Here's the trackback to a post from John Kerry on StopBigMedia.com.
The FCC is voting today on whether to relax the cross-ownership regulations. No word yet on what the outcome is, but about 20 senators are sponsoring the Media Ownership Act of 2007 that would undo anything Chairman Martin tries to push through if he has the balls to do it.
There is a great summary at the Benton Foundation laying out all the issues.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Go support WILL and get McChesney's new book.
You can check out the book here, but if you donate $60 at WILLPledge.org, you'll get a copy lovingly and enthusiastically signed by McChesney himself. When I donated, they were having a problem with the donation page that showed you an error when you were done, but I called and confirmed that my donation did go through. To get the book, just say in the comments of the donation page that you are pledging in support of Media Matters and that you'd like McChesney's book.
WILL needs your money more than I do, so go there instead of buying it from Amazon. You'll feel like a citizen.
WILL needs your money more than I do, so go there instead of buying it from Amazon. You'll feel like a citizen.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I was just marketed
Starbuck's has successfully engineered some kind of evil into their coffee where I am specifically addicted to it. And it doesn't work to buy their coffee beans and then make it at home. It's something about how they brew it.
So we are all being subjected to a new-ish kind of marketing at Starbuck's where they are giving out download codes for one free song from iTunes. (Let me take a moment again to say: Oh my dear lord do I hate iTunes and hate my iPod.)
So a new free song every day. I allow myself one coffee every day, and I get a song. I've downloaded about 8 or 9 songs so far. Mostly crap. Today the song is by "A Fine Frenzy". It sort of speaks to my inner lesbian, but mostly the picture of the Hot Redhead did me in. And the album was $6 on iTunes and I get more pictures of Hot Redhead. (I believe my Irish heritage has left me with a genetic weakness for redheads.)
So done. Sold. Mission accomplished. They have my money. But the non-negotiable was that iTunes sold it to me sans-evil in the files. The aac-encoding is pretty lame, and since I'm not an audio snob those files are probably minutes away from some lossy transformation to mp3.
So my silly hormone-driven purchasing urges aside, what I like about the whole thing was that it was basically an honest transaction. Lord knows how many middle-men there were between me and Hot Redhead, but they apparently all got in line and agreed to just be up-front about the whole thing. "Here's a song. If you like it, we'd like to sell you the rest of the album."
See? No need to get all brainwashy with the whole thing. Okay, pictures of Hot Redhead and one-clickish purchasing ability are more than a little Skinner/Pavlov-inspired, but at least the marketing part of it was refreshingly un-subtle.
Looking at the cover again... Hot Redhead in plaid. I think the customer list has a lot of Mc and O' and silent "gh" in it...
So we are all being subjected to a new-ish kind of marketing at Starbuck's where they are giving out download codes for one free song from iTunes. (Let me take a moment again to say: Oh my dear lord do I hate iTunes and hate my iPod.)
So a new free song every day. I allow myself one coffee every day, and I get a song. I've downloaded about 8 or 9 songs so far. Mostly crap. Today the song is by "A Fine Frenzy". It sort of speaks to my inner lesbian, but mostly the picture of the Hot Redhead did me in. And the album was $6 on iTunes and I get more pictures of Hot Redhead. (I believe my Irish heritage has left me with a genetic weakness for redheads.)
So done. Sold. Mission accomplished. They have my money. But the non-negotiable was that iTunes sold it to me sans-evil in the files. The aac-encoding is pretty lame, and since I'm not an audio snob those files are probably minutes away from some lossy transformation to mp3.
So my silly hormone-driven purchasing urges aside, what I like about the whole thing was that it was basically an honest transaction. Lord knows how many middle-men there were between me and Hot Redhead, but they apparently all got in line and agreed to just be up-front about the whole thing. "Here's a song. If you like it, we'd like to sell you the rest of the album."
