THIS JUST IN: THE SORT OF “BREAKING” (LITERALLY) STORY TV NEWS LOVES TO LOVE

Retrospective for the 40th Anniversary of Real Moon Walk: We Choose The Moon

A real-time, interactive re-creation of the Apollo 11 mission.

ICONOMANIA: JACKSON, CRONKITE, MANDELA
WHY IS THE ADMINISTRATION IGNORING STIGLITZ?
RED FOXES IN DETROIT

What a time for Iconmania, none of it critical, none of it questioning, none offering perspective or leading to very revealing coverage.

Politicians may rule but celebrities dominate in our culture where every pol seeks an aura that inspires hero worship and adoration. The more worship, the less real awareness! And, I write this as a Jackson fan, Cronkite colleague (of sorts) and Mandela filmmaker.

DID THE MEDIA KILL MICHAEL?

First there was Michael Jackson’s death with wall to wall coverage dominated by entertainment media. He had gone from the planet of the strange to the center of American popular culture, achieving in death what he failed to achieve in life despite his fans, impact and commercial success. He became a GOD, at least for now until all the details of his life and death emerge as they surely will.

We still don’t know how he died. Veteran journalist Chris Hedges believes he was driven crazy by commercial exploitation: “In celebrity culture we destroy what we worship. The commercial exploitation of Michael Jackson’s death was orchestrated by the corporate forces that rendered Jackson insane. Jackson, robbed of his childhood and surrounded by vultures that preyed on his fears and weaknesses.”

“UNCLE WALTER” DID THE MEDIA BREAK HIS HEART?

On, on Friday night, Walter Cronkite a News “god died. His many media mates and people who grew up wanting to be him, took over the air waves with non-stop nostalgia, and testimonials about his work but little attention to his dismay with the direction “his” industry had taken,

This coverage is not winding up yet. CBS preempted 60 minutes—but not in a special prime time slot to honor him on Sunday. It was moving since they had so much footage to draw on, and so many news events to recap and remember. Most of the big names in news were on. In two clips he referred to his operation as the CBS NEWS CONTROL CENTER—and yes, they did CONTROL what we were allowed to see, and whom we saw. There is a reason that the room most TV shows take place are out of a CONTROL ROOM. From there, the signal goes to MASTER CONTROL.

Cronkite does acknowledge he had supported the war In Vietnam at first and was out of it when it came to the counterculture. It was interesting to remember that he became something of a Grateful Dead fan, had a daughter at Woodstock, and was passionate about Civil rights. Spike Less testified to that. To add star power, it seemed as if George Clooney and Robin Williams got more airtime than most of his colleagues and competition, the likes of Charlie, Barbara, Mike, Andy, Ted, Diane, Katie and even Dan.

The funeral has been announced in the NY Times: Plans were set on Saturday for a private funeral for Walter Cronkite, the pioneering CBS News anchorman who died Friday. … Media Decoder - Behind the Scenes, Between the Lines … A larger memorial is expected to take place in the next few weeks at Lincoln Center. The Associated Press reported that Mr. Cronkite would be buried in Kansas City, Mo., next to his wife, Betsy, who died in 2005.

I grew up in the Cronkite era and was actually turned to on a career in the media by the man who recruited him for CBS., Edward R. Murrow, who was, for all extents and purposes forced to leave CBS. By the time I got into broadcast News—at WBCN, the station that the CBS corporation killed last week, I did not want to emulate him, and considered him and his co-anchors shills for the system and emblems of a corporate news system that Cronkite himself would later critique. The CBS News program wan exactly one soundbite with Walter’s concerns about the way TV News undermines our democracy For more on that see his statement to the Mediachannel.org launch in 1990, a view most decidedly NOT included in the CBS tribute.

Walter Cronkite On The Media—and the MediaChannel. [You can watch a video of this speech!]

Good evening, I’m Walter Cronkite. I really wanted to be with you in person tonight for Globalvision New Media’s launch of the new Internet site the Media Channel, but unfortunately I was called out of the country. Yet the issues that led to the creation of this unique global resource, and the crisis that’s facing all of us who work in and care about journalism and the media, are so profound that I simply felt compelled to tape this message so that you would know that I am with you in spirit at least.

As you know, I’ve been increasingly and publicly critical of the direction that journalism has taken of late, and of the impact on democratic discourse and principles. Like you, I’m deeply concerned about the merger mania that has swept our industry, diluting standards, dumbing down the news, and making the bottom line sometimes seem like the only line. It isn’t and it shouldn’t be.

MEETING WALTER WINNING HIS SUPPORT

I met him and had lunch with him on a number of occasions and he seemed aware of journos like myself trying to create an alternative to network dominated information systems. We called him Uncle Walter in the sense that we wanted to be part of the family but considered himself old and, as he admitted, often out of it. (We may have been wrong about that even as we considered our interpretations of the news more accurate.)

I also wanted to be the “anti-Cronkite’ by offering a different approach to issues like the Kennedy Assassination, Vietnam and Watergate but doing that in a serious way was not a real option. John Stewart may play that role today but bear in mind he can only do so as a comedian, not a “real” journalist. One journalist, Amy Goodman is doing it!

At the same time, Cronklte was so respected and respectable, smooth and substantial that you had to marvel at his reputation for credibility and trustworthiness and hoped you could learn from him and glean some of his techniques. I respected Walter Cronkite, but I was no Walter Cronkite. Smile.

In his network, “afterlife,” he reported many documentaries with his son Chip, appeared in cultural specials on PBS. and worked with top producers like Don Hewitt but also Stanhope Gould and Sandy Socolow.

Later, I would be among a few exiles from our world counter cultural journalism to get into mainstream networks and find out first hand about the corporate pressures (and ideologies) that often boxed in him and his colleagues. The way it was for him was not necessarily the way it was for millions of people left out of the news or treated hostilely by it.

Years later, when he had pushed by his beloved CBS into retirement, he began speaking widely and often speaking out about how TV News was betraying its journalistic calling. That Walter Cronkite has been pushed aside (and sanitized) in most of the on-air deification of him in the many news channel tributes.

In our last encounter at the UN, he angrily disagreed with my call for an investigation into and perhaps a “trial” of the news business for its role in promoting and obscuring the War in Iraq. He could understand the criticism of war crimes by the Bush Administration, but not my concerns about media crimes.

He had been a World War 2 correspondent—and had even fired weapons in the war—and I guess he could not see the distinction and was still partial to the military He had backed the war in Vietnam at the get go but only broke with it later when most of the country did.

He hated my charge (spelled out in my book WHEN NEWS LIES (SelectBooks 2006) that much of the mainstream media was complicit in the Iraq War. I thanked him for expressing his difference and told him how much I respected him. He was, I think, a bit shaken and asked that we discuss our differences in more detail bit we never did. I didn’t want our relationship to end badly.

I was saddened to learn that he died of dementia. He certainly was a man of integrity and a champion of international peace and world federalism.

The right wing still bashes him, accusing him of selling out the Vietnam War. On the left, he has his critics and supporters in the world of independent media.

John Nichols, THE NATION, Walter Cronkite: Definitional Journalist Saw Big Media’s Flaws

Jay Janson, Op Ed News, Cronkite Belatedly Called War in Vietnam Unwinnable, Not An Atrocity

GLENN GREENWALD: CELEBRATING CRONKITE BUT IGNORING WHAT HE DID

NELSON MANDELA MANIA: HAS THE MEDIA ERODED HIS REAL LEGACY WITH TOO MUCH HYPE?

It was great to go to a tribute for someone who has not died. Saturday was “Mandela Day” in New York with an all-star concert at the Radio City Music Hall. It was done in the name of his 46664 (his one time prison number) which is now a charity to fight Aids. The event was packaged beautifully by a team of production and PR pros but the political mission may have been lost in the slickness and more personal tributes of the “I LOVE YOU MADIBA” variety.

He had been turned into a brand more than fighter for freedom even as part of the ad campaign for MANDELA DAY encourages us NOT to see this an imprint.

There was little in the program that explained what his charities are doing, or where he stands on the various issues he is identified with. In a brief video he spoke of his movement being a voice of the collective will but the focus was entirely on his role as a larger than life personality, something I was told the younger generation in own family was not happy with fearing it could actually hurt his legacy. Some apparently wanted younger artists and more community venues.

The news covered it as a star studded entertainment event—and, boy was it ever.

AP: A flock of global entertainment notables and politicos, including France’s first lady Carla Bruni, toasted Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday with an all-star concert at Radio City Music Hall.

The tribute, held Saturday night, celebrated the anti-apartheid icon’s birthday with a diverse collection of musical collaborations that ranged from pop to disco to gospel.

Bruni made her American stage debut at the show paired with Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart as her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, sat cheering in the audience. She paid homage to Mandela’s social activism by covering Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” calling it a song by another famous activist.

For her first song, a slow French ballad, she told the crowd: “This one’s not good for dancing. But it’s good for dreaming.”

