or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
April 09, 2007
Yes
Larisa Alexandrovna at the Huffington Post:
I think that with the exception of a few real journalists and honest columnists in the MSM, the American media-industrial-political complex is a discredited, decadent, ugly thing to behold and, sadly for us, a real danger to democracy. They are a collective Faust, selling their very souls for access, power, money and anything that relates to those three commodities so important to the morally vacuous. They sell their souls, we pay the price, and they make a profit.If I seem to be exaggerating in my absolute disgust over the state of our media, then you—dear reader—have not been paying attention or you simply don't care.
The most significant story in American politics is how the corporate media has moved from its standard historical hatred for progressives to hatred for regular centrist Democrats. (See Clinton, Bill; Gore, Al; and now Pelosi, Nancy.) Meanwhile, the Democrats still don't get it, even as CNN and the Washington Post beat the crap out of them every day, and refuse to fund competing media.
Posted at April 9, 2007 10:34 AM | TrackBackThis is an interesting perspective. (I come to this web site for interesting perspectives!)
It's a bind for the Dems, isn't it? They might fear funding competing media because the new media might fall in love with the progressive left. Then the new media could begin bashing them from the left, at the same time that the MSM continues to harass them from the right.
Posted by: Aaron Datesman at April 9, 2007 11:48 AMThey might fear funding competing media because the new media might fall in love with the progressive left. Then the new media could begin bashing them from the left, at the same time that the MSM continues to harass them from the right.
I suspect that's exactly what's holding them back, although I also think it's a little more complicated. The Iron Law of Institutions tells us that people within institutions act only to protect their own power within the institution, rather than for the wellbeing of the institution overall. Thus, many Democratic insiders know (or sense) that funding new media would be good for the party overall, but would not be good for their power within the party. And if the price of the party gaining more power is them personally losing power, they will fight it. Certainly they'll never proactively try to make it happen.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at April 9, 2007 12:13 PMWell, there is the Net, that's where I get my news and opinion.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at April 9, 2007 02:36 PMah! dovetail, dovetail! i've been looking for a current list of independent-but-thorough-and-broad media sources! for plain news, on many subjects. can we make a list in this thread? cuz i'm looking for a few good editors and publishers. and i way don't have the energy to chase every story multiple times.
Posted by: hibiscus at April 9, 2007 04:02 PMThey could fund competing media...but would anyone watch it? In Canada we have a publically funded network that is widely watched. Its quality is far superior to what you have on your cable news.
...but, your PBS network is similar to our CBC and almost no one watches that. Your network news is better than cable at the least, and it has been bleeding viewership. CNN has moved in a rightwards direction to counter Fox news.
If you had a genuinely progressive TV news source, I'm not sure anyone would watch it. Progressives in the States seem to prefer either the internet or the daily show, which may be the best you can hope for in terms of an informative media.
Posted by: graeme at April 10, 2007 12:27 PMAnd of course there's http://democracynow.org
You can get all the shows from http://www.archive.org/details/democracy_now_vid or the last three days' shows via bittorrent on http://ewheel.democracynow.org
Posted by: me at April 12, 2007 10:38 AMHaving the government fund media is a very bad idea. Whoever gets this funding will have to say things the government wants to hear, and what the government wants to hear is that governmental violence and coercion are the solutions to all problems. This viewpoint is already freely available from CNN/Fox/NYT and the government funded schools.
Posted by: Cous Cous at April 12, 2007 04:28 PM
