This Week:

2003 Nygaard Notes Year in Review

Greetings,

The issue of Nygaard Notes that you hold in your hand (or, for you online types, that you see on your screen) is the final issue of 2003. So, in that spirit I return to the age-old tradition that I started last year, the Nygaard Notes Year in Review, in which I summarize what has been published during this past year in these very pages (or, for you online types, in emails originating from this very address). New feature this year: All of the titles for my articles appear in italics. Boy, do I know how to have fun, or what?!

So, this issue will have no “Quote” of the Week, no comments on events in this week’s media, and no really original editor’s note. Just this explanatory one.

This issue is intended to let new readers take a look at some of the amazing pieces that they missed (knowing that they can go to the Nygaard Notes website and see them whenever they want), and to let old-time readers recall the treasures that have been coming your way every week (just about) for the past 12 months. Wars, tax cuts, budget crises, Michael Jackson, it’s all here! (I was kidding about Michael Jackson.)

Next week, in the first issue of 2004, I’m thinking I’ll publish another nostalgia piece, this one a collection of my favorite 2003 “Quotes” of the Week. What would you think about that? Someone said they would like it. Or, maybe it’ll be something entirely new. How do I know? That’s a whole week away!

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the readers who have sent in financial support, who have donated materials and things to the Notes, who have forwarded the Notes to their friends and families. A special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to send in your comments and thoughts to me over the past year. Thanks a million! On into 2004!

Nygaard

2003 Nygaard Notes Year in Review

IN JANUARY I took readers back to the days of World War I in an article called Social Security and the Sisson Documents. The little-remembered Sisson affair illustrates how propaganda was used during that war to whip up hysterical hatred against the “enemy.” Sound familiar?

Later in the month I offered News of Latin America: How and Why Our Media Fails Us. In that piece I pointed out that the news we get from south of the border has long been no more than “News in 3-D:” Drugs, Dictators, and Disasters. I suggested that, as the War Against Terrorism (the WAT?!) rolls on, this would likely morph into the news in “3-T:” Terror, Tyrants and Trauma. (Six months later, Colin Powell uttered almost the same words in a speech, without acknowledging that I said it first. I commented on that in Colin Steals My Thunder, NN #213).

Also in January (Whew! I was busy that month!) I wrote, in the Two Types of Government, about the distinction between the Business Government and the Popular Government. I encouraged readers to be careful not to throw out the baby (people-friendly government programs and services) with the bathwater (corporate welfare and the police state functions of the government). In The Core of the IC Agenda I reminded people that the Individualist and Competitive agenda is based on demonizing “The Government” in the public mind, even while the police and military powers of “The Government” are being expanded dramatically.

IN FEBRUARY I started out the month with a little piece called Wealth and Power, talking about how much more important the latter is than the former (to those who have both). In The Demagogue Dynamic: Easy as 1-2-3 I went on to spell out how political leaders utilize a simple 3-step strategy: 1. Accurately “read” popular discontent; 2. “Explain” what the problem is, and 3. Sell the voters on a false “solution.” I then analyzed the Bush tax-cut plan in terms of this dynamic.

The next week I related the story of a little meeting I attended where a leading local TV anchorman and some colleagues addressed the issue of media coverage of the Bush build-up to war with Iraq. The anchor told how he had found several “experts” to assure him that “oil is not an issue in this war.” That piece was called Oil, War, Experts, and the Press.

Also in February I looked at attempts at the State Capitol to remove gays and lesbians from protection under the state’s Human Rights Act. I argued in issue 192, in Heterosexual Supremacy at the Capitol against use of the word “homophobia” in favor of the term “heterosexism” or, even better, heterosexual supremacy. The crusade at the Capitol was led by the infamous state representative Arlon Lindner. I was soon to launch a feature called Lindner Watch, which used the zany antics of this elected official to throw some light on such issues as sex, war, and racism.

In NN #193 I looked at some little-known facts about taxes, such as the fact that the United States is one of the lowest-taxed countries in the world. I applied The Demagogue Dynamic to Mr. Bush’s State of the Union speech and his remarks on health care. I finished the month with a story called Facts Wrong, Story Wrong, Policy Wrong: A Case Study, all about privatization, tax fraud, and class warfare.

IN MARCH I focused on war and preparations for war. Throughout the entire first three months of the year I ran a regular feature called Anti-War Resource of the Week. When it became clear that popular opposition was not going to be able to stop the U.S. attack on Iraq, I said this, in a piece called And Then You Win:

“A knowledge of history reminds us of how it has always been for those attempting to affect public policy or make social change, when they refuse to give up and keep on working and organizing: You lose, you lose, you lose, you lose, you lose. And then you win.”

After the attack on Iraq started on March 20, I ran a piece called The Case for Hope, which hit a chord with many readers.

IN APRIL I stuck with the war theme, for obvious reasons. As I often do, I looked closely at media—which is to say, how the public was trained to understand what was going on during this time of crisis. Readers responded to such articles as The Three Phases of War Coverage; Tips for Following the War; Know Your Propaganda ABC’s; Embedding, Plus!; and The ‘Liberation’ of Iraq: ‘A Perfectly Choreographed Event.’

During the spring installment of the April Nygaard Notes Pledge Drive I wrote a piece called Supporting Public Intellectuals that many people said nice things about. In Charts and Graphs and Class Warfare I explained what “entitlement programs” are, and how they are paid for. (You thought you knew?)