YOU CAN SEE THE SHOW AND LEARN MORE ONLINE:

AFP: Gloria Gaynor kicked off the gala at the majestic Radio City Music Hall, in the heart of Manhattan, with a rousing performance of her 1978 disco hit “I Will Survive.”

Celebrities on the performance list included Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and the first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, as well as Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean, Lil’ Kim, Gloria Gaynor, the Soweto Gospel Choir and African artists Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal and Sipho Mabuse.

OP EDNEWS: Just having these stars announce each other and perform would have made the night spectacular. What was being celebrated and how that inspired the lineup of megastars to give career best performances made the night a once in a lifetime event. A few performances stood out even on a night where each was special, but only in the way one rated a 10 out of 10 would stand out versus a 9.9 out of 10. Queen Latifa’s rendition of “I Know Where I’ve Been” reprising her singing the same tune in the movie “Hairspray” was as perfect an execution of any song that one is likely to see. I watched the version from “Hairspray” on YouTube.com a moment ago for comparison and while the “Hairspray” version was good, the rendition from Mandela Day was superhuman. When Ms. Latifah finished, the crowd clapped raucously and roared its approval.

Another of the standouts was the amazing duet of Cyndi Lauper and Lil’ Kim performing Lauper’s hit,”Time after Time.” I would never have thought of that combination but their voices sounded great together. I didn’t want that song to end. I also have to say that after seeing her perform at Mandela Day, I have come to understand the European fascination with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Still photos, as good as she looks in them, do not do someone like her justice. Before I get myself into trouble by continuing my description, I’ll let this YouTube video do the rest of my talking for me regarding Madame Sarkozy If I were the French, I would not expect President Sarkozy to be traveling much abroad, at least not without the first lady.

Even analyzing the performances doesn’t do the night justice. There was a wild joy in the air and in the music that alternated with songs that brought back the melancholy and pain of the struggle for freedom and against apartheid by Mandela and the black population of South Africa. Rather than seeming discordant, this dichotomy of themes somehow fused synergistically and evoked powerful emotions in everyone in the crowd. Even the press corps, which tends to cover events somewhat stolidly and with professional detachment, was mostly standing up and dancing and cheering. This event is going to go down as the hot ticket of the year in New York, if not the hot ticket of the decade. If the video is made into a DVD and sold, or the soundtrack is sold, look for either to sell in record numbers.

AL JAAEERA REPORTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Mandela celebrated with his family and friends on “Mandela Day”, which is being promoted as a day to do good and one his charity foundation hopes will become an annual event.

GLOBAL POST: Nelson Mandela: So big, he’s a holiday too

The declaration of Mandela Day on July 18 honors South Africa’s former leader with call to humanitarian service.

JOHANNESBURG — Nelson Mandela, perhaps the world’s most recognizable living icon, is becoming even more famous.

The most well-known face of the anti-apartheid movement and the first black South African president has lent his name to streets, museums, a university and even a metropolitan area, but now he has gone one step further, endorsing an effort to name a holiday after him. Mandela Day, which coincides with the 91-year-old’s birthday July 18, has been launched by international campaigners as a call to community service honoring the leader’s own dedication to the welfare of others.

For Mandela Day, people across the world are asked to spend 67 minutes of their time for worthy causes. The number 67 echoes the years Mandela spent in public service, from his early political involvement with the African National Congress in 1942 to today.

IN NEW YORK:

NEW YORK, NY.- 46664 and the Nelson Mandela Foundation will preview a Ralph Appelbaum Associates designed interactive installation in honor of Nelson Mandela on Thursday, July 9 at 10:00 am at Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall, 87 East 42nd Street.

The free installation debuting to the public the afternoon of July 9 will be open daily through July 22 from 7:30 am–7:30 pm. The Mandela installation features six illuminated 3-D action words: act, listen, lead, unite, learn and speak, highlighting Nelson Mandela’s lifelong struggle against apartheid and other social injustice, and aiming to motivate our own potential for positive social change.

The front of each word shows key messages that reveal Nelson Mandela’s values and inspires visitors to act. The back of each word has detailed information about Nelson Mandela’s life, stories and speeches. “Listen” contains messages relating to his most powerful speeches; “learn” presents Nelson Mandela’s biography with iconic images; “unite” recalls inspiring stories in which Mr.

PRESIDENT OBAMA SENT A MESSAGE; THIS ONE A FROM A YEAR EARLIER

Obama’s visit to South Africa is reported in my film BARACK OBAMA, PEOPLE”S PRESIDENT (choicesvideo.net)

COMMENTS: OBAMA IS NO MANDELA

Angry African Blog

MEMO TO OBAMA: LEARN FROM MANDELA