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Archive for the Journalism Category

National People’s Radio?; National Public Radio?; National Petroleum Radio?; National Propaganda Radio? (June 11, 2018)

Posted in Boycott Series, Journalism, Neoconservatives, Newspapers, NPR, Press/Media, Radio, Technology, Television on June 11, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “As long as they broadcast Saint Terry Gross, I will support them.”

J “Too often they are really just a house organ for the neo-liberals in domestic policy and the neo-conservatives in foreign policy. National Propaganda Radio, I once broadcast.”

K “Their message is fundamentally ‘analog journalism’ rather than ‘digital journalism’ even if the transmissions are in a digital format.”

. . .

K “They are caught in a sticky dilemma. They cannot get too far ahead of the listeners or they could lose listeners. But if they get too far behind the listeners, who will lead the listeners.”

J “I asked an NPR fund raiser in a red state if they change their advertising strategy after they receive a donation from one listener in an effort to attract the other two listeners in the state. Tough sell.”

. . .

J “Do they broadcast ‘Alternative Radio’ or ‘Counterspin’ or ‘Democracy Now’ or ‘51 percent’ on the play list? That is the benchmark of commitment.”

K “One option is to support programs not stations. Contribute to stations in America that broadcast enlightened programs not necessarily to one’s local station. And then listen to podcasts rather than the local station on your own time.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The Medium Mandates The Message. Analog v. Digital: Monopolization & Monetization. Oh, And Happy World Press Freedom Day! (May 7, 2018)”.)

Bumper stickers of the week:

The ‘narrative’ is the story

The medium mandates the message

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The Medium Mandates The Message. Analog v. Digital: Monopolization & Monetization. Oh, And Happy World Press Freedom Day! (May 7, 2018)

Posted in Antitrust, Awards / Incentives, Blog, Cyberactivities, Journalism, Monopoly, Newspapers, Press/Media, Pulitzer, Pushitzer, Technology, Truth on May 7, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “Analog affirms the status quo, digital negates it. Challenges it, really, with a goodly number of exceptions.”

J “Yet digital is moving toward and merging with the analog business model which is all about business. Analog is already monopolized. Digital is aggressively monetizing.”

K “The medium mandates the message.”

. . .

K “Some of the digital messengers are not as beholden to the powers that be as the analog members. Digital messengers are more likely to connect two disparate and distant points, to realize that two plus zero is not three, and to accept that two or more persons can work together to reach an end, usually to the public’s detriment.”

J “A few stray digital messengers are acting as the town criers. The best that a commentator of conviction can hope for is to be a prophet with honor and not to be convicted for writing that challenges the established disorder.”

K “But no one is listening.”

J “Makes you want to cry for your town.”

. . .

K “Six corporations monopolize the popular media. Most of the digital sites are in the monetization phase and may be forced to modify or mute the original message to survive.”

J “Yet you cannot thrive if you do not survive. Decades ago, the editor noted to a friend on the first day of his summer newspaper internship that the most important mission of the newspaper is to make payroll. No payroll, no paper. He was not disappointed by the stark insight.”

K “Making payroll is painful. One of the sites challenging inequality has something like seven levels of membership and another sells t-shirts and decoder rings.”

J “No can thrive if no can survive.”

. . .

K “Digital is regressing to the mean, digital is regressing to analog.”

J “No can thrive if no can survive.”

. . .

[With a nod to Marshall McLuhan.]

