Category Archives: books, periodicals, TV, radio, etc.

Neal Gabler, How the Media Overthrew Party Politics. “No matter how this presidential election turns out, it is crystal clear we are in the midst of a political revolution — and the media are a primary reason why. Never before has there been a major-party candidate created almost wholly by the media, full-blown and virtually outside the boundaries of the traditional parties’ apparatuses, …It is no coincidence, I think, that Trump arose from reality TV and its forebears, print and television gossip, and that he has strode onto the political scene as a gremlin, basically wrecking traditional politics the way reality shows for a time attempted to wreck traditional shows. Television, especially, likes him. Networks like that he is a loose cannon, which is the very best sort of weaponry for an entertainment based on outrageousness. Whereas every other candidate is more or less predictable, Trump is wholly unpredictable….It is no coincidence, I think, that Trump arose from reality TV and its forebears, print and television gossip, and that he has strode onto the political scene as a gremlin, basically wrecking traditional politics the way reality shows for a time attempted to wreck traditional shows. Television, especially, likes him. Networks like that he is a loose cannon, which is the very best sort of weaponry for an entertainment based on outrageousness. Whereas every other candidate is more or less predictable, Trump is wholly unpredictable..” read

What Does Freedom of the Press Mean Anyway? The Fortuitous Timing of “All Governments Lie” read

Claire Bernish,, WikiLeaks List Exposes At Least 65 Corporate ‘Presstitutes’ Who Colluded to Hide Clinton’s Crimes. read

Joe Concha, Unpopular media sees ratings spike read

Jury Awards $3 Million In Damages Over Rolling Stone Rape Story read

Steve Ballmer Says Smartphones Strained His Relationship With Bill Gates read

Samantha Cooney, PETA Actually Compared Rape Victims to Meat Products read

Russ Martens and Pam Martens, The New York Times Has a Fatal Wall Street Bias [about William Cohan] read

What Does Freedom of the Press Mean Anyway? The Fortuitous Timing of “All Governments Lie” read

Jeffrey Butler and Luigi Guiso, Whom to Trust: Why We Persistently Get It Wrong read

Farhad Manjoo, How the Internet Is Loosening Our Grip on the Truth read

Simone Natale, The myth of the disappearing book “Yet the myth of the disappearing medium will continue to provide an appealing narrative about both the transformative power of technology and our aversion to change. In fact, one of the strategies we employ in order to make sense of change is the use of narrative patterns that are available and familiar, such as narratives of death and ending. Easy to remember and to spread, the story of the death of media reflects our excitement for the future, as well as our fear of losing parts of our intimate world – and finally, of ourselves.” read

Neal Gabler, How the Media Overthrew Party Politics. “No matter how this presidential election turns out, it is crystal clear we are in the midst of a political revolution — and the media are a primary reason why. Never before has there been a major-party candidate created almost wholly by the media, full-blown and virtually outside the boundaries of the traditional parties’ apparatuses, …It is no coincidence, I think, that Trump arose from reality TV and its forebears, print and television gossip, and that he has strode onto the political scene as a gremlin, basically wrecking traditional politics the way reality shows for a time attempted to wreck traditional shows. Television, especially, likes him. Networks like that he is a loose cannon, which is the very best sort of weaponry for an entertainment based on outrageousness. Whereas every other candidate is more or less predictable, Trump is wholly unpredictable….It is no coincidence, I think, that Trump arose from reality TV and its forebears, print and television gossip, and that he has strode onto the political scene as a gremlin, basically wrecking traditional politics the way reality shows for a time attempted to wreck traditional shows. Television, especially, likes him. Networks like that he is a loose cannon, which is the very best sort of weaponry for an entertainment based on outrageousness. Whereas every other candidate is more or less predictable, Trump is wholly unpredictable..” read

The Real New Network (TRNN, Baltimore) has a large archive. For instance, “Reality Asserts Itself” interviewer Paul Jay with Chris Hedges on rebels and revolutionaries, starting with Tom Paine (23 min). watch The archive of shows is now 277, with often-multiple interviews with Phyllis Bennis, Robert Scheer, Lawrence Wilkerson, John Kiriakou, Max Blumenthal, Normal Finkelstein, Robert Wolff, Don Swanson, watch

Casey Coates Danson, Glenn Greenwald: Regardless of Trump, Journalists Must Do Their Homework and Investigate Clinton. read

Jane Singer on the end of Gawker. “So while Gawker’s fate is indeed chilling for advocates of press freedom in general, it is even more chilling for those rooting for journalistic start-ups to succeed.” read