IN MAY we had Mother’s Day, so I wrote The Complex History of Mother’s Day, in which I took a look at that seemingly non-political holiday and its radical roots. In a later issue I took similar looks at Veterans Day and Labor Day. I could just hear my late mother saying, “Jeff, why do you make things so complicated?”

In The U.S. and the Undermining of Democracy, I used the examples of Turkey, Mexico, and the Philippines to ponder the nature of the U.S. government’s commitment to our high ideals, the “D-word” in particular. The following week, May 20th, I took a look at that emotion-laden word and what it really means, in a piece called American-Style Democracy.

IN JUNE came a piece called Pollution Cocktails in the SUV Café. The volume and vehemence of the responses I got reminded me that the cultural phenomenon called the Sport Utility Vehicle has become a symbol, to many people, of the American Culture. And people are quite emotional about that. As I look back at the year, I am surprised to see that I ran my first piece on the 2004 Presidential election race (2004!) on June 13, 2003. The piece was called The Invisible Candidates. In the same issue I ran a few pieces about race and racism in the news.

In the media-analysis realm, the Key Fact is the fact that, once you know it, changes everything.
In issue #210 I ran a skills-building piece on this, called Decoding the News by Finding The ‘Key Fact,’ with a little case study thrown in.

I wrote about drugs at the end of June, which caused some readers to infer that I might be “promoting” the use of drugs. I am not. What I am doing when I write such pieces as Drug-Induced Delusions, Supreme Court Version is to explain how irrational and discriminatory our drugs laws are in this country.

IN JULY – on the Fourth of July, in fact – I took my first look at the Louisiana “Purchase,” the 200th anniversary of which we are supposed to be celebrating this year. July is when I started my four-part “journey into the evolving world of the Bush administration’s foreign aid and ‘assistance.’” Typically for the Notes, I went back and looked at a bunch of history (post-WW II), compared our country’s performance to other countries, and so forth. I took a look at these things called “Millennium Challenge Accounts.” Yikes! The world of foreign aid is not at all what many USers think it is, and this series explained why, questioning the very idea of “growth” and “aid” as answers to the problems of poverty and hunger.

IN AUGUST I wrote Why I Love the Business Pages, including a little case study showing how much one can learn about, say, health care by looking at the numbers. And you thought “health care” was about people’s health? How naive of you!

Also in August I published Economic Good News, Sort Of, in which I talked about a front-page article in the local daily paper with the headline, “Military Spending Boosts Economy.” I dashed off a letter to the reporter and to the newspaper’s ombudsman pointing out why this piece was so tragically misleading. I published my letter so Nygaard Notes readers could see it, and said that “I haven’t heard anything yet.” As I write this, it’s almost four months later, and I still haven’t heard anything.

The Bush administration wants to dismantle the federal Medicaid program, which pays for health care for poor people, as I pointed out in Notes #219, Bush Attacks Medicaid. After that I looked at how the pharmaceutical industry has failed to produce vaccines to treat “poor people’s” diseases, since there is no profit in it, then wrote What Makes Monks Work for Advertisers.

IN SEPTEMBER appeared High Drug Prices Explained (in two separate parts) and also a look at three different newspapers’ takes on taxation of the wealthy in this country (Reporting on the ‘Vast Chasm:’ A Tale of Three Papers).

I had an operation on my heart in September, which put me in a strange mood for a while. Maybe that’s why, in mid-September, I introduced the God-Awful term “Mainstream Corporate For-Profit Agenda-Setting Bound Media,” which I promised to use to describe all media that is not (basically) like Nygaard Notes. I actually have used that elongated and cumbersome term a few times since then, partly because it is descriptive, and mostly because it amused me during my recuperation. (It still amuses me.)

While I was in my strange mood I also wrote Adjectives U Can Use, laying out my attempts to find words that can adequately describe some of the behavior of our “leaders.”

The Culture Wars are raging here in Minnesota, and the latest battle is about how we teach social studies in our public schools. In A Big Difference I quoted our state’s Education Commissioner, Cheri Pierson Yecke, who described the battle thusly: “Educators are saying they want to show what’s good about America and what’s bad about America. Parents are saying they want to hear what’s good about America.” Cheri agrees with the parents.

IN OCTOBER came the fall Nygaard Notes Pledge Drive, and also a look at something called “Target School Fundraising,” a program where Target Stores donates money to schools based on how much people charge on their credit cards. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? It is odd, and I explained why in Schools That Have Benefitted the Most.

This Target thing led me to take another look at Income and Wealth in the U.S. 2003. These numbers often surprise people. After that, I looked at The Social Health of the United States 2003. We’re not doing so good, and I spent a couple of weeks giving the details, including a look at the racial dynamics of reporting on a society’s well-being.

IN NOVEMBER I discussed the U.S. Mint’s unveiling of its bizarre design for the new nickel (due out this spring!), in A Nickel’s Worth of History. Also in November I started to look at the emerging pattern of “Europe-bashing” in the media, with the pieces The “Old Europe,” Parts I and II. This phenomenon is not really new, but has picked up in intensity since some European countries had the audacity to oppose the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. This trend continues, and I showed how to recognize it when it appears.

IN DECEMBER Nygaard Notes was all about media and propaganda, running pieces with titles like Killing Animals to Save Them; From One Big Lie to Many Little Lies; and The Bush Paragraph Explained: From Lies to Sophistry. (I even explained the meaning of the word “sophistry.” It’s a good word to know these days)

Throughout the year, of course, the Notes had tons of featured “Quotes” and Strolls Through the News. More to come in 2004.