Picking the news apart for school

Took me two days to finish this take-home final in Broadcast News class. Here it is.

1) This answer concerns war coverage.  Be sure to label the answers a) and b).

a) Watch a broadcast report (either television or online) of a conflict in the Middle East.  Did you find it too graphic? Explain why and be specific. Also, make two references in your answer to Arielle Emmett's article, "Too Graphic?

The irony of this question is that, to answer it effectively, one is forced to actively seek out gruesome images in order to ask whether they are “too graphic” in the first place. It may be the case that Middle Eastern conflicts are a good bet for finding such footage, but there are no guarantees in an ever-shifting news landscape. The most reliable source I know of for both detailed analysis of Middle East issues and a marked lack of squeamishness in depicting human suffering is Al Jazeera. However, though developments in both Gaza and Syria, as well as land mine removal in South Sudan, were all among the top stories on the network on Saturday, Dec. 8, on this particular viewing we were treated to much insight but a dearth of gore.

Success, if you want to call it that, was achieved in a piece on religious violence in Rakhine State in Myanmar. (Yes, South Asia is not even close to the Middle East, but for this question I am forced to go with what is available.) In this story on the violent breakdown in relations between the local Buddhist and Muslim communities, several images of mutilated bodies flashed on the screen, followed immediately by testimonies from tearful, traumatized survivors who lost their families in the fighting. In this case, I found the graphic nature of the images, when combined with the interviews, to be appropriate in delivering the emotional impact of the destruction of human lives for the sake of competing belief systems as an authoritarian regime continues to benefit from the divisions between its citizens. Emmett’s article deals with the conflict between the need to tell the whole truth (quoting photographer Patrick Farrell on Haiti: “You could write a million times that there are 100,000 dead…but if you don’t see it for yourself…it just won’t register”) and the need to respect people’s privacy and dignity (Haitian school principal Payen-Jean Baptiste’s highly critical response that such images are “humiliating”). In my own opinion, the use of these devastating images may be necessary to convey the truth of a story in many cases, but without an accompanying context that analyzes the issues and explains the causes, effects, and possible solutions to these dire events, the viewer comes away no wiser: a mere voyeur left shocked, morbidly entertained, and easily manipulated by propaganda. In this case, Al Jazeera did provide the necessary context, which I appreciated.

b) In Deborah Lynn Jaramillo's article, "The Spectacle of War," she writes in-depth of the complicated methods used by news organizations to cover wars. She poses the question: What purpose does war coverage serve and how do strategies of representation figure into the larger aims? Answer this question using her article for reference.

We would all like to think that the purpose of war coverage is to inform the public and explain the issues, but in practice, as Jaramillo argues, wartime media all too often operate in thrall to nationalistic myths and turn harsh realities into stirring romantic narratives. Jaramillo’s article applies Debord’s concept of “the spectacle” to the depiction of war on TV, also taking in Henry Giroux, who updates the idea by acknowledging the role of militarism in what he calls “the spectacle of terrorism”. War is mediated by ostensibly independent media that are not so much under the control of the military as motivated by a desire for profit and a need for access to the people and events they are covering.

After the Vietnam War, during which the news media often operated in a relatively independent and occasionally critical fashion, the Pentagon took a more active stance in preventing the free movement of journalists in war zones. First barring journalists outright from the Grenada invasion, then creating the “pool system” during the Panama invasion, the military used both force and co-optation to change the nature of televised war from hard journalism to flag-waving hagiography. Techniques from high-concept filmmaking are used to make war entertaining to viewers, and we root for our “team” (God, country, “the troops”) as if we are at a football game. The shift in attitude from news as a required public service to news as profit-generating splashy entertainment, the growth of media consolidation in recent decades, and a more media-savvy military industrial complex have created a situation where it is no longer necessary for governments to use an iron hand to compel the press or TV to do their bidding when the profit motive will do the job for them. In this atmosphere, it is easy to understand why so few people questioned the flimsy motivations for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and how large percentages of the American public still remain so poorly informed about issues that are crucial to their own well-being.

2) Explain what Reese and Shoemaker describe in "Studying Influences on Media Content," as media reality and social reality.  In your opinion, how close do the media come to representing an objective reality?  Give two examples from local or national news broadcast outlets. Be sure to note which outlets you used. If a network or local TV newscast, write down time of day as well.

Reese and Shoemaker use the term “social reality” instead of “objective reality,” arguing that objectivity is an elusive concept that is nearly meaningless when it comes to dealing with the perceptions of individuals. Instead, they compare “media reality” (reality as portrayed by media outlets) with “social reality” (“our best guess about what is actually going on the world”, based on data from a diverse and complex mixture of sources) to raise questions on how events are portrayed. They make a point of distinguishing between the “qualitative attributes of media content” and quantitative data; though it may be more difficult to measure how stories are told than to simply plot out the amount of times a subject is covered on a spreadsheet (a favorite tactic of conservative media critics who crunch numbers to prove “bias”), looking at media coverage in this way is highly revealing.

