Jeffrey Goldberg’s current cover story in The Atlantic, “The Point of No Return,”achieved massive distribution across a broad spectrum of old and new media in the United States. Some observers – including Glenn Greenwald in “How Propagandists Function” – noted how well the methodology and message of Goldberg’s piece serves the Israeli government’s efforts to push U.S. military action against Iran. Gareth Porter views it as part of an overarching strategy to keep the U.S. from restoring productive relations with Iran. A huge trove of newly declassified documentssubpoenaed during a Senate investigation reveals how Israel’s lobby pitched, promoted, and paid to have content placed…
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Media & Society
Free Market Health Care: True Stories (by Michael Parenti)
I recently wrote an article about my personal experiences in dealing with the medical system while undergoing surgery (“Free Market Medicine: A Personal Account”). In response, a number of readers sent me accounts of their own experiences trying to get well in America. Health care in this country is hailed by conservative boosters as “the best medical system in the world.” It certainly is the most expensive, most profitable, and most complicated system in the world, leaving millions of Americans in shock. None of the people who wrote to me had anything positive to say about the U.S. health system.…
More on consumer surveillance
In a previous post I described a new technological approach to track consumer behavior, utilizing data from security surveillance cameras and outlined some of the ethical issues that arise from the use and abuse of this technology. A recent NYT article (How Companies Learn Your Secrets by Charles Duhigg) adds valuable insight to the issue. Duhigg outlines the conversations he had with Andrew Pole, one of the leading statisticians of Target, the second largest retailer in the United States, focusing on Target’s interest in identifying pregnant female costumers to be able to specifically target them with advertisements. Though I recommend reading the…
Progressive movements in the US
The Occupy Movement received a lot of attention in 2011 and it was indeed one of the most promising signs that although the economic and political system is profoundly unjust and has been hijacked and corrupted by corporations that quite literally own the country, the game is not completely over. The people are down but not thoroughly defeated, and we are now witnessing a reawakening of political consciousness. The lesson of the movement is simple and profound: if people unite, they can resist the corporate takeover of their country and instead democratize it. Within and alongside the Occupy Movement are…
Alien spaceship found in Baltic Sea
There are two main English-language newspapers in Korea, one of which is the Korea Times. Today’s top headline news in that paper asserts that “an international team of oceanic experts have found an alien ship from Planet Gootan on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.” The article goes on to point out that “the ship was abandoned, but experts from the U.N. Panel of Extraterrestrials told WWN that the Gootans were using the Baltic Sea as a base to spy on humans.” The full article can be read here. I believe there are two possible explanations for how this story got…
What real journalism looks like
Just imagine how much better things could be if journalists like Vincent Browne and Amy Goodman were the norm rather than the exception.
Keeping the public in the dark about climate change
If enough people were well informed about the reality and likely consequences of climate change the political changes required to bring this problem under control would surely be happening a lot quicker than they are. An important question then is why this problem is still insufficiently appreciated. There are a number of well-known and documented causal factors contributing to public ignorance about climate change. In the first place, according to this recent study by the Daily Climate organization, media coverage of climate change is actually decreasing at the very time (2010, 2011) that it should be increasing. Here is a…
Just how stupid are Americans? (Interview with Rick Shenkman)
It’s a provocative title for a post, but it really just refers to a book entitled “Just How Stupid Are We?” (where “we” clearly refers to Americans) by Rick Shenkman, Associate Professor of History at George Mason University. A brief article by Shenkman on the same theme can be found here and the video clip below contains a relevant interview with Shenkman. His account of the causes, consequences, and solutions to American ignorance is highly interesting. Among the causal factors is the death of civics education in America and the introduction of the TV in 1965, which in turn has…
The internet filter bubble
Thanks to Google’s search engine we now have the ability to retrieve instantly a massive amount of information on virtually any topic or any question we might have. On the surface, it seems that we are all better informed and more knowledgeable as a result of Google. But are we? Consider the fact that Google recognizes users and collects information on their digital behavior–their favorite searches, articles they have read on Google news, and even their choice of words. Everything is recorded, the pattern is analyzed, and a user profile is created. Then, when you perform a search, Google tries to find…
The CBC emulates FOX
The following is a CBC interview with Chris Hedges on the Occupy Wall Street movement. The obnoxious interviewer in this segment is a man named Kevin O’Leary, a Canadian venture capitalist and “television personality.” In this brief and hostile interview, Hedges provides an astute analysis and description of the Occupy Movement and also correctly points out that O’Leary’s insults and aggression make the CBC no different from FOX News. Unlike FOX, however, the CBC is a public broadcaster. Americans merely have to tolerate FOX; Canadians are actually paying for the CBC with their taxes.
The wonderful world of advertising
In order to appreciate the toxic nature of advertising and its corrosive effect on society, it is instructive to look to some ads from the past. Yes it’s Coke for the wee baby, television for the toddler, beer for the nursing mother, second-hand smoke for the mistress, kitchen appliances for the sniveling wife, a pack of doctor-approved Camels for the health-conscious smoker, and a hand gun for the self-sacrificing husband (who must be looking for a quick way out of this nightmare).
How the media manipulates information
Since most people have at least some awareness of how the media can manipulate and distort information, the tricks and methods showcased in this short YouTube video are not exactly shocking. They are nevertheless revealing and always worth bearing in mind.
Time magazine and American ignorance
Here is a comparison of the front page covers of recent editions of the various regional editions of Time magazine (US, Europe, Asia, South Pacific). These images have been circling around on the Internet lately. The discrepancy between the US versions and the others is so dramatic that it’s hard to believe, but if you look them up at Time Magazine, you can see for yourself that the images below are correct. Americans are notorious for their ignorance of world affairs. For instance, according to Rick Shenkman, Associate Professor of History at George Mason University, In 2003, the Strategic Task Force on…
Climate change is not just a theory
One still hears people saying that climate change is not a fact but a theory. Indeed that is what the U.S. House of Representatives recently declared while cutting off its funding for the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But the claim that climate change is just a theory does not stand up to scrutiny. Already in 2005 a study was conducted to examine this problem and to reveal the biased presentation of the issue (Climate of scepticism: US newspaper coverage of the science of climate change). Here are some quotes: The results of this study indicate that…
Video: Speech by Chomsky on academic freedom and the corporatization of universities
On April 6, 2011 Chomsky gave a speech at the University of Toronto mainly focusing on the decline of academic freedom going and the coporatization of universities. In his speech he connects the issue with the larger picture of corporate reality. The recorded Q&A session after his speech is especially worth watching. Quote: There’s, furthermore, no way to measure the human and social costs of converting schools and universities into facilities that produce commodities for the job market, abandoning the traditional ideal of the universities: fostering creative and independent thought and inquiry, challenging perceived beliefs, exploring new horizons and forgetting…
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