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4 Nov 2007 @ 13:38, by johnjoseph. Broadcasting, Media
Heather Mills is telling the Truth
What Heather Mills is saying about the English media is absolutely correct and raises issues of great importance. In a previous item I have put forward the view that the media is a new class and that its behaviour is connected with the phenomenon of alienation that I have written about so often. The media are accusing her of being deranged and narcissistic when in fact it is they who are deranged and in the process of creating a culture-wide atmosphere of self-absorption , self-indulgence and narcissism. One only has to listen to the output of BBC Radio 2 of a morning to realise that an incredible process of cliquey-ness, self-reference and narcissism of a very unhealthy kind is going on. Apart from self-absorption other aspects of narcissism include a dehumanisation which is attested by the callous treatment we have seen over recent years of Princess Diana, Joanne Lees, The McCanns and Heather Mills herself. On a technical level this is a form of alienation, but it is not my intention to elucidate that further at the moment. Hegel, the great mystical German philosopher, in his book “ The Phenomenology of Mind” wrote about “a Spiritual Reign of Terror”. Some people thought this applied to the French Revolution, but my interpretation is that this reign of terror is under way at this very moment. How else can one describe the treatment meted out to the people mentioned above as anything but terrorisation. Even Tony Blair shortly before he resigned described the British media as “feral”. This process seems to be happening in Anglo-Saxon countries, where there are no privacy laws. To ask the media to exercise responsible journalism is like asking Genghis Khan to exercise restraint and refrain from conquering the world. Another very alarming aspect of this process of growing narcissism is the withdrawal from reality and the truth, into a world of double-talking, self-deception, deceit, manipulation. It is not Heather Mills who is hysterical but the concerted media reaction to the true things that she has said. This story will run and run. More >
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 6 Oct 2007 @ 20:17, by quinty. Broadcasting, Media
Now that the Democrats control the Congress the possibility of reinstating the Fairness Doctrine has been raised.
By Democrats, of course. And by liberals and those who feel mute and unheard today over the nation’s airwaves on the left. Certainly not by the rightwing.
When Ronald Reagan was president he put an end to the Fairness Doctrine by simply signing an executive order. Handing the nation’s airwaves (which are the property of the American people) over to corporate America was that simple. More >
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 26 Jul 2006 @ 00:51, by ming. Broadcasting, Media
Wow, very cool! The Democracy Player from the Participatory Culture Foundation. It's a desktop application for watching free, open source TV. Kind of like iTunes, but for free stuff only. And better, really. Lots of channels, which essentially are PodCast channels. I.e. often amateurs that produce a weekly, daily, or occasional video show, which is freely available. Or some public broadcasting shows, and various other sources. All free, and all stuff that you wouldn't necessarily see on TV. Quality varies, but there's lots of choice.
The application does most of the work for you to make it really simple. You can subscribe for channels to be automatically downloaded, or you can browse around and pick things to watch. The content gets downloaded by BitTorrent. It gets played by the open source VLC media player, or other media players you might have installed. All of which means you can watch pretty much any format without worrying about it. The video just shows up within the Democracy Player, and you can blow it up to fullscreen if you want.
This is close to being able to change the broadcasting world altogether. I mean, if there were enough content here, I might not feel like watching normal TV at all. There isn't quite, but there's lots, and great stuff there. Diggnation, a regular show for computer nerds, similar to Screen Savers. Democracy Now, great regular PBS show with news. Popular podcast shows like RocketBoom. Etc, etc.
If it is this easy, all we need is enough variety to emerge and enough natural selection to take place in order to no longer need traditional media. Well, some distance to go. No traditional sitcoms, feature length movies worth watching, and real current news reports is still not very easy for a bunch of scattered amateurs to come up with. More >
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 25 May 2006 @ 10:57, by ashanti. Broadcasting, Media
I am totally hooked on a sci-fi TV drama called Charlie Jade. Apart from the gripping plot, and really cool actors, the thing that reeled me in was that it was shot in Cape Town, South Africa (where I live) and is a joint South African-Canadian production. Cape Town is a really multiverse type of place, and the perfect setting for the story of three parallel universes - the Alphaverse, Betaverse, and Gammaverse. Many of us already think Cape Town is a portal between intersecting universes, so the fact that the Canadians agreed and chose to shoot their movie here has to be more than coincidence! To many of us, this movie is not sci-fi, it is reality. It has everything - Table Mountain, Lions Head, muti-traders in body parts, deserts, gardens, turquoise oceans, Evil Corporations, microchipped populations in two of the universes, a mind-control guru, an alter-programmed killer or two, and explores issues of betrayal under coercion. This really is one of the best TV dramas I have ever watched (I don't watch that many) - in the league of the first Matrix film. In fact, I think it is my favourite piece of pixel-stimulus ever. More >
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13 Dec 2005 @ 20:54, by oasiian. Broadcasting, Media
Notice how almost always, the News is about all the bad stuff happening? Earthquake here, Murder there, car crash somewhere...and then a little bit of politics, which at least in Canada are always depressing. More >
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 28 Sep 2005 @ 22:32, by jmarc. Broadcasting, Media
I've been following the imminent death of the Main
Stream Media (MSM) for the last couple of years with
a certain amount of unabashed Schadenfreude. More >
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2 Sep 2005 @ 15:25, by swanny. Broadcasting, Media
It has just occured to me that
the "media" seems the only one getting
through to these areas and they seem to have a willingness
and perhaps "duty" to help so if the could be
contacted and coordinated and use their resources
and experience to provide relief in the Katrina
disaster.... it would go a lot farther then providing
mere "news".. and rehtoric..