While Fox News Channel may seem like an easy target, the network is watched religiously by a large segment of the population and must be held at least partially responsible for how they see the world. Watching Mike Huckabee’s program at 5 PM on Dec. 8, it wasn’t hard to see the narrative being presented. Huckabee’s guest was William Marsh, head of a “small business” called American Bar Products (a Pennsylvania steel manufacturer…how “small” is his business, really?) who relayed a sad tale of how his taxes were excessively high and how “the coercive power of the federal government” was a “moral issue” that was “damaging small businesses” like his. “America is a unique place”, he went on to say. It is “the only nation in the history of man” formed on the idea that government should serve its citizens. Unfortunately, the government of this unique, singular nation “is no longer for the citizen.” The audience cheered every word and gazed attentively during the reaction shots. Now, one could grant that it may be inconvenient for Marsh’s corporation to endure a tax increase and to have to pay for his employees’ medical insurance, but is it really crippling his ability to do business? Perhaps he should support his claims by releasing all of his accounting records to the public so that we might fully understand his pain. (A quick Google search reveals that Marsh, unsurprisingly, has made a virtual second career of appearing on various conservative news outlets and Tea Party events to lament government regulations and taxes and denigrate the education and intelligence of his own employees.) One watches a segment such as this and gets an instant dose of a media reality in which we are living in a nightmarish dystopia where downtrodden CEOs of small businesses can’t catch a break. The tone is relentless, constantly angry, and strangely sentimental. Viewers attempting to think clearly and critically about what they’re watching may find themselves becoming almost physically exhausted while sifting through the torrent of desperate assertions being fired out from the screen, until the only choice is to either give in and believe or grab the remote in disgust.

Fox is a special case of course, a network devoted to adrenalized, passionate conservative propaganda. But any news outlet has some measure of disconnect between “media reality” and “social reality”, simply due to the necessities of storytelling. A journalist must have an angle, and a story must have a point, but the creation of a narrative can lead to more subtle distortions. Tuning in ABC World News at 5:30, the top story was a “new NFL tragedy”. A football player was charged with manslaughter after a drunken car crash that killed one of his teammates. Certainly, this was an unfortunate event, but what struck me most was the emphasis that this was “the second NFL player involved in a fatal incident”, referring to Jovan Belcher’s killing of his girlfriend and subsequent suicide the week before. One might want to point out that one of these incidents was an alcohol-related accident and the other was a murder/suicide that leaves behind an orphaned child; are these somehow equivalent because football players were involved? Should we question the network’s respect for the dead when they refer repeatedly to both events as “tragedies for the NFL”, as if the NFL has suffered more than the late Kassandra Perkins?

3) Give one example of celebrity news that, in your opinion, is genuine news and why. In your answer, cite two concepts from Steve Barkin's article, "Celebrity News."  Discussions in class referenced Comedy Central's "Daily Show" and whether or not it can be used as a news source.  Does it fall under Celebrity News or News/Information and why or why not?

If there is a recent story that qualifies as both celebrity news and genuine news, I would say it is the phenomenon of PSY and his runaway hit song and video “Gangnam Style.” For a South Korean rapper to break through to US audiences and reach the number one spot on the Billboard charts is unprecedented, and reflects  a change in our own popular culture, suggesting that Americans might not be so provincial that we are incapable of enjoying something in another language after all. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a catchy pop song, the video is irresistible fun and the lyrics are actually a sharp satirical poke at class differences and upwardly mobile pretensions in the artist’s hometown. The difference between the surface impression of a campy bit of high-energy kitsch and the actual intent of the artist make the story more interesting when you delve deeper, and the new “scandal” about PSY’s previous guest appearance on a song by a Korean metal band with extremely inflammatory lyrics about American torture policies raises questions of its own. (Now that he’s big in America, do Americans expect a foreign artist to be loyal to the US? Does the fact that PSY recently made a public apology show what happens when a local star is suddenly thrust into the role of international diplomat? Does anyone in this country even remember the incident that sparked the song in which two Korean schoolgirls were killed by an American military vehicle?) All of this adds up to a case of celebrity that is itself newsworthy. Writers like Neil Postman, as quoted by Barkin, certainly have a point when they argue that Americans are as well-entertained as they are ill-informed; nevertheless, a closer look at the complicated relationship between citizens and popular culture reveals far more than a simplistic narrative about “poor brainwashed ignorant sheep” ever will. There is no question that, as Barkin painstakingly chronicles, the spread of celebrity news and celebrity journalists is ultimately money-driven, but this doesn’t mean that popular culture isn’t capable of telling us a lot about ourselves and others about us.

