by David Burn | Oct 12, 2004 | Media, Politics
I applaud Sinclair Broadcasting’s transparency. I know many liberals are outraged that the owner of 62 TV stations has ordered the airing of right wing propaganda on the eve of the election, but it serves to hammer home one of the points I continue to make here–that the mainstream media is in the pocket of the Republican Party (click here, or here, to learn how they actually achieve this). This stunt makes Fox News seem legit, and that is a very tall order.
Carlton Sherwood, producer of Stolen Honor
The thing that gets me about this Sherwood guy and slanderers like John O’Neill is the fact that the atrocities in Vietnam are so well documented. Even worse, is the fact that our military is engaged in the same torturous behavior today. To pretend otherwise is as delusional as it is dangerous.
If you’d like to view a true documentary, one with no political axe to grind, here it is. Thanks Frontline.
by David Burn | Oct 3, 2004 | Art, Media
Once more, I have world traveler, photographer, DJ, and collector, Evil Vince, a.k.a. No Evil Mon to thank for turning me on to interesting undercurrents in art. Today, during a less than inspired performance from our Bears, he handed me a small book showcasing the poster art of Shepard Fairey, the creator of Obey Giant. The project’s tag line is Manufacturing Quality Dissent Since 1989. Here’s a sample:
Describing his work and punk rock approach to placing it wherever he deems fit in the greater urbanscape, often under cover of night, Fairey writes, “The Obey campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology*. The first aim of Phenomenology is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one’s environment. Because people are not used to seeing advertising or propaganda for which the motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with Obey propaganda provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer’s perception and attention to detail.”
*Phenomenology studies conscious experience as experienced from the subjective or first person point of view. This field of philosophy is then to be distinguished from, and related to, the other main fields of philosophy: ontology (the study of being or what is), epistemology (the study of knowledge), logic (the study of valid reasoning), ethics (the study of right and wrong action), etc. Famous phenomenologists from the first half of the 20th century include Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, et al. from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
by David Burn | Oct 1, 2004 | Literature, Media
A great writer has the power to sway people. William Rivers Pitt, Managing Editor of Truth Out and author of two best-selling political books, is such a writer. In addition to his books, Pitt has penned many articles of value, but one that really begins to make things clearer for me is “Introducing John Kerry”, which appeared yesterday, prior to the first Presidential debate. In this piece, Pitt describes Kerry’s childhood and family background, helping the reader understand what makes Kerry the man he is today. I must admit, I’m impressed.
From Pitt’s article: “A life of service and study crafted a man of depth, of intelligence, who can see all the sides of any issue and incorporates all available data before making a decision. The opponents he has faced and defeated throughout his career have enjoyed painting him as vacillating, as indecisive, as a man who holds several positions at once in order to cover his political backside. In truth, these incomplete views on John Kerry are born from a modern political landscape that cannot fathom a man who is judicious, contemplative and thorough, because such attributes have been all too absent from our political discourse.”
William Rivers Pitt on a cold New England day
by David Burn | Sep 22, 2004 | Media
Veteran Canadian war correspondent and former soldier, Scott Taylor, managed to survive five days in captivity in the northern Iraq city Tal Afar. The radical terror group, Ansar Al-Islam, in collusion with U.S.-backed local police, tortured him and repeatedly threatened to decapitate him for being an Israeli spy. According to Taylor the presence of his news articles on the web helped prove his journalistic claims and secure his freedom.
After his release, Taylor noted that the resistance to American forces in Iraq is more organized now than ever, and growing stronger by the day, as anxious-to-die-for-their-cause recruits are in plentiful supply. Taylor claimed today on Democracy Now, that it will take three times our current military presence in Iraq to fight these religiously-informed combatants. Which clearly spells D-R-A-F-T, under a Kerry administration or another four-year farce from Bush.
by David Burn | Sep 22, 2004 | Media
Okay, there might be one real TV journalist left. His name is Lou Dobbs and he uses his show on CNN to take big business to task for shipping our jobs overseas. Last evening, he did his viewing public a big favor, giving Independent candidate for President, Ralph Nader room to unload his message, free from the biting interruptions of talking heads like of Sean Hannity, Robert Novak or Chris Mathews.
Here are highlights from Nader’s blistering tirade:
~ Amazing saga, what happens when you put this system under stress, Lou. And the bile and the mucous and all this stuff pops up. And basically, it’s political bigotry by the Democratic Party against competition, against small parties, against independent candidates.
~ 10 times more registered Democrats in Florida deserted Gore for Bush than deserted Gore for the Nader-LaDuke ticket, and that was true around the country. So you think they would concentrate on that? You think they would concentrate on actively registering nine million African-American voters. 90 percent whom vote Democrat.
~ This is a decadent party. It’s decayed. It’s surrounded by corporate consultants, corporate advisers, and loaded with corporate money. And it’s got to be challenged. I hope progressive Democrats after the election will really purge that party from its corporate domination because it’s just losing elections for the last 10 years to the worst of the Republicans, at the local, state, and national level.
