckily taken in by a local family named DeLoughery who - there is no other way to say it - were a Godsend to Joe. The DeLoughery family, and the entire Kilrush community, raised Joe as their own, giving him love, a home and protection. When Joe became a teenager, he did what many advertureous spirits do - hit the road. In Joe's case, he became a musician and rocker in Liverpool, a medical worker and manager, computer entrepreneur, eventually settling in Manila, Philippines where he lives with his family now.  Joe's early years in Kilrush were so enriching, Joe put his experiences growing up in that west Ireland village to words and created a poignant childhood portrait that is at once heart-wrenching, hilarious and a joy to read. 

I was introduced to Joe's manuscript a few years ago by a mutual internet buddy, Patrick Cusack, an entrepreneur in the Emerald Tiger's emerging high tech industry. Though living and working outside Dublin, Cusack is a native of Kilrush, Co. Clare, who loves his hometown and is among its most accomplished boosters. Patrick's joy of Kilrush arcana and lore, together with his internet savvy, had led Patrick to establish all manner of Kilrush-based relations around the worldwide web.  Patrick and I had begun a correspondence a decade ago as a result of genealogical work I was doing into my own family history, whose Irish roots are firmly planted in Kilrush, from which my ancestors Sinon and James Collins, father and son, emigrated to New York City in 1863.  Through Patrick's help I was able to enrich my studies of my family history and learn, among many other things, the correct pronounciation of my clan name, O'Coileain, is O Quill Awn.  (Editor's note: yes, that is one of the origins of this blog's name, Quillnews.)

Joe Riley's interest in finding a publisher for his Kilrush memoir had also led him to Patrick, who made the link: he knew of my Kilrush roots and the fact that I had become involved with some partners in a publishing venture, RavensYard, that was designed to use new printing and communications technologies to bring books to market. Through internet correspondence and file sharing, publishing magic would be made.  RavensYard's editors agreed with me that Joe had written a small masterpiece.  We put Joe's manuscript through RavensYard's editing gauntlet and released his book to rave reviews two years ago.  It has been a consistent seller in the US, Ireland, UK and Australia ever since.  Joe and his family even traveled from Manila to Ireland and were feted to a home town reception at which Kilrush's Mayor welcomed Joe and his praised his work for enabling Kilrush's community to share such loving memories.  Patrick and I were heartened to know that from our respective corners of the globe - Dublin, Manila, Fairfax - the three of us Kilrush sons, Patrick, Joe and I, had been able to use the most modern of technology to share with the world Joe's simple story of grace, love and redemption, a legacy perfect for St. Patrick.

Are elite bias and a dying MSM security threats?

In the breezes swirling around the media campfires this week, a few items caught my eye as I, like the old linotypers, began assembling a few thoughts.  All related to the declining standing of trust of two key institutions: universities & the news media, where US obsessions with image and “pseudo events” are having real effects.  Items:

Universities: 

• Jihad Johnny a Yalie: Yale’s coddling of an unrepentant fascist propagandist as a “student” is beyond belief.  No wonder this is news!  John Fund’s WSJ article about the Taliban propagandist turned Yalie here is chilling enough, followed up by the unbelievable stupid responses from Yalies who ought to know better. (WSJ, WSJ2)  Since when does Yale reward sociopathic shape-shifters with the secret Buhla hand shake?  (BG)  Or is the current crop of Langley’s “slam dunkers” trying to rekindle New Haven’s OSS (Oh So Social) roots with a ham-handed recruiting of some amoral twit?
• Sixties Dead Enders: the answer to the “since when” question above, of course, is since the Sixties.  Check out David Horowitz’s Q&A at NRO, and his new book: The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.  The delusional Vietnam-era obsession of these academics on appearing on the side of diversity and peace and justice is giving aide and comfort to the forces of intolerance and war and slavery.
• Supremes have a clue: At least the US Supreme Court knows 8-0 that the nation has a right to defend itself. (WS) Yale and the other nation’s law schools apparently don’t want to taint themselves associating with those helping to defend military institutions.  They still want US tax dollars, thought.  Quillnews view: not another dime to ingrate anti-American schools!  More witch-hunting Congressional demagoguery on this issue, please!