Regarding Stewart and The Daily Show, I think the question sets up a false dichotomy. In my opinion, the show is neither News/Information nor Celebrity News, but satire that deals with the press and the political scene in a mock-news format. Jon Stewart is a celebrity, and when he interviews celebrities on his show he may touch on celebrity news to an extent, but The Daily Show is no more “celebrity news” than a sketch comedy show like Saturday Night Live or a talk show like Letterman. Celebrity news shows like Entertainment Tonight may be delivered with irreverence, but they take the concept of “celebrity” itself very seriously. The Daily Show is a comedy, and therefore another genre altogether. One may as well ask whether a banana is an apple or an orange.

4) In about 200 words, sum up the important points from the article "Forgive Me Now, Fire Me Later: Mass Communication Students' Ethics Gap Concerning School and Journalism." (Need to include methodology.)

The article starts from the premise that students are more outraged by plagiarism in the media than by plagiarism in their own coursework. The authors conducted a survey of students at a Midwestern university for six consecutive semesters that not only tracked overall student attitudes toward plagiarism, but also tracked possible changes in attitudes over different points in their education. (e.g. do freshmen feel differently than seniors?) Students overall were indeed more concerned about and demanded more severe punishments for journalists inventing sources and fabricating quotes than for their fellow students doing the same. Students who worked in student media during their term in school showed increased concern for and expected punishment for dishonesty in both the academic and professional arenas. Students with media internships took a harsher stance against dishonesty in journalism (most noticeably among students whose internships were specifically in journalism) but only showed a slight increase in concern for cheating in school.  Oddly, students with no internship experience at all had a higher degree of concern for academic dishonesty than those with non-journalism-related internships. The gap between degrees of concern for academic vs. journalistic dishonesty was far exceeded by the gap between recommended punishments for the two types of offenses; 60% of all students surveyed felt that a plagiarizing journalist should be fired, but only 5% felt a plagiarizing student should be expelled. Students, it appears, are considerably more apt to forgive their peers’ transgressions than those committed by supposed professionals.

5) There are two, unrelated, parts to this answer:

a) In "60 Minutes and the News Magazine," why was the program considered so revolutionary?  What was Don Hewitt's role? How did "60 Minutes" forge new pathways for news programs? You may also use notes from class lecture.

The impact of 60 Minutes was its thorough rethinking of the possibilities of TV news programming, for better or worse. Veteran producer Don Hewitt created the show after seeing his own job gradually marginalized by CBS president Fred Friendly and needing a breakthrough if his career was to continue. What Hewitt did was to conceive a new format for a documentary series, modeled after the then-popular Life magazine, which combined serious news, lighter fare, and stunning photography. The new show was to be a “TV magazine” with three stories per episode and a staff of star reporter/anchors who played central roles in the stories they delivered. The prevailing sentiment had been that news was an unglamorous necessity, the vegetables you had to eat because they were good for you. 60 Minutes upended that paradigm by presenting news stories as entertaining narratives with drama, structure, conflict, and resolution, and the experiment paid off, becoming the highest-rated show on TV by 1978 and continuing to this day.

The success of 60 Minutes led to competing newsmagazine shows like 20/20 and Dateline, but it could be argued that the show’s greatest influence was that it demonstrated that TV news could be profitable, which has caused networks to expect higher ratings from all of their news shows and influence their formats accordingly. 24-hour cable news networks like CNN show a great deal of influence from the show as well. (Would Ted Turner have even considered investing in such a thing without the precedent set by 60 Minutes?)

Perhaps one of the most insidious influences the show had may be the “sting interviews” that Mike Wallace and others were famous for, in which the producers would record some unscrupulous character being drawn into a compromising position before the star reporter made a surprise appearance in a sort of non-comedy version of Candid Camera. We could trace a thread from these segments not only to the current pervasive phenomenon of reality TV (an early example, Cops, could plausibly be pitched as “Mike Wallace with a badge”), but also to the likes of right-wing would-be journalist James O’Keefe, whose staged video hoaxes may seem too absurd to take seriously, but had the very real effect of helping to destroy the community advocacy organization ACORN and attempting to wreak similar damage on Planned Parenthood. Again, 60 Minutes has often engaged in some admirable journalism, but the framing of news as entertaining, well-packaged, streamlined storytelling invariably creates a “media reality” that does not always match “social reality”, and has set a precedent for far less responsible actors.

b) What is the meaning of Cultural Chaos in terms of news in a globalized world, according to Brian McNair's study?

