Diane M. Grass writes:

Enjoyed your commentary on politics and sports.
Thought you’d be in interested in my piece this week.”

http://newmediajournal.us/staff/grassi/04282006.htm

IN DEBT WE TRUST DISCUSSION CONTINUES

David Schneiderman writes:

Way to go. Promote the hell out of this film. My $13,000 debt at 27% interest rates has me fully repaying every 3-4 years IN INTEREST ONLY( Not to mention my Student loans!). I am trapped. Part and parcel of the Republican Culture of Corruption.”

FALUN GONG “DISCREDITED”

A reader sends in a State Department statement on organ harvesting in China claiming they could not find evidence of the kind Falun Gong insists is there. They did not, however, totally reject the possibility.

”Dr. Wang is the lead researcher for Epoch Times NY’s conveniently timed “Sujiatun Auschwitz” allegation that has since being discredited:

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=April&x=20060416141157uhyggep0.5443231&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

“Given Dr. Wang’s profession as a pathologist, and New York’s recent string of grisly illegal cadaver organ harvesting cases, it’s not hard to see how she put two and two together and rehashed the 1970’s era anti-communist tall tale of people sentenced to vivisection.”

IMPEACH STATE BY STATE

Monty Reed Kroopkin writes:

”3 states (California, Vermont, Illinois) now have resolutions of impeachment pending in their legislatures, under an obscure (not for long) U.S. House rule only used once before (to impeach a federal judge). Similar resolutions are likely to be introduced in a number of other states. It only takes passage by one state legislature to set the impeachment process in motion.”

Are you going to publish an editorial in favor of impeachment?

Impeaching Bush, State by State
http://www.alternet.org/story/35467

Robert Wicks has had enough:

I have already read enough from “Failed States” to “Crimes against Nature” “Rule by Secrecy” which I am presently reading to see we need to start saying “No way!” to what has been going on in America!

“My part so far is giving the books after I have read them to others and this will continue. From there I am going to start organizing people in my town. Then whether it is marching on Washington or emailing media constantly asking for the truth it will continue till I die! Whatever it takes will be done.

SAW YOU ON CSPAN

Dr. Robert MacDonald writes:

”You are a consummate role model for activism against the fears of everyone who is silenced and embedded in the media-university-military-cultural complex.

“You are very articulate, undistracted by anything that keeps you from setting the example, giving examples, living as an example of how to break the spell of the embeddedness.

“When I listen to you I think of all the ways beyond redeeming the media, all the ways each of us can count our successes of spreading the needed but avoided messages in the face of resistance from those we have contact with or potential access to in our too-often look-the-other-way USA.”

Eric Silber saw it too:

”Saw the CSPAN broadcast of your 3/29/06 talk.

“It is as important for us to confront the collabos as to confront the fascists, and yes it is a question of fascist usurpation of our society. In France , collaborationist women had their hair shorn. Today we have some very notable female collaborationists. Both Nancy Pelosi, and “Hillary” should be seen in that light.

“I live in Pelosi’s district, I have sent her letters and emails to which she has never given a substantive reply. The substance of my notes to her is this: The Bush regime is demonstrably the most negligent, most corrupt, most criminal regime in the entire history of this country. Why has the leader of the House Democrats not filed impeachment resolutions against Bush, Cheney, and ALL of the cabinet?

“As Jay Leno’s “question time” repeatedly demonstrates, typical Americans cannot locate America on a map of the world. The dumbing down may have passed a tipping-point. Perhaps America has lost it’s powers of judgement. We’ll see in November. In any case Pelosi should get some directed attention regarding her failure to draft or support impeachment resolutions, since she is one of the constitutional officers upon which it is most incumbent to act in these matters.”

CSPAN VIEWER URGES SPACE PROBE

Jim Deardorff Research Professor emeritus Oregon State University

”I happened upon CSPAN early this evening, and could not leave it while you and Rory were on. If only a majority of those involved in the news media would walk the walk that you do!

“Would you be able, however, to widen your horizons to take in the UFO phenomenon, study it enough to understand its reality, and present that to the public as best you can, without shrinking away in fear of ridicule? I assure you it’s very real; one doesn’t have to be a definitive UFO sighter or abductee to learn this. There are lots of good books on the subject, oodles of good websites, and lots of ex-government/military employees who have come forward to give their first-hand testimony. And since over half the populace believes that the government has covered up the UFO facts, what’s there to fear?

“Keep up the good work.

www.tjresearch.info

BRIAN DROLET, A LONG TIME MEDIA ACTIVIST WRITES:

Watched you and Rory at Housing Works on Book TV last night. Extremely good. Congratulations.

“Of course my questions:

“1. Why should the concentration of media ownership be any different from the concentration of steel, petroleum, etc. Seems like we are also going up against the necessity of capital itself to concentrate. (What did Lenin call it? “Monopoly, the highest stage of capitalism” This is only important because people do eventually need to know what it is exactly we are up against. Is it possible to reverse the Wal-Martization of the media any more than of the retail industry?

“2. The political role of the major media today does not seem radically different than in past generations: mouthpiece for government policies, cheerleaders for war, etc. Not that there have not always been exceptions, but the tend to prove the rule. The major media in the U.S., including Cronkite, did not begin serious criticism of the war in Vietnam until significant sections of the money elites in the U.S. began to see it as unwinnable and the cost on all fronts (domestic instability, U.S. budget, international openings given to the Soviet Union, further involvement of China etc) as too high for expected returns.

