CHANNEL CAT

~~~~~~~~~~~
-by Roger Jacques


"On July 18, residents of a poor neighborhood in the capital reported finding three heads in the Rockefeller sewage canal.

"The city morgue is also fuller than usual and at times has scores of decapitated bodies or bodies with multiple bullet or severe knife or machete wounds. Every Saturday morgue workers dump dozens of unclaimed bodies into common graves."

That 'soundbite' is not one you would find on CNN, Nightline, or quoted in the NYTimes. It comes from Haiti Info, a bi-weekly newsletter published by the Haitian Information Bureau, an indigenous news service operating out of Port-au-Prince. Channel is now in communication with HIB through the Internet.

From e-mail received from them...

     
HIB>     "Our experience with the mainstream media has been going on since 
HIB> the coup d'etat when we helped found something called Haiti 
HIB> Communications Project to combat the dis- and mis-information.
HIB> We find that once in a while a reporter writes to us via mail, fax or 
HIB> e-mail and asks for information, a telephone number, a subscription 
HIB> and we help them out... but those are usually reporters who are a cut 
HIB> above the rest.  Some of them are at "alternative" or "progressive" 
HIB> places and some are at mainstream newspapers or radios.
HIB>     "Very few people seem to know about the potential of e-mail and 
HIB> the resources available, and sometimes when they do they do not give 
HIB> those sources as much "credibility" as they give the New York Times 
HIB> or Associated Press, which make mistakes all the time, by the way!  
HIB>     "We find e-mail sources really useful, but especially for things 
HIB> happening in other Third World countries because that way we can 
HIB> get the news direct from the sources -- like a human rights organization 
HIB> in Chiapas which sends out the speeches of Subcommandante Marcos, or a 
HIB> group in Panama reporting on the aftermath of the invasion there.  The 
HIB> possibilities are really endless and the potential to by-pass the usual 
HIB> "gatekeepers," the foreign correspondents for A.P. and other multi-
HIB> nationals, grows greater every day."
In response, Channel e-mailed the following to 75 U.S. print and video news bureaus, enclosing the Table of Contents of the current issue of Haiti Info (7/30/94, Vol. 2, #22) and one article, "Brutal Repression Rising Steadily" (see below).

     
CH> As Editor/Reporter for Channel, a SF Bay Area newspaper
CH> developing an electronic edition, we have discovered, on the
CH> Internet, a newsletter from the Haitian Information Bureau
CH> in Port-au-Prince that contains valuable indigenous information
CH> that we fear is not being utilized by the majority of U.S.
CH> newspapers and broadcast stations, which tend to remain glued
CH> to AP/Reuters/NY&LA Times/Washington Post, etc.
CH>        1.  Are you aware of such alternative news services
CH>            as the Haitian Information Bureau that are becoming
CH>            increasingly accessible on the Internet?
CH>        2.  If so, how frequently do you take advantage of such
CH>            services?
CH>        3.  If not, would you like more information about the
CH>            variety and means of accessing them?
That was three days ago (August, 9). So far we have received the following responses:

BE>     "Thanks for the tip on the Haiti information. No, I didn't know it 
BE> was available. I can't say how we might use it until I spend more time 
BE> with it, but please send me a message explaining how to tap into the 
BE> information flow. 
BE>     "I find this a very interesting use of the net, a connection to 
BE> the outside world (for Haiti, and for us) that did not exist before.
BE> I'll keep you posted (and I may do a column about this myself; if so,
BE> I'll send you a copy.)"
        - Bill Edmonds, Associate Editor, _Tallahassee Democrat_
     
BC>      I passed your letter along to the news editor, who deals more 
BC> directly with the various wire services. I doubt if we were aware
BC> of this particular outfit and, as far as I know, we do not make
BC> any use of internet news sources. If that is wrong, I'll let you know."
        - Bob Caldwell, Public Editor, The Oregonian
Could it be that U.S. journalism is saturated with apathetic, self- protective reporters hanging around the same old wire services, merely putting their own little twists on what they suck in? Isn't a journalist supposed to dig out the news and not have it handed to him/her on a platter? Even the more progressive news services seem not interested in these new sources; the following is email to me from a reporter affiliated with Pacific Network News, which feeds public-sponsored radio stations KPFA in Berkeley, KPFK in Los Angeles, and WBAI in New York, among others (which are not exactly considered reactionary arms of the established news media):

        
PNN>    "The problem with Pacifica nationally and KPFA locally - which
PNN> I may have already written to you about - is that they are glued to
PNN> their wire services (AP and Reuters) and their daily newspapers 
PNN> (NYTimes, Washington Post in DC; NY Times, Chronicle, Examiner, Tribune
PNN> here) and will not log on!  I have pleaded, argued, cajoled etc. but
PNN> they are set in their ways and won't change.  Increasingly, I find the
PNN> language and assumptions of the establishment press to be the basis of
PNN> KPFA's and national Pacifica's reports.  Even if they "spin" those
PNN> assumptions differently, which they sometimes succeed in doing, they
PNN> generally start from the wrong premises, follow the agendas set by the
PNN> Big Boys and miss breaking stories of their own.  Absent any leadership
PNN> to the contrary (and there IS no leadership to the contrary, believe me)
PNN> within the organization, I don't see this changing."
Channel will continue to press this issue to U.S media sites and report back in the next edition.

One of Channel's premises is that, given modern electronic access tools, a small-town newspaper no longer needs to rely on the "Big Guys" to find out what's going on beyond the city limits.

            
            You can reach the Haitian Information Bureau at:
                           hib@igc.apc.com