Broken news Take a deep breath - feel like you're chokin'?Everything is broken. - Bob Dylan Know the feeling? Even the news, once breaking, is now just broken. That's not to say there's been an interruption to the datastream. We're informed, whatever that means. Here are three stories you probably know, which deserve deep analysis, but which will likely be buried by next week's calamities and outrages: The latest episode of That's My Guckert! The revelation that Neil Bush co-founded a Swiss-based ecumenical foundation with then-Cardinal Ratzinger in 1999. Sibel Edmonds' implication that "laundered drug money linked to the 911 attacks found its way into recent House, Senate and Presidential campaign war-chests," and "not a single newspaper" is covering her appeal in federal court. When everything is broken, it's hard to know where to start; which pieces to pick up first.
To Draw Reluctant Young Buyers, G.M. Turns to MTV Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times Ross Martin, left, of Viacom's creative strategy unit, is working with General Motors to help revive interest in cars among young consumers. Mr. But on a chilly afternoon here last month he managed to attract a few odd looks as he walked across the 24th floor of ’ global headquarters. He and his team are trying to help General Motors solve one of the most vexing problems facing the car industry: many young consumers today just do not care that much about cars. That is a major shift from the days when the car stood at the center of youth culture and wheels served as the ultimate gateway to freedom and independence. “They think of a car as a giant bummer,” said Mr. There is data to support Mr. Forty-six percent of drivers aged 18 to 24 said they would choose Internet access over owning a car, according to the research firm Gartner. Cars are still essential to drivers of all ages, and car cultures still endure in swaths of suburban and rural areas.
NYT's Anonymous Drone Defenders There is a big piece in the New York Times today (3/19/12) on the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. And, as has been the case before, the U.S. perspective comes via anonymous government officials: A senior American official in Washington said that the CIA had consistently taken precautions to reduce the risk to civilians, and noted that some strikes had killed Pakistan's insurgent enemies, too. "These efforts have been extremely precise and effective," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the program's covert status. And later readers get this: "The overriding concern is to avoid collateral damage," another senior United States official said. What's remarkable about an article like this–written by Declan Walsh, Eric Schmitt and Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud–is that it will discuss the record of U.S. officials making wildly inaccurate claims about the drone program, but nonetheless print official assurances about the program's effectiveness:
Bill Keller Remembers the Downing Street Memos (Sort Of) Bill Keller's New York Times column (3/19/12) begins with what might be a bit of self-deprecation: "When you've been wrong about something as important as war, as I have…." You might take that as a cue to stop reading right there. But Keller's point is that people should think long and hard about signing on to the latest calls for war. He writes: Sometimes our leaders start with the answers and work backward, fixing the facts to the policy, as the head of Britain's MI6 said of the Potemkin intelligence used to sell the invasion of Iraq. As the link (in the original online text) indicates, that's a reference to the famous Downing Street memos–the notes on a 2002 British government meeting about the U.S drive for war with Iraq, where British officials discuss the U.S. government's apparent desire to invade Iraq with whatever pretext they figured might work.
Our One Percent Media From Politico (3/20/12): David Gregory, host of NBC's Meet the Press, and Bret Baier, host of Fox News's Special Report, are among the latest applicants to the Chevy Chase Club, the historic social club that has catered to Washington's wealthiest for over a century.The Club's recent "Membership Report" shows that both Gregory and Baier are up for consideration as "newly proposed candidates for membership." Gregory is being sponsored by Joseph Stettinius and William M. The Chevy Chase Club would not disclose the cost of admission, but a member told me that the initiation fee is $80,000 and that members pay $6,000 in annual dues. The piece adds: The Chevy Chase Club was founded in 1892. Something to keep in mind next you hear the likes of David Gregory talking about the need for "shared sacrifice" or "hard choices," or for cutting Social Security.