See? No need to get all brainwashy with the whole thing. Okay, pictures of Hot Redhead and one-clickish purchasing ability are more than a little Skinner/Pavlov-inspired, but at least the marketing part of it was refreshingly un-subtle.
Looking at the cover again... Hot Redhead in plaid. I think the customer list has a lot of Mc and O' and silent "gh" in it...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Bob McChesney, the angry young man.
I have no idea how I originally stumbled onto Media Matters with Bob McChesney, but one of the things I really like about the show, besides the terrific content, is McChesney's delivery. He has a remarkable ability to stay really calm and measured while discussing things that would make me want to sound like a shrieking and paranoid liberal. Somehow McChesney pulls it off without sounding apathetic. It serves him really well, and brings him a lot of credibility.
So it was really interesting to run across this video on youtube, with McChesney being the interviewee for a change. Perhaps it's because he's the guy being asked the questions, but I think it's more that he's 10 years younger and still, like me, enjoys the taste of his foot in his mouth. Check it out.
So it was really interesting to run across this video on youtube, with McChesney being the interviewee for a change. Perhaps it's because he's the guy being asked the questions, but I think it's more that he's 10 years younger and still, like me, enjoys the taste of his foot in his mouth. Check it out.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Three tips that will radically turn down the volume in your head.
Warning: I am a card-carrying member of the Cult of Tivo. It is, in fact, what started me on my little adventure into the land of amateur and unqualified media critics. But the experience has been profound. No, really. If you want to follow along... here's some things you can do:
1) If you watch television (Oh, do, it's fun!) get a DVR. Now. Tivo or whatever your cable/satellite provider offers is fine. The point is to get something that will free you from commercials. I can't stress this bit enough. You need to completely stop watching commercials. There are other important and enjoyable benefits to DVR's, such as no longer caring what channel or at what time a particular show airs, but this pales in comparison to freeing you from commercials.
2) If you stumbled into this like I did, you'll find that after a few months without television commercials polluting your brain, you actually feel moment-to-moment different. And then you develop an immediate recognition and fingernails-on-chalkboard intolerance for the vibe being put across in commercials. This is the point at which I could no longer stand to listen to the radio in the car. Don't wait. Stop listening now. At first I tried just listening to my own CD's in the car, but ultimately I was too lazy to switch out the CD's often enough to keep me from getting bored with the same music, so I was just driving in silence. This is a fine option. But then I got an iPod. After later discovering podcasts, my iPod become the audio version of Tivo. 75% of my iPod content is music, but 90% of my iPod time is listening to podcasts during my work commute.
[Unrelated note: I hate my iPod almost as much as I hate iTunes. I haven't read much comparing Zoon and iPod, and I don't much care, as I think that anything at that price point is a waste of money. My next portable will be whatever cheap flash-based player has enough capacity.]
3) Stop watching pre-digested news. Go fetch your news. They call them news readers for a reason. They're not just for keeping up on your friend's blog postings. For a ninja move on your news, try this: Go to news.google.com and ignore what you see there for the moment. Find out who your congressman is here. My congressman is Darrell Issa. A lovely man. Search google news for your congressman. For instance, my google news search link is this. Follow that link and look on the bottom of the left column of that page. It says "RSS" and "Atom" and "About Feeds". The "About Feeds" link will give you better pointers than I could on feeds. But click on the "RSS" link. If you are using a recent version of any browser, your browser will want to do something automagical with the content you get back. Basically, it wants to add it to some kind of news reader. Google reader is as good a place to start as any.
Why search for your congressman? Well, you should want to know what your congressman is scheming anyway. But you should eat more vegetables too, and you're probably not doing that either. The real reason is that if anything of any importance to your local area is happening, chances are that some reporter somewhere quoted your congressman about it, and now you'll see that article in the online version of your local podunk newspaper. Add in your local state representative and maybe your mayor. If you want to track your senators, I would definitely suggest doing it as a separate feed, as once you get past anything local, the amount of content skyrockets.
