There is a new blog in town dealing with media corruption – Freedom from The Press.  Here’s a recent post which agrees with my assessment that the Spokesman-Review covers for the criminal activities of its owners.

Ron the Cop

*****

Spokane, WA – A City Held Hostage

Aug 9th, 2008

Spokane is a beautiful little town with a very ugly public relations problem. As a one-newspaper town, the public, and all forms of the corporate media rely on The Spokesman-Review for accurate reporting of the news.

Has The Spokesman-Review acted in a responsible, ethical manner when covering issues or elections that directly impact their private business interests?

A few years ago The Spokesman-Review hired a new editor, Steven A. Smith. Mr. Smith inherited some very messy problems that were created by the previous editor Chris Peck and the newspapers owners, Betsy and Stacey Cowles.

The issue was downtown redevelopment of River Park Square, a retail mall owned and operated by the Cowles. The plan was to use public and private money to pay for the renovation of RPS. Proponents of the project included the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce. At various public meetings and events, the Chamber would send officials who were all sporting ‘I Love Downtown’ buttons attached to their lapels.

The chief spokesperson for the RPS deal was the developer herself, Betsy Cowles. Ms. Cowles would show up at public meetings calling those who opposed the RPS deal, “naysayers”. The opponents of RPS were mere citizens who believed in fiscal responsibility and accountability from their elected or appointed city officials. Ms. Cowles and her supporters would often say that this proposal is the only plan that will ever be placed on the table. We either take it or the downtown core will die.

[…]

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FYI – There’s an interesting twist to the Joseph Duncan death penalty trial phase currently underway in Boise, ID.  Duncan has been linked by fingerprints to an unsolved murder of a 10 year old boy in Banning/Beaumont in Riverside County, CA.   Testimony was given in this Riverside murder case today in Duncan’s death penalty phase proceedings.

Here’s an excerpt from a comment that I posted in a Spokesman-Review newspaper blog thread (Spokane, WA) on Duncan a year ago re using the Internet and Blogos to force leverage scarce police resources:

This link was not made by the FBI even though they seem to take credit for it. Actually the link came from a group of bloggers that monitor the activity of child perps. Once one is caught they search their collective “memories” for unsolved murders/attacks where M/Os are similar and the perp has a connection by time/place [Think super computers online in a distributive computer network ala SETI).

This group of bloggers made the connection between Duncan and Beaumont/Banning Area of Riverside County. They were able to place him there during the narrow time period in which the little boy Martinez disappeared. They passed on this info to the FBI.

Duncan’s prints were in various automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS). Latent prints from crimes scenes are routinely run from time to time against known fingerprint databases. There was no hit to Duncan known prints.

Based on the lead provided by the FBI, Riv Co authorities flew a fingerprint examiner to WA to “handroll” a fingerprint card from Duncan. The examiner was able to make a positive ID from a latent print found at the body dump crime scene.

The reason why no hit came from the AFIS was that the latent was of the tip of a finger. While there are plenty of minutia points for ID on the tip of a finger, the tips of fingers are not normally captured in “livescan” fingerprint machines during bookings.

This case was solved the old fashion way with the crucial tip coming from the blogger community.

BTW I personally know the DA of Riverside County and he will prosecute this case to the fullest regardless of whatever deals the feds have made.

RBT

Here’s an “out there” comment I posted on a blog several years ago using this Duncan case as an example on how to use the Internet and the Blogos to force leverage scarce police resources:

Blogs joining crime fight –

The Blogos – A Quantum Leap in Distributive Computer Networks
[Ed note: My subtitle]

. . . I couldn’t pass up sharing this Page One “above the fold” article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the regional newspaper for Riverside/San Bernardino Counties.

As many of you are painfully aware, I’ve been on a crusade within the law enforcement and homeland security circles to use the vast resources of the Internet and the Blogosphere (Blogos) in the Global War on Terror (GWOT). I’ve been accused by many of being “out there,” from another planet, or wearing a “tin-foil hat” to block EMP rays emanating from Iran. My fellow ENTJs (personality temperament sorting model) will understand.

The the Blogos essentially is an organic, intelligent, interactive, distributive, network that can be focused on complex human problems or in more common terms “puzzles.” The Blogos can find solutions, correlations, understanding, and bring order to widely diverse, seemingly unconnected bits of information or data across all fields of human intelligence, thought and understanding.

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SEITI) was one of the first popular programs to use this enormous parallel computer power resident in home and office personal computers to screen radio noise from space for signs of intelligence. The Blogos is a quantum leap beyond the “dumb” SEITI distributive networks. Each node in the Blogos is powered by a super computer far superior to any Cray in cognitive ability, to recognize patterns and connections – The Human Brain. OT – OK TREK Fans consider the Borg Collective however be aware of polluted operating systems that could sour the Collective – Islamofascism.

And for those “deadheads” (No slight to Led Zeppelin fans) types maintaining, financing (pencil geeks – cost benefit analysis types), or administering (The Brass) existing “lead” mainframes or highly pyramidal, bureaucratic, risk adverse, all knowing and all seeing organizational structures, the Blogos is very adaptable and fluid, unorganized and decentralized, grassroots, innovative, imaginative, creative, un PC and risk taking.

Is there a correlation here with the principal findings of all the 9/11 commissions as to why the Islamofascist enemy could strike deeply at the very core and yet was undetected by our radar?

. . .The Blogos requires no expensive hardware, software solutions, and a cadre of specialized analysts requiring multi billion dollar investments.

Here’s some past stories:

Duncan bloggers logging big hoursMore Indictments for Joseph Edward Duncan III

Crime Bloggers In the News and In General

Blogs joining crime fight

Det. Ron Wright (Retired)

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: rocketsbrain <nar9350@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 12:36 PM
Subject: Re Sunday’s Jospeh Duncan Story in the Spokesman-Review & the Riverside connection
To: meghannc@spokesman.com

Meghann,

Kudos on your Page One above the fold story on Duncan.  Thanks for mentioning the Riverside connection and how it was made by observant bloggers – for free no less with no help of the FBI or NCIC computer system.  This is part of my concept of “Mission Focused Strategic Communications,” where the resources of the ad hoc distributive computer network of the Internet and the Blogosphere can force leverage scarce police resources.

BTW I personally know both Riverside DA Rod Pacheco and Ingrid Wyatt.  Pacheco like me [RPS et al :-)] means what he says.  Pacheco when he was in charge of the DA’ street gang prosecution unit was ruthless.  I’m sure he will bring Duncan back to CA to prosecute him for the Martinez death no matter how redundant it may seem.

Ron the Cop
Friends of Mark Fuhrman