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Posts tagged as “Media”

Mandrake the Congressman

These days American government is all just a magician’s show, nothing but slight of hand and misdirection.

That’s only to be expected. For years Congress, the Presidency, Wall Street and about everyone else who holds the real keys to ownership in this country has been maintaining the illusion that you and I, who have nothing but a borrowed pot to piss in, are actually the owners of this great land and that the government works for us.

Fear and Loathing at the ‘Jamestown News’

You can’t fire Ogi Overman. What’re ya, nuts?

If you’ve got a community driven newspaper anywhere in the Triad, especially in Jamestown or anywhere else in Guilford County, firing Ogi makes about as much sense as having Disneyland in your portfolio and firing Mickey. Or owning NBC and firing the Peacock. Or being England and giving the Queen her walking papers.

Facebook Bans Historical Hippie Artifact

Zuck the suck has a lot to learn about being cool and hip.

This week Mr. Social proved that neither he nor his little Facebook site have an inkling of hippness away from the Starbuck’s universe, when they decided a historical photograph from counter cultural Toronto, taken in the late 60s or early 70s, was nothing but unacceptable nudity, or worse, porno.

Then again, I could be wrong. This could merely be a case of a computer algorithm with penis envy.

Thievery Corporation’s Eric Hilton on “Illegal Downloading”

One of the hallmarks of the ’60s’ and early ’70s’ revolution was summed up by The Who’s finale on the 1971 Who’s Next album, “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” which ends with the all too prophetic words, “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.”

httpv://youtu.be/9fHFM9UhsKI

Recently, when being interviewed by Max Keiser on the RT network’s Keiser Report TV show, Eric Hilton of the Washington, D.C. based band Thievery Corporation used the words to describe the current situation musicians face, now that the music biz jungle has moved from a shrink wrapped buy-it-in-a-store product to the more abstract and ephemeral digital download.

And the winner is Michelle Obama?

Guest Column


Hollywood and politicians have made strange bedfellows from back in the days of Charlie Chaplin whose independence sealed a lifetime beyond the cherished reels and busy work of the war lords consigning him to distant shores until the final redemptive days. You are either with us or against never upon us.

Lord Louis B. Mayer gave the Republican Party a say in the 1920s in building a solid propaganda machine. Edward G. Robinson fought Nazi’s–Ronald Reagan and George Murphy darlings of the high flying right served as presidents of the Screen Actors Guild. Depending on which side of the aisle you inhabited, politics of the day influenced the type of movies being made. We went from gun toting Vietnamese slayer John Wayne in The Green Berets to Jane Fonda’s Oscar win in the anti-war Coming Home.

The Ad Exxon Doesn’t Want You To See

We found this ad posted on Other98. It’s an interesting pull-no-punches ad, evidently crowdfunded and scheduled to be aired nationwide this past Tuesday night until it was pulled–according to Other98:

The following 30-second climate change ad has already aired in three major media markets across the United States, to great acclaim as the first nationally crowdfunded climate change PSA. It was scheduled to play during Fox’s State of the Union coverage this past Tuesday. Then Exxon sent a single email, and it was unilaterally taken off the air. Here’s the ad you weren’t allowed to see:

httpv://youtu.be/uXV6FW9Vg0I

Our Truths Should Be True

These days, Facebook is where a lot of us do our politicking. Like most soap boxes, we do a lot of preaching to the choir there, but that’s okay for reinforcement is a good thing. What we’re hoping for, of course, is that our arguments, expressed in the cute little graphics we “like” and “share,” will be so brilliant that we’ll bring some fence-sitters over to our way of thinking or, better yet, help some certified tea baggers see the error of their ways.

The trouble is, we’re not going to win anyone over if what we post merely sounds good but upon examination doesn’t represent truth. If it’s not truth, it’s a lie.

Assange on the Run: Going Nowhere for Now

Julian Assange
Julian Assange at New Media Days 09 in Copenhagen. Courtesy New Media Days
Assange now has help, but seemingly not enough.

He’s surrounded by hostile Brits and a government threatening to storm the Ecuadoran embassy where he’s holed up. Ecuador’s government has granted him political asylum and is calling the Brits’ bluff, pointedly reminding them they’re not a colony and haven’t been for quite a long time.

If he does manage to escape and get his feet safely planted on Ecuadoran soil, he has a good chance of being able to eventually return home to Australia, where he has a strong support base.

For now, the Brits are unlikely to follow through on their threatened raid; that would set a dangerous precident. Ernest A. Canning, writing as a guest on The Brad Blog, explained the danger the threat exposes:

Kim Dotcom – ‘Dr. No’ Meets ‘Mars Attacks’

When the feds enlisted the help of New Zealand authorities to arrest Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, I figured there was evidence. I’d forgotten that this is the new USA, where the concept that proof is vital in criminal proceedings seems to have died long ago. This is a fact the New Zealand courts are now realizing, as they delve into the matter of their police’s involvement in the fiasco.

They’re also discovering that New Zealand law enforcement was acting on information that could come out of any cold war spy movie from the sixties. Our feds thought Dotcom had a suicide device, a way to instantly destroy the evidence and escape their justice. New Zealand Herald‘s David Fisher quotes testamony from Detective Inspector Grant Wormald, in charge of the New Zealand raid on Dotcom’s home:

Coaching Mitt

Editor’s note: How about a little political satire. Here’s a send up of the planning session to prepare the Mittmeister for his little visit to…

If This Be Treason is an AlternativeApproaches Media website.