Lather, rinse, repeat on any news topics that interest you. Just remember to stay really specific. You will drown in a search term as broad as "Iraq" or "global warming". Going out and getting news on broader issues is a little trickier. Too tricky for this post.
The short version:
1) Get a DVR.
2) Get a portable audio player.
3) Use filtered news feeds to make your own choices about what is "newsworthy".
You will be amazed at how different your brain feels when you stop letting other people insert things into it without your permission. I realize that sounds like the stuff of tin-foil-hats, but try it for a few weeks and you'll see. The term "programming" is ironically appropriate. Besides, I'm still batting a thousand on my proselytizing to the Cult of Tivo. There hasn't been a single person I've met who has even been neutral about getting a DVR. Every last one of them can't understand how they ever lived without one.
1) If you watch television (Oh, do, it's fun!) get a DVR. Now. Tivo or whatever your cable/satellite provider offers is fine. The point is to get something that will free you from commercials. I can't stress this bit enough. You need to completely stop watching commercials. There are other important and enjoyable benefits to DVR's, such as no longer caring what channel or at what time a particular show airs, but this pales in comparison to freeing you from commercials.
2) If you stumbled into this like I did, you'll find that after a few months without television commercials polluting your brain, you actually feel moment-to-moment different. And then you develop an immediate recognition and fingernails-on-chalkboard intolerance for the vibe being put across in commercials. This is the point at which I could no longer stand to listen to the radio in the car. Don't wait. Stop listening now. At first I tried just listening to my own CD's in the car, but ultimately I was too lazy to switch out the CD's often enough to keep me from getting bored with the same music, so I was just driving in silence. This is a fine option. But then I got an iPod. After later discovering podcasts, my iPod become the audio version of Tivo. 75% of my iPod content is music, but 90% of my iPod time is listening to podcasts during my work commute.
[Unrelated note: I hate my iPod almost as much as I hate iTunes. I haven't read much comparing Zoon and iPod, and I don't much care, as I think that anything at that price point is a waste of money. My next portable will be whatever cheap flash-based player has enough capacity.]
3) Stop watching pre-digested news. Go fetch your news. They call them news readers for a reason. They're not just for keeping up on your friend's blog postings. For a ninja move on your news, try this: Go to news.google.com and ignore what you see there for the moment. Find out who your congressman is here. My congressman is Darrell Issa. A lovely man. Search google news for your congressman. For instance, my google news search link is this. Follow that link and look on the bottom of the left column of that page. It says "RSS" and "Atom" and "About Feeds". The "About Feeds" link will give you better pointers than I could on feeds. But click on the "RSS" link. If you are using a recent version of any browser, your browser will want to do something automagical with the content you get back. Basically, it wants to add it to some kind of news reader. Google reader is as good a place to start as any.
Why search for your congressman? Well, you should want to know what your congressman is scheming anyway. But you should eat more vegetables too, and you're probably not doing that either. The real reason is that if anything of any importance to your local area is happening, chances are that some reporter somewhere quoted your congressman about it, and now you'll see that article in the online version of your local podunk newspaper. Add in your local state representative and maybe your mayor. If you want to track your senators, I would definitely suggest doing it as a separate feed, as once you get past anything local, the amount of content skyrockets.
Lather, rinse, repeat on any news topics that interest you. Just remember to stay really specific. You will drown in a search term as broad as "Iraq" or "global warming". Going out and getting news on broader issues is a little trickier. Too tricky for this post.
The short version:
1) Get a DVR.
2) Get a portable audio player.
3) Use filtered news feeds to make your own choices about what is "newsworthy".
You will be amazed at how different your brain feels when you stop letting other people insert things into it without your permission. I realize that sounds like the stuff of tin-foil-hats, but try it for a few weeks and you'll see. The term "programming" is ironically appropriate. Besides, I'm still batting a thousand on my proselytizing to the Cult of Tivo. There hasn't been a single person I've met who has even been neutral about getting a DVR. Every last one of them can't understand how they ever lived without one.
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