The term “cultural chaos” as used by McNair, though never explicitly defined in this excerpt from his book, seems to refer to the recent climate of decentralization and diversity of news sources beyond the old Cold War West vs. East paradigm. He begins with a jaundiced review of standard Marxist cultural theory critiques, arguing that Western culture was not merely imposed on the rest of the world but actively sought by people in other countries, and that resistance to Western influences was merely a mask for elite-run authoritarian regimes to hide their own repressive policies behind. All of this strikes me as little more than one glib generalization being countered by another, but as the article progresses, McNair touches on some interesting points, many of which have been covered from many angles in this class already. The advent of 24-hour cable news spearheaded by CNN and followed by BBC News 24 and many others transformed news into what he refers to as “a flow medium,” unfolding constantly rather than confined to scheduled one-hour reports. Technical developments from cable to satellite to the internet have enabled a station to become a truly global voice, reaching anywhere that viewers are allowed access. The big development McNair points to is the international success of Al Jazeera, a breakthrough for non-Anglophone media in the global media market. McNair points to this as a sign that the world is moving in a direction toward more diverse voices in journalism and a vibrant, exciting media future fueled by increased competition for a global market. One caveat to McNair’s optimistic prognosis is that it may require more faith in the vagaries of international capitalism, and, while he has a fine time debunking a straw man caricature of “cultural imperialism,” he may not be considering the full implications of his one-world vision. If the market alone determines how information is distributed on a global scale, and the market is a multinational one that cannot be subject to any oversight or regulation, what prevents one or two powerful corporations from taking over all available outlets? A more encouraging alternate view is one of a genuine “cultural chaos” in which a multitude of independent “narrowcasters” are exposed to small but widely scattered worldwide audiences because they offer journalistic content that the big conglomerates cannot.

Sometimes you just wanna escape...

Finals are hard. Waaaah.

The scenes with Claude Bessey were the shining exception

When The Decline Of Western Civilization first came out I thought it was deliberately edited in order to slander the whole punk scene. Interview the stupidest kids you can find and claim they represented something other than the rapid de-evolution of what was once something promising. Now people watch it and think they're getting an insight into what it was all about.

Of course, this was L.A. I came out of the original Santa Cruz scene, which was a mixture of college radicals, geeky record collectors and all-around oddballs.

Neurons On The Go

Remixed and compressed to give it a little more oomph. Opening track from the upcoming Experimental Bunnies album Aranka, predominantly recorded on Christmas, 2011. If there's a "War On Christmas", the Experimental Bunnies have already won.

Well, Why Not?

Poetic justice

It may be the free market itself that ultimately kills Fox News.

Survival

An XKCD that might make you cry a little.

Isn't it strange how some artists can be more emotionally expressive with stick figures than others can with a supposedly "naturalistic" drawing style?

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: November 2012

Two songs by the Mountain Goats, two songs by the much-underrated and thoroughly fantastic Mighty Ballistics Hi-Power (how's that reissue coming along, boys?), one from Ear Candle's newest signing, the mysterious Dr. Spaceman (full downloadable album coming soon!), an appearance by our excellent parodist pals the Mod-est Lads, the best Beatles cover of this century so far (even if it was actually recorded in the 70s) by Noh Mercy, Neil Young's mighty new stomping masterpiece, and more deep catalog goodness, in an atmosphere where truck-driving anthems, swirly Goth psychedelia, and a Bonzos-related piece of brilliance (featuring a bass sax pretending to be a tuba) all live together in one happy sonic family. Tune in to our station for a taste of a better world!

1. Dave Dudley - Six Days On The Road - T.L. 1960-1964 Classic Country
2. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Swimming Horses - Hyaena
3. Roger Ruskin Spear - When Yuba Plays The Rumba On The Tuba Down In Cuba - Unusual
4. Vital Disorders - Tough Times - Vital Disorders EP
5. John Lee Hooker - John L's House Rent Boogie - The Best of John Lee Hooker
6. Workdogs - Gun Shot Blues - Masters of the Working Blues: Greatest Live on the Radio
7. Dr. Spaceman - Tap Into The New - Zwanzig Kilometer Stau
8. Jon Langford - Sentimental Marching Song - Skull Orchard Revisited
9. Wild Flag - Racehorse - Wild Flag
10. Nervous Norvous - Transfusion - Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume One
11. Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Walk Like A Giant - Psychedelic Pill
12. The Mountain Goats - Resonant Bell World - Beautiful Rat Sunset
13. The Mod-Est Lads - She Could Be In The Beatles - Trouser Load of Love
14. Mighty Ballistics Hi-Power - Black Gold - Matchless
15. Suicide - Power Au Go-Go - American Supreme
16. Noh Mercy - Girl - Noh Mercy
17. The Mountain Goats - Short Song About The 10 Freeway - Bitter Melon Farm
18. The Misunderstood - I Can Take You To The Sun - Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers
19. Mighty Ballistics Hi-Power - Privilege - Here Come The Blues
20. The Loud Family - Spot the Setup - Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things

Chris Knox sighting!

