Posts Tagged ‘media’

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Drive-By Politics

Friday, April 5th, 2013

This week the US passed an emergency bill to avert the looming threat of sequestration. Tucked away in the 500+ page bill were several last-minute additions, one which dealt a pre-emptive strike against anti-gun legislation,  the other – dubbed the Monsanto bill – worked to limit restrictions on GMOs. These secretive laws were penned anonymously from behind closed doors unbeknownst to most of the senators who signed the bill into law.

A handful of politicians/corporate shills sneaking through undesirable laws, hidden by the fog of an urgent bill which was only made into an emergency by the institutionalized ineptitude known as the US political system.

Here in Canada, we face a similar tact by the conservative party. They take all their new laws and roll them up into a giant turd called an omnibus bill. By slow-feeding the media key talking points and ensuring all their party is on board, they get this growing ball rolling, gaining momentum up to the point when the deadline nears. Then, even though people will point out the many pieces of crap legislation being passed through without due discussion, the whole thing is moving with such inertia that no one is able to stop it lest they be covered in shit.

It’s ridiculous. This isn’t democracy. At least not as good as democracy can get. In the age of the Internet and social media, governance could be so much more than it is today. We could have way more transparency. Way more accountability.

The sad part is, every time government makes some baloney move that chips away at our individual freedoms and it goes by without an uproar from we the public, they gain power while we lose it.

And our silence is all the consent they need.

 

 

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Occupy Democracy

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

Former VP Al Gore and online entrepreneur Sean Parker spoke this week at the SXSW conference in a riveting tete-a-tete which left the audience clamoring for more.

“Our democracy has been hacked!” says Gore, comparing the special interests in the political spectrum to malicious users in the cyber-realm.

It is time, Gore believes, to form a “Wiki-democracy” of “digital flash mobs calling out the truth” and “a government square that holds people accountable.” And the best way to do that is to leverage the online realm and social media in ways that will “change the democratic conversation.” (more…)

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Islamophobia Machine Uncovered

Saturday, August 27th, 2011

A $40M, 10 year campaign designed to promote fear of Islam and Muslims – coordinated by interconnected foundations, think tanks, pundits, and bloggers – has been uncovered by the Center for American Progress (CAP).

The 140-page CAP report, “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” identifies seven foundations that have quietly provided the multi-million dollar funding needed to spearhead the nationwide effort from 2001 to 2009.

The anti-Islam propaganda party includes what the report calls “misinformation experts” who are often tapped by television news networks and right-wing radio talk shows to comment on Islam and the threat it allegedly poses to U.S. national security.

“Together, this core group of deeply intertwined individuals and organizations manufacture and exaggerate threats of ‘creeping Sharia’, Islamic domination of the West, and purported obligatory calls to violence against all non-Muslims by the Quran,” according to the report.

Once these ‘experts’ get their hate speech out there, it gets reverberated in the “Islamophobia echo chamber” consisting of leaders of the Christian Right, Republican politicians, and FOX news.

Judging by recent polls, the Muslim bashing network has proved remarkably successful, according to the report which cited a 2010 Washington Post poll that shows 49 percent of U.S. citizens held an unfavorable view of Islam, up ten percent since 2002.

So what’s the lesson here? Well, for one, it demonstrates how, for a modest sum and with a coordinated effort, one can significantly alter public opinion and media messaging.

More importantly, this report shows us the importance of getting our information from a wide range of sources. If we trust just one source for all our news, we could very easily fall victim to brainwashing.

But, if we take the time to diversify our news gathering – relying on Internet news, foreign sources, and a multitude of ideological perspectives – we will be immunizing ourselves against the power of special interests, ensuring that we have the most accurate to perception of reality.

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Crowdsourcing Helps Form Iceland’s Consitution

Friday, August 19th, 2011

What do you get when you cross 25 regular Icelanders with hundreds of Internet users? Iceland’s new constitution!

After the island nation’s economic collapse in 2008, Iceland has seen a strong upsurge of social movements, many of which have called for a revamp of the aging constitution. But not just any rewrite will do – the process needs to be led by ordinary citizens – so that is exactly what they’ve been doing.

Iceland’s small population of 320,000 elected 25 assembly members from 522 ordinary candidates (including lawyers, political science professors, journalists, and many other professions), who in turn opened their process up to the public in an unprecedented fashion.

It’s amazing to see such a completely transparent process. Online users can easily follow early revisions of the constitution and instantly offer their feedback. So far, more than 1,600 propositions and comments have been received, all of which are given due consideration by the 25 Constitution drafters.

Good on them! Iceland is showing the world the power we’ve been unleashing with our emergent technology. It is only a matter of time until transparency and democracy aren’t just niceties to be optional from governance – they will actually be expected and demanded from all the world’s leaders.

Plus now the Icelandic people have a legitimate excuse to Tweet and Facebook all day – because they are trying to be founding fathers!

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After the Riots: The Real Power of Social Media

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Some of the delinquents responsible for looting and torching parts of London have relied on social media to mobilize their misdeeds. Others are just using instant messages to brag about injuring police officers.

This isn’t the first time Twitter has been used for crime. Kids in Philadelphia have been the popular texting tool to coordinate violent mobs that attack random people.

But social media can be used for construction just as easily as for destruction.

British citizens, outraged by the looting and ashamed of the chaos, organized a clean-up session using Facebook and Twitter. The streets were filled with peaceful protesters, demonstrating against the rioters.

