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.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
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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