Wanted (by NYT): One Woman to Represent All Feminists Over the weekend, the New York Times (3/18/12) published an article pondering why no one has taken Gloria Steinem's place as ubiquitous spokesperson for women's rights: Over the last 40 years, Gloria Steinem has almost always been at the other end of the phone when some member of the news media has sought comment about a pressing issue involving women's rights…. And that raises a question well worth asking in 2012: Where is the next Gloria Steinem, and why–decades after the media spotlight first focused on her–has no one emerged to take her place? But is it well worth asking? Why would anyone (besides lazy journalists) want there to be just one (white, straight, white-collar) woman speaking to the media about all things woman-related? As for whether there should be another Gloria Steinem, she replied, "I don't think there should have been a first one." Yet none of this diverts the Times from its premise, or keep it from including sentences like this:
Hoodies don't kill - Trayvon Martin You’d better hope Geraldo Rivera never ventures into an Old Navy. He’s going to freak out. In a wildly absurd, calculatedly provocative post on Fox News Latino, Rivera declared Friday that Trayvon Martin’s hoodie killed him “as surely as George Zimmerman did.” When the 17-year-old Florida resident died a month ago, was he wearing a lethal hoodie, one packed with explosives or poisons? The subsequent grief and rage over the death of a young man at the hands of an eager, 9mm-brandishing neighbor — and the shooter’s continued freedom from arrest – has sparked international outrage and an impromptu “million hoodie march.” Rivera, as the parent of a teen, calls this a “teachable moment.” We all have to take responsibility for the way we present ourselves to the outside world, and the way that image will be received – received, even, by dangerous, aggressive people. But he doesn’t consider the nuances of a person’s gait or the time, whether the individual is alone or in a group. Update:
Matt Ortega: the man behind Mitt Romney memes - Mitt Romney What began as an unintentionally revealing analogy at 8:09 a.m. Wednesday needed just six hours to become a full-blown meme. It started with Eric Fehrnstrom on CNN, deadly serious as he explained that his boss Mitt Romney’s campaign was like an Etch A Sketch that could be shaken and reset for the general election. Within hours there were spoof videos, pictures and several competing Twitter hashtags trending worldwide. By 2:14 p.m., the Etch A Sketch had reached what is perhaps the apotheosis of Internet meme-dom: a microsite, EtchASketchMittRomney.com. The site displays two contradictory Romney quotes every time you “shake” it. “Inevitable,” several prominent journalists tweeted when the site appeared, already steeped in Etch A Sketch riffs for several hours. In the case of EtchASketchMittRomney.com that somebody was Matt Ortega, a liberal consultant and activist. Ortega’s sites weren’t always political, and neither was he. That hasn’t stopped some political pundits from attacking it.
14 Propaganda Techniques Fox &News& Uses to Brainwash Americans | Truthout - StumbleUpon There is nothing more sacred to the maintenance of democracy than a free press. Access to comprehensive, accurate and quality information is essential to the manifestation of Socratic citizenship - the society characterized by a civically engaged, well-informed and socially invested populace. Thus, to the degree that access to quality information is willfully or unintentionally obstructed, democracy itself is degraded. It is ironic that in the era of 24-hour cable news networks and "reality" programming, the news-to-fluff ratio and overall veracity of information has declined precipitously. My curiosity about this question compelled me to sit down and document the most oft-used methods by which willful ignorance has been turned into dogma by Fox News and other propagandists disguised as media. The good news is that the more conscious you are of these techniques, the less likely they are to work on you. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. One final observation.
From MindWar to FoxNews FoxNews hasn't landed in Canada just yet - the CRTC only recently approved adding its channel to digital cable - so I was spared being scared recently by Fox military analyst, Retired General Paul Vallely. He told Fox house "liberal" Alan Colmes that "we are not going to permit" a Shia majority victory in the forthcoming theatre of a "free" election in Iraq. Worse, he said "Iran and Syria are next. It's easy to do.... Israel is (already) prepared to take Iran down." Colmes, according to Newshounds, followed up by asking whether he thought a Judeo/Christian holy war against Muslims was such a great idea. Who is Paul Vallely, and why is he saying these things? Vallely is co-author of another work that deserves mention. From PSYOP to Mindwar: The Psychology of Victory is a military paper on psychological warfare, written by Col. And who is Aquino? Aquino has said that "assorted cranks tried to make a public issue out of this paper just because of its catchy title.... Some excerpts: