Assignment #14

A.
1. MEMRI stand for the Middle East Media Research Institute. This self-declared non-partisan, non-profit organization is based in Washington and have offices in London, Berlin, and Jerusalem. They translate Arabic articles into English from Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew.
2. The organization's website has no contact names or addresses. They claim they utilize such privacy because "the don't want suicide bombers walking through the door." The author finds this strange because their seemingly peaceful and non-offensive purpose is simply to translate articles to "bridge the language gap between the west... and the Middle East."
3. The author calls the Institutes's non-partisanship into question because many of their translated articles further Israel's political agenda and often reflect poorly on Arab character. They translate extremist Muslim articles, but never, to the author's knowledge, extremist Hebrew articles.
4. The Hudson Institute mission statement involves a dedication to "innovative research and analysis that promotes global security, prosperity, and freedom." Founded in 1961, the non-profit Hudson Institute is supported by corporate contributions and individual donations. Their agenda has been called into question reagarding support of industries in which their corporate backers work.
Richard Perle, a member of the Hudson Institute, has a long history in U.S. politics. Former chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Advisory Board, Perle was previously a member of the board, political adviser and lobbysit to Reagan, and strong supporter of Bush's war in Iraq. He is reportadly known as "the Prince of Darkness" in Washington and has been questioned about his conflicting involvement in the defense board and telecommunications company, Global Crossing.
5. Ahwad, writer of the claim that Saddam Hussein ordered the severing of ears, was formerly a member of the Iraqi National Accord, a U.S.-backed Iraqi national opposition group that has been exile. When Ahwad made the claim about Hussein, he was applying for political asylum in the U.S. and was trying to prove he had no alliance with Hussein so a U.S. suspicion of terrorist affiliations would be dropped.
6. MEMRI had two "propoganda successes against Saudi Arabia" when a Saudi Arabian article was translated with a statement about Jews baking pastries with the blood of Christian and Muslim children. The translation demonstrated Arab ignorance and gullibility, as well as inferred a governmental support of the article. The second "success" was the translation of a poem, written by the Saudi ambassador to London. MEMRI's interpretation insinuated that it support ed suicide bombers, calling them martyrs.
7. The author feels that MEMRI's objective mission is being exploited by the translation of articles that are supporting a political agenda, as opposed to distributing objective information. Congressmen and government officials who form political opinions may not recognize MEMRI's agenda.
8. The author feels that MEMRI's slanted information could be offset by other Arab media groups publishing translated versions of their articles accurately.
B.
1. New York Times
Democratic Delegates - Obama: 1,303.5
Clinton: 1,212
Republican Democrats - McCain: 865
Huckabee: 205
2. CNN
Democratic Delegates - Obama: 1,369
Clinton: 1,267
Republican Democrats - McCain: 1,033
Huckabee: 247
3. L.A. Times
Democratic Delegates - Obama: 1,386
Clinton: 1,276
Republican Democrats - McCain: 1,014
Huckabee: 257
4. MSNBC
Democratic Delegates - Obama: 1,168
Clinton: 1,018
Republican Democrats - McCain: 884
Huckabee: 282
5. BBC News
Democratic Delegates - Obama: 1,362
Clinton: 1,266
Republican Democrats - McCain: 998
Huckabee: 256
6. S.F. Chronicle
Democratic Delegates - Obama: 1,358
Clinton: 1,264
Republican Democrats - McCain: 958
Huckabee: 254
7. Chicago Tribune
Democratic Delegates - Obama: 1,383
Clinton: 1,276
Republican Democrats - McCain: 1,014
Huckabee: 257
8. Boston Globe
Democratic Delegates - Obama: 1,383
Clinton: 1,276
Republican Democrats - McCain: 1,014
Huckabee: 257

A fair amount of discrepancies occur between counts on different news web sites. Although the differences in numbers are small, it is interesting to see how the polls vary. The largest discrepancy was a 168 count difference between McCain's numbers on MSNBC and CNN. There was also a fairly wide range of poll counts for Clinton and Obama. These discrepancies may come from some counts being more recent than others and from many being intelligent speculation (but speculation none-the-less).