An old Tall Dwarfs song just came on the iPod and the girl asked me, "so what's happening with Chris Knox lately? Have you heard anything about his progress?" I hadn't looked in a while but a search turns up this surprise performance of an old Toy Love song backed by a young Kiwi band called the Rackets. Check the smile on the great man's face! Feel the love in that room!

Kick-Ass Rainbow

View from my cubicle during a lull in this week's crap weather.

"Not to be nasty, but is that considered music?"

There's a whole meme now of "old people react to dubstep" Youtube videos, but I like this one best. Grandpa's really trying hard to keep an open mind here.

Fun Fun Fun!

I can't post something by the Bad Brains without giving equal time to the Big Boys. (Read your punk history if you don't know why.) Also, this is a nice reminder that, however much we love to make fun of Texas politicians and ignoramuses, it's important to remember that the state of Texas has also given us some of the most soulful people around.



UPDATE: More good readin' on the subject (plus videos!) can be found here, courtesy of Lisa.

Character development vs. non-stop gags

This piece does a good job of explaining why I both love and hate 30 Rock. On the one hand, hugely flawed and shallow, on the other hand, when they are actually funny, few things are funnier. Thanks to my video production class, I discovered its main competition when it started out, and it all made a lot more sense. Does anyone else find Aaron Sorkin's Big Anvilicious Wit-Of-The-Staircase Speeches as insufferable as I do? Apparently, the audience did, and they went for the more cynical alternative. (One big and rather telling difference: Studio 60's show-within-a-show comes off as a better version of Saturday Night Live, while it's clear that 30 Rock's is meant to be a godawful piece of unfunny, uninspired hackwork.) Also, Tina Fey, even when she is trying so hard to play a loathsome, unpleasant character, is so disarmingly cute that it's no wonder the show took off.

Also, it must be mentioned that our newest Ear Candle artist, Dr. Spaceman, got his stage name from the recurring character in 30 Rock.

I'm A Man Who Is As Warm As You By Day/Who Downs The Boiling Hot Coffee In One Go

The Large Wicked Hair-Challenged Bastard links to this fascinating analysis of "Gangnam Style".

I think sometimes we look at things like this through our smug Western eyes and put them in the "fun tacky foreign pop" box so we can appreciate it ironically, and don't consider that they're quite consciously cracking a big satirical joke for their own audience.

A piece of wisdom from our hearts

(These incomprehensible lyrics are actually really good. I know HR eventually turned out to be an insane asshole, but my God, the Bad Brains sure were something when they first showed up.)

I make decision with precision
Lost inside this manned collision
Just to see that what is to be
Perfectly my fantasy

I came to know with now dismay
That in this world we all must pay
Pay to write, pay to play
Pay to cum, pay to fight

And all in time,
With just our minds
We soon will find
What's left behind

Not long ago when things were slow
We all got by with what we know
The end is near. Hearts filled with fear
Don't want to listen to what they hear

And so it's now we choose to fight
To stick up for our bloody right
The right to sing, the right to dance
The right is ours... We'll take the chance

A peace together
A piece apart
A piece of wisdom
From our hearts

A poem for Black Friday

Lemming

And I say "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, ho ho ho ho ho ho ho..."

What do you get when you combine the media mastery of Clear Channel with the financial wizardry of Bain Capital? Sweet, sweet schadenfreude!

My day is now officially made.

Side note: Not that Brian Wilson. And not that one, either.

Sour grapes are served

Ain't no analysis like a Rude Pundit analysis 'cause a Rude Pundit analysis gets right to the point...rudely!

Alternately, you can blame the ideological media barons:

High crimes and treason

If we can stop talking about David Petraeus and his penis for a minute, there is an actual military scandal that is not getting much play in the media.

Consider this: during two highly controversial wars begun by an administration with a record of being less than forthcoming about any of its activities, military records have been destroyed with no paper trail and no backup available. This means that investigators and historians will never be able to research many of the questionable actions taken during this time. If we want to be concerned about potential “conspiracies”, cover-ups, and military corruption, isn’t this a rather more pertinent news story than the fact that our Military Industrial Complex is riddled with groupies?