Jeffrey Hansen writes

”I needed the encouragement of hearing your independent voice on C-span. Thank you for trying to wake up America.

“I think the media’s most horrendous lie, is its neglect of and complicity in the coverup of the torture of prisoners by American forces. In spite of the coverup, at least one of the prisoners who was tortured to death by American forces has been proved to be completely innocent (Dilawar). The democrats are afraid of being “weak on terrorism.” However, torturing prisoners is never a sign of strength. Torturing prisoners is always a sign of weakness, cowardice and perversion. Not only is torture evil, but those we have tortured (or their relatives) will come back against us. George Bush has created thousands of future terrorists.

The word “abuse” does not apply to what we have done. When prisoners die during interrogations, only the word “torture” is accurate.

WAR WITH IRAN?

Paul O Hanlon writes:

”Here is a 640 word report with photos of the talk given by Professor Abbas Edalat on `Stop the war on Iran before it starts` which took place on Thursday April 27th 2006

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/world/2006/04/339169.html

FAKE NEWS?

Mike Jung writes from Seattle, WA

”I just read an article distributed by Z Net about Fake News and the general lack of news on the media. I wasn’t impressed by the article– there wasn’t really a coherent message other than corporate TV and news don’t mix. There was no inclusion of public news (NPR in America), advertisements placed thereon by sponsoring corporations, and whether these agencies follow the same lead in their editorial decisions based on underlying assumptions about who generates news that reverberate through professional journalism schools. And you also absolve the public of responsibility for demanding that “news” mean something other than “what sells”.

“Professional journalism is a crock– it sets the stage so that a corporate press release is news, a government statement is news, and the story behind it is gotten at by asking the source. This is lunacy, of course, but all media outlets, not just for profit corporations, follow it.

“19th century American press was never assumed to be unbiased– different interest groups ran news papers and magazines with slants so steep you couldn’t rest your morning coffee on them. But it was the particular orientation that caused them to investigate certain things rigorously, whether it was the labor papers investigating working conditions in the mills or the mills investigating the corruption of the labor unions. With the myth of “fair and balanced” dominating the news, there is little hope of rooting out the actual biases, since all outlets have a common slant about what news is, and just put spin (slant) on what comes from the news “sources”.

“Finally, westerners are no longer citizens– we are consumers. Going after the news media for doing what all corporations do– grow profits– is like trying to convince teenage boys the value of sexual abstinence: it might work a few rare ones, but most are going to pursue sexuality in some way or another.

“The dialog we need to have is with our neighbors and our co-workers and our families. We need clear examples of actual news that doesn’t get to us, where the system fails us, that can be communicated in our conversations to support our drive to wean the public from the TV as a news source, to support alternative enterprises, and to demand change. We need to be thinking like Paulo Freire, not Ted Turner.

“Hope this doesn’t sound too critical. I thinking as I write. I really do value the work y’all are doing, and support it in my conversations with the people around me.”

We welcome criticisms and suggestions. That’s what makes for debates.

RED SOX NATION

Ray Yerkes writes from Newburyport, MA

I am glad that you had a nice day at Yankee Stadium. A wonderful place. BUT do remember coming to the light in Boston where fans and owners don’t turn on their own when they have a bad year, but wait 80 years for a win. Stay with the Loyalist.

RESOURCE

VIDEO | Dennis Banks: Sacred Run, A Film by Rebecca MacNeice

http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

MARK MAKES THE TRAILER

The new dissector of Mediachannel Europe writes about a new doc on the NY Times crossword puzzle:

”If you watch the Quicktime version of the Wordplay movie trailer, you will get a very nice surprise at the end! You will see me in the film!

Here’s the link: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/wordplay.html

MUSIC THAT MATTERS: Neil and Bruce

Interview with Neil Young
http://livingwithwar.blogspot.com/

David Swanson enthuses about the new Springsteen rendition of Pete Seeger’s songs:

“Springsteen’s album is a foot-stomping, sing-a-long, can’t-sit-still party. It’s amazing that with music this good anything remains to be done in the world and that televisions are actually purchased and viewed. As long as you have one, though, flip the CD over and watch the DVD of Bruce and his buddies jamming in a farm house and talking about what they’re trying to accomplish.”

HONORING JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH

All 6’8 of Amerca’s leading economist with a conscience died this weekend in Cambridge Mass at age 97. He taught at Harvard, and was a force in liberal and progressive politics for most of his life. The New York Time’s page l editorial said” “he strived the change the texture of the national conversation,” always challenging the conventional wisdom with wit and great insights.

I tried to make a film about him while he lived and spoke with him on many occasions. He will be remembered as one the greats but unfortunately his genius was taken for granted by those who might have paid tribute to his legacy before his demise by funding it. He was gracious, patient with those he disagreed with and very kind to me. Although born in Canada, he deserves a monument that will preserve his memory as an American great. If you don’t know his work, find out.

APPRECIATIONS

Thanks to all the readers who came by to buy books and videos at the march on Saturday, and to those who signed up for this blog and our other emails. Thanks also to Olivia Quinto who worked with us so diligently producing Media Savvy, and is now going back to School…. Thanks to ITN 4 which carried my film WMD last night in England and the South African Broadcasting Corporation which did the same last week.

And special thanks also to the unknown young man who gave up his place in the toilet line at Laquardia airport on Saturday morning when I came back from speaking in Boston. He recognized me and could feel my pain , saying, as he moved aside. “I read your blog every day. You go first.”

See: there is kindness in this world!

Your comments welcome;
Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org