Any way I think the media has more of a conscience
in this concern any way..... more of a willingness
towards the truth somehow.........
I know the media is supposed to be "objective" and "non- partisan" but saving peoples life is neither of these but our
duty to our fellow human beings....... and the "necessity of the moment......"..
The media has resources and maybe some of these resources
can be tapped for the immediate concern....
previous posts.....
I was just wondering what can be done in the
interm for these people and I thought
maybe different states could "adopt" a family
for a couple of months if they feel they can
be so willing and have the room.
This is kind of an emergency and "unprecidented"
situation and calls for creative and extreme
measures. Perhaps some of the "military" dollars
could be channelled to the "crisis" at home...
and of course the dikes will have to be strengthed
renewed and redeployed and the water pumped from
the area and a general cleanup. Where is the
"national guard here" and the "minute" men?
anyway when our city was recently flooded it was
found that the quickest way to convey and coordinate
the information and news from city hall was the
cities web site. It was easier and more convient for
people to access than the traditional media and
the web page staff seemed there around the clock
with current and breaking updates.
Just some ideas
A disaster of similar proportions occured
in Amsterdam in 1953...
It is therefore not necessary in this situation
to totally reinvent the wheel but learn
from some of the lessons they acquired.
Dutch Background = [link]
Well hmmmmm then if your Government is not prepared to help
these people then I suppose you the people will have
to help these people.
Perhaps the Officials have just become to good at shuffling paper when a shovel is the instrument required.
Lets do it then shall we?
Well first since the "necessities" are in short
supply every one in the effected area will have
to understand that "rationing" could be in effect
and perhaps a "curfew" to dissaude and
discern the looters
perhaps food coupons could quickly be issued.
And bottle water immediately be ceased and diverted to the state under "disaster" authorization.
Top priority
In order to contain disease outbreak
the sewage and dead matter with have to be
collected, contained and disposed of.
Also the city hall should be sequestered
as a temporary headquarters.
And work and volunteer crews assembled to
carry out the directives.
I suppose someone should dig up the cities
disaster relief plan as I take that is a
requirement for all cities.
No?
As well NASA should be consulted to determine if
any more possible systems will be moving into the
area so people should be on stand bye in case another
system should move in and repeat evacuation be required.
This may be a "new" trend as far as the effects and consequence of the land mass movement of
the 2004 Asian Tsunami....
So don't go home just yet....
Analysis and assessment of these possible "new" weather patterns should be initiated and cooridinated.
It may actually be that the city may have to be
abandoned or greatly resturctured in the face of change.
I suppose my point would be
that it is a little to late for hindsight
and it is a time of "action" grasshopper
you must contact those "responsible"
and "insist" that they do the job that is
required or insist that some else with
the capacity do it......
why berate the obvious when people are
dying ....
email a letter to the editor
email amensty international
email the white house
email congress
email the UN
email the Red Cross
email the National Guard
email the Homeland Protection Agengy
email your senator
and all those appropriate
the people "MUST" speak to the appropriate
and "RESPONSIBLE" administration
act grasshopper
it is to late to blame and criticize More >
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 20 Jul 2005 @ 11:15, by jazzolog. Broadcasting, Media
Every day you must say to yourself, "Today I am going to begin."
---Jean Pierre De Caussade SJ
One day a nonbeliever visited the Buddha, and said: "Question with or without words?" The Buddha remained silent. After some time, the nonbeliever bowed deeply before the Buddha and said, "Because of your great compassion, I am relieved of all illusion and see the Buddhist Way clearly before me." He bowed again and left.
Afterward, Ananda questioned the Buddha: "What did the nonbeliever find that caused him to see the Way?"
The Buddha replied, "A good horse is one that runs merely on seeing the shadow of a whip."
---Zen story
We now know that the moon is demonstrably not there when nobody looks.
---N. David Mermin
A Late Afternoon in Summer - (Thomas Moran - 1909)
Last night my wife sent out an article by David Corn, who is a writer I like and whose stuff for The Nation sometimes shows up at Yahoo News. Mr. Corn was lamenting about the right-wing disinformation machine and, like many folks I guess, it made me wonder what will become of Rove/Libby and the Plame case now that John Roberts is here. Some analysts this morning are worried the President announced his Supreme Court nomination on primetime television in order to push his administration's problems right out of the public's mind. More >
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 1 Jun 2005 @ 20:20, by jmarc. Broadcasting, Media
The New York Times has done it again. More >
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 22 May 2005 @ 18:15, by jmarc. Broadcasting, Media
Because everybody needs free music More >
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