MEDIA: TV IS DEAD

Vint Cerf, who helped to build the internet while working as a researcher in America, said that television was approaching its “iPod moment”

In the same way that people now download their favourite music onto their iPod, he said that viewers would soon be downloading most of their favourite programmes onto their computers.
“85 per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time,” said Mr Cerf, who is now the vice-president of the Google, the world’s largest search engine.

“You’re still going to need live television for certain things - like news, sporting events and emergencies - but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later.”

Although television on demand has not yet become a mainstream activity in the UK, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have all invested vast sums of money in technology which enables viewers to watch their favorite shows on their computers.

HATE JOCK BACK ON ABC RADIO

David Hinckley writes in the NY Daily News:

Quaintly describing career hate-jock Bob Grant as “sharp-tongued” and “full of fire and passion” (in the words of a WABC executive who is “delighted to have him back”), Hinckley recounts Grant’s downfall after a glib comment on the 1996 death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown:

Initial news reports on the crash said one person might have survived and when Grant read that report, he cracked, “I have a hunch [Brown might be] the lone survivor. But then, I’m a pessimist at heart.” After a protest campaign by critics like The Rev. Jesse Jackson and The Rev. Al Sharpton, WABC’s then-owner Disney fired Grant. Grant said at the time that he didn’t intend for the comment to be personally hurtful, but has added over the years that he never understood why it ignited such a firestorm.

For all his belligerence, there is a certain logic behind Grant’s wonder at the turmoil over this particular comment, considering how successful he had become by making plenty of much more offensive statements. As FAIR stated at the time of Grant’s dismissal, media activists’ real “success was not in Grant’s firing,” it was getting him to knock off the worst of his racist crap–and indeed, deny that he had ever said much of it.

HP: SHELDON DROBNEY TO POTUS: COMMUTE MICHAEL VICK’S SENTENCE

I am a dog lover and have adopted and rescued abused dogs. I believe that inhumane treatment to animals is counter to the best interests of our society. On the other hand, I do believe in proportionate justice and the Michael Vick case is a horrible example of disproportionate justice against blacks and its consequences could be profound.

There are many cultures in the world that accept and promote cruelty to animals. In some countries of Hispanic origin, bullfighting is promoted as a national sport. And dogs are eaten in some Asian countries. It is my understanding that dog fighting is part of the African-American culture despite the fact that it is a federal crime. That does not make it right, but it does explain in part Vick’s participation in this event.

President Bush commuted the sentence of Irving “Scooter” Libby for crimes he committed knowingly which compromised our national security. Surely he could find it in his heart to use the same rationalization for commuting Libby’s sentence. If Libby paid enough of a price for his crime, surely Vick should be given the same consideration since he has lost his over $125 million and his career.

Harpers.org offers news not always in the news:

Two bears at the Belgrade Zoo, Masha and Misha, spent the annual beer-festival weekend feasting on a 23-year-old Serb, who was discovered naked, dead, and half-eaten in their cage. “Only an idiot,” said zoo director Vuk Bojovic, “would jump into the bear cage.” Melting ice in the Arctic revealed previously unknown islands that have yet to be claimed. Studies in the U.S. showed that one in four adults read no books last year, that white youths are happier than the youths of other races, and that senior citizens are enjoying an active and varied sex life that includes masturbation, vaginal intercourse, and oral sex.

YESTERDAY; More Than 500 Vigils Nationwide Called On Congress:
“Take A Stand To End Iraq War”

BRUCE BLASTS RADIO

Steve Zuckerman on Bruce Springsteen’s new song available for free from I Tunes store.

It’s called Radio Nowhere. The tag line is “is there anybody alive out there,” lamenting the state of music and radio today.

I spent many years with Bruce as the photographer of the Stone Pony, getting to know him, his band, photographing him. We never talked politics, Bruce was most interested in talking about three things, Elvis, Women and Cars. He loved his Chevrolets, drove a Camaro Z28, a Chevy Pickup, and a Corvette.