This story merits a lot more attention, and now is as good a time as any, when legislators like Darryl Issa are holding highly-publicized, politically-motivated investigations of the Obama administration at every opportunity. I don’t find it unreasonable to apply words like “high crimes and treason” to this issue. There are certainly enough unanswered questions here to justify bringing in Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others for questioning, unless we feel that our public servants should not be held accountable for their actions. (Or does that only apply to Democrats?)

I'm glad I left, now I'm that much more sure

Very well put together session chronicle. Whoever did this forgot to mention the lead singer's name for some reason. Passive aggressiveness against one of the most hated men in pop music?

You thought you would have your way forever (Slight Return)

Still applies.

The Psychedelic Shamans Totally Called It

Had we known this, we'd have known we really had no need at all to be nervous.

In other news, scary Republican lady with strings is not amused.

And NO, you venal, butthurt rubes, you can't get your money back.

Jon Stewart really said it all this time:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Post Democalypse 2012 - America Takes a Shower
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Post Democalypse 2012 - America Takes a Shower - Fox News Meltdown
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Post Democalypse 2012 - America Takes a Shower - Karl Rove's Math
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

I had to wonder, how is Colbert going to top this?

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Criswell predicts!

If and when Obama wins today, I predict the spin on the Republican side will be "See, this is what happens when you nominate a Massachusetts liberal like Romney" and a new "grassroots movement" will emerge, filled with "new" ideas that will have nothing to do with the Tea Party (who's that?) even though it will be filled with all of the exact same people, only even more rabid. The media will be captivated by this BRAND NEW, UNPRECEDENTED right wing populist movement and its bright new ideas and vibrant new personalities. Rick Santorum will become the moderate voice of the GOP and be voted Presidential nominee in 2016.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: October 2012

1. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - On Tomorrow - Strictly Personal
2. The Revolutionaries - Street Fighting Dub - Top Ranking Dub
3. John Cale - Hello, There - Vintage Violence
4. Johnny K Killen & The Dynamics - I Don't Need Help - Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label
5. The Fall - Kurious Oranj - I Am Kurious Oranj
6. Devo - Wiggly World - Duty Now For The Future
7. The Weirdos - Jungle Rock - Destroy All Music
8. Tobi Vail/Pussy Riot Oly - Free Pussy Riot - Free Pussy Riot
9. Richard & Linda Thompson - For Shame Of Doing Wrong (6 June 1982 San Francisco) - Shoot Out The Lights
10. Marson Ramos - Today is Halloween - Today Is Halloween
11. Heartless Bastards - All This Time - All This Time
12. ESG - Dance - A South Bronx Story
13. Curtis Mayfield - Hard Times - There's No Place Like America Today
14. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Sweet Sweet Bulbs - Trout Mask Replica
15. The Sweet Bones - The Wall Talks Back (J Neo Marvin dub mix) - BCST 125
16. Pearls Before Swine - These Things Too - These Things Too
17. Noh Mercy - Girl - Noh Mercy
18. Karen Mantler - Arnold's Dead - Farewell
19. John Trudell - Rich Man's War - AKA Grafitti Man
20. IanSchultz - Track 11 - Silly Noisy Spacey Stuff

We're adding new songs every week and constantly moving the playlist around to keep it fresh! Thanks for listening!

Lesley Gore resurfaces with an important message for November.

Complete History Of The Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris

Our pals the Mod-Est Lads turned us on to this piece of pure awesome:

A Complete History Of The Soviet Union Through The Eyes Of A Humble Worker, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris.

Music by "Pig With The Face Of A Boy"

Written and performed by DONALD NEWHOLM and DAN WOODS, with MALCOLM GAYNER & ROBIN HARRIS

Photographed by TIM JORDAN
Costumes by LUCY NEWHOLM
Production assistant NICOLA LINCÉ
Special thanks to JAMES LAMONT and REMY LAMONT
Additional sound effects: www.freesound.org/people/nemoDaedalus/ www.freesound.org/people/themfish
Produced by CHRIS LINCÉ and DAN WOODS for Xylophone Productions

Directed, animated, and edited by CHRIS LINCÉ

WINNER - BEST ANIMATION - Super Shorts International Film Festival 2010
WINNER - LOW BUDGET AWARD - Super Shorts International Film Festival 2010

Love this

Nina Paley ruffles more feathers

Where do you go after making a brilliant animation feature that unpacks the misogynistic assumptions in Hindu mythology, pissing off an army of humorless fundamentalist dopes in the process? How about something less controversial like, uh...the history of Israel?

(Trigger warning: Cartoonish depictions of extreme violence and genocide.) Scroll down for an explanation of "who's killing who", because, as Nina says, "you can't tell the players without a pogrom."

Hey, it's still up!

