Showing posts with label the economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the economy. Show all posts

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Suppressed by The Press



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 19 -- May 9, 2010

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #114, May 11:

Suppressed by
The Press

January 3, 2006: The press got the story right, apart from one small
detail: the vitality of the trapped miners. The venerable Rocky
Mountain News (right column) is no longer alive, either. Credit to the
Boston Globe, though (left column), for refusing to treat unconfirmed
assertion as fact. (Note the "reportedly" in the headline.)

In brief

The commercial press continues its tailspin descent--a problem largely of its own making (and also of Wall Street's making). While commercial newspapers (to say nothing of TV news) have served the public poorly, when they're gone, whatever good they did provide will be missed.

Following a brief rant by me, I read Robert Freeman's interesting essay, "The Real Top Ten Stories of the Past Decade"--none of which received much honest press coverage. I'll supplement Freeman's tragicomic catalogue with Robert Parry's expose', "Gore's Victory"--story #1 on Freeman's list.

By any sane criterion of ballot inclusion or exclusion, the majority of voters in the state of Florida voted for Albert Gore in 2000. The U.S. Supreme Court prematurely halted the State-Supreme-Court-ordered recount of Florida's ballots. That effectively gave Florida to Bush, hence a majority of Electoral votes, hence the Presidency. The major news media know who won the popular vote because they paid the Roper Organization to do a thorough recount of Florida's ballots. The commercial press either suppressed the story or else grossly misrepresented Roper's results.

Freeman's list of uncovered crucial stories includes the failure of "the free market" to sustain properity, ... the collapse of the media, ... Bush's prior knowledge of 9/11, ... the destruction of civil liberties, ... the meaninglessness of elections (notably 2008's), and others.

We end with a few words by Australian filmmaker and media critic John Pilger on professional journalism as propaganda.


Notes and credits

This week's song: David Rovics, Evening News

John Pilger's remarks courtesy of democracynow.org

Robert Freeman's "The Real Top Ten Stories of the Past Decade" from Common Dreams, January 1, 2010. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/01-0

Robert Parry's "Gore's Victory" is from consortiumnews.com, November 12, 2001.

Fun Web page: "25 Weirdest Newspaper Headlines" -- http://www.masalatime.com/?p=501 . These are photos of newspaper clippings, with headline and at least part of the story. My favorite: "Federal Agents Raid Gun Shop, Find Weapons" (see below).

New World Notes installments from #10 are archived at A-Infos Radio Project/radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "bad influence") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.

Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

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 debut date shown:

  • May 18 -- Chris Hedges on the Empire of Illusion


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Friday, October 23, 2009

Michael Parenti on the Republic, the Empire, the Economy, & the Citizens

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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 43 -- October 24, 2009


This week in New World Notes, radio program #86, Tuesday, October 27:

The Republic, the Empire,
the Economy, and the Citizens:
An Interview with Michael Parenti

In brief:

In a telephone interview with me of October 13, acclaimed political scientist and Left political analyst Michael Parenti discusses

  • the costs of empire and who pays them
  • how national governments--no longer sovereign--act as the servants of transnational global corporate capitalism
  • the REAL crime committed by the many "rogue states" the US has invaded the past half-century
  • Can citizens turn an empire back into a republic? . . . and
  • What happened to the US's progress towards social democracy?

Notes

Michael Parenti will present a free public lecture on Wednesday, November 4, at 7:30 PM, in Wilde Auditorium of the Harry Jack Gray Center, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, CT. His talk is titled, Political Liberties and Economic Democracy. Reservations are required for this free event: call the University Box Office at (860) 768-4228 or 800-274-8587.

I'll be there recording the lecture (in the control room at the rear of the auditorium)--so please look me up and say hi. I'll be glad to see you again or else make your acquaintance!

More on Parenti: www.michaelparenti.org/

Photo by Harrison Bequette (photobucket.com). Click to enlarge.

This week's music: The Crown City Four, "Watch World War Three on Pay TV" (ca. 1960)

Credit where due

Thanks to Dr. Michael Parenti for his time, thoughts, & words. Thanks to the University of Hartford's Community Conversations Colloquium, Provost Lynn Pasquerella, & this year's colloquium steering committee for arranging & funding a public lecture by Parenti in November. Thanks to King Daevid MacKenzie for disinterring (from the ruins of its fallout shelter) this week's song. New World Notes is produced for WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail dot com.

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut date on WWUH shown:

  • November 3 -- Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford (9-20-2009)

Most recent book (2007). God and His Demons
(tentative title) is in the works.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Can This Honeymoon Be Saved? (Part 2)

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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 38 -- September 22, 2009

Wall Street Bailout (Black Agenda Report)

This week in New World Notes, radio program #83, September 29:

Can This Honeymoon
Be Saved?

Part 2: Wealth Care, Si! -- Health Care, Non!

In many ways, Barack H. Obama embodies more of the hopes and fantasies of Progressives and Liberals than any of us imagined was possible.

For a start, President Obama is proof that American racism--like the old gray mare--just ain't what she used to be.

Furthermore, Obama is intelligent; he's articulate; he gives every appearance of being sane--at least by the admittedly low standards of the powerful. He's charming; he's good-looking; he projects a style that is both admirable and attractive.

Bottom: Jello Biafra (left, as zombie mayor), in RetarDEAD

In mid-2008, Jello Biafra said, of Obama, "He's a wonderful speaker, comes across as a cool guy you could actually hang out and talk to. . . ."

Jello ended that sentence with, ". . .if only that was reflected in his voting record!"

Jello went on to make a pretty good case that--when it comes to warmongering, destroying civil liberties, promoting government spying, kowtowing to Israel, and aiding and abetting corporate plunder, Senator Obama's voting record is right up there alongside Hillary's and Son-of-Cain's. In fact, on a few corporate-power issues, McCain's voting record was more progressive than Obama's!

Top: Mumia Abu-Jamal
Bottom: Dr. Kenneth Dowst

Well, listen to Jello for yourself! He's on this week's New World Notes. So are three other Left-leaning, articulate critics of current policies of the federal Executive Branch. They are

  • Glen Ford--Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report
  • Mumia Abu-Jamal--former newspaper reporter, convicted (in a highly questionable trial) cop-killer, long-time political essayist and radio commentator, and long-term resident of Death Row somewhere in Pennsylvania
  • moi--the best we could get on such short notice

Two songs complement the prose this week:

  • Obama Girl and The Man Himself, "Duet"
  • "Call it Democracy"--Bruce Cockburn's rocking critique of the gap between a government's professed democratic principles and the government's actions at home and abroad. Pronounced Co-burn.

Next Week:

NWN #84 -- REACTIONS: Dr. Helen Caldecott takes on Vermont Yankee

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