HATE RADIO, USA

Saul Landau comments on Z NET:

“George W. Bush seems to have inspired not only political extremism in action, but in words as well — especially on the radio. If you want to hear cruel and mean words, just tune into prime time AM radio. The ‘John and Ken Show,’ an afternoon talk program in Los Angeles, targets — illegal immigrants — and praises vigilantes who hunt them down. Both John and Ken stopped just short of calling for the immediate castration of Michael Jackson during pre trial and trial days in the preceding months.

“Mean spiritedness of mouth, however, pales before some really vicious deeds. For centuries, sectors of peaceful and kind Americans have cohabited with another group whose pent-up aggression has awaited only a tiny provocation for release. The ire emerged in its full ugliness during the late 17th Century witch trials in Salem Massachusetts as sexually repressed Puritan elders discovered that the Devil had infiltrated their Zion in the Wilderness — through the genitals of course.”

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2005-08/07landau.cfm

DIGITAL DIVIDE: WORSE THAN EVER

The Digital Divide is intensifying, says a new report from a coalition of media reform groups. Free Press reports:

“Washington — Despite a rosy picture painted by the Federal Communications Commission, America’s access to affordable, high-speed Internet lags far behind the rest of the digital world. A new report released today by Free Press, the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union shows that a recent FCC assessment of broadband Internet access is misleading and glosses over serious problems behind an ever-widening digital divide.

“‘Despite claims to the contrary, the digital divide in America remains large and will continue to grow unless some real changes are made,’ said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press. ‘By overstating broadband availability and portraying anti-competitive policies as good for consumers, the FCC is trying to erect a façade of success. But if the president’s goal of universal, affordable high-speed Internet access by 2007 is to be achieved, policymakers in Washington must change course.’”

PETER JENNINGS: IT WAS THE LOOK

Writing on Salon.com, Richard Speer saw the late Peter Jennings not as an anchor but an archetype:

“When Peter Jennings succumbed to lung cancer on Aug. 7, the world lost more than a news anchor; it lost an archetype. Above and beyond his contributions as a journalist, Jennings held an appeal in the popular mind owing as much to the Golden Age of Hollywood as to the ‘Big Three’ glory days of network news. The essence of that appeal, his smooth urbanity and air of cultivation, was the precise charisma that had made film stars Frederic March, Cary Grant and David Niven such icons of sophistication in their day; and it is this same appeal that now, with Jennings gone, is utterly missing from a news universe populated by smarmy Shepard Smiths and hipper-than-thou Anderson Coopers…

“…this confidence manifested itself in a certain something he did with his eyes. When the camera zoomed in at the newscast’s outset, he’d inevitably be gazing at the monitor to his left. As the musical fanfare faded down, he’d launch into the top story, eyes still lingering momentarily on that off-screen monitor as he spoke: ‘We begin tonight in Beirut,’ he’d say, and then pivot his gaze into the camera head-on and continue, ‘where the political fallout continues after…’ It was subtle, this eye/text shift, but it telegraphed a casual familiarity, as if he and a few chums had been chatting about the day’s events over a snifter of cognac, and then, upon seeing you walk into the room, he’d turned to you, mid-phrase, to bring you into the conversation.

“While this and other nonverbal Jennings staples complemented the stories’ content, it seems certain that, at least stylistically, Jennings will have no heir…”

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2005/08/10/jennings/print.html

Journalist, photographer injured in South Africa strike

SABC reports:

“A newspaper journalist and a photographer have been injured during clashes between protesters and police in Cape Town. Police fired rubber bullets as the more than 200 defiant protesters tried to break through a barbed wire barricade near the Civic Centre where a memorandum was to be handed over. A journalist and a photographer covering the strike were injured in the scuffle.”

MICROSOFT’S AMBASSADOR?

The Free Software Foundation Europe has criticized President Bush’s decision to nominate a long-time ally of Microsoft as the U.S. representative to the European Union.

“C. Boyden Gray, a lawyer who lobbied on behalf of Microsoft during the US antitrust battle with the Justice Department, was named by Bush late last month as his choice to be America’s next EU ambassador.

“Georg Greve, the president of FSF Europe, claimed on Monday that this appointment shows the level of political control that Microsoft holds in the US. ‘[It] is quite an explicit statement of who truly holds the political power,’ said Greve in an email.”

See Fair.org for an excellent dissection of ABC’s conflicts in connection with a report on Walmart.