Ryan Holiday on the Gawker-Breitbart style of journalism. “No, the void that Gawker filled in our media system was not one of independent journalism but of recklessness, immaturity and self-assured superiority. As the Columbia Journalism Review explained in late 2014, “it’s no secret that Gawker is the bully of the internet. It regularly takes down “weaker” competitors — the textbook definition of bullying. In the high school hallway that is the New York media scene, Gawker Media is the Biff Tannen-type, shoving whoever they want into a locker.” “ read

Chris, To Survive Psychopathic Leadership, Propaganda Must be Exposed and Debunked. read

John Pilger on Western journalism: “Provoking Nuclear War by Media/ Obeisance to the United States and its collaborators as a benign force “bringing good” runs deep in western establishment journalism.” read

George Friedersdorf: Slightly more than 100 exceptional works of journalism. read

Robert Parry on duplicitous MSM. read

Paul Craig Roberts on Aleppo. All should read after watching the viral video of the bombed boy. read

Katie Kilkenny defends Tina Fey’s satire of Sarah Palin’(on SNL) against Malcolm Gladwell’s charge of “toothless.”. read

Matt Taibbi on the state of our media. “Apart from a few brave islands of resistance, virtually all the major news organizations are now fully in the tank for one side or the other…..These all-Trump, all-the-time story lineups are like Fox in reverse.…Media power comes from trust and respect, and both are eroded quickly if you only ever give people what they want to hear.…The public hates us reporters in the best of times, when we’re doing our jobs correctly, merely being conniving, prying little busybodies forever getting up into peoples’ business.” read

Robert Parry: America’s Journalistic Hypocrites. “The U.S. news media acts as if it is the unquestionable right of the U.S. government to intervene in the internal affairs of countries all over the world – whether through subversion or military invasion – but the U.S. media then gets outraged if anyone dares to resist Washington’s edicts or tries to behave in any way similar to how the U.S. government does.” read

Thom Hartmann on corporatized “news.” read

Gareth Porter on how news on Syria has been rigged tp support neocaon position on regime change. read

Morning Reads created by John Light and Michael Winship. read

The Anti-Media site. watch

Chris Hedges new site On Contact. watch

Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens and Ranj Alaaldin on Kurds of ISIS. Kurd’s dad an earlier group of jihadists against Baathists. read

Sanders calls for new Brazl election. read

Fed court ruling supports Telecom giants against municipal broadband. read

Pam Martens and Russ Martens: Bloomberg’s “praetorian guard” has moved to Bloomberg News. read

Matt Agorist on polarized info sources, “f you are one of those people who sees Washington DC as the Don King boxing match that it is, then you are doing something right. You are likely a reader of the alternative media, you probably don’t watch massive amounts of television, and you likely have a thirst for a lesser ignorance.” read

Alex Gibney on Julian Assange’s “biases.” “For many of those who know him well, Mr. Assange is afflicted by what the police call “noble cause corruption,” a belief that noble ends justify reckless or immoral means. In a world awash in new information — and misinformation — context, motivation and trust are crucial when weighing the importance of leaks and their accuracy. Mr. Assange still claims that WikiLeaks is a beacon of transparency. We should no longer take him at his word.” . read

Glenn Greenwald: Elite media failing to reach trump voters — and failing journalist values. read

Center for Media and Democracy. read

Thomas Knapp: Snowden and the media. read

Lizzie Crocker on NY Post “Why Aren’t Feminists Up in Arms About the Slut-Shaming of Nude Melania Trump?” read

Deb Freedman and Justin Schlosberg: British media misrepresent Corbyn. read

PM Press and National Lawyers Guild. read

Paul Jay, Senior ditor of TRNN, on the meaning of “real.” watch

Frontline story on how media helped Trump and hurt Sanders. read

Chris Bowers and Matt Kerbel: Netroots and partisan realignment. read

Michel Chossudovsky on the failed coup against Erdogan. read

Paul Jay on name for TRNN. watch

Luke Mullins on the breakup of Politico. read

Paul Buchheit’s You Deserve the Facts. read

John Naughton on the ways that Facebook is narrowing news to friends and families. read

James Risen and Abby Martin on fighting censorship and andless war (26 min). watch

How Pokemon Go “took over the world.” read

Neil Gabler on how the media created Trump. “What’s new is the how. Trump has arisen not only outside the old political system; he has arisen from a competing mechanism to politics: the media.” read

Sarah van Glder on 5 ways media cold get real. read

Matt Taibbi on “the dangers of democracy. “In a scandal that should get more media play, Democrats and Republicans have divvied up territory to make most House districts “safe” for one party or another. Only about 10 to 20 percent of races are really contested in any given year (one estimate in 2014 described an incredible 408 of the 435 races as “noncompetitive”). He rejects Jonathan Rauch’s analysis, concluding ….Trump is going to lose this election, then live on as the reason for an emboldened, even less-responsive oligarchy. And you thought this election season couldn’t get any worse.” read.

Morning Reads, new aggregator from Moyers & Company. read