|
 We live in a media-driven, commercial culture, where it's hard to escape the ever-increasing waves of advertising and infotainment. Meanwhile, our public spaces are eroding, and what were once safe havens – schools, museums, libraries, parks – are now awash in commercials. More »
|
 |
Email Newsletter |
|
Media Revolution Now!
|
|
Background |
|
Recommended Sites |
|
MediaChannel.org
News, commentary and innovative responses on the political, cultural and social impacts of media -- from a nonprofit global network of over 700 affiliates.
Jim Romenesko's MediaNews
The site to find the latest controversy, gossip and insidery stuff of the media biz.
Media Access Project
A nonprofit advocacy group promoting the public's First Amendment right to hear and be heard on electronic media.
Center for Media Education
A nonprofit working toward a media system that serves the public interest.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
A nonprofit activism and information hub for Internet privacy, accessibility and development issues.
Center for Digital Democracy
A nonprofit comitted to the preservation and support of an open, diverse and democratic Internet.
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
A national media watch group that offers well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship.
PR Watch's Spin of the Day
PR Watch provides great Internet links to newsworthy public relations stories.
|
|
Discussion |
 |
Discuss the culture and politics of media in our Discussion Forums.
Guests »
Members » |
|
Other Content Files |
|
Feedback |
|
|
|
The Ratings Mirage
Steve Rendall, Extra!
Contrary to what the Nielsen ratings suggest, Fox still lags behind CNN in both popularity and ad revenue.
Posted
on March 30, 2004.
Mis-Covering Clarke
Danny Schechter, MediaChannel.org
The media are more eager to air accusations of partisanship and create 'heat' for ratings than shed light on the real intelligence failures that led to 9/11.
Posted
on March 29, 2004.
When Rupert Murdoch Calls...
John Nichols, The Nation
Condi Rice won't make time to testify in front of the 9/11 commission, but she's never too busy to brief Fox executives.
Posted
on March 25, 2004.
Helen Thomas' Legacy of Truth
Geov Parrish, WorkingForChange.com
The reigning octogenarian queen of the D.C. press corps speaks her mind on the Bush White House and the media.
Posted
on March 25, 2004.
Silencing Spanish Media
Inter Press Service
Spain's state-run news agency kept vital information about the terrorist attacks under wraps due to pressure from the Aznar government.
Posted
on March 25, 2004.
Dragging Women Down
Kelly Kleiman, In These Times
Is the spectacle of men dressing up as women the gender equivalent of the morally repugnant practice of blackface?
Posted
on March 26, 2004.
The Devil and Erin Brockovich
Eric Umansky, Columbia Journalism Review
An editor of a small Beverly Hills weekly is making life of Hollywood's favorite environmental crusader very difficult.
Posted
on March 23, 2004.
All Politics is Local News
Tim Grierson, MediaChannel.org
If you want to hear the voice of the average American voter, take a look at any small town newspaper.
Posted
on March 25, 2004.
Al Jazeera Goes to Jail
Christian Parenti, The Nation
The arrest and subsequent abuse of two of the Arab network's journalists is part of an escalating regional media war with the U.S. government.
Posted
on March 18, 2004.
Queering the Mic
Terry Sawyer, PopMatters
Lesbian and gay rappers offer a lesson in how to make horny, vibrant music without the dubious prop of an underfoot Other.
Posted
on March 18, 2004.
Women Deserve More
Sheila Gibbons, Women's eNews
More magazine's content seems more geared to concealing the age of its forty-plus women readers than celebrating it.
Posted
on March 16, 2004.
Battling Dirty Politics
John McManus, AlterNet
The only antidote to toxic political advertising is responsible television news coverage.
Posted
on March 18, 2004.
Farewell to the Sixties
Bill Moyers, AlterNet
One of the most respected commentators on television explains why he is bidding his viewers goodbye.
Posted
on March 17, 2004.
