Globalvision: Aggregation Beyond the Nation

By: Dave Astor For people aggravated about seeing the world mostly through a U.S.-media lens, aggregation is one solution to their problem.

The Globalvision News Network gathers stories from 350 news wires, newspapers, Web sites, and other sources in 120 countries and all seven continents (even Antarctica!). GVNN then redistributes this content to various media -- including The Boston Globe's foreign desk -- as well as clients such as governmental and nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, corporations, and individuals.

"Our No. 1 goal is to put more diversity into the news stream," said Rory O'Connor, editor in chief of the 2001-founded GVNN. "We look at events from the inside out, and with multiple voices."

This international approach is particularly vital in a post-9/11 world now focusing on U.S. actions in Iraq. One of GVNN's offerings is a daily "Crisis Capsule" that includes stories relating to that conflict, which O'Connor described (just before the start of U.S. bombing) as a "huge train coming down the track."

But GVNN also goes beyond crisis coverage. For instance, while the mainstream media's Middle East coverage mostly focuses on things such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, GVNN has done stories on topics such as the water problems in that part of the world.

'Complement,' not 'competitor

O'Connor sees GVNN as a "complement rather than competitor" to wires such as The Associated Press and Reuters. "We provide context to the mainstream content," he said. But -- with so many GVNN sources "on the ground" in various locales -- it often gets stories first.

Another agency that offers content from a worldwide perspective is the similarly named Global Information Network (E&P Online, May 1, 2000), which predates GVNN and bills itself as the "daily news service of the developing world."

GVNN -- whose 350 sources include some U.S.-based content providers --distributes as many as 4,000 stories a day along with three regular columns. It's currently text-only and English-language-only due to budgetary considerations.

Eight New York-based staffers handle editing, sales, and the technology end.

GVNN (http://www.gvnews.net) is a division of Globalvision Inc., a media production company founded in 1987. O'Connor -- the parent firm's CEO, president, and co-founder (with Danny Schechter) -- started his career as a copy editor for The Boston Globe and also worked in the alternative press before moving to broadcast journalism. He has written, directed, and produced a number of documentary films and TV programs.

By using both pro-government and anti-government sources in various countries, GVNN offers content from different perspectives. O'Connor said: "To paraphrase Rupert Murdoch -- We aggregate, you decide!"

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Columnist Criticizes Iraq Coverage

Solomon Says Many U.S. Papers Too Pro-war

With most column commentary ranging from the right to liberal, what does a rare left voice in mainstream syndication have to say now that the U.S. is at war with Iraq?

For one thing, Creators Syndicate writer Norman Solomon is dismayed with the cheerleading approach many U.S. newspapers are taking in the initial days of war. And the media columnist said the embed system is partly to blame.

"Embedding means the journalists covering the U.S. war on Iraq are 'in bed' with the military," said Solomon, explaining that the system can lead to reporters losing objectivity as they bond with troops.

"If journalists are going to embed themselves with U.S. troops, they should also embed themselves with Iraqi families," he told E&P Online during a March 21 interview. "But it's obviously better to be on the sending rather than the receiving end of missiles."

Solomon has a unique perspective on coverage of Iraq. He visited that country three times since the fall -- including a September trip with past and present members of the U.S. Congress and a December trip with actor/director Sean Penn that upset Bush-administration supporters. The Creators columnist also co-wrote, with Reese Erlich, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You (Context Books, 2003), which is about to go into its fifth printing.

Since the war began, views questioning the Bush administration's Iraqi policy are "shrinking drastically" in newspapers, said Solomon. He noted that some dissent can still be seen on Op-Ed pages and in inside-page stories, but very little is in editorials or on front pages.

Many reporters don't 'rock the boat'

Why? For one thing, said Solomon, reporters who want to get front-page stories know they shouldn't "rock the boat." He recalled, during his Iraq trips, talking to "perceptive, hardworking" American reporters who expressed skepticism about Bush's Iraq policies but rarely wrote stories quoting people reflecting that view.