Haven't done a thing with my Xtranormal account in years, but I see that our dramatic reading of the lyrics of "Wagons And Boys" by The Blame and "Let Me Plant One On You" by the Granite Countertops remains intact. Enjoy!



For comparison, here's the official video:



No video for the other, but here's the song:

Mr. Postman, look and see

This weekend's required reading includes this absolutely choice excerpt from an essay by the late Neil Postman, "The Bias Of Language, The Bias Of Pictures", borrowed from the book How To Watch TV News.

...even when attempting to use purely descriptive language, a journalist cannot avoid expressing an attitude about what he or she is saying. For example, here is the opening sentence of an anchor’s report about national examinations: “For the first time in the nation’s history, high-level education policymakers have designed the elements for a national examination system similar to the one advocated by President Bush.”

This sentence certainly looks like it is pure description although it is filled with ambiguities. Is this the first time is our history that this has been done? Or only the first time that high-level education policymakers have done it? Or is it the first time something has been designed that is similar to what the President has advocated? But let us put those questions aside. (After all, there are limits to how analytical one ought to be.) Instead, we might concentrate on such words as “high-level,” “policymakers,” and “designed.” Speaking for ourselves, we are by no means sure that we know what a “high-level policymaker” is, although it sounds awfully impressive. It is certainly better then a “low-level policymaker,” although how one would distinguish between the two is a bit of a mystery. Come to think of it, a low-level “policymaker” must be pretty good, too, since anyone who makes policy must be important.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that what was done was “designed.” To design something usually implies careful thought, preparation, organization, and coherence. People design buildings, bridges, and furniture. If your experience has been anything like ours, you will know that reports are almost never designed; they are usually “thrown together,” and it is quite a compliment to say that a report was designed.

The journalist who paid this compliment was certainly entitled to do it even though he may not have been aware of what he was doing. He probably thought he had made a simple description, avoiding any words that would imply favor or disfavor. But if so, he was defeated in his effort because language tends to be emotion-laden. Because it is people who do the talking, the talk almost always includes a feeling, an attitude, a judgment. In a sense, every language contains the history of a people’s feelings about the world. Our words are baskets of emotion. Smart journalists, of course know this. And so do smart audiences. Smart audiences don’t blame anyone for this state of affairs. They are, however, prepared for it.

UPDATE: I added a few more paragraph divisions that weren't there originally, just for the sake of readability.

What I've been busy with (Special debate edition)

The blogging, inconsistent as it's always been, has definitely fallen by the wayside in recent months due to my heavy workload at both my current job and the university. But it's not as though I haven't been writing. So to remedy the dullness of this page, I'll be posting some of the work I've been up to at school.

Here's a brief essay I turned in for extra credit for "News On Radio And Television" class (BECA 460):

Watch the Presidential Debate on Wednesday night (10/3).
In 500 words (typewritten, no hand-written corrections accepted) give your analysis of how one television network covered the event.  Was it fair?  Did their critique fall on the side of objective or subjective coverage?  Why or why not?

This is what I gave them:

I watched the first presidential debate on KGO-TV (ABC) for this exercise. The program was hosted by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos. After the debate itself, Sawyer and Stephanopoulos were joined by Matthew Dowd and Donna Brazile, with former Obama economic advisor Austin Goolsbee and former McCain/Palin campaign advisor Nicolle Wallace on remote feed.

First, I was struck by Sawyer’s giddy demeanor throughout. She appeared to be covering the event as entertainment news, gushing over the candidates’ families appearing with them onstage while complaining that the debate featured “a lot of numbers” and giggling continuously throughout the discussion. (Is she always like this?) In contrast, Stephanopoulos managed to maintain some semblance of basic professionalism in his role as cohost.

A consensus was reached very quickly by the panel: Romney had “won” the debate, Obama seemed distracted, and debate moderator Jim Lehrer let himself be overrun by the candidates. What I saw happening in the debate was a little different. Obama would try to address a previous statement of Romney’s and Romney would claim that he had never said such a thing and accuse Obama of misquoting him. It was a strange dance, and the President occasionally looked flustered. I hope he is better prepared next time.

Other commentators were brought in. Jake Tapper saw a lackluster Obama, and loved Romney’s “zingers” and “policies”. (Goolsbee, on the other hand, thought Obama’s best moment was when he challenged Romney about these policies that he refused to elaborate on: “What are your secret plans?”) David Muir was impressed by Romney’s anecdotes. Brazile also said that she thought it was “great” that the candidates talked about women. (Apparently, telling a story about a woman you talked to at a campaign stop counts as addressing women’s issues.) George Will thought that Romney scored with his attack on the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which would supposedly “ration” healthcare. Will’s assertion was, of course, not challenged, presumably because to do so would not have been “objective”.