[See the e-commentary at “First Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2016 (April 18, 2016)”, “Boycott (Advertisers On) AM (Anger Mongering) Radio (March 5, 2011)”, “World Trade Center Building 7 And The AIA (May 18, 2015)”, “A ‘Journalist’ Declares War On Journalists . . . And Journalism (November 28, 2016)”, “Dispatches From The War On Journalism: The New ‘Nixon’s Enemies List’ (December 5, 2016)”, “Blogging Bloggingly About Blogs: A Thing In Search Of A Name (November 1, 2016)”, “Debasing The Dialogue (April 14, 2014)” and “On Courage and Truth (March 17, 2008)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” Eric Hoffer

“Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.” Marshall McLuhan

May 3 – World Press Freedom Day

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Third Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2018 (April 16, 2018)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, Journalism, Military, Newspapers, Press/Media, Pulitzer, Pushitzer, Wall Street, War, War and Wall Street Party on April 16, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

“The envelope please. . . . This year’s Pushitzer Prize in Commentary is awarded to . . . Danny Sjursen for trenchant insights provided by a patriot who spent time in the trenches. Author of Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge, the active duty major contributes incisively to the discussion of American foreign policy and military affairs and the physical and psychological consequences of war.”

. . .

And a tip of the hat to the U.S. Department of Defense that allows an active duty military officer to comment freely on important public issues.

[Please send nominations for the Pushitzer Prize in Commentary for 2019 and a supporting letter by January 25, 2019 to e-ssay@gci.net and send the entry fee to your favorite charity.]

[See the e-commentary at “Pulitzers Are Pro-War? Pressing The Pushitzers (April 22, 2013)”, “First Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2016 (April 18, 2016)”, “Second Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2017 (April 10, 2017)”, “Smedley And Ernest On Our Friend ‘War’, The ‘Racket’ Continues (September 7, 2015)”, “A War On War? (May 30, 2016)”, “Seriously Sizing Up Syria Seizing Up (October 12, 2015)”, “The Drums of War (February 20, 2012)”, “Syria: Gas and Fog (August 26, 2013)”, “Time To Talk: Hear The Guitar (December 9, 2013)” and “The Percolating Middle East (February 22, 2016)”.]

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

For good and honest stuff

Dissent is patriotic

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Marching For Science And Momma (April 24, 2017)

Posted in Environment, Gender, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Greece, International Finance, International Monetary Fund, Journalism, Newspapers, Press/Media, Trumpi on April 24, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “What if as many folks had rallied in support of Galileo?”

J “Signs intoning ‘No sides in science’ and ‘Science not silence’ and ‘Don’t let scientists go extinct’ floated amid and among the rising sea of concerned citizens. ‘Free Galileo’ was raised toward the heavens.”

. . .

K “In January, the pink pussy hats responded to the red Make America Great Again baseball caps. On Saturday, a few white lab coats and many rain coats shielded the folks who marched peacefully on a gray rainy day.”

J “The women’s jaunt planned on the Mall in January gestated into an impromptu march from the foot of Capitol Hill to the White House and spawned the March for Science in April. The March for Science and Earth Day Network started south of the White House and moved to the Capitol. Going full circle. And going forward.”

K “The Women’s March was an emotional release and catharsis. The March for Science was an intellectual rally and resurgence.”

J “A walk is an antidote to insanity and irrationality.”

. . .

K “At the same time the people were marching in the streets, the big money players were machinating in the suites. The ‘green eye shade’ types at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded that Greece has recovered slightly and thus needs to be burdened substantially.”

. . .

K “The next public gig in Washington is the ‘(Former) Bikers for Trump Rally’ on October 14 to ride to the White House and Congress from all over the country.”

J “The ‘What happened Donnie? Ride and Rally’. Everyone hates to be conned, yet so many of his supporters simply cannot repudiate him because he is their last hope. By October, a few of his black leather and blue collar supporters may accept that they were bamboozled.”

K “Sturgis runs from August 4 until 13 and Daytona from March 9 until 18, 2018. October is a great time for the last long fall ride.”

J “Somebody needs to inflame and inspire the national imagination.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Happy Birthday Earth Day (April 23, 2012)”, “Women’s March On Washington (Woodstock With Conviction) / Coronation (January 23, 2017)” and the discussion of some of the underlying issues involving Greece and the IMF at “‘Grexit’, ‘GrexEUnt’, Percolating Problems: PIIGS, BRICS, EU, EC, ECB, IMF, NATO, WTO, WTF, WAR (February 23, 2015)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

March on

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’” Isaac Asimov, “A Cult of Ignorance”, Newsweek, January 21, 1980.

