Debating Bill Maher on Muslims, Islam and US foreign policy AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM, ANTIWAR, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES, COMMENTARIAT, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CORPORATE TELEVISION, CULTURE & CRITICISM, FALSE FLAGS & PROVOCATIONS, WAR CRIMES & CRIMINALS 5 Responses » May 112013 The HBO host has become a leading advocate of the view that Islam is uniquely violent and threatening. Does that hold up under critical scrutiny? By Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk, Saturday 11 May 2013 From l to r: Glenn Greenwald, Joy Reid, Charles Cooke, Bill Maher on HBO’s “Real Time”, May 11, 2013 Photograph: screen grab Last night I was on Bill Maher’s HBO show “Real Time”. There have always been numerous views of Maher’s with which I agree. But he has become one of the most vocal and extreme advocates of the view that – while religion generally should be criticized - Islam is a uniquelythreatening and destructive force and that Muslims are uniquely oppressive and violent, and that mentality has infected many of his policy views (see here and here for some comprehensive background; just two weeks ago, he had a fairly typical outburst on this topic). When I was scheduled to do the show, I was hoping that the opportunity would arise to debate these views (or that I could create the opportunity), and last night it did. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Media’s Failure On Iraq Still Stings Ten Years Later AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CLASS COLLABORATION, COMMENTARIAT, CORPORATE MENTALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CORPORATE TELEVISION, HUMBUG CENTRAL, IMPERIAL APOLOGISTS & COLLABOS, MEDIA SCUM, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA Comments Off Mar 192013 Editor’s Note: The corporate media cannot ever “learn” from its own history of crimes and complicity with the imperial status quo because it is not outside the status quo, as it pretends to be, but very much at its core, an essential component of its ideological defense. Thus the media failed in Iraq, and it has failed with Obama. It will go on failing until the whole stinking structure is replaced by an authentic informational system responsible to people’s needs and not the vested interests of a tiny plutocracy. Media do not float in a vacuum. They exist in a social and political context. The solution is first of all political, not administrative or educational.—Patrice Greanville Tim Russert, “star reporter”, blowing hot air with the high and the powerful—and no one else. Same kind of joke is seen on Bob Schieffer’s Face the Nation, a truly pathetic show, with the same parade of insiders and worthies. The mainstream media is no more capable of investigating and rectifying itself than a police department is of dismantling a culture of internal criminality. —Eds Jack Mirkinson | Last Monday, Howard Kurtz, the CNN and Daily Beast media analyst who is as reliable a barometer of mainstream wisdom as anyone, called the journalism industry’s handling of the Iraq war “the media’s greatest failure in modern times.” Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
The Joke’s on You AMERICAN STUDIES, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CELEBRITIES, CLASS COLLABORATION, COMMENTARIAT, CORPORATE TELEVISION, HUMBUG CENTRAL, LEFT-LIBERALS, MEDIA CRITICISM Comments Off Mar 082013 Steve Almond, The Baffler [from The Baffler No. 20] Among the hacks who staff our factories of conventional wisdom, evidence abounds that we are living in a golden age of political comedy. The New York Times nominates Jon Stewart, beloved host of Comedy Central’s Daily Show, as the “most trusted man in America.” His protégé, Stephen Colbert, enjoys the sort of slavish media coverage reserved for philanthropic rock stars. Bill Maher does double duty as HBO’s resident provocateur and a regular on the cable news circuit. The Onion, once a satirical broadsheet published by starving college students, is now a mini-empire with its own news channel. Stewart and Colbert, in particular, have assumed the role of secular saints whose nightly shtick restores sanity to a world gone mad. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
7 Examples of Daily Show Cowardice: Why Does Jon Stewart Wimp Out So Often? AMERICAN STUDIES, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, COMMENTARIAT, CORPORATE TELEVISION, CULTURE & CRITICISM, HUMBUG CENTRAL, MEDIA CRITICISM Comments Off Mar 082013 AlterNet [1] / By Scott Thill [2] Jon Stewart has changed late-night television for the smarter, but The Daily Show‘s satire kingpin has a way of cowering before powerful people when they come on his set for interviews, not asking the tough questions. It’s a stark contrast from his hard-hitting comedy sketches and reviews of the day’s news, where Stewart and his coterie of correspondents can really bare their fangs. Stewart’s guests on set are often the same people he lampoons, but something changes when they are in the room…easy targets get kid gloves. Here are seven of Stewart’s weakest interviews. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Media Scoundrels Pillory Chavez Before He’s Buried ACTIVISTS & HEROES, AMERICAN STUDIES, ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, BETTER HUMANITY, COMMENTARIAT, CORPORATE MENTALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIALISM, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA Comments Off Mar 072013 By Stephen Lendman Rupert Murdoch: an enemy of humanity and everything that lives. His triumph is a reflection of the rotten society which embraces him. Chavez’s passing made no difference. Media scoundrels don’t quit. They spent 14 years vilifying him. They did it unfairly. They haven’t stopped. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