Stern Warning
Bill Berkowitz, Arnie Passman, AlterNet
On the cusp of its 75th anniversary, morning radio faces some of its toughest challenges yet. What started out as an experiment with light-hearted goofiness has devolved into a world of powerful "shock jocks" and right wing demagogues.
Posted
on March 17, 2004.
Mixing Politics With Primetime
Greg Joseph, AlterNet
If fictional TV shows want to get political, they have the responsibility to at least get their facts straight.
Posted
on March 16, 2004.
Media Runs Hot for Kerry, Cold for Bush
Timothy Karr, MediaChannel.org
A new report shows that network news has overwhelmingly favored Kerry over Bush.
Posted
on March 11, 2004.
Box Office Bonanza
Nikki Finke, LA Weekly
For too long now, Hollywood moviemakers have been stumped on how to appeal to Latinos. Mel Gibson may have stumbled upon the winning combination.
Posted
on March 11, 2004.
Martha Stewart Unplugged
Rory O'Connor, MediaChannel.org
With its chief headed for jail, the Martha Stewart brand faces an identity crisis.
Posted
on March 9, 2004.
« Home All Stories »
|
|
The Media Mix
It's all in the mix.
The big yawn
Who knew that a bored twelve-year old could get both CNN and the White House into trouble with David Letterman. Here is how it went down, according to the Washington Post. Letterman airs a video clip of the young man "yawning uncontrollably, twisting his head from side to side, checking his watch and otherwise looking pretty thoroughly bored" during a speech by George Bush.
More »
April 1, 2004 @ 12:02PM
Air America draws fire
Air America makes its debut today on 5 radio stations across the country and on XM Satellite radio.
The problem with radio network here in New York, is that in order to get on the air, Air America knocked off the air one of the last remaining black talk radio stations: WLIB 1190-AM.
The New York Amsterdam News has been extremely critical of Air America's brand of white, liberal talk taking WLIB off the air, and has already written two in-depth columns about it, including this week's cover headline: "WLIB: Black After Dark. The nation's oldest black newspaper quotes community activist and radio host Bob Law saying: "We're angry that they think they can just turn WLIB into a white talk-station and then are arrogant enough to say that the issues they are talking about affect everybody. This is the Democrats. They believe that you don't really need a Black voice because their [white liberal] concerns are everybody's concerns." Law and other activists have planned a protest rally tomorrow outside of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church at 7pm. (Greg Joseph)
March 31, 2004 @ 1:59PM
Lies, what lies?
Matthew Yglesias over at the American Prospect identifies two reasons why the mainstream media has given the Bush administration a pass on its performance. One is "a prosecutorial mindset in the media, overly concerned with whether or not the narrow criteria for a lie have been met." Given such a strict, almost legalistic definition, the White House has been able to use omission, vague language, and contradictory rhetoric to get away with, well, lying.
The other reason is, of course, the overly deferent posture adopted by journalists in the wake of 9/11. Yglesias quotes New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller, who explains the unwillingness to ask tough questions in the lead up to the Iraq war as follows: "Think about it, you're standing up on primetime live TV asking the president of the United States a question when the country's about to go to war. There was a very serious, somber tone that evening, and no one wanted to get into an argument with the president at this very serious time."
March 30, 2004 @ 10:27AM
Onward, Christian journalists
Heard of the World Journalism Institute? WJI is making news in the blog world because of the close association of several prominent reporters to this faith-based organization, which aims to provide "a counter-thrust to the secular media" by training aspiring Biblically-minded journalists."
Reporters at top-notch newspapers who have taught at the WJI include L.A. Times feature writer Roy Rivenburg, now discredited USA Today reporter Jack Kelley, NPR's religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty, and David Cho of the Washington Post. Bloggers such as Atrios points to ways in which this Christian bias may have affected the reporting of these writers.