Signs of the times on the Washington Mall:

Free Galileo

You must be smoking deGrasse if you de-Nye the facts

Science is good

Good science is better

Great science is best

Geology rocks

There is no PLANet B

This is not a moment, it is a movement

Make America 90 49 18 Again

Evidence based governance

What do you call a female scientist? Scientist

4 28 58 To 1 68

Ignorance is a dish best served at absolute zero

Delusion is not the solution to pollution

Support 21 53 E 7 58

Factism Trumps Fascism

Facts are non-partisan

Make 95 68 53 20 Scientific Again

You can fool the voters but not the atmosphere

Repent the end is NIH

The elements of outraged disbelief 74 90 9

Science: Because you can’t pray a rocket into space.

Free entropy

So bad that even introverts are here

Resistance is not futile: It is voltage divided by current

Fact-based policy not policy-based alt.facts

In science we trust

Clinical research is healthy for children and other living things (on a yellow poster with a flower)

The Endangered Species Act is endangered

No science, no chance

This is what a scientist looks like

More mitosis, less division

Save our planet, plant a tree

Stem cells have potential and without them our children don’t

Science Trumps ignorance

Noah saved us once Let NOAA save us now

They drowned the last climate deniers

Atoms and Trump both make up things

Science is not an opinion

Make America hypothesize again

It’s not rocket science, actually it is

Defiance for science

Extinction is forever Animals need science

Don’t let science go extinct

Alternative facts are for quacks

Evolution: Happened. Climate change: Happening. Recognition: Must happen

There are no jobs on a dead planet

I love science because God created it

I’m with her [arrow pointing to picture of the beautiful blue marble]

Make Earth great again

No science no beer

Dear future generations: We’re sorry

Science is peer-reviewed not politician-reviewed

Not a sign type of person but geez

Let the forest be with you

Distinguish sense from nonsense

Science fights bad shit with evidence

I’ve reached my 100º C (212º F)

Your momma’s so hot

All the good chemistry jokes argon

Make America think again

Stop plate tectonics

Don’t frack with our future

Act like a proton; think positively

Keep calm and trust science

Resist [resistance symbol]

Veterans for science

_________________________________________________

“Proper press credentials”; “Are your papers in order?”:

From: e-commentator
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2017 1:37 PM
To: International Monetary Fund SEC, Press <PRESS@imf.org>; IMF Media Relations <Media@imf.org>
Subject: IMF Meetings – Press Credentials

Dear sir or madam,

I am a journalist whose work appears weekly at www.e-commentary.org. and includes regular commentary on and about the IMF (e.g. https://e-commentary.org/category/international-monetary-fund/ and the AIIB, CFETS, NDB, CIPS and SWIFT.

I am interested in applying for press credentials for next week’s IMF meetings.

Thank you for your attention to this request. Best wishes.

[e-commentator]

From: Elnagar, Randa Mohamed [mailto:RElnagar@imf.org]
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2017 9:52 AM
To: [e-commentator]

Cc: COMMRAST
Subject: RE: IMF Meetings – Press Credentials

We will need proper press credentials issued by a US media organization and a letter of assignment from them to approve your accreditation.

Thank you.

From: e-commentator
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2017 2:40 PM

To: Elnagar, Randa Mohamed <RElnagar@imf.org>
Cc: COMMRAST <COMMRAST@imf.org>
Subject: RE: IMF Meetings – Press Credentials

Dear Mr. Elnagar,

The nature of news, news gathering and the media has changed and expanded in America. www.e-commentary.org provides weekly electronic commentary that has been uploaded since the first week of January, 2005. You can confirm this contention by reviewing the site. This note authorizes [e-commentator] to attend the IMF public press conferences. He can provide a passport and valid state driver’s license for identification. This note suffices to obtain press credentials.