News media:

• Say good night, K-R: Knight Ridder rides off into the sunset with the McClatchy merger, as more community-based newspapers hit the dust. (WSJ) This further demise of the independent news media comes as the Project for Excellence in Journalism issues its annual report on the media detailing the “seismic transformation” underway in news and journalism. (PEJ, Report) One factoid: newsroom jobs declined 7% since 2000. (WP)  Quillnews fond memories: when I was growing up, newspapers were my form and context of life.  My childhood days were informed and organized by reading the Hartford Courant daily and Shore Line Times weekly.  As I got older, major Boston, New York and DC dailies would organize my daily agenda, serving as a kind of civic mass to orient my thoughts and day.  Today, I don’t subscribe to a newspaper, and the freebies tossed on my driveway go right to the recycle bin unread.  The PEJ and CPJ have excellent summary sites on all this. Quillnews question: in the context of the universities, what eager bright graduate would choose a career in journalism anymore?
• Bush 43 speech acknowledges power of pictures:  In his excellent speech Tuesday at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Bush 43 said that last December: Americans were inspired by the images of Iraqis bringing elderly relatives to the polls, holding up purple ink-stained fingers, dancing in the streets and celebrating their freedom. By their courage, the Iraqi people have spoken and made their intentions clear: they want to live in democracy -- and they are determined to shape their own destiny.  The past few weeks, the world has seen very different images from Iraq -- images of violence, and anger, and despair. We have seen a great house of worship -- the Golden Mosque of Samarra -- in ruins after a brutal terrorist attack. We've seen mass protests in response to provocation. We've seen reprisal attacks by armed militias on Sunni mosques -- and random violence that has taken the lives of hundreds of Iraqi citizens. (Speech, Fact Sheet)
• Implicit in Bush 43’s assertions is the recognition that it is the images and their overriding emotional impact that we are responding to as the war in Iraq unfolds.  The facts are one thing, but it’s the reflections of those facts in media that matter!  Notwithstanding the horror and power of the individual destructive acts of war, should it be primarily he images that we are to respond to in deciding whether to pursue one strategy or another in the war on Islamofascists?  If so, who creates the images?  Facts are a factor, but as important as to facts’ effects on immediate public opinion are the editing choices, the context and content, manufactured by the media!  As the demise of the Knight Ridder and the PEJ implies, the capacity to create those images is falling into smaller and a more focused (biased?) professional class whose get-go ideas today reflect the teachings learned in the Sixties.
• Peters to the rescue: Lt. Col. Ralph Peters again points out the truth to power – in this case the overwhelming image power of the MSM and its ability to distort the reality of war for the American people.  His article about the media myths about the Iraq war is a tonic.

Quillnews observations:  Free people are in the midst of a war against their liberty and – for reasons of market changes, technology and ideological bias – we are not getting all the facts from our established institutions of communication and education.  How are free people to make informed judgments about the course of their war actions if we don’t have the issues organized in a coherent way from trusted and unbiased sources?

Happy 21st

Around the family, my nephew, Townsend, is know as TC2.  Being more senior on the org chart, when dealing with things TC2, I proudly carry the moniker TC1.   He's a terrific kid, my brother's son, and he just turned 21 and has such a wonderful life ahead of him.  No Bull!   Happy Birthday TC2!

Newspaper cartoons are funny, except when you're serious (part 2)

Recalling the recent ranting street theater in some quarters over a cartoon or two, here's two to ponder, left and here: US of Islam.  (HT:  LGF)  Food for thought on a whole lot of levels.  Of course the Dubai Ports story has been a stand in topic for the "elephant" in the room - the complete trashing of Islam as a respectable religion because of the internal war being waged by the Islamofascists.  The American people are reacting to actions of Islamic fanatics and are responding in a completely understandable way. The elites from DC may say it is all because of media manipulation, but give the people who live in this world some credit. (WP, LGF) Where are the voices of moderation and reform within Islam who can counter this public poison of violent intolerance?  Others of faith in the world community aren't stupid and will respond to mindless threats of religious violence.  Where are the voices of moderate Islam? (Update: An earlier QN rumination.) With outfits like CAIR as their public spokesmen, it is any wonder the voice of moderate Islam has been crowded out ofthe public square? (Pipes & Chadha in MEI on CAIR a must read).  Quillnews question:  Dubai Ports, Schmorts! The Judeo-Christian West is losing trust in the Arab Islamic world's ability to be civilized.  Is this loss of trust permanent? Are we witnessing the making of a historic tragedy? I'm serious.  Stay tuned... (Part 1)

Too many brains; too much time...