March 29, 2004 @ 12:31PM
Wal-Mart nixes 'Uncovered'
If you're looking to buy a copy of Robert Greenwald's superb documentary, "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War," don't go to your local Wal-Mart. Anderson Merchandising, the company that picks the movies that are sold in the retail chain, has told the distributor of the movie that the film is inappropriate for Wal-Mart.
The decision is a form of censorship because Wal-Mart is one of the largest outlets in terms of CD and DVD sales, and is often the only retail source in smaller communities. If you want to protest Wal-Mart's decision, you can either call the company headquarters at 1-479-273-4000 email them through the website. The address for snail mail is: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 702 S.W. 8th Street, Bentonville, AR 72716
March 26, 2004 @ 10:30AM
One 'bin Laden' wins you a book
Prove the Bush administration cared a whit for stopping terrorism and win a book. That's the challenge set by the Center for American Progress this morning. Condoleezza Rice, who didn't have the time or inclination to appear before the 9/11 commission in public, had plenty of time for Hannity and Colmes. She used the platform to respond to claims by her former employee, Richard Clarke, that despite many warnings and urgent demands for action, the administration did, in effect, nothing to reduce the chances of a terrorist attack.
More »
March 25, 2004 @ 11:54AM
Kelly peddled racism
Jack Kelly, the disgraced ex-reporter at USA Today, was not just unethical but a peddler par excellence of worst kind of racist stereotypes. As this Salon article (ad viewing required) makes clear, his fake sources included fanatical Jewish settlers swearing revenge on "sons of Arab whores" and bloodthirsty Islamic jihadis unfurling a photo of the Sears Tower, sneering, "This one is mine." In other words, Kelly was a star reporter precisely because he confirmed the pre-existing stereotypes in the minds of his editors and his readers. Worse, his faux reporting was then seized upon by various sides of the policy debate in Washington to advocate their positions.
More »
March 24, 2004 @ 10:30AM
Media downplays Yee's release
The decision to drop espionage charges against Capt. James Yee, an Army chaplain Guantánamo Bay, received little media coverage last week. L.A. Chung argues that it is typical of the media to give sensational coverage to accusations and arrests, but little or no attention to a person's exoneration. He cites the example of Time magazine, which in an Oct. 6 article declared Yee's arrest as typical of "a classic plotline of spy novels" in which "the secret agent turns out to be the bespectacled fellow next door,'' and that Yee "fit the prototype almost perfectly.'' Yee's release was in comparison deserved only a brief mention in the "Notebook" section in the Mar. 26 issue.
March 23, 2004 @ 2:16PM
CNN implicated in Medicare ads
Remember the Department of Health's video news release (VNR) that was packaged to look like a news segment? The PR packages touting the new Medicare laws were distributed to local television stations by none other than CNN. This excellent expose penned by Zachary Roth over at CampaignDesk.org reveals that the television network delivers VNRs as part of its CNN Newsource service, a type of wire service for TV stations. The problems with CNN's policies are as follows:
One, the news feed mixes PR and real news segments, which is why many TV stations aired the Medicare "segment" thinking it was a CNN-produced story. This potential for confusion is made worse by the fact that CNN makes money not only from the subscribers of its service but also from the distributors of the VNRs, creating a serious conflict of interest. In the words of Roth, CNN in effect acts "as a paid 'news launderer.'"
March 22, 2004 @ 10:54AM
A Mickey Mouse internet
With Comcast vying to buy out Disney, Salon's Farhad Manjoo (ad viewing required) paints a disturbing picture of what the consequences of such a merger might be for online users. Manjoo notes that Comcast already has a disturbing track record of unfairly restricting the rights of its subscribers, cutting off high-use customers and limiting traffic on Usenet, which is the oldest and most unregulated discussion forum. With the unlimited power available as the world's largest media company, it can only get worse. Dave Burstein, the editor of DSL Prime, an influential broadband industry newsletter says, "Comcast will have incredible incentive to keep content that's not from Disney away from the consumer."
March 19, 2004 @ 8:50AM
The Mix Archives
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
|