Thank you for your attention to this request. Best wishes.

[e-commentator]

From: Elnagar, Randa Mohamed [mailto:RElnagar@imf.org]
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2017 10:51 AM
To: [e-commentator]
Cc: COMMRAST; Gaviria, Angela
Subject: RE: IMF Meetings – Press Credentials

Dear Mr. [e-commentator],

Unfortunately, the IMF does not issue register press/media without proper press credentials issues from either the country of origin (in case of non-U.S. nationals), or press credentials issues from the U.S. State Department, the White House, or the U.S. Treasury.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you.

Randa

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Second Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2017 (April 10, 2017)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, Journalism, Newspapers, Press/Media, Pulitzer, Pushitzer, Security State, WikiLeaks on April 10, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

“The envelope please. . . . This year’s Pushitzer Prize in Commentary is awarded to . . . WikiLeaks. For releasing some of the raw material that is shaping the public conversation. . . . The award recognizes that WikiLeaks’ motives are not unalloyed and not without an agenda. This year’s award does not canonize the recipient yet does acknowledge the importance of disclosing information in an age where the government/corporations know almost everything about the people and the people know very little about the government/corporations.”

. . .

[Please send nominations for the Pushitzer Prize in Commentary for 2018 and a supporting letter by January 26, 2018 to e-ssay@gci.net and send the entry fee to your favorite charity.]

[See the e-commentary at “First Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2016 (April 18, 2016)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

For good and honest stuff

Leave a comment »

Women’s March On Washington (Woodstock With Conviction) / Coronation (January 23, 2017)

Posted in Abortion, Bush, First Amendment, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Journalism, Newspapers, O'Bama, Police, Population, Press/Media, Society, Trumpi on January 23, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “Rarely have as many citizens peaceably assembled – most sporting pink knit caps with ears – and confronted an equally peaceful assemblage of police.”

J “By my best wild ass guess, at the Coronation on Friday, there was about one (1) security person from the Metropolitan Police Department / U.S. Marshal’s Service / Capitol Hill Police / Transportation Security Administration / National Guard / Coast Guard / National Park Service Police / Secret Service / Uniformed Secret Service / Supreme Court Police / Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Administration per twenty-five (25) attendees. At the community gathering on Saturday, there was about one (1) traffic division cop per two hundred fifty (250) attendees. The vibe changed radically in twenty-four hours.”

K “The authorities only expected 100,000 to 200,000 participants to wander by and then over 500,000 citizens decided something had to be done. Because of budgetary concerns and sequestration, someone said they may be required to cancel the public sector Coronation in 2020 and allow the private sector to organize and orchestrate a ‘People’s March 2020’ in its stead.”

J “The people can do it. I watched a Black female police officer and a White female police officer surrounded by and talking to participants who took group pictures under a hand-lettered sign that ventured the notion: ‘The future is female’.”

K “I don’t believe there were any arrests at the March.”

. . .

K “The Metro ridership statistics are revealing. O’Bama 2009 took gold, O’Bama 2013 took silver, Women’s March 2017 took bronze, Bushy 2005 took honorable mention and Trumpi 2017 also ran.”[1]

J “What were Andrew Jackson’s numbers?”

. . .

K “The crass and coarse missive delivered at the Trumpi Show on Friday continued the campaign. The commentators almost uniformly dismissed the speech as ‘dark’ and ‘dystopian’, yet for most of the Trump supporters life is indeed accurately depicted as dark and dystopic. Trumpi revealed a kernel of truth about the desperate lives of mostly rural folk, but it was not the pretty city talk the journalists and pundits wanted to hear.”

J “For most journalists, the system is working for them, so they report that the system works.”

K “The system is not working. Ordinary folks are not working.”

