Category: examining the mainstream

The Clear Channel owned modern-rock station in Denver has added the Beastie Boys new anti-war song to their playlist, but not without having to run a poll first, according to the alt-weekly Westword. “More than 2,000 listeners took a survey about the track, and in answer to the question ‘How does the fact the song…

By the way, a good place to get compiled stories on the media’s war coverage is Romensko’s Media Page at Poynter Online. This is not a strictly critical assemblage — Romensko’s pretty broad and open in what he compiles together, and I’d say that his approach is pretty balanced. He is as likely to link…

The Oregonian’s media columnist interviews CNN prime time anchor Aaron Brown, who apparently isn’t taking too well to the criticism leveled against him and his network, accusing them of being military cheerleaders. But he does admit that coverage of the anti-war movement was “late,” telling the Oregonian: “Yeah, I think we were a little late…

The NY Press’ Michelangelo Signorile gives a fine explanation of how fear of flak — the fear of not pissing off powerful or useful people — is the source of bias and a lack of critique in the mainstream media. His big example is Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz who gets a pass from…

The Poynter Institute’s Mike Wendland pens this gushing article about the transition of TV news from Electronic News Gathering (ENG)–the traditional videotape and studio model–to Satellite News Gathering (SNG)–marked by the use of miniDV cams and laptops to produce video news beamed back to the studio on ultra-portable satellite rigs. Of course, this new technology…

Normon Solomon has a spot-on analysis of the mainstream media’s role in shaping–or destroying–public opinion about a possible war on Iraq: “Daily media speculation about the starting date for all-out war on Iraq has contributed to widespread passivity – a kind of spectator relationship to military actions being implemented in our names.” This is what…

Last week I spoke with a media reporter from the Peoria Journal-Star, Steve Tarter, about the upcoming FCC media ownership rules review. He dedicated his Sunday column to the matter, and did a nice job following up some details about Central Illinois media owners: “YouÂ’ve already got a situation where two of the area stations…

“Media critic” Neal Gabler submits a reasoned analysis that the true split in the media is not liberal/left vs. conservative/right, but rather the difference “between two entirely different journalistic mind-sets: those who believe in advocacy, and those who believe in objectivity — or, at the very least, in the appearance of objectivity.” … Unfortunately, for…

From the Twin Cities IMC– The Flying Pickets group continued to protest the continual Pro-war, Corporatization and corporate control of the media [by picketing Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul]. … Even more telling however, was the reaction of workers, reporters and volunteers of MPR to the protest. Many agreed that the media in general,…

The Chicago Reader reports on a controversy that broke out at the Chicago Media Watch’s recent conference, “Propaganda: War, Terror and the U.S. Empire.” According to the article, Sut Jhally, a communications prof at UMass, was invited to speak on how “the Israeli government is brilliantly manipulating American public opinion against the Palestinians.” But apparently…