Reading VDH's piece in NRO, you have to wonder if at least some of the problem with the so-called "former Iraq war supporters" from the conservative ranks, if this just isn't a question of too many brainy guys hanging around with too much time on their hands...  Kind of like all the kibitizers at the Civil War battlefield suttler's tent who hung around just talking and waiting...  Quillnews view: wars are an ugly mess, but let's use some common sense.  Iraq has come so far in such a short time since Saddam.  Give the volunteers who have sacrificed so much for such progress the benefit of the doubt. The war theater we are witnessing at home is not the reality on the ground in Iraq.  And most of the theoritical geopolitical models the think tank set like so much are hooey anyway.  What matters is defeating the enemy, victory in the field and enough backbone by the US force to make sure that the Iraqi's stand up for themselves.  The new government is being organized. No civil armies have taken the field.  Cooler heads among the Iraqis understand the stakes.  The game is still in play.  Soldier on.

Sifting through the dispatches; actually, we're winning

You have to give the reporters sifting through all the static and data a break.  Who can avoid obsessing about the Dubai Port embroglio, and the stunning collapse of political savvy by the free market one worlders who let this deal come to this point without better political ground work? (WSJ)  Quillnews counts himself among those free market partisans, by the way, but even I knew that an outfit like the UAE would never get past the rope line at the gate on this deal.  Check out the recent (and understandable) bias of US public opinion. (WP) (Editor's aside: The last time I encountered a citizen of the UAE he held a machine gun at my chest. I was walking to a clearly marked men's room during a hour transit stop at the busy Abu Dhabi airport on a lay over on a flight to London from Qatar. I was just one of the thousands passing thru UAE on air transit daily, but I got this treatment anyway: no smiles, no thank you's, no welcome to our country; just a grease gun inches from my heart until a young man with the bad complexion and week's beard decided I could continue on my way...  I went back to my waiting area, by the way, and used the facility on the BA flight later.)   All newswalkers have such distractions to wade through.  Imagine the bits of scattered information and direct experience the Civil War correspondents at left must have sifted through back in the day. Sometimes it's good to go to the source. Take public statements of VP Cheney and SecDef Rumsfeld at two venues Tuesday, for example.  At the AIPAC convention in DC Cheney quite simply puts the entire war in context; and cuts through the fog and rhetoric. (Worth the read.)  The same day, at a DoD press conferrence, Rumsfeld reminded reporters that vigilence is key in the war on terror and that all the "civil war" talk by the MSM has been very badly reported and had the effect of undermining homefront morale. (Here). (Michael Rudin of AEI has an excellent analysis on this issue here). Rumsfeld poked fun with the reporters in the give and take, and gave his own "spin" on the recent developments in Iraq, which were no question bad, but not the beginning of a civil war.  Said Rumsfeld:

It's instructive to take note of several things that have happened in Iraq since the bombing of the shrine that must be disappointing to those who seek a civil war. First, the Iraqi security forces have taken the lead in controlling the situation.  Coalition forces assisted in a supporting role, according to General Casey. And second, the Iraqi government leaders took a number of key steps that have had a calming effect in the situation.  They imposed a curfew, and the leaders of most of the major parties have stepped forward to publicly urge restraint on all parties.

From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey. The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated.  The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated.  The behavior of the Iraqi security forces had been mischaracterized in some instances.  And I guess that is to say nothing of the apparently inaccurate and harmful reports of U.S. military conduct in connection with a bus filled with passengers in Iraq.

Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn't as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues.  On the contrary, the steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq. And then I notice today that there's been a public opinion poll reporting that the readers of these exaggerations believe Iraq is in a civil war -- a majority do, which I suppose is little wonder that the reports we've seen have had that effect on the American people.   

General Casey has reported that overall levels of violence have not increased substantially as a result of the Golden Dome bombing. To be sure, violence continues to slow Iraq's progress.  That's a fact, and we know that.  In the coming months Iraqis will face difficult obstacles in controlling illegal militias, and we know that. They're working to try to strengthen their ministries, and we're trying to help them.  And their efforts to fashion a unity government that will represent all elements of their society is clearly being delayed by the situation in Iraq.  Nonetheless, the leadership being shown by the Iraqi security forces, by the Iraqi government officials in the wake of these attacks against the shrine has to be seen as encouraging, despite the apparent unwillingness of some to accept it.

Nearly 56 years ago, in 1950, the Truman administration issued what would become a framework for America's Cold War strategy for four decades.  In a formerly classified document called NSC 68, the Truman administration said, quote, "Our fundamental purpose is more likely to be defeated from lack of will to maintain it than from any mistakes we may make or assault we may undergo because of asserting that will," unquote.  Today our nation is again in a long struggle.  And again, the toughest challenge will be to maintain our national will to persevere and to prevail.

Later in the question and answer session, Rumsfeld had some fun with a reporter: 

• REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, Are you saying that this poll and that what you call the rush toward declaring civil war in Iraq, is that the result of intentional misreporting of the situation there?
• RUMSFELD:  Oh, I can't go into people's minds.  All I'm doing is reporting on what we've seen.  General Casey pointed out to this group here that he believes -- his data shows that the numbers of mosque attacks and the nature of the attacks and the severity of the attacks have been considerably exaggerated and that the number of civilian Iraqis that have been killed or wounded has been exaggerated. And -- now, why someone or whoever did this, I have no way to judge.  I'm not going to judge them.  It's just a fact that he is saying that, and I believe he's correct
• REPORTER: But you said, Sir, that -- I believe that the reporting was virtually one-sided.  Does that mean…?
• RUMSFELD: Yeah, the interesting thing about it is they all seem to be of a kind.  All the things that have later been corrected or need to be corrected or that he believes were exaggerated all seem to be on one side of the equation.  We don't see the similar thing on the other side, which you normally would get in some kind of a random spread, one would think.
• REPORTER: Well, do you believe that the media's been duped by the situation or doesn't understand it or what?
• RUMSFELD: All I'm doing is reporting.  I'm just reporting the facts.  (Laughter.)  The facts are as I've stated them.

Sometimes BS means: Bigtime Serious!

The insightful Howard Fineman hit a standup triple in his column this week in Newsweek under the head: "Un-explainer in Chief."  Fineman seeks to plumb the depths of Bush 43 incredible bounts of silence or inarticulatness that go for agonizing stretches between supremely written and delivered more formal addresses. What can be at work here?  Fineman's nails it: 

George W. Bush is in choppy water over the Dubai ports issue. And he is so, in large part, because, unlike Clinton, he is a man of bullet points, not explanations; of slogans, not systems; of certitude, not complexity. I've known Bush for a long time and I know that he distrusts talk, at least public talk. He'd rather make a decision—give an order—and then go out and attack a felled tree with a chain saw. He is confident to the point of arrogance when he makes a "tough call." But he objects by nature to the demand that he explain his reasoning or the process behind it. Why he is this way, I don't quite know. In part, perhaps, it's a sense of entitlement that comes from being a fourth-generation national leader (counting his great-grandfather, Samuel Bush, an Ohio industrialist who founded the National Manufacturers' Association). Another reason is his father's political saga. Junior hated watching his dad's painfully compulsive need to explain himself in public and vowed: not me. Then there's West Texas, where Bush learned his social Tough Guy ways on the playgrounds of Sam Houston Elementary and San Jacinto Junior High, and then later at the Midland Petroleum Club. The ethic out there is to distrust talkers. You shake hands. Finally, there is Bush's tongue-tied-in-public nature. He's unsure of himself without a simple script.It's almost as if Microsoft had George W. Bush in mind when they invented PowerPoint.The man-of-few-words approach has its virtues, and they matched the moment in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and, for the most part, since. Bush's deep belief in his vision of global democratization, coupled with the eloquence of speeches crafted for state occasions by Michael Gerson, carried the day. Dazed and confused and searching for old verities after the terrorist attacks, I think most Americans found some comfort in Bush the Growling Cowboy.

Quillnews comment: Bush 43 is so petulent in his contempt for uses of "public talk" that he can't bring himself to see it as anything other than b.s. He doesn’t trust it and won’t do it. Instead, Bush 43 universally relies on the image of the "Growling Cowboy" as his only personae, a solitary silence or at best a "yep...nope" during so many of his performances on the public stage that the US CEO has crippled his Administration communications capacity. You know, sometimes the audience demands a little Elvis!  It is my view that this willful blindness to a critical aspect of his job must be overcome; or Bush 43 and his team will otherwise be squandering a critical tool in pursing the war on terror. I'm serious. Stay tuned...