media
WaPo Editorial: Young People Don't Know, Don't Care
h/t to Mike at Future Majority
There was an article in Sunday's Washington Post that accused young people of not knowing much about politics, not caring much, being too cynical, you know... all the usual scolding. There are grains of truth to it, of course, but the overall argument is simply BS. Admittedly, I say a lot of the same stuff sometimes, but always with the implied asterisk that there's a growing movement composed of beautiful, beautiful exceptions.
For the most part, we are a cynical bunch. And on the whole, it's true, we don't hit the streets to protest very much. And yeah, there are definitely a lot of idiots in our ranks. But all those things can be said of any generation. It's not fair to single us out for what's really a much, much wider problem.
Startup campaign against Fox News
http://bravenewfilms.org/foxads
This is a brilliant attempt to create organized resistance to media propaganda by targeting advertisers. It's like adding another layer to democracy by allowing voters to impact the presentation of the information we're presented as "fact" by the mainstream media.
I signed up. If you want to resist Fair and Balanced propaganda, join the network. If this works, I could see the same formula being applied to other cases.
Fox News Calls Mr Rogers Evil
I really think this may be a new low. In one further step along defining iteslf against all that is good and just, Fox News attacked Mr Rogers because, and I'm choking back the bile as I type this, he dared to tell kids that they were special. Really. Apparently Fox News doesn't think kids are special. They must work to be special, to become more special than everyone else by earning money. If you don't make lots of money, your life is worthless. No one is special just for themselves. You might think at this point that I'm joking or reciting an Onion story, but if you watch the video, you know I'm serious.
Bias
- Read this.
- Note the source.
- Throw up a little.
- Be grateful that even our media isn't that bad.
- Leave a comment.
How Internet is Changing the Media
A few days ago, we were talking about how the media is influenced by its audiences. This article reminded me of that, but also sheds light on how the Internet is heavily impacting the industry.
"The transformation facing journalism is epochal," according to a new media study. The annual State of the News Media report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism says that news outlets are likely to lower their ambitions as a fragmented market — including the Internet — leaves them with fewer resources.
snip
meet what passes for the press
I am very frustrated with the press, the systems of information distribution that we depend on as a balance against the systems of power and control in government seem to have let us down. Every news station seems to be sound bit after sound bit from some "expert" on a subject, displayed as an "objective" analysis. The worst part is, people dont know that the experts are only serving a particular ideological view. When this is our repeated frame of reference for what is true, it becomes easier for them to infiltrate our consciousness to the point where we do believe they are true.
Darfur, the ICC, the media, and us
So last week something important happened. The International Criminal Court took a major step toward prosecuting war criminals responsible for atrocities in Darfur. This includes Sudanese government officials. From the ICC press release:
Today ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo presents evidence showing that Ahmad Muhammad Harun, former Minister of State for the Interior of the Government of the Sudan, and Ali Kushayb, a leader of the Militia/Janjaweed, jointly committed crimes against the civilian population in Darfur.