Most mainstream dailies, said Solomon, are very conscious about reflecting the consensus of U.S. "elites." Since few prominent Democrats have spoken out against war on Iraq, newspapers feel they don't need much content against it, either -- even though there is plenty of antiwar sentiment in the communities where newspapers circulate.

Solomon contrasted this with several British dailies that have "really bucked the powers that be on Downing Street. They have provided [antiwar] commentary and news coverage I absolutely couldn't imagine on a regular basis in The New York Times or The Washington Post."

Many U.S. newspapers, continued Solomon, make it seem like the U.S. is attacking only Saddam Hussein when in fact many innocent Iraqi civilians are also being put in harm's way.

Solomon emphasized that he's no fan of Hussein. He said, for instance, that Hussein has been brutal against the Kurds in Iraq -- but adds that U.S. newspapers rarely mention that the Kurds also have a difficult time in Turkey (an American ally). Readers are being told "who to cry for and who to ignore," said Solomon. "We're being manipulated."

The columnist added that the war is more about things such as oil and displaying American power than about the reasons President Bush has offered.

Solomon -- who said TV and other non-newspaper media are also being too positive about the war -- has written his Creators column solo since 1996 and with Jeff Cohen during the four years before that. He reported no cancellations of his column since the U.S. invaded Iraq, but noted that his antiwar views and hard-hitting criticism of American media have led to a number of past cancellations.

The author of 10 books is also founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy -- which tries, among other things, to get progressive voices represented in media coverage.

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'Peanuts' Lawsuit Settled

Strips' Return Leads to Resolution

The "Peanuts" trust's lawsuit against the International Museum of Cartoon Art (IMCA) has been dismissed.

This came after IMCA sent the trust 19 "Peanuts" strips -- including 15 the trust requested and substitutes for four others IMCA couldn't find. Dan Post, attorney for the trust, told E&P Online that a settlement agreement asks that IMCA continue to look for the other four comics sought by the trust.

Michael Kotler, counsel to IMCA, confirmed that the suit has been settled.

Jeannie Schulz, widow of "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz, has said the trust will use returned comics for display at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and in traveling exhibits. The suit was filed last fall in Sonoma County, Calif., where the Santa Rosa-based Schulz museum opened in August 2002.

IMCA closed last year in Boca Raton, Fla., but founder (and "Beetle Bailey" creator) Mort Walker hopes it will reopen elsewhere - possibly in New York City.

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King Turns Ignition on 'Nascar'

Weekly Page Includes Text and Visuals

King Features Syndicate introduced "NASCAR This Week," and it already has more than 160 clients.

The weekly page of text and visuals is written by motorsports reporter Monte Dutton of The Gaston (N.C.) Gazette, which formerly provided a NASCAR auto-racing feature to Universal Press Syndicate.

Included are stories, racing results, driver standings, driver news, commentary, photos, graphics, and more.

The page's modular format enables clients to sell a local ad across the bottom.

Dutton, 44, has authored six books, including the just-published Postcards From Pit Road: NASCAR's 2002 Season.

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Et cetera ...

Columns and news stories from MarketWatch.com Inc. will be distributed for the first time to newspapers nationwide by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. The agreement includes columns from CBS MarketWatch's Marshall Loeb on personal finance, Steve Kerch on real estate, and Frank Barnako on the Internet. ...

"Supermarket Shopper" columnist Martin Sloane of United Media estimated that his readers have sent more than 10 million grocery coupons to military families stationed overseas since he began asking them to do so three years ago. "They shop at commissaries that stock the same brands found in U.S. supermarkets," Sloane said, "but these service families do not have access to the coupons used by American families in the States." A list of military addresses abroad are in the "Please Lend a Helping Hand!" section of the columnist's site (http://www.martinsloane.com). ...

Golfer Arnold Palmer outpicked 111 other famous people to win Scripps Howard News Service's annual Celebrity Super Bowl Poll. He chose the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win, and came closest to the actual score.

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