The post-mortem discussion was focused on how well the candidates performed, rather than analyzing what they were saying. Words like “fair” or “subjective” vs. “objective” are hard for me to apply here. What I saw was a group of professional pundits whose main commitment was to maintaining a narrative about the race being “close”. They needed Romney to look good last night in order to maintain that suspenseful, entertaining narrative. The actual impact of their respective policies and the truth of their statements were trivial compared to the all-important horse race.

Sawyer announced that the network would do some fact-checking, and brought on correspondent Jonathan Karl, who critiqued one statement by each candidate and pronounced both “mostly fiction”. I wondered why we were treated to a misleadingly tokenistic ritual of “fact-checking” here; would a detailed examination of Romney’s higher levels of dishonesty in the course of this campaign violate their sense of “balance”? I Googled Mr. Karl and found an article on the Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting website that asserts that Karl got his start in journalism through the Collegiate Network, a conservative group that supports right-leaning college journalists and assists them in their postgraduate careers. That would seem to take care of the objectivity question.

(What I left out) In conclusion, ABC is even worse than I even imagined. And WTF is Diane Sawyer's problem?

But where do the candidates stand on Big Jim Sullivan's "Sitar Beat" album?

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: September 2012

So as I was saying, we are back and bopping, and the new playlist is developing while university work continues to kick our asses. We are slipping new delights into our randomly shuffling stream to tide you over, never fear! Oh, the places you'll go...

1. PJ Harvey - 50 Ft Queenie - Rid Of Me
2. Phil Ochs - Cops of the World - Phil Ochs in Concert
3. Can - Dead Pigeon Suite - The Lost Tapes
4. Steve Hillage - Meditation of the Snake - Fish Rising
5. KXP - 18 Hours (Of Love) - K-X-P
6. John Lennon - Do The Oz - Plastic Ono Band
7. Vivian Girls - You're My Guy - Everything Goes Wrong
8. Peter Green - Bottoms Up - The End of the Game
9. MC5 - The American Ruse - Back In The USA
10. Kalo Kawongolo / Seke Molenga - Masanga - African Roots
11. Dr. Spaceman - Staying Home - Zwanzig Kilometer Stau
12. Warren Smith - Ubangi Stomp - Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk and Rockabilly
13. Silvia Parra MamaCoatl - Food Is A Weapon - Border Crossing Diosa
14. Fat Daddy Holmes - Where Yo Is - Chicken Rock
15. Dead Famous People - Barlow's House - Lost Person's Area
16. Gil Scott-Heron - Explanations - Moving Target
17. The Spinners - Living A Little, Laughing A Little - The Very Best Of The Spinners
18. The Zombies - Care Of Cell 44 - Odessey and Oracle
19. Leonard Cohen - Banjo - Old Ideas
20. Public Image Limited - One Drop - This Is PiL

Rebecca Solnit wins the internet

A progressive writer on progressive purity trolling:

"O rancid sector of the far left, please stop your grousing! Compared to you, Eeyore sounds like a Teletubby. If I gave you a pony, you would not only be furious that not everyone has a pony, but you would pick on the pony for not being radical enough until it wept big, sad, hot pony tears."

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: August 2012

Yes, we are back, and assembling a new playlist teaspoon by teaspoon, while our incredible music library entertains you on random shuffle setting.

1. Suicide - American Mean - American Supreme
2. Angel Corpus Christi - Amateur Alchemist - Angel Does X-tal - EP
3. Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Between My Head And The Sky - Between My Head And The Sky
4. The New Age Steppers - Got To Get Away - Action Battlefield
5. The Firesign Theatre - Poop's Principles - Dear Friends
6. The Units - The Mission is Bitchin' - The Early Years of the Units 1977-1983
7. Them - Could You, Would You - The Story Of Them
8. Society of Rockets - The Great Experiment - Future Factory
9. The Royal Guardsmen - OM - The Return Of The Red Baron
10. PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder - Let England Shake
11. Moon Duo - Love On The Sea (Radio Edit) - Yeti 7
12. Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man - The Essential Leonard Cohen
13. KXP - Mehu Moments - K-X-P
14. Karen Mantler - Arnold's Dead - Farewell
15. Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart - Rising Above Bedlam - Rising Above Bedlam
16. J Neo Marvin & the Content Providers - We Are Alive - Freedom Fried
17. Grass Widow - Uncertain Memory - Past Time
18. The Experimental Bunnies - Bunnies On Fire - Bunnies On Fire
19. Dylan Champagne - Baby in a Bear Suit - Love Songs of the Apocalypse Vol. 1
20. Curtis Mayfield - Hard Times - There's No Place Like America Today

Tune in! We have great things in store.