....LMB: "Fun in MediaLand"....

February 06, 2003

Wealth of Opinions- Paul Krugman is one of the few mainstream liberal newspaper columnists who actually takes some good swings at conservative politicians. This long, fawning piece about Krugman has one interesting tidbit buried in paragraph 39: "It wasn't long before Krugman started ripping the Republican presidential candidate [George W. Bush], though he says [NY Times editor Howell] Raines barred him from using the word 'lying' for the duration of the campaign." Covering a presidential campaign and not being allowed to use the word "lying"? Why not have him go scuba diving without an oxygen tank?

Colin Powell Is Flawless -- Inside a Media Bubble- media critic Norman Solomon comes up with a list of good, insightful questions that the press should be asking Colin Powell-- questions that might tarnish his reputation as American Superman.

First Amendment, Schmirst Amendment- "Associated Press staffers Tony Winton and Cathy Wilson recently stood outside the Miami Herald building and handed out info on their sluggish contract talks with AP. Eventually, the newspaper's guards and an attorney confronted them. Wilson says the Herald lawyer told security: 'Make sure the police arrest these people.' Winton adds: 'This [newspaper] is a paragon of the First Amendment! -- except in front of our building.'"

FCC Chiefs Clash Over Media Rules- we've got two opposing forces in the FCC today: Michael "Corporate Bitch" Powell, and Michael "Listen to the People" Copps. Powell says that they should make decisions about reforming media ownership rules (greatly loosening them) now, while Copps is trying to hold public hearings on the issue around the country. Powell seems kinda mad at Copps disobedience.

Copps: Silenced by fear- the same Michael Copps mentioned above says that there are many people inside the media industry who fear the effects of deregulation and consolidation, but do not speak out for fear of being fired.

Posted by Jake at 03:47 PM
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Lying Media Bastards is both a radio show and website. The show airs Mondays 2-4pm PST on KillRadio.org, and couples excellent music with angry news commentary. And the website, well, you're looking at it.

Both projects focus on our media-marinated world, political lies, corporate tyranny, and the folks fighting the good fight against these monsters.

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Media News

November 16, 2004

Tales of Media Woe

Senate May Ram Copyright Bill- one of the most depressing stories of the day that didn't involve death or bombs. It's the music and movie industries' wet dream. It criminalizes peer-to-peer software makers, allows the government to file civil lawsuits on behalf of these media industries, and eliminates fair use. Fair use is the idea that I can use a snippet of a copyrighted work for educational, political, or satirical purposes, without getting permission from the copyright-holder first.

And most tellingly, the bill legalizes technology that would automatically skip over "obejctionable content" (i.e. sex and violence) in a DVD, but bans devices that would automatically skip over commericals. This is a blatant, blatant, blatant gift to the movie industry. Fuck the movie industry, fuck the music industry, fuck the Senate.

Music industry aims to send in radio cops- the recording industry says that you're not allowed to record songs off the radio, be it real radio or internet radio. And now they're working on preventing you from recording songs off internet radio through a mixture of law and technological repression (although I imagine their techno-fixes will get hacked pretty quickly).

The shocking truth about the FCC: Censorship by the tyranny of the few- blogger Jeff Jarvis discovers that the recent $1.2 million FCC fine against a sex scene in Fox's "Married By America" TV show was not levied because hundreds of people wrote the FCC and complained. It was not because 159 people wrote in and complained (which is the FCC's current rationale). No, thanks to Jarvis' FOIA request, we find that only 23 people (of the show's several million viewers) wrote in and complained. On top of that, he finds that 21 of those letters were just copy-and-paste email jobs that some people attached their names to. Jarvis then spins this a bit by saying that "only 3" people actually wrote letters to the FCC, which is misleading but technically true. So somewhere between 3 and 23 angry people can determine what you can't see on television. Good to know.

Reuters Union Considers Striking Over Layoffs- will a strike by such a major newswire service impact the rest of the world's media?

Pentagon Starts Work On War Internet- the US military is talking about the creation of a global, wireless, satellite-aided computer network for use in battle. I think I saw a movie about this once...

Conservative host returns to the air after week suspension for using racial slur- Houston radio talk show host (and somtime Rush Limbaugh substitute) Mark Belling referred to Mexican-Americans as "wetbacks" on his show. He was suspended for a couple of weeks, and then submitted a written apology for the racial slur to a local newspaper. But he seems to be using the slur and its surrounding controversy to boost his conservative cred with his listeners.

Stay Tuned for Nudes- Cleveland TV news anchor Sharon Reed aired a story about artist Spencer Tunick, who uses large numbers of naked volunteers in his installations and photographs. The news report will be unique in that it will not blur or black-out the usual naughty bits. The story will air late at night, when it's allegedly okay with the FCC if you broadcast "indecent" material. The author of this article doesn't seem to notice that Reed first claims that this report is a publicity stunt, but then claims it's a protest against FCC repression. I'd like to think it's the latter, but I'm not that much of a sucker.

Posted by Jake at 04:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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Jake's first attempt at homemade Mongolican barbecue:

Failure.

What went right: correctly guessing several key seasonings- lemon, ginger, soy, garlic, chili.

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Result: not entirely edible.

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