~ I’m going to propose in the next few days, and I hope to advertise classified ads in China and Mexico, an “outsource your CEO” program. And I’m going to ask for bilingual people in the third world, who are experienced, successful in management, who’d be very pleased to replace the heads of IBM and General Electric and General Motors at 1/10 of the executive salary, and probably work even harder.
by David Burn | Sep 20, 2004 | Media
Greg Pallast, author and BBC commentator, on the vicious and complete tear down of Dan Rather and the state of our free press today:
American news guys and news gals, practicing their smiles, adjusting their hairspray levels, bleaching their teeth and performing all the other activities that are at the heart of US TV journalism, will look to the treatment of Dan Rather and say, “Not me, babe.”
I must say I’m once again startled by the very audacity of the Bush White House and the news organizations in their pocket. Can anyone say, “Hypocrisy.” There is no such thing as credible journalism on American TV, and yet these “news” manufacturers dare to appear outraged at Rather’s casual research methods. Please.
by David Burn | Sep 20, 2004 | Film, Media
Whether we like to admit it or not, most of our political arguments–between family, and friends, and co-workers–are informed by the corporate media, thus they are often misguided from the get go. What do I mean by the corporate media? I mean five companies: ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox. All systematically feed viewers a distorted version of reality. Fox, for one, blatantly airs right wing propaganda. They have zero credibility in my camp. Sadly, my camp is a bit lonely at present. In these troubled times, the crowds gather round the flag. That’s where the ad revenue is; hence, it is also where the news is.
The scary thing is, we think we have a free press in this country. That’s what we were taught in school. So we are not busy looking for the manipulations and distortions in the stories we are fed. And we are not even thinking about the stories left uncovered. Add to this insanity, The Fox Effect, whereby ABC and the others try to out Fox Fox. Thanks to Rupert Murdoch’s sensational success, we have not one, but five news corporations trying to out do one another with patridiotic symbolism and p.r.-style “news” coverage.
If you doubt that news organizations are engaged in underhanded deceptions, please consider the most intriguing part of the documentary film, OutFoxed, where we learn about freelance political operative, I mean journalist, John Ellis–Dubya’s first cousin and the man responsible for calling the election* on Fox News. If you’re wondering who put this man in place to make such a call (at 2:16 am, no less), you can thank Fox News president Roger Ailes, a man in lock step with Karl Rove, for that service to the nation.
*Reports have John Ellis on a conference call with both George Bush and Jeb Bush, just prior to the historic decision he made on behalf of the Bush family and Fox News.
by David Burn | Aug 25, 2004 | Media
Once upon a time, I doled out story assignments to budding journalists. Doing so was part of my weekly routine as Asst. News Editor and later as News Editor of The College Reporter at Franklin & Marshall. The most enterprising reporter I had on staff was an aggressive young man by the name of Ken Mehlman. I tended to give Ken the best assignments and eventually appointed him my Asst. News Editor.
Now, when I see Ken on TV promoting his boss–the President of The United States–mostly what I feel is a strong sense of detachment, and at times a tinge of regret. After college, Ken went to Harvard Law School. I opted for the environmental movement and Grateful Dead tour. Today, Ken shapes the news and plays a role with absolutely huge consequences. I, on the other hand, make ads for disinterested audiences. What’s my point? Merely, that it’s nice to be in a position to make a difference.
by David Burn | Jul 13, 2004 | Advertising, Media
Sun Times advertising columnist, Lewis Lazare, has a dry wit and a sharp bite. He doesn’t mind ripping up ad campaigns, often from the best agencies in the business, into little tiny bits. He grades the work. C. D. B-.
He pontificates on the dangers of advertainment’s emergence in a recent piece: “Madison & Vine (McGraw-Hill, 202 pgs., $21.95) is a disturbing little book about a trend that should infuriate anyone who still cares about the future of both entertainment (and by extension, the arts) and advertising.”
I can’t say I share his assessment here, but I do like Lazare’s voice and the topics he covers. One thing I do agree with from his piece: “The fact of the matter is that in recent years the public has become increasingly fed up with traditional advertising because it has grown excessively intrusive. What’s more, the vast majority of the work simply isn’t sufficiently creative to command the public’s attention.”
by David Burn | Feb 17, 2004 | Media
Broadcast news organizations, for the most part, no longer deserve to be thought of as news organizations at all. Owned by entertainment conglomerates, their offerings resemble something much closer to “reality” TV, than what we once thought of as objective reporting. It is a particularly sad state of affairs for this nation when celebrity trials (or publicity stunts, as the case may be) dominate the news. Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Martha Stewart, and Kobe Bryant, no matter how twisted, sick, or misguided they may be, are distractions. Our fascination with celebrity is a distraction, and in my view, a dangerous one.
Right now, the US government is conducting a war in Afghanistan, one in Iraq, and several more at home. Haiti and Australia are experiencing riots. A Russian candidate for President went missing for five days. American jobs are being shipped overseas, poverty is on the rise, education is on the decline, civil liberties and the environment are under attack…I could go on at length here listing real news items in need of in-depth media coverage. Gay marriage and Bush’s National Guard service record are more distractions. Our country is at war under false pretenses. Our military is over-extended and being blatantly abused for corporate gain. And no one seems to care. Well, I care. If you care, it’s time to become a dedicated media activist, peace activist, environmentalist, and humanitarian.
To get a better grip on why the media is so out of touch with reality, Noam Chomsky can be of great service. I also recommend the documentary, Manufacturing Consent, about Chomsky and his critical work.
