Nural writes about media madness:
“FYI if not already seen.”
http://a1022.g.akamai.net/f/1022/8158/5m/images.latimes.com/media/cartoon/2005-03/16759780.jpg

DEATH WITH DIGNITY

Da’oud Mohammed writes from Oregon:

“That story re CBS involved in the Kennedy Assassination Cover Up has echoed in my ears all day long. Astounding. I wonder if I’ll ever read a link to it from any site besides yours?

Since the weekend, we’ve been carrying on a thoughtful discussion of the Terri Schiavo life/death struggle, from an Oregonian perspective. Check it out.

“We must keep religious hypocrisy, and Florida law the hell out of it. Everything personal is between the individual and God Alone. Government has no business in our personal lives no matter what.

Oregon’s Death With Dignity laws aren’t about what goes on between the individual and what an individual or a community believes the “Return to God” (religion) is; going about the life and death journey.

Those laws are on the books to keep the government and the “community” out of the hospice, out of the bedroom, and out of abortion clinics too.

Let’s keep it that way. Let us rise up against those religious fanatics and hypocrite politicians, and with one voice shouting: “Shut the @#$% up!” and “Leave us alone!” Is that so difficult for the United States government and people with too much time on their hands to understand?

ON “WILL TRUTH RISE AGAIN?” (Mediachannel.org)

Randy Boehem writes:

“Thank you for writing “Will the truth rise again.

“It is to be hoped that the truth will rise again. What will rise first is a respect and hunger for the truth, a longing for it, a will for it regardless of whether it suits us or we are comfortable with it. A recognition of how precious truth is, how needed if we hope to manage and to solve the many intractible problems around us, of how blinded we are by the mendacity, deceit, and distortion mostly made possible by our own apathy and selfishness. An awareness will arise that Truth is a birthright to becarefully passed to our children as best we can.

“Before the truth will successfully rise again a soberunderstanding will rise of how easy it is to misjudge whatthe truth is, for there is little that will sink truthfaster than dogmatism in the name of truth once truthbecomes a matter of faith. We are silly if we expect truth to arise without this understanding.

David Meltzer: “I really miss the more direct & less busy Danny Schechter site. It was easier to read. But, nevertheless, grateful to all in the fury of information warfare.”

RED LAKE V COLUMBINE

Eric Black of the Minneapolis Star Tribune quotes me in a story assessing coverage of the tragic killing on the Native American reservation at Red Lake. (The Son of a tribal chief was arrested there this morning but the reasons were not reported on CNN.)

“Former TV news producer Danny Schechter, now of a media think tank called Globalvision, said that when he worked for a TV newsmagazine he met resistance when he suggested stories about Indians. (NOTE: Globalvision is a media company. I was referring to my days at ABC’s 20/20.)

“Network higher-ups complained that Indians “speak too slowly, don’t express themselves in sound bites,” and are culturally too different to connect emotionally with typical TV viewers, Schechter said.

“He believes this attitude contributed to downplaying Red Lake. By comparison, he said, (Columbine HS at) Littleton “is full of what we call PLUs: People Like Us.”

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5313851.html

VIVA MAZISI KUNENE

Mazisi Kunene, a South African poet forced into exile for many years where he opposed apartheid and taught African studies at UCLA was named his country’ poet laureate” earlier this month. The honors were conveyed by Media Channel advisor and Minister of Culture Z Pallo Jordan who said in part:

“The poet whom we are honoring tonight, has drunk very deeply from the wells of Africa’s classical pre-colonial civilizations. He is one among a generation of African writers, poets and scholars who came into their own during the darkest period in this country’s history.

“After completing a master’s degree in African Studies at the then University of Natal, Mazisi Raymond Kunene went into exile as an activist of the African National Congress…

“Mazisi Kunene went into exile firmly grounded in the poetic traditions of the Nguni and Sotho speakers of Southern Africa. It was this rootedness in the rich traditions of this region that enabled him to relate not only to the traditions of other regions of the continent, but also to the bardic traditions from other parts of the world.

“His inspiration came from the classical orature of Southern Africa, i.e. the oral traditions of the first inhabitants of this part of the continent transmitted by word of mouth from one generation to the next. These traditions embrace the performance of tales, the performance of epic poetry, the performance of historical tales, the performance of odes and the pronouncement of riddles, proverbs and idioms

”It is not enough for the poet to compose his poem; he is also expected to perform his poem. He uses every part of his body, jumps, waves his hands, runs in rhythmic patterns and indeed re-enacts the contents of the poem. The audience itself responds with appropriate symbolic sounds.” (Sechaba, Vol. II, No.7, July 1968)

“We thank Mazisi Raymond Kunene for nurturing our hopes with his poetry. With the South African National Laureate Prize we hope to encourage aspirant poets and to nurture new talents.”

Here’s a snatch of one of Mazisi’s poems:

…When the sun transforms itself into the image of the earth
We will know the truth of appearing, drifting slowly to us
Slowly playing its magic games between the movements of day and night
We shall swim towards those still to be born
Our thoughts shall coalesce with those yet to be born
As they emerge on the horizon
Their little heads bobbing up and down
The young shall be spraying the sun with mouthfuls of water
The mothers of the earth will be ululating continuously
Their voices will travel far into wombs of infinity
When the rainbow colours of the Creator appear
We too shall invent another song of our destiny
A great anthem never heard before
And in a miraculous moment life shall split itself into two
The one earth shall be enveloped in a dream of mist
The other shall be clothed in glory and beauty ”

Write on, sing on Mazisi. All power to the poets. All eyes on Indonesia. All thanks to all of our readers and supporters.

Every day I hear from more of you. An Italian student in London wants to discuss Giuliana cogverage. A German journalist drops by. A Canadian Journalist calls to discuss Red Lake and more of you go to our website at www.wm,dthefilm.com for copies of WMD. Last night I put a copy into the hands of Phil Donahue at the Amy Goodman book launch, I will pass on his response if any.

Keep your emails coming.

Write dissector@mediachannel.org