Sunday, July 29, 2012

War, Language, and the Media

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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 30 -- July 29, 2012


This week in New World Notes, radio program #230, July 31, 2012

War, Language and the Media

In brief

This week we replay one of the earliest installments of New World Notes: #10, from April 2008. The title connects three of the series' ongoing concerns: war, language, and the media.

Language doesn't just reflect your understanding of reality: it shapes it. The Pentagon (and its pet, the State Department) knows this and creates language to mislead us about what it is actually doing. First I and then Michael Parenti--in a fine talk from the 1990s--expore how it works.

Of particular interest is Parenti's debunking of the "Gaddafi-is-a-menace" rhetoric, which was omnipresent around 1990. Remember?

Decades back, U.S. government propaganda (broadcast by the loyal corporate media) inflated Libya's Gaddafi into a major threat to America. Then, for whatever reasons, the government put its regime-change-in-Libya plans on the back burner, and the "threat" of Gaddafi wasn't mentioned again for the next 20 years. Then, around 2010 or 2011, Gaddafi suddenly became a menace again.

The Airliner bar/restaurant, Iowa City, Iowa. What's that got to do with the late Muammar Gaddafi (top, shown in 1986)? Each exemplifies how different compositions of words create different ways of understanding (and hence of acting). You'll just have to listen. . . .

Notes, credits, & links

Music added: John McCutcheon, "Let's Pretend"; David Rovics, "What If You Knew?"

Thanks to Sally Soriano and People's Video-Audio for the Parenti recording.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "very noses") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview:
Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • July 24 -- American Sex and Sexuality
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Friday, July 20, 2012

Nothing New Under the Sun

To download an audio file (save it on your hard disk): Click on this link for instructions.

New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 29 -- July 20, 2012


This week in New World Notes, radio program #229, July 24, 2012

Nothing New Under the Sun

In brief

History is taught so as to (1) instill patriotism and submission to the rulers and (2) make people hate the real study of history. Real history shows that events in the news are but the latest examples in a long pattern.

Noam Chomsky shows that "Arab Spring" pro-democracy rebellions have been occurring for 100 years (usually suppressed by dictators, with US backing). Chris Hedges shows how the 1% has waged war against the 99% for 200 years, with examples from the US, Russia, Germany, Yugoslavia, & elsewhere.

Above: Chris Hedges, manning the barricades in
Washington, D.C.
  Below: Noam Chomsky.

Notes, credits, & links

Chomsky's remarks were recorded at the "Russell Tribunal" in March 2011.

Chris Hedges' remarks are from an interview with Mike McCormick on Mike's show, Mind Over Matters

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "resigned sighs") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview:
Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

On orders from General J.H. Smith, U.S. troops massacre the civilian inhabitants of the island of Samar during our war of conquest of the Philippines, 1902.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • July 24 -- Language, War, and the Media
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Friday, July 6, 2012

Ethos

To download an audio file (save it on your hard disk): Click on this link for instructions.

New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 27-28 -- July 6, 2012


This fortnight in New World Notes, radio program #227-228, July 10 & 17, 2012

Ethos
(in two parts)

In brief

A quirky and interesting film by Pete McGrain on the character of our time. Includes good commentary by Norman Solomon, Noam Chomsky, former MP Tony Benn, the late Chalmers Johnson, and others. And some comments by me too. Narrated by McGrain and Woody Harrelson.

It's about democracy, and national policies, and why the policies are so anti-democratic. It's about how politicians and corporate elites have declared war on democracy, and how they use the corporate news media as powerful weapons to control public opinion. And it's about how these people give us perpetual real warfare for the sake of its high profits.

Familiar points but (mostly) made well.

Above (l to r): Ethos director Pete McGrain, host Woody
Harrelson, co-executive producer Isabella Michelle Marles

Notes, credits, & links

Ethos was adapted to radio by Robin Upton and originally broadcast on Unwelcome Guests. The adaptation is available complete at http://unwelcomeguests.net/586. I have condensed this adaptation for broadcast on New World Notes. Many thanks to Robin and Unwelcome Guests.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "false promises") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview:
Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • July 24 -- Nothing New Under the Sun
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Pink Slime, Meat Glue, Local Blueberries, and the Constitution

To download an audio file (save it on your hard disk): Click on this link for instructions.

New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 26 -- July 1, 2012


This week in New World Notes, radio program #226, July 3, 2012

Pink Slime, Meat Glue,
Local Blueberries,
and the Constitution

In brief

Getting less out-of-touch with nature through local produce and Papua New Guinea coffee. Recent petty scandals in the meat industry (Pink Slime, "meat glue") get exposed in the corporate news media ... but not the industry's real crimes and scandals. New product at the supermarket: "water enhancer."

Summing it all up, Alexander Cockburn argues that our U.S. form of government is best described as "fascism."

Above: Meat glue. Below: Pink Slime.

Notes, credits, & links

Music added: from Leonard Cohen, "Democracy"

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "boiler room") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview:
Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Above: No comment.
Below: Shades of 1968: Chicago peace officers clubbing peaceful
protesters at the NATO summit meeting, May 30, 2012
.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • July 10 & 17 -- Ethos: The Movie
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net