J “Trumpi is threatening and challenging many individuals and institutions that do not know kindness and do not take kindly to a threat or a challenge.”

K “For both terms, I was concerned that O’Bama would be dispatched like Kennedy.”

J “When it comes down to policy, however, Trumpi’s band of bankers and billionaires will do little if anything to improve the plight of the little people. He’s safe from enhanced retribution.”

K “Some of the riders rolling with the ‘Bikers for Trump’ articulated some of the real economic problems plaguing America. Yet they don’t realize they are being played for chumps by Trumps.”

J “Trumpi is ditching the ‘Bikers for Trump’ and riding off into the sunset with ‘Bankers for Trump’ and ‘Trillionaires for Trump.’ Both the latter two gangs sport the same colors – Green – and the same logo – $.”

. . .

K “A Trumpi supporter said he did not understand what they wanted. Dignity, parity, equality, etc. I suggested that he read and reflect on the signs as a start. The patriot-participants collectively championed the single greatest challenge of our time – saving the Planet – and the single greatest plan – planning parenthood and allowing women to control their biological and economic destiny.”

J “They are right, there is no PLANet B, there is no other planet to plunder. The March was akin to and will be regarded as a ‘Woodstock’ event.”

K “The patriot-participants undertook a peaceful and powerful pilgrimage for the people.”

J “Now the hard work. They must stay focused, organize locally and work hard.”

. . .

[1] Attendance is measured by the number of trips by 11:00 a.m. on the Metro rail system on the day of the event:

O’Bama 2009: 513,000

O’Bama 2013: 317,000

Women’s March 2017: 275,000

Bushy 2005: 197,000

Trumpi 2017: 193,000

Motorcycle jacket of the week:

If you can read this message on the back of my [Langlitz] motorcycle jacket, my President has fallen off.

Bumper stickers of the week / Signs of the times on the Washington Mall:

Dear Mr. President: Am I beautiful enough and young enough to rape?

Keep your rosaries off my ovaries

Keep your theology off my biology

If men could get pregnant, you would be able to get an abortion at an ATM

If I incorporate my uterus, will you stop regulating it?

Nasty

Not my President

Trump is a chump

This pussy riots

I stand with Planned Parenthood

Feminism rocks

Tired of history, try herstory

Queers against Islamophobia

No one is free if anyone is oppressed

Not my President

Love still trumps hate

Grab ‘em by the legislative balls

Be a President for everyone

Planned Parenthood

Women are humans too

Love your Mother Earth

Nasty women rule

Our rights are not up for grabs and neither are we

Education matters

Fight sexism

Where do I start?

Our bodies Our minds Our power

I may survive rape, but I may not survive this

Not usually a sign guy, but geez

Save the Nest, Price Carbon, Now

Queer feminist southerner against racism

Don’t forget to set your clocks back 300 years

We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to

Girls just want to destroy the imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patrimony

Switch the patrimony. Jane Austen Fight Club

Empathize and mobilize

President Trump, I did Nazi that coming

I’m afraid

Make America kind again

Pussy lives matter

Resist

Predator in chief

A woman’s place is in your face

Clean the cabinet

Stronger than fear

Women’s rights are human rights

My rights are not wrong

This pussy has claws and is not up for grabs

No human is illegal

Make American fact-check again

We are the noisy majority

Keep your paws off my body

Rapist in chief

Pussy power

You ain’t seen nasty yet

Blame rape on rapists not women

Nyet means nyet

We count

Respect my existence or expect my resistance

Our rights are not up for grabs

You cannot love America when you hate so many Americans

An immigrant did not take your job

Don’t tread on my [anatomical uterus]

Girls just want to have fun-damental rights

Keep your hands off my [silhouette of pussy cat]

Free Melania

Not my President

Validate Putin

Nasty women vote

Hate will not make great

This pussy fights back

She’s someone~~’s daughter sister mother~~

I served for better than this

History has its eyes on us

A woman’s place is in the House . . . and in the Senate

I’m with her. And her. And her. And her. And her. And her.