[MEDIA WATCH] Pres. Chavez Dies: The ABC News treatment AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-COMMUNISM, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE, COMMENTARIAT, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, CORPORATE MENTALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CORPORATE TELEVISION, IMPERIALISM, MEDIA SCUM, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA Comments Off Mar 062013 THIS clip is from ABC Wold News with Diane Sawyer (3.5.13). For some reasons this clip shows a bit more balance and the poison is lighter but still powerful enough to distort the impact of the piece. The good part is that somehow they made the decision to allow Hugo Chavez to say a few words uninterrupted and unedited. It should be noted that a “think piece” accompanying the page on the ABC World News site by Russell Goldman applies further antiseptic to Chavez’ message. (See inflammatory terms and unsupported assumptions, including lies, sprinkled throughout in bold in the transcript below. Annotations in brackets.)—Patrice Greanville Grade: C- Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Al Gore grilled by Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show (1.29.13) AMERICAN STUDIES, ANNOTATED NEWS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, COMMENTARIAT, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, SICK SOCIETY, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY Comments Off Jan 292013 For good or for ill, Matt Lauer is one of a handful of television journalists who seems to have a working brain. Like the rest of his ilk he stays away from systemic issues, and it’s hard to read his political preferences, but, on occasion he comes close to being a tough interviewer that makes the Today Show something more than just fluffery. In this interview he asks some uncomfortable questions of Al Gore (why did you sell Current TV to Al Jazeera?), and while the former VP politely parries the thrust of the interrogation (Lauer is apparently pissed that Gore in his new book pronounces the American media pretty useless), we get a few useful morsels. Invest a few minutes. —Eds Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Hair/Change AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, BETTER HUMANITY, COMMENTARIAT Comments Off Jan 252013 MIKE INGLES “The only thing that has changed in these past 40 years is time and car styles and the thinning of my hair…” I have not had a haircut now for 1,000 days. My hair is longer now than it was back in 1970. It is no longer black, but it is white. Most of the time, I wear it in a ponytail. When I don’t, when I let it down, even I am shocked at how long it has grown, even though it is as thin as angel hair and as brittle as cold taffy. My wife says I’m starting to resemble Ben Franklin. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
It’s Simple: Cutting the Deficit Will Kill Jobs and Hurt Growth; Taxing the Rich Won’t ANNOTATED NEWS, CITIZEN TOOLS, CLASS STRUGGLE, COMMENTARIAT, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, DEBATING POINTS Comments Off Nov 212012 By Robert Reich, RobertReich.org R. Reich I wish President Obama and the Democrats would explain to the nation that the federal budget deficit isn’t the nation’s major economic problem and deficit reduction shouldn’t be our major goal. Our problem is lack of good jobs and sufficient growth, and our goal must be to revive both. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
Ted Koppel’s lousy media criticism AMERICAN STUDIES, ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, COMMENTARIAT, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, MEDIA TURDS, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA Comments Off Oct 012012 •• DISPATCH FROM FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Media): Ted Koppel’s Terrible Media Criticism Posted on 09/25/2012 by Peter Hart, FAIR Bill O’Reilly, an expert on–what else?–incivility in the media. TV news veteran Ted Koppel has done two pieces on NBC’s Rock Center that attempt to critique the partisanship of today’s media system. But what the reports really illustrate is that some people aren’t very good at playing media critic–especially when they feel obligated to suggest that “both sides” are equally at fault. Koppel’s first report (9/13/12) looked at right and left watchdogs, “an industry out there on both sides monitoring and recording anything that could hurt the political opposition.” That “industry” consists of the liberal Media Matters for America and the right-wing Media Research Center. Continue reading » Did you like this? Share it:
