Yahoo! forced to censor "Institutionalized
Racism"
Looking for examples of institutionalized racism
in America? If you searched Yahoo! Images yesterday you may
have found it. (For the sake of fairness, Yahoo! was likely required
to pull the image by the image supplier, and had no choice in the
matter. I applaud them for providing links to the controversy).
Controversy regarding two images found on "Yahoo!
Images" that suggest "institutionalized racism" has
resulted in Yahoo! pulling down one image (including caption) at
the request of AFP, the supplier of the photo in question.The two
images were posted and circulated around the Internet.
One image was that of a black man wading in the
New Orleans water carrying a 12 pack of Diet Pepsi and a garbage
bag. The other image was that of a white couple carrying backpacks
and groceries. The image of the black man, by AP, was captioned
[bold mine]:
"A young man walks through chest deep flood
water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday,
Aug. 30, 2005."
The other image, of two white people, was captioned
by AFP:
"Two residents wade through chest-deep water
after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store
after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans."
Yahoo! Images posted the following statement:
To Yahoo! News readers:
News photos are an especially popular section
of Yahoo! News. In part, this is because we present thousands
of news photos from some of the leading news services, including
The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France Press. To make
this volume of photos available in a timely manner, we present
the photos and their captions as written, edited and distributed
by the news services with no additional editing at Yahoo! News.
In recent days, a number of readers of Yahoo!
News have commented on differences in the language in two Hurricane
Katrina-related photo captions (from two news services). Since
the controversy began, the supplier of one of the photos –
AFP – has asked all its clients to remove the photo from
their databases. Yahoo! News has complied with the AFP request.
Here are a few of the postings that have commented
on the photo caption language:
Yahoo! News regrets that these photos and captions,
viewed together, may have suggested a racial bias on our part.
We remain committed to bringing our readers the full collection
of photos as transmitted by our wire service partners.
BAGHDAD, Aug. 31 -- Rumors of a suicide bomber
in the midst of a crowd of Shiite Muslim pilgrims set off
a stampede Wednesday on a Tigris River bridge, killing hundreds
as panicked worshipers trampled others or hurled themselves
off the bridge, according to witnesses and officials.
29 August 2005
Green Party calls out MoveOn.org
The Green Party called out MoveOn.org for
their weak position on the Iraq War in a press release last
week. "MoveOn has done an admirable job of rallying people
nationwide behind Cindy Sheehan's protest vigil in Crawford,
Texas," said Rebecca Rotzler, co-chair of the Green Party
of the United States and Deputy Mayor of New Paltz, New York.
"But MoveOn itself has undermined such efforts by refusing
to endorse an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq."
Green Party leaders challenged MoveOn.org
to support an immediate pullout of troops from Iraq. Journalist
Norman Solomon has noted that MoveOn declined to support a
resolution from Rep. Lynn Woolsey stating that "the president
should develop and implement a plan to begin the immediate
withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq" and
Rep. Barbara Lee's (D-Calif.) bill to block the establishment
of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq ("The
Iraq War and MoveOn", Common Dreams, August 18).
"We challenge MoveOn to listen to its
own membership, and take a stand against the invasion and
continued occupation of Iraq," said Ms. Garland.
Greens have rejected the claim of Democrats
like Senators Hillary Clinton (NY) and Joe Biden (Del.)
that the problem with the Iraq War is the Bush Administration's
military miscalculations.
"The invasion and occupation are crimes,
based on deception about the motivations for the invasion,
a radical ideology that embraces 'preventive war' -- condemned
by international law after World War II -- and an oil grab,"
said Leenie Halbert, Louisiana Green and member of the party's
International Committee. "This abuse of power was inevitable
after most Democrats in October 2002 voted with Republicans
to surrender Congress's constitutionally mandated power
to declare war to the White House."
MoveOn.org eventually responded, issuing the
following via e-mail to the MoveOn.org email list:
Now, we might have the beginnings of a sea
change in Congress. Republican Congressman Walter Jones,
the formerly pro-war Republican representative who coined
the term "Freedom Fries," joined a bi-partisan
group of legislators this summer to call for a concrete
plan to bring our troops home from Iraq. Will you call your
representative and urge them to sign on as a co-sponsor?
The Green Party of the United States, which
has consistently opposed the War on Iraq and consistently
called for the impeachment of President Bush, appears to be
frustrated with organizations and groups such as MoveOn.org
which preach populist positions in general but try to tow
the Democratic Party line.
On August 31st the Lake Winnebago Green Party,
along with the Winnebago Peace and Justice Center, a large
number of Democrats and other concerned citizens, are kicking
off their 60 day petition drive to place a non-binding referendum
on the Spring 2006 ballot.
The proposed ballot question will read: “Should
the United States begin an immediate withdrawal of its troops
from Iraq, beginning with the National Guard and Reserves?”
At 6 p.m. on Wednesday the 31st of August
there will be a kick off event at the sundial at Peace Park/Opera
Square Park in Oshkosh.
Bring them home NOW! Cindy Sheehan bus
tour to be in Madison September 4th
7:00pm, Sunday, September 4th
Barrymore Theatre, 2090 Atwood Ave, Madison
Featuring speakers from Camp Casey, on their
way to the September 24th United for Peace & Justice protests
in D.C., representing Gold Star Families for Peace, Military
Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Veterans
for Peace. Music and more. Free to public (donations accepted).
The Bush administration has drafted regulations
that would ease pollution controls on older, dirtier power
plants and could allow those that modernize to emit more pollution,
rather than less.
The language could undercut dozens of pending
state and federal lawsuits aimed at forcing coal-fired plants
to cut back emissions of harmful pollutants such as sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxide, said lawyers who worked on the
cases.
· Let's talk about health care: single
payer, birth to grave, every child, woman and man. Yes. Let's
stop rationing health care. Let's secure it for everyone.
· Let's talk about publicly funded
political and judiciary campaigns. If we have a constitutional
right to free speech then why can corporations buy so much
more speech than we ordinary citizens?
· Let's talk about strong election
and ethics oversight so our elections are fair and our politicians
are held to a high standard that inspires confidence and respect
for the office and the office holder.
· Let's talk about clean air, pure
water and beautiful landscapes. Let's delineate what these
things mean to us and to the future of our state.
· Let's talk about education and prisons
and living wages for workers and daycare for children and
eldercare for adults and…