Thank God he’s putting this song out. We certainly need a beacon of light at a time when our politicians are showing up for what they are worthless pieces of shit who have nothing to say other than the rhetoric from the companies that are sponsoring them.

Where’s Harry Truman? JFK? RFK? Who’s got something to say, the balls to stand for something and who is really going to deliver? Maybe the people are just tired of someone on the pulpit preaching the same rehetoric—-in their nice blue suits and ties telling us they’re going to cut taxes, make change—-Where’s the soul of America? The Soul in the Machine? Give us someone—something to believe in……… We certainly need that.

The song is not as explicit in its media criticism as 57 Channels/Nothing on but it rocks as it rags on the nowhere state of radio:

“Radio Nowhere” Lyrics
by Bruce Springsteen
i was staring in a big time

just another lost number in a file

dancin down a dark road 

it’s just searching for a world to fool
this is radio nowhere 

is there anybody alive out there

this is radio nowhere

is there anybody alive out there

is there anybody alive out there

i just wanna hear some rhythym

i just wanna hear some rhythym 

i just wanna hear some rhythym 

i just wanna hear some rhythym

Its a start. Now we need other musicians to sing out about the decline of radio because of media concentration.

German Jews want action against racist clips on YouTube

Germany’s Central Council of Jews is considering pressing charges against Google-owned, video-sharing Web site YouTube for hosting videos that promote racial hatred and glorify war. According to a news report, right-wing extremists use the free video platform for sharing and viewing propaganda videos that incite to racial hatred…

HATS OFF TO OUR INDIAN COLLEAGUE

India’s fearless ‘untouchable’ paper

BBC: Gaurishankar Rajak is a poor, “untouchable” washerman, who barely went to school.

But the sixty-something Dalit from Dumka in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand has published a newspaper every week without fail for the past 21 years, highlighting discrimination against the poor and local corruption.

Mr Rajak’s four-page, handwritten Hindi-news Din Dalit is photocopied 100 times and sold to subscribers or pasted onto Dumka’s main traffic lights, bus stands and roads.
Din Dalit is not just another small town news sheet - the newspaper is registered with India’s Registrar of Newspapers, thanks to the efforts of India’s first Dalit President, KR Narayanan, after Mr Rajak wrote to him.

Since its first edition in October 1986, Din Dalit has made a difference to the lives of local people, even helping a resident to secure social security from the authorities after his plight was reported in the paper.

‘I was hurt’

Mr Rajak says he decided to bring out the newspaper after he was humiliated by local authorities when he took some people to meet them to help enlist them in a government social security scheme.

“I was very hurt. I approached the local media to highlight the incident but they did not show any interest. So I decided to go ahead and bring out my own newspaper,” he says.

Over the years, Din Dalit has run stories on diverse subjects like a local scam in the distribution of specially-made cycles for disabled people, and bungling in a government housing scheme and kerosene oil distribution for the poor.

LETTER FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Daan writes to Danny:

Hello Danny

The media knows which side its bread is buttered. Given the almost exclusive focus on near term returns, it is ‘more
profitable’ to keep blowing the bubble, leaving what happens when it bursts to be one of next week’s problems.

As an outside observer living in South Africa - and not an economist, exphysicist - it was clear to me way back that the US economy was steaming full speed to a precipice.
At http:// www.gold eagle.com/gold_digest_99/joubert121399.html and more recently also at http://www.freebuck.com/articles/daanj/060622daanj.htm
I presented my views on the coming derailment of the debt train.

But then, I had no vested interest in sustaining the trend and could be more objective.

Wishing you well in your crusade - and pity for the individuals who
followed the example set by the Federal Government and therefore believed deficit spending was the way to go in pursuit of the good life/

And so it goes. See my latest newsletter with more in depth analysis of the debt crisis later today on stopthesqueeze.org

The summer is going fast enjoy it.

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