<- I’m with her -> [Arrows emanating in all directions]

Nasty and united for equality

Electile dysfunction

I can’t believe I have to protest this shit again

Nasty women make history

I am a woman not a womb

We the people, not the college, should not that be, common knowledge

Lean the fuck in

No mandate to oppress

Men of quality don’t fear equality

Russian prostitutes for Trump

Now that you are in subsidized housing, show us your tax returns

Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud

Keep calm and democracy will die

Bad hair administration

Respecto mi existence o espera resistencia

Life begins when you stand up to feeble-minded fascists

If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for?

You can’t comb over misogyny

My pussy, my choice

There is no PLANet B

Time to grab patrimony by the balls

Super callous fascist racist extra braggadocious

The power is in our pussies

We shall overcomb

Gender rules are a sham

Respect science, study history, don’t be a jerk

You know what? Bitches get stuff done

Fight like a girl

We will not change the world by behaving nicely

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Dispatches From The War On Journalism: The New “Nixon’s Enemies List” (December 5, 2016)

Posted in First Amendment, Journalism, Newspapers, Press/Media on December 5, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “The unconscionable indignity inflicted on those poor souls who have worked and sacrificed all their lives only to be excluded from The List is reprehensible.”

J “Imagine the shame having to face your friends and loved ones in this holiday season and admit that you did not make The List. You do not measure up. You are, as they now say in popular parlance, a loser.”

K “John Michael Greer at “The Archdruid Report” and Greg Hunter and Paul Craig Roberts at “USAWatchdog” each commented on the travesty and indignity.”

. . .

K “Some individuals never recovered from being excluded from the ‘Nixon’s Enemies List’ released back in 1973.”

J “Not one of them was ever interviewed for ‘Where Are They Now’ stories because no one even knew who they were.”

K “Deserving individuals excluded for no good reason.”

. . .

K “What a schism and chasm in journalism. Adam Johnson at ‘Fair & Accuracy In Reporting’ wrote in ‘Why Are Media Outlets Still Citing Discredited “Fake News” Blacklist?’, and I quote to the best of my recollection, that ‘USA Today (11/25/16), Gizmodo (11/25/16), PBS (11/25/16), TheDailyBeast (11/25/16), Slate (11/25/16), AP (11/25/16), The Verge (11/25/16) and NPR (11/25/16) all uncritically wrote up the Post’s most incendiary claims with little or minimal pushback’.”

J “Under the circumstances, a question or two is not inappropriate.”

. . .

K “The very real and serious danger is that extremely sophisticated players carefully devised an attack on anyone who thinks and writes something that challenges the official government/corporate line. The article is a direct and ominous threat.”

J “The attack is broadly against any commentator not owned by and subservient to the Owners. The threat is very effective at chilling any criticism.”

. . .

K “I heard a rumor that George Orwell is on a suicide watch. It’s gotten that bad.”

. . .

Click on a site or two:

“The Washington Post’s Propaganda about Russian Propaganda” by William K. Black at “new economic perspectives.org”

“The Corporate Media’s Gulag of the Mind” by Charles Hugh Smith at “of two minds.com”

“We’re Under Attack” by Yves Smith at “nakedcapitalism.com”

“The ‘Washington Post’ ‘Blacklist’ Story Is Shameful and Disgusting” by Matt Taibi at “rollingstone.com”

“The Propaganda About Russian Propaganda” by Adrian Chen at “newyorker.com”

“Washington Post Reporter Won’t Discuss His Controversial ‘Blacklist’ Story” by Dion Hinchcliffe at “truthdig.com”

“Why Are Media Outlets Still Citing Discredited ‘Fake News’ Blacklist?” by Adam Johnson at “fair.org”

“Counterpunch as Russian Propagandists: the Washington Post’s Shallow Smear” by Joshua Frank at “www.counterpunch.org”