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
•
"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
March 25, 2008
Sam Husseini On Independent Media
Iraq Winter Soldier Hearings Show Weakness of Independent MediaJeff Cohen -- full disclosure: he used to be my boss and is a friend -- makes some very valid and important points in ""Iraq Winter Soldier Hearings: Victory for Independent Media."
But there is another way of looking at this.
The fact that the mainstream paid so little attention to Winter Soldier -- as well countless other worthy stories -- is itself a failure of independent media to propel those stories into the mainstream...
The great success of Fox News Channel is not that it has done what it has done, but that it has influenced the "mainstream" as it has.
And in that sense, independent media has totally failed.
To take the example at hand, what we did not see in the last several weeks was independent media asking questions about Winter Soldier at the White House press conferences, or at the Pentagon or State Department. Had they done so, the administration spokesperson's words would likely have led to more attention to Winter Soldier than all the work of all the people who labored on it for months...
But no one asked at the news conferences, so none of that happened.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at March 25, 2008 12:47 PMpublicly criticized Pacifica for this failure almost two years ago in "Can Pacifica Live Up to Its Promise?" Still, virtually nothing has changed. ... This indicates that the problem is not so much one of resources, but of journalistic integrity and political will.
This really illustrates that one can't live on a steady diet of independent media, forever fragmented and ineffectual. Some time in the busy schedule should be alloted for pron, just so your time isn't totally wasted. There's no need to make their failures your failures.
Posted by: angryman@24:10 at March 25, 2008 01:24 PMI had no idea that none of them had people at the WH press conferences. At the very least couldn't they form a pool and get a slot?
Mother Jones would seem to be a natural, what with now having a DC bureau.
And I'm seriously pissed about what was done to Mokhiber. If it had been a different organization doing it, I'd suspect it was part of the punish-the-Nader-network aftermath of 2000.
Posted by: Nell at March 25, 2008 05:06 PMSo you can force an issue into the mainstream media by asking a question at a press conference? Brilliant! Someone should tell Helen Thomas about this.
Posted by: SteveB at March 25, 2008 08:17 PMshorter version: nobody serious takes silly jerk-offs like us seriously.
Eh, I like al-jazeera, it is unfortunate they lack WH access.
but you people are still dumb cunts : )
Posted by: xyz at March 26, 2008 07:20 AMdon't hate me cause I'm a pasive-agressive dork-- I really need your approval, and attention.
Posted by: xyz at March 26, 2008 08:22 PM