The clean-up initiative follows on the heels of another populist movement being coordinated online – Operation Cup of Tea. The idea is to take a stand against the riots by quietly enjoying a spot of Tea. Over 200,000 people got involved.

So here we see the real power of social media. Twitter, Facebook, and the like – they are all bringing us together and helping us to see how much in common we all have. Perhaps more importantly, the Internet shows us just how many people feel the same way we do.

Now imagine what will be possible when, instead of only hundreds of thousands of united people, there’s hundreds of millions, all acting simultaneously to effect positive change on the world.

With that kind of power, incredible things will be entirely possible! Even building a lasting peace on earth.

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Distraction Politics

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

I was planning to write another piece about how Democrats and Republicans both toe the same line for many key issues, be it armed conflict, pro-corporatist legislation, or a widening of the gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

The post would have highlighted how comparatively trivial issues, like same-sex marriage, illegal immigration, or Anthony Weiner’s penis, dominate the political sphere while actually significantly issues, like reforming Wall St. or slashing defense spending, remain mostly untouched by both politicians and the mainstream media alike.

But rather than write this piece, which I’m sure would have been timely and eloquent, I found the following picture which sums up what I’m trying to say quite nicely. So we’ll go with that instead:

 

 

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Our News and Theirs

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Professor Juan Cole put out another of his intriguing pieces over on Informed Comment. This one outlines key differences between the mainstream media in the western world and that of the middle east.

Cole starts by describing the sad state of affairs in the US:

Americans live in a late capitalist society where the rich have gotten many times richer and the middle class has gotten poorer, where Wall Street bankers have stolen us blind and blamed us for living above our means, where persistent unemployment is worse than in the Great Depression, where most politicians and some judges have been bought by corporations or special interests, where authorities actively conspire to keep people from voting, where the government spies on citizens assiduously without warrant or probable cause, and where the minds of the sheep are kept off their fleecing by substituting celebrity gossip, sex scandals, and half-disguised bigotry for genuine news.

Professor Cole goes on to compare which stories dominate the headlines:

Our news is about Sarah Palin not knowing fifth grade American history. Their news is about killing 5 US soldiers in Iraq with rocket fire.

Our news is about a rich old French banker charged with assaulting a poor young Muslim maid in a New York hotel. Their news is about armed rebels setting an ambush and killing 120 members of the Syrian security forces.

Our news is about a six-term US congressman from New York who has been sexting. Their news is that Yemen is on a knife edge, with civil war looming.

Our news is about an American politician accused of misusing campaign contributions to hide his mistress. Their news is that Free Libya forces have used light arms and sheer guts to fight off Qaddafi’s tanks.

Cole does an excellent job detailing the striking differences between the Western and Arab worlds, but his work ends there. Never does he mention the mechanism behind the madness, detailing the way nonsense stories are used to intentionally to keep the majority of the Western population distracted and misinformed.

Still, it’s a well documented article worth exploring.

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Weiner, Anthony Weiner

Monday, June 6th, 2011

So he DID send some lewd photos at one point! Wow. During the many interviews about the infamous crotch-shot, Weiner alluded to having taken risque photos in the past.

Perfect. Just perfect. This Weiner story should serve as an excellent distraction from the real important stuff, like:

  • open-ended wars in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan
  • the global repercussions of an imploding US economy
  • a widening gap between the uber-rich and the rest of us

Great to see mainstream journalism doing what it does best: creating a smokescreen to keep the majority of the population from really seeing what is going on.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m being sarcastic. It isn’t good for people to be misinformed or uninformed, since democracy depends upon an well informed public.

Fortunately, an awakening is taking place. The mainstream media is fast losing it’s grip over the minds of humankind. The world and it’s people are coming alive like never before.

Oh, btw, most of what Anthony Weiner has said or done gets my support.

 

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Change the Media, Change the World

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

If you are in or around the Boston area, be sure to check out the National Conference for Media Reform’s 2011. Registration closes this Friday, for what is sure to be a stimulating event. Prominent speakers include Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, House Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Craiglists’ Craig Newmark.

An informed public is a crucial part of a functioning democracy. The mainstream media, as the predominant source for all of our new information, should be considered a vital resource for our well-being, and the integrity of this resource needs to be ensured.

Movement’s like those of the NCMR face an uphill battle against powerful corporations and influential lobbyists. But as awareness of the importance of a free press grows, so too will the support needed to reform the media.

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Charlie Sheen: Distraction of the Day

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

(idk… kinda looks like a trend)

Sure, a lot of people enjoy rubbernecking a celebrity train wreck as it happens, but why has there so much Sheen-noise being made as of late? Probably because there’s nothing like a sex-crazed maniac, high on tigerblood, to keep the public distracted from actual news-worthy events.

Every day, more soldiers and civilians are dying in expensive wars for which public support has all but evaporated.

Revolutions have sprouted all over the Middle East, with freedom fighters showing the world how to demand democracy from the system.

Perhaps most important to the American population are the huge uprisings which started in Wisconsin and have spread to cities around the United States.

This is why the mainstream media focuses on Sheen and whatever other nonsense they can find. Because if they were to really report on the important issues, the social consciousness might become overwhelmed by an epidemic of revolutionary spirit.

And this is exactly what the powers that be fear the most – an engaged and empowered civilian population fighting for their rights.

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